Approved Tech X-06 "Janus" Traversal Drive

[Darth Empyrean]

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

• Intent: To create a highly advanced, dangerous traversal drive.
• Image Source: Here.
• Canon Link: N/A
• Permissions: N/A
• Primary Source: Force Teleport

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

• Manufacturer: Sith Imperial Alchemists
  • Sub-Contractors:
    • Jaeger Solutions
    • Sith Imperial Engineering Corp
• Affiliation: Sith Order
• Market Status: Closed Market
• Model: X-06 'Janus' Traversal Drive
• Modularity: N/A
• Production: Semi-Unique
• Material:
  • Crystal: Kyber Amalgmation
  • Inlay: Obsidian ur-Kittat Symbolage
  • Foundation: Engraved Granite

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Force Based Traversal Crystal
• Bypasses Mass Shadows
• Instant Traversal across Galaxy
• Undetectable by Normal Sensors

STRENGTHS

• Omnipresent -
  • The 'Janus' Traversal Drive allows a ship to teleport across the galaxy after a short build up power. This requires numerous Sith of great power - if not a singular extremely powerful Sith. This can be used for both short range jumps behind enemy vessels, or more carefully a retreat to safe territory. More dangerous that even those, it can also allow the ship to appear over hostile worlds at a moments notice - making the device extremely dangerous against foreign entities.
• Gravity Well -
  • Due to the methodology in which the 'Janus' traverses the galaxy, and its focus on the Force instead of hyperlanes, it is not able to be stopped by traditional methods. Interdiction, Gravity Wells, and methods that require traditional hyperdrives to spoof into interdiction do not work against the 'Janus'.
• Surprise Attack -
  • Since the 'Janus' does not require conventional hyperlanes, nor the same power structures - it is not detectable on conventional scanners. Ships can not sense a power surge when it begins to charge, and they can not detect or trace where it went or came from. Lastly, this also allows for very immediate ambushes with little notice against conventional fleets.

WEAKNESSES

• Ol' Reliable -
  • The 'Janus' may not suffer the same issues as other hyperdrives, and can overcome them entirely - but in the situation that the Crystal Core comes under the influence of Ysalamiri or Force Light, it would not be able to survive the encounter. Without the Force it would crack and shatter, ruining the system entirely - and with Force Light, it would simply break apart and be purified. In this situation, it would not be able to operate as it should.
• Interdiction -
  • While most ships can not activate their hyperdrives under gravity wells or mass shadows, the 'Janus' can not be activated in the situation Sith can not reach the crystal's chamber. Simply locking the doors, standing between them and the crystal, or otherwise damaging the ship in a way they can not reach the crystal can all cause the ship to no longer be able to utilize the 'Janus'.
• Peace and Perception -
  • Since it operates in the Force, and does so on a grand scale, the sensory input of its activation screams like a beacon to all force sensitives in an area. Like the screams of hundreds, everyone would be able to sense it powering up - and know what is about to occur. Force Sensitives can feel a touch of insanity come over them when a teleportation is in range of a planet, and worse if they are near the ritual to cast the teleportation.
• On Time -
  • Due to the length of the ritual, and the build up of magicks involved, utilizing the traversal drive requires at least a few minutes of charging time in complete isolation. Interruption to the ritual can be damaging to the drive at worst, and completely negate it at best - forcing the drive to only be utilized for long range traversals instead of more direct short jumps in combat.

DESCRIPTION

With the rise of technology companies and their hyper focus on increasing the speed of hyperdrives, Darth Empyrean and his control over both alchemy and manufacturing groups moved to settle the debate of 'who traverses the galaxy faster' by simply avoiding hyperdrives entirely. His efforts created the crystal amalgamation of the X-06 'Janus' Traversal Drive - a highly complicated, nearly unreplaceable, kyber crystal traversal artifact that uses Sith magicks and rituals to teleport across the galaxy on a whim.​

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This works by holding a massive engraved crystal in stasis using other ritual artifacts. A base of granite inlayed greatly with obsidian and gold ur-Kittat symbolage, duplicated and mirrored above it so that the crystal is not affected by normal universal forces. Within the two pedestals the crystal experiences no gravity, no magnetism, nor any other force. Between the two slabs, there is nothing that exists besides what was created inside the crystal during its manufacturing. This makes them extremely delicate to outside forces - and are under nigh constant lock and key to sustain them.​

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To activate it, one must enact the ritual kept hidden to a select few. As it is Darth Empyrean's design, he generally holds the key to every single existing 'Janus' drive, and passes on the knowledge of how to operate them exclusively to the Sepulchral and a few others he trusts. As the ritual begins, many thousands of kilometers people of Force Sensitivity will feel it charging - until it hits an apex, and a snap crosses the Force. The time it takes to build the energies required to operate the device increases with the size of the ship.​

​

For this reason, the 'Janus' has settled the debate on 'who has the fastest hyperdrive' by simply ignoring hyperdrives. It powerfully becomes a traversal device that accounts for the Sith's ability to project power across the galaxy on a whim, and can double as a method to escape dangerous battles or losing conflicts. It is exceptionally dangerous for this reason, and its nature and design is kept under extremely confidential means.​

 

[Listib Hibin]

We got problems.

• Force Based Traversal Crystal
• Bypasses Mass Shadows
• Instant Traversal across Galaxy
  • Can include a full fleet.
• Undetectable by Normal Sensors

This almost checks all the boxes for being near impossible to deal with. I won't go into grand detail on each one but essentially, having something instantly travel with no signature incoming, bypassing large gravity wells and including the entire fleet that accompanied it, is just horrendously powerful.

In its current state, I cannot allow it through. If you want, I can put it back into Pre-Factory or let you work on it a bit more here. But in its current state, it is just to much.

Also

• Affiliation: Sith Order

That is not linked, it needs fixing to.


Let me know what you want to do.
Darth Empyrean

 

[Darth Empyrean]

Listib Hibin

As far as balance, there is no actual situation where a fleet can be stopped from entering a system on Chaos. There has never been a situation where a fleet could be stopped from showing up in a thread, nor do we have the infrastructure systems in place to force writers to deal with 'travel times' or anything like that. In fact, by all standards of how fleets and ships travel OOC, they do bypass mass shadows into systems, do travel the galaxy instantly, do include full fleets, and undetectable by normal sensors using stealth, otherspace travel, or a variety of mass produced inclusions.

Essentially, there is no counter fundamentally with any form of travel for fleets. This doesn't change that.

As far as countering mass shadows, like gravity wells, it still has unique counters actual hyperdrives do not have - such as requiring a sith to be next to the crystal to utilize it, massive alarms ringing out to every force sensitive in the area of whats going to happen, and a charge time to complete the ritual.

Also, linked the affiliation.

 

[John Locke]

Darth Empyrean

I'll be taking over this submission.

I have read your previous reply, but I don't want to be drawn into a debate here, but those are all RP elements and as such have no impact on a factory submission.

As for the actual submission, this is very ambitious and does provide a ship with some significant capabilities. However, there are some issues I would like to address before we go forward.

Capabilities

What you're describing here is actually closer to the Aing-tii's use of Fold Space to move their ships and so is canon.

However, the Aing-Tii's use of Fold Space is limited to a single ship, not an entire fleet.

The 'Janus' Traversal Drive allows the flagship, and by proxy the entire fleet, to teleport across the galaxy after a short build up power.

The Janus can't be used to transport an entire fleet across the galaxy, just a single fleet and the fighters loaded inside of it..

Weaknesses

Looking through the weaknesses, I don't actually see anything that is a real weakness to the system. It can be sensed when it arrives, and everything else is internal. To prevent someone from reaching the crystal would require someone to be onboard the ship, as would using a Ysalmiri or force light. I would like a more fleshed-out weakness or two. How can the jumps be disrupted by other ships, is there a moment after they reappear in real space where their systems would be disrupted by the jump making them more vulnerable?

 

[Darth Empyrean]

John Locke

While you said you were not interested in a debate, I will mention something integral to the point of the submission. There are no systems in place to force any sort of rp strength or weakness to entering a system with a fleet. Were I to use a normal hyperdrive, my fleet could 'ambush' a system across the galaxy on a whim - as was done by the Maw to the Sith Empire during the civil war, the Agents of Chaos did against the Confederacy, and various other factions have done throughout Chaos.

My concern is that because it says something spooky like 'teleports across the galaxy', 'balancing' it without consideration to these underlying OOC systems already in place would force this submission to actually be worse than just using a conventional hyperdrive rather than even being on par. At present, I could simply use the HS-10 to use Otherspace and appear in someones system with an entire fleet without their 'knowledge'. I could also use the X-05 to use specialized pathways to do the exact same thing - as per canon.

While in universe it would be 'stronger' than those because of time and resources, balancing it for Chaos means keeping it on par with hyperdrives and their chaos capabilities. It balances this by being semi-unique, I believe, but given that it does bypass gravity wells I would be okay with removing the mentions of a fleet.

That being said, I'd be concerned that adding hard weaknesses would make it fundamentally worse than its contemporaries. It is first and foremost just a way to write a creative 'ambush' on locations, and to explain the Chaos method of just ignoring all the infrastructure and time constraints hyperdrives imply. Past that, this submissions can't force a planet, a ship, or anyone else to not be aware of it appearing or not being ready to strike back in a narratively important way.

Does that work, or would you insist I add a hard line weakness?

 

[John Locke]

Darth Empyrean

I said I didn't want to be involved in a debate because OOC and RP considerations such as the ones you're raising here have no place in a factory submission. Each submission should only be judged on its own merits and those alone. I'm just concerned about the submission in front of me,and its capabilities, strengths and weaknesses.

Thank you for agreeing to adjust the submission to remove the fleet element.

As for the drive itself, I am not asking you to nerf the drive as you imagine it, or to make it weaker than a common hyperdrive, as a semi-unique submission will indeed be slightly more powerful than a normal hyperdrive. However, what I would like to see is a little more detail. How long does the ritual take? Are there any limits on it? How does it work in your head? As it currently exists a ship using this hyperdrive could just appear behind an opponent, fire its weapons and then teleport away. I understand that this is an extreme example, but what I'm interested in is how you see the drive working when you envisaged it.

 

[Darth Empyrean]

John Locke

Added a weakness stating it takes a few minutes to charge up the ritual, so that it is only viable for long range engagements rather than multiple short jumps in the same thread.

 

[John Locke]

Darth Empyrean

Thank you for that.

I'm going to approve this with the standard disclaimer. Please don't abuse it or else it may be reported.

APPROVED