Drive Tech

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STDS “Engage STDS.”

     Normally pronounced “studs”. The STDS drive – Space-Time Distortion System – provides a very fast sub-light travel system that is commonly used throughout human space. It uses a clever trick of subspace physics to “surf” on a ripple of space-time, and requires a lot less energy than actually accelerating to similar speeds in a normal, relativistic manner. It also doesn’t suffer from any time-dilation effects. There are only two problems with it; one is that it was necessary to either spend or bleed energy to compensate for changing position in a gravitational well. Moving away from a star or a planet takes just as much energy as any other method, limiting performance when in gravity wells enormously. Moving towards a star or planet means that gained energy had to be bled off, and as it cannot go into accelerating the ship in conventional space it meant that an incoming vessel radiated relatively brightly. A ship in relatively “flat” space, or travelling a course that stayed at a similar level in a gravity well, such as around a star, can theoretically travel at a speed approaching that of light, though most drives manage a significantly smaller percentage of that. To complicate matters further, subspace isn’t smooth, but had ripples and currents distorting the shape of the normal space to subspace interface, which also has to be taken into account. Sometimes it was possible to partially negate the effects of a gravity well by choosing a course in which subspace “flowed” the other way, taking potential energy from subspace to compensate for gaining it in normal space. All that meant that a good navigator is a precious resource.

 

     The second problem is that the “surface tension” between subspace and normal space is easy to disrupt, meaning that one can no longer “surf” on the wave between them, so it is easy to prevent a STDS drive from working. This effect makes piracy possible. Some military vessels carry large STDS disruptors; more often, single-shot devices are used as warheads on large disruption missiles to temporarily disrupt an area and knock a ship out of STDS and into regular Einsteinian space, preventing escape.

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Wormhole Travel

     The first wormhole was discovered at Ross 154, only 10 light years from Earth. Wormhole travel is fairly easy, as long as you have the appropriate tech to do a standard jump, and allows relatively rapid transit over phenomenal distances. There are sixteen known wormholes, all of which terminate in the same system, near to each other. It is this system that humans have settled and made their capital.

When the wormhole junction was first discovered, a powerful alien fleet was stationed on top of it, which followed the initial scouts back to Earth and attacked without provocation. This has left humanity convinced that it must maintain control of the wormhole network – all termini are regarded as Imperial space and under Imperial authority. This has allowed the Empire over time to grow into by far the most powerful polity in known space, as the resources from seventeen sectors of space can’t be matched by anyone else.

 

     No other wormholes are known to exist. The wormholes have been labelled in increasing difficulty of transit – wormhole 1 (Sector 1 to 2) takes only a half hour and takes minimal effort, wormhole 2 (Sector 1 to 3) takes little more, wormhole 16 (Sector 1 to Sector 17) takes several months, may have some turbulence along the way, is not necessarily perfectly safe (especially for badly maintained vessels) and is not a popular journey.

 

Jump travel (Interstellar travel)

     Normal travel between stars takes place between jump points where the subspace layer is flat and the hyperspace layer is thin. It takes place in the special dimension above our existing three – one more tightly “rolled” than our own, where apparent velocities are much higher, but this space can only be accessed safely and accurately via certain jump points – usually only one or two in polar positions above and below the star.

 

Grav Drive

     The use of focussed gravity systems is exceptionally effective as a slow-speed drives, doubly so in an existing gravity field such as that of a planet. Used for easy and cheap take-off and landings. Very fast responding – good for rapid changes in direction and manoeuvring.

Reaction Thrusters

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     The least effective drive system, usually used only as a backup or for micro-adjustments in an area where a grav drive might be less than perfectly effective. Modern thrusters can, thanks to the high power available from modern reactor rings, produce extremely high thrust from small amounts of reactant compared to historical models, but this does result in a fair amount of potential damage.

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Comms

 

     The modern Comm comes in a variety of shapes, sizes and form depending on the user’s preference, and settings and functionality are usually fairly easy to transfer. A combination of a historical laptop, tablet and mobile phone device, a comm can be a wrist-mounted display, a badge pinned to the chest, a tablet, a bracelet or a handheld tube, and will generally provide communications, data lookup, display and most likely entertainment functionality. Ship comms are more powerful.

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     Some comms have a more powerful SI (Synthetic Intelligence – true AI does not exist outside of a rumoured research lab or two) which can handle most requests with a reasonable degree of independence.