- "What about the RiftMesh? All that communications hardware, and you're telling me it doesn't work?"
"The 'Mesh works, but it's slow. It can take an hour for a beacon to relay a signal. And it's not unusual for a message to pass through a thousand beacons before being picked up." - ―Han Solo and Omad Kaeg, discussing the RiftMesh
The RiftMesh was a communications network used in the Chiloon Rift, a resource-rich nebula where plasma clouds prevented regular communication technology from functioning. The RiftMesh Committee, a body associated with the support cooperative of the Chiloon Rift's miners, oversaw maintenance and expansion of the RiftMesh.
Description
- "The RiftMesh is an open network—open, as in one single channel. Everybody listens, with nothing encrypted. If a message is encrypted, the beacons won't even relay it."
- ―Omad Kaeg, on the RiftMesh
The RiftMesh, known informally as the 'Mesh, was a communications network operated in the Chiloon Rift, a large, resource-rich nebula[1] in Wild Space.[2] Since, the plasma clouds of the Rift prevented standard communication systems such as HoloNet transceivers and emergency transmitters from functioning, the RiftMesh served as the primary means of communication within the nebula.[1]
The RiftMesh was hosted by a network of repeater beacons across the Chiloon Rift that could ping messages to each other. Communication via the RiftMesh functioned slowly; it could take up to an hour for a transmission to be submitted by one of the beacons and a message could need to pass through thousands of beacons to reach the recipient. The RiftMesh did not support encryption and functioned as one open channel.[1]
Individuals operating within the Chiloon Rift generally remained within areas with RiftMesh coverage, since operating beyond the RiftMesh left one without a means of summoning help in case of an emergency. Pilots flying asteroid tugs in the nebula used the RiftMesh to coordinate their movements so that their vessels did not concentrate too closely when accessible hyperlanes opened up. Due to the lack of encryption, pirates active in the Rift did not use the RiftMesh to coordinate attacks.[1]
Responsibility for oversight of the RiftMesh was held by the RiftMesh Committee, a body associated with the support cooperative of the Chiloon Rift's miners. The RiftMesh received routine maintenance and upgrades and the RiftMesh Committee took votes on where to focus these upkeep and expansion efforts.[1]
History
- "The support cooperative gave up trying to extend the RiftMesh into the Bubble more than a hundred years ago. The beacons kept drifting out of range of each other, no matter how many the repair crews placed."
- ―Omad Kaeg, on the miners' support cooperative's failed attempt to extend the RiftMesh to the Bubble of the Lost
Sometime prior to 55 BBY,[3] the Chiloon Rift miners' support cooperative unsuccessfully attempted to expand the RiftMesh into the Bubble of the Lost, a region in the heart of the Chiloon Rift that surrounded a monolith of unknown origin. The space-time-warping properties of the monolith caused RiftMesh repeater beacons placed in the zone to drift out of position and the effort was abandoned.
In 45 ABY, businessman Lando Calrissian used the RiftMesh to ask his associate Omad Kaeg] to transport Calrissian's friends Han Solo and Leia Organa Solo from Brink Station, on the edge of the Rift, to his Sarnus Refinery. Around the same time, Mandalorian mercenaries working for Galactic Exploitation Technologies lured the YT-1300 light freighter Millennium Falcon, operated by Calrissian and Kaeg and a Miy'tari Scout piloted by Jedi Knights Ben Skywalker and Tahiri Veila, into an ambush by broadcasting a false RiftMesh distress call, supposedly from the starfighter of the missing Quest Knight Jedi Ohali Soroc.[1]
Behind the scenes
The RiftMesh featured in the 2013 Star Wars Legends novel Crucible, written by Troy Denning.[1]
Appearances
Notes and references
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 Crucible
- ↑
Star Wars: The Essential Atlas Online Companion on StarWars.com (article) (backup link)
- ↑ Crucible states that the unsuccessful attempt to expand the RiftMesh to the Bubble of the Lost occurred over one hundred years prior to the events of the novel. Since Crucible is set in 45 ABY, this places the failed RiftMesh expansion effort to before 55 BBY.