President Clark was very concerned about losing his power. Because he was afraid of many of the other governments, he worked with the beings known as the Shadows to keep his hold on power. Because he was especial nervous about both the Minbari and the forces under Captain Sheridan, he looked for a way to be able to defeat them both. His answer was to combine Earth Force technology with the bits of shadow technology that Earth was able to acquire.
The Advanced Omega class looked much like a normal Omega class destroyer and was in fact a heavily modified Omega class. The biggest items that stood out was the ships hull. When looking at the ship, it was a black molted color that any being that has seen a Shadow vessel would immediately get chills down their spine. The ships armor was the same material that Shadow ships are constructed out of. This armor gave the ship a huge amount of protection, even more than the armor of a Sharlin class ship. The other modifications in the ship were much less obvious: all of the Ion Laser Cannons and the pulse cannons had been replaced by various sized fusion cannons, a weapon previously only seen on Minbari ships. Even the Centauri do not have these weapons. The rest of the ships upgrades were more Conventional in nature and were the result of research by Earthforce itself rather than the result of Shadow interference. The Particle beams were upgraded versions of those carried on the Omega class Destroyer. The ship had improved sensors over earlier systems and were capable of negating the Minbari ECM systems to some extent.
The one area where little progress had been made was in the propulsion of the destroyer: it still used the same four Ion fusion engines that can put out a good thrust to weight ratio but wich is much less than the engines of the Minbari, Centauri, and the races of the Three Galaxies. This was because the Earth Force engineers had not yet been able to perfect a working gravity drive, and the force fields that go with it. They are very sure that these developments are just a matter of time though.
In terms of fire power, the ship was very impressive due to the Fusion cannons, replacing many of the weapon systems that were copies of other races technology. The main weapons of this ship were six heavy fusion cannons and 18 medium fusion cannons. The ship has 12 particle guns for anti starfighter defense. Also the ship carried a launcher for long range missiles. Because the Earth Alliance engineers did not yet have a good grasp on force field technology the ship retained a (upgraded) interceptor grid system. The ship also retained the missile decoy system from the Omega class destroyer.
The other area that no improvement was made was in the production of artificial gravity. As in the Omega Class, The ships crew section rotated to provide artificial gravity for the crew and control rooms and the ships berthing areas were located in the rotation crew section. Also a (small) hydroponics section could be found here.
Because the entire ship was covered in the Bio-armor it had gained a very threatening look: Where the Omega looked entirely business like, the Advanced Omega had at various places spines sticking out of its mottled black hull. It looked very intimidating and suggested nothing but trouble for its attackers. Or victims of course. The latter was very much more likely: The Earth Alliance had adapted a rather forceful outward expanding policy under president Clark.....
Because of the new systems in the design the Advanced Omega class ships cost almost two and a half times as much as the Omega Destroyers. Quite a bundle, and one can only wonder how much the entirely new Warlock class Destroyer is going to cost.
The Advanced Omega class Destroyer carried the same number of Star Fighters as the Omega class Destroyer but because the ships were new construction, all starfuries were the new SA-26 Thunderbolt version. The ship also retained the ability to carry a large number of troops for assault missions but the ship normally had only 120 marines onboard for shipboard defense.
It should be noted that these ships were a step between the Omega destroyer and the new Warlock class destroyer, wich is a entirely new design. The Advanced destroyers were made because the frames for the Warlocks were not yet finished, and Earthforce needed a ship capable of standing off the Whitestar fleet. As it turned out, the forces loyal to Sheridan came too fast. The systems of the Advanced Destroyers had not yet fully integrated, and there were too few of them to stop the Whitestars. All of these ships are believed to have been destroyed.
Listed is the formula to allow player and game masters to calculate the Destroyers velocity and distance traveled:
Model: Earthforce Advanced Omega- Class Destroyer
Class: Battleship / Light Carrier
Crew: 850 (30 Officers and 820 Enlisted)
Troops: Standard; 120, Maximum; 800
Vehicle Compliment:
32 | SA-26 Thunderbolt Star Fighters | |
6 | Standard Atmospheric Shuttles | |
6 | Standard Shuttles |
M.D.C. by Location:
Heavy Fusion Cannons (6, 2 forward / 4 aft ): | 5,000 each | |
Med. Fusion Cannons (18, 2 forward / 4 aft / 12 in weapon pods): | 1,300 each | |
Particle Guns (12, in weapon pods): | 950 each | |
Weapon Pods (12, sides): | 2,600 each | |
Long Range Missile Launcher (1): | 1,400 | |
Launch Bay (1, front): | 13,000 | |
[1] Main Sensor cluster (1, front): | 10,000 | |
[2] Main Body: | 160,000 | |
[3] Engineering Section: | 46,000 | |
[4] Rotating Crew Section: | 65,000 | |
[5] Ion Fusion Engines (4): | 16,000 each | |
[6] Interceptor Grids (6): | 5,000 a side |
Notes:
[1] The Main sensor cluster is located above and below the Launch Bay.
Destroying it means that the ship loses all sensor bonuses vs. ECM. The
ship will have -40% to read sensory rolls, all sensor ranges are half ranged,
and all long range weapons have a -2 to strike
[2] Depleting the MDC of the main body will put the Destroyer out of
commission. All internal systems will shut down, including life support.
Rotational crew section will stop rotating. The ship will be a unsalvageable
wreck. The hull of the ship has the ability to repair itself (sadly its
internal systems do Not) The hull regenerates damage at 2D4 x 100 MDC per
minute. The hull cannot regenerate more than half its total MDC.
[3] 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).
[4] If the MDC of the Rotating Crew Section is reduce to less than
half, the crew section will loose power to the rotational system. The rotating
crew section will slow down at the rate of 10% of its speed for every twenty
minutes that the power is out for rotating the Rotational Crew System.
In about three hours, the rotation will completely stop. Main control is
in the rotating crew section so destroying the section will eliminate the
bridge. If the control center 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 in the crew section that do not destroy the
ship can injure crew members on or near the bridge.
[5] The Destruction of one engine reduces the ships acceleration by
one quarter. The destruction of two Ion Engines reduces the ships acceleration
by one half. Destroying three Ion Engines will reduce the ships acceleration
by three quarters. Destroying all four Ion Engines means that the maximum
sublight acceleration is reduced to ten percent of normal (using navigational
thrusters).
[6] The Interceptor Grid gives only partial defense against energy
weapons and as the system absorbs more damage this percentage of damage
will be reduced. The system will absorb up to 5,000 MDC per side. Initially,
the system will absorb 80% of damage from plasma weapons and pulse cannons
(Actually another style of plasma cannon - does not work at this higher
efficiency on other weapon systems that fire in pulses). This is because
is it much easier to disperse plasma than an actually energy beam. The
system does not absorb damage from rail guns, other projectile weapons,
and from missiles. Initially, the ships will also absorb 40% of other styles
of energy weapons as well (This includes non plasma style pulse weapons
as well). For every 500 MDC that the system absorbs, the system will be
reduced in effectiveness by 10% for subsequent strikes (Example:
If an Interceptor Grid absorbs 1000 MDC, the Interceptor Grid will only
absorb 60% of plasma damage and 20% of the damage for any other energy
weapon when struck next.) The defense grid recovers at the rate of 150
MDC per minute. The missile decoy portion of the system is described separately
below.
Speed:
Driving on the Ground: Not Possible.
Space Propulsion: The starship does not have an effective top
speed but is limited by acceleration. The Earthforce Destroyer can reach
a top acceleration of 4 G but due to high fuel consumption and extra strain
on the engines, the ship will normally travel at 0.5 G for any extended
trips. Top acceleration is only meant for emergencies and combat maneuvers.
Because the Advanced Omega Destroyer IS shielded from the effects of
radiation and hypervelocity atomic particles , the destroyer could be operated
at speeds of up to 40 percent of light. (note, it COULD reach that speed,
but had only enough reaction mass to slow down to 20 % of light if it did
so)
Atmospheric Propulsion: The Earth Force destroyer cannot operate
within an atmosphere. If the ship enters an atmosphere, it will crash.
Stardrive: Uses 4 "Lockheed Mitchell Corp." HSI-7A Vortex generators
to enter hyperspace, they allow the ship to reach a maximum of 15 light-year
per hour. This means that the Earth Destroyer can cover the three galaxies
in about 9 months (will need to refuel periodically). The ship enters hyperspace
by means of a jumpgate. This ship can use an already made jumpgate or can
form its own jumpgate.
The Advanced Destroyer has enough power to open a jumpgate every fifteen
minutes (60 rounds). The gate then takes one round to open, two rounds
to traverse, and another to close.
Maximum Range: Conditionally unlimited, while the fusion reactors
give power for over a decade of service, the ships propulsion is limited
by the ships reaction mass. The ship can be refueled at ground based facilities,
space stations, and other star ships as long as they have the special facilities.
The ship can also be refueled by fuel shuttles.
The Destroyer carried six month of reaction mass for travel at 0.5
G of acceleration. Double the consumption of fuel for 1.0 G of acceleration
and double the consumption again for every 1.0 G of acceleration beyond
1 G. This means the ship will burn the fuel 16 times faster at maximum
acceleration than at 0.5 G of acceleration. The ship will often accelerate
for a period of time and then shut down the engine and travel using the
ships velocity. If the ships uses more than half of its reaction mass when
accelerating, the ship will be unable to decelerate fully and the ship
will normally only use a third or less of its fuel on accelerating so it
does not run into a problem.. If the ship runs out of fuel then it must
be refueled by another vehicle traveling faster or be lost. If the ship
has a large amount of flight operations, the ship is limited to about four
months endurance at cruising speed from the fighters using the ships reaction
mass.
Statistical Data
Height: 1131.1 feet (344.5 meters)
Length: 4956.7 feet (1,400 meters)
Width: 1131.1 feet (344.5 meters)
Weight: 13.9 million tons (12.6 million metric tons)
Power System: 4 Tokamak Corp. 650 Fusion Reactors (12 year duration).
However, it was recommended that the drive and power system have routine
maintenance every 5 years. Also, the ship only carried about a six month
supply of reaction mass.
Cargo: 200,000 tons
Cost: 50 billion credits to construct. Any race in the three
galaxies would pay many times that amount for a fully functional Advanced
Omega due to the Shadow technology that is incorporated into it.
Weapon Systems
Special Equipment:
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Technical Information from Babylon 5 Technical Manual!
CGI of Ship by Craig P. Condu . More of his CGI pictures of B-5 Ships at Epsilon Jumpgate
By Mischa (E-Mail Mischa) and by Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune ).
Rifts Conversion Copyright © 1998 and 1999, Mischa & Kitsune. All rights reserved.