In the year of 2266 Earthforce general Meade opened a competition for the design of a Gunboat class ship, officially to replace the aging Olympus class corvettes. Unofficially the competition was held because Earthforce had been very impressed by the performance of the Whitestar class ships of the Interstellar Alliance. While all senior officials realized that even with gravitic technology now at their disposal the new ship would never equal the Whitestar design, they were also aware that a dedicated gunboat would be a very potent weapon when used in large numbers.
The competition itself was successful, attracting designs from half a dozen firms. The ultimate winner was the Monsoon Class design from Hyperspace Industries, and was the brainchild of their highly successful chief designer Lars Joreteg.
The Monsoon is a rather squat and blunt design, with as much machinery and weapons packed into a small hull. At the corners of the hull are four Ion engine clusters, made up of maneuvering thrusters, braking thrusters, and four main thrusters. The spacing of these engines gives the Monsoon a good maneuverability. Located on the bottom of the ship is a single hangar bay, used mainly to hold a single shuttle, although in a emergency it can also accommodate two Starfuries. The ship is however not designed to carry more fighters than that, not even with the shuttle removed. Internally there are two decks for the crew, and both are equipped with artificial gravity, just like the hangar bay. This protects the crew and the shuttle against the rigors of sudden combat accelerations.
These ships are too small to carry jump engines and must be escorted by a ship with jump engines to travel from system to system, or use Jumpgates to travel through Hyperspace. The ship is propelled by four Ion engines and a gravitic drive. The engines output is actually equal to that of a Olympus class corvette which, coupled with the Monsoons smaller size, makes for a very fast ship. However, at full power the ship needs to be refueled multiple times for long range missions.
The most dominant feature of the Monsoons is without a doubt the huge Particle Beam Cannon mounted in the upper part of the hull. This massive weapon is a (smaller) derivative of the GOD satellite weapons, and accounts for nearly 20% of the ships empty mass. It is a very powerful weapon for a ship this size, and it allows the Monsoon to take on much larger ships. The ships secondary weapons are a pair of Pulse cannons, located on the sides, between the engine blocks. These weapons are also quite powerful, but have a much lower range than the Particle beam cannon. Like the Particle Beam Cannon, they can only fire in a limited arc forward. Under the chin of the ship is a turret with another two pulse cannons. This turret gives the two cannons a much better arc of fire than the slightly larger fixed cannons. For defense against fighters the gunboat has four turret mounted pulse Gatling cannons. These are essentially the same weapons as carried in the Thunderbolt Starfury, although the turret mounted mounts have nearly double the range of the fighter mounted version.
For further defense there is a interceptor grid which fires low powered energy beams to intercept incoming fire and uses electromagnetic fields to disperse energy that is fired at the ships. The interceptor grid also employs a system designed to decoy incoming missiles. The systems is more effective against plasma cannons and pulse cannons (Actually another style of plasma cannon - does not work as efficiently on weapon systems that simply fire in pulses) than the system is on other energy weapons. The system quickly get overloaded though and cannot operate continuously and is not as effective as the shields on Minbari and Centauri ships. For Armor the Monsoons have a version of the Plasteel/Crystalline armor also carried by the Warlock class destroyer. This would seem to be a copy of the Armor on the IA Victory class Destroyers, but is less effective and is in reality a development of the EA itself. It has been made possible due to the study of Shadow Bio-armor, pieces of Minbari Crystalline armor, and the study of the armor the Dilgar used. .
The final weapons of the ship are located in two interchangeable mission dependant pods. In this case these are two missile pods, carrying four Long Range Missiles for anti-ship purposes and two Medium Range Missiles for fighter defense each. Other pods carry Pulse cannons or extra sensors. The last option changes the role of the ship to that of a Scout.
Although the ship has artificial gravity in all of its crew spaces, it is still very cramped, and the ship is much less luxurious than true capital ships. Since most of the ship mission will be short-ranged and/or limited to one system only, this is not a real problem.
The ship carries one shuttle and a maximum of 2 fighters. There are no facilities for marines on the ships.
Listed is the formula to allow player and game masters to calculate the Earthforce Monsoon velocity and distance traveled:
Model: Earthforce Monsoon Class
Class: Gunboat
Crew: 46 (5 Officers and 41 Enlisted)
Troops: none
Vehicle Compliment:
| 2 | SA-23E Aurora Starfuries. | |
| 1 | Standard Shuttle |
M.D.C. by Location:
| Particle Beam Cannon: | 1000 | |
| Pulse Cannons (2): | 300 Each | |
| Double Pulse Cannon Turret: | 400 | |
| Gatling Pulse Cannons (4): | 150 | |
| Mission Packs (2) : | 300 each | |
| [1] Main Sensor Cluster (1, front): | 800 | |
| [2] Main Body: | 8,000 | |
| [3] Bridge: | 2,000 | |
| [4] Ion Fusion Engines (4): | 1,000 each | |
| [5] Interceptor Grids (6): | 300 per side |
Notes:
SPECIAL: The ships armor looks to be a copy of the new Earth/Minbari
armor used on the Victory class destroyer and deflects 40% of all incoming
energy away, not counting purely kinetic energy weapons. Substract 40%
of all damage done to the ships hit locations by energy weapons and explosions!
Kinetic energy weapons do full damage.
[1] The Main sensor cluster is located under the chin of the ship,
just above the pulse cannon turret. Destroying it means that the ship will
have -40% to read sensory rolls, all sensor ranges are halved, and all
long range weapons have a -2 to strike. It is however a small target, and
is -3 to hit.
[2] Depleting the MDC of the main body will put the Escort Carrier
out of commission. All internal systems will shut down, including life
support. The ship itself will be an unsalvageable floating wreck.
[3] In reality this is how much damage needs to be done for a weapon
to hit the bridge through the ships armor. This ship does not have an auxiliary
bridge. Even if the ships bridges 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.
[4] The Destruction of one Ion engine reduces the ships maximum acceleration
by one eight. The destruction of two Ion Engines reduces the ships maximum
acceleration by one quarter, and gives the ship a - 2 penalty to dodge.
Destroying three Ion Engines will reduce the ships maximum acceleration
by three eights. Destroying all four Ion Engines means that the maximum
sublight acceleration is reduced to half, and imposes a -4 penalty to dodge.
In order to destroy the gravitic engine the entire main body must be destroyed,
as it is part of the main body. Thus, the Monsoon will always have the
ability to accelerate at least 5 G.
[5] 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 300 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 30 MDC that the system absorbs, the system will be
reduced in effectiveness by 10% for subsequent strikes (Example:
If an Interceptor Grid absorbs 60 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 30 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 Monsoon Class Gunboat can reach
a top acceleration of 10 G but due to high fuel consumption and extra strain
on the engines, the ship will normally travel at 1 G for any extended trips.
Top acceleration is only meant for emergencies and combat maneuvers.
Because the Monsoon IS shielded from the effects of radiation and hypervelocity
atomic particles , the gunboat can be operated at speeds of up to 40 percent
of light.
Atmospheric Propulsion: The Monsoon cannot operate within an
atmosphere. If the ship enters an atmosphere, it will crash.
Note: It is rumored that Earthforce HAS a few Monsoons available
that are capable of atmospheric flight and even landing. These ships have
not yet been seen, and it is suggested that they carry significantly reduced
weaponry and armor to lighten the ships sufficiently. If these craft exist
they are used for black ops.
Stardrive: The ship does not have a jump drive but can use already
formed jump points such as those formed by jump gates. While in hyperspace,
the ship to reach a maximum of 6.5 light-years per hour. This means that
the Monsoon Class Gunboat can cover the Galaxy in about 18 months (will
need to refuel periodically and these ships were not really designed to
travel that far).
Maximum Range: Conditionally unlimited, while the fusion reactors
give power for over a decade of service, the ships Ion Engines are limited
by the ships reaction mass. It is not recommended to fly the ship on Gravitic
drive alone, because they are a new system and might prove unstable over
longer periods of time. Therefore it is recommended to always refuel the
ship when possible. 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 Gunboat carries four months of reaction mass for travel at 0.5
G of acceleration using only Ion engines. 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 32
times faster at maximum acceleration than at 0.5 G of acceleration, using
only Ion Engines! There is no fuel consumption for the Gravimetric engines,
other than the fact that it drains large amounts of power. The ships fusion
reactor can cope with that easily though. The ship will often accelerate
for a period of time and then shut down the engine and travel using the
ships velocity. Should the ship use more than half of its reaction mass
when accelerating, the ship will be unable to decelerate fully using only
Ion engines. Therefore 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 can be refueled by another vehicle traveling faster
than it, or it must decelerate using gravitic drives only, which is currently
discouraged for safety reasons.
Statistical Data
Height: 495 feet (70 meters)
Length: 1,482 feet (200 meters)
Width: 1052.3 feet (120 meters)
Weight: 5,100,000 tons (4,600,000 metric tons)
Power System: 1 General Fusion C-600 Fusion Reactor (1 year
duration). However, it is recommended that the drive and power system have
routine maintenance every 6 months. Also, the ship only carries about a
four month supply of reaction mass.
Cargo: 120,000 tons
Cost: 3,4 billion credits to construct
Weapon Systems:
Special Equipment:
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Technical Information from Babylon 5 Technical Manual!
Original Monsoon Concept and Picture Copyright by Lars Joreteg (lars.joreteg@usa.net). He has his own website at Hyperspace: A Guide to the Ships of Babylon 5 and Crusade
By Mischa (E-Mail Mischa).
Minor revisions by Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune).
Rifts Conversion Copyright © 2000, Mischa. All rights reserved.
