The Grimmfleet has made its base of operations a massive circumstellar disc spanning between multiple different star systems within the Stahl Sector. With an approximate diameter of 14850 AU, the disc is one of the largest stellar bodies within the entire Sector and difficult to scour or cleanse due to the vast space it spans.

 The disc itself has been known to the Imperium for thousands of years and is listed officially as Harlan’s Shore, named after the Rogue Trader who initially rediscovered the it during the Great Crusade, but within the Stahl Sector the disc is also frequently referred to as the Glimmer Disc, owing mostly to the high proportion of rare and valuable mineral ores found within it. 

Harlan’s Shore has been the preferred hideout of pirates, criminals, rebels and outcasts for millennia, slowly building up a massive population of individuals who found nowhere they could comfortably exist within the Sector under tight Imperial control. The size of the disc allowed multiple of these groups to thrive and the dense planetoids, as well as interference with auspex caused by numerous strange ores, made purging Harlan’s Shore an impracticality, though numerous Imperial forces attempted this regardless. 

However, it is only of late, since the arrival of the Ork Warboss known as Gartog ‘Ardbiter, that the Shore has come into sharp focus once more. Although at first leading nothing but a small, depleted, flotilla of Freebooters, Gartog began a campaign of slowly accumulating power within the Shore, a campaign that pitted him against rival Freebooters, Anhrathe Corsairs, Human pirates and more. Eventually the Warboss succeeded in conglomerating a large number of Orks under his control, by making the Shore open to the use of other Warbands seeking somewhere to resupply or avoid enemies, growing his might and power until, eventually, he emerged as the dominant power within the entire disc.

Since the Orks have arrived they have taken to calling it the Goldtoof Maw, or more colloquially the Maw, interpreting it’s torus shape as being the mouth of some great beast, with the numerous precious minerals inside serving as the allegorical gold ‘teef’ from which it draws it’s epithet. Though the Grimmfleet’s control over the Maw is not total, it is expansive enough that the vast majority of the Maw falls under their purview, with most of the former inhabitants by now forced to flee, into hiding or knuckling under and submitting to the new leadership. Since the Orkish centralization and successful defeat of the Imperial flotilla dispatched to pacify them, the Maw has transformed from predominantly a haven for outcasts into a thriving pirate-controlled space. Black markets, Cold markets, arms dealers and slave traders of numerous banners flock to the area, as new raids are launched daily by the Grimmfleet to tow back raw materials and resources necessary to dominate more of the Stahl Sector.

Locations of Interest:

Shu: The largest dwarf planet within the Maw, Shu’s ease of accessibility and settlement has seen it be utilized by many groups over the centuries as a base of operations and mining installation. At current Orks of the Evil Sunz warband Da Badd Redd Chiefs, the Goff Warband Da War Boars, the Bad Moon warband Da Krooked Grin, as well as Orks of the Grimmfleet’s core Da Grimm warband and human pirates of the Red Cowl Crew all have operations on Shu.

Dogma Colony: Established over a thousand years ago by a group of religious deviants who, though following the Imperial Creed differed from the dominant interpretation of the time, Dogma Colony was named as such disparagingly by the Imperial retribution forces that pursued after the deviants. Dogma Colony lay abandoned for some time, with human pirates eventually settling in it, but during Warboss Gartog’s campaign they were forced out and now Orks of the Deathskulls warband Ironteef ‘Urd utilize it as a staging point for raids.

Da Grimmrok: A massive Rok, converted from one of the largest dwarf planets in the Maw, Da Grimmrok is the economic hub of the pirating activity throughout the Maw and bristles with guns and hangars, serving as the seat of Warboss Gartog’s power.

Mani Station: A powerful pirate station, converted from an old Imperial starfort during one of the intermitten times when a Sector Lord thought to try to police the Maw, control of the station is mostly now in the hands of the Vexxecus Sslyth Brood and Da Krushin’ Krew Freebooters.

Hemera Mines complex: The most structurally intact mining complex within the Maw, created by Adeptus Mechanicus when the Imperium’s authority could still penetrate into the Maw, although almost every faction has interests, control of it largely belongs to Gartog’s personal Da Grimm warband, with support from the Vexxecus Sslyth Brood who are generally the most dependable and loyal of mercenaries within the Maw.

Mammouth: A dwarf planet of considerable size, Mammouth is wracked by electric storms and a highly charged, ionic, atmosphere, which makes navigation to it difficult. However, the electricity there can be harvested for power, something that the Ironteef ‘Urd, Da Krooked Grin and Da Badd Redd Chiefs all seek to do.

Red Dur: A large and sprawling series of dockyards and hangars between two asteroids, the Red Dur serves as the primary base of the Da Badd Redd Chiefs warband.

The Dame: The Dame has a somewhat famous, or infamous, history within the Maw. A massive Spacehulk, by far the largest vessel ever to enter the Maw in recorded history, how the Dame wound up in the Maw is a subject of debate. The most popular versions are that it was summoned via the Warp magicks of cultists within the Maw who lead a pirate army to ravage the sector, before their final defeat inside the Maw saw the Dame left derelict. It’s massive size still makes it a formidable stellar fortification though, and for centuries before the arrival of the Orks in force control of the Dame tended to be symbolic of whatever pirate band within the Maw was dominant. Currently the Void Foxes pirates control much of the Dame, though the Blood Axe warband known as the Howlin’ Kommandos and Da War Boars have taken to fighting in it and seizing as much of it as they can for themselves.

Rad Town: One of the Imperium’s largest attempts to settle into the Maw, on a dwarf planet, ended in disaster when Mechanicus power generators were being installed and ruptured, irradiating the entire area. The Snakebites warband Deffroarers have settled in Rad Town, seeing it as a mark of their toughness to endure the radiation and mutated beasts within the old colony.

Silvatoof: One of the strangest of the asteroids within the Maw, the Silvatoof is a dangerous anomaly, the minerals and materials within have strange, anomalous, properties which make them valuable, but they can interfere with navigation systems and emit strong magnetic fields, scrambling electronics and sometimes even pulling a ship towards them to it’s doom.

Pa’al Rift: Known to the Orks of the Grimmfleet as  Da Gap, the Rift was an artificially created gap within the torus of the Maw, blasted out by the Sector Battlefleet over the course of two-thousand years, intended as merely the first stage of a project to create easier internal movement between the systems the Maw touched. However, during the time the Sector Battlefleet was involved in this project, numerous systems and planets were lost within the Sector due to the lack of sufficient naval presence, and after the creation of the Rift the plan was abandoned and the leadership responsible for formulating the idea executed.

Rustbucket: A derelict former industrial complex currently used as the base of operations for Da Krooked Grin warband.

In many ways the Grimmfleet’s greatest asset is the chokehold it has established among piratical and Orkish groups seeking to raid, ravage or pirate within the Stahl Sector and nearby other Sectors. From the safety of the Maw the Grimmfleet offers marginally safe berth and place to repair and resupply, as well as trade, for forces outside the established hegemons or orders.

In exchange for this Kommodore Gartog demands his ‘tithe’, a tax on any pirating vessel that makes use of the Maw and the facilities of the Grimmfleet. It is this tax that provides the Grimmfleet with a constant influx of valuable goods and materials, in particular as any failure to meet the tax will meet with an excessively violent ‘repossession’ of the offender’s vessels.

Of course; anyone is free to attempt to raid and pillage without making use of the Maw, or the protection of the Grimmfleet, but such groups quickly find that life is much harder when there is nowhere easy and safe to hide from Imperial patrols, vengeful Aeldari Corsairs, Appalachian Corporate interests or Stahl Liberation Fleets. 

As a result the Grimmfleet has transformed into a massive market for goods of all sorts, and the raw material exchange that occurs within the Maw under it’s watch is truly immense. 

Workforce: The majority of the workforce is composed of Orkoids, Grots and Orks, who toil within the Maw. This is supplemented by slaves taken on raids, predominantly humans though some other species are also reflected, and small numbers of human volunteers and labourers from independent crews or who had lived in the Maw before the arrival of the Orks and simply adjusted to the new leadership without complaint.

Primary Exports: The primary export of the Maw are the ores within the disc’s numerous celestial objects and raw metals and alloys harvested from voidcraft captured on raids or found within the dense clusters of the Maw’s asteroids. In addition to these Primary Exports there are some other trades that bear mentioning, if only for their societal affect on the Sector, which are detailed below. 

Currency: The primary currency used among the Orkoids of the Grimmfleet are Teef, as is common among their species. Outside of this much of the economy within the Maw operates akin to a barter system, with resources traded in exchange for other resources as opposed to a form of currency. Some of the human pirates, and criminals, who operate within legal society may at times transact in whatever respective currencies their homes use, but these form a distinct minority. 

Taxation: Within the Grimmfleet there exists no official taxation beyond the Kommodore’s tithe. However, it is common within Orkoid society for individual leaders and Bosses to largely, when it suits them, extort whatever amount of wealth they can from others. 

Industry: Aside from the heavy focus on mining the Grimmfleet also has substantial voidcraft production abilities, assembled and jury rigged from derelict stations by their Meks. 

Narcotics Trade: A substantial trade in narcotics passes through the Grimmfleet. In this particular sector the Orks are not very influential, having little use or experiencing little effects from most narcotics due to their hardy physiologies, and preferring combat to any chemical high, it is predominantly human and Strixis who have capitalized on the Grimmfleet’s stability to create a thriving narcotics trade.