Post by Alain Vircyn on Aug 11, 2007 14:49:15 GMT -5
Shields, and the tech behind them:
Terran shielding systems depend on what are known as zero-point fields - an artificially generated region of space where forces cease to exist. This is a very simplified way of putting it, so we'll just go to examples:
Say you shoot a bullet into a ZP shield, which is a very thin ZP field projected from a central generator - the bullet would stop the second it enters the field, because all of the kinetic energy that it carried and that kept it moving would vanish. It would also not fall, because there would be no gravity in the field to pull it down, so it would hang there, in place, unless someone moved the field - in most cases the bullet would remain in the exact same place relative to the field, since all external forces are applied evenly - or if the field was shut off, it would drop harmlessly to the ground.
ZP fields are also used to allow humans to lift heavy objects without machinery, as enclosing something in a field makes it essentially weightless, and also eliminates inertia that would otherwise impede the movement. The biggest danger of ZP fields is that if living tissue is caught within them, bloodflow and even osmosis and diffusion on a cellular level becomes impossible, and massive cell death will occur within seconds of exposure. As such, ZP fields are always handled extremely carefully and with emergency shutoffs and dampeners to avoid catching an unintended target within the field.
The forces here do not simply vanish, however, they have to go somewhere, and so they are absorbed into a unit attached to the field generator known as an inertial sump. This is a region of subspace much like the one inside a power cell that simply acts as a container to hold the energy the field absorbs. A zero point field can absorb energy without any strain at all until the sump is filled, at which point the field becomes unstable and may invert, spilling the energy back out all at once ((something known as an Infinite-point field, which I will get to later)). As such, shields are extraordinarily dangerous to overload, and all come with emergency shutoffs to prevent such an explosion.
The military, however, has turned this into a weapon, and the infinite point cannons aboard the floating city of New Avalon are among the most devastating weapons in the whole arsenal - anything caught in the field they create instantly flies apart at a subatomic level, as all the particles suddenly have more than enough energy to break free of the bonds holding them together. A truly terrifying and very tightly regulated technology. IP weapons and detonations from shield overload are also limited by the size of the inertial sump, however, as they can only impart as much energy as the sump can hold when the field switches.
Terran shielding systems depend on what are known as zero-point fields - an artificially generated region of space where forces cease to exist. This is a very simplified way of putting it, so we'll just go to examples:
Say you shoot a bullet into a ZP shield, which is a very thin ZP field projected from a central generator - the bullet would stop the second it enters the field, because all of the kinetic energy that it carried and that kept it moving would vanish. It would also not fall, because there would be no gravity in the field to pull it down, so it would hang there, in place, unless someone moved the field - in most cases the bullet would remain in the exact same place relative to the field, since all external forces are applied evenly - or if the field was shut off, it would drop harmlessly to the ground.
ZP fields are also used to allow humans to lift heavy objects without machinery, as enclosing something in a field makes it essentially weightless, and also eliminates inertia that would otherwise impede the movement. The biggest danger of ZP fields is that if living tissue is caught within them, bloodflow and even osmosis and diffusion on a cellular level becomes impossible, and massive cell death will occur within seconds of exposure. As such, ZP fields are always handled extremely carefully and with emergency shutoffs and dampeners to avoid catching an unintended target within the field.
The forces here do not simply vanish, however, they have to go somewhere, and so they are absorbed into a unit attached to the field generator known as an inertial sump. This is a region of subspace much like the one inside a power cell that simply acts as a container to hold the energy the field absorbs. A zero point field can absorb energy without any strain at all until the sump is filled, at which point the field becomes unstable and may invert, spilling the energy back out all at once ((something known as an Infinite-point field, which I will get to later)). As such, shields are extraordinarily dangerous to overload, and all come with emergency shutoffs to prevent such an explosion.
The military, however, has turned this into a weapon, and the infinite point cannons aboard the floating city of New Avalon are among the most devastating weapons in the whole arsenal - anything caught in the field they create instantly flies apart at a subatomic level, as all the particles suddenly have more than enough energy to break free of the bonds holding them together. A truly terrifying and very tightly regulated technology. IP weapons and detonations from shield overload are also limited by the size of the inertial sump, however, as they can only impart as much energy as the sump can hold when the field switches.
