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| Force Shield
The Force Shield is a defensive mechanism that is brand new to the Federation stockpile and thus, is still highly experimental. Thus far, it has only been deployed to Security officers, Starfleet Rapid Response Teams/Marines and HAZARD Officers, although it is considered standard issue for all those fields. The Starfleet Security Forces have generally taken a positive view of it. While it limits the user's choice of weapons to a Type II or Type IVC Bullpup Phaser, the protection is fairly impressive.
The Starfleet Security Force Shield is capable of repelling most phaser or disruptor blasts equal to Setting Six or less without much of a sweat. However, any settings above seven have a chance of getting through and any setting above nine will breech the shield and hit the user [albeit in a reduced form- about half to two-thirds potency, but the shield will be overloaded].
Another difficulty discovered recently against a Federation raid on the pirate cove of Gorkon's Retreat is that an enemy can scan the force shield, determine its frequency and adjust their phaser accordingly. In this case, the Force Shield is useless even against the stun settings. The other major difficulty lies in "Human" error- one must generally anticipate the attack and be able to parry it. While the shield does cover about 2/3rds of the average humanoid body [when immobile, about half when moving], opponents can target exposed areas with a carefully aimed shot.
Despite these drawbacks, the Force Shield has already saved hundreds of lives of Rapid Response Officers and because of that, the Federation Starfleet has decided to expand its usage aboard Starfleet ships.
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