Space Travel

Conventional Engines

The slowest means of travel: takes several months to reach the edges of any system. Often it’s far cheaper to ship goods via this slow but reliable system.

Hyperspace Lanes

The Starsmiths Guild and some Seeker Cult members map and maintain Hyperspace lanes. Ships with jump drives can enter these lanes, usually via large rings near the endpoints, though hotshot pilots and good engineers working together can do it anywhere along the path. From the outside, a ship in a lane looks like a shooting star. These lanes aren’t direct lines everywhere, so often you must catch a path heading towards your destination and exit midway. Ships then travel conventionally to the next entry point. Traveling across a system may require two dozen such stops.
Stations in these oases between lanes are common. Lane travel often cuts planet-to-planet travel down to days, and a journey to the system Gate to only a week. Often such between-lane stations have engines of their own, since lanes drift, and it behooves builders to move rest stops to compensate. They are also frequent targets of pirate raids and stops for Legion patrols.
Rumors persist of dark lanes, unmapped by the Guild, used by pirates, smugglers, and mystics. However, without clear demarcation, it’s unclear where they start and end, making them dangerous to traverse.

Jumpgates

The jumpgates are the only way to travel the vast gulfs between systems. Giant rings that are able to transmit even huge battleships, they stand fixed in space, uncaring about the rotations of the planets in the system. Folks often plan trips when their planet is closer to the gates, cutting down travel time and fees. Each jumpgate is a huge ring made of unknown material, with strange faces and forms carved throughout it.
Jumpgates have a periodic schedule of activation and are guarded by the Hegemony.