Derelict Salvager

A wreck-scavenger who lives by cutting into dead ships, ghost Stations, and abandoned colonies to pull value out of the void.

Salvagers work the dead. They buy or lease the rights to a wreck, board it in Vacuum, cut the still-valuable parts out of the corroded hull, and sell them for less than half of replacement cost. The work is dirty, dangerous, and pays in salvage rather than salary. Salvagers talk in hull classes and registry numbers and they treat every ship like it might still be angry.

Rules Reference

Field	Value
Archetype Combinations / Academic	Awkward fit. The salvager knows what works; the Academic wants to know why.
Archetype Combinations / Chaplain	Awkward fit. Wrecks do not need sermons; the chaplain must find purpose elsewhere.
Archetype Combinations / Face	Good fit. Salvage markets are a Face's natural hunting ground; the contacts come pre-built.
Archetype Combinations / Officer	Awkward fit. Officer's authority is meaningless on a derelict.
Archetype Combinations / Operative	Best fit. Operative skills plus salvager instinct make a competent infiltrator on dead ships and abandoned stations.
Archetype Combinations / Psion	Workable fit. Dead ships sometimes hold echoes; the salvager who is also a psion learns to listen carefully.
Archetype Combinations / Sawbones	Workable fit. Sawbones makes the salvager into a credible field medic on long expeditions.
Archetype Combinations / Scout	Workable fit. The salvager extends the Scout's range into dead space.
Archetype Combinations / Soldier	Good fit. The salvager is already accustomed to hard work and vacuum; Soldier chassis adds combat readiness.
Background Trait / Name	Salvage Sense
Background Trait / Trigger	Passive; invokes when searching wrecks.
Starting Rek	100
Verse Anchor	Derelict Salvager

Notes

Background Trait / Cause: Because the salvager has learned to read a wreck the way a doctor reads a patient: nothing is broken until the cycle is finished.

Background Trait / Effect: May Take 10 on Repair and Perception checks made to identify, recover, or assess the value of salvage from a wreck or ruin, even under time pressure. Can identify the half-value or full-value worth of any single salvage item without rolling, once per wreck.

Social Hook: Salvagers meet in dockside bars and outfitter back rooms. They argue over registry numbers, share tips about new derelicts, and keep each other out of the worst hulls. They are respected by void-truckers, tolerated by dock masters, and prosecuted by salvage corporations when they wander onto claimed wrecks.

Starting Gear: Plasma cutter (industrial; cuts steel but draws attention), Mag-boots (one pair; functional), Patch vacc-suit (unpowered, sealed, +2 vs. vacuum for 4 hours at a time), Grapple line and reel (30 m), Shipbreaker's sled (folding; carries up to 200 kg), Welding mask (auto-darkening), Tool roll: spanners, circuit probe, multimeter, three sizes of self-tapping bolts, Salvage manifest chit (legally registers recovered goods at the next Confederation port)

Trained Skills

Skill	Ranks	Note
Mechanics	4	Class skill for Soldier, Academic, Operative; treated as class skill for this profession.
Perception	2	Spotting intact systems in a dead hull.
Repair	4	Recognising what is salvageable and what is scrap.