Sovereign Lore - The Final Space Race
AI rendition of the Skyway
-The Need-
With Sovereign a fully established and growing city, the Imperial Establishment Committee was in full swing, creating the Imperial Declaration Act. Among these conversations, the idea of further expansion was raised. However, using Chronosis was proving detrimental to health, and it was no longer a completely reliable method of travel; something new was needed. The First Great Expansion (January 1, 616 A.E.) proved problematic, dangerous and impossible to manage due to the speed at which craft could travel. Deemed a completely ineffective use of resources, any further expansion would be frowned upon until it was speedy and effective. After a journey to the galaxy's centre (833 N.E.), Victor Kane, the would-be Emperor, realised that faster travel was essential if they planned on further growth.
So, Theodore Khet and Raj Collins, advisors to the would-be Emperor, started conversations among newly established shipping, mining, and technology companies to further the science of Faster-than-light, or FTL, travel. Penisive Tech, InterNebula Avionics (a subsidiary of Pensive Tech), Khet Mining, and Sovereign Precision were recruited to help in this massive endeavour.
What was initially known was that the galaxy had a naturally occurring system of webbing or cosmic filaments. Cosmic filaments are the universe’s largest known structures and contain most of the universe’s mass. These dense, slender strands of dark matter and galaxies connect the cosmic web, channelling matter toward galaxy clusters at each strand’s end. This was discovered in the early 21st century but was a mystery to the scientific community for some time.
Researchers of the 21st century discovered one of these filaments in the Solar System, enabling much faster space travel than was once possible. Such routes could drive comets and asteroids near Jupiter to Neptune's distance in under a decade and to 100 astronomical units in less than a century. They realised this could be used to send spacecraft to the far reaches of their planetary system relatively fast and to monitor and understand near-Earth objects that might collide with their planet.
-New Technology-
The theory of FTL travel was somewhat understood by creating the Fusion Engine, first used on The Ark, the first of its kind. Using its advanced, though cumbersome, fusion reactor, The Ark reached speeds of up to 15,000 km/s by utilising the fuel source Helium-3 and Deuterium. Although fusion reactors were around during Earth's time, this was the first to be small and light enough for spacecraft use. This was considered ‘old world’ technology by many but was, unfortunately, the mainstay of current space travel and a hurdle to further, effective expansion.
Once the Skyway had commenced (August 20, 834 N.E.), a technology was developed under incredible secrecy that allowed the use of dark matter within the cosmic filaments as an energy source. Not much is known about how this technology works or how it withdraws the energy from the filaments, but its effectiveness is unarguable. Utilising that technology, Pensive Tech and InterNeubla devised a smaller fusion reactor, which would eventually be rebranded as the Imperial D-Class reactor. The incredible technological advancement meant that ships could double their effective speed to 30,000 km/s.
Dilution Field & The Nexus Point
The same energy source was implemented as a basis for FTL travel, especially now with the faster engine capabilities. During testing, the energy source began creating a field around objects at high speed, but this only started at the 30,000km/s threshold, and the ability to go faster than this was impossible based on one critical scientific principle: mass. After three years of research, to no avail, lowering ship mass any further than current standards proved impossible and the first of many hurdles was reached.
Around the same time, Nexus Point, a weapons manufacturer, was developing a new high-calibre round for the military. Through tests, they discovered that a potential way to overcome the Skyway Project's hurdle was to create a launching apparatus to propel the spacecraft fast enough to break the current speed threshold.
Utilising the same weapons technology, development began the following year (838 N.E.) on the Nexus Point, a massive cylindrical tube around 5 km in length and 50 km in circumference. It was designed for craft to pass through and propel forward with dramatic and almost immediate increases in speed, like a bullet out of a gun. The technology used rotating magnets and charged coils to push the ship along rapidly. Once it reached top speed at kilometre four, the magnetic field dissipated so as not to disrupt any processes, and the energy source began slowly growing a field around the craft.
This was dubbed the Dilution Field, mainly for its astonishing ability to decrease or dilute mass. It actively reduces the spacecraft's mass proportionate to its acceleration, meaning the craft weighs less the faster it goes. Past 30,000 km/s, space-time begins to fold in front of the ship, making it appear like a black hole consuming the craft. Once light speed is reached, the craft appears like a ship-shaped black hole hurtling through space. The craft's mass hits zero at this point, but the engines are still pushing at 30,000km/s, so blisteringly faster speeds are attainable as the mass reaches near zero.
Once we start to slow down, the field actively increases the ship's mass by gradually turning itself off as the craft slows down, starting from the back of the spacecraft.
Each Nexus point created a network known as the Stellar Nexus. A craft could jump from one Nexus point to the next to traverse the galaxy in a specific order. If you had Imperial or trade clearance, you could access the Noram Strip express lanes, allowing for much faster travel from south to north, cutting the trip short by a few days.
The Stellar Nexus allowed for more efficient, although not instantaneous, interstellar travel, cutting it down to days or weeks; for example, Algaia to the Tolîs Nexus Point, a 60,000 light-year journey, takes approximately 21 days.
e.g. Interstellar Time Travel Equation (ITTE) below.
-The Stellar Nexus-
Galaxy map of filament lanes; red/express = instantaneous, yellow/primary = hours or days, blue/economy = days or weeks, green/military = instantaneous (by Jason Arrow)
Now that a solution was discovered, the next step for the Skyway Project was to create a fleet.
Theodore Khet, The IASA, The StellarFleet & the creation of Nebula Corp.
Stepping back just before the commencement of the Skyway in 834 N.E., the government proposed establishing mining colonies on other planets (~June 836 N.E.), moving all pollution off-world and onto other worlds with the necessary resources to mine. While on the Imperial Establishment Committee, Theodore Khet, CEO of Khet Mining (a large mining company on the brink of financial ruin to its much larger competitor Sovereign Precision), was promoted a few months earlier to Chief Advisor on The Leadership Advisory Board (~March 836 N.E), to be renamed the Emperor’s Advisory Board after the Proclamation of Empire.
His newly attained Chief Advisoral position and work within the Imperial Establishment Committee meant Theodore Khet could give Khet Mining a strategic advantage. He opted for more resource-abundant and closer worlds to Sovereign and delegated some of those worlds to smaller, less threatening mining companies than Sovereign Precision. Due to its high concentration of mining colonies, the area gained the nickname The Mining Ridge.
After the Proclamation of Empire (May 1, 840 N.E.), and having solidified his position within the government and the financial gains made by Khet Mining in the last four years, Theodore made his advancement on the smaller companies operating within the Mining Ridge and thus Nebula Corp was born.
Nebula Corp comprised Khet Mining, Albany Minerals, Cruise-Peterson Drilling, Deep Core Mining Co., and Pensive Tech in one of the most significant corporate buyouts in Imperial history (March 1, 841 N.E.). Sovereign Precision was also approached to assimilate into Nebula Corp but decided against the liquidation, believing it would still be a significant competitor to Neubla Corp (previously Khet Mining).
-The Comms Race Begins - May 1, 840 N.E.-
Once it became abundantly clear that FTL travel was possible and construction began on the Nexus Points around pivotal planets in the Galaxy, soon to be renamed capital planets, a new hurdle was presented: communication.
Pensive Tech was the first to realise this. Now that the Proclamation of Empire had been enacted, maintaining communications with all colonies that had survived their journey was more crucial than ever. Only five return beacons had been received from the one hundred ships sent out. This was officially deduced to be one of three distinct possibilities:
Due to the vastness of space, most return beacons were still on their way.
They wished to be separate from the wider community.
However, the most likely reason was that most vessels did not reach their location successfully.
Due to its naturally less resistive makeup, the Skyway was theorised to be usable for rapid communication. Pensive Tech made this discovery, leading the race in its early days by creating a prototype known as SkyCom.
- The Imperial Aeronautics and Space Association, IASA-
May 20, 845 N.E., saw the creation of the Imperial Territories, sections of the galaxy cut up into more manageable chunks and within those were the provinces. The Imperial Provinces were created so each region could maintain a semblance of governmental oversight. Nine provinces were created: Limina, Eunari, Iridius, Seraph, Berillian, Cygnum, Sagitta, The Stellar Sovereignty and The Mining Ridge.
With Nebula Corp now settled into its more prime financial position, Nebual Corp bid the government to create an association that could oversee expansion and interstellar operations. After logistical conversations and personnel appointments, the Imperial Aeronautics and Space Association, IASA, was formed. Their first mission was to initiate contact with the colonies across the galaxy. To do this, government funding would be needed to create spacecraft, or in this case, a fleet. Due to already having blueprints and less than a hundred in production, InterNebula Avionics was awarded the contract to retrofit all old Ark reactors with the new Imperial D-Class reactors and repurpose the crafts for recon.
-Imperial Military & The StellarFleet-
It was now 849 N.E., The Skyway construction was still progressing at full speed, InterNebula Avionics was nearing completion of its Ark retrofit contract, and Pensive Tech was still rapidly developing SkyCom. Now that the Empire was creating a small fleet of ships, along with the potential that other colonies may resist rejoining an Empire, Quentin Drake, Ershal Pierce, Theodore Khet, Raj Collins and Erin Reeves stepped forward and started developing the Military. This was done hand in hand with Emperor Kane I and was unofficially branded as the first meeting of the then-unnamed Chief Imperial Command.
Quentin was appointed head of the entire military division, the Grand Marshal, and General Fifth Class of the Imperial Legion, the Empire’s version of an army. Ershal was also appointed Admiral of the StellarFleet, and between them, the beginnings of what would be many years of military development kicked off. The first order of business they achieved was distributing contracts to many smaller spacecraft manufacturing companies, most notably;
Homeworld, a fusion reactor manufacturer
Atmos Exteriors, a manufacturer specializing in spacecraft exterior panelling and;
Robsinson-Klek Weaponry, a weapons and explosives manufacturer
Of course, the company that had oversight was InterNebula Avionics; with all research funnelling through Pensive Tech, both companies now implemented military-specific branches within their operational format. Finally, all operations, ship designs, funding and implementation went through the IASA for strict government oversight.
Skyway & SkyCom Completed
On August 16, 853 N.E., The Skyway was finally completed, and the maiden voyage of Icarus, the first and only command-class capital ship, set off to the capital planet of Seraph Province, Bernia. At 40,000 light years, with a right ascension of 13h 48min 1sec and declination of 52deg 43' 06", the total travel time was 34.2 days round trip—an impressive leap forward from the 399,000 years it would’ve taken with previous technology. A considerable success galaxy-wide, the Empire was now open to transportation, at least in an official sense. The public had yet to access the Skyway for everyday purposes; it was only accessible to them for colonisation.
June 2, 854 N.E., brought the final and most vital step to the Empire's success. Pensive Tech unveiled and released SkyCom to the public. It was a fully working dual communication system that allowed instantaneous communication with other colonies using the Skyway as its transmission system. Many different companies tried to win this technological race. Still, Pensive Tech (now part of Nebula Corp.) came out on top, making Nebula Corp. one of the richest and most powerful companies in the Empire. Due to the completion of SkyCom, Nebula Corp’s investment interests elevated, and direct deals with The Empire after their deployment of SkyCom became the only means for intergalactic communication. The Empire gave exclusive mining rights to Nebula Corp in specific sectors, and in return, Nebula Corp. gave The Empire a portion of the profit.
This deal would undo Sovereign Precision in the years to come.
With SkyCom complete, The Empire begins a decentralised power structure, allowing each Province to dictate and run the provinces as they see fit, but with limited powers. Many within the government viewed this as a push for Republicanism, which was met with extreme hesitance due to the success of recent ventures plus their own personal gain. Most government officials were against this decision, but Emperor Kane I was adamant that the time of needing an Empire had passed, and humanity needed to push toward a Republic as soon as possible. He did not wish to see democracy die under his hand, although many thought he had ulterior motives for this ideology.
So, a compromise was devised; with the power structure now decentralised, the Empire required official representatives or governors for each province. Thus, the Council of Imperial Representatives, or The Concilium, was born. Governors were responsible for Healthcare, Education, Property Rights, and Justice (policing and Provincial Court), while the Empire controlled and executed law-making and official mandates. If the crime is deemed to extend the bounds and jurisdictions of the Provincial Court, it is taken to the Imperial Supreme Court.
Now that the establishment of The Concilium and the decentralised power structure were in effect, the Empire was officially able to implement its compromise of becoming an Imperial Federation.
Public Opinion & The Kane Foundation
So, what did the public think?
Well, after the announcement of the Skyway and the connection to the broader galaxy became a genuine, commonplace mode of transport, many people started to dream of the wider galaxy as a whole and its potential for further opportunities and prospects. The human race was finally becoming a multi-world, interstellar race, and for the most part, the public supported the idea.
Of course, as the government shifted to an Imperial structure, the public did not take kindly and worry spread like wildfire. If history had taught humanity anything, an empire never meant positive outcomes for anyone involved, and it usually hinged on inhumane aspects of governing. So on the day of the Proclamation of Empire (May 1, 840 N.E.), citizens took to the streets, voicing their anger towards such a backward ideology with Anti-Imperial protests. These protests and lobbying for the government to rethink the current structure lasted much longer than the Empire initially anticipated; they believed people would move on with time.
The Empire developed The Kane Foundation over the next ten years to give back to the people, opening around September 6, 852 N.E. The Foundation immortalised Victor Kane's leadership and knowledge in establishing this new after-earth society, which was one of its primary reasons for success. People believed that Victor Kane had done so much for modern society that it was worthwhile having something to immortalise that legacy regardless of the current situation. Even with the somewhat positive reception, Victor still wanted the Foundation to be something that could give back to the community and avoid it becoming some potential religious ideology in the next thousand years, so he developed and implemented outreach and educational programs, access to the Human History Archive, subsidies and aid programs to help the citizens of the Empire, akin to welfare. Through its outreach programs, educational avenues through the Human History Archive and financial subsidy programs, the foundation began winning favour with citizens. As such, the Empire was viewed, by most, as a more positive force than historical tyranny.
Moving forward to the completion of Skyway and SkyCom (SkyWeb), the Empire won the public's favour. It viewed it as more of an internal, structural decision than carrying legitimate imperial ideologies. As such, the completion of the SkyWeb was celebrated by many across the entire galaxy as all colonies could now contact family, friends and loved ones who had colonised new planets. It was the highest traffic period that SkyCom had ever experienced, and besides a few minor glitches, it was a massive success.
