Slipstream space: Difference between revisions
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While faster-than-light travel by nature is bound to generate chronological and causal paradoxes, 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. However, the range for causal reconciliation is limited and time dilation effects may occur if a ship performs a very long jump.<ref name="cryp135"/> The Forerunners prevented this by completing 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> Reconciliation was a major consideration for the Forerunners due to their routine galactic-scale travel. 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> | While faster-than-light travel by nature is bound to generate chronological and causal paradoxes, 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. However, the range for causal reconciliation is limited and time dilation effects may occur if a ship performs a very long jump.<ref name="cryp135"/> The Forerunners prevented this by completing 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> Reconciliation was a major consideration for the Forerunners due to their routine galactic-scale travel. 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> | ||
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, | 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 Halo Array,<ref>'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 223''</ref> or when the ''[[Audacity]]'' traveled to the satellite galaxy of [[Path Kethona]].<ref name="s60"/> | ||
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> | 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> | ||
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The Covenant have a very finely tuned version of slipspace technology, far superior to the human Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine. Instead of simply tearing a hole into slipspace, Covenant slipspace drives cut a very fine hole in the fabric of space-time and slips into slipspace with precision, much like a scalpel compared to a butcher knife. It exits with the same pinpoint accuracy, takes less time during travel, and is able to plot a course with error not exceeding an atom. This is why in battle Covenant ships are able to slip by human defenses by using slipspace.<ref name="fs86">'''Halo: First Strike''', ''page 86''</ref> It has also been theorized by the UNSC that Covenant drives generate several 'microjumps' within a single slipspace transition to measure dilation, allowing them to reach their destinations faster.<ref name="tug">'''Halo: First Strike''' (2010), ''[[Tug o' War]]''</ref> Standard Covenant tactics include using short slipstream jumps to gain positional advantage and surprise other ships, in addition to avoiding incoming ordnance. The Covenant's superiority in drive technology, combined with differing weapon and shield technology, allows a small number of Covenant ships to effectively engage a much larger UNSC force. Missiles, especially, can be defeated by a brief slipstream jump, as they cannot track through slipstream space. | The Covenant have a very finely tuned version of slipspace technology, far superior to the human Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine. Instead of simply tearing a hole into slipspace, Covenant slipspace drives cut a very fine hole in the fabric of space-time and slips into slipspace with precision, much like a scalpel compared to a butcher knife. It exits with the same pinpoint accuracy, takes less time during travel, and is able to plot a course with error not exceeding an atom. This is why in battle Covenant ships are able to slip by human defenses by using slipspace.<ref name="fs86">'''Halo: First Strike''', ''page 86''</ref> It has also been theorized by the UNSC that Covenant drives generate several 'microjumps' within a single slipspace transition to measure dilation, allowing them to reach their destinations faster.<ref name="tug">'''Halo: First Strike''' (2010), ''[[Tug o' War]]''</ref> Standard Covenant tactics include using short slipstream jumps to gain positional advantage and surprise other ships, in addition to avoiding incoming ordnance. The Covenant's superiority in drive technology, combined with differing weapon and shield technology, allows a small number of Covenant ships to effectively engage a much larger UNSC force. Missiles, especially, can be defeated by a brief slipstream jump, as they cannot track through slipstream space. | ||
The Forerunners' advanced slipspace technology | The Forerunners' advanced slipspace technology allowed them to perform smooth and ultraprecise transitions, enabling ships to reach their destinations with superior velocities, unerring accuracy and without the temporal anomalies commonly experienced by human ships.<ref name="ttw247">'''Halo: The Thursday War''', ''page 247''</ref> The restrictions on Forerunner slipspace travel had less to do with technology and more with the inherent nature of space-time which limited their slipspace travel by forcing them to take into account the effects of reconciliation and the overall space-time debt it accumulated.<ref name="s60"/> Forerunner slipspace drives used a form of [[Slipspace flake|crystal]] to control and stabilize their slipspace passages; forgoing these crystals would force them into much more chaotic and unpredictable transitions.<ref>'''Halo: Silentium''', ''page 105''</ref> | ||
===Navigation and precision=== | ===Navigation and precision=== | ||
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The Forerunners had developed a great deal of applications for the slipstream. These included the ability to create bubbles of slipstream space, in which the flow of time could be manipulated or stopped altogether while keeping the contents of the bubble either visible or invisible in normal space. The Forerunners were also capable of containing these bubbles of alternate space-time within one another.<ref>'''Halo: Glasslands''', ''pages 306, 311''</ref> These bubbles could be used to store considerable masses and volumes in slipspace stably for thousands of years and potentially for all of time, and to transition matter from normal space to the inside of a construct in slipstream space without requiring the construct to transition back to normal space. The same technology was utilized in [[slipspace field pod]]s that were essentially a Forerunner equivalent of [[cryo-chamber]]s, effectively preserving a living organism inside a slipspace field. Slipspace bubbles were also employed in a type of Forerunner prison cell in which the passage of time could be manipulated so that a period of a billion years would pass inside the field, while only seconds had transpired in normal space.<ref>'''Halo: Primordium''', ''page 366''</ref> | The Forerunners had developed a great deal of applications for the slipstream. These included the ability to create bubbles of slipstream space, in which the flow of time could be manipulated or stopped altogether while keeping the contents of the bubble either visible or invisible in normal space. The Forerunners were also capable of containing these bubbles of alternate space-time within one another.<ref>'''Halo: Glasslands''', ''pages 306, 311''</ref> These bubbles could be used to store considerable masses and volumes in slipspace stably for thousands of years and potentially for all of time, and to transition matter from normal space to the inside of a construct in slipstream space without requiring the construct to transition back to normal space. The same technology was utilized in [[slipspace field pod]]s that were essentially a Forerunner equivalent of [[cryo-chamber]]s, effectively preserving a living organism inside a slipspace field. Slipspace bubbles were also employed in a type of Forerunner prison cell in which the passage of time could be manipulated so that a period of a billion years would pass inside the field, while only seconds had transpired in normal space.<ref>'''Halo: Primordium''', ''page 366''</ref> | ||
In addition, the Forerunners had the ability to construct weapon systems that could fire into slipspace and affect targets in normal space or within slipspace. This is demonstrated by the [[Line installation]]s | In addition, the Forerunners had the ability to construct weapon systems that could fire into slipspace and affect targets in normal space or within slipspace. This is demonstrated by the [[Line installation]]s of the [[Maginot Line|Jat-Krula boundary]], which were capable of intercepting ships in slipspace.<ref name="blood">'''[[Halo: Blood Line]]''' - ''[[Halo: Blood Line Issue 1|Issue 1]]''</ref> The Forerunners were also able to send several objects into slipspace and have them exit in different locations through the use of a highly sophisticated network of [[slipspace portal]]s.<ref>'''[[Halo Legends]]''': ''[[Origins]]''</ref> The Forerunners were also capable of anchoring objects in normal space into place via slipspace conduits, as shown when the {{UNSCShip|Infinity}} was constrained over [[Requiem]] by an array of [[Requiem translocation artifacts|slipspace artifacts]].<ref name="Expendable">'''[[Spartan Ops]]''', [[S1/Expendable|S1E8 ''Expendable'']]</ref> | ||
==Similarities== | ==Similarities== | ||
