Scoria
At a glance
World type. Hot, ash-covered industrial world.
Main work. Refractory parts, meaning brick, tile and ceramic that survive heat that melts steel.
Constellation. Talarq. Tal makes the parts, Scoria supplies the heatproof stock, and Obsidian Reach tests them.
Who runs it. The Planetary Directorate.
Reputation. Tough, hot, dusty and hard-working. Good pay and a lot of accidents.
Exports. Crucibles, thermal tiles, heat-shield plates, kiln bricks, nozzle cones, reactor liners, sensor housings and heatproof cement.
Imports. Food, water, coolant, medicine, sensors, cutting tools and worker shelters.
What Scoria is
Scoria makes the parts that go inside everything else. Its kilns bake the liners inside reactors, the throats of smelters, the cones of fast engines and the walls of industrial furnaces. Most buyers sign long contracts tied to their repair schedules. Ports in the Core and Mid track Scoria batch numbers when they fix a reactor, so a bad Scoria batch can be traced years later.
History
USD 0004. Heatproof parts must carry a maker's mark across the Drift. Scoria's workshops reorganize around batch numbers.
USD 0029. The Talarq constellation forms. Scoria becomes the main supplier for Tal's foundries and the test ranges on Obsidian Reach.
USD 0060 to 0100. Waves of fake parts in other sectors push buyers toward Scoria's hard-to-copy marks.
USD 0103 onward. Crowded Core ports send rush orders. Scoria adds night shifts and more locked storage.
The heat
Scoria is hot, dry and full of ash. Industry sits in shielded basins with heat sinks and dust screens. Crews work in cooled halls, low-pressure kilns and enclosed casting lines. Going outside takes a suit, a dust filter and a plan for how long you can stay out. Towns are small and joined by covered tunnels.
What kills people here. Heatstroke, dust in the lungs, sudden heat flashes from the ground, leaks from acid kilns and small quakes caused by deep digging.
Who runs Scoria
Planetary Directorate. Sets how much each mine and kiln must make, controls exports, and hands out power and coolant.
Thermal Safety Inspectorate. Checks factories and workers' heat time before a shipment leaves. It can stop any shift.
Refractory Standards Bureau. Sets the grades and runs the break tests. Its grade tables are public.
Labor Accords Board. Sets suit rules, shift limits and hazard pay. Breaking them gets a factory shut down.
On Scoria, if the sensors and the paperwork disagree, the sensors win.
Money
Scoria runs on grade. A higher grade number and a part that survives more tests earn a better price. The Talarq Materials Exchange lists grades, batches and future orders. Rush repair orders make prices jump. Big buyers lock in years of supply at a time.
What moves prices. Ore quality, how many kilns are running, coolant stocks, how fast the inspectors work and how many parts pass the break tests.
Places
Ashgate Downport. The main freight port, with covered gantries, dust-flush rooms and coolant hookups at every berth.
Kiln Crown Complex. A cluster of giant kilns that make liner plates and engine cones, next to the test ranges.
Crown Line 7. The best kiln line for engine cones, with the fewest failures on the planet.
Sinter Row. The fine ceramic line for sensor housings and tiny channel plates. It is the most inspected line on Scoria.
Binder Yards. Mixes, cures and stamps heatproof cement, which ships in drums with heat history tags.
Coldwell Reservoir. Also called Directorate Coldwell. The deep coolant reservoir, recycling plant, mixing towers and reserve tanks, guarded by the Directorate.
Red-tag labs. Test rigs for heat, heat shock and acid flow. A red tag on a batch means it is held for a failure check.
Red Basin Test Range. A live-fire yard where plates are pushed until they break.
Sinter Clinic. A clinic for dust lung and heat injuries.
The main cities are Kilnspire Prefecture, Basalt Hollow, Carbide Gate, Glassfall Array and Shardcrest Combine. Emberveil Station is the port in orbit.
Life on Scoria
Life runs on shifts and heat time. People track how many minutes of heat they have left the way other people track money. Families plan around cooling cycles and kiln repairs. Homes have cool rooms and dust locks. Markets sell suit filters, water packs and salt tablets next to the bread. Kids learn to read warning signs before they learn to read books. Rec centers open in the cooler hours. The big festivals fall in kiln repair weeks, when the noise and heat finally drop.
Scoria pays well, so it pulls in broke crews from all over the Drift who want to clear a debt fast. Many of them stay longer than they planned. Visitors should rent a good suit and do what the locals tell them.
Languages. Trade Common with a lot of Talarq work words. Many workers also know some Keth chart words and Synthborn machine terms.
Power players
Kiln consortia. Private companies that own the giant kilns and compete on output and failure rates.
Coolant syndics. Run coolant making, recycling and rationing when stocks run low.
Heat inspectors' union. Protects the inspectors' right to stop work.
Free Carriers Cooperative. Books reliable cargo runs for rush loads, with cold berths ready.
Crime and trouble
Fake marks. Forgers copy Scoria batch marks and heat history tags and sell cheap brick as top grade. The fakes come in waves, and every wave means recalls.
Grade swapping. Low-grade parts end up in high-grade crates somewhere between the kiln and the port.
Coolant theft. Coolant is worth more than most cargo here. Gangs tap the lines and sell it on the side.
Sabotage. Some attacks on coolant lines and test rigs are paid for by people who want a shutdown to push prices up.
Trouble spots
Coolant shortages. They slow down the whole planet and delay exports.
Bad sensors. One drifting sensor can spoil whole batches and force retests.
Dirty ore. Bad ore or binder raises failure rates.
Missed cold berths. Parts that sit in the heat too long go bad, and buyers refuse them.
Other worlds
Tal. Buys Scoria liners and brick and sends back notes on how they held up.
Obsidian Reach. Breaks Scoria parts on purpose. The results change Scoria's grades.
Core and Mid ports. Want tested parts and use Scoria batch numbers when they look into accidents.
Brightline. Synthborn there hold the pay on big contracts until delivery and run computer models for Scoria's testers.