Kilrathi Fralthra class Heavy Cruiser (Wing Commander):


The Fralthra class heavy cruiser must be considered one of the most effective ship designs for its time. It replaced the old Fralthi class light cruiser which was much smaller although the light cruisers was a bit faster. The heavy cruiser is designed to combine heavy armor, heavy firepower, and the ability to carry half a wing of fighters. The previous Fralthi class light cruiser had no ability to carry fighters. The forty fighters normally carried by the Fralthra class heavy cruiser makes its virtually a light carrier in its own right. The normal breakdown is a squadron of twelve light fighters, the same number of medium and heavy fighters, and a total of four heavy bombers. Most common fighters when the ships were first introduced included the Sartha, Drakhri, Jalkehi, and Grikath fighters but in some cases, older fighters were embarked due to shortfalls in fighter production and high attrition.


With the extremely heavy armor, the Fralthra has the potential to be a dangerous opponent even for a Confederation class dreadnought. Often these heavy cruisers deploy in pairs and when carrier groups are not properly screened, pairs of these heavy cruisers can decimate Confederation carrier battle groups. There is a long and ugly history of the Fralthra class doing just this. This class has proved its worth many times against the Confederation navy. These ships were considered to be rendered obsolete with the introduction of the new Fralthi II class heavy cruiser but are still quite dangerous. Most of these old and venerable ships have been kept in commission but have been transferred to backwater Kilrathi sectors since the Battle of Earth. They are often used as pickets against Confederation escort carrier task forces. Often the fighters are replaced by newer and mor powerful fighters but the ships have been little refitted for this new role.


These heavy cruisers should be considered in most ways to be the equivalent of the Confederation Waterloo class heavy cruisers although they carry less powerful shields. Initially, the Confederation heavy cruisers did not carry the fighter compliment of the Kilrathi Fralthra class but were retrofitted to mach the Kilrathi ship. Weaponry is similar in the two classes with the main weaponry of the Kilrathi ship being four cruise missile launchers and three anti-matter cannon mounts. For point defense, the Fralthra class carries six heavy lasers and nine point defense rail gun mounts. These ships are designed to be able to operate independently or as flagships of task forces and outfitted with a small flag ship. These ships require a larger crew than their Confederation equivalent and have a total compliment of 460 compared to 350 for the Waterloo class.


Notes of game conversion:


Because of the nature of the Video Game / Novel series “Wing Commander” and the needs to put the starship into game mechanics, the starship has several modification compared to the Video Game and Novels. The most important change it to change top speed to acceleration. Like fighters in Star Wars and original Battlestar Galactica, the fighters appear to act as if they are in the atmosphere even when they operating in space. This is incorrect. The Television series Babylon 5 and the new Battlestar Galactic are good series to watch to get a clearer idea on how space vehicles would probably maneuver although still not a perfect perspective. The starship has been modified to uses my revised phase world starship rules and can hold their own against most C.A.F and Kreeghor starships. See Revised Starship Rules for Phase World / Three Galaxies for more details.


Model Type: Fralthra Heavy Cruiser
Vehicle Type: Heavy Cruiser / Light Carrier
Crew: 460 (42 officers and 418 Enlisted)
Troops / Passengers: 72 fighter pilots. Has flag facilities for up to 40 additional personnel


Vehicles:
Fighter Compliment:

12Light Starfighters (Sartha Light Fighters)
12Medium Starfighters (Drakhri Medium Fighters)
12Heavy Starfighters (Jalkehi Heavy Fighters)
4Heavy Bombers (Grikath Heavy Fighter / Bomber)
Other vehicles:
6General Purpose Shuttles


M.D.C. By Location:

Anti-Matter Guns (3):2,000 each
Heavy Laser Cannon Turrets (6):300 each
Light Point Defense Mass Drivers (9):120 each
Cruise Missile Launchers (4):500 each
Hanger Bay (1):2,600 each
[1] Bridge:4,500
[2] Engineering section:6,000
Main Engines (2):3,000 each
[3] Main Body:14,000
[4] Variable Force Field:4,000 per 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 engineering section means that ship FTL propulsion systems are destroyed and maximum sublight acceleration is reduced to ten percent of normal (using navigational thrusters).
[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% (1,200 M.D.C.) per melee.


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 0.35 percent of light per melee.
Atmospheric Propulsion: The heavy cruiser carrier cannot operate within an atmosphere. If the ship enters an atmosphere, it will crash.
Stardrive: The heavy cruiser mounts a jump drive which is capable of jumping instantly from a fixed point in a system to another fixed point in a system. These points are weaknesses in the fabric of space and have been mapped in most cases. Fuel is hydrogen which the heavy cruiser scoops from space to fuel the jump engine.
Maximum Range: Effectively Unlimited by either drive system. The cruiser has about two years worth of supplies on board.


Statistical Data:
Length: 2,007.87 feet (612 meters)
Height: 918.64 feet (280 meters) for hull and 984.25 feet (300 meters) including antenna
Width: 869.42 feet (265 meters)
Weight: 22,600 Tons (20,500 metric tons) fully loaded
Power System: Fusion with a 20 year life span. The ship normally only goes 5 years between refueling.
Cargo: Cargo holds are scattered about the ship that allows for carrying up to 2,500 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. Ships officers have more space for personal items. Most of the ships spaces are take up by extra ammunition, armor, troops, weapons, engine, and other equipment.
Market Cost: The Fralthra class heavy cruiser costs around 9.2 billion credits to manufacture. Fighter compliment cost approximately 1.2 billion credits.


WEAPON SYSTEMS:

  1. Three (3) Anti-Matter Cannon Mounts: Weapons are mounted on the forward part of the ship and is the main anti-ship weaponry of the heavy cruiser. Weapons can angle up to forty degrees to the sides and above and bellow the ship. The anti-matter cannons are extremely powerful and inflict heavy damage to other capital ships. The weapon is not designed to target fighters and has standard penalties against fighters and other small targets.
    Maximum Effective Range: 8699.2 miles (14,000 km) in space and 43.5 miles (70 km) in an atmosphere.
    Mega-Damage: 2D6x100 M.D.
    Rate of Fire: Four per melee
    Payload: Effectively Unlimited
  2. Six (6) Heavy Point Defense Lasers in Dual Mounts: Six total on top, bottom, port, and bottom side. All can fire forward and aft. Each Turret can rotate 360 and has a 180 arc of fire. Individually more powerful than the lasers mounted on fighters and have a longer range. Compared to point defense weaponry carried on most starships within the Three Galaxies, the weapon mounts have a longer range.
    Maximum Effective Range: 4,971 miles (8,000 km) in space and 24.85 miles (40 km) in an atmosphere.
    Mega-Damage: 4D6x10 M.D.
    Rate of Fire: Equal to the combined hand to hand attacks of the Gunner (usually 4 or 5).
    Payload: Effectively Unlimited
  3. Nine (9) Light Point Defense mass Driver in Single Mounts: Nine total on top, bottom, port, and bottom side. All can fire forward and aft. Each Turret can rotate 360 and has a 180 arc of fire. Weapon is equal to standard fighter mass driver mounts except has a higher payload. Compared to most point defense weaponry carried on most starships within the Three Galaxies, the weapon mounts have a longer range.
    Maximum Effective Range: 1,242.7 miles (2000 km) in space and 6.21 miles (10 km) in an atmosphere.
    Mega Damage: 2D6x10 per 20 round burst.
    Rate of Fire: Equal to the combined hand to hand attacks of the Gunner (usually 4 or 5).
    Payload: 20,000 Rounds (1000 Bursts) per cannon
  4. Four (4) Cruise Missile Launchers: Missile 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). Since star ships will no longer engage at rock throwing distances, 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.) Cruise missiles have penalties to hit small targets but are all considered smart missiles.
    Maximum Effective Range: Missile range is 8,000 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: See revised Phase World / Three Galaxies missile tables for details (Anti-Matter does 4D6x100 M.D.C.).
    Rate of Fire: One per launcher per melee attack
    Payload: 24 cruise missiles total (6 each launcher)




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CGI / Artwork of starship created by Red Baron. Picture taken from Wing Commander CIC.


Writeup by Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune).


Rifts Conversion Copyright © 2005 & 2013, Kitsune. All rights reserved.



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