Cerys Aynia gan Ymlerith Ithlinne
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OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
The Fold Drive is an arcane and ancient technology developed by the Unified Gwerin Ecumene that relies upon principles of quantum physics and the manipulation of natural and artificial worm holes and black holes. A Fold Drive's principal function is to enable transitions to and from "Fold Space" not to be confused with the force power of the same name. Fold space in this context is a quantum realm of existence distinguishable from both real-space and hyperspace and the drive accomplishes this by creating a rupture in space and time that can be stabilized and expanded to allow the passage of a starship. The quantum mechanics of Fold Space enable the wormholes or "Foldholes" to act as a gateway or "shortcut" between two destinations in a reasonable amount of time. Unlike Hyperspace however it is not conterminous due to the Quantum state, not every point in real-space is associated with a unique destination in fold-space, within fold-space one destination in realspace could appear at several points.
Fold Drives create wormholes through using principles of classical physics including the cyclic collision of particles in order to create tiny nano-sized wormholes and singularities, the singularities only exist for a mere nanosecond before their energy is released as thermal energy. A fold drive functions because it can stabilize these singularity-generating wormholes and dramatically expand the breach in space-time creating a coherent and navigable entrance into the Quantum realm of Foldspace. A component of any Fold Drive is the "Quantum Capacitors" and these capacitors manipulate particles such as Photons, they must be charged prior to any jump being executed creating a severe disadvantage when compared to the conventional hyperdrive which can initiate emergency jumps without necessarily having performed navigation calculation. This is not possible with the Fold Drive making disengagement and fleeing problematic if unexpected.
When entering the quantum Fold Space the Fold Drive generates a protective field which prevents the occupants of a spacecraft from being exposed to the more than ten dimensions of the Foldspace. The foreign vessel and all occupants in question are squished down and make their way through the Galaxy's skin like a benign visitor not attracting the attention of the "body" that being the dimension's immune system. Maintaining this protective quantum photon field around a ship is difficult directly proportional to its' size, a large Star-Destroyer sized warship would need to have an onboard functioning navigation quantum computer capable of making several quadrillions worth of calculations in a standard second. If the quantum navigation computer or artificial intelligence were to fail it would spell disaster for the vessel and its' embarked crew.
Unlike a Hyperdrive a Fold Drive doesn't actually accelerate the craft through the quantum dimension, the acceleration is thus provided by the ship's conventional powerplant and engines if they are offline than the ship and all hands can be either lost in fold space or emerge somewhere wildly unpredictable. Thus, warships with greater power to weight ratio or power output generally speaking are faster through the Fold dimension. As mentioned making a successful jump through fold space is deeply complex and accurate calculations require a quantum navigation computer or an A.I based on quantum technology to precisely calculate. An appropriately educated Gwerin Doeth could calculate the basics but to do it alone without allowing a computer or A.I to make the necessary precise calculations is extraordinarily dangerous.
For converting and comparing the "speed" performance of a hyperdrive to a fold drive the rule is that a Fold Drive and Hyperdrive can achieve comparable speeds however the Hyperdrive can often maintain a higher average speed due to the 10-20% variance that Fold Drives experience due to the combination of mass budget, casual paradoxes and casual relativism. So in sheer of raw speed performance the Hyperdrive is superior, however the Fold Drive's unique characteristics and behavior arguably make it a superior commercial and military tool.
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: Flesh-out the means by which the Gwerin Doeth have achieved faster-than-light travel as an ancient extragalactic species, the Fold Drive functions on principles of Quantum-based physics as do Hyperdrives but the Fold Drive is distinguished by its' exploitation of kerr geometry it is exotic with different capabilities and behaviors but also more volatile and less consistent in its' performance than a hyperdrive which in terms of reliability and raw speed performance is superior when comparing two drives of similar power. Additionally Fold Drives cannot be fitted into small craft either, both have their place. This is not an attempt to create instantaneous faster-than-light travel between two points over great interstellar distances, my intention is not to render the hyperdrive obsolete but add something a little different to the table for the Gwerin Doeth. I wrote them as an extragalactic species and started from an assumption there were no Purrgil where they are from and thus their FTL technology developed independently and thus has its' own characteristics, behaviors and flaws. You will note there are several significant and volatile weaknesses that outnumber strengths.
- Image Source: N/A
- Canon Link: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Primary Source: Gwerin Doeth, hyperspace, kerr metric (wiki), quantum photon effect, quantum suspension field technology, wormhole, wormhole (wiki).
- Designed: 397,514-397,553 BBY
- Designer: Unified Gwerin Ecumene
- Manufactured: 397,553 BBY-Current
- Manufacturer:
- Current:
- Past:
- Affiliation: CLOSED-MARKET (Controlled technology)
- Carador-series Foldlight Traversal Drive (Minor)
- Governments & Organisations:
- Individuals:
- Ymlerith-Nyeron Foldlight Traversal Drive (Mass-Produced)
- Governments & Organisations:
- Individuals:
- Carador-series Foldlight Traversal Drive (Minor)
- Model: Foldlight Traversal Drive
- Series:
- Carador series foldlight traversal drive (Advanced military-grade design, can enter & transit foldspace in gravity well)
- Ymlerith-Nyeron foldlight traversal drive (Original drive, can't enter foldspace in gravity well)
- Modularity: Yes (capability, model, series etc.)
- Production:
- Carador series Foldlight Traversal Drive (Minor)
- Ymlerith-Nyeron Foldlight Traversal Drive (Mass-produced)
- Material: Selenium, technetium, tungsten carbide, titanium carbide, composite nanolaminated crystal
- Interdiction field denial
- Makeshift scuttling device
- Precision Atmospheric Jumps
- Quantum mechanics
- Wormhole traversal
- Interdiction Fields: It is impossible to interdict and "pull" a starship from fold space however massive artificial gravity wells in real space can have an effect on the navigation of a fold-drive equipped Warship, ironically enough the effect of gravity wells on the curvature of the space-time fabric makes it dramatically harder to create an entry point for fold space potentially delaying escape significantly but makes it so much easier for the calculations to create a transition point and exit fold space. This is an excellent change of fortune on the modern battlefield for tacticians and strategists using starships equipped with the Fold Drive.
- Scuttling device: One of the marvelous tactical applications of the fold drive as a defensive device is that it can be employed as a method to totally and utterly scuttle a starship or warship with nothing to salvage for an opponent. The properties of the drive that make it so volatile and dangerous also make it a useful scuttling tool to prevent capture. A shrewd tactician or strategist should think twice about boarding such an equipped starship or warship especially after an evacuation or abandon ship order has identified as being given. Additionally it's possible that a Fold Drive can be jury-rigged and carefully removed to be used as a makeshift bomb capable of opening up a devastating wormhole wherever it is planted.
- Time-space membrane: Breaching the time-space membrane and entering a quantum state of existence has several material benefits over other faster-than-light propulsion methods for example the navigation computer does not have to calculate a course around celestial bodies as realspace and foldspace are not conterminous allowing the equipped Starship to safely traverse the time and space quantum dimension without worrying about physically colliding with an object, however "mass shadows" can still complicate journeys. This does however mean that navigation and reverting to real space must be precise as a slight miscalculation could see the starship reverting inside the gravity well of a large celestial object instead of at the edge of its' system.
- Precision Atmospheric Jumps: Because gravity causes the space-time fabric to tend and creates easier entry points for the Fold Drives the advanced military-grade Carador Series Foldlight Drives are capable of executing mind-numbingly precise fold jumps into and out of the atmosphere of a large celestial body such as a gas giant, space station or habitable worlds. The Gwerin Doeth have used this technique historically in skirmishing their enemies, launching unpredictable and fast attacks their warships are generally equipped with Carador drives exclusively while the original Ymlerith-Nyeron Foldlight Drive series is considered a "Civilian" series and produced en masse for the commercial market. However, performing such maneuvers massively taxes mass budget and it drastically increases the time necessary to reach the transition point back to real space.
- Black hole demise: The intentional or unintentional destruction or damage of a hyperdrive does not necessarily doom the ship it is aboard, this is unfortunately not true for Fold Drives. Their quantum volatility means that a catastrophically damaged fold drive is liable to unpredictably create singularities which create a miniature and temporary unstable black hole within the drive crushing the starship in question and any unfortunate souls aboard it.
- Cherenkov Radiation: When entering or transiting from foldspace back to realspace the Foldlight Traversal Drive emit large amounts of Cherenkov radiation due to their function and constituent material construction as does the wormhole that invariably opens, therefore unexplained and unexpected spikes of Cherenkov Radiation can be used as a means of tracking suspected Foldlight Traversal Drive activation and by deduction the presence of a so-equipped starship or warship. This method of sensor tracking is similar to the tactic employed by sensors with regard to Cronau radiation and hyperdrives. This can serve as a deterrent to militaries using Foldlight Traversal Drives from jumping in too close to a hostile system if their aim is to launch a co-ordinated and protracted attack with several warships.
- Drive spooling: Fold drives cannot be engaged at the drop of a hat unlike their more common hyperdrive counterparts, there is a significant amount of energy required for the Fold Drive to perform its' intended function and therefore it has capacitors that must be charged. This can have a very delirious effect on sub-space acceleration and maneuverability leaving the starship in question more vulnerable to attack, especially if an opponent is aware that a Fold drive-equipped starship requires its' engines functional in fold space giving an opportunity for an opponent to cripple the subspace propulsion and therefore leave the star-ship a sitting duck. Additionally the time required for the capacitors to charge is directly proportional to the size and mass of the ship in question. A light or medium cruiser might only take sixty seconds while a Star Destroyer could take several minutes, that is a significant amount of time in fast-moving short-range interstellar combat.
- Expensive: Fold Drives are unsurprisingly far more expensive to manufacture and this comes down to the fact two of the radioactive elements in their construction are rare often confined to planets of a very specific profile and hazardous to procure and then manufacture into the final product. Fold drives are extremely valuable and it is more economical to refurbish existing drives than construct new ones hence why the Ymlerith-Nyeron Fold drive is still in service despite being hundreds of thousands of years old in terms of its' design and the newer Carador Translight Drive is strictly limited to Warships. Even if you could solve for the size issue regarding fitting the drives into Starfighters it would still be impracticable from a cost standpoint to mass produce starfighters equipped with the drives.
- Mass Budget: Transporting large amounts of mass over a great realspace distance through fold space at the same point in time from realspace into foldspace can have unpredictable and undesirable effects on the journey. For example, transporting large quantities of mass firstly stretches the space-time membrane. Within foldspace this can have the impact of dramatically delaying the expected arrival of starships which can negatively impact tactical and strategic settings. Even if a fleet of starships enter fold space simultaneously because of the particle reconciliation effect that is directly affected by the mass of said starships, the lighter starships could be expected to revert into realspace first with the heavier ships arriving later. Even if they revert at the same time the particle reconciliation can also create relativistic casual paradoxes such as the heavier ship's crew subjectively experiencing a longer journey and be a week older. In short the more activity there is in Foldspace on the whole the longer all travel will take.
- Mass shadows: Foldlight traversal drives have an interesting relationship and impact on the travel times of starships inside the quantum foldspace dimension, they dramatically increase a starship or warship's "Mass budget" which translates into dramatically slowed travel time, as the realspace and foldspace realms are not conterminous and non-linear the same "Mass Shadow" can be encountered more than once. This can encourage a shrewd captain to transition back to realspace and navigate temporarily through realspace before plotting another fold course.
- Power failure: Should there be a catastrophic power failure or disruption the quantum computer or A.I making the calculations necessary to maintain the protective quantum field around the spacecraft could dissipate the tumultuous quantum realm of foldspace would then quickly tear apart the foreign vessel in question almost always without failure killing all of the attendant crew and passengers.
- Radioactive hazard: When active the Fold drive emits extreme amounts of charged alpha, beta and gamma particles necessitating it be isolated in its' own isolated compartment behind dense bulkhead doors. If these doors or compartment fail to completely close and seal or is otherwise breached upon activation extraordinarily high levels of alpha, beta and gamma particles can threaten to utterly flood the starship with charged particles with the potential for electronics to be damaged or rendered useless and acute radiation poisoning being almost certain.
- Redundant drives: Because of their cost and volatility Carador and Ymlerith-Nyeron drives are virtually never redundant in starship or warship designs this generally means from a tactical standpoint that if the opposition manages to disable the ship's fold drive for whatever reason they can rest assured that there is almost no certainty the vessel they have accosted possesses a redundant drive.
- Size: Fold Drives are quite large compared to their Hyperdrive counterparts and generally speaking starfighter-sized craft those being approximately 1-50 meters in length are often never long are wide enough to accommodate such equipment. This complicates interstellar operations as Fold-Drive equipped warships and carriers cannot arrive at a threatre with their air wings already deployed. Conversely most starfighter sized craft run the risk of being stranded should they be isolated from their carrier.
- Volatile drive behavior: Though the technology is without a doubt unconventional and equally powerful it comes with the cost that everything in regards to its' operation must be absolutely perfect and precise. If a Fold Drive is so much as mounted improperly it may fail to successfully dilate a wormhole and cause said wormhole to collapse unexpectedly bisecting the starship in question attempting to navigate the wormhole's realspace breach. This can result in either total casualties at worst and arriving at an unpredictable destination at best. Thus it is easy to see the potential damage that sabotage could bring upon one of these drives.
The Fold Drive is an arcane and ancient technology developed by the Unified Gwerin Ecumene that relies upon principles of quantum physics and the manipulation of natural and artificial worm holes and black holes. A Fold Drive's principal function is to enable transitions to and from "Fold Space" not to be confused with the force power of the same name. Fold space in this context is a quantum realm of existence distinguishable from both real-space and hyperspace and the drive accomplishes this by creating a rupture in space and time that can be stabilized and expanded to allow the passage of a starship. The quantum mechanics of Fold Space enable the wormholes or "Foldholes" to act as a gateway or "shortcut" between two destinations in a reasonable amount of time. Unlike Hyperspace however it is not conterminous due to the Quantum state, not every point in real-space is associated with a unique destination in fold-space, within fold-space one destination in realspace could appear at several points.
Fold Drives create wormholes through using principles of classical physics including the cyclic collision of particles in order to create tiny nano-sized wormholes and singularities, the singularities only exist for a mere nanosecond before their energy is released as thermal energy. A fold drive functions because it can stabilize these singularity-generating wormholes and dramatically expand the breach in space-time creating a coherent and navigable entrance into the Quantum realm of Foldspace. A component of any Fold Drive is the "Quantum Capacitors" and these capacitors manipulate particles such as Photons, they must be charged prior to any jump being executed creating a severe disadvantage when compared to the conventional hyperdrive which can initiate emergency jumps without necessarily having performed navigation calculation. This is not possible with the Fold Drive making disengagement and fleeing problematic if unexpected.
When entering the quantum Fold Space the Fold Drive generates a protective field which prevents the occupants of a spacecraft from being exposed to the more than ten dimensions of the Foldspace. The foreign vessel and all occupants in question are squished down and make their way through the Galaxy's skin like a benign visitor not attracting the attention of the "body" that being the dimension's immune system. Maintaining this protective quantum photon field around a ship is difficult directly proportional to its' size, a large Star-Destroyer sized warship would need to have an onboard functioning navigation quantum computer capable of making several quadrillions worth of calculations in a standard second. If the quantum navigation computer or artificial intelligence were to fail it would spell disaster for the vessel and its' embarked crew.
Unlike a Hyperdrive a Fold Drive doesn't actually accelerate the craft through the quantum dimension, the acceleration is thus provided by the ship's conventional powerplant and engines if they are offline than the ship and all hands can be either lost in fold space or emerge somewhere wildly unpredictable. Thus, warships with greater power to weight ratio or power output generally speaking are faster through the Fold dimension. As mentioned making a successful jump through fold space is deeply complex and accurate calculations require a quantum navigation computer or an A.I based on quantum technology to precisely calculate. An appropriately educated Gwerin Doeth could calculate the basics but to do it alone without allowing a computer or A.I to make the necessary precise calculations is extraordinarily dangerous.
For converting and comparing the "speed" performance of a hyperdrive to a fold drive the rule is that a Fold Drive and Hyperdrive can achieve comparable speeds however the Hyperdrive can often maintain a higher average speed due to the 10-20% variance that Fold Drives experience due to the combination of mass budget, casual paradoxes and casual relativism. So in sheer of raw speed performance the Hyperdrive is superior, however the Fold Drive's unique characteristics and behavior arguably make it a superior commercial and military tool.
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