It's all about the Research.

Forget cash, gold, credits, whatever... With space exploration comes all the raw resources you need. Research becomes the currency of the future.

Sector 12 puts you into the Captain's Chair and it is up to you to gather as much Research as possible and send it back to Interplanetary Alliance Headquarters. Command your ship and crew as you travel from planet to planet, moon to moon, throughout the Caelean System in Sector 12.

Game Features/Mechanics:

• The ship - Take care of her and she will take care of you. Every section of the ship is interconnected with Power, Atmospherics (oxygen, air pressure, temperature, toxins), and other ship systems. Every part of the ship serves its function and it is up to you to keep it running in tip top shape in order to get that sweet, precious Research.
•  Complex Damage and Repair - Each part of the ship can be individually damaged by pirate or enemy ship attacks. Fires can break out. Plasma can leak in. Plasma can ignite if in high enough concentration and fire is present because you didn't engage the atmospheric scrubbers to vent the plasma and you set the air handlers too high so that the fire is raging due to excess oxygen and the resulting explosion created a Hull breech. Power can go out, Power Conduits can rupture. The Hull can buckle and breech. Your poor crew can get sucked out into space, burn alive, suffocate, freeze to death, and sometimes all of these things in a short matter of time if you are not careful.
• The Crew - You manage your crew. You choose if they are human, alien, or android. Using the Captain's Command Station on the Bridge, you tell them what you need them to do and they do it. Each crew member will do their best to serve you, Captain, whether that is through generating Research, upgrading the ship weapons and armor, or joining you on Away Missions to planets and other ships. There are many dangers in the galaxy, and many ways to die; but don't worry, Captain, you can make (sometimes genetically inferior) clones of your crew to replace the ones that have died. Androids are much harder to kill as they are immune to hot and cold (though this will compromise their structural integrity), but require some special raw materials to re-create should they happen to become non-functional.
• The Missions - Research missions will have you hopping from planet to planet gathering biological samples, rescuing refugees from the Caelean civil war, locating ancient alien ruins, charting data on binary stars, and more. You can take up to 3 of your crew (any crew members) with you on Away Missions. Different crew members have different strengths and talents. Or you can skip the Research missions entirely and do something else. It is up to you!
• Ship to Ship Combat - Give commands to your bridge crew and hope that the enemy ship's hull is thinner than yours. Control the damage delt to your ship, and for god's sake, try not to let your ship decompress! 
• Away Mission Combat - Take an up close and personal approach with your Away Party. Equip them with various weapons and armor from the Armory and engage hostile indigenous lifeforms in animated front-view combat.
• Research - Get it by picking alien plants. Get it from fighting aliens. Get it from stealing it (you naughty captain you). Get it as reward for a job well done. Get it from your Hydroponics lab. Get it from your Xenobiology lab. Get it from Engineering. Get it by repeatedly loading unprocessed material into the Feeder in Physical R&D. Get it by mining asteroids and moons. Get it by collecting atmospher samples from planets. However you get it, just get it!
• Upgrade - Multiple sections of your ship contain Upgrade terminals which will allow you to upgrade numerous things ranging from better ship engines, fuel efficency, better ship armor, upgrades to repair drones, medbots, enhancements for your crew, even give them psychic abilities to use in combat; you name it. Most upgrades cost Research, but as they say... it takes Research to make Reseach (ok nobody says that...yet).

I do hope you enjoy playing the game. Unfortunately I was very limited on time and did not get to 100% bug proof it I think, but I did the best I could with the time I had. Please feel free to leave any comments, questions, or reviews!

Thank you kindly and enjoy!