Two financially-strapped Orion captains who had been raiding the Klingo-Romulan trade route together for years reviewed what had clearly become an addiction to Engine Doubling. The exceedingly high cost incurred by warp repairs (and time lost) often made it hard to earn a profit in their Raider Cruiser and Light Raider.

Their chronic lack of funds forced them to try something new tactically. One ship would attempt to draw fire (under favorable EW status) while the other flanked the target to patiently wear down its rear shield with Disruptors (which were very cheap on the market). The inherent problem with this approach was that the two ships could not consolidate firepower on the same shield. They were certainly staying out of harm's way but the process took a very long time; reinforcements were often not too far away in this busy trade corridor.

The older Orion captain recalled an arms dealer who was selling Reflective Shield Generators (RSG) that were reported to partially reflect electromagnetic energy like a mirror reflects visible light. Theoretically, a ship could take more damage per unit of shield strength than a conventional shield because a portion of the incoming energy is elastically reflected into space. Indeed, there were indisputable field tests that supported this claim.

However, the amount of reflectivity was determined by matching the RSG to the specific frequency, phase, wavelength, and other factors of the weapon upon impact. Since this crucial data was nearly impossible to reliably predict, RSG's were largely dismissed. The typical reflectivity in simulations was found to be under 1%, not nearly enough to justify the higher energetic cost of operating an RSG compared to a regular shield. The attacker was essentially required to transmit this data to improve the reflectivity to beneficial levels...something no sane enemy would ever do!

When this information was communicated to the younger Orion captain he was intrigued by the potential to send weapon energy back at the attacker! Naturally, others had also thought about this "Corbomite Device" before, but it was exceptionally difficult to control the redirection accurately enough to hit anything smaller than a moon. Seeking weapons and Phasers were impossible to redirect (likely due to their kinetic properties). Of the direct-fire weapons, only Disruptors could have their trajectories controlled, although it was still not accurate enough to reliably hit anything smaller than a Starbase. These characteristics rendered the RSG nothing more than unrealized potential until an Orion engineer put the final piece of the puzzle together to make some use of the RSG.

Coupling the Light Raider's Stealth componentry with the RSG enabled the Orions to create what an unfortunate Klingon freighter commander dubbed the "Disruptor Ricochet". Exactly how the Stealth technology does this is a guarded secret. The RSG can redirect all qualifying Disruptors that strike it back at any enemy unit that was within a narrow arc defined by the Disruptors' origin.

Rules

G?.1 Deployment: The Reflective Shield Generator (RSG) refit can only be applied to Orion ships that have Stealth.

G?.2 BPV Cost: RSG costs 10 BPV.

G?.3 Operation: RSG is activated by allocating twice the cost of Full Shields from any power source during EA.
G?.31 If RSG is not activated, shields may be operated under normal shield rules (and costs). The benefits of RSG are not available unless it is active.
G?.32 RSG uses all the rules that normal shields use (reinforcement, dropping to transport, etc.) except for the following benefits.

G?.4 Benefits: A qualifying Disruptor that hits a ship with active RSG is "redirected" at any enemy unit within the 60 degree shield arc that was struck by the Disruptor.
G?.41 A qualifying Disruptor is one that is fired by a unit ALLIED to the ship with active RSG (an exception to the friendly-fire rules).
G?.42 The qualifying Disruptor must roll to hit the allied ship and is affected by range and EW adjustments. If it misses, it is forever lost. If it does hit, it is now termed a "Ricochet".

G?.43 The Ricochet is treated as being under the fire control of the RSG-using ship for lock-ons and EW calculations. It must be redirected immediately (before Damage Allocation) at an enemy unit in the 60 degree arc or into open space.
G?.431 The maximum range of the Ricochet is reduced by the distance the qualifying Disruptor has already traveled. A Ricochet's base chance to hit is determined by the redirected range(i.e. RSG to Target), not the cumulative range(i.e. Qual.Disr to RSG to Target).
G?.432 The damage of the Ricochet is determined by adding the distance the qualifying Disruptor has traveled to the Ricochet's true range to obtain a cumulative range for use in the regular Disruptor chart(E3.4).

G?.5 Example: An O-CR (facing C) is 9 hexes directly to the north of a F-DD (facing A). An O-LR (facing C) is 5 hexes directly to the south of the F-DD. The O-LR has an active RSG at a cost of 2. The O-CR fires two qualifying Disruptors(Max Rng 22) at the O-LR using the friendly-fire RSG exception. The range is 14. The O-CR has 2 ECCM to negate the O-LR's Stealth bonus.

The O-CR rolls a 4 and 5, which results in one hit and one miss. The hit becomes a Ricochet shot for the O-LR and is immediately conducted. The O-LR has a lock-on to the F-DD at range 5 (no EW shift), and the F-DD is within the LR's #5 shield arc. The Ricochet is redirected and will hit the F-DD's #4 shield on a roll of 1-4 since the range is 5. The cumulative range is 14+5, which is 19, so the damage done if it hits is 2, continuing to wear down the F-DD's weak aft shield.

By Ken Humpherys (Pmthecat) on Monday, December 08, 2003 - 10:23 am: Edit

Fun Idea, but I don't think Orions need any more tricks outside of X tech.