Handwavium (Current Draft):
Fold Drive - Works via gravitational physics, carries spherical areas, period, energy consumption according to proportion between the diameter of the generator ring and the diameter of the total area. Gravity neutralization is a fringe benefit. Zentradi use it regularly, SDF-1 has it, and Terra has flown test probes with working models by way of rote copying.
Core Tap - Hyperspace is a facet of existence, not a place you can travel through, but if you open a hole, energy does flow downhill... mostly as cosmic rays and other high-energy-density stuff that hasn't been seen since Planck Time, though. Tapping them is... well, pretty much the usual nuclear reactor game; the failure modes aren't nearly as spectacular as Weber's version. Fortunately, they can be built fairly small. Zentradi ships run off of these, but their suits are battery powered since the engineering is fairly tricky. Current-generation Terran mecha (Desdroids, Valkyries) run off of their own, integral ones but most of the inventory is still conventionally powered. Building-sized versions are supplying a rapidly-increasing share of the Earthside power grid. The 'flow' is directional - a ray - and, with a particle accelerator on hand to focus it, is the basis for the heavy energy weapons that get used by both sides. Squirt reaction mass on it and you have the basis of a Zentradi thruster.
OTOH, Zentradi don't have to worry about funny lookin' kids. The Terran equivalent engine is probably some cousin of the NERVA concept.
Structural Integrity Fields and Sizing Chambers - I have no clue how the SIF works, but it does require a (relatively) slight and absolutely controlled power input, and only occurs within its generator. It also has a fairly steep minimum volume - Meltrans are about as small as you can build an SIF field. Sizing chambers... don't investigate them too closely.
Or... hm. Possibly they don't exist at all; instead, the Makers built in a reaction to some drug or chemical that would trigger a Zentradi's body to start, um, growing their skeleton inwards and absorbing the outer parts, while 'sweating off' more an more of their body mass... in other words, a (months long and likely supremely uncomfortable) biological process, rather than some piece of mechanical wizardry.
ARMDs are built in orbit, at this point mostly from materials shipped up from Earthside. The lift vehicles I'd propose are vastly-scaled-up Lightcraft, hopeully fired off from the middle of the Sahara or someplace well away from civilization.
Ja[/b]
===============================================
"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"
Fold Drive - Works via gravitational physics, carries spherical areas, period, energy consumption according to proportion between the diameter of the generator ring and the diameter of the total area. Gravity neutralization is a fringe benefit. Zentradi use it regularly, SDF-1 has it, and Terra has flown test probes with working models by way of rote copying.
Core Tap - Hyperspace is a facet of existence, not a place you can travel through, but if you open a hole, energy does flow downhill... mostly as cosmic rays and other high-energy-density stuff that hasn't been seen since Planck Time, though. Tapping them is... well, pretty much the usual nuclear reactor game; the failure modes aren't nearly as spectacular as Weber's version. Fortunately, they can be built fairly small. Zentradi ships run off of these, but their suits are battery powered since the engineering is fairly tricky. Current-generation Terran mecha (Desdroids, Valkyries) run off of their own, integral ones but most of the inventory is still conventionally powered. Building-sized versions are supplying a rapidly-increasing share of the Earthside power grid. The 'flow' is directional - a ray - and, with a particle accelerator on hand to focus it, is the basis for the heavy energy weapons that get used by both sides. Squirt reaction mass on it and you have the basis of a Zentradi thruster.
OTOH, Zentradi don't have to worry about funny lookin' kids. The Terran equivalent engine is probably some cousin of the NERVA concept.
Structural Integrity Fields and Sizing Chambers - I have no clue how the SIF works, but it does require a (relatively) slight and absolutely controlled power input, and only occurs within its generator. It also has a fairly steep minimum volume - Meltrans are about as small as you can build an SIF field. Sizing chambers... don't investigate them too closely.
Or... hm. Possibly they don't exist at all; instead, the Makers built in a reaction to some drug or chemical that would trigger a Zentradi's body to start, um, growing their skeleton inwards and absorbing the outer parts, while 'sweating off' more an more of their body mass... in other words, a (months long and likely supremely uncomfortable) biological process, rather than some piece of mechanical wizardry.
ARMDs are built in orbit, at this point mostly from materials shipped up from Earthside. The lift vehicles I'd propose are vastly-scaled-up Lightcraft, hopeully fired off from the middle of the Sahara or someplace well away from civilization.
Ja[/b]
===============================================
"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"