Brakiri Avioki Cruiser:
The Brakiri are one of the most wealthy and politically stable races of all of the Babylon 5 races. This has a simple reason: Early in their history the Brakiri adapted a form of government which made capitalism look like a joke: both the civil and the military side of their society are run as a business - as profitably as possible. They are both ruthless in their business dealings and honest, as they have found that this provides the best base for further business.
Early in the Shadow war they made a decision that cost them dear: they allied themselves with the Shadows and began to wage war upon their neighbors, only to be betrayed by the Shadows. When this happened they quickly realized the mistake they had made and appealed to the Army of Light. They were taken in as members and fought valiantly, if not very successfully, in nearly every major battle in the war. Presently the Brakiri are loyal members of the new Interstellar Alliance.
The technological level of the Brakiri is quite high, lagging slightly behind that of the Centauri. This, coupled with their wealth, means that they are one of the few members of the old "League of Non-Aligned Worlds" to actually build and maintain a fleet of large jump capable vessels.
Unfortunately their money driven economy also pervades their military, or better said, their merchant fleet. For all of the ships that make up their navy are actually armed merchant vessels. These ships have been designed with various cargo and passenger tasks as first, and with combat as second thought. Because of this their cruisers look very impressive, but are actually not very combat capable ships.
The Brakiri Cruiser is armed with four Plasma Cannons for anti ship purposes, and 4 laser cannons for starfighter defense. It has no shields, no missile capability and it carries no fighters. For all its size it is hardly more powerful than a Drazi Sunhawk, as a matter of fact its size merely makes it a rather large target. Much of its hull is given over to cargo holds and passenger quarters. In time of war the passenger quarters can be converted to marine barracks.
Of course this applies only to its function as a warship. For a commercial ship it can carry a large amount of freight and passengers, and is both fast and well armed. As such Brakiri ships are often hired to transport valuable cargos over great distances.
Like most ships of the younger races these ships do not have artificial gravity or inertial dampening, even though the ship does have a gravity drive. The reason for this is that the drive that the Brakiri use is a copy of the Centauri`s drive system. The Brakiri do not fully understand these copied systems and as such do not have the ability to generate artificial gravity or shields. The system still cannot pull as high an accelerations as is possible by the engines because it would kill the ships crew and the ship itself cannot withstand the stress of higher accelerations. Despite these factors, the gravity drive system used by the Brakiri is still a lot more efficient than the ion drives of the Earth Alliance and as such is widely used by the ever profit driven Brakiri. The gravity drive is the only Sublight propulsion the Cruiser has. For faster than light travel the Cruiser can open its own jumpgate into hyperspace.
The decks of the Brakiri cruiser are set up aft in order that the crew has a greater comfort while in transit and the ship normally accelerates at about one G to give the crew the sensation of the gravity of their home world. This allows the ships crews to operate for a much greate period of time without needing to be rotated off the ship. Whenever the ship accelerates at over 4 G of acceleration, the crew cannot more around the ship efficiently
Listed is the formula to allow player and game masters to calculate the Brakiri Cruisers velocity and distance traveled:
Model: Brakiri Armed Merchant Vessel/Cruiser.
Class: Cruiser
Crew: 350 (25 Officers and 325 Enlisted)
Passengers/Troops: 600/3000
Vehicles: None
M.D.C. by Location:
| Plasma cannons (4): | 1,000 each | |
| Point Defense Laser Cannons (4): | 500 each | |
| [1] Engineering section: | 8,000 | |
| [2] Bridge: | 3,500 | |
| [2] Emergency Bridge: | 3,500 | |
| [3] Main Body: | 20,000 | |
| [4] Wings (2): | 2,200 each |
Notes:
[1] Destroying the Engineering section means that the maximum sublight
acceleration is reduced to ten percent of normal (using navigational thrusters).
Also the Hyperdrive is destroyed. The engineering section is -2 to hit
because it is surrounded by the bulk of the ship
[2] In reality this is how much damage needs to be done for a weapon
to hit the bridge through the ships armor. The ship has an auxiliary bridge.
Even if both the ships 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 MDC 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] The Plasma Cannons are mounted on these short winglike extensions
of the main body. Destroying a wing means that the Plasma cannons on that
side of the cruiser can no longer be used.
Speed:
Driving on the Ground: Not Possible.
Space Propulsion: Star Ship can accelerate/decelerate at the
rate of 8 G maximum, although the ship will typically accelerate at a rate
of 1 G to generate gravity inside of the ship equal to that of the Brakiri
Homeworld (remember, no inertial dampening systems!)
Because the Brakiri Cruiser is only lightly shielded from the effects
of radiation and hypervelocity atomic particles it is not operated above
30 % of the speed of light. Theoretically the cruiser can make 60 % of
lightspeed with its gravity drive though.
Stardrive: Uses a hyperdrive system that allows the ship to
reach a maximum of 20 lightyears per hour. This means that the Brakiri
Cruiser can cover the Galaxy in about 6 months. The ship enters hyperspace
by means of a jumpgate. This ship can use an already made jumpgate or can
form its own jumpgate.
The Avioki has enough power to open a jumpgate every fifteen minutes
(60 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 one years worth of supplies on board and fusion reactors
give approximately 5 years of power before refueling.
Statistical Data
Height: 2010 feet (603 meters)
Length: 1650 feet (495 meters)
Width: 690 feet (288 meters)
Weight/Mass: 1.8 million tons (1.63 million metric tons)
Power System: 4 Fusion Reactors (5 year duration).
Cargo: several large cargo holds are located in the ship, allowing
for up to 200,000 tons of cargo to be carried.
Cost: 16 Billion credits to construct
Weapon Systems:
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Technical Information from Babylon
5 Technical Manual!
CGI of Ship by Conor Clancy.
More of his CGI pictures of B-5 Ships at Theophrastus
By Mischa (E-Mail Mischa)
Formatting and Minor Revisions by Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune
).
Rifts Conversion Copyright © 1998 amd 1999, Mischa. All rights reserved.