Editing Setting:Cloudburst/Grand Anchor (section)

====The Derelicts====

Beyond even the satellites, over two dozen ships hang dead in space.  These are the true moneymakers of the Grand Anchor, and constitute the largest non-piratical concentration of starships in Cloudburst that aren’t Imperial Navy warships (possibly, if discounting Gorkypark when an Ork fleet passes through).  Each starship floats in a pre-determined orbit slot, protected by more satellites and at least one patrol boat.  The ships range from junked Imperial freighters to a nearly intact Ork Krooza, and include four Imperial Navy ships damaged beyond repair and sold to the Grand Anchor.  Just under half of the ships are technically not shipwrecks, but are instead hulks, vessels prized from a Space Hulk or found abandoned in space and stripped for parts.  These tend to be more reparable, and the Anchor is willing to fix these ships up and sell them for the right price.

These derelicts sometimes change hands.  More than once in the past, the Mechanicus has brought the remains of a dead ship they found while exploring the Circuit to the Grand Anchor to buy parts to fix it, despite their general preference for fixing ships up themselves.  However, by far the largest customer by volume of these dead ships is the Chartist Captain Fleet, which moves cargo and tithes between worlds on behalf of the Senate of the High Lords and the Overlords Sector.  Hundreds of Chartist Captains have bought either ships or pieces of ships here, to repair damage to their own vessels or replace them.

Rogue Traders looking to offload salvage patronize the Grand Anchor constantly.  Fully one third of the unique items inside the cube came from Rogue Traders offloading archaeotechnological parts after missions to the Circuit or Exo-zone.  However, the Grand Anchor council must take care when dealing with Rogue Traders.  Unlike Rogue Traders, whose Warrants of Trade allow them to partake of xeno-trade and the looting of ancient human sites outside the range of the Astronomican, the Grand Anchor has no such license.  If the Inquisition were to find active xenotech inside the Grand Anchor perimeter, the punishment would no doubt be swift and horrible.

Of course, that does not extend to the materials of xenotech.  Not all xenotechnology is crafted of unidentifiable materials.  Most races of the galaxy use the same ten dozen basic elements as humanity when it comes time to build things.  Scrapping xenotech, including the [[Ork]] Kroozer dragged to the site by Lord Captain Crado Zutash in M41.998, is well within their legal purview, if the result is recognizable material.  Grand Anchor has disassembled eight alien ships for scrap over the millennia, and is currently doing the same to the Ork ship.  The resultant alloys are no different from any other, and can be cast into whatever parts their clients want.

Grand Anchor has the capacity to build ships, but elects not to.  So far, normal work keeps all of their berths busy.  Some of the larger assembly spheres could theoretically construct vessels of under one half kilometer in length, but avoid doing so to prevent fraying ties with the [[Setting:Cloudburst/Navy|Navy]] or [[Adeptus Mechanicus|Mechanicus]].  However, the great Merchant House Zhong has bought partially-assembled vessels from Grand Anchor to short-lift backlogged construction schedules in the past.

All Grand Anchor Scrapyard items, from individual rivets to half-built ships, come with varying warrantees of longevity and reliability on their sales.  The Grand Anchor takes pride in their capabilities, and any problems their merchandise causes for clients would inevitably feed back on their reputation.  They are able to avoid being pushed out of business by Merchant Houses or the Mechanicus because of their refusal to horn in on the larger establishments’ turf, and their willingness to deal with even the shadiest Rogue Traders.