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The pulsing heart of the Ardent is her main reactor. The complex which houses it is the most secure part of the ship, a labyrinth of baffle walls and radiation shields which also protects her onboard T/OM brain.

While the Ardent’s energy needs are easily met and even exceeded by the output of her mutual annihilation cores, there is a failsafe battery network threaded throughout the ship to provide power and life support in an emergency. These batteries are charged via solar fans on the Ardent’s hull whenever it passes through a star system.

==Mutual Annihilation Reactors==
The modern Dirac-Lazaret Mutual Annihilation Reactor consists of two interlinked systems: a particle accelerator that generates fissile quantities of antimatter, and an ionizing chamber or “core” in which the main reaction occurs. The result is a high-yield and clean (insofar that it does not produce physical waste) energy source, the fuel for which is extremely compact and can be produced inexpensively by a “jumpstart” reactor powered by any conventional energy source.

Cores that can be mounted on a moving voidcraft are an experimental technology, reserved for vessels of uncommon size and stability. The Ardent’s own DLMAR is a tri-core model, a consolidated variation on Geostation Kessler’s node-loop reaction system. Two ancillary cores power the Ardent’s Manifold Collapse Drive (see below), the energy demands for which equal that of the entire rest of the ship combined.

==Isolocks==
Passage between the Ardent’s primary thoracic module and her secondaries occurs via isolocks, which screen for potential contaminants – such as fauna, flora and MOSAIC agents – and unauthorised personnel. Smaller isolocks are located throughout the ship, including at the entrance of medical bays and crew pods.

==Traversal Brackets==
Cluster Command vessels like the Ardent are made up of multiple modules, which are connected via traversal brackets. Interlocking elements on the bracket and on the hulls of the ship’s modules firmly hold the pair together, creating an airtight bond and seamlessly linking both systems.

The Ardent has four traversal brackets for its four secondary modules, each of which can also function as a dock for visiting vessels. A fifth bracket, the “vertebral deck”, connects the thoracic and cephalic modules of the ship in the manner of a spinal column.

==Manifold Collapse Drive==
Modern voidcraft traverse interstellar distances via manifold collapse. The “manifold” in question is a spacetime tunnel constructed via quantum entanglement, with one end behind the craft and the other at the target destination. This manifold is created and then dismantled by the drive – the “collapse” in question, which pushes the ship through the tunnel until it emerges in real space at the other end.

Manifold collapse is an energy-intensive and complex manoeuvre, with larger vessels requiring larger and more complicated tunnels. T/OM-Anubis handles collapse calculations aboard the Ardent.