Astral Jump Gate

Description

A massive follow up breakthrough to the Astral Link Network by Cayen Zharr in 2899 PD, this project was suggested to facilitate further Empire security. The weakness of the Astral Link Network is that it was restricted to the movement of indviduals or small groups of people or supplies. As the The Saikar Empire expanded beyond the Hyperion system, it quickly became necessary to move an astral ship, or even full fleets across vast distances rapidly to defend the further reaches of the empire, or expediate expansion to new systems.

Employing the same address style transportation system as the link network, the transport of such massive amounts of matter required more energy than a single Technomancer could conjure on their own. The storage, channelling, and control of such large quantities of Ley Energy was found to cause Ley Sickness in unprotected life forms nearby, as well as presented a risk of massive damage in the rare case of a catastrophic meltodwn or overload. To mitigate these risks, Jump Gates were constructed in all Empire systems which can be targeted by their specific ley node address. When the address was inputted into one gate, the local ley field energy, having been collected and stored in a Channeling Megacrystal is used to bend the fabric of spacetime around the region of the gate, allowing near-instantaneous travel between the two spaces. The amount of travel time can be calculated by considering the following variables: distance between two points, energy inputted for travel in relation to the amount of matter being transported.

While travel was undertaken, however, the vessels entered a dangerous region of subspace known as Warp Space. In this demi-plane, plasma and raw energy rips through the area at untraceable speeds, and and it is home to primordial beings made up of coallations of this energy and plasma. In the time spent within the space, ship crews needed to be on full alert, and many ships would never make it to their destination.

This technology, in the modern age, has fallen to disuse. After The Fall of Saikar, when the Hyperion Jump Gate was rendered inoperable, it took very little time for the art of crafting the Megacrystals to be lost. Many systems shut down their jump gates, in hopes of keeping potential future conquerors away, and intrastellar travel has since become a myth of the past.