Despite the vast space humanity has settled, galactic citizens expect fast and reliable transportation to any destination in any system. As a result, vehicles restricted to the muddy earth are obsolete. The Fusion Age introduced directed thrust engines and flying cars, and 26th-century gravitics provide an elegant alternative: sleek skycars gliding on the invisible waves of gravity.

The physics behind this fraal technology are well understood; gravity induction engines generate an artificial curve in space. In essence, the engine tricks space into believing that a very large object lies in front of a vessel, and so it naturally falls forward. Sports coupes fill the skyways, enjoying a velocity of thousands of kilometers per hour. Family sedans zoom through the atmosphere, carrying passengers anywhere on a planet. Expert piloting systems protect even unskilled drivers from accidents.

Between planets, travelers on a budget often choose commercial system liners. These commercial liners may accommodate a dozen comfortable first-class passengers or 400 cramped passengers in economy seating. Sometimes referred to as 'Planet buses,' the best liners offer transportation across a sys- tem for as a little as a few hundred Concord dollars ($). Of course, what economy travel gains in low cost, it loses in time. Travel across a large solar system can take as much as a month. Powered by fusion generators and driven by a fusion torch or ion engine, most system liners use reliable technology several centuries old. As a result, they can't match the pure speed of today's best vessels.

Luxury liners, speedy cruisers, and yachts use gravity induction engines to decrease the time spent planet hopping. Most of these vessels would make the famous Mercury-Neptune run in just over a day. The price of fast commercial system travel can be five times that of economy travel, reaching $7,000 in popular or hazardous systems, and that price assumes a passenger travels at planned times with scheduled reservations. Chartering a space vessel for an unscheduled run can double or triple the price.

Some intrasystem trips are quite safe; other are undertaken at great risk. Navigation around developed planets is entirely routine. Travel in well-mapped, settled systems is almost universally accident-free. Planetary and solar navigational satellites provide information and traffic control for spacecraft that approach velocities of 0.4c-more than a third the speed of light.

Near fledgling frontier colonies or unexplored systems, interplanetary travel is slightly more troublesome; gravitational influences and orbits are more difficult to navigate in uncharted regions. Fortunately, the low density of traffic minimizes the likelihood of a disastrous collision. Regrettably, the law of averages has produced some unfortunate consequences. No year goes by in the Verge without more than a few mishaps involving cruising spacecraft. Most natives of the Verge consider the risk an unfortunate fact of life.

Most wealthy individuals, traders, and frontier freebooters buy or lease a starfaring vessel of their own. For the trader on a budget, a battered system liner can be had for as little as $200,000. Travelers only interested in crossing a system's inner reaches may consider a launch. But for most heroes of the day, a spacecraft isn't complete without a stardrive for interstellar travel. For new vessels, a stardrive pushes the price up to about 2 million Concord dollars.

Despite impressive feats of conventional travel on and between planets, when the average citizen thinks of travel, the likely mental image is that of a driveship starfalling into drivespace in a multicolored burst of light.

What is drivespace? Drive physicists have given engineers the capability to travel through it, but they have no easy answers. For example, terabytes of data exist to explain how to manipulate drivespace to produce faster-than-light travel, but the equations that describe drivespace are intelligible to a very small percentage of the sentient population, human or otherwise. Ultimately, most drive physicists admit that the fundamental variables of their best drivespace equations are based on experiments and observation. In other words, the hows have been mastered, but the whys remain mysterious-even to the obsessed 0rlamus, acknowledged leaders in drivespace theory. No one can answer how the plane of drivespace came to be, or how it stays tied to the gravitic effects of reality but freed from the considerations of distance.

Just as gravity's pull connects every object, drivespace connects every point in space. Drivespace travel is accomplished in three steps. First, a mass reactor aboard the vessel reaches maximum power, briefly producing more energy than a star. The stardrive then harnesses this energy to strengthen the link between normal space and drivespace, tearing open a rift between the two. Finally, the stardrive's tachyon emitter forms a bond between the ship's origin and its destination. By carefully controlling the application of energy, the stardrive allows its wielder to make starrise within a few thousand kilometers of a precisely selected destination.

The ship disappears in a brilliant splash of multicolored light-occasionally, a starfalling ship emits just a single color. These colors have various interpretations among the Orlamus, physicists, and travelers. Spacers hold the most superstitious view; while most spacers consider a black starfall lucky, they consider a red starrise a very bad omen.

The limitations of drive technology have become well under- stood. By bending two locations in real space to the brewing point, the stardrive sidesteps the limits between gravity and space and thus the barrier of light speed. But all space vessels and objects that traverse drivespace emerge after 121 hours- about five days. After a starfall, a vessel must wait two to five days for its stardrive to recharge in normal space.

Resonance is an important side effect of a ship making star- fall When the first drivespace communication relays began operation, scientists believed that the fluctuating background noise was just an unusual form of quantum disturbance. After a few years of studying the phenomenon in an effort to better understand the principles of drivespace mechanics, observers concluded that the background noise was actually a resonance created by every ship that entered drivespace. By careful filtering, computers installed aboard second-generation drivespace communication relays could pinpoint both the starfalls and imminent starrises of vessels within 50 light-years.-These readings reveal the destination of ships making starfall nearby as well as the origin of ships making starrise within the relays effective radius. The same measurements reveal the ship's mass. Soon, dedicated drivespace detectors were put in orbit around important colonies along the borders and were mounted in the sensor arrays of capital warships.

Resonance waves propagate at normal communication speeds (11 hours), and thus are an important factor in military operations. When an enemy made starfall on a path that would put it over a hostile border at starrise, the defending forces had four and a half days to prepare. If reinforcements can be summoned from within a single starfall's distance, the defenders only have to hold on for 11 hours before the reserve fleet or troops appeared. Since a raiding fleet can't leave the system it is attacking until its drives have recharged, the defender often gains a tactical advantage.

One measure of a starship's power is how far it can travel in a single five-day starfall. The stardrive is limited only by the amount of power that can be generated within a compact area. The force of gravity resists manipulation, and it's only possible to bend space back on itself so far. The most efficient power generators are fortress ships, titans fueled by more than a dozen linked mass reactors. In a single starfall, a fortress ship can cross 50 light-years. With such power and range, fortress ships can stretch their influence across space for a variety of purposes, military or otherwise. The crew of a fortress ship numbers tens of thousands and the vessel serves as home to 50,000 humans and other sentients. Naturally, such a valuable target is armed to the teeth and accompanied by a fleet of cruisers and destroyers.

Unfortunately, the construction of a fortress ship can bankrupt nations; they cost literally trillions of Concord dollars. Even the wealthiest nations have only a few of these irreplaceable national assets, some as much as 200 years old and refitted a dozen times. Older ships such as Insight's New Hope (formerly VoidCorp's Fortress Ship 6), the Rigunmor Voyageur, and the Solar flagship Kiku were built during the first wave of fortress ship construction. The Concord's Monitor and the Thuldan Emperor Gregor I and Centurion have histories as complex as many small star systems. New ships such as the Rigunmor Oneagle and the Concord Lighthouse are marvels of speed and power. Fortress ships truly are the monarchs of the spaceways.

Smaller than fortress ships, military dreadnoughts and cruisers join large commercial transports and industrial freighters in the second tier of driveships. These heavy lifters can leap 20 to 35 light-years in a single starfall. While still expensive, these vessels are much more common, with hundreds registered to each stellar nation. Unlike the fortress ships, many commercial transports belong to private corporations. For both military and civilian purposes, they are the workhorses of the stars, moving cargo and personnel across the long stretches of space.

Smaller still are light freighters, traders, yachts, and military scouts. While larger vessels may leap between major systems, it's not uncommon for smaller ships to make several falls along the way. The average free trader or small exploratory vessel must make do with a limit of 5 or 10 light-years per starfall. While this allows a ship to cross billions of kilometers, populated destination systems can be even farther apart. To travel great distances, smaller craft must make starfall many times.

For example, a vessel with a 5-light-year range traveling from the Sol system to Beta Pictoris must make 10 starfalls. The trip takes about 81 days (50 days in drivespace, and nine waiting periods averaging three and a half days each).

Fortunately, small craft have another option. Thanks to their abundant power and size, capital-class vessels of both military and civilian design can ferry smaller vessels as they travel. It's not uncommon for a fortress ship to carry hundreds of small- and medium-sized vessels, either connected to a docking ring or carried aboard prodigious hangar bays. Dreadnoughts, cruisers, and large commercial freighters can fulfill the same function. In this way, a systemship or driveship with a small range can travel incredible distances quickly. Once its patron makes starrise, the smaller craft disconnects and moves on to its destination.

Economic realities impose certain limits on ferry travel. First of all, the commanders of most large driveships demonstrate a certain wariness toward unknown or unrecognized craft. Before a military driveship provides passage, its crew performs safety inspections of its would-be client. Commercial ship crews are easier to convince, but they're much more likely to charge a hefty fee for the service, up to $50,000 in some regions. Ultimately, though, the limit on ferry travel is quite obvious. The hopeful traveler has to find a larger driveship that's going where he wants, when he wants.

In the established spaceways of the Stellar Ring, the search isn't hard. Literally thousands of vessels hop between the populated worlds, following schedules announced on the Grid well in advance. In less crowded reaches of space such as the Verge, it's more difficult. The Lighthouse, a mobile station maintained by the Concord, tours populated stars in 50 light-year starfalls. Two Concord dreadnoughts and a dozen large commercial craft regularly traverse the major systems as well, offering a chance at 35-light-year jumps. Since large craft are scarce, it can be days or even weeks before a vessel arrives to convey craft in the major systems. Ferry travel to less populated systems-and unexplored stars-is usually not available at all.

Pirate ships stalk the spaceways, hijacking ships and stealing cargoes many' of these pirates learned their trade during GW2, and they know how to cripple a vessel's system engines. Not surprisingly, most captains run when pirates appear, but the braver souls among them will defend their passengers and cargoes with laser cannons and guided missiles.

True pirates can prey on any vessel they choose. In general, it's difficult to force an engagement on a ship in open space unless the pirate vessel has a significant edge in speed or position; pirates in slow ships won't get very many chances to ply their trade. The easiest place to catch a prize is near a port, but that's also the riskiest tactic, because the victim is in easy reach of vessels that may cut a pirate attack short.

Once a prize is taken, it must be sold. At rogue planets that accept such tainted goods, stolen cargo usually sells at 50% of its legal market value. The fence makes his profit, and a smart pirate captain divides most of the wealth among his crew before setting out for another voyage.

A corsair who wants a semblance of legitimacy for his actions may become a privateer. A privateer is a captain who carries a letter of marque. This legal document is issued by a nation or power against the merchant shipping of an enemy nation. As long as the privateer limits his prey to the designated enemy, he can plunder and loot to his heart's delight. Of course, the target nation may take actions to stop him.

In addition to stealing valuable cargoes, a pirate captain may elect to take a vessel as a prize. A pirate can dispose of a stolen ship for standard salvage rates-as long as a particular port's authorities do not object to the pirate's presence. Typically, pirates also ransom valuable crewmembers.