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CTD - Xenium Reactor


Denevive

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  • 5 months later...

since this thread still existed, despite the fact that another thread with a similar title resides in the "completed" section, I figured I'd just use this one for my draft... at least this will make azrael a little bit happier, because the Xenium-122 and Xenium Reactor texts are now in separate threads (with correct titles).

 

 

 

minor tweaks and fixes. people, tell me what you think! please! :D

 

Xenium Reactor

X-Net://Pegasus.net/UFO Components/Xenium Reactor

 

Even in the first verified UFO sightings, it became obvious that these alien craft do not use conventional propulsion systems, but instead rely on some kind of gravitational effect. How exactly this effect is achieved had been a mystery. Until now. We in the science department believe we have uncovered the basis behind the UFOs' propulsion system. Using Xenium as fuel, the Reactor we were able to salvage is responsible for the amazing capabilities of the Aliens' crafts.

 

The Xenium Reactor we analyzed looks like a cylinder of some kind of semi-translucent material set into a base that is strongly integrated into the ship's structure. When we removed the translucent cylinder, which turned out to be nothing more than some kind of outer cover, we found an almost solid block with three disc-like modules in vertically stacked slots, securely fastened in position by strong clamps. After we found out how to disengage the clamps, the discs could be easily removed and were revealed to be exactly identical in construction.

 

The base turned out to contain two small holding tanks with attached small particle-accelerators as well as a solid state laser, accompanied by control circuitry. One of the tanks turned out to contain a seemingly random mixture of normal baryonic matter, while the other contained a crystal-like substance we have dubbed Xenium for now, which has eluded our standard analysis methods so far. The particle and laser beams appear to be created in the base and then channeled upwards through the block containing the three discs.

 

The discs obciously are the central units of the reactor. Ech of these reactor cores contains a central chamber and three identical conduits, lined with magnetic coils, leading to it. It appears that the contents of the two holding tanks and the laser beam are guided to the central chamber, reacting there.

The reaction taking place inside could not be effectively studied by us, because a safety system prevents us from activating the Xenium Reactor without the cylindrical outer cover in place, which is almost completely opaque to all our scanning methods, defying all our attempts while silently glowing with an intensity proportional to the Xenium Reactor's power level.

Whatever that reaction is, it is capable of creating a spatial distortion field. The field intensity can be adjusted, as can its size, although the shape of the field is limited to somewhat spheroid or ellipsoid areas. The volume of the field is inversely proportional to its intensity, at the same given energy level. The spatial distortion always has the same effect: gravity. This enables the Xenium Reactor to propel itself and/or a craft in any given direction. After the first few test runs, we also figured that guiding the reactants to the central chamber is only one of the functions of the magnetic coils lining the conduits. Once the reaction starts, they also appear to generate huge amounts of electricity, indicating the presence of intense and rapidly changing magnetic fields within an active core. This electricity generated by induction inside the Reactor can be easily utilized to power other systems. Interestingly, the outer cover appears to block magnetic fields completely, for no magnetic flux was detected by our sensors during the Reactor's activity.

 

Thorugh a series of test runs we found that the operation of the Xenium Reactor is autonomously controlled by the built-in circuitry, almost completely preventing malfunctions. Investigation of the drive's functional properties also showed that most of the time, only two of the cores are active, with an overlapping rotation scheme that ensures that no core is subjected to an excessive amount of wear and tear. One active core, dubbed the "propulsion core" is always used to create the propulsion for the craft, while the other, which we call the "protection core", is used to protect the content of he craft - namely, its passengers and fragile cargo - from the deleterious effect of inertia and propulsion combined. The built-in systems make sure that in case of failure of the propulsion core the third and previously inactive core takes over. In case of failure of the protection core, the propulsion core immediately shuts down until the inactive core is fueled up. By this, the safety of the passengers inside a UFO is always guaranteed, which may also be the reason behind the confirmed reports of uninjured Aliens in "crashed" UFOs.

With this modular set-up, there are two distinctly different modes of operation that the Xenium Drive is capable of.

The first is what we have dubbed "Falling Forward": The propulsion core creates a large field that encases the entire craft. In larger crafts, several UFO Engine Cores work together to create larger fields. The local gravity is directed so that the craft travels down the gravitational gradient toward the destination - it "falls" in the direction of travel. The protection core creates local gravity inside the craft that cancels the outer field's effect and pulls the crafts contents and passengers toward the floor with a comfortable 1g. In outer space, with no atmospheric friction, a craft can accelerate to enormous velocities using this mode of operation. Moving in this way is very fuel-effective; the large field volume, however, limits the field intensity so that no rapid directional changes are possible.

The second is what we can only describe as "Hard Pull": The propulsion core creates a very small, high-density gravity field that does not exceed the physical size of the engine itself. This results in an enormous momentum applied directly to the engine, pulling the ship with it. The strain on the structural integrity of the engine hardpoints is excessive, and is probably the reason for the strong integration of the engine into the UFO structure. The small field, however, allows the engine to rapidly change direction, making combat maneuvers possible - while consuming significant amounts of fuel. The protection core is also heavily active, dampening the inertial effects and thus keeping the passengers from being mashed into bloody pulp.

 

Although the Xenium Reactor is a very effective and capable device, it is apparent that it is not capable of interstellar travel. It, just like all engines humans have developed, does not allow travel faster than the speed of light. This severely inhibits interstellar travel, implying that the aliens either originated from within our solar system, or that they have other propulsion systems. However, despite this information, it is still more effective than even the best contemporary human-designed engines. Unfortunately, it only works when supplied with the Alien material we call Xenium, which can to all our knowledge not be found on earth, nor in any region of investigated space. Nevertheless, it is the science department's belief that this technology should be used immediately to begin research and development of new human craft to combat the alien threat.

 

 

“Thank god we were smart enough to conduct the first experiments outside. Our entire attached computer system was almost fried just trying to control that thing. It’s like it was thinking, outsmarting our systems. Suddenly there was a power surge and the whole ground the thing was standing on jumped towards us. Bloody near killed us all." - David Williams, X-Corps Researcher

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That one is an old version, *someone* (:rolleyes:) was supposed to make a complete version out of Denevive's and Ancalagon's texts, but that didn't happen, did it? :P . Don't mind it.
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Judging from your post above, and the one further above, I would guess that I am the *someone*- though I must admit that this is the first I remember hearing about it.

 

That said, I will merge the two versions into something coherent, shall I?

 

I take it the above is one version - where is the other - in 'completed'?

Edited by dipstick
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Judging from your post above, and the one further above, I would guess that I am the *someone*- though I must admit that this is the first I remember hearing about it.

 

That said, I will merge the two versions into something coherent, shall I?

 

I take it the above is one version - where is the other - in 'completed'?

No need, Moriarty has already made a new one.

And btw, I have a PM with your name on it saying you would :P

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Much of this text relies on the Art model, so this will be put on hold until they have a final concept.

 

Edit: merged.

Edited by Azrael
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