Controlled Substratic Grid

A controlled substratic grid (CSG) is an area of space where the parameters of a substratic grid, including the laws of physics, can be altered. Within humanity, they are used for a wide variety of purposes, including stabilisation of areas affected by manifold distortion fields. They are also used to contain anomalies and as a security countermeasure in very high-security areas that might be targeted by exophysical attacks. And they are used in warp relativistic antimatter propulsion (WRAP) drives to enable faster-than-light travel. Effectively, they allow for the exertion of localised reality control.

One critical fact of grid control (and all forms of reality control) is that it is impossible to change a variable such that free energy will be created. In other words, grid control cannot violate the first maxim of exophysics. Additionally, a dangerous side effect of CSGs is the potential for breach events resulting from increased interconnectedness that create gridforms, manifestations of the Substrate that adapt to and coalesce in the grid environment; the longer a manifold remains under grid control, and the greater the degree of the modifications, the higher the possibility of gridform manifestation.

History

The first grid control systems were developed in the 2220s by the Substratics Unit (BRL-11) of Black Research, as the culmination of all prior research performed into Precursor technology, including the Precursor site at Herbert Point. They were, in fact, developed by reverse-engineering Precursor reality control nanotechnology. They were first tested during Operation Lighthouse as a method of repairing severely damaged manifolds deep within the Girvan Offshore Science Facility. Early systems were unstable and highly dangerous, but the technology gradually became more refined over the subsequent decades as it was integrated into nearly all aspects of Raven's exophysical defence arsenal.

Mechanism

The basis for a grid control system is an extremely powerful optical supercomputer, similar to that used in SI cores for hosting consciousness, but on a much larger scale. The substratic networks that they host are artificially created in such a way to avoid the emergence of sapience. Effectively, this results in a controllable computer that is able to exert psionic control over its surroundings. These computers consume immense amounts of energy and are often nicknamed "monoliths", due to their imposing, tall black appearance. Large grid control environments may use "anchors", small devices that network back to the central computer and distribute its influence over the area; for portable, tactical-use systems such as those deployed by Raven to manage calamities in urban areas, anchors can be deployed as small UAVs, and appear as a "grid-like" array of stark red lights in the sky above, making it a distinct visual characteristic of such an area.

However, simply placing a grid control system in an area and powering it up is not enough to effect reality control. In normal circumstances, the self-consistent nature of the manifold's own execution environment in the Substrate prevents any external entities from assuming control. Because of this, grid control requires that the manifold's own control over itself be weakened. This may already be the case, such as in areas where manifolds are heavily damaged, but if it is not, an artificial manifold distortion field must be created. Once the grid control system has successfully "infiltrated" the manifold's control network, artificial distortion need not apply and the area can return to a habitable condition.