The Earth Alliance Nova Battlecruiser is the original design basis for the later Omega class destroyer and look like a Earth Alliance Destroyer without the rotating crew section. The first of this class was commissioned fifteen years before the Babylon-5 station came on line. The maiden voyage of one of the very first Nova Class Battleship, was into Minbari space and played a strong role in the tragedy that began the Earth/Minbari war. Until the introduction of the Omega class destroyer, the Nova class was the most powerful ship in the Earth fleet. The ship is also sometimes referred to as a Dreadnought due to the ships size when it is compared to the Roosevelt class heavy Cruiser.
Most of the Nova class battlecruisers were destroyed in the Minbari war but the remaining ships of the class have been heavily upgraded and the ship remaining are still very potent warships able to defeat ships of the same size of many of the other races.
The ships propulsion is by four Ion fusion engines that can put out a good thrust to weight ratio but the ratio is much less than the engines of the Minbari, Centauri, and the races of the Three Galaxies. This is not significant because without inertial dampening systems, high accelerations like those race's ships perform would kill the Nova's crew.
Because the remaining ships of this class have been heavily modified, weapons systems differ markedly between ships of this class. Standard retrofitting of the ship is 44 heavy pulse cannons and 6 particle guns for point defense. This makes the ship weak in terms of point defense but the ship is capable of holding its own against most ships its size. There are other configurations possible, most notably the missile variant. The ship also has an interceptor grid for defense of the ship against weaponry. The interceptor grid 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.
When the Nova Class went into service, the Earth Alliance had not yet perfected the drive shaft design required to build a rotating section on a ship. Thus Battlecruisers (unlike Omega Destroyers) do not have artificial gravity. The whole crew of the ship live in a "zero-gravity" environment. For long terms, this has a degrading effect on the human body. Because of this, these ships have been equipped with a special device referred by the crews as a "ferris wheel". This is a large ring inside the ship that rotates to provide 20 crew members an exercise area in an artificial gravity field produced by the centrifugal force of the rings movement. All crew members are required to spend at least one hour a day exercising in the "ferris wheel"
The ship carries only 24 fighters as apposed to the 32 fighters that the Omega class carries. The replacing of Aurora starfuries is also a lower priority than it is on the Omega class. The ship can carry a large number of assault troops when required for a mission but normal compliment is 150 marines.
Listed is the formula to allow player and game masters to calculate the Battle Cruisers velocity and distance traveled:
Model: Earth Force Nova Class Battlecruiser
Class: Battleship / Light Carrier
Crew: 400 (20 Officers and 380 Enlisted)
Troops: Standard; 150, Maximum; 1000
Vehicle Compliment:
24 | SA-23E Star Fury or SA-26 Thunderbolt Star Fighters | |
4 | Standard Shuttles | |
4 | Atmospheric Shuttles |
M.D.C. by Location:
Fixed Pulse Cannons (16 fixed, more ptional): | 500 each | |
Particle Guns (6 fixed, more optional): | 300 each | |
Missile launcher batteries (6 - optional): | 800 each | |
Mass Driver (one, optional): | 2,000 | |
Launch Bay (1, front): | 4,000 | |
[1] Main Sensor Cluster (1, Front) | 3,000 | |
[2] Main Body: | 45,000 | |
[3] Engineering Section: | 12,000 | |
[4] Bridge: | 10,000 | |
[4] Emergency Bridge: | 10,000 | |
[5] Ion Fusion Engines (4): | 3,000 each | |
[6] Interceptor Grids (6): | 4,000 per side | |
[7] Extra fire control systems (2, sides, optional): | 1,000 each |
Notes:
[1] The Main sensor cluster is located above and below the Launch Bay.
Destroying it means that the ship will have -45% to read sensory rolls,
all sensor ranges are halved, and all long range weapons have a -2 to strike.
[2] Depleting the MDC of the main body will put the Battlecruiser out
of commission. All internal systems will shut down, including life support.
The ship itself will be an unsalvageable floating wreck.
[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).1
[4] 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.
[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 4,000 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 100
MDC per minute. The missile decoy portion of the system is described separately
below.
[7] The extra Fire control systems are mounted on the sides of the
central module. When one is destroyed, the ship has a 20% penalty to lock
on with its missiles. when both are destroyed, the ship has a 40% penalty
to lock on with its missiles.
Speed:
Driving on the Ground: Not Possible.
Space Propulsion: The starship does not have an effective top
speed but is limited by acceleration. The Earth Force Battlecruiser 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 Battlecruiser is mostly unshielded from the effects of
radiation and hypervelocity atomic particles (It is not completely unshielded),
the destroyer is not operated at speeds exceeding 20% of the speed of light.
Atmospheric Propulsion: The Earth Force 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 11 light-year per hour. This means that the Earth Nova
Battlecruiser can cover the Galaxy in about 12 month (will need to refuel
periodically). The ship enters hyperspace by means of a Jump Point. This
ship can use an already made Jump Point or can form its own Jump Point.
The Nova 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 reactor
gives power for almost 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 Battlecruiser carries 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 than at 0.5
G of acceleration at maximum speed. 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: 848.4 feet (258.4 meters)
Length: 3651 feet (1,112 meters)
Width: 782.7 feet (238.4 meters)
Weight: 16.5 million tons (15 million metric tons)
Power System: 4 Tokamak 620 Fusion Reactors (8 year duration).
However, it is recommended that the drive and power system have routine
maintenance every 4 years. Also, the ship only carries about a six month
supply of reaction mass.
Cargo: 400,000 tons
Cost: 15 billion credits to construct
Weapon Systems
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Technical Information from Babylon
5 Technical Manual!
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