The Shipyard. Im-Rehsa Mearkat variants for use in A Call To Arms

A Pair of Im-Rehsa Mearkats. but what are these ones armed with?

In a previous Shipyard I looked at the Im-Rehsa Mearkat. It is a militarized version of the Tor-Sikar Hakara fast courier and is quite capable but falls short of better ships like the Centauri Vorchan and Earth Alliance Artemis.

Richard Bax is the writer of the original fluff for the Mearkat and its variants for Babylon 5 Wars, and you can find his work on the Babylon 5 Vault. A Call to Arm and Babylon 5 Wars differ in dates and aspects of the background but on the whole they are fairly consistent. I will be using dates that more closely match ACTA than B5W, so if there are any differences they are deliberate and there so that these ships in service dates are consistent with those in the ACTA Fleet book.

As with all home brew designs. if you are planning on using them, make sure to speak with your opponent first for their assent.

The Mearkat Variants

The Mearkat was the first warship to be produced by the agreement between Tor-Sikar and Im-Rehsa. Tor-Sikar provided the ship design and building experience, and Im-Rehsa the technological expertese.
The result was a competent if unspectaculr ship that gave Im-Rehsa the ability to protect their own interests, and develop their weapon technology without having to cooperate with the other major corporations.

The Mearkat became a common sight at Im-Rehsa controlled facilities and modified hulls also passed into the hands of the Shokan, Brakiri pirates and criminals, their origin likely being Tor-Sikar selling modified Hakara couriers which were then armed with black market weapons.

As the first Im-Rehsa warship, the corporation learned a lot from it, and Tor-Sikar and set about developing more advanced ships such as the Shakara, Tashkat and Tolokat. The Mearkat proved to be invaluable, and the hull was used as a test bed for weapons of all kinds. Some modifications were failures, some were successful, but every one was invaluable. Here are the 6 Mearkat variants for use in A Call to Arms, modified from the original Babylon 5 wars versions

Mearkasa-class Shifter Corvette 

The Official Haltana is a much superior ship, perhaps too good

The Shifter Corvette utilizes the incredibly useful Graviton Shifter in place of the Grav Cannon on the base version of the corvette. The ship retains the rest of its weapons. compared to the official Haltana Gravitic frigate from powers and principalities this is a massive downgrade. The shifters are the shorter range version as equipped on the tashkat, and the meartkat was the testbed for the weapon. it does have the advantage that both are in the front arc so it can use them in addition to its pulsars against the same target to inflict a little more damage. The Haltana has to pair up if it wants to deal damage with the shifters to targets in its front arc. 

Mearkova-class Beam Corvette

The design philosophy of the Mearkova is the same as the Olympus Gunship

The Hakara/Mearkat and the Ak-Habil Halik have very similar designs, and it was this fact that led Ak-Habil to approach Im-Rehsa to partner in designing an apropriate mount for the Graviton Beam. This is an incredibly potent weapon hampered only by its slow loading trait. In Babylon 5 Wars the Mearkova and Haltona (a Hailik variant) have the same beam armament. In A Call to Arms the points system is far less granular, so you have to take inspiration from other ships. In this case I'm using the Olympus class corvette as the basis of this variant. Specifically the Early Earth Gunship. The Gunship mounts the same forward firing beam weapon as the Hyperion class heavy cruiser at the expense of its entire secondary armament, and a bit of speed. Its a ship that is very niche in its role.

Matching Beam firepower is the only similarity these ships have

The Mearkova therefore mounts the same Beam weapon as the Haltana, I've reduced the speed slightly, and also knocked a point off the shields. I decided to give it a turret mounted pulsar because the beam is a slow loading weapon and it should have the ability to do something, even if it's very little, on turns its main weapon is recharging.

Mearkava-class Lance Corvette

Too big for the Mearkat hull, the Gravitic Lance found its way onto the Avioki

The Gravitic Lance is a very uncommon weapon in A Call to Arms. It appears on exactly one official ship, the Kaliva-class lance cruiser, a variant of the Avioki. In Babylon 5 wars it is a little more common, but not amazingly so. lack of range is one of the (many) weaknesses of the Brakiri and having a weapon that breaks that mold is something that should be used only in moderation.
The Mearkava was an attempt to get the Gravitic Lance to fit into a Mearkat hull, and was only partially successful. a lot of tradeoffs had to be made and the weapon was still problematic. Im-Rehsa engineers solved them but the resultant weapon was too large to fit into the ships hull. The Graviton Lance was then fitted to the Tashkava (a Tashkat variant) and then later into the Ak-Habil Avioki.
For this I simply switched the Beam on the previous ship with the Gravitic Lance. there is some precedent for a powerful weapon like this to be on a skirmish ship in the form of the Vree Xirr-class bombardment frigate which has a very similar weapon. to keep the ship moderately sane, I lowered the range to 24 inches. Finally, since the Mearkava was a failed prototype (failed as in it was impossible to mount the weapon on the hull, not the weapon being a failure), it's unique, you can only take the one.

Mearkest-class Escort Corvette

Earth Alliance fighters about to have a bad day as they run into a Halikorta, Halik and Mearkest

In 2254 Ly-Nakir launched their first Brokados, a very respectable combat cruiser with a large complement of fighters. While anti fighter ships were available, like the Ak-Habil Halik and the Pri-Wakat Halikorta, Im-Rehsa decided to use the Mearkat as the basis of an anti fighter ship. In Acta terms this requires making sacrifices for the ship to be given the Escort trait. In this case the ship loses its powerful Grav cannons, and in return the secondary armament is now twin linked and the side weapons are a little more powerful. This is perfectly in line with the Halik which compared to the Haltona loses the powerful beam, but receives twin linked pulsars in return.

Mearsas-class Pulsar Corvette

The Heavy Graviton Pulsar is a weapon system designed to be used on the Tolokat as its primary armament. The Tolokat project (another Richard Bax contribution) ran into many issues which are for another time, but the efficacy of the heavy pulsar was not one of them. Possessing superior range and hitting power to the now standard Graviton Pulsar, the weapon was installed on a number of Mearkats to produce the Mearsas. Im-Rehsa were so impressed with the weapon that serial production of the Mearsas started after the Tolokat entered service.
In terms of capability, the Heavy Pulsars are a touch shorter ranged and lack the precise trait, but make up for it with a superior weight of fire. When it gets into normal pulsar range it has about half the firepower of a Vorchan, and far more shots than an Artemis, but only marginally more firepower in the forward arc than the Artemis does from its side arc.

Mearkata-class Mine Corvette

Energy mines are usually only seen when the Narn enter the field

The final Mearkat variant is the Mine Corvette. Energy mines are very very potent against fighters of all kinds, and situationally very effective against ships with stealth. The Mearkata was a testbed for the new Gravitic mine. the weapon would later be adopted and equipped on the Takata-class mine cruiser. The main issue is that in numbers energy mines can be overbearing.
Thankfully there is a precedent for energy mines in the Brakiri fleet list in the form of the Takata, as well as the experimental refit. Rather than use the long range version on the Takata, I simply swapped the main armament on the Beam and Lance versions of the Mearkat with a mine launcher. My initial feeling is that its a very weak ship, but being able to fire every turn rather than being slow loading or one use like those of other races could prove me very wrong.

I hope you enjoyed this Journey into the Ships of the Brakiri Im-Rehsa Corporation. You may see some of them in action in the battle for Khilsiek which is currently ongoing.

Next time in the Shipyard I will look at some bigger ships.

STL's by Tyrel Lohr
Thanks to Richard Bax for his history of the Mearkat

If you like what I do, please consider supporting me on Patreon or buy me a nice cup of Coffee.

Thanks for reading and I will see you next time.