Thermal Core

Thermal cores are advanced waste-heat management systems used to offset the enormous heat-management requirements of interstellar travel, which are often compounded by the insulating effect of Arquebus compression fields. Such systems include multiple redundant heat recycling plants that reconvert thermal energy back to useable power. The last step of this process management process is the thermal core itself; a cartridge of advanced nanomaterial that undergoes an endothermic transformation when exposed to high temperatures; sequestering heat within the material itself. While this process is highly efficient, thermal cores have a limited capacity, as eventually the entirety of the component compound will have undergone this process. Once fully reacted, the core can be ejected from the ship safely, or returned to a recycling facility to be discharged. Because of this limitation, thermal core-equipped vessels often also mount traditional radiator equipment to supplement their cores.

The major functional downside of thermal core technology is a relatively slow heat-reduction process that limits the heat generation a vessel can undergo at once, occasionally stifling their operations from performing at peak effectiveness. In order to facilitate their replacement and discharge, an extensive infrastructure of thermal core production, transport, and discharge stations is also required to service an entire fleet.

Analogues

Zhren'thrar ships typically use a similar combination of energy reclamation recyclers in their vessels, but lacked the technology to construct thermal cores themselves until it was finally reverse-engineered during the final days of the Sapient Crusade. This proved to be a key technical advantage of human vessels over their alien counterparts; and more than once during the conflict ships were ordered to be scuttled in order to preserve human control of the technology. Even decades later, Zhren'thrar systems do not possess the infrastructure to support extensive use of thermal cores, instead relying on a combination of radiator sails and a high-capacity liquid coolant that their vessels periodically discharge in their wake; giving Pride vessels a distinctive swept appearance and vapor contrails. Notably this system does allow for heat to be vented much faster than thermal cores can operate; trading longevity for potential bursts of high-heat maneuvers.

While they do possess thermal core technology, it was determined to be too expensive to implement on the majority of the Konager League echelon fleets; who use massive arrays of radiator sails; dramatically increasing their mass and target profiles in exchange for dramatically simplified logistical chains.