[Starhawk]

Another full chapter coming tomorrow:
In the mean time here is a chapter on the technology in use by the Icarans of the 25th century:

Ship technology:

Artificial Gravity:
Icaran scientists discovered back in the 19th century just how bad the effects of long term weightlessness on the human body could be, and so they went about solving this problem.
At first the Icarans used centrifuges to rotate the crew while they slept, as well as a centrigue for the crew to exercise in. This however was of limited use as ships of the day were only moving solar distances (aka in Sol only) and after a few months of deployment even these measures began to wear off.

The development of rotating sections followed, these sections are literally rotating potions of the ship (located in the center of the craft) that provided limited gravity for the crew quarters and command sections of a space craft. This technology quickly replaced the centrifuge as the primary "sim gravity" environment.

With the discovery of early Ion reaction drives however a new problem arose, the gravity generated by a rotating section would kill any crewmember on a ship that was at full acceleration using the Ion reaction drive, some ships had the rotating section tear apart entirely which caused catastrophic hull breakdown (the ships were torn apart by their own gravity)those ships that were not destroyed outright suffered another effect, their rotating section did not have an "external" gravity field and because of that the inertial force caused by the reaction drive turned the crew to paste.

Modern GFGs: Gravity Field Generators were the Last and most advanced development in Artificial gravity technology.
A gravity field generator creates a "grav bubble" around a starship this means that the ship's hull is exerting it's own gravity field, this generators' basic functions are classified by state security, however what is known is that the "grav field" created by a GFG negates the force of inertia or foreign gravity sorces on a starship.
The GFG is a necessity when it comes to warp travel as well, without the external gravity field and "grav sail" a starships crew is turned to a substance with the consistency of chunky salsa, however because of the "external field and grav sail reaction" the internal gravity of a starship must be turned off, leaving the crew in absolute zero gravity during the duration of the warp jump.

Propulsion and FTL travel:

The original engines used by Icaran solar cruisers were chemical rockets which were effective only for short bursts of speed leaving a ship to "coast" the rest of the way to it's target.

Ion Reaction Engines were the first "true" space propulsion system developed by Icaran scientists during the early twentieth century.
An Ion reaction engine forces superheated Ions out of a “vent” in the engine, this reaction propels the ship at great speed, early drives could manage a maximum acceleration of 200 gravities, more recent models could max out at 450 gravities.

Quantum Reaction Engines, the most advanced engine developed thus far by the Icaran Royal Science academy the QRE uses the new quantum reactor‘s excess energies to create a stream of anti-matter particles known to Icarans as kerons (k-ear-on) to accelerate a vessel, the quantum stream, unlike Ion propulsion uses the ship’s aft gravity field to focus it’s propulsive power even further. A modern quantum reaction engine can accelerate a starship at nearly 555.92 gravities.

“Solar Sail”: The newest development in drive technology the so called “Solar sail” is not remotely related to it’s ancient “material” counterpart, instead the modern “Solar sail” is a modification of a starship’s “grav sail”, instead of “hooking” the power of the warp into forward motion the “solar sail” “hooks” the so-called solar winds and channels that amazing power into a gravity field which, when combined with the power of quantum reaction engines provides a ship nearly 1,000 gravities of acceleration.
An interesting side effect of the Solar sail is that along with greatly increasing a starship’s speed it also dramatically improves the performance of a vessel’s GFG which allows the “inertial compensation process” to keep up with the extreme speeds achieved by a starship with the Solar Sail in much the same way as the gravity sail allows a vessel to enter the warp without mashing the crew.

Gravity Sail: The gravity sail or “grav sail” for short is a focused extension of a starship’s gravity field. The grav sail its self when fully deployed extends 2 kilometers afore and astern of the starship using it, the forward grav sail “catches” an energy wave of a warp point and begins to pull a ship into the whirling tides of the warp, the aft sail then repels the energy wave produced by the forward sail which pushes the ship the rest of the way into the warp.
Gravity sails dissipate the gravities of acceleration that would normally be felt by literally creating a null gravity environment within the “bubble’ created by the two sails, this null gravity environment also completely neutralizes the effects of inertia allowing a ship in the warp to accelerate at an estimated 6,000,000 gravities.

The warp: The warp is in essence another dimension wherein the rules of “real space” physics do not apply, contrary to earlier beliefs that for every point in real space there is a point in “hyperspace” Icaran scientists discovered that in the warp there is no such thing as a “non-solar” region (in other words there is no void between the massive gravity fields produced by a solar system) in the warp.
When a starship enters the warp it does not have any choice in it’s navigation as such, but instead a warp point is created by the gravity of a star tearing a hole into the dimensional fabric of space time which is directly connected to another hole in space time in another star system, because there is no “void” in the warp a starship entering one warp point travels nearly instantaneously to another starsystem (depending on the acceleration generated by an object penetrating the warp).
The nearly instantaneous travel does effect the human psyche however and creates a phenomenon known as “jump shock” where the human brain is stunned into a momentary comatose status, resulting in extreme nausea and disorientation Lasting up to several seconds, scientists recently developed a medicine that effectively shuts off jump shock, but even this drug has it’s side effects and the nausea of a jump remains even though the disorientation and momentary comatose status have been negated successfully.

Weapons and Defense Technology:

I-Laser: The so called I-Laser (Imperial Laser) is the most recent development in weapons technology, and the most devastating weapon developed by the Icarans thus far. The I-laser is a direct descendent of the generation 12 anti-proton weapons tests run during the early stages of the Phong War when it was discovered that the Phased poloron beam would not suffice in dealing with forces such as the Manti Star Nation who’s superior ships and weapons outclassed the Icaran’s own by generations.
The I-laser is not actually a laser as such, it is a compressed fusion/anti-matter burst focused by a laser beam into a coherent force that proves most devastating on reaction to solid materials and energy shields alike.
I-Lasers have two settings, a slicing mode for when a warship makes a quick attack pass on a ship or group of ships. The second mode is a piercing mode used only in a line-to-line battle where two fleets line up and fire at each other, the piercing mode is no more or no less powerful then the slice mode but it is better suited for attacking capital ships in a solid battle formation.

Phased shield Generators: The phased shield generators workings are classified top secret by the Icaran Security council, the only thing that can be said by Icaran law is that the Phased shield pushes incoming fire out of our reality by phasing it into non existence.