Miscellaneous information

Computers

Computers typically do not have keyboards or other extraneous input devices, but rely on voice recognition and an interactive holographic screen. The voice recognition capabilities of computers vary, but because of the simple nature of Galactic, that language is easily understood by computers

Computers do not work on simple ones and zeroes. They are semi-sentient, and they are capable of independent thought. This makes them highly versatile, but can also be a problem (computer psychology has becoming a booming industry over the last few hundred years).

It is not possible to assign a MIPS (Million Instructions Per Second) or MFLOPS (Million FLOating Points per Second) number to these computer systems as they are intelligent and unorthodox methods are used for problem solving.

Although computers are intelligent, they have no feelings, although they can learn to display feelings which aren't real, such as joy and sadness. These feelings are always very limited and will not interfere with the computers function.

The computer systems in the Galactic Rebels game setting are very sophisticated, and computer crime is a very large concern. Because of this all security has been tightened in the last millennia. Many computers require a password, a face recognition pattern, a retina identity pattern, a finger pattern and DNA sampling of an individual who wishes to log in, so computer hacking isn't very easy, but with enough programming one could be able to convince a computer of anything computers are very smart, more so even than humans, but strangely naive.

Virtual reality is a big thing in Computer-Person communication in GRAUC. Many spaceships operate by using virtual reality with the pilot, and many world networks can be explored by using virtual reality. Virtual reality is very advanced, advanced enough to make it nearly impossible to distinguish between reality and virtual reality. There are basically two ways of accessing virtual reality. The first way, is more common, simply because it's less complicated. Individuals who are going to enter virtual reality put on a specially designed suit which reads all body movements and gives a slight electrical pulse into all muscles to simulate a barrier in the program etc. The individual must wear a helmet which contains two monitors, one for each eye, headphones, and scent simulator. This works quite well and is in major use in sophisticated spaceships, and in some large computer networks.

The other way works by placing the an individual who wishes to enter virtual reality into a specially designed compartment. Here he is stunned using electric pulses, and then special coherent electromagnetic waves are shot into his head from thousands of directions. These waves enter the brain and stimulate it in a pre-programmed way. Now the individual is completely inside virtual reality, and all scenes are completely unable to distinguish between virtual reality and the world outside. Mind Scanners work in a way not much different from this, and people could, and have been manipulated terribly by using a device named CITAR (Computer Induced Thoughts And Reactions).

All homes on civilized worlds have a computer that is connected to the central database archive on the local planet. On most worlds net access is free and available through wireless networking anywhere (even in the most remote of places), via a satellite hookup.

Data is stored either on low storage datatapes or high storage UDS (Uridium Data Storage) crystals, which are capable of storing at least a thousand times more information than their aging counterparts. A typical datatape can store up to 100 hours of high resolution holographic imaging.

A typical holographic computer costs around 100-200 credits, so it isn’t for everyone. People can also buy terminals which do not have any processing power, but draw all their usage from the planetary network. This is enough for the majority of the population, and these devices cost around 10-15 cr.

Phones

For the ultra technologically adept, phones can be implanted into their skull. These devices are voice operated, and connected to the planets network same as usual. The procedure is completely harmless, and can be reversed simply.

Cars and transportation

On the other side of the money spectrum you’ve got hovercars. These vehicles are much more expensive than groundcars, costing from 5000 – 10000 credits.

Hovercars require electricity in the same way as groundcars, so maintaining them is relatively inexpensive.

A hovercar floats above the ground, at the height of approx. 60-80 cm, and it cannot float higher than that, although it's possible to bring the hovercar closer to the ground. Beneath the hovercar lies its hoverbed which is a super-conducting quantum repulsion drive. This hoverbed repels all objects beneath it by applying opposite atomic charge which is directly proportional to the object below it. By changing the repulsion to attraction at certain areas, and increasing the repulsion in others the hovercar can achieve momentum, in much the same way as tanks do, by reaching for farther and farther atoms in the surface beneath the car.

The top speed which can be achieved by using this method is 350 km/h on normal surfaces. All hovercars, however, are fitted with a Velocity Regulation Module or VRM for short, which makes the vehicle unable to achieve speeds exceeding 260 km/h. The VRM has been known to be bypassed, and the penalties for doing so are severe.

The autorail is where the real power of the hovercar comes to play. Most civilized worlds have an elaborate system of these tunnel-like structures which enable hovercars to reach a top speed of 700 km/h in an automated transit system.

Autorails connect most major cities on industrialized worlds, and it is a preferred mode of transportation for most people than flying or taking trains (trains use a similar system and reach the same speed).

Before the driver enters the autorail he must select his destination, and a toll (if any) is deducted from his account. Then the autorail’s computer assumes control of the vehicle and the driver does not drive himself until the vehicle exits the autorail tunnel

The autorail is controlled by each city on a planet, and often the cities autorail systems are hooked together, creating a massive autorail network all over a planet. When a vehicle enters an autorail all information concerning the vehicle, such as number of passengers etc. is sent to the autorail control board. So any hovercars which are stolen, or tracked by the police are immediately spotted on the autorail, and they can be ejected from it or diverted to an alternate route.

It's very possible that the hovercar is amongst the most important scientific transit achievements of the GST era, as it was invented in the year 1000 GST. The hovercar excels the groundcar in most areas, capable of reaching 100 km/h from 0 in less than 3 seconds, and having a much higher top speed, etc. There is one drawback of the hovercar, which is more of a commercial concern than a practical one. It is very expensive, so it is regarded as a luxury on some worlds, making up only around 10 % of the total number of cars. On others the number is closer to 80%.

The hovercars are not very effective in off-road situations, and can be difficult to control in rain or snow. In these situations the groundcars are preferable, and can reach higher speeds.

Narcotics

Much of the hard drug trafficking comes from the Danger zone (former Andoronia). This is where most of the Storm, Gale and other worker drugs are manufactured. These drugs are injected and make you able to work longer and harder, of course it does end up killing you.

Dream costs around 2-3 cr / gram on the street. Tobacco 1 cr. Storm and Gale cost 10 cr / dose.

Many of the worlds in the galaxy which are inhabited by humanoids are mining colonies. Such places are a perfect place to sell narcotics, as all the workers in the mines are no doubt both very tired, and very bored. It's believed that in a typical mining colony, around 30-45 % of the workers use narcotics. Some mining companies even supply their workers with narcotics which speed up their progress, but kill in several months. Andoronia was also big on narcotics, supplying it's army with a special drug called kick which increases fighting efficiency, and causes psychosis! This drug has found itself into the mainstream junky population of the Galaxy, and has increased violent crimes by a whopping 50% on worlds where it is widely used

The main drug in the galaxy today is Dream, which is a mild hallucinating drug, which causes the user to relax completely, and float into his own fantasy world. The drug isn't very dangerous, as it isn't very addictive except mentally and hasn't very serious side effects. That is the reason that it's very popular, especially among wealthy university students, who have nothing better to do.

Dream is illegal on most (but not all) civilized worlds. Dream is used in pill form and inhaled, depending on the quality (lesser quality is inhaled).

Another widely used drug, although much more dangerous is the drug Power which is extremely addictive and causes the user to become very tense and hyper active, often resulting in violent behaviour. This drug isn't very expensive and is the single most deadly drug because of it popularity with the poor.

Kick is the drug which Andoronia used in its army. It's original purpose was two-fold. First, to improve fighting efficiency of soldiers (making them much more aggressive) and secondly to make them addicted to the Andoronian army as it is one of the few places where this drug can be found, as it is very addictive, and quitting the drug can result in death.

Now Kick can be purchased anywhere, and it is very popular in Liren.

An individual on Kick has severely bloodshot eyes, and is very jumpy. His combat abilities are many fold as adrenaline production is five times normal, and the individuals body is very tense. An overdose of kick results in a very painful death as all muscles contract beyond breaking point and tear, as the brain suffers a trauma making the individual unable to communicate. Breath seizes shortly after all muscles have snapped, and the individual is dead.

Kick is injected into the body, often by drug-guns, designed for medicine injection.

Another "industry" drug is Storm which is used by workers in mines both in Orion and in Nordon. This drug keeps work efficiency at it's peak (something that is very important to workers as they get paid by efficiency) until the individual simply dies after several months. This drug causes mild relaxing effects at first but then increases muscle response allowing the worker to triple his efficiency.

The last dosage, however works differently. After a specific number of dozes (individually defined) when 12 mg of NG 22 (the lethal part of Storm) have settled in the brain, the individual turns absolutely insane, often killing people around him, due to the fact that NG 22 in excess of 12 mg goes into the rational parts of the brain and totally disrupts any logical thought.

Gale is the Imperial version of Storm. The Empire itself condemns Gale and possession of it is of course illegal, but many workers in the empire choose this drug instead of Storm because it's cheaper. The result is a shorter life. The life expectancy of individuals using Gale is half of the life expectancy of an individual using Storm. NG 22 has been replaced by NG 32 which is cheaper to manufacture, but settles more easily in the brain. Work efficiency isn't more but the drug costs only 20 cr per doze, half of the cost of Storm.

Tobacco is not a very lethal drug. It's effects are mildly soothing to some and just the opposite to others. The use of Tobacco isn't a serious crime, and it's widely used in the Realm of flowers. It's not possible to overdose on tobacco but individuals using more than 20-40 dozes each day have a risk of developing lung cancer after continuous use for several decades.

Peace is a drug, inhaled in much the same way as tobacco. The way in which Peace is used is by spreading it over hot rocks, and pouring water on it. The steam rising up includes Peace. It's a ritual in the Realm of flowers for families to gather around a stone stow and use Peace together. Peace results in a very relaxing effect on the user, and sexual desires are greatly stimulated, although memory is reduced. Peace is therefore the main reason for all those illegitimate Bont children. It isn't possible to overdose on Peace and it's only slightly addictive. The use of Peace is legal in The Realm of flowers although it's banned in other conreces. The price of Peace is very low, and it's easy to obtain it, especially in the southern part of the galaxy.

When characters become addicted to narcotics the Referee must coach the players as to how to behave. If the players do not respond to the wishes of the Referee (concerning the drug state etc.) the Referee must make the character an NPC until the drug no longer controls him.

Smuggling of narcotics is a very popular way of making money, as the IGSP convict records prove. The IGSP has tightened security in all conreces concerning drug trafficking so smuggling isn't as easy as it was in the GST era. The rewards of smuggling can be great as profits can exceed 300 %, with the right connections, but the price of capture can be death!

Neither smuggling nor use of illegal narcotics is recommended, but it can result in exciting situations to occur.

The Drug effects are for game use. The Relaxing effects have no use but for role-playing, but may result in impaired judgment. There are several other narcotics in the Galaxy which are widespread. These narcotics include Frost, Pain and Giga. Their effect is similar to Power.

Space stations

Space stations come in all shapes and sizes, and can in many cases accommodate up to 50.000 persons at once.

Most of the time it is prohibited to carry firearms above MDC 6 on space stations, and projectile weapons are strictly prohibited. Many space stations will not allow any weapons to be carried on-board.

Spaceships can either enter space stations or dock outside them, via docking clamps. The latter option is cheaper, and is usually advised if you don’t intend to carry a significant amount of cargo aboard the space station, and your spaceship does not require repairs.

Docking fees vary, but typical fees are 2-5 cr / ship ton (with a minimum fee of 500 cr) on a docking clamp and up to 10 cr/ton for full entrance (with a 2000 cr minimum fee). Each day costs 1 cr / ton (minimum 200 cr) on a docking clamp and 3 cr/ton for full entrance (minimum 500 cr). It is considerably less expensive to park ships on planets where space isn’t at such premium.

If your ship does not require it (for refueling or cargo transport) then it is advised that you do not dock with space stations, but keep your ship in a space-slot in close proximity of the station. Such slots generally cost 50 cr / day. Then you can order a transfer shuttle to go to the space station or down to the planetary surface, and your ship is protected by the space station.

Space stations typically generate gravity by centrifugal acceleration (rotation), but most advanced space stations have an artificial gravity generator, or a combination of both.

Space stations are usually protected by several fighter squadrons and/or orbital defence batteries. They seldom have weapon systems of their own, but such varieties exit of course, but mostly as military platforms.

Weather control

The exact weather control system is not available on many worlds, but can be found on some planets with tech level 1 or higher. It is capable of changing the weather on a small area at any time. Thus is can cause extreme showers on a 10x10 km slice of land.

Spaceship crews

The crew requires at least one pilot (usually 2) and one engineer (usually 2), other than that, you don’t need any qualified personnel to run the ship. It is assumed that anyone can carry out the day to day operations aboard the spaceship as long as they have a pilot and an engineer to guide them.

Aboard a spaceship the working day is considered to be between 8 and 10 hours, during which the crew is actively working on maintaining the spaceship. With additional personnel, this number decreases. It is considered normal practice to pick up hitchhikers who pay little or nothing for the fare, providing they work during the voyage, as it costs little for the crew to add them, and it lessens the load on the others. It is very easy to find people like that around spaceports and in space stations. People who want to go anywhere, and don’t have any money. It is a good arrangement for all parties concerned.

If a spaceship exceeds its maximum crew capacity then it becomes too crowded for the life support to handle. A ship can typically accept 50% more passengers than is listed, but there are no quarters or sleeping bunks for the latter half of the passengers. Any more than that and the life support system cannot handle it. The air becomes stuffy and the waste recyclers shut down. At twice the maximum capacity the life support cannot filter the carbon dioxide and people start to die after one to two weeks.

Space suits and thrust belts

Space suits can provide some protection against attacks, and often include a ‘self-sealer’ which automatically seals any tears in the suit.

Thrust belts are often used when venturing outside spaceships, as they are an important safety tool. They can also be used in atmospheres: although they are not powerful enough to enable the user to fly at will, they can be used instead of parachutes.

Means of propulsion

Spaceships use fusion reactors to power their on-board systems and Near Light-Speed drive. Modern spaceships can travel in NLS for many years, and would only then drop out of NLS because of wear and tear, not because of lack of energy.

The foldspace drive on spaceships is a different matter. It requires enormous amounts of fuel called Foldspace fuel for propulsion. A 600 ton ship usually carries an additional 600 tons of this fuel for foldspace jumps. The Foldspace fuel is extracted from ore mined in many star systems, and is the most widely mined ore in the Galaxy. These mines are always devastating to the ecological system of the planet its being mined on, and is because of this most often mined on barren worlds. Foldspace fuel costs around 100-200 credits per ton, so a 10000 ly jump would cost more than 50.000 cr, enough to buy two large houses.

The price of Foldspace fuel and the space it takes on spaceships is the reason that foldportals are considered the single biggest technological achievement of the NGST era.

There are available variations of foldspace drives called Quad-Vector and Dual Quad-Vector foldspace drives that enable ships to travel 2 times or 4 times faster than conventional foldspace drives. These drives are very difficult to procure, and require even more fuel / ly than normal foldspace drives.

foldportals

There is another type of foldportal, that’s the in-system portal which allows ships to travel from the outer marker to the orbit of a planet in foldspace. The trip takes minutes instead of days in NLS.

foldportals can be used on only the starting end of a foldspace tunnel or at both ends. If only the starting end is a foldportal it is not possible to exit closer to a star than the COM distance because of the inherit instability of foldspace openings near gravity wells although it is possible to enter it close to the planet. If both ends are a foldportal then no COM separation is needed.

Ships without foldspace drives require a foldportal at both ends of the jump, while ships who employ foldspace drives only need a portal at either end. This sort of a journey does require some fuel, approx. 1/2 of the fuel required for a conventional jump as the foldportal only handles the entry or exit wormtunnel respectively.

Depending on the foldportal, it can be placed in the inner system or at the outer marker. foldportals in the inner system are obviously much more valuable since they take NLS time totally out of the picture, shaving 10-14 days from a typical flight, but they do require more power and are thus more expensive to maintain. Some systems have opted for a dual portal solution; a low-power foldportal on the outer marker and an in-system foldportal for the NLS route.

Ships with foldspace drives can exit foldspace through a foldportal, while entering it under their own power and thus take advantage of the fact that they can be placed within the inner system. This requires notifying the portal control prior to entering foldspace. It is not possible to exit from a foldportal without the portal control having the ships foldspace signature and precise exit time.

foldportals exist in all sizes. Some can only accommodate smaller ships while there are extremely massive ones that can take 20000 ton transporters. The bigger the portal, the more it costs to run it.

Private organizations usually cannot purchase foldportals and the Empire, which is its sole producer keeps tight reins on who gets them. As of present, only Utopia and the Orion confederation have purchase rights to the foldportals. This is the unofficial reason Orion agreed to a truce with the Empire in the year 130 RTC.

Having foldportals can boost a star system’s economy a hundred fold and they are highly sought after. Solution Inc, a government-funded company produces the foldportals and the price for a medium sized one is in the range of 300-500 million credits. Not only that but the Empire takes a special tax of each ship passing through any portal of 2000 cr plus 100-500 thousand credits per day. A typical foldportal handles something like a thousand ships per day and there are an estimated 5000 portals in the Galaxy today, so the tax alone nets the Empire 10 Billion credits per day. The foldportals have indeed been a huge leap for the Empire.

It is highly probable that all other governments are trying to develop their own foldportals but so far they have not succeeded. The Empire has a small regiment guarding each one in addition to the local forces to hinder tampering and reverse-engineering. The staff of all foldportals, wherever they are stations is in the Imperial military.

There are extremely strict rules about what you can carry when you go through a foldportal because if an accident occurs and a foldportal fails for some reason then all ships in the portals wormtunnel will be lost. If a ship has its own foldspace drive it might try an emergency foldspace exit itself but ships without foldspace drives (the majority of ships using foldportals) are destroyed. This only applies to outbound ships in the former leg of their journey and inbound ships in the latter leg. Inbound ships in the former leg of their journey are still under the influence of their sending portal and might thus be diverted to an alternative portal close by. Outbound ships on their latter leg are not affected at all.

There has been one such ‘accident’ where a military frigate was sabotages so it collided with a portal. The portal was damaged and fell off-line for an hour. Three thousand ships and a quarter of a million people were lost. This occurred in the year 60 RTC and was a brutal wake-up call for the foldportal project. Such an accident now would cause ten times the casualties because many of the ships in the portal’s grasp had foldspace drives, something many ships don’t have now. That is why many ships became equipped with a miniature type of foldspace drive, called a “Emergency Portal Exit Drive” or EPED for short. These (very expensive) modules don’t take up quite as much space as a regular foldspace drive and are completely autonomous, using data from the entry portal for Locus positions and other important exit data. These modules are often found on people transports but smaller ships often try to do without because of the extra cargo they’d be able to carry. Some systems don’t even allow ships without an EPED to use their foldportals although there has only been that one incident.

A large garrison of a thousand ships with enough firepower to take on a small fleet protects all foldportals today. This is one of the factors for the extreme maintenance cost of a portal. The foldportal also draw a lot of power from a fusion reactor that has to be placed off-site because of the dangers of sabotage. The power is sent to the portal by high-energy gamma radiation or through physical power relays.

foldportals usually attract a lot of entrepreneurs who build space-stations close by. In a few years a society of 10-20 large interconnected space stations with millions of inhabitants will often form around portals. Cargo-carrying ships often find that there is no need to go to the system’s planet or another station, all business can be carried our a few kilometers from the portal itself.

If you’re conducting legitimate business this might be an attractive proposition since security in these space stations is always extremely high and crime is virtually nonexistent.

Locus Candles

Intelligence agencies

Andoronian Special Projects (ASP) was the most feared intelligence agency in its day, executing thousands upon thousands of the enemies of the state and using some very unciviliced methods for achieving its goals. After Andoronia collapsed in the year 550 NGST it is thought that ASP prevailed as an extremely powerful criminal organization in the Dangerzone (the region of space once inhabited by Andoronia). Whether or not they intend to rebuild Andoronia remains to be seen.

The Orion confederation employs the Orion Intelligence, which is a moderately effective intelligence agency under strict guidelines from the government and subject to public scrutiny. This helps eliminate corruption in the agency but makes it less-than-ideally effective.

The Forte Military Intelligence (FMI) is Forte’s version, and it’s main task has been eradication of resistance in annexed Nordon systems. Their methods are often questionable.

In Utopia the Information Department (ID) is a branch of the government which handles intelligence operation. They are considered very effective, relying on superior technology and advanced ways to gather information. They don’t really specialize in assassination and black covert operations as many of the others.

Nilen has their own version of the Special Operations known as the Nilen Agency for Covert Operations (NACO), which employs a similar method as SO, since NACO started out as SO’s presence in the armies that formed Nilen.

Eiin has no intelligence agency as such but they have an extremely good relationship with IREA and they handle many of the civilian intelligence operations for Eiin.

foldcomm and communication

In order to send a foldcomm transmission you require a foldcomm Transceiver and close-by foldcomm satellites to relay the transmission. The second factor is not a problem in any of the core conreces but might become an issue in the DangerZone, the Badlands and even in areas of East and West Liren where the existing satellites might have been ravaged by pirates and other scum.

You cannot send or receive a foldcomm transmission from a planet or other large gravity wells because foldcomm employs the same techniques as normal foldspace and is subject to perturbations from gravity. A medium planetary orbiting relaying satellite (at an orbit of 5000 km or greater) can take a normal transmission and convert it to foldcomm for sending.

When you travel over long distances you have make a call to the foldcomm network to let it know where you are (or the id of any foldcomm account you want to receive transmissions) because the foldcomm network has to know where to keep any messages for you. Since you never know if a transmission is asynchronous or synchronous the foldcomm network can keep in its cache any transmissions for you and if you don’t let it know at which satellite to store it you might have to wait additional days to receive it.

Languages

The Empire has no official language other than Galactic, as does Utopia, Eiin, Nilen and the Liren conreces.

The Orion confederation has Orionic as its official language although only around half of the population can actually speak it (since Orion expanded by more than a third at the expense of the Empire in the year 5-10 RTC).

Forte speaks Forte, which is not very different from Galactic, although somewhat more complex.

In Nordon and the southern part of Forte Nordonic is much spoken. In Nordon itself Galactic is hardly spoken at all and strangers are advised to learn the Nordon native tongue straight away.

Paradox has its own language, Forkote, which is as ancient as the race itself. It is extremely difficult to master but is a much thinned out version of their original dialect, Ancient Forekote which was spoken millennia ago.

The Dilern Regime speaks Arta’Par (Main Language). A harsh but complex language which cannot be spoken without an accent by anyone outside the trirace Geneler-Korthea-Kildoron.

Several species also have their own languages. Bonts have a language derived by a weird crossing of Galactic and Nordonic. If you speak Nordonic you might be able to understand a word or two. It’s not the official language in the Realm of Flowers but most of the population speak it and the language is even spreading into the Bont population of neighboring conreces, much to the dismay of their respective governments.

Rouls managed to develop their own language, Roulish during their 1000 year enslavement by Nordon. To the novice listener it sounds like grunts and growls but it has puzzled linguists how a species that is so uneducated could develop a language which is on par with many of the other languages in the Galaxy. There have been made many attempts to create a written Roulish but those attempts have proved quite fruitless. There is no real Roulish written work.

Koter have a language from which Orionic is derived which is phonetically very beautiful. Modern koter often do not learn the language so it is slowly dying out. In Orion high society it is still considered posh to engage in conversation in Koter.

Korthea have a language called Korthean which is not the most complex in the Galaxy and shares a striking resemblance to Arta’Par despite the fact that the languages evolved in different galaxies. Despite the resemblance to non-speaking people the languages are vastly different.

The most complex language spoken in the Galaxy today (with the exception of ancient Forkote) is Gingerish, the native tongue of the small furry critters. The language is derived from mathematics and is extremely well engineered to allow for delivery of maximum amount of information in the shortest possible amount of time. It is also extremely well suited for the vocal cords of Ginger. Ginger also use body language and hand gestures to pass information and their entire bodies often take part in communication, especially when a lot of information has to be passed.

Gingers have a unique ability to be able to separate many sound streams in their heads so they are able to listen to several speakers at once while themselves also talking. It is impossible for other species to understand such a conversation, no matter how proficient in Gingerish they might be.

Power generators

Border control

Anti-Gravity Drives

Security systems

Robots