[Inaius] Encyclopædia Machina - The Official Guide

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Hello! And thank you for choosing this holobook! Displayed before your ocular organs (in whatever form they may be) is the first - and only - guidebook published and endorsed by the Machinus Guardianship and the Astronomical Survey. While we maintain many yottabytes of information within the Datasystem, it has so far proven impossible for organic beings to interface with the complex computing mechanisms required to be able to read that data as anything more than random alphanumeric drivel, should they even be able to interact with it in the first place. This volume will change that. With the First Edition of the Encyclopædia Machina, the Machinus Guardianship hopes to extend some of the knowledge that has made us so successful, and share it with other beings hitherto unable to access our vast trove of data. While it is nowhere near a complete transcription of the Datasystem, it should be sufficient to serve as a cursory guide to our domain. We thank you for your interest, and hope you enjoy your sojourn of knowledge-collection.

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Index
Overview
Technology
Spacecraft Propulsion
....FTL
....Sublight Engines

[Damn this ancient technology, it's impossible to organize anything in any logical order. It's all chronological. -K4]
[And there's no way I could ever get the archivists to note everything in the order needed. I suppose a linked index will have to suffice. -C]

[So, are we just going to leave these notes laying around? -K4]
[I guess. The document's already live, even in its incomplete state. Not that I can really get the archivists to do anything about it. -C]
[Maybe you should add a note then, try to excuse ourselves? -K4]
[That may be the only good idea you've ever had. -C]

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It is not always easy to catalog everything and to keep all existing articles updated, even with the immense resources and processor power available to us. Some articles may not be fully complete, or may even just be stubs with placeholder text as a temporary measure while we work to document everything in a manner intelligible to organic beings. The Astronomical Survey apologizes for any inconvenience this may cause.

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OOC Note: This is not an RP in the traditional sense, nor is it an OOC factbook thread, rather it is a thread for posting pieces of worldbuilding written from the IC-perspective of the Machinus Astronomical Survey. I ask that people thus don't clutter this thread up with discussion, or characters reading the guide; that's not what this is about. Your understanding would be most appreciated.

FTL
The letters 'FTL' are a common abbreviation of the term 'Faster Than Light'. It has come to be a catch-all term for any means of transporting matter, energy or information from one place to another much sooner than light could travel between those points with respect to time. From a technical perspective, it is a misnomer, as it is physically impossible for anything to travel faster than the speed of light in a vacuum, with the exception of a handful of exotic particle types. All FTL transport in the Machinus works by warping spacetime in such a way as to displace objects extreme distances at extreme 'speeds' without actually 'moving' them in a manner that violates the principles of physics.

FTL travel poses a particular problem for the Machinus given our unique externally centralized means of storing and processing individuals. Any means of travel must allow a constant quantum teleportation communications link to a Mind World^[1] or a ship-borne central brain unit; if this connection is broken, the Machina units within the ship will cease to function for the duration of travel, and are unable to reconnect without specialized equipment. This thus precludes the use of other dimensions or similar means for travel by Machina units; any faster-than-light travel will thus need to remain in some form of realspace in order to remain viable as a primary means of travel.

With these constraints in mind, the Machinus have developed four primary means of FTL-travel: the aptly-named Warp Engine, the dimension-crossing Spaceripper (used only by autonomous drones due to aforementioned QTC link problems), and the massive station-based Skyrail and Railshot. Further details on these systems are to be found below.

[To be, or not to be a misnomer. That is the question. -K4]
[Whether 'tis nobler in the mind-unit to suffer the slings and arrows of allowing it to stand, or to take arms against a galaxy of misidentifications... -C]
[Would you two morons stop graffiti-ing my article already?! Your take on ancient poetry is no better! -Writer 02351291]

Warp Engine
Compared to its fancifully-named compatriot systems, Warp Engine is a very boring name, but it is quite descriptive as to its method of operation. It is also the oldest system on the roster, having first been built while the refugees that would become the Machinus were still aboard the generation ships; if it wasn't for the Warp Engine, we would still be languishing in centuries-old cans stuck in deep space.^[2] To this day, modernized versions of the Warp Engine are still among the most common means of Machinus FTL travel; every manned ship has one, and many have two or even three in case one fails. Although it is relatively slow for long voyages, it can be used anywhere, even in atmosphere, although this is dangerous and strongly discouraged.

The Warp Engine works by bending spacetime around the ship so as to form a 'bubble' of realspace; it then displaces that bubble through space, with faster displacements requiring more energy input. Tiny ships with huge power-to-mass ratios can make jumps across Machinus space in a just a week, as can the largest ships with the most efficient reactors available; mid-sized ships however, with their lower power-to-mass ratios and inability to mount the larger reactors, may take several months to do the same, and require over 24 hours to reach even the closest neighbouring star system. To some this may be blisteringly fast, but to the Machinus, keenly aware of much faster methods of travel that remain unusable to us as we are, it is aggravatingly slow.

Since the invention of the Skyrail the Warp Engine has begun to take more of a backseat role for interstellar travel, where the advantages of being able to cross many lightyears in mere seconds has become readily apparent. While the military and Astronomical Survey still make extensive use of it as there are no Skyrails beyond Machinus space, it has fallen out of favour on major shipping lanes; a direct Warp Engine jump between two neighbouring stars is slower than even a multi-leg Skyrail trip. As such, the primary use of the Warp Engine among civilians is as a quick means of flying between bodies in a stellar system, or on trips to backwater systems that have yet to receive a Skyrail connection; secondarily, they are used as backups should an entire Skyrail corridor be put out of action. Nevertheless, it remains an essential piece of equipment, one that the Machinus simply could not have prospered without.

Skyrail
The Skyrail gained its name for its method of action, which is functionally similar to a massive railway line in the sky, and because the term "Warp Field Mass Acceleration Station" never gained traction in the general populace. While the Warp Engine may be the workhorse of the Machinus, the Skyrails are the true backbone of our infrastructure, as its invention reduced interstellar travel times from days to mere seconds. The utility of this should be fairly obvious; shipping and passenger transport between Machinus worlds has increased tenfold since the 'rails first came online.

The Skyrail itself is not a drive component within a ship; instead, it is a pair of massive space stations, the largest of which are 60 km in length. Each station is located at the ends of a route through which traffic will be routed - usually this is in two different star systems. The Skyrail system work on similar principles to the Warp Engine; it bends spacetime to form a bubble of realspace around a ship. This is where the similarities end however. Rather than displacing a bubble through space, the Skyrails form warp corridors though which 'bubbled' ships can be sent at extreme relative velocities; the effect is somewhat similar to a wormhole. At one end the Skyrail station bubbles and launches the ship to be transported, and at the other end the rail there 'catches' the ship as it exits the warp corridor, and opens the bubble, allowing the ship to continue its journey after a trip of no more than a few seconds.

The Skyrail network in Machinus space is fairly extensive, but the network still resembles a web with hubs and spokes more than it does a grid, and there remain many systems that don't even have any Skyrail connection where traffic is not yet great enough to warrant one; as each station is so massive and complex, building the network quickly is a massive strain on Machinus resources. Despite this, smaller Skyrails with some stations no larger than a few hundred meters, have become common in densely-developed systems for fast transportation between planets and rail hubs, as it is much easier to build a small rail than a massive interstellar class station.

Because they rely on similar principles, it is possible to modify a ships Warp Engine so that it can break itself out of a warp corridor while it is in transit. This however requires extremely precise calculations and timing, as a difference of even a microsecond can throw a ship millions of kilometers away from its intended drop point. While not strictly illegal when adequate notification is given, this manoever is discouraged and disliked by rail authorities, and is a severe criminal offence when done without notifying the proper authorities.

Railshot
The Railshot is, as its name implies, derived from the Skyrail, using a rail station as a slingshot to hurl ships extreme distances with no requirement for a base station.

Spaceripper


Sublight Engines


[This is turning out to be rather long... -Writer 02351291]
[It's your job. A vague encyclopedia is of no use to anyone. -C]

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Notes
[1] See entry on the Machinus species for more details.
[2] See entry on the History of the Machinus for further details of the Warp Engine's effect on our society.ociety.[/small]

[Placeholder for a technology or other post, hopefully coming soon]

[This time around, I've brought in a guest writer to give a quick overview of Machinus rangers, those among us who've abandoned the safety of a planetary life and mindserver to heed the call to duty. Or just money, if that's their thing. It's not the exact type of content we typically publish, but I figure it's a good enough overview, since if you live in another empire and meet a Machinus persona, chances are you've met one of these guys. -C]
[Thanks for the opportunity C. I'm not usually one of the encyclopaedia authors, but I heard Mr. numbers there was interested in our troops and the philosophy of mortality. Figured I'd throw something together to show the rest of you how the other side lives, though I'll give you a light overview to start. Not like I can do anything else while the Promethean is stuck in skydock anyways. -Rg]
[Number is 02351291. Friggin nostalgists always have to name everything. -Writer 02351291]
[You say that like you aren't the least memorable of the 100 million sequences there. -K4]
Death has not been a common part of Machinus society for centuries. When people on Tellus first started replacing vulnerable flesh with cybernetics, some believed that a revolution in the human experience was about to take place, where concepts like disease, aging and mortality would be dispensed with. They were right. And while the rest of Tellus never appreciated their advancements, the Machinus movement eventually flourished in the Orbis system and beyond. As primitive prosthetics gave way to mindservers and quantum links, the prospect of death drifted further and further away. For people now used to guaranteed centuries or even millennia of existence, the prospect of death became ever more terrifying. Even as the consequences of such “dangerous” activities as jumping from the tallest mountain in the Bekker system without a landing pack were reduced to a minor nuisance, the prospect of simply blinking out of existence became unthinkable. Unfortunately, there are tasks for which the time distortion and latency caused by keeping mindervers a safe few lightyears away is impossible to handle, so they must be taken along for the trip. For the majority involved in peaceful activities, the idea of having to bring one’s mindserver into danger is unfathomable, but there are those for whom the calls of duty and adventure ring louder than the whispers of death. These are the ones who will travel to the darkest depths of space, and engage in the closest encounters with the End, all in the name of service, and occasionally of profit. Though few in number, their accomplishments are celebrated throughout Machinus space; at home, they are held with a degree of awe and reverence, and sometimes scorn. Untied from any one planet or system, some have taken to calling themselves rangers, in reference to both their mobile nature and the duties to society that led them to take up the occupation in the face of a mortality that most have simply forgotten.

While there are various factions and groups that may call themselves rangers, the three most common occupations are that of the surveyor, soldier, and wayfarer.

Surveyors are those members of the Astronomical Survey manning the ships sent to explore, chart, and study new star systems, and contact alien polities. Their work is among the most celebrated and important in Machinus society, charting new worlds and establishing new relations at the fringes of the sector and beyond. Their long voyages often take them across distorted spacetime fields that can induce severe lag in quantum links as the distance increases, meaning they almost always need to bring their mindservers with them and take their lives into their hands. It is rare for a survey crew to be lost on a mission, but when they are, the loss is felt throughout Machinus space.

Soldiers are, as the title implies, those serving in front-line forces of the military. Most are grouped under the overall Machinus Defence Forces banner, although there are some specialised roles as well. While most combat is undertaken by drones, there are occasions where a sentient intelligence is required to fight or direct, possibly far away from any Machinus outposts. With the long distances required, those sentient soldiers need to bring their mindservers with them, as any latency or lag could spell disaster in the heat of battle. While the idea of bringing your lives with you to fight and take other lives is baffling or even repulsive to many in the Machinus, our history on Tellus and the hostile galaxy in which we live has led to it being accepted as a necessity. Those who do take up the call do so with a sense of duty and honour that most other empires’ recruits could never hope to aspire to.

There are a few words to describe the last category, and not all of them positive: vagabonds, vagrants, drifters, and shifters, to name a few; the title that most of them prefer however is that of Maverick, or more commonly, Wayfarer. Wayfarers, in contrast to the other two occupations, are a less organised and defined group. They comprise the small but proud numbers of adventurers, traders and explorers who literally take their lives into their own hands and strike out across the sector without direction from any overhead organisation. They will usually fly a small ship, either alone or with a small crew, and use that ship to cross the galaxy in search of rare commodities to collect, discoveries to find, or even just a good fight to be had for an appropriate paycheque. This independent lifestyle necessitates that they bring their personal mindservers with them on the trip; they will not help if the ship is destroyed, but they may provide some insurance against any unfortunate mishaps in person. There are some wayfarers that dispense with even this veneer of protection, and instead replace the quantum link and separate server with a hardwired connection all in their personal frame; with no link to worry about, they are free to use other, faster FTL drive designs that would sever a quantum link if used. To tread so close to mortality simply in search of adventure and wealth is regarded as downright insane by many, even among the ranks of soldiers and surveyors. It is however much more difficult to argue against the resources and data they return with, and so most, perhaps begrudgingly, accept that the wayfarers have their place in Machinus society as well.

[So how's that for an introduction? Not many details, but it covers stuff I figure most outsiders wouldn't have guessed.- Rg]
[Looks good, maybe a bit outside our usual style and neutrality but it works. If you want to write more, I could set you up as a contributor, just let me know. -C]
[Thanks for the offer, I'll keep that in mind. If I get sent out again I could still upload over the linknet, it's not like text needs sub-femtosecond ping anyways. -Rg.]
[Am I the only one that treats this encyclopaedia like the serious and important project it is, and not some ego writing space? -Writer 02351291]
[Seems like you're the one doing that to me. You're allowed to relax you know. -K4]