Ships & Tech
Sling and catcher
also: the mitt · catcher station
Mass-driver logistics: cargo flung across a system and caught by a station built to receive it.
In full
Outposts are fed by mass-driver slings that throw pods across enormous distances, caught at the far end by an orbital catcher station the crews call the mitt. Because bulk haulage is automated and fast, crewed ships do not carry supplies — they escort them. That single fact shapes what a frontier captain's job actually is.
Key facts
- Cargo is thrown, not carried.
- Caught by an orbital catcher station — the mitt.
- Automated and fast, so crewed ships escort rather than haul.
- Distinct from a gravity-assist slingshot; the two are never conflated.