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The outside world knows a fair amount about what The Wreck is, even if they don’t know much about what goes on inside. I’ll summarize those assumptions: home and port for criminals, smugglers, pirates, and any other who have chosen to shove off from civilization (or have been involuntarily kicked off the edge).
Those forces collided, literally, some time ago, and managed to patch and repair the resulting wreckage into a semi-functional space station. I say semi-functional because if my brief visit was any indication, critical failures are neither uncommon nor unexpected.
Upon arrival, while nothing subverted that expectation, I was shocked to find the depth of society that’s developed. There's a full-fledged caste system, with faction leaders acting almost as lords and kings (13.WRK), dividing up the underclass and their labor amongst themselves and starting and ending bloody border disputes with shocking regularity. The traders and merchants operate as some sort of protected upper class, untouched by the regular, day-to-day sort of violence.
You won’t find it written down anywhere, but there is a strict and brutal code of conduct with a few basic tenets. Outside merchants and traders (42.KOB) are not to be touched. Upon verification, qualifying traders are issued an enumerated yellow card – tracked by some administrative body I’ve yet to understand. These yellow cards are arguably the most valuable objects one can possess on The Wreck, since they allow traders to roam from barrio to barrio doing business without fear of reprisal, making them not only conduits for goods, but also de facto ambassadors between factions.
There are also more common red cards, indicating residency. They are far less valuable and ownership seems to be policed by the community. Some of them look fairly official, but many of the red cards I’ve seen appear decidedly homemade. The barrios are tight-knit communities, it’s unlikely a visitor could “unfairly” claim residency without being called out.
Holders seem to have the most basic level of respect; residents will at least try to refrain from killing one another unless their factions are in an active conflict.
While visitors are permitted to the station on a case-by-case basis, “no reds,” as they’re called, basically have no rights and are likely to be murdered, robbed, or worse.
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