Ashin Varanin
Professional Enabler
Image Source: EVE Online jumpgate screencap
Affiliation: Closed market, government of Naboo, Theed Hangar
Manufacturer: Theed Palace Space Vessel Engineering Corps
Model: Sando-class Hyperwave Accelerator
Modularity: No
Production: Semi-unique (limited to key star systems)
Material: Durasteel hull, neuranium reinforcements
Classification: Navigational Waypoint
Length: 550m
Width: 990m
Height: 990m
Armament: 2, focused on a standard assortment of defensive guns
Defenses: 17, including a durable hull and powerful redundant shields
Hangar: Room for a few shuttles and small service craft, but no true hangar complement
Special Features:
- Modernized hyperspace launch cannon
- Advanced S-thread booster
Speed Rating: 20
Hyperdrive Class: 4
Strengths:
- Extremely durable
- Fractionally improves the hyperdrive rating of ships traveling from one Sando to another
- Ships traveling from one Sando to another are highly resistant to interdiction
- Very poorly armed
- No defensive fighter complement
- Large and obvious target
- Requires significant available reaction forces for protection
- Extremely sluggish - essentially limited to a single departure vector, comprising a Sando-to-Sando route and several intervening S-thread boosters
- Diminishing returns noticeable after ~15,000-20,000ly (roughly 3 hexes)
- Can only launch a few vessels at a time, such as sending a large convoy group by group - fleets in formation simply won't do
- Extremely large ships (width or height > 940m) will not fit through the Sando
- Extremely expensive and thus only suitable for key systems administered by major governments/corporations
The Sando comprises two ancient technologies, modernized and combined.
The first is the standard hyperspace cannon. In the early years of known galactic civilization, before the development of the hyperdrive, hyperspace cannons were used to launch vessels past lightspeed. In the modern era, HALCYON space train relay points can be found on every major hyperlane, and extend far into the Unknown Regions and the Rishi Maze. Much like the HALCYON relay points, Sando platforms include modernized hyperspace cannons. Where HALCYON relay points accelerate ships and payloads to hyperspace which would not otherwise be hypercapable, Sando platforms are meant for use by vessels which have hyperdrives installed. The function of a Sando platform is to further accelerate a vessel which is already jumping to hyperspace. For example, a vessel with a military-grade class-1 drive might find itself traveling at a blistering class 0.75, while a cheap class-4 drive might travel at class 3, equivalent to good civilian traffic. The Sando platform has no velocity enhancement effect on vessels with a class-0.5 drive or faster. In all respects, vessels using the aid of a Sando platform travel in hyperspace as normal, just slightly more quickly. Notably, these bonuses apply only to travel along the single departure vector dictated by the Sando platform for all outgoing traffic. After fifteen to twenty thousand light-years, the platform's boost drops off fairly sharply, making the Sando platforms most suitable for relatively close systems.
The second component of a Sando platform likewise dates back millennia, and sees constant use in certain portions of the galaxy, such as the Koros Trunk Line and the Sanctuary Pipeline. S-thread boosters are large, expensive space platforms which force stable pathways through hyperturbulence. In the modern era, variants of S-thread boosters have been used to allow certain ships to overcome interdiction -- a brute-force and expensive but effective measure. A vessel which leaps to hyperspace via the aperture of a Sando platform, and along the single course determined by the platform for all vessels, will not be as vulnerable to interdiction. For example, they may pass through the fields generated by pulse-mass mines or other tactical interdiction options, but may only partially penetrate larger-scale interdiction efforts (such as gravity well fields generated by dedicated interdictors with multiple projectors).
It may help at this stage to consider the operation of a Sando in terms of the following narrative:
***
Captain's Log: Approaching the Sando platform over Naboo. There's a queue a hundred kilometres long, but the wait's nothing next to the time we'll save by traveling to Sluis Van at Class Three instead of Class Four.
We've reached the gate. Our convoy is nine bulk freighters. We're breaking into groups of three to make our jump. My ship is in the first group. We're spooling up our hyperdrive as normal, and the Sando platform is transmitting our jump vector. It's the same vector and destination as every other ship that passes through the aperture. I hope our ships fit through. They say a Star Destroyer can fit, but the last thing I need is my navigator overcorrecting and running into one of the other freighters.
We jumped to hyperspace as normal, no malfunctions or odd visuals. It's odd and little unsettling to think we're traveling at Class Three instead of Class Four. That's a serious boost right there, and you would think it would stress the ship's drive, but we've been through plenty of times and haven't so much as popped a rivet. All ships got through the aperture just fine with plenty of room to spare.
We've dropped out of hyperspace about twenty klicks from the Sando platform over Ryloth. Ryloth was our final destination, so no need to approach that platform. We hung around for a few minutes to let the other two groups in our convoy catch up. Now we're proceeding away from the reversion area and bound for geosynchronous orbit.
***
Development Thread: Neuranium objective - The Full Reach of Law (contributed on the winning side of a Rebellion)
Posts: X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X
Intent: A way of improving trade and transit between key systems.
Who Can Use This: Select customers, Naboo RPers, anyone RPing civilian traffic in a system with a Sando-class Hyperwave Accelerator
Primary Source: This is a fairly straightforward combination of two canon technologies.
Previously approved submissions which have used S-thread boosters to overcome interdiction:
- Ret’lini-class S-thread booster
- Orar’ulik
- Clan Rekali Waystation
- Noble-class yacht
- Uhl Valaviteco
- Crystal Retreat
