Overview:
The SafP Megido is one of the most powerful Shivan warships ever encountered. It has been officially designated an Anti-Fleet Platform by GTVA command. At their height, the Shivans possessed only 6 of these ships, but even one was enough to destroy almost any opposition. 2 of these vessels were always stationed in the Shivan home system to guard the Shivan Core.
Physical Characteristics:
The Megido is one of the largest spacefaring vessels ever constructed, significantly larger than any vessel ever built by the Terrans, Vasudans, or Ancients. Its overall shape can best be described as a flattened disc, around 90km long and wide, and around 10km high. As is typical of Shivan designs, it is covered with many spikes and spires jutting out at odd angles, seemingly at random, giving it an almost hedgehog - like appearance from a distance. The configuration of these protuberances has been noted to differ from ship to ship, but one feature they all have in common is a central spire at the front of the craft, composed of two spiraling, interlocking spikes, stretching about 14km away from the craft's main superstructure. This has been colloquially referred to as the "nose" of the craft.
Name:
The Megido was named after the site of the final battle between good and evil, according to the Christian Bible. Names of the other Megido - class craft also took inspiration from Biblical locations. In order of encounter, they were: Gethsemane, Jericho, Sodom, Gomorrah, and Sinai.
Propulsion:
The Megido is equipped with massive engines, so powerful that merely being in the engine wash of one can rip apart a destroyer in seconds. Despite this, its top combat speed is only 20m/s, due to the craft's sheer mass. Like most Shivan vessels, it is capable of making subspace jumps through both stable and unstable nodes with little risk. However, it is also equipped with a never - before - seen type of subspace drive that is capable of creating entirely new subspace nodes between unconnected systems.
Defenses:
The Megido is equipped with a Lucifer - style sheath shielding system, but due to the extra power available from the ship's massive reactors, the shield is more effective than that of the Great War superdestroyer. Nothing short of a destroyer - caliber beam cannon can penetrate it, although after the Megido's first appearance, several new warhead prototypes were developed which were able to have some effect. Even without the shield, the Megido's hull is coated with an unknown material which is not present in any other Shivan structures, aside from the Shivan Core itself. This armor makes the Megido almost entirely invulnerable to conventional weapons. It was determined by Vasudan scientists that it would take several dozen times more firepower to destroy one Megido - class vessel than it would to destroy the Earth's moon. The Megido is also equipped with a type of nanotechnological self - repair system, allowing it to slowly regenerate damage even while in combat.
Weapons:
The Safp Megido's primary weapon is a massive beam cannon mounted on the ship's "nose". It is capable of destroying a Gargant - class hive vessel only 2 or 3 shots. The Megido is also equipped with many hundreds of weaker but still incredibly dangerous heavy beam cannons. These are supplemented by hundreds of anti-fighter defense turrets, including anti - fighter beams, flak, laser turrets, and missile launchers (in single, swarm, and cluster varieties). The Megido's heavy beam cannons have an unprecedented range of 1000km, while its anti-fighter beams have a range of 100km. However, the Megido's most unique weapon system is the one that majorly contributed to its GTVA designation: The Anti-Fleet Projectile. The Megido is equipped with 4 AFP launchers, one each on its bow, stern, port, and starboard sides. These fire a projectile the size of a small cruiser which travels at a speed of around 2km/s and has a range of up to 1000 km. The detonation of one of these projectiles is capable of annihilating all fighters and bombers and damaging any larger craft within a 10km radius. Being within 2km of the detonation spells doom for a destroyer - class vessel. These weapons usually detonate in empty space in order to take out targets around them, but a direct hit is just as effective, and it has been shown that an Icanus - class superjuggernaut will be reduced to around 45% hull strength by a direct hit from one of these weapons. Both the Megido's main cannon and the AFP launchers have refire rates of 30 seconds.
Other Capabilities:
The Safp Megido is capable of projecting a powerful jamming field which makes targeting enemy craft near it very difficult. It also contains hundreds of hangerbays, and is capable of housing and deploying up to 100,000 fighters and bombers.
Purpose:
The Sodom and Gomorrah are assigned to protect the Shivan Core, they never leave the system it is in. The other Megido - class vessels are assigned as leaders of battlegroups, typically escorted by 6 Gargant - class hive ships and many smaller vessels. These battlegroups are deployed to combat races which have displayed extremely high resistance factors. Only two civilizations in Shivan history have necessitated deployment of a Megido - one unknown civilization whose name is lost to history which was annihilated some 50,000 years ago, and the former Terran/Vasudan/Ancient Alliance.
Contingencies:
Despite its impressive capabilities, the SafP Megido had several weaknesses which could be exploited. The first set of weaknesses revolves around its subspace node - creating drive: Apparently the process needed to create a new node requires a massive amount of energy, and it takes several hours to complete. During this time, the Megido is effectively a sitting duck, and its shield system is significantly weakened due to energy being rerouted to the drive, allowing cruiser - class beam cannons and light bombs to damage it. Anything weaker than that will still be useless, however. Its weapon energy is also rerouted, effectively doubling the charge time of all of its weapons. The nodes it creates can be safely traversed by allied craft, although they tend to destabilize and collapse after a few days. All trace of these nodes vanishes within a month or so. There also seems to be a limit to the remoteness of systems this drive can access - a Megido - class vessel has never been observed to create a node between two systems that could normally be reached by any more than 3 jumps.
Like the Lucifer, the Megido's shield system is inoperative within subspace.
Despite these weaknesses, the Megido nearly destroyed the combined fleets of the Terrans, Vasudans, and Ancients, until, in one last desperate gambit, it was lured to the Cygnus X-1 system by a Terran commander and, through a clever maneuver, succumbed to the accretion disk of the black hole in that system, eventually being torn apart by the event horizon. In the following centuries, weapons were developed to fight these vessels, the most effective being the GTVAASW Thunderbolt, a ship designed around a subspace weapon (based on Shivan designs and augmented with the advanced Ancient knowledge of subspace). It was capable of targeting enemies up to 20,000 km away and opening a subspace rift inside of them, destroying them from the inside. As a note, this was the first ship to hold the SW (Special Weapon) designation, which was later made use of by the Terran Empire on ships such as the TESW Enjeestis.
