Shields
Tribal armor shields are based on the same technology used during the Cybrid Wars and still used by the Imperial military today. The standard military paradigm of the last fourteen centuries still applies: Take down shields first, then armor.

Shield generators apply non-Newtonian fluid field harmonics to create a protective barrier of phased electromagnetic energy capable of deflecting high-energy attacks. I don't pretend to understand the specific details of the physics involved, but I hope to summarize sufficiently for any reader not versed in the science. In this non-Newtonian model, the barrier's resistance increases with a magnitude inversely proportional to the amount of thermal, electromagnetic, or kinetic energy exerted at the point of impact. The practical threshold for triggering the shield's resistance is high enough that hand weapons and fists may pass unhindered through shields, but bullets or lasers will not. However, shields weaken quickly under sustained fire or a sufficiently powerful attack, since the actual resistance consumes enormous amounts of energy, often more than the power source can provide in a short amount of time. The shields are not one hundred percent efficient; some energy does bleed through to armor. Shields are more effective with kinetic energy than with thermal or electromagnetic attacks, hence the diminished role of non-explosive ballistic weapons over the last millennium. When resistance is not triggered, the ambient field does requires only a small amount of energy.

A tribal armor carries approximately a half-dozen shield nodes, usually one per limb and two to four on the torso and head, but configurations vary, depending on the designers' decisions regarding concentration of maximal shield strength. Approximately three centimeters in diameter apiece, the nodes create a force field aura around the wearer. Normally invisible, shields become visible when sufficient excess energy from an attack is reflected outward from the armor as light and low level gamma radiation. Tribal engineers skirt the energy drain issue by linking each node to an independent capacitor that provides power independent of the onboard energy cells. As capacitors burn out, shield protection drops.

Typically, a shield node burns out when an attack (or aggregate attack) exceeds the node's energy dissipation threshold. As node capacitors overload and burn out, the armor's shield protection decreases. Secondary damage (that is, damage that penetrates the shield aura) reaches the warrior consistently when the shields reach fifty percent, but the armor typically absorbs such a "damage bleed" quite well. As the shields fade toward zero integrity, the armor takes progressively more of the role of protection until it is all that keeps the warrior from death. When a damaged armor is repaired by nanites, the repairing unit transfers energy from its own source to replenish the energy in the capacitors. In some cases, tribal warriors can rig a refresh from their own energy cells, but they only do so under dire circumstances, as the procedure is a tricky one. The basic concern is that a link between a microfusion cell and the shield nodes risks a feedback surge that could disrupt or destroy the power cell itself.

As stated above, shields have a minimum energy limit that must be reached before the fluid field resistance activates. Lower energy attacks, such as those imparted by most melee weapons, do not trigger shield deflection. Hence, knives and other hand weapons can actually be used on the battlefield, though they must contend with the armor itself. Typically, the highly mobile nature of tribal battle mitigates against widespread use of melee weapons. In confined spaces and the hands of a highly-skilled blademaster, however, a sword can prove devastatingly effective.

The tribes have engineered an interesting feature into the shield nodes. Each node generates a field "bottle" that envelopes the entire armor to a thickness of two to three centimeters; the node but also concentrates protection for a half meter around itself. The overlap and the concentration combine to provide a layered aura that maximizes defensive potential. However, the true innovation comes in the tribal manipulation of the shield bottle's shape. The tribals have succeeded in having the bottle deform so as to partly cover weapons that normally would project from the aura. This deformation occurs automatically for all standard tribal firearms. The bottle stops short of covering the mouth of the weapon, such that the weapon is not plugged by a shield overlapping the tip of the muzzle. For non-standard weapons, a warrior can simply cancel the bottle extension. When the extension is dropped, the shield aura does not cover a melee weapon, but conforms to the surface of the armor.

Some tribes, such as the Children of Phoenix, wear partial armor that exposes portions of the bare skin. The rationale behind this behavior is rooted in the wilderzone's honor-based culture combined with the Children's peculiar elitism. They seem to believe they are so superior to other tribes that they can expose their vulnerable flesh and still prevail. Consequently, Phoenix warriors rely enormously on their own agility to keep them from harm, fully aware that most of their protection comes from the shields-unless they happen to be wearing Myrmidon-class armor. However, as the flames of the Eagle-Wolf War spread, most tribals - even those of the Phoenix - have begun to increase the secondary protection of armor once again. Thus, the tribal stereotypes may be even less accurate in future, as half-naked barbarian warriors vanish from the wilderzone's battlefields altogether.

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