Invincible

Void Shields are the darkest and most sophisticated of all Cult's machinations of defence. These wards combine several arts into a gestalt shield technology that is all but impregnable to mundane weaponry, and grants the Imperium the blessing of the machine god, a huge advantage in combat. All superstructures are usually clothed in void-shields, this includes the massive 10+ km Battle Ships of the Imperial Navy right down to the Avatars of Ghod (Titans) that stride into battle.

Void Shields (Composite (layer) Fields)

Are a class of composite defensive fields which combine power-field, conversion field and warp drop (gate) field into a complete defensive void-shield system. There are a huge number of variants and no two voids shields are configured in the same way. Each void-shield is custom made, and any large shielded structure may have several configurations of void-shield in different areas. About the only thing standard about the void shield is their basic concept, and the fact that they are incredibly robust. These go far beyond 'force-fields'.

Defence Grid weapons

Although not directly part of the Void-Shield it plays an important part is nullifying certain attacks. The defence grid is made of linked batteries of laz-cannon that shoot down slow moving inbound missiles and ships. It primary objective is to shot down torpedoes with nuke warheads or trojan horse assault pods with nukes inside.

Power Field Layer (Fore screen)

Any inbound missile that makes it past the active defence grid slams into the outer power field layer. Small objects or instantly destabilised, and this is enough to render most nukes void. Larger objects like assault powers suffer massive damage and will often be destroyed as their hulls are breached. This outer screen will fail (trip) if overloaded, but only small ships and larger can do this, and they are large enough to be easily targeted by the defence grid. A tripped force screen only affects a small area, usually no more than an area with a radius of 50m, though certain designs this area can be much smaller, sometime as low as 5m radius. The screens can also overlaps, and are usually arranged like (invisible) dragon scales.

Conversion Field Layer

Here the conversion field converts inbound energy into a type that can directly power the other two shields which lay below it (and often reinitiate the fore screen above it). Both momentum and energy are converted.

Warp Drop Field (Gate Plane) Layer

The Warp Drop Field, also known as a Gate Field (or Gate Plane in classical text), is a layer that consists of a 'high potential warp zone'. This potential becomes realised if the output of the conversion field layer goes beyond a threshold level, tripping the Warp Drop Field and creating a flash gate/ portal into the warp. Any object or energy wave traversing the gate will be dropped into the warp (hence Warp Drop Field).

Strike> Conversion of Energy> Power to Trigger point threshold > Warp Drop Field activates> Threat dropped into the warp.

Any material or energy that is dropped into the warp can no longer affect the materium in any way shape of form. The threat of the attack is considered to be 'null and void' in Naval terminology. This is where the shield derives its common name 'Void Shield'. Once in the warp the laws of physics no longer apply, all matter and energy is torn apart, and wiped away by the strong currents in the warp.

Power Field Layer (Back screen)

If the object or energy wave striking the conversion field is insufficient to trigger a warp drop, then the object will become slowed and the energy wave will usually dissipate (though certain 'tuned' attacks of just below threshold trigger power and above dissipation power may get through). Although slowed a large object of sufficient mass can move through the conversion field and strike the ship, this is where the backup Power Field comes into play. The Power Field soften objects and scrabbles their atomic structures, and any softened object tends to 'splash' when striking the hull, but massive objects can still cause impact damage. Some older Power Field Layers also are able to resist physically, having a multitude of Power Field layers and effects (often referred to as an 'exotic' layer).

Ultimate Shield

The harder you hit is the more it resists! Even nukes can not penetrate a ship with active Void-Shields: either the nuke vanishes into the warp just before impact or the explosion is sucked into the warp. In both cases the ship is unscathed. Getting past a shield like this takes a lot of power or particularly low cunning, and surprisingly simple mundane technology.

Lances

Lances are fantastically powerful weapons that can carve up an unprotected ship in minutes, and will go through common Conversion Fields with enough power (and in some cases the converted energy put out by the conversion field is so great it can cause damage to the object/ person it is protecting: for example; a conversion of a plasma stream to pure light can render an attack impotent, but with enough power; light will burn).. However, as mighty as the Lance is a weapon it is useless if used to directly attack a void shield.

Uncertainty Event: Continuous fire and uncertainty: The only way for a Lance to penetrate a Void Shield is to fire at it continuously until the warp drop field suffers an 'uncertainty event'. These events occur when the warp becomes turbulent and are far more likely to occur near warp storms. In an uncertainty event the warp wells up and tries to escape through the great barrier breach created by the warp drop field (the warp pushes back!). When this happens the lance stream will pierce a Void Shield for a moment and striking armour and causing damage. By firing continuously at a Void Shield vast amounts of energy and matter are dumped into the warp, churning up the warp, and making an uncertainly event more likely. The only problem with this tactic is the amount of energy needed to pull it off, a ship could drain all it power and still not have an effect. On the other hand; if in an area of space where the co-existing warp space is in a highly volatile storm state, continuous fire may invoke an event before the ship runs dry.

In the Imperium, a new tactic was developed to take on rebels with Void Shield tech: round shot.

Round Shot (Threading the Needle)

Round shot: At a simple level these are massive solid iron 'cannon' balls accelerated via magnets (more here). The tactic is to launch the round shot, and then target the actual round shot with Lances as it as it traverses the Void Shield.

This exploits a weakness in Void Shield design, namely the threshold level needed to trigger the warp drop field. A large and massive object can slide through the conversion field loosing much kinetic energy to the conversion field, but not enough to activate the warp drop field. The round shot then strikes the power field layer where is becomes softened, it's core molecular matter disrupted, but due to the slow speed and large mass, it does not disintegrate. The round shot will slide through the power field in the softened state, and impact the ship's hull causing virtually no damage and is considered relatively harmless.

NOTES: Why not use a nuke? If a nuke could slide into the field and detonate inside, it would be powerful attack. Nukes can not be used due to the softening effect, as the uranium of fissile materials become destabilised. This may means that the power field has to go on the outside, to mess with the incoming shot, and deal with low level attack?

Laser defences, if a nuke was shot to pieces it will not function, but a solid iron ball with holes in it is still a massive iron ball! Also the iron is pretty good at absorbing heat, and the outer layers turn to plasma when struck which in turn defuses the incoming sustained beams.

This is where the lances come into the equation. As the round shot traverses the layers of the Void Shield, it is in effect creating a window through the Shield, a window of iron. A Lance beam striking the round shot only strikes iron, and a Lance is more than capable of slicing through that with ease. The Lance burns a hole straight through the round shot and continues on to strike the hull at full power (unlike uncertainty events) and inflicts massive damage and may strike the Shield generators. The window will not remain open for long, as once struck by the Lance the expanding plasma ball will initiate the warp drop field (as the conversion field is flooded with power).

The tactic requires highly accurate shooting from the Lancers, and only enhanced servitors gunners are up to the task.

Tech Note: Solid matter disrupts the formation of a field if inside the protection zone as matter becomes (inharmonic) phased (phase failure) resulting in interference (this is why you can fire out, and on a personal power field armours put your hand outside the field effect area and not loose your arm). This is why cylinders are not used to create the 'windows', because the hole would be filled with Shield and the Lance would be striking the Shield full on (very low chance of penetration, even lower with this limited window of opportunity). The round shot, once breaching all layers effective blocks the formation of the Shields layers - that is why is makes an effective 'window maker'.

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