There is perhaps no single event in human history more significant and far-reaching,
than the first discovery of the materiel that would come to be known as ‘Drift’.
Drift was first encountered within Riberite Crystals during a lava tube survey on the
southern hemisphere of Centrum’s Second Moon, Lysara, and was quickly revealed to
have unique gravity-altering properties when exposed to an electrical current.
Under such charges, the materiel is able to generate directional gravitoelectromagnetic
fields, opening an entirely new avenue of scientific development that would revolutionise
human civilisation.
Within three years of this discovery, the nations of Centrum were unified under the
banner of the Centrum Assembly, and within five years the first Drift-powered spacecraft
began to chart and settle the worlds of the Centrum System.
This manner of economical transplanetary travel was achieved using Drift-Accelerated Fusion
Thermal Rockets, known colloquially as ‘Drift Drives’.
These drives use artificial gravity fields to accelerate the exhaust plumes of conventional
fusion rockets, allowing for previously impossible degrees of engine thrust and specific impulse.
This technology is used to carry out brachistochrone flights over interplanetary distances, accelerating
a craft continuously as it approaches its target, before inverting at the half-way point
to begin a deceleration burn for the remainder of the journey.
The greatest drawback of Drift Drive travel is that the system demands that massive levels
of electrical charge be forced through the small quantities of Drift within the drive’s
coils, heating the substance to the point of spontaneous decomposition, and rendering
it essentially useless.
To this end, interplanetary spacecraft must be regularly resupplied with Drift in order
to continue using their drive systems.
The expansion of the Assembly would not be confined by the Centrum System for long however,
and in 010 Post-Unification, the Hadimus Gateforge was established by Santana Starworks to begin
work on the first Intersolar Gravitomagnetic Accelerator, or ‘Drift Gate’.
At a standard diameter of almost three kilometres, Drift Gates are colossal structures, unparalleled
in sophistication and complexity.
Unlike Drift Drives, these gates do not consume Drift to function, instead requiring a massive
quantity of Drift for their initial construction, before becoming essentially 100% efficient.
A Drift Gate is able to accelerate a spacecraft to any point within its effective range, though
not without a substantial degree of inaccuracy caused by light delay and stellar drift.
This issue is addressed by constructing a second gate at a destination system, and pairing
the two structures into a ‘Drift Lane’ for frequent and safe travel between star
systems.
The first gate constructed by the Centrum Assembly was established beyond the orbit
of Destrum within the Centrum System, the gate was oriented toward a nearby star system
known as ‘Pioneer’ that was recorded in the exoplanetary database as the location
of a Centrum-mass planet.
Colony ships were launched through the gate in 017 PCU carrying the necessary components
to assemble a return gate, and within a year, vessels had returned through a new Drift Lane
to bring word of a burgeoning colony on the surface of Pioneer III.
This settlement would later become known as ‘Storm’, on account of the planet’s
extremely hostile weather conditions, and is considered by modern standards to be a
critically unsuitable choice for colonisation.
In spite of this, the Pioneer III Colony has been continually restructured and maintained
at great expense over almost three centuries, with the settlement’s historical significance
overruling its lack of stability or intrinsic value.
As the gate network spread across the breadth of the Tantalus Cluster and the technology
became more readily available, various treaties were established to observe the safe usage
of Drift Drives and gates to limit the possibility of catastrophic accidents and to prevent their
deliberate use as weapons of mass destruction.
Central to these precautions was the ‘Cadira Concordance’, an interplanetary treaty that
restricted the purposeful weaponization of Drift Drives or Gates, in order to prevent
the development of Relativistic Mass Drivers and other such weapons.
This treaty was famously violated in 0300 PCU during the final battle of the Frontier
War.
Now known as the Battle of Atamara Crossroads, the engagement was predicated when a small
and desperate contingent of the Frontier Union Militia attempted to seize and reorient a
Drift Gate in the Atamara System, hoping to use the device to accelerate a captured asteroid
into the Planet Centrum, causing an extinction level event.
Thankfully the attempt was thwarted by elements of the Assembly’s First and Second Fleets,
saving billions of lives in the process.
Even long before the start of the Frontier War, astronomers had begun to confirm that
humanity had explored and settled every usable star system in the Tantalus Cluster, with
any unsettled systems containing only barren worlds and red dwarf stars.
This inability to expand or exploit new worlds led to a widespread famine and overpopulation
crisis that had long been predicted by historians and scientists, the panic and desperation
resulting from this crisis provided the instigation for the Frontier War, and in the wake of the
conflict, civilisation in the Tantalus Cluster has begun to cascade toward total collapse.
In recent years however, a source of hope has emerged in the form of Astral Body CDC-41-Gamma.
Discovered by renowned Astrophysicist Doctor Sadavar Edric, 41-Gamma is a sizeable nebula
that has appeared in the night sky within the last few years.
Accounting for Light Delay based on its distance of over three thousand lightyears from Tantalus,
we are forced to assume that this nebula manifested itself almost instantaneously over three thousand
years ago.
Long range scans have suggested an abundance of resources present across numerous star
systems within the nebula, and across the last four years it has become the greatest
source of hope and direction for the people of the Tantalus Cluster.
To this end the nations of the cluster have pooled their resources to construct a new
and advanced Drift Gate, known as Edric’s Gate.
Though still limited by the inaccuracy of single-gate travel, this device, upon completion,
will allow humans to travel across the intergalactic void, a region that was previously considered
impassable due to its enormous scope and total lack of stellar bodies.
Within the coming year, Edric’s Gate will carry a large expeditionary fleet to the perimeter
of Astral Body CDC-41-Gamma in search of salvation for humanity.