Technologies
Weapon Technologies:Moriath/Budoka Weapons:
Macil - The traditional armament and symbol of the Moriath, the
Macil is a weapon that can be used in a variety of different ways. Skill with a
Macil is typically exemplified by one's ability to wield
Featur through one's
Macil. The usual form is some variant of
Uremacil, a
Macil with a blade encased in plasma. A rarer but more powerful form of
Macil is the
Mormacil, which has a Folded Space blade. The difficulty of using a
Mormacil rises from the need to directly manipulate the blade through
Featur, to overcome its inertia, with the
Macil serving only as a focus and point of reference.
In addition to the energized forms of
Macil,
Uremacil and
Mormacil, there are many shapes that
Macil may take depending on how they are intended to be used.
Valmacil - There is an additional type of
Macil, rarely seen and legendary for the skill required to wield it. A
Valmacil is a form of
Macil created entirely through
Featur without the physical focus of a
Macil.
Valmacil are typically more powerful than conventional
Macil because they require greater strength and skill to wield. This gap is so significant that the
Valmacil equivalents to
Uremacil and
Mormacil are termed
Narmacil and
Lostmacil, respectively.
Quesse - The second traditional weapon of the Moriath,
Quesse have been declining in popularity but are still used in some capacity by most Moriath.
Quesse are crafted in the same way as
Macil but differ in use and function.
Quesse may extend in the same way as
Macil and may also link with eachother or a Macil in chains.
Quesse are also capable of locomotion through their own field drives and emitting plasma either for thrust or as projectiles.
Quesse can be used as armor, as missiles, or in conjunction with
Macil to form a greater variety of weapons, such as chain whips.
Andamacil - The Andamacil is the traditional weapon of the Budoka. It is primarily a melee weapon, similar to a two handed axe or a quarterstaff in use. However, it is also capable of firing a blue-white plasma projectile out from between its two blades. Inherently not the most accurate weapon, Budoka train with their personal weapons extensively so that they may each have precision and accuracy.
Directed Energy Weapons:
Beam-Projectile Weaponry - The primary form of directed energy weapon used by the Empire, mostly found on ships of the Empire. There are two components to any Beam-Projectile weapon, an EM field projector and a Plasma Fusion cannon. Initially, the weapon fires a powerful electro-magnetic beam down the line of the barrel. The beam is unique in that it has an oscillating charge that results in a net neutral charge, so it cannot be deflected by other magnetic fields. Inside the weapon, plasma particles (Deuterium and Helium-3) are generated and energized, the particles are then shot along the EM beam, instigating nuclear fusion. Additionally, the particles are imbued with rotational velocities by the beam, resulting in a rifling effect that significantly increases the inertia of the projectile. The final result is a weapon that uses an initial EM beam, traveling relatively instantaneously, to guide a powerful projectile to a target. However, the beam is also highly tunable in range and power, so that the weapon can appear to fire single projectiles without any apparent beam. The beam guidance of the projectile means that this weapon does not lose effectiveness in atmospheres because the beam isolates the projectile from the atmosphere until it impacts the target. While these weapons fire projectiles which undergo Fusion, this is not a radiological weapon because Deuterium/Helium-3 Fusion is aneutronic, meaning there is almost no neutron radiation, which is the harmful kind.
Tachyonic Blaster Cannons: Tachyonic Blasters work by taking tachyonic matter and giving it so much energy that it crosses the lightspeed barrier to sublight speed. In a sense, it is the inverse of a hyperdrive, which takes sublight matter and propels it to superluminal speeds. The result is a bolt of particle-wave energy traveling at nearly the speed of light and having an extreme amount of momentum. The energy blasts from these weapons are extremely powerful, but also require massive amounts of energy and therefore the cannons have a slow rate of fire, about one per minute.
Projectile Weaponry:
The Mirai continue to equip their infantry with simple projectile weaponry as they have yet to find a better combination of practicality, reliability, durability, accuracy, and power. Admittedly, the materials and standards involved have improved considerably, but the weapons still function on the principle of a ballistic round propelled down a barrel by the expanding gases of a high explosive charge. Imperial Infantry weapons use three different types of ammunition in a variety of calibers.
SE Smart Explosive Rounds - SE Rounds are an amorphous ceramic of high explosive plastic and picocytes. The hard round gives it greater penetration, while the picocytes make the round programmable. SE rounds have four firing modes that determine when the rounds will detonate. They can be set to detonate after a set distance/time, on proximity to target, on impact, or a set amount of time after impact (to allow for penetration).
CE Cavitating Explosive Rounds - Cavitating Explosive rounds are more sophisticated than SE rounds, but do not have any picocytes and are thus not programmable. CE rounds are composed of a compound with a variety of properties. First, it is a shear thickening fluid, meaning it gets harder proportionally to the force and speed of an impact. This means that on impact with the target, the round is very hard and ideally will penetrate through body armor to soft tissue beneath. Without the shock of the impact to harden the round, it becomes soft again and spreads out inside the soft tissue of the target. The round continues to spread, causing cavitation until the matter of the round is broken down to small molecules. Once the molecules from the round are broken down sufficiently, they destabilize into a high explosive that promptly detonates. Thus, CE Rounds are explosive, armor piercing, and extremely effective against armored infantry. Additionally, the nature of the explosive means that the round will detonate even if the armor is too hard to penetrate and will simply flatten on soft armor, delivering the maximum amount of kinetic energy.
NC Necrotizing Rounds - "Necro" Rounds are bullets designed to maximize wounding capability. A silicon-based coral-like projectile is grown in such a shape that the bullet embedded in mobile tissue is pushed forward while cutting through the tissue. This motion causes the release of self-similar subprojectiles radiating out from the bullet by the same mechanism. This continues with progressively smaller projectiles down to microscopic silicon triangles. The bioengineered surface shreds soft targets while the silicon composition kills carbon-based tissue. The rounds are designed to be armor piercing, but failure to penetrate will still release its subprojectiles into the air to cause irritation to exposed tissue and limited necrosis. When a target is hit by one of these rounds, there is intense pain as the projectile works deeper and releases subprojectiles. Additionally, the target's own circulatory system will spread the microscopic projectiles and toxins released by the necrotic tissue.
Semi-/Autonomous Weapons:
Mines and Grenades - Mirai infantry often carry multiple grenades and possibly several mines of different types. While both are types of explosive charges, Mirai grenades are reusable whereas Mirai mines are destroyed when they explode. Grenades are also generally weaker than mines. Grenades can be reused because they don't carry any explosive materials, but are instead particle emitters capable of generating several different types of matter. To be used in an explosive capacity, the grenades often emit some form of plasma, but the same grenade can also emit photons of light, various chemicals and gases, or even some liquids.
Mirai Drone Weapon - The Mirai Drone weapon is a semi-autonomous missile of variable yield that is powered by a MergeSpace connection to the power core of a large vessel, at least as large as the
Meneltarma Ship of the Line. The Drone is capable of exploding destructively or emitting a destructive gravitic and plasmous energy field that disintegrates matter allowing the Drone to pass through a target or completely destroy it without the Drone being destroyed. Drones are the primary armament of the
Meneltarma and larger classes of ships. They are controlled from a Control Chair and can be guided precisely to specific targets, but also have on-board intelligence that makes control intuitive for whomever is using the Chair.
Mirai Drone Weapon, Deactivated and Energized
Vinyanar Bomb - The
Vinyanar Bomb is a high yield semi-autonomous weapon designed to function as a fighter-delivered heavy ordnance capable of destroying even a space station of moderate size. It is equipped with a Field Drive that provides limited mobility and is inert up to the point of detonation. At that point, a Quantum Duality field is generated in the core of the bomb and a quantity of neutronic stellar matter from the core of Regulus is transported into the core of the bomb. Once the field dissipates, the neutron matter rapidly decompresses in an astronomically massive explosion on the order of a stellar nova.
Vinyanar Bomb
Elennoth Bomb - The
Elennoth Bomb is essentially a weaponized Stargate. It is a high precision semi-autonomous weapon designed to function as a fighter-delivered heavy ordnance capable of highly accurate strikes against multiple targets. Built using the
Vinyanar casing, the
Elennoth has a Field Drive to provide limited mobility. But instead of the
Vinyanar warhead, the
Elennoth bomb has three Stargate Event Horizons, without the wormholes of course. These materialize thirty ILM's each, which then attack targets based on the initial instructions of the
Elennoth bomb. They are used to destroy a large number of specific targets at once or to focus a concerted explosion against one or more targets. Once the ILM's are detonated, the original casing follows and detonates with the force of a
Calinehta missile.
Elennoth Bomb
Calinehta Missile - The
Calinehta missile is one of the oldest modern munitions still used by the Empire. Without a doubt, it is the most used ordnance, specifically designed to be easily and quickly modulated to meet a wide variety of needs. The missile itself is composed of three Field Drives and a picocytic warhead. The warhead is the most advanced feature of the
Calinehta. It creates a fully variable transphasic explosion by using a Quantum Field and particles generated by its Field Drives to form a contained microcosm that decays in thousandths of a second and produces the explosion. In addition to the explosive power being fully variable, it is also impossible for the missile to be detonated prematurely because it has no chemicals or fuels to explode.
Calinehta Missile
Infantry Launched Missile (ILM) - The ILM is basically a 20cm long miniature of the
Calinehta missile. Originally designed to be fired from a dedicated shoulder-mounted launcher, a number of further weapons systems have since been developed that make use of the small but powerful missile that has the versatility of the
Calinehta.
ILM
Weapon Platforms/Satellite Weapons:
Cirinci Defense Satellite - The
Cirinci Defense Satellite is the penultimate defensive line of Sanguinos, followed only by the people of the planet herself. In low orbit there is a dense, automatically replenishing, field of
Cirinci, small satellites with independent drive, power, networking, and weapons systems. The weapons system for each satellite is simple, a Plasma Fusion beam fired from one of the four vertices of the satellite. However, each weapon is also capable of communicating with its neighbors to produce a geometrically stronger beam with greater range by focusing the beams of several weapons. The satellites can also project beams between each other to transfer power or to form a sort of defensive field.
Cirinci are wholly autonomous, ignoring any communications not from other satellites and only responding to specific information from other
Cirinci. Each satellite is programmed to target and destroy anything with charged, non-Mirai, weapons, which it determines by an analysis of a device's power output and use. If a satellite is incapable of doing so, it will ask other satellites to attack with it, first with multiple beams, then a single focused beam if the first fails. If that also fails, the new satellites will ask others near them to attack as well. This pattern can continue on up to all satellites over the planet firing one massive beam, with those satellites unable to acquire the target transferring their power to satellites that can.
The satellites move at random within a particular range of altitudes, slowly circulating over the entire planet to ensure that defective satellites will be discovered quickly or at least will not cause critical faults in the defensive net as a whole. Each satellite is also quadruply redundant, internally, to minimize the chance of malfunction and make the satellites more robust.
Shield/ Armor Technologies:Reactive Plasma - The Unified Empire uses Reactive Plasma energy shields. These come in two forms, ellipsoidal and discharge. Ellipsoidal shields are emitted from the outer hull of a ship to form a stable plasma matrix beyond the ship's exterior in a large ellipsoid. Discharge shields are projected in a controlled arc between charged emitters. In both cases, the shield plasma is the same, a dense, high energy cloud of fast moving particles in a thin field with a neutral net charge. The plasma particles diffuse and deflect incident energy and burn off any incident particles.
Projected Quantum Matrix - The pinnacle of Mirai shield technology, the Quantum Matrix energy shield is the much coveted perfect shield. The shield works by projecting a quantum-scale energy matrix that results in a physical barrier, though without using matter, thus making the barrier mass-less. The Quantum Matrix shield is transphasic and does not have any single frequency correlation. It will stop all energy, including gravitational and nuclear energies, and all matter, down to the subatomic scale. However, the energy requirements for such shield technology are quite prohibitive. The usual method to minimize power expenditure is to link the shield system with a ship's sensors and only project a smaller shield in the path of incoming fire.
Morennium/Elennium - Morennium and Elennium are in fact the same material, a strong and light superconductive picocytic element, molecularly as strong as diamond. The distinguishing feature is superficially the color of the material, but actually whether or not it is energized. Elennium is a white, opaque substance. Morennium ranges in color from a chrome silver to a dark matte black depending on its energy level, higher energies having darker coloration. It is more durable than Elennium, but also slightly more malleable because it is energized. Molecularly, the material is semi-crystalline, but rather than undergoing catastrophic failure, the material becomes amorphous in elastic deformation then reforms when the stress is removed. In addition to being strange matter than wouldn't react to normal matter, Morennium and Elennium armor plates are coated with a chemically inert polymer.
Reactive Armor Plating - Elennium armor plates are linked to sensors via a passive AI. Projectile and energy attacks incident on the armor plating are met with inverse energy fields or opposing kinetic blasts (as appropriate) moments before impact, canceling the energies involved at an average efficiency of ~60%.
Cloaking Technologies:EM Cloak - Even with the advanced technology available to the Mirai, it has been found that certain operations are particularly suited to a simple electro-magnetic cloak that still permits a subject to be heard and felt. The Imperial EM Cloak induces a modulation in the movements of electrons in the atoms of a cloaked object. The altered electron clouds pass photons around the nucleus without altering their overall trajectory or significantly affecting their energy levels. The overall result is that a cloaked object becomes almost entirely transparent to all forms of EM radiation. The EM cloak requires very little energy, only an initial charge to affect a few atoms or to reverse that affect. The modulated electron clouds induce an identical modulation in adjacent atoms, though only solid phase matter retains the modulation for an extended period of time and it takes prolonged exposure to extend the cloak. An additional benefit to this cloak is that it can be passed on to objects picked up by cloaked individuals.
Sensor Technologies:The Mirai use
Phased
Array
Non-Passive Merged
Space [PANSpace] Sensors that operate by creating many tiny MergedSpace connections with random points within the sensor range at high frequency. Each connection is only maintained long enough to determine the properties of the spatially adjacent particles (in practical terms instantaneous) and then severed and a new connection made to another random point. The nature and duration of the connections precludes the sensors interacting with the sensed particles, which is why the sensors are called Non-Passive, not Active, sensors. This makes the act of sensing undetectable. Also, because PANSpace sensors directly interact with the sensed element, rather than relying on a scanning medium, they are capable of detecting any cloaked object in any way connected to the same dimension as the sensors. Traditionally, this is Normal Space, but any portion of the sensor array can be shifted to scan another dimension or quantum phase. Alternatively, a sensor probe may be phased or sent to that dimension. The physical range of PANSpace sensors is directly proportional to the power put into the sensor unit; larger ships with bigger power plants have greater sensor ranges. Additionally, larger arrays have higher resolution, although there is no constant correlation of size to resolution and smaller arrays will provide equal resolution at the cost of range. PANSpace units can be made small enough to be integrated into Imperial Armor, but power requirements typically preclude such units from constant function.
Communication Technologies:The primary medium for communication in the Empire is
Featur. All Imperial citizens are raised to 'speak' through
Suthule in the Mirai language by producing modulated vibrations of
Featur. This language is used to command picocytes and operate Imperial control interfaces. It requirs knowledge and very fine control, but not power per se, so even the weakest Mirai can use it. Most Imperial machines also communicate through
Featur/i], but they use their own computer languages that use different frequencies of Featur and are 'inaudible' to all but the most sensitive citizens. Additionally, while all Mirai can communicate through the Featur at conversational ranges, it takes a powerful Moriath or some type of communications relay to communicate over greater distances.
Citizens are also trained to speak Common and read and write many common languages.
Drive Technologies:
Field Drive - The Field Drive is the most common and simple Imperial drive system. It uses various energy fields for propulsion and is capable of opening hyperspace windows to allow superluminal travel.
Field-Newtonian Engine - This engine is a standard field drive, fitted with a fusion power source, a particle generator/accelerator, and a particle intake. In addition to the standard Field propulsion systems, this engine uses a Newtonian propulsion system, accelerating particles in one direction to achieve motion in the opposite direction. This can be done either with particles generated by the engine or by using particles from the surrounding atmosphere, at significantly reduced energy consumption. In either case, the propellant is accelerated to relativistic velocities and channeled out the rear of the engine, producing a great thrust of opposite vector.
MergedSpace Drive - The MergedSpace Drive is a device that is linked to PANSpace sensors and enables travel between two sensed points using MergedSpace (see below for more detail).
Quantum Emergence - The Quantum Emergence Drive operates in such a way that it reduces an objects mass almost infinitely, converting that mass to near infinite energy at the same time. In one sense, the drive actually shrinks a ship down to a quantum level, but at that level it can move at previously unattainable speeds. The final result is practically instantaneous travel across theoretically infinite distances. While the energy draw of this drive is exceptionally high, nearly prohibitive, a UniSpace connection can easily provide the necessary power. That being said, the energy requirements of this form of FTL are the reason it is more or less reserved for emergency military action. From another perspective, Quantum Emergence can be seen as a way of directly and completely converting matter to energy and back.
Other Transport Methods:
Ring transporter - Ring Transporter Platforms use the same technology as Stargate, without the wormholes and therefore with shorter range and requiring a visible matter stream connecting two platforms for the duration of transport.
Ring Platform, Standing and with Rings extended to Transport
Stargate - Stargates are one of the oldest transport technologies used in the Empire. They combine beam transporters with artificial wormhole technology to enable practically instantaneous interstellar transport.
Stargate Platform, Inactive and Active
Quantum Gateway - Quantum Gateways are a method of teleportation stemming from Quantum Duality and requiring significantly less energy than Quantum Emergence. Rather than creating a Duality in a large area, Gateways minimize energy expenditure by only creating a Duality in a two-dimensional sheet large enough for the object to be teleported to pass through safely. This sheet typically has a thickness comparable to a subatomic particle. Gateways can be generated by skillful use of Featur or by a purpose-built unit, though such machines are rare due to their power expenditure.
Power Technologies:
Picocyte Circulatory System - Picocyte Circulatory Systems are networks of conduits filled with flowing picocytic nanomachines that can distribute power, communications, and sensors. They are usually used in conjunction with power cores, but the systems can provide lower level power on their own as well.
Energy Well - Energy Wells are contained pockets of subspace used to store energy. They are essentially very high quality, high capacity batteries that are capable of providing a steady flow of energy for a very long time (tens of thousands of years) so long as the energy requirement is low enough. Energy Wells are rechargeable with proper equipment and can be burned out if too large a power demand is made. However, they are otherwise quite reliable and compact. They are used throughout the Empire because of their small size, high output, long life, and low maintenance.
Micro-Singularity - Typically, Quantum Compression fields are modulated negate the Compressed mass. Micro-Singularities are Quantum Singularities of relatively low mass created by reversing the negation of the compressed matter's mass. They are then used in high-output independent power systems that do not need recharging once they are initialized. However, over time the mass of the singularity becomes too great and it must be shut down by negating its mass. This creates a super-dense artificial white hole that can be used for power if necessary, but the difficulty of extracting steady output means they are usually removed and later used to charge Energy Wells.
Stellar Fusion Core - The largest Mirai powerplants are massive nuclear reactors that match the environment in the core of a star. Fuel levels are maintained, and excess matter removed, within the core using Quantum Gateways. Excess matter is harvested for conversion into picocytes. Additional fuel is harvested via Quantum Gateway from stars as needed. It is the network of Stellar Fusion Cores and the pulsar Regulus that powers the UniSpace network and many more smaller MergedSpace networks.
UniSpace/MergedSpace - A MergedSpace-based power unit simply creates a link to a remote power plant, usually the power core of a parent capital ship. UniSpace power units connect to the core of Regulus, the pulsar at the center of the Mirai system. UniSpace units are capable of providing significantly more power than MergedSpace units.
Unique Technologies:
Active Matrix Plasma Holography: Active Matrix Plasma Holography is an extremely advanced form of holography that enables the creation of solid holographic entities. These holograms differ from the traditional hologram because they can take solid form and need to only be emitted once, not continuously. This is possible because these holograms, rather than being projected images, are complex matrices of a plasma. These energized matrices interact within a hologram to act out pre-programmed protocols in an artificial sapience. Plasma Holograms most often take the form of utility personnel, medics, maintenance engineers, common soldiers, and the like. They can exhibit high degrees of intelligence and dexterity. Plasma Holograms are plasma-based computers capable of simulating solid matter through dense plasma matrices and of fully varying their own density from being able to pass through matter effortlessly to being completely solid.
Picocytic Matter - Picocytes are a form of strange matter used by the Mirai. More specifically, the term is used to refer to any number of strange matter particles used in all aspects of Mirai technology. Therefore, not all Picocytes are the same and the term Picocytic is more common as a reference to any artificial matter developed and used by the Mirai. In general, picocytes are taken to be atom-scale particles capable of storing energy and exerting mono-polar positive or negative fields of one of the fundamental physical forces. Picocytes are used primarily for their efficiency and ubiquity, making quantum computing possible and being able to easily and precisely manipulate matter.
Quantum Duality - Quantum Duality isn't so much a technology as it is a principle researched and developed by Imperial scientists. It is the basis for a number of advanced technologies. Quantum fields affect the particles of two or more locations in space, making them identical on a Quantum scale. Thus, the effects upon a particle in one space are reflected by its counterpart particles in all other Dual spaces. This occurs because the identical particles have been merged into one Quantum particle existing at multiple spatial coordinates, but a single Quantum coordinate.
Quantum Compression - Quantum Compression is a derivative of Quantum Emergence, but requires significantly less power because it draws latent energy from the particles being compressed. To an outside observer, an object undergoing Quantum Compression will appear to go straight into a physical surface, literally disappearing. What actually occurs is an extreme dimensional reduction, in effect making the object 2D. It is then limited to the surfaces of other objects and only capable of observing those surfaces. However, from the perspective of the Compression object, there is no loss of dimension so Quantum Compression is basically the equivalent of Dimensional Transcendence.
MergedSpace - MergedSpace is the name applied to the particles affected by a Quantum Duality field and their application in technologies. MergedSpace is used for power distribution by linking with the core of a parent capital ship. Separate MergedSpace "networks" are also maintained by those capital ships for communications and for sensors. Additionally, MergedSpace can be used for faster than light travel by merging two spatial locations, but sensors are needed at both locations before the merge is possible. This is the most efficient form of interstellar travel known to the Mirai and the preferred form, when it is available, such as when moving between two known locations (meaning locations currently in range of Mirai sensors) or when returning to the Mirai star system. Faster than light travel to unknown destination is possible with a MergedSpace drive, but is considerably slower because it relies on the ship's own PANSpace sensors to 'feel' ahead of the ship, maintaining a tenuous connection to normal space that eventually enables the ship's emergence from FTL back to normal space.
UniSpace - UniSpace is a constant MergedSpace area maintained for Empire-wide communication and power transmission. It could be said to be a single point that unifies the Empire. Alternatively it can be seen as a form of telenetwork. UniSpace is the result of a MergedSpace connection with the core of Regulus, the pulsar at the center of the Empire. The primary connection is maintained by Elenos and Mornatan and they are considered the centers of the UniSpace network.
Ship Technologies:
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