Aegis rules
The Aegis is a great all-purpose shield but it does have limits
The best imaginary sci fi technology has rules, and these are the rules for the Aegis — the shielding technology used to initially prevent teleporting bombs in the Crisis of the 90s as well as provide protection from radiation for space travel.
There are four generic levels labeled from zero (the lowest level of protection primarily used for travel in empty space) to three (an impenetrable shield). However, for each generic level there are a multitude of capabilities that can be engaged or not — the Aegis is an algorithm, and so can have a great deal of hyperparameters. There is 1) a mass-energy threshold that can be set for which the Aegis will trigger some action, 2) a set of actions, and 3) a set of filters.
The levels roughly indicate the complexity of the alterations to the horizon states and are comprised of different sets of hyperparameters that are context-dependent. That is to say the levels are a heuristic — more like a DEFCON than e.g. the volume control on you stereo where higher levels correspond to e.g. a lower mass-energy threshold. These are also human designations that arose in the Aegis Regions Union (ARU) period ca. 2100 and don’t really apply to other species.
Level 0: Fairly high mass-energy threshold and limited filters (particularly for ionizing radiation and concentrated electro-chemical energy density). In a sense functions to provide a level of protection similar to the Earth’s magnetic field and atmosphere. Mostly used on space vehicles. Typical action for exceeding the threshold is to teleport the SV a short range. Maintaining the convergence of the hyperquantum jump algorithm is the primary computational load. However, it allows objects to teleport inside the boundary. These objects cannot teleport into material protected by the Aegis — which would cause a quasi-nuclear explosion — as it is essentially equivalent to an extremely high energy density.
Level 1: A typical defense posture that prevents teleportation into the region protected by the Aegis (caveats below) that also uses several filters.
Level 2: Blocks most mass-energy that does not adiabatically1 cross the Aegis boundary. Engages all or nearly all known filters. Almost nothing can teleport into a Level 2 Aegis (caveats below regarding different hyperquantum computer capabilities). Used at jump conduit registries.
Level 3: Extremely low mass-energy threshold essentially limited by the hardware. Requires a great deal of computational power and thus consumes a lot of energy. Incoming mass energy is redirected to be randomly distributed on the Aegis boundary. Nothing (above the threshold) gets in or out and incoming teleportation computations cannot converge. Per the picture above, air molecules will be annihilated and produce ionizing radiation. (Additionally, since it acts as a one-way valve, any air inside will eventually diffuse out without being replaced.)
Thresholds
Mass-energy thresholds are the most basic element of an Aegis system — effectively blocking off magnitudes of changes in the stress-energy tensor above a certain level. At their most extreme, they will block both free flying molecules of the atmosphere and cosmic rays. Thresholds also impact the quantity of material or convergence time for teleportation into the protected region. If you extend the convergence time beyond the capability of the teleporting system, it will not be able to teleport.
Older systems did not have adaptive convergence times for teleportation algorithms and so would effectively teleport the object regardless of convergence and its information would be scrambled on the boundary of the defending Aegis region. Adaptive algorithms can detect this and so prevent the system from teleporting to its doom.
Filters
Particular quantum states have direct mappings to horizon states (a ‘dictionary’) and so their signatures can be included in a regular scan of the Aegis region’s horizon. The technology was developed on Earth in response to poison gas attacks against systems at Aegis level 1 or 2 and have subsequently produced huge libraries of chemical and energy-density signatures. However, novel poisons can be developed — these often tend to be one-time-use because once it’s used the library can be updated.
The most difficult matter to filter is matter that exists inside the protected region, and it tends to be impossible for most systems in practice. Teleporting a quantum singularity into a protected region using a hyperquantum singularity drive is handled as a mass-energy threshold trigger rather than a filter.
Alien species can and do create zones only certain species can enter by filtering on biochemical compounds the excluded species uniquely have. Humans and Uutaruu share quite a bit of biochemistry due the fact that the only major difference between the species are the proteins the codons encode — therefore even if the Uutaruu and humans became adversaries it would not have much utility.
Note that Aegis filters can also be used to cure certain diseases.
Attacking a protected region
While extremely useful protection, the Aegis is not invulnerable and there are a variety of ways to attempt to disable the Aegis and gain access — most of which are basically analogous to siege warfare.
The general heuristic for trying to overcome an Aegis region is called the “4x rule” — the attacking hyperquantum computer at a minimum needs to have enough computational resources to operate on a horizon of at least twice the radius of the defending system. This means there are at least four times the horizon states — and most defending systems do not protect their maximum volume meaning this is a bound.
When you “besiege” an Aegis protected region, you effectively raise the computational cost of protecting the region which results in a slow exhaustion of energy resources of the defending region. Due to the fixed lifetime of quantum singularities of manageable size, fusion energy (or other nuclear power) tends to be the power source of choice. A typical singularity in a hyperquantum drive will only last a few months (though with huge amounts of energy), but hundreds or even thousands of years of conventional fusion or fission power means defending systems can last a long time. A couple of typical attack methods:
“Logic probe”
A system with far more computational capability can perform a continuous attack on the Aegis of another system by trying to recompute states to e.g. teleport material inside the protected region — this does not breach the Aegis but will increase the rate at which the power of the protected region is consumed.
Gravity attack
A system applies a gravitational gradient — though this can create a net force on a space vehicle and it can be pushed away. Typical Aegis systems can counter this so the net result is also just an increase in the rate of power consumption.
Skiffs
Not necessarily restricted to space-to-space combat, skiffs — small EVA systems that come in a variety of form factors ranging from “jet-skis” to simple cylindrical objects on the order of a meter long — are covert options to breach lower levels of Aegis. If you can sneak up on a vessel or other protected region, a skiff can help in a variety of ways. The primary sensor is called a “yo-yo” on human skiffs — it consists of a carbon nanofiber that carries a current to its tip that is doped with high energy radio isotopes and then back to the skiff itself. It is unspooled rapidly to probe the boundary of the Aegis2. When this line encounters it, the radio isotopes are treated as cosmic rays — typically dispersing their quantum information across the Aegis boundary. It cuts the circuit and the knowledge of how far the nanofiber unspooled gives a range measurement. An Uutaruu skiff operates using a magnetic field that extends from the skiff — field lines wrapping back around. A stream of charged radio isotopes spiral around the field line and the presence of the Aegis is detected by the lack of particles returning. Skiffs can also carry small hyperquantum computers (powered down on ingress) that can perform short range teleportation once inside.
What about …
Given that there is tremendous advantage to the defenders, many different approaches to breaching an Aegis region have been tried or are in development. Unless a region goes to Aegis level 3, you can generally send in troops with swords and crossbows (these are made of typical materials existing inside the protected region and cannot be filtered out). However the most effective method is usually just a siege until the energy (or food) resources inside the protected region run out.
“Nanites” suffer from the general issue in physics of surface adhesion. This requires small scale robots to essentially be the size of small insects to have any value which are usually easily handled by the protected regions environmental systems. Viruses and biowarfare are slow and can often be easily handled by medical facilities inside the protected region. Chemical attacks are filtered unless they are novel.
Aegis inside Aegis
You can set up an Aegis region inside another or encompass an existing region with a larger one. This basically introduces an additional source of error in the computations of the newer region requiring more computational resources to be used — to the point where it can be cost prohibitive (or drain energy per above). Sometimes it is a level of error that is acceptable. For example, the Earth Defense Aegis (EDA) has hundreds of smaller regions inside it, but is only in place to defend against asteroids or a large scale invasion on the order of the mass-energy of an asteroid — thus has a very high threshold requiring little computational resources compared to the protected volume.
What about setting up an autocratic cult?
An issue with what is effectively an impenetrable shield is that it allows autocrats, separatists, and cult leaders to establish fiefdoms.
This not a major issue with most species, but is one among humans and Uutaruu. However, as part of the Intergalactic System (if you haven’t been granted conservate status) any Aegis region is required to submit to regular check-ups where beings must be allowed to leave. If these are refused, the Aegis region is declared an outlaw and will be besieged by a massive force. Additionally, Booss live thousands of years so can easily wait out any human or Uutaruu fiefdom.
See also the “skiffs” section.
Note that rapidly changing the size of the protected region to thwart locating its boundary is not feasible as the computation cannot instantly re-converge (which takes longer and longer at higher levels of Aegis) and leaves the region temporarily unprotected.