The Long Rim

The Long Rim is an area of space toward the proximal end of the Orion Arm, unpredictably unreachable by Blink technology, including the omninet. Until and unless the Dawnline blinkgate is completed, travellers through this area must rely on more conventional nearlight drives or, for the true long-haul spacers, reaction drives. This disconnection from broader Union space has allowed criminal enterprises to flourish, including piracy, toll-taking, resource monopolies, smuggling, flash cloning, arms dealing and more, as well as legal-but-questionable mercenary groups.
The Long Rim is typically traversed by travelling from the Rào Cỏ blinkgate station above Vieivaao to the area known as the Dawnline Shore, where Harrison Armory and the Karrakin Trade Baronies are currently engaged in the Second Interest War. The positioning of the Rim makes it a major shipping thoroughfare despite its dangers, and billions of tons of food, medicine, construction equipment, electronics, and war materiel, as well as millions of colonists and pilgrims, transit its breadth every standard year. There are, however, no habitable planets in this area; there are numerous stations of varying sizes, functions and standards of occupational safety, including a non-zero number of derelicts lashed together with gantries, but the systems themselves are unforgiving.
Mirrorsmoke Mercenary Corp (MSMC) is well-known in the Long Rim, and other less well-known groups call the Rim home. IPS-N's Dawnline Transit Division of its Trunk Security corpro-police force has a presence on many stations in the Rim, and is what passes for a "neutral" arbiter of conflicts. Union has so far looked the other way given its attentions elsewhere, such as the Second Distal War. The enigmatic "group" known as HORUS is also present here, and seems to be linked to terror attacks on Horizon personnel and equipment, though to what end is unclear. Horizon, for its part, protects numerous Free Deimosians in the area.

Type

Expanse

Owning Organization

Union