Mechtech

Mechtech is short for mechanical technology and is the technology primarily used by humans, gerrets, and turgons. The primary materials of mechtech are graphene, metals, silicates, and to a lesser degree plastics.

The following are some of the key recent technological developments in mechtech that have most greatly impacted the human alliance.

## Graphene Superconductors

The development of cheap graphene superconductors led humanity to a revolution in energy development, nearly eliminating reliance on fossil fuels and batteries as energy storage. Graphene superconductors are found in virtually all electronic devices for both wiring and capacitors that allow quick recharging and dense energy storage.

In many consumer devices graphene is incorporated into the structural frame of the object, providing not only energy storage but also a stronger, lighter exterior.

## Sablite

Sablite is a material that was originally designed as a way to harness energy from the environment. They are able to convert all wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation into electrical energy. And they serve this purpose well, providing energy in places where fusion reactors are impractical or undesired.

Sablite also finds use in fusion reactors to convert some of the energy generated directly into electricity, especially on shipboard reactors.

However, the technology has found a second use: as a stealth coating for fighters, missiles, and other small spacecraft. It makes it nearly impossible to detect anything coated in it with most active and passive scanning methods.

## Fusion Reactors

Fusion power provides the bulk of human power needs. There are two types of reactors.

Ground-based fusion reactors are Tokamak-style toruses that run on deuterium-tritium reactions. They convert the energy produce into electricity through a combination of sablite and steam turbines.

Shipboard fusion reactors in comparison are magnetic mirror engines that run on the more volatile deuterium/helium-3 reaction which expels the charged particles out the back to produce thrust. They can’t afford to have the heavy steam turbines but do produce some energy from sablite. The thrust from these reactors leaves kilometers-long trails of glowing plasma that renders ships using it easily detected. But it also provides them with great speed and a good supply of energy for combat.

## Gravity Plates

Gravity plates or grav plates are circular disks that convert electrical energy into kinetic energy. Sending electrical energy in a spiral through the plate will produce a flow of gravitons that will travel out perpendicular to the disk at the speed of light. If they encounter the nucleus of an atom they will be absorbed and impart kinetic energy to it moving it in the direction the graviton was travelling, essentially pushing it away from the grav plate. If the flow of current is reversed, the gravitons will instead cause the target to move in the opposite direction, being pulled toward the grav plate. The grave plate is also given an equal and opposite thrust in the opposite direction that the graviton is moving the target.

The terms “gravity” and “graviton” are misnomers since they have nothing to due with true gravity and are instead producing kinetic energy. These are the terms that have stuck in common usage, much to the dismay of scientists.

Graviton beams are not coherent, and will spread out over time. Current research is being put into making coherent beams that would have a number of uses, such as acting as a sort of tractor beam or possibly as advanced weaponry, but nothing practical has yet been produced.

Grav plates have a number of uses currently. Aboard starships they provide compensation for acceleration. They are easily incorporated into metal armor and can also push away projectiles, slowing down missiles and deflecting shots from railguns and mag weapons, though doing nothing against energy weapons.

These plates are often used to produce thrust, especially for boats which usually require a stealthier form of propulsion.

Grav plates were long thought to be too inefficient to find use in weaponry, but the Turgons produced a weapon that in English is called the gravity shotgun. It’s a short-range weapon that shoots a beam of kinetic force that for the most part bypasses armor and cover alike. Though the recoil is substantial, require a rear-facing grav plate to partially counteract, the weapon has found tactical use. Some gravity shotguns are lethal against non-Turgon life forms while toned-down ones are used for non-lethal purposes.

However, perhaps the most world-changing application of grav plates was their original use: grav platforms. Built before grav plates could be miniaturized to less than a square meter, these were landing pads fifty meters in diameter located on Earth’s surface. These platforms required massive amounts of power, but they provided a corridor of levitation that propelled ships into space, drastically reducing the cost of launches and allowing the current ubiquity of space travel.

## Omniforge

The omniforge is a device that assembles items atom by atom. It uses one or more particle accelerators to launch streams of charged atoms guided by magnetic fields onto a surface to create a desired device. This atom-by-atom construction is an order of magnitude slower than traditional manufacturing, but also much more precise. It is often used for technology that requires intricate detail such as computing and high-end materials. Omniforges are also essential equipment aboard ships and on colonies where the ability to produce a broad variety of goods without in-place factories is essential.

## Cloning Vats

Cloning vats were originally developed with the idea of helping rare animals reproduce, with an eye toward eventually providing a method for birthing humans. (I'm thinking they failed, more on this later)

While cloning vats do not adequately allow entire organisms to develop well, a new use has been found for them. Adult stem cells can be harvested from a person, replicated, and used to grow a new limb or organ to be transplanted usually into the original donor. The cells rapidly grow to reach the age of the host. It usually takes a few weeks to clone the replacement organs and another month or two for the host to completely integrate the organ into the body. But this does allow for replacement of damaged organs. The replacement organ could also have modified DNA to eliminate genetic defects in the original organ or instead grant new benefits not found in naturally-occurring organs.The replacement organs can also incorporate animal DNA giving a person animal characteristics.