Science Fiction
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Description - Shields
Wolfgang Kienberger wrote the following description of the force-shields, used in the Perry Rhodan serie.
I thank him for his permission to publish it here, I've taken the text from a mail in a mailing-list.
From: Kienberger Wolfgang (KienberW@avl.co.at)
(I use the numbering of german issues)
You should still know the first three of this list:
Bounce (or: impact) shield/field:
(sorry, I dont know how this was called in english):
colour: transparent without colour
first appearance: #2 (I think)
Only able to hold off matter
'normal-shield':
colour: transparent without colour
first appearance: #1 (or #2)
The standard shield to defence against all kinds of matter and (4-dimensional) energy
(although 5-dim. energies were used to build the shield.
There were also versions which were able to hold off a certain amount or 'quality' of
5-d energies like a teleporter, but they were used seldom ( e.g. in #22 - #24 and around the
robot-regent on Arkon).
It was said that they were very expensive.
'blue shield' of the Akonides
colour: blue (naturally), although transparent
first appearance: #100
5-d shield, related to linear-space energies (therefore also called a 'semi-space-field')
'green shield' of the Maahks
colour: green (naturally), although transparent
first appearance: #205 ( year 2400 AD)
Another kind of 'semi-space-field', but superior to the Akonides' blue shield.
Capable of using a part of the 'striking' energies to reinforce itself!
HU shield ('Hochenergie-Uberladungs-Schirm'
(OR perhaps:high energy overcharge shield -> HO-shield ?)
Colour: green/transparent
first app.: #250 (year 2404 AD)
Terrans came in possession of a ship of the Maahks and developped this shield from the
'green shield'.
When it was introduced, the HU-shield of a 'Moskito-Jet',a fighter with a 2 men-crew,
could withstand the Thermo-,Impulse- and Disintegrator-beams of an empire-class battleship!
The HU-shield of the Khrest-3, the first galaxy-class ship, could even resist the power of
smaller transform-explosions or the border zone of big ones.
The shield could also completely resist the converter- cannons which were in possession of
the Maakhs. ( the old Arkonides lost this weapon, but the Maakhs could capture one apparently).
Also teleporters a.s.o. were not able to penetrate the shield.
'red shield' of the Lemurers/Tefroders
Colour: red/transparent
first app.: #255 (year 2404 AD)
Another 'semi-space-field', related to the green- and the HU-shield.
The Lemurers used it already a 50,000 years ago, the Tefroder still in those times.
Paratron-shield
Colour: red or blue, transparent
first app.: #322/ #323 (year 2435 AD) (used by the time-police.
But it turned out that also the Haluters had this technology).
The 'Paratron' is not only a shield, but a technology with many possibilities.
The 'heart' of this technology is the Paratron-converter. The technology needs much more energy than Terrans were able to produce in a ship at
this time.(The first time Terra came in contact with this shield. Frank Schmidt)
When the shield is attacked, its behaviour is near to a HU-
shield first.
But when the amount of energy rises, the Paratron
begins to drain (or: shunt) the energy into hyperspace !
So, in the M87- or Time Police-cycle (#300-#399), a ship with Paratron-shield was almost
invincible. It needed some hundred or thousand hits of transformation-cannons to overcome the
shield.
Since #400 (year 3430 AD) also Terrans use this technology.
It was undergoing permanent improvements and development and builds now (#1800) still the
main shield of galactic ships.
Despite these improvements, the degrader hit the Paratron too.
So, for example, in the 'Great Void'-cycle, some enemies were able to penetrate the shield
by only concentrating the fire of the impulse- and disintigrator-guns of a small number of
ships on one point of the shield! (no transform-weapons needed!)
And also the old Arkonides (#3 !) had already the possibility to amplify a sector of their
shields against this fire-to-one-point, but there this was not possible !)
But it looks like the authors remember the capacity of this shield now.
So, there were naturally many kinds of shields and similar things used
by alien races.
I want to mention only the most important ones and add some other defense systems here.
SVE-ships (SVE = Structure-Variable-Energy-cell)
first app.: #650 (year 3459 AD)
The Laren used the so-called SVE-ships.
They were built almost completely of pure energy.
So, the outside of these ships itself builds the shield.
It is able to suck up the hitting energies up to an amount which lies far beyond the capacity
of a HU or a Paratron-shield.
Kardec-shield
first app.: #1075 ( year 425 NGC, 4012 AD)
Used by the Porleyters (the 'ancestors' of the Knights of the Deep !), this shield was
generated of psionic energies and allowed to use artificial psionic abilities too.
Psi-shield
appearance: (about) #1250 - #1349
There was no good description, but the shield, used by the Eternal Warriors and by the
Virus-ships, seemed to be an improvement of the Paratron, using still higher, psionic
frequencies, but it was in no way so powerful as the Kardec-shield.
The major disadvantage was that the function depended on the value of the so-called
psi-constant, as it was with the enerpsi-drive too.
So, after the 'cosmonucleotid' Dorifer changed back this natural constant to its original
value as the galaxy Hangay materialized in our universe, the shield did not function anymore.
ATG-field (Anti-Temporales-Gezeitenfeld,
a word-by-word translation gives Anti-Temporal-Tide-field, but it has nothing to do with tides ! It's a kind of time-field.)
first app.: #396 (year 2437 AD)
This field, first used by the 'First Oscillation Power', then, since#400, by Terrans,
builds a 'bubble' in hyperspace, where the ship, planet or even sun-system, lies in.
The strangeness (* see the cycle23-synopsis on John Foyt's page for an explanation) in the
bubble is the same as outside, but the 'distance' to normal space can be expressed in
time-units.
And this gives values which lie in the future !
So, a typical value is 5 minutes in the future.
The normal course of time can not catch up with the bubble's time.
The field (or the bubble) is also related to the space-time-folds,it can be said that it is
a special case of a space-time-fold.
Virtual Imager
first app.: about #1385 ( year 447 NGC, 4034 AD)
A complete terran developpment, this device is not a shield, but a kind of anti-locationing
(OR: hiding or anti-"radar") system.
Unlike a deflector-field or a conventional anti-"radar" field, it does not absorb the
emmissions of the ship, but samples them and projects them to another place. So, the aggressors
attack a place without a ship.
Modern versions can project also the emmissions of other ships,
not only of the 'source-ship'.
Hope this is what you wanted.
Bye for today !
Best regards
Wolfgang
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