The Empress Kishala class Destroyers are the true backbone of the fleet; They are the most common ship in the fleet, the ones usually found engaging in action against pirates, and operating in their squadrons under the control of a Light Cruiser or flotillas of five, fully capable of handling threats to the Empire; Indeed, they make fair matches for a fair number of Light Cruisers from the other powers

A Destroyer Squadron is twenty of these destroyers with the flagship as a Empress Tilashi IV class Light Cruiser. In wartime, smaller Destroyer Escorts will have training cruisers as squadron flagships, and there is talk of the "advanced destroyer" design using the Empress Vinara IV class Torpedo Cruisers as flagships. The Destroyer Squadrons are further divided into flotillas of five destroyers each for melee action, with the Cruiser acting independantly.

The destroyers carry eight twin turrets with comparatively small, but rapid-firing guns with long barrels for increased acceleration of the plasma, similiar to the secondary guns mounted on most heavier warships.
Though carrying no cruise missiles, they have an impressive armament of Heavy Torpedoes, making them dangerous foes in Torpedo Attacks, the tradition venue of the Destroyer.

Despite being used for dangerous missions and constant patrols, few of these ships have been lost. Those that have are replaced, maintaining a steady fleet of 1,240 of these destroyers, which may decrease if, in addition to the 120 of the advanced order, losses are replaced with advanced destroyers instead of Empress Kishala class destroyers; However, the House of Lords is still uncertain of funding that fleet expansion.

These destroyers totally outclass the destroyers of any other star-fairing nation in the Three Galaxies, and can be an extreme threat to most cruisers when handled properly. Since they rarely operate in groups smaller than five ships, even a lone, un-escorted Battlecruiser might have to fear from a torpedo attack by five of these destroyers.
They are often found alone, but always in groups of at least five. For larger missions, a full twenty with the Light Cruiser flagship can make an appearence; A very impression fleet in and of it's self, not even considering the Heavy Cruisers and Battleships of the Ralsiian Star Empire.

The crews of these ships, like those of light cruisers, often end up in naval landing parties, fighting pirates, or the incursions of other governments, and a fair number of clashes with unknown vessels have also occured. Likewise, they are famous for chasing down a great number of smugglers.
Though outnumbered vastly (On the scale of twelve to one), by the destroyers of other governments, the Empress Kishala class Destroyers can give an excellent accounting of themselves even against those odds. Most navies would designate them cruisers.

The sleek ships follow the "sandwiched" naval hull style, with high superstructures and many multiple turreted guns, that are common of Ralsiian warships, and are considered one of the most beautiful of the Royal Ralsiian Navy's warship classes.
The name is that of a Taloran Queen from their great age of sail on their homeworld. Rather like historical destroyers, especially the "Super Destroyers" of the "La Fantastique" class of the French Marine Nationale of Earth history these ships do sacrifice some hull armour for more hitting power, but maintain good shielding, though, of course, of the unusual type employed by Ralsiian warships.

This starship design uses modified starship speed and ranges. See Revised Starship Rules for Phase World for more details.

Model Type: Empress Kishala class Destroyers
Vehicle Type: Heavy Destroyer/Destroyer Leader/Light Cruiser
Crew: 600 (25 Officers, 25 Warrant Officers, 150 Petty Officers, 400 Enlisted)
Troops: 300 Marines.
Craft pilots and Support Personnel: 700.

Vehicle compliment:

	6	Torpedo Bombers
	24	Heavy Starfighters
	24	Space Capable Power Armors
	3	Multi-purpose non-combatant shuttles
	3	Boarding shuttles/dropships

M.D.C. By Location:

	Medium Plasma pulse cannon barrels (16):	300 each
	Medium Plasma pulse cannon twin turrets (8):	3,000 each
	Anti-Missile Octuple Interceptors (22):	180 each
	Non-Reloadable Heavy Torpedo Tube Quintuple Mounts (6):	3,000 each
	Launch/Recovery Bays (3):	3,000 each
	[1] Bridge:	3,500
	[1] Auxiliary Bridge:	3,500
	[2] Main Sensor clusters (2, forward dorsal, aft dorsal):	1,000 each
	[3] Main Body:	25,000
	[4] Central support wings (2):	7,000 each
	[5] Ion Fusion Engines (4):	3,000 each
	[5] Gravitic Engines (2):	4,500 each
	[6] Shield Banks (6):	2,000 a side

Notes:
[1] The forward superstructure on the dorsal side of the ship is the main bridge structure; The actual bridge is buried deep inside of it and this is the damage required to punch through the incredibly thick and heavy armour that makes up the bridge to reach it. The secondary bridge is in the after dorsal superstructure, similiarly protected. Even if both bridges are taken out, the ship can be operated 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] The first Main sensor cluster is located on the forward control tower section; The second on the after superstructure/third launching bay structure. Destroying first one has no effect, but destroying both means that the ship loses it's tachyon sensors and tachyon (FTL) communications systems. This will, in addition to taking out the Tachyon sensors, limit the ship to lightspeed only communications. The conventional sensors are buried deep in the hull, and serve as the tetriary systems
[3] Depleting the MDC of the main body will put the Destroyer out of commission. All internal systems will shut down, including artificial gravity but excluding life support, which is so compartmentalized as to remain functional. Fighters and other craft can still be launched and recovered, and if the ships carry any missiles they could also be launched; However, otherwise, the ship would be effectively dead and drifting. At -2,000 MDC, the ship will likely (80% chance) explode violently, inflicting 2D4x100 damage on any craft within a 10km radius of the site of the ship's explosion. If it does not, then it will simply break apart into dozens or hundreds of pieces without exploding. There are enough emergency lifepods onboard for the entire crew, troops, and pilots/support personnel for shuttles and fighter/PA craft.
[4] Destroying one of the wings will destroy two of the Non-Reloadable Quintuple Heavy Torpedo Mounts and two interceptor cannons, and take out one gravitic drive, reducing maximum acceleration to 0.4% of the speed of light per melee round (Total), as it will not only destroy one gravitic wing, but hence leave the other out of alignment and unable to be used. Destroying the second will destroy another two of the Non-Reloadable Quintuple Heavy Torpedo Mounts and two interceptor cannons, but will not cause further reductions in speed, as the drive is already inoperable from the imbalance from the loss of the first wing. The FTL drives are buried deep in the hull and are unaffected by the destruction of either or both wings, being totally seperate.
[5] The Destruction of one Ion engine reduces the ships maximum acceleration by 0.1% of the speed of light per melee round; Each Ion Engine destroyed increases that by another 0.1%, until, with all four engines knocked out, the maximum acceleration is 0.6% of the speed of light per melee round. The results of destroying a gravitic drive are covered above.
[6]Each shield generator covers a specific area of the hull, one sixth of the coverage, and cannot be "stacked" over a single area. Each shield bank take damage and recharges seperately, at a rate of 5% per melee round (100 MDC per melee round per shield). They will simply be back up at 5% of their maximum levels in the next melee round. This means that the enemy must constantly inflict more than 5% of the shields' M.D.C. per melee round or the hits won't get through. However, since the shields are limited to each side they protect and are not variable, this is not as impossible as it may first seem. The shields may be recycled safely once per hour. "Recycling" the shields involves dumping energy stored in large capacitators into the shields. The energy instantly brings the shield bank being recycled back to maximum power (Each of the six shield banks must be recycled seperately). A second attempt can be made to recycle a shield bank in less than an hour, but only after the capacitators have recharged, which takes five minutes, also, if this is done, there is a 40% chance that the shield bank will burn out and be overloaded and destroyed. An attempt to recycle the shields a third time in less than an hour is impossible. (Note, however, that the recycling "Hour" starts counting from when the first recycling is done, not the second, if a second is successfully completed.)

Speed:
Driving on the Ground: Not Possible.
Sublight: The starship does not have an effective top speed but is limited by acceleration. The Empress Kishala class Destroyer can reach a top acceleration of 1% of the speed of light per melee round, but due to high fuel consumption will normally only travel 0.6% of the speed light per melee round, which is the maximum speed the gravitic engines can provide on their own; The Ion Engines are normally not used at all, the gravitic engines functioning as "Cruising Turbines" would on a water-borne naval warship. The Ion engines are engaged for boosting the ship to it's flank acceleration of 1% of the speed of light per melee round.
Because the Destroyer is shielded from the effects of radiation and hypervelocity atomic particles, the Destroyer can be operated at speeds of up to 60 percent of light.
Atmospheric Propulsion: The ship can enter the atmosphere, but at -3 to all piloting rolls, a top speed of Mach 10, and is rather cumbersome. Water landings are possible; the Destroyer can float comfortably in water deep enough to hold them.
Stardrive: The Empress Kishala class Destroyers use the latest model of Contra-Gravity FTL drives developed by the Ralsiians, which allow a maximum speed of 6.5 lightyears per hour, the maximum really possible for such drives when powered by fusion engines. As with all such drives, outside of the rim of any of the galaxies, the speed is increased x500.
Maximum Range: Conditionally unlimited, while the fusion reactors give power for over two decades of service, the ships Ion Engines are limited by the ships reaction mass. Hence, the Gravitic Drives are used for cruising, as they provide effectively unlimited range.
The Destroyer carries four (4) Days of reaction mass for travel at 0.1% of the speed of light in acceleration per melee round using only Ion engines. Double the consumption of fuel for 0.1% of the speed of light per melee round of each additional 0.1%; A total of 0.4%. There is no fuel consumption for the Gravimetric engines (Max acceleration of 0.6% of lightspeed per melee round), other than the fact that they drain large amounts of power, but that is well within the fusion reactors' capacity. The ship will often accelerate for a period of time and then shut down the engines and travel using the ships velocity. The ship only has enough fuel for 12 hours at maximum acceleration normally. Should the ship use more than half of its reaction mass when accelerating, the ship will be unable to decelerate fully using only Ion engines. If the ship runs out of fuel then it must decelerate using gravitic drives only. With the Bussard Ramscoops activated, increase the length of time the Destroyer is capable of spending at it's current acceleration x80 and double the amount of fuel required to sustain that acceleration (That's the physical reality of the matter; For game play purposes, increase the time by x40.).
At Flank Acceleration, the ship will burn it's full reaction mass in 12 hours; However, with the Bussard Ramscoops, the ship will take 20 days at flank acceleration to burn through it's reaction mass, thereby virtually negating the need to refuel or worry about use of maximum acceleration for long periods of time; The hydrogen collectors on Ralsiian ships are very advanced, and since the Gravitic drives are reliable, the ships mostly cruise on them exclusively.

Statistical Data:
Length: 450 feet (135 meters)
Height: 80 feet (24 meters) for the hull only; 167 feet (50 meters) including the superstructure; An additional 67 feet (20 meters) for tachyonic scanners and sensor arrays on the dorsal surface.
Width: 83 feet (25 meters) for the hull only; 250 feet (75 meters) overall including the wings.
Mass/Weight: 33,072 Tons (30,000 metric tons)
Power System: 2 Altaira type Medium Plasma Fusion reactors. (25 year duration) However, it is recommended that the drive and power system have routine maintenance every 5 years. Also, the ship only carries about a three month's supply of reaction mass for the ion engines. (Note: the Gravitic drives don`t need any!)
Cargo: 5,000 tons maximum.
Market Cost: 1 billion credits to construct

WEAPON SYSTEMS:

1. Sixteen (16) Medium Plasma pulse cannons : These are the primary weapons of Destroyers and are used as the secondary weapons on virtually every other Ralsiian design, though some older light ships also have them as their main guns. These guns, like those of all Ralsiian warships, emphasize on range over hitting power. The design of the Destroyer allows no less than all 16 of these cannons to be presented to either broadside, or 8 either forward or aft; They are mounted in eight twin turrets, with two turrets forward dorsal, two forward ventral, two aft dorsal, and two aft ventral, the turrets superimposed over each other. The extreme range of the guns is made possible by the Ionized Plasma being encased in a magnetic bottle. These cannons have the same range problems in Nebula that all weapons firing encased plasma do, resulting in inferior ranges to those of capital ship secondary batteries when in Nebulas. This makes Ralsiian Destroyer Commanders quite reluctant to engage in Nebulas; Indeed, their entire fleet doctrine involves avoiding them with everything except light ship (IE: Fighter) strikes
   Range: 62 miles (100km) in the atmosphere and 62,344 miles (100,000km) in space, 31,172 miles (50,000km) inside a Nebula's perimeter.
   Mega Damage: 4D8x10+50 per cannon.
   Rate of fire: Three times per melee round.
   Payload: Effectively Unlimited.
2. Six (6) Non-Reloadable Quintuple Mount Heavy Torpedo Tubes : ): These massive torpedoes are the ultimate weapons in the arsenal of the Ralsiian Star Empire, and nearly destroyed the Trans-Galactic Empire's Armageddon class Super Dreadnought when used in combat for the first time. Each torpedo masses around 100 tons and the cost to manufacture one is more expensive than your average space capable power armour and approaches that of some light starfighters (Though the torpedo could do far more damage to a capital ship than a light starfighter could ever hope to.) The torpedo is smaller than a light starfighter, but largely because it is more dense; It is shaped in a fashion resembling naval torpedoes. The torpedoes have a top speed of Mach 35 in an atmosphere and in space has an acceleration of 10% of light per turn (far faster than any starship). Since star ships will no longer engage at rock throwing distances, whether weapons can be shot down is calculated from the speed of target, launching starship, and missile. When the drive goes dead, the torpedo will still cruise unless preset to self destruct or receives a destruct code but has very low odds of hitting star ships (Great for hitting bases and planets because target does not move and the torpedo when dead is at -25% to detect.)
   There are a total of thirty. Five are in each Heavy Torpedo Mount. The tubes are mounted on barbettes and can swivel, but cannot elevate or depress like the cannons in a turret. The tubes are arranged in such a fashion that ten can train on targets to each side, but only six to targets forward or aft. This means that 20 torpedoes can be fired in a broadside salvo, or 20 torpedoes in an end-on or stern attack salvo. However, firing off any one salvo leaves the remaining salvoes limited to 10 torpedoes; Standard doctrine is to launch only ten torpedoes at a time, anyway.
   M.D.C.: The torpedo's body has an M.D.C. of 250.
   Range: Missile range is 21,800 miles (35,000 km) in an atmosphere and 10,000,000 miles (16,000,000 km) in space.
   Mega Damage: The Heavy Torpedoes have massive focused Anti-Matter warheads. The reactor that powers the drive is unstable but very powerful, and has fields that directs the matter/anti-matter annihilation of the explosion into an arc five degrees in radii forward. Directly in the path of this is a thin layer of superdense material built into the missile. The energies of the M/AM explosion are sufficient to convert this material into a very narrow cone of plasma traveling at barely sublight velocities. The damage inflicted is 4D6x1000 M.D.C. The resulting explosion is capable of incredible penetration and does critical damage on a roll of 18-20. As a downside, unless a direct hit is scored on the target or the shields of the target, no damage is done; There is absolutely no blast radius for this weapon; However, the weapon can be detonated up to 150km from the target and a "Plasma Torch" of annihilated matter will still strike the target doing full damage; The torpedo must be facing dead-on to the target for that "Plasma Torch" from the detonation to hit, however.
   Rate of fire: Each mount has five Torpedo Tubes; Each tube can fire one torpedo per melee round, for a total of 5 torpedoes per melee per quintuple mount. There are no reloads availible for these reduced mounts.
   Payload: Each tube has one torpedo stored, and no reloads, for a total of 30 Heavy Torpedoes on the ship. The No-Reload only applies to combat situations; These are not disposable tubes. They can be reloaded in a spacedock or by a resupply ship.
3. Twenty two (22) Octuple Interceptor Plasma Pulse Cannons and Medium Range Missile Launchers : These are the main point defense weaponry of the Destroyer and are used against both fighters and missiles. These mounts are distributed evenly around the ships hull. Each Turret can rotate 360 and has a 90-180 arc of fire. The weapons have no penalties to strike small targets but are relatively short ranged when firing plasma bolts. However, the weapons consist of eight barrels built in a circle around a central tube that fires medium range missiles, useful against incoming heavy missiles, power armours, fighters, torpedo bombers, and other such threats, though it has a limited payload.
   Range Plasma Cannon: 11.5 miles (18.5 km) in the atmosphere, 500 miles (800 km) in space.
   Range Medium Range Missiles: 160 miles (257.5 km) in an atmosphere and 80,000 miles (128,750 km/0.43 light seconds) in space.
   Mega Damage: 6D6+50 for the plasma cannon; Varies with Medium Range Missile type for Medium range missiles, see Phase World Missiles
   Rate of fire: 6 bursts of six plasma pulses per barrel (A total of 48 pulses in one burst), per melee round for plasma cannons. One missile per melee round for Medium range missile launcher; Launcher automatically reloads in the same round.
   Payload: Effectively Unlimited for Plasma Cannons; Eight medium range missiles for the missile payload for each weapon; 176 Medium Range Missiles total. Medium Range Missiles can be reloaded from stores, but this is complicated and definitely not advisable in combat conditions.
   Bonuses: : +6 bonus to strike fighters, power armours and missiles/torpedoes, for Plasma cannon ONLY, NO special bonuses for the Medium Range Missiles.

Special systems:

• Tachyonic sensor arrays: Like all Imperial Ralsiian ships, the Empress Kishala class Destroyers uses Tachyonic sensors. These have an effective range of ten lightyears, and the tachyon sensor pulse travels one lightyear a second, meaning that the time from the sending of a pulse to the return of it's data is two seconds at a range of one lightyear, twenty seconds at maximum range. Sensor data is effective instantanious at ranges of 0.25 lightyears or less. The pulses can provide highly accurate data on the mass, dimensions, energy output, range, position, heading, and acceleration/speed of another vessel along with all variety of platforms and space debris. They cannot detect lifesigns, however.
  The Empress Kishala class Destroyers also have a full range of passive sensors and active sensors of the standard type in use by all military-grade warships of the three galaxies; However, these are buried in the hull and are not considered destroyed until the ship it's self is destroyed.
• Communications: Like all Ralsiian ships, the Empress Kishala class Destroyers use Tachyon communications arrays linked with their tachyon sensors. Before this technology was developed, the Ralsiians did not have FTL communications. Tachyon communications are some x10 times faster than normal communications in the three galaxies. If both Tachyon sensor arrays are knocked out, the ship will be limited to sublight communications only.

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By Marina O`Leary (LusankyaN@aol.com ).

Copyright © 2001, Marina O`Leary. All rights reserved.