Satmet

Synchronous Array of Tachyon-Modulating Energetic Transmitters.

Sometimes called tachyon transmitters, satmets are immense devices, consuming vast quantities of power in order to generate a measurable flux across lines of effect stretching at least across a star system, and occasionally the entire Milky Way. The nature of the tachyon interference can also be changed, allowing regalic versions to become powerful weapons should the need arise, though patterns are proof against this effect. As weapons, they are called tachyon cannons.

There are two important limitations of satmets.

1. The power required to generate a signal is immense. A single blip requires some three gigajoules of energy at 100% efficiency. Without the aid of mobius patterns, this rapidly balloons, no matter how much hadronium one has access to or how skillfully exomatter is designed.
2. Tachyons have a line of effect - they do not radially propagate, although their interference can be measured from some distance away. To get around this, transmitters instead perform a trick similar to that of the tachyon cannon, and instead of being used as a weapon, they turn the fabric of space into a parsec-long radio transmitter. Longer is possible, but the transmission already consumes immense amounts of energy - typically a not-insignificant fraction of a star's output.

None of these transmit visual or even voice signals on a regular basis, almost all data is compressed text. Voices, visuals, and other sensory enhancements are reconstructed on the 'client' end using information previously transmitted the 'slow' way.

Solar System

Three satmet assemblies were constructed in the Solar System before the Purge. Because of the immense quantity of mobius patterns available to humanity, all three of these functioned as tachyon cannons.

Ouranos Prime was the first, originally constructed both for the defense of the refugees that make up the station, and to provide an unjammable means of communication with the rest of the system. Activated in 2203, it became infamous for enacting the Jovian Massacre that same year.

The Ares Cannon was the second such device brought on-line, only short years after the superstation. Initially functioning solely as a tachyon cannon, in an attempt to destroy its predecessor, it failed miserably. It was then converted into a 'normal' satmet by the end of the year, though it was still fully capable of acting as a weapon. It rested at the L1 Lagrange point of Mars, before its destruction during the Battle of Sol.

Dalsat was constructed primarily by a Korean gerens shortly after the Ares device was built, and quickly became the prime such device for Earth and Luna. Resting at the Moon's L2 Lagrange point, it was not capable of weaponized function until after the Contact War, but was of little use during the Solarian Purge, as Adam's Ark destroyed it almost immediately after arrival.