Directorate Officer
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Kinetic: High
- Lightsabers: Average
- Elemental: Low
-Radiation: High
Color: Dark Gray
SPECIAL FEATURES
Lucerne Labs has long been involved in creating materials for military and civilian starships. While it has created dozens of advanced materials over the years such as Chimera Composite or Argentum Matrix Armor that provided excellent protection, it became apparent that these materials also proved difficult to repair in the field because of their unusual material composition. While not a problem for many warships or merchant vessels which frequently visit their home ports and shipyards, it was not ideal for the company's exploration vessel line. These starships more often than do not have frequent access to all but the most rudimentary of maintenance facilities. The Vanguard project set out to create a material that could easily be serviced and produced in the field while still providing good protection against common threats.
To that end, rather than use exotic or particularly specific materials, the engineers chose to use some of the most commonly available elements found in the galaxy: carbon and iron. Both of these elements can commonly be found in asteroids and even as discharge from stars, meaning that a planet does not even need to be visited in order to obtain materials, though both are extremely common and easy to acquire on many planets. In areas with civilizations, both elements are usually fairly cheap as well. The secret to the Vanguard alloy is the specifics of its production process. Once these base materials are acquired, they are simply heated up together until the iron molten and the carbon is on the point of sublimation. They are consequently mixed and then exposed to stellar radiation for transmutation via ion irradiation to make an amorphous metal that is actually a variant of ferrocarbon.
The beauty of this production process is that not only does it only use common and basic materials, but also extremely industrial equipment. While it can be made with basic foundry equipment, it can also be made in small amounts inside starships with common tools like fusion cutters and ion fusers. Theoretically, it can be even made without tools by placing both elements within a container, and then placing that container at a certain distance from a star to both melt the materials and provide the necessary irradiation.
For many practical purposes, Vanguard Armor Alloy straddles the line between traditional heavy metal armor and advanced ceramic armors. While somewhat more brittle than traditional heavy armor, it also provides more thermal insulation, making it less susceptible to penetrating energy weapons attacks. Its amorphous nature also means that it can better withstand single incidents of higher mechanical stress or deformation (such as from slugs) than most metal armors at the cost of its wearing down much quicker from fatigue. To due the process of using irradiation in the end stages of its production, the resultant material is also well-disposed to blocking subsequent radiation. In light of its defects, and combined with its easy and cheap production, Vanguard Armor Alloy is often in employed in many thin layers that are welded or otherwise combined together in layers, rather than being used in single, large plates. This method also makes piecemeal repairs much easier in austere environments.
While not the perfect material, and even somewhat inferior for many combat applications compared to many more modern materials, Vanguard Armor Alloy is well-suited for use in scientific and para-military vessels that ply space beyond the edges of galactic civilization.
- Intent: To provide a metal armor plating material that can be easily manufactured in austere environments with little equipment
- Image Source: N/A
- Primary Source: N/A
- Name: Vanguard Armor Alloy
- Manufacturer: Lucerne Labs
- Affiliation: Closed-Market
- Homeworld (optional): N/A
Production: Mass-Produced.
- Modularity: None
- Material: alloy variant of Ferrocarbon (formed out of Iron, Carbon, and unintentional, naturally occurring trace elements)
- Classification: Metal
- Weight: Very Heavy
- Resistances
- Kinetic: High
- Lightsabers: Average
- Elemental: Low
-Radiation: High
Color: Dark Gray
SPECIAL FEATURES
- (Short brief detail list on any advanced systems with a respective link to the technology if available. What are the types of advanced systems that this armor has? This includes stealth, Bio-restorative technology, power armor, Force Enhancements, Alchemy Enhancements, Force Imbuement enhancements, or any similar or equivalent Force or technologies that may be rare or specialized. - If these are notable enough to be strengths, you must add them to strengths)
- Durable: Vanguard Armor Alloy is a reasonably durable material against most common battlefield and spaceborne threats, in large part to due its sheer density.
- Easy to Produce: This alloy is exceptionally easy to produce in remote areas of space with even fairly simple tools, as it uses extremely common elements and naturally occurring phenomena to combine
- Heavy: Vanguard Armor Alloy is a fairly dense material, which consequently makes it a heavy material. This lends ships using a lot of inertia (which can make them more difficult to maneuver compared) and makes it tiring for most people to wear.
- Chemically unstable: Vanguard Armor Alloy reacts with the gases and liquids found in many atmospheres to corrode. For starships, this means more frequent maintenance or replacement in every day use. This also makes Vanguard Armor Alloy more susceptible to break down by corrosive chemical weapons such as plank gas.
Lucerne Labs has long been involved in creating materials for military and civilian starships. While it has created dozens of advanced materials over the years such as Chimera Composite or Argentum Matrix Armor that provided excellent protection, it became apparent that these materials also proved difficult to repair in the field because of their unusual material composition. While not a problem for many warships or merchant vessels which frequently visit their home ports and shipyards, it was not ideal for the company's exploration vessel line. These starships more often than do not have frequent access to all but the most rudimentary of maintenance facilities. The Vanguard project set out to create a material that could easily be serviced and produced in the field while still providing good protection against common threats.
To that end, rather than use exotic or particularly specific materials, the engineers chose to use some of the most commonly available elements found in the galaxy: carbon and iron. Both of these elements can commonly be found in asteroids and even as discharge from stars, meaning that a planet does not even need to be visited in order to obtain materials, though both are extremely common and easy to acquire on many planets. In areas with civilizations, both elements are usually fairly cheap as well. The secret to the Vanguard alloy is the specifics of its production process. Once these base materials are acquired, they are simply heated up together until the iron molten and the carbon is on the point of sublimation. They are consequently mixed and then exposed to stellar radiation for transmutation via ion irradiation to make an amorphous metal that is actually a variant of ferrocarbon.
The beauty of this production process is that not only does it only use common and basic materials, but also extremely industrial equipment. While it can be made with basic foundry equipment, it can also be made in small amounts inside starships with common tools like fusion cutters and ion fusers. Theoretically, it can be even made without tools by placing both elements within a container, and then placing that container at a certain distance from a star to both melt the materials and provide the necessary irradiation.
For many practical purposes, Vanguard Armor Alloy straddles the line between traditional heavy metal armor and advanced ceramic armors. While somewhat more brittle than traditional heavy armor, it also provides more thermal insulation, making it less susceptible to penetrating energy weapons attacks. Its amorphous nature also means that it can better withstand single incidents of higher mechanical stress or deformation (such as from slugs) than most metal armors at the cost of its wearing down much quicker from fatigue. To due the process of using irradiation in the end stages of its production, the resultant material is also well-disposed to blocking subsequent radiation. In light of its defects, and combined with its easy and cheap production, Vanguard Armor Alloy is often in employed in many thin layers that are welded or otherwise combined together in layers, rather than being used in single, large plates. This method also makes piecemeal repairs much easier in austere environments.
While not the perfect material, and even somewhat inferior for many combat applications compared to many more modern materials, Vanguard Armor Alloy is well-suited for use in scientific and para-military vessels that ply space beyond the edges of galactic civilization.