Sling-and-Catch — Corridor Logistics System

The machine that feeds the frontier. A sling — a corridor-scale electromagnetic mass-driver — flings a loaded pod across a third of a system on a flat ballistic line, a falling mountain travelling as a weapon. A chain of decelerator rings strung down the Rivas line — the catcher, the mitt — takes it by the shoulders ring by ring, sheds a sliver of its murder at each, and hands it to the docks at Tornel as freight: grain, coil-stock, printer-feed, the ordinary substance a dozen colonies will eat this winter. Bulk haulage is automated and fast, which is why crewed ships out here don't carry supplies. They escort.