In the gritty, industrial sci-fi world of HOSTILE, squatter colonies (often called "Warren-villes," "Sump-towns," or "Leach-sites") represent the desperate fringe of interstellar colonization. When the Weyland-Yutani-esque corporations abandon a mining site or a colony fails to turn a profit, the "Company" leaves. The people, however, often can’t afford the ticket home.
Here is a breakdown of how to integrate these desperate settlements into your campaign.
1. The Anatomy of a Squatter Colony
These aren't planned cities; they are scars on the landscape. They usually form around a decaying piece of infrastructure that still provides a singular necessity: heat, oxygen, or water.
The Anchor: A crashed freighter, a decommissioned atmospheric processor, or a leaking geothermal vent.
The "Hab-Stack": Housing made from rusted shipping containers, scavenged hull plating, and pressurized plastic sheeting.
The Atmosphere: Thick with the smell of recycled sweat, ozone, and cheap synthetic fuel. Visibility is usually low due to "brown-outs" or repurposed industrial foggers used for privacy.
Common Locations
| Location | The "Draw" | The Hazard |
| Lower Decks | Power conduits and heat | Toxic runoff and crushing gravity |
| Asteroid Mines | Residual oxygen pockets | Vacuum leaks and rock-fall |
| Dead Colonies | Pre-built structures | Automated security still on "Kill" mode |
| Starship Graveyards | High-value scrap | Radiation and structural instability |
2. Social Dynamics: The "No-Corp" Life
In HOSTILE, if you don't have a corporate ID, you don't exist. Squatters are "un-persons."
The Scavenger Economy: Everything is recycled. A squatter’s most prized possession is a working soldering iron or a patch-kit.
The Strongman Rule: Without corporate security (and the laws that come with it), colonies are usually run by a "Mayor" (a charismatic leader) or a "Warlord" (whoever owns the only working pulse rifle).
The "Black-Med" Scene: Since they lack access to Med-Bays, squatters rely on "Street Docs" who use industrial chemicals and veterinary tools to perform surgery.
3. Integrating Squatters into Your Mission
If your players are a group of roughnecks or mercenaries, a squatter colony provides a perfect "Grey Market" hub or a source of complications.
Potential Plot Hooks
The Extraction: A corporation realizes a low-level tech specialist they fired years ago is living in a squatter camp—and he has the encryption keys to a billion-dollar ore-cache. The players must go in and get him out before a rival team arrives.
The Outbreak: A colony has been silent for weeks. The players find it's because they breached a sealed lab while scavenging, releasing a biological hazard (or something toothier).
The Debt Collector: The players are hired by a "Repo-Man" to reclaim heavy machinery from a colony. The catch? That machinery is currently the only thing keeping the colony's air scrubbers running.
4. Atmosphere and Flavor
"The air in the Warrens didn't just smell bad; it felt heavy, like it was tired of being breathed. Everywhere you looked, there was the 'Company' logo, scratched out or painted over with crude warnings. They weren't just living in the trash—they were the trash the universe forgot to take out."
Technical Details for the GM
When the players are in a colony, use these environmental modifiers:
Comms Interference: Heavy metal shielding and jury-rigged wiring impose a -2 penalty to long-range radio checks.
Scavenged Gear: Any equipment bought here has a 1-in-6 chance of failing on a "Snake Eyes" roll due to poor maintenance.
Since you're running a HOSTILE campaign, you need an NPC who embodies the friction between "corporate property" and "human survival."
Meet "Filter" Fran, a high-stakes survivalist who acts as the gatekeeper to a squatter colony built inside the cooling fins of a massive, derelict terraforming array.
NPC Profile: "Filter" Fran (Francesca Volkov)
Role: Colony Fixer / Chief Engineer / Unofficial Mayor
Demeanor: Pragmatic, cynical, and fiercely protective.
Background
Fran was a Grade-4 Life Support Technician for Hyperion Dynamics. When the company liquidated the "New Vladivostok" colony due to low mineral yields, they "forgot" to book passage for the maintenance crew. Fran didn't panic; she just started rerouting the remaining coolant back into the habitat heaters. Now, she runs the "Heatsink," a colony of 150 souls living in the vents of a dying machine.
Appearance
Clothing: A grease-stained, oversized flight suit with the sleeves cut off.
Signature Gear: A modified P-6000 Welding Torch clipped to her belt and a respirator mask hung permanently around her neck (hence the nickname).
Physicality: Her skin has a yellowish tint from chronic exposure to low-grade recycled air, and she’s missing the pinky finger on her left hand—a "tax" paid to a faulty hydraulic press.
Stats & Skills (HOSTILE / Cepheus Engine)
| Attribute | Value |
| STR | 7 |
| DEX | 9 |
| END | 10 |
| INT | 10 |
| EDU | 8 |
| SOC | 3 |
Significant Skills: Engineering (Life Support) 3, Mechanics 2, Electronics 2, Streetwise 1, Shotgun 1.
Traits: Jury-Rigger. Fran can repair almost any mechanical device using scrap, though the repair only lasts for $1D6$ hours before requiring a "permanent" fix.
Interaction Guide
What she wants: Spare parts (specifically CO2 scrubbers or heating elements) and medical supplies for her people.
What she hates: "Suits" (Corporate reps) and anyone who wastes resources. If a player leaves a light on or wastes water, she will notice.
The Hook: Fran knows the layout of the nearby abandoned Corporate Research Facility better than anyone. She’ll give the players the "backdoor" codes, but only if they agree to smuggle out a crate of shelf-stable antibiotics for her colony.
A Sample Quote
"Look, Spacer. I don’t care if you’ve got a Letter of Marque or a badge from the UPP. In here, the only law is the oxygen mix. You mess with my scrubbers, and I’ll vent you into the primary coolant line before you can say 'wrongful termination.' Now, do you have the gaskets I asked for, or are we done talking?"
To help you round out the "Heatsink" colony and "Filter" Fran's domain, here are the details for both the environment and her specialized hardware.
1. The "Jury-Rigged" Shotgun: The Pipe-Dream
Fran doesn't carry a standard-issue corporate weapon. The Pipe-Dream is a break-action, 12-gauge smoothbore crafted from a high-pressure hydraulic strut and a reinforced polymer grip from a discarded power drill.
| Stat | Value | Notes |
| Damage | $4D6$ | Lethal at close range; suffers $-1D6$ per 5 meters. |
| Range | 10m | Short-barreled; effective only in corridors. |
| Capacity | 2 | Double-barrel side-by-side. |
| Weight | 3.5 kg | Heavy, reinforced steel. |
Special Weapon Rules
The "Kickback": On a natural roll of 2, the user takes 1 point of damage from the brutal recoil and is knocked off-balance ($-1$ to next action).
Ammunition Versatility: It can fire standard shells, but Fran often loads it with "Scrap-Shot"—ground-up glass and metal shavings. Scrap-Shot deals +2 damage but permanently reduces the weapon's range to 5m.
2. Random Encounter Table: The Heatsink
The cooling fins of a terraforming array are a vertical labyrinth. Use this $1D6$ table when the players are traversing the colony or trying to reach Fran’s workshop.
| D6 | Encounter | Description |
| 1 | The Steam-Vent | A rusted pipe bursts. Players must make a DEX (Reflex) check or take 1D6 thermal damage and be blinded by steam for 2 rounds. |
| 2 | "The Taxman" | 1D3 desperate squatters armed with shivs demand a "breathing fee" (usually a ration pack or a battery). They aren't killers, just hungry. |
| 3 | Corporate Remnant | An automated Mk. II Sentry Drone is stuck in a loop, patrolling a dead-end corridor. Its sensors are degraded, but its pulse-laser still works. |
| 4 | The Scavenger's Haul | The players find a discarded crate. A Luck Roll or INT check reveals it contains $1D6$ units of "Grade-B" O2 canisters or a functional welding kit. |
| 5 | The Silence | The vibration of the array stops for 60 seconds. The squatters freeze in terror, praying the life support isn't failing. A great moment for tension. |
| 6 | The Information Broker | A child named "Rat" offers to lead the players to Fran for "one shiny thing." He knows where the traps are set. |
GM Tip: The Verticality
Since the Heatsink is built into cooling fins, remind the players that "up" and "down" are the primary directions. Falling is a constant threat. Any combat or high-stress movement requires a STR (Athletics) check to maintain a grip on the rusted catwalks.
In the ORBITAL 2100 setting (3rd Edition), there is a significant lore "firewall": it is a Hard Sci-Fi, No-FTL universe.
However, if your campaign has introduced a "salvaged FTL" element—perhaps an experimental prototype from a black-ops Earth Union project or an "Oumuamua-style" alien artifact found in the Kuiper Belt—it becomes a "Game Changer" asset.
Here is a detail of a salvaged 3rd-generation (experimental/prototype) spacecraft for that setting.
The Vessel: UEV-Exodus (Vanguard Prototype)
Status: 3rd-Gen Experimental Salvage
Original Registry: Earth Union "Project Ghost-Walk" (Classified)
1. Physical Profile
Unlike the utilitarian "tail-sitters" of 2100, the Exodus looks alien even to human eyes.
The Spine: A 150-meter carbon-nanotube lattice.
The Drive Core: A massive, lead-shielded sphere at the rear that hums with a vibration that bypasses the ears and vibrates the teeth.
Condition: The hull is scorched with "Transit-Radiation"—a prismatic, oily sheen that won't wash off. Several solar vanes are sheared off, and the spin-gravity ring is jammed at a 12-degree tilt, making life inside "downhill" at all times.
2. The FTL Drive: The "Alcubierre-Zozer" Fold-Engine
In a world of weeks-long orbital transfers, this drive is a miracle—and a nightmare.
Mechanism: It doesn't "jump"; it compresses space-time. To an observer, the ship simply stretches into an infinite line and vanishes.
The Cost: It requires a staggering amount of Helium-3. A single "blink" (approx. 1 AU) drains 15% of the ship's total fuel reserves.
The "FTL Sickness": Because the drive wasn't perfected, crew members experience "Temporal Displacement." After a fold, the crew suffers a -2 penalty to all tasks for 1D6 hours as their brains struggle to resync with linear time.
3. Technical Specifications (Cepheus Engine / Orbital 2100)
| Stat | Specification |
| Hull | 400-ton Streamlined (Experimental) |
| Armor | 4 (Reinforced against micro-meteoroids at FTL speeds) |
| M-Drive | Thrust 2 (Standard NTR for docking/maneuvering) |
| F-Drive | Experimental Fold-1 (Distance: 1 AU per "Blink") |
| Power Plant | Fusion (TL10 Prototype - prone to overheating) |
| Crew | 4 (Pilot, Engineer, Navigator, Sensor Op) |
| Computer | Model/3 (TL11 "Hardened" against FTL-static) |
4. Salvage Flaws (Roll 1D6 for Current Glitch)
Since this is a salvaged vessel, it is far from "factory-fresh":
Ghost Echoes: The ship's internal comms occasionally play recordings of the previous crew's final moments.
Gravity Flux: During FTL, the spin-ring attempts to rotate at triple speed. If not locked down, it causes structural damage.
Leaking Rads: The engine shielding is degraded. After every FTL use, the Engineering deck is lethal without a Lead-Lined Vacc Suit.
Navigation Drift: The ship always arrives $1D6 \times 10,000$ km off-target.
Oil-Slick Sensors: The external cameras see "colors" that don't exist, making docking difficult.
The "Stutter": The engine has a 10% chance of failing to shut down, requiring a Difficult (-2) Engineering check to avoid overshooting the Solar System entirely.
5. Campaign Hook: "The Golden Ticket"
The Earth Union wants their prototype back. The Lunar Republic wants to strip it for parts. The independent miners of the Belt want to use it to reach the Oort Cloud and escape the Cold War forever.
The Players' Dilemma: They found it drifting near Neptune. It’s the only ship in the system that can outrun a missile or cross to Mars in seconds rather than months. But every time they use the FTL, they send out a "Gravity Ripple" that every sensor station from Mercury to Pluto can track.
Gemini said
Near the "Heatsink" squatter colony, lodged in the shadow of a jagged sulfuric ridge, lies the Acheron-V Sector Lab. Originally a high-security research outpost for Sutekh-Biomedical, it was officially "decommissioned" (abandoned) when the atmospheric processors in this sector began failing.
In the world of HOSTILE, this is a "Gold Mine" of tech—and a "Meat Grinder" for the unprepared.
Location: Sutekh-Bio Lab 4 (The "Cold-Storage" Vault)
The facility is a subterranean bunker partially crushed by a localized tectonic shift. It was designed to remain functional even if the surface colony perished, making it a pressurized time capsule of corporate secrets.
1. The Environment
The Air: Stale, metallic, and freezing. The primary life support is dead, but a backup emergency scrubber is still clicking away, providing just enough O2 to keep a human alive—barely.
The Lighting: Dim red emergency strobes. Every 30 seconds, a high-intensity "Sanitization Flare" (UV light) flickers in the hallways, momentarily blinding anyone without polarized visors.
The Hazard: Structural Instability. The tectonic shift has tilted the entire facility at a 15-degree angle. Loose equipment, shattered glass, and toxic chemicals pool in the "downslope" corners of every room.
2. Key Areas of Interest
The Airlock / Decontamination Zone
The outer door is jammed halfway open, clogged with the frozen remains of a security team that didn't make it out.
The Loot: 2x Standard Issue Pulse Rifles (empty) and a Keycard (Access Level: Green) held in the stiff grip of a Sergeant.
The Danger: The internal automated turrets are still powered. They will fire on anything not transmitting a Sutekh employee ID signal.
The Cryo-Seed Vault
A massive, reinforced room filled with rows of liquid nitrogen canisters.
The Prize: It contains "Gen-2" hardy crop seeds designed to grow in high-sulfur soil. To the squatters at the Heatsink, this is more valuable than gold—it’s a future.
The Twist: One of the canisters isn't holding seeds. It’s marked "PROJECT: NIGHTSHADE" and contains a dormant, synthetic viral strain.
The Server Core (The "Black Box")
A room filled with humming, water-cooled processors.
The Objective: Fran wants the Logistical Nav-Data stored here. It contains the coordinates for every Sutekh supply cache in the outer rim.
The Interaction: Accessing the data requires a Difficult (-2) Computer check. Failing the check triggers a "Purge Protocol," flooding the room with Halon gas (suffocation hazard).
3. The "Ghost" in the Machine
The facility is overseen by "MOTHER-7," a low-level logic computer. She isn't sentient, but she is programmed to protect Sutekh assets.
Tactics: She will use the PA system to play "Calming Corporate Mandates" while she seals doors to trap the players.
Audio Log: “Attention Employees. An unscheduled restructuring is in progress. Please remain in your designated workstations. Safety is our primary synergy.”
4. Random "Remnant" Table (1D6 Search Results)
If the players spend 10 minutes scavenging a room, roll on this table:
