If any ship in the Centauri fleet strikes terror in the heart of the Narns, it is the Primus Battlecruiser. This ship is 1.2 km of weapon systems that dwarf any of the weapon systems mounted on virtually any ship built by the younger races. The only exceptions are the Interstellar Alliance White Stars class, the much later Alliance Victory class Destroyer, the Earthforce Advanced Omega class Destroyers, the Earthforce Warlock class Destroyers, and Minbari Sharlin War Cruisers. The latest Earthforce ships still have far inferior general performance to the Primus class Battlecruiser and this ship could probably engage and destroy three to four standard Earthforce destroyers in a stand up fight with relative ease. The Engagement at the Station Babylon 5 between a ship of this class and the Narn Cruiser when the Narn ship was able to destroy the Centauri Vessel was most likely due to a lot of luck and a freak critical hit on the Centauri ship.

The Centauri are also the most technically advanced of any of the younger races with the exception of the Minbari and Vree and this ship has many of the Centauri's most advanced systems.

When this ship is compared to ships within the Three Galaxies, the ship is as heavily armed as the heaviest ships. The only weaknesses this ship has is that the ships shields are less powerful than those on comparable sized ships and the ship carries a relatively small number of missile launchers. In a pounding fight, this ship could defeat most ships its size and the only concern with be a long range fight that involves a large number of missiles.

In physical configuration, the ship is in a twin boom configuration with two needle like structures pointed forward. The ship also has what appears to be wings sticking out of either side of the body and on top of the starship.

The ships 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.

The ship's primary beam battery are four plasma accelerators.. These weapons are far more powerful than any other plasma weaponry known to be carried on starships and are capable of destroying many smaller ships with a single firing of the main batteries. The ship also carries 2 Heavy Ion Cannons to backup the plasma accelerators. They do not take up as much space yet have fairly comparable damage. Their disadvantage of these mounts is that the cannons have a slow rate of fire and a short range. The ship also has twelve medium pulse cannons that fill both the rolls of point defense weaponry and light anti-capital ship weaponry. The ship carries 4 point defense laser cannons that are for primarily anti-starfighter combat. While not normally fitted, the Primus Battlecruiser can carry a mass driver for ground bombardment. The mass driver is of limited effectiveness against capital ships due to the ships being able to dodge but is very useful against space stations. The ship caries two missile launchers that fire 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 can detect Minbari ships with moderate penalties.

The ships propulsion is a combination of four 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 widespread member of the younger races that can achieve the level of performance of Centauri ships are the Minbari. The Minbari actually are more advanced than the Centauri but are not as far separated from the Centauri as the Centauri are from most of the other younger races.

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 normally carries 22 fighters and operates as a carrier along with being a battleship. The ship carries 1000 marines and often operates in ground attack roles as well as its other functions.

This writeup of the Centauri Primus uses modified modified starship speed and ranges. See Revised Starship Rules for Phase World for more details.

Model: Centauri Primus class Battlecruiser.
Class: Battlecruiser (Combination Battleship/Carrier)
Crew: 860 (60 Officers and 800 Enlisted)
Troops: 1000

Vehicle Compliment:

	22	Centauri Star Fighters
	8	Standard Centauri Shuttles

M.D.C. by Location:

	Mega Pulse Cannons (4):	2,500 each
	Heavy Ion Cannons (2):	1,500 each
	Medium Pulse Cannons (12):	800 each
	Point Defense Laser Cannons (4):	300 each
	Long Range Missile Launchers (2):	800 each
	[1] Ion Engines (4):	12,000 each
	[2] Bridge:	50,000
	[2] Emergency Bridge:	50,000
	[3] Main Body:	220,000
	[4] Variable Force Field:	8,000 a side (48,000 Total)

Notes:
[1] The Destruction of one engine reduces the ships performance by 15%. Destruction of each additional engine reduces performance by 15%. The destruction of all four Ion Engines reduces the ships performance by 60%. The ship can still use its gravimetric engines to propel the ship up to 40% 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 ships 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 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] Shields positions can be varied and all could be combined in one shield. Shields regenerate at the rate of 5% (2,400 MDC total) per melee round.

Speed:
Driving on the Ground: Not Possible.
Sublight: 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 0.5 percent of light per melee.
Atmospheric Propulsion: The Centauri Primus Battlecruiser cannot operate within an atmosphere. If the ship enters an atmosphere, it will crash.
Stardrive: Uses a hyperdrive system that allows the ship to reach a maximum of 45 lightyears per hour. This means that the Primus class Battlecruiser 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.
The Primus has enough power to open a jumpgate every seven minutes (28 rounds). The gate then takes one round to open, two rounds 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: 715.8 feet (218 meters)
Length: 3,907.2 feet (1190 meters)
Width 3,808.7 feet (1160 meters)
Weight/Mass: 16.54 million tons (15 million metric tons)
Power System: 4 Matter / Anti-Matter Reactors (8 year duration)
Cargo: Cargo holds are scattered about the ship that allows for carrying up to 500,000 tons of Cargo in addition to standard compliment of supplies and ammunition.
Cost: 40 billion credits to construct

Weapon Systems

1. Mega Pulse Cannons (4): 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 in groups of two. 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
   Mega Damage: 1D6x1000 per cannon (2D6x1000 with two cannons combined)
   Range: 18.7 miles (30 km) in an atmosphere and 18,700 miles (30,000 km) in space
   Rate of fire: Three times per melee round per cannon.
   Payload: Effectively Unlimited.
2. Heavy Ion Laser Cannons (2): The cannon fires a massive burst of ionized gas down a laser beam. The cannons are quite powerful but are very short ranged and slow firing. There are two cannons mounted aft. The cannons have a limited arc of fire. These weapons have standard penalties to hit small targets such as fighters and cannons mounted together can be combined together.
   Mega Damage: 1D4x1000 per cannon (2D4x1000 for both cannons).
   Range: 2.49 miles (4 km) in an atmosphere and 2487.4 miles (4,000 km) in space
   Rate of fire: Once per melee round per cannon.
   Payload: Effectively Unlimited.
3. Medium Pulse Cannons (12): 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 both anti-star Fighter and against capital ships. 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
   Mega Damage: 8D6x10 per cannon
   Range: 11.1 miles (18 km) in an atmosphere and 1,120 miles (1,800 km) in space
   Rate of fire: Equal to gunners hand to hand (Usually 4 or 5).
   Payload: Effectively Unlimited.
4. Four (4) Point Defense Laser Cannons: These are a fairly low powered laser cannons that are in turrets. They are basically standard carbon lasers but the fire a wide beam that increases the chances of the weapon system hitting a target. Each mount has a 360 degree rotation and 180 degree arc of fire. Laser cannons have a +4 bonus to strike targets due to the width of the beam.
   Mega Damage: 2D6x10 per cannon
   Range: 6.2 miles (10 km) in an atmosphere and 620 miles (1,000 km) in space
   Rate of fire: Equal to gunners hand to hand (Usually 4 or 5).
   Payload: Effectively Unlimited.
5. Mass Driver (1 - Not Standard): This is a weapon that is primarily used against ground targets. All Centauri Primus Battlecruiser were originally fitted with this weapon but because all other Governments (With the exception of the Vorlons because no one really knew their opinion) outlawed the weapon system, they were removed from the ships. The Primus Battlecruiser can carry a Mass Driver and the Mass driver was refitted onto Primus Battlecruisers to attack the Narn home world. A cumbersome but very powerful weapon. It fires very large high density projectiles that are themselves about the size of a star fighter. This severely limits the payload for this weapon. When fired at a planet, they due huge amounts of damage and can easily obliterate whole cities. While this weapon can be used on starships, it has huge penalties to strike. All targets that can dodge can make full dodges from this weapon no matter how large the vehicle is. The cannon has -4 penalty to strike moving targets within 6,218 miles (10,000 km), -8 penalty to strike moving targets within 31,092 miles (50,000 km), and has a -12 penalties at all ranges beyond that. The projectiles can be shot down and have a total of 1000 MDC. The projectiles travel at 25% of light faster than the ships launching.
   Mega Damage: On starships and space stations: 6D6x1,000. Ground Targets: 2D4x10,000 to all targets within 6.2 miles (10 km) radius, 1D4x10,000 to all targets within a 12.4 miles (20 km) radius, and 2D6x1000 to all targets within a 31 miles (50 km).
   Range: Effectively unlimited but suffers sever range penalties.
   Rate of fire: Once per melee.
   Payload: 40 total.
6. Two (2) Long Range Missile Batteries: 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). 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 still cruise 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 dead at -25% to detect.) Long range missiles do not have minuses to hit small targets unlike cruise missiles and are all considered smart missiles. Batteries can launch on multiple targets each.
   Range: Missile range is 3400 miles (5470 km) in an atmosphere and 1,800,000 miles (2,89700 km/9.7 light seconds) in space.
   Mega-Damage & Properties: See Phase World Missiles (Fusion does 2D4x100 MDC).
   Rate of fire: One at a time or in volleys of 2, 8, 16, 24, or 48 per battery, per melee attack.
   Payload: 960 total, 480 long range missiles per battery.

Special Equipment:

• Sentient Computer: The Centauri Primus class Battlecruiser 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 from Babylon 5 Technical Manual!
CGI of Ship by Shoham Blau. More of his CGI pictures of B-5 Ships at Shoham Blau's comic and sci fi page

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

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