While Narn ships look very impressive, the Narn Culture on the whole lags behind the Earth Alliance in Technology. The Narn Heavy Cruiser looks very powerful but is in actuality less powerful than Earth Force Omega Destroyers or Earth Force Nova Destroyers. The ship is designed using a combination of the best technology that the race can design or purchase along with the technology copied from captured Centauri equipment when the Centauri left.
While this ship carries around the same amount of armor that an Earth Force Omega Destroyer, the alloys that the armor is constructed from are not as advanced so the Heavy Cruiser cannot withstand as much damage as a Earth Force Omega Destroyer can.
Early versions of this ship are armed with two heavy carbon lasers that fire forward. While these weapons are powerful, they require more of the ships volume for weapons in other fleets that have similar outputs. In later production of the ship, these cannons have been replaced with Ion Laser Cannons similar to those carried on Earth Force Omega Destroyers. To support the ships main battery, the ship carries four plasma cannons that are also used against other capital ships. While of similar output as Earth Force heavy pulse cannons, each mount is more massive and the plasma cannons are of shorter range when compared to the pulse cannon. For point defense, the Narn heavy cruiser has sixteen light pulse cannons. They are longer ranged than Earth Force point defense weaponry but the Narn weaponry does less damage.
The Narn are not without any advantages over Earthforce ships. The G'Quan's sensor systems are more spread out than the sensor systems on Earth force ships. This means that no one critical hit will normally take out the ships sensor systems.
These ships do not have artificial gravity and crews can only serve in the ships for limited periods of time or crew will suffer from the effects of no gravity.
The ship has a small fighter compliment and can carry a large amount of assault troops for assault mission but normally only carries 200 marines.
Listed is the formula to allow player and game masters to calculate the Cruisers velocity and distance traveled:
Model: Narn G'Quan-class Heavy Cruiser
Class: Heavy Cruiser / Light Carrier
Crew: 450 (20 Officers and 430 Enlisted)
Troops: Standard; 200, Maximum; 1000
Vehicle Compliment:
24 | Frazi Class Fighters | |
2 | Standard Narn Shuttles |
M.D.C. by Location:
Main Energy Weapon Battery (2, forward): | 1,000 each | |
Plasma Cannons (4): | 500 each | |
Light Defensive Pulse Cannons (16): | 250 each | |
Energy Mine Launchers (2): | 800 each | |
[1] Ion Engines (3): | 4,000 each | |
[2] Bridge: | 15,000 | |
[2] Emergency Bridge: | 15,000 | |
[3] Main Body: | 40,000 | |
Wings (2): | 8,000 each |
Notes:
[1] The Destruction of one engine reduces the ships performance by
one third. The destruction of two Ion Engines reduces the ships performance
by two thirds. Destroying all three Ion Engines means that the maximum
sublight acceleration is reduced to ten percent of normal (using navigational
thrusters).
[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 heavy 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.
Speed:
Driving on the Ground: Not Possible.
Space Propulsion: The starship does not have an effective top
speed but is limited by acceleration. The Narn Heavy Cruiser can reach
a top acceleration of 3 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 Heavy Cruiser 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 Narn Heavy Cruiser can operate within
the outer edge of an atmosphere but if it enters deep into an atmosphere,
the ship will crash.
Stardrive: Uses a hyperdrive system that allows the ship to
reach a maximum of 6.5 lightyears per hour. This means that the Narn Heavy
Cruiser can cover the Galaxy in about 18 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 G`Quan has enough power to open a jumpgate every twenty minutes
(80 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 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 Heavy Cruiser carries nine months 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 8 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 seven months endurance at cruising speed from the fighters using
the ships reaction mass.
Statistical Data
Height: 328.3 feet (100 meters)
Length: 3611.7 feet (1100 meters)
Width: 1641.7 feet (500 meters)
Weight: 11 million tons (10 million metric tons)
Power System: 3 Fusion Reactors (5 year duration). However,
it was recommended that the drive and power system have routine maintenance
every 2 years. Also, the ship only carries about a nine month supply of
reaction mass.
Cargo: 400,000 tons
Cost: 12 billion credits to construct
Weapon Systems
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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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