Shield

General information

A shield is an energy-based defensive aura which protects fighters and bombers from harm until the energy field is intact. Shields are especially useful against explosion blasts, mainly for bombers.

Shields can be recharged relatively quickly, by diverting more power to shield recharge instead of guns and engines. Every fighter and bomber are equiped with a shield generator. The strength of the shield aura depends on the quality of the shield generator and the type of the fighter. While interceptors cannot be equiped with higher quality shields generators, often because of compatibility or for the loss of speed, bombers are primarily designed to be tough and resilient, making the importance of shields higher in the case of bombers.

Acquiring the shield technology

In 2335, the Shivans were sighted for the first time, using advanced technology, one of them was their shielding system which caused headache at Command and chaos on the battlefield.
Using 14-year war-era weapons, it appeared [Shivan] shields are almost completely resistance to all known Terran and Vasudan weapons. It was because of their shielding technologies and their advanced shields than they easily eliminated the GTD Eisenhower with only one wing of bombers.

It appeared that the only way to compete the Shivans was to develop weapons which are capable of piercing their shields. During a reconnaissance run, terran pilots managed to acquire scan data on one of the Shivan cargo container, holding Shivan shield generators.
This accomplishment allowed Terran Command to develop shields and produce a reasonable amount of shield generators. These generators had to be taken to Ribos for mass production. After successfully delivering shield prototypes to Ribos, engineers successfully implemented this technology to every Terran and Vasudan fighters.