Technology

Starship & Facility Technology

Laser-Lance Batteries - Amongst the most powerful of weapons known to humanity, the laser lance utilises an extremely focused beam of light to burn through shields and armour with relative ease. Due to constraints of the technology, which include difficulties in keeping the weapons systems cool enough to avoid overloading, the lances usually fire for no more than five seconds at a time before stopping. In addition, the extremely high energy consumption of laser-lances mean that only the largest or most advanced vessels are capable of utilising them.

Point Defence Batteries - All ships of Destroyer class or above are equipped with PD Batteries. These are essentially large machine guns designed to saturate an area of space with a vast amount of shrapnel in order to shred incoming gunboats, interceptors and torpedos.

Mass Accelerators - Electrically powered electromagnetic projectile launcher, these rail guns launch physical ammunition across the void at extremely high velocities in order to dramatically increase the destructive capabilities of their payloads. The most commonly utilised payloads are depleted uranium slugs, which are designed to pierce the armour of capital ships, and high explosive, which are designed to saturate target areas to damage or destroy groups of faster vessels.

Defensive Shielding - Serving almost as an additional layer of self repairing armour, defensive shields are another type of technology utilised only on large or advanced ships due to their high energy consumption. Shields take up to a minute to come up to full strength when activated, but when at full strength a shield will prevent most objects from passing through, although a significant enough impact or enough focused energy can cause shields to overload and allow an object through.

Personal Technology

Personal Shields - Rare and extremely expensive items of technology, these personal defensive shields are powered by a minature fusion generator and generate a thin, almost entirely translucent field around the wearer when activated. Although capable of running only for short periods of time, the shield means that an attack on the wearer in that time is extremely unlikely to harm them, though multiple attacks or laser weaponry will certainly overload the generator.

Laser Pistol - A pistol in name only, these weapons are large, blocky devices that require two hands to aim and fire due to their weight. Powered by a fusion generator and operating under similar principles as laser-lances, although with much less power behind them, these weapons fire in microsecond-long bursts in order to avoid overheating with a single shot, although the user is still unlikely to get more than a handful of shots before the weapon shuts down in order to vent heat. Despite these flaws, the weapons are highly sought after for their unparalleled killing power.

Other Technology

Robots - Mostly humanoid, although only in the crudest of senses, robots were intended to spare humanity from the more dangerous tasks that were required of them. However, the actual result of their production was mass unemployment, and few humans beyond the rich and powerful look upon them kindly. Robots come in many forms, and have purposes ranging from labour and basic terraforming to machete-equipped gladiatorial robots that fight for the approval of Dukes on Mars.

Fusion Generators - Ranging from micro-generators the size of a child's hand to sprawling reactors three stories tall, fusion generators were the discovery that allowed humanity to reach for the heavens. They are quite stable in nature, although a knowledgeable or lucky individual seeking to inflict damage could trigger an overload that, if not prevented, could inflict damage on a similar scale to a nuclear bomb with a larger reactor.

Cybernetic Prosthetics - The art of crafting cybernetic replacements for all limbs and major organs had been mastered before the civil war, though the crafting of elegant or lifelike replacements is generally only available to the rich and powerful. Most souls have to make do replacements which, while being perfectly functional, are clearly artificial in nature.

Genetic Modification - The use of gene therapy in order to eliminate genetic defects or diseases in unborn children was commonplace throughout the colonies prior to the civil war, while the use of gene therapy to create genetically superior beings remained a science in its infancy which was only just being examined on Luna. Use of genetic modification on individuals who have already been born is unknown.

Engine Systems - Constrained by the limits of the theory of relativity and human technology, the fusion engines utilised by the ships of the Sol system are unable to breach or even truly approach the light speed barrier. The vast majority, in fact, struggle to reach even .001 of lightspeed without considerable acceleration time, whilst even the fastest ships operated by Sol-Tec and Luna cannot break .002 of lightspeed.

Sensors - Most ships use a form of sensors based upon the radar systems utilised on Earth since the Second World War. While these systems have been heavily upgraded to function in the void and at massively extended ranges - up to fifty thousand kilometres in the most powerful cases. However, as with all radar systems, there is a delay in transmission and reception of around 1 minute per light second, which can provide an outdated picture of any given situation.