Title:
The Singularity
Notable Features** :**
- A black hole in the middle of the map that interferes with flight and ship systems.
- Two partially destroyed Jericho dreadnoughts, whose debris is strewn across the map.
Map:
Legend:
1) The Singularity and its Event Horizon
The singularity itself occupies the exact middle of the map, only its event horizon is visible. Coming into contact with it causes instant ship destruction. See picture #1 for artist rendering.
2) The Gravity Well*
Extends from the singularity just before it reaches the beacons. The gravity well itself should be 12 km in diameter. Ships cannot handle the gravimetric pressure of the singularity and, once they are caught in the gravity well, they are drawn toward the it. The deeper a ship goes, the faster it will be pulled in. As a rule of thumb, a ship that gets halfway to the event horizon should be beyond the point of no return. Even at its most distant point, the force of gravity will be enough to change the angle of ships and keep aggressively drawing them in. Furthermore, while within the gravity well, gravimetric forces prevent accurate targeting of ships (inside, out of, and through the gravity well), disrupts warp fields (such as MicroWarp and Warp Gates) and cloaking mechanisms.
3) The Research Stations
The victory condition is being the first team to get 100% of the research data from these stations. They do this by capturing and securing those stations so that their faction can uplink and retrieve the data.
Three beacons that are placed in such a way that the gravity well prevents those from one beacon to target people from another. Players can fly directly to any of the beacons from start, but cannot fly directly to another beacon due to the gravity well without risking being pulled in. Players with high-speed ships can try to risk going through the middle, but also risk being a target the moment they leave the field.
4) Asteroids and Detritus
Small asteroids and debris from the dreadnoughts are caught in the singularity’s gravity well and are drawn inwards to it. This pattern should be long and spindly, as if it attempted to make an orbit around the black hole but is getting sucked in anyway. This creates obstructions to certain beacons for the starting points of each team so as to be able to hide from long-range frigates.
5) Wrecked Dreadnoughts
A Precursor attack on these Jericho dreadnoughts left them inoperative and adrift in space. They can prove helpful when evading attacks or as a way to position long range frigates. They are mostly there to add more flavour to the map.
6) Likely Player Movement (from warp-in)
Players will likely move directly to the beacons, using the gravity well and asteroids as cover as they move in. Long range frigates will have to move immediately upon spawn due to their exposed position and lack good angles and likely hide among the dreadnought wreckage for better angles on two of the beacons. Players may stick close to asteroids close to their beacon.
7) Likely Player Movement (from beacons)
After securing a beacon, players can then decide to take a path skirting the gravity well, or just inside it if they can handle the pull, leading to the adjacent beacon. Players defending beacons will be forced to handle multiple directions of attack. This will encourage players to either act aggressively (by chasing down another beacon while their beacon is being attacked) or to flee by entering the gravity well and risking getting sucked in while they escape.
*The part of this section relating to gravity would require additional programming. I would not be upset if this setback makes this submission not viable.
Backstory:
A month prior to the Precursor attack, Jericho sent many scouting and science vessels out as part of a larger surveying mission in this contested region of space. While the Technocracy was more concerned with mounting Federation and Imperial incursions into this region (despite it being “forbidden”) and deploying raiding parties to slow their progress, it did not deviate from its prime goal of the acquisition of scientific understanding of the universe. To that end, if any interesting anomalies or Precursor technology were to be discovered, it would be better if they were the ones to seize it first (and to prevent the lesser humans from acquiring it.)
The Techs science vessel Hades, while sweeping a sector, detected a gravimetric anomaly relatively close to Federation borders. While this would have been reason enough in the past to record its location and leave it be, mounting tension with the Federation and its mandate from the Technocracy made it imperative that Jericho be the ones to claim this prize. Its captain made the decision to warp into the sector.
When they realized upon warping in that the disturbance bore an uncanny resemblance to a black hole. However, unlike the vast majority of cataloged black holes, this one was much, much smaller. In fact, due to the sophisticated sensor array the Hades carried, they determined that the total diameter of the black hole was two centimeters. However, that was where the direct observation stopped. They could not determine how a black hole of that size could maintain a gravimetric field the way it did.
This information was relayed to the Technocracy, where it was received by Acolyte Terr, a specialist in singularity physics (singularity studies largely lead to the creation of a functioning warp drive in centuries past.) After going through the available data for a week, Terr discovered something interesting about the data: due to the relative size of the black hole and how it maintained its gravitational field, it created new avenues for making the warp process more efficient. Furthermore, it could possibly lead to the creation of a warp drive much faster than any human could have gone at this level of technology (and possibly rivaling what they knew of Precursor technology.) However, the singularity itself, being so small, could destabilize within the foreseeable future, thus necessitating quick action.
This report was sent into the Technocracy, where it quickly found its way into the hands of the Techs Sub-Council on the Scientific Matters of Interstellar Travel. After finding no flaw in the report, they agreed that the scientific potential of this discovery was too good for Jericho to ignore. They immediately made a request to the Technocracy to send a high-priority mission to that sector in order to get the information they need. After two days of deliberation, the mission was approved and, due to the dangerous circumstances of its location, two dreadnought-class vessels, the Thanatos and the Tessaract, the were assigned to the security of this mission. Within two weeks, the research stations were set up at equilateral points surrounding the singularity, many smaller research and construction vessels going in between and around the area, and the two dreadnoughts orbiting the entire operation like a shield.
Just as the research AI were coming online to begin their sensor analysis, multiple warps were detected in the sector, whose configuration did not match any known ships on record. The Thanatos immediately maneuvered to intercept the incoming ships, only to have dozens of particle beams slice through the dorsal portion of the dreadnought like a knife, effectively crippling it in one fell swoop. While the Tessaract moved to respond, the unknown vessels were sweeping through the area like a plague, destroying anything that moved with pinpoint accuracy. Due to the proximity to the singularity, the Jericho vessels could not bring up their warp drives without getting a certain distance away. Almost none of them escaped.
By the time the Tessaract was in position, three quarters of the research team were dead or effectively dead. Several managed to react in time and get into a defensive position behind the Tessaract, effectively abandoning the stations surrounding the singularity. The unknown vessels put themselves in orbit around the singularity, swinging around to engage the survivors. The Tessaract brought its forward batteries to bear against the ships, but to limited effect: particle beams shot back through its shields and took out its bridge instantly. The crew didn’t have enough time to react to this and get to escape pods before more beams peppered the ship, disabling its power systems.
Those ships moved on with ruthless efficiency, targeting the ships that had hid behind the Tessaract. Only one of these ships managed to get far enough away to activate its warp, albeit badly damaged from debris and the explosions from other ships. The attacking ships did not follow.
The badly damaged shuttle was found floating through space near Federation territory, the crew mostly dead or in critical condition. The Federation took them into custody, as they were in direct violation of entering forbidden space, but the ship itself was too badly damaged for any reclamation purposes. Instead, based on his rank of Acolyte, they decided that treatment of the only surviving crew member would be useful for interrogation purposes.
During this time, a group of mercenaries were tipped off about this individual and how he was the sole survivor from a forbidden region of space. Not just that, but that it got Jericho so excited that they were willing to break treaties to explore it. The kind of information that man has could be worth a small moon’s weight in credits. To that end, they infiltrated the hospital where the man was being kept, bribed the right number of people, prescribed the right amount of truth serum, and got a chance to hear his story about the dreadnoughts, the Precursors, the singularity, and the next generation of warp technology.
Concept Art:
(Black hole and asteroids)
(Giant abandoned/derelict spaceship)
(Gravity well and event horizon)