Ring Drive
The Ring Drive the most featured faster-than-light transporting technology in this comic, albeit not the only one[1]. It consists of the Singularity Ring[2], which propels the rest of the ship forwards, Circle's End[3], which creates a naked singularity to power the Ring and the parts with unknown functions Hope and FearCite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag
The comic gives some clues about the physics, making it sound like a working Alcubierre warp drive (however, Dave Kellet has revealed that the physics are different in some important ways[4]):
- The ship itself seems to move slowly.[5]
- Localized space is pinched around the ship, then the ship is presumably driven through folds of space.
- Moebius-class Maker ships can pinch "more than localised space" with double Rings, making them even faster.[6]
However, the Alcubierre warp drive does not
- need to create a naked singularity like the Ring Drive does with Spirit's End
It is also known that the Ring permits faster-than-light communication.[7]
Dangers
- Using the Ring Drive without a member of the Pilot Species has a rather high chance of high-speed collision with an object in space.[8][9]
- Using the Ring Drive inside El Imperio without the empire's permission (by letting a La Familia member supervise all of the Ring alone) results in death and destruction
- Using the Ring Drive without the Continuum's permission will (probably) make them hunt you down and bring war to your puny little empire.
Use as a weapon
The Ring Drive should not be used close to any celestial objects, such as Planets. Doing so will result in intense seismic activities[10] or - if powerful enough - in the destruction of the planet.[11]