Hyperdrive

From Encyclopedia Hiigara

The hyperdrive, or hyperspace module, is a device that makes interstellar space travel possible in the Homeworld universe. It is composed of several parts including an automatic navicomputer, the surrounding chassis and containment fields, as well as the most important part, the hyperspace core. Ships equipped with a hyperdrive are capable of reaching the faster-than-light velocities required for intragalactic transit.

While the hyperdrive is an important part of interstellar travel it is not the only example of such technology. Hyperspace gates also allow interstellar travel. In addition some forms of hyperdrives appear to be superior such as Far Jump drives or the experimental hyperdrive used by the Naggarok.

Contents 1 Basic Principles 1.1 Hyperdrive Limitations 2 History of the Hyperdrive 3 Malfunctions 4 Behind the Scenes 4.1 Continuity Discrepencies 5 Sources 6 See Also

[edit] Basic Principles

It is not quite understood how a hyperdrive works, even by its manufacturers. This is because it was not so much invented as discovered, reverse-engineered from ancient Progenitor wreckage. However, while it is not precisely known how it works the basics of a hyperdrive are fairly simple. A hyperdrive achieves hyperspatial travel by a process known as "quantum tunneling". By generating a quantum waveform, an energy wave of sorts, a hyperdrive pulls a ship from realspace into hyperspace. This manifests itself as a quantum wavefront, a screen of varying colours that opens up in front of any ship making the jump to hyperspace.

Once in hyperspace, the ship travels at faster-than-light velocities until it reaches its destination. The vessel then returns to normal space in a similar fashion, with a quantum wavefront opening up and depositing the ship in realspace once again. The automatic system that initiates this, called the, Achieved Traget interrupt is based on regular astrogation technology and takes a "sighting" in normal space and deactivates the hyperdrive once the time vs. distance in hyperspace algorithms state that the ship is close to its programmed destination.

The ability to travel at FTL speeds is one of the important advantages of a hyperdive. The other is that while it requires an enormous amount of energy it requires very little fuel as it the wavefront which is pushing the ship along, not the ship's engines.

[edit] Hyperdrive Limitations

However, there are also several limitations to the hyperdrive. One is that while the hyperdrive is very fast it is not very accurate. Because of the vast distances involved it is difficult to arrive precisely where you want. Therefore the simplest way to arrive at your wanted destination point is to make a series of shorter jumps rather than one large jump. While many hyperdrives can jump thousands of lightyears they might arrive several lightyears off course. Therefore most ships choose to take the latter method of hopping from one destination to another.

Another major problem with the hyperdrive is that hyperspace transit can be interrupted through the use of gravity wells or inhibitor fields. Gravity wells appear to increase the amount of energy required to initiate or sustain a jump, while inhibitor fields merely deform the waveform to prevent or interrupt a jump. This can be potentially fatal, especially if the gravity well in question is that of a large star or black hole.

Furthermore, while a ship traveling through hyperspace may be able to observe the presence of gravity well they cannot observe its actual nature. Therefore if a ship is to determine if the gravity field is coming from a star system or an enemy hyperspace inhibitor the ship must exit hyperspace to find out. Often this is carried out by an automatic system present aboard the vessel.

The Anomaly Interrupt activates when an unknown gravity well is detected by the ship's sensors and the vessel is automatically returned to normal space to investigate the identity of the disturbance. The Safety Interrupt occurs when ship's control computers sense any irregularities in either the waveform effect or in a ship's hull integrity. These three interrupt systems together provide for the automatic powerdown of a hyperdrive's navigational computer in order to allow it to return to normal space.

[edit] History of the Hyperdrive

The Progenitors were masters of hyperspace: they created the most powerful hyperdrives ever known which are still operational after many millenia. How their ships were jumped is unknown, as their Mothership's Foundry only created three Hyperspace Cores; probably all of their ships were equipped with phase drives similar to the ones onboard the Keeper Destroyers. The hyperdrive originated from the Bentusi's discovery of one of the three Far Jump cores, and it was from this First Core that all other galactic hyperdrive technology was reverse-engineered and derived from. However while the cores were reverse engineered it was not done with complete success. Reverse-engineered cores appeared to be less powerful than the originals and were termed Short Jump cores as a result. Therefore the only known Far Jump drive remained in the possession of the Bentusi.

Unlike a standard hyperdrive, a Far Jump drive has the power to "far jump," meaning it can cover tremendous distances in a single jump. Because of their immense power and the mystery of their origin the cores responsible for far jumping adopted a mythos around them and some went so far as to believe they were divine gifts to sentience by the Kushan god Sajuuk, He Whose Hand Shapes What Is. This belief was only strengthened by discoveries of ancient texts proclaiming that whoever wielded three such cores in unison would be able to make unparalleled manipulation of hyperspace.

Furthermore a Far Jump drive also allowed its user important military value. The Bentusi monopoly on Far Jumping allowed them for millennia to practically control the entire galaxy. However, younger races, disatisfied with Bentusi rule banded together to defeat the Bentusi and the power of Far Jump proved not to be enough to bring the Bentusi victory. Vastly outnumbered the Bentusi could not be everywhere at once and eventually surrendered.

The next time far jumping proved important was during the War of Sajuuk when the Hiigaran Empire managed to recover the second of the Trinity, allowing them to strike into the heart of their rivals the Taiidan's empire, destroying the Taiidan homeworld. The fact that the Hiigarans lost was not due to the lack of power tha the far jump gave them, far from it. Rather it was a combination of the brilliance of the Taiidan leader Riesstiu and the fact that the similarly far jump capable Bentusi aided him that led to the Taiidan's defeat.

So dangerous was the Core in fact that the Galactic Council demanded that the Kushan leaders of Hiigara hand it over to Bentusi custody as part of the peace agreement. The Kushan however did not comply with this part of the treaty and managed to smuggle the hyperdrive away with them into exile on Kharak. This proved vital to their success three thousand years later when they attempted to return to their homeworld during the Homeworld War. Upon their safe return the far jump technology in their possession allowed them to maintain a solid defense against enemies as they tried desperatly to rebuild their civilization.

More than a century later it had even allowed them to build up a fairly sizable empire, with which they had begun to exert control influence despite their ridiculously low population of a few hundred million in a galaxy of countless worlds. Like the Bentusi the Hiigarans managed to maintain a power base simply because of their technological superiority.

But like the Bentusi they would soon face challengers. When the Vaygr crusades under Makaan discovered the last of the three Progenitor cores it was only a matter of time before they attacked the Hiigarans. Vastly outnumbering the Hiigarans the Vaygr under Makaan led a swift strike into Hiigara's territory. With three major factors on their side: numbers, Makaan's brilliant strategies, and speed the Vaygr were in control of most Hiigaran worlds within days.

In order to defeat the Vaygr the Hiigarans were forced to try and fulfill the prophecy of the Trinity, that if all three cores could be united the power of Sajuuk himself would be unlocked. With the help of the Bentusi and the discovery of new Progenitor technologies the Hiigarans found themselves involved in a race against Makaan to acquire Sajuuk's power. They already had the Second Core. From the Bentusi they acquired the First. And when they destroyed Makaan's flagship at Balcora they acquired the Third. The only thing left was to unleash Sajuuk's power.

This was demonstrated when the Progenitor flagship Sajuuk and its core Trinity managed to jump itself and the entire Hiigaran fleet out of Balcora, a massive black hole cluster at the centre of the galaxy that prevents any and all hyperspace travel. Furthermore the combined power of the Sajuuk unleashed an even greater technological marvel, the Eye of Arran, a powerful network of hyperspace gates linking the entire galaxy together in one enormous hyperspace superhighway.

This article or section covers something that is considered fanon or fan-created. This article or section covers a subject that was fan-created of fan influenced. It may be directly related to fan fiction or a modpack. As such it is not to be considered canon as it does not appear in any official installment of the Homeworld universe. While it may be generally accepted amongst the fan community it may conflict with official sources. You have been warned.

There were yet more marvels to come however. Hiigaran scientists and Vaygr alike managed to reverse-engineer the far jump cores independently of one another, opening up easy travel through the galaxy with or without the Eye of Arran. During the Vaygr War Makaan had successfully reverse-engineered the first of these new far jump cores for use aboard his backup flagship which he had created in case his trap at Balcora he had set for the Hiigarans didn't go as planned. The Somtaaw scientist "Progie" was responsible for the next line of these cores, when he independently developed them in order to help the Hiigarans and Vaygr alike regain far jump capability when the flagship Sajuuk was hijacked by the pirate cultist Ashoran.

Progie also developed smaller hyperspace cores which he called jokingly "mini-cores". These cores were not actually possible of interstellar travel but rather could make small jumps such as from a ship laboratory to its mess hall. As such they were for few practical things except fun and, in Progie's case, research.

[edit] Malfunctions

It is possible for a hyperdrive to malfunction, particularly and usually when the navicomputer fails. A navicomputer failing can result in two things: a misjump or a premature exit from hyperspace. This was the case when the Mothership made a misjump during the Exodus and emerged some distance away from its rendezvous point with the Khar-Selim. However, this was not due to some collosal failure on the navicomputer's part but due partially to the inexperience of the Kushan crew and also largely due to a hyperdrive's natural inaccuracy. Another example of a navicomputer failure is when a hyperspace inhibitor tricks a hyperdrive navicomputer into existing from hyperspace under the illusion that there is a dangerous gravwell in the premisis.

This article or section covers something that is considered fanon or fan-created. This article or section covers a subject that was fan-created of fan influenced. It may be directly related to fan fiction or a modpack. As such it is not to be considered canon as it does not appear in any official installment of the Homeworld universe. While it may be generally accepted amongst the fan community it may conflict with official sources. You have been warned.

A navicomputer can also be hijacked. Such was the case when Ashoran hijacked the Sajuuk's hyperdrive and jumped it out of the Hiigara system and into his own fleet.

[edit] Behind the Scenes

It appears that much of the speculation on the hyperdrive in the Homeworld universe is based primarily on sources from Star Wars, although it is also possible much of it is based on real scientific speculation overseen by the astronomical assistants Relic Entertainment had when developing Homeworld. The appearance of hyperspace gates in Homeworld 2 also indicates that Babylon 5 played a part in inspirations for hyperspace.

[edit] Continuity Discrepencies

There is also some discrepency about contradicting canonical information in the Homeworld universe about hyperdrives. In the Homeworld Historical and Technical Briefing for example it is specifically quoted as saying that the hyperdrive of the Mothership was successfully reverse-engineered from the Khar-Toba wreckage whereas the Homeworld 2 backstory indicates otherwise. Here are the quotes involved (text bolded to emphasize point):

"Toward the lower after portion of the ship lies the large shielded area containing the Hyperdrive Module. This is a direct copy of the one found under the sands of Khar-Toba but expanded twelve-fold to accomodate a vessel of the Mothership's mass."

— Homeworld Historical and Technical Briefing

"Many races managed to reverse engineer the Short Jump technology provided by the Bentusi, and some even developed improvements and refinements upon the original designs. Yet even the finest of scientists granted that Far Jumping would require a level of power exponentially greater than that currently available."

— Appendix C: Prelude to the End Times, Homeworld 2 Strategy Guide

The second source attempts to explain this discrepency, although not altogether successfully.

"The blueprints of the core were integrated and expanded upon, or so the Hiigarans presumed. In fact, the core itself remained at the heart of the Mothership's drive. It was merely the containment unit that had been expanded to account for the stresses of sending a Mothership class vessel through hyperspace."

— Appendix C: Prelude to the End Times, Homeworld 2 Strategy Guide

While this explains the hyperdrive's increase in size as being due to an increase in the hyperdrive casing it does not explain why the Kushan themselves would not notice they were using the Khar-Toba core, which appears to be the case and which the source seems to agree to. This either indicates that the core was snuck on board the Mothership for unexplained reasons by a rogue party or that this explanation cannot be taken as fact as it would then contradict other and more numerous canonical sources such as the previously mentioned manual as well as the game Homeworld itself in which the Kushan notice that the Kadeshi hyperdrive is identical to theirs.

Many fans of given theories on how to solve this contradiction. One was presented by Ishaar Niirfa in his Encyclopedia Hiigara. This explanation is that the Kushan, The Unbound, and Vaygr all deliberately monopolized far jump technology and patented it, preventing other civilizations from successfully reverse-engineering anything but the short jump technology. They on the other hand could manufacture far jump drives whenever they wanted to. By this explanation the so-called Second Core in Homeworld and Homeworld 2 is actually just a reverse-engineered drive. This would help explain also why the Bentusi and Kushan had such incredible power with the power of far jumping on their side, whereas if only one ship in all their fleets could far jump it would make the strategic advantage rather small. It would also help solve the problem of the Kadeshi also possessing a far jump drive.

Another explanation, offered by DeepChrome in her Legacies series is that the hyperdrive of the Mothership is actually unsuccessfully reverse-engineered, although the Kushan were unaware of this until later. In order to further study hyperspace technology however the Kushan bring along the Khar-Toba core as well and when they discovered how much more powerful it was they used it instead.

Others have indicated that the strategy guide should be taken at face value and that the only reverse-engineered part was the containment unit and that the Hiigarans were fully aware of it and/or the Kushan government on Kharak hid the fact that they hadn't reverse-engineered the drive for propoganda purposes.

Yet another explanation is that the strategy guide can't be used as a canonical source as it was merely a rough draft when published and had not been finished, therefore making it unreliable.

Another possible discrepency is the fact that in Homeworld and Homeworld: Cataclysm multiplayer capital ships were able to make hyperspace jumps independent of a mothership. In Homeworld 2 however only motherships, battlecruisers, and shipyards are able to make independent jumps with capital ships having to be in close proximity of one of these ships (equipped with a Hyperspace Module) in order to jump. While this indicates that for some reason they have lost hyperspace capability this may be able to be explained away as a game mechanic and therefore not canonical.

[edit] Sources

• Homeworld
• Homeworld Historical and Technical Briefing
• Homeworld: Cataclysm
• Homeworld 2
• Homeworld 2 Strategy Guide
• Encyclopedia Hiigara
• Homeworld: Legacies

[edit] See Also

• Hyperspace
• Hyperspace core
• Far Jump
• Short Jump
• Hyperspace gate
• Naggarok