Technology Baseline

Types.
Small haulers. Short runs, small holds and crews of 3 to 8. They can land on rough ground but have short range. Most freelance crews fly one.
Mid bulk carriers. The standard long-haul freighter, with crews of 10 to 40. They stop often for fuel, water and repairs.
Heavy carriers. Big, slow and costly to run, with crews of 50 to 200. Big companies and Authority fleets use them on the main lanes and stay off unstable routes.
Upkeep. Most ships are decades old. Parts come from scrapyards, salvage or black-market shops, and no two ships are the same inside. Plenty fly on tape, luck and a ship's cat that keeps the pests down.
Navigation. Ships use Keth lane charts. Charts need updates because the lanes shift. Old charts cause a lot of wrecks.
Defense. Normal hull plate stops debris and small arms fire. Shields and countermeasures exist, but they are rare because they cost so much and eat power.
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Station reactors. Big fusion or fission plants. Core stations use Forge-made Talarq parts. Mid stations run older models with planned shutdowns. Rim stations run patched reactors nobody has checked in years.
Local grids. Core grids have backups and rarely fail. Mid grids work but have regional blackouts. Rim grids go down often, sometimes for weeks.
Fuel.
Hydrogen fuel. Standard for stations and big ships.
Brine batteries. A Vellari design, used in water-rich systems.
Kelp fuel. A cheap Rim fuel from Deepmere vats. It is unstable.
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Guns. Slug guns are everywhere. They are cheap and they work, but ammo is heavy and costly outside the Core. Revolvers and carbines are crew favorites.
Energy weapons. They exist but need a lot of power. Mostly Authority patrols and rich Free Companies carry them. Parts and coolant are expensive.
Ship weapons.
Point defense. Small turrets against boarding craft and debris.
Rail launchers. Heavy hitters that are slow to reload.
Energy lances. Accurate and costly to fire. Only high-end ships carry them.
How fights go. Most fights are short. Crews shoot at engines, cargo holds or life support to force a surrender. Ammo costs too much for long battles.
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Cybernetics.
Core. Licensed clinics do clean installs. Artificial limbs, data ports and brain boosters are common among office workers and officers.
Mid. Available, but the quality varies. Some parts are outdated or do not fit.
Rim. Mostly black-market installs. Many fail early or need constant repair.
Gene edits.
Core. Licensed edits for better lungs, stronger bones or sharper senses.
Mid. Farm and factory edits are common, often tied to company contracts.
Rim. Cheap splices are crude and risky. Some cause deformities or health problems.
Status. Expensive implants show off money. On the Rim, a working replacement arm is about survival, not style.
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Cheap gear. Most people own cheap, tough tools. Standard comms, ration heaters and work lamps survive drops and dirt.
High-end gear. Encrypted comms, fine instruments and fast computers have license locks. Makers and company security can track them.
Black-market mods. On the Rim, people crack the license locks. The gear works until it does not, because the updates stop.
Medical kits. Core kits have nanite injectors and targeted healers. Rim kits may be bandages and disinfectant.
Entertainment. Core citizens have full holo rooms. Mid citizens use pirated copies. Rim citizens share cheap projectors, old recordings and a radio that picks up jazz from somewhere far away.
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Tech in the Drift works, but not evenly.

Survival depends less on owning the best gear and more on keeping what you have running.