Shield Generator

The spaceship graveyard that is Tau Ceti has yielded many technologies attributed to an ancient alien race or races. The large majority of pieces with the exception of the starship hull have been jealously or cautiously guarded by the Tau Cetean Priests, but despite this a few pieces of juicy tech have made their way into the hands of others.
Perhaps one of the most notorious, and common, tech is the shield generators. Frequently used by the Jarnbjorn elements of the Tau Ceti Mercenary Companies, the individual generators range from covering a specific bodypart up to spherical coverage of an entire city, but most cover a roughly human sized oval silhouette between thirty and ninety degrees in front of the user. The generator itself is a perfect metallic box with two large indented buttons which control the field, and is commonly strapped to the arm of the user. All boxes are of identical size no matter the field strength and coverage.
The field, glowing blue, will act as if it were a solid impenetrable object, causing bullets or shells to quite literally bounce off the user. Of course the energy of the projectiles have to go somewhere, and the wearer will often break the arm holding the generator if left as it is, so it is standard to crouch so that some of the field will dig into the ground, thus using it to disperse the energy through something other than their arm. This of course means that advancing forward with a shield is impossible, lest one break one's arms.
Few have ever left the tight grip of the mercenaries that wield them, in that they would rather fail than lose such a valuable artefact to a heathen.
The largest of these field generators are positioned at the hearts of temple-cities on Tau Ceti, where they help the occupants survive the hellish season of the sky.
Two instances have been recorded of shield generators being used outside of the Cetean Mercenaries. The first is an ancient model, larger and more weathered, with a carving of unknown origin on the casing. It could produce a field one square metre, and could barely cover the arm or torso of the user. It was discovered on an archaeological dig site on Narek. The second was a model captured during the Orion War by UN forces. It was subsequently used in the battles of Geneva and Idiom. Its current whereabouts are unknown.
Overall whilst the shield generators are a formidable weapon the Tau Ceteans consider them as more of a cultural symbol, with the prestige being awarded to a Jarnbjorn doubled if he is also awarded a piece of the tech. On death the user passes his belongings to his clan, but the shield generator returns to the priests, as it is not taken, but simply borrowed for life.

Mechanics & Inner Workings

Unknown, the box appears to be unbreakable

Manufacturing process

Unknown

Significance

Culturally significant.

Item type

Unique Artifact

Rarity

Unique

Weight

1kg

Dimensions

23x10x5cm

Base Price

priceless

Raw materials & Components

Unknown

Tools

Unknown