USS Akira Heavy Cuiser:
This ship design should be used just before and during Star Trek: The Next Generation Episodes as well as during Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager Episodes.
The Akira is what few other ship at the time of her initial were. She is a true warship and even after many years of production, is one of the most dangerous ships in production. The vessel is smaller than the Galaxy class starship yet easily has twice the overall firepower thanks to its many torpedo launchers. It was original planned to stop the production of these vessels because they were seen as warship only. The people in the government who had forced a stop in production had also stopped the Defiant class from going beyond prototype. Due to escalating tension between the Federation and the Dominion, they were overruled and the production of the Akira class was continued. It was very lucky that this class was continued because the often were the ships that held out in the fight. These ships did incredibly well during the war against the Dominion and sometimes took on ships far large than them or had to take on groups of enemy vessels. It is hoped by many senior officers that the production will not stop with the end of the war. So far, at least the finishing of construction on the ships that had already begun. While before the war against the Dominion, theses ships were not as popular with crews as the Galaxy class, they are now the most popular class to serve on after the Sovereign and Defiant classes. In appearance, the ships looks a little like the prior Akyazi class although the Akira is far larger and far more powerful.
These ship's main advantage is in the large number of torpedo launchers. The ship has a total of 15 photon torpedo launchers with 7 in a weapon pod with four in the upper section and three in the lower section. All torpedo launchers in the pod fire forward. The ship also has seven mounts on the saucer section with three below the front shuttle bay doors and four on the dorsal surface. Two of these launchers face port and two face starboard. The ship also has one launcher just below the deflector dish just below the deflector dish in the lower hull section. In beam weaponry, the ship does carry less firepower than most ship classes its size. The ship carries one phaser strip on the top of the primary hull and two phaser strips on the bottom of the primary hull. The shields of the vessel are as powerful as those carried on the Galaxy class starship even though the Akira is smaller. These ships also carry some armor to withstand combat.
As a result, these ships have a good rate of survival compared to most federation ship classes. It is probably that later ship classes with carry adaptive phasers and adaptive shields similar to those carried on the Sovereign class.
Unlike most Federation classes, the ship class was never designed to carry civilians and attempted by more progressive elements of starfleet to convert the ship to be able to have been struck down. These ships do carry a good size compliment of marines and have the ability to act as flagships although usually the larger Sovereign class is used as flagships. These ships are also designed to carry a large compliment of fighters and shuttles.
This design is written to be able to interact with modified phase world rules. See Revised Starship Rules for Phase World for more details. There is a lack of hard detail on this ship. Some materials have suggested accelerations that are simply beyond scope. I have taken a moderate level in writing up this starship for Phase World because otherwise the ship would either be far too powerful or far too weak for Phase World. Warp speeds are far slower than the FTL speeds for Phase World but they are very close to those from the original series and Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual. Also, a note on the mass of starships. The original sources indicated much smaller masses for starships than Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual does and where possible, both masses are listed for the gamers to choose which one seems most appropriate.
Model Type: NCC - 62497
Vehicle Type: Heavy Cruiser (In phase world terms, would be
considered a Battle Cruiser by virtue of size)
Crew: 500 Standard (100 Officers / 400 enlisted)
Troops: 400 (Not normally carried)
Vehicles:
Fighter Compliment:
12 | Peregrine class fighters. |
10 | Standard Shuttles | |
2 | Assault Shuttles |
M.D.C. By Location:
Phaser Arrays (3, 2 Ventral Dish / 1 Dorsal Dish): | 2,500 each | |
Torpedo Tubes (15): | 2,000 each | |
Warp Nacelles (2, secondary hull): | 30,000 each | |
Primary Hull Hanger Door: | 5,000 | |
Impulse Engine: | 20,000 | |
Main Deflector Array: | 12,000 | |
[1] Primary Bridge: | 20,000 | |
[1] Auxiliary Bridge (Also used as Flag Bridge): | 20,000 | |
[2] Primary Hull (Main Body): | 80,000 | |
[2] Warp Nacelle Support Spurs (2 - Main Body): | 20,000 | |
[3] Variable Force Field: | 12,000 per side (72,000 total) |
Notes:
[1] 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 have an auxiliary
bridge. Even if both of the 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 bridges that do not penetrate
the ships integrity can injure crew members on or near the bridge.
[2] Depleting the MDC of the primary or secondary hull will put the
Cruiser out of commission. If the secondary hull is destroyed, the primary
hull will remain capable of sublight travel and weapons may still be fired.
If the primary hull is destroyed, all internal systems will shut down,
including life support and internal gravity. The ship itself will be an
unsalvageable floating wreck.
[3] Shields positions can be varied and all could be combined in one
shield. Shields regenerate at the rate of 5% (3,600 MDC) per melee round.
Speed:
Driving on the Ground: Not Possible. (Starship can land on the
ground)
Sublight: Has a special sublight engine that allows the ship
to travel up to 60 percent of the speed of light. Star Ship can accelerate/decelerate
at the rate of 0.85 percent of light per melee round.
As an alternative, the starship can reach .99 of the speed of light
but is normally restricted to slower speeds so that starship is not effected
severely by time attenuation that occurs at the higher sublight speeds.
Atmospheric Propulsion: Cannot travel within an atmosphere efficiently.
Stardrive: Uses a warp engine that allow ship to travel at Warp
Factor 9.3 on cruise (0.19 light years per hour), Warp Factor Flank 9.6
(0.22 Light Years per hour), and Warp Factor 9.8 Emergency (0.27 Light
Years per Hour). Speed is calculate using a formula designed to emulate
Star Trek: Next Generation speeds. These speeds are very slow when compared
to Phase World ship, so if used in that universe, they could be increased
enough to operate within Three Galaxy speeds but should not exceed them.
Maximum Range: Effectively Unlimited by either Drive system.
Ship carries about five years worth of supplies on board.
Statistical Data:
Length: 1,523.7 feet (464.43 meters)
Height: 286.8 feet (87.43 meters)
Width: 1038.9 feet (316.67 meters)
Weight: 3,055,000 Tons (Deep Space Nine: Technical Manual)
Power System: Anti Matter with 20 year life span. Ship normally
only goes 5 years between refuelings.
Cargo: Cargo holds are scattered about the ship that allows
for carrying up to 25,000 tons of Cargo in addition to standard compliment
of supplies and ammunition.
Market Cost: 26.5 billion to construct. As far as it is known,
the Federation does not sell their starship designs to other interested
parties.
WEAPON SYSTEMS:
[ Phase World™, Kreeghor™, and CAF™, are trademarks owed by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books, Inc. ]
[ Rifts® is a registered trademark owned by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books, Inc. ]
[ Star Trek is copyright © Paramount Pictures ]
Parts of Technical information are from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual (Mostly Ship Sizes).
CGI of Ship by Andrew Hodges. More of his CGI pictures of Star Trek Ships at Devil World 6
By Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune).
I would like to recognize Henning Rogge as giving assistance with the revision of the Star Trek starships.
Rifts Conversion Copyright © 2000, Kitsune. All rights reserved.