It means we are nearing the start.
Likely this weekend.
I also moved the earth like world in eridani closer to the parent star to make it more tropical.
/////Name: FAL Travel [Fast-As-Light]
////Subject: Technology
///History/Location:
The invention of FAL can be attributed to a Prussian man from the Atlantic Union working in the Greater State of India who is known to have had a complex relationship with the Global Cooperative Zone named Everstark Schneider around the year 2264 on Earth.
While a well educated and very prestigious man, in his time Everstark was notoriously manipulative in his pursuits to make sure he had total control over his projects in a business-like manner and funding from as many sources as possible, regardless of their legality. Everstark after the invention became something of a celebrity and rake in vast sums of wealth, however he didn’t agree with the way his invented was being used and used his wealth to make sure everyone used the technology the way he saw best.
This sort of behavior would end up having Everstark ultimately be executed in the year 2282 after trying to bribe engineers affiliated with the development of an extra solar military fleet to sabotage the FAL engine. His punishment was controversial in its time due to how arbitrary it seemed; the head of engineering in the Alantic Union commissioned an automatic death ship that used FAL to send him flying into the sun.
Regardless of Everstark’s personal life, his invention, FAL was first successfully tested in 2664 when a probe equipped with the proto-type device was sent to the moon from the orbit of earth in a second. Everstark’s invention would in a matter of seven years revolutionize the space industry and begin the construction of the first colony ships as the ever ideological factions begun to race their way to the stars using their massive, near-limitless budgets to generate the vast amounts of exotic matter needed to traverse interstellar distances. However, the drawbacks of FAL became clear when colony ships and the occasional expedition fleet kept disappearing and the danger of long distance travel using FAL became obvious- FAL as it turned out, was a very finicky device. But that didn’t stop the super states, whose mind set was simply to keep building colony ships and fling them into the cold dark unknown and hope for the best.
While exotic matter production existed since the 2230’s, there was not much application found for the surplus produced over the decades until FAL came along. The main reason exotic matter being produced so much being the mere desire between the super states to out produce the other super state in having more exotic matter. There also was the belief they could make anti-matter WMDs with it which thankfully didn’t turn out to be true.
After the collapse, FAL became far more expensive due to the infrastructure required to make it. It was to the point where no one used FAL for centuries after the collapse, instead using subluminal methods of transport. In more recent times however, FAL has been “rediscovered” however not many ships make use of it even today due to the limited industrial complexes of sol.
//Function/Technical Information:
FAL in the most basic sense is comparable to a “warp drive” in that both regionally warp space around their ships to drag themselves through space at “speeds” far faster than normally applicable to Einstein’s laws. However the nature of FAL is unique from the alcubierre drive in that it is unable to break the light barrier, only cause ships within the field to go at the speed of light due to field “hiding” the mass of the ships.
The result of the field generated is that any ships within it while the field is activated move at the speed of light due to being to the outside world just energy. The dangers inherit in a device such, as these are obvious, as there is no way to be stealthy with it. Even worse, sensors can actually look into the field and get visuals on ships approaching.
The field itself can carry multiple ships that are latched to the FAL generating main ship, and theoretically advancements in FAL could allow for larger fields that would be able to hold more ships that are properly latched to the ship that generates the FAL field. Ships not connected to the FAL generating ship during warp are doomed to absolute annihilation due to speed differences, and potentially killing everyone within the field through the field imploding in on the ships leading to instant death. It is suspected by some that this is the fate of various colonial expeditions. However, this all depends on the threshold the field being generated can handle and smaller objects like space junk, trash or people may only merely be shredded into oblivion when going outside the field while activated. The outside field therefore can “tank” attacks from the outside, but a sufficiently powerful enough projectile [like a rammed ship] could cause the field to implode and kill everyone too close or within the field instantly.
This also means accidently FAL-ing into a planet is instant death for those within the field.
The main danger is however, not the field being disrupted and imploded from the inside or even from the outside. The main issue of FAL is the supplied source for keeping the field up itself- exotic matter. For exotic matter is not easy to get, and requires high power facilities working day-in-and-out to produce the amounts needed to sustain the FAL field for longer distances. Another issue is that the drive itself is finicky- sometimes the drive suffers inexplicable power drains or leaks that cause the exotic matter supply to rapidly dwindle. Other times the drive itself just fails due to one of the systems breaking down by melting the mainframe or simply being overloaded. The danger however, does not come from the drive failing in itself, as the drive failing simply causes the generated field to dissipate and return the ships within back to the actual properties of space.
However, it must be noted the drive does not actually accelerate the ship at all. Instead the ship’s speed stays exactly the same as it was when opening the field. This has made the applications of FAL as a way to deliver weapons limited, as due to the space required to store a FAL drive and the cost of FAL it is simply more practical to use FAL to field in ships for transport, commerce or military related purposes when used.
The perception of time within the field does not actually change, as the field does not accelerate the ships themselves. As a result the effects associated with relativistic travel do not exist; the perception of time is the same for those on the ships as it is for those outside the ships. For instance, if it takes light eight minutes to reach the sun and a FAL user decides to fly his ship into the sun he will perceive eight minutes before the field implodes on his ship due to hitting the sun.
Those within the field may find themselves having trouble with communicating to those outside the field or getting much general information about their surroundings outside the field. As a result, it is generally a good idea to plan ahead. [not sure]
/Applications: FAL’s applications are almost always used for the transportation of ships across much further distances than normally possible concerning space travel. Usually a very large spaceship is used as the central hub for FAL and other ships within a fleet hook up to the main ship in order for them all to maintain a constant, uniform speed while within the field.
As a weapon FAL has proven disappointing for while the light speed delivery of highly devastating payloads may sound appealing, it must be remembered that the costs of generating a Schneider field with FAL and the lack of acceleration offered make any such weapon incredibly costly and ultimately impractical to even consider the use of.
Other: Should I make a short version?