Warp, Shields, Phasers and Tractor Beam Special Procedures

DISRUPTING WARP POWER
Disrupting another ship's warp engine (and thus warp travel capability) is often a valid combat tactic. Not only does it deprive the other ship of much of its power, it allows ships which still have working warp engines to flee from it at top speed.

INVERSE GRAVITON BURST
The best way to disrupt a target's warp engine power is to generate an inverse graviton burst through the ship's navigational deflector by shunting warp power through it. This requires Moderate Shipboard Deflector Systems and power from the warp engine. If the inverse graviton pulse was generated, the Tactical Officer must then hit the target using the standard range and Accuracy for the deflector. If he succeeds, the target's warp engine goes offline for 30 minutes While offline, it generates no power, and its ship cannot attain warp speeds. A successful Challenging Systems Power Systems Engineering or Propulsion Warp Drive Engineering can reduce the offline time by half.

VERTERON PULSE
A ship can generate a massive verteron pulse as a way of disabling all of the subspace-based systems on a ship, such as sensors, transporters, shields, and communications. To generate the pulse, the ship requires Challenging Shipboard Deflector Systems; hitting the target with it requires time and Shipboard Tactical Systems. If succeeds, the target ship's subspace-based systems shut down completely for 1minute. If he fails, the ship may not try to create the field for another minute. The Enterprise-D was disabled by a Hekaran probe in 2370 when the probe emitted a verteron pulse, immediately disabling the Enterprise's warp and impulse drives as well as the ship's shields. A verteron-emission array was installed on Mars in the mid 2150s to redirect comets is capable of acting as a weapon.

PLASMA FIELD
A ship can generate a plasma field and use it as a weapon to drain another ship's power. This requires Challenging Shipboard Deflector Systems to generate the plasma field. Then the Tactical Officer spends time and makes standard Shipboard Tactical Systems to hit the other ship. If both succeed, the plasma field envelopes the target, reducing the Power generated by its warp engine(s), impulse engine(s), auxiliary power, and emergency Power by half for 1 minute. If the (Deflector) Test fails, the ship may not try to create the field for another minute.

SHORT OUT EPS RELAYS
Another way to disrupt a ship's power (regardless of how generated) is to damage or short out the EPS relays—it doesn't matter how much Power the engines produce if none of it can reach the ship's systems. This requires the assistance of someone aboard the target vessel. Crossing a replicator's power converter with a ship's plasma manifold can short out a ship's EPS system; it also causes an explosion at the crossover point which does in a 1-meter radius with a per meter drop-off. Repairing this damage requires a Routine Systems Power Systems Engineering and one half hour. Damage to the EPS from outside weapon attacks may have a similar effect.

VERIDIUM ISOTOPES IN THE WARP CORE
If crewmembers can somehow gain access to an enemy ship's warp core is to inject veridium isotopes into the core. This will cause a warp core breach within 3 hours if the ship operates its warp drive during that time, or 4 hours if the warp drive remains idle.


DEFLECTOR SHIELDS
Deflector shields (so called because they deflect energy and physical objects from the shield to save it from harm, not because they have anything to do with the navigational deflector) are a ship's primary form of defense. They (and related types of technology, such as multiphasic force fields) are fields of highly focused spatial distortion created by shield generators and focused by subspace field distortion amplifiers, within which the generators maintain an energetic field. Shield grids on the exterior of the hull shape the shield to conform to the ship (collectively, the shield grids are referred to as the shield matrix). When energy or physical objects impact the shield, its field energy is concentrated at the point of impact to resist the intrusion. Impacts are accompanied by a quick flash of Cerenkov radiation which humanoids perceive as a flash of colored light (blue for Starfleet shields, sometimes different colors for other species's shields).
- Shields are activated, or "raised," whenever threats to the ship become apparent. This could be an enemy attack, potentially dangerous emissions from a nearby star, or the presence of some enormous space faring creature. Shield modulation frequencies shift at random to prevent an enemy from adjusting the frequency of its weapons to penetrate the shield without resistance (on the other hand, adjusting the shields to match the frequency of a weapon can strengthen them against it). Raised shields interfere with sensors, so shield frequency rotation creates electromagnetic "windows" to which sensors automatically recalibrate to minimize this effect. Shields without such windows impose a penalty on all Shipboard Systems (Sensors) Tests; Tests made when windows exist are rolled normally. Often, however, Silent Running mode comes into effect when shields are raised, so only passive sensor use is allowed anyway. Shields completely block transporters; no one can transport onto or off of a ship whose shields are raised, but there are special options involving crew feats.
- Shields also interfere with warp travel. Software which controls warp drive and shield operation compensates for this effect. Without such measures, use of shields reduces a ship's Standard, Sustainable, and Maximum warp speeds by one-third.
- Shields interfere with outgoing attacks, except that Starfleet has anticipated and corrected for these problems. Torpedoes are equipped with shield transponders which allow them to pass through the shields unimpeded. It might be possible to interfere with the transponder's signal, causing a torpedo to strike the inside of a shield and explode, but no workable means has yet been developed to take advantage of this idea. Beam weapons' frequencies are set by the tactical computers to match that of the shields, so they pass through unhindered. Theoretically, a ship could gauge another ship's shield frequency by sensing the frequency of outgoing beam weapon attacks, but rapid shield frequency changes during combat generally eliminates any chance of making practical use of this theory.
- Every ship has four shields: Forward, Aft, Port, and Starboard. Each one is separate in terms of power usage; each shield has the same characteristics. The Aft shield does not have a lower capacity than the Forward shield, etc. Each shield provides a certain amount of protection. Each attack reduces the amount of defense provided; when Protection reaches 0, the shield collapses and the ship is vulnerable to attack on that one side. Each shield has a recharge rating which indicates how long it takes for it to return to full strength after collapsing or being turned off.
- Even while shields remain intact, some damage manages to "leak" through them from some attacks. This reflects concussion damage to the ship from extremely strong attacks, sudden changes of inertia, and other factors. Each shield generator incorporates a subspace field distortion amplifier which provides the shield with a Threshold rating. Threshold indicates the point at which damage leaks through the shield. Hull Resistance offers defense against "leaked" damage. A ship's Threshold cannot exceed one-third of its full normal Protection, the average is a quarter.
- Each shield costs power per protection to operate. This power cost does not decrease just because damage reduces the shield's Protection. The Shield Grid indicates how much a shield's Protection and Threshold may be increased by providing it with extra Power. Recharge cannot be improved with extra Power.

BACKUP SHIELD GENERATORS
Most ships have multiple backups for their shield generators, to ensure that they can maintain some form of defense if the main generators are damaged or malfunction. A ship must have at least 1 backup generator for each of its four shields. A backup shield generator functions only when its main shield generator cannot work for some reason (typically, because of damage suffered in combat). When that occurs, the backup generator activates immediately to maintain the shields at their current Protection and Threshold, or a maximum of two-thirds of the shields' normal Protection and Threshold, whichever is lower. If the shield has already been reduced to 0 Protection, activating the backup generator has no effect—the shield systems' capacity for creating and maintaining the shield is too stressed and/or damaged to generate another shield until the normal Recharge period has passed (or the crew effects repairs).
- Recharging Systems range from 30 seconds to up to a minute to reinitialize a shield which has been terminated

COVARIANT SHIELDS
Covariant shields use an advanced, tetryon-based technology. They work like normal shields, but with one additional benefit: they interfere with sensors. They have the same effect as a sensor-reflective hull when active. It costs extra power to maintain the Refractive Deflector Shield.

REFRACTIVE SHIELDS
The Refractive Deflector Shield masks the ship from long range sensors but not lateral sensors, it will work until we are 5 Light-years from enemy’s lateral sensors. Refractive Shields do not emit tetryons. It costs extra power to maintain the Refractive Deflector Shield.

METAPHASIC SHIELDS
Developed in 2369 by a Ferengi scientist, Dr. Reyga, the metaphasic shield generates overlapping low-level subspace fields. This causes anything within those fields to partially enter subspace, which provides a high level of protection against phenomena in normal space. Their Protection and Threshold are triple that of a normal deflector shield, though their Power cost remains the same as for a normal, non-tripled, shield. Among other things, this allows a ship with a metaphasic shield to safely enter and spend time in the coronae of stars.

MULTI-SPECTRAL SHIELDS
This type of shield, available from 2370 on, uses multiple spectrums of energy, thus enabling the shields to recharge more quickly, 30 seconds regardless of conditions, instead of the usual up to a minute for standard shields.

REGENERATIVE FORCE FIELDS
Starfleet's latest advance in the field of defense technology is the regenerative force field, also known as regenerative shielding. Its name derives from the fact that it has the ability to "repair" itself when damaged. A regenerative force field siphons off some of the incoming energy of an attack into a field storage chamber, then uses that energy to recharge and strengthen itself, making it very Difficult to ever completely collapse it. When a regenerative force field loses any Protection to an attack (or other cause), each shield can "regenerates" some of its lost Protection until its Protection is once again at full strength (it cannot regenerate additional Protection beyond its full normal Protection). The amount it regenerates depends upon the type of shield regenerator purchased, from 30 to 60 seconds, but cannot exceed the number of points of Protection lost to previous attacks. Regeneration, and the associated Power cost, occurs per shield, not for all shields at once. Regeneration ceases to occur if the shield collapses; however, all regenerative force fields automatically have Recharge rates of 30 seconds (so there's no need for a separate recharge system). Shield generators, grids, and subspace field distortion amplifiers are normal. Normal shield rules otherwise apply. A regenerative force field can only regenerate up to its full normal Protection; if Power or enhancements are used to increase a shield's strength to the limits allowed by its shield grid, that extra protection does not regenerate. The backup shield generators automatically tie into the regeneration system, a separate regenerators is not required for them. At present, regenerative force fields are found on only the most advanced vessels, such as the U.S.S. Prometheus. Due to technical and economic reasons, it will likely take some time before substantial numbers of Starfleet vessels are equipped with them.

SHIELD POLARITY
Altering a ship's shields' polarity can break a tractor beam's hold on the ship. This requires time and additional power. To attempt to escape or avoid the tractor beam requires Difficult Systems Shields Engineering.
- Reversing a ship's shields' polarity can counteract, and thus free the ship from, gravimetric shear and similar gravimetric distortions. This requires time and additional power. To attempt to escape or avoid the gravimetric shear or gravimetric shear distortion requires Difficult Systems Shields Engineering. The Failure results in damage to the ship and increasing the effect of the gravimetric distortion/shear.
- It's possible for attackers to repolarize a target's shields, causing the ship to emit an energy signature which is easily tracked or "homed in on," making it very difficult for the ship to escape pursuers. To do this, the attacker must use its navigational deflector to emit a certain type of energy pulse. It requires Shipboard Tactical Systems to hit the target in the usual fashion. If it hits, the energy pulse repolarizes the ship's shields. Thereafter, any ship with its sensors tuned to detect the repolarization requires only routine Shipboard Sensors Systems to locate the ship. The repolarization reverses itself in 3 days; to reverse it before then, the ship must make Challenging Shields Systems Engineering.
- Repolarize a target's shields can also be used to collapse a ship’s shields. To do this, the attacker must use its navigational deflector to emit a certain type of energy pulse. It requires Shipboard Tactical Systems to hit the target in the usual fashion. If it hits, the energy pulse repolarizes the ship's shields and collapses the target ship’s shields, which must reset them in the usual fashion which requires time.

BETA-TACHYON PULSE AND ANTI-PROTONS
A shield can be strengthened by remodulating it to emit a beta-tachyon pulse, then projecting antiproton beams into the shield. This increases the shields' Protection and Threshold by a factor of ten and only costs Power. It requires time and successful Challenging Shipboard Shields Systems which does not always work. Failure indicates that the shields collapse and must recharge as normal. If done under duress, dramatic failure means that the generators have been damaged, requiring hours' worth of repairs, sometimes less with Extended and Combined Tests.

SIRILLIUM
Sirillium is a type of gas found in some nebulae. A ship can use it to enhance shield efficiency. If a supply of sirillium is available, a ship can collect it and inject it into its shield generators. This provides additional Power for 1 minute, but this Power can only be used for the shields (either to enhance them, or to "reduce" their ordinary Power cost).

TACHYON BURST
Firing a tachyon burst at a ship requires that ship to reset its shield harmonics. Generating the tachyon burst requires Moderate Shipboard Deflector Systems. Failure means the beam was not generated, Resetting the harmonics requires time and a Routine Shields Systems Engineering. While they're scrambled, it's possible to transport someone onto that ship. This requires a Moderate Shipboard Transporter Systems and costs additional power. Failure means the transport was mis-timed and the character's pattern "bounces back" to the pad he dematerialized on.

RADIATION WITH RAPID MAGNETIC FIELD FLUX VARIATIONS
A ship can bombard a target with a special form of radiation with rapid magnetic field flux variations. This reverses the polarity of the target ship's shields and causes them to collapse; they must recharge before they can activate again. This requires time to set up (it can be done in advance) and Difficult Shipboard Deflector Systems to generate the pulse, and Shipboard Tactical Systems to hit the target.

ANTI-PROTON BEAM
An anti-proton beam which hits a ship from very close range (no more than 2 kilometers) will disable a ship's shields; they must recharge before they can activate again. This requires time to set up (it can be done in advance) and Challenging Shipboard Deflector Systems to generate the pulse, and Shipboard Tactical Systems to hit the target.

INTERFEROMETRIC PULSE
A ship can also project an interferometric pulse at a target modulated exactly opposite the shield, disrupting the shield completely, requiring time and power to recharge. This requires time to set up (it can be done in advance) and Challenging Shipboard Deflector Systems to generate the pulse, and Shipboard Tactical Systems to hit the target. If the attacker must somehow learn the target's shield modulation, then it only requires Standard Shipboard Deflector Systems.

SHIELD DIMPLING
This difficult technique uses a beam weapon attack to allow a torpedo to pass unhindered through a shield to strike the ship beneath it. To use it, the attacking ship's Tactical Officer has to perform two actions, one right after the other (with multiple action penalties).
- First is to fire a single torpedo at the target.
- Second is to fire a beam weapon at the precise point on the target's shields where the torpedo will strike, microseconds before the torpedo hits. This is a standard attack at increased difficulty. This can be done by an auxiliary vehicle. If the Test succeeds, the torpedo passes through the "dimple" in the shield and strikes the ship directly (the shield's Protection and Threshold have no effect on it; only the Hull Resistance applies to the damage). Failure indicates that the beam fails to create a dimple and does not damage the shield in any way, but the torpedo strikes the shield normally. Failure under duress indicates the beam weapon went off just microseconds too late and harmlessly destroys the torpedo before it hits the target's shields, making you the hero of the wrong ship.

SHIELD JUNCTIONS
Where a ship's shields meet, there's a "shield junction," a line of potential weakness which an attacker may be able to exploit. It requires Challenging Shipboard Sensors Systems to locate the junction (bonuses from uprated sensors and/or the Tactical TA/T/TS apply). The Tactical Officer may then target the junction at a penalty to his Shipboard Tactical Systems. If he succeeds in hitting the junction, the shields' Protection and Threshold at that point is only half that of the weakest Protection and weakest Threshold of the two shields which meet at that point. An attack on a junction does no damage to the two shields which form it. Junctions never lose any Protection or Threshold from attacks; they only lose strength as the two shields which form them do. If an attack targeted at a shield junction or weak point misses, it misses the ship entirely, although visually it will appear to have hit one of the shields, but the target takes no damage.

SHIELD WEAK POINTS
Ships develop weaknesses in certain areas of their shields under certain conditions. For example, Galaxy-class Explorers, and a number of other ships, have a weak spot in their aft shields near their warp nacelles when using their impulse drives. Such weak spots function like shield junctions, though it's harder to detect them in combat situations requiring Challenging Shipboard Sensors Systems. In non-combat conditions, they're often weak enough for a small ship (like a shuttle, runabout, or fighter) to slip through them by moving slowly and carefully, requiring Moderate Shipboard Flight Control Systems; failure results in a collision with the shield. If an attack targeted at a shield junction or weak point misses, it misses the ship entirely, although visually it will appear to have hit one of the shields, but the target takes no damage.

RADION BEAMS
A ship can cause the main deflector to emit a radion beam, which will carry a transport beam through a shield. This requires a Moderate Shipboard Transporter Systems and costs additional power. Failure means the subject remains on the pad, untransported.

STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY FIELD (SIF)
The hull alone cannot protect a ship from the stresses of superluminal acceleration, therefore every ship has a Structural Integrity Field (SIF) which holds it together.

A SIF only applies to damage involving Gross Structural Compression (GSC), better known as "hull stress." Typically only Hull Resistance and/or the SIF protect a ship against hull stress. Hull stress includes things like gravimetric shear and other gravity effects, the buffeting of ion and plasma storms, damage from gravimetric torpedoes and gravitic mines, and the like. It does not protect against standard beam weapon or missile weapons.
- If the SIF fails for any reason, the backup SIFs automatically activate. If, for some reason, the main SIF and its backups fail, a starship is in real trouble. Its hull breaches will not be sealed (or remain sealed), thus allowing atmosphere to vent into space and ship personnel to be sucked out with it. It has no defense against gravimetric shear or similar phenomena. Most importantly, the ship cannot move without damaging itself. The Flight Control officer may use the Reaction Control System (RCS) to move slight distances, but requires Moderate Shipboard Flight Control Systems. Failure means the ship suffers heavy damage. If the ship tries to move at impulse speeds, it automatically suffers massive damage. Attempting to go to warp automatically destroys the ship.

STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY FIELD (SIF) AS SHIELD
In situations where a ship cannot use its deflector shields, it can jury-rig low-powered shields with its SIF and IDF. This effect can only apply to a maximum of one-quarter of the ship, so it usually works best to protect a particular system or area from a specific attack. A ship's SIF and IDF continue to perform their normal functions even while they're being adapted to service as a crude shield.
- Creating a SIF/IDF shield one minute, and requires Moderate Shipboard SIF or IDF or Shields Systems. Failure means the ship can try again after a minute pass. To convert the SIF and IDF into small temporary shields, the ship must run both of them at their maximum strength, and the power costs for doing so (both the normal Power cost, and the extra Power for the increased strength) are triple normal. As the Protection diminishes, so does the Threshold. The shield cannot have be improved with extra power, nor can a ship use it to perform any of the shield-based special tactics—all it does is offer a small amount of defense. Once its Protection is exhausted, it cannot recharge, nor can this tactic be attempted again by the ship for 30 minutes.

INERTIAL DAMPING FIELD (IDF)
The Inertial Damping Field (IDF) prevents the stresses of acceleration and deceleration from injuring the crew. Basically, it neutralizes such forces by generating force fields which counter them.
- An IDF's normal strength is sufficient to protect its ship's occupants against just about any movement-related stress it can create by itself. In the highly unlikely event that a ship suffered some unusual form of movement-related stress, the enhanced IDF protects the occupants against damage caused by such stress the same way that the SIF protects the ship itself against hull stress.
- If a ship's IDF fails, the backups automatically come online. If, for whatever reason, the main IDF and backups fail to work, the ship cannot use impulse or warp drives, only the reaction control system ("thrusters"). If it attains impulse or warp speeds, everyone on the ship is killed when the inertial force of the acceleration crushes them.


PHASERS
The primary weapons on most Starfleet vessels are phasers. Phasers (short for PHASed Energy Rectification) use a rapid nadion effect (RNE) to release and transfer energy generated within superconducting crystals known as fushigi-no-umi. Ships can use these beams of energy as tools (say, to remove obstacles, excavate large holes, or reshape planetary terrain) or as weapons. Ship-mounted phasers are organized into types, rated from I (one) to XII (twelve). Generally, Type X is the most powerful type of phaser which Starfleet can mount on a ship. Advances in tactical technology as of 2372 have allowed it to mount Type XI and XII phasers on large ships, but to date only the Sovereign-class Heavy Explorer has benefited from this breakthrough.
- Phasers consist of multiple emitters organized into series called arrays. An emitter has three main parts: an EPS submaster flow regulator (which controls phaser power levels); a plasma distribution manifold (PDM), which channels the power to the prefiring chambers; and the actual phaser emitter crystal. A large array, such as the ones found on the dorsal or ventral surfaces of many starships' saucers, may have as many as 200 emitters and as few as 40. The type of emitter dictates how powerful a beam an array can emit; the size of the array indicates how many beams that array can emit at one time (singly or as a multifire burst). The EPS subsystem which provides Power to a phaser array is called the phaser generator.
- Phaser arrays (sometimes called "banks") also include an auto-phaser interlock which links with the TA/T/TS computer to assure accurate firing. It precisely times the firing of the array for maximum chance of a successful shot.
- The auto-phaser interlock does not cost power to use. Every phaser array comes equipped with a phaser array power cell which includes enough Power for two shots from the array (at normal full strength). Crewmembers can drain this power, also known as the "phaser reserves" or "defense reserves," for use by other ship's systems if necessary.
- Phasers do more damage the more power they draw on, up to a point. A ship can increase any phaser's base damage up to 125% of normal. This requires Moderate Shipboard Tactical, Mission Ops or Engineering Systems. Failure means the extra power is wasted and it does not improve the weapon's performance.

ACB JACKETING
Phaser beams are ordinarily useless at warp speeds; they dissipate too quickly in the presence of moving warp fields to be effective weapons. To provide a potential tactical advantage in warp speed combat situations, Starfleet recently invented technology which jackets a phaser beam inside an annular confinement beam (ACB), similar to the one involved in the materialization/dematerialization process which is a part of transporter use. The benefit to this is that a ship can fire an ACB-jacketed phaser beam at any target while the firing ship travels at warp speeds, regardless of relative speeds or angle of fire. This technology was still very new as of 2375 though it began development some years prior to that date; few ships have been equipped with it.

PHASER–JACKETED PHASER BEAMS
To strengthen a phaser beam, thus making it do more damage and extending its range, a ship can jacket it inside a second phaser beam. This requires time and a Moderate Shipboard Tactical Systems. If it succeeds, the phaser beam costs +50% power, but it does additional damage and has extends it range by 25%.

PULSE PHASER CANNONS
Pulse phasers are a relatively new Starfleet development. They combine large, nearly flawless emitter crystals with rapid-discharge EPS capacitance banks and high-speed beam focusing coils. This technology allows the coils to store the phaser charge for a few nanoseconds, and then release it as a layered pulse. Shields and materials have a harder time dispersing the layered energy pulse than the standard phaser beam, resulting in more damage to the target.
- Pulse phaser cannons are usually built into ships in linked pairs. They have the same range as standard phasers, but are slightly more accurate and do more damage. On the other hand, they have a smaller arc of fire (usually just straight forward) and cannot fire in continuous mode, or in wide-beam mode, which limits their usefulness as tools. They can perform single-weapon multifire, or multiple-weapon multifire with other phasers of any type.
- A pulse phaser cannon costs the same as any other phaser of its type, it does more damage compared to a normal phaser of the same type, and requires more power to operate. A pulse phaser must include a Class Gamma auto-phaser interlock. It can only fire in a 60 by 60 arc in one direction. Pulse phasers cannot be ACB-jacketed.

DISRUPTORS
The primary beam weapons of the Klingons, Cardassians and Romulans is the disruptor. Disruptors create highly-charged, powerful beams of plasma using microscopic amounts of antimatter. This makes a comparative model more powerful than a phaser, but much less versatile. Disruptors leave an anti-proton residue. The anti-proton decay allows the time of use to be estimated with Routine Shipboard Sensors Systems. Disruptors' strength may be increased with extra power, just as for phasers.

POLARON BEAMS
The polaron beam is the standard weapon of the Dominion. Powerful, and possessing several useful tactical applications. From 2370 to 2373, Starfleet vessels were utterly vulnerable to polaron beams; their deflector shields offered no protection against them whatsoever, regardless of shield nutation or harmonics. In 2373, Starfleet developed a way to overcome this limitation; since that time Starfleet shields have affected polaron beams normally. A polaron beam can also disrupt a tractor beam.

PULSE COMPRESSION WAVE
A ship can run a pulse compression wave through a phaser array, thus increasing the strength of the beam it projects. This time to prepare and a Moderate Shipboard Tactical Systems. If it succeeds, increase the phaser's damage by 25%; costing additional power.

ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSES INTO STARS
A ship can generate a tremendous solar flare by projecting an electromagnetic pulse or highly energetic particle beam into just the right point on a star where sunspot activity is making flares more likely. This requires the ship to get very close to the star.
- First the Conn must make a Moderate Shipboard Flight Control Systems. If he succeeds, the ship has gotten close enough without damaging the ship. If the ship has metaphasic shielding, no heat damage is suffered unless the ship flies right into the sun.
- Second, As the ship flies by the star, it generates a strong electromagnetic pulse and projects it into the star. This requires time and Challenging Shipboard Tactical Systems to place the beam at just the right point. If he succeeds, the star generates a massive solar flare. Anything within 120 million kilometers (400 light-seconds or .8AU) of the sun in the direction of the flare is destroyed—ships, space stations, asteroids, everything. Planets' atmospheres will boil away, killing virtually every inhabitant of the world. If he fails, the beam wasn't properly placed; the ship can swing around and try again.


TRACTOR BEAMS

ANTIMATTER SURGE
A trapped ship can break a tractor beam by sending an antimatter surge through its shield matrix (all of its shield grids). This requires Moderate Shipboard Shields Systems and power, also disrupts the attacker's tractor emitters, preventing them from working for the next minute.

FEEDBACK LOOPS AND PLASMA SURGES
A ship caught by a tractor beam can send a feedback loop (or feedback pulse) through active shields, or if shields are not active a plasma surge, to neutralize the tractor beam and temporarily disable the tractor emitters. This requires Moderate Shipboard Deflector Systems and spending power. If it succeeds, the tractor beam is broken and the tractor emitters which projected it will not work for 1 minute.

OPTRONIC PULSE
An optronic pulse weakens a tractor beam, allowing a captured ship to break free with impulse power. It requires Moderate Shipboard Deflector Systems. If it succeeds exactly, reduce the tractor beam's strength enough to break free with impulse power. This effect lasts one minute. If the ship generating the tractor beam is aware of the tactic, it can counteract the optronic pulse by spending power to strengthen or restore the tractor beam.

PARTICLE BEAMS AND POLARON BEAMS
Generating a particle beam or polaron beam can disrupt a tractor beam, allowing a captured ship to go free. This requires Moderate Shipboard Deflector Systems and power. If it succeeds, the particle or polaron beam disrupts the tractor beam (and the emitters which projected it, which won't work for the next minute). If it fails, the character may try again.
- A ship whose tractor beam is disrupted by a particle beam may try to send pulse feedback into the other ship down the particle beam, which can disrupt the target's SIF. This requires Moderate Shipboard Deflector Systems and power. If it succeeds, the pulse reduces the target's SIF's Protection by 33% for 1 minute.

DEFLECTING WEAPONS FIRE
By locking a modulated tractor beam onto a specific beam weapon, a ship can deflect part of that weapon's fire. The ship must first hit the weapon with its tractor beam using normal attack procedures. The tractor beam must be used at maximum strength. If the attack succeeds, as long as the beam remains locked onto the target's weapon, that weapon's cannot target. Using a tractor beam on a torpedo launcher in this fashion prevents the launcher from firing any torpedoes.

MISDIRECTING TRANSPORTER BEAMS
Intersecting a transporter beam with a tractor beam allows the ship generating the tractor beam to alter the course of the transporter beam, causing it to materialize in a location other than the one it was originally intended for. This requires Challenging Shipboard Tractor Beam Systems. Failure means the transporter beam was not misdirected at all.

POWER DISRUPTION
If the resonance frequency of a tractor beam is incompatible with a target ship's power systems, it can short out main and auxiliary power by overloading the warp and impulse relays. To use this as a combat tactic, first requires Moderate Shipboard Sensors Systems to determine the proper resonance frequency for the tractor beam. Then it requires Challenging Shipboard Tractors Systems to set the tractor's resonance frequency properly. Lastly, it has to spend time and hit the target with an attack Test. If all these succeed, the target ship loses 33% of its power generation ability until it reaches 0; this effect lasts as long as the tractor beam holds the target. If either of the first two processes fails, it disrupts the entire process and must restart the process requiring time.

SUBSPACE TRACTOR BEAM
An ordinary tractor beam may be reconfigured to be a subspace tractor beam so that it can rescue ships trapped in the event horizon of a singularity, a subspace rift, or similar phenomena. This requires a few minutes and Moderate Shipboard Tractor Beam Systems or Systems Tractor Beam Engineering. Subspace tractor beams require extra Power to use.

SHIELD POLARITY
Altering a ship's shields' polarity can break a tractor beam's hold on the ship. This requires time and additional Power. The character attempting to escape or avoid the tractor requires Difficult Shields Systems Engineering. If it succeeds, his ship breaks free; if he fails, it remains held

HULL POLARITY
Hulls have a polarity. Polarity refers to the attracting and contrasting properties of the force fields within a shield, and is similar to the shield's harmonics. Altering the shields' polarity ("repolarizing" them) has some tactical benefits similar to altering harmonics, but can also be used against the ship. Repolarizing a hull can create several useful effects. Repolarizing a ship's hull can break the ship free from a tractor beam. This requires difficult Shipboard Hull Systems.