Force Fields

(Copied straight from .XML 'backup' file, needs formatting and corrections. ZM User (talk) 20:15, 22 April 2024 (PDT))

(As of 3/20 there is an ongoing discussion on the email list about how they work.  Once consensus is reached I'll update this page. -ZM)
(This article incorporates text from the deleted page "Interdiction Field". -ZM)

Force Fields

  Force Fields are one of the technologies given to the humans once they were accepted into the Confederacy.  The Confederacy uses several separate versions of the same basic technology for similar but slightly different purposes:

• Nav Shield - Inherited with the "Aurora" pod-carrying freighters, protects the ship from normal space hazards. A spherical shell (centered on its generator) which protects the ship from all directions.  Usually clear but it can be tuned to absorb or reflect all EM radiation, making it appear black.  Note that all known Sa'arm ships use this, as they captured the generators with several Confederacy diplomacy ships before Earth entered the war.
  
• Combat Shield - A stronger version of the Nav Shield used by our earlier, smaller warships, can withstand early low-powered shipboard weapons.  Later improvements made it hemispherical at twice the strength at the cost of four times the power; only our newer, larger ships had the power budget to use them.  Usually clear.  Some stories indicate that it can be 'tuned' to block lasers or other EM forces but this in turn makes positional fixes, navigation, and fire control more difficult.
  
• Interdiction Field - Used to protect the location and immediate area around an extraction.  Usually described as a grey hemisphere but the generator is outside of the field, usually on a drone hovering above the scene.  Assumed to only penetrate the atmosphere and end wherever it touches a building or the ground.  Ending This Mess discusses the need to also protect from tunneling, implying that the field does not reach below the ground's solid surface.
  
• Wall Shield - Described as a flat impenetrable surface that fills an opening and attaches to the surrounding structure, used to block openings such as doorways or windows.  Forces acting upon the panel are transferred to the structure it is attached to.  Very small but very strong, the generator is described as a device set down and activated.  Some stories show them as being defeated by bringing enough force to destroy or rip out the structure it is attached to.  The panel is still working, but if it is laying on the ground with the wreckage of the doorway frame, it is no longer functional.
  
• Tactical Shield - Carried by CMC Troops, projected as a section of the surface of a sphere.  Usually described as mounted in a ring.  As with the Portable Field Panel, all force brought to bear on the shield is transferred to the reinforcing structure, which in this case is the user's ring finger.  This can lead to undesired results if the wearer's hand is not braced.  Or, even if it is, if the force is such that an armored combat Marine wants to hide behind a shield.
  

(Someday this will be a navigation template.  It will provide a bar across the bottom of each article with useful navigation links.  Until then, this is just a placeholder to get rid of all the red "broken link" indicators. -ZM User (talk) 10:00, 3 May 2024 (PDT))