Foldspace

Foldspace refers to FTL technologies developed by the races of the Milky Way galaxy.

## Foldspace Drives

First developed by humans in the early 24th century, foldspace drives allow for virtually instant transference between any area of space away from any gravity wells. As such, ships must jump to around 6-10 hours of sublight flight time from their target planet, and must typically travel that far to leave a planet. Foldspace drives also require a charge period of up to several hours in advance of a jump, though drives made by the Shaltari do not have this particular restriction.

Foldspace drives are notoriously short-lived - the military-grade drives deployed on UCM warships are only capable of a few dozen jumps before the entire drive must be stripped out and overhauled. PHR and Scourge foldspace drives have significantly longer lives, but will still require a refit over time.

Despite these flaws, foldspace drives were instrumental in driving humanity's Golden Age, as they allowed for unprecedented exploration and expansion. Despite the inaccuracies of blind jumps, exploratory fleets could traverse hundreds of light-years at time, covering ground that would have been impossible to travel at sublight speeds.

Roughly 5% of humans suffer debilitating physical effects after experiencing a foldspace jump, usually including nausea and loss of balance. The reason for this is unknown so far, but appears to be likened to carsickness or seasickness.

## Foldspace Nodes

UCM and Scourge foldspace drives require the presence of a foldspace node in the vicinity of the destination, lest their jumps become increasingly inaccurate with distance. These nodes act as beacons for a ships foldspace drive to lock onto, and are typically code-protected, preventing any ship from jumping to them without the requisite codes; however, the Scourge were able to break humanity's node codes prior to their invasion of Earth and the Cradle Worlds, paving the way for their offensive. Most nodes are ground-based affairs, though some systems have void-based nodes deployed; regardless, nodes are generally large, with the most portable requiring six men to lift.

The UCMF has recently experimented with extremely small, man-portable foldspace nodes. The so-called "Package Alpha" had a five-second transmit time and could be carried in a standard soldier's backpack, though it is described as being "fiendishly difficult" to produce. One of these devices was deployed as a part of the Office of Naval Intelligence's efforts to discover the PHR homeworlds, and is what allowed the UCM to rediscover the Tlalocan system. Stealthed nodes have also been developed and deployed by the UCM, which makes it likely that other races have similar technology.

Foldspace drives developed by the Shaltari and Post-Human Republic have no need of nodes, and can transition anywhere in the galaxy with pinpoint accuracy. Despite this, they still cannot jump any closer to a planet's gravity well than other races without risking significant harm to their ships, indicating that this is a solid barrier in physics.

Some Independent Resistance bands have perfected the art of jumping to locations extremely near to gravity wells with a maneuver they refer to as "threading the needle" - however, as gravity wells distort foldspace jumps, this is a dangerous proposition. If a ship jumps out of foldspace at the wrong time, it's possible for it to twist and warp under the weight of gravity, splice itself apart with explosive results, or even displace itself beyond measure.