Not the biggest fan of Planetary Technate but I don't actively dislike it and have no other options, so oh well.
Anyways, fusion is boring and we should go for something that makes this interesting. So I propose this phlebotinum (of which the general concept was approved by Madman via discord):
Design: Evrasium (sorry about the name)
We finally found out what happened to the First. And what those multicolored shards were.
Turns out that when they fired the final set of re-entry boosters, they inadvertently discovered Evrasium. Pretty big fluke too, considering that the deposit they almost landed on is the only one we know of at all so far. Light from the rockets managed to provoke a volatile reaction from the deposit, subsequently tearing off one of the three boosters and sending the craft way off course.
At least, this is what we think happened. While the first expeditions to the site of the First found the shards (now determined to be remnant Evrasium) and the remnants of the vessel, the latest one managed to find the deposit. Testing of the samples and plenty of simulations have lead to the aforementioned theory.
So with the fate of the First (likely) determined, we can look towards making use of what it inadvertently and disastrously uncovered. Evrasium is, in simplest terms, a form of light-sensitive crystal. In fact, it bears remarkable similarities to the theorized "time crystal" -- not only does the structure repeat in space, but it also repeats in time. Unlike theorized time crystals, Evrasium does seem to perpetually store work, and -- based on our current experiments -- may actually break the law of thermodynamics. We're sure further study will prove that assumption incorrect, but the fact it still appears this way after experiments is still remarkable.
Evrasium, while still a crystal, is made out of tiny discrete unaligned structures. Normally the crystal's form changes in a pattern over time, but when these photosensitive structures are exposed to significant amounts of electromagnetic radiation (read: light), they can align themselves breaking the time crystal and releasing stored work as kinetic energy. So when the First's third booster engine fired above the Evrasium deposit, it appeared to have created a chain reaction that the ship simply wasn't prepared for. Interestingly, based on destruction patterns in the booster the origin of the force occurred
above the crystals, closer to the actual ship. Our best guess
so far is that this has something to do with the time-based repeating structure. This has major implications for usage of Evrasium in technology.
In summary, Evrasium is similar to a "time crystal", a crystal that repeats in both space and time. Unlike theorized time crystals, it effectively stores energy in itself through this time pattern, and the aligning of multiple microstructures inside the crystal via photosensivity can release this energy. So far it seems to break thermodynamics but the jury's still out on that especially considering how important thermodynamics is.
So far, the best we've been able to do with Evrasium crystals is invoke relatively-catastrophic destruction of them via application of light, releasing "stored" energy all at once. Unfortunately, several times the releasing of said energy happened outside the containment chambers. We've since made adjustments to containment. Namely putting them in a really big really deep hole until we can start predicting the seemingly random relative locations where the energy is released.
We think we may be able to do great things with Evrasium, as crude as our application and knowledge of it is at the moment.
TL;DR: Something akin to a
time crystal, except the nature of the structure actually stores the kinetic work inside despite all (known) logic. When exposed to light, microstructures inside release stored work (energy) vaguely near the crystals in a (so far and
seemingly) random location.
We can use it for so many things, and it's made to have lots of potential but to not overpower us at the start (so it doesn't give Madman balance concerns over creating it now).
Namely, we can use it for energy. We just need to create an application design of it next turn.
Team Name
Social Democracy of Eidolons (1): SC777
Planetary Technate(4): Flabort, DoubloonSeven, NUKE9.13, Happerry
Celestial Democracy of the People's Republic (1): TricMagic
Mereth Planetary Settlement Force: (1) m1895
Type of Government
Technocratic Meritocracy (5): DoubloonSeven, SC777, m1895, NUKE9.13, Happerry
Union's/People's Representative Democracy: (2) TricMagic, Flabort
Design Choice 1:
MIF//EU-100 "Longarm Reactor"(5): DoubloonSeven, TricMagic, SC777, Flabort, NUKE9.13
Metal Printing (1): TricMagic
Evrasium (1): Chiefwaffles
Design Choice 2:
MIF//EU-100 (X):
Metal Printing (1): TricMagic
"Eyebite" - MCLC: (4) SC777, DoubloonSeven, Happerry, Chiefwaffles
Technorganic Construction: (0)
Genetic and Biotech Advancement Laboratory: (3) Flabort, NUKE9.13, TricMagic
GBAL Alternative: (1) Happerry
Not the biggest fan of the Eyebite but it's a tiebreaker and I'm less of a fan of genetic engineering.
Author
Topic: Interplanetary Arms Race: Planetary Technate (Read 31503 times)