Fiction:Delpha Coalition of Planets/Resources and power extraction

The Delpha Coalition of Planets is renound for its technology, as they are one of the most advanced civilizations known in the universe, far bested by only the Elder races and Transapients, and rivalled by few others. However, the DCP's technology would of course be impossible without their resources and sources of power, so less mass is used to achieve the unbelievable.

Exotic matter
Exotic matter, is actually a loose term, it basically describes any form of matter with unusual properties, such as negative mass. However, exotic matter is not magic, so it can't break the laws of physics, however, it can distort spacetime and has a wide range of other unusual properties, with phenomena that is non-existent in normal matter. Most forms of exotic matter are in fact fields rather than the sid analogy that is known in popularity, called negative stress-energy tensor fields (resulting in negative mass). These negative fields are what the DCP use to their ways of distorting spacetime and changing the symmetries of forces and particles. Scalar quantum fields, refer to the random quantum fluctuations that exist in ever point in space and time, where two "virtual" particles, one positive and one negative are created. To prevent violation of Conservation laws, the two quickly cancel each other out, however, the DCP has found a way to separate them, and use this "zero-point energy" for their manipulation of quantum systems.

Extraction
Exotic matter is extremely rare and difficult to produce, most civilizations scarcly have it, but the DCP has exotic matter in abundance, of at least one planetary mass spread throughout the DCP. This may seem very small, however, not need much exotic matter is needed for usage. The DCP can extract exotic matter by siphoning it from a black hole. Exotic matter also roams the universe, one such example are Q-balls, which are stable Non-topological solitons, blobs of attracted bosonic particles (force mediators), these were cooked up during the early universe. This exotic matter sinks to the centers of objects with large mass, such as neutron stars or black holes.

Applications
Exotic matter is very important to the DCP's technology.
 * Tachyonic Shift Drives - The shift drive reconfigures the ship's reference to spacetime, and causes it to operate like a tachyon. As tachyons lose mass they speed up, and of course, the same principle is important to the shift drive.  In order to the prevent the ship itself from being smeared out of existence, it requires a large reserve of exotic matter draiped around its hull in the form of a quantum field.
 * Neutronium mining - Neutronium, or neutron-degenerate matter, is essential to the DCP to building large megastructures capable of withstanding tremendous pressure beyond the limits of normal matter. However, mining a neutron star is no easy business.  Neutron stars have unstable surfaces, when they change energy states, a small gamma-ray burst is created.  The DCP uses exotic matter, forcing the stellar ash to undergo a burst, and using vast superconducting magnets, the matter is uplifted and cystallized into a superdense solid.