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corp:lazarus:procedural_control_surface

Procedural Control Surface

By forming a hard-light shell about a craft suspended using electromagnetic fields, no air makes contact with the hull itself of the craft and instead meets the shell, using the IRI-Type Hard light Apparatus. This allows classically unaerodynamic forms to cut through the air with great ease and also allows for a number of unique aerodynamic properties.

Kinetic shock is absorbed via a wake of cold plasma: ionized gas which is collected and vented at higher and higher pressures between the parent unit and the flight control procedural surface itself, serving also as its control system through suspended threads of hard-light connecting it.

Very importantly, vibration and high compression is absorbed by the cold plasma as a cushion or bubble, the waste energy becoming electrical potential similar to that of a thunder-storm which is then extracted using the positively charged exterior of the parent platform.

The surface itself is typically a bubble which meets at the point of the parent platform's thrusters and weapons and can be thought of as a large invisible aircraft hull. This hull, while utterly rigid has it shape updated by the movement control software of the parent platform, becoming more like cloth but only for the movements of the platform inside while ensuring no kinetic force is passed on to said platform.

Flight Control Mode

The procedural surface is sculpted into a long smooth wing with a flat leading edge, razor-blade sharp. As velocity increases, the flat wing-front of the craft becomes more nose-cone-like, adopting the role of a shock-cone to control vibration and ensure air-flow over the craft's body is optimal.

The entire surface acts as a wing, varying its shape and size in order to maintain a balance of control instability and minimal drag, with the entire surface even able to face one direction as the whole craft faces another; serving as a lance to distribute air away from the platform inside.

Magnus Effect Mode

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Magnus Effect mode has the bubble completely surround the parent platform as a sphere. The bubble is an impossible shape by the standards of matter and is composed of many incredibly thin mobius strips which make up a given cross-section which are then repeated inwardly. Carefully placed gaps and positions allow air-flow between the different components of the ball's strips and layers and with enough rotational velocity, it can create vertical or horizontal lift as a dedicated propulsion system without the need for engines or gravity manipulation.

As a defensive barrier

The procedural is a poor defensive barrier and is only able to survive a very small number of hits before failing. Importantly though, it can reliably defeat grappling attempts, especially by smaller attackers.

  • Defensive Rating: DR1, per platform

Quality:
corp/lazarus/procedural_control_surface.txt ยท Last modified: 2023/12/27 14:11 by wes