SettingTravelSpit

While this information likely won't be of very much use in game terms, I wanted to jot down my concepts on the method of interstellar travel used to get the Automatons to the planet. At this point there is no intention to have any of the game extend beyond the planet itself, but my personal attention to detail demands at least a vague scientific basis for the flights.



Travel even to the closest star requires several years at the speed of light and the laws of physics make it a near impossibility to even approach that speed. The planet is the nearest planet capable of supporting human life with a minimum of alterations, because of this it isn't the nearest star or even the nearest planetary system. Because of this, the fastest way to get humans to the planet involved a complex and time consuming plan which utilized an unmanned forward mission, followed by ships containing colonists. If it hadn't been for the effects of the unknown arcanosphere, this would have been humanities greatest achievement.

The fastest method humanity had yet devised for  interstellar travel utilized a combination of an antimatter reactor, an electrostatic Bussard scoop, and solar sails. Unfortunately, the antimatter annihilations produced gamma photons which would quickly destroy any biological life. This is the reason the Automatons were sent to the planet, and also the reason the don't utilize standard electronics.

The plan was to get the robots there by the fastest means possible, then have once communication was established, send a colony vessel that utilized beam-powered solar sails to safely transport the humans at a somewhat slower rate. In order for this plan to work, the Automatons had to perform two types of tasks after arriving.

Some would stay in orbit around the gas giant and build an installation which would project a counter-beam which would be vital to slowing the colony vessel back down once it passed the halfway point of it's journey. Without this installation there was no way to provide breaking thrust for the solar sails so far from the homeworld.

Other Automatons were meant to go down to the surface of the planet and begin terraforming operations to raise oxygen levels, as well as constructing colony infrastructure and shelter. While these function could be performed by human colonists, the time and extra mass required would have made the colonization efforts extremely difficult, while the Automatons could operate in the alien atmosphere immediately and utilize the extra time to harvest local resources instead of having to bring them.

All went according to plan until the forward ship met the huge arcanoshpere surrounding the gas giant and the antimatter annihilations began to produces an exponentially larger amount of gamma photons and charged pions, create immense stresses on the ship and ripping it apart.

With no communication received from the forward ship, humanity was forced to postpone the colony ship and instead send a second forward ship. This ship, despite being wary of possible dangers, suffered a similar catastrophic failure upon entering the arcanosphere.