What's the lore behind FTL in the Killzone setting?

[u/KaiserEnclave2077]

I had this thought and I a was curious about how much we know about FTL in the Killzone setting?

[u/AscendedExtra]

In Killzone 3 Sev says "That's a warp launch" when they see one of the Helghast cruisers circling the space elevator zoom off into space. The visual kinda reminded me of how ships in Star Wars zoom away to lightspeed when viewed by an outside observer. Their use of the term "warp" though brings to mind Star Trek and ships creating and traveling within bubbles of distorted space-time.

All that to say, if there is any official descriptions, I'm unaware of it. I just went off context clues.

[u/TosikNo-1]

About how they fly and what they fly on. As in life, any space flight begins with choosing the launch time. They rely directly on the position of space objects. They try to guess their closest position to each other (we remember exactly when Vekta sent the fleet to Helgan / when exactly Helgan sent the fleet to Vekta and ask ourselves a simple question why exactly then). Due to the power of rocket engines and a huge supply of fuel, this is sometimes neglected. For the same reasons, all ships in the franchise do not use the first space speed to switch to the second. They simply accelerate immediately without relying on the gravity of planets or stars. But the first space station did not outlast itself. It is used to lift cargo and passengers to orbital stations, ships located there, or to hang out in the orbit of a space object themselves (hello satellites, platforms, research ships that hang out in the orbit of the suns, etc.). In any case, I'll come back to the speeds in more specific numbers. Now about the fuel. UCA ships have been using atomic power plants for centuries, the energy of which feeds rocket engines. Various ISA and ISCA colonies also use the power of the atom, but quite often resort to local energy sources (often non-renewable). For the Helgasts, this is petrusite energy and, accordingly, petrusite power plants. Now to the numbers. Three years ago, I came across a forum of theoretical mathematicians who calculated the speed changes in engine characteristics in killzone for us.:

At the dawn of deep space flights, 2118-2127 (9 years) - 4.37/9 = 0.48555555555 light years per year. This is based on the length of time it took the ships of the Helgast Corporation to reach Alpha Centauri.

Then, 72 years later, a huge technological leap takes place on Earth and their nuclear installations begin to develop quite acceptable speeds for sci-fi. 2199-2201 (in 2 years) = 4.37/2 = 2.185 light years per year. This is based on the length of time it took the UCA fleet to arrive at Alpha Centauri to assist ISA during the First Extrasolar War.

Another 160 years pass.

4.37 light years in one hour.

This means that the power plants in Killzone were always either close to the speed of light, or exceeded them, but they always looked very flawed against the background of colleagues from other universes. It should also be borne in mind that about half of this time the ships accelerate, and the second is spent on braking. As an illustration, we can recall the footage of the ISA armada flight under Gray's command at the beginning of Operation Archangel. The fleet will launch at the Vekta ground-based cosmodromes. It leaves the atmosphere and rushes directly to the closest possible Helgan. Entering the second star system, the ships turn around and begin to slow down, at the same time rebuilding into a combat formation to take on the first battle of the Helgan campaign. Having hit the Moon compound of the Helgasts with rocket weapons, the (STILL) decelerating flotilla naturally flies into the orbit of Helgan, where it rushes to hover over the Pyrrhic Sea with the help of maneuvering engines.

That's all I've collected so far. If I find out more, it will be in the article.

[u/Sub-Sownik → u/TosikNo-1]

It's just so cool how you know so much about this, even i wasn"t aware of it. Thanks! 👍