Axisfall’s Neutral Ground
Location: Mid-Layer Axisfall, transit-adjacent
Classification: Civilian Establishment (Unaligned)
The Dead Vector is Axisfall’s worst-kept secret and most reliable constant. If information is moving, someone is hiring, or a problem needs to disappear quietly, it passes through the Vector first.
The name comes from old routing terminology—a dead vector is a pathway the system no longer tracks as meaningful. Fittingly, the bar sits at the intersection of several outdated transit permissions, just far enough outside predictive relevance that most oversight systems deprioritize it.
This is not an accident.
The Dead Vector presents itself as a low-lit, industrial bar: reinforced alloy walls, exposed conduits, muted neon, and a long counter scored by decades of use. Drinks range from traditional alcohol to synthetic stimulants safe for Synthetics and organics alike. Nothing fancy. Nothing poisoned—intentionally.
What makes the Vector important is not the booze.
It is the agreement.
Inside the Dead Vector, violence is bad for business. Conflicts are negotiated, not escalated. Even Authority operatives observe the rule—not out of respect, but because breaking it has consequences that ripple far beyond the bar itself.
No one is certain who enforces this balance.
Everyone knows it exists.
Information at the Dead Vector flows through conversation, not terminals. Direct data trading is discouraged; spoken word leaves fewer traces. Bartenders remember everything but confirm nothing. Regulars trade rumors like currency, filtering truth through experience rather than systems.
Common exchanges include:
Shifts in Authority enforcement patterns
Movement of restricted tech or chips
Ideological fractures within Steward councils
Opportunities in the Open Belts or Null Zones
If something is discussed openly at the Vector, it is already almost safe to know.
The back wall of the Dead Vector hosts the Slipboard—a semi-analog contract surface updated manually throughout the cycle. Jobs are posted without names, only parameters and contact methods.
Typical postings include:
Escort work through contested transit lanes
Retrieval of legacy tech or sealed data
Quiet removal of destabilizing variables
Observation assignments that “should not attract attention”
No one takes a job they don’t understand.
No one asks who ultimately benefits.
Payment is fair.
Failure is remembered.
The Dead Vector serves everyone Axisfall produces:
Citizens looking for leverage
Waybreakers between runs
Independent Synthetics avoiding oversight
Authority operatives off-duty—or off-record
The mix is volatile, but the rules hold. The Vector survives because everyone needs somewhere the system isn’t actively listening.
To the city at large, the Dead Vector is background noise.
To those who matter, it is a pressure valve—preventing conflicts from detonating elsewhere by letting them resolve quietly over drinks and half-truths.
Axisfall does not advertise the Dead Vector.
It tolerates it.
And in Novera, tolerance is the closest thing to trust the system still offers.