Klingon B'Rel Bird of Prey (Star Trek):


The writeup of the B'Rel class is designed to be used during Star Trek: Next Generation episodes and after but with small modifications, can be used for use during Star Trek Movie period


Long before the Federation realized the usefulness of having smaller and starships that were more disposable that cruisers, the Klingon Empire realized this fact and used their "Birds of Prey" both as a scout ship and a light combatant. When this ship fights other ships that are more powerful than it, the ship will be used in packs of ships. Tactics for this ship are similar to those used by the German U-Boats against convoys and have worked quite successfully in many battles.


Although the "Bird of Prey" has gone through a series of different models, the outward physical appearance of the ship has not changed. While this class is more powerful than the Bird of Preys that it descended from, the weapon systems are much the same but each weapon mount was less powerful. Older scout style birds of prey were also smaller than the present B'Rel that is in Klingon Service. There is also a larger version of the Bird of prey know as the K'Vort class which is over four times longer than the B'Rel is.


The ship is fairly lightly armed but the weapon systems are very effective. The ship has two pulse disruptors fitted on the outer edge of the ships wings and has one photon torpedo launcher mounted in the nose of the starship. The ship also has a cloaking device that allows it to hide from enemy ships. The ship is also very maneuverable and can be used much like a large fighter. The B'Rel is also pretty well armor and armed for its size.


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: B'Rel class Bird of Prey
Class: Scout vessel (would be classified as a destroyer or light cruiser in Phase World)
Crew: 12 personnel (Life Support can support up to 24 people for extended periods of time)


M.D.C. By Location:

Pulse Disruptors (2):1,000 each
Photon Torpedo Launcher:1,200
[1] Main Body:20,000
Warp Nacelles (2):6,000 each
Impulse Engines:5,000
[2] Bridge Support Structure2,000
[2] Bridge:3,000
[3] Variable Force Field:5,000 per side (30,000 total)


Notes:
[1] Depleting the M.D.C. of the main body will put the Bird of Prey out of commission. All internal systems will shut down, including life support and internal gravity. The ship itself will be an unsalvageable floating wreck.
[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 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. Destruction of the support structure of the bridge will remove the bridge section from the rest of the ship.
[3] Shields positions can be varied and all could be combined in one shield. Shields regenerate at the rate of 5% (1,500 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. Star Ship can accelerate/decelerate at the rate of 1.1 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: Maximum speed is Mach 12 using impulse engine. Due to starship having gravitic propulsion systems, starship can enter and leave the atmosphere.
Stardrive: Uses a warp engine that allow ship to travel at Warp Factor 5 on cruise (0.024 light years per hour), Warp Factor 8 Flank (0.11 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 speeds 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. Ship carries about one year worth of supplies on board.


Statistical Data:
Length: 517.5 feet (157.76 meters)
Height: 323.9 feet (98.54 meters)
Width: 595.6 feet (181.54 meters)
Mass: 236,000 metric tons (Deep Space Nine: Technical Manual)
Power System: Anti Matter with 5 year life span. Ship normally only goes 2 years between the ship being refueling.
Cargo: Very Small, Cargo holds are scattered about the ship that allows for carrying up to 10000 tons of cargo in addition to standard compliment of supplies and ammunition.
Market Cost: 800 million to construct.


Weapon Systems:

  1. Pulse Disruptors (2): While the disruptors are not as powerful or as long ranged as the phasers carried on the Defiant class, they are still very power and effective. The disruptors are mounted on the wings of the Bird of Prey. Weapon system is controlled by a single gunner and has half the normal penalties to hit small targets such as fighters and missiles due to the high maneuverability of the Bird of Prey. Weapon system cannot be used when the starship is moving faster than the speed of light.
    Maximum Effective Range: 9.3 miles (15 km) through atmosphere and 9,328 miles (15,000 km) in space.
    Mega Damage: 2D6x100+100 per disruptor. Both disruptors firing a 3 pulse burst do 1D6x1000+1,000 and costs one attack.
    Rate of Fire: Maximum of 5 bursts per melee (Usually 4 or 5).
    Payload: Effectively Unlimited.
  2. One (1) Photon Torpedo Launching System: The launcher is mounted in the nose of the Bird of Prey. Effectively very similar to Phase World cruise missile launchers but instead of having groups of multiple launchers, the Klingon Empire has concentrated on launchers that can launch more than one torpedo at the same time. Once a spread of torpedoes has been launched, the launchers must reload and rearm before launching another spread of torpedoes.
    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 - 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: Photon Torpedoes (Matter/Anti-Matter Warheads): Old Series inflict 2D6x100 each, Star Trek Movies One through Six inflict 3D6x100, and Next Generation inflicts 4D6x100 each.
    Rate of Fire: One at a time or in volleys of 2 or 4. Launcher is reloaded on the same melee and can be fired again on the next.
    Payload: 24 Photon torpedoes
  3. Cloaking Device: The B'Rel Bird of Prey has a cloaking device that allows the ship to be undetectable by most sensors. The Klingon Empire originally got their cloaking technology from the Romulans but has since been able to both copy and improve on their cloaking technology. In phase world this system has the problem that it does not hide the ships signature on gravitic sensors (This is even more of a weakness on Romulan ships because they use a black hole in their power systems). The starship cannot raise shields or fire any weapons while cloaked, for one attack previous to cloaking, or just after decloaking.
    When attacking and if ship is not detected, the ship has +8 initiative bonus against a target that is not alerted and +4 initiative bonus against targets that are alerted (at general quarters). If the cloaked ship get a higher initiative, the ship can both raise its combat shields and can fire its weapons previous to any opponents attacks.
    Each time the ship main body gets damaged, the is a percentage chance the cloaking device will be damaged. This is done by determining the total damage the ship has sustained and dividing that by the amount of damage the ship can take (20,000 in the Bird of Preys case) and getting a percentage of the hull that the ship has taken for damage. A percentile roll is then made. If the percentile roll is less than the percentage of damage the cloaking device is damaged and will be non operation.



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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).


Rifts Conversion Copyright © 1998, 1999, & 2000, Kitsune. All rights reserved.


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