Shadow Warship
From The Great Machine
The ships were known to G'Quan in ancient times. G'Kar references the Book of G'Quan, which shows a drawing of a Shadow Warship from the first Shadow War, over 5,000 years prior.
Measuring between one and two kilometers in length, the warship has the ability to directly phase in and out of hyperspace. Its weapons include a main beam weapon that can slice through nearly all other ship designs, a jumppoint destabilizer that can prevent enemy ships from fleeing, and a complement of drone fighters. This vessel uses organic technology which is deadly to human touch, essentially draining the life from the person who dares to touch the curious skin of the ship.
This ship utilizes a living being as its CPU, subjugating the person to the control of the ship.
The Warships were called upon in secret through the negotiations of Morden and Londo Mollari to soften or destroy key Narn defenses in preparation for a new Centauri-Narn War. The Warship's effectiveness was such that practically no survivors remained from their attacks to describe their true attackers.
A Shadow Warship is very difficult to evade or destroy; most ships in the League of Non-Aligned Worlds are incapable of fending off a Shadow Warship. Warships rarely, if ever, miss their target with their deadly particle beam weapon. When the first White Star encounters a Shadow Warship, it, too was incapable of significantly damaging the vessel. The Warship was destroyed by John Sheridan by use of the dangerous Bonehead Maneuver using an old Markab jumpgate (Matters of Honor).
A second Warship encountered by Sheridan's White Star was found buried on Ganymede and unearthed in secret by Interplanetary Expeditions and EarthGov. When a human pilot was introduced, the Warship behaved insanely, destroying its excavation site. The White Star attracted its attention, where Sheridan used another external force to destroy the Warship. This time, Sheridan tests the White Star's Vorlon-derived technologies against the inexorable atmospheric pressure and gravity of Jupiter, luring the Warship into the gas giant's atmosphere. Sheridan's ship escapes the planet's gravity, while the Warship is unable to follow and is crushed by the pressures (Messages from Earth).
During the new Shadow War, the combined firepower of two or three White Stars (as well as other ships of the League) are able to destroy many Shadow Warships.
The living CPU-pilots of Shadow Warships are vulnerable to telepathic interference which can temporarily disable the vessel. Several Mimbari are used on White Stars to confuse and jam Shadow Warships, giving the White Stars a brief advantage in battle sufficiently long enough to disable or destroy a Warship.
Captain Sheridan uses several telepaths who were to become Shadow pilots as jamming and electrical interference weapons on selected EarthGov warships during the Battle of Mars in the EarthGov Civil War (Endgame).
Notes
- A popular nickname for the Shadow Warship (a descriptive name used for the ship on The Great Machine) is "battlecrab." However, since this was a fan-derived name, it is unofficial.
