TEXT: Alex Greene (order #6964772)
  
  Referee’s Aid: Among The Trojans ©2015 Mongoose Publishing. All rights 
  reserved. Reproduction of this work by any means without the written 
  permission of the publisher is expressly forbidden. All significant characters, 
  names, places,items, art and text herein are copyrighted by Mongoose 
  Publishing.
  This game product contains no Open Game Content. No portion of this work 
  may be reproduced in any form without written permission. To learn more 
  about the Open Game License, please go to www.mongoosepublishing.com.
   
  This material is protected under the copyright laws of the United Kingdom 
  and of the United States. This product is a work of fiction. Any similarity to 
  actual people organisations, places or events is purely coincidental.
  Traveller is a trademark of Far Future Enterprises and is used under licence. 
  Printed in the USA.
  CLASSIC TRAVELLER
  Marc Miller
  Loren Wiseman, John Harshman, Frank Chadwick, Darryl 
  Hany, Winston Hamilton, Tony Svajlenka, Scott Renner, Doug 
  Poe, David MacDonald, Wayne Roth, Paul R. Banner.
  MONGOOSE TRAVELLER 
  Author
  Martin J. Dougherty
  LAyout And GrAphic desiGn
  Will Chapman, Amy Perrett
  interior iLLustrAtions
  Amy Perrett
  CONTENTS
  CREDITS
  TRAVELLER
  REFEREE’S AID 1: AMONG THE TROJANS
  INTRODUCTION 
  2
  BACKGROUND DATA 
  3
  THE KENDELSEI OUTSYSTEM 
  7
  SPACE TRAVEL IN THE OUTSYSTEM 
  18
  ADVENTURING IN THE OUTSYSTEM 
  20
  Alex Greene (order #6964772)
  
  INTRODUCTION
  This book contains a source material for Traveller. It follows 
  the general style of the original ‘Little Black Books’ or LBBs 
  published as part of the Classic Traveller product line. The 
  source material in this book is intended for use with a science-
  fiction game setting that follows the general standards and 
  assumptions of the Third Imperium setting, notably:
  • 
  Interstellar travel is by way of the jump drive
  • 
  No means of interstellar communication exists other than 
  sending a ship via jump drive
  • 
  Interstellar travel is common enough that small starships 
  can be owned and operated by individuals and small 
  companies
  • 
  An interstellar society exists which contains mainly humans 
  but also various alien races
  • 
  Local conditions, culture and society can vary considerably 
  from one world to another
  • 
  Energy weapons are possible but rare; conventional and 
  advanced firearms are the standard weapons in use
  • 
  There are no energy shields, tractor beams or teleportation 
  devices available at the ‘mainstream’ technological level of 
  the setting
  This source material is designed to fit into any Traveller game 
  set in the OTU or a similar setting. It does require the Traveller 
  rules, and perhaps some additional source material such as 
  one of the setting books, and in addition you may find it useful 
  to have some or all of the following.
  • 
  A whole bunch of entirely ordinary six-sided dice. It can 
  sometimes be helpful if some are of a different color to the 
  others.
  • 
  Pencil (or pen) and paper for keeping notes about your 
  character and the adventure. Also laptops, smart phones 
  and various other electronic devices in case the pen thing 
  is a bit old-school for your tastes.
  • 
  A calculator, in case mathematics rears its ugly head.
  • 
  Munchies and drinks to keep the players pacified.
  • 
  Some sort of playing area where you can sit down without 
  passers-by tripping over you.
  • 
  Whatever other stuff you normally use when you play a 
  game.
  Among the Trojans presents a complete and self-contained 
  game setting for Traveller. It can be placed in almost any star 
  system without affecting a setting’s canon data on what is there. 
  A wealth of adventure opportunities awaits within the Trojan 
  zones of the gas giant Kendelsei, among her moons, and on 
  the system’s outer planets. 
  Characters do not need a starship to adventure in this 
  environment; it is possible to move between the moons and 
  planetoids by local craft, hitching a ride with friends or paying 
  for passage as necessary. An adventuring group that has the 
  use of a small craft like a cutter or a ship’s boat will find this 
  more than sufficient to give access to the many adventure 
  locations in this sourcebook, though long transits aboard small 
  craft are rarely very pleasant! 
  There are numerous ways of getting a vessel of this sort, 
  including a loan to complete a mission, buying one, rebuilding 
  a damaged craft or even leasing a vessel from its owners. 
  Theft might not be a good option since many local vessels are 
  well-known in the spaceports of the outsystem. It is not likely 
  to be possible for the characters to get far enough away in a 
  non-jump craft that it will not be recognised. However, there 
  are those who specialise in breaking up ‘salvaged’ craft and 
  building something from them that is hard to trace back to its 
  origins. With the resources available to the Imperial Navy such 
  ‘chopped’ craft would be easily identifiable but to the casual 
  observer in an outsystem port they would probably not be.
  Alex Greene (order #6964772)
  
  3
  BACKGROUND DATA
  The following data is provided for the benefit of the referee. 
  How much of it can be determined by the players, and with 
  what degree of accuracy, is a matter for the referee to decide. 
  In many cases a simple search on the ship’s computer or any 
  library terminal will suffice to provide at least the bones of the 
  information. 
  THE THIRD IMPERIUM
  The Third Imperium is a human-dominated empire, subdivided 
  into sectors and subsectors. It is not a vast, monolithic structure; 
  that would be impossible given the time lag inherent in 
  interstellar communications. Instead, the Imperium resembles 
  a vast federation of worlds that agree to certain common 
  practices, and allow the Emperor and his subordinates to 
  deal with foreign policy, military affairs and similar multi-world 
  considerations while maintaining control of their internal affairs. 
  As distance from the Imperial Core increases, so does the 
  amount of autonomy enjoyed by world governments and Imperial 
  representatives. However, this is uneven. There are of hubs of 
  trade and commerce as well as backwaters in many areas. The 
  major worlds often maintain strong cultural and economic ties 
  to the central region of the Imperium, though some have their 
  own flavour entirely. These hub worlds influence local culture in 
  the same way (but on a smaller scale) that the Imperial Core 
  influences the worlds of the periphery.
  Between these major hubs, most of which are high-tech, high-
  population industrialised worlds, run the main trade lanes of the 
  Imperium. These are well patrolled by the Imperial Navy and 
  even when they pass through backwater systems they tend to 
  be fairly safe. Along these lanes move the huge bulk freighters 
  of the major shipping corporations as well as smaller couriers 
  and mail ships. Less affluent worlds off the main trade lanes 
  are not capable of supporting the giant freighters, so are served 
  by smaller vessels, with ever-smaller branches coming off 
  the trade routes. True backwater systems cannot support any 
  regular trade, and see only occasional tramp traders coming 
  through on a speculative basis or on their way somewhere 
  there is better money to be made.
  Since there is no means of communication between worlds 
  other than a starship, those systems that do not see many 
  ships tend to be culturally isolated and often well behind the 
  curve in terms of news, fashions and information in general. 
  These systems often do not see more than the occasional navy 
  patrol, and can be hazardous. These backwaters are by no 
  means violent maelstroms of piracy and smuggling, but they 
  offer those with a reason to hide from the law a place where 
  they are unlikely to be disturbed unless the Navy sweeps in on 
  a clean-up. That does not happen very often, but if a situation 
  gets out of hand the authorities will respond. Most of the rest of 
  the time, life goes on in the backwaters as it always has, and 
  the Imperium is a distant thing.
  MAINWORLDS AND 
  THE OUTSYSTEM
  Most star systems are named for their mainworld which is 
  usually the most habitable planet in the system or the one with 
  the best resources. Naturally, most settlement takes place on 
  this world, and in some star systems the mainworld is the only 
  inhabited body. However, it is rare for there not to be some form 
  of settlement elsewhere in the system. This might take the form 
  of a few itinerant Belters setting up a temporary base, or a mining 
  operation on a distant moon. Pirates and smugglers might find 
  a remote base useful, as could researchers or scientists. There 
  might be secret naval resupply or repair installations, hidden 
  archives or stores of emergency supplies in case of some 
  Imperium-wide disaster… almost anything could be located on 
  the worlds, moons and planetoids of a star system.
  Since most commercial and other starfaring traffic goes directly 
  to the starport at the mainworld, and most ships leaving the 
  system jump out from close to the starport, many starfarers 
  tend to forget that there is a ‘rest of the system’. The outsystem 
  – i.e. the more distant worlds of the star system, orbiting 
  far from the star – tend to be completely forgotten about by 
  everyone except naval strategists and those seeking to skim 
  free fuel from a gas giant planet. The latter practice is not as 
  common as the layman might expect, and not just due to the 
  hazards sometimes encountered in fuel skimming – the cost 
  saving in terms of free fuel is often outweighed by the other 
  costs incurred in transiting from the gas giant to the mainworld 
  after skimming. 
  Thus most merchant ships move to and from the mainworld, 
  jumping from one to the next. These vessels link star systems 
  together and carry news, information and cultural influences 
  as well as cargo and passengers. Yet there is often another 
  spacefaring economy present in a given star system, one 
  confined to that system alone. A system that has secondary 
  settlements on other worlds needs vessels to transport 
  people and goods between them. It is of course possible to 
  jump between the worlds of a star system but jump drives are 
  expensive and the fuel to run them takes up a lot of space. 
  Sublight vessels can make the same transit more cheaply and 
  efficiently, though this can mean fairly long periods in space 
  when heading out to the most distant reaches of the system.
  Alex Greene (order #6964772)
  
  4
  Thus in a system where only the mainworld is inhabited, the 
  only local traffic will be a few utility vessels around the starports 
  and interface shuttles between the orbital highport and the 
  planetside downport. However, a system that has significant 
  industry located in the outsystem will have vessels constantly 
  on the move between the system’s secondary spaceports. 
  Outsystem industry can take several forms. Factories might 
  be located on distant moons or outsystem planets, though it is 
  often more efficient to concentrate industry at the mainworld if it 
  is owned by mainworld concerns. The most common outsystem 
  installations are mines and mineral extraction sites located on 
  the system’s moons, planetoids and outsystem planets, usually 
  feeding their produce back to the main industrial centres. 
  Research installations and support facilities for the outsystem 
  industry are fairly common as well. 
  The settlements of an outsystem may not owe allegiance to 
  the mainworld. In a well-developed, high-tech system it is 
  likely that the outsystem will be exploited by local firms for 
  the benefit of the mainworld, and outsystem industry might 
  be treated much like modern oil platforms. Personnel in this 
  case will rotate through assignments and whatever support 
  is required will be brought to the industrial site as needed. 
  However, some outsystem settlements are independent or 
  are owned by corporations based in other systems, and in 
  this case local support is necessary. Workers need places to 
  live and to get some recreation, vessels need maintenance 
  and spares are better fabricated locally than shipped in via 
  jump-capable vessels. A local economy can grow up in this 
  manner, independent of the mainworld and its starport, and in 
  this case ships might come direct to the outsystem port rather 
  than the mainworld’s starport. This can cause friction between 
  the outsystem population and that of the mainworld, although 
  generally speaking the presence of legitimate settlements in 
  the outsystem is economically beneficial to the mainworld and 
  this can be the basis for a workable partnership.
  BODIES IN THE OUTSYSTEM
  The planets of the inner system are relatively close together 
  and receive more energy from the system’s primary (star) than 
  those of the outsystem. Gas giant planets and planetoid belts 
  can exist in the inner system, as can airless or nearly-airless 
  ‘rockball’ worlds. Farther out, i.e. in the outsystem, there is little 
  chance of a world developing life (at least of the sort found 
  on ‘garden’ worlds like Earth). Breathable atmospheres are 
  extremely unlikely, temperatures tend to be very low, and most 
  bodies tend to be fairly barren.
  Gas Giant planets vary considerably in size, with larger 
  examples influencing a wider area with their gravity. In addition 
  to possibly having a ring system, many gas giants have several 
  moons and often cause planetoids to concentrate at their Trojan 
  Points due to the interaction between the giant planet’s gravity 
  and that of the system’s primary. The Leading Trojan planetoids 
  are located about 60 degrees ahead of the gas giant, preceding 
  it in its orbit, whilst the Trailing Trojans orbit 60 degrees behind. 
  The two Trojan groups follow the same orbit as the gas giant.
  Planetoids also occur in belts. A planetoid belt that is the 
  system’s ‘mainworld’ is referred to as an asteroid belt to make 
  the distinction clear, but there is no real difference. A planetoid 
  belt can contain anything form dust and small rocks to dwarf 
  planets, with most planetoids falling somewhere in between. 
  Planetoid belts vary in composition and density, but are rarely 
  dense enough to make navigation very hazardous. It can be 
  tricky and time-consuming to navigate a planetoid belt, but the 
  chances of a collision with a giant space rock are low. 
  The outsystem may also contain several terrestrial (i.e. rocky 
  rather than gaseous) planets, which will usually have little or 
  no atmosphere and no water. This makes them inhospitable 
  but if there is a reason to build a settlement there then the 
  same technologies that make starships habitable can be used 
  to maintain a settlement. Regular shipments of anything that 
  cannot be recycled or produced locally are necessary, but 
  rockball settlements can be reasonably self-sufficient if they are 
  large enough to contain the necessary facilities. 
  Gas giant moons vary in size from pebbles to bodies larger 
  than a typical planet. A gas giant with several inhabited moons 
  might have quite a lot of local traffic operating between them, 
  most of which never leaves the vicinity of the gas giant. Thus it 
  is possible to find local vessels operating between moons of a 
  gas giant, longer-range sublight ships plying the routes to and 
  from the mainworld or other inhabited bodies in the system, and 
  then jump-capable ships coming and going via the mainworld’s 
  starport. 
  Alex Greene (order #6964772)
  
  5
  BELTERS
  Charted Space has always had a social group who were 
  somewhat apart from the mass of humaniti. Traditionally 
  miners and prospectors, these people are normally known by 
  the collective noun ‘Belters’, since they mostly mine planetoids 
  that occur in belts in various systems. However, Belters can be 
  encountered on moons and isolated planetoids, and anywhere 
  else that there is a chance to find a usable mineral deposit. 
  Most Belters are either wandering prospectors or more settled 
  members of an extraction operation, though many individuals 
  do a little of both. 
  Many ‘Belters’ have never seen an asteroid belt, but the name 
  has stuck. Perhaps it dates from old Terra, in the days of the 
  miners who worked the Asteroid Belt in the Sol system. Perhaps 
  the name is older, with Vilani roots. Nobody cares, least of all the 
  Belters. Any small group of prospectors, or miners are ‘Belters’ 
  to outsiders – and often to themselves too. Most have become 
  proud of their nickname. It signifies independence, toughness, 
  resourcefulness and (usually) poverty. However, there is much 
  debate over exactly who is a Belter and who is not.
  The term Belter is often used rather indiscriminately and 
  inaccurately by the general population of the Imperium. Many of 
  those who work in a planetoid belt are anything but ‘Belters’ – for 
  example they may be employees of a mining corporation who 
  would not identify themselves as Belters (and real Belters would 
  not acknowledge them as such) or members of mainstream 
  Imperial society whose homeworld happens to be an asteroid. 
  Others belong to the Belter cultural group but are not miners 
  or prospectors. They might work in a supporting capacity or 
  crew trading ships that operate within the Belter community as 
  well as trading with outsiders. These crews may also dabble in 
  courier work, smuggling, tramp-merchanting, and even piracy 
  as circumstances dictate.
   
  Thus it is reasonable to say that the term Belter is a somewhat 
  nebulous cultural label referring to a general type of person. 
  Some Belters are itinerant, wandering from one star system to 
  another, whilst others live and work a particular belt, moon or 
  rockball world. There is no monolithic Belter culture or society 
  (though there are some fascinating theories about The Great 
  Belter Conspiracy doing the rounds), and no precise definition. 
  However, a Belter knows who is and who is not a fellow Belter. 
  Perhaps the only meaningful definition of a Belter is ‘someone 
  who other Belters agree is indeed a Belter’. It is possible to find 
  Belter and non-Belter communities living in the same planetoid 
  belt. Friction is not uncommon, but star systems are very big 
  and co-existence is entirely possible.
  The life of a Belter is rarely comfortable, and is often very 
  dangerous. This is particularly true for wandering prospectors, 
  but the lure of the strike drives them on. Sometimes this search 
  for the once-in-a-hundred-lifetimes strike borders upon mania. 
  People from high-tech garden worlds very rarely become 
  Belters; there are simply too many risks compared with too few 
  opportunities for this to be an attractive option. Most Belters 
  are born of parents who were themselves Belters. This does 
  not mean that the Belter has to be born on some outsystem 
  rockball to earn the name. He or she could just as easily have 
  been born to parents who long ago left their homeworld to ply 
  their trade.
  Within the Imperium, many Belters’ lack of a homeworld 
  can cause a problem for the authorities, namely registering 
  the child’s citizenship. The problem is sometimes solved by 
  adopting the birthworld of one of the parents (this can lead 
  to the peculiar problem of a child registered as a citizen of a 
  world that only her great-grandfather had actually seen). More 
  commonly the new baby is simply registered as an ‘Imperial 
  Citizen’. This is a fairly common designation, used for children 
  born on ships and stations belonging to the Imperium rather 
  than a particular world. However, it carries a certain social 
  stigma, a label of ‘homeless misplaced person’. Certain high-
  society fashionables have also adopted the Imperial Citizen 
  label to show their loyalty to the Imperium, but this is simply a 
  fad among the rich and misguided. To most, the Imperial Citizen 
  label marks the individual as part of the underclass. 
  Some Belters become honorary citizens of whatever mainworld 
  is present in the system to avoid this stigma, though most do 
  not care enough to bother and many worlds will not register 
  Belters as citizens even if they want to. 
  The economic activity of Belter communities tends to fall into 
  certain categories:
  Prospectors search for good sources of resources that can be 
  exploited for profit. Some explore asteroids searching for veins 
  of metal or radioactive materials. Others pick over wrecked 
  spacecraft or the ruins left behind by failed settlements, seeking 
  salable technology or just a source of spare parts. Some Belters 
  will prospect for a time then switch over to working a claim as a 
  miner or salvager. Others sell the location for whatever they can 
  get and move on, looking for a new strike.
  Miners are the most common of Belters. They extract ore and 
  other precious materials from their surroundings. A few very 
  specialist types of miner exist, such as gas-miners, who extract 
  hydrocarbons from the atmosphere of gas giant planets. Most 
  are rock-diggers who laboriously haul salable ore from asteroids 
  and moons. Mining outfits tend to be larger than prospecting 
  groups, since there is more heavy work to be done and large 
  amounts of ore to be handled.
  Some miners do not extract the ore but run processing plants or 
  other secondary industries. Small communities often grow up 
  around the processing and fabrication plants, creating a semi-
  permanent town which serves as a home base for prospectors 
  or more self-contained mining outfits.
  Alex Greene (order #6964772)
  
  Salvagers have perhaps the most dangerous job of all Belters. 
  Wrecked starships usually had a reason to be that way, and 
  installations are no less hazardous. However, a decent find 
  can keep a salvager crew in business for a long time. Some 
  salvagers also offer a freelance rescue or even starship upgrade 
  service, using parts scavenged from wrecks to keep other ships 
  (including their own) flying. Salvagers tread a fine line between 
  legitimate operations and illegal scavenging, and tend to be 
  less well regarded by mainstream society than ‘normal’ salvage 
  companies. To some, there is little distinction between a Belter 
  salvaging crew and a band of pirates. This impression is correct 
  in some cases.
  Others work in supporting industries such as ore processing, 
  space-vessel maintenance, food production and all manner of 
  other tasks required to make a society run. Almost all Belters 
  are multi-skilled, and as a rule someone who is an expert in 
  one area but useless at most other things is viewed with 
  suspicion. The concept of someone who cannot pull his or her 
  weight in a range of tasks is alien to the Belters, who may at 
  any moment have to fix machinery, show the kids how patch 
  a vacc suit, identify some odd-looking ore, stop a leak in the 
  ship’s coolant system, bargain with a buyer or an equipment 
  vendor, or chart a safe route to a new prospecting site. They 
  tend only to trust people who can handle themselves without 
  needing nursemaiding, and are not tolerant of those who waste 
  materials, air, time or food.
  If generalisations are possible about a fairly diverse group such 
  as Belters, it is reasonable to say that they are hard-working 
  and proud of their achievements, and respect this in others. 
  Most just want is to be left alone to conduct their business, and 
  they are willing to respect other people’s affairs. Belter society 
  has very few laws but many customs concerning safety, air 
  wastage and recycling. If these customs are respected then 
  the average Belter will tolerate almost anyone. Winning him (or 
  her) as a friend is a much greater challenge however. The best 
  route is through shared labour, trustworthiness and reliability. 
  The length of time necessary to convince a typical Belter that 
  an outsider is a worthwhile friend is far more than most people 
  are prepared to put in, so Belter society tends to remain very 
  insular. 
  Alex Greene (order #6964772)
  
  7
  THE KENDELSEI OUTSYSTEM
  The large gas giant Kendelsei could be located in any star 
  system that has one or more gas giants. A high-mid-tech to early 
  starfaring (Tech Level 8-10) mainworld located somewhere off 
  the main trade routes is the best candidate. Most traffic in and 
  out of the system via jump goes through the mainworld starport, 
  with some sublight trade taking place between the outsystem 
  communities and the mainworld or other inhabited bodies of 
  the inner system.
  Between Kendelsei and the inner system lies an astrographical 
  feature that is sometimes listed in the star charts as a planetoid 
  belt and sometimes not. It is a very sparse but broad region 
  of interplanetary dust and ice crystals, with few bodies larger 
  than a basketball. This not-quite-belt would not constitute a 
  navigational hazard other than if a vessel hurtled through at 
  great speed and essentially pelted itself with dust and gravel, 
  but it does make the use of radar and other instruments less 
  effective. Thus the not-quite-belt is not a hazard to navigation 
  so much as an aggravation and nuisance. It is considered to be 
  the divide between the inner system and the outsystem.
  Kendelsei orbits its primary at a fairly great distance, with a 
  large expanse of more or less empty space between it and the 
  inner system. It has several moons, varying in size from a few 
  kilometres across to one that would be considered oversized if 
  it were a planet. Clusters of asteroids orbit at the leading and 
  trailing Trojans.
  Beyond Kendelsei there are three planets at increasingly great 
  distances from the primary, and finally a second (much smaller) 
  gas giant. Beyond this is the system’s Oort Cloud, a shell of 
  planetoids and comets orbiting at enormous distances from the 
  primary and even from Kendelsei’s distant orbit. Though large, 
  the cloud is sparse with planetoids widely separated. As with 
  most systems, the Oort cloud as been only cursorily mapped; 
  getting there sublight would take a very long time for little gain, 
  and vessels capable of jumping there could go somewhere 
  more useful instead. 
  Representing the star system as a set of subsystems produces 
  the following simple text map. Indented names indicate moons 
  or members of the local group.
  (Inner System)
  (Dust Belt)
  Kendelsei (Large Gas Giant)
   
  Innermost E000100-8
   
  Ringmid D110317-9
   
  Ringer X110000-0
   
  Bob and Candy X000000-0
   
  Karbbin XAF9000-0
   
  Freedom’s Moon D200227
   
  Wayward (Gas Giant Moon) X10000-0
   
  Ikker (Gas Giant Moon) C323589-9
   
  Leading Trojans 
   
   
  Trojan Mining
   
   
  Troy
   
   
  Naval Refuelling Station
   
  Trailing Trojans
   
   
  Spinner
   
   
  Shadow
   
   
  Dowen’s World
  Hibbert X785000-0
  Marbule X9AA0000-0
  Cuass X210000-0
  Fencepost (Small Gas Giant)
   
  Whoopee!!! (E100160-9)
  A NOTE ABOUT MOONS, 
  PLANETS AND SUCH
  Even a fairly small moon is a big place, with plenty of room 
  for additional settlements, miners, prospectors or whatever 
  else might be there. These might go undiscovered even if they 
  are not trying to remain hidden, not least because the people 
  living and working in the outsystem are very dispersed and 
  the chances of an encounter are limited. Obviously, close to 
  the major settlements the terrain is well known and anyone 
  operating there is likely to be spotted, but there are huge 
  expanses of the outsystem’s moons and planetoids that may 
  never have been visited or even surveyed from a passing ship.
  It may seem strange that some people will know little about 
  even the moon they live on, but for the most part people go 
  about their business in a fairly limited area. They tend to focus 
  on what they need to be doing rather than gathering information 
  and adding it to a general database. Indeed, it may be that some 
  people know about a given place, feature and group but others 
  do not. The ‘facts’ may vary a lot depending on who you ask.
  Alex Greene (order #6964772)
  
  8
  Away from the places where people live and work, only the most 
  sketchy data is generally available. A detailed star chart with 
  survey data and information on atmosphere, rock composition 
  and the like requires a lot of effort to put together and while 
  the Imperium does have very significant resources it gives a 
  low priority to conducting detailed mapping operations of every 
  moon, planetoid and rockball in Charted Space. 
  Thus there are some bodies in the outsystem that are nothing 
  more than a dot on the map and a note about orbital inclination 
  and velocity, and others where there is little more in the 
  database than a partial radar map made decades ago from a 
  passing scout ship. There is plenty of room for hidden bases, 
  crashed starships and the like. People only go where there are 
  good reasons to go (such as money to be made or necessary 
  resources to be found); beyond these places could be almost 
  anything the referee wants there to be.
  Note that the term ‘asteroid belt’ is used in Traveller to denote a 
  belt that is the ‘mainworld’ of a system, and ‘planetoid belt’ is the 
  term for a belt that is not a mainworld. For clarity, it is general 
  practice to refer to any asteroid that is not part of mainworld belt 
  as a planetoid even though this is not accurate in astrophysical 
  terms.
  KENDELSEI (LARGE GAS 
  GIANT)
  Kendelsei is a large gas giant, uninhabitable by humans like 
  all worlds of its type. The atmosphere is composed largely of 
  methane, which is liquid (due to pressure) at great depths. It is 
  not known for certain whether Kendelsei has a solid core, but 
  it is generally thought that it does not. The gas giant radiates 
  quite a lot of heat, which causes its atmosphere to be fairly 
  turbulent – though Kendelsei is less violent than many similarly 
  sized gas giants. 
  This would make Kendelsei a good candidate for fuel skimming 
  were it located nearer the mainworld, but its remoteness makes 
  the trip too long to be economically viable. Ships making a multi-
  jump transit sometimes jump from giant to giant, skimming as 
  they go, and bypass several mainworlds along the way. Other 
  than vessels engaged in this kind of transit, Kendelsei is rarely 
  skimmed for fuel by vessels from outside the system.
   
  This does not, however, mean that there is no skimming at this 
  giant world. Quite the opposite; the upper atmosphere is routinely 
  skimmed by ‘gas rigs’ or ‘petrochem rigs’ which descend into 
  the atmosphere to take on large quantities of atmospheric gas 
  then return to orbit for safety while it is processed. The resulting 
  liquid hydrogen fuel and various petrochemicals and other 
  useful gases are then sold for commercial and starship use. 
  Much of the water used in the various local settlements also 
  comes from these rigs.
  There is no known life in Kendelsei’s upper atmosphere, and 
  anything that could live in the depths would be so alien that 
  meaningful contact is highly unlikely. Local space vessels 
  sometimes skim for fuel, and the occasional scientific mission 
  dives into the atmosphere to collect data or samples. None 
  of these craft have ever reported contact with any sort of life, 
  though gas-rig workers will spin tall tales of the things that live 
  in the methane clouds to anyone willing to buy them a drink.
  INNERMOST (GAS GIANT 
  MOON): E000100-8
  Innermost is little more than a large planetoid which acts as a 
  ‘shepherd’ for Kendelsei’s ring system. Its gravity helps keep 
  the rings from dispersing, and its orbit defines the inner limit of 
  the ring system. The moon itself is not permanently inhabited. 
  Population estimates are based on the number of people living 
  and working on the surface at any one time, which typically 
  ranges from 100 to about 400. None of these people would 
  refer to Innermost as their homeworld, but the majority dwell in 
  the scattered surface complexes for a few months to a couple 
  of years before moving on. 
  Innermost’s settlement pattern takes the form of a scattering of 
  mining camps and a few supporting industries. The ‘starport’ is 
  little more than a smoothed-off area of bedrock which has been 
  cleared of obstacles. Since the mining camps are only semi-
  permanent, the location of the port (or rather ports as each 
  camp has its own landing area) may move from time to time. 
  Innermost’s largest settlement at any given time tends to be 
  the most lucrative mining site, which attracts some supporting 
  industries like ore processing or tool fabrication. A small 
  community of support workers run bars, shops and the like for 
  the miners. Some of the supporting personnel are the world’s 
  longest inhabitants; there are rumours of a barkeep or fabrication 
  expert who has been there for twenty years. However, everyone 
  expects to move on at some point. Innermost is a place where 
  people go for a few months to work. Nobody lives there. 
  Most of the mining operations on-planet are small outfits with 
  perhaps a dozen employees on site. These people live and work 
  for months on end in small prefabricated buildings or mobile 
  mining shelters. They are (for the most part) paid well but their 
  work is fairly high-risk and very stressful. The fact that there is 
  little to do when not working contributes to a sometimes tense 
  environment. Things are a little better in the larger settlements 
  as there is at least a bar or two and enough space to take a 
  short walk without a vacc suit. Nevertheless, Innermost has a 
  reputation for being a fairly grim mining settlement. The only 
  reason to go there is to make money, and few workers come 
  back for a repeat contract.
  Alex Greene (order #6964772)
  
  9
  RINGMID (GAS GIANT MOON) 
  D110317-9
  Ringmid is named for its place in the gap between the narrow 
  inner ring system and the wider outer one. It is not especially 
  large as gas giant moons go, with a thin envelope of atmospheric 
  gas. Hydrographics are officially listed as zero, but there is 
  some water to be found in the form of ice. This is difficult to 
  obtain and there is not much of it in any case, so most of the 
  water on planet is imported and carefully recycled. 
  Ringmid has a population of about four thousand, of whom 
  nearly two-thirds live either in the ‘port town’ around the 
  minimal spaceport or a few outlying settlements close by. The 
  remainder are scattered in small settlements wherever some 
  resource made building a settlement viable. Unlike Innermost, 
  the settlements on Ringmid are mostly permanent or semi-
  permanent, almost exclusively with a population of 50 or more 
  people. 
  Some of these settlements, including the port town, are 
  tunneled into the rock just below the surface with a few buildings 
  aboveground as necessary. Most of the smaller settlements are 
  made up of the usual prefabricated base segments set up and 
  reinforced to make them semi-permanent. Extra micrometeorite 
  shielding, usually in the form of an armoured canopy, has been 
  added to most buildings. This is common on many airless or 
  trace atmosphere worlds but is especially important in the middle 
  of a ring system. The surface is often struck by small fragments 
  from the rings, which poses little threat to a reinforced building 
  but can endanger personnel working in a vacc suit outside. 
  Virtually the entire population of Ringmid is on contract to 
  PetroRig, LIC, whose local headquarters is located at the port 
  town. PetroRig specializes in extracting petrochemicals and 
  similar useful compounds from gas giant atmospheres, and 
  runs most of the gas rigs operating in Kendelsei’s atmosphere. 
  Chemicals are brought to the port town for initial processing and 
  refining by a small fleet of specially adapted shuttles and larger 
  vessels, then shipped out to the buyer aboard larger transports. 
  Several of the independent extraction outfits working the 
  atmosphere of Kendelsei sell their raw chemicals to the refinery 
  on Ringmid rather than arranging transport to market.
  Some of Ringmid’s produce is provided as fuel or water to 
  the settlements of the outsystem, with the remainder mostly 
  transferred to the mainworld’s highport by large sublight tankers. 
  These make the long run to the mainworld and back again on 
  a near-constant basis, stopping only to let the crews have a 
  little downtime before beginning another voyage. The tankers 
  have a modest amount of cargo space allocated to ‘general 
  supplies’, which is used to bring in necessary and luxury goods 
  for the workforce. One byproduct of this is that Ringmid Port 
  Town (the only name it has ever had) has become something of 
  a marketplace for personnel from the independent gas rigs or 
  from Innermost and the other moons of Kendelsei.
  RINGER (GAS GIANT MOON) 
  X110000-0
  Ringer is a smallish moon whose slightly inclined orbit takes 
  it through the ring system on a frequent basis. This causes 
  disruption, but not enough to break up the rings. The turbulence 
  caused by Ringer’s passage settles down again in time, not 
  least due to the gravitational influence of other moons. It does, 
  however, rearrange the large and small components of the ring 
  system and makes navigation more complex whilst putting on a 
  show that looks very impressive from a safe distance.
  Ringer receives numerous collisions on each pass through 
  the rings, against which its trace of atmosphere offers no real 
  protection. Most collisions are with small objects, but every now 
  and then Ringer gets hammered by a big chunk of rock. Not 
  unexpectedly, this has left some very impressive craters and 
  deep cracks in the moon’s surface.
  There are no permanent inhabitants on Ringer, not least due 
  to the frequent debris storms as it passes through the rings. 
  Expeditions do sometimes visit the moon looking for minerals 
  that can be exploited without excessive danger. Exploration 
  of the deep cracks is also sometimes undertaken, either for 
  mining purposes or by those wanting to find out more about 
  crust formation. There are of course rumours of secret bases, 
  hidden treasures and all manner of other vast riches just waiting 
  to be found. Every year a handful of explorers or prospectors 
  go missing on Ringer. Some claim this as proof of the rumours; 
  most recognize that this is a particularly dangerous place to 
  visit and there will inevitably be casualties among people who 
  go plunging into the crust of a hostile moon. 
  Alex Greene (order #6964772)
  
  10
  BOB AND CANDY (GAS GIANT 
  MOONS) X000000-0
  Bob and Candy are two small moons, little more than asteroids 
  really, which share an almost identical orbit at the outer edge 
  of the ring system. Neither is inhabited, though prospectors 
  occasionally take a look for something worth mining. Bob and 
  Candy have a complex interaction. Sometimes they are close 
  to one another, at other times they move apart. The Bob/Candy 
  system as a whole is ‘sort of borderline stable… ish’ in the 
  words of one Scout Service report, but the path followed by 
  each is quite varied. Without the other, either one would wander 
  off and get lost in deep space or fall into the gas giant, causing 
  local chaos in the process.
  KARBBIN (GAS GIANT MOON) 
  XAF9000-0
  Karbbin is a giant moon, possibly anything up to 25,000 km 
  in diameter. This makes it much larger than most planets, 
  though its exact dimensions are very hard to discern even with 
  advanced instruments. Karbbin is surrounded by a thick and 
  dense atmosphere of methane and other gases, beneath which 
  it appears to be mostly covered with ice or frozen liquid of some 
  kind. This may – according to some theories – be of very low 
  density, creating a sort of ‘ice-foam’ which floats atop a low-
  density fluid of some kind. Landing on this surface, if surface it 
  really is, would be extremely hazardous.
  Small areas of rock do protrude up through the ice, or ice-foam, 
  or whatever it turns out to be, and these are the only suitable 
  landing points on Karbbin. Expeditions through the thick, soupy 
  atmosphere have successfully landed and explored a little, but 
  in most cases their data is not generally available as it was 
  gathered by private research for mining companies or similar 
  entities. It is known that some expeditions have been lost, and 
  the usual wild tales abound of strange alien ruins on the frozen 
  mountain-shores of Karbbin’s weird oceans. 
  At present, little is known about this strange world. There is not 
  much reason to go there, so it is not likely that exploration will 
  be undertaken at any time in the near future.
  HELLHOLE (GAS GIANT 
  MOON) C2B1373-9
  Hellhole is, as the name suggests, a very unpleasant place. 
  The atmosphere, such as it is, is mildly corrosive at normal 
  concentrations and significantly more dangerous in low areas 
  where the pressure is a little higher. There are two settlements 
  on Hellhole, giving it a Balkanized rating in the star charts.
  The larger of the two settlements is Peak Town, located on a 
  high plateau where the atmosphere is relatively harmless. Peak 
  Town is home to about eight thousand people, who dwell in 
  reinforced surface domes interconnected by sealable personnel 
  tubes. Critical parts of the settlement, such as water storage 
  and power generation, are located underground. 
  Most of the residents of Peak Town do not leave the relative 
  safety of their plateau, though expeditions are sometimes 
  launched down into the lower reaches to search for or mine 
  minerals. Exposure to the corrosive atmosphere requires 
  extensive equipment maintenance, making local resource 
  extraction something of an expensive business. Only the most 
  promising deposits are mined as a result.
  Most of Peak Town’s revenue comes in from its (by local 
  standards) high-technology manufacturing base. Peak Town 
  is the main source of high-tech spares for many local groups.  
  Exports include space vessel components, industrial and 
  mining robotics, and electronic systems for a variety of uses. 
  Materials to produce these items are brought in from elsewhere 
  in the outsystem, sometimes on a speculative basis but often 
  on a contracted basis. 
  Several small local mining firms have an office at Peak Town, as 
  does one of the largest shipping companies in the outsystem. 
  This is not a difficult distinction to achieve, but Peak Shipping is 
  important to the local economy as it transports a fair proportion 
  of the ore and other raw materials moving around, as well as 
  more general freighting and personnel transfers. Peak Shipping 
  has a small repair-and-maintenance yard where a high-quality 
  refit is possible for those that can afford the inflated price.
  The other thousand or so inhabitants on Hellhole dwell in a 
  remote underground facility.  It is not known how they refer to 
  their home among themselves; outsiders often call it ‘the other 
  place’ or forget about it entirely. Rumours abound about who 
  dwells in ‘the other place’, but all that is known for certain is that 
  they are very isolationist. Traders do visit Peak Town from time 
  to time, but do most of their business electronically then pick up 
  the goods and leave.
  It is rumoured that these mysterious people are a religious sect 
  or a reclusive wealthy elite hiding out from some disaster or 
  enemy. They are thought to have found their home and moved 
  in rather than built it themselves. The current top theory is that 
  they are a religious group who think the universe is about to 
  end and are hiding in an old naval resupply facility built during 
  the First Imperium era and forgotten about. Speculation then 
  inevitably turns to what archaic but deadly weapons were 
  hidden there, and what the inhabitants of the facility plan to do 
  with them. This theory is about as well-informed as any of the 
  others; in truth nobody outside ‘the other place’ really knows 
  anything about it.
  Alex Greene (order #6964772)
  
  11
  KENDELSEI HOME (GAS GIANT 
  MOON) C9A9555-9
  Kendelsei Home is a large moon with a thick atmosphere 
  composed mainly of carbon dioxide and nitrogen. Its surface 
  is almost entirely covered in frozen water, with expanses of 
  bare rock here and there. Despite this forbidding landscape, 
  it is one of the least hostile environments in the outsystem 
  and was chosen as the initial site for a mining and prospecting 
  settlement.
  Today, this small and ramshackle town still remains, but it has 
  been eclipsed by better-funded settlements to the point where it 
  is really just another mining camp. There are many such, mostly 
  with a population of 20-200 people. Most are semi-permanent 
  at best, or temporary facilities that grew into a more permanent 
  settlement without any conscious planning.  There are possibly 
  a hundred or more such camps all over Kendelsei Home. Some 
  are corporate facilities run by large and small mining firms or 
  acting as a central processing and support installation for nearby 
  camps. Others are independent and vary considerably in their 
  society and culture. There are also a few small settlements that 
  are not really commercial mining installations as such, but are 
  more places where a group chose to settle and then eked out a 
  living from whatever local resources could be exploited. 
  In all, about a hundred thousand people dwell in the scattered 
  settlements of Kendelsei Home. Perhaps four times that 
  number call one of the Big Five Towns their home. The largest 
  of these is Marrick City, with a population of about 175,000. The 
  other cities vary from 35,000 at Ynrei Complex to 80,000 in the 
  Ulferson Crater Sprawl. 
  The Big Five Towns are loosely linked by a cooperation and 
  mutual assistance agreement, but are otherwise independent. 
  Each is primarily an industrial facility with a modest spaceport 
  and supporting facilities, run by a council made up of those 
  that control the critical services. The actual balance of power 
  varies somewhat – Ynrei Complex is a near-dictatorship whilst 
  Alliance Town has so many factions and rival power groups 
  that it frequently approaches democracy or total anarchy – but 
  overall the route to power on Kendelsei Home is to control food 
  production, energy generation, manufacturing or some similarly 
  vital activity.
  Numerous small mining and shipping firms are based out of the 
  Big Five, except in the case of AstonCorp. The mining company 
  that set up AstonCorp went out of business decades ago, with 
  power devolving through a partial management buyout and the 
  necessity of keeping the lights on. Although the corporation 
  itself has ceased to exist, the town retains a corporate structure 
  and does not encourage small private enterprises on its 
  territories. Thus although the various sectors of the company 
  – shipping, energy, fabrication and maintenance, and so forth, 
  have become private empires the illusion of a corporate entity 
  is maintained by ‘the board’, and business is strictly regulated 
  to place any activity in a given sector under the control of the 
  relevant divisional director. 
  Each of the Big Five maintains links with different groups in 
  the outsystem, and competition for business from independent 
  traders or resource extractors is sometimes rather fierce. 
  Relations between any given Big Five town and the various 
  corporations and other groups in the outsystem improve or cool 
  over time in a game of economic and political manoeuvring 
  designed to give the town’s leaders increased power on 
  Kendelsei Home and across the outsystem. With its larger 
  population and industrial base, Marrick City has a clear 
  advantage but is very far from achieving dominance.
  This power game has a military dimension of sorts. Open 
  conflict between the Big Five is very unlikely, but all have (very) 
  small military forces which are sometimes used for posturing or 
  to drop a broad hint. More commonly, these forces are used as 
  a political tool. Thus the handful of obsolete fighters owned and 
  operated by AstonCorp’s ‘Naval Operations Division’ regularly 
  escort ships into and out of the world’s spaceports – whether 
  the owners like it or not – and the ancient System Defence Boat 
  operated out of Ynrei Complex is frequently trumpeted as the 
  only reason the outsystem is not crammed full of pirates and 
  raiders. 
  The most successful political too; however, is the Marrick 
  Marines. Operating home-built armed shuttles, this force 
  provides detachments to protect friendly settlements and 
  to enforce a basic level of law enforcement in far-off places. 
  The Marrick Marines are seen increasingly as guards aboard 
  merchant and supply ships, or operating rescue vessels that 
  assist ships and installations suffering some disaster. Much 
  political capital has been made of these activities, though 
  opponents of Marrick City argue that the ubiquity of the Marines 
  is tantamount to a military annexation of the outsystem.
  The Ulferson Crater Sprawl maintains a small defensive and 
  security force but does not use it for political ends. Instead it 
  has quietly acquired support and resupply contracts for many 
  installations, winning friends through butter rather than guns. 
  Alliance Town has its own collection of military formations but 
  these are typically tiny and ill-equipped. Their operators are 
  usually more involved in jockeying for position in local politics 
  than expanding their influence in the wider arena.
  Alex Greene (order #6964772)
  
  12
  FREEDOM’S MOON (GAS 
  GIANT MOON) D200227
  Freedom’s Moon is a typical rockball, about the size of Luna 
  in the Sol system. It has little in the way of easily accessible 
  resources, though prospectors sometimes find something 
  worth mining. As a result of this relatively low value, the moon 
  was initially bypassed by those settling the outsystem – given 
  a choice of airless or otherwise hostile rocks to live on, most 
  chose the ones that offered the chance to make some money. 
  However, the rockball that became Freedom’s Moon was 
  attractive to some precisely because nobody else wanted to 
  live there.
  The Society for Freedom of Choice (or SFC) was an anarchist 
  collective which tended to attract those with the means to 
  support their idealized way of live. These were not wild-eyed 
  agents of chaos, merely people who believed in a philosophy 
  that nobody has the right to harm others but so long as this 
  is observed, anything goes. After a couple of attempts to 
  secure an enclave on various mainworlds, the SFC pooled its 
  resources and relocated to Freedom’s Moon. 
  Setting up the community on Freedom’s Moon presumably 
  involved a lot of polite discussion and frank exchanges of 
  viewpoints, but ultimately this was what everyone wanted and 
  the SFC managed to move in the same general direction long 
  enough to build a small town. In the generations that have 
  since  passed, the SFC has managed to retain its general ethos 
  without dissolving into chaos, and its ideals of personal freedom 
  coupled with responsibility for one’s own actions have become 
  enshrined in a rather unusual but workable culture.
  Freedom’s Moon is home to a high proportion of artists, 
  writers and philosophers as well as those with more practical 
  occupations. Some have come to join the colony since its 
  inception, and are accepted so long as they follow the general 
  philosophy of the founders. The SFC are not and were never 
  pacifists. They respect the property and person of others 
  and expect others to do the same but will deal with threats to 
  their way of life if necessary. This includes encouraging bad 
  influences and those who harm others to leave. Encouragement 
  can range from polite requests to go be a nuisance someplace 
  else (nobody has the right to tell anyone what to do, but it is 
  quite acceptable to ask!) or blatant ostracism, through to a 
  collective decision to run the wrongdoer out of town at gunpoint. 
  This society has been defined as ‘participating democracy’ and 
  ‘pragmatic anarchy’ but whatever words are used the SFC has 
  established a way of life that works and makes its adherents 
  happy. Quality of life is generally good, not least because the 
  very rich founders not only sank huge sums into setting up a 
  sustainable colony even on a rockball with few resources, but 
  also left investments that still provide the colony with a modest 
  income which is spent by group consent. 
  The 1100 members of the SFC govern themselves on almost all 
  matters by a simple vote, though in many cases what actually 
  happens is that whoever is nearest decides how they want 
  to deal with a given situation and everyone else either goes 
  along with it or argues a case for doing something different. 
  Arguments are still going on about the decision a decade 
  ago to offer the colony’s one great resource to outsiders. 
  Although many disagree with the idea, the SFC has generated 
  considerable revenue by offering knowledge and education to 
  anyone who wants it. Some SFC members even go offworld 
  to act as tutors, though for the most part the client comes to 
  Freedom’s Moon as a guest and stays for as long as want to (or 
  can) pay someone to teach them whatever they know.
  SFC tutors are most commonly hired by (or voluntarily offer 
  their services to friends among) the Belter community of the 
  Trailing Trojans. Others prefer not to have anarchists teaching 
  their children but are willing to journey to Freedom’s Moon to 
  study science, mathematics, art, philosophy or something 
  more artistic such as painting or music. There are, however, 
  many who consider the SFC to be a bunch of crackpot wizards 
  lurking in some ivory space-tower hatching plans to subvert the 
  governments of nearby settlements. Such individuals consider 
  it suspicious that so many technical experts and others among 
  the brightest and the best of the outsystem’s population are 
  being infected with a dangerously individualistic philosophy.
  WAYWARD (GAS GIANT 
  MOON) X10000-0
  Wayward is more likely to be a captured body than an original 
  moon of Kendelsei. Its orbit is highly elliptical, taking it inside 
  that of Kendelsei Home at times. More commonly, Wayward is 
  well outside the orbit the other moons except Ikker. There is no 
  known permanent population, but there have been temporary 
  mining expeditions to Wayward in the past. These typically 
  remained for a few months then pulled out, presumably when 
  the deposits were exhausted. Orbital maps of the surface exist, 
  though they are mostly only partial and not accompanied by 
  much in the way of hard data. These maps show a typical 
  rockball moon, with many craters from impacts and no obvious 
  ice or water. Detailed surveys are expensive, so unless there 
  is a pressing reason (such as a prospector making a big strike) 
  then Wayward will probably remain largely unexplored.
  IKKER (GAS GIANT MOON) 
  C323589-9
  About the size of Mercury in the Sol system, Ikker is the most 
  populous body in the outsystem. Nearly 400,000 people – about 
  twice as many as on Kendelsei Home – dwell in a single largish 
  city and a number of other settlements. This still leaves most of 
  the planetary surface uninhabited of course, and it is entirely 
  possible that there are other independent groups working 
  claims or living in small settlements scattered across the planet. 
  Alex Greene (order #6964772)
  
  13
  Ikker is the name of both the moon and the city. Its population 
  is fairly well unified under an extremely bland bureaucratic 
  government that seems to have rules about everything. This is 
  not uncommon in larger societies on hostile worlds – since most 
  of the populace are basically city-folk who are insulated from 
  their environment, they do not develop the instinctive hazard-
  assessment skills of the spacer or small-settlement dweller. 
  As a result, stupid mistakes can be made that might kill a lot 
  of people. Ikker’s answer is a lot of laws, rules and checklists 
  designed to keep everyone doing what they should and – more 
  importantly perhaps not doing anything that might compromise 
  the long or short-term safety of fellow citizens.
  For most of those living in Ikker’s city, life is much the same as 
  in any other except that ‘going outside’ generally translates to 
  visiting one of the large open spaces such as parks that have 
  been created to give the illusion of outdoors. Only a segment of 
  the population ever actually goes out on the planetary surface 
  to work – and nobody strolls around an airless rockball just for 
  fun. 
  Ikker’s main industries, like much of the outsystem, are mining 
  and ore processing plus fabrication using the materials thus 
  obtained. Ikker has a fairly large export trade in items ranging 
  from industrial goods to personal weaponry. In addition, it 
  acts as something of a breadbasket for the outsystem. Huge 
  underground galleries use artificial light to grow cereal crops 
  and even raise a few livestock. Food is a major export, though 
  keeping the artificial farms running is a difficult business 
  requiring imports of minerals and water. 
  Much of Ikker’s water is locally sourced from deep basins under 
  the planetary surface, but some comes from farther afield such 
  as the gas rigs of Kendelsei. Recycling is highly efficient, but 
  with food grown and exported on such a scale there are always 
  losses to be replenished. Ikker is essential to the settlements 
  of the outsystem – they would survive without it, but prosperity 
  and quality of life would be greatly diminished.
  Ikker’s spaceport sees traffic from much of the outsystem, 
  though few vessels visit from the mainworld despite this being 
  the main trade port for the outsystem. A few ships jump directly 
  to Ikker rather than going to the mainworld, but these are 
  typically corporate ships connected with businesses operating 
  in the outsystem. Some exports are made directly in this 
  manner, but most of Ikker’s industrial output is used locally. This 
  is probably just as well, as it reduces friction with the mainworld 
  and its starport. 
  Thus Ikker is the trade hub for local traffic, but does little 
  business beyond the outsystem. Its shops have a limited range 
  of goods on offer, but quality is generally good and prices are 
  less inflated than when buying the same items from the traders 
  who circulate among the mining camps and small settlements 
  of the other moons. 
  THE LEADING TROJANS (‘THE 
  TROJANS’)
  Orbiting about 60 degrees ahead of Kendelsei, the Leading 
  Trojans are a collection of planetoids which vary in size from 
  dust and ice particles to the size of a small moon. The Leading 
  Trojans are usually simply referred to as The Trojans by the 
  people of the Mainworld (and therefore anyone who has 
  read the official system writeup in the starcharts) since most 
  interactions between the mainworld and the outsystem are with 
  the inhabitants of the Trojans. 
  The Leading Trojans are mined by local concerns as well as 
  companies based at the highport or the mainworld. There is 
  a significant population scattered among small mining camps, 
  but very few of these people would call themselves inhabitants 
  – and fewer still would consider the label ‘Belter’ to be anything 
  but an insult. They are employees of firms operating in the 
  Trojans, not people who call the Trojans home. 
  The largest of these firms is Trojan Mining Incorporated, which 
  has at least a dozen mining sites and a central ‘corp town’ with a 
  population of around nine thousand. Again, few of these people 
  consider the Trojans home – they are paid to work there or are 
  dependents of those that are. Their town is simply called Trojan 
  Mining, and has a reasonable set of recreation facilities at its 
  spaceport. Here, produce from the mines is offloaded into the 
  selection and processing centre and supply vessels are sent 
  out to the field camps. 
  Trojan Mining’s spaceport receives few vessels from the rest 
  of the outsystem, but sees regular traffic to and from the 
  mainworld. These vessels are typically slow, sublight craft 
  which ply to and from the highport on a constant rotation. The 
  port also serves as a central point for other, smaller, mining 
  companies including several independent outfits and privately 
  owned prospecting vessels. Some of these border upon the 
  traditional definition of Belters but are generally not considered 
  to be such by ‘real’ Belters. They are part of the mainworld’s 
  economy rather than being independent. 
  There are other commercial concerns operating in the Leading 
  Trojans. Most are small prospecting and mining outfits, which 
  tend to deal with the outsystem (typically via Ikker) rather than 
  the mainworld. This causes friction with the mainworld-backed 
  companies and the mainworld government, not least because 
  the government would like to regulate and tax these concerns. 
  There have been incidents where independent claims were 
  ’jumped’ by mainworld-backed companies, on the grounds 
  that they only reecognise claims registered through the proper 
  authorities in the inner system and the independents are barred 
  from using the central claims registry unless they also use the 
  ‘official’ starport and facilities of the Leading Trojans (at Trojan 
  Mining) and also pay tax to the government.
  Alex Greene (order #6964772)
  
  14
  Incidents are quite rare, and in practice many of the 
  independents do use the port at Trojan Mining on an unofficial 
  basis. There is also a collection of semi-independents who will 
  do business with the mainworld or the outsystem at different 
  times. Various factions are trying to win over these semi-
  independents into permanent alliances or contracts, but few 
  have so far committed themselves.
  There are also three installations or colonies in the Leading 
  Trojans. The largest, with a population of fifty thousand, owes 
  allegiance to the mainworld government. Named (perhaps 
  inevitably) Troy, the Trojan colony was set up on a large 
  planetoid for fairly complex political reasons. It has little industry 
  and is heavily supported from the mainworld. This means 
  that it costs a great deal to maintain and provides virtually 
  no economic benefit, but it cannot be withdrawn without the 
  government losing face. 
  Troy has a small spaceport, which is only open to ‘official’ 
  vessels from the mainworld. Few make the direct transit; for 
  contractual and economic reasons most non-urgent supply 
  runs and other traffic goes via Trojan Mining. Materials, supplies 
  and personnel bound for Troy are typically carried to Trojan 
  Mining aboard a large sublight freighter then trans-shipped 
  aboard smaller vessels. Troy sometimes plays host to Trojan 
  Mining personnel taking a short vacation – even a basic colony 
  like Troy is a metropolis filled with wondrous entertainment to 
  someone who has been working in a mining camp for the past 
  two months.
  Troy is ‘mainworld territory’, and as such its inhabitants are 
  considered to be citizens of the mainworld even if they were 
  born on Troy and have never left. However, there is a growing 
  sense of identity among the people of Troy that they are 
  ‘Trojans’, not mainworld citizens. The term Trojans is extended 
  to anyone living and working in the Leading Trojans (but not 
  the Belters of the Trailing Trojans) and even to some other 
  inhabitants of the outsystem who dwell on nearby moons. It is 
  possible that this new sense of identity might lead to a move 
  towards independence, but since Troy is completely reliant on 
  the mainworld for supplies and equipment it would be necessary 
  to build an economy first. This would be a huge undertaking, 
  starting almost completely from scratch.
  The Leading Trojans also contains a very small Imperial 
  enclave. This consists of nothing more than a small facility 
  located on one of the planetoids at the outer fringe. Huge tanks 
  have been hollowed out of the planetoid’s interior to create a 
  liquid hydrogen storage facility, which is kept topped up by a 
  handful of fuel shuttles that skim from Kendelsei and process 
  the fuel during their return trip. The shuttles are armed (albeit to 
  a minimum standard) to protect the installation, and any vessel 
  approaching is warned that missile launchers on the asteroid 
  will be used to defend it. 
  The Imperial Navy maintains emergency refuelling stations of 
  this sort in some systems for its rapid-reaction forces and fast 
  couriers to use. Operating and guarding them is an exquisitely 
  boring posting most of the time, with occasional scrambles to 
  get a task force refueled as it passes. Most refuelling stations 
  are secret, and this one is too, at least officially. However, 
  everyone in the Trojans knows it is there, though few are aware 
  of the precise location.
  Most of the activity around the refuelling station is mundane. 
  Couriers come past every few days or weeks and whilst 
  refuelling one and getting it on its way is an urgent and rapid 
  process, it is also routine. Warships do sometimes come past, 
  but again there is nothing to suppose a crisis is underway if 
  a destroyer visits. Vessels heading out to a patrol deployment 
  or transiting to join a different task force often use refuelling 
  facilities rather than starports to avoid observation and possible 
  reporting by spies. However, if a large task force were to come 
  into the Trojans for fuel, this would usually indicate a serious 
  incident somewhere.
  The naval personnel at the installation probably number around 
  thirty to fifty. They rarely interact with other inhabitants of the 
  outsystem, though occasionally a fuel shuttle might assist a 
  distressed vessel or be retasked to do some customs-and-
  inspection work. This often happens shortly after a destroyer 
  comes through carrying the sort of captain who likes stirring 
  up others, and rarely persists for long since the shuttles are 
  needed for their main task. 
  The third enclave in the Leading Trojans is a sort-of-colony of 
  about two thousand people who have taken over an asteroid 
  deep within the cluster. They are cordially distant towards 
  most other inhabitants of the outsystem, but buy quite a lot 
  of machine parts and electronic equipment using ore mined 
  from near their new home. According to rumour these people 
  are busy converting their asteroid home into a space vessel, 
  possibly even a starship, for some long voyage. Whether this 
  is true or simply a wild rumour is at this time unknown. These 
  mysterious ‘other Trojans’ do most of their business at Trojan 
  Mining but are equally happy to deal with the Belters of the 
  Trailing Trojans or the people of Kendelsei’s moons.
  Alex Greene (order #6964772)
  
  15
  THE TRAILING TROJANS 
  (‘THE OTHER TROJANS’ OR 
  ‘TRAILING CLUSTER’)
  The Trailing Trojans is a collection of planetoids and dwarf 
  planets orbiting 60 degrees behind Kendelsei (i.e. they follow 
  it around in its orbit, along broadly the same path). As with the 
  Leading Trojans, the gravitic interactions of these planetoids 
  causes them to shift around in a complex pattern that is 
  probably predictable to an advanced computer running charting 
  software, but which can confuse lesser navigators. The shift 
  is not great over a period of days or weeks, but old charts are 
  likely to lead an outsider astray as they look for a particular 
  rock. 
  Unlike the Leading Trojans, the Trailing cluster is not of much 
  interest to the mainworld. It is culturally and socially much more 
  a part of the outsystem, and is inhabited mainly by Belters (in the 
  true sense of the world). This is one reason why many people 
  on the mainworld think there is only one set of Trojan planetoids 
  in the system – they hear about events in the Leading Trojans 
  but little about the Belters and their doings. Indeed, whilst most 
  people on the mainworld know there is a Belter population in 
  the system, they are vague about where it is and generally 
  assume that the Belters are scattered all over the outsystem. 
  This is not completely untrue, but it does not reflect the reality 
  of the situation. 
  The Trailing Trojans are composed of the usual mix of 
  planetoids, supplying common minerals like iron, nickel and 
  copper as well as rarer elements such as iridium and uranium. 
  Ice is another important resource, mundane as it may seem 
  to an outsider. Ice can be melted for water, which in turn is 
  cracked to provide hydrogen (for fuel) and oxygen to support 
  the population. Recycling can only do so much, so regular ‘ice 
  runs’ from the planetoid fields are vital to the long-term survival 
  of the Belter community.
  There are three known dwarf planets within the Trailing 
  Trojans. A dwarf planet is essentially a body large enough to 
  be considered a planet under other circumstances but which 
  has not cleared its locality of asteroids, i.e. it is not the main 
  occupant of its orbit but simply a large body among a collection 
  of many variously-sized planetoids. 
  The three dwarf planets of the Trailing Trojans are Spinner, 
  Shadow and Dowen’s World. Spinner is the smallest, only just 
  qualifying for the distinction of dwarf planet. It is a flattened, 
  oblate spheroid as a result of a very rapid spin which makes 
  it virtually impossible to land on and thus no use for mining 
  or habitation. Spinner may eventually tear itself apart – its 
  spin already includes a degree of wobble that seems to be 
  increasing – and if so would disrupt the Trailing Trojans by 
  changing the gravitational patterns that dictate the planetoids’ 
  complex movements. Lumps of rock flying off across the system 
  would also potentially be a hazard, but for the Belters of the 
  Trailing Trojans the pressing question is what would happen to 
  their homes if one of the three main gravity wells of the cluster 
  suddenly became a number of much smaller ones.
  Shadow’s rather sinister name actually comes from the fact that 
  the dwarf planet is mostly in shadow, and receives less stellar 
  energy than other bodies in the cluster. At such a great distance 
  from the system’s primary, the amount of energy received is 
  already small, but even so the reduction is significant enough 
  that Shadow and several nearby planetoids have a greater 
  proportion of ice than many others in the belt. Indeed, there are 
  several ‘ice mountains’ composed mostly of ice and a little rock. 
  This region of the Trailing Trojans is very sparsely inhabited – it 
  is hard to build a home on ice – but is routinely mined for ice to 
  supply Belter settlements with water and fuel. 
  The main Belter settlement is at Dowen’s World, a dwarf planet 
  with a diameter of just under 1,300 km. The dwarf planet’s 
  name is normally shortened to ‘Dowen’ by those Belters who 
  do not refer to it simply as home. Dowen’s World has a rather 
  basic spaceport with gated tunnels leading into the interior. 
  Parts of the overgrown planetoid were deliberately excavated 
  to create living space, whilst in other cases people moved into 
  mining tunnels after the mineral deposits ran out, widening and 
  expanding the tunnels to create several small living zones. 
  The first thing that strikes visitors to Dowen (or to smaller Belter 
  settlements) is the smell. Water is not always plentiful and even 
  if everyone showered regularly the life settlements’ support 
  equipment cannot fully get rid of the smells of people cooking 
  and generally living in a confined space for decades on end. 
  Many visitors are also struck with a sense of claustrophobia – 
  Belters tend to live in small spaces and be very tidy with their 
  possessions, but others less used to the narrow corridors and 
  small rooms may feel oppressed. This tightness is partially 
  due to efficiency – smaller spaces are easier to heat, light and 
  create in the first place – and also for survival-related reasons. 
  A narrow tunnel is easier to shore up in the event of a structural 
  problem or to plug if air is being lost. There is also the non-trivial 
  consideration that boring holes through a planetoid weakens 
  it, and nobody wants their home to suddenly disintegrate and 
  leave them floating in deep space.
  Dowen is still mined, but most of the very valuable deposits 
  (gold and lesser metals for the most part) were exhausted long 
  ago. A few mines are still open in remote parts of the planetoid, 
  but for the most part Dowen’s World has become a living-place 
  and a trade port rather than a mining camp. It offers a range of 
  secondary industries from fabrication to food production, and 
  its repair-and-construction facilities are probably the only ones 
  available to the Belters without paying sums they cannot afford 
  to non-Belter companies.
  Alex Greene (order #6964772)
  
  16
  The main market at Dowen’s World is sufficiently prosperous 
  that traders from outside the Trailing Trojans often come there 
  to buy and sell. These are rarely from outside the system, but 
  itinerant traders from elsewhere in the outsystem are a fairly 
  common sight. Most have friends on Dowen and are welcome 
  there after building a good relationship with the Belters. Anyone 
  turning up without an introduction might find a rather standoffish 
  reception until they have won a few locals over, and that can 
  take several visits at least.
  The Belters of the Trailing Trojans are dirt-poor but proud and 
  independent. They share a vague bond of cultural kinship with 
  Belters from other star systems, and are more welcoming 
  to them than other outsiders, but there is no concept of an 
  Imperium-wide ‘Belter Nation’ – to the Belters of the Trailing 
  Trojans ‘us’ means Belters of the Trailing Trojans and nobody 
  else. 
  Perhaps seven thousand Belters dwell on Dowen, with an 
  unknown number scattered throughout the rest of the Trailing 
  Trojans. At least another three to five thousand dwell in smaller 
  settlements which rely on Dowen’s World as a trade hub, with 
  common estimates claiming about 25,000 Belters live in the 
  system. The Belters themselves do not know how many there 
  are, nor is any given Belter all that sure where more than a 
  handful of settlements are located. 
  The exception to this is the occasional ‘great navigator’ 
  among the Belters, who has a knack of predicting the location 
  of any given rock from old data with the most rudimentary of 
  calculations. These men and women are living legends among 
  the Belter community, and are both admired and carefully 
  protected. There are rumours that the great navigators know 
  about secret places and big mineral strikes concealed form 
  others, but this seems rather unlikely. 
  Corporate and other non-Belter mining vessels do sometimes 
  enter the Trailing Trojans, which causes some resentment 
  among the Belters. There is little chance of conflict unless a 
  claim is jumped, but this has happened from time to time. The 
  Belters do not register their claims outside their own people 
  (indeed, they are often prevented from doing so), so honest 
  mistakes are possible. However, the journey to the Trailing 
  Trojans is quite lengthy, so most corporate vessels go to 
  Kendelsei’s moons or the Leading Trojans where infrastructure 
  to support their operations in already in place. The Belters are 
  not inclined to support outsider operations, so taking the ore 
  to market or for processing is more expensive in their territory 
  than most commercial interest consider viable. 
  HIBBERT X785000-0
  Hibbert is a rather hostile world a little smaller than Terra in 
  the Sol system. Its official atmosphere designation is ‘dense’ 
  but this does not reflect the fact that it is entirely unbreathable. 
  Similarly, the hydrographics indicator should not be taken to 
  mean that Hibbert is covered in seas. Its water is mostly frozen 
  and is mixed with a variety of unpleasant chemicals. This is 
  not atypical of outsystem worlds that have an atmosphere of 
  sorts; the gas envelope does offer the world some protection 
  from extremes of cold and form meteoric bombardment, but this 
  does not make it a fun place to visit. There are records of a 
  couple of orbital mapping expeditions several years ago, but 
  Hibbert is not desirable real estate and has probably not been 
  visited since.
  MARBULE X9AA000-0 
  ‘Marbule’ is almost certainly a mis-spelling of ‘marble’, which this 
  planet resembles from a distance. It is possible that this world 
  once had a different orbit and may have been much warmer, 
  in which case there might be relics concealed deep under 
  its icy surface. They would not be easy to access however, 
  even if they could be located. The very dense atmosphere is 
  partially frozen, subliming when the temperature rises a little 
  and then freezing again. The surface is covered almost entirely 
  in a thick layer of water ice, topped with various gases which 
  have frozen out of the atmosphere in layers according to their 
  freezing points. This means that the atmosphere’s composition 
  can change on a local basis as geysers of gas sublime out of 
  the surface, creating turbulence which subsides quickly. This is 
  all very impressive, but it has not attracted many visitors other 
  than a vid-documentary team a few years back who won prizes 
  for their coverage of the gas-fountains of Marbule. 
  CUASS X210000-0
  Cuass is a ‘frozen rockball’ in spacer terms; a small planet 
  very far from its primary with no water and only a thin wisp 
  of atmospheric gas. Unsurprisingly perhaps, few ship crews 
  consider it worth crawling all the way out here. The occasional 
  Belter or other prospector makes a landing, but there are no 
  records of large mineral strikes to suggest that it was worth the 
  time and trouble. Cuass thus remains one of those out of the 
  way places where nobody goes. This might make it attractive 
  as a secure scientific research station at some point in the 
  future, but for now it is just another barren rock in space... as 
  far as anyone knows.
  Alex Greene (order #6964772)
  
  17
  FENCEPOST (SMALL GAS 
  GIANT)
  The origins of Fencepost’s name are obscure. Indeed, this 
  small gas giant is officially listed only by a code number in 
  the star catalogues. The usual assumption is that the world’s 
  remote location places it at the ‘outer fence’ of the system or 
  something similar. Even when aligned on the same side of the 
  primary as Kendelsei, Fencepost is many times farther from 
  her larger cousin than Kendelsei is from the mainworld. There 
  is very little reason to visit. 
  Fencepost has one known moon, which is also listed in the 
  star charts by a code number. It has been given the rather 
  whimsical nickname of Whoopee!!! (complete with three 
  exclamation points) due to its highly eccentric orbit. Whoopee!!! 
  is almost certainly a captured body originating outside the 
  system. Its orbit is extremely elliptical and steeply angled as 
  well as being retrograde, i.e. Whoopee!!! orbits at a sharp 
  angle to the system’s ecliptic and in a near-opposite direction 
  to Fencepost’s rotation. This orbit may or may not be stable; it 
  is possible that Whoopee!!! may someday slingshot itself back 
  out into interstellar space or tear through the rest of the system 
  perhaps disrupting other bodies in their orbits. It might even 
  smack into another planet or be captured by one as a moon; at 
  present there is insufficient data to know for sure.
  Whoopee!!! is inhabited by a party of (by all accounts) 
  extremely bored Scout Service researchers who make long 
  and often inane broadcasts on the common comms channels. 
  Their mission is apparently to study Fencepost and her 
  wayward moon, and to make observations of the system’s 
  Oort cloud. According to a popular tale, as Whoopee!!! passes 
  close to Fencepost the combination of radiation from the gas 
  giant and high acceleration due to gravity makes Whoopee!!! 
  uninhabitable. The researchers take to their ship for a few 
  days to bypass the worst of the effects then return to clean up 
  whatever is broken. This is of course done whilst lamenting that 
  they have the worst job in the universe to anyone who will tune 
  into their broadcasts.
  The Scout Service expedition to Whoopee!!! has been in 
  place for several years now, but has not been visited by ships 
  from Kendelsei’s vicinity. Scout Service vessels or chartered 
  merchant ships resupply the base by jumping directly to it. This 
  does mean that the half-dozen Scouts assigned to Whoopee!!! 
  do not see anyone different for months at a time. Some have 
  been rotated out, but at least one has been stationed on 
  Whoopee!!! since the broadcasts began some years ago. 
  Communication with the Scouts is possible, though it needs a 
  powerful transmitter and willingness to wait during the lengthy 
  communications lag. The Scouts are almost pathetically eager 
  to talk to anyone they can, and have a number of ‘comms-
  buddies’ among the outsystem communities. Their antics have 
  taken on the aspect of some bizarre reality vid show, and are 
  watched by a surprisingly large number of people throughout 
  the system.
  Alex Greene (order #6964772)
  
  18
  As noted elsewhere, most traffic from outside the system goes 
  to the mainworld, though jump-capable ships do sometimes 
  visit the ports of the outsystem. Far more commonly, vessels 
  plying the long reach from the mainworld or operating among 
  the moons and planetoids of the outsystem are not jump 
  capable. Many are standard small craft or vessels that were 
  once jump capable but whose drives wore out. These elderly 
  starships avoided the scrapyard to find a new career as sublight 
  freighters and transports. Thus it is not uncommon to see a 
  Subsidized Merchant sitting on an outsystem landing pad, 
  but it would be unwise to assume that this vessel still has a 
  functioning jump drive.
  Many of these vessels, however old, are in good repair and 
  receive at least occasional refits in a proper yard. Others, 
  typically but by no means exclusively Belter vessels, are 
  ramshackle conversions of old craft cobbled together from 
  whatever parts were available last time something broke. Many 
  such ships have composite powerplants, with three or more 
  disparate systems straining to power life support and drives. 
  Such a plant may resemble a dog’s dinner to a ‘proper’ starship 
  engineer, but the locals have made them work because there 
  is no alternative. Other critical systems may be a similar 
  mishmash of scavenged components.
  Sensor equipment, particularly among Belter ships is generally 
  of a short-ranged and somewhat specialist nature. Drives are 
  heavily modified to be as power-efficient as possible. This 
  means that a craft might only be capable of half its rated 
  thrust capability, but at a very high level of efficiency. Controls 
  and instruments are functional, but not fancy. Engineering is 
  generally a mess of rebuilt wiring and conduits, but the dangers 
  posed by loose objects and sharp edges in zero-g impose a set 
  of unwritten safety rules. Emergency equipment in particular 
  tends to be regularly maintained and sees quite frequent use 
  aboard the most ramshackle craft.
  Many of these vessels are constantly tinkered with by their 
  owners who seek to improve performance, repair breakdowns or 
  simply to optimise the ship for the latest task. Thus wiring tends 
  to be easily accessible – hanging out of panels much of the 
  time – as are vital components. Much shipboard engineering is 
  performed on a rule-of-thumb or local practice basis, i.e. many 
  crewmembers know which part of their own ship to hit, short 
  or twiddle, but would not be able to operate a craft they were 
  less familiar with. Temporary fixes are common, many of them 
  remaining in place for years until the next major breakdown. 
  Almost all ships of this type are in a state of constant running 
  repairs, and to an outsider many starship operations look more 
  like damage control exercises. Passengers may be dismayed by 
  wildly variable thrust during liftoff, and will be hardly reassured 
  when an engineer announces, ‘oh, the main thrusters always 
  run a bit rough on takeoff’ and sets to bashing on a sticky 
  feeder-valve with a large spanner. The Imperial authorities 
  enforce a standard set of safety regulations, but many of the 
  vessels of the outsystem might go decades without an Imperial 
  official setting eyes upon them.
  Despite their ramshackle nature, these craft are kept in as 
  good order as possible, and are reasonably reliable given an 
  experienced crew familiar with the individual ship’s quirks. 
  The locals’ lives depend upon their ships, and although their 
  condition would make the most broken-down Free Trader look 
  luxurious, the ships work… mostly. Travelling on a Belter ship 
  would be a terrifying experience for most Imperial citizens all 
  the same.
  Ships owned and operated by local shipping firms or the 
  mining concerns tend to be much newer and in better repair. 
  Collectively known as ‘corporates’ these vessels are much 
  more like what a traveller in the Imperium would expect from 
  a space vessel. Most have a complete set of emergency and 
  maintenance equipment and generally function properly. They 
  are much less ‘interesting’ to travel aboard than a Belter or 
  other non-corporate ship.
  PROSPECTING AND MINING 
  SHIPS
  The vessels that carry out the prospecting and mining tasks 
  which make up most of the commercial activity in-system are 
  for the most part the product of endless tinkering with existing 
  designs. Among the Belters no two ships are exactly alike, 
  and in some cases the original ship can be only just made 
  out among all the add-ons and alterations. Mining ships are 
  very rarely streamlined – there is no need – though many are 
  configured for the most effective use of volume when mated to 
  an asteroid, as this is the way most of their time is spent.
  Most of the Belters’ ships are small, with prospecting vessels 
  lying mainly in the 50-200t range and extraction vessels 
  averaging 150-500 tons. There are very few larger ships, and 
  these are mostly base vessels operating smaller craft rather than 
  the extraction vessel itself. Corporate (i.e. non-Belter) mining 
  ships tend to be somewhat larger, although many prospecting 
  crews work from a ship’s boat or other short-duration vessel 
  since they have a permanent home to return to. Those who 
  both live and work aboard a space vessel need a larger one 
  than someone who simply uses it as transport.
  SPACE TRAVEL IN THE OUTSYSTEM
  Alex Greene (order #6964772)
  
  19
  Most mining ships are not armed, though a re-tuned mining laser 
  makes a reasonable weapon at close range. A few also have 
  ore catapults which might see desperate and not very effective 
  use as weapons. Mining ships are generally configured for long 
  cruises or deployments away from their home communities, 
  and thus many have larger common areas or crew quarters 
  than might be expected. Of course, these quarters are typically 
  shared with spare parts, odd pieces of equipment and assorted 
  paraphernalia of the ‘might come in handy some day’ type. All 
  loose objects are obsessively secured. 
  TRADERS AND TRANSPORT 
  SHIPS
  Most of the vessels plying between the moons of the outsystem 
  or operating in the Leading Trojans tend to be fairly standard 
  small craft, such as cutters and ship’s boats. The smallest of 
  these small craft are unsuitable for long missions, but a cutter 
  or similar craft has enough space to permit fairly long transits. 
  However, the majority of vessels moving between the moons 
  and the Trojans, or plying the routes to the inner system, are 
  larger than 100 tons. A fairly large proportion of these are old 
  Free Traders and Subsidised Merchants whose jump drive 
  became too expensive to keep running. 
  As a general rule, a ‘transport’ in outsystem parlance is tasked 
  with carrying materials or personnel for the purposes of its 
  owner or whoever has leased cargo space aboard  it, whereas 
  a ‘trader’ is an independent ship that pays its own way. This 
  is usually by the standard free trader methods – freighting 
  for a fee, speculative trading, carrying passengers and the 
  occasional charter. There is really no difference between 
  the sublight traders of the outsystem and the jump-capable 
  merchants of the Imperial spacelanes. 
  Several bulk freighters (by local standards) in the 2,000-5,000 
  ton range make the run to and from the mainworld to the 
  outsystem. They rarely leave their straight to-and-from supply 
  route, taking them from the inner system to Trojan Mining in the 
  Leading Trojans. The most common deviation to for a supply 
  freighter to go straight to Troy; any other destination would be 
  highly unusual. These freighters carry necessities plus an array 
  of luxury items which then find their way to the end marketplace 
  by way of smaller vessels.
  Thus the main trade arteries of the outsystem are from the inner 
  system to Trojan Mining and thence (or occasionally direct) 
  to Troy, and from Trojan Mining to Ikker or Kendelsei Home. 
  Ikker is the main trade hub of the outsystem proper, from which 
  smaller vessels spread out among the moons or make the 
  transit out to the Trailing Trojans.
  A few smaller ships ply the spaceways between tiny Belter 
  outposts, carrying contracted-for supplies or speculative cargo. 
  There are few passengers requiring transport in the outsystem, 
  other than personnel on contract to the mining concerns, 
  and fewer still among the Trailing Trojans. Nevertheless the 
  occasional one brings in a bit of extra revenue for a vessel 
  passing that way.
  Some outsystem traders have a more or less fixed route whilst 
  others wander as they please, carrying out the odd prospecting 
  or salvage operation as they go. These free traders are the only 
  contact with the outside universe years on end for many of the 
  smaller Belter operations, and the only source of fuel, air and 
  supplies. Many are old friends of the Belters they serve, while 
  others are sharp dealers out to gouge everyone for whatever 
  they can get.
  SPECIALIST VESSELS AND 
  OUTSIDERS
  ‘Outsiders’ are not hard to spot in the outsystem. Free traders 
  sometimes come to Trojan Mining or Ikker rather than the 
  mainworld, sometimes on a charter and sometimes seeking a 
  new market. Scout vessels are also relatively common. These 
  are typically scout/couriers assigned to ‘rock plotting’ missions, 
  i.e. maintaining and updating the star charts, though other 
  vessels have been spotted. 
  Navy ships also occasionally pass through the ports of the 
  outsystem. Those on a transit elsewhere typically take on fuel at 
  the station in the Leading Trojans, but sometimes a navy vessel 
  makes a patrol or a marine ship lands personnel in response to 
  a report of piracy, smuggling or other illegal activity. These are 
  rare visits though, and would always provoke comment. The 
  multimission fuel shuttles from the Leading Trojans refuelling 
  station area common sight however, and would not attract 
  interest when carrying out their usual duties. 
  The only other likely outsiders are new ‘corporates’ such as 
  mining ships or transports, or perhaps a scientific vessel on 
  contact to a mining company. Such new arrivals would stand 
  out among the vessels of the outsystem, at least until word got 
  around about them.
  Alex Greene (order #6964772)
  
  20
  ADVENTURING IN THE OUTSYSTEM
  The Outsystem offers a range of adventuring possibilities. There 
  are many places to explore – or which a client or patron might 
  be willing to pay someone to explore in search of rumoured 
  riches, crashed starships, stashed treasure or something more 
  exotic. With so many different groups in the area, conflict of one 
  sort or another is more or less inevitable. This could range from 
  a barfights to a long-term plot concerning a plan to drive out the 
  Belters, or for Troy to secede as the capital of a new outsystem 
  state. This could trigger what would inevitably be called the 
  Trojan War…
  It is also worth noting that with so many sublight ships plying 
  the spacelanes, there are opportunities for piracy and hijacking 
  that might not exist close to a well-protected mainworld. Indeed, 
  it might be that these outsystem spacelanes are the only place 
  where a ‘career’ pirate could operate with any chance of 
  survival. There are of course plenty of places for pirates to set 
  up a base, perhaps posing as a private mining firm. Those with 
  jump-capable ships might attack vessels in other systems then 
  sell their plunder in the marketplaces of Ikker, quite likely to 
  unsuspecting buyers.
  There is also the possibility for Big Mystery type adventures. An 
  alien structure on a forgotten moon; a mission to penetrate the 
  icy surface of Marbule; a plunge into the depths of Kendelsei’s 
  atmosphere in search of creatures that may live there. A group 
  of travellers could spend a lot of time in the outsystem without 
  ever visiting the mainworld.
  Who needs a planet to have adventures?
  Alex Greene (order #6964772)
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Traveller/08 - Mongoose Traveller/Third Party Materials/Sourcebooks & Referee Materials/Traveller Referees Aid 01 - Among the Trojans.pdf