Voidman's Lexicon

Here are some terms to add a little flavour to the campaign. This is in no way an exhaustive list.

A

Abaft: Anything toward the stern of the ship.
Abeam: Directly to the side of or at a right angle to the ship.
Aboard: On or within a voidship.
Action Stations: Command for all hands to report to their workstations and prepare for action.
Admiralty: The commanding group of admirals in charge of a sector's Battlefleet. Also, the highest ranking admirals in command of the Imperial Navy as a whole.
Adrift: A vessel or other manmade object floating free in space with inoperable drives or thrusters. A ship adrift may or may not still have power.
Afore: In front of the ship within its forward firing arcs.
Aft: At, near, or toward the stern of the ship.
Aground: A ship or other voidcraft that has crashed on a planet, planetoid, moon, or asteroid.
Airlock: A device which permits the passage of people and objects between a voidship and its surroundings while minimizing the change of pressure in the vessel and loss of air from it.
Airlocked: Capital punishment aboard a voidship. The act of being expelled from an airlock without a vacuum suit. Also see: Spaced.
Alee: Toward the leeward side of the voidship or celestial body.
Alongside: Close beside a voidship, station, shipyard, or other celestial body.
Amidships: In the middle of the ship.
Anchorage: Any safe or sheltered place for a voidship to take refuge or come to rest.
Astern: Behind a voidship.
Athwart: Across or Transversely.
Athwartships: Anything aboard that is at right angles to the centerline of a voidship.
Avast: The command to stop, or cease, in any operation.

B

BTV: Bonded Trade Vessel: A prefix used before a ship's name by all private commercial and free-trader ships. Example: BTV Swiftsure.
Beacon: A vox signal broadcast persistently on a fixed frequency. Transmitted by buoys, voidships, lifeboats and other man made constructs, beacons are used to signal danger, mark hazards, and call for help.
Beam: The measurement of the width of a voidship at her widest parts.
Belay: To change an order. Also, to make a line or cable secure to a cleat or other connector.
Bells: Also "Ship's Bells", the system of telling time aboard a voidship. The "bell", typically a tone or pre-recorded message or hymn, is played over the ship's internal vox every half-standard hour, with each tone or recording indicating a specific time. The sequence of bells repeats every four hours starting at 0000, breaking up a ship's day into six four-hour blocks. Example: "Divisions at four bells."
Below: Beneath any given voidship's deck.
Bow: The forward-most part of a voidship's hull.
Breach: A hole torn in a deck, bulkhead, or voidship's hull through accident or combat. To punch through a voidship's hull, hatch, deck, or bulkhead.
Bridge: The location from which a voidship is steered and its speed controlled.
Broach: A turning or swinging of a voidship that puts the beam of the vessel directly in the path of a gravity tide or Warp current, creating a danger of being stove-in or wrenched apart.
Bulkhead: A vertical, interior wall within a voidship.
Buoy: A voidborne construct that can be used to mark navigation hazards, anchorages or shipping lanes, repeat vox or, in some cases, astropathic signals, or any of a number of other mundane tasks.

C

Cabin: A compartment for officers or passengers. A lord-captain's personal suite is referred to as the “great cabin”.
Cleat: A t-shaped metal fitting around which cables and chains are secured.
Colours: The Imperial Aquilla, ensign of the Imperial Navy, or any other Adeptus, private, commercial, or planetary flags, crests, or insignia carved into or painted on a voidship's hull. Also see: Livery.
Come About: To change course or move to a new heading.
Comms: All vox and astropathic transmissions to and from a voidship. Not to be confused with a ship's internal vox.
Compartment: Any enclosed space aboard a voidship.
Conn: The act of steering or piloting a voidship, or the apparatus by which a voidship is steered or piloted. ex. “Lieutanant, take the conn.”
Core Cogitator Array: A highly sophisticated neural network computer that runs the millions of functions of a voidship. The CCA controls everything from gravity and life support to auspex arrays and targeting. Rare and priceless relics of a bygone age, CCAs are held in adamantine vaults deep within a ship's Enginearium.
Course: The direction in which voidship is sailing.
Cutter: Any small, armed, non-Warp capable vessel used for in-system patrol or any number of other combat support missions.

D

Deck: A permanent covering over a voidship's compartment or a hull that forms a walkable surface (floor). A voidship can have thousands of decks, and many have special names and uses. Below are a select few.

• Bridge Deck: The deck from which a ship is commanded, piloted, and navigated. The nerve-centre of a voidship. Bridge decks of voidships tend to be vast, cavernous compartments filled with dozens or hundred of bridge crew seeing to the workaday operation of the ship.
  
• Quarterdeck: A large, raised platform or mezzanine on a voidship's bridge deck from which the ship's captain can observe the whole bridge. The quarterdeck is the sole domain of the captain, his closest and most trusted officers, and any visiting guests and dignitaries who have been granted access. The captain's command chair/throne will be found here, along with the ship's helm and workstations for the Navigator.
  
• Maindeck: The deck from which a voidship's superstructure rises.
  
• Gundeck: The decks that house a ship's great guns and typically the gun crews who serve them.
  
• Underdeck: Underdeck isn't so much a specific deck as it is those decks which house pressed-men, penal conscripts, idlers, waisters, servitors, and other non-rated crew. Also, any out of the way, seldom used, or closed-off parts of a voidship.
  
• Fantail: Any enclosed observation deck at the stern of a voidship that overlooks its plasma drives.
  
• Promenade Deck: Enclosed observation decks that wrap around the super structure or other parts of a voidship's hull.
  
• Enginearium: The decks that house a voidship's plasma and Warp drives along with the main equipment necessary for powering and operating a voidship. Also, the decks that house a voidship's tech-priests.
  
• Orlop: Decks close to a voidship's keel that house deck equipment like cables, chains, tackle, and rigging.
  
• Mess Deck: Where voidmen take their meals. These also double as meeting halls, classrooms and ersatz chapels when rigging church.
  

Defaulters: A muster to pass and witness punishment aboard a voidship.
Ditty-bag: A small bag used for carrying toiletries and personal items. Not to be confused with a voidbag.
Division: In the Imperial Navy, as well as in most private and commercial fleets, a ship's company is divided into groups of various sizes for the purposes of discipline and welfare. Each of a ship's divisions is led by either a lieutenant or a midshipman who is responsible for overseeing the work and training of his voidmen. Divisions are further divided into Watch Sections and Watch Sub-sections led by section led by non-commissioned officer section leaders. Also, the muster or assembly for inspection or other purposes.

E

Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA): Work conducted by voidmen or shipwrights to the outer hull of a voidship. Typically while in space at an anchorage or in a stable orbit.

F

Forecastle (Fo'c'sle): The parts of a voidship's superstructure closest to the bow.
Forward: Toward the front or bow of a voidship.

G

Gaff: A long pole with a hook and spike at the end used by voidmen in the business of handling cargo.
Galley: A voidship's kitchens.
Gun Captain: The most senior member of a gun crew responsible for the maintenance of his or her gun and the proper training of his gun crew.
Gun Crew: The voidmen who operate each of a voidship's great guns. Gun crews can number in the dozens or hundreds.

H

HDMS: His Divine Majesty's Ship, a prefix used by ships in commission with the Imperial Navy. Example: HDMS Precious Icon.
Hatch: Any sealable opening in a voidship's hull or bulkhead for the purpose of boarding or passing through.
Head: On a voidship, a combination toilet, locker room, and community showers.
Headway: The forward motion of a voidship.
Heave to: A command given to bring a ship to a stop in space. Typically followed by “and prepare to be boarded!”
Helm: The controls for steering or piloting a voidship.
Hull: A voidship's body.

I

Inspection: Aboard ships of the Imperial Navy, a muster of voidmen that takes place on the last day of every standard week. Each voidman appears in uniform at his or her watch station and is personally inspected by his section or sub-section leader who then reports to his divisional officer. Those officers then report to the ship's captain.

K

Keel: A stiff structure at the centre of a ship from which all structural supports radiate. A voidship's backbone.

L

Lee: The side of a ship, station, or celestial body away from the light of a system's star. The dark or shadowed side.
Leeward (LOO-ard): The direction away from the light of a system's star.
Livery: The heraldic colours of a Rogue Trader's house or the official colours of a company or private concern. Example: The livery of House Machariel is blue and green with silver piping.

M

Make Fast: To attach something to a surface or connection point in either a permanent or semi-permanent manner.

P

Port: The left side of a voidship as seen when standing on the bridge and looking toward the bow.

S

STV: Sanctioned Trade Vessel. A prefix used before a ship's name by Rogue Traders. Example: STV Arkhamina's Lament.
Starboard: The right side of a voidship as seen when standing on the bridge and looking toward the bow.
Ship Shape: Neat, tidy, and organised.
Spaced: Capital punishment aboard a voidship. The act of being expelled from an airlock without a vacuum suit. Also see: Airlocked.
St. Yuri the Shepherd: The patron saint of voidmen. Voidmen and officers alike offer prayers to him before undertaking a particularly difficult Warp passage or upon entering battle. His feast day is marked by ship visiting, prayer, singing, and copious amounts of drunkenness and debauchery.
Stern: The very back part of a voidship where the plasma drive nozzles are located.
Superstructure: The castle- and cathedral-like structures found on the dorsal side of all voidships. They rise from the maindeck.

T

Transponder: Constantly broadcast by every legal ship in the galaxy, a transponder signal contains all pertinent information regarding to a ship's name and registry.

U

Under Hatches: Below deck.

V

Vacsuit: Any one of countless makes and models of spacesuits used aboard ship for hazardous conditions protection and extra-vehicular activity.
Void Locker: A sturdy, ornate locker used by void officers to carry their possessions between commissions.
Voidbag: Carried by every Ordinary and Able Voidman, these large, heavy-duty bags are designed to carry all of a voidman's possessions. Typical items found inside include uniforms, hazmat gear, religious icons, prayer books, ditty bags and other personal effects. These allow a voidman to transport all of his belongings between commissions.

W, X, Y, Z

Watch: Standing watch or “watchstanding” is, at its essence, organised turn-taking that allows a voidship to be manned and run over full standard-day cycles. A watch is the hours in which a voidman is expected to be at his station and working.Watches are defined by the ship's bells, and run in four-hour increments. From the beginning of each standard day, the names of the watches are as follows:

• First Watch: 0000 to 0400
• Morning Watch: 0400 to 0800
• Forenoon Watch: 0800 to 1200
• Afternoon Watch: 1200 to 1600
• Evening Watch: 1600 to 2000
• Graveyard Watch: 2000 to 0000 (midnight)

Example: "Enemy ship sighted at four bells in the forenoon watch" would mean that the ship was sighted at 10:00am.
Watch Station: An officer or voidman's workstation.