Slang is sometimes called the 'universal language'. It's one of the few universal things all races share: terms or phrases that mean something other than their literal translation.
Some areas have very specific slang, as do some races. However, there's enough overlap that many things have passed from region or even race specific into something more general.
- "dive" / "surface" - In the context of subspace, it means to enter/exit subspace.
- Example: "Six new fighters just surfaced! Recommend emergency dive, we're getting overwhelmed."
- "n-cities" - Based on the tendency for new cities to be named by putting 'new' or 'neo' in front of the names of famous cities. Generally accepted to mean 'something that looks shiny, but is rotten and is a piece of shit underneath'.
- Example: "No sir, you ain’t dragging me and mine to no goddamned n-city! I don’t care how good the pay off is!"
- "Redboots" - a term for Terran military personnelle, most frequently heard in Freelance space.
- Example: "You goddamn redboots think you can just come and take my farm??"
- Squawks - In the context of a ship, a 'squawk' is a mechanical issue, typically found during a preflight check.
- Example: "She's a good ship; got a couple of squawks, but at this price, she's a steal."
- Squeaks - A brand new person to the freelancer life (a 'squeak', because their gear is still 'squeaky clean').
- Example: "Damn Squeak didn't double check the monitor and nearly cycled half the cargo bay to vacuum. Thank god the safties still work in that bay."