Well-Known Member
DARKSHIELD
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: To create a tough and stealthy new material for future submissions and role-playing.
Image Source: N/A
Permissions: N/A
Primary Source: N/A
PRODUCTION INFORMATION
Manufacturer: Visanj T’shkali
Affiliation: Closed-Market (Restricted)
Model: Darkshield Paneling
Modularity: None
Production: Semi-Unique
Material(s):
- Absorbital
- Cortosis
- Reflec-infused Vantablack
- Stygian-Triprismatic Polymer
- Durinium
- Duravlex
- Laminanium
Classification: Alloy
Weight: Average
Color: Matte Black
Resistances:
- Energy Weapons (Non-Disruptor-type): Extreme
- Disruptor-type Weapons: None
- Lightsaber-type Weapons: Extreme
- Kinetic: Extreme
- Sonic Weapons: None
- Biological: None
- Radiation (Including EMP/Ion): Extreme
- Pressure: Average
- Elemental: Extreme
- Acid (And other corrosive substances): Average
- Force Abilities: None
- Stealth-Enhancing: The light-and-energy absorbing material is exceptionally good at evading even the most acute sensors and scans, makes identification and targeting extremely difficult, defeating visual identification and detection by pilots, and helping to mask the heat/energy signature of a vessel over which it has been applied. Even capital-grade military ships with powerful sensors have an extremely low chance of detection without dedicated scanning across a multi-spectrum range and at a very close proximity.
- Terrific Protection: Designed specifically as a material with which to create plating for outer hulls of vehicles and starships, Darkshield offers incredibly high degree of protection against kinetic damage (including vibroblades, projectile weapons, etc.) as well as intense radiation (including EMP/Ion and heat), non-disruptor energy weapons and lightsaber-type weaponry (including plasma weapons).
- Self-Healing: Self-healing against minor fissures, cracks, chipping/gauging, as well as against more serious damage such as weapons fire or physical attacks, Darkshield is able to self-repair small damage in a matter of minutes, while larger forms of damage will take longer, proportionate to the degree of damage suffered.
- Better Be Good and Close: Offers users a terrific stealth-enhancing capability, making detection, identification/recognition, or tracking and targeting all but impossible for all but the most powerful, acute, and massive dedicated multi-spectral scanners and sensors, like those found on military-grade stations or very large capital-grade ships (e.g. Battlecruisers and larger), and even then, proximity comes into play heavily here as well.
- Hit Me with Your Best Shot: Granting users extreme protection across a wide variety and range of weapons and damage types, Darkshield is made for ensuring the safety and survival of you, your ship, and whatever precious cargo you wish to keep secure inside.
- Time Heals All Wounds: Potent self-repair capability allows the material to ‘heal’ from damage with time needed for recovery proportionate to the severity of the damage. It won’t close a 20-meter hole in your hull, but it can come back from usual types and levels of damage encountered in combat or just, you know, letting Han Solo drive. All that is needed is time. Oh, and that also means that it won’t heal if the cause of damage is continuing presently. But get away, take some time, and in most every case you’ll come back again good as new.
- Gonna Need Back Up: Not designed as a stand-alone hull material, Darkshield doesn’t withstand intense pressure on its own and requires a tougher, more rigid material on to which it can be applied, making it poorly-equipped against the pressures of space (or deep sea) without – leading to serious potential for compromise, placing the safety of the vessel/vehicle, its crew, and its cargo at very grave risk. Likewise, in the event that the main hull material might be compromised (as through an internal explosion, etc.) the Darkshield plating will not last long unsupported against intense exterior pressures, leading to a hull breach.
- It’s Always the Force, Isn’t It?: Offering no protection against Force-based attacks or detection, Darkshield is just not sufficient to these ends.
- Not Everything Can Be Ignored: Grants no resistance to sonic weapons, including “Hard Sound”, nor does it guard against biological weaponry and gives only average protection against ambient corrosive substances, not holding up well against direct acid weapons, etc.
- I’m Not at My Best: While the material is self-healing, it will require time to complete the self-repair process proportionate the damage received, and may not be able to repair excessive damage at all. Therefore, a ship which has just undergone serious punishment may not provide the same level of protection or stealth-enhancement as it would when working at optimal condition, leaving it vulnerable to further damage or detection until repairs can be finished. This also means that if damage against it is ongoing, repairs will not happen as fast, so a good captain needs to know when to run away and return to fight another day, or else putting herself and her ship at great risk of more grave damage.
Inspired by the heat shielding once used in primitive space travel, Visanj sought to make a stealth-enhancing, protective paneling that could be applied over a starship’s hull, made to sheathe any vessel, any type, any configuration. What she came up with was Darkshield, an impressively resilient and durable material capable of helping to render a ship invisible to all but the most powerful scanners and sensors.
Self-healing with time, the paneling could be shaped and fit to most any starship’s shape and conforming to most any needs which shipwrights may have. Able to resist damage from energy weapons, radiation, kinetic damage, and even lightsaber-type weapons, Darkshield provides excellent protection against most any type of starship weaponry commonly found across the galaxy. However, it wasn’t without an Achilles Heel or two, as nothing ever is.
Force detection and attacks would still be able to locate and damage starships using it, just as sonic, biological, and disruptor-type weapons could inflict a heavy toll against it. Neither is it meant to work as a stand-alone material, and without a strong hull to place it on, or should that hull become compromised in some way, the material’s protective capabilities will not protect against intense pressures such as those found in the depths of the ocean or the void of space. Similarly, the self-repair capabilities will require proportionate time – away from further damage – to heal from wounds, and failing to recognize when to depart from a dangerous situation will very quickly expose the ship and whatever and whomever is inside to grave damage.
