Classification: Artificial Satellite / Port-Moon Megastructure
Primary Function: Sector Trade Hub, Space Elevator Anchor, Frontier Waystation
Local Nicknames: The Crown, The Hollow Moon, Credence’s Halo, Docktown Above
Wayfarer Crown is the largest functioning artificial moon in the Fractured Reach, built during the golden years of frontier expansion. Hovering in quiet orbit above the desert world Credence, it serves as the primary gateway for all off-world travel and commerce. Its battered exterior resembles a cratered moon, but the illusion fades upon closer inspection: beneath the false rock plating lies a sprawling machine-city of docks, conduits, power grids, and cargo arteries.
The Crown is the heart of Credence’s frontier economy—part trading post, part scrapyard, part lawless bazaar—and the first place most drifters step into when entering the Reach.
Wayfarer Crown was originally commissioned by the Colonial Enclave as part of a defense initiative. The design intentionally mimicked a natural satellite to hide its true nature from rival powers and raiders. Its crust was armor-plated and then sculpted to resemble regolith. The megastructure beneath housed:
A gravitic stabilizer lattice
A central power cross (Luminar X)
An internal vertical shaft for the space elevator
Reinforced docking pits built into the surface
A dense interior grid of tunnels and sublevels
Construction took decades. Much of the labor was automated, but countless workers and convict crews also contributed, leaving behind tales etched into the Crown’s lower corridors.
When the Fracture Event destabilized travel across the Reach, the Crown nearly became a ghost station. Funding evaporated, fleets disappeared, and corporations withdrew. But frontier traders, outlaws, salvagers, and drift crews kept coming. Over time, the moon-station transitioned from government project to unofficial freeport—held together by scavenged parts, stubborn engineers, and necessity.
Wayfarer Crown survived not because authority maintained it, but because the people who depended on it refused to let it die.
Carved docking pits, crater districts, cargo ramps, and landing pads cover the outer shell of the moon. Ships land directly on the surface, with access hatches leading down into the inner decks.
Key external sectors include:
Docking Array Beta – Open-air landing pads and refuel stations
Port District Alpha – Shops, cantinas, scrapyards, crew housing
Freight Vault Omega – Reinforced storage bays for hazardous cargo
Cratertown – Rough habitation zones built into artificial craters
Beneath the surface is a labyrinth of tunnels, old conduits, cargo arteries, service shafts, and tram paths. Much of the Undercrust predates the station’s current layout, created during early construction phases. Some corridors are well-lit and maintained; others are dark, abandoned, and rumored to be home to things best left unseen.
The glowing X-shaped core seen from above is part of the station’s energy spine. It powers gravity plates, shielding, atmosphere cycling, docking operations, and the space elevator’s anchoring mechanisms.
Misaligned coils can cause rolling brownouts—sometimes entire districts fall into darkness for minutes at a time.
A monumental space elevator extends from a heavily fortified shaft in the Crown’s center down to Dustgate City on Credence. The Skyspine transports:
Ore and minerals
Water from Rango
Machinery and replacement parts
Passengers and immigrants
And, inevitably, contraband
Skyspine climbers ascend and descend constantly, giving the Crown a persistent hum.
Wayfarer Crown is a melting pot of species, crews, and agendas. Its culture is shaped by:
Few people stay long; most pass through. Every face is either new or forgotten.
Rules exist, but only when enforcement is convenient. Deals matter more than laws.
Pilots, haulers, salvagers, and mechanics make up the bulk of the population. The soundscape is clanging metal, shouting deckhands, and the endless hiss of docking clamps.
Black markets, scrapyard trades, quiet bribes, and “off-the-books” contracts are the norm.
Despite its chaos, the Crown has a strong code:
“Help those who keep us flying.”
Mechanics, engineers, and medics hold a respect rivaling that of marshals.
The Marshal Authority nominally operates the Crown, with Ironhouse serving as their command center. In truth:
Marshals can only control the upper districts
Undercrust policing is nearly impossible
Gangs and syndicates fill gaps in authority
Dock crews form their own informal justice systems
If something goes wrong, you call a marshal.
If something goes really wrong, you call someone who doesn’t wear a badge.
Wayfarer Crown functions as the primary trade hub of the Credence system. Its economy revolves around:
Ore from Iron Pass
Energy from Pelagos-9
Food and water imports from Rango and the Three Sisters
Manufactured goods from Astra Vale
Smuggled tech from the Outer Drift
Salvage from Fracture anomalies
Without the Crown, Credence would collapse into isolation within months.
The Hollow Moon holds many risks:
Parts of the shell are aging, weakened by decades of patchwork repairs.
Entire sections built during early construction are sealed off; old crew logs mention accidents, disappearances, and “echoes” deeper inside.
Two major outlaw groups quietly fight for control of the Undercrust corridors.
Any sabotage to the Skyspine could devastate Dustgate City below.
Some engineers whisper that the Crown’s stabilizer lattice contains pre-Fracture tech—something ancient, powerful, and poorly understood.
Wayfarer Crown is more than a station. It is:
A refuge for the lost
A home for drifters
A trade hub for the desperate
A lifeline for Credence
A neutral ground for syndicates
A symbol of survival in a fractured sector
Every crew in the Reach owes the Crown a story.
Some owe it a debt.
A few owe it blood.
And every wanderer who steps into its docking pits stands at the edge of a new beginning—or a very sudden ending.