Frequently Asked Questions
The most-asked questions about derelict landers.
What exactly are the derelict landers?
The derelict landers are a collection of abandoned crewed spacecraft that crashed or were left behind on outer-system colony worlds decades before the story begins. The franchise follows the scavenger crews and salvage corporations that track down, board, and strip these long-dead vessels for parts, data cores, and whatever secrets they still hold.
Who are the central figures fans talk about most?
The recurring anchor is Maren Voss, a salvage pilot who runs the battered tug *Hollow Point* and serves as the series' moral compass. She is paired with Dax Krell, a xenolinguist who deciphers the corrupted logs left behind in each lander, and the enigmatic corporate fixer Sable Orin, whose loyalties shift across the arc.
Where should a newcomer start reading or playing?
Begin with *Hollow Point*, the first volume, which introduces the salvage rules, the *Hollow Point* crew, and the first lander recovery on Ceres-9. If the property is available as a tabletop or video game, the introductory module titled 'Cold Deck' mirrors that same first recovery and is the recommended on-ramp.
How many landers are catalogued in the main storyline?
Seven landers form the core narrative arc, each corresponding to a major volume or game chapter. A spin-off anthology later adds three 'unrecovered' landers that appear only in fragmentary logs, bringing the total to ten known vessels.
What is the 'Black Frame' incident and why do fans keep referencing it?
In the fourth volume, the crew boards the lander *Kestrel-4* and discovers a sealed observation bay where the original crew's bodies are arranged facing a blank, unpowered screen. The scene is never fully explained in canon, making it the single most debated and fan-theorized moment in the entire series.
What is the broader setting or universe?
The story takes place roughly two centuries from now in a loosely governed outer belt of the solar system, where independent salvage operators fill the vacuum left by receding corporate charters. Technology is functional but aging; there is no FTL travel, and communication delays of hours or days shape every interaction.
What are the core themes the series keeps returning to?
The most cited themes are the ethics of stripping a dead crew's home for profit, the question of whether a machine can carry a 'last message' that still counts as testimony, and the slow erosion of identity when you spend years living inside other people's abandoned lives.
Is there an official canon, or do fans just make things up?
The author maintains a short, updated 'Liner Notes' appendix in each new volume that confirms or retcons specific details, and that is treated as the only hard canon. Everything else—character backstories, the true fate of the *Kestrel-4* crew, the politics of the Belt Charter Council—is fair game for fan fiction and community wikis.
What is the 'Lander Code' and why does it matter to the plot?
The Lander Code is a set of unwritten salvage protocols the crews follow: never remove a personal effects locker, always log the crew manifest before boarding, and leave at least one intact data core behind as a 'grave marker.' Several major plot twists hinge on a crew member breaking one of those rules, which ripples through the remaining volumes.
What makes the derelict landers stand out from other sci-fi salvage stories?
Rather than treating the dead ships as puzzle boxes or loot drops, the series lingers on the domestic, mundane residue inside them—half-finished meals, children's drawings taped to bulkheads, a single running hydroponic tray. That insistence on the small, human scale of loss is what most fans cite as the reason the property sticks with them.