Vorlon Empire Light Cruiser Class
Craft: Vorlon Empire Light Cruiser
Type: cruiser
Scale: capital
Length: 393 meters
Skill: capital ship pilot
Crew: 0
Crew Skill: *
Passengers: 150
Cargo Capacity: 150 metric tons
Consumables: 3 months
Hyperdrive: x0.5
Nav Computer: yes
Maneuverability: 2D+2
Space: 6
Atmosphere: 330; 950 kmh
Hull: 5D
Sensors
- Passive: 160/5D+1
- Scan: 320/6D+1
- Search: 480/7D+1
- Focus: 16/8D+1
Weapons
- Lightning Cannon
- Fire Arc: fore
Crew: 0
Scale: death star
Skill: ship gunnery
Fire Control: 5D
Space Range: 1-20/40/100
Damage: 10D
- EM Shield
- Fire Arc: all
Crew: 1
Skill: sensors
Range: 1-25/50/100
Effect: Enemy Fire Control and Sensors -2D+2
Notes
- EM Shield: Found only on the White Star, this Vorlon device disrupts the ability of enemy vessels to target the ship but disrupts the ship’s own targeting sensors. The EM shield may be fired as part of any defensive action. However, it also suffers a –1D+1 penalty to any attempts to use its own targeting computer to attempt or hold on to a weapons lock on another craft.
- 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 Offense of any barrage that hits it.
- 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.
Description: The gunship of the Vorlon Empire, the light cruiser is a smaller version of the heavy cruiser – an immature specimen that was pulled from the growth chambers early in order to make a faster cruiser. It is slightly more maneuverable and a bit quicker, but had not yet developed its discharge gun array, making it a slight less offensive than its adult form. Even so, the lightning cannon is very potent for its size and can destroy most targets in seconds of directed fire.
Like its brethren, the light cruiser can withstand a great deal of punishment while lining up the next target for its deadly lance of electromagnetic energy, but cannot suffer too much more than a common destroyer. It is only the potential of the lightning cannon, even an immature one, that keeps the Vorlons making these ships at all and deploying them into situations where they may never return. It takes a lot to kill a light cruiser, but it can be done – hopefully not before it has used its mighty weapon to remind the enemy why it is an error to anger a Vorlon.
Source: Babylon 5: Ships of the Galaxy (page 89); thedemonapostle