Cree'Ar R&D: The Shield Ship
Shield Ship, 2500 meters
Armament: 35 Gravitic Manipulation Arrays
The Shield Ship is a staple of every Cree’Ar Fleet. Without it, all Cree’Ar ships would be left to the whims of their opponents weaponry. With them, however, the Cree’Ar ships are almost indestructible. Like much of their technology, the Cree’Ar Shield Ship is essentially a large magnet, which creates, amplifies, and manipulates the forces of gravity. In this case, the Cree’Ar Shield Ship reads a small sensor beacon located on all Dominion capital vessels. This beacon has no purpose but to relay to the Shield Ship via a hyperping the spacial co-ordinates and configuration of the vessel it is contained within. The Shield Ship then projects a gravitic field, which is, a series of gravitic pulses towards the vessel. The gravity cascades off the hull of the vessel and disperses, but its purpose is not to effect the vessel at all. The pulses create layers, and the refracted pulses more layers. The layers of gravity tug at weapons fire, and they bleed off an amount of energy each time a layer is crossed. The effect is cumulative, in so much so that the average laser blast and ionic discharge is bled off by approximately 95% percent. Heavier weapons, such as gravitic weaponry, plasma-based weaponry, and rail-based energy, are bled off to a percentage of approximately 45%. All projectiles, such as missiles and slugs, as well as mines, are unaffected by the pulses, although their gravity does negate the possibility of precision targeting, as the projectile is twisted several times in mid-flight. The Shield Ship is an incredible herald of Cree’Ar technology, however, it is not without its downsides. The waves of gravity are not of the discriminating nature. Much like the “double blind” that Imperial cloaks create, the gravity pulses decrease the effectiveness of not only incoming energy, but also outgoing energy. Thus, any ship under active shielding by a Shield Ship will have all of its weapons fire reduced as it attempts to return fire. This can be a major setback, as the Shield Ship effectively eliminates the Cree’Ar’s technological advantage by bleeding off their weapons, and creating a game of numbers. This, however, is countered by the Cree’Ar and Skey’g’aar onboard the Shield Ship, who adjust the fields as needed to allow for strafing and counter-fire from Dominion vessels. Another downside is that the Shield Ships gravitic pulses are incompatible with Dominion gravitic cloaking technology. Thus, no ship that is shielded may be cloaked, and no ship that is cloaked may be shielded. This lends itself, however, to the aforementioned tactics of drop shield and assault, as cloaked vessels often pass the shield and launch a payload of weaponry before retreating back behind larger, shielded vessels. Another fault to the system can also act as a boon. Fighters are equally as effected as capital vessels; thus, fighter combat inside the effect area of the shield is often ineffective. While eliminating enemy fighter strikes on Dominion capital vessels, it also forces Dominion fighter craft to leave the effective protection afforded them by the capital cruisers, which causes them, unshielded and still highly deadly, to become prime targets for all opponents weaponry. The Shield Ship also has a short time of effect; due to the massive amounts of power it takes to create the field across the battlefield, the Shield Ship must shut down its gravitic manipulation arrays every 15 minutes, for a 15 minute duration, during which all primary systems, with the exception of communications and life support, and shut down and the vessels power generators build up a massive reserve. The Shield Ship, as well, must take a short time to acquire, triangulate, and focus upon any new vessels that appear in the battlefield, either during, or at the start of any engagement. Although this time period takes no more than five minutes, it presents the opponent an opportunity to inflict a first strike upon vessels entering the scene of battle. Perhaps the Achilles Heel of the Shield Ship, however, is that the waves it projects are not in range that would effectively prevent strikes upon it. Thus, although it hides behind Dominion capital vessels in order to protect if from enemy capital attacks, it is not immune to runs by fighters, although it’s hull is able to withstand signifigent assault before being destroyed.