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Description
Antimatter is a form of baryonic matter that is identical to regular matter, save for the electrical charge and baryon number of its constituent particles. Antimatter is composed of positrons, anti-protons, and anti-neutrons, which are almost identical to electrons, protons, and neutrons. However, positrons have a positive charge and anti-protons have a negative charge; anti-neutrons have no charge, as with neutrons, but they have an opposite baryon number. Antimatter is wholly mundane in almost all respects, acting as regular matter. However, if antimatter comes into contact with regular matter, the result is mutual annihilation, whereby 100% of the mass of the matter and antimatter are converted into energy. It is this property which makes antimatter both extremely useful and extremely dangerous.

Because matter-antimatter annihilation is 100% efficient, small amounts of antimatter can create tremendous amounts of energy. This gives it many uses in weapons, energy generation, and spacecraft propulsion. However, because antimatter always annihilates upon contact with matter, storing the material is extremely difficult. Antimatter must, at all times, be stored in perfect vacuum and prevented from touching the walls of the containment vessel. This is usually accomplished through the use of electromagnets or antigravity generators. These systems must be functional at all times, meaning that they must be constantly powered. This makes any form of antimatter storage fail-deadly: should there be any failures in the containment system, the antimatter will annihilate with the container and, if it is stored with other antimatter vessels, cause a chain reaction.

Civilizations with an advanced knowledge of teleportation have developed an alternative to traditional storage: interdimensional storage. Antimatter is kept in another dimension, such as a pocket universe or designated portions of hyperspace, where it is safe from contact with regular matter. Antimatter is teleported or recalled from storage as needed. This system, pioneered by the Second Empire and independently developed by dynic civilization, is much safer because a system failure means that no antimatter can be recalled, and the only antimatter annihilated is what the teleporter recovers. This does not mean that accidents, such as operator or computer error, is impossible. Numerous accidents involve a system teleporting in too much antimatter at once. As antimatter annihilation is extremely energetic, even a miniscule miscalculation can cause tremendous destruction.

Antimatter is also difficult to source and mine. Alfon-001 is dominated by ordinary matter, making antimatter extremely difficult to find naturally. Other universes are composed primarily of antimatter, but for obvious reasons, these universes are extremely dangerous to travel to and are marked as off-limits by every organization capable of interdimensional travel. For example, the United Vessel-States have expunged all dimensional coordinates for antimatter universes from their wormgate databases. During the height of the Second Empire, entire star systems composed of antimatter were moved into the intergalactic void from their original universe, but records of these star systems have been lost during the War of the Cog Lords or intentionally purged afterwards.

Even if such sources of antimatter were found, mining the material is extremely difficult, and must be done with energy-based tools. The Second Empire and the Opheln Conglomerate did mine antimatter, mostly for use in weapons. The vast majority of the Second Empire’s antimatter is stored in pocket universes built specifically for the task, with a minority being stored in Alfon-001. While most of this antimatter was stored in interstellar space, some was stored on planetary surfaces, possibly for ease of access to nearby facilities. These ancient stores have mostly been annihilated thanks to containment failure. As with much of the Second Empire’s records, records of the location and size of these warehouses have been lost to time. Some colonies have found out that their homes are built on antimatter warehouses, some too late.

Most antimatter in the modern galaxy is manufactured, and most of it by the overtribes of the Dynic Hegemony. Antimatter is typically manufactured on particle accelerators on the inner surface of a Dyson sphere. Stellar energy from the Dyson sphere is used to power these particle accelerators. In this way, stellar energy is converted to a more compact, easy to store form.

Human civilization has largely eschewed the use of antimatter. The costs and dangers of storing large quantities of antimatter is considered too great to be worth the effort, particularly when compared to alternative forms of energy generation or weapons. The only notable exception is naval torpedoes. Because of the strength of modern naval energy shielding, and the sheer mass of modern naval vessels, extremely energetic reactions are necessary to damage or destroy a starship. Compared to the alternatives, antimatter charges provide a lot of energy for a relatively small size, allowing for a single vessel to store the thousands of warheads necessary to punch through enemy anti-torpedo systems.

The downside to using antimatter-based torpedoes is that, should any one torpedo be damaged, the ship carrying the torpedoes is doomed. In modern naval doctrine, this is considered an acceptable risk. Nevertheless, modern navies take particular care to ensure antimatter warheads are as safe as they can be. Compared to dynic or Second Empire variants, modern torpedoes use small amounts of antimatter. Antimatter warheads are stored in facilities separate from all other facilities when not in combat, and are only moved onto ships going to patrol or combat. Antimatter warheads are constantly tested and monitored for possible failures, and the batteries powering the containment systems are not allowed to reach less than fifty percent charge. Torpedo bombers, oftentimes drones, are used to deliver large payloads, and are typically launched as soon as a ship enters slower-than-light travel. Onboard a vessel, every antimatter warhead is stored close to the outside of the vessel, so it can be thrown from the ship of failure is imminent. On the minus side, this means that if a ship is hit in the torpedo bays, this will cause a chain reaction that destroys the vessel. For this reason, captains are tempted to launch all of their antimatter torpedoes as soon as they join a battle, which can be tactically sound if it leads to the destruction of enemy vessels early on. Some extremely daring captains have held on to their torpedo arsenals well after this point, knowing their enemies likely do not expect such a risky maneuver.

Other human antimatter weapons include Alliance antimatter missiles, which are intended to shut down planetary shields. These weapons of mass destruction are some of the deadliest weapons in the Citizens’ Alliance arsenal, and are only used because the Alliance does not have the technological and industrial base to match Imperial and Federation superweapons otherwise. For the Alliance, having such deadly weapons is necessary to give the Alliance a strong voice when negotiating with the two galactic superpowers. Initial designs for the Imperial World Fortresses called for the primary superlaser to be powered by stored antimatter. These designs were immediately rejected by Ylsanna the Great, on the basis that storing that much antimatter in a single place is incredibly unsafe. A single small explosion could damage antimatter containment and destroy the entire station.

Dynic civilization has embraced antimatter. The reasons for this are twofold: (1) dynic civilization is generally more callous and reckless, and sees few issues from mass casualty events, and (2) dynic hyperspace technology allows for the relatively safe storage of antimatter. Humans do not trust their teleportation systems to be so precise, and frequently believe that the dyn are fools for trusting theirs. Antimatter reactors are present on all major dynic space facilities, and their cities are powered by antimatter reactors located far from any significant population. Likewise, the dyn also use antimatter in more weapons than humans. Apart from naval torpedoes, the dyn also use antimatter weapons on vehicle-based or even tentacle-held systems. Dynic explosives, for example, teleport small amounts of antimatter into themselves in order to cause destruction. This makes dynic grenades and explosive charges deadlier than their human counterparts, along with having more variation in explosive yield and timing. The number of antimatter accidents in dynic space is unknown, and the dyn insist that their technology makes any such accidents impossible. However, some accidents are known to human civilization, as are some acts of sabotage or attack. For example, a dynic hyperspace storage facility was destroyed when Federation troops successfully captured a dynic antimatter power plant and teleported debris into the storage area.

Description
Antimatter is a form of baryonic matter that is identical to regular matter, save for the electrical charge and baryon number of its constituent particles. Antimatter is composed of positrons, anti-protons, and anti-neutrons, which are almost identical to electrons, protons, and neutrons. However, positrons have a positive charge and anti-protons have a negative charge; anti-neutrons have no charge, as with neutrons, but they have an opposite baryon number. Antimatter is wholly mundane in almost all respects, acting as regular matter. However, if antimatter comes into contact with regular matter, the result is mutual annihilation, whereby 100% of the mass of the matter and antimatter are converted into energy. It is this property which makes antimatter both extremely useful and extremely dangerous.

Because matter-antimatter annihilation is 100% efficient, small amounts of antimatter can create tremendous amounts of energy. This gives it many uses in weapons, energy generation, and spacecraft propulsion. However, because antimatter always annihilates upon contact with matter, storing the material is extremely difficult. Antimatter must, at all times, be stored in perfect vacuum and prevented from touching the walls of the containment vessel. This is usually accomplished through the use of electromagnets or antigravity generators. These systems must be functional at all times, meaning that they must be constantly powered. This makes any form of antimatter storage fail-deadly: should there be any failures in the containment system, the antimatter will annihilate with the container and, if it is stored with other antimatter vessels, cause a chain reaction.

Civilizations with an advanced knowledge of teleportation have developed an alternative to traditional storage: interdimensional storage. Antimatter is kept in another dimension, such as a pocket universe or designated portions of hyperspace, where it is safe from contact with regular matter. Antimatter is teleported or recalled from storage as needed. This system, pioneered by the Second Empire and independently developed by dynic civilization, is much safer because a system failure means that no antimatter can be recalled, and the only antimatter annihilated is what the teleporter recovers. This does not mean that accidents, such as operator or computer error, is impossible. Numerous accidents involve a system teleporting in too much antimatter at once. As antimatter annihilation is extremely energetic, even a miniscule miscalculation can cause tremendous destruction.

Antimatter is also difficult to source and mine. Alfon-001 is dominated by ordinary matter, making antimatter extremely difficult to find naturally. Other universes are composed primarily of antimatter, but for obvious reasons, these universes are extremely dangerous to travel to and are marked as off-limits by every organization capable of interdimensional travel. For example, the United Vessel-States have expunged all dimensional coordinates for antimatter universes from their wormgate databases. During the height of the Second Empire, entire star systems composed of antimatter were moved into the intergalactic void from their original universe, but records of these star systems have been lost during the War of the Cog Lords or intentionally purged afterwards.

Even if such sources of antimatter were found, mining the material is extremely difficult, and must be done with energy-based tools. The Second Empire and the Opheln Conglomerate did mine antimatter, mostly for use in weapons. The vast majority of the Second Empire’s antimatter is stored in pocket universes built specifically for the task, with a minority being stored in Alfon-001. While most of this antimatter was stored in interstellar space, some was stored on planetary surfaces, possibly for ease of access to nearby facilities. These ancient stores have mostly been annihilated thanks to containment failure. As with much of the Second Empire’s records, records of the location and size of these warehouses have been lost to time. Some colonies have found out that their homes are built on antimatter warehouses, some too late.

Most antimatter in the modern galaxy is manufactured, and most of it by the overtribes of the Dynic Hegemony. Antimatter is typically manufactured on particle accelerators on the inner surface of a Dyson sphere. Stellar energy from the Dyson sphere is used to power these particle accelerators. In this way, stellar energy is converted to a more compact, easy to store form.

Human civilization has largely eschewed the use of antimatter. The costs and dangers of storing large quantities of antimatter is considered too great to be worth the effort, particularly when compared to alternative forms of energy generation or weapons. The only notable exception is naval torpedoes. Because of the strength of modern naval energy shielding, and the sheer mass of modern naval vessels, extremely energetic reactions are necessary to damage or destroy a starship. Compared to the alternatives, antimatter charges provide a lot of energy for a relatively small size, allowing for a single vessel to store the thousands of warheads necessary to punch through enemy anti-torpedo systems.

The downside to using antimatter-based torpedoes is that, should any one torpedo be damaged, the ship carrying the torpedoes is doomed. In modern naval doctrine, this is considered an acceptable risk. Nevertheless, modern navies take particular care to ensure antimatter warheads are as safe as they can be. Compared to dynic or Second Empire variants, modern torpedoes use small amounts of antimatter. Antimatter warheads are stored in facilities separate from all other facilities when not in combat, and are only moved onto ships going to patrol or combat. Antimatter warheads are constantly tested and monitored for possible failures, and the batteries powering the containment systems are not allowed to reach less than fifty percent charge. Torpedo bombers, oftentimes drones, are used to deliver large payloads, and are typically launched as soon as a ship enters slower-than-light travel. Onboard a vessel, every antimatter warhead is stored close to the outside of the vessel, so it can be thrown from the ship of failure is imminent. On the minus side, this means that if a ship is hit in the torpedo bays, this will cause a chain reaction that destroys the vessel. For this reason, captains are tempted to launch all of their antimatter torpedoes as soon as they join a battle, which can be tactically sound if it leads to the destruction of enemy vessels early on. Some extremely daring captains have held on to their torpedo arsenals well after this point, knowing their enemies likely do not expect such a risky maneuver.

Other human antimatter weapons include Alliance antimatter missiles, which are intended to shut down planetary shields. These weapons of mass destruction are some of the deadliest weapons in the Citizens’ Alliance arsenal, and are only used because the Alliance does not have the technological and industrial base to match Imperial and Federation superweapons otherwise. For the Alliance, having such deadly weapons is necessary to give the Alliance a strong voice when negotiating with the two galactic superpowers. Initial designs for the Imperial World Fortresses called for the primary superlaser to be powered by stored antimatter. These designs were immediately rejected by Ylsanna the Great, on the basis that storing that much antimatter in a single place is incredibly unsafe. A single small explosion could damage antimatter containment and destroy the entire station.

Dynic civilization has embraced antimatter. The reasons for this are twofold: (1) dynic civilization is generally more callous and reckless, and sees few issues from mass casualty events, and (2) dynic hyperspace technology allows for the relatively safe storage of antimatter. Humans do not trust their teleportation systems to be so precise, and frequently believe that the dyn are fools for trusting theirs. Antimatter reactors are present on all major dynic space facilities, and their cities are powered by antimatter reactors located far from any significant population. Likewise, the dyn also use antimatter in more weapons than humans. Apart from naval torpedoes, the dyn also use antimatter weapons on vehicle-based or even tentacle-held systems. Dynic explosives, for example, teleport small amounts of antimatter into themselves in order to cause destruction. This makes dynic grenades and explosive charges deadlier than their human counterparts, along with having more variation in explosive yield and timing. The number of antimatter accidents in dynic space is unknown, and the dyn insist that their technology makes any such accidents impossible. However, some accidents are known to human civilization, as are some acts of sabotage or attack. For example, a dynic hyperspace storage facility was destroyed when Federation troops successfully captured a dynic antimatter power plant and teleported debris into the storage area.