Shields

From Hidden Frontier

Deflector shields or screens - generally referred to simply as shields - are a type of force field that surrounds a starship, space station, or planet to protect against enemy attack or natural hazard.

Deflector shields operate by creating a layer of energetic distortion containing a high concentration of gravitons around the object to be protected. Shield energies can be emitted from a localized antenna or "dish" (such as a ship's navigational deflector), or from a network of "grid" emitters laid out on the object's surface (such as a ship's hull). On modern starships, deflector shields are essential equipment. They are raised to full power in anticipation of environmental hazards or in combat situations.

Neither matter nor highly-concentrated energy (i.e., weapons fire) can normally penetrate a shield. When shields are "up," or energized at a high level, most matter or energy that comes into contact with the shields will be harmlessly deflected away. In contemporary starship combat, shields are essential for hull protection. When shields are up, only minor hull damage can be expected during combat. Without deflector shields, modern weapons are capable of causing catastrophic damage to starship hulls almost immediately.

Continuous or extremely powerful energy discharges can progressively dissipate the integrity of a shield to the point of failure. Shield capacities vary according to many variables, from the power available to environmental concerns (such as nebulae), making definitive and universal calculations of how much damage they can take difficult to estimate. Therefore, during combat, tactical officers continually report on shield strength. Usually, the officer reports shield strength as a percentage of total effectiveness, with 100% meaning that the shields are at full capacity, and lower percentage scores indicating weaker shield conditions. Often, specific sections of the shield grid (e.g. aft or starboard) will take more damage than other sections, so tactical officers will report on the health of any section that needs reinforcement with additional power reserves. Shields are said to be "holding" if damage is not sufficient enough to allow a compromise, while if the shields are "buckling" or "failing," then a total loss of shield protection is imminent.

Shields operate within a range of shield frequencies to allow certain specific types of energy and matter to pass through, or to make them more effective at blocking them. The frequencies of shields are not usually discernible without examining the controls on board the ship deploying them, meaning that it is very difficult to tune weapons to the exact frequency of an opponent's shields to bypass them. Occasionally, an enemy will get in a "lucky shot", having tuned their weapons to their opponent's shield grid - this can cause more damage than a normally-shielded shot.

In combat situations, starships match their own shield and weapon frequencies so their shielding does not interfere with their own weapons. Some weapons technologies, including those commonly used by the Borg, have rapidly adjustable frequencies, meaning that they will more rapidly penetrate shields with static frequencies. An effective counter is to repeatedly and randomly alter the shield nutations to minimize the effectiveness of the weapon's retuned frequencies.

Normally transporters are not capable of penetrating shields. Older Federation starships, such as the Constitution-class USS Enterprise, could not even transport through their own shields, but later starships such as the Intrepid-class and Sovereign-class vessels could transport personnel and objects freely without having to lower their shields.