Centauri Vorchan class Star Cruiser (Babylon Five):

With the exception of the Minbari, the Centauri are the most technically advanced member of the younger races with large populations in the Milky Way Galaxy and the Vorchan class cruiser is a good example of their technology. The ship carries about the same firepower and carries heavy armor than an Earth Force Omega class Destroyer yet is much smaller and is both far faster and more maneuverable than the Destroyer is.

While this ship is slightly less well armed than ships of the Three Galaxies, especially in number of missiles, the ship is comparable in most other respects and carries much more armor than most ships of the Three Galaxies, allowing the ship to hold its own against most of the ships except for in long range missile duels.

The Vorchan class cruiser is constructed in the form of a slender long body with wings coming out of the top, bottom, and sides of the main body.

The ship has impressive armor to protect the ships but also has defensive shields to prevent weapons from even striking the starships hull. These shields both use Gravimetric waves and radiation shielding to prevent energy weaponry together to achieve a more powerful shield and give munch better protections than the Interceptor grids on Earth Alliance vessels.

The ship is armed with two plasma accelerators for the ships main energy weaponry. These weapons are far more powerful than any other races plasma weaponry and inflict massive damage to targets that they hit. The ship also carries 16 light pulse cannons for primarily point defense although they can be used as anti-starship weapons as well when fired in combined volleys. They are similar to heavier mounts but are smaller and inflict less damage and have a shorter range. The ship also carries two missile launchers. The missiles are the equivalent of Phase World long range missiles

The Centauri have better fire control and targeting systems than the Earth Force does and if a Centauri ship engages a Minbari ship, the Centauri ship is treated to have sensors equal to ships from within Phase World and they can detect Minbari ships with moderate penalties.

The ships propulsion is a combination of two ion engines and a gravimetric propulsion system. This allows the ship to achieve accelerations much greater than ships of most of the younger races. The only other members of the younger races that can achieve the level of performance of Centauri ships are the Minbari and the Vree.

The ship design has both true artificial gravity and inertial dampeners. The artificial gravity allows the ships crew to serve in comfort and greatly increases the crews efficiency. The inertial dampening allows this ship to complete maneuvers that no ships built by the younger races other than those built by the Centauri, Vree, or the Minbari without killing the ships crew.

The ship can carry up to 12 fighters but the ship normally caries not fighters in the ships hanger bay. This is due to the fact that there is a shortage of starfighters and pilots for the starfighters. The ship also has no berthing for marines.

Notes of game conversion:

For purposes of game balance, there are two different versions of the starship. One is designed with accelerations in terms of gravities (G) which can better interact better with other Babylon 5 ships such as Earth Force and the Narn military. The other is written to operate within the Three Galaxies and operated with Consortium and Kreeghor vessels.

Phase world version uses my revised phase world starship rules and can hold their own against most C.A.F and Kreeghor fighters. This version is recommended if you with to put them into Phase World as among equals. See Revised Starship Rules for Phase World / Three Galaxies for more details.

Moderate version uses Gs of acceleration but does not have reduced weapon ranges except for missiles. This version is useful for Mutants In Orbit, Phase World if used as a lower tech race, used with my Earth Force ships conversions for B-5, and as a possible crash on Rifts Earth. Listed is the formula to allow player and game masters to calculate the fighters velocity and distance traveled.

Velocity = Acceleration x Time + Initial Velocity

Distance Traveled = Acceleration x ½ x Time ² + Initial Velocity x Time

1 G = 32 feet (9.8 m) per second ²

Model: Centauri Vorchan class Star Cruiser

Class: Heavy Frigate

Crew: 400 (15 Officers and 385 Enlisted)

Troops: None

Vehicle Compliment:

	12	Centauri Star Fighters
	4	Standard Centauri Shuttles

M.D.C. by Location:

	Mega Pulse Cannons (2):	2,500 each
	Light Defensive Pulse Cannons (16):	400 each
	Long Range Missile Launchers (2):	800 each
	[1] Ion Engines (2):	10,000 each
	[2] Bridge:	30,000
	[2] Emergency Bridge:	30,000
	[3] Main Body:	120,000
	Wings (4):	20,000 each
	[4] Variable Force Field:	6,000 a side (36,000 Total)

Notes:

[1] The Destruction of one engine reduces the ships performance by 25%. The destruction of both Ion Engines reduces the ships performance by 50%. The ship can still use its gravimetric engines to propel the ship up to half of the ships normal acceleration.

[2] 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 also has an auxiliary bridge. Even if both 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 bridge that do not penetrate the ships integrity can injure crew members on or near the bridge.

[3] Depleting the M.D.C. of the main body will put the Cruiser 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% (1,800 M.D.C.) per melee round

Speed:

Driving on the Ground: Not Possible.

Sublight:

Phase World Version: Has special sublight engines that allows the ship to travel up to 60 percent of the speed of light. Star Ship can accelerate/decelerate at the rate of 0.6 percent of light per melee round.

Moderate Version: The cruiser does not have an effective top speed but is limited by acceleration. The Cruiser can reach a top acceleration of 6 G but standard is 3 G to reduce stress on engines.

Atmospheric Propulsion: The Vorchan class cruiser can operate within an atmosphere but the ship is limited to around Mach 2. The ship uses anti-gravity technology and can enter and leave and atmopshere under its own power.

Stardrive: Uses a hyperdrive system that allows the ship to reach a maximum of 45 lightyears per hour. This means that the Vorchan class star Cruiser can cover the Galaxy in about 14 weeks. The ship enters hyperspace by means of a jumpgate. This ship can use an already made jumpgate or can form its own jumpgate. Ship can also enter or leave hyperspace within an atmosphere but the ship must have very precise coordinates or it will open the hyperspace gate within the planet itself and the ship will destroy itself.

The Vorchan has enough power to open a jumpgate every seven minutes (28 rounds). The gate then takes

one round to open, one round to traverse, and another to close

Maximum Range: Effectively Unlimited by either drive system. Carries about Two years worth of supplies on board and anti-matter power system gives power for eight years before the ship needs refueling.

Statistical Data:

Height: 1,970 feet (600 meters)

Length: 2,626.7 feet (800 meters)

Width: 1,970 feet (600 meters)

Weight / Mass: 4.96 million tons (4.5 million metric tons)

Power System: 3 Matter / Anti-Matter Reactors (6 year duration)

Cargo: Cargo holds are scattered about the ship that allows for carrying up to 150,000 tons of cargo in addition to standard compliment of supplies and ammunition

Cost: 15 billion credits to construct

Weapon Systems:

Two (2) Mega Pulse Cannons (2): These weapons are also called plasma accelerators. This weapon fires supercharged plasma (Plasma that is almost at the stage of achieving fusion). The plasma is also highly compressed and fired at a much greater speed than conventional plasma weapons. This gives the weapon a greater range. These cannons fire forward and have only a limited arc of fire. These weapons have standard penalties to hit small targets such as fighters and cannons can be fired individually or combined. Author Note: The source on this weapon system lists the weapons range as 300,000 km. It has been reduces to fit more with Palladium frameworks

Maximum Effective Range: 18.7 miles (30 km) in an atmosphere and 18,700 miles (30,000 km) in space.

Mega Damage: 1D6x1000 per cannon (2D6x1000 with both cannons combined)

Rate of Fire: Three (3) times per melee round per cannon.

Payload: Effectively Unlimited.
Sixteen (16) Light Defensive Pulse Cannons: These cannons fire rapid fire bursts of super charged Plasma. Similar to heavier pulse cannons but the weapons are of lower output and have a shorter range. Weapons are used as anti-star Fighter and missile weapon systems. Each mount has a 360 degree rotation and 180 degree arc of fire. Author Note: The source on this weapon system lists the weapons range as 180,000 km. It has been reduces to fit more with Palladium frameworks and the weapon scale

Maximum Effective Range: 11.1 miles (18 km) in an atmosphere and 1,120 miles (1,800 km) in space.

Mega Damage: 3D6x10 per cannon

Rate of Fire: Equal to gunners hand to hand (Usually 4 or 5).

Payload: Effectively Unlimited.
Two (2) Long Range Missile Batteries: These launchers are similar to Rifts / Three Galaxies long range missile launchers. Unlike cruise missiles, long range missile do not have penalties to strike small targets. They are considered smart missiles and long range batteries can launch on multiple targets each.

Phase World Version: 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.) When drive goes dead, the missile 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

Moderate Version: The description of these are close to that used for conventional cruise missiles Missile are assumed to accelerate at 2 times normal mach speed in Gs greater than the starships speed when used in space. Missiles can be launched at non moving targets beyond the powered range of the missiles to hit targets without the chance of the launching ship being hit by missiles itself but penalties exist when launching missiles beyond normal missile range.

Maximum Effective Range:
Mega-Damage & Properties: Both Versions: Varies with long range missile types (Use new missile/bomb tables - Fusion inflicts 2D4x100 M.D.C.).

Rate of Fire: One at a time or in volleys of 2, 8, 16, 24, or 48 long range missile per battery, per melee attack.

Payload: 960 total, 480 long range missiles per battery.

Special Equipment:

Sentient Computer: The Centauri Vorchan class cruiser has a artificial intelligence computer controlling it. This computer should be considered to be a moderate artificial intelligence in terms of Rifts. This computer can pilot the ship at 65%, can fire all weapons with half normal attacks, and has +1 to strike (these include all bonuses). If a full crew is onboard it will be able to fire all weapons at will and will have +3 to strike, +1 to dodge and +2 to initiative.

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Technical information sourced partially from Babylon 5 Technical Manual!

CGI of Ship by Conor Clancy. More of his CGI pictures of B-5 Ships at Theophrastus.

Writeup by Mischa (E-Mail Mischa) and by Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune).

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