Ashfeld is the fourth planet in the Redding System and the industrial foundation upon which the Confederacy's capital was built. A harsh, grey world of strip mines, refineries, and manufacturing plants, Ashfeld is not a place anyone chooses to live—it's a place people work.
Ashfeld earned its name honestly. The planet's atmosphere carries a perpetual haze of industrial particulates, volcanic ash, and dust from centuries of mining operations. The skies are grey more often than not. The landscape is scarred with open-pit mines, slag heaps, and the sprawling complexes of heavy industry.
Despite its uninviting appearance, Ashfeld is economically vital. The planet's mineral wealth supplies shipwrights across Freelance space, and its refineries process ore from both the planetary surface and the system's asteroid belt. Components manufactured on Ashfeld end up in ships built at Emory, Talbot Yards, and dozens of smaller operations.
The population of roughly 80 million consists primarily of miners, factory workers, engineers, and the service industries that support them. Life on Ashfeld is hard but honest work. The people here have a reputation for being practical, tough, and deeply suspicious of anyone who hasn't gotten their hands dirty.
The largest open-pit mine on Ashfeld, visible from orbit as a dark gash across the northern continent. The Scar has been continuously mined for over two centuries and shows no signs of exhaustion. Entire cities exist on its rim, their populations dedicated to extracting and processing the wealth below.
The eastern seaboard of the primary continent, dominated by refineries and manufacturing plants. The "sea" is more of a chemical soup at this point, though environmental engineers insist it's improving. (It's not.)
The largest city on Ashfeld and the planetary capital, such as it is. Greyholm sits at the intersection of major transport routes, serving as the hub for shipping materials up to Constitution and receiving goods from across Freelance space. The city has a reputation for rough bars, rougher workers, and a pragmatic approach to law enforcement.
Ashfelders are working-class to their core. They have little patience for pretension, corporate doublespeak, or anyone who thinks they're better than the people who build things with their hands. This attitude made them natural Confederates—they joined the Confederacy not out of idealism but because they wanted to be left alone to do their work.
The planet's most famous daughter is Maggie Harker, the delegate who cold-cocked Conrad Mercer during the chaotic early days of Constitution Station's construction. Harker embodied everything Ashfeld values: direct, practical, and willing to throw a punch when words fail. Her unanimous election as planetary governor surprised no one on Ashfeld.
Ashfeld and Constitution Station exist in symbiosis. The station couldn't have been built without Ashfeld's industrial capacity, and it couldn't continue to grow without the constant supply of materials from the surface. In turn, Constitution provides Ashfeld with a market for its goods and a connection to the broader galaxy that the planet never had before.
Many Ashfelders work shifts on Constitution, commuting via regular shuttle service. The station's lower districts have a distinctly Ashfeld character—industrial, practical, and unpretentious. The joke goes that you can always tell which parts of Constitution were built by Ashfelders: they're the ones that actually work.