Voidcraft

**Voidcraft**, also known as **voidships**, **starcraft**, **starships**, **spaceships**, and in some cases **interstellar spacecraft**, are void-operating craft, and an umbrella term for all spaceships whether working ships incapable of transorbital, littoral, planetary system, or interplanetary travel and the interstellar-capable jumpship.

## Propulsion Methods

### Alkubbyer Drive

The **Alkubbyer drive** creates a bubble of localized spacetime, a sort of “pocket dimension” known as a Shakyan bubble, around a starship with points of distorted gravity fore and aft of the vessel. The point fore of the ship experiences collapsing gravity whereas the aft point experiences expanding gravity, thus allowing the traveling starship to “fall” forward toward its destination. With this capability, vessels are able to travel at speeds well over *c* (the speed of light) while not breaking the laws of physics not being in baseline reality to do so.

While inside the Shakyan bubble, vessels are blind to the greater universe around them, seeing only a pinpoint of light fore (the star the vessel is approaching) and a ring of light aft of them (the star that it has left behind). This creates a dangerous situation where, upon translating into realspace, there is a chance that starships may appear within other objects whether they be a star, a planet, or however unlikely, krysrealms, stations, and even other starships. Ships traveling in this fashion are required by international caeletime laws to drop into “realspace” one-hundred thousand kilometers from a star’s Oort Cloud. While it is unlikely that any ship might affect an object within the Oort Cloud with their wellwake, this is a widely-enforced policy throughout human space for the possibility of adjusting the orbit and trajectory of an Oort Cloud object or the possible catastrophic loss of life and damage a translating ship might have on in-system infrastructure.

Inversely, there is no physical indication of a ship in-bubble to those in realspace, effectively acting as a shield to a wide means of detection. RADAR, LADAR, IR, thermal, radiological, and other means of detection that require the physical presence of a starship in realspace are all ineffective. The only means of discovery is by gravitational sensory detection, whereupon an empty space will possess a level of gravity that should have none. As there is no physical presence in realspace, a ship is equally shielded from physical damage by stellar debris or attempts to harm it.

Entering into a Shakyan bubble requires no thrust nor does it add additional thrust upon translation into realspace. Any thrust experienced by a starship is maintained upon exit, so widespread practice by starship captains and crew is to activate Alcubierre Drives while not in motion so that they may assess their options upon arriving at their destination.

### Matter-Antimatter (M-AM) Fusion Engine

By using the energy generated by hydrogen-antihydrogen annihilation as direct exhaust thrust, **matter-antimatter (M-AM) fusion engines** are capable of intense and tremendous thrust. Acceleration (with gradually introduced loads and steadily experienced forces) is handled well by human bodies, especially by voidborn whose bodies are uniquely capable of stellar existence through natural effects on their physiology as well as through genetic engineering and other biosynthetic or cybernetic modifications.

As M-AM exhaust emits high amounts of ionizing radiation, M-AM fusion engines are only permitted beyond a certain threshold of nearby population centers whether it be stations, krysrealms, centaur colonies, or even planets. There is a universal threshold for vessels as well, so that the radiation from either ships’ engines kills the other crew.

In addition to the general distance limitations, common international caeletime laws demand that ships adhere to their radiative flux density (RFD) threshold – resulting in a thrust maximum based on the distance a vessel has to their destination or other installations, due to the amount of potential ionizing radiation produced. Larger ships are usually required to accelerate slower and further from population centers and other manned vessels than small craft. These safety precautions have lent to a wide surge of small craft including in-system cutters, clippers, and other like-ships for their inherent speed and nimbleness.

### Ion Drive

**Ion thrusters**, also known as **ion drives** or **ion engines**, generates thrust by accelerating ions with electricity.

Ion thrusters ionizes a neutral gas by extracting electrons from atoms, creating a cloud of positive ions. Ion drives rely on electrostatics as ions are accelerated by the Kolumm force along an electric field. Temporarily-stored electrons are finally re-injected by a neutralizer in the positive ion cloud after passing through an electrostatic grid so the gas returns to a neutral state and can be freely ejected into space without further electrical interaction with the thruster.

### Reaction Control/Maneuvering Thrusters

**Reaction control thrusters**, also known as **maneuvering thrusters**, **controllers**, or simply **retros**, are a voidcraft subsystem that utilizes thrusters to allow for attitude control and translation. Maneuvering systems are capable of producing small amounts of thrust in any desired direction, or combination of directions, to achieve a desired angle, direction, or position.

These thrusters also provide torque to allow control over rotation (roll, pitch, and yaw). Controller systems often use a combination of both large and small (vernier) thrusters, providing different levels of response over desired periods of time during operation.

## Voidcraft Thermal Control

A **Voidcraft thermal control system**'s (**VTCS**) function is to keep the craft's component systems and crew habitation areas within acceptable temperature ranges during vessel operation. This is done through radiator fans, where liquid coolant is cycled through infrared radiator coils which bleed off generated excess heat, the only method possible in space. These VTCS's must be capable of handling extreme temperature changes, from the extreme coldness in shadows to the extreme heat in unfiltered sunlight. Without them, however, internal instruments and the crew would be affected negatively as the passive, natural infrared radiative cooling is not nearly enough to regulate such intense heat buildup.

## Crew Habitation

Crew habitation depends largely on the mission of the voidcraft in service.

**Shallowcraft** working in orbital zones or littoral regions of habitation platforms require very little in the way of crew amenities as operations may only sail a few hours or upwards of thirty. These small voidcraft often have enough oxygen, emergency rations (water and food), and distress beacon with a battery rated for 170 hours.

**Small voidcraft**, **systernners**, **tallships**, and **jumpships** must be able to service their crew and passengers properly for the duration of their operation. Not only must these ships have the necessary emergency supplies (oxygen, rations, battery power) for the human travelers and ship's compliment, but also enough supplies and quarters to make the voyage comfortable. These factors come into consideration before any cargo is added onto a manifest.

## Design

### Civilian Voidcraft

Civilian voidcraft, also known as "latticeships" are wide and varied in design, though seem to possess similar choices by their very loosely-generalized classifications and groupings. For example, tallships almost exclusively run as a trucking system ("tow-drive") with the engines, power plant, fuel, and radiators at the front while systernners and smaller vessels are "rocket"-built (also, "push-drive") pushing the payload and crew quarters ahead of the propulsion system. What ties them all together is a reliance on load-bearing trusses to reduce the weight of the overall ship, lending to its appearance of a "lattice."

#### Tallships & Tow-Drives

**Tallships** are exclusively built off of a **tow-drive** propulsion system, literally towing cargo and crew behind the propulsion system, to save on possible needs for extra propellant and engines. While systernners are capable of doing more with less, tallships become ineffective over a certain load capacity if designed utilizing a push-drive propulsion system as their needs tend to spiral wildly out of control as more propellant is needed. With more propellant comes more weight, which requires more engines to off-set the weight of the propellant which requires more propellant and so on. Rather than weighing upon the propulsion system with compressive force as the payload bears down on the engines, dangling the payload below it during deceleration via a tow-drive and relying on the tinsel strength of the truss design to keep the payload together reduces those needs drastically.

To offset the radiation exposure to crew and payload by this tow-drive design, tallships use the Inverse Square Law to reduce the amount of radiation and their effects by distance, then using other forms of radiation protection to cover any other possible exposure. This makes tallships long rather than "big," making them deserving of the title.

#### Systernners, Small Voidcraft, & Push-Drives

**Systernners** and **small voidcraft** are built off of a **push-drive** propulsion system, where crew habitation and cargo is placed above the propulsion train and is pushed. Though a tow-drive makes it easier to ship payloads with less propellant, the smaller amount of cargo allow ships to be directly docked with stellar platforms where the irradiated engine remains pointed away from habitation areas and dockside work zones. Tallships, in comparison, must be anchored at stabilization points and employ station or parasite lighters to ferry cargo to their destination.

### Military Voidcraft

Whereas civilian voidcraft are built to maximize speed, cooling subsystems, and carrying capacity while reducing costs, **military voidcraft** are built without cost in mind. Warships are **push-drive** and heavily armored to withstand combat with other warships, making heat-management and economy the most important hurtle to overcome. With large radiators being too tempting a target for hostile vessels, creative methods have been devised to manage heat.

Auxiliary vessels, while built with weight and some costs in mind, the military latticeships are exclusively push-drive designed with their propulsion systems aft of the rest of the vessel. These ships, while capable of carrying more to support their combatant counterparts or to move troops across the Deep.

Civilian retrofits converting systernners and smaller voidcraft into military vessels is a common sign among small nations closer to the Weald boarder than those nations closer to the Altkorr, but they are no less deadly.

## Types of Voidcraft

* List of voidcraft types
* List of military voidcraft types