Well-Known Member
Intent: To sub a new stealth propulsion system for future submissions and role-playing.
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PRODUCTION INFORMATION
Manufacturer: Visanj T’shkali / Vrotoa Industries
Affiliation: Vrotoa Industries / CIS / Closed-Market
Model: Gravimetric / Ion Pulse Sublight Stealth Engines (GIPSSE)
Modularity: No
Production: Minor-Production
Material(s): Durasteel, Magnetite, Etheric Rudders, Vectrals, Hydrogen Liquid Metal, Metallic Crystal, various components
SPECIAL FEATURES:
- Gypsy Engines are two-fold, comprised of both ion pulse engines and gravimetric drives, enabling a wide variety of capabilities, most notably stealth, speed, and maneuverability.
- Using their gravimetric drive element, these capabilities are enhanced even further, far surpassing those of most other ships now used across the galaxy.
- Ion Pulse components of Gypsy Engines are not, as the name of this system might imply, purely restricted to sublight use and can function as dual-drive engines enabling hyperspace travel, while still maximizing fuel efficiency.
- Gravitational components do not require fuel whatsoever.
- Gypsy Engines are – both components (Gravitational and Ion Pulse) – extremely stealthy and can only be tracked using exceptionally rare and highly sensitive sensors.
- Gypsy Engines allow for extraordinary speed and agility, particularly when Gravitational components are used, far surpassing those capabilities found in most ships using standard ion engines or rocket thrusters.
- Extremely fuel-efficient, these engines are highly cost-effective and useful for long-term travel capability.
- Gypsy Engines cannot be used on ships larger than 500m, due to the effects of the gravitational components on them.
- Gravitational components cannot be used, and must be entirely powered down, for hyperspace travel, as their combined effects would tear a ship to pieces.
- Gravitational components cannot be used for prolonged periods of time (2-3 standard hours maximum) without causing significant, possibly deadly, effects to the ships and their crews.
- Both Ion Pulse and Gravitational components, while being incredibly stealthy, can still be tracked using highly sensitive sensor systems, which are extremely rare but not unknown – especially in very large military-grade vessels such as SSDs.
- Gypsy Engines are very difficult to repair and very expensive, making widespread use impractical and, should these engines be disabled entirely, without back-up propulsion systems, vessels will find themselves adrift and unable to restore operations as repairs must done while docked / landed.
- Ion Pulse and Gravitational components may not be used at the same time, as their mutual use would overwhelm them and cause them to misfunction.
The GIPSSE Propulsion System, or “Gypsy” Engines, represent bleeding-edge stealth drive technology. As any spacer worth their salt knows, ion engines are cost-efficient and effective long-range sublight engines. All ion engines essentially work the same way: By propelling ions at relativistic velocity to create thrust. However, Vrotoa takes this concept one step further, using magnetite as the base metal for many of the systems’ magnetic components and using a fluctuating electrical current to manipulate the magnetic field inside of the engines to allow a pulse thrust effect. Using pulsed ion bursts, the Gypsy Engines maximize fuel efficiency, negating waste and permitting the engines to run longer. Furthermore, these pulses enable vessels to accelerate or decelerate in much less time than standard engines, which in turn allow for greater maneuverability and handling. Also, due to the nature of this technology, engines are not ‘burning’ continuously, causing them to run cooler and release less ion trace, making them harder to detect.
Taking this to its logical conclusion, Vrotoa Industries’ research and development division decided to add unique vectral systems and etheric rudders, which quickly disperse the ions released, causing them to appear as small ion clouds or ‘winds’ like those which are naturally encountered during spaceflight. At long range, this makes these engines all but impossible to track, while at closer range (typically under a few hundred meters), these dispersed ions are still only found through the use of unusually highly sensitive sensors, appearing at best as infrequent pings due to the pulsed nature of the engines. Additionally, the vectral rudders enable excellent maneuvering capability, allowing ships to execute precision movements quickly and consistently.
Vrotoa scientists couldn’t leave well enough alone, and sought to enhance these engines even further. They conceived that a secondary propulsion unit might be housed together with the ion engines. Science has long theorized that ‘Zero Point Fields’, or ZPF, also called “Lorentz Fields”, could be manipulated using gravimetric technology. A ZPF is, in basic parlance, a three-dimensional representation of the ‘superstrings’ found in physics’ “String Theory”. Manipulating these using a controlled electric interaction with the ZPF produced by these superstrings both gravity and inertia could be also be manipulated, lowering their effects. This manipulation effectively ‘bends’ these superstrings, and therefore ships using gravitational engine technologies could create space /time distortions which would push or pull a ship in various in any direction wished, while negating inertial effects and allowing a ship using them to accelerate, decelerate, stop, or maneuver / change course at velocities that would be simply impossible using standard-type engines. Finally, these gravitational engines do not generate thrust by releasing energy or matter like standard engines, making them unable to be sensed or tracked using most any systems presently in use across the galaxy.
Vrotoa integrated these gravitational drives together with their ion pulse engines. Their intent was to create a secondary stealth engine, able to allow a ship to travel, maneuver, and operate faster than other vessels could imagine or even hope to compare with. When absolute stealth, or the closest thing to it, is required, the gravitational engines provide clear superior options to other engines, such as those using TibannaX, and permit both exceptional speed and maneuverability that most other stealth engines just can’t provide due to the limitations of such systems. This enables a ship to remain in ‘stealth mode’ and yet dogfight and execute similar agility-and-speed-requiring actions.
However, no system is perfect, and this combined drive system is no exception. First, the Gypsy Engines are not powerful enough to be used by any craft larger than 500m, making them too dangerous to use with large ships, as the effects of pushing and pulling by ZPF would simply tear those ships apart. Second, while smaller ships are able to use them, they cannot use them long-term, as prolonged use is simply too much for the ship to bear, and regardless of their size, the ship will begin to destabilize and pull apart. Third, no ship is entirely invisible, and just as the ion pulse engines can be tracked (See Above), the gravitational engines can be tracked if someone were to use exceptionally powerful sensors to scan for space / time distortions like those made by the gravitational engines. Fourth, these combined drive systems can only permit hyperspace travel using the ion pulse engines, meaning that they cannot combine both the speeds enabled by them with hyperspace travel, as the effects would be disastrous, and thus, these engines function the same as any pulsed ion engine might in hyperspace. Finally, these systems are difficult to repair and cannot be modified, making them both expensive and impractical for wide scale use.
