Codex: Technology

Beat Reader: Albert

Antimatter Reactor

While the production of antimatter is not difficult, using it as a power source was deemed impossible. There was no way to control the antimatter explosions without overloading the reactor and destroying the ship. That was until the discovery of dilithium crystals. Now, antimatter reactions were possible as large dilithium crystals could be used as a focal point to direct the antimatter explosions and absorb energy produced from the natural explosion when matter and antimatter meet. With the energy collected in the crystalline structure, it could power the ship or station while used to create more antimatter particles, making the reactor self-sustaining provided the crystals remained intact.

However, these reactors were not without their dangers and shortcomings. If the reactor ever went critical within a planet's atmosphere, it could rip away a large part of the planet's atmosphere and of course, kill anyone on the ship. Not to mention the high levels of gamma radiation that was released from such an explosion would take centuries to disperse, making the planet inhabitable for organics and synthetics. The reactors are also costly to install and activate ensuring that only large spaceships and deep space stations would see these reactors installed.

Dilithium Crystals

Considered one of the most significant discoveries in modern warfare and clean energy, dilithium crystals have made a substantial impact on the galaxy. Dilithium crystals work as an energy conduit, absorbing any type of energy into their lattice structure to be ejected as pure, compatible energy for any piece of technology that organics needed power, and with an unusually high-energy transfer rate of around 80-90%. An efficient crystal is able to convert the last 10-20% percent to crystal growth, which can be increased a thousand times over depending on how much energy can be collected and contained in the crystal. The rate can also be affected by low energy sources such as solar winds that accumulate into the crystals to increase the restructuring of the lattice and promote the new chemical growth of the crystal. That is why several sites on barren worlds and space stations were built to grow the crystal for power generation and in some cases, to produce an illegal drug made from the crystal.

The crystal itself while vital to energy production around the world is also very hazardous to organic health, especially in amounts greater than ten grams. Direct contact with the skin could easily kill a person from the enormous amount of energy discharged. A refined version similar to biotics red sand has been used as a drug and a newer version, blue sand has proven to be far more addictive then red sand ever was and has become a new drug of choice. It also has even worse side effects than red sand, as prolonged use of the blue sand cases neurological decay of the user, if it did not kill them outright due to overdose. However, despite these dangers for abuse as a drug, it still is an extremely important crystal and is used to power all major industries within the Galaxy. The Confederation forces used the crystal in every generator within their territory while other races' use is more limited.

The Confederation is the only organization that grows the crystals within their system. The first galactic discovery of dilithium crystals was on Earth/Terra through dimensional rips that appeared on the planet. Species with the Citadel Council only have access to crystals they bought from the humans/Confederation. Therefore, the crystals are put into what they consider high priority locations, like large space stations, dreadnaughts, carriers, cruisers and even a few heavy/advanced frigates. This leaves the Council very few crystals to test and adapt to needs outside of their massive fleet of ships and limits dilithium use to vessels larger than frigates. Especially as they try to keep ahead of the military juggernaut of the Confederation. The salarians have been working on a synthetic version of the crystal with no success in breaking the galactic hold the Confederation holds on this energy source.

Genofertilization

As a means to counter the Genophage, Genofertilization was developed by the Human System Alliance to enter an alliance with the krogans during the Darkspawn War. Used as a fertility drug, Genofertilization increased the stable birth rates from 1/50 to over 1/1000 using enzymes synthesized after studying the Darkspawn broodmothers. While it does not cure the Genophage, Genofertilization gave new hope to the krogans and new life since it has a side effect of fewer sterile eggs being laid, decreasing the psychological pain of child loss for the krogans. Many governments worried what this will mean for the krogans as their population increased significantly, while others welcomed it for it seemed to make the krogans viably productive members of the galaxy. The salarians and turians are the most worried since they nearly wiped out the krogans during the Krogan Rebellions and may be targets of a large, revigorate krogan populace.

Ghosting Crystals

Ghosting crystals are special dilithium crystals that when subjected to an electrical current can copy the neuronal pattern released during a person's death, assuming they die hours within a 15m radius of the crystal. When subjected to electricity, it shows a person's demise, not unlike a movie that the investigator can watch. When subjected to proton particles, the essence trapped within the crystal can actually seem to come alive to answer questions about their life up to and in some cases, after their demise. Anything past a ten-minute span of time spent after their death, the subject cannot remember. The crystals have obviously been useful in solving the crime, but they are extremely expensive so law enforcement only uses a few per year and only in extreme cases where the victim could have seen the perpetrator. Both the Confederation Alliance of Worlds and the Citadel Council use Ghosting Crystals in their most heinous crimes, despite the fact that turians and drell believe these crystals harm their souls during each use.

Hydroponics Bays

Due to increased exploration, many races began to encounter an age-old problem, storing enough food that could last years when exploring clusters without a mass relay. To address the need for feed were two simple ideas. The first was to flash freeze various meats and other types of food to be used slowly over the long term. The second was to build large hydroponics bays usually only found on space stations, to grow a large amount of food, mostly genetic engineered plants that grew quickly or continuously produced a significant amount of food. This, in turn, allows a fleet to sustain themselves for years in deep space.

However, from a practicability standpoint, hydroponic bays are only put on large cruisers, heavy cruisers, carriers, and dreadnaughts. Other vessels just do not have the space to put a hydroponic bay to feed their crew, though smaller ships accompanying a dreadnaught or carrier could rely on the larger ships for fresh food since they do have the space to feed a fleet. Both the Council and Confederation have lately been using hydroponic bays throughout their military so soldiers can have fresh food, instead of frozen food or rations to eat. They are routinely used on space stations, including the Citadel.

Kinetic Barriers

Kinetic barriers, more commonly known as 'shields,' provide protection against most weapons. Whether on a starship or a soldier's suit of armor, the basic principle remains the same. Kinetic barriers are repulsive mass effect fields projected from tiny emitters, and they can be enhanced by biotic, tech and 'magical' abilities to increase their potency as these shields can safely deflect small objects traveling at rapid velocities. This affords protection from bullets and other dangerous projectiles but still allows the user to sit down while wearing them without knocking away things like their chair. Kinetic barriers can also be used to protect for a limited amount of time the user against extremes of energy, temperature, and radiation, along with special attacks like biotic, mage, tech and melee attacks. So long as their barriers are active, the user is safe from most dangers on the battlefield.

However, complete safety is really only available for the military-grade kinetic barriers provided to the well-equipped military forces/elite mercenaries and soldiers. Most barriers cannot block such extremes or special attacks due to the amount of energy it would take to operate such a shield. In addition, unless the shields are against civilian grade hardware, they do not last long in combat. Military kinetic weapons can take them down in one to three shots and often kill the target with the very first shot that penetrates the barrier. That is why dignitaries and elite soldiers in any kind of organization are willing to pay whatever the cost for the best protection. It is why shields play such an important role. Of course, armor can play a role in protection, especially heavier medium or heavy armor, but with the addition of shields, the military force has been given the highest protection possible.

Planetary Shield Generator

A pipe dream to the salarians long ago, a planetary shield generator is a kinetic barrier shaped in a bubble that would envelop a whole city to even an entire planet to protect such a city or world from orbital bombardment. However, until dilithium reactors were introduced, it was just a dream as anything larger than a military installation would use so much energy as to soon drain most of the power and cause a planet-wide blackout. Therefore, the idea was discarded until dilithium reactors became available. It was then that dream becomes a reality as the Citadel, and later the Confederation races begin to use planetary shield generators to protect their worlds.

On a city level, a shield generator is placed in the center of a city and used to cover the entire city, keeping it safe from invaders. While on a planetary scale, it would work with hundreds of generators around the planet that would inter-lap one another. Either way, it is a powerful defense despite its major drawbacks, like the great power requirement and the presence of weak spots within the shields.

Planetary shield generators are very power hungry devices that can only be sustained one to two days of continuous bombardment. Meaning constant attack for days/weeks could cause the whole power grid to fail, leaving the entire planet defenseless. That is also assuming it even lasts that long as an invasion can dig tunnels deep enough to bypass the shield entirely. Therefore, it is only meant to hold out for reinforcement and/or to protect a city for a short amount of time. Though it is well worth it if the deployed shield could increase the chance that the civilian population would survive the attack and the cities only would receive minor damage.

Sensors

For sensors, scanners work under four types: passive, active, visual and life-form scanners. Each sensor has its own limits and uses in how they are used.

Passive scanners are more commonly used as long-range sensors. They work by sending out a pulse that goes at light speed. The pulse includes visual, thermographic, radioactive, and radio detectors that watch and listen for objects in space. All objects, unless design not to, admit some kind of thermal, visual, or even background radiation (radio) that can be picked-up light years away. Detection is almost instantaneous if emitted for a prolonged time like most celestial bodies would. A ship or a space station can be identified using a database outlining a ship design/emission and pinpoint the model and the company and/or race that built it. It is unknown if it's a unique design or one belonging to an unknown race can be detected. The only weakness of a passive sensor is the time lag necessary for the ping to detect a ship or small moving object.

Passive sensors are also the only current sensor that can be used during FTL travel, but the incoming data can be significantly distorted by the effect of the mass effect envelope and the Doppler shift and not give reliable information. However, if given enough time (hours), the scans can tell the possible direction an object is heading and its relative speed.

Active sensors are radars and high-resolution LADAR (Laser Detection and Ranging) that emit a 'ping' of energy and 'listen' for return signals. LADARs have a narrower field of view than radar, but LADAR resolution allows images of detected objects to be assembled, giving a more detail scan of the ship. It's also has a shorter range due to the higher resolution, generally within half a light second.

Visual sensors are visual devices that give a detailed picture of an object or craft. To successful detect an object depends on the size and shape of the craft. For spacecraft have to be close to getting a visual scan depending on how developed the sensors are. Unless engaging a ship a few kilometers away, most governments do not even bother to use them in combat.

Life sensors are advanced sensors developed by a combined project between the humans, asari, and salarians after spending years observing mages and demons use their powers to detect life. The sensors work by sending out a pulse of particle energy a mage would use to pick up life form's energy. They can use that energy to determine the type, species, and even age. Unlike other types of sensors, they are the easiest to block or detect and have a range in between active and visual sensors.

Sensors for Deep Space

Due to the time lag, passive sensors are not useful unless put on FTL communication. So the salarians came up with a simple solution. On listening posts and hidden probes, they send out a passive scan within which distance ships show up, like mass relays. From there, it sends transmissions to a hidden series of comm. buoys. While not ideal since it cannot cover a larger range, it is preferable until a solution is determined for development of long-range sensors without a time lag.

Simulated Sleep Fade Machine

Ever since the Fade was discovered, there has been a strong desire to exploit this dream world that holds every idea created. To exploit this world without danger, an Earth/Terra company known as Arcane Wonders made a machine called the Simulated Sleep Fade Machine, also known as the Dream Machine. The machine enhances the brain waves produced during a rim cycle while acting as a simulated search engine through the Fade world. The user just needs a specific idea, and they can search the Fade for the idea, whether it is fictional or factual.

However, the Fade Machine may not provide a complete answer or even a partial one since the Fade holds every possible idea that hundreds of civilizations and its people have made. Meaning that the machine needs a very specific inquiry or it would overload the user with too much information. On the flip side, too specific of information would make it impossible to find without incredible luck due to the massive amount of information that the machine has to evaluate. For instance, it would be easy to find out facts about earth condors and important Asari Matriarchs. However, it would be impossible to find the complete schematics of the Turian Condor class Dreadnaughts, since the asari did not believe it to be important for that information to be kept a secret or it was too obscure for a specific inquiry.

However, despite the Dream Machine's limited ability, it still provided enough danger for users to steal corporate and military secrets so that both the Confederation Alliance of Worlds and the Citadel Council limited the numbers of machines the Arcane Wonders could make and who could buy them. There are also rumors that most governments used the machines to spy on others even if it would be impractical to use the fade as a spy system. The Confederation is known to use Fade Machines without search engines to keep un-implanted mages safe from the demons in the Fade.

Tactical Cloak

Developed originally by the geth during the Morning War, and later introduced to the galactic market by desperate quarians who salvaged the tech, the tactical cloak is a specialized device that allows the user to become invisible to most forms of visual and technological detection in environments outside of space. It works by creating a cloak of light-refracting mass effect fields that envelope the person or object using the field. So long as the field is not disrupted, such as being fired upon or the user firing, the field will last. Disruption is a minor weakness, and the cloak has become a must for spies, infiltrators, and snipers while techs have modified them for holograms and such as other forms of combat. For a ship, it is not as useful.

While the cloaking technology could prevent a visual scan from finding a ship, any other form of sensor could pick up a ship's energy emission (heat, dark energy and such) unless they are equipped with a stealth drive that absorbs the energy was in place. Another reason is that tactical cloaks can be disrupted by space junk or even by space particles, rendering the device useless. Finally is high cost, as it is expensive to line a frigates hull with emitters to generate a tactical cloak and it is too expensive for anything larger than a heavy frigate, leaving only a few ships with cloaking generators, mostly elite black op forces like the STG, Specters, CID and First Battalion.