Armor Generators (WIP)

The armor generator was designed to protect starships by generating a incredibly thick armor plating shell, which was deployed from the externally mounted generators, that when deployed expanded across the ship's hull. Though most hull mounted weapons could not be utilized while armor was deployed, apertures at launchers allow for the use of projectile weapons.

The Armor Generator is composed of 4 basic components:
1. Subspace divergence field generators.
2. Modified transporter pattern buffer.
3. Molecular pattern storage unit.
4. Emitter array.

The subspace divergence field has the ability to duplicate matter atom to atom of equal energy mass (E=mc^2). This field is generated in modified dual shield generators. The field is then shunt into the transporter pattern buffer where the subspace field is processed to give it an energy pattern of certain matter with the same properties such as color, texture, and strength. The pattern is from the molecular pattern storage unit which contains the energy and molecular pattern of the material that composes the armor plate. A starship does not have the energy storage to create a true shell around the ship. The newly formed armor pattern is sent to the emitter array where it forms a shell a few feet thick around the ship a few meters away, following the contours of the hull like the standard shield grid. This process differs from particle synthesis.

Since the armor generator requires a lot of power to maintain its “molecular structure,” the ship has to sacrifice power from areas that also require a lot of power, such as FTL drive or weapons. If for example weapons are needed, then FTL engines are deactivated. If FTL drive is needed, then weapons are powered down. It is a similar problem for faster then light capable stealth ships that uses cloaking devices. Since the armor shell does not have a true molecular structure, then the shell can be opened and closed very easily in order to fire weapons for example. Openings in the shell for impulse and thrusters exhaust, and others are protected by independent force fields.