Quick Facts
Parent Location: Absalom Station (Outer Radial Pylons)
Pylon Extent: Dozens of radial arms projecting 1 to 2 miles outward from the perimeter of The Ring
Artificial Gravity: Standard Gravity (Pressurized concourses & interior bays; microgravity in external unpressurized drydocks)
Atmosphere: Normal (Pressurized bays and tubes; hard vacuum on exterior scaffolding and ship-berths)
Population: ~350,000 permanent dockers, customs officials, freight engineers, shipwrights, plus hundreds of thousands of transient off-world crews
Sector Governance: Station Port Authority & Absalom Customs Directorate (Council of Syndics)
Law Enforcement: Absalom Station Security (Harbor Division) & The Stewards (Contraband & Interplanetary Customs Taskforce)
Primary Landmarks: Customs Central, The Great Cargo Gantries, Bay 94 Commercial Drydock, The Tooth & Nail, Moons of Sleep, The Spacer’s Concourse
Primary Organizations: Station Port Authority, Stevedores & Freight-Handlers Union, The Stewards, AbadarCorp Logistics, Free Traders Guild
Astrogation & Structural Overview: The Ports of the Galaxy
Extending outward from the perimeter rim of The Ring like the spokes of a colossal, multifaceted wheel, The Arms are the primary starship docking pylons of Absalom Station. Dozens of massive, reinforced titanium and adamantine structures jut into the vacuum of space, providing berths, fuel lines, pressurized boarding gantries, and repair drydocks for thousands of vessels daily.
As the primary point of arrival for nearly every being visiting the station, The Arms represent the raw, thrumming industrial threshold of the Pact Worlds. Swift exploratory scouts of the Starfinder Society, gleaming golden freighters of AbadarCorp, armored gunboats of The Stewards, and rusted asteroid-haulers from The Diaspora moor side-by-side along these crowded gantries.
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| THE ARMS |
| (Dozens of Radial Docking Pylons & Gantries) |
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| |
| [INNER SPOKE BAYS] [CUSTOMS CENTRAL] [OUTER DRY-DOCKS] |
| Pressurized Passenger Terminals Manifest Screening Heavy Hull Repairs |
| & Mag-Train Radial Transit & Security Portals & Fuel Gantries |
| |
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| DOCKSIDE LIFE |
| - *The Tooth & Nail* (Legendary Spacer Watering Hole) |
| - *Moons of Sleep* (Bunkhouse Hostels & Cheap Sleep Pods) |
| - The Mercenary Exchange (Bounty Boards & Void-Crew Hiring Halls) |
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[THE RING] [THE RING] [THE RING]
Major Zones & Landmarks
1. Customs Central & Passenger Portals
Located at the junction where each Arm joins the perimeter of The Ring, Customs Central stations process millions of arriving passengers, immigrants, and cargo crates each week. Operated jointly by Absalom Station Security and The Stewards, these checkpoints are equipped with biometric scanners, spell-detection arrays, and heavy barrier fields to interdict prohibited weaponry, contraband, and dangerous alien contagion.
2. The Cargo Gantries & Logistics Hubs
Towering multi-deck loading bays equipped with mag-rail cranes, automated grav-sleds, and high-capacity freight elevators that run straight down into the storage vaults of The Spike. Dominated by the corporate logistics terminals of AbadarCorp and the independent Stevedores Union, these bays operate on non-stop 24-hour cycles, offloading raw ores, agricultural preserves, tech components, and volatile chemical containers.
3. Shipyards & External Drydocks
Extending toward the outermost tips of the longest pylons are zero-g repair yards. Enclosed in magnetic atmospheric containment fields or open directly to the vacuum, these berths service damaged hulls, install custom Drift Engines, and refit starship weapon batteries. Independent shipwrights, Ysoki tinker-clans, and certified military engineers work alongside heavy loader droids to patch micrometeorite breaches and weapon scorches.
4. Dockside Life & Spacer Culture
Because thousands of starship crews spend shore leave along The Arms without ever proceeding into the interior Ring or Eye, the pylons have developed a colorful, rough-edged subculture:
- The Tooth & Nail: A fabled, battered spacer tavern established in the early decades after The Gap. Operated by a succession of grizzled retired void-captains, it is the premier spot on the station to find unlicensed star-charts, recruit freelance crew, or pick up covert mercenary contracts.
- Moons of Sleep: A sprawling block of modular sleep-pods, low-rent hostels, and locker berths where off-world spacers crash between long-haul flights through The Drift.
- The Mercenary Exchange: An open pavilion where private security outfits, bounty hunters, and freelance operatives inspect active bounties, hire out gunner services, and trade surplus armor and munitions.
Jurisdictional Friction & Underworld Activity
The Smuggler’s Sieve
Despite the heavy presence of Stewards customs inspectors, the sheer volume of daily starship traffic makes The Arms the premier entry point for galactic contraband. Smuggling rings affiliated with the Free Captains and the Level 21 Crew use hollowed-out cargo bulkheads, encrypted transponder spoofers, and bribed dockworkers to slip illegal narcotics, unregistered cybernetics, and forbidden pre-Gap artifacts past the scanners.
Labor Strikes & Automation Clashes
Tensions between the human and Ysoki Stevedores Union and corporate logistics combines frequently flare into active unrest. When AbadarCorp attempts to replace union crane crews with automated logic-drones, wildcat strikes can paralyze entire docking quadrants, leading to violent confrontations between union picketers and private security contractors.
Campaign & Adventure Hooks
- The Phantom Berth: A derelict exploratory courier without transponder signals docks at an abandoned maintenance gantry on Arm 12. Station Security finds the airlocks covered in ice and the crew vanished from the bridge. The party is retained to board the vessel, recover the ship’s flight logs, and discover what horror followed them back from the uncharted depths of The Vast.
- Dockside Turf War: A violent firefight breaks out across the cargo gantries between a squad of Free Captain smugglers and an armored recovery team working for House Zeizerer of Apostae. The party gets caught in the crossfire while trying to inspect an impounded transport and must navigate cranes, venting coolant pipes, and zero-g containers to survive.
- The Transponder Heist: A wanted fugitive with a price on their head is cornered inside The Tooth & Nail. Before the party can collect the bounty, a rival crew of bounty hunters blows the tavern’s pressurized bulkheads, sparking an all-out tavern brawl and a chase across the exterior maintenance hulls in zero gravity.