Viscountess Aurelia class Light Carrier (Caramelles Kingdom):

There are an incredible number of independent star systems and small multi-system powers within the Three Galaxies. Many of these have their own militaries. There are also a number of independent defense forces within the larger powers. Finally, there are a number of mercenary companies of considerable size.

Some of these forces operate warships built by the greater powers in the Three Galaxies. Older Human Alliance Military, Trans-Galactic Empire, and Consortium designs are all popular. Still, a number of powers prefer to build their own designs. In some cases, these ships are based on the designs of the larger powers while in other cases are more original in design.

Lead ship of the class, the Viscountess Aurelia was built in the Cardener Prime system, the capital of the Caramelles Kingdom. A total of six inhabited star systems make up the Caramelles Kingdom. The position of the Kingdom is close to Consortium space and is in a position that no other major powers have much in the way of direct contact. The Caramelles Kingdom is a monarchy with a psychic nobility holding most of the power in the Kingdom. Viscountess Aurelia was one of the early leaders in the kingdom. All of their major warships, basically anything larger than a destroyer, is named after important nobles.

Technology is less advanced generally than the Consortium. The Consortium will not share military technology with the Caramelles Kingdom for a variety of reasons. The Kingdom does not have representation for the population and education is also lacking for the lower classes. Most of the population is human with other races considered second class at best and often abused. The Caramelles nobility is known to be eying some of the neighboring planets for possible conquest. Finally, the Kingdom has been known to share military technology and sell hardware with powers less than friendly to the Consortium. They have managed to acquire some Consortium and Human Alliance technology although it is mostly older technology. In addition, the Caramelles Kingdom is negotiating with the Free Worlds Council for an exchange of technology. Most of their military systems were developed on their own.

Twelve light carriers of the Viscountess Aurelia class were built for the Kingdom fleet and another ten were later built for other powers for a total of eleven light carriers. One of those carriers later found its way in the hands of pirates. "The Red Skull" is one of the most dangerous pirate vessels in the Three Galaxies. The Caramelles Kingdom will sell their technology to virtually anybody. A number of other ship classes are built by the Caramelles Kingdom including a "light battleship/dreadnought" class. Few minor powers build ships larger than heavy cruisers.

The design of the light carriers is a mixture of civilian and military with the basic hull built to partially civilian standards allowing for less expensive design. Still, there was no desire to operate escort carriers like many smaller powers. Converted merchants tend to be both fragile and slow. While the carrier is a bit more fragile than a pure military hull, it is a highly modular design which allows for easy repairs. In size class, it is larger than the old Human Alliance Dauntless class carrier but smaller than the new Human Alliance Dragonfly and New Coventry Invincible class light carriers.

Shield generators are less powerful than those on the Dragonfly and Invincible class light carriers although are far more powerful than those on the old Dauntless class carrier. They have been compared to those on the Warshield class cruiser although they do not appear to be copies of the Consortium system. Many smaller governments simply copy the shield systems from the major governments and copy them. This does not mean the shields on the Viscountess Aurelia were developed in a vacuum.

Main power plant for the ship is an anti-matter reactor which is designed with a thirty year life span. Faster than light drives are slightly less powerful than the most modern drives with a maximum speed of four light years per hour. Acceleration in normal space is about equal to the much larger New Coventry Invincible class light carrier even though the Viscountess Aurelia is quite a bit smaller.

Due to a comparative lack of automation, these light carriers require more crew than the newer Human Alliance and New Coventry light carrier designs. They require a crew of slightly over five hundred. All officers in the Caramelles Kingdom are members of noble families. As such, officer quarters are extremely luxurious. Enlisted crew quarters are both cramped and extremely Spartan by comparison. Ships operated by the kingdom have large officer compliments. On vessels not operated by the kingdom, the number of officers can likely be halved.

As might be expected, the fighter capacity is less than that of the Invincible and Dragonfly class light carriers. Still, it has a much larger compliment than the old Dauntless class light carrier. A total of four squadrons of light fighters are able to be carried along with three squadrons of medium fighters. No heavy fighters are embarked. The Caramelles Kingdom produces their own fighter designs including the Avispa light fighter and Torero medium fighter. Most militaries consider these fighter designs to be sub-par and prefer to operate other fighter designs. Quite popular recently has been the Hyena light fighter. A popular medium fighter is the Bushido Industries Katana fighter. The Caramelles Kingdom is itself looking to copy the ICE Hyena fighter as a replacement for the Avispa. As well, there is strong consideration being given to replace the Torero medium fighter with the Free Worlds Council "Long Tooth" fighter. Troop compliment is fairly modest with a total of eighty troops with fifty in light power armor.

The Viscountess Aurelia lacks any heavy energy weapons or capital scale missile launchers. Defensive battery is not based on the pattern on Consortium Alliance vessels but instead their follow their own layout. Outer defense is handled by four long range missile batteries. These launchers are smaller than those carried on Consortium vessels with two hundred and forty missiles per launcher for just under a thousand missiles total. Inner point defense is handled by a total of twenty-four light mounts. These mounts are more in the pattern of the Trans-Galactic Empire and combine a direct fire weapon with a mini-missile battery. The twelve electromagnetic rail guns fire a heavy 40 mm projectile and have excellent range. The particle beams are a triple array with similar damage potential to the rail gun although have much shorter range. Mini-missile launchers have forty eight missiles ready to fire per launcher.

This starship design uses modified starship speed and weapon range rules. See Revised Starship Rules for Phase World / Three Galaxies for more details.

Model Type: Viscountess Aurelia light carrier
Vehicle Type: Light Carrier (Fleet)
Crew: 520 (70 Officers, 450 enlisted)
Troops: 80 marines (50 equipped with power armors) and 120 fighter pilots

Vehicle, Robots, and Power Armors:
Power Armors:

Light Power Armors

Fighter Compliment:

	48	Light Starfighters (Commonly the Avispa or Hyena Light Starfighters)
	36	Medium Starfighters (Commonly the Torero or Katana Medium Starfighter)

M.D.C. By Location:

	Electromagnetic Rail Cannons/Mini-Missile Batteries (12):	200 each
	Triple Particle Beam Cannons/Mini-Missile Batteries (12):	200 each
	Long Range Missile Batteries (4):	600 each
	Outer Hull (40 ft/ 12.2 m Area):	150
	Inner Hull (40 ft/ 12.2 m Area):	80
	[1] Bridge:	10,000
	Hanger Bays (4):	5,000 each
	[2] Main Engines (2):	12,000 each
	[3] Main Body:	40,000
	[4] Variable Force Field:	4,000 a side (24,000 Total)

Notes:
[1] In reality this is how much damage needs to be done for a weapon to hit the bridge through the ship’s armor. This ship does not have an auxiliary bridge. Even if the bridge is destroyed, the ship can still be piloted from engineering but ship is -3 to dodge and all weapon systems will be at local control. Weapon hits near the bridge that do not penetrate the ships integrity can injure crew members on or near the bridge.
[2] Destroying the main engines means that the ship’s faster than light systems are destroyed and maximum sublight speed is reduced by half.
[3] Depleting the M.D.C. of the main body will put the carrier out of commission. All internal systems will shut down, including life support and internal gravity. The ship itself will be an unsalvageable floating wreck.
[4] Shields positions can be varied and all could be combined in one shield. Shields regenerate at the rate of 5% (1,200 M.D.C.) per melee round.

Speed:
Driving on the Ground: Not Possible.
Sublight: Has a special sublight engine and military shielding that allows the ship to travel up to 60 percent of the speed of light. Star Ship can accelerate/decelerate at the rate of 0.8 percent of light per melee.
Atmospheric Propulsion: Maximum speed is 250 mph (402 kph), can enter an atmosphere and can leave due to propulsion being Gravitic but is not designed primarily for atmospheric flight.
Stardrive: Uses a Gravitonic Drive system that allows the ship to reach a maximum of 4 light years per hour.
Maximum Range: Effectively Unlimited by either drive system. Carries about two years worth of supplies on board.

Statistical Data:
Length: 722.5 feet (220.22 meters)
Height: 184.2 feet (56.14 meters)
Width: 292.4 feet (89.12 meters)
Weight/Mass: 255,200 tons (231,510 metric tons)
Power System: Anti-Matter with a 30 year life span. The ship normally only goes 10 years between refueling and refitting.
Cargo: Cargo holds are scattered about the ship that allows for carrying up to 18,000 tons (16,330 metric tons) of cargo in addition to standard compliment of supplies and ammunition. Each enlisted crew member has a small locker for personal items and uniforms. Ship’s officers have more space for personal items. Most of the ship’s spaces are taken up by extra ammunition, armor, troops, weapons, engine, and other equipment.
Market Cost: 5.2 billion credits to construct and sells for around 8 billion credits normally (Does not include standard fighter and power armor compliment - Caramelles Kingdom fighter compliment [Avispa and Torero Fighters] cost approximately 1.7 billion and troop compliment 140 million.)

WEAPON SYSTEMS:

Four (4) Long Range Missile Batteries: Missile has a top speed of Mach 20 in an atmosphere and in space has an acceleration of 8% of light per turn (faster than any starship.) Whether weapons can be shot down is calculated from the speed of target, launcher, and missile. When drive goes dead, missile will continue to travel in a straight line unless set to self destruct but has very low odds of hitting star ships (Great for hitting bases and planets because target does not move and missile, when unpowered, is at -25% to be detected.) Long range missiles do not have penalties to hit small targets unlike cruise missiles and are all considered smart missiles. Batteries can launch on multiple targets each at the same time. Batteries have a lower number of actual launchers than the modern CAF long range missile batteries although the actual battery is slightly smaller.
Maximum Effective Range: Long Range Missile range is 3,400 miles (5,470 km) in an atmosphere and 1,800,000 miles (2,897,000 km/9.7 light seconds) in space.
Mega-Damage & Properties: See revised Phase World / Three Galaxies missile tables for details (Fusion warheads inflict 2D4x100 M.D.C. each.)
Rate of Fire: Can fire missiles one at a time or in volleys of two (2), eight (8), sixteen (16), or twenty-four (24) missiles per battery, per melee attack.
Payload: 960 total, 240 long range missiles per battery.
Twelve (12) 40 mm Electromagnetic Rail Gun/Mini Missile Batteries: Unlike most of the rail guns used on Phase World / Three Galaxies starships, these are standard electromagnetic rail guns. Comparatively heavy weapons, the rail guns fire a heavy 40 mm high density projectile and have excellent range. Each turret can rotate 360 and has a 180 arc of fire. Weapons are mounted around the ship for point defense. The rail gun still fires projectiles at incredible velocities compared to rail guns on Rifts Earth and projectiles are fired from the rail guns at a significant fraction of the speed of light. Missile has a top speed of Mach 10 in an atmosphere and in space has an acceleration of 2% of light per turn (slightly faster than any starship except if it is exceeding it maximum safe acceleration). Missile launchers can launch on multiple targets each at the same time.
Maximum Effective Range Mini-Missile range is 2 miles (3.2 km) in an atmosphere and 100 miles (161 km) in space. Rail guns have a range of 12 miles (19.3 km) through atmosphere and 1,200 miles (1,930 km) in space.
Mega-Damage: Rail Cannon inflicts 3D6x10+30 M.D. for a 10 round burst. Mini-Missiles vary by mini-missile type (See revised Phase World / Three Galaxies missile tables for details.)
Rate of Fire: Equal to the combined hand to hand attacks of the gunner (usually 4 or 5). Mini-Missiles are fired one at a time or in volleys of two (2) or four (4) mini-missiles.
Payload: Rail Cannon has 2,000 Rounds (200 Bursts) each cannon, has forty-eight (48) mini-missiles at each launcher (576 total, can carry potentially several times more in storage holds).
Twelve (12) Triple Particle Beam/Mini Missile Batteries: These mounts are similar to the rail gun mounts with the rail gun replaced by a triple particle beam. While damage is similar, range is less that the rail gun mounts. Each turret can rotate 360 and has a 180 arc of fire. Weapons are mounted around the ship for point defense. Missile has a top speed of Mach 10 in an atmosphere and in space has an acceleration of 2% of light per turn (slightly faster than any starship except if it is exceeding it maximum safe acceleration). Missile launchers can launch on multiple targets each at the same time.
Maximum Effective Range Mini-Missile range is 2 miles (3.2 km) in an atmosphere and 100 miles (161 km) in space. Particle beams have a range of 8 miles (13 km) through atmosphere and 400 miles (640 km) in space.
Mega-Damage: Triple particle beam inflicts 3D6x10 M.D. per burst. Mini-Missiles vary by mini-missile type (See revised Phase World / Three Galaxies missile tables for details.)
Rate of Fire: Equal to the combined hand to hand attacks of the gunner (usually 4 or 5). Mini-Missiles are fired one at a time or in volleys of two (2) or four (4) mini-missiles.
Payload: Effective unlimited for the particle beam mounts, has forty-eight (48) mini-missiles at each launcher (576 total, can carry potentially several times more in storage holds.)

[ Altara TM, Brodkil TM, Bushido Industries TM, CAF TM, Catyr TM, CCW TM, Consortium of Civilized Worlds TM, Coyles TM, Free Worlds Council TM, Gene Splicers TM, K-Hex TM, Kankoran TM, Kittani TM, Kreeghor TM, Kydian TM, Machine People TM, M.D.C. TM, Mega-Damage TM, Metzla TM, M’Kri Hardware TM, Monro TM, Mutants in Orbit TM, Naruni Enterprises TM, Noro TM, Paradise Federation TM, Phase World TM, Psylite TM, Rifter TM, SAMAS TM, S.D.C. TM, Seljuks TM, Splugorth TM, Sunaj TM, Trans-Galactic Empire TM, Tri-Galactic Military Service TM, United Worlds Warlock TM, U.W.W. TM, Wolfen TM, and Zembahk TM are trademarks owned by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books Inc. ]

[ Beyond the Supernatural®, Heroes Unlimited®, Nightbane®, Ninjas & Superspies®, Palladium Fantasy®, and Rifts® are registered trademarks owned by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books Inc. ]

Writeup by Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune).

Return