"I tell you, the crews of those destroyers are crazy. We fired a huge volley of missiles at the Dartrok forces and one of those destroyers pulled into position to act as a target for the incoming missiles. The missiles turned the destroyer into space dust but the rest of the ships kept after us. If it was not for the crews of the non Dartrok ships breaking, we could have lost all of our forces and the system."
Little is actually known about the Dartroks by most of the Three Galaxies. The Dartroks are a race of very powerful beings that have just recently appeared in the Three Galaxies. The races appear to be slightly large than human sized coal black figures that appear similar in shape to man-o-war jellyfish with a huge number of prehensile tentacles. Their ships are based on a pseudo organic material and are incredibly powerful, heavily armored, and quite capable of taking on most ships of the races of the Three Galaxies. Since the motivations of the Dartroks are completely unknown these ships cause a lot of nervousness among most races when they appear in their system.
In the initial conquest by the Dartrok, only the huge dreadnoughts and their fighters were used. The fighters seem to be seen as disposables and the Dreadnoughts seem to be used because they were considered invulnerable. After some huge losses of Dreadnoughts in some missile engagements, the destroyers began appearing as escorts for the Dreadnoughts. As well, the destroyers are used as escorts for cruisers. Normally, eight Dartrok Destroyers accompany each Dreadnought and four accompany each cruiser. It is thought that the destroyers existed long before they were identified but were used for internal operations. In combat, these ships seem to be considered disposable like fighters are. They have been used to decoy large volleys of missiles from the Dreadnoughts and as scouts and have encountered impossible odds. This does not mean that these ships are used indiscriminately. If it looks like point defense can stop incoming missiles, these ships are often positioned behind the larger ships they are escorting to use the Gravity wake of the larger vessel to destroy incoming missiles. Like most of their creations, the Dartrok seem to have absolute control over these ships.
The Destroyers are very small and might be considered to be corvettes by most other races. In spite of this, the Destroyers are very powerful and should be dealt with extreme caution. Like the other Dartrok craft, these vessels are not constructed in any traditional way and the equivalent of each of the ships systems are biologic in design. These include computers, engines, weapons, and even the ship's hull. These ships have a partial manta-ray appearance but are very streamlined and have a bit of a pike look to them as well. The ship's hull has the ability to repair damage and to adapt to attacks directed at it given enough time although they seem unable to adapt to magical attacks. The ship's computer is a powerful neural intelligence and capable of operating independently and override any crew members other than Dartrok when the crew wished to commit actions the Dartroks desires. The ship's systems are all based on electric and gravitic manipulation although none of the ship's weapon systems are based on gravity. The ship propulsion is based on gravitic systems and the ship's shields are based on gravitics. The FTL propulsion system are very similar to those operated on most ships in the Three Galaxies but as stated previously is biological in design. The ship's acceleration is that of many of the fastest starfighters within the Three Galaxies. Almost no enemy ships can stay at missile range to engage the Destroyer.
While this ship does not carry the gravity wake generator of the larger vessels, these ships are fast enough to often engage another destroyer before enough missiles are fired to cripple the Dartrok destroyer. It is believed that the Gravity wake generator is simply too large to mount in the destroyer. The vessel is armed with two heavy electrical discharge cannons and eight point defense electrical discharge cannons. The main weaponry is capable of destroying other destroyers in just a few shots and doing severe damage to cruisers. Unlike the point defense ion cannon on larger ships, the Ion cannons on the destroyer can be fired in a wide beam for use against missiles. Each point defense weapon is slightly less powerful than those mounted on cruisers and dreadnoughts.
Because of the willingness to risk these vessels, it is thought that these ships do not carry any actual Dartrok onboard and are crewed by a variety of minion races. These ships appear to be too small to carry any fighters and also seem to carry no troops for ground assault. These ships do not carry any shuttle and must either land or rely on the shuttles of larger craft.
This writeup of the Dartrok Destroyer uses modified Phase World starship rules. See Revised Starship Rules for Phase World for more details
Model: Dartrok Destroyer
Class: Destroyer / Corvette
Crew: Unknown, but does not appear to carry any Dartrok on board.
Actual Crew size unknown (For game terms assume that the ship has a crew
of around 40 and all are of various slave races.
Troops: None
Vehicle Compliment: None
M.D.C. by Location:
| Heavy Electrical Discharge Cannons (2): | 1,000 each | |
| Point Defense Electrical Discharge Cannons (8): | 400 each | |
| [1] Bridge: | 2,000 | |
| [2] Main Body: | 3,400 | |
| [3] Variable Force Field: | 1,200 a side (7,200 Total) |
Notes:
[1] In reality this is how much damage needs to be done for a weapon
to hit the bridge through the ships armor. This ship does to have an auxiliary
bridge. Even if the ship's bridge is destroyed, the ship can still be piloted
from engineering but the ship is -3 to dodge and all weapon systems will
be at local control. Weapon hits near the bridge that do not penetrate
the ships integrity can injure crew members on or near the bridge.
[2] Depleting the M.D.C. of the main body will destroy the Destroyer,
putting it out of commission. All internal systems will shut down, including
life support and internal gravity. The ship itself will be an unsalvageable
floating wreck. Both the hull and the ship's systems have the ability to
repair themselves. The ship's hull and ship's systems regenerate damage
at the rate of 3D6x10 M.D.C. per minute. The ship can only repair up to
half the total M.D.C. of a system or the main body.
[3] Shield positions are variable and can be combined into one shield.
The shields regenerate at a rate of 5% (360 M.D.C.) per melee round.
Speed:
Driving on the Ground: Not Possible.
Sublight: Gravity drive allows the ship to travel up to 60 percent
of the speed of light. The ship can accelerate/ decelerate at an incredible
rate of 1.6 percent of light per melee.
Atmospheric Propulsion: Maximum speed is mach 12 (8,897.5 mph
/ 14,319.1 kph). Can enter atmosphere and leave the atmosphere of a planet
easily.
Star Drive: Gravitonic drive; maximum speed: 8 light years per
hour.
Maximum Range: Effectively Unlimited by either Drive system.
Carries about one year worth of supplies on board and power system gives
power for 20 years before the ship needs refueling.
Statistical Data
Height: 39.4 feet (12 meters)
Length: 206.7 feet (63 meters)
Width: 50.9 feet (15.5 meters)
Weight / Mass: 2,150 tons (1,950 metric tons)
Power System: Unknown
Cargo: Cargo holds are scattered about the ship that allows
for carrying up to 300 tons of Cargo in addition to standard compliment
of supplies and ammunition
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:
Special Equipment:
[ Phase World TM, Naruni TM, Kreeghor TM, UWW TM, and CAF TM are trademarks owned
by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books Inc. ]
[ Rifts® is a registered trademark owned by Kevin Siembieda and
Palladium Books Inc.]
By Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune ).
Copyright © 2000, Kitsune. All rights reserved.