Welcome back!

Welcome to the good old notion of the “well, see what the scrap yard has” solution to a Shadow problem looming… What is this ship? Well, for some of my more eagle eyed viewers, this is a Torpedo Ram. Heavily modified with a “project’s gone wrong” weapon placed at the forecastle’s reloadable Torpedo Tubes. Why not remove the Torpedo Tubes and Torpedo’s? Because it’s a one way trip… And if the Contraptions up front don’t work, it’s an easy way to get rid of them. Why these? Money and secrecy, and oh ya a Peace Treaty… It’s Earth Force…

Yes so this one is also story driven by nature as always. Named the Erebus Class after the Greek God of Shadows, the ship has been turned into a Shadow Hunter. Those “Weapons” at the front are taken from the failed Hyperspace Barge Experiment during the Earth Minbari War, just like the Torpedo Ram. Forgiving its Ironclad looks mixed with its physics twisting Forecastle, it’s an old and desperate ship with a desperate design intent. The Former mission was to sneak up to a Minbari Cruiser, jump out of Hyperspace, Torpedo a hole into the Cruiser, ram the explosives thru the softened hull and detonate them; with or without being able to pull out before the fuses go off and run like hell.

So whys it back? Well… it’s Babylon 5, so lots of ya know… stuff and things… Not really. As noted in the Cruiser Light Ship Modification and Minbari terms of a Peace Treaty (Remember, alternate story line) The Light Ships would be tasked with searching Hyperspace in total secrecy laying down sensor pods to create a net where Shadows may once have crossed thru Hyperspace undetected. This ships Mission is to engage and destroy the Shadow Vessel before it can destroy the Light Ship. So this is a joint effort. Crazy, albeit, but ask yourself, would you, if Minbari at this time period hand over your technology to a newer race you probably wouldn’t like very much? I didn’t think so. So here we have it. Let’s tare a hole in space where the Shadow Vessel is. The ship now has 5 Engines Aft as well to run like hell, separate Fusion Reactors to fuel the Weapons up front and 2 navigational thrusters strapped to the sides for quick adjustment navigation. Yepp there’s a lot of truss work for the Star-frame to handle the stresses of electromagnetic rapid discharge and a control room place right between the damn things. Why does one of the Ram Piers not have a consentration collector on the Starboard side? Direct drive current discharge, and because no body knows it they’ll even work, or because it wasn’t at the scrap yard anymore… You decided. If you got the call to head out to the E.A.S-Erebus, would you heed the call? Who dares wins…

This is why you don’t tell Engineers “OH NO WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING!” Because here it is, its… something…

Enjoy!
-JH