Warp is the primary (and only know) form of faster-than-light travel. A warp drive utilizes an enormous amount of energy to bend space and time, allowing a vessel to "jumps" across a finite distance, crossing dozens or even hundreds of light-years in mere moments.
When a vessel finishes warping, the temporal rift destabilizes, unleashing an incredible amount of energy. This explosion is highly destructive, and necessitates that warp-out coordinates be precisely calculated (particularly when large fleets comprised of thousands of vessels are warping simultaneously) to avoid catastrophic accidents.
Characteristics and Limitations[]
- When a starship executes a warp jump, it appears to glow brightly before vanishing from sight.
- As the mass of an object increases, the amount of energy required to warp it increases exponentially.
- Vessels can only warp across a finite distance. There is likely both a minimum and a maximum limit, meaning it is possible to warp from star-to-star, provided the stars are within a certain range, but it is not possible to warp from one point inside a system to another point in that same system. For inter-solar flight, conventional ships make use of standard drive engines.
- Vessels can only warp while a certain distance away from intense gravitational wells: this means a fleet cannot warp-out directly on top of a planet or other large stellar body, and presumably requires individual ships in a fleet be spaced a certain distance away from each other while executing warp.