Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict/Chrono Technology

"Time travel? Chronotechnology? What is this, a joke?"

-Emmet Brown, seeing Einstein's theory for the first time during the Dodgeson Experiment of 1943 V.C.

Albert Einstein's heritage
The Alliance Of Hawke is a science-driven faction. Global video communication, GPS satellite systems, Solar Cells, Particle Colliders, and many other wonders of the universe serve the Alliance army and the Alliance citizens. One of the earliest, and likely one of the most well-known technology aspects, is simply called Chronotechnology.

The Chronotechnology was initially an idea thought out by an Aselian physics scientist called Albert Einstein, who mysteriously disappeared after a speech at the Solway International Physics Conference, (Brussels), in the year 1927 V.C. He postulated his theories of our universe being actually a multiverse, and after earning a bit of laughter from other physics scientists, he did show off a formula that earned him silence and awe. Only 1 other scientist, from a technology firm called AlterTech, spoke out the quote above, with Einstein replying a line basing off Elysea's famous reply to the dying Tacitus: '"Sir, believe me, time will show. Sooner or later, time will show." Einstein went on, and earned more and more interest in his theories.

One of his theories, time travel, and its application, was of particular interest. However, Einstein paused his speech to take a break. In that break, he disappeared and was never seen again. Conspiracy theorists believe, his own theory of time travel lead to his doom, because Marsianian time travelers went back in time to kill him so the human population will never understand the workings of the universe. Conservative officials dismissed these theories as utter rubbish, but the true reason for his disappearance was because of a Chaos agent, for reasons only the Grey Steel knows. But even then the Order doesn't know how they did it, only that the late Premier Cherdenko and his associates Zelinsky, now confined in a mental asylum. and the previous head generals Krukov and Reznov, who died in the battle of (insert), were likely involved in it.

However, of high value was his inheritance, among others, the Chronotechnology idea. Bending the space-time continuum would allow travel from one point in the universe to another in an instant if enough energy is available. With a workaround based on the multiverse theory, but not strictly using it, a new generation of scientists managed to create a device which they, in honor of the original idea, called the Chronosphere.

The first known usage of Chronotechnology was in the 1943 V.C., where initial testing of the device during the Dodgeson Experiment showed a lack of control over the process of teleportation. Solving the control problem became the main preoccupation of Emmet Brown, a friend of Albert Einstein, and other personnel working on the project.

The Chronosphere of the first generation was an orb, connected with the building, which could be used to "teleport" material from one place in a room to another, but the device required so much energy (the equal term being the energy output of the complete city of Fereldan), funding was cut despite the team making a larger, effective version. Disappointed by the inability of officials to see the potential, they almost gave up completely, until a technology firm, going by the name of FutureTech, came across the project and offered funding in exchange for firm loyalty. The scientists agreed instantly.

AseliaTech, which once had the name AlterTech, changed its management and began serving and supplying the newly created Alliance with technology. They were highly interested in the development of chronotechnology, having realized its potential. Within a few years, a new prototype the size of a building was created and ready for testing.

Technical Aspects
The Chronosphere is, so to say, the most brutal use of Chronotechnology. It rips open a path in the space-time continuum at two defined points in space and transfers any material, energy, and everything else from the first point to the other. The actual physics behind this would take books to explain in detail, however, aspects of the superstring and multiverse theories play important roles in using the Chronosphere in an acceptable (and safe) way. Thousands of modern computer devices are needed to calculate each possibility, and a network of transfer methods exists just for the purpose of sending data and electrical energy to a Chronosphere. A much smaller scale using the same principle is the Chrono-Exchange, which does what it says - exchange the position of 2 objects.

Yet, meddling with the causality is a dangerous play, and several Alliance Scientists regularly get headaches when the use of a Chronosphere brings unexpected side effects. After the GVAW, the then-new generation of Chronospheres was finally useable, and bringing units from one place to another through the way of time was possible - but not without side effects. The device had a flaw and sometimes showed weird behavior, which ranged from malfunctions and overloads to sometimes really nasty results.

One such malfunction happened in the test phase of the new device and trapped an entire tank platoon in time - they came back 10 seconds later, at least for us, because for them more than 2 months passed, and only a third of the personnel made it back. Another flaw in the older generation that has thankfully been fixed was the so-called "Chronovortex". This flaw produced at a given percentage of certainty a storm loaded with Chrono-energy - a destructive anomaly, but thankfully only shortlived.

Such a storm destroyed a civilian village near the border of the Voshkod, who in return attacked the Allied outpost they thought responsible. There also have been alarming archeological findings - in the desert of Hyboria a team found parts of a Leopard 2A4 Tank, but seeing how the tank parts are over 4000 years old, this should be impossible. The only explanation is a failed chronoport. All these risks are a real threat, because at one point or another they disturb the complex fabric of time and space. Hence the Chronosphere technology is a dangerous toy to play with.

The Dark Side Of Teleportation
"What we got back didn't live long. Fortunately."

- From an early test of the Scrambler

The Voshkod were not the only ones developing hideous weaponry to finally end their war. The Alliance were no less determined, and developed something extraordinary to blitz the Reds right back, with hideous results, though unlike the Voshkod they are able to hide their skeletons well. One of the chief problems in the beginning for the Alliance was its lack of mobility, with most of its tanks and artillery hugging the ground.

Fortunately, with the introduction of Einstein's theory, it seemed that the issue was solved. Pleased, the scientists were left to their work. Their first attempt only succeeded at sending a beam of light back three seconds before it shorted out and melted.

Testing on inanimate objects was canceled when Benjamin Carville learned that Vladimir Vorobyov would be inspecting troops at the front within an estimated operational distance in a few days. Instead, Bruce Chen, the janitor, was loaded into the infernal machine to be teleported from one pad to another to test its feasibility. After a great humming of the machines, Chen disappeared in a flash, and on the other pad materialized a pile of bloody flesh, exposed organs, and jutting bones, which quickly exploded due to gases trapped within, spraying viscera over the horrified technicians. Carville himself wiped what was once a man off his epaulet in shock, stunned silence... And anger.

The Alliance scrapped the teleporter idea, at least until Emmet Brown came in. Instead, the machine was retooled to teleport an object to its exact same position, scrambling its molecules as it had done with Chen until it no longer resembled anything it once was. The machine, dubbed the Scrambler, was copied and built in a few Alliance bases, which soon became almost invincible against attack by the Voshkod. Conscripts were immediately turned into shuddering piles of flesh in the presence of their screaming comrades. Tanks were no less affected, as machines were fused with their pilots in a flash. Even airplanes could be brought down by extreme disturbances of air, even if they were not hit directly.

Such was the effectiveness of their weapon even the elite Omega soldiers and Spetzsnaz had difficulty taking Bruce Chen Memorial Armoury, one of the last major bases holding back the Voshkods. Entire squads were fused together, and shields offered no proof against the Scrambler. Only the crafty infiltration by Yuri, playing the part of a poor man in need of rescue, allowed the Scrambler to be shut off and the base to be destroyed entirely.

And by the end of the war, after many protests, all remaining scramblers and their data were officially destroyed, as it was considered a weapon of unnecessary suffering by the (Geneva) Convention as its target tends to survive in agony for a few seconds (with controversial rumors abounding that the Alliance even prolong the lives of those hit by the scrambler to test them or even using the weapon as a torture device).

But in reality, the Alliance still uses them, though now only for "unsanctioned" forces and last resort, with the alliance paramilitary forces and unsanctioned defenses being equipped with these horrid weapons to defend the Alliance, or to kill enemy spies and would-be rebels.