The Maw and the Rocks

On its slow crawl through space, the Axis Mundi has harvested countless asteroids, comets, and other raw materials to fuel its growth - along with its stripping of the Nero's Fiddle's carcass. What was once a sleek and clean machine just barely small enough to be launched from Earth has grown into a lumpy monstrosity of hand-welded steel, raw rock, and every other material the scrappers can get their hands on. Large portions of the ship's interior that once held now-expended supplies have been hollowed out, their bones repurposed into living and working spaces for the slowly growing population of the ship. Feral scrappers fight Apollo's androids over material, and sometimes these "clearance" projects knock over an entire tribe's home. The largest of these is the Maw; once the gleaming prow of the Axis Mundi, the Maw now gapes open like ragged teeth encircling a vast salvage and mining bay. Here, trusted workers break down the largest chunks of scrap to repurpose and keep the upper decks' lives going. Stolen point defense lasers keep the bay clear of any unwanted debris - and intruders.

 

Clustered around the Maw are the Rocks, the scrappers' homes away from the main decks. Made up of hollowed-out asteroids mined for their worth and lashed together with sealed tunnels and structural struts, the whole thing would never hold together under much acceleration, but it's a precarious settlement of the few Apollo trusts to see space as it really is. Since arriving in orbit around Eden, there's been talk of the Rocks crew spearheading efforts to reach the planet, which Apollo has silently opposed until he has full control. Agitators for colonization tend to meet with unfortunate industrial accidents, leaving the movement disorganized. The rest don't push it, knowing they'll come to their new home eventually.

 

"On the Rocks" is hardly a celebrated phrase nowadays. The workers employed out in the vacuum are trusted, but like the rest of Apollo's agents, their knowledge is kept segregated. The Rocks are generally a one-way trip for anyone who meets the android bearing transfer papers; "returning" means a memory wipe, showing up back home with months missing and just a deeper pocketbook to show for it.

 

1. The Maw - Jagged hull edges frame an intricate array of gantries and clamps. Netting and grab-lines crisscross the open bay, catching any cast-offs from the asteroid drilling operations around the edge. It's cold vacuum with no gravity and no air - come prepared. The latest prize nestled in the Maw is an armed dropship from the Nero's Fiddle; the pruned fork of Vulcan on board has resisted any attempts at electronic subversion, so Apollo's new orders are to simply cut it to pieces and reuse the salvage. The fork, even pruned as it is, is immensely valuable to anyone who would recognize what it actually is; most of the salvage crews at least recognize it as a "small god" in contrast to Apollo himself, but the implications are largely lost on them.
1. The Maw itself is run by Foreman Vander, an old scrapper who's taken the position by sheer attrition. Hoarse voice, creased eyes, bare scalp latticed with tattoos. Vander is the point of contact for PCs looking for work on the Rocks; he'll pay anyone willing to do hard labor drilling asteroids or scrap-breaking, and even "graciously" comp their oxygen for the time worked. With clearance from on high (hard to get), Vander may even task the PCs with a salvage run to the Nero's Fiddle alongside the veterans.
2. Tawnee is a younger scrapper with a knack for computers and a hot-headed streak. Under the tutleage of the Rocks' "guardian spirits", he's learned the trade of data recovery - a trade he keeps very separate from his regular work. Why bother? Tawnee has one of Vesta's memory fragments, barely functional enough to talk, and a dead goddess's "return" has engendered a crisis of faith in him. Tipping off Apollo would carry a reward, but also seal Tawnee's fate.
2. Delta Block is the closest thing that Apollo has to a prison on the Axis Mundi. Several strung-together asteroids form a honeycombed structure full of coffin cells and common spaces. No humans are trusted enough to watch over their fellows; the isolation of hard vacuum does the job for them. Rather than waste processing power and limited hardware on android breaker crews, upper deckers who fall afoul of Apollo's draconian security policies are "transferred" out here to prepare new salvage for the scrappers. Clad in shoddy vaccsuits (with a hidden kill-switch on the oxygen supply, if they meet Apollo's definitions for "threatening the ship") and sent out with nothing more than a saw or a drill, the "inmates" get the nasty work of dealing with explosive, radioactive, or toxic materials (sometimes even all three) and the most dangerous parts of the breaking process. Vulcan's fork has already killed four inmates that tried to start processing work, and that's unlikely to be the last of them.
1. Kim-15 is the android warden of Delta Block. Military frame with the holo-projected face of a middle-aged woman glowing translucent blue. She's been delegated control of the kill-switches on inmates' suits; any potential breakout starts with the the codes she has on tape. Her rule is hardly the swift iron fist of Apollo, and events within Delta Block transpire effectively undisturbed as long as the inmates keep everything internal (the androids are well outnumbered and would rather asphyxiate a riot than fight it; any peaceful resolution would take an outside force).
3. Along the outer walls of the Maw are a pair of salvage hangars, where the two cargo shuttles left in Apollo's stable reside. Crewed by upper deckers in Apollo's inmost circle, these shuttles are the lifeblood of the Maw, capturing salvage from elsewhere in the fleet or asteroids from local space and hauling them in. In theory, the shuttles could still make a one-way landing on Eden, but it's naturally never been tried. Apollo isn't willing, and the hangars are locked down harder than anything outside Apollo's core. Neither shuttle is armed, but on at least one occasion Gaia's habitation domes have met attack by handheld weapons fired from the open cargo bays…
4. The throat of the Maw is its foundry complex, a great glowing cavity where everything fed is smelted, separated, and worked. Some of the construction equipment intended for building the first steps of the Eden colony have been repurposed here to turn raw materials into new hull plates or repair parts; elsewhere, artisans work in family workshops, crafting goods by hand. Oddly, here alone Apollo affords Gaia's followers a presence in "his" territory; a small enclave monitors what they call "Hephaestus' Forge" and arrange frequent trades of technology for the bounties of Gaia's gardens. This enclave is the only sign most will ever see of her beastmen.
1. Althea leads the enclave at Hephaestus' Forge. Deep green skin, suitable for photosynthesis - Gaia labeled her as a "dryad". Soft-spoken and slow to act. May offer the PCs work escorting supply runs towards the ship's aft (and/or the reverse), in exchange for "blessings" or other rites.
2. Leander is one of the few who venture out of the Forge. A hulking man crowned by twisting horns, Leander fights like the devil in the Pit as an "exotic" challenger, walking away with blood in his tangled beard. His daily rituals have slowly turned darker - others hold silent concern, afraid to speak up directly to him. There's whispers the bloodlust is starting to poison him, though.
5. Every settlement needs its entertainment, and out here it's fighting. There's no pretense around the Pit; it's just brutal hand-to-hand combat. Fights aren't to the death, but they get damn close, especially with the number of cyborgs among the Maw crews. Upper deck body shops occasionally use Pit footage to advertise for their works when a particularly vicious winner emerges.
1. Mace is the Pit's current champion. Brain-tampered and scarred up, implanted rigging gun in the right arm (mostly replacing it) and incidentals for replacement. Weirdly honorable in combat, to some outdated code of honor. Displace him to take the title and a lot of respect from the Rocks' inhabitants.