Over analysis

by EgotisticalIndustries

The mass effect universe (more specifically eezo) has a great amount of potential that the writers missed. For one, a device the size of a tissue box could theoretically one-shot harbinger without being a ridiculously advanced piece of incomprehensible transapientech. This is my over analysis of the physics behind mass effect, in an attempt to see what the writers missed.

3. Chapter 3

Kinetic Barriers: inaccurately depicted

Now, the baseline kinetic barrier supposedly works using 'repulsive emitters' which push the incoming slug away. This makes no sense unless the 'emitters' are at a high enough intensity to be producing transient white holes. However, there are 2 effects you can achieve with the aid of mass effect fields that would allow for the creation of a formidable defensive shield. I have decided to call these effects the Speed Limit and the Compass.

Let's start with the Speed Limit, shall we? The first thing you need to know about it is that credit for it goes to RobertGS who brought it to my attention in the reviews. In this system a high mass/slow light mass effect field is projected around the ship, in which the speed of light is reduced to say, 3,000 km/s for the purpose of this example. when the slug enters this field it effectively undergoes 'FTL field collapse' as detailed in chapter 1 thus limiting its velocity to under 3,000 km/s relative to the ship at the cost of increasing its kinetic energy. Normally this would be bad, however the high mass/slow light field is in fact sort of 'floating' on top of the low mass/fast light field the ship in question uses to save delta v. In total, this robs the slug of an insane amount of kinetic energy.

Next is the Compass, which is only called that because I couldn't think of a good name. After an incoming shell passes through the speed limit, it has a greatly lowered velocity if it was going too fast, but it'll still hit the ship (which is no good). The solution is to have an extremely powerful rotating magnetic field inside the low mass zone, which can easily bat aside incoming shots. Now, this could normally be punched through by a slug moving at sufficient velocity, but there's the problem of there being the speed limit in the way. This effectively renders a properly designed ship immune to dumb-fired kinetic weaponry. But please note that I specified 'dumb-fired'.

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Penetrating a kinetic barrier: easier than it looks

Now, we've already determined that a dumb-fired slug has no real chance of hitting a properly designed ship unless it masses several hundred tons. However a shell with an active guidance system along with a very specifically tuned mass effect field projector and a computer that can process information at FTL speeds could likely penetrate with few problems. Here's how a dumb-fired projectile encountering the hard-science kinetic barrier I described above would likely go.

1: slug encounters speed limit, is slowed greatly.
2: slug exits speed limit, having been robbed of the vast majority of its kinetic energy.
3: an extremely intense rapidly spinning magnetic field bats the incoming slug aside harmlessly.

A theoretical 'smart penetrator' round would react to each step as follows.

1: slug encounters speed limit, is slowed greatly.

The smart round projects a low mass/fast light field to counteract the speed limit immediately before entering its main area of effect (maybe 10% of its velocity is lost from the outermost edges of the speed limit).

2: slug exits speed limit, having been robbed of the vast majority of its kinetic energy.

In this step, the slug counteracts the low mass/fast light field by projecting a high mass/slow light field reducing c to 50,000 km/s (which should be slower than its velocity after exiting the speed limit) thus intentionally triggering an 'FTL field collapse' event with a Lorentz factor somewhere between 4 and 6. this results in the slug's kinetic energy per kilogram suddenly jumping into the double digit gigatons at the very least.

3: an extremely intense rapidly spinning magnetic field bats the incoming slug aside harmlessly.

The effectiveness of this step is dependent on the slug both having low mass and having been slowed significantly by the speed limit. As neither of these is true (at least to the degree the designers hoped) the smart penetrator round blasts straight through.

However bear in mind that the 'smart penetrator' round requires a computer with femtosecond reaction times and a time to shift its mass not much longer than that, practically demanding that the processor core is an optical computer in a low mass/fast light mass effect field. This is likely to trigger an arms race of sorts between the speed limits having an ever sharper and more chaotic leading edge in an attempt to crush the computer controlling the smart penetrator round and the computers having ever-faster reaction times to weather the speed limit.