A collection of information about my Star Trawlers setting, a fairly dystopian future in the 27th centuary where anthros (dubbed anthroids) perform dangerous and/or menial tasks for humanity, following the exploits of a rogue anthroid space pirate and her crew of human breakaways and fellow disgruntled or abandoned anthroids.

Tell me wha'cha think :3

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Axton Industrial: Mining Mega Corporation with political and military sway over the entire Midas System. Somewhat infamous for heavy handed, often violent suppression of revolts from its human and anthroid workers.

Trawler: Mining ship used to collect ore runoff from larger asteroid mining vessels during operations. Bulky and slow moving, but perfect for pirates and smugglers who often modify them to sport heavy weapons or to act as impromptu dropships and orbital bombers.

Anthroid: Anthropomorphic humanoids, essentially animal-people. Bred and raised to perform the dirty, dangerous, and undesirable jobs humans don’t want to do.

Pulser: Informal term for various types of electromagnetic gauss weaponry used throughout Known Space. Utilizes alternating electrical currents to propel a slug at high speed, delivering lethal, oft messy, kinetic force.

Ramscoop: Term for the ramjet system many smaller, intersystem craft used for propulsion. Uses hydrogen as a fuel source to provide momentum, and an electromagnetic field to compress said hydrogen into useful form.

Dataslate: Small, PDA styled handheld device for the recording and transmission of data. Often seen used by members of the Goldman line of anthroid models.

Yarikova Engine: Typical medium to large ship engine, utilizes nuclear fission to provide energy to move the vessel and to power onboard systems. Despite some mistrust, the processes involved are largely safe and meltdowns are almost nonexistent.

Medley Engine: Hydrogen power based reactor smaller ships are outfitted with, cost effective, if somewhat unstable if overtaxed.

Augment: Slang for cybernetic implants often sported by some anthroids. Popular examples are bionic limbs, nanocell processors (Microcomputers implanted into the user’s skull, allowing for neural interfacing with computer systems) and data-nez (pince-nez derived facial implant added to the nose bridge, projects holographic readouts in front of the user’s eyes).

Blaster: Colloquial term for energy based weaponry. Rare, expensive and dangerous, blasters use ionized gas (dubbed plasma) as ammunition, capable of melting through armour and shorting out shields with ease. Limitations include instability and overheating, both of which may result in the power cells violently exploding and causing major traumatic (if not flat out fatal) injury to the wielder.

Kinetic Matrix: Personal shield generator used by anthroids and humans. Stops objects of a certain force level from impacting the wearer by using reversed kinetic energy to repel it, often violently. Will stop small to medium rounds but can be overloaded by continuous fire, and being struck with enough force by large objects. Will not protect the user from long drops or prolonged exposure to fire or proximity to explosive or concussive force.

FTL: Acronym for Faster-Than-Light, meaning to travel using a Jump Drive to access Hyperspace.

Jump Drive: A system that allows a ship to “dive” into the Hyperspace dimension for long distance travel.

Hyperspace: Also known as Nonspace or Voidspace, Hyperspace exists outside of regular space and seems to multiply the thrust of ship engines by a great magnitude. Travel through it is faster than light; however jumps may still take weeks or months depending on location distance. Ships jumping into it take a small “bubble” of real space with them, as full exposure to Hyperspace will cause spatial rending and disintegrate real space matter on an atomic level, which is obviously fatal.

Crèche: Anthroid breeding and training facility, where they are produced within large in vitro tanks until roughly 18 years of age physically, necessary skills and knowledge flash encoded into the brain along with the behavioural dampening treatments to ensure anthroids are obedient and unable to openly express or carry out feelings of resentment or negative traits around their owners or work environment.

Terraforming: The process of altering the environment of a planet to make it suitable for Earth based life. Most colonies created with the idea of prolonged settling in mind will have been, or are in the process of being, terraformed.

Ark: Ship classification, carries specimens of flora and fauna from Earth to use in the terraforming of other planets.

Automed: Automated medical station used for quick treatment of injuries, and for the diagnosis and treatment of minor illnesses. Commonplace on most colonies, stations and ships, and are usually free to use for humans. Anthroid use of automeds is monitored and a healthcare bill is given, failure to pay for the bill is dealt with differently depending on the company that owns the anthroid, it may incur loss of pay or privilege, privately owned or free anthroids may not be charged, or have the payment covered by their owners or insurance if applicable.

Grinder: Large, standard mining ship fitted with enormous arrays of grinding wheels and bladed scoops at the front section of the vessel, hence the name. Used to tear into asteroids to collect valuable ore from their cores, with any runoff being left to the smaller Trawler ships that follow them around during mining operations, some Grinders are outfitted with docking bays and surplus fuel to allow Trawlers to dock when not in use, on long distance mining voyages. Grinders are massive, slow, and their hulls are extremely thick, allowing them to withstand collisions from stray asteroid matter, or actual asteroids, during operations.

Hans Goldman: Anthroid pioneer and creator of the ubiquitous, omnipresent Goldman line of anthroid models. Famous for creating a line of anthroids who did not require the conditioning pressed onto other models, but died in mysterious (and shady) circumstances before plans to mass produce such “free” anthroids could begin.