Personal Energy Shielding

Personal Energy Shielding
[HR1]
[/HR1]
~30,000 - 50,000px Value

PES (Personal Energy Shields) are one of the latest innovations in military equipment. These devices, commonly built into a set of thick armor (but can be worn as a pack without such) project a field around the user that renders them almost immune to high-velocity ballistic weaponry, but the tradeoff is that the shielding works both ways, making it impossible for the user to wield such weapons themselves.

On the other hand, slow moving projectile weapons like bows or thrown objects, along with traditional melee weapons, can penetrate the shield. High-yield explosives will also short out the shield. In addition, EMPs do not seem to have an effect. The most effective counter to shielded warriors is to either bombard them with artillery, or deploy shielded soldiers of your own. Alternatively, a very inefficient method of taking down a shielded soldier is to have at least three or more gunmen concentrate fire on a single target. It has been shown that sustained fire from multiple sources and multiple directions can short out a the energy shield for several minutes, rendering the soldier vulnerable.

Drawbacks aside, some believe that energy shielding will become very pervasive as time goes by, leading up to them becoming a staple of the battlefield and ending the singular dominance of the firearm. Already most interplanetary governments have developed working PES devices along with many private corporations.

However, due to the expenses of manufacturing them and the level of expertise required to keep these highly specialised devices running, there are no legal manufacturers who produce PES for civilian use. Counterfeit devices do exist on the black market, but they only run for a few minutes and tend to short out frequently. The most popular local manufacturer of PES devices in the sector is a company called Dyxson Defenses, which will happily sell shield screens in bulk to any organization with deep enough pockets.