Cloaking

Cloaking technology, or simply "cloak tech" refers to all forms of technology whose purpose is to obscure individual beings or objects from detection and identification, be it by the sensory organs of living beings or via some sort of technological sensor. Cloaking technology can range from anything from active camouflage, to devices that befuddle the scanners of ships, to image projectors which allow for technological illusions.

## Active Camouflage

Active Camouflage or "active camo" refers to technology which provides visual cloaking by manipulating the image of a person or object. Active Camouflage technology is more commonly used on individuals in place of starcraft, as spotting things moving in the void is usually accomplished with scanners, rather than direct vision.

### Mimic Film

Mimic film is one of the cheaper forms of active camouflage, taking the form of a gleaming sheet of flexible polymetal. Mimic film is usually draped over whatever is being concealed, where it is activated either remotely or by a mechanism on the film itself. Thereafter, the outside of the film projects an image of the surrounding area on its surface, making whatever it is covering extremely hard to spot. Moving with a mimic field tends to cause the material to rustle and twist, and its surface to shimmer slightly as it attempts to adjust to new surroundings, making it better suited to concealing static objects.

### Refractive Materials

Refractive materials, sometimes called "remats" for short, is the term given for materials which employ energy fields which bend and distort light, allowing whatever they are covering to blend in with their surroundings. Remats come in the form of alloys that can plate vehicle hulls or act as armor, or in fabric meshes that can be made into suits for people to wear (remat suits are highly favored by assassins and spies). One of the chief limitations of remats is that their concealment is not foolproof; while light bends around whatever they cover to match their surroundings, an object's outline is still faintly visible, and movement makes it easier to spot. As such, remats are most effective when standing still, though moving with them is still fairly effective, so long as one is not under close scrutiny. Remats also do not block thermal signatures, unless devices using them also incorporate heat insulation technologies, which naturally are more expensive.

### Palidino Field

The Palidino Field is one of the most rare and expensive forms of active camo, and allows for near total invisibility, distorting light in such a way as to completely conceal an object covered in the field from sight, and even completely mask thermal signatures. Palidino fields usually projected from some sort of device onto a larger object's surface. Personal Palidino Fields are usually contained in small devices, strapped to somewhere on the body, and can work no matter what one is wearing. Palidino fields can also be incorporated into a vehicle's systems as well.

### Phantom Cloaks

Phantom cloaks incorporate psionic technology, and are rather rare. Instead of physically concealing an individual by distorting light, they project a psychic field when activated that prevents a user from being perceived by organic beings around them. They cannot be heard, seen, smelled, touched, etc, and people will subconsciously move around anyone under a Phantom Cloak to avoid touching them. Phantom Cloaks are partially controlled mentally, partially through circuitry. While they tend to be mechanism activated, who or what is concealed within the Cloak's range is largely based on the thoughts of the user. As such, psions have an easier time making use of them.

Additionally, cyberminds are unable to use standard Phantom Cloaks, but at the same time, Phantom Cloaks tend to be ineffective against machinery such as security cameras or a drone's photoreceptors, as the effects are mental. Organics can look through cameras and still be under the effects, but only if they are in range of the cloaking device.

There do exist extremely rare variants of Phantom Cloaks called Cyberwraith Cloaks, which can be used by Cyberminds and are effective against them, but they are very uncommon and ruinously expensive.

## Cloaking Projectors

Cloaking Projectors provide concealment using similar means as holoprojection; they project light patterns which display 3-D images. As such, is is possible for such a projector to produce images of nearby scenery, to produce an image of a solid rock face where in reality there is a cave entrance, etc. Projectors tend to be rather laborious to set up, and moving them around adjusts where their image is projected. As such, they must remain stationary relative to whatever they are concealing, making them unsuitable for personal active camo. However, they can be attached to vehicles and remain fairly effective even as they move, since they move with the vehicle, though this usually only works in the silent void of space, as the sound of engines tend to render them redundant.

## Occlusion Fields

Occlusion fields are devices which somehow directly disrupt the signals of various scanning equipment, either by distorting signals, sending out false signals, or absorbing signals meant to detect them.

### Optic Screens

Optic screens, more commonly known as "camera scramblers", and even more simply as "camscrams" are devices which serve to provide obfuscation from optic sensory arrays such as surveillance cameras, and even the "eyes" of various cyberminds. Optic screens emit an energy field which disrupts the ability of optic sensors to properly process any areas where the field is present. Depending on how advanced (and as a result, expensive) such screens are, their effectiveness can range from simply rendering the image of an affected area extremely blurry, to making the area mostly invisible, but for a few distortions, or completely masking the zone covered by the screen's field from detection. Camscrams are typically only employed for personal concealment, as hiding a ship or bunker with optic distortions alone does not prevent scans of heat or electricity from being detected.

### Void Field

Void Fields are devices which literally absorb the signals projected by scanners, preventing them from returning to their place of origin with data (for this reason, they are sometimes called "signal eaters"). An area covered by a Void Field simply does not transmit any data to a scanner. The main downside of Void Fields is that they completely disable the use of scanners within their field as well, blinding whoever is using them.

### Fadir Projectors

Fadir Projectors are extremely advanced and nuanced devices, which emit signals of fabricated data to any scanners focused on their area. Fadir projectors can project false power signatures, images, sounds, or complete absence thereof. Generally speaking, however, one must preprogram a Fadir Projector with whatever they wish to project before using it, as constructing a projection is extremely laborious, and cannot be done on the fly.