Alcubierre Engine

Written by Mirrond

Alcubierre technology can be used to construct both STL Engines and FTL Drives, however the severity of the construction differences between them means they can't be used interchangeably. The mechanism behind the propulsion is the same, however. Alcubierre Engine curves the space before the ship, making the space travel rather than the ship.
As FTL Drive it is far behind Hyperspace Drive, however as STL it far outmatches the Chemical and Ion-plasma Engines. Allowing much faster acceleration. Disadvantages? Very big, with absurd energy requirement, and you still require another STL Engine to use near planets, since spatial disruption within planetary orbit is... dangerous. For now it is a very rare type of engine, which won't change before somebody figures out a way to make it smaller.