Detail on shield technology, which will no doubt resolve countless arguments with your little brother:
Deflector shield. These shields are constructed of a lattice of projected molecules tuned in on an energy frequency close to most lasers. They can therefore absorb energy weapons. However, the absorbed energy has to go somewhere. Normally, the energy is dumped into buffers located at the shield projector, which then dissapate the energy elsewhere. There is no possible way to reflect the energy off the shield, like a mirror, because of the nature of the shields molecular structure. It cannot be modified enough to be able to reflect energy or rays, although it can be polarized to allow energy weapons to pass through from the inside and not the outside. There is no 'genetic code' password thing for getting through the shield, it is impossible. Deflector shields can also absorb explosions from missiles or bombs, however deflector shields do not reflect solids, so a missile could pass right through the shield and destroy the target. If a missile hit next to it, though, the explosion would not penetrate the shield. The shrapnel and debris would, though. Also, fire is deflected by deflector shields. Although the shield does dissapate energy, it cannot deflect solids. That is to say, a bullet, missile, bomb, or trooper could pass right through the shield. However, people passing through the shield may be exposed to minor radiation.
Ray shield. These work in much the same way as deflector shields, however the molecular structure of the shield is of a different kind and intensity level. The ray shield converts matter into energy, that is to say, it disentigrates solids. The energy produced is again routed to the buffer, and dissapated. However, this shield does not convert energy into matter vice versa, so it will not stop lasers or energy weapons due to the entirely different atomic composition. Gases can also pass through. In general, ray shields take about twice as much power to run.
For both shields, endurance depends on two factors; the buffer and the power source. A larger buffer can dissapate more energy at a time. If too much energy is absorbed into a shield, ray or deflector, the buffer cannot dissapate the energy fast enough and the shield collapses, usually resulting in an explosion of the buffer. The larger the buffer is, the more energy it can handle at one time, resulting in progressively higher endurance levels. The second factor, the power source, is more important. A higher power source means that the shield has a more intense atomic structure. So a shield with a more intense energy field absorbs the energy more efficiently. For example, say a laser hits a deflector shield. With a tiny power source, the energy of that laser bolt would be transferred to the buffer raw, and very quickly. The buffer would have more energy and less time to dissapate, resulting in more likely failure depending on the intensity of the energy blast. Shields with more power can use extra to dissapate some of the energy at the point of impact, the more extra power the more it dissapates. It also slows down the speed at which the energy is transferred to the buffer. So with these two advantages, power source is very important. Now shields have a power source running requirement. The minimum amount of power needed to project a ray shield is twice the minimum needed to project a deflector. Now, say the power provided for a ray shield was twice the amount of the minimum. All the extra power would go into dissapating and slowing the energy at the point of impact, resulting in an easier time for the buffer and higher endurance levels depending on how much power minus the minimum needed to project is provided. I won't go into extreme detail here, but you get the point.
Now, when you build a shield generator and projector, the buffer is generally considered PART of the projector. So the larger your projector is, the better your buffer will be.
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EMP does NOT kill shields:
EMP, or ElectroMagnetic Energy, will not 'take out the whole system'. EMP blasts are most effective on electronics and avionics that employ Vacuum Tubes, although they will mess with any unprotected electronics. Most shield generators, projectors, and buffers all have EMP-proof plating placed over them. As for the shield itself, EMP is electromagnetic ENERGY and therefore absorbed or just passes right through most deflector shields. EMP bursts will pass right through ray shields. Do not think of ray shields as a solid wall thing, that is a misnomer. Ray shields are a sort of disentigrating field, to put it very simply. Laser bursts and energy weapons will pass though, but solids will not. If a missile were to hit a ray shield, it would be absorbed immediately, however some of the high explosives inside could detonate when the front of the missile absorbed. The shrapnel and the brunt of the explosion would be absorbed, but some of the explosion and fire would pass through. In short, EMP will not effect shields unless the shield generator/projector/buffer is exposed, which is unlikely on andy modern shield system.
I'm talking REAL EMP here, not futuristic star wars "EMP".
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It is very hard to overlap ray and deflectors:
remember the layering of a great armor system!
outside: Ray Sheild
middle: Deflector Shield
plating: EMP plating
Actually it is very hard to 'layer' shields around eachother. This is due to the interference that two high-intensity energy fields generate. In close proximity, the energy of the shields is absorbed by one another, usually resulting in a catastrophic meltdown of the buffer. So the energy from one shield is absorbed by the other, constantly, and the other is at the same time releasing energy into the first one. Such huge energy levels overload the buffer.
However, it is possible on very large installments, such as bases. The shields can be projected far enough from one another that the energy interference does not overlap. This is only possible on truly large installments, however.
That's all so far, more on those other topics when I get back from vacation!
--Dr. X, NOT 'Doc x'!