Earth vs Core
High-Tech
The following is a basic breakdown of the development, progression, and implementation of modern military technology.
Fusion
The advent of modern technology was the development of stable nuclear fusion. By harnessing the power of the stars, mankind found limitless energy production potential, opening the way for exponential technological growth. Fusion energy remains at the center of all modern advanced technologies as the only suitable source of high level energy generation.
Plasma
Plasma field technology grew quickly with the emergence of fusion power. Within decades the manipulation of plasma fields had been mastered and varying applications of the strength, versatility, and unique properties of plasma fields were continually developed. Many advancements in the fields of medicine, transportation, construction, and many others may never have been realized without the use of plasma fields.
Beam-Tech
The fundamental importance of particle beam technology in human history can not be overstated. Experimentation with particle accelerators goes back centuries, with progress sometimes moving at a snail's pace and other times making leaps and bounds. One such leap was the successful development of temporal-negation particle beams generators. These devices rapidly accelerate a particle stream beyond the speed of light, at which point they are seperated from the flow of time and remain so until their accelerated charge is depleted. The result is instant travel of the beam from the point of achieving light speed to the point of deceleration from it with no limit to the potential distance traveled given sustained power and clear trajectory. This has become the standard of all beam technology.
Beam Comms
Initial use of T-N beams was for instant long range communication, a system whose widespread use continues today. Without the ability to communicate with speed through the vast expanse of space between the colonies, none can say how mankind would fare. The convenience of interstellar beam communication through the Comms Grid is often taken for granted, but is one of the most important elements ensuring the unity and strength of our species.
Beam Transport
The Jump Grid is known to anyone who has looked up into the sky to see the comings and goings of their system port. The dazzling light display that herald's mankinds every word and traveler through the stars is made possible by beam technology. The basic function of a Comms Beam and a Transport Beam is the same, but they differ in many ways including size, frequency, and output strength. Sending a message through the pulse variations of a beam is one thing, but latching on a 500 ton ship to accelerate beyond the speed of light is quite another.
The miracle of travel along the Jump Grid is made possible by the power generation of fusion technology, the strength of plasma field emmitters, and the signiature ability of T-N beams to bend the laws of space-time. Once a beam connection is established between an emitter and its destination, the aperture is increased to encompass the traveling vessel's hull, ensuring that the flight path is unobstructed. The beam is then dialed down to the designated tow width established for the ship's class. Once the ship has situated on the beam, aligning and locking in the hull, plasma field generators begin the encasing process. With the field at permiable levels, the Transport Beam passes through as the ship is fully wrapped in the plasma field. Once the process is complete, the field is strengthened until traction with the Transport Beam is achieved. With the beam pulling on the plasma field and the field encapsulating the ship, the journey to the destination begins. But rather than take years, decades, even centuries to reach the destination, the beam-towed ship needs only the time to reach light speed and decelerate from it at the destination, for everything between is but an imeasurable instant. With the crew in stasis for the duration of the trans-temporal trip, travel from home to the farthest outpost of man is possible with one quick jump.
Beam Cannons
The third utilization of beam technology is the newest, having only come about in the desperation of war when mankind needed a weapon unlike any other. Beam Cannons took what was once seen as an unnecessary, even unfortunate, aspect of beam technology and made it into our last hope for survival.
The potential destructive power of particle beam technology was briefly explored in early research, but limited strenth and inefficient power consumption served to discredit the validity of beam weaponization. Before establishment of the Jump Grid the dangerous necessity of "blind jumps" occasionally showed the destructive potential of beam transport weaponry, when a ship would strike an object mid jump and the drop from light speed upon impact would result in a vaporizing explosion. Since the traveling ship also vaporized, however, the cost of destroying a jump capable ship outweighed usefulness of such an attack.
But when Orion Exodus gathered his remaining Legion at Alpha Nova with a desperate need to finally hold the line, and the most powerful tools in his posession were the grid beam emmitters of the system and the battered ships of his fleet, he found a way to use them. With fusion generators of much higher yield than those of the past, the Alpha Legion discovered the ability to produce high-density particle beams whose impact did not require significant accompanying mass to inflict significant damage. The first use of the new Beam Cannons proved their potential for destruction even against the heavily armored ships of the Core.
The Legion has continually sought to improve Beam Cannon technology, as it is our primary offensive weapon against The Core. Stationary installations remain incredibly effective, provided they recieve accurate targeting data, with the power to bore through unprotected hulls with ease and severely damage advanced hulls over time. Scaled down cannons provide mobility at the expense of power, but remain highly effective at standard hull damage. Crystalline hulls remain resistant to all but the largest mobile batteries and present the dangerous potential to reflect beams wildly in the midst of combat. As always, the most important factor in the use of Beam Cannons is the skill of those who wield them. Combat training for Equites Speculatores and Auxilia Imaginifers is therefore extensive.
Ultra-Alloys
The main offensive, defensive, and specialized technology at The Core's disposal is their mastery of metallics and the so-called "ultra-alloys" they can create. Still unable to create such materials of our own, Earth scientists study endlessly to understand more about them. The alien metals are superior to our own in almost every way. Higher compressive and tensile strength, greater density, lighter weight, increased conductivity, resistance to errosion. They have unlimited range in size, from microscopic robotics to solid super-structures. There are a dozen different variants that are suited for specific functions, all of them outshining their counterparts in human technology.
With these superior elements, the odds are constantly stacked in The Core's favor. Their ships' hulls are stronger, able to withstand incredible assault from conventional weaponry. Their ballistics are more deadly, able to rip through unshielded ships and fortifications despite heavy armor. The ultra-alloys of The Core are the reason why humanity nearly met its end in the first charge of the war, but those same alloys have also provided our greatest advantage.
Mag-Tech
The fundamental flaw in Core ultra-alloy technology is the high sensitivity of the alien compounds to magnetic fields. Discovered by accident, this weakness saved us from extinction. Alphas developed magnetic field generators, charged magnetic pulse emitters, field utilization and manipulation technologies, and explored any way they could think of to exploit The Core's abundant use of the enemy's magneticly sensitive materials.
With The Core's ships unable to travel to certain places we discovered safe havens. With mag-shields that could repulse enemy ordinance we found effective defense. With directed magnetic pulse waves and charged magnetic projectiles we finally had a way to fight back. Coupled with the development of Beam Cannons, the forces of Earth could finally do damage that matched the ferocity of their attacks. With these technologies we beat back The Core and built The Mag-Wall to keep them out.
Crystallines
It is unlikely that The Core would posess a weapon that they would not use, so the introduction of crystalline technology to the war is believed to be a direct response to the effectiveness of Earth's magnetic arsenal in combat. The sudden appearance of the mirrored crystal shielding to combat beam technology and crystalline ballistics to bypass magnetic shielding is certainly no coincidence.
Crystalline technology is yet another example of The Core's mastery of elemental manipulation to create materials that remain out of our capacity to duplicate. The various crystal compounds utilized by The Core show highly specialized qualities including shrapnel penetration, charged ordinance, stealth potential, beam resistance and reflection, and self repair. Since use of these technologies remained relatively limited in comparison to Core standard technology, it is believed that their ability to craft materials is limited in some way, perhaps by availability of resources.
Sonics
In response to The Core's new crystal arsenal, the Alphas once again led the way with the development of new technology. The first concern was defense and examination of the remnant crystal structure in debris revealed that the structure of the new elements would be most effectively disrupted by correctly calibrated sonic pulse waves. As quickly as possible these wave generators and the sensory equipment to calibrate them for specific attacks were developed and other possibilities for sonic technology were explored.
While some success has been made in the advancement of sonic weaponry, range is often a fundamentally limiting factor with low damage potential as a second disappointing constant. Even their effectiveness at shielding is limited by their inability to function out of atmosphere, thus sonics function today almost exclusively in their original role of stationary defense against crystalline attack. Though relegated to this single use, sonics stand undisputed in their effectiveness in that function.
Grav-Tech
If mankind understands little of other Core technology, we understand essentially nothing at all about their gravity based propulsion systems. No functioning grav-engine has ever been captured and operated long enough to be sufficiently studied. Those few that have been in human posession all ceased active function within days or even hours, suggesting some fundamental process unknown to us is required to sustain a manipulatable gravitational field.
What we do know is that a grav-engine creates an artificial gravitational field, perhaps through a singularity, and the design of the ship is catered to utilize that field in various functions. The field provides standard propulsion as well as jump-like capabilities, though the processes are unknown.
Core grav-tech has several pros and cons. While their jump capabilities seem equal to our own, their speed and maneuverability is otherwise vastly inferior to human vessels, particularly in atmosphere, and has been since the first encounters with them. The effects of the gravitational field on objects in relative proximity to enemy vessels makes conventional weapon targeting and close combat maneuvering a challenge, but training has been shown to acclimate pilots to the effects and corrective measures with relative ease. There is speculation that The Core may have been developing a more offensive use of gravitational fields, but no evidence of directed gravitational weaponry is conclusive.
Our biggest concern with Core technologies must be our lack of understanding of them. It should be our intent to one day master these skills of our enemy, for we can assume they seek to master ours as well and a fleet with the combined technologies of Earth and The Core would truly be a force to be reckoned with.