Mother Road: Difference between revisions

In the sparsely populated region between [[Esperance]] and the inner [[Federation]], the [[Colonial Coalition]] relies on cargo runs to ship things both to Esperance and the rest of the Federation and receive vital supplies. Top warp speed varies throughout the Shoals and over time due to the ever changing locations and intensities of the {{ma|tetryon}} fields that give the Shoals its name, but the highest possible speed is warp 4. At warp 4, it takes 18 days to cross five light years and 2 months to cross the length of a sector.

Because of the threat of piracy and other navigational hazards that had plagued the colonies since their founding, a historic route least affected by the tetryon fields was mapped out in 2303 to connect the worlds of the Coalition with each other and to the Federation and Esperance. This route is known as the Mother Road. Along the Mother Road, ships are able to reach warp 5, effectively cutting travel times in half (9 days to cross five light years and 1 month to cross a sector).

Because the tetryon fields are constantly shifting in the Shoals, the Mother Road is not a fixed route and gradually migrates over time, although in particularly turbulent areas, the Road moves even faster in a somewhat seasonal cycle, cutting off warp 5 access to some worlds and locations for days and even months at a time before the Road returns.