The Cinder Vault: Extraction and Test Station

Origin and Build

Cinder Vault began as a Talarq extraction and test station cut into asteroid RX-922. The Range Authority cleared the plan after the Forge inspectors certified the first run of heat-grade casings. The asteroid’s ore held a rare thermite composite that matched Talarq furnace lines and reactor seal trials. The site promised direct feed into mid foundries and rim patch yards without long hauls. The Authority registered the station as a Between facility with bonded cargo and limited berth access. Keth auditors flagged the surrounding belt as stable but narrow. Route updates warned of micro-shear near the outer arc.

Construction was standard Talarq: segmented armor, redundant venting, and simple, strong corridors tied to a vertical refinery shaft. The Forge stamped every pipe and casing with hot-load limits. Power came from a compact fusion unit with big safety margins. Crews rotated on six-day shifts with one Range Authority inspector in station command at all times. Logging was strict. Every ore pull, furnace cycle, and pressure trend carried time, initials, and seal numbers. By the third cycle, output met targets. The Authority marked the site “reliable” and let convoys slot short stops for fuel cells and water swaps at the outer docking arm.

The Wake and Abandonment

The breach started as a routine expansion. Drill teams opened a new bore toward a dense pocket. Vibration graphs show a hollow followed by heavy mass movement. The crew logged a pause to foam the cavity, then resumed at low speed. Minutes later, tremors hit sensors across three decks. Cameras picked up dust columns rising inside sealed tunnels. The first loss came from the habitation block when a corridor floor dropped into a fresh shaft. The inspector called a full stop, locked the furnaces, and ordered a roll-call.

What moved in the dark did not stop. Six-legged forms climbed up from the bore, hugging metal with hooked claws. Wyrmlings cut cabling and suit lines. An alpha slammed bulkheads and snapped braces. Power routing failed in the outer ring. The inspector pushed the self-seal and split the station into cells. The refinery core burned when reactive gas met a cracked exchanger. A second alpha forced the cargo bay doors and destabilized the docking arm. Last transmission carried a short hazard call, then silence. The Range Authority arrived late. Patrol logs list 47 dead or missing. After brief survey, the Authority sealed the site under ORGANIC-VOLATILE and posted notice to Data Guild boards. The Forge revoked live certification for all parts inside the station. Keth route notes added a caution for debris near the arm.

Present State and Access

Cinder Vault remains sealed, but that never stops the rim. Salvagers, Free Companies, and syndicate scouts make short entries when the belt is quiet. Synthborn escrow nodes at nearby depots refuse to clear payouts on goods from inside unless Data Guild proofs show legitimate salvage notice and non-contamination. Most crews work without escrow and accept ledger tokens or scrip from black-line buyers. Patrol presence is thin. There is no steady Authority guard. The Forge fields roaming inspectors on irregular cycles to catch counterfeit seals making it out. When inspectors arrive, smug crates vanish into the belt.

Inside, the station holds power only in short residual trickles. Sweep crews report intact storage in the admin cells, a half-collapsed refinery shaft, and a sealed command hub with burnt consoles. The life support racks are dead. The docking arm is twisted and open to space. Air pockets exist in inner sections under heavy doors. The infestation is active. Wyrmlings move in packs, favoring shafts and cable trays. Alphas patrol the refinery core and the bore access, using vibration pulses to call swarms. No matron body has been confirmed here; if one formed, it either moved deeper into rock or died during the burn. Thermal noise from the ore complicates scans. The creatures feed on thermite veins and sometimes chew polymer insulation to reach heat sources. They ignore empty rooms but strike fast at tools, reactors, lamps, and anything that vibrates.

Approach is by short hop and clamp to the outer spine, or by EVA insertion through a vent split near the refinery mid-deck. Keth beacons around RX-922 broadcast standard warnings and a permit ping. Legally, a crew must file salvage notice with a Data Guild office and list intended targets. In practice, most crews file late, if at all. Syndicate toll skiffs wait two or three jumps out, selling “escort” and claiming lane fees. Refusing often leads to trackers on hulls or sudden radio dead zones.

The Infestation: Profile and Behavior

Cinder Wyrmlings. The station overflows with wyrmlings. Each is small, fast, and quiet. They prefer low light and cling to metal. They track heat and motion through floor plates and rails. Their bite carries a corrosive enzyme that pits alloys and eats soft materials. A single wyrmling is manageable, but they attack in groups. They will strip a work suit in seconds if a target falls. They do not hoard. They move, feed, and move again. In low gravity, they leap long spans between ladders and broken beams.

Cinder Wyrms (Alphas). The alphas are larger, armored, and deliberate. They test bulkheads, push braced doors, and collapse weak ceilings to trap intruders. They hold territory around the refinery core and the bore access and drive wyrmlings like beaters. The acid spray dissolves braces and grates. Their pulse roar scrambles comms and knocks crews to the ground. An alpha will not chase far if a crew retreats beyond its zone, but it will wait near chokepoints and use its mass to crush.

Nest Pattern. Without a confirmed matron, the infestation behaves like a set of linked packs. Wyrmlings lay clusters in hot cracks near ore, then move on. Alphas keep those zones supplied by breaking more passages. The heat of the station’s old lines, the ore pockets, and the burned refinery floor make perfect territory. Vibration charts taken by survey drones show regular patrol routes and quiet gaps of one to two minutes when a crew can cross open rooms.

Countermeasures. Light bursts and flash heat draw them; decoys work. Clean, non-reactive barriers slow them. Foam plugs in gaps help briefly but fail under acid. Sound dampers on boots and tool rigs reduce attention. Routes that cross live ore pockets are the worst; the swarm will defend those with focus. Fire brings more, not less, as burning ore creates the heat they seek. Free Companies use silent sleds and magnet crawls to stay off plates. Synthborn crews run cold frames and no-vibration cutters. Caraphex clades build trap doors and drop nets, then drag crates out on tethers.

Proof and Quarantine. Data Guild offices demand clean chain-of-custody logs and bioscan clears. Vellari water seals must remain intact on any recovered tanks. The Forge rejects parts with acid pitting unless re-certified at Tal or Scoria. Ports in this sector hold incoming crews for spraydown and suit checks. Syndicate depots do not, which is why some mid ports now blacklist hulls that dock at those depots without a clean interval.

Stakeholders, Claims, and Jobs

Range Authority. The Authority’s public notice marks Cinder Vault as a sealed hazard site. They do not guard it full-time. They publish periodic updates through Data Guild partners: casualty lists, hazard tags, and known approach risks. Authority patrols prioritize insured cargo lanes, so response here is slow unless a high-value incident occurs. Crews caught inside without filings face fines and blacklist flags, but many never see a patrol.

The Forge (Talarq). The Forge considers the loss a standards failure only in the sense that nature was unknown. Their report keeps seals valid on stock outside the station and void inside it. They pay for recovery of registry slates, calibration tablets, and any component that can prove a test result. They fight counterfeit seal traffic hard. Inspectors buy tips and hire Free Companies for stings. If a crew brings out an untouched instrument rack with the right stamp, the payout is real, but the proof must hold.

Data Guilds and Keth Leagues. Data Guilds maintain the live file: schematics, safe entry windows, and active no-go zones. Keth leagues keep the local beacons clean and record debris drift. Paying for current copies is worth it. Cheap charts miss fresh collapses. Guild bulletins also track which ports will buy which goods and what escrow nodes will actually release funds on Cinder goods.

Syndicates. Tolls and “escorts” run the approaches. A crew can pay and pass or refuse and watch transponders jam out and lane advisories vanish. Syndicate buyers will take acid-pitted parts, re-stamp them, and move them fast. They also hire hunters to harvest wyrmling glands for solvent markets. Refusing those jobs is smart unless you enjoy losing fingers. Some syndicate crews run live fights with spotlights in the refinery to draw swarms and thin them before a pull. Most die young.

Free Companies and Aid Crews. Good companies run clean ops: declare, enter, extract data, exit. They sell proof to the Forge or to insurers. Aid crews look for bodies and slates to close files and release death payouts to families. Faith shelters in nearby ports keep memorial lists. If you bring back a nameplate, they will feed you, no questions asked.