Shadows Scout Class

**Craft**: Shadows Scout
**Type**: scout
**Scale**: capital
**Length**: 350 meters
**Skill**: capital ship pilot
**Crew**: 1
**Crew Skill**: (See Shadow Vessel Traits)
**Passengers**: 9
**Cargo Capacity**: 470 kg
**Consumables**: 13 months
**Hyperdrive**: x8
**Nav Computer**: yes
**Maneuverability**: 3D
**Space**: 12
**Atmosphere**: 450; 1,300 km/h
**Hull**: 3D+2
**Sensors**

* Passive: 60 / 1D+2
* Scan: 120 / 3D+2
* Search: 180 / 5D+2
* Focus: 6 / 7D+1

**Weapons**

* **3 Phasing Pulse Cannons**

Fire Arc: forward
Crew: 1
Scale: capital
Skill: capital ship gunnery
Fire Control: 5D+1
Space Range: 1-18/45/90
Atmosphere Range: 2-36/90/180km
Damage: 13D+2
**Miscellaneous**:

* Artificial Gravity: Yes
* Crew: 1 Pilot
* Average Crew Experience Level: Shadow Pilot (See Below)
* Stealth: 19 (Base Difficulty to Detect Ship)
* Atmospheric Capable
* Biological Engine
* Living Ship

**Shadow Vessel Traits**
All Shadow ships have the following traits in common, which may allow them to break some common space travel or combat rules.

* **Shadow Pilots**: The skill of a Shadow ship is partly dependent on the abilities of the living pilot bound inside, although the Shadow’s advanced technologies and augmentations mean that almost anyone can be turned into the brain of a lethal killing machine. A ship’s capital ship gunnery bonus is equal to 3D+2 + the base skill of the pilot; its Pilot, Operations and Technical skills are similarly equal to 5D+1 + the skill of the pilot.

* **Shadow Jump**: Shadow vessels can enter hyperspace as desired, and do not need to open a jump point.

* **Shadow Scream**: A Shadow ship emits a partially psychic screech when it wishes to do so, unsettling nearly anyone who ‘hears’ it. When a Shadow ship ‘screams’ anyone within Close range (25 Space) of it must immediately make a Willpower check at Difficulty 10 or suffer a –2 pip penalty to all rolls in the next round. A ship’s crew can only be affected once per encounter in this way.

**Description**: Among the deadliest ships of its size in the entire galaxy, Shadow scouts are swift, lethal and usually the first wave of reconnaissance for larger fleets lurking in hyperspace. Able to use their sensors across the confusing and disruptive energy fields of hyperspace without any degradation of effect, the scouts are suspected to possess specially designed capabilities for ‘peeking’ into normal space without having to leave the safety of hyperspace. It makes sense though, as they are so attuned to the tides and ebbs of the other dimension and can move back and forth between it without error or fail, that they no doubt have better ways to pinpoint their arrival trajectory – meaning that the scouts must be able to ‘see’ across the dimensional barriers in order to do so.

Shadow scouts are not known to engage their enemies in a straight fight – while they are fully capable of defeating enemies much larger than they are, they prefer to maneuver around an enemy, stay in its blind spots (if any) and pelt the victim with phasing pulses until either it is destroyed or the scout has bought enough time for its larger brethren to home in on its signal, arrive and finish the fight in a blaze of molecular light.

**Source**:

* The Babylon 5 Project: Shadow Scout Ship
* Babylon 5: Ships of the Galaxy (page 83)
* thedemonapostle