Hound
The pursuit station
The Shatter’s contracted patrol station, launching mixed squadrons against raiders, smugglers, and other threats within the marked passages.
Overview
The Record
Hound launches the fast patrol craft that keep the Shatter’s marked passages open. Its squadrons pursue raiders, smugglers, reckless salvagers, and captains whose actions endanger other vessels. A threat inside the marking is Hound’s work.
The station’s 18,000 residents occupy compact residential, maintenance, and launch sections, though patrol crews spend much of their service aboard small craft. Hound is built around quick departure and return: maintain the vessels, brief mixed crews, and put a squadron into a passage before a dangerous contact reaches civilian traffic.
Those crews are the Wardens, contracted squadrons of mixed nationality paid by the season, licensed at Darsen, and watched from there. They act under the Standing Council’s authority without becoming a national fleet, making them the only armed force the system operates in common.
That authority ends where the marked passage ends. Within it, Hound’s patrols may stop a vessel and act against a threat. Beyond it, their search authority fails, however plainly a target appears to be escaping. The limit keeps the mixed patrols politically acceptable and leaves the unmarked Shatter beyond their protection.
Political Relationships
Standing
Standing at a Glance
- Political Status
- Chartered Dependency
- Civilization Status
- Inhabited
- Heraldic Standing
- Institutional Emblem
- Principal Power
- Caldrin
Hound is a chartered dependency operated through mixed patrol contracts. The Standing Council authorizes the Wardens, while licensing and supervision are conducted from Darsen under Caldrin’s passage authority. Patrol powers bind within the marked routes; beyond them, the crews have no search authority.
Hound has no station crest. Patrol craft carry common service markings identifying their licensed authority alongside devices belonging to individual squadrons.
Physical Characteristics
Ground and Sky
- Diameter16 km
- Mass0.000000000002 Earth masses
- Gravity0.18 g
Hound’s exterior is exposed to vacuum. Its 18,000 residents live in sealed residential, maintenance, and launch sections, divided so that patrol operations do not depend on a single pressure volume. The recorded 0.18 standard gravity is maintained within occupied sections rather than produced by the station’s negligible natural mass. Patrol crews spend much of their service aboard small craft and return to Hound for maintenance, briefing, and relief.
Orbit and Time
Path Around Oranth
- Orbital Order688
- Orbital Radius10,600,000 km
- Orbital Period128.736 days
- Rotation14 hours
- Inclination7.1 degrees
- Eccentricity0.059
Hound orbits Oranth at an average radius of 10,600,000 kilometers, completing one circuit every 128.736 standard days. Its fourteen-hour cycle is an imposed attitude schedule, not a natural rotation or day: the station changes orientation to support patrol launches and sensor coverage. Crew watches answer to pursuit requirements, so an active chase overrides the station clock.
Culture
The Twofold
Hound values Gloam practice in the search: practitioners follow incomplete traces, track vessels using concealment, and read the intent behind evasive movement. Dawn practice governs the pursuit itself, coordinating routes among fast craft and keeping uninvolved traffic clear. Neither practice extends a patrol’s authority beyond the marked passage.
Travel
Travel Notes
Hound is a patrol base, not a civilian port. Detained vessels are assigned isolated berths and must follow patrol instructions; ordinary travelers are directed toward Crossing or Caldrin. Civilian docking is limited to authorized operational need, and an unscheduled vessel approaching the launch sections should expect interception rather than a berth.