Titanium-A armor (EXverse)

Titanium-A is the most common form of battle plating used by UNSC Navy's starships. It is composed of high-grade Titanium-50 that is specially strengthened at the molecular level, which implies alloying with other elements. It is usually greyish in color, and is embedded with thermal superconducting radiators to more efficiently transfer the heat generated by the ship into space.
Sawing widespread use during Insurrection, it became obsolete by the time the Covenant attacked human space, as aliens' energy-based weaponry was too powerful so that the Titanium-A could dissipate high temperatures; nonetheless, some officers such as Vice Admiral Cole modified the armor by layered titanium with tungsten, granting a radiation absorption rating of 5 and, thus, capable of withstanding even to the most powerful plasma weapons.
Starting from these improvements, most of the time seen on a single ship as mass production had some issues related to resources shortages, focuses on energy shielding and companies' interests, a new variant was developed and fitted on in 2549, which proved to be so effective that it become the standard armor plating during late-war and after it.
== History ==
== Characteristics ==
== Variants ==
=== A1 ===
Initially known as Titanium-A, without any number, A1 variant it was the first iteration of the armor. Composed mainly of Titanium-50, it had the merit to mark a path in UNSC naval history, giving its starship something strong against guided missiles; other than that, the new armor was modular, allowing other elements to be layered with, but this modularity wasn't used often, as it was seen without any practical application.
=== A2 ===
Starting with in 2522, A2 variant it became the standard armor during the Great War. Using small components of boron, the A2 was considerably stronger than the previous A1, but not enough to withstand a MAC slug, although it protected from missiles when they were less than a hundred.
The major issue was an insufficient protection against plasma fire, as boron's melting point reaches only 2,076 °C, while plasma fire has a temperature of around 3,000 °C. Only a good thickness prevent the armor to boiled away within seconds: Epochs were capable of withstanding to at least five plasma torpedoes, but in many cases the number was significantly higher thanks to their thickness of three meters; , while having a modest sixty centimeters armor, it could sustained much more damage from pulse lasers than , which had the same thickness although belonging to A1 variant.
However, since the start of the war many naval officers made some modifications on their own. The first one was Admiral Cole, which modified many times his flagship to keep it upgraded; one of the modifications was apply to the armor: other than fitted the A2, Cole made layered Titanium-A with tungsten, granting an absorption rating of 5, which guaranteed much more protection against plasma fire. In fact, the Everest proved to be highly resistant to plasma torpedoes, thanks also to its armor's thickness of over 2.5 meters.
Some other officers used tantalum, someone else even refractory compound such as the tantalum hafnium carbide, which all improved A2 version's heat-resistant capabilities.
=== A3 ===
The A3 variant was considered the ultimate armor. Developed starting by hand-made improvements carried out for A2 variant, A3 retains the modularity from previous iterations but using much more high temperatures-resistant elements, such as tungsten or tantalum. However the A3 panels are easier to replace than predecessors, so being cheaper and decreasing maintenance time; at the same time, the panels can be layered with all sort of elements: for example, after the Rise of the Created many ships' armor plates were layered with EMP-resistant elements, such as lead or aluminum.