#facetroid background

Basic methods of communication

All data sent through space comes in the form of electromagnetic radiation. Information is embedded in a signal by way of its frequency and the pattern at which it blinks. Think of its dispersal like visible light. Radial emissions are like a lightbulb; it can be viewed from almost any direction, but the downside is that the light is less easily visible from far away as it loses energy. Laser emissions propagate further, but must be aimed with considerable precision in order to reach its target when said target is lightyears away.

The solution to the “lightyear problem” was the use of wormholes to shorten the distance light must travel. At first this was accomplished by using void portals, but some relays are beginning to use wormhole technology reverse-engineered from Leviathans.

Short distance (planetary) communication

Pirate space is dotted with standard issue Short Range Interplanetary Multipurpose Positioning Satellites (SRIMPS or “shrimp”) satellites that, as their name suggests, have a variety of functions. These satellites are generally deployed around planets and moons, and their computing power is split among three different processors: Space communication - Scanning for incoming transmissions, receiving them, and determining what to do with the signal (is it a message to ground, to another satellite, or is it an order). Ground communication - Receiving transmissions from ground, encrypting/decrypting if necessary, determining what to do what the signal. The reason ground communication is split from space communication is that the ground side typically receives more traffic, and so the space side should be kept clear to allow rapid responses to incoming signals. Location - Keeps track of its orbit, calculates and executes necessary adjustments. Keeps track of its location relative to its system and reports its position to the galactic map network (more on that later). Keeps track of its zenith point on the ground and reports its position to the planetary map system if one is present. Records and adjusts differences in system time to other servers.

These satellites also have high-definition imaging capabilities. When image data is sent following an order, the packet contains multiple images in various spectrums, along with one ‘hybrid’ image that is in the visible spectrum, with any applicable points marked with notably high or low radiation levels in other spectrums.

The SRIMPS satellites are powered by standard model battery capsules, so some can be alkali batteries, some phazon, others acid cell or whatever future batteries contain. Since the start of factory-produced standard-issue satellites, satellite network down time has decreased sixfold. Almost all ships in the pirate fleet are now equipped and authorized to perform routine maintenance on standard issue satellites.

Medium distance (intersystem) communication

Signals may take several minutes to over an hour for a signal to return to its origin point when transmitted to a location within the same solar system, but this disparity has become a regular inconvenience in spacefaring life. But for messages to venture beyond that range can potentially take years or even decades.

Void-range Intersystem Satellite Relays or “visor” relays receive signals from planetary satellites or from ships and can transmit them remarkable distances in comparatively short periods of time. Using a fixed void portal, these relays remain as stationary as possible, receiving and transmitting signals through this portal. Because most of the void is empty, this allows for signals to be transmitted directly to other relays, even when a planet or other body would normally block the signal.

The notable downside to these relays is their massive energy output, considering they must maintain stationary void portals and send several planet’s worth of outgoing signals in short succession. These relays are usually powered by solar panels and positioned close to a system’s sun, but in cases where this is not possible, the devices are powered by up to thirty standard model battery capsules, at least ten of which are required to contain rechargeable batteries.

Because the VISR relays are used at a higher rate than SRIMPS satellites, their processes are a little more specialized. The only real computing these relays do is to figure out where it is, and where to send signals. The map network will inform each relay of its neighbor relay positions, and the relays will respond by calibrating its aim to better target these other relays. The other specialization VISR relays have is to send and receive signals in twelve different frequency bands simultaneously. This number has increased over time as the need for midrange relays has increased.

Once the relay has selected where it will send a packet of information, it caches the data in a category for that location, and records the time at which the packet was received by the relay. Every 0.8 seconds, a VISR relay will adjust the angle of its transmitter to one of the destinations, and will send all packets headed to that relay on 12 simultaneous frequencies. It then sends all queued packets to the destination with the most requests, standing by if there are none.

While SRIMPS satellites are about the size of a small transport ship, VISR relays are over three times the mass, and with its multitude of solar panels, can easily reach the length of a large building.

Long distance (riftspace) communication

As the Pirates’ empire continued to spread, even VISR relays became too slow for synchronous communication during wartime. Traversing across dozens of star clusters and through about a quarter of the galaxy’s width, even void-range communication was slowed to over a year one way. As mentioned before, the final solution to this problem was in the use of wormhole technology.

As the VISR relays became larger and more energy-costly, so too did the riftspace beacons grow in size.

Riftspace Beacons are more stations than relay systems, with docking ports for ships traversing through deep space, full time maintenance crews, and relatively small fuel reserves. Stations are small, but contain everything needed to support travelers.

Beacons are usually stationed in empty spaces between notable solar systems, and so their designation codes consist of three or four letters, being the first letter of the names of the closest systems to it. The VTSU beacon, being the one usually sending out commands from Zebes and Urtraghus, is sometimes designated the Capital Beacon. Because of the ridiculously long distance it has from any habitable worlds, it is also a rather large station, serving as a stepping stone from the “border systems” to “core space” territory. Plans are currently being drafted to affix the station to an asteroid to allow for more additions, but many feel this takes from the beauty of the station being a completely artificial waypoint.

Riftspace Beacons are large enough to where they can interact with two wormholes simultaneously, without danger of potentially paradoxical interference. One location is designated as the beacon’s output side, whereas the other only receives data. Wormholes are formed from the sending beacon’s output nexus to the other’s input, and are only maintained for as long as it takes for the signal to be sent. Despite common knowledge and numerous warning signs, many pilots each year die upon trying to fly through the created wormholes, only to be caught in the distortion zone on either side, in which space itself tears their ship apart.

Riftspace Beacons are designed for the fast relay of large amounts of data, and so they actually contain two of each receptor/transmitter array, one primary for use as a communication relay, the other for local communication or to send data to a different type of relay. The primary array on a Riftspace Beacon is powerful enough to transmit in sixty different frequencies at once, yet sensitive enough to differentiate between the remarkably small differences between each. For a comparison, a standard personal communicator could receive a transmission from a Riftspace Beacon, and all of its sixty frequencies would fit within two bands. 

Riftspace Beacons also cycle through bursts of data to specific destinations, but because it must open and close a wormhole each time, the process takes slightly longer. It takes an average of 5.3 seconds for a cycle to be completed, although more data is delivered than VISR relays, and often faster.

The deep space communication relay at work

Say you are on Zebes, and you want to send a message to someone on Urtraghus. Once you type in your message and send it, local systems apply planetary encryption and embed the destination location, source location, a unique temporary nineteen character identification code, and the time at which it was sent. Then they carry the data from your location to a satellite uplink, and are sent to one of Zebes’s thirty SRIMPS satellites. The local satellite identifies the destination, Urtraghus, decrypts the data, and sends the packet over to its space communication computer. The location computer consults the map network and determines that the closest relay within range is the Tallon VISR relay, and the packet is sent.

Tallon VISR receives the packet a few minutes later, and determines that the best place to send it is the TKS Beacon. It sends your packet 1.6 seconds later, along with many others, through the void toward the beacon in question. And so it continues, that TKS sends your message in a burst to VTSU, which covers around 1000 lightyears in less than a second. VTSU Beacon opens a wormhole to Urtraghus VISR, sending its burst of data as if it were a VISR (usually there is so much data to deliver to Urtraghus that this cycle takes about twelve seconds). Urtraghus VISR sends the packet to the optimal SRIMPS satellite.

From here, the satellite’s space computer sends the packet over to its ground system upon seeing that this is its planet destination. The ground computer encrypts the message contents per Urtraghus protocol, then looks at the system coordinates embedded in the destination location, and its location computer consults the planetary map to find the optimal uplink station to send its data. With one of its three separate transmitters, it finally sends your packet to a ground station that can deliver it to your recipient.

Given the fact that the majority of Phazon experimentation throughout its history has been performed by the Science Team, it's only fitting that this be the final official scientific log regarding it.

The recent development of a Phazon-destroying wave frequency finally answered many of the questions we had held about the familiar substance.

It should be common knowledge by now that liquid Phazon by itself is a heavy metalloid, the decaying form of an element far too unstable to be produced even synthetically. It has an incredibly long half life, from what we can observe, yet the sheer size of the atoms make its decay highly energetic, ideal for use in radiosynthesis, most commonly in the fungus A. phaazius. This process uses the energy released during radioactive decay (harnessing the harmful effects of ionizing gamma radiation) for life functions in the fungus, which can be used to fuse isotopes into active Phazon again. The characteristic blue glow of the substance is, of course, due to radioluminescence, in which beta particles (being free electrons) are absorbed by positively charged ions, releasing photons. When live Phazon is used in a battery or reactor, such as the one used to power the pulse cannon, this luminescence ceases to occur. In fact, this use of beta particles results in some of the most high-voltage batteries we are currently capable of producing, although this has the added side effect of inducing other forms of decay, which are much more difficult to control.

Little is known about gamma radiation other than the fact that it is an extremely high-frequency wave, on the high end of the EM spectrum. We are able to synthesize gamma radiation, although the energy requirement and the lack of a purpose for stray gamma rays makes this ability worthless. However, what we did not realize is that like phosphorescence, radioactive particles that absorb energy waves with an even shorter wavelength than gamma are then prompted to release energy in the form of radioactive gamma, and proportionally equal parts of beta and alpha radiation.

Unfortunately, and with some degree of irony, we now know that Phazon decays into lead, which is one of the only materials capable of shielding against and weakening high-frequency wavelengths, like gamma radiation and what we've now dubbed super-gamma radiation.

This, of course, means that Phaaze is still heavily corrupted, although in all likelihood its surface is coated in lead at least 15 feet thick.

As for the biological aspects of the pulse cannon, super-gamma radiation has an even greater risk of mutation and ionization in life forms than gamma, and firing the cannon put every living being in the galaxy at risk of organ damage, genetic mutation, and for those corrupted, lead poisoning. However, for such a short burst of energy (just under a minute), and the fact that super-gamma particles are, of course, smaller than that of gamma ones, there are most likely very few cases of actual genetic mutation by the radiation. I say 'most likely' given that we've never experimented with super-gamma waves and have never studied its effects.

As the leading expert in Phazon chemistry and A. phaazius biochemistry for over 15 years, I have to say with some degree of honesty that I'm sad that my corruption has completely vanished (along with the vision in my right eye), but I, like the rest of you, am relieved to see this crisis finally end. The Pirates will take control of Phaaze and restrict access in order to avoid anything happening again, and the Federation can use its stock of anti-phazon to treat any remaining corruption*.

*Anti-Phazon is actually an isotope of Americium commonly placed into A. phaazius, reacting with decayed Phazon isotopes and oxygen to form several biological compounds, and killing the fungus as a result.