WIP: This article is a work in progress and is not yet approved for usage in the RP.

Though interorbital and transatmospheric combat (heren referred to as IOTA) is rare, the act of entering or leaving an atmosphere is incredibly common. In this situation, many craft and pilots typically choose to remain still and allow an autopilot of sorts to conduct operations for them or follow an assigned orbital path.

If forced to assume combat operations, the most common mistake an operator will make is to work against the natural flow of an orbital path or to decelerate out of an orbit, forcing them to re-enter an atmosphere.

While this may seem intuitive and natural to pilots (since actually recomputing new orbital paths requires inhuman or savant-like feats of awareness, reflex, parallel calculation, optimization and adaptation), it creates a huge number of potentially fatal problems – and for this reason, IOTA combat is essentially deemed suicide due to these problems – and many pilots will simply choose to stick to their pre-assigned orbital path and completely neglect defending themselves.

One might argue that the combined field system would be exempt from such forces as gravity though the outer field itself and even the pocket-universe itself are composed. In addition, the outer electrostatic and electromagnetic nested fields which create the CFS and define its confines and function are subject to both gravity and time, even if the contents are not – hence, if those fields are moved, the contents of the field move with them.

The number of possible mechanical complications grows exponentially due to the extreme stress a craft is under. In addition, the potential risk caused by any mechanical faults is exponentially greater than conventional combat - since any mistake could lead to destabilization, hull-crushing unrecoverable fatal spins or re-entering an atmophere (the physical stresses of which could bend the spine of most conformal armour back like prawns).

For this reason, sensors, propulsive systems and balance are incredibly important.

Tremendous amounts of energy are invested in maintaining altitude when a craft is not moving in a proper orbital path;

As a direct result of the distribution of mass across a craft or object, the gravitational pull across it is un-even. This effect is especially exaggerated outside of a stabilized orbital path which would make the distribution predictable. In this way, if a pilot is not compensating for changes (which requires a huge amount of thrust), they risk non-recoverable altitude loss or going into a non-recoverable spin.

The higher emission of energy wasted in maintaining altitude and as a direct consequence, the energetic profile detectable on sensors. In short, the probability of being sighted is exponentially greater - even by objects huge distances away beyond even the highest of orbits.

Directional change requires exponentially more energy, force or thrust in direct proportion to the altitude the craft is attempting to maintain and its inertia outside of an orbital path. The stability losses rapid acceleration required for evasion causes cannot be compensated for. In addition, evasion often pulls from the primary engine systems resulting in a loss of thrust maintaining altitude which can be non-recoverable.

As a result of vibration caused by stability compensation, accurately striking a target with sublight weapons (and often even lightspeed weapons) is near impossible. In addition, the relatavistic differences between the craft and its target and the pull of gravity itself against the velocity of the craft make computing a firing solution incredibly difficult.

As a direct consequence, many nations prefer using 'sweepable' light-speed weapons or rounds capable of compensating for instabilities (such as missiles).

Essentially, IOTA software steps in by computing multiple potential orbital paths simultaniously including sub-par paths and rates them accordingly. This computation creates branching paths and even estimates the interception times and relatavistic influences upon rounds fired both from and at the craft.

Controls now step in to partially automate all maneuvering by only allowing a pilot to suggest new actions rather than directly perform them, transitioning into paths. All boosting and balance correction – and even aiming is now essentially decided by the computer - going as far as to only select optimal solutions based on decisions made by the combat computer.

Simply put, the craft will never willingly encounter a situation in which it cannot conduct IOTA - and warnings will be displayed along with risk estimations whenever a pilot moves into a sub-optimal position.

Movement is performed via flight-controls. Subtle corrections of body mass and its center can adjust orientation without spending thrust are performed automatically by the onboard computer and arm motion is automated. In short, powered-armour are tightly automated and the user experience simplified vastly.

The estimated ballistic paths of an enemy weapon (based on known characteristics such as velocity and mass and even the position of the barrel) will be shown as arcs - meaning a pilot can take evasive actions before weapons can strike them, granting superior situational awareness.

In addition, striking positions which would force an opponent into a sub-optimal orbit are also displayed and can partially be automated – making near impossible “Trickshots” which would force an opponent to re-enter the atmosphere or make them unable to effectively conduct combat easy and intuitive.