FTL Travel in the Imperial & Federal Union
As an interstellar state, Faster than Light (FTL) Travel in the Imperial and Federal Union is an exceptionally important topic. Without FTL travel and communications, the R.u.B Union could not exist as a state, and could not interact with other states in the rest of the galaxy. Without cost-effective FTL travel, inter-stellar trade would grind to a halt, and each world of the R.u.B Union would be left to fend for itself, unable to receive protection from the wider forces of the rest of the R.u.B Union.
The Imperial & Federal Union relies on two different technologies for FTL travel: transition travel and warp travel. Transition travel is based heavily on the use of chymetics and other more esoteric technologies, while warp travel is a more traditional form of FTL travel. Transition travel is the primary tool for travel between planets by larger vessels, but is limited by conditions within the aether. As such, warp engines are usually maintained as 'backups' aboard most ships, and are also used by lighter vessels which can not mount a transition engine. Both warp and transition travel have different strengths and weaknesses, and often complement each other in use.
Transition travel tends to be faster, but is limited by the existence of ley lines and general aetheric conditions. At the same time, while warp travel is significantly slower, it is also more flexible, requiring less energy to maintain FTL velocity, while also being independent of most aetheric conditions. These divergenet advantages means that both warp and transition FTL engines are in parallel use by the R.u.B Union.
Transition Travel
Transition travel is the most common and most important of FTL travel within the Imperial & Federal Union. When compared to other forms of FTL travel, transition travel is exceptionally efficient in terms of energy consumption, and is capable of great speed in the proper circumstances. Furthermore, transition travel allows the potential for the user to reach almost any location, depending on the quality of local ley lines. Limitations on transition drive exist, mostly brought on by issues with the web of ley lines on which transition drive relies and the vagaries and conditions of the aether which underlies the entirety of any chymetic system. Despite these limitations, the capabilities of transition drive make it the primary drive of most R.u.B military and civilian void ships.
Ley lines are the basis of transition travel. Transition drive enables a vessel to slip through the barrier between aether and realspace, and travel within the aether along the ley line towards its destination. While the aether as a whole can be seen as an ocean, from the perspective of a ship attempting to travel with a transition drive, the aether is best seen as a network of rivers, with worlds analogous to individual ports along those rivers. Some of these rivers may be long and swift, while others are short and tepid, and some may be too 'shallow' for ships to travel along. However, the network of rivers is extensive and--importantly--can be improved. The construction of transition lanes can be likened to dredging out rivers to deepen them or building canals to link two otherwise unconnected lines.
As such, the ability to track and adjust for the changing nature of ley lines is a vital skill for all voidsmen. Ships are equipped with auspex arrays dedicated to tracking local ley lines, and determining their characteristics. The constantly shifting nature of ley lines, along with the uncertainty of the capacity of any given line means that it is very rare that a ship may complete an entire journey between two worlds in one transition. A typical journey via transition travel would begin with a ship departing a world, and travelling--either at STL or at warp--to a distance sufficiently far from any gravitic disturbances to allow a stable activation of the transition drives. At this point, via reference to the most recent navigational charts, and the ship's own auspex readings, a ley line will be chosen that will carry the vessel towards its destination. Once an appropriate line is selected, the ship will adjust its realspace position, then activate its transition engine to tunnel through into the aether, and enter.
The ship will then travel along the line for as long as possible, before encountering the tellurii, or another disturbance that makes the ley line impassable. The ship will thus be forced to re-enter realspace, and subsequently re-evaluate its position. Once its new position has been determined, the ship will begin the process of identifying an appropriate ley line again, and travel to the new location. Often, this will require a certain degree of travel at either STL or warp speeds to reach the new location. This 'lay over' time in real space is often the largest contributor to the length of journeys between worlds using transition drive. Often, in areas where ley lines are well charted and stable, deep space stations and beacons are laid out to assist ships in their journey by providing safe berths, refueling, and other services. The process of finding and following ley lines will continue until the ship finds its way to its next destination.
Ley Lines
Main Article: Chymetics
Ley lines are they keys to transition travel. Theoretically, transition drive would be capable of sailing freely in the aether, so long as the ship's Juel-Carton fields remain intact, however, for all practical purposes, travel along ley lines is the only reasonable way to navigate the aether effectively at any reasonable speed. Ley lines are natural formations and can both form and disperse as local conditions change, and so the web of ley lines are constantly shifting, making the creation of complete charts nigh impossible. While most civillian ships are limited to well established and relatively stable lanes, cutters and survey vessels constantly travel along new and unexplored ley lines to keep local charts as updated as possible.
Conditions on each individual ley line can vary dramatically, depending on local conditions. Differing conditions can effect both the speed at which ships can travel along the ley line, as well as the total mass that can move along the line at any one time, and the general permanence of the line. Ley lines are rated on how they fit along this spectrum on the Krauss-Parson Table, which combines a rating of speed and maximum capacity (on a colour scale) and stability (numeric scale).
Often, important ley lines are improved by R.u.B Union as part of infrastructure building efforts. Beacons are laid, disturbances calmed, and other improvements made to allow for both increased carrying capacity and better speed along the line, while the end points of the line are anchored in order to provide for improved stability and permanence of the line. Improved ley lines are sometimes bundled together into transition lanes, which refer to tightly networked and controlled ley line bundles that are actively maintained and supported by the R.u.B Union. Transition lanes often have artificial ley lines--commonly termed canals--constructed to bridge gaps in the natural ley line network to allow ships to travel great distances without having to re-enter realspace. While transition travel is easily possible along other ley lines, the transition lanes are the most effective and largest, serving as major lines of commerce and communication. Worlds that lie on or near a transition lane tend to develop very rapidly and assume extensive importance due to the sheer amount of trade and other traffic that passes through their space.
Clouds
Much like how the aether can be compared to an ocean, there are also storms that can disrupt travel and progress along ley lines, or even transition lanes. These disruptions can manifest both as quasi-permanent areas of relative impassibility, or in temporary disruptions that fade in time. Both of these aetheric storms are termed clouds. Clouds can serve as a severe impediment to transition travel, as the increased energy of the storm can 'drown out' the signature of ley lines, making a proper transition near impossible. However, much like ley lines, clouds exist on a spectrum, and certain ley lines will still be detectable. Depending on the strength of a cloud, transition navigation through it may only be very difficult, or nigh impossible. Even so, the presence of a cloud can cause large delays in transition travel, as the number of workable ley lines for a craft to examine lessen, or become effectively shorter, increasing the time spent in realspace searching for a new ley line. A sufficiently powerful cloud can even defeat a ship's Juel-Carton field, and expose a ship's hull to the raw aether potentially causing severe damage, or even destroying the ship.
As such, the permanent clouds, such as the Ostwall or von Goytz's Folly serve as major barriers to the development of transition infrastructure, even if they are relatively low intensity systems. Temporary storms--while easier to manage--can still greatly slow transition travel and communications, or even completely cut a world or ship off from effective aetheric travel. Such temporary storms are the most common near the edges of existing permanent clouds.
Clouds are categorised on the Shirada Navigability Scale, based on how intense the background energy radiation is, as measured in terms of Goytz per hour. The higher this rate, the more difficult it will be for a craft to identify ley lines, and thus the worse the conditions can be. Conditions of Calm and Blessed are considered the base line, and are not normally identified as clouds. However, from the rate of Moderate and above, a cloud can be declared, and ships may be advised to drop out of transition, and proceed at either sub-light or warp outside the cloud's reach. At the rate of 'Unconscionable' the aether can even begin to bleed through into real space, effectively becoming impossible to navigate, while also risking severe damage to any ship. For unknown reasons, clouds with higher navigability rates tend to be concentrated closer to the galactic core, with the average intensity of clouds weakening to rimward.
| Navigability Rate | Colour | Disturbance Rate | Common Name | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unconscionable | Red | >65 Gz/H | Maelstrom | Impossible conditions for transition travel. |
| Poor | Orange | 50-65 Gz/H | Storm | Very dangerous conditions for transition travel. |
| Difficult | Yellow | 35.5-50 Gz/H | Gale | Dangerous conditions for transition travel. |
| Moderate | Blue | 20-35.5 Gz/H | Squall | Risky conditions for transition travel. |
| Calm | Green | 5.5-20 Gz/H | Normal | Normal conditions for transition travel. |
| Blessed | White | <5.5 Gz/H | Cleared | Superior conditions for transition travel. |