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I am writing a piece of fanfiction and need a help about one piece of information.

The part I need info about is happening on Retribution class battleship. I wrote that main characters are standing in front of giant hangar doors on the ship where aircraft came in and out.
Now for my question: what kind of shields is Imeprium using for those doors to prevent vacuum of space from breaking into the hangar? ( I know very little about Imperial Navy ships, I have a hunch that they are using void shields but I am not so sure about this, I wrote that they are using Gellar Fields but I think I am wrong there ). And can aircraft go through it similar to how they are doing in Star Wars and Star Trek when they are entering ships.

Thank you in advance for your answers.

I'm not entirely sure about this, but I thought that the Imperium does not have this kind of technology. Gellar fields are to protect against Warp Rifts, whereas Void Shields neutralise incoming energy blasts and projectiles by converting and dissipating them as energy.

For landing in a hangar, I would thus expect them to seal and pressurise the deck before the crew can disembark or anyone enters the bay.
You could always simply have your characters watch through a giant window, of course.

This isn't a topic I've read a lot about, though, so I could well be wrong. I'm operating largely on assumption here, as I just don't recall ever reading about a sort of atmospheric isolator shield.

I know Lynata, I am not sure about that too.

I do remember that ships were going trough force in and out field in "Fire Warrior", and once they get past it they are in atmosphere. I don't know if that is valid because I honestly didn't find anything regarding this subject in 40k fluff except there.

Note the last five seconds of video, devilfish does right trough the void shield:



I just don't know if this is valid considering how invalid that entire game was when regarding to 40k fluff.

Well, given how "canon" works in this IP, you could just make something up. It's likely that there are already conflicting accounts of how ships start/land somewhere in the fluff.

And since this is a detail not touched upon in any of the codices or rulebooks, I don't think anyone would criticise for, at least in this case, simply doing what almost every Black Library author does and go with what you think works best for the story.
Personally, I do understand a certain need to stick close to the material, however, so kudos for that. And maybe someone else will have something to add.

I'm assuming you already checked the BFG books freely available as PDFs on the GW website?

I did, there is nothing about hangar door shields or can an aircraft go trough them at all.

I will follow your advice and write down that it's void shields who are protecting and that aircraft can go right trough it. Thank you

The only thing I remember is during one of the Horus Heresy books, Horus rising I think.

Their is a scene where Loken recieves his Oath of Moment in the hanger bay. Is their any description in that scene as to if space is seen from outside?

From what i understand, Void Shields are more a kind of kinetic barrier; traveling below a certain speed allows things to pass through them, like bombers and torpedos. Thus I wouldn't imagine they could contain an atmosphere.

Everything I've seen regarding things like hull breaches has blast doors sealing them, rather than shielding, but I also recall that most Imperial ships, particularly large ships like battlecruisers and battleships, maintain a bubble of atmosphere around them. How this is contained, if it's contained at all, or just bleeds off the ship in typical Imperial inefficiency, isn't really stated, but it's supposed to better allow maintenance crews and servitors to operate on difficult to reach areas of the ship, and prevent explosive decompression during battle.

Therefore, I'd imagine there wouldn't be any issues with an open hanger bay, but I also think they would still minimize contact with the void, as I can't imagine any external atmosphere bubble being anything beyond "well at least I won't immediately suffocate," due to the enormous difficulty in beating back the absolute vacuum of space. Something a Marine or servitor could stay alive on, but not much more than that. By and large, I would say pressurized and de-pressurized hangers make the most sense; Imperial shield tech isn't the best, or most reliable, and an open hanger bay seems like a giant accident waiting to happen, even if they had something suitable.

There are indeed some bay that have "energy" shields in place of doors. FFG has rules for them in Battlefleet koronus which are called Lathe-Pattern Landing bays. They are only found on cruisers or larger so you could have them on a battleship.

They are 'smaller" in that they take up less ship space. The downsides is a lose of power to the bay depressurizes the whole area, which can be very bad.

I don't recall them going into explicit detail about the specifics of Imperial Hangers and how ships enter. I seem to remember them using simple Airlocks.

Especially since boarding actions seem to always involve landing on the ships hull and using a meltacharge to breech I would think that the Hangers wouldn't just be open. Its a stupid Sci-fi trope anyway.

 Brother Captain Alexander wrote:
I know Lynata, I am not sure about that too.

I do remember that ships were going trough force in and out field in "Fire Warrior", and once they get past it they are in atmosphere. I don't know if that is valid because I honestly didn't find anything regarding this subject in 40k fluff except there.

Note the last five seconds of video, devilfish does right trough the void shield:



I just don't know if this is valid considering how invalid that entire game was when regarding to 40k fluff.

Movie fail, a Tau ship at that close range wouldn't last longer than a few seconds. In BFG or "IRL"

I've always wondered what protects the crew against interstellar radiation that prevents most of our current spacecraft from making long distance flights.....

 DemetriDominov wrote:
I've always wondered what protects the crew against interstellar radiation that prevents most of our current spacecraft from making long distance flights.....

A lack of care for your crew.

Thick bulkheads made of unknown but very efficient materials at both that and resiting damage. Also I guess the shielding shall come into play there. For the original question, it's a computer-thingy. Friendly objects can leave and enter, unfriendly are just gunned down by the turrets.

 DemetriDominov wrote:
I've always wondered what protects the crew against interstellar radiation that prevents most of our current spacecraft from making long distance flights.....

Handwaveium and building materials

 DemetriDominov wrote:
I've always wondered what protects the crew against interstellar radiation that prevents most of our current spacecraft from making long distance flights.....

Really thick hulls. They are 12+ feet thick and made of Adamantium, which probably has good radiation absorbing qualities. Not that the Imperium cares about the crew, its probably more along the lines of that its hard to have a functioning ship without a crew.

That makes Imperial ship hulls have a thickness equal, or likely greater, to half the width of the space shuttle.

Isn't that a bit ... excessive, perhaps? These hulls get penetrated by boarding torpedoes all the time, and adamantium, from how it is used in the setting, is always described as if it'd be fairly resilient.
I'd kind of expect thick hulls, actually, but rather due to aesthethics (flying cathedrals) rather than actually having a very high armour value. I think Imperial ships are built compartmentalised, too, so that it wouldn't really matter much if you lose one or two walls somewhere.

But radiation absorbing materials could well be integrated into much thinner plating, anyways. Or they put things into people's food. Or it's a side effect of one of the shields. Lots of possibilities.

Always wondered, I'm open to any interpretation really. I think the food one is entertaining lol,

Thanks guys for your answers, they were very helpful

Retribution-class Battleships don't have launch bays.

Yeah, unless you count broadsides as it. You are either out for an Oberon or an Emperor class battleship, or maybe if you want to be really original a Nemesis battleship. Which is basically an Emperor stripped of any port or starboard weaponry for more launch-bays.

 Beaviz81 wrote:
Yeah, unless you count broadsides as it.

I don't think that would work; a Retribution-class' broadsides are lined with Weapon Batteries, bank upon bank of macro, plasma, laser, and melta cannons.

 Admiral Valerian wrote:
Retribution-class Battleships don't have launch bays.

That is they can't launch Bomber or fighter wings.
Still have to have a launch bay for light shuttles, landers, bring in munitions and food etc.

 Eetion wrote:

 Admiral Valerian wrote:
Retribution-class Battleships don't have launch bays.

That is they can't launch Bomber or fighter wings.
Still have to have a launch bay for light shuttles, landers, bring in munitions and food etc.

Airlocks or docking ports then.

 Admiral Valerian wrote:
Retribution-class Battleships don't have launch bays.

Nominally that is correct. However each ship can be re arranged. You could put bays in place of weapons on such a ship

Well they would probably have landers for any troops they may be transporting.
Its just these don't play a role in BFG, but the vessel still scores in a planetary assault as far as I remember.

The may still have launch bays but lack the capability to launch and rearm fighters and bombers which is quite specific in equipment.

Also most munitions are quite large, they must have an extensive space for such deployments, so nothing wrong with setting it in a launch bay, so I'd just avoid mentioning any fighters etc.

 Hunterindarkness wrote:

 Admiral Valerian wrote:
Retribution-class Battleships don't have launch bays.

Nominally that is correct. However each ship can be re arranged. You could put bays in place of weapons on such a ship

Then it won't be a Retribution-class. And as I recall, the Adeptus Mechanicus gets real irritated when you mess around with technical specifications.

 Eetion wrote:
Well they would probably have landers for any troops they may be transporting.
Its just these don't play a role in BFG, but the vessel still scores in a planetary assault as far as I remember.

By means of bombardment. Transports serve the role of troop carriers.

Any vessel can carry troops, and deploy them, its just mass regiments usually use transports.

Transports also don't have launch bays, but to suggest that they don't have them for Navy Lighters is just plain wrong.

Now given that Transports can carry and deploy lighters/drop ships etc, there is no reason to say that Retribution Battleships cannot deploy them for the same reason.

 Eetion wrote:
Any vessel can carry troops, and deploy them, its just mass regiments usually use transports.

Transports also don't have launch bays, but to suggest that they don't have them for Navy Lighters is just plain wrong.

Now given that Transports can carry and deploy lighters/drop ships etc, there is no reason to say that Retribution Battleships cannot deploy them for the same reason.

Pretty sure warships aren't allowed to carry Imperial Guard troops en masse, with the Horus Heresy and all.

Nope. Its that the commander cannot control both assets.

So the admiral can't control the guard and a general can't control the navy.
One is pretty limited without the other. So they broke the unified commander up, not stopped navy transporting guard.

 Admiral Valerian wrote:

 Eetion wrote:
Any vessel can carry troops, and deploy them, its just mass regiments usually use transports.

Transports also don't have launch bays, but to suggest that they don't have them for Navy Lighters is just plain wrong.

Now given that Transports can carry and deploy lighters/drop ships etc, there is no reason to say that Retribution Battleships cannot deploy them for the same reason.

Pretty sure warships aren't allowed to carry Imperial Guard troops en masse, with the Horus Heresy and all.

They can carry them but the fleet and the guard are separate entities.
Neither has command over the other.