Craft: Hapan Consortium Hapes Nova-class Battlecruiser
Affiliation: Hapes Consortium
Era: Rebellion
Source: Cracken’s Threat Dossier (page 44), Starships of the Galaxy (page 95), The Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels (pages 62-63)
Type: Heavy combat frigate
Scale: Capital
Length: 400 meters
Crew: 1,700, gunners: 90
Crew Skill: Astrogation 5D, capital ship gunnery 5D+2, capital ship piloting: Hapan Nova 6D, capital ship shields 6D+2, communications 5D+2, sensors 4D+2
Passengers: 600 (troops/support personnel)
Cargo Capacity: 600 metric tons
Consumables: 1 month
Cost: 15 million (new)
Hyperdrive Multiplier: x1.5
Hyperdrive Backup: x12
Nav Computer: Yes
Maneuverability: 1D+1
Space: 4
Hull: 5D
Shields: 2D*
*The Nova-class has backup shields (4D). When a die of shields is lost, you can make an easy capital ship shield roll to use one of the backup dice to bring the strength back to 2D.
Sensors:
Passive: 40/0D
Scan: 55/2D
Search: 80/2D+2
Focus: 5/3D
Weapons:
25 Hapan Turbolaser Batteries
Fire arc: 5 front, 5 left, 5 right, 5 rear, 5 turret
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Fire Control: 1D+2
Space Range: 3-15/35/75
Damage: 7D
10 Laser Cannons
Fire arc: Front
Scale: Starfighter
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1-3/12/25
Damage: 5D
10 Ion Cannons
Fire arc: Front
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Fire Control: 3D
Space Range: 1-10/25/50
Atmosphere Range: 2-20/50-100 km
Damage: 3D
Starfighter Complement: 2 fighter squadrons (24 starfighters)
Background: The Nova-class battle cruiser was a capital ship that formed a large portion of the Hapan fleet. The Hapes Consortium had several different warships at its disposal. The backbone of their fleet was the distinctive Battle Dragon, but Nova-class battle cruisers were regularly used to supplement the Dragons.
They were frequently deployed to the border, performing interception missions against the pirates and smugglers (Han Solo, for example) who sought to penetrate the fabulously wealthy inner worlds of the Hapes Cluster. They were designed primarily as large-scale support ships, intended to respond to threats rather than undertake extended missions.
The Nova-class battle cruisers were four hundred meters long and bristling with weaponry. The ship’s bridge was connected to a long neck-like body, with an “inverted-V” shape split-wing structure at the vessel’s rear. The bridge had a retractable wall-like shield that could be deployed for combat.
The hangar bay and central power core were near the end of the ship’s body. The ion/hyperdrive engines and maneuvering jet arrays on the rear wings made for a combat cruiser that was extremely swift at both sublight and light speeds, thanks to its modern design (and not a little due to technological espionage directed against Imperial corporations such as Kuat Drive Yards and SoroSuub Corporation).
The main weapons of the cruiser were generally 25 turbolasers for use against capital ships, ten laser cannons for dealing with starfighters or light freighters, and ten ion cannons for disabling and capturing enemy ships.
In its docking bays, a Nova cruiser carried two squadrons of Hapan Miy’til starfighters and six Hetrinar assault bombers. Nova cruisers cautiously picked up and entered their battles as Hapan turbolaser technology lagged behind the Galactic standard. Their turbolasers took roughly three times longer to recharge than their Imperial and New Republic counterparts, which sometimes left Nova cruisers unable to return fire at inopportune times. As a result, they were generally deployed in wings of 3 or more, allowing for the swift, brutal assault generally preferred by the Hapans.
Later retrofits of Nova-class cruisers followed the practices of the Mon Calamari in adding redundant shield generators and larger, more reliable power generators at the cost of reducing the Miy’til fighters to a single squadron. New Republic Intelligence believed they employed shield designs stolen from the Mon Calamari Shipyards.
Prince Isolder once offered a cruiser to Han Solo if Solo would drop his courtship of Princess Leia Organa. Solo refused and instead kidnapped Leia, spiriting her off to Dathomir.
Cruisers were part of the fleet used by Dukat Aleson Gray at the Battle of Qoribu against the Chiss due to his misguided attempt to “rescue” the Skywalkers from the Killik Gorog nest.