Crystal-Composite Armour

## Overview

Building upon Carbon-Lattice Armour, the Crystal Composite utilizes a synthesized version of a crystal native to the Va’sha homeworld, only forming naturally in the unique conditions of its history. This crystal is extraordinarily thermally non-conductive and is very reflective, with a high refractive index, allowing it to utterly reflect and scatter light that touches the hull, giving it a sparkling look. This crystal is applied as a composite later on top of standard Carbon-Lattice Armour to form an outer barrier that makes it completely invulnerable to any form of laser weaponry, as well as weapons working on a similar theory, as well as making it effectively immune to thermal weaponry, as the crystals protect the Carbon-Lattice from its major weak points. The Carbon-Lattice in turn protects the ship from kinetic weaponry and absorbs any residual heat that slips past. The Carbon-Lattice also retains its ability to perform self-repairs on itself and the crystal layer above, allowing it to close any holes made by kinetic weaponry. This complicated structure, however, comes at the cost of manufacturing, as the crystal structure is both time-consuming to produce due to its intricate nature, and requires several rare elements that while Flameborne can Synthesize them, are still difficult to acquire in a great abundance.

## Dragonscale

Dragonscale is a specialized type of armour intended for use with Dragons. It was derived from **Crystal-Composite Armour** and has most of the same physical properties, with the primary difference in its construction being its use of layered plates of the material, rather than a solid sheet. This design allows the armour to move with the Dragon and even be placed in places where the armour would normally form gaps, allowing greater mobility without any loss of protection to vital joints, on top of the fact that the layered armour, due to overlapping with itself, is more protective than simple **Crystal-Composite Armour**. The process to make it is more complex and costly than simple **Crystal-Composite Armour**, and thus its use is reserved solely for dragons, who can benefit the most from it. when done correctly, Dragonscale can have a flexibility and malleability similar to fabric, but without sacrificing any of its protective properties, making it fantastic for use in vehicles such as dragons, which move around in non-standard ways with their artificial muscles.

### Dragon Usage

As Dragons are innately expensive and valuable pieces of equipment, no expense is usually spared in protecting them, and as such, Dragonscale is a universal equip on all Dragons, regardless of size or relative cost. Dragonscale when applied to dragons is usually done so in a more tight-knit configuration than other applications, with tiny overlapping scales as opposed to larger plates, allowing for a greater degree of mobility and protection than would be afforded by solid plates.

### Power Armour Usage

A surprising use of Dragonscale that has only come about in recent years is its use in the production of Powered Armour. Powered Armour in its early years faced a lot of the same issues that Dragons had with the mobility and weak points of armour, and thus Power Armour-grade Dragonscale was developed. It utilizes a similar pattern to Dragon-grade Dragonscale, with larger plates to save on production costs, allowing Power Armour to gain a significant amount of mobility while simultaneously increasing protection by having flexible armour to cover its previous weakpoints.