Technology of the Eteno Imperial Triumvirate

Eteno technology combines old traditions and practices with modern technology, giving many parts of their society a deceptively low-tech appearance.

Kinetic weaponry
As one of the last few civilizations to use kinetic infantry weapons based on gunpowder, the EIT can, at a glance, appear to be technologically backwards in terms of armaments. However, this is not the case. Eteno gunpowder weapons are built to withstand continual use in damaging environments with no cost to performance. Bullets are built caseless and with explosive capacity and/or enhanced armor-piercing abilities for maxmimum effectiveness. The Eteno enjoy several advantages from issuing gunpowder weapons to their infantry forces. These include not having to worry about a laser or beam being traced back to a shooter and the ability to fire continuously without risking extensive damage to overheating.

Gunpowder weapons aren't the only kinetic-based systems in use. Like many other races, the Eteno extensively use railguns on space vessels and stations as heavy anti-ship guns. On some planets and moons, the Eteno build giant railguns partially underground that can fire into space and inflict terrible damage on anything they hit. Railguns have the drawback of being unable to do much damage to shields on their own, requiring them to be used in tandem with energy-based weapons like laser and plasma.

Missiles and torpedoes
Aircraft, starships, troops, and vehicles all use some kinds of missiles in the Eteno military. Modern Eteno missiles are designed with multiple tracking systems to reduce the chance of losing a target down to near zero. Ground forces or aircraft supporting ground troops are armed with chemical or high-explosive missiles to take out infantry or armored targets, whereas starships and fighters and bombers in space use a mix of EMP and explosive missiles to damage shields or other systems and cause structural damage. Starships armed with missiles tend to fire them in swarms from launcher batteries sometimes consisting of hundreds of missile tubes.

Guided torpedoes are mounted exclusively on starships and strike craft for use against vessels of corvette size or larger. Torpedoes track targets much like missiles, but are much larger and contain a far more devastating warhead. A handful of torpedoes can annihilate a small ship and do punishing damage to a larger vessel, but tend to be slower and easier to intercept than missiles.

Laser and plasma weaponry
Energy weapons are the cornerstone of Eteno starship and fighter armament. Laser weapons are distinguished by power and rate of fire. Beams are slow-firing, powerful weapons most effective against ships or space stations, while regular lasers are quick-firing energy weapons. Energy weapons are capable of doing great physical damage on top of shield damage.

Plasma-based weapons are more powerful but slower-firing than most laser weapons, and require on average three or four seconds to produce a globule of plasma to eject at high speed at a target. Plasma weapons have similar effect on shields and armor as lasers, albiet with higher intensity and sometimes lower accuracy.

Armor
Starship and fighter armor is meant to be a last resort for protection if the shields fail. Fighters and bombers boast meager armor, while the largest starships can have up to fifteen layers of highly advanced smart armor perfected at molecular scale. Even then, concentrated fire can break through a ship's outer armor. Eteno ships are split up into bulkheads like a sea vessel would be, and each bulkhead is secured by double electronic doors and layers of armor. Bulkhead armor is the final factor that keeps a ship together if it is heavily damaged in combat.

Shields
Shields on starships and strike craft produce an energy field that blocks physical objects and absorbs fire from energy weapons. A large power source is needed to sustain a shield system even outside of combat, and when under fire, shields require enormous power to maintain. Large ships and space stations have one or more dedicated reactors providing power for shield systems at all times, and most have backup generators in case the primary reactor(s) go offline or the shields are under heavy burden.

Construction
Starship constructed has been standardized and streamlined with countless advances in industrial techniques, cargo transportation, and mass-production.