Gear: Deflectors

Deflector Screens

A deflector screen is an invisible barrier that impedes the passage of all matter, particle radiation (including neutrons, but not gamma or x-rays), and other affectors. Light and all other electromagnetic radiation can pass through without hindrance, including thermal radiation, laser beams, radar, radio waves, microwaves, and gamma and x-rays. Sound will be muted and dull – apply a -2 to Awareness for hearing things on the other side of a deflector screen. High energy impacts will produce a visible flash in an atmosphere or fluid environment, as will interactions with strong affector fields.

Deflectors have the same armor score for any attack they are effective against – there are not different scores for mechanical, burning, arc, and radiation damage. The Armor Piercing score of material attacks apply normally, but the Armor Piercing score of disruptors and other affector-based attacks are negated and are treated as +0.

Sufficient damage can cause a deflector to be weakened or collapse. For Injury Scores of more than +12, the deflector screen's Armor Score is reduced by Injury Score - 12. Once the screen reaches Injury Score +16, it flickers off and provides no further protection. Unlike normal armor, injuries to the screen do not increase Activation. The deflector screen will regenerate with time and energy. If the screen has not collapsed the regeneration is applied as it occurs. Otherwise, the screen can only be re-activated once it has fully regenerated back to full strength. All listed deflector screens regenerate Injury Score +11 every combat round, and draw 100 times their resting power while doing so.

Listed deflector screens store enough energy internally to last for 180 kiloseconds (2 days).

Customizing Deflector Screens

Deflector screens can be made for characters of different sizes. Row shift the power, mass, and price by twice the difference in Size, and the injury thresholds by the Size difference.

Deflector screens can be made stronger or weaker. Every Row Shift to Power, Mass, and Price adds the Row Shift to Armor Score and subtracts it from Injury Susceptibility without chaning the shape or Size (for example, a +2 Row Shift will increase Armor Score by 2 and decrease Injury Susceptibility by 2).

Screens can be made of different "types" of deflectors that can trade strength for toughness. Any of these screens can add or subtract up to 3 to both Armor Score and Injury Susceptibility, reflecting screens that are extremely strong and rigid but brittle, or less strong but tough and resilient.

Deflector Shields

One of the most basic configurations of the deflector for personal defense is as a simple screen you hold in front of you and interpose between attacks and yourself, like a shield. This form of defense is used by all cultures who have access to Antecessor technology. Use the normal rules for shields when using a deflector shield.

Shields that are scaled up using the usual rules for increasing the Size of shields can be used as portable barriers. The basic Size +0 shields listed below are assumed to be one meter in diameter – although those made for humans are usually 1.5 meters high by 0.7 meters wide (which can be rotated to any orientation desired by the user, just by turning the shield generator, as you would expect). These dimensions are row shifted by the change in Size, and can be altered when the shield is manufactured to provide other dimensions that maintain the same area.

DescriptionDef
(Size 0)
ProtectsArmor ScoreInjury
Susc.
BulkPen
(size 0)
WoundPowerMassPriceWSizeWLen
Light Dfl. Shield+5/+13+{7}+10+4¼+4½+½ RS+320 W0.430+0
Medium Dfl. Shield+5/+13+{7}+12+2¼+4½+1½ RS+340 W0.860
Heavy Dfl. Shield+5/+13+{7}+14+4½+2 RS+370 W1.5100+1½

    Squirm Deflector Shields

    Squirms have deflector shields that can project the deflector disk up to 3 meters in front of the generator. Adjusting the distance from the shield generator to the deflector disk takes an action.

    The Squirm use aperture ports much like the Gummis, to allow their weapons to shoot through their shields.

    Deflector Shells

    Deflector shells are one of the simplest applications of deflector technology. When activated, a spherical deflector bubble appears around the deflector shell generator. The bubble will extend to the surface of anything solid in its way as it is formed, and then stop. This will stick the bubble to the surface with considerable force.

    If the screen generator is not being worn, the bubble will act as a barrier rather than armor – blunt trauma never applies. Otherwise, momentum from impacts get transferred to the generator, which may cause bruises and other blunt trauma if it is worn and it recoils from a blow.

    If the bubble does not encounter solid matter, it will form a complete sphere. In air, it can levitate if a synched repulsor field is used to keep it up. Otherwise, it will fall – flying will support you within the bubble but you cannot keep the bubble from falling by trying to fly. In water, it will float if it has air in it, sink if it contains little to no air but does have heavy ballast, or be neutrally buoyant if it contains only water and living beings. If the bubble comes to rest on a solid surface, it will roll downhill. The surface is frictionless – anyone in the bubble will not be able to stand on its surface or get any kind of grip or purchase. If the bubble collides with anything (such as the ground, at the end of the fall), the occupants will take collision damage from colliding with the bubble.

    The listed shell's bubble is Size +2, with a 2 meter diameter. If you are shooting at someone in a deflector shell bubble, a miss by the difference in the shell size and the target size or less still strikes the bubble and may damage it.

    If the bubble forms with someone part-way through the screen's surface, they will become trapped. They can move around on the surface of the bubble, but will have difficulty pulling free. Treat this as a grapple with Brawn of shield's Armor Score - 5 and an effective Size the lower of the bubble's Size and the victim's Size. An appendage trapped within the bubble with enough reach might be able to switch the generator off. Otherwise, the bubble only adheres to the outer surface so wriggling out of your clothes – if you were wearing clothes over the area enclosed – may help your escape. This gives you +4 to your escape attempt. Gummis can spend a few minutes to re-arrange their zoids so that only a few skin zooids remain stuck; escape is automatic (they can also stretch out their elastic bodies to reach the generator power switch, or re-arrange their zoids for a longer limb to power down the screen).

    Gummi-Tech aperture ports work with deflector shells, if you need an opening in the bubble.

    DescriptionProtectsArmor ScoreInjury
    Susc.
    BluntPowerMassPriceActivation
    Light Deflector Shell1-10+10+1+9200 W4.5300
    Medium Deflector Shell1-10+12-1+9450 W8600
    Heavy Deflector Shell1-10+14-3+9800 W181.2 k

      Gummi-Tech Deflectors

      The Gummis developed sophisticated deflectors during their war with the Squirm. They and their entrained allies commonly use these deflectors when physical protection is necessary.

      DescriptionProtectsArmor ScoreInjury
      Susc.
      BluntPowerMassPriceActivation
      Tweechi Light Dfl. Web1-10+8+6½+7½12 W1.235
      Tweechi Medium Dfl. Web1-10+10+4½+7½20 W260
      Tweechi Heavy Dfl. Web1-10+12+2½+7½40 W4120
      Light Deflector Web1-10+8+5+930 W380
      Medium Deflector Web1-10+10+3+960 W6180
      Heavy Deflector Web1-10+12+1+9120 W12350
      Pirang Light Dfl. Web1-10+8+4½+9½40 W4120
      Pirang Medium Dfl. Web1-10+10+2½+9½80 W8250
      Pirang Heavy Dfl. Web1-10+12+9½150 W15450

      Zox Deflector Plate

      The Sacred Library of the Zox details designs for armor made out of rigid plate-like sections of deflector screens. This is the armor common to the Hierate's combat troops.

      DescriptionProtectsArmor ScoreInjury
      Susc.
      BluntPowerMassPriceActivation
      Light Dfl. Plate Suit1-10+10+3+760 W61804
      Heavy Dfl. Plate Suit1-10+12+1+7100 W103504

      • Delector Plate Suit: A series of overlapping rigid screen segments, largely conforming to the contours of the Mant's carapace.

      Antecessor Deflectors

      Antecessor ruins and relics have exhibited all the varieties of deflector screen described here. The Antecessor deflectors, however, have an additional trick that no modern sapient has been able to reproduce – they require no power to keep them activated once formed. The screen still draws power when injured to regenerate itself, but without damage the screen will persist in an activated state indefinitely.

      Antecessor deflectors also tend to be more effective for a given size than those of other sapients. Add 2 to the Armor Score and -2 to the Injury Susceptibility (or equivalently, keep the Armor Score and injury threhsolds the same, and decrease the mass by two row shifts).

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