The Fractured Reach is a frontier star sector carved from the ruins of a once-unified navigation zone. The region is defined by half-forgotten colonization routes, abandoned scientific ambitions, and a star system whose worlds seem suspended between law and lawlessness. Corporations, marshals, syndicates, and drifters all stake their claims here, but none truly control it.
Warp fractures and unstable wormholes—remnants of ancient gravitational events—cut through the Reach like scars, making navigation unpredictable. The people who live out here have adapted to the chaos with grit, creativity, and a refusal to die quietly.
It is a realm where every settlement is a gamble, every ship is held together by stubbornness as much as engineering, and every wanderer carries a story that no one else believes.
A century ago, the Reach was slated to become a new heart of civilization. Terraforming efforts began on Credence and Astra Vale, mining colonies expanded across Iron Pass’s moons, and remote research stations—like Eidolon Station on Outreach—were founded to study anomalies at the sector’s edge.
During late-stage development, a cluster of experimental jump gates failed catastrophically. The resulting spatial shockwave distorted gravitational fields throughout the region.
After the Fracture:
Several stable routes became unpredictable.
Wormholes appeared, vanished, and reappeared without warning.
Long-distance comms destabilized.
Strange gravitational echoes were recorded by scientists—some still unexplained.
Government institutions withdrew. Megacorporations cut their losses. The Reach was left to those who refused to leave.
With the collapse of structured authority, local groups filled the void. Townships formed their own codes; guilds hired enforcers; syndicates carved territories; drifters roamed freely. The Reach became a patchwork of opportunity and danger—an ideal refuge for the wanted, the reckless, and the desperate.
Underfunded and overstretched, this is the closest thing the Reach has to law. Marshals enforce justice according to their own interpretations, often walking a razor’s edge between savior and tyrant.
Independent starship crews—scoundrels, bounty hunters, drifters, salvagers. Their ships are extensions of their souls, held together by pride and questionable repairs.
Mega-corps that once invested heavily in the Reach. Most withdrew, but a few remnants cling to their old assets, fighting proxy wars through hired mercs and deniable contractors.
Smuggling rings, salvage cartels, and dust-born clans thrive in the power vacuum. Some control entire towns. Others operate from hidden asteroid bases or drifting fleets.
A quiet, mysterious group who study the anomalies left behind by the Fracture Event. They claim the fractures sing. They claim the Reach is evolving.
No one knows what that means.
The backbone of the frontier—miners, settlers, sheriffs, deserters, dreamers. If something reckless is happening in the Reach, a human is probably involved.
Humanoid aliens close enough to blend, yet distinct enough to stand out. Cultures vary widely, from nomadic horned clans to sleek bioluminescent starborn. Many struggle between assimilation and identity.
Truly alien intelligences whose forms defy easy classification. Some communicate through harmonics or pheromones; others through gesture or direct neural links. They often perceive time, space, or morality differently than humans—making them fascinating allies or dangerous mysteries.
The Reach is a fusion of retro-futuristic grit and frontier practicality.
Patchwork freighters held together with scrap
Grappler-arms used for space brawls
Plasma-carbines and coil pistols
Vacuum-rated duster coats
Hand-crank chargers for depleted tech
Armored desert crawlers and fog-cutting sky skiffs
Not mystical—just complex. Some AIs behave eccentrically after years without maintenance. Freighters whisper. Mining rigs dream.
The Fracture Event left behind pockets of distorted gravity, drifting micro-wormholes, and spatial echoes. These zones follow rules—but only the Riftskippers truly understand them.
Loneliness among the stars
Freedom versus survival
Tragically human mistakes in a vast and uncaring universe
Found family aboard mismatched ships
Corrupt institutions and fractured justice
The frontier spirit—rebellion, resilience, redemption
Life lived moment-to-moment, cup of ramen in hand, pistol on the table