Vorlon Star Fighter:

As a fighter this ship has few equals; although it is only about 23 meters long (75 feet) the technology of the Vorlon race is at least a million years ahead of that of the younger races.

The fighter is armed with a Quantum Gravitic "lightning" Beam for its only weapon. This weapon gives the fighter a unexpectedly large fire power: a group of fighters is capable of destroying a cruiser with a single volley. The large firing arc in front of the craft helps too.

The entire fighter is semi alive: it is a mixture of both organic and mechanical features. The hull of this ship is organic and can both repair itself and can adapt to attacks to reduce damage. No attack does full effect on the hull more than once.

Backing up this armor are powerful shields consisting of interwoven energy fields and layers of gravitational distortion. These shields are capable of absorbing large amounts of energy, be it directed energy or kinetic in nature. The only way to overload the shields is to pour a large amount of energy into them in a short time.

The ships sublight propulsion consists of a powerful gravity drive system and a form of ion engines. Apparently the ion engine supplies main thrust and the gravity drive supplements this and is used for maneuvering, giving the ship a maneuverability unmatched in fighters of the younger races. Unlike fighters of younger races, the Vorlon Starfighter can enter hyperspace. Since the pilots compartment has long range life support and artificial gravity, the fighter can operate for long periods of time.

Since the ship is "alive" it has an intelligence similar to that of a sentient AI and so can perform difficult maneuvers on its own. It does not need a crew and can function by itself quite well. On sensor readings the ship will read as built out of organic materials rather than the metal alloys that most starships are built out of. When the fighters ECM is engaged it is very hard to detect.

When meeting a ship like this you must remember that it is almost never alone. You will normally find them close to planets or escorting larger starships like the Star Dreadnought or the Vorlon cruiser. Escorts for the cruiser usually number 5, but the Dreadnought carries a total of 40 of these powerful little ships. (imagine 10 of these things attacking your cruiser!)

This writeup of the Vorlon Fighter uses modified modified starship speed and ranges. See Revised Starship Rules for Phase World for more details.

Model: Vorlon Fighter
Crew: One but fighter can be flown by the fighters artificial intelligence (No pilot).

M.D.C. by location:

Notes:
[1] Destroying the Ion engine means that sublight acceleration is reduced by 60 % and maneuvering by 20 %.
[2] Destroying a gravity drive lobe means that sublight acceleration. is reduced by 10 % and maneuvering by 20 % (-1 penalty to dodge). Add on penalties per destroyed lobe. (This means that both drive systems have to be destroyed before the ship becomes a floating target)
[3] Depleting the MDC of the body will destroy the fighter, putting it out of commission. The fighter will be a unsalvageable floating wreck. Both the hull and the fighters systems have the ability to repair themselves. The hull and systems regenerate damage at the rate of 2D4x10 MDC per minute. The ship can only repair up to half the total MDC of a system or the main body.
[4] Shield positions are variable and can be combined into one shield. The shields regenerate at a rate of 5% (150 MDC) per melee round.

Speed:
Driving on the Ground: Not Possible.
Sublight: Combined use of Ion and Gravity drive allows the ship to travel up to 40 percent of the speed of light. The ship can accelerate/decelerate at a whopping rate of 1.8 percent of light per melee!!
Atmospheric Propulsion: Maximum speed is mach 20. Can enter atmosphere and leave.
Stardrive: Uses a hyperdrive system that allows the ship to reach a maximum of 50 light-years per hour. This means that the Vorlon Starfighter can cover the three galaxies in about twelve weeks. The fighter enters hyperspace by means of a jump gate. This fighter can use an already made jump gate or can form its own jump gate. The fighter can also enter or leave hyperspace within an atmosphere but the ship must have very precise coordinates or it will open the hyperspace gate within the planet itself and the ship will destroy itself.
Maximum Range: Unlimited by all drive systems.

Special note:
Because the gravity drive is used for maneuvering, the entire fighter can turn around and fire in every direction at will. However, making a turn or a evasive maneuver at high speed (above 5 percent of light, roughly 15000 km/s or 9300 miles/s) costs enough energy that the fighter loses energy to the cannon. This means that control is less, imposing a -2 penalty on hit rolls. Also the grav-drive lobes have to extend, making them easier to hit (+2 to strike lobe).

Statistical Data:
Length: 75 feet (22.5 meters)
Height: 33.8 feet (10.1 meters) with drive lobes folded, 50 feet (15 meters) with lobes unfolded
Width: 33.8 feet (10.1 meters) with drive lobes folded, 50 feet (15 meters) with lobes unfolded
Weight: 29 tons (26.25 metric tons)
Cargo: Minimal (Storage for small equipment).
Power System: Hyperspace Tap with an unknown duration.
Market Cost: Unknown, any culture in the Three Galaxies would pay hundreds of billions of credits for an undamaged working model of this ship.

WEAPON SYSTEMS:

1. Quantum Gravitic "Lightning" Gun: Smaller version of the gun carried by the dreadnought and almost identical to that ships smaller guns. Firing arc is a 120 degree cone in front of the fighter. Power setting is determined at beginning of melee round. At maximum power the weapon does have standard penalties to use against small targets such as fighters. At medium power, the weapon has a penalty of -2 against small targets but does not suffer from size penalties. At Minimum setting, the cannon has +2 bonus to hit small targets and does not suffer from size penalties. Due to the weapons nature, it does full damage to any target protected by the spell "Invulnerable to energy".
   Range: 12,000 miles (19,300 km) in space and 120 miles (193 km) in atmosphere.
   Mega-Damage: Maximum: 1D6x1,000+1000 M.D. each. Medium: 3D6x100 M.D. each. Minimum: 1D6x100 M.D.
   Rate of Fire: Maximum: once per melee. Medium: 3 times per melee. Minimum: 5 times per melee.
   Payload: Effectively Unlimited.

Special Equipment:

• Adaptive Hull: The Vorlon fighter has the ability to adapt to attacks on it. Once a specific attack has been used against the ship, it will adapt to that attack and any attack of that type that is encountered afterwards will only do 20 % of its damage in the next engagement. Variable frequency weapons such as variable frequency lasers can be reset to do full damage once this is discovered. The adaptation takes about 5 hours to be completed.
• Advanced Sensors: As a member of the first ones, the Vorlons have some of the most advanced sensors ever designed. The Sensors are so advanced it is assumed that the Vorlon ship's sensors ignore all forms of non magical cloaking and ECM. This includes cloaking and ECM from Phase World and other alternative universes as well as all forms from the Babylon 5 Universe.
• ECM: The Star Fighter is, like all Vorlon ships, fitted with ECM. This ECM prevents targeting systems from ships of the younger races from being able to lock on. An attacker would be at -10 to strike the ship and only if within visual range (approximately 500 miles). Missiles would have a 95% chance of being unable to achieve a lock on target as well. Rifts Earth and Mutants in orbit would be treated to be at the level of technology of most of the younger races. The only exceptions among the younger races are the Minbari and Centauri races who are far more advanced than any of the younger races but are still no where close to the First Ones level. The Vorlon Star Fighter would be detected as little more than a ghost on either races sensors and they would have penalties of -8 to strike beyond visual range and -4 to strike at visual ranges. Missiles would also be more effective, at first engagement missiles would have a 80% chance of being unable to achieve a lock, but after several engagements, the jamming could be partially adjusted for, with missiles being able to achieve lock with a 30 % chance of being unable to achieve lock. Phase World, Macross 2, and Robotech sensors would be treated to be at the level of technology of the Minbari and Centauri. Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek, and Star Wars would also be treated to be at this level of technology. The sensors of the races of the First Ones would not suffer any penalties and would be able to strike normally. This included the Minbari / Ranger White Star class and the Drahk Raider as well.
• Sentient Ship: The fighter is alive, and probably quite aware of what it is and what its doing. It will not take orders from a non Vorlon. The ship should be considered to be a powerful neural intelligence in terms of Rifts. This computer can pilot the ship at 98%, has 5 attacks per round, and has +10 to strike, +14 to dodge, and +5 to initiative (these include all bonuses).

Combat Bonuses: These bonuses are only applied when the Vorlon Starfighter is piloted. The fighter often does not have a pilot. In those cases, use the bonuses under sentient starship. The Vorlon Starfighter is very maneuverable and very accurate. For piloting, use the Phase World Starfighter combat (Elite or Basic) skill. These bonuses are in addition to those from the piloting skill.

+3 to initiative
+3 to strike.
+6 to dodge
+20% to all piloting skills

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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 Mischa (mischa.campen@tip.nl)
Revised By Kitsune (kitsune@addr.com ).

Rifts Conversion Copyright © 1998 & 1999, Mischa & Kitsune. All rights reserved