The Earthforce Omega-class Destroyer:

The Earth Alliance Destroyers is misnamed. The ships jobs is combination of both a Battleship and an Aircraft Carrier. This is the most powerful ship in the Earth Alliance Fleet previous to the new Advanced Omega Destroyer that uses Shadow Technology.

While this ship is very impressive for a race new to space travel, this ship is a conglomeration of copied technology from other races, especially Narn and Centauri, and advanced Earth technology.

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.

In terms of fire power, the ship is impressive but many of the weapon systems are copies of other races technology. The main weapons of this ship are six heavy Ion laser cannons and 18 heavy pulse cannons. The ship has 12 particle guns for anti starfighter defense. The ship also has a long range missile battery that can be used both against capital ships and fighters. 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.

The ships crew section rotates to provide artificial gravity for the crew and control rooms and the ships berthing areas are located in the rotation crew section. This means that the ships crew can serve on the Omega class longer than the crews could for the previous Earth Force ship classes. The ship also has more spacious berthing areas than previous ship classes and have more recreation facilities as well. Because these ships are more comfortable than previous ships, they are very popular with ships crews.

The ship has a small fighter compliment and the fighter compliment can either be the older SA-23E Aurora Starfuries or can be the newer SA-26 Thunderbolt Starfuries that are slowly replacing the older fighters. The ship carry a large amount of assault troops for assault mission but normally only carries 120 marines for shipboard defense.

Listed is the formula to allow player and game masters to calculate the Destroyers velocity and distance traveled:

Model: Earthforce Omega - Class Destroyer
Class: Battleship / Light Carrier
Crew: 600 (25 Officers and 575 Enlisted)
Troops: Standard; 120, Maximum; 800

Vehicle Compliment:
32SA-23E Star Fury or SA-26 Thunderbolt Star Fighters
6Standard Shuttles
6Atmospheric Shuttles

M.D.C. by Location:
Ion Laser Cannons (6, 2 forward / 4 aft ):1,200 each
Pulse Cannons (18, 2 forward / 4 aft / 12 in weapon pods):500 each
Particle Guns (12, in weapon pods):300 each
Weapon Pods (12, sides):1,000 each
Long Range Missile Battery800
Launch Bay (1, front):4,000
[1] Main Sensor Cluster (1, front):3,000
[2] Main Body:55,000
[3] Engineering Section:15,000
[4] Rotating Crew Section:20,000
[5] Ion Fusion Engines (4):5,000 each
[6] Interceptor Grids (6): 4,000 per side

Notes:
[1] The Main sensor cluster is located above and below the Launch Bay. 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.
[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 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).
[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 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.

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 Destroyer 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 destroyer 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 Destroyer can cover the Galaxy in about 12 month (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 Omega 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 rector gives power for 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 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: 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 650 Fusion Reactors (10 year duration). However, it was recommended that the drive and power system have routine maintenance every 5 years. Also, the ship only carries about a six month supply of reaction mass.
Cargo: 200,000 tons
Cost: 20 billion credits to construct

Weapon Systems

  1. Heavy Ion Laser Cannons (6): The cannon fires a massive burst of ionized gas down a laser beam. This weapon is a derivative of Centauri technology that was purchased from the Narns. This weapon is more massive than that of a Centauri mount. The cannons are quite powerful but are very short ranged and slow firing. There are four cannons mounted aft and two cannons mounted forward. 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: 6D6x100 per cannon (1D6x1000+1000 for both cannons forward and 2D6x1000+2000 for all four cannons that fire aft.
    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.
  2. Pulse Cannons (18): These cannons fire rapid fire bursts of super charged Plasma and while not as powerful as the Heavy Ion Laser cannons, both their rapid fire and extended range makes up for this fact. There are two cannons mounted in the forward section, four cannons mounted on the aft of the ship, and twelve more mounted in weapon pods along the hull. Each mount has a 360 degree rotation and 180 degree arc of fire. These weapons have standard penalties to hit small targets such as fighters and cannons each fire individually. 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
    Mega Damage: 1D4x100 per cannon
    Range: 11 miles (18 km) in an atmosphere and 11,190 miles (18,000 km) in space
    Rate of fire: Three Times per melee round per cannon.
    Payload: Effectively Unlimited.
  3. Particle Guns (12): These guns fire bursts of atomic particles at close to the speed of light. They are very effective against fighters but are not as effective against larger ships. All particle guns are located in the weapon pods along the ships hull. Each mount has a 360 degree rotation and 180 degree arc of fire.
    Mega Damage: 3D6x10 per cannon
    Range: 6.2 miles (10 km) in an atmosphere and 621.8 miles (1,000 km) in space
    Rate of fire: Equal to gunners hand to hand (Usually 4 or 5).
    Payload: Effectively Unlimited.
  4. Long Range Missile Batteries: This ship has forty individual cells to launch long range missiles. These launcher are both used to launch anti-ship strikes and to launch against starfighters. Missile are assumed to accelerate at 2 times normal mach speed in Gs greater than the starships speed when used in space. Missiles can be launched at non moving targets beyond the powered range of the missiles to hit targets without the chance of the launching ship being hit by missiles itself. Each of these launchers can be targeted and fired at multiple targets. The missiles normally used are Smart Missiles.
    Mega-Damage: varies with missile type (Go to Revised bomb and missile table).
    Range: varies with missile type, long range missiles (Powered range is x 8 in space [Go to Revised bomb and missile table]).
    Rate of fire: One at a time, or volleys of 2, 5, 10, 20, or 40.
    Payload: 9 reloads per launch tube for a total payload of 400 long range missiles.
  5. Missile Decoy System: These systems launches clouds of chaff and electromagnetic decoys around the ship. This system is the final part of the interceptor grid. The decoy cloud will remain around the ship for a period of time unless the ship accelerates, decelerates, or changes course which will take ship out of the chaff cloud within one melee. The system is a series of decoy launchers that are placed around the ship. Even if the main interceptor system is not functional, this system will still operate.
    Mega-Damage: any vehicle flying through take 2D6 MDC.
    Effects:
    1. Has a 50% chance of confusing or deflecting missiles from most younger races. This system does not work on missiles from Centauri, Minbari, or other Race with similar or more advance missile systems.
    2. Disguises ships radar signature. This gives a -2 penalty to strike. (Does not work on Centauri, Minbari, and races that are as advanced or more advanced than the Centauri and Minbari)
    As long as the ship does not accelerates, decelerates, or changes course the chaff will take five melees to disburse. If the ship accelerates, decelerates, or changes course, the ship will leave the chaff cloud in one melee.
    Range: Ship and 1,000 feet (305 m) radius around ship
    Rate of fire: Once (1) Per Melee.
    Payload: 50

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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 ).

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