Faux hardlight is a very strong crystalline material that easily constructed and absorbed through advanced projection and tractor devices. It is usually transparent and glows brightly while energized, which is required to allow for quick re-absorption. It can take a substantial amount of energy damage and is difficult to pierce or cut, but is prone to shattering when subject to very heavy impacts. It takes several seconds for a structure to fully form or re-absorb, making it unsuitable as an instantaneous defense, but quite useful to prepare when given enough warning. As a defensive device, it is often used to create hand-held shields or even full bubble barriers. As weapon, it makes an excellent material for a blade, but is not dense enough to be practical as a kinetic projectile, though some more exotic weapons have been known to utilize it as a carrier for explosives or energetic charges. It is often used a transient building material to construct ramps, bridges, doors, and other structures that will need to be removed shortly after.
As a material, faux hardlight is composed of a special form of crystalline silicon carbide doped with precise amounts of other trace elements to further increase its strength and ease of emission and absorption. Devices utilizing faux hardlight must keep a reserve of silicon carbide powder which can be deposited and stripped using charged particle beams. As the material is electroluminescent, it glows as long as the charge is maintained. While the charge is maintained, the material can be stripped away and returned to the device quickly. If the charge is not maintained, the remnant silicon carbide structure will be left behind and need to be reprocessed into a fine powder before it can be utilized again.