Askarain Retractable Shield

Askarain Retractable Shields are assigned to members of the Askarian armed forces for personal protection. When in the closed position it appears to be a small metallic device on the soldier’s gloved hand. With a flick of the wrist the shield opens from the metallic device on the glove into a full-size round shield. With another flick of the wrist, the shield will collapse again. Askarain army and marine troops train with them to use in conjunction with both blades and pistols and each shield is sturdy enough to turn a blade or stop a large caliber bullet. In addition to blocking incoming attacks, Askarian soldiers also train in using the shields as melee weapons themselves. Very light, but also dense, a solid hit from an Askarian shield can easily crack the skull of a human. Larger versions of shields are also in use. The tower shield version has a built-in rifle mount so that soldiers can take shelter behind the larger shields while keeping their rifle ready and aimed. The shields can then be quickly retracted, and the shield wall can be quickly moved to a different position. The military has been experimenting with theoretical energy shields. The new shields would simply turn on and off instead of retracting, but only a few prototypes have been developed. The main problem with these is the energy requirements. To successfully create and energy shield, the energy would have to come from a small battery to be feasible in battle, but developing one that would last more than a few minutes in combat has been a challenge, There has been talk of using the kinetic energy of incoming projectiles themselves to help power the shield and therefore powering it almost perpetually if the shield is taking incoming fire. The problem with this approach is that it still requires energy to turn on and if the warrior uses all the energy of the shield, then they won’t be able to turn it back on again. It is for these reasons the original Askarian Shields will most likely be a mainstay in the Askarian Military armory.