Mother Road
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| The Shoals |
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The Mother Road is a historic route through the Shoals mapped out at the turn of the 24th century to make travel through the region safer.
History
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 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).
Traveling along the Road
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.
In addition to the colonies of the Coalition that the Mother Road links, there are various smaller outposts and stations along the route. Some people live their entire lives on the Road in between colonies. Stocking up on supplies at these outposts are important as there are some passages of the Road that are so barren that if a ship were to get in trouble, they'd be stranded, something which pirates have taken advantage of.