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===Reconciliation=== | ===Reconciliation=== | ||
[[File:H4-MantlesApproach-Shields.jpg|thumb|250px|''[[Mantle's Approach]]'' emerges from slipspace, engulfed in an aura of causal reconciliation.]] | [[File:H4-MantlesApproach-Shields.jpg|thumb|250px|''[[Mantle's Approach]]'' emerges from slipspace, engulfed in an aura of causal reconciliation.]] | ||
While faster-than-light travel is bound to generate chronological and causal paradoxes by nature, ships traveling through slipspace rely on a self-healing effect of space-time called reconciliation,<ref>'''Halo: Silentium''', ''page 62''</ref> more formally known as causal reconciliation<ref name="cryp322">'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 322''</ref> or particle reconciliation,<ref name="cryp135">'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 135''</ref> to eliminate any paradoxes that may otherwise occur. The | While faster-than-light travel is bound to generate chronological and causal paradoxes by nature, ships traveling through slipspace rely on a self-healing effect of space-time called reconciliation,<ref>'''Halo: Silentium''', ''page 62''</ref> more formally known as causal reconciliation<ref name="cryp322">'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 322''</ref> or particle reconciliation,<ref name="cryp135">'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 135''</ref> to eliminate any paradoxes that may otherwise occur. The severity of this effect, which scales in a nonlinear fashion, is determined by the amount of discrepancy in information transfer between locations, as well as strain on the local space-time brane, as opposed to the vessel's mass and the apparent length of the voyage alone.<ref name="Catalog17">[https://forums.halowaypoint.com/yaf_postsm2969317_Catalog-Interaction.aspx#post2969317 '''Halo Waypoint''': ''Catalog Interaction'' (post 2969317)]</ref> | ||
Reconciliation has a "budget" — extensive slipspace travel exerts strain on space-time on a large scale as causal paradoxes accrue a "debt". When these aftereffects build up, it can impede with, or in extreme cases, entirely halt other superluminal traffic and communication. Slipspace returns to its normal state as reconciliations are allowed to take effect, gradually causing the space-time debt to disappear into the quantum background.<ref name="s60"/> This effect is noticeable if large amounts of mass are transported over long distances frequently, slowing down slipspace travel throughout the galaxy and requiring ships to perform more individual jumps during a journey.<ref name="cryp266">'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 266''</ref> This was seen when [[Master Builder]] [[Faber]] used slipspace portals to transport the Halos,<ref>'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 223''</ref> or when the ''[[Audacity]]'' traveled to the | The Forerunners were forced to place significant importance on this phenomenon due to their routine galactic-scale travel. For example, reconciliation has a limited range and time dilation effects may occur if a ship performs a very long jump.<ref name="cryp135"/> The Forerunners prevented this by completing unusually long slipspace journeys in a number of individual jumps, allowing reconciliation to take effect between each.<ref name="s60">'''Halo: Silentium''', ''pages 60-61''</ref> Despite the limitations it placed on them, the Forerunners could also control reconciliation to an extent, enabling them to use its effects against their enemies, hampering and even cutting off their channels of slipspace travel.<ref>'''Halo: Primordium''', ''page 240''</ref> Early on in their history, the Forerunners used [[probability mirror|time-phased mirrors]] to reconcile space-time on a large scale.<ref>'''Halo: Silentium''', ''pages 110-111''</ref> | ||
Reconciliation has a "budget" — extensive slipspace travel exerts strain on space-time on a large scale as causal paradoxes accrue a "debt". When these aftereffects build up, it can impede with, or in extreme cases, entirely halt other superluminal traffic and [[Superluminal communications|communication]]. Slipspace returns to its normal state as reconciliations are allowed to take effect, gradually causing the space-time debt to disappear into the quantum background.<ref name="s60"/> This effect is noticeable if large amounts of mass are transported over long distances frequently, slowing down slipspace travel throughout the galaxy and requiring ships to perform more individual jumps during a journey.<ref name="cryp266">'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 266''</ref> This was seen when [[Master Builder]] [[Faber]] used slipspace portals to transport the Halos,<ref>'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 223''</ref> or when the ''[[Audacity]]'' traveled to the [[Large Magellanic Cloud]].<ref name="s60"/> The latter voyage demonstrates the nonlinear scaling of reconciliation: although physically shorter than the trip to the [[Ark]]s, for example, the other factors involved led to the journey being the most challenging one in the Forerunners' recent memory.<ref name="Catalog17"/> | |||
This effect works both forward ''and'' backward in the linear time of our universe: by the final weeks of the [[Forerunner-Flood war]], slipspace had already stabilized almost completely due to the galaxy-wide cessation of slipspace travel which would shortly follow with the activation of the Halo Array.<ref>'''Halo: Silentium''', ''pages 301''</ref> | |||
Reconciliation is briefly experienced once a ship returns to normal space, and manifests as a shimmering blue glow radiating out of the ship<ref>'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 312''</ref> and static electricity building up in the occupants' bodies;<ref name="cryp322"/> on extremely long jumps or in strained slipspace, the effects experienced by the occupants may by significantly more severe.<ref name="cryp322"/> With Forerunner ships, the effects of reconciliation are clearly noticeable for several seconds after a ship exits slipspace.<ref>'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''pages 100, 135, 266''</ref><ref group="note">Pre-''Halo 4'' media do not depict the telltale shimmer and distortion surrounding ships undergoing particle reconciliation. While the Doylist explanation is simply that the concept had not been added to the setting at the time, this may also have canonical implications. One may infer that reconciliation debt became a comparative non-issue after the time of the Forerunners; to wit, the spacefaring civilizations of the 26th century have fewer slipspace-capable vessels and other constructs than the Forerunners by several orders of magnitude. Despite this, several Covenant [[CRS-class light cruiser|light cruisers]] are seen experiencing causal reconciliation in ''Halo 4''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s campaign as they enter [[Requiem]]'s core; later, the [[Mantle's Approach|Didact's flagship]] is seen experiencing reconciliation, as are the Covenant dropships that have been traveling through slipspace under the larger ship's power. Strangely, {{UNSCship|Infinity}} is never seen experiencing this effect in ''Halo 4'' or in any subsequent works, despite greatly outmassing all known human and Covenant vessels with perhaps [[CSO-class supercarrier|one exception]].</ref> | Reconciliation is briefly experienced once a ship returns to normal space, and manifests as a shimmering blue glow radiating out of the ship<ref>'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 312''</ref> and static electricity building up in the occupants' bodies;<ref name="cryp322"/> on extremely long jumps or in strained slipspace, the effects experienced by the occupants may by significantly more severe.<ref name="cryp322"/> With Forerunner ships, the effects of reconciliation are clearly noticeable for several seconds after a ship exits slipspace.<ref>'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''pages 100, 135, 266''</ref><ref group="note">Pre-''Halo 4'' media do not depict the telltale shimmer and distortion surrounding ships undergoing particle reconciliation. While the Doylist explanation is simply that the concept had not been added to the setting at the time, this may also have canonical implications. One may infer that reconciliation debt became a comparative non-issue after the time of the Forerunners; to wit, the spacefaring civilizations of the 26th century have fewer slipspace-capable vessels and other constructs than the Forerunners by several orders of magnitude. Despite this, several Covenant [[CRS-class light cruiser|light cruisers]] are seen experiencing causal reconciliation in ''Halo 4''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s campaign as they enter [[Requiem]]'s core; later, the [[Mantle's Approach|Didact's flagship]] is seen experiencing reconciliation, as are the Covenant dropships that have been traveling through slipspace under the larger ship's power. Strangely, {{UNSCship|Infinity}} is never seen experiencing this effect in ''Halo 4'' or in any subsequent works, despite greatly outmassing all known human and Covenant vessels with perhaps [[CSO-class supercarrier|one exception]].</ref> | ||
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The [[Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine]] generates a resonance field, which when coupled with the unusual physics of the slipstream, allows for dramatically shorter transit times between stars. UNSC slipspace drives use particle accelerators to rip apart normal space-time by generating micro black holes. These holes are evaporated via [[Hawking radiation]] in nanoseconds. The real quantum mechanical marvel of the drive lies in how it manipulates these holes in space-time, squeezing vessels weighing thousands of tons into slipspace.<ref>'''Halo: Ghosts of Onyx''', ''page 53''</ref> It must be noted that the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine itself provides no motive power, and ships equipped with such a device still require conventional engines in order to move.<ref name="engines">'''Halo: Contact Harvest''', ''Chapter 1'', page 23''</ref> | The [[Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine]] generates a resonance field, which when coupled with the unusual physics of the slipstream, allows for dramatically shorter transit times between stars. UNSC slipspace drives use particle accelerators to rip apart normal space-time by generating micro black holes. These holes are evaporated via [[Hawking radiation]] in nanoseconds. The real quantum mechanical marvel of the drive lies in how it manipulates these holes in space-time, squeezing vessels weighing thousands of tons into slipspace.<ref>'''Halo: Ghosts of Onyx''', ''page 53''</ref> It must be noted that the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine itself provides no motive power, and ships equipped with such a device still require conventional engines in order to move.<ref name="engines">'''Halo: Contact Harvest''', ''Chapter 1'', page 23''</ref> | ||
Starships and their occupants are not directly exposed to the eleven-dimensional spacetime while moving through slipspace; instead, the ship is enveloped in a quantum field generated by the drive. The field acts as a medium between the ship and the higher dimensions, translating its presence as a normal-space object to the arcane physics of slipspace and enabling it to "squeeze through" the higher dimensions.<ref name="quantumfield">'''[[Dr. Halsey's personal journal]]''', ''December 25, 2534''</ref> This field requires an enormous amount of constant calculations to maintain, with the number of needed calculations increasing with the size of the ship. For example, the slipspace translations for a {{class|Phoenix|colony ship}} require 4.3 quadrillion calculations of the quantum field per second.<ref>'''Halo Wars: Genesis'''</ref> | Starships and their occupants are not directly exposed to the eleven-dimensional spacetime while moving through slipspace; instead, the ship is enveloped in a quantum field generated by the drive. The field acts as a medium between the ship and the higher dimensions, translating its presence as a normal-space object to the arcane physics of slipspace and enabling it to "squeeze through" the higher dimensions.<ref name="quantumfield">'''[[Dr. Halsey's personal journal]]''', ''December 25, 2534''</ref> This field requires an enormous amount of constant calculations to maintain, with the number of needed calculations increasing with the size of the ship. For example, the slipspace translations for a {{class|Phoenix|colony ship}} require 4.3 quadrillion calculations of the quantum field per second.<ref>'''Halo Wars: Genesis'''</ref> The vessel's mass is a noted consideration in the generation of this "buffer" as well as the energy expenditure of the drive in general.<ref name="Catalog17"/> | ||
Before jumping into slipspace, human ships must first reach a [[Safe Slipspace Entry Point]], or SSEP, where it can be ensured they will not drag anything from normal space into the slipstream as the ship initiates the transition.<ref>'''Halo: Contact Harvest''', ''page 34''</ref> In addition, star systems have specific slipstream space transfer points known as "[[interstellar jump point]]s", or IJPs, locations designated ideal for initiating a slipspace transition.<ref>[http://www.bungie.net/projects/reach/article.aspx?ucc=intel '''Bungie.net''' - ''Halo: Reach Project Page'']</ref> | Before jumping into slipspace, human ships must first reach a [[Safe Slipspace Entry Point]], or SSEP, where it can be ensured they will not drag anything from normal space into the slipstream as the ship initiates the transition.<ref>'''Halo: Contact Harvest''', ''page 34''</ref> In addition, star systems have specific slipstream space transfer points known as "[[interstellar jump point]]s", or IJPs, locations designated ideal for initiating a slipspace transition.<ref>[http://www.bungie.net/projects/reach/article.aspx?ucc=intel '''Bungie.net''' - ''Halo: Reach Project Page'']</ref> | ||