Hyper-Train

Written by Sierra Brown.
Artwork by Sierra Brown.

A train consisting of a spacecraft dedicated to being the 'engine', capable of hauling a number of cargo pods and traveling along hyper-lanes. Ideal for mass transit/transport as it's more efficient that traditional cargo ships.

This bad boy can haul so many cargo pods. It's the latest, fastest, and most powerful model of hyper-train yet! The AJIHT-253 Bearclaw, complete with fully functional autopilot through the hyper-lane network!

— An enthusiastic hyper-train salesman.
He had a habit of slapping the side of the engine.

An invention of Arasik-Jovale Incorporated, hyper-trains are an assembly of a primary driving hyper-lane capable engine with a series of cargo pods attached. While these trains are slow and inefficient in standard space travel, their specially designed hyper-drive systems allow them to travel at high speed through Hyper-lanes. The nature of these lanes means trains do not have to worry about managing directional changes - The current of an active jump guides each cargo pod along with the engine. This, combined with the modular setup of attaching as few or as many cargo pods as you need, has made hyper-trains the most popular choice for mass transit and shipments throughout the Sol Empire. The concept of hyper-trains has even recently begun to spread into the Sol-Lassi and Katar tribes of the Sionian Republic.

Discovery

While trains are far from a new concept, the idea of creating trains in space has always been considered a wasted effort. The Solus-Sionian joint corporation, Arasik-Jovale Incorporated, however, found some value in the idea. AJI took a tug freighter, removed everything except the hyper drive, engines, and life support systems, and connected it to a series of cargo pods and sent it off to the Sol-Lassi border. While the results of this first experiment were far from astonishing, they were promising. After many years of further experimentation and fine tuning, Arasik-Jovale announced the release of their first commercially available model of hyper-train in 248 AU: The AJIHT-248 "A.J.".

This model consisted of a primary driving engine and four specially designed cargo pods that would chain up to the engine in sequence. The engine was a spacecraft dedicated to the hyper-drive engine that would propel the train through hyper-lanes, with just enough standard engine thrust to maneuver the assembly between loading bays and the nearest lane entry point.

Table of Contents

Inventor(s)

Invented by Arasik-Jovale Incorporated in 248 AU.

Access & Availability

Commonplace in the Sol Empire. Imported, expensive, but slowly becoming common in the Republic of Sion's Katar and Sol-Lassi tribes.