Manual:Insystem travel
 Manual:Docking
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 Manual
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Manual:Interstellar travel 
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There are three potential ways to travel between locations within a system. These are via Combat and Flight Modes, or by using your ship’s SPEC drive. As you could imagine, attempting to travel between locations under the normal modes would require a large amount of time; being nearly useless to a pilot, whether of the merchant or mercenary bent.
Fast in-system travel between planets, asteroids and artificial stations was made possible by the development of the SPEC drive. The SPEC drive (Spatial Partitioned Expansion Contraction) and its alien equivalents warp space around the vessel such that the vessel will move at normal speed though compressed space, generating an effective movement rate magnitudes higher than Flight Mode.
The degree of compression is restrained by the drive’s distance from any nearby gravity wells, so the nearer a gravity well (sun, planet or even station) the less effective is the drive and the lower the magnitude of movement over normal velocity. You may have heard a metaphor for gravity that states "space is a big soft bed, planets are bowling balls, and smaller balls roll towards the indentations." Well, in SPEC travel, the planets are more like big hills that get steeper the closer you get to them.
The energy costs are much higher to use the SPEC drive as opposed to jumping. As such, SPEC drives are used for interstellar travel only when exploring outside the jump network or when launching a military expedition (as going through the "front door", so to speak, is a good way to get butchered). All space worthy ships are fitted with a SPEC drive for in system travel.
To use SPEC, make sure that you are aligned on your target. This means that you are both pointing your ship at your destination AND that your velocity vector is pointing at your target (you are actually traveling in the direction you are pointing). To activate, hit the [a] or [A] key. A blue SPEC light will appear on your HUD, and your velocity will increase. On final approach to your destination, hit the same key again to deactivate the drive and return to your previous flight control. Please also note that your weapon systems are disabled while in SPEC mode, to avoid collision with your own weaponry.
