spa·tial [spey-shuhl]
–adjective
1. of or pertaining to space.

2. existing or occurring in space; having extension in space.

Spatial Charges are something of a misnomer in that they (being a binary weapons system, meaning of two or more parts) require placing two objects (called for purposes of this discussion 'Flint' and 'Steel') into space fairly close together (on the order of 10 meters apart) on reciprocal intercepting vectors.

the two objects ('Flint' and 'steel') moving at relativistic speed (approximately 0.90 percent of the speed of light) will (per Einsteinian theory) gain mass as the objects aproach the speed of light.

In theory, the two objects ('Flint' and 'Steel') will represent two very dense objects with 90% of infinite mass that upon collision will create an intense Kinetic Energy Discharge. This "spark" is what causes damage to most objects in Star Fleet battles with a specific list of exceptions.

list of exceptions to Spatial charges	ref
Planets (class M with Atmosphere)
Tholian Web
ESG
Stasis
Mines

The Binary weapons objects in a spatial Charge are each aproximately 1/2 the size of a small transporter bomb. they are transported by a heavily modified transporter device into position (aproximately 10 meters apart) and given via the use of the transporter inertia and a course vector to both binary weapons objects to collide with each other, and do it at 0.90 percent of the speed of light.

Normal transporters have safety protocols, and are designed to avoid doing what this "spatial charge launcher" is intended for. For this reason, no normal transporter of any ship can function at anytime as a spatial charge launcher. For the same reason, SCL may not be use as transporters at any time.

Indeed, given that transporters are able to transport individuals and objects safely between separate ships, sometimes moving in oposite directions at many times the speed of light, must have the ability to dampen or cancel the effects of inertia. Spatial Charge Launchers actually reverse the process that normal transporters are designed for.

Spatial Charge Launchers have some of the same components found on transporters with the exception of transporter pads, and are totally unsuited for receiving transported persons or objects. It is a one way discharge system for sending out binary matter charges for use in creating Kinetic Energy explosions.

Each Spatial Charge Launcher has a ready capacity of 6 pairs of binary weapons components. the Spatial Charge Launcher (SCL) could launch 1 set of binary weapons components per turn (every 32 impulses, not less than 8 impulses from the last use of the device over a turn break).

In actual practice, the SCL could launch 1 set of Binary Weapons Components (BWC) per turn for up to a maximum of 6 turns before requiring 1 turn to reload the ready supply of BWC.

Each set of BWC that is deployed and actually collide creates an Kinetic Energy Discharge on the order of 5 damage points to the hex it was deployed to, damage to be resolved during the Direct fire phase of the game sequence of play.

Damage is resolved to all objects in the hex the Spatial Charges were deployed into, as well as the adjacent hexes.

The deployment of the Spatial charges must conform with the existing rules for deploying transporter bombs. (i.e. not into the same hex in which a ship or other object is already present, not into or onboard any object, ship or base, nor into any planet, monster.)

The energy cost of operating a SCL is 0.2 energy points per turn (no difference if 1 set of binary charges are deployed or more up to the maximum of 6 separate spatial charge sets).

For each set of BWC launched, an aditional energy cost of 0.33 per BWC is added. see table #2.

table #2	energy cost of spatial charges
Number of BWC	energy cost
0	0
1	0.2+0.33
2	0.2+0.66
3	0.2+0.99
4	0.2+1.32
5	0.2+1.65
6	0.2+1.98

Note, all charges are deployed in the same hex, and the total explosion is resolved as a single volley.

There are some obvious limitations to Spatial Charges used as weapons, first, they can olny be launched if a the facing shield nearest the target hex is dropped.

Next, the range of the device is limited to 5 hexes (and not less than 2 hexes or the launching ship would be caught in the resulting explosion or the Spatial charges.

Third,if damaged, the SCL would require repairs as if it were a combination of Mine rack, and a transporter, so the cost to repair would be equal to both systems, not just one.

the advantages of using the SCL would be energy cost efficient, for a energy cost of 0.53, the SCL would inflict up to 5 points of damage on one or more targets, superior to what a phaser 3 would be able to do.

If multiple BWC were used, damage of up to 30 points could be inflicted for a cost of 2.18 energy points on multiple targets. (somewhat more expensive to operate than a phaser 4, but again, potentially more destructive if multiple targets were caught in the kinetic energy explosion.

Comments to follow.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Friday, June 03, 2011 - 04:21 pm: Edit

This is a Scientists Workshop idea/proposal for Stellar shadows.

It was an outgrowth of the ablative armor proposal, namely for a new race that doesnt actually have the ability to need to use shields.

The primary use of this kind of device is asteroidal mining, where a ship equipped with this kind of system could use SCL to demolish asteroids to make harvesting / mining valuable ores economically feasable.

Indeed, one benefit of using SCL over phasers is that SPL doesnt actually destroy any of the valuable ores in the same way that might occur while using phsers.

compared to using a phaser 3 (0.5 energy points to generate up to 4 points of damage) the SCL costs 0.53 energy, but does potentially more damage (5 points compared to a max of 4 damage points) on the order of 125% more effective than a phaser 3 in the same conditions.

I don't expect any major or minor empires in SFBs would convert to using Spatial charges, but it might become a standard for specialized mining ships in the future.