Faster than light drives within occupied space all come from leftover Old World technology that the Titans of the past created. While the name implies a rate of speed far beyond the travel abilities of light, it’s a misnomer because ships aren’t traveling that fast in reality. FTL drives rip holes within spacetime and travel through to another point which should be instantaneous, but due to the conversions between Free Worlds’ inferior technology against Titan tech, ships that arrive through dimensional tears go into a state of buffering which can take months to rematerialize on their plotted course. Travelers, through dimensional rips, have a full sense of time perception while they wait to appear on the other side. Studies believe that FTL drives create a protective bubble that keeps three-dimensional spacetime within vessels relative to our reality and perceived duration of time. After a successful buffering, ships reappear through another tear in comparative space to their coordinated jump location. Upon completion of an FTL jump, ship drives need days to cool down and recycle drive matter for another leap. Leading academics in this field of study for the Free Worlds believe that Titan ships of humanity’s past didn’t suffer the lagtime that Free Worlds vessels have between jumps.

History

The whole of humanity has never been able to duplicate this advanced machinery over the last two thousand years. Archeological dig sites across all air-breathing worlds have come across tens of thousands of these drives. In the early days of trying to understand the complex sophistication of FTL drives, Free Worlds scientists were astonished by Titan technology’s complexity which is still thousands of years more advanced than current Free Worlds technology. FTL drives true nature didn’t come to light until a functioning Titan/fusion reactor was found on Lunar One.

Civil Earth created its first reactors from scratch because the function reactor found on Lunar One came with maintenance inscriptions carved into the platform housing unit. Once deciphered, Civil Earth leaped ahead by generations in their power requirements for ships, cities and recycling technologies.

High-efficiency fusion was only reinvented a little over 200 years BGI. The biggest obstacle to better integration of Titan technology with the Free Worlds' governments is power supplies. For hundreds of years, efficiency rates with engine power drives were only around 30-35% at roughly 1 terawatt of power. It wasn't until fusion dark matter reactors were created, at 6 terawatts each, that materialization times were cut in half. in fact, the first three vessels ever to test FTL drives still haven't re-materialized through the ripped holes into spacetime at their projected jump location. Smaller tests were successfully completed near Jupitoris, the largest planet in Civil Earth's star system, several years after the failed tests.

Limiting usage

Representatives within the Capital Forum understand that the only way to power new ships that come off assembly lines is by finding new FTL drives across occupied space. Dolrinions from Force Command First Ones dedicate tremendous resources on conquered planets to locate buried drives. In past practices, governing leaders didn’t worry that there would ever be an issue finding FTL technology because the Free Worlds had dug up countless drives through the years. 234 years BGI, the Federate Corporation announced publicly that they had exhausted all known dig sites for possible drives. This made the other governments question when they would run out as well. New legislation inside the forum has tried to cut back on private industry usage of Titan FTL drives to ensure planetary security needs are met for each Free Worlds government.