FTL and Hyperspace Draft

FTL via man-made vortex engines punching into hyperspace; beacon-marked lanes; light-speed sensors and bandwidth-limited relay comms.

Overview

FTL is real but limited and infrastructural (TL11 super-science, mostly FTL). Man-made vortex engines punch holes from physical space into hyperspace, deployed either as fixed

gates or built into a ship. Physical space is sub-light only; all FTL goes through hyperspace.

Details

• Power: jumping is enormously power-hungry — ships go dark (shut down non-essentials) and gates run on huge reactors; energy is banked in capacitors and discharged. A jumping ship is briefly blind and vulnerable.
• Hyperspace navigation: gravity from real-space masses folds hyperspace, so there’s rarely a straight path between systems. Ships follow beacon-marked lanes (lighthouses in hyperspace), surfacing to real space to cross between routes. Gates mark lane endpoints and sit beyond the planets (never drop out inside a gravity well — or a planet).
• Sensors & comms: both light-speed. Distant readings are stale; you cannot watch the far side of a system in real time. Interstellar comms use a bandwidth-starved beacon relay — a short text might route (slow, queued, monitorable); real proof must be physically carried.

Cross-Domain Links

• Politics and Citizenship — the Federal Republic taxes gates (jump tax) and licenses space ops.
• Thides System — a charted dead-end with one known gate: the system’s only way in or out.