Void Engineer Jargon

Void Engineers love the hell out of their alphabet soup and odd mix of engineer and military shorthand for everything imaginable. This is the most common of what you’ll hear in the halls of Station Yemaja, the Cop, etc., notably from the younger generation.

* Absolutely sure: 'An educated conjecture, one not considered typically reliable. “I’m absolutely sure it’s dead. Go collect it.”
* Admiralty, the:The ETD, Existential Threats Directorate, the new bosses.
* amalgam: Group of Technocratic operatives; a Technocrat cabal
* Anchor: Someone (often from another Convention) trying to prevent your ship from taking off.
* apparatuses: an apparatus represents the tools and activities involved in a focus: belief inspires practice, which employs apparatuses to provide focus.
* BCD: Border Corps Division, the Methodology that keeps horrible things from reaching the Mudball.
* BDO: Big Dumb Object. A large, impressive, and mysterious artificial Void object. Examples include Traditionalist Chantries, the old Cop, and Arch-Scientist built Dimensional Anomaly engines.
* Black Suit: Preferred and gender-neutral name for a field agent of the NWO.
* Bulkheading: To talk shit about a fellow officer in front of others, usually loudly.
* Cancelation: Capitalized, a death sentence.
* Cargo: Voidship passengers who can’t assist with vessel operations — typically Technocrats from other Conventions. Alternately, dead Technocrats from other Conventions. (Many Void Engineers prefer burial in the Void, and don’t need to be transported back.)
* clone: Artificial, lab-grown organism, typically human or animal, created from cell samples to replicate the basic biological characteristics of a non-artificial original. Sarcastically referred to as carbons or carbon copies, after an obsolete replication technology.
* Colonists: Humans who have spent most of their life in the Void, particularly if they were born there. Few colonists remain, and many are refugees struggling to adapt to Earth.
* Colony: A Horizon Construct in extraterrestrial orbit.
* Consensus, the: Common term for reality as most people agree upon reality. Regarded by the Technocracy as the ideal, safe state of humanity.
* Construct, construct: Capitalized, refers to a Technocratic base or Horizon Realm; without capitalization, the term refers to an artificially constructed person.
* Control: The Technocratic ideal; the embodiment of the Technocratic ideal; also an enigmatic figure/ group named Control, who embodies and enforces the Technocratic ideal.
* Convention of the White Tower: The foundation of the Order of Reason, beginning on Mar. 1, 1325; the Declaration of the White Tower, ratified on Mar. 25, 1325, officially founded what would eventually become the Technocratic Union.
* DAI: Dimensional Anomaly Incursion, a.k.a. what keeps the EFD in business.
* Dangerous: Bog standard. Expected to be dealt with as part of one’s normal workday. Younger Engineers sarcastically use it to mean “boring” or “routine.”
* Device: Capitalized, a hypertech gadget that employs independent Enlightened Procedures.
* DIMH: Descartes Institute of Mental Health, NSC’s medical division and our tether to sanity.
* DSEATC: Dimensional Science Evaluation, Administration, and Training Committee; the former head honchos before the Anomaly.
* EDE: Extra-Dimensional Entity, what foolish people call an “alien.”
* EFD: Earth Frontier Division, the Methodology that handles the Mudball’s defense.
* Enlightenment, Enlightened: Capitalized, another term for Awakening – commonly but not exclusively used by the Technocracy. In lower case form, enlightenment simply refers to the state of profound understanding.
* Everett Volume: An alternate dimension, with a reality either alike or very different from ours.
* Front Lines: What we’re fighting for. What we’re dying for.
* Gateway: Portals of relatively easy access through the Gauntlet.
* Gun: Marine or other Void Engineer ground combatant. (“Grunt” and similar are considered too unEnlightened to use regarding a fellow Conventioneer.)
* hypertech: To paraphrase Arthur C. Clarke, sufficiently advanced technology that’s indistinguishable from magic; in short, technomagick.
* IAW (pronounce “yaw”): Inexplicable Alien Weirdness. Applied as a casual label to anything that can’t be readily explained in the moment.
* Initiate, initiate: A person who has been introduced to the deeper levels of reality and the Technocratic cultures involved in it.
* Jacket: A pilot, navigator, or other bridge crewmember; named for the PCD fashion trend of wearing old-style bomber jackets.
* Jefferying: Crawling around ducts and other enclosed spaces, typically said when you feel stupid doing so.
* Loadout: A complement of personal survival equipment, operation-specific gear and weapons, especially those of the BCD.
* Masses, the: The majority of human beings; unEnlightened people – that is, Sleepers
* Mudball: An affectionate (and not so affectionate) term for Earth.
* NSC: Neutralization Specialization Corps, the Methodology that takes on the really weird stuff, like PLEs.
* PDC: Pan Dimension Corps, the Methodology that flies around in style. Pet: A live sample, usually of something non-human.
* PLE: Post-Life Entity, what the less-Enlightened call a “ghost.”
* Pretty: Extremely dangerous. Exercise extreme caution.
* Procedure: Capitalized, a Technocratic focus for technomagickal “spells”.
* Pudge: Vitamin-enriched protein slurry often used as food on Voidships.
* Quantum Voyager: Enlightened individual capable of piloting through the Anomaly.
* Qui la Machinæ: Primary Voidship class, workhorse of the Convention.
* R&E: Research & Execution, the Methodology that makes the cool toys.
* Reality: Capitalized, the word refers to a personified or even conscious form of reality – Reality as a being, not a state.
* Reality Deviant, RD, Deviance: Technocratic terms for entities, acts, and creatures (including mages) who deviate from the Union’s ideal form of reality. Originally used only within the Technocracy, the term Reality Deviant has entered wider usage when referring to supernatural enemies.
* Reasonably sure: A well-tested conclusion based on empirical data, something you’ll willing to rely on. “I’m reasonably sure it’s dead. I’ll go collect it.”
* Rich: Exposed to lethal levels of radiation or similar phenomena.
* Schrödinger’s [something]: Being unsure of something, such as “I don’t know if I’ve got the commission yet. Right now I’m Schrödinger’s captain.”
* Scuttlebutt: Gossip. “Second star to the right:” “I have no idea where we are/going.” SPAM: ”Servings of Pulpy Anthropic Matter.” Corpses reduced to an unidentifiable mush by intense pressure changes, acceleration, or energetic phenomena.
* Starbuck (or just “a buck”): A Paradox magnet, an albatross.
* Taikonaut: A Chinese word for cosmonauts or astronauts; a term now commonly used throughout the Convention.
* Tegmark Lensing: The phenomenon that prevents unEnlightened scientists from viewing the Deep Universe.
* Terrie: British-born euphemism for Threat Null. Considered the most polite term for them.
* The Cop: Copernicus Station (a.k.a. “the new Cop”); “the old Cop” refers to the former Copernicus Research Center.
* The Void: Everything that isn’t the Earth, more or less. Voidies, space-cases, and worse: What haters call us.
* The Wall: The ad-hoc shrine in Station Yemaja, dedicated to those lost.
* Threat Null: The recent threat to Consensual Reality. Briefly called “Emerging Threats Capable of Nullifying Enlightened Procedures.”
* Voidship: Ship we use to travel around the Void, from little shuttles to massive battle cruisers.
* “Be seeing you”: Sarcastic reminder to remain loyal to the Technocracy… or else.
* “That’s full of stars:” Used when something said is obvious or otherwise a waste of breath.