File: Operation DuncecapArchive Date: circa 2763Source: Unverified Department of CommunicationsSecurity Level: Omega DeltaDuring the dizzying heights of the golden age of the first Star League, a series of tests were conducted to examine the viability of what a team of ambitious scientists called 'The JumpGate'.
According to the theory, a set of eight JumpShips were set in a planar orbit around a specially selected set of jump points in two neighboring systems. Using planetery based HPG Stations to synchronize a highly complex and arcane 'hyperspace field matrix construct' a kind of controlled worm hole would be generated, allowing non-JumpDrive capable ships to traverse interstellar space without the need for individual JumpDrives.
The immediate implications of such a technology were not lost on the First Council. After a detailed and classified study, it was determined that only the core Hegemony would have the economic and industrial strength the put such a system into operation, owing to the need for eight JumpShips to be dedicated for every route, in every system.
Although there were many who said, "This is the ******* STAR LEAGUE! We can do it!" a number of detractors posited that once the Great Houses got wind of it, the only concluding strategy they could implement in response would be general war upon the Hegemony to prevent it from gaining such a crucial strategic advantage.
Positing that travel, by any space capable ship, across the breadth of the Hegemony in a matter of days, or even hours, would allow the Terrans to save drastically on the size of their fleets, and thus afford to build the system, Hegemony leaders decided it would not be worth the risk of diverting resources and thus arousing the suspicions of Great House military institutions.
Given that, potentially, any sixteen JumpShips or WarShips could still construct the JumpGate 'tunnel', it was determined that merely scrapping the project and research would not be enough, but that the data and anyone associated with the project would have to be eliminated.
Operation Duncecap is one of many of the dirty secrets of the first Star League that have since fallen into the black hole of history, but perhaps, one day, the data will be found, or reinvented, and the dream of the JumpGate will once again command the imaginations of the common people, the scientists...
...and the Generals.