I won't post the 1-page, rather involved timeline, but how'm I doing on imaginary technology so far? Eventually, I'm going to use this, either in an FSF or an EOC campaign, and I'm just wondering how feasible it is to everyone else:
Wormhole Generator:
Unlimited-range, highly advanced device, generates a "tear" in space (better described as a bubble of the destinationspace), which, upon entry and closure of the wormhole, allows instant transportation to anywhere in the universe. Unfortunately, existing wormhole technology cannot be fitted into anything smaller than a midsize capital ship due to power and gravitic requirements, and any wormhole jump into comletely unknown territory is potentially lethal- opening up a wormhole into a sun or largish asteroid can destroy the generator ship. Large, immobile generator stations link most of the former Imperial systems to the rest of the universe for the benefit of smaller or unfitted vessels.
Energized Sublight Systems
Used for short "jumps" by those vessels incapable of sustaining a wormhole generator, sublight drives partially break down a vessel into its component subatomic parts and propels it forward for a fraction of a nanosecond at the speed of light, after which the ship is reformed into its matter form, only to repeat the process almost immediately. While this is a very fast and effective way to propel small ships fair distances, it requires enough power to make its use somewhat inconvienient for those vessels with small reactors (and impossible for most nonfusion ships), and the ship's rapid transit between energy and matter makes it extremely vulnerable to attack, particularly by Particle Accelerator weapons.
It should also be noted that, due to the incredible speeds and time compression involved in using the ESS, all sublight travel is controlled automatically, with the pilot setting a destination coordinate and engaging the drive, and a computer controlling movement from there. Theoretically, it is possible to track vessels through sublight by reading off of navigation computer signals, and it is already a favored tactic of renegades to attack this nav computer and thus cause pilots to jump out of control. There is rarely any risk involved in this to fighter pilots, though, since as no mere 50-G rated support seat can protect against the violent shock of being torn into ones component protons and electrons, most veteran pilots would sooner stand alone against an army of several dozen ships than experience the 'discomfort' of sublight.
Particle Accelerator
The first usage of particle acceleration technology was seen in the development of specialized rebel Dispel Rockets during the fall of the Imperium. Simply put, a well-timed Dispel burst could scatter the particles of a ship traveling in sublight, utterly destroying it in a single shot. Later, particle accelerators were recognized for their mass driving potentials and adopted into the Wasp and Gadfly classes. Meanwhile, Dispel Rockets and related anti-sublight technologies all but dissapeared as per the arms treaty contained in the Post-Earth Agreement, which also banned usage of chain-reaction fusion bombs (a provision discarded by no determined date during the IC's rise to power) and biological superweapons (discarded roughly 2385). Dispel Rockets are rumored to remain in some renegade group arsenals, however.
Fusion Power
Midway through the 21st century, mankind perfected the device that secured humanity’s place in space: the fusion power plant. These complex machines were capable of producing an almost infinite supply of power from the very materials most common in the universe- even in the vacuum of stellar space, there was enough “free” hydrogen to keep a fusion plant operational forever. The incredible energies fusion could produce paved the way for every space-based technology to come afterward, and it seemed that for the first time in history, all of humanity would have full access to the supplies needed for a comfortable life. Unfortunately, it was not to be. While fusion power was clean, efficient, and easy to supply, there was no way to dampen its energy production. Fusion power plants produced amounts of heat paralleling those inside stars, far too much to safely build one on a planet. When properly constructed, fusion plants could take advantage of the near-absolute-zero temperatures of space to prevent themselves from instantly melting down, but there was no efficient way to transmit the power they produced from space down to a planet’s surface, and the cost of even the simplest method was so prohibitive that it would bankrupt most of the Earth’s nations. Thus, fusion power failed to become the solution to the global struggle for rapidly vanishing fuel resources that it was hoped to be, and merely enabled it to become a galactic one.
At some indeterminate point during the Imperial wars of the mid-23rd century, the chain-reaction fusion bomb was developed simultaneously by scientists on Earth and in the Imperial Rim. Simply put, these weapons caused a wide-reaching, near-instantaneous chain reaction with all the available hydrogen nearby, causing it to fuse in a massive fireball resembling a short-lived star, vaporizing everything for several thousand miles around it and generating enough heat and force to destroy any nearby celestial bodies completely. Perhaps not surprisingly, these weapons were put to use almost immediately upon discovery, in a surprise attack on the heart of the Earth Imperium, Earth itself. The planet, the myriad space stations orbiting it, and the assaulting fleet were completely obliterated. Four hours later, the staggering Imperium responded in kind with an enormous all-out attack on the rebel fronts. A coordinated assault that had been in planning for months was carried out on the three rebel Core systems: Arcturus, Procyon, and Delta Lupi. The Arcturan assault was turned back in one of the bloodiest battles the galaxy would ever see, more by the rebels’ good fortune than anything else; the Procyon and Delta Lupi defenders were not so lucky. Fusion bombs were detonated in the atmospheres of the most influential worlds in both systems, and the Imperial armies fled back to their home stars to battle amongst themselves for supremacy. In one day, 26 billion people, a third of the Galaxy’s population, had been killed. Fusion bombs were not used again for more than a hundred years.
