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 Romulan Empire had a long period where they had not contact with any of the other Governments within the Milky Way Galaxy. During this time, they made many advances and built a very respectable fleet. One of the most important ships of their fleet is the Warbird. This ship is about the same size as the Federation Galaxy class but due to the fact that the ship is a true combatant, the ship carries a heavier armament than the Galaxy class does. The only real advantage the Galaxy class has over the Warbird is that it can attain higher warp speeds. The discovery of the Romulan Warbird was one of the reasons behind the Federation developing the Sovereign class Battlecruiser. The Sovereign class does have more firepower than the Warbird but in reality is only slightly superior to the Warbird in most respects. The Romulans keep tighter controls on their captains than the Federation does. They do this by the fact that several of the ships crew members are in reality Romulan Intelligence personnel.
These ships are generally a lower tech ship than the Federation Galaxy class. Much of the huge cost of the Galaxy class was the Phaser Arrays. The Romulans opted for another approach, they simply designed more powerful disruptors and mounted the weapons in standard banks. The ship has a total of eleven banks of disruptors for a total of 22 disruptors. The Galaxy class vaunted phaser strips actually cannot fire as many shots at one time as the disruptors on the Warbird can and the Warbird can in reality inflict more damage even though the are more powerful on an individual mount basis. The torpedo launchers are as good as those carried on the Galaxy class but the Romulan ship carries twice as many launchers. This gives the D'deridex a marked advantage against the Federation's Galaxy class.
Like almost all Romulan Ships (it may actually be all) ships, the Warbird has a powerful cloaking. The ship can use this to hide from other ships using both sensor and visual masking. This cloaking device is more advanced than those used by the Klingons. The Federation is capable of designing as advanced cloaking device designs but they were forbidden by treaty to fit them on their ships.
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: D'deridex Class Warbird
Vehicle Type: War Cruiser (Battle Cruiser by Phase World terms)
Crew: 750 (65 Officers and 685 Enlisted)
Troops: 600 Marines.
Vehicles:
10 | Standard Shuttles |
M.D.C. By Location:
Siege Disruptor Cannons (11 Banks of 2): | 800 each bank | |
Torpedo Tubes (6): | 1,000 each | |
Warp Nacelles (2): | 40,000 each | |
Impulse Engine: | 20,000 | |
[1] Primary Bridge: | 30,000 | |
[1] Auxiliary Bridge (Also used as Flag Bridge): | 30,000 | |
[2] Main Body: | 140,000 | |
[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 main body will put the 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.
[3] Shields positions can be varied and all can 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.
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 0.7 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 8.7 on cruise (0.155 light years per hour), Warp Factor Flank 9.4
(0.021 Light Years per hour), and Warp Factor 9.7 Emergency (0.238 Light
Years per Hour). Speed is calculate using a formula designed to emulate
Star Trek: Next Generation speeds. These speed 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 three years worth of supplies on board.
Statistical Data:
Length: 3,417.43,417.49 feet (1,041.65 meters)
Width: 2,534.22 feet (772.43 meters)
Height: 936.58 feet (285.47 meters)
Mass: 4.32 million metric tons (Deep Space Nine: Technical
Manual)
Power System: Quantum Singularity/Fusion power system (20 year
duration). Ship normally only goes 5 years between refuelings.
Cargo: Cargo holds are scattered about the ship that allows
for carrying up to 150,000 tons of Cargo in addition to standard compliment
of supplies and ammunition.
Market Cost: 22 billion to construct.
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 © 1998 and 2000, Kitsune. All rights reserved.