Nanotechnology Blue Light

Name:
Blue Light, Blue Light Nanites, Blue Light Nanite Repair System, BLNRS, Blue Light Deconstruction, Nanite Consumption

Description:
Blue Light appears as a large cloud of glowing blue lights that drift through the air with a subtle hum. When hit with an electro-magnetic pulse, the lights cut out and it appears as a dark gray fog.


Abilities:
Deconstruction: Blue Light can dismantle and repurpose metal, machinery, electronics, plastic and other materials. Rapidly however is relative and depends on the target of deconstruction, a synth’s arm will be dismantled far faster than an armored car for example. A safe estimate for deconstruction is 10-30 minutes to deconstruct a cubic meter of material. These resources are then returned to a swarm’s nexus for use in its second ability.

Reconstruction: Once materials gathered by Blue Light are returned to their nexus, the swarm can then use it to construct or repair anything in a given device’s blueprint library. From machines, to ammunition, to weaponry. As long as it has the correct materials, it can construct as necessary. This however requires significantly more time than deconstruction, requiring 30-60 minutes to construct or repair a cubic meter of material.


Conditional Abilities:
Self-replication: Blue Light’s reconstruction can even be used to replicate itself if it can acquire the correct resources, which are typically large amounts of complex electronics. There is an upper limit however, in that Blue Light cannot construct more nanites than a swarm’s maximum.


Limitations:
Area of Effect: Blue Light has a maximum range of one hundred meters from its nexus, if it ventures outside of this area it will immediately trigger a return command which will pull it back to the device as outside of this radius commands can no longer be given and the nanomachines will simply linger in the area until they run out of power.

Nexus Requirement: Blue Light is an impressive piece of technology, but it can’t operate on its own without additional support. This comes in the form of a nexus, most models coming in at a size of one foot long, eight inches wide, and eight inches tall. The nexus provides the swarm with the ability to recharge, receive instructions, store materials, store blueprints, and be used in reconstruction. A nexus weighs around sixteen kilograms, and if it’s destroyed Blue Light will simply run the last command given before floating in the air until it runs out of energy.

Biological Immunity: Blue Light can’t target organic life, this is a hard limit imposed in its software that can’t be removed without completely disabling the nanites permanently. This is to prevent a potential gray goo scenario against organic life, and to limit its destruction to mechanical life if a swarm was used in warfare.

Blueprint Database: Blue Light isn’t able to construct or repair anything without prior knowledge, requiring detailed blueprints to be uploaded to a large harddrive within the nexus. If a blueprint isn’t present, then it can’t construct or repair the requested option. Typically, these are ENDI scans.

Anomalous and Metamaterial Difficulty: While Blue Light is an advanced form of technology, some things just can’t be made without specific equipment that it can’t replicate, and some things simply can’t be used at all due to certain innate properties. These are usually things such as quantum technology, anomalous materials, and Ferozium metalenses.

Power Limitation: Blue Light’s nexus is an energy hungry device, often too much for conventional batteries to handle. This means that a dedicated reactor is often required for operation, limiting its use outside of vehicles, starships, stations, and large robots.


Conditional Limitations:
Electro-Magnetic Shutdown: An electro-magnetic pulse is incredibly disabling to Blue Light, rendering it inoperable aside from lingering in the air for an entire minute (10 CRP turns) before reactivation. Afterwards, it requires a fresh set of commands from its nexus.

Archotech Complexity: Some technology is simply beyond Blue Light’s ability to replicate or construct as the method of their creation has not been learned and no blueprints have been created, this is typically technology created by advanced, now extinct species. Examples include but are not limited to, Glitch Nanocells and Ancient technology.

Power Storage: Blue Light can only operate for a maximum of ten minutes without returning to its nexus, typically this process isn’t done all at once as to not cease operation, but in some cases it’s a requirement.

Deployment Time: Blue Light is fast, but there is a large amount of it and it won’t begin operations until it’s fully deployed, instead idlying in the air. This process takes around thirty seconds (5 CRP turns) to complete.

Speed: Blue Light is an effective reconstruction and repair tool, however compared to N.M.P devices it’s considerably slower in its reconstruction aspect and is generally a worse choice for that role.


How does it work:
Blue Light is the term for an advanced form of nanotechnology that operates in a similar method to N.M.P. Rapidly constructing things from a provided blueprint using the relevant materials. The primary difference is in how it acquires those materials and a massively decreased range. Instead of utilizing pixels as fuel, it harvests nearby objects and returns it to storage devices in its nexus for use in reconstruction and repair. This internal storage is however much more limited on conventional devices, requiring gathered materials to be used as delivered to allow a continuous cycle of operation.


Flavor text:
"Blue Light is an innovation that will allow the long-term terraforming of our moons without our intervention. Repairing the terraforming equipment and providing any excess material they may require without our intervention. In only a century, we expect to see great progress from this technology not only on our moons, but in more civilian sectors as well. No longer will we have salvage and junk yards overflowing with discarded material, it will instead be reused for a new, brighter future."

Blue Light was developed roughly fifty years after the creation of N.M.P technology, primarily to be used in long-range exploration vessels and deep-space mining when extensive repairs were required without the proper facilities present. In modern day, this use has stayed much the same, but with many other technologies it has taken on a military aspect as well. Blue Light itself in recent years is often found in war machines and large vehicles that are designed to be present in the field for extensive periods of time without outside support. Notable users of Blue Light include member states of the Axolotion Empire, the Miniknog, and certain member states of the Naian Federation. Blue Light has existed in other states in the long-distant past however in one form or another, the Xinod being the most recent example.


Referenced Technologies:
https://galactic-citizen.com/threads/n-m-p.3362/


Attainability: [Open] Blue light isn’t something the average person can get their hands on due to the initial cost of creation and the limited number of manufacturers in the Fringe who can make the devices. A Fringe nation or large corporation who can produce nanomachines can create Blue Light.

Tags: [Industrial]


Category:
Nanotechnology

 

Whoops! Sorry, that was left in from a previous draft. I plan to try an app a grenade that acts like black blight using these but functioning against non-organics if this gets passed. Want me to edit that out in the meantime?

 

Done!