Interstellar Alliance Rath'Dial Class Strike Cruiser Interstellar Alliance G'Kar class cruiser After the Drakh attack on Earth, and the unexpected unveiling of the new Victory class Destroyers, a call for more inter-government projects went up. The rest of the races, while not entirely pleased with the secretive construction of these new vessels, were glad to see the Interstellar Alliance was beginning to actively undertake the build-up of an independent navy, allowing league races to support the new Alliance with as fewer ships as many of their own were being diverted from their own territory. The unfortunate part of this was the dry-docks used for the construction of the Victory class ships were destroyed by Drakh operatives. No new build Victory class were going to enter service for some time. Throw into that the fact that one of the IA's major contributors, the Earth Alliance, was almost in chaos because of the plague that was threatening to destroy all life on Earth. The IA vowed to help the EA find a cure for the plague, assigning the remaining Victory class ship, IAS Excalibur, to the Earth Alliance for use in finding the cure. And with the addition of new, smaller, faster to build cruisers, the chance of finding the cure increased. New ship construction would have to be done by other member races. The few Alliance races with the production capability to build the ships en masse came forward to help. The Drazi, Narn, and Minbari all were willing to help with the construction of ships. The Drazi's design left something to be desired, in that they wanted to mount multiple heavy weapons on a cruiser hull. While incredibly powerful, the ship was seriously lacking in anti-fighter capabilities. The Minbari design was quite feasible, and closely resembled the Victory class in its armament, but it would take some time to squeeze the design into the production schedule. Minbari ship construction was still busy replacing the ships lost in the last Shadow War, as well as the losses from the Minbari Civil War that followed. Since production was needed almost immediately, the Narn were chosen. They were bouncing back nicely after the War of Retribution and had just opened up a new shipyard at Binan. As an added bonus for building the ships, the IA granted foreign technology to the Narn. The Minbari helped them develop a slightly more reliable hybrid gravitic/ reaction drive than the system found on some Raider ships. The drive itself can usually go about four months before it begins to degrade and act like a Raider drive. On ships with even more experienced engineering crews, the drive's operational life between yard service can be extended to six months. The sensor array was an enhanced Narn array, similar to the one found aboard the Sho'Kar light scout cruiser, but lacking the ELINT capabilities. The EA lent interceptor technology, but withheld the E-Web part of the system as proprietary technology. The IA agreed to the EA's stipulation where the E-Web was concerned, and soon advisors from EA shipyards began to arrive in Narn space. To allow for faster and cheaper construction, it was decided to not use the crystalline armor that was installed on the Victory class. The Drazi supplied a more traditional armor, since the Narn had a noticeable lack of raw materials and the credits needed to buy the increased quantities of such materials, even after years of Centauri reparations. The ship resembles a smaller Victory class ship, built by the Narn, ie, it looked like a Victory painted like a T'Loth. The ship's systems were based off of the G'Tal variant of the G'Quan heavy cruiser. Three Heavy Laser Cannons were the primary armament forward. Six medium pulse cannons, three twin arrays, and six Mk II interceptors minus the E-Web supported the heavy weapons. The ship's hangar could handle a flight of six fighters and four shuttles. Any fighter deployed by the IA's member races could be accommodated (Nials, Thunderbolts, Starfuries, Frazis, etc.). Once the design was finalized, the Narn began construction of the prototype. Because of his innumerable contributions to the Narn Regime, as well as being one of the founding members of the Interstellar Alliance, Citizen G'Kar was chosen as who the class should be named after. The IAS G'Kar, prototype for the class, slipped its moorings in mid 2268. The class entered full production after an abbreviated shakedown period. The first regular production G'kars entered service in early 2269. IAS G'Kar Class Cruiser Playability notes: The Hybrid drive aboard the G'Kar is more advanced and reliable than that found on the Raider Hybrid Saucer. The G'Kar's hybrid drive acts as a normal gravitic drive until the engine receives its first point of damage, at which point it begins to behave like the Raider version. Note: This is not my original idea. I used the picture on the SCS without permission, but I am going to provide all the information that I can about it's origins. It is based off a design that can be found at the following address (main site): http://efni.org/index.htm With the design found here: http://efni.org/Galen_2.htm The above website follows the B5tech.com site more than Babylon 5 Wars when it comes to starship design and systems descriptions. That isn't a bad thing, just the thought processes that went into the design on the site were a bit different than what is needed for Babylon 5 Wars. The design for the ISA Cruiser is from someone who goes by the moniker "Galen." He submit a sketch and a text description to the site owner of the above web site. The site owner does not have an e-mail address, or else I would have asked for permission. I appreciate creativity in all its forms, and I deemed this design cool enough to deserve my attention and translate its general idea into Babylon 5 Wars.