TA Shields

From Egs Mayhem

Current revision as of 15:10, 29 August 2007

Note that figures for shields are given per 0.1 second incoming shot). Shields also "hug" the hull of the ship.

Pulse Shields: 2.5e26J (blocks pulse weapons only). Meteorite Shields: 2.5e26J (blocks physical objects only). EM Field: 6.25e29J (blocks all forms of electromagnetic radiation, eg lasers). Lightning Field (expanding bubble of pulse energy, designed to destroy objects it comes into contact with, eg missiles) Gravitic Shield (bends light rays etc around the ship). Singularity Projector (creates miniature black holes for a fraction of a second). Scythe Pulse Cannons: 4.5e12J (per barrel; 4 barrels per cannon; 5,000rpm). Phase Shifter (Restores out-of-phase matter and energy to the normal phase, allowing it to be defeated by the defences.

Common Factors

• Measurements are alives given per 0.1 second incoming shot, ie Joules per 0.1 seconds. Simply multiply the figure by 10 to find the figure in Watts (1 Watt = 1 Joule per Second).
• Pulse and Meteorite shields, rather than overloading, are actually designed to fail once they've dissipated as much energy as they can. This means that no damage is done to the shield generator, and if the attack lessens then the shields can be brought back online immediately.
• Shields take almost no time to return to full strength, unlike say those in Star Trek. In other words, if you cannot beat the target's shields now, then you never will (compared to Star Trek where you could weaken the shields over time). Thus, concentration of firepower is essential.
• Shields tend to be invisible unless struck by the type of attack they protect against, in which case a ripple of light is seen on the surface of the shield. The exception to this are the EM absorption fields, which function very differently.

Pulse Shields

• Pulse shields project a screen of next to no thickness that absorbs pulse energy only - that is, the type of energy used in Terran Alliance beam weaponry.
• The pulse energy strikes the shield, creating a ripple of light in the process. The energy of the attack meanwhile is diverted to the shield generator, where a wide variety of energy absorption technologies negate the damage of the attack.
• If the shields cannot handle the energy of the shot then the energy that cannot be handled penetrates the shields and strikes whatever is being protected.

Meteorite Shields

• Meteorite shields work in the same manner as pulse shields.
• The kinetic energy of the impact is transferred to the shield generator, where it is dissipated and absorbed.
• A meteorite shield feels like a frictionless but supremely strong material. They function literally like solid armour (but without real armour's flaws): they are safe to touch, and have been known to shatter rocks if the struck hard enough.

Electromagnetic Absorption Fields

• Also known as EM fields, EM shields and the like.
• These actually have a measurable thickness depending on their strength, usually of a few millimetres.
• They work by absorping the photons of a set wavelength(s) - including (and usually) the entire electromagnetic spectrum. So efficiently do they do this that objects shielded by EM shields appear as black 2D silhouettes when viewed against a background.
• This also makes communications difficult: radiowaves and the like will simply be absorbed by the field.

Lightning Field

• This generates a visible, expanding bubble of pulse energy, and is used principally to destroy incoming ordnance, relativistic projectiles and the like.
• They are capable of expanding out to several lightseconds in diameter.
• Although the energy level varies depending on the generator, the largest can concentrate tens of megatons worth of TNT into a square metre, making it lethal even for well shielded missiles and starfighters.

Gravitic Shield

• This projects a massive gravitational field around the starship, warping space and literally leading to incoming beam fire bending away from, if not around, the ship.
• However, focused gravitic beams can be used to "encase" beam fire and punch a hole through a Gravitic Shield. This does however require an enormous amount of power, making it beyond the resources of many starships.