Shadows Fighter Class

Craft: Shadows Fighter
Type: Heavy Fighter
Scale: starfighter
Length: 15.3 meters
Skill: starfighter pilot
Crew: 1
Crew Skill: Astrogation: 12D+1; Capital Ship Gunnery: 10D; Communications: 12D+1; Sensors: 12D+1; Starfighter Pilot: 12D+1
Passengers: 1
Cargo Capacity: 2 metric tons
Consumables: 5 weeks
Maneuverability: 6D
Space: 27
Atmosphere: 725; 2,050 km/h
Hull: 4D
Sensors

• Passive: 40 / 1D+1
• Scan: 80 / 2D+1
• Search: 120 / 3D+2
• Focus: 4 / 5D

Weapons

• Polarity Cannon

Fire Arc: forward
Crew: 1
Scale: capital
Skill: capital ship gunnery
Fire Control: 4D+1
Space Range: 1-8/19/38
Atmosphere Range: 2-16/38/76km
Damage: 10D

Miscellaneous:

• Artificial Gravity: Yes
• Crew: 1 Pilot
• Average Crew Experience Level: Shadow Elite
• Stealth: 28 (Base Difficulty to Detect Ship)
• Adaptive Armor
• Atmospheric Capable
• Biological Engine
• Self-Repairing

Shadow Vessel Traits
All Shadow ships have the following traits in common, which may allow them to break some common space travel or combat rules.

• Shadow Jump: Shadow vessels can enter hyperspace as desired, and do not need to open a jump point.

• Shadow Scream: A Shadow ship emits a partially psychic screech when it wishes to do so, unsettling nearly anyone who ‘hears’ it. When a Shadow ship ‘screams’ anyone within Close range (25 Space) of it must immediately make a Willpower check at Difficulty 10 or suffer a –2 pip penalty to all rolls in the next round. A ship’s crew can only be affected once per encounter in this way.

Description: Shadow fighters are darting, thistle-shaped craft that almost appear to be more like creatures than spaceships. As relentless and unforgiving as their parent ships, Shadow fighters can rip apart any fighter set against them with their powerful weapon.

Fast and agile, swarms of these fighters launched en masse by a Shadow cruiser have been known to overwhelm even capital vessels. Shadow fighters are usually only considered necessary in larger battles, unleashed by the cruisers to augment their mastery over the battlefield. They are remarkably stealthy and deft, occasionally used as scouts or patrol craft, guarding important systems and space lanes from prying eyes while their masters build their plans of chaos.

The strange polarity cannon making up the nose of the fighter is incredibly powerful, its pulses easily able to punch through the armor of the largest capital ship to leave gaping holes where others can target later. Other fighter craft having to deal with them up close must rely on their own agility to evade these devastating blasts or suffer horribly under their onslaught. It is better to disengage as quickly as possible, leaving the destruction of Shadow fighters to the anti-fighter capabilities of larger capital ships – if any have survived the rest of the Shadow assault. Like all other Shadow vessels, the fighters can phase in and out of hyperspace at will, an enormous advantage for so small a craft to possess. One never knows when they will be vomited forth from a larger craft, or simply appear to wreak havoc upon their foes.

Source:

• The Babylon 5 Project: Shadow Fighter
• Babylon 5: Ships of the Galaxy (pages 85-86)
• thedemonapostle