Shadows Cruiser Class

Craft: Shadows Cruiser
Type: cruiser
Scale: capital
Length: 1,500 meters
Skill: capital ship pilot
Crew: 1*
Crew Skill: Astrogation: 10D+1; Capital Ship Pilot: 10D+1; Capital Ship Gunnery: 7D; Communications: 10D+1; Sensors: 10D+1; Planetary Systems: 10D+1; Tactics: 10D+1; Command: 10D+1
Passengers: 40,000
Cargo Capacity: 40,000 metric tons
Consumables: 40 months
Hyperdrive: x0.5
Nav Computer: yes
Maneuverability: 6D
Space: 6
Atmosphere: 330; 950 kmh
Hull: 10D+2
Stealth: 5D+1
Sensors

• Passive: 150/5D
• Scan: 300/6D
• Search: 450/7D
• Focus: 15/8D

Craft Carried: 36 Shadow Fighters
Weapons

• Molecular Slicer Beam

Fire Arc: fore
Crew: 1
Scale: death star
Skill: capital ship gunnery
Fire Control: 4D
Space Range: 1-20/40/100
Damage: 6D+2

Notes

• Adaptive Armor: Found only on the most advanced spacecraft that use bio-technology, adaptive armor is a layer on the hull that can intelligently and automatically react to any incoming fire. By moderating its surface, conductive properties and introducing reflective enhancements within a fraction of a second, the energy of any attack may be dissipated, leaving just the actual force of the blast to strike the hull. Adaptive armor will automatically quarter the Total Offence of any barrage that hits it.
• Crew: Despite only having a single pilot, shadow cruisers are not considered a solo craft.
• Shadow Flight Computer: The computer systems are incredibly advanced, to the point where an authorized passenger simply need state where he wants to go and the vessel will simply take him there by the most expedient route, avoiding any dangers and hazards automatically. The flight computer is so advanced that it can even fulfill most combat operations successfully, with minimal input from its passengers. The flight computer may be activated during any order, though most vessels with one installed will have it permanently active. As long as it is activated, the craft may ignore any impaired penalties due to damaged control or crew areas. In addition, any Operations checks, Pilot checks or attack rolls may be made by the flight computer (4D+2).
• Living Ship: The Vorlons and Shadows are masters of bio-technology, to the extent that they are able to construct (or perhaps grow) spacecraft that are actually sentient and aware. It is able to make intelligent decisions for itself. It is able to execute up to five orders per turn. It has a skill rating of 14D+1 for all skills. If this special ship trait is ever neutralized, the craft must have its command functions taken over; else it becomes merely a drifting hulk.
• Shadow Pilots: The skill of a Shadow ship is partly dependent on the abilities of the living pilot bound inside, although the Shadow’s advanced technologies and augmentations mean that almost anyone can be turned into the brain of a lethal killing machine. Its skills are similarly equal to 3D+1 + the skill of the pilot. For most ships, this works out as an average of 7D+1 for skill checks.
• Shadow Jump: The Shadows’ understanding of hyperspace is unrivaled even by the Vorlons. Their craft may phase in and out of hyperspace seemingly at will, without creating a visible jump vortex.
• 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 of it must immediately make a Willpower check, difficulty 15 or suffer a –2D penalty to all rolls in the next round. A ship’s crew can only be affected once per encounter in this way.

Description: Thought to be fearless and unstoppable, there was no ship among the younger races’ collective fleets that could stand against a Shadow vessel in open combat – not a one. Fast, agile and possessing molecular weapons of immense destructive power, Shadow ships are monsters of the space lanes, bogeymen that go about slicing an enemy to pieces whenever they were encountered. They appear from out of nowhere as dark shapes with forward-sweeping black limbs sprouting like legs from its main ‘body’. Shadow ships resemble nothing as much as alien spiders in design and function. They are surprise predators, preferring to strike from concealment. Shadow ships can simply shimmer in from hyperspace, attack swiftly and efficiently, then re-enter hyperspace at will as if they were never even there. This makes them very difficult to combat with current technologies and even deadlier than originally thought.

Before the last great Shadow War it was generally accepted that the only reasonable course to take when encountering these vessels was to retreat as quickly as possible. Until superior numbers or underhanded tactics thought up on the fl y could be brought to bear under Captain Sheridan’s growing makeshift alliance, there was no vessel in the galaxy that could withstand the might of the warmongering Shadows.

Source: Babylon 5: Ships of the Galaxy (page 84); thedemonapostle