Unaligned Space Station with a Complex Network of PipesSource Starfinder #8: Escape from the Prison Moon pg. 62
Location The Vast
Settlements —
Diameter 1 mile; Mass less than x1/100; Gravity x1 (artificial)
Atmosphere Normal
Day 46 hours (artificial); Year 96 years
Outpost Zed is an independent space station located on the fringes of Azlanti space that is home to outlaws, refugees, and smugglers of all shapes and sizes. The site was formerly a mobile Azlanti asteroid-mining platform until it was decommissioned almost a century ago. Though the Azlanti removed all of their advanced mining equipment when they abandoned the area, they didn’t see the need to destroy the shell, allowing local drifters and pirates to move in. Though Outpost Zed came from humble beginnings as the literal refuse of the Azlanti Star Empire, it proved an advantageous location for smugglers and other criminals. The Azlanti Star Empire’s harsh restrictions on what citizens can and can’t own provide a ripe market for these bootleggers, and Outpost Zed wound up becoming a moderately bustling marketplace—not only diverse enough to attract traders from all over Azlanti space but wealthy enough to buy off any Azlanti authorities who might threaten the safety of the station’s merchants and clientele.
Outpost Zed is effectively split into two major sections, although these sections intersect and intertwine. The first section of the base is the platform’s abandoned chambers, where most human-sized creatures do business. The second section consists of the station’s labyrinthine network of pipes and ducts, which runs through every part of the station and has proven a convenient way for smaller creatures to get around; the allure of having paths and corridors difficult for larger beings to intrude upon, as opposed to most other space stations (which have the opposite issue), has attracted a great many tiny creatures to this unusual safe haven. These two communities coexist but are disconnected enough to practically count as two separate settlements, with contact between the two societies limited to specific trading grounds.
Though the outpost has something of an anarchic nature to it, with no official police force or authority, the trading post is not entirely lawless. To most of the permanent residents of Outpost Zed, the space station represents a respite from the oppressive rule of the Azlanti Star Empire and a community of like-minded individuals with no love for the empire’s authority. While the inhabitants of the station usually let creatures settle personal matters between each other without interference, all of Outpost Zed’s residents— including smugglers and other outlaws who are just passing through—have a vested interest in the base remaining a trustworthy marketplace and a bastion free from imperial rule. Even the most evil and nihilistic creatures living on the space station, such as the several clusters of draeliks who have taken up residence in various nooks and crannies over the last few decades, will intervene against creatures that attack or steal from the local merchants.
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