By adjusting the inertial mass of a system, stresses can be removed, allowing for more radical maneuvers. This is what traditional inertial dampeners do. What these models do takes the concept a step farther. Whereas inertial dampening fields on normal craft tend to exist to protect the crew only, this attempts to reduce the mass of the entire ship by a large multiple. By reducing the inertia of an object, less force is needed to propel it, allowing for much more radical accelerations. This allows for capital ships to behave like starfighters, and starfighters to behave like missiles, and missiles...

There is one drawback. Using this strong a field tends to make the crew of a ship highly disoriented. The effect is a 1/r^2 field, with distance measured from the point of generation. Therefore the crew must usually be taken to a point as far from the generator as possible. This can make battle damage more difficult to repair and often requires small crews in exposed locations.

All factions have this technology and use it to varying degrees. The Tion Principality focuses on the swift, maneuverable capital ships, but others tend to limit its full use to smaller vessels with specially trained crews who can better deal with the disorientation.

Game Effects

If a vessel is equipped with Improved Inertial Dampeners, then it is able to have an arbitrary maneuverability and acceleration. Both are increased at the same rate. For each 50% increase over the original value, the crew suffers, on average, a -1D penalty. A GM can rule what areas of a ship are more or less affected than others. If a crewmember makes a Will or stamina check greater than the GM's roll with twice as many dice as the penalty, they only suffer half the penalty. Some factions take drugs or use other technologies to assist in this roll.

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