Equipment Catalogue

With the constant interaction of all the species from multiple
galaxies, equipment has a wide variety and variation to suit the needs of its user.

## Advancements

Several advancements are common in most if not all equipment
and their manufacture.

### Universal Connector

The universal connector was a standard agreed upon by the
many manufacturers and designers. These connectors allowed almost every piece of
equipment to be modular in design. Increasing the flexibility of many things by
simply adding functionality.

### Replicators

Replicator technology revolutionized the manufacturing world
almost overnight. Within a century, worlds that were material resource poor could
just generate the raw goods they need to become a manufacturing powerhouse.

For a replicator to function, all it needed was ample power
and the pattern of the thing being built. There are limits to what a replicator
can do, and the largest limit is power; the more complex the object it is trying
to produce is, the more power it needs to operate. On massive scales, it is a lot
easier to use replicators to produce bulk raw materials and then use those materials
to make the items desired. It takes way less energy to produce a one kilogram ingot
of durasteel than it does to make a one kilogram longarm. This also means that mass
produced, replicated items; seem to be at a lower quality because of *fade*, little errors that occur at the nanoscopic
level when the item is manufactured. The less replication used in the manufacturing
process, the higher quality the item seems to be.

In any case, replicators are large, expensive, and power hungry,
making the personal use of one almost impossible.

#### Food Synthesizer

The food synthesizer is a technological offshoot of the replicator.
It uses less power by only needed to replicate basic proteins, carbohydrates, and
minerals in very small batches, and then using a form of assembler, make it look
reasonably like the food in question. While nutritiously dense and edible, they
are usually used only on long voyages or as a form of ration when fresh foods are
unavailable.

### Powercells

Powercells provide power to most everything that requires
it. Powercells are grouped by size and generally cost the same across the galaxies.
What is inside them can vary but their energy output and connections are always
the same from cell to cell and generally their life expectancy doesn’t change much.

## Currency

Most every group among the galaxies have given themselves
to use the same universal currency, the Link.

Links are a form of digital currency that is *linked* to an individual. Links can be made
and destroyed by the distributing banks in order to keep the economy stable and
control inflation.

## Restriction

Some equipment is generally considered have restricted use.
If an item has a restriction, it generally requires the item to be licensed. The
price for the item is with the license for the item itself and it is considered
illegal to possess without one.

Unlicensed
items are considered untraceable to their owners.

### Illegal

Few items are illegal in a general sense. Most illegal items
are items that are possessed without a license. If an item is illegal, it would
still have a price, but will require the item to be acquired on the *shadow market*.

The cost for an illegal item is the cost that is listed on
the tables. To gain a licensed item illegally, the cost of the item is generally
greater, but the item is now untraceable to its owner. The cost increases +50%
rounded up; so a 100 Link Licensed item would cost 150 Links on the *shadow market*.