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"God would be pleased by the perfection of our creation."
A revolutionary new hull technology developed for Operation Phoenix is the Woven Carbon Nanotubule Shell. This hull provides incredibly strong armour, resilient to many types of weapons.
Based on the Buckminster Fullerine Carbon molecules discovered in the late twentieth century. These molecules are spherical at the ends and can have an elongated centre section. The molecular structure is extremely strong, more so than diamond, and also is relatively flexible. This allows these materials to elastically reflect energy at the molecular level. This ability to bend, and near unbreakable structure allows these molecules to hold up against many types of weapons.
They also have a strong hold on their electrons, making them poor inductors and nearly impossible to repel or detect with EM systems. Due to the large molecular size, they transmit kinetic energy over large areas and have incredibly high thermal capacity. The large, flexible molecular structure also allows them to stay intact even when put to incredibly high temperatures. This permits them to take assaults from plasma and like weapons incredibly well.
Their large, hollow centres also allow them to trap or funnel other molecules or small materials through them. The electromagnetic forces from the regular molecular structure creates a magnetic bottle in the centre of the tube, holding anything inside of them far away from the molecules. The strong bonds and molecular structure is not very vulnerable to ionization. If the chains are damaged, they naturally try to reform the edges to break into two tubes. This allows coolants to be fed through them to keep the materials cool in a thermal assault.
These tubes can also be filled with heavy molecules to absorb neutrons/anti-neutrons. Heavy molecules have a much higher probability of collision, and pull neutrons in to them (mass). This allows these molecules to flow through the tubes, removing the spent molecules and recycling the others. Using a complex fusion process (not power generating), these molecules are reconstructed and put back into the circulation. Molecules and atoms that are beyond repair are released into space. Though not as efficient, these molecules can also be used as coolants. By mixing standard coolants with these heavy molecules, they can provide very powerful protection from a wide variety of weapons.
If the hull begins to get excessively hot from continued assault and the coolant system cannot maintain it, chemicals with high heat capacities can be run through the mesh and ejected into space, taking the kinetic energy with them. This 'ablative' armour allows them to significantly reduce undesired energy transfer to the ship. These hot molecules can also be used to act as manoeuvring rockets, using enemy energy to add to the manoeuvrability of the ship.
The coolant system also allows the ship to use the energy transferred to them from enemy fire. The kinetic energy can be converted to power for use in its weapons. The heated coolant molecules are run through a generation system that absorbs large amounts of excess heat. This not only provides the ship's weapons with increased power, but decreases the energy required to cool the hull.
The shell is made of a woven net of varying length molecules. Some framework molecules are as long as ten metres. The network is assembled by filling the molecules with charged molecules and manipulating the network with EM fields. These filler molecules are then stripped from the core and placed into another fibre, etc. A very complicated weaving pattern is used with several different layers interwoven into each other. The woven shell is then tied into the base material, holding it in place. This woven shell provides a strong network that can handle damage to various portions of it and still provide integrity. The network also offers the ability to expand and contract extensively without damage. It allows it to do both without cracking or buckling, even when subjected to rapid temperature changes.
Carbon nanotubles are a freak phenomenon making them a hard resource to duplicate. Simply knowing the molecular structure or even having samples of it does not provide any information on how to produce the compound. Without acquiring production facilities, this makes enemy cloning of the technology nearly impossible. This technology is also something that is improbable for any other race to have developed anything similar. These molecules require very specific situations for their productions. Earth discovered them by accident when working with high temperature burning of coal. Since it is improbable that any of the other races had catastrophic destruction of all life on the planet as earth did, they would have small reserves of fossil fuels, if any. This would make it hard to discover these materials. This indeed provides Earth Force with a powerful and exclusive advantage.
This shell structure provides it with incredible resilience to all types of weapons. Standard plasma weapons damage is considerably less than any other material, laser damage is also heavily dampened. Even neutron weapon damage is heavily reduced by this hull type. This makes by far the best possible armour aside from bio-armoured shells. This indeed provides Earth Force with a powerful advantage in battle situation, providing a key factor in the Operation Phoenix initiative.