DS Drive

The **Darksprint Drive**, or **DS Drive** as it is more commonly referred to, is the propulsion system used to achieve superluminal travel through space, called a darksprint. Prior to a jump, the drive is "charged" and then the ship performs the darksprint or "DS jump".

## Mechanical Overview

### Mechanical Design

While many different makes and models of DS drives exist, they all follow a similar design profile, with a few exceptions. Generally, all DS drives consist of four major componants

#### 1. Jump Processing Unit

The JPU is the brain of the drive. It takes all data from the components of the drive, and feeds navigational data from the ship's navigation computer into the system. Without it, using the drive is nearly impossible, unless a replacement can be found, or another computer system modified. However, this is extremely risky, as the JPU is specifically designed for use within the DS Drive, and other systems may not work properly with the drive system, and could cause major malfunctions or errors. The JPU also calculates the necessary size of the phase shift, and modifications to the JPU can increase or decrease the size or shape of the phase shift.

#### 2. Stabilizer Cores

The stabilizer cores of a DS drive are crucial to preventing the drive from losing containment. Without a stabilizer core, the phase shift would last only a few attoseconds before collapsing. Generally, the larger the stabilizer, the more powerful the DS bubble can become. This also translates to field stability, meaning a longer jumps can be made before the DS bubble begins to collapse. Other methods can also be used to extend the stability each stabilizer is able to impart, such as using purer or higher refined synthetic Chroma crystals, or using different methods of causing phase-resonance within the crystals. Though the most common method is to add more cores, this is far from efficient.

Though different DS drives often use different numbers of drives, almost all use an even number of cores to maintain jump symmetry. Without jump symmetry, quantum fluctuations can occur which can cause anything from structural damage to jump fracture, and even quantum splicing, wherein multiple parts of the vessel can split into multiple dimensions at once. This often results in the destruction of the vessel. As such, many State industrial regulations prevent the manufacture of "odd core" drives.

#### 3. Zero Point Reactor

The Zero Point Reactor or ZPR is the part of the DS Drive that allows for the possibility of superluminal travel within the Grey Dimension. Once phase shift has occured in order to enter the Grey Dimension, the ZPR uses zero-point energy from the natural ambience of the Grey Dimension to excite bosons into becoming gravitons and create a graviton field, which is able to instantly propel a vessel into superluminal travel that is only possible within the strange physics of the Grey Dimension. This is done in nearly an instant, and is usually spun up prior to phase shift in order to immediately activate as soon as phase shift occurs.

Additionally, the ZPR is also responsible for causing quantum flux within stabilization crystals, so that quantum-stabilizing/destabilizing resonance can be achieved within the crystals and thus control dimensional shifting required to enter and exit the grey dimension.

#### 4. Phasic Plug Array

The Phasic Plug Array is arguably the most important part of the DS drive, and without it darksprint is not possible. The PPA is a series of powerful electromagnetic conduits which inject high-energy particle streams through toroidal plasma fields over exposed chroma crystals within the stabilizer cores of the drive, which allows them to reach a highly active state, exciting the exotic matter and creating exotic particles such as higgs-boson particles and grey particles. This energized exotic matter is so unstable that it can be resonated to cause quantum tears and produce an "uncertainty bubble", which in turn collapses to a phase shift bubble and transports everything within the bubble into the Grey Dimension.

## Procedure

If all components of the DS drive are functional and ready to operate, a darksprint may be performed. To do this is a careful arrangement of several steps orchestrated by the various systems within the DS drive. The stages are as follows:

1. **Pre-jump Stage:** When a command to make a jump is given to the ship's computer, the central computer of the vessel transmits the navigational coordinates given to the JPU within the DS drive, which then calculates the coordinates into information relevant to phase shift duration, speed, and launch vector. Additionally, if navigational data indicates known irregularities or hazards along the way, such as the gravity fields of stars and planets, the JPU will attempt to compensate by increasing or decreasing the frequency of stability from the stabilizer cores, though this can lessen overall stability and therefore lengthen the number of jumps required to reach a destination. However, these shifts are necessary, as altering oscillation frequency during the middle of a darksprint has a high chance of causing undesired effects and is extremely dangerous. Depending on the complexity of the destination, calculations can take anywhere from a few milliseconds to a minute. Once this has been calculated, the JPU transmits the required power to the ship's central computer, which can then prepare APU systems for power transfer to the DS drive.
2. **Initialization Stage:** Before the Phasic Plug Array can be engaged, the drive's stabilizer cores must be warmed up, in order for them to be able to safely operate once charged from the PPA. Cores begin to spin at minimal operation speed, and a steady ignition charge is applied to the chroma crystals within until they reach maximum stability. At this time, the ZPU begins matter excitement in levels specified by the JPU for the jump. Though the ZPR does not cause graviton excitement at this stage, it serves as a test to ensure the ZPR is capable of function at desired levels before the ignition stage.
3. **Ignition Stage:** Once stabilizer cores have reached their maximum stable energy level, the PPA initiates ignition, and power from the APU is used to create a superheated stream of high-energy particles suspended in plasma, to excite the chroma crystals within the drive's stabilizer cores to the point of quantum fluctuation. At this point, the stabilizer cores oscillate at a specific frequency in order to cause a phase shifting effect as desired of the JPU.
4. **Travel Stage:** Once a phase shift has occured, the stabilizer cores enter stabilizer mode, and oscillate at a constant frequency for the duration of the flight. Immediately after phase shift has completed, the ZPR begins excitement protocols, which excite bosons into becoming gravitons in a field around the vessel, which instantly begins to propel the craft along its original vector at superluminal speeds.
5. **Deceleration Stage:** When the jump begins to draw to its desired destination, the ZPR begins to slow the craft by manipulating the field of gravitons, until eventually the craft is decelerated to a safe sub-light equivalent speed
6. **Denitialization Stage:** Though the name for this stage is widely accepted, it is a misnomer, and does not denitialize anything. Instead, it is an ignition procedure of the Phasic Plug Array, similar to the first ignition procedure required to begin the jump, however in this case it is to end it. During this stage, the JPU tells the PPA switches particle streams, instead instead utilizting anti-particle rich "blank" plasma into the stabilizer cores. This causes the energy in the cores to increase rapidly, then slowly decrease as high energy particles annihilate each other. This causes stabilizing harmonics to slowly decrease at a constant rate.
7. **Re-entry Stage:** Instead of allowing destabilization to occure naturally and slowly re-enter the craft into realspace, the JPU times a second phase shift that will transport the vessel back into realspace. This uses all of the stabilizer core's remaining energy, and causes the chroma crystals within to revert back to a stable energy state. Though the crystals continue to oscillate at travel speed, they no longer possess the energy to cause an uncertainty bubble.
8. **Recharging Stage:** Once the jump has completed, and the craft is once more engaged in realspace, the JPU begins winding down running stabilizer cores to a stable stand-by speed or until entirely stopped, depending on already in-place readiness protocols. It is during this state that matter-cells for the ZPR are recharged and reloaded, and the PPA recharges its plasma field banks with ignition particles. At this point, the darksprint jump is considered complete, even though the DS drive is still active.
9. **Completion Stage:** Though at this point the darksprint jump has completed, this stage indicated a readiness state of the DS drive once all components have been fully recharged, reloaded, and reset, meaning the drive is ready to perform another jump. Depending on the length or complexity of the previous jump made, it can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 48 hours for the drive to reach this stage.

## Physics

When a ship jumps, it distorts the space around it and can damage other vessels or objects that are too close. Due to molecular interferance, using a DS Drive while in the atmosphere is extremely risky, and can cause major damage not only to the ship, but to the atmosphere, as the jump can cause even atmospheric oxygen to burn.

Navigation is very complex when using the drive. This is often done through the ship's supercomputer, as making such calculations manually is extremely complex and almost impossible. Speed, trajectory and jump duration must be carefully calculated before a successful jump can be made. Making a jump without these calculations can take the ship into dangerous locations such as asteroid belts, singularities, or a planet's atmosphere. Jump coordinates must be updated constantly to account for ship movement and stellar drift, and as such, DS beacons are often placed within the vacinity of any nearby major structures within State space that can be updated within any ships connected to the State's navigation network, and used to plot a safe jump to any pre-charted destination. Jumping to destinations without the aid of navigational beacons are known as "blind-jumps" and can lead to extremely dangerous conditions if proper precautions are not made to account for astronomical orbits, radiation, or the pull of gravity.

## Limitations

Vessels utilizing DS drives have a jump limit known as the "Red Line." Any ship making a jump across this line risks unknown navigational hazards, the of possibly running off course, or encountering stability fluctuation due to compound errors in the calculations.