The Imperium has two meathods of faster than light travel at its disposal. One meathod is primerily millitary and the other is mixed purpose. Dynamic Diametric Pitch Bias Drive This is the older form of faster than light travel in use by the imperium. Its flexibility is desirable for millitary purposes still. It is widley implemeted on older civillian vessels and more expensive recent vessels. It uses a combination of space drive concepts to create a gradient in the area of the ship, which accelerates the ship, and any object in close proximity to it to faster than light velocities. It is also implemented in a cut-down version on some naval projectile weapons [torpedoes] for faster than light combat. The fastest speed ever recorded using Pitch drive is100,000 C. Faster Speeds can be obtained with current power generation tech, but it is impossible to construct a drive which is able to stand the strain placed upon it for a sufficient time to make the tradeoff worthwhile. Wormhole Gateways Since the development of pitch drives the Imperium sought an opportunity to create an ultra fast infastructure. This arrived almost a century after the first pitch drives. A wormhole ring-gate consists of a space station containing a ring of exotic matter. This is acceletated by extremely poweful magnetic induction applied to clamps ancored to the ring-gate. when correctly aligned together two gateways can ‘puncture’ the space between them. making long distances seem instantaneous. This has it’s problems though. if incorrectly aligned, when activating a ring-gate will tear itself apart. This development has been invaluable in colonising distant systems. It allows civillians to travel to the other side of the galaxy within a few hours. The ramifications for industry have also been keenly felt, for although most large warships carry an internal factory to sustain themselves. civillian vessels are not nearly as well equipped. The rigid schedules the gateways use allow for just on time divievry to reach a new zenith. an industry is able to predict the arrival of shipments within seconds. New industries have also been created to service larger gateway hubs. Scheduling does create the necessery time spent waiting at certain locations.causing these areas to become the commercial promised land {think of freeway/motoway rest-stops only many hundreds of times larger. And with more competition) It should be noted however that the gateway system has one weakness. Gateways need to be placed.. hence the existance of both civillian and state run gateway construction companies, usnig gate-placing vessels to move their gates to the appropriate locations. Photon and Ion drives Photon and Ion drives are common both as reserve systems aboard FTL capable vessels and the primary engines of gate-dependant vessels. Squid Drive Squid drive is an advanced, (so much so that the Imperium has yet to develop a practical model) sub-light propulsion system with exceptional specific impulse, as it technically does not require any fuel. Instead the squid drive contains a intermediate capacity charged space tap, from which it draws sufficient power to create the material which it uses for thrust. This material is ejected from the back of the squid drive in the same way, as it would be in a conventional rocket using electromagnetic acceleration (as is used in a supercollider) This force then propels the ship. Squid drives pulse when in operation, flashing on and off as each batch of material is ejected. Overall other drive systems out perform the squid drive, it is the most effective sub light drive over small time increments. The Crustacean species is known to possess working squid drives. Unfortunately the excess heat in the Imperium’s test models quickly builds up to the point where they destroy themselves |
