The WhiteStar is the prototype of a new kind of ships. These ships combine Minbari and Vorlon technology. While the most of the ship still is in "conventional" Minbari technology, the hull is Vorlon technology that "learns" from previous damages to provide a better protection in forthcoming battles. The ship has been build and tested by the Minbari Religious cast without the knowledge of the other two casts.
Unusual for a ship of this size is the capability of forming jumppoints. Another advantage over other ships is the incredible agility of the ship. These two characteristics were very useful when the WhiteStar encountered some Shadow Cruisers in 2260. Shadow forces were moving against a Ranger Base at Zagros VII. When the Shadows first saw the new ship they wanted to capture the WhiteStar for further investigations.
Capt. Sheridan, the commander of the WhiteStar, knew that he could not destroy the Shadow Cruiser in a direct battle. The WhiteStar used a jumpgate to flee into hyperspace. Their destination was the Markab jumpgate. When the WhiteStar and the Shadow Cruiser reentered normal space, Sheridan ordered to activate the jumpengines. This caused a tremendous explosion in which the Shadow Cruiser was destroyed.
This was the first victory over a Shadow ship, but not the last. Sheridan and Delenn heard that a Shadow cruiser has been found on Ganymede. They also knew that the PSI-Corps tried to set in a new core in the ship to use it for their own purposes. Sheridan decided to destroy the Shadow cruiser before the PSI-Corps could attach a new core. But they came too late. The new core was unprepared for its use and so the Shadow ship went insane.
It destroyed the outpost station when the WhiteStar jumped into the system. Unable to destroy the Shadow Cruiser in a direct battle the WhiteStar began descending into the Jupiter atmosphere. The Shadow ship couldn't resist the extreme pressure and was destroyed.
With the job done, Sheridan wanted to return to Babylon 5 when suddenly his old ship, the Omega Destroyer Agamemnon, arrived. He wanted to keep the WhiteStar a secret but he couldn't risk to battle the destroyer. He also knew that they could not escape the Agamemnon while being in the Jupiter atmosphere. So Sheridan decided to try a new high-risk maneuver. While still flying in the atmosphere the WhiteStar formed a jumppoint and escaped the Agamemnon.
This was the first recorded atmospheric jump into hyperspace. Later in 2260 Cmdr. Ivanova used the WhiteStar to contact some other of the First-Ones. Impressed by the little ship and its crew the Walkers at Sigma 957 decided to help the Army of Light in the fight against the Shadows. The WhiteStar was also used when Draal and the Great Machine at Epsilon 3 created a time rift to steal Babylon 4. The Shadows recognized the station during its construction from the last war in 1,200 AC. The station became the replacement for the destroyed headquarters
After the tremendous success of the WhiteStar prototype in various battles, many other ships of this class had been built. Many ships were used and destroyed when fighting against the Shadows in late 2260. Although the WhiteStar is an extremely powerful ship with a "learning" skin it can be easily destroyed by one Shadow Battlecrab.
During the Human Civil War, one WhiteStar vessel became the flagship of the Army of Light. During several encounters with loyalist Earth Alliance forces the WhiteStar fleet proved their superiority over the Omega Destroyers, Nova Dreadnoughts and Hyperion Heavycruiser.
The only devastating moment for the fleet was an encounter with the new Omega-X Destroyer at Mars. These Destroyers combined Earth and Shadow technology and were only beaten using the extremely agility of the WhiteStar fleet. Cmdr. Susan Ivanova was nearly killed during this encounter.
The WhiteStar fleet patrolled the borders of the members of the Interstellar Alliance to prevent races attacking their neighbors after the war was over.
After the Shadow war and other conflicts had reduced the military resources of the Interstellar Alliance, and in particular of its member the Earth Alliance, a new class of very advanced ships were concieved. The Interstellar Alliance would supply the technology, while the Earth Alliance had the will and resources to construct them in secrecy. The design was based upon technology from the Whitestars, Vorlon and Minbari technology, as well as the latest of technology and research from the Earth Alliance.
Finally, after four years of design and construction, the first two prototypes "Excalibur" and "Victory" were completed. More ships will eventually be built, since a fleet of them were planned from the beginning. A Victory Class Destroyer is around two kilometers long, but very manueverable for a ship its size.
The ship has four main beam weapons mounted in the nose section (picture), and several beam weapons and anti-fighter pulse cannons (picture) in different strategic locations, making the ship capable of firing in any direction. But there is also a super weapon housed in the tips of the three "wings", extremely powerful Vorlon weapon-arrays. When fired, three beams of energy from the tips of the wings combine in front of the nose for a devastating blast (picture). This powerful weapon was however designed for ships with much better reactor output (like a Vorlon ship), so firing this weapon leaves a Victory Class Destroyer dead in space for one minute while all systems recharge. Obviously this weapon should only be used as a last resort.
Defensively the hull of the ship is covered by a new plastique/crystalline alloy, capable of reflecting 80% of an energy weapon. A Victory Class Destroyer is capable of carrying many small spacecraft in its docking bays, several shuttles, and a squadron of fighters. The bridge and most crew areas are located at the base of the top "wing".
Initially the ship should be equipped with Vorlon Bio-Armor but this plan was abandoned after the attack on Earth. The Drakh poisoned the Earth atmosphere with a deadly virus and so the new mission of the Excalibur was to find a cure before the people on Earth would die. At present it is unclear whether the planned 800 Victory Destroyer would ever be build. Many resources of the Interstellar Alliance are now focused on finding a cure against the virus.
