Cardassian Keldon Class Battlecruiser (Star Trek):

The writeup of the Keldon class is designed to be used during the later Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager episodes.

These ships becoming the primary ship class in the Cardassian space forces. They are derived from the Galor class battlecruiser and have many similarities in their appearance but have a vast increase in firepower when compared to the older class of battlecruiser. While not up to the Federation standards set by the Galaxy, Nebula, Defiant, and Sovereign classes, they can compete far more effectively than their predecessor. As such, they are more popular with both officers and ship crews. The ships were palnned to completely replace the Galor class battlecruiser but the number of these ships never came up to planned production. While not as bad as their losses in Galor class cruisers, the Cardassians lost a good number of these ships against the Klingons. After joining the Dominion, the two forces fought against both the Federation and the Klingon Empire. In this war, a large number of these new ships were destroyed. It is unclear yet if this ship will continue to be produced but should include some improvements learned from the Dominion.

The Keldon is designed to use many of the same components as the Galor class. This sped up construction and made logistics for repair much easier. In many cases, the new components can actually be used on the Galor even though they were not designed for the older ship. Unfortunately, a Galor would need to be almost completely rebuilt to be the equivalent to a Keldon class battlecruiser. The Keldons hull is constructed on stronger alloys than the Galor and along with stronger shields, allow the ship to survive far more damage. The ship has more power for weapon systems and other systems.

These ships carry a third more disruptors than the Galor class cruiser. Each spiral wave disrupter in the ships eight banks of two are more efficient than those carried on the Galor but inflict about the same amount of damage to a target each. This makes the ships firepower almost equal to that of the modified Excelsior class cruisers such as the U.S.S. Lakota. The ship retains the heavy aft firing spiral wave disruptor from the Galor class. In both firepower and range, the aft spiral disruptor is about equal to Federation mega-phaser mounts. The Cardassians have been unable to develop anti-matter warheads on their own. This is probably due to being unable to produce small enough magnetic bottles. Instead, the use a laser initiated fusion explosion. While not as powerful as anti-matter warheads, the Ion torpedoes are still quite effective. They wer able to study Federation torpedo launchers and were able to come with a more rapid firing torpedo launcher. While about the same size as the earlier launchers, they can fire four missiles in each volley instead of two. The ship mounts one launcher forward and one launcher aft.

There may have been some upgraded done to these ships when the Cardassians joined the Dominion but due toa lack of data, no major upgrades are known. One probably upgrade is that the fusion warheads on the torpedoes have been replaced by more powerful anti-matter warheads. These warheads have been listed with the launcher for ships that carry the new warheads.

Like her predecessor, the Keldon does not carry and fighters but does at least carry a decent number of shuttles. The ship carries a complement of marines for ground assault missions. The ships has a large increase of crew size and with the added systems, the ship is more cramped than the Galor class. The senior officers seem to be the exception and have more luxurious quarters than the average Federation senior officers. Like the Galor class, the Keldons are set up to be able to act as Flagships.

This design is written to be able to interact with modified phase world rules. See Revised Starship Rules for Phase World / Three Galaxies for more details. There is a lack of hard detail on this ship. Some materials have suggested accelerations that are simply beyond scope. I have taken a moderate level in writing up this starship for Phase World because otherwise the ship would either be far too powerful or far too weak for Phase World. Warp speeds are far slower than the FTL speeds for Phase World but they are very close to those from the original series and Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual. Also, a note on the mass of starships. The original sources indicated much smaller masses for starships than Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual does and where possible, both masses are listed for the gamers to choose which one seems most appropriate.

Model Type: Keldon Class Battle Cruiser
Vehicle Type: Battle Cruiser (Heavy Cruiser/ Battle Cruiser by Phase World terms)
Crew: 540 (152 Officers, 397 Enlisted, and 1 political officer)
Troops: 375 Marines.

Vehicles:

Standard Shuttles

M.D.C. By Location:

	Mega Spiral Wave Disruptor Cannon (1, aft):	1000
	Siege Spiral Wave Disruptor Cannons (8 banks of 2 each):	600 each bank
	Torpedo Tubes (2, 1 forward / 1 aft):	800 each
	Warp Nacelles (2):	25,000 each
	Impulse Engine:	12,000
	[1] Primary Bridge:	20,000
	[1] Auxiliary Bridge (Also used as Flag Bridge):	20,000
	[2] Main Body:	100,000
	[3] Variable Force Field:	8,000 a side (48,000 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 have an auxiliary bridge. Even if both of the bridges are 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 bridges that do not penetrate the ships integrity can injure crew members on or near the bridge.
[2] Depleting the M.D.C. of the main body will put the Battle Cruiser. All internal systems will shut down, including life support and internal gravity. The ship itself will be an unsalvageable floating wreck.
[3] Shields positions can be varied and all could be combined in one shield. Shields regenerate at the rate of 5% (2,400 M.D.C. per melee round

Speed:
Driving on the Ground: Not Possible.
Sublight: Has a special sublight engine that allows the ship to travel up to 60 percent of the speed of light. The Ship can accelerate/decelerate at the rate of 0.65 percent of light per melee round.
As an alternative, the starship can reach .99 of the speed of light but is normally restricted to slower speeds so that starship is not effected severely by time attenuation that occurs at the higher sublight speeds.
Atmospheric Propulsion: Cannot travel within an atmosphere efficiently.
Stardrive: Uses a warp engine that allow ship to travel at Warp Factor 7 on cruise (0.075 light years per hour), Warp Factor 9.2 Flank (0.19 Light Years per hour), and Warp Factor 9.6 Emergency (0.22 Light Years per Hour). Speed is calculate using a formula designed to emulate Star Trek: Next Generation speeds. These speed are very slow when compared to Phase World ship, so if used in that universe, they could be increased enough to operate within Three Galaxy speeds but should not exceed them.
Maximum Range: Effectively Unlimited by either drive system. The ship carries about two years worth of supplies on board and a small hydroponic section.

Statistical Data:
Length: 1,220.1 feet (371.88 meters)
Height: 230.1 feet (70.13 meters)
Width: 630.7 feet (192.23 m)
Mass: 2,230,000 metric tons (Deep Space Nine: Technical Manual)
Power System: Primary power system is Anti-Matter with a 15 year life span. Ship normally only goes 5 year between refueling
Cargo: Cargo holds are scattered about the ship that allows for carrying up to 50,000 tons of cargo in addition to standard compliment of supplies and ammunition.
Market Cost: 6.5 billion credits to construct.

WEAPON SYSTEMS:

Mega Spiral Wave Disruptor Cannon (1): The weapon is Aft firing. Used as anti-capital ship weapons and can take out frigates in one shot or do large amounts of damage to bases or larger ships. The cannon cannot be used faster than the speed of light. Weapon has standard penalties to hit fighters and small targets. The barrels can be fired either forward or behind and can be rotated 30 degrees horizontally or vertically.
Maximum Effective Range: 93,300 miles (150,000 km) in space and 93.3 miles (150 km) in an atmosphere.
Mega Damage: 1D6x1000 M.D.C.
Rate of Fire: Maximum of Two (2) times per melee per cannon.
Payload: Effectively Unlimited.
Eight (8) banks of 2 Heavy Spiral Wave Disruptor Cannons: The weapons damage is about equal to laser cannons used by the CAF but the disruptors have a greater rate of fire. The disruptors also have about equivalent range to standard phasers are also slightly shorter ranged but only slightly. Both Disruptors Cannons in each bank can be linked or can be fired separately. They cannot be used faster than the speed of light. Weapons system has half the normal penalties to hit fighters and small targets.
Maximum Effective Range: have a range of 15,550 miles (25,000 km) in space and 15.6 miles (25 km) in an atmosphere
Mega Damage: 2D6x100 each or 4D6x100 for both cannons in a bank.
Rate of Fire: Maximum of Three (3) times per melee each cannon.
Payload: Effectively Unlimited.
Two (2) Rapid Fire Ion Torpedo Launching Systems: One launcher fires forward and one launcher fires aft. Effectively very similar to Phase World cruise missile launchers but instead of having groups of multiple launchers, the Cardassian have copied Starfleet, who has concentrated on launchers that can launch more than one torpedo at the same time. Once spread of torpedoes has been launched, the launchers must reload and rearm before launching another spread of torpedoes. In the early service of this ship, it carried photon torpedoes which are anti-matter/matter warheads but they can carry quantum torpedoes when they are available.
Torpedoes has a top speed of Mach 25 in an atmosphere and in space has an acceleration of 10% of light per turn (far faster than any starship). When drive goes dead, the torpedo will continue to travel in a straight line unless preset to self destruct or receives a destruct code but has very low odds of hitting star ships (Great for hitting bases and planets because target does not move and torpedoes when dead is at -25% to be detected.) See modified starship rules for more details - Sublight torpedoes have penalties to hit small targets but are all considered smart missiles. Launchers can launch on multiple targets each.
Maximum Effective Range: Powered torpedo range is 8000 miles (12,875 km) in an atmosphere and 4,000,000 miles (6,437,376 km/ 21.5 light seconds) in space.
Mega-Damage & Properties: Ion Torpedoes (Fusion warheads) inflict 2D6x100 M.D.C. each. Dominion Anti-Matter warheads will inflict 4D6x100 each
Rate of Fire: One at a time or in volleys of 2 or 4per launcher, per melee round, for a maximum of 8 torpedoes per melee. Launchers are reloaded on the same melee and can be fired again on the next.
Payload: 200 torpedoes (100 per launcher).

[ 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, 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. ]

[ Cardassian TM, Deep Space Nine TM, Jem'Hadar TM, Ketracel White TM, Klingon TM, Photon Torpedo TM, Quantum Torpedo TM, and United Federation of Planets TM are trademarks owned by Paramount Pictures. ]

Technical information partially sourced from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual (Mostly ship sizes.)

I would like to recognize Henning Rogge as giving assistance with the revision of the Star Trek starships.

CGI of ship created by Andrew Hodges. More of his CGI pictures of Star Trek ships and craft at Devil World 6.

Writeup by Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune).

Return