Post-NEM Romulan BoP

Einhander Sn0m4n · Post by **Einhander Sn0m4n** » 2004-03-15 08:47pm

Romulan "Firebird" Bird of Prey

Romulan "Firebird Redhawk" Bird of Prey (Squadron Command ship)

Specs:
Dimensions:
L: 99M
W: 56.8M

Performance:
Warp: 9 cruise, 9.9 max@36 hours
Sublight: .8c (gravitic impulse drive)
Atmosphere: Mach 3.5 @ one standard atmosphere

Armament: One heavy annular-confinement-beam antimatter-plasma cannon, two twin pulse-disruptor cannons, two torpedo launchers (20 ZPE torpedoes), two twin beam-disruptor turrets.

Defense: Doubly-redundant shields {250,000 terawatt capacity), 2.5cm ablative armor, Reinforced hull structure.

It's loosely based on concepts the Federation's Defiant first tested in battle, namely that of a small, powerful, tenacious attack starship meant to be used in some numbers. Since the D'Deridex and its later cousin the Valdore were found in battle to be badly deficient in terms of space combat capability during the Dominion War and the Scimitar Incident, the Romulans shifted their design focus on the revival of an old, infamous ship concept: the Bird of Prey. The resulting ship, codenamed 'Firebird', incorporates the latest Romulan advances in propulsion, power generation, weapons, and shielding technology.

The ship measures about 99 meters long by 56.8 meters wide, sports torpedo, plasma-cannon, and disruptor-cannon armament, and has quite heavy shields and a large advanced quantum-singularity ZPE reactor system. It has a crew of 8, and its performance is quite high due to its sophisticated warp drive and rather unusual hybrid impulse system, consisting of a regular fusion rocket engine coupled to a pair of space-time distortion drivers, a configuration somewhat similar to a Federation Hyper-Impulse drive but rather less advanced. This is compensated for to a degree by tapping the main reactor for additional power.

Its weapons are conventional (if high in performance) for the most part, with the exception of its primary plasma cannon. Romulan scientists have refined this ancient and seemingly anachronistic weapon to the extent it's by a good margin the most destructive on a ship its size in the entire Alpha Quadrant. It's simply a very high-powered relativistic antimatter-plasma-beam cannon coupled with a hard-ray X-laser and an annular-confinement beam emitter, all fed by a direct tap of the main power core. This naturally causes horrific damage to whatever it hits, capable of forcefully stomping the shields of any lesser ship flat with one shot and slicing the hull through and through with a second, all at a respectable range only possible before with phaser-based weaponry. The ACB emitter can be reconfigured as a tractor beam at a moment's notice as well, allowing salvage of wrecked starships by the very same vessel which made the kill moments before!

Unfortunately, by default it cannot cloak due to the cramped nature of its internal systems, which precludes the installation of a cloaking device. Only by removing a third of the shield elements (which neatly reduces shield power by a third) can a cloaking system be installed. This disadvantage has been somewhat nullified by efficient, refined hull and engine design, allowing for lower power consumption (and emission into space) during normal flight.

This is not to imply that the ship is underpowered by any means; in fact, its advanced ZPE reactor provides quite robust power to all its systems to the point energy budgeting is completely unnecessary. It can zip along at full burn and still be able to fire weapons at will, including its monster plasma cannon. Another bonus of the high-energy reactor core is the allowance of heavier-than-usual structural plating and structural members to be used without penalty, adding significantly to the ship's toughness in combat. Overall, the Firebird represents a worthy successor to the infamous Romulan Birds of Prey of old...

Einhander Sn0m4n · Post by **Einhander Sn0m4n** » 2004-03-20 07:50pm

No comments?

YT300000 · Post by **YT300000** » 2004-03-20 07:52pm

I commented in the testing thread about it.

Einhander Sn0m4n · Post by **Einhander Sn0m4n** » 2004-03-20 08:15pm

YT300000 wrote:I commented in the testing thread about it.

Ah ok.

That was more a preview/site-test thread. Consider this the 'Official Release' thread then.

YT300000 · Post by **YT300000** » 2004-03-20 09:20pm

Einhander Sn0m4n wrote:
YT300000 wrote:I commented in the testing thread about it.
Ah ok.

That was more a preview/site-test thread. Consider this the 'Official Release' thread then.

*sigh* Fine.

YT300000 wrote:Niiiiice...

Psycho Smiley · Post by **Psycho Smiley** » 2004-03-20 09:52pm

Ein, how the hell do you do all that in paint?

SyntaxVorlon · Post by **SyntaxVorlon** » 2004-03-20 10:12pm

Einy is fantastic. That's how.

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2004-03-20 10:41pm

Crew is too low IMHO.