Ether

Ether is the primary source of energy that fuels the paradigm shift of the 22nd Century, Common Era. Identified by Dr. Andrew Leonid Anderson, it would mean free, limitless energy for all of mankind, and allow humanity to expand to the stars, now with the capability to power an Einstein-Rosen Bridge, humanity could travel to distant stars in a fraction of the time.

Ether was identified by several experiments in physics by the Delta-Orange Research and Development Group attempting to identify a way to use universal background radiation as a source of energy for short-term usage. Instead, Dr. Anderson found a way to tap into dark matter itself, accessing energy that sat in the dark. Able to harness the power by extracting it directly from the aether of space, Dr. Anderson found it apt to call it Ether.

After several years of further experimentation, it became even more effective to infuse antimatter with Ether, creating a supercharged particle known as Ethermatter, able to generate enormous amounts of energy: a single kilogram of Ethermatter would be able to power the Earth for six months. Furthermore, it was controllable, not volatile like antimatter in its lone state. In fact, the Ether seemed to complement the antimatter, bringing it into a balance of sorts that allowed the antiparticle to reach a more stable and even more energized form.

As such, this prevented the usage of Ether as a weapon until the year 207 of the New Era, when it would be weaponized by overloading the antimatter with an extraordinary amount of Ether, creating an especially volatile substance, simply known as Type-II Ethermatter.

This Type-II would be used in Ether Bombs, a sort of nuclear bomb fit for the size and vastness of space. A single one-gram Ethermatter Bomb would annihilate a small moon entirely, wiping every atom of it from existence.

With the advent of the Burstbeam AP.EX-001 cannon on the Tempest-Class Dreadnaughts came the invention of the Type-III, an even more condensed and powerful particle with twice the yield of the Type-II.

The most famous usage of Ethermatter would be to power the Exodus Gate, which required 20 five-kilogram Ethermatter reactors to trigger the firing, and twice as many to keep the gate open.