Maintenance

[Zume (OP)]

In Imperial Starfire, 15.10.02, it says that systems that break down due to a lack of maintenance can still take damage points in combat. Does this extend to shields as well?

[Edsel]

In my opinion I would say no. The shield is a shell around the ship generated by the systems embedded in the hull. It even says somewhere in the rules that the reason that shields can be repaired in battle is because all you are doing is resetting breakers and such. Also a ship can be destroyed while shields are still active (lots of laser and/or primary beam fire). If the shields are down due to lack of maintenance then those shields are not there to absorb damage.

[Shinanygnz]

Hmm.  Can't find anything in SM2 or errata and my draft URD from 3DG just has the standard rule.
4th edition says pretty much the same as 3rd but does have a couple of extra bits including, "Armour and cargo holds cannot be lost to maintenance failure.  Shields lost to maintenance failure cannot be repaired by damage control."

All a bit ambiguous.  Personally I'd say that the shield generators have failed, so the shields are down.  They can't be brought back up by emergency repairs or standard shield repairs.