Salvage Ship. A class 5000 ship designed to dismantle an abandoned ship or installation and carry of the salvaged components.

Sanhedrin, The: 134 member democratic parliament of the Union of Xyon.

SCA:  Self-Charged Automatic Blaster.  The standard plasma weapon of the Starship Marines.  Comes in a number of variants, from the small SCA1 to the large and unstable SCA4. It's operation is keyed into Marine Armour worn by the marines. It is not very effective in atmosphere, being optimised for operation in a vacuum.

Science Colony. A self-contained scientific colony, set up by government. This does normally develop into a proper colony though one might arrive in addition.

Scorch. A colony in Quadrant 7 that recently changed its name from 'Z15'

Scouting and Reconnaisance: Nearly all military ships are equipped with broadly similar and stanadrdised sensor arrays, which are opimised to passively detech enemy thruster burns, and to use active radar for combat at ranges out to about 3000km. The only exceptions, in order of effectiveness at tactical scouting are the Scout Ship (SCI) and the Survey Schip (SSI). The Survey Ship has additional equipmnent for planetary mapping, orbital measurement and solar flare analysis etc.
The relative scouting value of a scouting vessel depends entirely on what its mission is.

If a major base (for example an Exterminator manufacturing base), then just about any ship stands a chance of spotting it from the M25.

If searching for enemy ships moving around a system, then military class sensors will pick that up faster than civilian. An SSI may pick it up a bit faster than a military ship, and a scout ship will pick up the enemy's burns fastest of all.
However, if the sensing ship is burning at the time, it's chance of spotting is much reduced, due to interference from the energy being pumped out by its own engines. And a 2g burn will usually create more interference than a 1g burn from the same ship type - but a 2g burn from a destroyer emits less energy than a 1g burn from a battleship.

If searching for enemy ships on silent running, then there would need to be hundreds of ships searching for decades, before any appreciable chance of detection occurs.

If looking for human habitation on a world, from the M25, that's largely a function of the economic level of the world. The more developed the world, the more it 'lights up' its system. The quickest, and possibly the only, way of finding out detail of whats on a sparesly populated planet, such as small JS colonies, pirate bases, etc, is to get into orbit and scan.

There are other reconnaisance technquies, see also entry for Fastball Special

Searchers after the Shining Way of Sirius: A political-mystical quasi-religious sect popular in the Sirian Socialist Republic. See here for a longer article.

Seed Ship. A very old design for a ship that would land on a planet and act as an atmosphere processing plant. Many of these would land on theplanet to be terraformed and left running for many decades.

Seeker Missile (Light Radiation Seeker Missile).  A key anti-shipping missile that homes in on the energy emissions of enemy ships.  A common weapon carried by light vessels and pacifiers.

Semaj Codex. A list of habitable worlds collected by the famous Professor Mek Semaj. Semaj had collected clues as to the location of several 'Earth-like' worlds; listed in what became known as the Semaj Codex, this added impetus to a technological race to build practical interstellar vessels and hence colony ships. Much of the codex was lost or damaged during the Battle of Oberon in 2857, and the Professor himself was declared missing, believed killed.

Semaj Institute of Science & Technology : Founded in 2891, this Institute was named after the 'inventor' of the first superluminal vessel. The institute creates excellence in the technical field. Not only does it ensure that technicians from all over human space are properly taught - but it maintains the greatest museum and archive of science and technology in the universe, on Doitall.

Semi-Automatic Battleship. A very high-G battleship, using a high degree of automation. Its main limitation is it's cost and the high degree of support needs from fleet logistics elements.

Seven Worlds Defensive Alliance: Formed in 3202, this alliance of independent worlds was brought together for common security against piraacy, and to increase the participant worlds' voice in quadrant matters. Their joint fleet originally consisted of 14 or 15 motely armed merchant ships. The members consist of Killikrankie, Damper, Gat, Lamster, Radhakrishnan, Pratt and Nose. In 3203 they set up a joint marine training centre and a nuclear weapons production facility, and started a programme of jointly acquiring proper warships. In 3206, the Alliance was joined by Ankh. The Alliance is headed by William Jackson, former High Admiral, who was elected Chair of the Council of Defence Ministers in 3207.

Shake N' Bake Colony. These are examples of governments directly priming a world for colonisation (rather than allowing private investment and voluntary colonies to occur naturally). It takes considerable resources and even then is not guaranteed to succeed.

Shi'Ar. A very poor independent world in Quadrant Zero. Colonists on Shi'Ar mostly came from the GFA colony of Paradise, and this is the root of a long-standing rivalry with the neighbouring independent world of Kree. This conflict has not prevented the Shi'Ar from joining Kree as a founding member of the League of Non-Aligned Worlds.

Shipyard. An orbital facility capable of manufacturing new warships (as well as repairing and conducting full refits on existing ships). For policy reasons, there are no shipyards outside Quadrant 0.

Schlumberg, Wolfgang Von: Military historian, poet and film buff. Von Schulmberg wrote the definitive history of the Razor Blade War. He was somewhat controversial in writing a book that challenged the generally accepted sequence of events of the Vulkan Incident. No stranger to controversy, Von Schulmberg's charm and public appeal usually carries him through. 10 years ago His popular tri-V series 'Life, The Universe and Everything', won awards throughout human space.

Silent Running. A procedure where a ship approaches a target with no burns (i.e. no deceleration or acceleration) and with all systems shut down to a minimum. In such circumstances a ship is virtually undetectable until it gets within active radar range - around 500-1000km. During this time it has to rely on precise positioning and navigation, and because it cannot decelerate it has to approach very slowly - making SR approaches unusual except in small local tactical actions.

Sirian Socialist Republic (SSR):  The Sirians are a minor nation formed of a group originally founded by all the unreconstructed socialists and communists of old Earth. Their political views have modified a little over the intervening centuries, adapting to the nature of interstellar trade and expansion, but they remain an independent grouping. Often they are politically paralyised by endemic political infighting - some have characterised it as a system of 'permanent restructuring'.

SLA. Self-Loading Automatic gun. The basic personal weapon for the Ground Force (GF) infantry battalions. It is keyed to the GF tactical armour and HUD providing excellent targetting information at long ranges. Selectable to single shot, auto burst and sniper modes. Heavier versions can fire explosive ammunition.

Sleeper Ship. - see Interstellar Sleeper.

Smiths, Smithies. A slang term of abuse for those born on Wolf 359. Sometimes applied generally to citizens of the Wolf Commonwealth. Origins obscure, but thought to refer to the high number of people with the surname 'Smith' in the original colony.

Solar Republic. The original pan-human political grouping formed in the early years of humanity's expansion into the Universe. It transformed, eventually, in the modern Earth Empire. Constitutionally, the Earth Empire is still called the Solar Republic, but that term is now only used ceremonially or by pedantic souls when referring to the Empire.

Solar Windjammer. Light craft propelled by solar wind in gigantic foil sails.

Spaceball. The most popular team sport in the universe. Played between two teams of 6 on an octagonal pitch, the game is loved by fans on every inhabited world (except Draconis).

Space Dormouse. A sub-species of dormouse that has adapted to microgravity environments such as orbital stations and starships.

Spaceship:  A vessel not capable of interstellar faster than light travel.

Spacefoam:  A rapidly hardening foam, deployed to block corridors in starships.  A development of Riot Foam.

Space Ghosts: reports abound throughout human space of 'space ghosts'. These are radar contacts of what appear to be vessels under power (i.e. accelerating or decelerating) - but which show no burns and appear and disappear from radar. Some frontier colonists report having actually encountered these ghost ships and their occupants, but virtually all witnesses have proved unreliable or fraudulent. Despite extensive investigations from time to time - the existence or otherwise of so-called 'space ghosts' has never been established.

Sprint Missile. High acceleration anti-ship missile. Range about 100km, very high G missile (about 10g sustained for a few minutes). High velocity vector means that at ranges over about 30km it is hard to guide and therefore easy to counter.

Spy Ship. A ship optimised for detection and designed to sit for long periods hidden on the M25 observing a system. Fell in to disuse as there are easier and cheaper ways of finding out what is going on in a system.

Stabilo II, King. His Majesty King Stabilo Richard Horatio Robert Windsor II is the Head of State of the Wolf359 Commonwealth. Whilst most of the day to day governance is handled by the Prime Minister, in the Wolf consitiution, the King still has considerable influence on policy.

StarDate. The stardate system works on a 24-hour day (all ships use the 24-hour day clock - mainly because it is natural for humans, and also it makes setting duty rosters easier). Local planetary time is used when planetside - so sometimes there is a 'space-lag' adjustment for travellers arriving on a planet with a different diurnal pattern. The Star Year is made up of 400 days. There are no months or weeks - (although some cultures still use the term month (meaning a period of 30 days) and week (meaning a period of 7 days) for ease of reference and because of traditional habits. Again, local planetary days and years will vary, but anyone indulging in interstellar trade or politics will invariably use the StarDate calendar.

Starship:  A vessel capable of faster than light interstellar travel.

Starship Marines (tm):  The elite soldiers of space.  Highly trained in the specialist activity of fighting in zero-g and a vacuum, in the confines of a crippled starship.

Startroopers. A sort of space paratrooper used in ancient times. Startroopers went out of fashion pretty quickly as shuttles became a more reliable and accurate way of delivering troops planetside. The last Startrooper drop was in 2882 during the Earth invasion of Mars.

Startrooper Dropship. A ship designed to deliver startroopers into low orbit.

Stealth Armour. These are highly experimental Marine Armour suits that make the user 'invisible' to most frequencies of EMR for short periods. Unfortunately prolonged exposure to the personal energy warping field has adverse effects on human brain tissue or the user, causing symptoms of memory loss, paranoia and hallucinations after a while. Still it works fine for short bursts of a few minutes.
The aim for this sort of unit is to get deep into enemy held sectors to conduct recce of what is moving about, set up ambushes, or rescue hostages in advance of the main force. These have not been deployed operationally.

Stealth Destroyer. Designed to maximise silent running features - very unreflective to radar etc. This ship type has proved to be expensive and the advantage is only marginal at best. Silent running is hard enough to spot anyway.

Stickney Treaty:  A key piece of interstellar legislative activity.  This was one of the first interstellar treaties, and bans the creation or research into artificial intelligence.  Such activity is automatically a casus belli. More...

Stellar Flare Station. Most sufficiently developed systems have orbital stations designed to monitor in-system 'weather'. Most stars give out flares of varying intensity and magnitude. In some systems these are large enough to be lethal to all life in the system (these are, obviously, uninhabited systems). In inhabited systems, these stations are usually placed in the Lagrange-1 point between the colonial world and the star - they use well established models of stellar behaviour to predict and report on the bigger flares, which can affect orbital stations, communications, sensors and can even cause minor damage to ships in orbit. Such space 'storms' are infrequent, but clearly important to the economic life of the system. These stations are sometimes manned, but most often are just automatic minotoring stations.

Strategic Torpedo. Robot controlled ship/missile containing large nuclear warhead, designed to make a very long range approach (5 or 6l AU) at up to 2g

Strategy of Minimum Regret A military doctrine reputedly adopted during the pre-Exterminator Colonial Wars - a doctrine that is still extant in IEN training. The "Strategy of Minimum Regret" is generally quoted as "IEN vessels will not be placed at risk in defence of Colonial assets if the value of vessels exceeds the value of the asset". The "rule" is interpreted as such in many different ways, but is generally supposed to mean that there is no point deploying and possibly risking losing large numbers of naval vessels in defence of colonies whose value is less than that of the vessels deployed to protect them.

STUFT (Ship Taken Up From Trade):  A merchant ship employed in support of the fleet.  Usually taken into the fleet in times of emergency to enhance the logistic support capability.

Super Carrier. A design (never built) for a huge modular ship, comprising 4 large IS-capable modules, which on leaving hyperspace attached to each other forming a giant carrier.

Supercharge:  Specialist shaped charge ordnance designed for blowing holes in walls - especially on board ship.

Supernova. One of the most energetic explosive events known is a supernova. These occur at the end of a star's lifetime, when its nuclear fuel is exhausted and it is no longer supported by the release of nuclear energy. If the star is particularly massive, then its core will collapse and in so doing will release a huge amount of energy. This will cause a blast wave that ejects the star's envelope into interstellar space. The result of the collapse may be, in some cases, a rapidly rotating neutron star that can be observed many years later as a radio pulsar. While many supernovae have been seen in nearby galaxies, they are relatively rare events in our own galaxy. The last to be seen was Kepler's star in 2264 some 6,000 parsecs away. A supernova is likely to sterilize all systems within about 100 parsecs, so all unstable stars are monitored closely and on a regular basis by survey ships. There are no supernovae expected within human space within the next 1000 years.

Super Soldier Programme. An early genetic engineering project. Using the same technology that has caused the perfection of most of humanity, some scientists pushed the work to the point of creating individuals with superhuman abilities. The idea was to form an army of such enhanced humans. This was virtually a complete failure. Only one subject ever survived the treatment, and the lead scientist on the programme was assasinated, taking the secret of much of the important developments to the grave with her. There have been several attempts to replicate the work - the most devastating was the effort that led to the Organian Atrocity. Stories crop up from time to time of exceptional individuals, but these are largely dismissed as folk-tales or urban myths. (like the fabled 'Weevil' of Grifter IV, or 'The Roach' of Akira III).

Support Brigade: Ground force unit that has a range of more specialised services, including CommSats, SpySats, and other ground-orbit communications and intelligence gathering services, anumber of intercontinental weapons, usually missiles. Typically, a GF division has 4 ICBMs, which are nuclear capable, although not all GF divisions are routinely issued with nukes.

Supreme Humanity Command. A joint headquarters brought into existence as a result of the Treaty of Old London (3200). Initially headed by Admiral Musashi of the MSN, it was then commanded by Admiral Hojo MSN after Admiral Musahsi's disappearance in deep space not long after his appointment. The headquarters, located on Kumarajuva in Centauri space, operates all the Combine Human Fleets in Q0 and the colonial quadrants. The Sumpre Human Commander (SHC) is assisted by a deputy SHC and a committee of senior admirals, one from each signatory power. The only exception is the involment of the Mald Provost Corps - whilst not a signatory to Tool, Mald warships cooperate closely with TOOL forces and conform to the overal defensive plans within human space.

Surface-Based Heavy Energy Weapon System. An array of high power plasmatic and laser weapons designed to act as a planetside 'shore battery' - protecting key cities and installations from hostile landings or space bombardment. It is very expensive, and whilst the weapons can outrange ship-borne weaponry, they cannot defend themselves very well against over the horizon attacks, or attacks by conventional GF units delivered to the surface out of their range.

Survey Ship:  A class of ship specialising in astrographic surveys of starsystems.  Essential for mapping navigation hazards.  Carries a large complement of scientists, and can conduct other sorts of study also. Survey ships also routinely visit unmapped systems (see Empty Space) to check on the health of the star (for signs of instablitiy that might lead to nova or supernova).

'Swarm' Multiple Pacifier Ship. A highly specialised vessel that mounted up to 72 pacifiers in 'one-shot' single launch containers. The high logistics support requirement, cost and vulnerability to countermeansures such as missiles made this an unpopular oddity in some fleets during the 3050s.