• Nobles of Null is a forum based roleplay site where sci-fi and magic collide. Here, Earth remains fractured and divided despite humanity reaching out to the stars. Worse still, the trans-human slaves of one major power have escaped, only to establish their own Empire, seething with resentment at abuses of the past. Even the discovery of aliens, though medieval in development, has failed to rally these squabbling children of Earth together with its far darker implications. Worse still, is the discovery of the impossible - magic. Practiced by the alien locals, nearly depleted and therefore rare, its reality warping abilities remains abstract and distant to the general populace. All the while, unseen in the darkness of space, forces from without threaten to press in. For those with eyes opened by insight, it is clear that an era is about to end, and that a new age will dawn.

Superluminal Engine

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The Superluminal Engine

One of the most complex undertakings in both complexity and scale, rivaling the largest space colonies or geoengineering projects, is the Superluminal Engine or SLE. These devices require large numbers of space-distortion-generating emitters, which in turn require large amounts of rare, exotic materials such as Wofleonium along with a massive power supply, cooling systems, and control devices.

Even in the 2300s, SLEs are still massive. Much like the first SLE built into Pluto, the device requires a large scale emitter array many kilometers across along with a huge power supply and cooling that is usually provided by sinking heat into the host-planetoid. These large structures are placed in such a way as to have the clearest lines of sight to other star systems which is why they are often placed out outer-planetoids. This positioning also makes these SLEs the perfect place to build FTL Communication systems that help link star systems together. All this technology in one place inevitably requires people to help maintain it, which in turn often sees space colonies being setup near the SLEs. Refueling yards, starship docks, and security forces inevitably are required to help monitor the space near the SLE which makes them hubs for local military forces.

SLEs, even the oldest ones in the sol system, are always major points of interest.







Function

SLEs function by generating an energy wave that changes the distance between points along its path by exploiting the effect behind universal expansion. This creates a wave of distorted spacetime, with the leading edge of the wave contracting space and the trailing edge expanding it.

A starship can accelerate in the direction of the wave, to maximize the amount of time they spend on the short-distance side of the wave. With a sufficiently powerful SLE a ship can ride this wave for the majority of a distance to another star system and then exit the wave to close the remaining distance under STL power.
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Complications

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Power requirements and natural dissipation of the wave effect over distance limit the distance a ship can travel. Due to the vast distances involved, a similarly massive amount of power is required to be built up, in turn requiring a number of fusion generators to fill all of the various supercapacitors throughout the SLE array. This greatly limits how often an SLE can be used and the range it can be used at.​
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Similarly, having this much power ready to release all at once is a massive hazard. An accidental release of that energy can easily do damage to the array and the surrounding area.​
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Further issues present themselves with the distortion effect created by the wave. On the small scale, the distortion effect is minimal and often overpowered by other local forces like gravity so starships and other objects tend to remain together when pushed by the wave. On larger planetary scales the wave passing through can cause heating over an extremely wide area which in turn can have effects on a planetary body. The risk to planets, and to knocking starships off course is one of the major reasons why SLE arrays are located at the edges of planetary systems.​
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Compression of spacetime along the pathway increases the mass and energy densities of the volume by a factor of more than a million. Both stationary and mobile SLE's distort spacetime in a way that diverts this high density of energy and material to the "walls" of the pathway, keeping the interior at normal space environmental conditions. This results in walls of material that is still effectively a vacuum, but is capable of damaging ships and personnel that impact it, through devasting EMP's and radiation poisoning. The contrast of the energy profiles of the walls and the rest of interstellar space is high enough to be detected by sensors from the flanks of the pathway.​
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Ship Mounted SLE

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The creation of the Statesmen and the ship mounted SLE allowed for a leap forward. These more expensive and compact SLE's are more power hungry than the larger and relatively stationary SLE's and will eat through a complete set of fusion cells for a single jump. The statesmen can only carry one spare set of fusion cells.​
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Communication

While FTL communication is possible with SLE systems, the range, usefulness, opportunity cost, and bandwidth is increasingly limited when faster communication is requested.

Point to point communication can be carried out by sending laser, radio, or other energy waves along an active SLE beam. This dramatically reduces the time it takes for the wave to reach its destination, and can cut the communication time down between star systems to mere hours. These communications are often sent along SLE beams being used by starships, and then distributed throughout a star system from their destination using conventional light-speed transmission methods.

Though it is possible to use SLE beams within a star system to bypass conventional light speed lag, this is prohibitively expensive and typically reserved for the most important of communications.

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