The opening description of Haemolymph being infused by programmable hydrogels is inspired by this scientific paper I read
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-41874-7>Stimuli-responsive hydrogels have garnered significant attention as a versatile class of soft actuators. Introducing anisotropic properties, and shape-change programmability to responsive hydrogels promises a host of opportunities in the development of soft robotsI tried very hard not to use the naughty n word (nanomachines), a lot of sci-fi just defaults to this. Similarly, the scientific speech on Eoarchaean pre-biotic crystal silicates is also based on an actual astrobiology paper (the scientific paper researched the Hadean not Eoarchaean era, but I just thought Eoarchaean sounds cooler from a deep geological time prespective).
I actually originally envisaged the game being set in a huge stellar stream (see pic related) to explain how some phenomena might overlap several constellation star sectors etc. Afterwards I realised that according to the latest astrophysics research, the Monoceros Ring may not actually be a stellar stream after all, just a warped irregular stellar overdensity of the galaxy disc. However, I kept it in, because I like the name and also it reminded me of a cool spaceship gun called the Monoceros Cannon from a videogame, Project Sylpheed
