Post by Lighty on Jan 14, 2017 19:21:24 GMT
First developed in 2075, the first quantum drives enabled humanity to travel at 1% the speed of light. This enabled rapid exploration and colonization of Earth's solar system. However, anything beyond was still a life-time journey. It wasn't until 2214 that a second generation of quantum drives was developed, pushing the speed up to 10% the speed of light. Ongoing research and development over the centuries have pushed that number up to 20% the speed of light. This, however is still not fast enough for humanity to travel the galaxy in it's normal lifespan, and is where jump points come in. First discovered on accident, these space-born anomalies are best described as rips and tears in space, creating a tunnel between two points. Jump points allow for the near instant travel from one point to another, often spanning across multiple systems. Jump points are often the prized search for explorers, able to map out the path through the inter-space between two points, and selling that information for others to enter into their ship's computer for safer, automatic piloting through inter-space.