Void Ray

The void ray was a protoss escort ship and one of the first joint creations of the Nerazim and Khalai, the result of combining their two technologies after the protoss reunified. In use by 2502, it was designed for action against armored targets, firing searing beams of energy that grew exponentially more powerful the longer they were sustained. The void ray drew its power from both the Void and the Khala at once, a fusion that demanded a disciplined Nerazim mind to keep its violent core in check.

A union of two technologies#

The void ray was a Dark Templar escort ship and one of the first of its kind among joint Nerazim and Khalai creations. After the prior zerg invasion of Shakuras left the Nerazim more battle-hardened, they combined their technologies with those of the Khalai, and the collaboration produced astonishing new developments, the void ray and the stalker among them. The vessel could operate in both deep space and planetary atmospheres and was able to land. By 2502 it was in active service, designed above all for use against armored targets.

The prismatic core and its beam#

The void ray was built around a prismatic core, an oblong crystal of synthetic origin that served as a virtually eternal power source. The core derived its energy from both the Void and the Khala, focusing them through phase crystals into a self-sustaining reaction, with multiple layers to contain and stabilize the violent maelstrom within and transform a perpetual state of flux into usable energy for the vessel's weapons, engines, and systems. The armored hull was fashioned from a flexible alloy of very high molecular stability, a quality that kept the core's energies from disrupting its atomic bonds and degrading the ship from within. Inside, the void ray carried a bridge with a command dais where the commander sat surrounded by terminals arranged in concentric circles, alongside a personal cabin, a medical wing, storage bays, repair drones, and a hangar able to carry transports such as warp prisms. Its sensors could detect terran cloaking signatures.

The core was normally kept in check by an arrangement of flux field projectors. Once the void ray had locked onto a target and deployed those projectors, it could fire searing beams that grew exponentially more powerful over time, beams that incinerated even heavily armored structures and warships. Multiple lenses stabilized its energy output, and a phase crystal shaped the energy into a cohesive beam, while the flux field projectors channeled streams of unstable energy into that crystal to amplify the prismatic beam against heavily armored targets. The weapon's power led some terrans to believe the void ray would eventually replace the carrier as the flagship of the Great Fleet.

The Void lens#

Mastering the Void energies behind the beams took much training, and even then few protoss could command the full might of the projector. Those who could were given the rank of "Void lens." While Khalai technology alone sufficed to align and contain the powers of the Khala, a Dark Templar was required to focus the Void's power into usable form, which made the Void lens essential to the ship. Without a disciplined Nerazim mind aboard, the forces generated by the void ray would grow too wild and cascade beyond control.

Later developments and variants#

Several void rays were captured by the Tal'darim and outfitted with bloodshard crystals to create destroyers; because bloodshard crystals were not easily collected, the Tal'darim made unhesitating use of a captured ship's existing armaments when they lacked enough crystals to convert it. The Purifiers were able to adopt the void ray into their own arsenal, combining the research of three races into a single vessel, and the Ihan-rii fielded similar ships that could unleash a beam of Void energies.

In 2506 the phase-smith Karax devised solarite lenses for the void ray based on his study of the Spear of Adun, lenses that allowed the ships to fire their beams further than normal so long as their prismatic lenses remained properly aligned. After the End War, a new generation of void rays combined the style of the ancient Templar of the Golden Age of Expansion with the shadowy coloration of the Nerazim. Among the known void rays was Purity of Form, and the vessel's commanders across protoss history included Matriarch Vorazun, Prelate Mohandar, Commander Feranon, and Zoraya.