ShockPoint Drive

A 26th century ShockPoint Drive.

The ShockPoint Drive is a device that allows faster-than-light travel commonly installed on ships in the 26th century.

The Drive was invented by the astrophysicist Hideki Ishimura at some point in the 23rd century, though it remained in its "infant" stage - rarely used and only suited to smaller personal vessels - until it began to be adapted for bigger ships in the 25th century, most notably the USG Ishimura.

History

Visualization of Shockspace travel utilizing the ShockPoint Drive.

Although little information on the ShockPoint Drive's method of operation is provided, the initial loading screen for the original Dead Space provides some clues as to its mechanism of operation. The depiction of space-time (via a two-dimensional model) relative to the rear of the ship expanding while that in front of the ship is contracting seems to indicate the concept is related to/derives from the theoretical Alcubierre drive, a proposed means of achieving faster-than-light travel.

Further supporting this is the visual distortion enveloping the ship as observed in the opening sequence of Dead Space, as if the ship were in some "field" or "bubble" (the Alcubierre drive concept calls for the entity being transported to be enveloped in a sort of "warp bubble", a region of static space-time which does not undergo distortion).

Prior to the conception of the USG Ishimura in 2446, the ShockPoint Drive had only been used on smaller personal vessels. This implies some type of complication regarding the size of the ship. Exactly what this is, as well as all other information regarding the ShockPoint Drive, is unknown.

In the Awakened DLC for Dead Space 3, Isaac Clarke and Sgt. John Carver retrieve a ShockPoint Drive from a gutted Unitologist Dropship near the CMS Terra Nova above Tau Volantis. They retrieve the ShockPoint Drive and place it in the 200-year old reactor of the Terra Nova. However, in order to utilize the Drive on the Terra Nova, Isaac and Carver overload the reactor by dumping plutonium cores into the reactor which generates enough power to shock out back to Earth.

Associated Terminology

Shockspace

The following below are terms and functions used in conjunction with ShockPoint travel.

• Shockspace – The “void” between two points. Ships or shuttles are unable to travel through it without a beacon or coordinates to an exact location.
• Shock out – The action of entering Shockspace.
• De-shock (Shock in) – The action of dropping out of Shockspace when a ship or shuttle has reached its destination.
• Shockbeacon – A device used to lock on to the location of a ship that travels through Shockspace.
• ShockRing – A device that aids in the effort to travel across the void between two points.
• Shock-Gate – Transmission codes that activate ShockRings.
• ShockPoint facility – A station or establishment that caters to ShockPoint travel, providing beacons and triangulation for locations.
• ShockPoint node - A large structure utilized in the 23rd and 24th centuries as the main method of Shockspace travel, either before the ShockPoint Drive was invented or while the Drive was in its infancy. These nodes allowed travel through Shockspace to another node, but their costly nature and strategic placement only in certain systems forced ships to make long journeys through normal space until they could reach a node or their desired destination.

Trivia

• The ShockPoint Drive is repurposed as a bomb and also a multiplayer objective in Dead Space 2.
• According to Chuck Beaver, a writer for the original Dead Space, the original proposal for how ShockPoint Drives worked was very different: the writer who pitched them explained how ships would reach a 'shock point' at the boundary of interstellar space which contained a confluence of forces of nature, that would shoot ships across across light "like hot oil across a skillet" and achieve faster-than-light. Chuck Beaver disapproved of the logic due to being too unscientific, and it was reworked to be something like a more traditional antimatter drive, but kept the name ShockPoint Drive.

Gallery

A ShockPoint Drive salvaged from a Unitologist Dropship on the CMS Terra Nova.

Another view of the ShockPoint Drive.

Another view of the ShockPoint Drive.

The USM Eudora shocking out into Shockspace.