The Great Crusade: Technology: Transportation

Technology has both advanced and stagnated over the course of the last thousand years. There are, now, the occasional burst of technological advancement, normally occurring during times of war. At the same time, though, there are periods of technological plateaus that will last for decades, sometimes more. Not exactly Dark Ages, but close to it.

Some technologies are favored by some factions more than others. These technologies will be mentioned in the technology section. In order to understand some important aspects of the Factions, it's important to understand the tools those Factions have available to them, and which they favor.

FTL Drives

FTL Drives, also called "Jump" or "Slip" Drives, are the main means of long distance travel between star system to star system. FTL Drives are found on ships as small as a tramp freighter to larger military ships and dreadnoughts. Vessels smaller than a tramp freighter, such as a starfighter are too small to have an FTL drive, and are thus reliant on a larger FTL drive equipped vessel to carry them. Also, when you have larger ships, it is common for them to carry, not only fighters, but also boarding craft, shuttles and drop ships, all without FTL drives.

An FTL Drive creates a “wormhole slip”. The drive opens a micro-wormhole which pulls the ship in. The wormhole then opens at the target location. This is called a "slip", slipping from one location in space to another. This "slip" requires a great amount of power, as well as computing, to properly execute a "slip". Most of this calculation is now down my advanced computers, but occasionally the assistance of a dedicated "slipsman", a specialist in working with the computers and the drives, allows for even more accurate "slips".

There is an additional benefit to FTL Drives. A ship's FTL Drive generates a powerful gravity field. This field creates an area of "artificial gravity", when the FTL Drive is in a "standby" state, basically not powering up for a jump, or just after a jump. As the FTL Drive powers up to prepare to jump, the gravity is pulled into the FTL Drive, causing a state of null gravity. This is why, prior to a jump, crewmen must “strap in”. The gravity field is lost, a few moments prior to the jump. This is due to the FTL Drive beginning to focus its energy into the gravity burst needed to create the micro-wormhole. Upon exiting the "slip", it can take about 5 minutes to an hour for the gravity to return, as the drive begins recharge, and to settle back into it's "standby" state.

Duration in the wormhole can take seconds to hours, depending on the distance traveled. This time, though, is not experienced by the crew, due to a phenomena called “slip time”. For a crew, the travel appears to be instantaneous. There have been rare reports of a crewman reporting odd dreams or visions upon exiting FTL. These are rare, though, and normally an indication that the crewman in question is a latent psion.

While, relatively, a stable means of transportation, there are some drawbacks. The first is it is not always 100% accurate. Exiting the FTL jump can cause the ship to arrive exactly where the coordinates are set. Occasionally, though, the ship can be hundreds of hectameters off course. As this distance is normally recoverable, and with the improvements in technology, also less an occurrence. This adds to the value of having a good "slipsman", at the FTL Helm.

Problems with “gravity wells” can cause catastrophic problems. This is the second issue with FTL Drives. Hitting a gravity shadow forces the vessel out of FTL, causing the ship to being torn apart by the jump and the gravity of whatever large body is nearby. This is why ships are required, for safety of the vessel and crew, to jump on the edge of a stellar system. It is too much of a risk. The planets, moons, asteroids, comets, the central star, and anything else in the system large enough to add to the gravitational fluctuations, create too many gravity distortions to make a safe jump. There have been some “well-jumpers” that will attempt jumps directly into a system. The results, frequently, is a ship becomes nothing more than small slivers of salvage and debris scattered in the void between two or three planets.

This fact, though, has created a number of important stellar systems to deploy a patrol fleet on their outer edges. Also, strategically placed defense stations are not uncommon for the most secure systems. The cost associated with these measures, though, normally mean that these are only for the most important, or rich, systems. The difficulty with these defenses is due to the nature of a "slip". There is no way to predict, with the current technology of the Known Galaxy, where a "slip" will open up. If a slipsman knows where the patrols and stations are, there is still a chance he can allow his ship to slide right past them.

Another issue is the time required to recharge the FTL drive. The amount of energy an FTL Jump expends is enormous. Even with the most efficient power plants, an FTL Drive needs some time to recover. When the jump is finished, it can take anywhere from five minutes to a few hours for the FTL internal gravity field to be restored through the ship, depending upon the Drive, the size of the ship, and the distance traveled. Then, it takes another three to twelve hours for the FTL drive to have enough energy for a short distance Jump. This normally means, once a jump occurs, you are in system for close to a 24 hour cycle, on average. Basically, if you're going to "slip", make sure it's somewhere you want to visit.

The final area of concern is more an old shipman’s tale. There have been anecdotal tales told of ships that never leave the FTL Jump. A common theory is that a ship has been thrown so far off course and powerless, they just drift until the crew dies. When a crewman, though, wants to scare a first timer, they say that the ship never left FTL. Odd images as the "slip" begins, or upon exiting, are often discounted as mere optical illusions, due to the distortions in time-space. Psions, though, are never comfortable after a Jump, but they are never sure why. They leave “slip time” with a feeling of hopelessness, or as if they were being watched. There is no explanation for this phenomena. Nonetheless, these stories are mostly from the early days of FTL, and there have been no reported incidents in centuries.

Ion Drives

Due to the fact that, in order to safely use FTL Drives, a ship must enter at the outer edge of a star system, all vessels that ply through space are equipped is ion drives. Ion drives come in a variety of strengths, dependent on how fast the vessel needs to move, and the size of the vessel. Ion drives have improved greatly of the centuries. While they come nowhere near the speed of light, they can move a vessel very quickly.

Most standard vessels; tramp freighters, couriers, "space yachts", and similar vessels; can normally get from the Outer Edge to a planet in system, within five to 10 hours, depending on the ion drive, propelling it. This allows for a brisk amount of trade. This quick speed for a smaller vessel also is what promotes small scale transportation operations. While, most mainstream supplies come from larger vessels, specialty transports allow specific shipments to arrive as demand needs.

Larger vessels can take anywhere from about three days to a week, sometimes longer. Star cruise lines have two different sets of ion drives, frequently. One used for leisurely speeds through a star system, and another for use if the liner is beset upon by pirates or other ne'er-do-wells. Typical large scale transport operations, such as trade or supply vessels also follow the three days to a week. This speed does normally allow for adequately speed deliveries, and is most often used for planetary resupplies and bulk deliveries. This slower speed does make them more likely to be targets, which has caused the average transport of this scale to be well armored and well armed. Also, the employment of "merchant marines" is a thriving business with most vessels, even the cruise ships, having at least a few.

Fleets can take about three days to a week to get from the Outer Edge to their target planet. This normally allows for evacuations, or the digging in of planetary defenses. Some strike fleets, though, can make it to a planet's orbit within 24 hours. These are often raider teams, meant to hit a planet, not to take it and hold it.

The main drawback for ion engines is the lack of reactionary thrust. It is possible to turn a ship using ion drives, but it is very similar like trying to turn a large sailing vessel on the seas of ancient Earth. Ion Drives are great for setting a ship in a single direction, and letting it follow that course. If a vehicle needs to be maneuverable and responsive, they will often sacrifice the speed of an Ion drive for additional maneuvering thrusters. A standard starfighter is very quick and agile, flying loops and rings around larger vessels. The trade off is, while a fighter may be able to make it's way to the Outer Edge of a system, it could take weeks. Even some larger vessels will still include thrusters, namely tramp freighters and smuggler ships, in addition to powerful Ion drives, in order to get the best of both worlds. Such vessels can move freight, but it ends up at the cost of how much freight the vehicle can carry.