Valkyrie Engine

Mechanics & Inner Workings

While the specifics of how a Valkyrie Engine works are complicated to explain, it suffices to say that by using an anti-mass core, which is concentrated matter with negative mass, an engine can cause the entire spaceship to enter a state in which it can be pulled along the Space Currents.
The speed at which a ship travels through the Space Currents depends on how much of the negative mass matter is used. It can be nigh-instantaneous, or take hours or days, with the longest travels amounting to weeks.

History

John Renalt and Vera Arkadeev

The Valkyrie Engine was a joint creation of solar explorer John Renalt and his paramour Vera Arkadeev. Renalt discovered that under certain factors, an object could have negative mass, which converted its potential energy to superluminal kinetic energy - and it drew it to the Space Currents, threads that connect solar systems to one another like cables.
Renalt and Arkadeev used the first Valkyrie Engine to visit Sirius, which they spent an year exploring before returning back on Earth with their findings.

Government Use

Immediately after Renalt brought back his findings and proof of his travel, governments on Earth wanted to buy the patent. It is unknown what made Renalt decide not to patent the Valkyrie engine itself, but he published the schematic on the internet and anyone could recreate the mechanisms shown.
Because of this, the richest organizations on Earth had a head-start in the colonization, with the Roman Catholic Church launching a rogue colony, unsupervised by Earth.

Constantinopole Disaster

In 2411, the United Conglomerate Fleet answered a distress call from Constantinopole, an important trading planet which was besieged by pirates. All at once, Valkyrie Engines were activated and the ships poured into the system.
This started a chain reaction that overloaded the Space Currents in the area, causing the star Constantinopole orbited to explode, taking everyone and everything with it. The casualties measured almost 1 billion people.

Later Use

After the Constantinopole disaster, it was unanimously decide to reduce the ships that could have Valkyrie Engines. Anything smaller than a frigate was banned from using an Engine. Interplanetary transports that could fit in tens of smaller ships and thousands of people became the norm.

Significance

The cultural significance of the Valkyrie Engine is immense. Its invention meant that humanity was no longer bound to Earth and could begin an era of complete space exploration. Because of this, John Renalt and Vera Arkadeev are seen as key figures of the society, heroes and visionaries - regarded as highly as Albert Einstein, Mahatma Ghandi or George Washington

Item type

Mechanical

Creation Date

2128

Rarity

The Valkyrie Engine is ubiqutous in the Known Space. Almost every ship capable of spaceflight posseses one. The smallest in-system haulers do not, but they don't need it.
After their invention, the gradual miniaturization of the devices made sure they could be fit in a put-together heap of junk and thrown into space, to brave the interplanetary void.

Weight

Anywhere between 400 kilograms a 1 ton

Dimensions

cca. 5x3m

Base Price

Cheapest priced at 5000 Standard Conglomerate Credits