Behring Applied Technology

Behring Applied Technology is a human weapons consortium based on Terra in the Terra system. Founded in 2554, Behring is comprised of dozens of smaller research and development firms that work together to build a variety of items, weapons, and vehicles, usually for defense purposes. Their laboratories contributed to the standardization of laser weaponry, along with other innovations in computers, shield generators, missiles, personal weapons, spacecraft weapons, and ordnance. Multiple divisions of Behring are located in the Kilian system in order to work on classified projects for the United Empire of Earth (UEE) military.

History

The Behring consortium was founded in 2554 as a combination of several dozen smaller research and development firms. This arrangement gave rise to the Terra laboratory responsible for standard laser weaponry and dozens of other Behring innovations. It outsources to many designers and subsidiaries, providing a single source for defensive equipment. The company makes guns, missiles, tanks, dropships, and sentry drones, mostly for the UEE, though it also produces civilian models. Its products usually favor quantity over quality. Popular models produced by Behring include the P4-AR, a standard-issue rifle for the UEE military, and the P4-SC, a more compact and collapsible carbine version of it.

Behring Applied Technology

The Behring Applied Technology (BAT) division has long been the subject of speculation, and its overall reach and impact on military and spin-off technologies may never be fully known. The incorporation papers for the Behring weapons consortium make no mention of the division, press inquiries are ignored or dodged, and corporate organization charts show no oversight, yet a steady one-quarter of the company's profits is unaccounted for in every published budget. For years, all mention of the division was strictly forbidden. When pressed at a formal dinner, Evan Behring himself acknowledged that the division exists, but then claimed that it "develops next-generation home goods." Today, the company acknowledges that BAT exists and that it is responsible for the heavy weaponry found on naval warships, but denies the budgetary implication that it has a much wider role in top-secret research.

Although BAT's existence was formally denied, its effect was widely felt, and its role is widely recognized across the galaxy. Even before the admission, the massive laser weapons used by UEE ships-of-the-line were known to originate somewhere. Through the general collection of folklore and the passage of time, BAT's history, stretching back to the early days of spaceflight, is now well documented. The division was initially hidden on a Terran moon and is now located beneath the surface of Odin II's moon, Vili, and it was charged with meeting the needs of military black budget projects. BAT is known for its approach to experimentation and research, and the scientists and engineers who compose the team have worked steadily, creating weapons of both conquest and defense across a variety of political landscapes.

It is difficult to say what innovations originate at BAT, beyond the fact that the division is believed to be responsible for much of the UEE's capital-class naval weaponry. Behring has taken no credit for weapons or other technologies developed there. It is nonetheless believed that BAT has developed technologies in a wide variety of fields, the most evident of which are significant enhancements to shield, propulsion, laser mirroring, and remote sensing technologies. The BAT division's unofficial mascot is Barrie, a cartoon bat that has been painted on numerous prototype weapons.

Capital-Class Turrets

The Behring Applied Technology laboratory has been credited with two types of high-yield capital ship weaponry: Anti-Ship Artillery (ASA) weapons and Ship to Ship (STS) turret weapons. ASA turret mounts are designed to protect large ships from smaller ones. With rapid hydraulics and integrated targeting interfaces, ASA turrets are generally sited in a ring around a capital ship's hull to offer as full an arc of protection as possible. ASA turrets mount smaller-yield laser weapons similar to those found on civilian spacecraft. The stock military Idris-M frigate, for instance, carries eleven Behring M2C "Swarm" ASA turrets.

Ship-to-Ship turrets are more powerful, designed to penetrate the shields and hulls of other large starships. Although they lack the quick reaction time of ASA turrets and are generally unsuitable for flak coverage, their higher-caliber weaponry makes any hit against a fighter or bomber likely to be deadly. Like the smaller turrets, STS turrets are modular and can be outfitted with a variety of individual guns.

While the company is responsible for manufacturing, antimatter yield coring, and other processes in turret development, the most significant advancement it has been credited with is the development of the shield interphase kits that are now standard on all turrets. Prior to the 28th century, it was believed impossible to design a shield system that could operate with a rotating turret. Early shields were designed with blind spots that allowed fixed cannons to fire out of a designated hardpoint, but they lacked the ability to do the same with a gun whose position could not be predicted before firing. Capital ships of an earlier era needed to drop their shields entirely before firing, which made arming them with anti-spacecraft weaponry impractical. With BAT's interphase kits, almost any weapon can be fired from within a standard shield.

Rail Guns

BAT produces the 130mm "Ship Buster" rail gun system. It is reported to be the most powerful single-charge rail gun in known space, and is said to be capable of destroying a destroyer-class warship. Four Ship Busters form the keel mount of the Bengal carrier, while a series of these weapons forms the armament of the Retribution-class. These rail guns use the same technologies as standard fighter-based mass drivers but on a much larger scale once thought impossible to achieve. A series of many thousands of charged electromagnets generates the power needed to fire the 130mm slugs.

Black Ops

It is widely believed that BAT is heavily involved in black-ops research. Recent advancements in remote sensing, automated camouflage, and jointed thruster technologies are thought to have originated in Behring's top-secret labs. Although this is unlikely to be formally confirmed, the trillions of UEC reportedly funneled into the research efforts within Vili's core could retrofit the standing navy's wide-caliber lasers a dozen times over. Some reports suggest that BAT is responsible for biological warfare research. There is evidence that a number of eminent xenobiologists have disappeared into the black ops wing of the military. Whether the claims that they are taking part in the vivisection of Vanduul prisoners of war are accurate is less clear.

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