NCGD - Babylon 5 - Earthforce Atmospheric Shuttle

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Earthforce Atmospheric Shuttle:

These shuttles are one of the key workhorses for both the Earth militaries and many civilian companies. The shuttles themselves are both sturdy and very capable. The controls of the shuttle are well designed and the shuttles themselves are very user friendly. Like their name implies, the shuttles are trans-atmospheric but the shuttles are no limited to just carrying cargo from space to a planet and from a planet to space. This is because the shuttles have a considerable range. Some smaller merchants use the ships for trade and use jump gates to travel from place to place being careful to chose jump gate locations that are very close to each other.

For security purposes, the shuttles have an anti theft security system that deactivates the ship and activates a homing signal. This is used to stop outright theft and if a shuttle is missing longer than it is contracted for.

These shuttles are not armed as a rule but a good engineer could put some weapon systems on the shuttle in expense of some or all of the shuttles cargo. Shuttles owned by the Military have improved sensors, better computers, and improved evasion software.

Listed is the formula to allow player and game masters to calculate the shuttles velocity and distance traveled:

Vehicle Type: Earth Alliance Atmospheric Shuttle
Crew: Eight (2 Pilots, 2 Copilot, 2 Sensor operators, and 2 Engineers) but can easily be run by a single pilot
Passengers: 20 in a passenger compartment. The ship can carry 40 additional passengers in cargo holds with special seating pallets.

MDC by Location:

	[1] Engines (3):	250 each
	[2] Wings (2):	200 each
	[3] Tail Fin:	200
	Reinforced Pilots Compartment:	250
	[4] Main Body:	1,100

Notes:
[1] The Destruction of one engine reduces the ships acceleration by one third. The destruction of two Ion Engines reduces the ships acceleration by two thirds. Destroying all three Ion Engines means that the maximum sublight acceleration is reduced to ten percent of normal (using navigational thrusters).
[2] Destroying a Wing will cause the shuttle to crash if it is operating in an atmosphere. Has no effect if shuttle is operating in space.
[3] Destruction of the shuttles rudders by the varying of power levels of the engines and vectoring thrusters but the shuttle has a penalty of -10 to dodge, and a -30% penalty to all piloting rolls if operating in an atmosphere. Has no effect if shuttle is operating in space.
[4] Depleting the M.D.C. of the main body will shut the shuttle down completely, rendering it useless and causing the shuttle to crash if in flight in an atmosphere.

Speed:
Driving on Ground: Not Possible
Flying; In atmosphere: The shuttle can achieve escape velocity (Mach 32.6 / 24,170 mph / 38,900 kph) within 20 minutes. The shuttle has a maximum acceleration of 3 G. When the shuttle is operating within an atmosphere, pilot will normally keep velocity below Mach 5 (3,707.3 mph / 5966.3 kph).
Flying; Space: The shuttle does not have an effective top speed but is limited by acceleration. The shuttle can reach a top acceleration of 3 G but is normally limited to 1 G except when trying to escape the atmosphere.
Stardrive: The shuttle does not have a jump drive but can use already formed jump points such as those formed by jump gates. While in hyperspace, the shuttle can reach a maximum of 5 lightyears per hour. This means that the shuttle could theoretically cover the Galaxy in about 24 month (will need to refuel very often and no shuttle is meant to operate very far from their home base or ship).
Maximum Range: The shuttle has enough fuel for 5 days at maximum performance. If the shuttle is operating at less maximum performance, the ships range is vastly increased. The shuttle has 20 daysof endurance if operating at only 1 Gs and for every increase of 1 Gs, the shuttle burns reaction mass twice as fast. The Shuttle uses hydrogen for fuel for a fusion reactor. The shuttle can operate with engines on standby to increase shuttles range.
The shuttle has supplies for a crew of eight for up to thirty days

Statistical Data:
Height: 31.5 feet (9.6 meters)
Length: 95.1 feet (29 meters)
Wing Span: 137.5 feet (41.25 meters)
Weight: 300 tons (272.2 metric tons)
Power System: 1 Fusion Battery (At maximum output, duration is 5 days)
Cargo: 200 tons in main cargo bay. The shuttle also has small lockers for the shuttles crew for personal items.
Cost: 40 million (Shuttle is sold on the open market)

Weapons Systems:
None

Combat Bonuses:

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Technical Information from Babylon 5 Technical Manual!
CGI of Ship by Mark Kane. More of his CGI pictures of B-5 Ships at G'Kane at Babylon 5

By Kitsune (kitsune@addr.com ).