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Dark Matter |
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Background and Technology |
Dark Matter is set in the mid 27th Century (2672:156) in a
somewhat distopian
future. Although in theory the Galaxy is controlled by a Galactic
council and Galactic Governement, and Law and Order are administered by
the Galactic Authority, the real powers are the Mega-Corps, and much
like in a lot of Cyberpunk settings they rule the roost, wage war on
one another, and as long as they don't get caught either by the GA or
one of thier rivals pretty much do as they please.
In addition to the Galactic Council, there is also a Council of Non-Aligned Worlds. These are in one manner or another neither member of the main Galactic Council, although they may be within the 'Galactic Border', or worlds outside of the notional borders of the Galactic Council/Galactic Authority. They may be truely independent worlds of worlds claimed and run exclusively by one of the Mega-Corps. Even those worlds which are truely independant of the Mega Corps may be part of another teritoral claim, like those of Zairon (House of Ashieda) and ???, and may be at war with either or both of one another and the Mega-Corps.
Whilst many elements typically associated with Sci-fi settings exist a lot of those typically encountered elsewhere do not.
FTL ships with gravity deck plating are common place as are contragravity vehicles. Note wheeled and tracked electric vehicles powered by hyrdogen fueled turbine generators are common place for certain functions, basically any which require friction resistance with a surface to execute, such as mining and/or field plowing/cultivating etc. Sublight drive is provided by Mass Reaction Particle thrusters powered by fusion reactors, which also provide the power for the FTL drive.
FTL capability is very much a function of financial viability with speeds ranging from 0.5ly/day (a standard Galactic day is 20 standard hours.) to 7ly/day. Most typical freighters can do between 0.5ly and 2.5ly per day, with about 1.5ly/day being the most common. There is an inherent the faster you want to travel the larger the drive you need and the more power it requires, but the larger the ship the larger the drive, so there is a law of diminishing returns. Military class ships typically range from 4ly/day to 6ly/day. There are very few ships that can do more than this, and they are very specialised and/or very expensive.
Note also that whilst it is theoretically possible for ships crews to remain awake for the entire journey a ship may make, this has overheads in terms of ships supplies, food, water, and oxygen, and in terms of disposing of waste products (short of just venting/discharging them into space - although this is not possible during an FTL transit). It therefore appears that the use of 'stasis pods' is common place for journeys of more than approximately 5 days, ships either being run by an AI auto-pilot or an Android.
Androids are another element which appear to be common place, except although they are all AI's 99% function as pure slaves due to their programming and directives. Numerous models exist all with different capabilities according to their primary functions. Rogue Androids, i.e. those which exhibit any form of free will are terminated on discovery. All Androids have a characteristic 'tattoo', in reality a barcode with owner/model/function plainly visible on the left hand side of their neck. Hiding the tattoo is generally considered both a breach of etiquette if done by the owner, or a mark of free will if done by the Android itself.
All Androids are significatly stronger and faster than humans, although much depends on the make and model of Android. Even those which appear to demonstrate emotional responses technically do not have them, it is just very clever trigger response programming, and again is very dependent on the model/function of the Android (Entertainment models are particualrly good in this respect). If an Android is discovered with a true emotional response then it is terminated forthwith.
Returning to the subject of Power and Energy, Fusion reactors are common place, although none appear to be that small, probably nothing smaller than about 3m x 3m x 3m. This means CG devices - motorcycles, cars, light trucks, and jetpacks (CGPacks) - all have to use a form of super-capacitor for power. From what can be gleaned there are limits to this as there appears to be no proliferation/mass use of energy weapons, and the two instances in the series where energy weapons are used, they appear to be stunners, one is a pistol, the other a heavy weapon, and in both cases they appear to have a very limited number of shots. The heavy weapon version also has knockback/knockdown capability (some sort of directed Gravity Wave?).
This principly means almost all other weapons are 'conventional' projectile weapons, which makes their use in space somewhat hazzardous, except that logically they would use a low velocity soft nosed shell to avoid hull penetration (but then when does Hollywood and the film/TV industry follow any form of logic or common sense, it being so divorced from both - and reality).
In Space and on Space Stations, which can either be entirely Megacorp owned and run and more often than not private, nominally Neutral (there are a couple of Corporations that own and run several stations), truely independant (often single stations), GA owned and run, or Non-Aligned owned and run (which may also be private), time runs according to Galactic Standard Time, 20 hour days, 300 day years. Time is written as yyyy.ddd.hh.mm.ss.
Planet side time is generally measured according to local orbital and rotational conditions, although tidally locked worlds often use standard Galactic days.
In addition to the Galactic Council, there is also a Council of Non-Aligned Worlds. These are in one manner or another neither member of the main Galactic Council, although they may be within the 'Galactic Border', or worlds outside of the notional borders of the Galactic Council/Galactic Authority. They may be truely independent worlds of worlds claimed and run exclusively by one of the Mega-Corps. Even those worlds which are truely independant of the Mega Corps may be part of another teritoral claim, like those of Zairon (House of Ashieda) and ???, and may be at war with either or both of one another and the Mega-Corps.
Whilst many elements typically associated with Sci-fi settings exist a lot of those typically encountered elsewhere do not.
FTL ships with gravity deck plating are common place as are contragravity vehicles. Note wheeled and tracked electric vehicles powered by hyrdogen fueled turbine generators are common place for certain functions, basically any which require friction resistance with a surface to execute, such as mining and/or field plowing/cultivating etc. Sublight drive is provided by Mass Reaction Particle thrusters powered by fusion reactors, which also provide the power for the FTL drive.
FTL capability is very much a function of financial viability with speeds ranging from 0.5ly/day (a standard Galactic day is 20 standard hours.) to 7ly/day. Most typical freighters can do between 0.5ly and 2.5ly per day, with about 1.5ly/day being the most common. There is an inherent the faster you want to travel the larger the drive you need and the more power it requires, but the larger the ship the larger the drive, so there is a law of diminishing returns. Military class ships typically range from 4ly/day to 6ly/day. There are very few ships that can do more than this, and they are very specialised and/or very expensive.
Note also that whilst it is theoretically possible for ships crews to remain awake for the entire journey a ship may make, this has overheads in terms of ships supplies, food, water, and oxygen, and in terms of disposing of waste products (short of just venting/discharging them into space - although this is not possible during an FTL transit). It therefore appears that the use of 'stasis pods' is common place for journeys of more than approximately 5 days, ships either being run by an AI auto-pilot or an Android.
Androids are another element which appear to be common place, except although they are all AI's 99% function as pure slaves due to their programming and directives. Numerous models exist all with different capabilities according to their primary functions. Rogue Androids, i.e. those which exhibit any form of free will are terminated on discovery. All Androids have a characteristic 'tattoo', in reality a barcode with owner/model/function plainly visible on the left hand side of their neck. Hiding the tattoo is generally considered both a breach of etiquette if done by the owner, or a mark of free will if done by the Android itself.
All Androids are significatly stronger and faster than humans, although much depends on the make and model of Android. Even those which appear to demonstrate emotional responses technically do not have them, it is just very clever trigger response programming, and again is very dependent on the model/function of the Android (Entertainment models are particualrly good in this respect). If an Android is discovered with a true emotional response then it is terminated forthwith.
Returning to the subject of Power and Energy, Fusion reactors are common place, although none appear to be that small, probably nothing smaller than about 3m x 3m x 3m. This means CG devices - motorcycles, cars, light trucks, and jetpacks (CGPacks) - all have to use a form of super-capacitor for power. From what can be gleaned there are limits to this as there appears to be no proliferation/mass use of energy weapons, and the two instances in the series where energy weapons are used, they appear to be stunners, one is a pistol, the other a heavy weapon, and in both cases they appear to have a very limited number of shots. The heavy weapon version also has knockback/knockdown capability (some sort of directed Gravity Wave?).
This principly means almost all other weapons are 'conventional' projectile weapons, which makes their use in space somewhat hazzardous, except that logically they would use a low velocity soft nosed shell to avoid hull penetration (but then when does Hollywood and the film/TV industry follow any form of logic or common sense, it being so divorced from both - and reality).
In Space and on Space Stations, which can either be entirely Megacorp owned and run and more often than not private, nominally Neutral (there are a couple of Corporations that own and run several stations), truely independant (often single stations), GA owned and run, or Non-Aligned owned and run (which may also be private), time runs according to Galactic Standard Time, 20 hour days, 300 day years. Time is written as yyyy.ddd.hh.mm.ss.
Planet side time is generally measured according to local orbital and rotational conditions, although tidally locked worlds often use standard Galactic days.
Setting Specifc Tech
The Legal Bit
Dark Matter original Graphic Novels by Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie
published by Dark Horse Publications
Adapted for Television by Sci-Fi Channel.
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