Jump Drive

The jump drive is the primary means of Faster-Than-Light travel in the Starlaunch setting.

History
The actual invention of the jump drive has been lost to history. Humans obtained the technology from the orgs, who had stolen it from the skog; the skog in turn were gifted the technology by the djachians. No one is certain where the djachians obtained it from, though experts agree they did not develop it. It may have been given to them by the enigmatic luw kar. In any event djachian records of early space flight were lost in the devastation of their homeworld in 2236 PC, and with them the origins of the technology within the known galaxy.

What is known is that the djachians were the earliest known species to use it, and it was in use by their people pre-cataclysm. Most known species can trace their use of the jump drive to them, either directly or indirectly. Notably, the various species of Hive Space did not obtain the technology from them, but instead acquired it from an unknown species within Hive Space. Due to the uncertain provenance of the drive, most scholars consider it a form of so-called Forerunner Technology, though there is no direct evidence to support this.

Functionality
The jump drive operates on very poorly understood principles, but is easily reproducible by species of an adequate level of technology.

Using a large input of power, the jump drive creates a harmonic resonance within the drive's resonance chamber. This charge is multiplied exponentially and projected through an emitter array, and, with the aid of computer calculations, projects an artificial wormhole to the desired destination. The ship then simply "falls" into the rift created and appears instantly at the destination.

The power necessary to project a stable rift increases drastically with distance, and the stress on the resonance chamber is extreme. As a result, most jump drives are limited to operating within a radius of a few parsecs or less. A standard jump drive requires roughly 24 hours to recharge after use before another jump can be attempted.

Generally, jump drives are classified with a letter rating based on the distance traveled per jump:
 * Class S: Class S drives are capable of jumps of up to 20 parsecs at a time. Very few vessels have such efficient engines.
 * Class A: Usually found only on the largest interstellar craft, Class A drives are often restricted to military use. They have a range of up to 15 parsecs.
 * Class B: Long range merchant craft often use Class B drives. They are defined as having a maximum range of less than 10 parsecs.
 * Class C: Most interstellar craft have this type of drive. A Class C drive can travel no more than 6 parsecs in a single jump.
 * Class D: Class D drives are common on civilian craft. They are limited to a range of 5 parsecs.
 * Class E: Class E drives are typically found on shuttles and other small vessels. They cannot jump farther than 4 parsecs.
 * Class F: The weakest drives, often used as backups on larger vessels. Class F drives cannot jump farther than around 3 parsecs.

Variants
Jump Gates are specialized jump drives built on a planet's surface. Jump gates require at least two nodes to function and are not programmable; each gate can only send a traveler to another linked gate. These are almost always constructed planetside and utilize very large power supplies and resonance chambers, and as a result, the nodes can often be arbitrarily distant.

Jump Rings are jump gates placed in orbit for use by starships. The engineering requirements to build and operate such a massive gate are beyond most known species, so these are almost always archaic structures.