Item: Trask Universal Fuel Core (PAL)

Effect / Mechanics

• Starship Operation: A single PAL provides 1 unit of fuel. This equates to one short-warp jump (1 hex) or approximately two weeks of in-system sublight maneuvering.
• Hydrogen Buildup: As the Positronium Hydride is burned, the lattice fills with highly pressurized, flammable normal hydrogen gas. After a short-warp jump, this gas must be safely vented. If the exhaust vents are blocked or damaged, the engine suffers a cumulative 10% chance of a chemical backfire on the next ignition.
• Volatile: If the item suffers critical damage or the magnetic containment fails, the lattice is designed to forcefully implode, preventing a multi-megaton antimatter explosion but creating a deadly, localized kinetic and gravitational shockwave.

Description A bulky, industrial rectangular prism roughly the size of a footlocker. The exterior casing is a composite of high-impact polymers and heat sinks, finished in Trask’s signature utilitarian grey.

• Visual: The casing is “matte” and non-reflective. When active, a small status display glows a soft amber.
• Tactile: The unit is extremely heavy and always cold to the touch due to the internal cryo-cooling systems. Condensation or frost frequently forms near the exhaust vents.
• Auditory: There is a constant, barely perceptible hum—the sound of the magnetic field containment struggling against the Positronium Hydride inside.
• Smell: Handling a PAL often leaves a scent of ozone or metallic “static” in the air.

Origins

• Source: Trask Intermediaries
• Notes: While fusion works for stationary ground-side generators, the PAL is the gold standard for mobile interstellar travel. Trask Intermediaries maintains a ruthlessly protected monopoly on the large-scale creation of the tungsten crystal lattices required to bind the antimatter.

GM Notes

• Volatility: If a PAL takes damage equal to 10 HP (AC 12) or is subjected to an EMP without shielding, the magnetic bottle fails. The resulting implosion and localized antimatter annihilation causes a 6d10 explosive damage blast in a 60-foot radius. This is enough to breach a ship hull from the inside.
• Counterfeit Units: “Refurbished” PALs exist on the black market (Cost: 1,500 cr). These use degraded diamond lattices. When used for a Short-Warp jump, roll 1d6. On a 1, the fuel is consumed, but the drive fails to engage, stranding the ship until a fresh core is inserted.

Production The manufacturing of a Partial Antimatter Lattice starts at a Sphalerizer Site. Here, massive amounts of energy are channeled into spherical chambers lined with magnets and Lanternyard gravity anchors to crush waste matter, using Sphalerons to synthesize raw positrons. Because bare positrons are fiercely volatile, they are immediately funneled into a magnetic vacuum chamber and bombarded with ultra-cold hydrogen gas. This precise collision forces the positrons to bind with the hydrogen atoms, creating the exotic molecule Positronium Hydride (PsH). This step temporarily stabilizes the antimatter.

Once the Positronium Hydride is synthesized, it is injected into the primary containment structure: a magnetised, matte diamond and tungsten crystal lattice sphere. The lattice’s intense, localized magnetic fields grip the PsH atoms, suspending them in a spaced, solid-state grid to prevent premature annihilation. This heavy core is then sealed within a hollow diamond-hafnium sphere and wrapped in carbon nanotubes, manufactured as topological, room-temperature superconductors. Around the nanotubes and scattering sphere, Axion-doped Bismuth Ferrofluid provides the cooling for the whole system.

When the ship’s deconstruction laser starts to pulse, it breaks tiny parts of the containment, such that the positronium annihilates. The resulting Gamma rays blast the inner sphere, utilizing Compton scattering to knock a torrent of electrons loose. These high energy electrons create a plasma inside a 7cm thick hollow space with rifled walls inside the scattering sphere. The rifling swirls the plasma and induces a magnetic field, which is picked up by the carbon nanotubes. This provides the electrical current for the ship. The nanotubes are then cooled using Trask’s Universal Coolant System to keep their superconductive state.

Notable production sites:

• Coross III