Interstellar Transportation Drive

Overview
The Interstellar Transportation Drive (also known as the I.T. Drive or I.T. Engine), is a very advanced piece of technology used by humanity and the Exohumans that allows travel throughout space at faster than light speeds. This drive enabled humanity to expand past their native solar system and visit other stars and planet, sparking the age of human colonization. It is widely believed to be the single most important achievement in human history as humanity would most likely still be trapped in the Sol System without it.

Creation
The I.T. Drive was proposed as a feasible technology in the latter 21st century, after a series of breakthroughs in the field of physics brought much more understanding to how this concept would work. Drive physics were being thought out and gradually worked through until WW3 broke out across Earth, which saw much of the planet devastated and severely set back the research on the drive. At the end of the long war, the UNC was created and the nations of Earth could finally come together permanently to continue working on the drive. By 2118, after almost half a century of continued research and 20 years of development of the actual technology, the I.T. Drive was announced to the public, although it brought a flood of doubt and disbelief. It was even met with fear, many had no idea of what the drive would actually do or if it would even work at all. Fears ranged from the creation of a massive black hole, to the ripping of space and time itself.

Early usage
Initial testing of the drive was utilized by three UNC colony ships in 2124, setting a course for the closest star system to Earth: Alpha Centauri. The entire human race watched the departure of the ships with held breath, and anxiously waited for updates and news of the ships' arrival. Constant communication (albeit lagged communication due to distance), was kept between UNC space research facilities on Earth and the small group of ships. Only 46 days later, the ships arrived in the system and subsequently discovered a terrestrial, earth-like planet later named Valde Suggero, becoming the first human colony outside of the Sol System. In the following years, humanity would dedicate enormous portions of money, resources, and people to reach other systems and colonize other planets, a feat solely contributed to the I.T. Drive.

Widespread use and Insurrection
By the mid 23rd century, the UNC had a large fleet consisting of thousands of ships of varying sizes, most equipped with I.T. Drives. With human territory encompassing dozens of colonies and star systems, the UNC was enjoying a long era of peace and prosperity as resources flooded in from the colonies. This peace was cut forever when the UNC broke into widespread conflict resulting in two breakaway factions: the ARC and the UMER, and with them went a large percentage of the UNC ships. Following this event, all three factions converted much of their fleets to warships, and I.T. Drives became larger and more efficient to complement the larger and more advanced ships. Eventually, the UNC won the technological arms race and the quality of their drives grew superior to the other factions, allowing UNC ships to travel distances much faster and giving them an edge in the Insurrection.

Modern use
Although today the UNC's colonization fleet is much smaller than it once was, all their ships still utilize the I.T. Drive for quick travel between star systems, furthermore, UN ships enjoy the fastest travel velocities of the three human factions, although the Exohumans now share this advantage due to their usage of UNC tech for their machines of war. Most of the interstellar travel in the UNC is now handled by ships of the UN Navy and Armored Corps due to the threat of the Exohumans, and colony ships rarely are allowed usage of unrestricted space travel. Many colony ships have actually had their I.T. Drives removed and re-purposed by the UNMC for use on warships, rather than manufacturing completely new drives for new ships.

Operation
The manner in which the I.T. Drive operated and transported a ship was once seen as impossible or highly implausible by humans, as recent as the latter 20th century and most of the 21st. However, near the end of the 21st century, there were a multitude of discoveries and scientific breakthroughs due to extended studying and exploration of the Sol System and larger, more in depth research projects on Earth. Humans realized the concept of the drive was not as complicated and impossible as previously thought, and billions were spent by multiple nations to bring the concept to life. This only increased after the UNC was created in 2083, with all of Earth joined together and the greatest minds united on one project. The basic principles of the drive are based on the Alcubierre Drive, a concept thought up by Miguel Alcubierre in the early 1990's. The drive would manipulate the very fabric of spacetime by means of dark energy, contracting space in front of a spacecraft and expanding space behind the craft which would move the ship at velocities once believed to be completely impossible, this way humanity could actually use space itself to "pull" the destination to the ship rather than the ship flying to the desired location. The ship would sit in a "bubble" of flat space surrounded by the warp, and would technically remain stationary throughout the trip, this way no laws of physics are broken and travelers inside the ship do not experience negative effects of FTL travel such as time dilation. UNC scientists and physicists achieved this concept by the I.T. Drive, which draws power from a ship's anti-matter reactor to interact with dark energy, in a way the drive "communicates" with space itself by the methods of the Heismann Concept proposed in 2058 by using a series of frequencies tuned to dark matter, this results in spacetime self-creating the necessary processes. Spacetime is then manipulated around the ship effectiveley casing it in a bubble of normal space, negating the need for the drive to do this job itself and saving massive amounts of energy. Spacetime is further shaped by the drive's frequencies to form a type of wormhole called a "warp tunnel", and by this point the bubble is drawn into the tunnel, taking the ship with it. Immediately when the ship is in the tunnel, the space around it undergoes the contraction and expansion needed, with the drive constantly regulating and directing the tunnel to the ship's destination. The drive is active for the entire trip, and even when the ship exits the tunnel at its arrival point, the drive keeps regulating space to prevent the tunnel and warp bubble collapse from having negative consequences on the ship and surrounding area.

Dangers
I.T. Drives are not without risks. Many anomalies and malfunctions have been observed in their history. The UNS Stranton, a UNC colonization ship, completely disappeared in 2186 due to a unknown problem with the ship's drive going critical and failing to properly direct the warp tunnel. To this day, the ship has not been found and all crew have been considered MIA. Drives have also been known to not work whatsoever, or to transport sections of a ship and even people to the ship's destination. Although, these more serious problems were only observed in the early history of the drive and improvements overtime have seen all problems disappear. In relation to these problems, I.T. Drives require extensive amounts of maintenance to remain at top functionality at all times, or else malfunctions with the drive are bound to happen. Starships keep a large number of technicians on board at all times to ensure the drive's upkeep. Drives are also very expensive to manufacture although the UNC and other factions keep large budgets to build them. The Exohumans are not bound by such limitations, as they place little importance on worker rights and finances, and are only limited by the amount of resources and time they have to build the devices, as is the case with their entire military. To even make warp jumps at all, a ship must fully charge its drive or else the process will not take place at all. Usually, when a ship is going into hot-zones or potentially hostile areas, the commander will leave the drive fully charged or a least halfway charged for when it requires a warp, although this is actually ill-advised by UNC scientists. When in combat, if a ship sustains damage to its fully charged drive the results could be catastrophic to the ship and a significant area around it. Explosions from a fully charged drive could release harmful particles and radiation, in addition to the unstable spacetime warp consuming anything close enough, such warp explosions have been observed in the early history of I.T. travel to reach anywhere from a couple hundred meters to several kilometers in diameter. In addition, leaving a drive fully charged for any longer than 24 standard Earth hours is considered extremely dangerous, in fact it is widely advised that drives should not go longer than even 15 EH on a full charge. Usually a ship commander will drain and re-direct power from drives if they are approaching the danger threshold, or will simply expend the charge on a short range jump.

Drive velocities
At first, velocities for the I.T. Drive were slow compared to modern velocities. it took 46 Earth days for the first I.T. capable human ships to reach Alpha Centauri, 4 light years away from Earth. As time went on and the UNC gained a more complete grasp on warp physics, they were able to greatly improve on the drives. Modern UN and Exohuman drives can reach speeds of 2 light years per 10 Earth hours. The drives of the other human factions are slower, and can reach About 1.6 light years in the time it takes UN drives to go 2. A UNC ship can reach The Raft, the furthest UN colony at 50 light years away, in just over 10 days.