Defensive innovation comes from unexpected source.

The Gallente federation, one of the most technologically progressive races in our galaxy, especially under the rule of the current president Foiritan, has always come up short when it comes to defensive shield technology. The Gallentean designs are never quite as good as the Caldari or the Minmatar, which has forced them to focus more prominently on ships’ defensive armour plating.

Gallentean scientist have for years been trying to improve their shield systems, making them stronger, more durable and with a quicker recharge rate. But what they’ve always lacked is experience in using the systems which they design, a handicap which may have more of an effect on their work than perhaps was previously realised.

Several weeks ago, a Gallentean citizen made a breakthrough in shield technology, setting a new Galactic record for the fastest total recharge of shields on a battleship, a time of 87 seconds. Yet this person isn’t a scientist. She is a pilot, with many years of experience in the systems which she is utilising. And it is that experience which allowed her to achieve this record.

Using a combination of some of the most sought after equipment in the galaxy, her skills, honed over countless hours of spaceflight, and a 'Gnome' KYA2000 implant, Pottsey managed to achieve a passive shield recharge rate of 109.6 units per second. Well beyond the damage capability of most capital weapons. Although the Dominix battleship is incapable of mounting weapon-systems, due to the total dedication towards shield-recharge, the record is still a formidable one.

“My idea was to covert a mark 5 Gallente Industrial ship to a research ship for deep space. The ship needed to be able to withstand regular hits to the shields from electromagnetic storms like we find around the Eve gate.” Pottsey said, recounting her first experimentations into passive shield recharge. “Being a research ship, my idea was to make the shield recharge so fast you can just forgot about the shields and get on with the important jobs like taking readings from the probes”. During an early test of the modifications in an asteroid belt, she was ambushed by Serpentis Mercenaries, but her designs worked so well that they were incapable of penetrating her shields past 60%, exceeding all expectations. Systems checks indicated that she had the capability of bringing the shields up to full status after just 37 seconds of having them deactivated.

She progressed onto battleship based passive shields when it became apparent that this ship, although very defensively capable, would require an escort for some missions. So after more weeks testing and procuring equipment, Pottsey perfected the systems she had installed on the dominix.

Pottsey is now working on an Iteron mark 3 version of her technology but says she is being hampered by the rarity of Shield relay II’s and Shield Flux II’s.

Scientists, stunned at the new benchmarks they had to work their technology towards, were quick to comment that due to all of the specialised equipment involved in achieving this record, it would be unlikely that any commercial model would appear or quite a while.

Nevertheless, this revelation has had a quiet effect on the armament industries, with more then a few scientists redirecting their attention towards the natural recharge of shield systems. What this means for the future is unsure, yet is clear that once again, innovative pilots can break the boundaries of science.