Force Fields

[Darth Zakryn]

All right, we know that force fields DO exist in the Animorphs universe, they're shown multiple times guarding installations, etc, so here's my question, something I've had on my mind for quite some time: WHY DON'T THEY PLACE FORCE FIELDS ON THEIR SHIPS? It's shown that it could be done almost a billion years earlier, when the technology was probably much, much less advanced than it is nowadays, so why don't either Yeerks OR Andalites shield their spacecraft? Is it impossible to do it space or something? But again, it was possible in the Ellimist Chronicles when technology was inferior.

So... a... reason?

[LisaCharly]

Isn't it mentioned that force fields basically eat up costly resources? Isn't that why they could get in through the top in...I wanna say #21?

[Chad32]

I'm under the impression that they have shields on their larger, more important ships. however they don't have shields on the basic fighters. Maybe it's just cheaper to do so, or the fighters don't have the power capacity for good shields.

[Darth Zakryn]

But in #8, the Blade ship destroys the Andalite Dome ship without encountering ANY force fields!

[Chad32]

No force fields mentioned at all? That is weird.

[LisaCharly]

Aren't Dome Ships huge? Wouldn't a force field use a lot of energy for something that big?

Or am I totally pulling that explanation out of thin air?

[Darth Zakryn]

Force fields were used on the MCQ3 in the Ellimist Chronicles.

And yes, no mention of Force Fields. Want the exact quote?

[Chad32]

If anything deserves a forcefield, regardless of cost, it's something as important as a Dome Ship. However if none were mentioned at all, it seems like a big oversight.

[Darth Zakryn]

Here's the exact quote

Slowly, the rest of my ship rotated into sight. Without the dome it looked like a long stick, with the huge bulge of engines on the far end, and the smaller bulge of the battle bridge in the middle. They were trying to turn to meet the Blade ship.

Too slow.

The Blade ship fired!

<NO!>

Dracon beams, bright as a sun, lanced through space.

The ship fired again. Again. Again.

An explosion of light! A silent explosion like a small sun going nova.

The ship . . . my ship . . . blew up into its separate atoms. One huge flash of light, and a hundred Andalite warriors died.

[RYTX]

Weak but possible explaination: The Dome ship is launching fighters during this-maybe they'd have to take down a shield to let them out: then it's just timing your shot

[Darth Zakryn]

They had already launched several minutes earlier. What, do force fields take a long time to charge? Maybe when they've gone out due to enemy fire, but after dropping them temporarily? Doesn't fly with me...

[RYTX]

Who knows how long it takes to recharge.
I believe it was in book 2 V3 had a ship-I think his blade ship on the ground- and was tripping about a bulldozer being run into because they couldn't get it in the air fast enough. Surely a force field would stop it, but that doesn't come up-may have the same problem

Plus they'd just ejected the dome, I'd imagine you'd have to turn off for that too

[sublime88stang]

The force field's could have been a non-regenerating type thing. So after a ship has taken more than x amount of hits the force field is gone, and its vuenerable to attack?

[DinosaurNothlit]

Since both #8 and #2 are early books, I would chalk that up as a KASU.  I'm pretty sure that, in later books, ships are mentioned as having force fields (can't think of any specific examples off the top of my head, though).

Also, did the tanker ship in #3 have a force field?  I seem to remember a reference to birds crumpling in mid-air as though hitting an invisible wall, but I can't remember if they were said to be hitting a force field or just the cloaked ship itself.

[Chad32]

If it had a forcefield, I doubt a dracon beam could take it down. the geese likely just impacted the ship itsself. I'm sure the blade and pool ships were said to have shields somewhere, and the blade ship actually has better shields than the pool ship. I would think it would be reversed, since the pool ship isn't battle oriented. It's more of an orbital base, I think.