Stations

Every station is for one job. A single structure that bought everything and sold everything was tried and removed: it made everything around it scenery. Home is a place now - a trade port, a military wing, a shipyard - each somewhere you go for one thing.

Kind	Sells	Pays for ore
Trade port	nothing at all	×1.35, the best - because it sells nothing
Mining post	mining lasers and cargo bays; processes ore itself	×1.10
Arms wing	weapons and shield cells	×0.85, the floor
Shipyard	hulls, and only hulls	×0.85, so you need not fly out again to pay for one

Two rates and a floor: the market pays, the processor pays a little less, everybody else is doing you a favour. The shield cell is sold only at an Arms wing and the cargo bay only at a Mining post, so the first fitting choice is a choice of where to fly. Mining and the scissors.

Docking

The prompt appears within 500 m of the hull, from any bearing; dock with R under 120 m/s, and the same key undocks. Docked, the station screen fills the display: tabs SHIP / OUTFIT / BUY / SELL, switched with Q / E, browsed with ↑ / ↓, B buys, G sells. A locked row says what the lock is; the shelf shows the ladder rather than hiding it.

Leaving a berth costs a flat 20 credits, whatever the station - a charge on the trip, never on the clock. And every quay of every Compact fills the warp tank, full and free. The chart and warp.

A refused dock says	Meaning
outside the dock envelope	too far from the hull
over approach speed	slow down
berths full; stand off	wait, or another station
proscribed; settle or fly on	this Compact wants you; Arms wings and shipyards refuse, trade ports and mining posts still serve - Wanted

Home, by Compact

Each Compact keeps three counters in its home, a Mining post out at its own Belt and another at its Shallows. The Shallows post is where every pilot’s first purchase is made: the first 15 minutes.

Concord - the Registry

Station	Kind	Stands in	The plate says
Brandt Slipways	Shipyard	Concord Home	Hulls sold, registered and insured before the paint is dry.
Cauldwell Exchange	Trade	Concord Home	The wheel turns and the market clears. Rates posted at the collar.
Vance Armoury	Arms	Concord Home	Racked, numbered, signed for. Guns leave the arsenal only bolted to a registered hull.
Verity Assay	Mining	Concord Belt	Ore weighed, permits stamped, cutters fitted. The claim field’s own office.
Alder Weighbridge	Mining	Concord Shallows	Where a pilot’s record begins: first hold weighed, first tool fitted, first entry made.

Sepulchre - the Kindred

Station	Kind	Stands in	The plate says
Maren’s Ring	Shipyard	Sepulchre Home	Hulls are opened and made whole here. Maren cut first; her torch still works.
The Laying Ground	Trade	Sepulchre Home	Set the hold down and let it be weighed. The belt’s gifts are counted here.
Vigil House	Arms	Sepulchre Home	Guns are cut from the dead here and given to the living. Ask whose before you fire it.
Tekla’s Post	Mining	Sepulchre Belt	Cutter heads and hold frames, kept the way Tekla kept hers.
Edda’s Bench	Mining	Sepulchre Shallows	Where the young are handed their first torch and told whose it was. Edda taught here.

Ashaari - the Concern

Station	Kind	Stands in	The plate says
Aster Holdings	Shipyard	Ashaari Home	Hulls on credit. The terms are attractive; the penalties are more so.
The Concourse	Trade	Ashaari Home	Nine kilometres of berths, and every one of them charging.
Underwriters’ Bond	Arms	Ashaari Home	Bonded stock, duty on collection. The guns are somebody else’s until bolted to yours.
Margin Post	Mining	Ashaari Belt	Cutters and holds at cost. The house makes it back on the ore.
First Stake	Mining	Ashaari Shallows	Your first stake, sold at cost. The Concern earns it back over the rest of your career.

Nobody’s counters

The middle and the ladder have stations too. The three Cinder drums are Concord-run and shared; the ladder’s doors are nobody’s, berthed alongside so their no-fire bubble stays about 600 m - the one place on a fighting rung where the shooting stops.

Station	Kind	Stands in	The plate says
Kepler Yard	Trade	Cinder Belt	Best ore rate in known space, posted daily. The middle of the map is a market.
Meridian Post	Mining	Cinder Belt	Three kilometres of bore. Fly in slow; the berths are halfway down.
Halden Depot	Arms	The Assay	Guns fitted to Concord procedure. Everyone’s custom, nobody’s favourite.
The Hook	Arms	Rusthook Drift	Coils in from the Shoal, guns out. No papers asked, and none given.
The Bed	Mining	The Lathe	Holds fitted, tools racked, grades taught. Bring what the Reach gave you.
The Weighbridge	Trade	Ashfall	The best rate on the ladder, and no commute to reach it. Weighed as it lands.
The Last Yard	Shipyard	Salt Wake	No light ship is sold here. Nobody’s papers on the hulls, and no board on the wall.
The Sump	Arms	The Dross	Tank filled, hull mended, and the floor paid for a hold. Nothing else down here.

The Sump is the whole of the deep run’s economy in one row: the richest field in the game has a counter one hop away that pays the floor. It exists so nobody strands, not so anybody cashes out.

Whose station

A station has an owner and reads on the chart in the owner’s tint; the ladder’s doors and the Cinder drums have none. Being in another Compact’s space is what the chart locks, not the berth: once you are in, its trade ports and mining posts serve you, and only a Compact that has written you off turns you away from its guns and its hulls. The zones.