Belters

People who live among the asteroid belt, the Kuperier belt, the asteroids, or anyplace that is generally considered 'out of the way' fall into this 'society'. Belters are basically interplanetary nomads. They fall under no real Confederate 'Region' yet they are all considered citizens. Their 'capital' as recognized by the ICC is Ceres, but no one really knows just how many Belters there are.

A Belters life is essentially that of a 23rd century Cowboy. They search for scrap. They mine asteroids and planetoids in search of rare minerals or elements. They can be bounty hunters and pirates. They can be found on every world operating as independent contractors. If there was a wild west, then the Asteroid field between mars and Jupiter and the outer orbits beyond Pluto would be free range. This is where the Belter will live.

Belters are generally found in familial 'clans' that travel together for protection and numbers. Sometimes several generations of the same family can be found operating a hauler, or a mobile ore extractor. Because of this, a Belters allegiance is first to their immediate family, then to their Clan, then to the Confederation.

This has resulted into several ongoing 'feuds', turf wars, and in general shoot - outs in Ceres Station and other non-affiliated Belter habitations. These places are outside of ICC and CPH law. And both the Belters and the Confederation know it. As long as the Belters keep their wild-west credo in the 'belt' and out of the 'civilized' settlements, the system works. On occasion though, there have been skirmishes between ICC security, or the CPH navy and Belter flotillas. Just because the Belters tend to live form day to day, that doesn't mean some of the clans (some would even say Mafioso) are poor or ill equiped to defend themselves.

If you want something, and it is illegal in the settlements, then you can certainly gain it 'out in the Belt'.

Ceres

Ceres is the officially recognized capital of Belter society. This Habitat of 100,000 is in many ways the central trade nexus of the Sol system. The sprawling complex of underground habitats and orbital 'add-ons' allows for hundreds of vessels to dock and restock on most consumables.

While it is officially part of the CPH, it is enforcement is weak enough by CPH regular military that generally a great deal of illegal cargo is transacted (military grade weapons, illegal narcotics, unauthorized cyber enhancement, mind altering neural programming, the usual).