This is the Malleon Navy’s most heavily armed and armored ship, produced in the final stages of the War. Only three were built: the MIS Eminence, the MIS Inexorable, and the MIS Indomitable. Their intended role was to serve as fleet flagships, able to control more of the battlefield than the mainstay Venture-class battleship. The Eminence Project began in the early stages of the war, after it became clear that while the Venture class was effective in combat groups against Feron “Hive” supercarriers and “Wasp” light carriers, Venture-class battleships separated from their support ships were easy prey for tandem attacks by multiple Wasps. The object of the Eminence Project was to develop a dreadnought that could singlehandedly fight off multi-pronged attacks.

An Eminence-class ship looks like the hulls of two aircraft carriers sandwiched together. (See the real-life Nimitz-class for reference.) It’s 2025 yards in length. In the middle is a dual flight deck with a bubble running about 2/3 the length of the ship. At the stern of each hull near where the two hulls meet are two huge and three relatively smaller exhaust ports, ten total. The remaining third of the flight deck that’s not exposed is the most heavily armored part of the ship, so as not to create a weak point where the ship could be split in two. The artificial gravity lets the crew use both the “floor” and the “ceiling” for launches. Both hulls are covered in rows of turrets, with longer-barreled, higher-caliber turrets on the decks near the flight deck and smaller but retractable turrets with more degrees of articulation where each hull tapers inward. In between the turrets are large numbers of point-defense cannons. The hull tapering is more pronounced than on Venture-class ships both because the increased surface area of the hulls allows for more guns and because the upgraded armor can more effectively protect the narrower decks at the top and bottom. The Nephelium energy in the armor also gives the Eminence class a “negative shimmer,” an effect that looks like a cloud’s silver lining but in reverse, a dark lining that also makes the narrow decks at the ends of each hull’s taper look insubstantial from a distance, like brushstrokes out into empty space. Unlike on the smaller Malleon capital ships, this dark aura is imposing rather than stealthy because the ship is far too big to be overlooked by scopes in open space.

 The Eminence class was designed to be the last word in firepower. It has a massive railgun that runs the length of the ship. The railgun fires precision rounds, multi-stage projectiles designed to penetrate a capital ship’s armor then cause a main explosion inside the ship, potentially disabling a critical section of the enemy ship. It also fires implosion rounds that create volatile supermassive matter at the point of impact, crushing anything caught in the blast radius and capable of crippling ships when striking structural weak points.

While the railgun is the Eminence class’s most powerful weapon, its tactical importance is in its many turrets and the withering broadsides it uses to control the battlefield. While Venture-class broadsides required sustained fire to disable Feron carriers, leaving the Venture class vulnerable to flanking attacks, Eminence-class broadsides shred enemy ships so quickly that they’re forced into evasive maneuvers immediately. These broadsides can also serve as suppressing fire to cover friendly ships or force enemy ships into vulnerable positions.

Eminence-class ships also feature the state of the art in Malleon defensive technology. It’s covered with point-defense cannons to further deter the Feron carriers’ swarm tactics and defend the ship from missiles. The Eminence class has more advanced adaptive armor plating than the Venture. This plating can deflect much more massive objects, including Feron ships attempting to ram or impale.

Eminence-class ships have large foundry facilities in the interior near the flight deck’s hangar bays. These foundries can build and repair the various kinds of Malleon gunships and transports, as well as manufacture capital ship components to enable field repairs of the fleet without needing to return to drydock.