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Glossary of Terms
A quick referrence guide to the terms of Good Ship Chronicles™
Abhorrence Drive: (ab-hor-ens drive)
The Abhorrence drive is so named for the principle which states that nature abhors a vacuum. The process of converting dedderon from matter to energy is capable of physically annihilating subspace and creating a hole called a "subspace bubble". Depending on the amount of dedderon converted this bubble can be made large enough to envelope an entire starship. The bubble will be instantly drawn toward the physical limits of space much the way a submerged air bubble is drawn toward the surface of the water. In doing so it will drag the ship (which is in phase lock with the anomaly thanks to its dedderon core) along with it at a rate no slower (or faster) than 8000 times the speed of light or one Deddera. Since the universe has no physical center and movement in any direction can be seen as bringing a body closer to its edge, propulsion drives can be used to easily change direction. Upon reaching its destination the ship can disengage from the subspace bubble by executing a minor phase shift in its dedderon core. Some believe that these bubbles degrade over time, decaying into regular matter, while others believe that they do in fact eventually find the edge of the universe and escape. An accompanying theory states that every time an abhorrence drive is employed our universe becomes that much smaller and that this may have the long term affect of disturbing the current rate of universal expansion or even triggering premature universal contraction. These theories are thought to be largely alarmist.
Astrodome: (as-troh-dome)
The only sporting arena in the galaxy designed to accommodate a chronoball game.
Broadax: (broh-dax)
A community of scientists that study, among other things, the long term affects of abhorrence drive use on the fabric of the universe.
Chronoball: (kro-no-ball)
A popular sport in which players wear small time travel devices which allow them to travel exactly 4 seconds forward or backward through time alternately. That is to say a player cannot travel continually in one direction through time but must instead alternate with each use of the device between backward then forward then back, etc. A game rarely lasts more than a minute or two although from the player's perspective it can last for hours. The object is to score a goal on the opposing team and in many ways resembles the Earth Prime game of soccer, however players are allowed to use their hands. One big attraction for spectators is the occasional "Chronocollision" in which two players emerge in the same time and place at once sometimes resulting in the fusion of their bodies into a mutated whole and causing their immediate ejection from the game.
Collapser Missiles: (Collapser miss-uls)
A warhead with a Phase Regulator built into it which that when fired will interfer with the operation of a vessels own phase regulators causing hull integrity to fluctuate irratically. If not disarmed a Collapser Missile can cause even a heavily armored vessel to simply shake itself apart.
Dedderon: (ded-der-on)
A naturally occuring tear in space-time will always close on its own given time. Though this process often appears instantaneous it can actually take hundreds of years for such an area of space to "heal" completely. During that time the area (while no longer gaping) is signifigantly weaker than the surrounding space. However, after such a tear has healed the area becomes much stronger and more resistant to tearing due to the development of a kind of invisible "scar tissue". This scar tissue is called dedderon. Dedderon is the single most valuable and sought after resource in the galaxy and is used as the main power source in almost all starship drives and weapons. The only practical way to acquire dedderon is to mine it from existing areas of space (again it takes hundreds of years to develop naturally) and even then it can only be mined from those areas that pass through tangible matter: planets, stars, etc. Over the last ten years Starcorp has created and closed several very large, artificially created, tears in space time to ensure that future supplies remain in tact. Many believe that this practice is a dangerous one but there is no conclusive evidence that permanent harm is being done to the universe.
Dedderon Beams: (ded-der-on beems)
Dedderon Radiation fired from the Dedderon banks through the Dedderon Caster in the form of a focused beam.
Dedderon Bank: (ded-der-on bank)
These draw dedderon radiation from the ship's dedderon core to be held in reserve. The radiation can be used to power the ship's propulsion engines or fired directly out of the banks as beams of energy or in explosive charges called dedderon missiles.
Dedderon Core: (ded-der-on kohr)
A device used to house raw dedderon. The core keeps the dedderon at a very specific phase signature so that it may be moved along with the ship. Otherwise it would simply fall out of phase with ship and get left behind in deep space. Lose of the dedderon core on a ship can very easily lead to that ship being stranded and defenseless in space.
Dedderon Missiles: (ded-der-on miss-uls)
Dedderon Radiation fired from the Dedderon banks through the Dedderon Caster in highly concentrated bursts used to disable a vessel's shields so that dedderon beams can then be used to breach its hull.
Dedderon Warhead: (ded-der-on war-hed)
A warhead designed to house a concentrated level of Dedderon Radiation equal to 70 times that of a standard Dedderon Missile.
Deep Trek: (deep trek)
The original space route pioneered by the Teslar and later followed by Starcorp's Deep Trek mission in order to activate the three Star Bridges Moss, Dinde and Tetra. It is now used primarily as a patrol route.
Matter Year: (ma-ter yeer)
A unit of measurment equal to the distance traveled by a subspace bubble in one year (Old Earth calendar).
Gnoasheans: (no-ay-shun)
The peaceful and small of stature natives of the now dead planet of gnoashea. Gnoashea was one of the first planets in our galaxy that was discovered to reside in a dedderon field.
Halka: (hul-kuh)
A Thadean side dish that resembles rice in flavor and texture.
Kranakoid: (kran-uh-koyd)
A native of planet Kranakin. For Kranakoids the arts are the highest possible pursuit there is. Many of the galaxies greatest artistic works came from Kranakoid artisans. However, Kranakoids also consider war and fighting a form of high art so as such they can be extremely volatile and war-like.
Locuxa Hive: (loh-kew-shuh hiv)
A cloud of microscopic, sentient beings that float through space in stasis until they happen upon the collective brainwaves of another race of sentient beings at which time they awake and seek out those beings. Once they have found their victims they will descend upon them actually begin feeding on their brain matter. The Locuxa keep their hosts alive during the process but the host does go quite insane in the interim.
Manganar: (man-guh-nar)
A native of Manganite Prime. They are on average 7 feet tall most of which is comprised of digestive tract inside a giant undulating abdomen.
Sentry Medic: (sen-tree med-ik)
Before the advent of the abhorrence drive interstellar travel was limited to 1/3 light speed. For this reason ships would often need repairs before reaching their destination. To cut down the cost of hiring hi-paid crewmembers to implement the dangerous repairs themselves small sentry medic ships (manned entirely by robots) would patrol designated areas of space waiting to be called upon by any starcorp ship in need. However after the abhorrence drive was invented it was found to be more cost effective to leave the sentries floating in space rather than to collect and bring them all back to earth. Many have been allowed to malfunction and die in space while others still roam their little slice of the cosmos waiting to be called upon to exact their primary function.
Starcorp: (star-korp)
The interplanetary corporation that has served, maintained and defended the inhabitants of this galaxy since its advent in 2027
Star Corps: (star-kohr)
The paramilitary training branch of Starcorp. Those who graduate from this academy are guaranteed the starcorp career of their choice*.
*within reason and barring any established deficit in existing manpower.
Tesla Defense Grid: (tes-luh dee-fens grid)
The primary defense system employed by all Starcorp space vessels. The Tesla grid is reverse engineered from the domes onces used to protect the floating islands of the wildly advanced but now extinct race known as the Teslar. The Grid acts as an energy field that deflects any energy weapon or project that comes in contact with it. However in order to do so the field must sacrifice some of its own structural integrity. A Tesla Grid can be reinforced remotely at any point on its surface area but only at the cost of another point (or points) also decided remotely.
Wave Dampener: (wayv dam-pen-ur)
A now obsolete device used to immobilize space vessels for purposes of repair or in some case to prevent escape. The dampener absorbs any and all kinetic energy exerted by the ship's engines so that a ship moving at full speed can suddenly find itself at a complete stand still. The technology's hostile application was rendered practically obsolete with the advent of the abhorrence drive (a ship can simply phase out of the dampener's grip and into a subspace bubble) however some space pirates still use the dampener as their nomadic nature often puts them decades behind the cutting edge of technology.
Wingray: (wing-ray)
One of a flight of small extremely fast and manueverable fighting vessel piloted by the most elite of Starcorps pilots. Wingrays can only be called into action by the higest ranking Starcorps officers but once called upon act fully under their own volition to complete the mission.
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