Environmental conditions aboard the Void Exchange are artificial, uneven, and always a little strained, reflecting its nature as a layered hive-city wrapped around ancient machinery.

Noise pollution—engines, trams, crowds, distant machinery—is constant nearly everywhere except the most insulated diplomatic suites and shrines. Radiation and Rift exposure are normally kept within safe limits by layered shielding around the Crossroads and reactors, but localized spikes and “bad decks” exist, especially in Shadow Level routes and neglected maintenance zones.

Atmosphere: Normal

Gravity: Normal

Airlocks Airlocks seal the climate-controlled environment inside a satellite or starship from the vacuum outside.

Catwalks Catwalks are walkways that cross over maintenance tunnels and warehouses or run alongside wider corridors.

Crowds Crowded thoroughfares and similar areas are difficult terrain, or greater difficult terrain if an area is truly packed with people.

The Exchange Vector Net (EVN) is the Void Exchange’s integrated teleportation defense grid, controlled exclusively by the Administrator and her Vuswis support cadre. It is not a conventional weapon system; instead, it uses Rift-tuned teleportation to relocate threats rather than destroy them outright.

High-Clearance Transit: The Administrator, Vuswis, and certain elite parties have access to sealed priority tubes and express lifts that can move them directly between Crossroads Core, command decks, and key chambers with no public interface at all. From a player’s perspective, these are almost teleportation: someone steps into a door and is effectively anywhere they need to be.

Rooftops Rooftops make for memorable ambushes, chase scenes, infiltrations, and running fights.

Security Across the galaxy, countless nations, planets, and galactic governments are protected by military forces. Most settlements have peacekeeping or law enforcement agencies whose agents and officers work in shifts to protect the settlement at all hours.

Service Corridors: Maintenance walkways and rear-service routes parallel nearly every major public corridor, allowing Biomass, Lifeweavers, Iron Covenant, and other crews to move without fighting crowds. PCs can use these to slip around checkpoints or reach restricted doors.

Sewers Sewers are generally 10 feet or more below street level and are equipped with ladders or other means to ascend and descend.

Shadow Level Bypasses: Smugglers, the Ebon Syndicate, Crimson Veil, and some Commission Parties use hidden or “temporarily decommissioned” tunnels—Shadow Levels—to bypass customs and surveillance. These routes are narrow, unmarked, and sometimes dangerous, but can cut travel times dramatically for those who know them.

Shuttle Trams & Dock Shuttles: Short-range shuttles ferry crews and passengers between the outer dock ring and inner transit hubs when they can’t or shouldn’t walk through customs concourses (hazardous cargo, high-profile delegations, emergency evac). Dockside trams also run along the exterior ring between berths.

Tram Loops: High-capacity rail trams run in loops around the Bazaar Ring and between major hubs in Commission Heights and the Keel Warrens. These are the default way most residents cross large distances—standing room, crowded, with cars marked for different districts (markets, courts, docks).

Vertical Lifts & Spine Elevators: Massive lift shafts in the service and Pilgrim spines move people and cargo up and down between rings. Public lifts are slow and heavily monitored; private or faction-controlled lifts connect embassy towers, Board suites, and secure admin decks directly to the Crossroads Core.

Walkways & Concourse Arteries: Most everyday movement happens on foot through layered corridors: wide, multi-level promenades in the Bazaar, marble-floored halls in Commission Heights, and low, pipe-choked passages in the Keel Warrens. Conveyors or moving walkways appear in higher-traffic segments, especially near major courts and markets.