Shadow Battlecruiser


Length: 300 meters
Weight: Unknown
Speed: Unknown
Maneuverability: Class B; magneto-gravitic drive
Jump Point Class: Class A: Hyperphase engine
Crew: One "pilot"
Armaments:Slicer Beam
Slicer Beam - a beam capable of projecting astronomical amounts of concentrated energy, undiffused and with high precision to targets dozens of clicks away.
Hyperwave Disrupter - renders jumppoints unstable and forces them to collapse.

 

These spider-like semi-sentient vessels are the primary capital-scale vessels used by the Shadows. Composed of organic technology, the Battlecruiser requires a sentient being to operate as its Core. The Core must be properly prepared for insertion. If it is not, the result is a confused, disoriented, and insane ship. Although merged with the ship, the Core can be removed only with great difficulty and with permanent mental damage to the Core. The Core is neither pilot nor passenger; it is a ready-made thought matrix. An organic unit can process information faster than most computer systems and reacts faster when formulating strategy. It is much easier and faster to temper an existing brain than to manufacture a complex computer.

Linking the Core and Vessel together is a telepathic connection augmented by cyberorganic implants. This connection also creates the mindscream reported by those few who have encountered them and survive. Although they require a sentient being as a Core, the Shadow vessels are extremely single-minded. Once they target a victim, they never stop, never slow down, never give up: until that target is dead.

In 2260, through arrangements with the Psi Corps, the Shadows hoped to augment their Core supply with telepaths. They hoped that using telepaths would strengthen the telepathic link between Core and Vessel, rendering the Battlecruiser immune to disruption from telepathic attack. Their supplyof "blips" was hijacked, leaving the Shadows with a vulnerable fleet.

These war cruisers are two-tiered with the lower part housing a devastating Slicer Beam. The upper tier houses a wing of approximately seventy-five fighters, with a possible total complement of two-hundred fighters. These fighters are "spat out" in a spiked spheroid projectile at tremendous speed. Once near the assigned target, the sphere fragments and reforms into fifty to seventy-five fighter units. As for defensive systems, the Shadow Cruiser can absorb destructive energy, but at the cost of great pain.

The skin of the Shadow Battlecruiser is a shimmering oily black substance able to withstand the rigors of space and hyperspace travel. The skin is extremely versatile; able to be in a rigid, flexible, or fluid state seemingly at will. This is the same substance that Shadow fighters and transports are made out of, and appears to bond easily with other vessels having similar "skin."

While the organic armor is extremely resilient, the Shadow Cruisers not invulnerable. Carbon-based lifeforms not properly prepared die immediately upon touching this substance. Also, several concentrated energy beams can sever a "spike" from the ship and large amounts of energy can destroy it. Additionally, being organic in design, damage to the ship acts as it would a living being. For example: severing a spine on the Shadow Vessel will put the Shadow vessel in shock or anger it, depending on its mental state and "personality."

Don't stop now........turn the page and learn more about the history and technology of Shadow ships. Check out the red jumpgate too. It can take you someplace very special if you acitvate it.

Instead of relying on jumpgates, Shadow vessels can phase into and out of realspace. In addition, their sensors appear to be sensitive enough to "see" into realspace from hyperspace. But if you are not using Shadow technology, then activate the jumpgate to reach Lurkers, one of the most complete sources of info on B5 in the known universe.



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BABYLON 5, THE SHADOWS, AND ALL OTHER REFERENCES TO THE SHOW ARE COPYRIGHT OF WARNER BROS. TELEVISION. A WARNER COMMUNICATIONS CO.  THIS PAGE IS NOT ASSOCIATED IN ANY WAY WITH WARNER BROS.  MOST OF THE INFORMATION ON THIS PAGE WAS GATHERED FROM THE LURKER'S GUIDE TO BABYLON 5 & Voltayre's ENCYCLOPEDIA XENOBIOLOGICA.

Page Last updated on February 22, 2003