Caraphex

Overview

The Caraphex are communal insectoids who organize life around work, safety, and pay. They live in clades, which are large work families that share housing, lockers, tools, and debt pools. Clear roles keep crews efficient, and discipline is enforced from within because a single person’s mistake damages the whole clade’s reputation. They excel at salvage, tunneling, ship-breaking, and bulk ore movement, and they keep their tools maintained even when parts are scarce. Mega-corporations rely on Caraphex output, but they also try to replace clades with machines or non-union labor whenever possible. Syndicates target Caraphex sites with extortion and violence because control of labor means control of profit.

Caraphex presence spans core, mid, and rim regions. In the Core, corporations respect their skills while looking for ways to weaken their bargaining power. In the Mid, clades dominate tunnel and salvage work and hold strong leverage. In the Rim, they face frequent raids and must coordinate strikes or shutdowns to defend basic rights. Many ports cannot function without Caraphex labor, and most crews prefer Caraphex standards because jobs finish on time and without unnecessary injuries.

Their constellation includes four key worlds. Ravel is the nestworld and training yard for tunneling crews. Shardplain produces ceramics and industrial silica. Pitchmire exports hydrocarbons from dangerous tar fields. Mandible Reach runs ship-breaking rings and hosts escrow arbiters trusted by clades. Council marks and escrow rulings linked to these places carry weight across the Drift.

History and Homeworlds

Caraphex labor traditions formed in deep hive warrens and quarry zones where survival depended on safe tunnels, reliable tools, and fair shifts. Over time these customs became formal rules, then contracts, and finally a sector-wide system tied to the Clade Council. Ravel trained the early standard crews. Shardplain supplied large volumes of durable tools and fittings. Pitchmire’s harsh conditions forced clades to develop tight shift rotations and escort protocols. Mandible Reach offered neutral arbitration for salvage and wage disputes, giving the Caraphex a legal backbone that even non-Caraphex ports could accept.

This network grew as ore and salvage flows expanded. When syndicates and corrupt officials tried to seize wages through debt courts after “accidents,” clades responded by pooling resources, blacklisting abusive employers, and building escort teams. Free Companies still get hired to protect convoys, reinforce claims, or recover stolen tool shipments. These actions made Caraphex contracts a reliable way to complete high-risk jobs, especially on the Rim where official law is weak.

Anatomy and Adaptations

Caraphex bodies are built for heavy industry. They have segmented exoskeletons and most have four arms—two heavy for lifting and two fine for precision—and compound eyes with polarized vision. These traits help them work in dust, vibration, and low-light environments with minimal gear. They tolerate vacuum exposure better than most species for short periods, which makes them well suited for ship-breaking and hull salvage. Rest cycles require reinforced bunks; a weak cot is a sign of poor planning and will damage trust.

Clades expect safe tool access at all times. Heavy arms handle lifts and anchors, while fine arms manage welders, sealants, and sensor picks. Many standard Caraphex kits include dust screens, joint braces, and vibration dampers that extend shift endurance. Food is simple and high-protein to support muscle output during long shifts. When mixed crews plan bunks, lockers, and tool benches around these needs, productivity rises and injuries drop.

Culture and Daily Life

Clades are the center of Caraphex life. Members share housing, meals, and debt pools. A clade’s record follows every worker, so internal discipline is strict and public disputes are rare. Off-shift, crews repair tools, log hours, and settle micro-debts before the next cycle. Young Caraphex learn the clade’s history, tool codes, and first-aid for crush, dust, and chemical exposure. They also learn how to read escrow marks and Council stamps, since these decide whether a job is legitimate.

Meals are plain and timed to shifts. Protein pastes, roasted fungus, and mineral supplements are common. Crews eat together after wash-down to prevent contamination. Tool benches are sacred spaces; unauthorized borrowing is treated as theft. When a clade finishes a contract, they pay shared debts, post the completion note in their ledger, and rotate a portion of earnings to injured workers or widows. This cycle keeps the clade stable through layoffs and route closures.

Etiquette with outsiders is direct. Pay on time. Keep safety marks visible. Do not delay access to lockers or benches. If a clade liaison flags a hazard, the shift stops until the fix is done. Crews that honor these rules form long partnerships. Crews that ignore them find no Caraphex labor for the next job and may be blacklisted across multiple ports.

Politics, Government, and Law

The Clade Council is both a labor union and a governing structure for the Caraphex. It does not sit on a single capital world. It operates from a rotating set of strongholds, with Hivecarve as the most important, and spreads its archives to avoid sabotage. Foreleads from many clades form the core of the Council. Tribunes oversee disputes and issue rulings. Inspectors audit worksites and shift logs. Enforcers protect clades and punish betrayal of Council contracts.

Council power is built on several tools. Contracts that involve Caraphex labor carry Council marks, which guarantee terms and enforcement. Rulings settle salvage rights, tunnel claims, and wages. Blacklists shut out employers who cheat or abuse crews. Solidarity pacts keep clades united so no one crosses a ruling for a quick payout. This unity is the Council’s main strength and also its main weakness, since delays can occur when many foreleads must agree under pressure.

Regional reach changes by sector. In the Core, the Council is respected, though corporations try to undermine it with bribes or alternative contracts. In the Mid, it is strongest and essential to industry. In the Rim, syndicates fight the Council and try to control hiring halls; clades answer with strikes or coordinated shutdowns. Ports that honor Council rulings attract skilled clades and steady output. Ports that defy the Council suffer shortages and accidents.

Mandible Reach serves as a neutral venue where escrow arbiters verify contracts and settle disputes. Rulings from Mandible Reach travel fast through clade networks and are treated as final unless a Council tribunal opens a review. This system gives employers clear paths to resolve issues without violence and gives clades a court they trust.

Work, Economy, and Everyday Risk

Caraphex crews run mines, scrapyards, tunnel reinforcement, ship-breaking, and ore convoy escort. They build reliable tools from old parts and are quick to adapt when a port’s supply chain collapses. Most bulk ore moves under Caraphex contracts because they can keep schedules in unstable zones. Seasonal collapses in mining yields force clades to travel between sites, which makes blacklisting and escrow protection even more important.

The greatest pressures are corporate replacement, syndicate coercion, and hostile debt courts. Corporations prefer machines that cannot strike. Syndicates seize tool shipments, sell illegal insurance, and threaten families. Debt courts in some ports try to lock injured workers into lifetime contracts. In response, clades lean on Council marks, Free Company escorts, and Mandible Reach escrow. Breaking these protections risks sector-wide backlash.

Clades measure trust in lockers and pay slips. A captain who provides safe locker space and reinforced bunks gets the best shifts. A port that delays payment loses crews to rivals. Mixed-species captains keep a liaison to track needs across the team, including Caraphex reinforcement, Vellari humidity, Talarq heat, Serean harness, Keth ramps, Synthborn charge, and Human rotation. Balanced discomfort keeps the crew stable across long jobs.

Reputation and Inter-Species Relations

Most species see the Caraphex as reliable, direct, and output-driven. They expect tool access, fair shift hours, visible safety marks, and prompt pay. Delayed wages are treated as theft. Employers who break these rules are blacklisted and struggle to hire in any port that depends on Caraphex work. This strict approach earns respect from port managers who want predictability, and anger from employers who prefer cheap labor without guarantees.

Relations with other peoples follow clear patterns. Talarq guilds respect Caraphex endurance but compete in some mines; mixed crews are common when heat-rated parts and reinforcement must work together. Vellari appreciate Caraphex discipline on sanitation and seal handling, since tunnel failures contaminate water and cause sanctions. Keth auditors pair well with Caraphex foreleads during salvage claims, because both value clean logs. Humans often handle escrow and tariffs, which complements clade output but can lead to disputes over delay fees. Synthborn nodes integrate Council marks into escrow proofs and are valued for incorruptible audits. Sereans hire Caraphex for hull reinforcement on carrier ships that support storm runs.

Public opinion of the Clade Council is “strict but fair.” Many citizens respect it for defending workers and reducing accidents. Corporations see it as a barrier to profit. Syndicates despise it because it blocks control of hiring and wages. Even so, unity and consistent enforcement make the Council one of the hardest factions to break in the Drift.