Umbral Rift

Located near the former site of the Umbral Shipyards orbiting Schatten IV (in the Schatten Star System / Sigma Tamelos Sector), the Umbral Rift was created when Tal Ravis detonated the ALR-X Missile in the vicinity of the shipyards. The resulting explosion tore a hole in subspace, opened up this rift, and took out half of the Umbral Shipyards at the time. Further, the rift began to grow as it sucked in spatial anomalies elsewhere in the system, which increased its gravitational pull on nearby objects. The rift itself is a collision between several antagonistic layers of subspace and began to throw off increasingly high amounts of intense subspace radiation and other forms of exotic energy.

On September 20th, 2390, the rift was struck by the massive shockwave resulting from the artificial collapse of the Schatten star. While the rift itself survived the cataclysm and remains active, the collapse completely obliterated Umbral Station, the containment satellites, and all other surrounding facilities.

Communication

Much as the Pandoric Rift is able to be easily used for transmissions through space-time, the Umbral Rift was historically used to provide two-way communication through reality barriers prior to the 2390 cataclysm. By specifically manipulating a subspace signal, the rift was used as a focal point from which to receive signals from other realities. It was still considered experimental as of April of 2386 but had a 90% success rate for sustained communications. The power requirements for communications devices sending messages to the prime reality through the rift were high, but far lower than opening a wormhole.

Before the destruction of Umbral Station, a positive lock to a trans-dimensional beacon was required and transmission vectors needed to be sent from the station. These vectors were designed to allow the station to pick out the signals amongst the significant subspace noise from the rift. The containment field was augmented using an array of subspace relay satellites that were modified to alter the rift's containment in order to allow the network to pick out and relay communications signals. This entire network was destroyed in the 2390 shockwave.

Containment

Prior to the star's collapse, Solas Tempus had configured several modified Phaser Defense Satellites, which were altered to project a tachyon-lygon particle field at the rift. The satellites worked together and the field was modulated in overlapping pulses to contain the intense radiation and exotic particles. Because these satellites were vaporized during the 2390 shockwave, the rift is currently completely uncontained.

Closure

Historical experimental results indicated that closing the rift could cause a massive explosion which would possibly destroy Schatten IV when the rift finally closed. Thus, it was decided to leave the rift open and work to instead contain it—a concern that became moot following the eventual destruction of the planet and surrounding system in 2390.

Research

Prior to the system's destruction, ongoing research was being performed to see if a matter-stream could be sent through the rift. As of April 2386, no attempts had been made as it was still deemed too unsafe for testing, though theoretical data suggested it might be possible. All such research at this location permanently ceased following the 2390 system collapse.