Framework of last observed version of the Moebius Interlacer.
The Moebius Interlacer is a unique FTL drive, currently used aboard the pirate vessel named The Black Dray. Attempts to replicate it's effiecency and accuracy have been made with little success. The device's origin is hotly debated, although most seem to agree that it's genesis was brought about by collective modifications over the course of several years to a basic FTL drive. Those who have had the chance to examine the Interlacer have claimed that it's design is incredibly impractical, and theoretically shouldn't work at all.
FTL Drive Functionality[]
As a faster-than-light traversal drive, the Moebius Interlacer is highly reliable. It takes mere minutes to activate and/or calibrate, but once fully charged the Interlacer can traverse a seemingly infinite distance by converting all matter within the field and attached systems into a hyperspacial tachyonic duplicate. Rather than actually travel any actual vector distance, the drive collapses the time/space vacuum it takes up and re-expands the ship at a designated location. To the visually unaided bystander, the ship using the Moebius drive appears to light on fire, and flash randomly before vanishing within the flames. A process which can take anywhere between a minute and a full hour, depending on the quantity and consistency of energy being sunk into the Interlacer.
The Moebius Interlacer has been coveted by pirate captains for many reasons, one of which being that it leaves no trace when used. This is useful for pirate vessels because the ship activating the drive can flee and seek refuge without engagement by enraged victims. Attached tranmitters fry when traversing long distances, as the form of radiation outputed/absorbed by the Moebius Interlacer can only be dependably compensated for by linking up with it's core systems directly. This further protects the ship using it from being detected or followed.
Alternative Uses[]
The Moebius Interlacer has been criticized as one of the most unstable FTL drives per unit value when used for other means. It has been on multiple occassions been patched into sheilding systems, weapon grids, and even escape pods.
Shielding[]
Only a few incidents in which ships using the Moebius Interlacer as a shield support system have been recorded, and all have ended tragically. When patched into the user's ship, high energy projectiles and beam weaponry have been succesfully deflected nearly 100% of the time. However, all recorded uses of the Interlacer in this way have caused complete and instaneous neurlogical damage on every Cradian being onboard.
In cases where full crew deaths occured, medical autopsy teams described the deceased's nervous systems as almost virtually non-existant or completely deteriorated. Little is known about what causes this phenomenon, but some theoretical physicists project that the effect derives from unpredicted shield-interlacer frequency amplification.
Weapons[]
When the Moebius Interlacer is haphazardly wired into weapon grids, the effects are guaranteed to be unpredictable. Results vary based on the type of weapons being powered by the drive. Some noted effects include (but are not limited to): muon particle generation, Black Matter generation, beam frequency amplification, weapons overloading, mass annihilation of targeted element, etc.
Escape Pods[]
The usage of the Interlacer as an escape pod engine has only happened once, related to the destruction of the Curly Vow pirate vessel. The Curly Vow's captain removed the drive from engineering during an unexpected ambush in a volatile gaseous nebula, and hauled it to his personal escape capsule above the bridge. Fortunately for the assaulting group, the captain never got to finish the drive's calibration before the pod's life support was targeted and destroyed by combat drones.
Dimensions[]
The Moebius Interlacer was last recorded being 4 meters in length, 1.5 meters wide, and 1.5 meters deep. It appears as a collection of seemingly random modifications filling up a thick cylindical patchwork of glass casing. The far ends of the device are dome-shaped, metallic, and function as the device's major capacitor storage centers. In order for the drive to be used on alternative ship designs, often an entirely new set of ports/interfaces must be installed by hand or with delicate assistive machinery.
Current Location[]
Due to repeated assaults on fringe worlds (as well as the occassional government spacedock), enough intelligence has been gathered from the plundered to note that the ship using the drive is currently the infamous Black Dray.