Hyperspace

Hyperspace is an alternate dimension where the normal laws of stellar proportion do not apply. In hyperspace, distances that would cover several hundred light years in normal space are reduced down into a couple of hundred billion kilometres which reduce travel times from years to days.

Overview
Travelling across the Galaxy takes a long time with distances between stars ranging from a couple to hundreds of light years apart.

By using immense amounts of controlled gravitational energy focused on one point in space, temporary rips in space-time can be opened, allowing ships to travel to so-called Hyperspace. In Hyperspace, travel time is comparatively shortened as the relative distance between 2 points is 1/1000th of the distance in normal space, turning long travel times from years into mere hours.

Hyperspace is highly unstable, resulting in supermassive storms of dark cloud, filled with lightning storms that tear apart any ship that gets caught.

Navigation
Navigation in hyperspace is highly dangerous, with electromagnetic storms causing major issues for onboard sensors with even the most advanced of models to fail to penetrate the thick storm clouds and create a noisy feed. Ships will use Navigators to plot and guide them through the storms.

Hypershock Drive
(Main article Hypershock Drive) Hypershock Drives are the method of travelling into Hyperspace. These devices use immense electrical power to focus a huge gravitational force into a single point to open a wormhole. Only large ships can use these drives as they are incredibly large and require the power that only large ships can produce.

Hyperspace Horrors
Rumours have been circulating in the colonies for centuries of horrors that lurk within the clouds. Beings with an unimaginable presence, whose mere existence is enough to drive any human into insanity. Such stories are usually passed on, and current resemblance to the original is unknown. Though no such beings have ever been encountered, pilots have worried about venturing across for fear of encountering these beings.

Hyperspace Madness
The madness caused by hyperspace is not as uncommon as some might think. There have been reports of individuals killing their entire crew in such insane fits of rage, driven to so-called Hyperspace madness.

Medical experts and scholars have studied the effects on several test subjects. The test included individuals with differing experiences of hyperspace including: a child with no prior knowledge of hyperspace, a dog, a cat, a young adult female with a severe mental illness, a prisoner convicted of 1st degree murder, an army veteran in their mid 60s, 5 pilots with limited experience, 4 religious believers, 10 random male volunteers and 10 random female volunteers. The experiment involved exposing the individuals to different duration from the view of their testing cells. The study concluded that there is a correlation between the sight and presence of hyperspace.


 * 12 of the volunteers went into a state of long-term shock. The rest came away claiming to feel quite different, one remarking that she'd seen God.
 * The dog and cat reacted with aggression, the dark barked and growled at the void through the window. The cat hissed and attempted to attack the window before retreating to hide underneath the seat. Both animals were permanently affected, acting a lot more aggressive towards their owners after the experiment.
 * The young adult with the mental illness committed suicide by repeatedly bashing her head against her cell.
 * The child was given paper and crayons and was asked to draw what she saw. After the experiment, drawings were collected and examined, they all illustrated detailed drawings of different objects, planets, wrecks of spaceships, bodies and unidentifiable beings in detail that had "Never been seen before" by her parents.
 * The prisoner stated that he felt no different and that hyperspace had "Already given him the light" prior to the experiment.