Starship history: The Catalyst

The Catalyst-class destroyer is a workhorse used primarily by Gallentean millitary forces in Navy operations through out the Federation and New Eden. The destroyers fielded by the various Navies of the New Eden cluster are generally percieved as effective anti-frigate warfare platforms. They are not very popular with capsuleers however.

The issue destroyers face is a large signature radius, almost the size of a cruiser, and frigate based defences. The large signature radius makes it easier for larger guns to track and hit the ship and missiles are likely to do more damage. This combined with their inability to mount heavy weapons and relatively poor defence capabilities mean destroyers don't often see use in capsuleer wars, apart from their Tech 2 incarnations: Interdictors.

The Catalyst itself is a potent blaster platform that is capable of getting in a frigate pilots face and overwhelming it's defences quickly and brutally, leaving no time for the pilot to call for backup or run before he's stranded in his escape pod. Destroyers can mount eight light weapons which is useful for engaging mulitple small targets like hostile drones or a pair of frigates but against anything larger than another destroyer it is unlikely to deal significant damage before it is destroyed by larger calibre weapons, against which, it cannot defend.

The Catalyst had a relativley trouble-free development with only one prototype vessel being destroyed during testing where a tear from a micrometeoroid developed into a fracture causing the outermost engine to break off under acceleration. The engine subsequently collided with the ship as it was attempting an emergency stop causing a massive explosion of unspent fuel and oxygen. Four crewmen out of the twenty aboard died in the accident.

After this incident, the progressive shield arrays were converted to more modern linear emmiters to eliminate the tiny "gaps" caused by progression pulses resonating at certain points on the shield bubble.

The Ion thrusters on most Gallente Navy Catalysts have recently undergone a massive overhaul as part of the destroyer upgrade scheme, costing the Gallente government mutiple billions of ISK. They produce significantly more thrust per ton than the last generation of thrusters and make the Catalyst fast and agile for it's size whilst retaining fuel and energy efficiency for weapons and shields.
Despite all of it's good combat qualities and millitaristic upgrades over the years, most capsuleers look on the Catalyst as well as other destroyers, with disdain. Most capsuleer operated Catalysts end up fitted with tractor beams and salvage modules to retreive valuable materials from the wrecks of other vessels. This task is now easily accomplished by ORE's new dedicated salvage vessel, the Noctis. 

The catalyst features eight high power slots for turrets. The vessel is specialised for blasters which are extremley powerful but very short-range turreted weapons. It has two medium power slots that allow for rudimentry electronic warfare or weaponry upgrades to be installed and three low power slots for basic defence and countermeasure modules. A basic Catalyst will cost just under a million ISK, but fitting it with top-of-the-range hardware will hurt your wallet.

Starship history: The Omen

The Omen class light cruiser is a new addition to the Imperial Navy. It is a medium-weight vessel, measuring in at a respectable 268 metres and with a mass of 11,650 metric tons; This ship is no doorstop.
The Omen was first proposed to the Amarr High Command nearly fifteen years ago but sidelined for nearly five years. It was deemed too weak for a cruiser and judged to be "Too independent to participate effectively in cruiser squadrons."
Imperial Navy commanders were looking forward to having a new multi-role ship to fill out the existing ranks of the stiff and inflexible cruiser groups and after four years of lobbying the Omen project was given the go-ahead and the first prototype chassis and hulls were built a year later


This ship caused a revolution in Amarr Navy battle doctrine. For the first time ever, ships were allowed full communication in battle and were able to receive updated orders on which targets to fire on. They were also given freedom of movement in the battlegrid. This also spurred the creation of logistics ships which assist friendly vessels that are taking severe damage.
In times gone by, Amarrian ship commanders had a docket of orders and a set of standard regulations which must be adhered to during every engagment, whether they were engaging pirate raiders or knocking down a space station. Eight cruisers screened every battleship and fifteen frigates formed a defensive perimeter of fifteen to thirty kilometers. If capital ships like Revelation-class dreadnoughts or Archon-class carriers were involved then there would be three battleships assigned to each vessel with the cruiser screens and frigate escorts.

Any deviation was met either with destruction of the ship in question and a dishonorable mark against the commander's house and family or immediate dismissal from the military and a public shaming of the commander's house. Recently, this tactic has made the Imperial Navy predictable to the point of impotency and many high ranking navy commanders have called for a change in procedure. The Omen was the beginning of this change.



When the first prototype was launched it was immediately put on rigorous space trials. And, as most first generation prototypes do, it showed up a serious flaw in the design. The flaw was so serious that the ship actually broke up during a turn. It was later shown that the armour plating was too heavy and the chassis had sheared in several locations leaving the vessel vulnerable to a breakup. The other prototypes had three layers of heavy armour removed and a layer of lighter ablative and refractive armour was installed to reduce mass to acceptable levels.

The ship performed like a dream and within five years it had passed all of it's space trials. The weapons testing went badly for two ships. The advanced cyclic capacitor banks that build up the power to fire the guns and massive heat-sinks that stop them overheating were designed and installed especially for the Omen-class. These upgrades managed to fail in spectacular fashion on O-522 and O-498.

O-522 was towed back to dock for scrapping after a bank of capacitors blew out the entire side of the ship. There were no survivors. Most died from the initial explosions, others died from exposure to vacuum and few died from the fire that blazed through the ship's internal structure at several thousand degrees.
All that was found of O-498 was the forward command superstructure and fire-control tower.

After the microleaks causing the problems were repaired on all other Omens, the upgrades worked perfectly.

Weaponry aboard the Omen is conservative but potently compensated for by fast cycle times and long range bonuses. The Omen sports five high power slots for heavy beam or pulse laser turret armaments. Three medium slots provide basic coverage for warp scramblers or target painters. five low slots allow for armour hardening and repair systems to be installed and increase the vessel's survivability under fire or to add special modules that further increase the range of the guns to turn the Omen into a long-ranger laser sniper. A drone bay was added as well to further increase the ship's adaptability.

The Omen is a relatively cheap ship to buy new, a modest 8 to 9 million ISK for the hull. And it is a tough vessel in a fight, it will not easily fall to enemy fire. If you are looking for a good all-rounder, then look no further.                

Starship history: The Tempest

The Tempest is a widely used vessel and a staple in any long-range fleet engagements. It's tough shields and resilient armour make this ship a valuable asset.

The mighty Tempest class Battleship has seen many alterations and refits since it's birth by fire. The first true dedicated Battleship design forwarded by the Minmatar Republic, at the time more commonly known as the Minmatar Rebel Alliance. It was quickly and quietly deployed en mass to repel the slave-hunting invasion of the Amarrians.

The Amarr Crusade Warfleet were extremely surprised and the High Command had no available response to the powerful and potent warship. The Amarr fell back under the onslaught of literally hundreds of thousands of massive 1400mm artillery shells. The first design was little more than a scaffolding structure with a boxy habitat section occupying the mid-section and an engine bolted to the back. Then guns and missile systems were added.

The power-sail arrays were fitted during the third refit, which also included the addition of uprated armour and a shield grid that rivaled those manufactured by Caldari engineers. The engineering and habitation decks were redesigned to provide more structural support and create a larger internal volume for subsystems. The fourth refit was launched two years ago, replacing the aging systems on the older models. This was seen as a necessary move by the Republic Feet as some of the original third refit Tempests were over 100 years old and still in service. 

The fourth refit is a  powerhouse. Sporting 8 high power slots with mounting points for 4 super-heavy missile launchers and 6 heavy turrets means this ship is never lacking in firepower. It also allows for a lot of pilot flexibility in loadouts.
5 medium slots allow for either shield upgrades, sensor boosters and warp scramblers to be fitted. The choice of low power slot modules can really make this ship reach out and touch people. There are 6 slots and they can be utilized to extend the already staggering range of the the guns to truly epic distances. Gyrostabilisers are a popular choice to equip on this ship as they increase the effective range massively.

Don't be fooled by it's fragile appearance, this ship can hit hard and gives no quarter to those unfortunate enough to be its pilot's target. The Fleet Issue and Tribal Issue Tempests feature even greater shield and armour upgrades, as well as an advanced power-sail system that can boost main power production by up to 50% in emergency but in normal operation provides main power to life-support and secondary computers.


A fourth refit Tempest Battleship would probably set you back a good 80 to 90 million ISK, just for the ship hull. The modules would add up to around the 130 million mark, but it is well worth the money to see Amarrians instinctively flee before it!

Starship history: The Drake

The Drake is one of the most popular and widely used Caldari starships in the New Eden cluster. Praised for it's heavy shield optimizations, ease of use and high damage output. 

The initial design for the Drake class Battlecruiser was submitted to the Caldari Navy High Command in
YC 094. YC stands for Yulai Convention, the years are counted from the year that CONCORD was formed. CONCORD are the peacekeepers of the spaceways and are made up of patrol ships built by all four spacefaring governments and manned by personnel from every corner of the galaxy.

The Drake was the first ship larger than a cruiser to rely exclusively on missiles. As such it was often maligned during trials for it's lack of ability to deal significant damage against small, fast targets like the frigates and fighters often manned by pirates and outlaws. During its initial weapons trials several prototypes were destroyed by missiles touching off through overheating in the launcher bays. This caused massive blowouts usually spanning several decks and often detonated the remainder of the missiles stored in the auto-loading system. The destruction of the ship was assured and the loss of all hands aboard was not uncommon. This has been fixed by running cryogenic coolant through the launchers.
Another prototype was destroyed by a malfunctioning shield upgrade that collapsed the shield bubble back into itself , crushing the ship and leaving it a twisted, shattered wreck with personnel trapped within.

Extensive research and development work was carried out on the remaining two prototype vessels. One was designed in an asymmetrical manner, to keep the tradition of Caldari starships being unique in shape and form. This idea was scrapped to make it easier to mass produce and to simplify the installation of different launcher hardpoints. This was an unpopular move, many saw the adoption of symmetrical starship hulls as conforming to galactic pressures but it later proved invaluable when converting the ships to interface with a capsuleer's command pod.

A quick overview of its performance in battle and in tests shows us that this vessel can hold it's own in a fight, even against mighty battleships, which are half-again as large. It has seven missile bays that can fire in 360 degree arcs, a spare high power module slot for anything the pilot chooses to equip, like an energy neutralizer.
6 medium power slots allow for almost unlimited customization and hardening of the ship's shield system, or to equip a plethora of electronic warfare and inhibitor systems like warp scramblers and sensor jammers. 4 low power slots allow for expansion on the already tough shields or power distribution system. and a 25m3 drone hanger was added to allow the pilot to deploy scout drones, small robots about the size of a large Transit van, to assist him or her in engaging smaller, more nimble targets like interceptors.



In it's twenty years of service, this ship and it's many forms are probably the most widely used in New Eden, after the humble Ibis class frigate. It will see action and reaction on battlefields for a long while and is likely to remain a staple workhorse in the Caldari Navy.

If this doesn't convince you to buy one, then perhaps this will. A Drake could be yours, fresh off the assembly line of Jita IV Moon 4 - Caldari Navy Assembly Plant for just 39,098,464.99 ISK. Order one with your nearest starship procurement broker and sail the skies with Gods...