Starship Shield Systems

Starship shields are a type of force field and fall into three distinct categories: deflectors, bubbles, and projections. Most ships only carry the first two types. Shield emitters are usually called "generators", and are a blue system. Multiple generators combine to form an array.

Emitters

Most common on warships are dual-band emitters capable of acting as both deflectors and bubble shields at the same time. Commercial spacecraft will typically only use deflectors. Most ships will have defensive emitters and a separate navigational deflector.

There are competing schools of thought regarding the use of one or two large emitters and many smaller units. Single large units are difficult to manufacture, but can be over-built and offer a high degree of reliability. A large emitter is considered, after the FTL drive, to be the single hardest part of a ship to manufacture. Multiple small emitters offer heavy redundancy and can be built at industrial complexes on a planet's surface.

• Foundation capitol ships typically use an array of several large emitters and follow a "dual redundancy" rule. A ship with four emitters would need each emitter to be capable of covering half the ship.
  • Foundation support ships typically have one large emitter and multiple small backup emitters.

• Alliance warships use dozens of much smaller emitters, as the Alliance lacks the necessary large-scale factories to produce large emitters.

• The Kamians also employed many small emitters, relying on exotic shield geometry.

The argument of large vs. small emitters is difficult to settle. A ship with a large emitter that sees it damaged beyond repair would require a stardock to replace the unit; while small emitters can often be replaced "underway" with parts stored onboard. Late in the Succession Wars, the Foundation began fielding ships that used both.

Shield Types

Deflector

Cheapest and simplest to build, deflector cheifly works by scattering the particles from energy-based weapons and by throwing smaller projectiles off course. While effective against beam weapons, any projectile with sufficient mass can pass through even the strongest deflector shield. Hence, torpedoes remain a serious threat to ships defended only with deflectors.

All starships also require a navigational deflector, a shield focused around the direction of movement. The navigational deflector pushes aside dust and small rocks as the ship moves through space, protecting the hull from impacts.

Bubble Shields

Works like a traditional force field, in that it forms a solid wall of force around the ship. In a bubble-shield configuration, any physical impact to the shield is counter-acted, with electrical energy from the buffer being translated into physical force against the impact. This makes bubble shields highly effective defensive systems, but also extremely taxing on power reserves.

Most ships will have a separate buffer dedicated to the shields. Bubble shields work best in conjunction with deflectors (the deflector helping to "deflect" any impact so that it strikes the shield at an angle), so these two systems usually work concurrently. Emitters capable of creating both deflector and bubble shields are called dual-band emitters.

Because of the physical forces involved, the effectiveness of bubble shields is ultimately determined by the structural integrity of the ship. Shield emitters are very carefully placed and attached directly to the strongest parts of the ship's rigid skeleton. The bubble can stop physical projectiles if strong enough, making them an effective counter-measure against torpedoes.

Shield failure occurs when an impact with enough force overwhelms the emitter. Most systems have a failsafe that cuts power in this event, protecting the emitters from damage. This failsafe has been quite a boon for salvagers, as most ships suffering an impact great enough to trip the failsafe generally do not survive the encounter.

Bubble shields are far less effective against directed energy weapons, and can only defend against them at the highest possible power levels. For this reason, the leading edge of the bubble shield is usually well within the limits of the deflector.

A further concern hampering bubble shields is the ship's engine. Shields are one-directional, so thrust can still be applied by the ship, but if the vessel is using an Ion vacuum drive or similar technology, its manuverability may be severely hammpered. Most warships maintain a plasma reserve so they can continue to manuever. Ships will also maintain reserves of waste material they can "burn" in the engines while the shields are active.

Shield Geometry

The geometry of the bubble sheild is typically an obliete spheroid to reduce power requirements, though a perfect sphere is the most efficient for absorbing impacts. With the generator at dead-center, the need to secure it becomes greatly reduced. The shield effectively transfers force to the emitter in all directions at once.

Typically speaking, geometry is always spherical in shape, but several emitters working in an array can produce many formed of geometry. Creating simple geometric shapes such as cubes is possible, but would serve no useful function. Often times, sips will use shield arrays to create "exotic" geometry, highly irregular shapes, as a defensive measure to reduce the enemies ability to target weak or vulnerable areas. In particular, Kamian warships were infamous for employing exotic geometry, which created serious issues for fighters, bombers, and projectile-based weapon attacks.

Projected Shields

Projected shields are almost never used. They work in a manner similar to a bubble shield, but create only a solid wall, similar in principle to terrestrial force-fields, but without the need for an emitter along the edge. Projected shield emitters are highly sophisticated, and used in only a small handful of applications. Smaller, simplified units are frequently used by MEAN vehicles, but these are based on terrestrial force-field systems(the physics of which are very different than space-based systems).

A few very niche rolls have kept the projected shield technology from disappearing into obscurity. Many commercial space commuter vessels use a variation to cover pieces of hull geometry and engine intakes during atmospheric entry. A few war ships belonging to various powers have used them to protect key areas. The Foundation hardly uses them at all, despite likely developing the technology in the first place.

Projected shields have both a major advantage and a huge dis-advantage.

Because they project a single piece of shielding, the lattice matrix can function as a shock-absorber, translating significantly less force to the ship. This means the shield itself can block an order of magnitude stronger of an impact, making them thoroughly proof against even the most powerful beam weapons, and even able to deflect a suicide attack or asteroid impact.

The Achilles heal, however, is power: projection shields have significantly higher power requirements, higher than most ships can manage. Given typical power generation to size ratios, no one can actually use a projected shield. The handful of operators tend to employ them only as extreme emergency measures.

Further hampering the popularity, projection shield emitters are extremely sophisticated and very hard to properly battle-harden.

Notable Operators

• The Crimson Blade and Gudersnipe school designed MEAN vehicles use a modified terrestrial version in a wide variety of roles. Power requirements are so high that usefulness is extremely limited, in some configurations, only for minutes at a time.

• The M'KHarans have long employed projection shields on their most powerful warships, and used them to great effect during both the Mage Wars and the Kamian Succession Wars. The root of their ability comes from M'KHaran power generators, which are capable of ramping output to much greater degree than most other technology. In short bursts, a M'KHaran ship can reach ten times normal power output, easily enough to power a large number of projection emitters. This technology allowed them to easily go toe to toe with Kamian warships, and if they ever went to war against the Foundation, would make them a formidable threat.

• The G.S.S. Saratoga is outfitted with projection shields. The small ship has a high power output. However, the emitters are very sensitive and are used infrequently. The Saratoga is the only Foundation ship operating projection shields.

• During the Age of the Dragon, the Victory Fleet outfitted all of its ships with highly advanced "Mk XXI" projection shields. Powered by Zero-Point energy, these ships had functionally limitless power and could keep the shields running at all times. Conventional weapons were basically useless against them. The Victory Fleet even outfitted small destroyers and cutters as "shield bearers", ships with additional, greatly enhanced shield capacity that could block attacks for the more vulnerable capitol ships.