NOVEL NEXT Glossary
Characters
Robin Tulward
A pale young man, with black hair - short but not trimmed - a black bearded chin, green eyes and a small scar above his right brow.
Robin loved his little technics-projects and tinkering with every interesting machine he found, but social interactions aren't his forte.
Name: Robin Tulward
Race: Human
Homeworld: Rucasur
Age: 32
G-Anomaly (Cp. 01): Class E - Minor Energy Senses
G-Anomaly (Cp. 23):
Class E - Mi⌂or Ξnergy Sens∩s
G-Anomaly (Cp. 60):
Class C - E∩erΞy S¦n‡ses
Job: Technocrafter at Jim’s Broken Wing
Timothy Reed
While Robin often hung out with Timothy, it was only online when they met for gaming or flying in the simulator. He wasn’t even living on Rucasur but was part of some science team stationed on Ruca I, later on Ruca II.
Name: Timothy J. Reed
Race: Human
Homeworld: Rucasur
Age: 29
G-Anomaly: Class D - Eidetic Memory
Job: Governmental Scientist
Patience unknown
Robin's colleague, a blue-haired bomb with a way too short fuse. Doing some semi-professional fighting. Boxing since she was 18 years old.
Name: Patience unknown
Race: Human
Homeworld: Rucasur
Age: 26
G-Anomaly: Class D - Enhanced Strength
Job: Worker at Jim’s Broken Wing
Jim Dasbro
Robins boss.
A huge, bearded man. Jim looked like a bear from the ancient stories of Earth, just without all the fur. His arms resembled trunks and his brown hair hung ruffled over his slightly silver glowing eyes. A manifestation of his mutation, a Class C - Metal Affinity. What exactly it does, depends mostly on the user. In this case, Jim created some skills that support his work with different, often quite complex, materials needed to build modern technologies.
Name: Jim Dasbro
Race: Human
Homeworld: Rucasur
Age: 100+
G-Anomaly: Class C - Metal Affinity
Job: Boss of Jim’s Broken Wing
Niu Alaris (Happy)
The woman reached only up to Robin's shoulders, maybe 1,50m tall, had long silver hair and wore a white racing suit. Despite her youthful demeanor, he estimated she was in her early 30s like him. The sole daughter of a prominent family and burdened with lots of political responsibilities. The Alaris family was in the real estate business and her parents had high hopes for their daughter. They planned her educational journey and early on prepared her for taking over a branch in the Mereus Cluster.
When Niu grew up however, she showed no interest in this field of work at all. She liked the big spaceships her family owned and always dreamed of becoming a pilot.
Robin got the feeling that her happy mood was more of a mask she used to hide herself from the world around.
Name: Niu Alaris
Race: Human
Homeworld: Gaunus
Age: 31
G-Anomaly: Class C - Highspeed Reflexes
Job: Studies at UAS School for Universal Flights
Landom Walzor
A man in his 50s, wearing the formal attire of Seka Security, white trousers, blue jacket and a blue cap. The crest of Rucasur on his arms identifies him as middle ranked governmental personnel.
Name: Landom Walzor
Race: Human
Homeworld: Rucasur
Age: 50+
G-Anomaly (Cp. 65):
Class C - Hardened Skin
Job: Team leader at Seka Security, UAS official
SideChars
Ragweed, Hestor: Ommih, Hobby Historian
Hutton, Katlina: Head of historical research at the museum in Seka
Mick: The smuggler Patience knocked out
Slice: Mohait, Stitch in RustHollow Quarters
Gumvar: Thug in Beakrath
Hopewing: Famous Apex pilot
Nelson, Bart: Apex official, admin of AHC
Spaden, Hash: Cetro, Head priest of TechnoBlood
Moel: Ommih-Mix, Patience’s new coach
Trish: Friendly Apex staff lady
Boosalis, Alec: Ommih, Reporter for some sports channel
Jeralop: Mohait, Henchman of Hopewing
Hutton, Fengo: UAS pilot, Katlinas son
Boss Jennet: Cetro, Captain of the ship Red Sun
Bex, Keran: UAS representative in charge of the Keeper research team
Prof. Aurelius: UAS scientist for drones
Mr. Ramones: UAS officer in charge of the underwater facility on Gaunus
Gangs
Privateers
TechnoBlood
Galaxies, Systems, Planets & Moons
The Pranum Expanse
The first mentioned galaxy
It is mentioned that its a pretty backwater galaxy, at the outer rims of the Civilized Territories
The Mereus Cluster
The first mentioned Solar system
Mereus is the central star
Orbited by five planets and 11 moons
Rucasur - Planet
Start of the story
Homeworld of Robin, Patience, Timothy and Jim
Has 3 moons
Seka ist capital city
Ruca I - Moon
One of the 3 moons of Rucasur
Location of two old Wuranger complexes
Frequently hit by nasty showers of asteroidal fragments
Old Drel outpost
Ruca II - Moon
One of the 3 moons of Rucasur
Owned by the ship manufacturer Apex.
Optimized for free-for-all low-grav-racing
New Drel outpost
Ruca III - Moon
One of the 3 moons of Rucasur
Nearly destroyed by the massive mining operations over the last decades
Gaunus - Planet
Another planet of the system
Niu’s homeworld
Location of this system's UAS headquarter
Trov S - Moon
unknown outpost
Trov A - Moon
Trov L - Moon
Trov M - Moon
Seavis - Planet
unknown outpost
Goya System
More than 20 years ago a human team of explorers ventured into the Goya System that is neighboring the Mereus Cluster not too far away.
The UAS was there before, but Goya is a dying star, making the conditions in the system very unstable and not fit for settling.
From solar flares to electromagnetic storms, the whole system is plagued by the ‘mood swings’ of Goya.
Terulos - Planet
The only planet in the system where you could still walk around without fearing instant death due magma spraying out under your feet, icy winds converting you into a popsicle or other natural phenomena like that.
There is a huge monolith from the Keeper on this planet - its purpose unknown
Cities
Seka
Capital city of Rucasur
Home of Robin, Patience and Jim
At least 5 districts
Industrial district: Quantum Forge District
Residential district - mid quality - Nexus Haven
Residential district - low quality, the slums - RustHollow Quarters
Governmental and Art district
Spaceport
Beakrath
Another big city.
A day’s travel away from Seka
Races
Human
Normal Humans
With mankind’s achievements in medicine and gene manipulation, the average person could easily live up to 150 years.
Ommih
Do look like your average human, but without any hair and two little antennas instead.
They are known to be very open minded, friendly and social.
It’s said that their gene-anomalies often awaken powers aligned to the mind, like enhanced empathy or even telepathy.
When humanity met them, a hundred something years ago (~3100), it didn’t take long for them to integrate into human society.
Today they live on a lot of human planets and officially joined the United Alliance of Stars, UAS, not too long ago.
Starborne
The Starborne, an ancient race of humanoids, ruled whole galaxy-wide empires with thousands of different races and cultures.
They stood at the peak of the stars and had no equals.
They had bodies, vastly more powerful and enhanced as humanity could even begin to understand.
Their minds could rival the best computer systems Earth had to offer and they had a never ending thirst for knowledge.
They are the forefathers of humanity.
Wuranger
The Wuranger were an old race that went extinct roughly 1.500 years ago.
Lots of people love to see their quite beautiful crafts and technology, as they were some kind of wood-aligned elemental-humanoids.
It’s said that they had a lot of influence after the disappearance of the Starborne and defended their position for quite some time, before they ultimately fell under the combined attack of multiple other races.
Today the UAS can learn a lot from their remnants about the state of the universe in the time after the Starbornes vanishing.
They controlled 49 solar systems.
Mohait
They are a rare sight.
Not reaching one meter in height, spouting a long fluffy tail and dotted with patches of fur here and there, they probably look kind of cute.
Unfortunately, their slightly longer faces were formed in a way that made one assume, they just bit into a really bitter lemon.
If you could find one, then most of the time they were wearing a researcher's coat and tried to minimize social interactions.
Keeper
Race of information brokers
At least 4.000 years old
Worked together with the Starborn
Using Æther to run their tech
Finding them would be the best lead to learn more about the Starborn's absence
Rumors about their return are circulating, too many to all be false
Vanguard / Servants
Vanguard wasn’t the original name of that race, but one given to them by the Starborn, after they forced their whole species into servitude.
The humanoid people didn’t look much different than humans today or the Starborn at that and were mostly used in the border wars as a meatshield.
Vanguards often also attended the big families and clans for menial services. That’s why everyone else began to call them The Servants.
When the Starborn vanished, the Vanguards hoped to regain their freedom, but were quickly hunted down and completely eradicated by the other races. They feared the Starborn may return soon and wanted to cut off one of their limbs as chance was given.
Drel
They were a very old race that was still around today.
Robin heard a lot of stories about them as they were famous for their highly advanced weapons and crazy AI-tech.
The Drel do not belong to any faction and sell their technologies to anyone with enough credits.
Every now and then someone makes allegations about pirate crews among the Drels ranks, but those never get confirmed.
Just like every other one of the old races, they withdrew from the Mereus Cluster centuries ago. Most even left the whole galaxy.
Cetro
The Cetro were something like a race-cult-mix.
Once they were a tribe of humanoids that just had a thing for technology. They grew more and more obsessed with it and even began to worship some made up techno-god.
To get closer to that god, they modified their own bodies, installing devices and upgrades directly to their skin and bones.
They became zealots, haunting the outer rims of populated galaxies.
Always looking for new technology and trying to convert the settlers they found. They didn’t discriminate between races and anyone that joined them - or was forced to join - became a full member of their tribe.
Today one mostly meets these crazy maniacs in isolated areas or in the slums of bigger cities, where they work in criminal organizations.
Eltaran
unknown
G-Anomalies
*The ones that are already mentioned to be upgradeable by the UAS, are marked.
Class S
unknown
Class A
High-Speed Movement
Minor Energy Attunement
Class B
Telepathy
Major Metal Affinity
Class C
Enhanced Empathy
Minor Metal Affinity
Major Strength Enhancement
Highspeed Reflexes
Hardened Skin
Class D
Strengthened Muscles (upgradable)
Enhanced Endurance
Enhanced Strength (upgradable)
Energy Senses (not upgradeable)
Optimized Reflexes (upgradable)
Class E
Minor Energy Senses (not upgradeable)
Optimized Eyes
Greater Hearing
Ships and other vehicles
Manufacturers
Apex (sport, highspeed, expensive, corporate design is red/silver)
Jolt V2
Jolt V3
Bunga
Nova
Corax (industrial, robust, build to last)
Tuba 102
Sentinel
Humbler (all-rounder) (human-only)
Cradle
Jingur
UAS (warfare)
Intergalactic destroyer
Intergalactic carrier
Drones
CPD - Citizen Protection Drone
Fully armed and with access to the records in the police database, they were little more than tamed combat machines just waiting for someone to step out of line.
CTVs
Corax Tuba 102
The box-shaped vehicle was double the size of a modern PTV, still small for a cargo transport.
It’s built for short ranges only, with a small battery and a cheap plasma repulsor.
PTVs
unknown
Planetary Ships
Apex Jolt V2
Like the V3 it was 10m long and not even 2m wide.
Its power came from four Ion Thrusters that were mounted to the ship’s side like external tube-formed jet engines, two in the front, two in the rear.
The thrusters were movable a bit and can help the vents to change directions of the ship more easily.
All in all, it is a monster, created solely for winning the next race.
Apex Jolt V3
New racing ship
Similar to the V2
Comes with four Ion-2 Thrusters
Apex Bunga
Outdated racing ship
Corax Sentinel
The Sentinel is more like a multi-purpose platform than a specific ship.
You chose the Sentinel as the basis and configure it to your needs.
Cargo, personal transport, mobile operations center, combat, whatever.
Speed isn’t its forte and it is sluggish to control.
Melody I
Robins first ship.
Had some kind of failure? Not much known
Melody II
Successor of the failed Melody I
The ship is a custom made planetary ship.
It’s not really fast or spacious, but it is his symbol for freedom.
Robin has worked on this project for more than 3 years already.
With a chassis of an old Apex Bunga as the basis, the black ship is roughly 3x10m in size, with a height of 2m.
The back proudly shows two big plasma thrusters, while from the cockpit on, the front thinned to a streamlined 2m wide line.
Two winglets are extending to each side, the bigger ones at the back and the smaller ones at front.
Built for two passengers and with a 250 kg payload cargo box, this ship is made for planetary travel and smaller errants.
Interplanetary Ships
The Contact
Historical ship from Earth.
Was used to find the hidden laboratory of the Starborne.
Apex Nova
It measured at least 80 meters in length and 40 meters in width.
The bulky ship had three stories and one big, rectangular thruster to each side at its rear.
On its top is protruding a big dome made of a glass-like material, probably the bridge.
The monstrum's landing gear carried its weight on five sturdy legs and to its side was a big hatch open, a gangway leading people inside.
Humbler Cradle
Carrier ship for 12 (9) S-size vehicles.
The ship is about 200 m long, 75 m wide and 30 m in height, angular shaped and had a flat top.
From his position above, Robin could see three big hangers that were hidden behind thick hatches and at the end of the ship towered a huge bridge that gave view to the happenings on deck.
At its rear two enormous thrusters were waiting for their turn to push this giant forward and on each side Robin could see three vertical thrusters that would hopefully be able to win the fight against Rucasur’s gravity.
Humbler Jingur
Size: 26m in length, 4m in height, 8m in width
Crew: 1 Pilot, 1 Engineer
Guests: Cabins for 5 people
One small community/office area
No cargo hold
Like the Cradle, the ship is angular shaped and has many rough edges.
Four VTOL-thrusters powered the ship and in the front was a neat little cockpit.
This M-sized ship was still too small for a proper bridge and only designed for short, in-system travel and personal transport.
Intergalactic Ships
UAS IGD Eschaton (Cp. 59)
Type: Capital-sized ship of the destroyer class
Size: 1.247m in length, 151m in height, 356m in width
The pinnacle of mankind’s achievements in mobilizing weapon-based platforms for war.
A lengthy ship, with a bulky rear that got thinner from the middle onwards. Its side’s edges flattened out a bit, giving the ship a menacing feeling. Its nose also hinted at a sharp end.
At its rear, the four biggest thrusters Robin had ever seen were pulsing with energy. Each one was at least the size of a Humbler Cradle. Long, rectangular tubes that glowed with a bright yellow light.
Most noteworthy thing - the weapons: two enormous turrets at the bottom side of the ship and one turret on its top. That later gun alone was as big as one of the thrusters, easily reaching a length up to 200m.
Driven by Photon-Beam Propulsion.
Technologies
For Propulsion
Plasma Repulsor
Old tech, for driving and slow, low altitude flights
Newer versions also for atmo-flights
Glowing blue/pink/purple
Ion-2 thruster
Hightech, for atmo-flight
Glowing blue
Photon-Beam Propulsion
Hightech propulsion for big IP/IG ships
Gamma rays
Glowing yellow
For Energy
Hydrogen Fusion Reactor
While this tech was already quite old and inefficient, it’s pretty safe to use, susceptible to failure and fuel is cheap
Nuclear Electric Generator
These generators are an original Earth technology, they were developed on the basis of mankind's achievements in nuclear fission research.
They can produce an enormous power output but at the cost of stability.
Today they were only used in interplanetary ships as backup if the main generator had a failure. As long as they were offline there was no risk at all, but as soon as they were powered up, you really don’t wanna have any mishaps.
Body-Heat Generator
For powering Interfaces
Weapons and Shields
CPP78
Old, cheap ballistic pistol
Field Dampener Rig
This generator is a sleek, black box, at least half a meter long and wide.
Its casing had many lamellae attached, which would begin to resonate with the surrounding air when activated.
Robin didn’t completely understand how it works, but it was something about adding vibrations to the air to compress in a localized area, where you would therefore get a higher density. This dense air in turn represents a high resistance to any object and eats away kinetic energy quite efficiently.
Disruptor
Drel weapon
Looks like a drill
It’s a weapon for self defense in case of emergency and can destroy ‘most other things’
Creates an anomaly is comparable to phenomena that occur during ship jumps
The Disruptor has destabilized space in a very localized area (74%)
Color of anomaly’s glow: warm white (81%)