Riftspace

In this universe, there are at least three different spacefaring civilizations that have figured out how to manipulate Riftspace to travel at speeds faster than light. This is accomplished through humans born with varying breakdowns of affinity, generally aligned with Pilot affinity or Compatible/Integrate affinity.

In the primary civilization, Integrates are synced with their Pilots upon being integrated into their chosen ship. Aborted syncs will damage a pilot's and a compatible's ability to ever successfully sync. If either pilot or integrate dies, it's generally accepted that a re-sync is impossible.

Affinities

• Pilots - require a minimum composite affinity of 12, standard affinity pilots have a composite affinity of 15 with 13 and less considered low, with 16-17 considered high affinity
• Compatibles - require a minimum composite affinity of 18, considered low affinity, with 21 considered standard affinity and 22 and above considered high; before Bhazaf, there were no known humans with higher than 25 composite affinity

Pilot-aligned affinity breakdowns differ from compatible-aligned affinity breakdowns in more than composite or total strength but also in quality and type. Some affinities are not measured and are unrelated to the breakdown used to train and place pilots and compatibles.

1. Sensing is considered a pilot-aligned affinity and a minimum affinity of 5 is required to be a successful pilot. A minimum sensing affinity of 2 is required for a compatible to become a successful integrate.
2. Leveling is considered a compatible-aligned affinity and a minimum affinity of 2 is required to become a successful integrate. For standard pilots, a leveling affinity of 2 is preferred but may be compensated by a high-leveling affinity integrate, which allows a conditional minimum of 1. Bhazaf had a previously unheard of leveling affinity of 4, later topped by the first Blade-class ship's sync, who was able to sync before being fitted as a pilot. Leveling is the affinity that enables syncing.

Pilots are expected to be trained in running and captaining a ship. A trained pilot synced to a ship is to be captain on ships carrying fewer than 25 crew members. A trained pilot synced to a ship is acting commander on ships carrying greater than 25 crew members whenever a commissioned captain is not actively in command.

Compatibles are fully trained mechanics and engineers, capable of handling or overseeing all shipboard maintenance. This is due to the fact that integrates find repairs and retrofits physically painful and difficult and are better able to handle and minimize that pain by doing most of their repairs themselves.

Training

There are several training installations that are not privately-run that handle the highly standardized training for pilots and compatibles. These recruit all those who are over a certain age and test over a certain composite affinity with a minimum core breakdown. Low affinity pilots and compatibles are rarely, if ever, recruited to these installations unless they have a sufficiently unique/high breakdown especially compatible with non-standard ship configurations.

Private ships generally make use of standard and low affinity pilots and compatibles on a voluntary basis, in addition to making use of trained and fitted unsynced pilots with non-integrated ships. Low affinity pilots are able to acquire standardized training at a non-private facility provided they meet a minimum tuition requirement. They are then able to make a career as an unsynced pilot on private or non-private ships on their own merits.

Training Facilities

Kotanuf

Kotanuf is run by Hasu and is where the Blade Class stable prototype and the Scythe Class ships were integrated.

Ijeve

Ijeve is run by Zana is where the Arrowhead Class ships were tested and integrated.

Canaf

Canaf is run by Tateme and is where the new anchor ship after Bhazaf's first destruction was built and integrated.

Pilot Training

Initial pilot training is based on the initial assessments conducted in stream with an integrate. These provide an initial affinity breakdown but are not considered more than a useful assessment of potential rather than an actual breakdown. Before a pilot is fitted, they are often called syncs, as it is their ability to sync that makes them potential pilots. Initial training covers the basics of flight and running a spacecraft, as well as a thorough understanding of Riftspace and how to engage with it safely.

After completing initial training, pilots are fitted for sync, which enables them to hook into unimprinted software and begin true Riftspace pilot training. At this point, a sync with an integrate is sufficient to provide a fairly accurate assessment of their true affinity breakdown.

Secondary pilot training is where pilots learn how to navigate Riftspace. They are given training and classes on how to handle syncing with an integrate and their future responsibilities toward their integrate, but this is understood to be a theoretical phase of training, as nothing but actual syncing of some kind will fully prepare a pilot for sync.

Pilots who have successfully completed secondary pilot training are given a month of assessment and hands-on training from an active-duty integrate, who will spend time with pilots hooked in to identify gaps in their syncing abilities and their abilities to ground and handle their own integrate. During this time, any pilot unable to bring missing skills up to level before the next batch of integrations will be required to relocate outside of the installation's dome during integrations and excluded from the list of potential pilots.

Integrations are conducted in batches with each ship staggered such that only one integrate will reach for a pilot at a time. This and the strict separation of pilots from compatibles reduces incidents of aborted syncs and lost pilots and ships. Pilots are advised strongly to not resist a sync, as new integrates with no preconceived ideas or expectations are always correct in their choice of most compatible pilot.

Pilots who abort sync but otherwise trained move to training for active duty and are placed in positions that do not required Riftspace piloting duties. They are able to pilot outside of Riftspace and fulfill other shipboard functions. Pilots who are simply not chosen for sync move to training for active duty but remain available to the next batch of integrations as potential pilots. Pilots who successfully sync move into post-integration training with their integrate where they begin advanced pilot training, which will generally last through the next batch of integrations. After this, they begin training for active duty and are assigned.

Compatible / Integrate Training

Compatibles are identified in initial stream testing with an integrate, but can be initially identified even without an integrate on unimprinted software, due to their tendency to leave traces of themselves in the syncing algorithms of the software.

Ships

Prototyping

Unstable prototypes are not integrated but are equipped with sync-capabilities for unsynced test pilots to run full tests through interfaces, etc. The protoypes are run unmanned through Riftspace via shadow piloting, where an integrate manipulates the prototype through Riftspace using both its own and the target craft's controls. This ensures that life-threatening issues can be identified before commissioning a stable prototype.

Stable prototypes receive an unsynced integrate in most cases, a synced integrate in cases where the prototype has received more thorough testing and is deemed stable for active duty. The stable prototype of the Arrowhead Class received an unsynced integrate and never saw active duty, whereas the Blade Class stable prototype was cleared for active duty prior to integration.

Ship Classes

Ships expecting to make use of integrates are built out in batches and include war ships, diplomatic ships, courier ships, cargo and transport ships, medical ships, repair vessels, etc.

• Arrowhead Class: Bhazaf was the first stable warship of its class, designed to take advantage of an unusual high affinity breakdown they'd yet to find a candidate for. When Cor was discovered, it was known prior to his integration that it would be a history-changing ship, with additional modules retrofitted to take advantage of clear affinities Cor possessed that had not been anticipated.
• Scythe Class: An infiltration warship class with the Black Dragon being the first stable warship of its class and the new iteration being developed in time for the second-highest affinity compatible yet found, with a composite affinity of 27. The newest model has been outfitted with shimmer, an ability first pioneered and successfully tested in the Blade Class.
• Blade Class: The first infiltration warship of this class is considered a stable prototype, nevertheless proved stable enough for active duty usage. On integration, the integrate synced with an eight-year-old girl with previously unheard of native-syncing ability, due to her leveling affinity of 5, but who was untrained as a pilot and had not been tested nor fitted for syncing. Due to the inability to fully test the ship for battle conditions, etc., no further ships would be developed in the class until she was of age and skill to properly pilot. Nevertheless, several of the innovations featured in the class were able to be tested then implemented in other ship classes.

Fleet ships are organized into complements with an anchor ship that gives its name to the complement.

Bhazaf Complement

Anchor: Bhazaf

Bhazaf is the first commissioned Arrowhead class ship. Specifications do not match the stable prototype as construction on the ship was halted with the innovation of Diver class technology and with the selection of Cor as the integrate. His composite affinity was such that he was able to take advantage of additional innovations that were previously left out of the design, and these were then added in. Bhazaf was considered a game-changer when it was first designed and prototyped, but with the unheard of powerhouse affinity that Cor brought as a compatible, the ship was prioritized as the most important ship in the fleet of the time and given every possible opportunity to maximize its potential. Cor is considered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity at this point.

Cor (integrate)

Cor is "little brother" to Zana, the woman in charge of their local training installation, Ijeve. He's not biologically related and was given to her when he was four years old. They arrived at the training installation together, and he grew up around ships, pilots, and compatibles. At eight years old, he'd been in the stream enough for his affinity breakdown to show up on a report and get flagged as out of the ordinary. On his sister Zana's review, he was identified as a future compatible and slated for future training.

Even so, the minimum age for being fitted as pilot or compatible is 15, and his big sister was worried that his environment had caused his brain development to go wrong. She sent him away for two years when he was thirteen so he could experience other environments and develop other interests. When he returned, he affirmed his commitment to become an integrate and months later, entered the compatible training program.

By then, he was already fluent with streaming, mechanics, and martial arts. His alignment tested strongly for war, and as the ships best able to make use of his capabilities were warships, he was quickly assigned Bhazaf.

Unlike most compatibles, he was not fitted until a month before his scheduled integration, due to his extremely high affinity, as a precaution against spontaneous, uncontrolled integration. His integration was as difficult as projected and took several weeks longer than usual to reach a stable, controlled state without complications due to high affinity.

He was assigned as anchor ship to the Bhazaf complement and given a captain to command the complement, separate from his pilot. Despite this, in battle situations, he is likely to restrict command functions on the ship to single console control, giving whole command to Rhezere. He can be easily persuaded to redistribute communications and sometimes weapons control, but is otherwise stubborn at not redistributing control functions when under stress.

Rhezere (pilot)

Rhezere was an orphan working and living at a library near Ijeve, but had little interest himself in fleet ships. He ended up helping an aspiring but completely untrained ship designer with research and comprehension of the actual issues involved in designing a serviceable ship. When his friend took his designs to Kasuru, one of the Chief Architects for the crown, in hopes of gaining a clerking position, Kasuru quickly realized that the boy was getting help with certain things and demanded not only that he return with revisions to his designs in a week, but also that he bring Rhezere with him.

Kasuru took both boys to the royal city for an impromptu council of the ship designers and the Queen, despite them having recently closed council with plans for Bhazaf. At the meeting, the Queen identified Rhezere as having high sensing affinity as Kasuru had guessed and ordered him to take affinity testing and enter the pilot program.

Rhezere's friend became an apprentice, but Rhezere himself ended up living with Kasuru as he underwent testing. He never moved back into the library, though he continued working there before he was enrolled in pilot training at Ijeve. Kasuru became something of a father figure to Rhezere, despite Rhezere's initial dislike. Kasuru knows more of Rhezere's background than anyone since, except potentially Cor.

Rhezere was a fluent pilot in training, hitting milestones on schedule, with a composite affinity of 17, which was the highest pilot affinity known, but while uncommon, not extremely rare. He was counted among those in his batch with highest compatibility with Cor and was one of two or three expected to sync with him on integration. Prior to integration, he showed a fascination with Cor that he pawned off as a fascination with Bhazaf instead.

Initially, he developed grounding techniques for Bhazaf that worked primarily by offering comfort, but with his own discomfort with vulnerability, especially in public, over time, he frequently made use of provoking Cor's temper to ground him instead. He remained known for distancing himself from others, including Bhazaf, even long after they'd become the strongest integrate partnership in the fleet.

Right Flank: A'tevh

Konot (integrate)

Kotanuvesi, fair golden brown skin with dark auburn hair

Sumë (sync)

Avezesi, cool pale white skin with pink undertones, warm brown eyes, and towhead hair

Languages

Riftspace Names