I throw in my vote for the Belt too; it's the best place for the Scum to be. I'd figure that they're most likely lingering around a C or D-type asteroid at any given time, since the most common elements in need at any given time are going to be carbon and water, but they're mobile enough to wander. As for the centre of the fleet, I can imagine a large transport (with a lot of refitting, of course) could act as a mining station of sorts. Possibly even several transports permanently tethered together; one acts as a command centre for teleoperation of mining bots, one acts as a refinery, and one essentially as storage. Does anyone have any ideas for a name?

Mmm, speaking of which, how did this little caravan start? If the group centres around one large vessel, it seems likely that it was either a unified fleet before they arrived in the belt (perhaps refugees from the Fall) or were wandering groups before the Fall who decided to merge resources. Those are the most obvious two things that spring to my mind, at least.

I think a lot of the conflicts can largely be considered self-contained. This is pretty much what I think would happen with the arrival of the first ship. Once their presence is registered with other areas, they no doubt would have others soon joining them.

This is all really cool so far! I have this rather curious image in my head for the Egeria's appearance. Originally, it looked like a rather cookie-cutter, professionally designed mining station, but, since its incidents during the Fall, rough repairs, and alterations for interactions with other vessels, I imagine it... Well, it's best described as imagining a model of a space station that has been lovingly assembled, then played with by a child, broken accidentally, and hastily reassembled using the best materials available. What was once a smooth, streamlined piece of futuristic technology is now fixed with off-colour materials, wrapped haphazardly in tinfoil, and coated in dozens of smaller ships and extension arms. As for a name for the Egeria, for the longest time, I've wanted to use the term "Zhuangzi and his butterflies" for something Scum-related. Could be the name of a ship/group of ships, of the Egeria, or of the fleet itself. Given the Egeria's old name, though, I can't see it as an appropriate replacement, except perhaps as a joke from some of the long-time Scum. And now, to add to the diversity! [b]New Liberty (a.k.a. Jovian Lite)[/b] New Liberty is remarkable as being perhaps one of the very few Scum Barges that began its career as a warship. Formerly of the Jovian Republic, New Liberty and her crew set sail from Jupiter approximately two years after the Fall, when the Republic began to clamp down heavily on public freedoms. Declaring itself independent once it was safely outside of the range of Jovian guns, New Liberty ended up serving as a freelance guardian against pirates for convoys around Extropia, before an ideological schism caused more than half the original crew of 150 to jump ship. The remainder set sail into the belt, searching for a new home, where they could live without depending on others. However, with little in the way of mining training, New Liberty and her crew were in dire straits by the time they found the Egeria. It took a lot of negotiation for the Egerian fleet to allow the New Liberty to approach, much of which was rushed thanks to wounds the New Liberty had suffered dealing with a group of pirates who had mistaken the warship for a lone carrier. An agreement for trade was struck; New Liberty would be given supplies needed to keep its reactors functioning and to perform repairs and, in exchange, it and its crew would agree to remain with the Egeria for a period of no less than four years. In addition to this agreement, terms were attached that mandated a team of engineers be permitted to inspect the New Liberty, to ensure she was carrying no nuclear weapons or antimatter (New Liberty is a relatively old vessel, and was built before antimatter became readily used as a means of conveyance on anything but the most expensive courier ships and scientific vessels). Since that inspection, no-one outside of the crew has been allowed on the vessel, and the only map of it that exists was made then. New Liberty and her crew are out of place in a place like a Scum Fleet. Though far from the Bioconservative fascist movement that dominates the Jovian Republic, they are typically considered by many amongst the Scum to be extreme conservatives, in ideology if nothing else. Most of the time, they do not interact with the rest of the fleet, except when a few of their number do odd jobs here and there. For the majority of the fleet, the only interaction it has with New Liberty is to see its enormous blue and white form drifting out in the void. The exception to this is Parson.Egeria_mesh.NL. Frederick Thomas, colloquially known as Parson Tom, is the public face of New Liberty. His blog on the local mesh is the only transmission outside of official channels that leaves New Liberty. Parson Tom frequently gives very loud, energetic speeches on a wide variety of topics, usually news, both local and distant, with frequent rants about the Powers That Be. Tom is one of the few members of New Liberty that leaves the ship with any degree of frequency as well, often acting as its ambassador, usually followed wherever he goes by a group of large, well-armed, usually silent followers. Despite the name, Parson Tom is not actually a priest and formerly occupied the position of Political Officer aboard the vessel before it fled Jovian rule. He is a very cautious, conservative man, whose natural charisma and fiery devotion to personal freedom makes him a natural leader. Though something of a joke to the more liberal, communal anarchists in the fleet, and to those who don't share his near-paranoid views on the encroachment of freedoms by large governments, he is a man who is hard to ignore. Any time someone in the fleet tries to put a measure in place that could potentially be considered an encroachment of personal freedoms, Tom is usually there to make a fuss of it. [i]Freedom 1[/i] Freedom 1 is a small secondary vessel, half-finished and tethered to the side of New Liberty. Although New Liberty long since finished its terms of service, it continues to remain as a security contractor for Egeria, albeit reluctantly. Freedom 1 was intended as a means to end that necessary bond; a small mining vessel that would allow New Liberty and its crew their independence. However, the project broke down midway when it became evident that the start-up expense would greatly drain New Liberty's resources (possibly indebting them to Egeria again) and that the overall skill needed to harvest raw minerals was far beyond the abilities of the vessel's crew. While New Liberty has not abandoned Freedom 1, it is increasingly apparent that resource refining is not a skill easily learned through trial and error, or even observation. They have currently reached the point where they are willing to try almost any option to gain their freedom, except for swallowing their pride and seeking training from the Egeria's crew.