The Malem Light Warbird is another one of those STO original variant designs that I really enjoy. But the primary reasons for this fan-remaster in particular is that it's inclusion in that dumb Azur Lane - Star Trek crossover thing that isn't even gonna see the light, and that the Ra'Nodaire Support carrier actually has a pair of these ships as hangar pets, and seeing the jarring time gap between the aesthetics of the two was pretty much irritating for my sense of visual continuity.
Apparently I was going to make two different versions of the Malem, one being the standard remaster, and a different "striker" variant with very apparent avian design influences with the forward bow being the Bird head that shoots lethal plasma bolts.
But that idea was partially ditched because of what Thomas Marrone, who apparently modelled the in-game asset, expressed how he was never happy with it and how it never really found it's 'soul'. So that got became the objective behind my remastered version, matching Hector Ortiz's initial concept art faithfully, and taken creative liberties from the striker version idea to give the Malem the Identity it needed.
And I made an alternate head design that more specifically resembles the original version as an option!