RIFTING & THE RIFT NETWORK

Rifting is the lateral compression of spacetime between two points in order to form a Rift Lane. In effect, it greatly reduces the distance relative to whatever is traveling along the Rift Lane’s length. There are two kinds of Rifting: Gated Rifting and Centralized Rifting. Gated Rifting- as it is called when a Rift Lane is tethered between two Rift Nexuses- is fastest and most dependable though it requires the Nova Array to operate. Centralized Rifting involves the creation of a Rift Lane between two entangled particles: one located within a ship’s Rift Splitter and another “spoofed” particle at any chosen point in space (the distance of course being limited by available power). Gated Rifting and Centralized Rifting are both necessary to access all known civilizations within the Elytrian Ecliptic.

Centralized Rifting allows most ships to travel up to 6 lightyears on a single charge (with some specialized vessels maxing out at 10). However, these distances are generally halved when traveling into uncivilized space as there needs to be enough power for the return trip.

Gated Rifting is a slightly different process. A Rift Lane is tethered between two Rift Nexuses where it is sustained in perpetuity so long as it has an uninterrupted power supply from the Nova Array. In this situation, a ship does not need to maintain its own Rift Lane as it does with a Centralized Rift. However, due to the extreme compression of spacetime, simply flying into a Rift Lane would tear a ship to pieces. As such, a ship’s Rift Splitter plays a different role when performing a Gated Rift. First, it uses stored energy to create a small bubble of NORMALLY compressed spacetime around the ship while it travels along the Rift Lane. Second, it creates a pocket of normally compressed spacetime within the Rift Nexus boundaries at the head of the Rift Lane, which allows it to effectively split into the Rift Lane (hence the name “Rift Splitter”). Spatial compression then increases to maximum compression within a gigameter or so.

        Attempting to enter or exit a Rift Lane without the aid of a Rift Splitter would result in either the ship getting obliterated upon an unassisted exit or exploded upon an unassisted entrance.  Rift Nexuses support ships with their entrance into a Rift Lane. Without that support, the force of rapid spatial compression would overwhelm a ship’s Rift Splitter and the ship would be destroyed.

After humanity created its first Rift Splitter, it assembled an expedition to venture off into the farthest reaches of the galaxy. With each 1st-generation power cell being capable of powering the Rift Splitter for  up to 4 lightyears, it was believed that an assembly of 500 power cells would power the Splitter for up to 2000 lightyears. However, as the ship entered into the Centralized Rift Lane, it simply came out the other side having traveled a distance just slightly greater than absolute zero.

                  Upon closer study, it was determined that energy stored within a power cell impacted the overall system in the same way that the ship’s mass did. They knew that the amount of power required to establish and maintain a Centralized Rift Lane increased exponentially in relation to the ship’s mass, but they didn’t believe that stored energy would have the same impact. With the ship’s mass and the power cells taken into account, the creation of its first Centralized Rift  Lane butted up against the ship’s fail-safes which decreased the length of a Rift Lane instead of drawing MORE power to sustain it. It’s unknown what would have happened without those fail safes.

                  Now, a Rift-capable ship is precisely designed and maintained to reach an equilibrium whereby it can maximize the distance it can travel in a Centralized Rift Lane with a power supply that wont decrease its efficiency.