Warden Shield System

## Shield Modules

 Manufacturer
 Shield ARE
 20
 Shield Regeneration Rate
 50 HP Per Turn Without damage
 Cost in Credits

The Warden Shield System is a fully organic module designed for use by Ael'id Breed Ships. It's theory of operation is built on the back of Alliance combat doctrine and their extensive use of drone systems during space combat, however. The Warden Shield System foregoes a larger, bulkier shield array that would normally be mounted on larger ships in favor of a far smaller, more compact system built for the sole purpose of providing protection to smaller vessels that is both efficient and affordable for them from a power draw standpoint.

To that end the Warden utilizes a secondary womb system similar to Breed fighter bays and missile systems, manufacturing and storing innumerable small young in subwombs built into the module. Given that the size of the small Breed, called Wardens, is in this case the size of a large backpack this makes storage and maturation quick and easy.

These small 'Warden Breed' are designed and then grown with a single purpose in mind. While a Du'car Caste, either linked to the ship through the Command Nodule or via the interface located within the Shield System's own womb cavity, is actively controlling them they are capable of coordinating themselves to intercept incoming attacks. The method behind this involves using three of more Wardens in order to project and control a field of dense plasma utilizing 'Plasma Window Theory', a similar technology to the kind that is used for larger Breed.

The Warden system reduces the amount of power necessary for the system by reducing the protected space to only what is absolutely necessary in order to defend the ship from an incoming attack. This system increases efficiency and allows for the shields to be layered in the case of emergencies as long as an attack offers a sufficient amount of projected warning of it's impact prior to striking the hull.

The downside of the Warden system is that, simply put, it is incapable of always defending the host ship in every circumstance. The limited number of active Wardens coupled with the inadequate processing power of a Du'car who is already handling other upkeep tasks associated with the ship can cause a lag in the reaction of the Wardens that can potentially spell disaster for the ship.

Due to this fact the system is undergoing extensive trials with the intention of discovering how useful it is in active scenarios before it enters mainline production and development.

## Notes

The Warden Shield System operates as a normal shield in the case of combat unless a Critical is rolled, at which point the shield is ignored entirely as the Warden Drones fail to intercept the incoming attack in time to prevent it from striking the hull.

In the case of a specific attack, ship can choose to 'layer' the Warden Shield System so long as a Critical is not scored. If this is done, the ARE and ARK are doubled for the purposes of calculating the damage of that one attack at the cost of the Warden System being unable to block any other additional attacks until the end of the next turn by the attacking enemy.