JumpShip

JumpShips are what make interstellar exploration, colonization, and warfare possible. DropShips dock to the JumpShip, which is almost always positioned far above or below a star, where gravitational influence from the system's planets is negligible and FTL travel is possible. To jump, the JumpShip calculates the correct course and field strength and fires the Kearny-Fuchida drive, which near-instantly transports the ship to the projected star system, up to 30 light-years away.

It is possible for a JumpShip to use "pirate points" which are closer to the planets--and are caused as the planetary bodies of a system orbit, canceling one another's gravitational influence--but these points are much harder to navigate to compared to the traditional nadir and zenith points around a star.

Instantaneous interstellar travel would make warfare extremely volatile were it not for the limitations of the Kearny-Fuchida FTL drive. The jump, or teleportation of a very large mass, cannot be triggered at will. A number of days (typically a week) must be spent collecting copious amounts of energy from the nearby star, which is done by means of a solar collector with an area of many square kilometers. The immense quantity of energy is accumulated in storage pools/banks/batteries/capacitors, and dumped into the drive system wholesale to achieve the jump. Jump drives may also be charged by the JumpShip's fusion reactor, which can result in a significantly faster recharge, but has several drawbacks, namely: increased consumption of fuel for the fusion reactor and a slightly higher chance of a misjump due to the higher speed of the charge. Ships with lithium-fusion batteries typically charge the drive with the sail and the batteries with the onboard reactor.

JumpShips equipped with said lithium-fusion batteries allow the JumpShip to store two 'charges' for the jump drive, allowing the ship to make two jumps in quick succession. This places heavy stress on the jump drive and increases the risk of a failure in the drive or even a misjump.

There are two primary causes for jump drive failures or misjumps. The first is overstressing the drive, and the second is via spatial anomalies. The former is much more common, and results from poor maintenance, charging the jump drive too quickly (minimum time to do what is generally considered a safe jump is 150+ hours), or making two jumps in succession with lithium-fusion batteries. Spatial anomalies are far rarer, but are suspected to have caused the loss of several JumpShips over the several hundred years of their use.

During and before the time of the Star League, there were massive armed and armored JumpShips called WarShips. At the height of the Star League, fleets of thousands of these behemoths roamed the stars, enforcing the League's will. The majority of these ships, and those belonging to the Inner Sphere's Houses, were destroyed during the Amaris Civil War or disappeared along with Aleksandr Kerensky and the Star League Defense Force. Most of the shipyards capable of manufacturing or repairing WarShips were heavily damaged or obliterated. Only in the later part of the 31st century has technology risen to a point where building fleets of new WarShips is even somewhat feasible. Still, only the most industrious of Successor States can construct more than one at a time because of their astronomical costs.