Hyperspace Towers

In the Sprawlverse one of the most important things to understand is the hyperspace tower. Prospectors use them primarily but their influence on the galaxy is undeniable. It has created a clustered situation, where massive towering megastructures are dominating the skylines and a sense of freedom is achieved through a cheaper means of FTL than warp travel. One that is mediated through the access of different branes which are countless in number. As a result. a specific brane needs to be attuned to with a hyperdrive and the synchronizing impact of a hyperspace tower.

The hyperspace tower is general is 10–20 km in height, at times even higher as the purpose is that it reaches a geosynchronous orbit like with any space tower structure. They often get placed on moons or tidally locked planets due to the stability tidal locking provides for that geosynchronous orbital pattern. Their construction has numerous specialized conduits running through them with the intended purpose of generating the synchronizing mechanism which is encased at the highest point of the tower where a microgravity environment and the frequency utilized are established.

The neck of the tower running down to the surface in effect is an extremely high throughput power relay as wireless transmissions do not really prove effective and the need to have a stabilized system that is very defensible led to the tower formulation. Additionally, it is an easier “anchor” for the hyperspatial penetration that the tower does and it is quicker to offload the hard data signatures to transfer to hyperdrive manufacturers to have support for the channel.

The security of hyperspace towers often has been notoriously shaky regardless due to how even with hard data signatures there is still potential for unauthorized usage from hijackers.

Hyperspace factors

The number used to determine the difference of movement between volumetric and hyperspace is based around a multiplier called the hyperspace factor which is usually stated in terms of 10x or 17x and so forth. 0.5x would be a hyperspace realm where travel is slower relative to volumetric space while 2x is a hyperspace realm where you travel twice the distance in volumetric space for any given distance in volumetric space.

Hyperspace Tower Energy requirements

Hyperspace Towers are massive power hogs, for that reason they aren’t regularly constructed. The scale of the towers does not appear to change the rate at which hyperspace propagates in volumetric, but the rate at which hyperspace travel is achieved is controlled by the power throughput. High energy throughput is needed to create different “scales” of hyperspace propagation. Slower/faster waves of a hyperspace realm may exist from inconsistent throughput as a result, of which is generally not desirable to the point constant throughput is usually preferred over increasing it. Of which leads to huge startup costs as the need to have strong propagation for a hyperspace tower is how one gets more usage as more rapid factors for hyperspace travel are preferred when possible.

Hyperdrive Precision Issues

Hyperdrives are like warp drives in that they shift states they enter, but unlike warp drives once in the hyperspace changing trajectory is possible. Hyperdrives do however, share the gravity well sensitivity of warp drives except that unlike warp drives with a more deterministic entry/exit barrier on gravity wells, hyperdrives are much more chaotic on their re-insertion into volumetric space to the point accident risks are high and heuristic re-insertion methods have to be deployed to minimize reentry with infrastructure made where whole AU sized sectors in a system may be dedicated as entry sectors for hyperspace travelers. The chaos issue has complicated attempts to weaponize hyperspace, as has the blindness problem hyperspace often has. Getting more precise re-entry is achievable with better technology in theory, but prospect spacer tech has not achieved such capabilities even with the Ikeitan attempts to get such tech due to their pursuit of a hyperdrive RKM.

Hyperdrive Weaponization

Trying to weaponize hyperspace occurred the same year the first hyperspace tower was completed, which was nearly two thousand years before the present Sprawlverse year of 2740 AD. However it isn’t easy to weaponize hyperspace because precision complicates matters. Using missiles relies on a missile with a hyperdrive installed which inserts themselves into a local space and accelerates at the pinpointed target. As such missiles are expensive, they don’t get often used despite the surprise potential such missiles would have. As is, warp fragging is very hard with hyperspace due to the precision issues, as a result mines and missiles/drones are used for weaponized hyperspace tech instead with the chaos of unpredictable entry being used a shock tactic by those who seek to weaponize hyperspace. Of which includes every major prospect spacer civilization of note. Thankfully for humans, no such hyperspace realms exist in human dominated spaces where such tactics may be used.

Hyperspace radio systems

When it comes to hyperspace, there is FTL communication and a ‘radio’ streamed from hyperspace conduit structures has allowed for a vast, overwhelming mediascape full of propaganda and dangerous memetics. Otherwise it is a great advancement of expression and communication in what is a vast, overwhelming galaxy that has connected countless species and worlds.

Hyperspace in many regards works on the radio tower analogy, where its volumetric coverage is based on the distance of the synchronizing megatower hosting the hyperspace conduit. Hyperdrives not in the right parts of space or hyperspace cannot shift between volumetric and hyperspace. They get stuck until coverage can be re-established by entering the proper range of the hyperspace tower or otherwise wait for propagation of the tower’s transmissions to reach their desired location.

Stake Claiming Implications
The dynamic implications of hyperspace propagation affect stakeclaiming dynamics. That is because stakeclaims on systems can at times be based on vessels pinpointing a system ahead of where the hyperspace realm’s coverage currently has reached and shift to volumetric space at the most immediate possible time they can access the volumetric space.

Hard Data

What is meant by hard data is in effect the concept of a storage system which attunes access of the hyperdrive to its correct hyperspace channel, without such attuning a hyperdrive ends up being unable to pinpoint the proper brane and ends up failing to access any space. The implications of which often means the hyperdrive breaks down. There are numerous circumstances where one ends up finding hyperdrive life a challenging one, even with the convenience of a personal spaceship in mind. For one still has to deal with the other vessels which crowd a widespread hyperspace and the numerous subcultures that come to fester in the hyperspace over the centuries as what was once a serene, pristine void gets cluttered by the activities of rancorous beings.