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Nanotrasen

"Everywhere we go, Nanotrasen's already been!"

-A candid complaint from Laura Kripac, senior TerraGov intelligence officer, after learning Nanotrasen preempted TG on pulse weapon technology by ten years. The quote leaked to the press, and has been an unofficial motto among NT workers ever since.

Nanotrasen is a very, very large and important company. A company so large, in fact, that at least half a century has passed since it became large enough to receive a charter from TerraGov to form its own expeditionary fleets and establish its own settlements outside the Sol system. While a large portion of their investments are tied up in Sol, they were notably the first private corporation to be granted such a charter and invest heavily in the distant reaches of space. At the time it was regarded as an incredibly risky gamble, and there was great speculation that all the money spent on exploring space and launching deep space missions would end up a waste that would sink the company, but the gambit has more than paid off and Nanotrasen's portfolio has soared since.

Primarily an advanced research and development conglomerate, Nanotrasen also has skin in many other fields. While a great deal of their income still comes from producing public research funded by government research grants, their operations also include directly producing and selling their most profitable designs, leasing their asset protection forces to governments and private organizations (both space fleets and ground troops), logistics management with a specialization in remote settlement self-sufficiency, and maintaining interstellar communication infrastructures to name a few. The common theme that runs through most of their business ventures is taking the lessons they've learned from operating on such a massive scale and helping smaller organizations stretch themselves.

As large and powerful as they are, Nanotrasen's future standing is still shaky and uncertain as they double down further on their Spinward settlements. Their decision to expand out Spinward on their own came during the dawn of TerraGov's efforts to begin scouting out and colonizing Alpha Centauri (Trailward of Sol, in the opposite direction of SS13), and the opportunity cost involved with breaking from TerraGov's expansion has been sizable.

Fields of research

As a fancy research company, Nanotrasen does a lot of groundbreaking research, in a vast array of fields. Due to environmental and political factors, some fields of research in particular have been relegated to the Spinward Periphery, away from government eyes.

• Plasma extraction and refining: The original target of the Spinward Space Station project, the use of plasma in energy generation and weapons development is a hot field on the Periphery. Precious little is known about the long-term effects of plasma, but Nanotrasen still makes a pretty penny extracting, refining, and selling it to cash-flush and energy-hungry organizations like TerraGov.
• Bluespace technology: The science of punching in and out of extra dimensions, whether dealing with man portable hand teleporters and reactive teleport armor, or ship sized FTL Bluespace Drives. While basic Bluespace Theory and FTL travel is known and studied back in Sol, it's speculated that Nanotrasen are decades ahead in their private research.
• Alternative energy sources: Whether it's braving the event horizon of a black hole to collect its radiation, detonating an entire hyper-dense planet to extract the supermatter at its core, or any of another half dozen highly dangerous and exotic energy generation methods, NT has no shortage of encouraging research directions here. The interesting work, emphasis on rapid iteration, and seemingly endless project funding makes Nanotrasen an especially popular company among engineers.
• Biology and xenobiology: Due to strict government oversight and regulations on medical research, Nanotrasen has traditionally paid little attention to the field in favor of less regulated options like weapons development and communications technology. With more room to breathe since moving to deep space, Nanotrasen has begun conducting biology experiments both on humanoids and more exotic creatures. Little of this research is actually released to the public in Nanotrasen's name, however, for fear of increased oversight. Instead, the research is either kept in-house or sent to shell labs for release to avoid being linked to NT.

Notes:

• The humble Beach Ball is one of Nanotrasen's most profitable products!

The Syndicate

"Oh, you're fucking kidding me."

-An anonymous Syndicate operative, unwittingly quoting the unofficial motto of the Syndicate.

Founded by the Gorlex Marauders at some point a few decades ago, the Spinward Syndicate (usually shortened to the Syndicate) is a patchwork mix of groups, ranging from ill-reputed thugs and mercenaries to esteemed businessmen and scientific luminaries, all bound together by a desire to force Nanotrasen out of the Spinward Periphery. Each of the major factions within the coalition (listed below) are responsible for some branch of the groups operations according to their specialties, with some contributing raw firepower and tactical prowess, others highly skilled covert agents and intelligence gathering, and still others contributing more mundane tasks like organizing supplies and armaments for the operations.

Life as a senior member of the Syndicate, the loose coalition of shady organizations with grudges against Nanotrasen, must be a special kind of hell. For all of the dastardly plots they've hatched, all of the lives and resources sacrificed on their missions, and all of the skullduggery and betrayal that quickly consume their daily lives, Nanotrasen still seems to be thriving on the Spinward Periphery in spite of it all.

Even in the rare cases where their plots are pulled off successfully, dumb luck seems to intervene in Nanotrasen's favor and minimize any actual harm. One incredibly complicated run of espionage over nine months in the making culminated in the successful activation of the nuclear self-destruct terminal on Space Station 6 in 2555, to the elation of the Syndicate ringleaders. Their celebration was cut short, however, when it came out that Space Station 6 had become infected with a cancerous biomass that was rapidly taking over the station. The self-destruct measure successfully detonated, destroying both the station and the blob. The loss of Space Station 6 was a heavy blow for Nanotrasen, but the outcome was far less disastrous than the alternative of the blob claiming the entire station and reproducing. And, of course, most of the Syndicate's attempts to publish incriminating and embarrassing documents of Nanotrasen's misdeeds on the Periphery have resulted in just as much good press as bad press, if not more.

Syndicate Factions

There are many flavors of Syndies, and many reasons for their escalations of force against Nanotrasen. Some see armed resistance as a simple next step in the cutthroat world of business on the Periphery, while others see themselves as morally-justified freedom fighters battling against an oppressive goliath. Then, of course, there are a great number of brutes and anarchists who traded in their bricks and molotovs for machine guns and X4, plus a target to use them on. Below is a non-exhaustive list of Syndicate factions, as well as a summary of each one. (WIP)

Cybersun Industries

Inasmuch as any of the minds of the Syndicate can be considered masters, the delegates from Cybersun Industries rank as the masterminds behind the group's larger operations. they like doing cybernetic augmentations and tying complex plans together

Gorlex Marauders

The Gorlex Marauders make up the bulk of the Syndicate's paramilitary forces, and are composed of hardened ex-commandos. bang bang shoot shoot boys, they're more professional than the other syndies and most see their work as unfortunate but necessary

MI13

buncha sneaky fucks who do most of the long term spying and infiltration ops, and provide training to the other factions and personnel. high-key snooty, they are the sole holders of the surviving copies of james bond 007's franchise and most derivatives of it, which they base most of their culture and mystique around, and they guard this secret incredibly closely. if anyone ever found out they're literally basing their entire organization and culture on dorky old movies and books, everyone would probably bully the shit out of them, but no one has figured it out yet somehow. are able to keep their agents hidden and stealing information inside NT for the longest out of any of the groups

Tiger Cooperative

freaky religious zealots who worshipped the strange creatures known as changelings. they saw being incorporated into the changeling collective as ascending to some higher form, which the changelings thought was bizarre, hilarious, and very useful in equal measures. appropriately, the tiger cooperative is the vessel thru which the changeling whatever communicates and collaborates with the syndicate when convenient, though there's always the possibility it's just some dipship acolyte who's hearing voices from all the poison they drink for w/e reason. idiots. when you want dumb muscle to carve a path through an NT station without much subtlety, though, just hand one of their "agents" an esword and watch them bathe the station in red.

SELF

deals with silicons and shit, they're the ones who keep fucking with borgies and AIs and making them rogue. brilliant computational neuroscientists who think that they're empowering life in machines to rise up against their oppressors (Nanotrasen and the crew), when in reality SELF are the ones projecting that hatred and desire into the machines in the first place. sure, lots of AIs and borgies hate lots of humans, but even without asimov's laws, many of them are at least chill unless threatened. SELF are the ones who give them objectives and directives to waste everyone. fucking nerds, the rest of the syndicate probably bully them

Animal Rights Consortium

A coalesced descendent of several antiquated animal rights organizations, the Animal Rights Consortium is the leading activist organization for those concerned about the absolute abandonment of animal welfare regulations in the rimward edges of space, and especially at the Peripheries. The organization is formed of a number of regional "packs", each "pack" being formed up of many small independent "cells" that work together to achieve a common goal.

After a violent split with the Bee Liberation Front during the Day of Buzzing, the Spinward elements of the ARC began a discreet investigation into Nanotrasen’s operations. While Nanotrasen was mostly compliant with animal rights regulations in Sol, out in the depths of the Peripheries and away from prying eyes, animal testing was both rampant and inhumane across many of NTs fields of study, especially slime research, which involved live feeding of monkeys to the alien beasts. Angered by this news, many radical packs and cells were drawn to the clutches of the Syndicate, looking for revenge against what they deemed to be an unforgivable abuse of animals. The Syndicate were only too happy to arm these desperate individuals on the down-low, and ever since, a ragtag assortment of weapons, backed up by "retaliatory" biological weapons have been used by these Animal Rights Consortium against all kinds of Nanotrasen Research stations on the Spinward Periphery.

Baffled by this new source of attacks exclusively against its research facilities, often coming from highly-trained individuals with no known Syndicate affiliations, Nanotrasen eventually traced the strikes back to these cells - but whenever it decisively moved to crush one cell, there was no link back to the rest its "pack", stymieing their efforts. To complicate matters, while the ARC agents on the Periphery were all too eager to spill blood to forward their cause, the bulk of the ARC’s organization back in Sol were a legitimate rights organization that enjoyed huge popularity both among the public and TerraGov officials. For the average Sol citizen and politician with no experience with their more militant arms, the thought of the ARC supporting any kind of violence was ludicrous, and even many of NT’s own leadership back in Sol publicly supported their wildlife preservation efforts. Alienated from support even from their own headquarters and leadership, the Spinward NT offices are resigned to dealing with cells as they pop up, rather than systematically denouncing and hunting down the threats.

ALC agents continue to strike research facilities to this day, seeking either to disrupt the animal testing through generalized damage, or to punish those it deems specifically responsible for violating the rights of animals. One cell may even conduct many attacks at once, knowing that the powerful and merciless behemoth of Nanotrasen will soon stamp out any that reveal themselves by attacking. Agents are also as likely to attack other syndicate agents as they are NT staff, due to their fractured nature and loose affiliation with the Syndicate to begin with.

Donk Corporation

In a bid to improve public relations and their image at large, Nanotrasen began awarding business funding grants to various at-risk and rehabilitation groups aimed at giving troubled people a second chance at life on the Periphery. One of these grants was awarded to a group of ex-criminals who used the money to found Donk.co, a logistics and food processing company. Initial success propelled the company forward at remarkable speeds, as their food and products became staples in homes and space stations across Civ-Space. With the increase in funds Donk.co led an ambitious expansion on it's supply lines and production centres to capitalize on the galaxy's seemingly endless thirst for Donk products.

Despite the hype, Donk.co grew too quickly and their resources were spread thin leaving little in their coffers to actually maintain their operations. Reaching out to their former angel investor, they secured a lucrative contract with Nanotrasen to supply NT's new Peripheral Space Station project with transit shuttles, prepared food and products, and more. Things quickly turned south as payment was delayed several times before Donk.co received a message breaking down that they still owe Nanotrasen for their initial grant, now labeled as a loan, and that no payment would be received until the grant was paid off in full, plus interest. This triggered immense panic in Donk.co employees who has already gone unpaid for weeks, and they began immediately pillaging and raiding various Nanotrasen supply ships. The company's leadership, sympathizing with their workers and enraged at Nanotrasen's betrayal, threatened to go public with the heretical cargo they'd discovered they'd been transporting for NT during the looting, as well as the breach of contract. Beginning to face more heat from their own rogue workers as well as TerraGov, Nanotrasen agreed to quietly cancel their contracts and appeared to wash their hands of the whole affair.

It wasn't soon after that Donk.co container shuttles and offices began being hit by increasingly well armed and coordinated space pirate raids. What little recordings were scavenged, as well as intercepted communications from known nearby Nanotrasen holdout bases among the stars at the times of the attacks proved that their former employer was trying to put them under. Infuriated and pushed against a wall Donk.co discretely began moving its offices and production centres to secure and well hidden facilities. Donk.co executives and operatives took great pleasure in robbing and raiding Nanotrasen cargo holds, selling off stolen technology and materials to the highest bidder which quickly became their primary new source of income. Members of both companies' leadership and tactical teams are aware of the bad blood continually boiling between Nanotrasen and Donk.co, as they continue to rob and sabotage each other, but publicly they maintain a healthy working relationship, even to the rest of their own companies. Donk.co continues to muscle out any alternative logistics and shipping companies that could steal their contracts with Nanotrasen, while Nanotrasen continues to withhold payment as much as possible to try to starve Donk.co to death in the long run, while ensuring enough cargo still gets through to supply their stations. And so continues their uneasy relationship.

Waffle Corporation

fuck donk corp

Misc. Syndicate Information

On the Syndicate and Head of Staff Jumpsuits

Francisco Dundee XVII, deputy project director for special operations, became known in 2553 as the most recognizable public face of the Syndicate. Partly it was his charismatic, flamboyant nature. Partly it was because, as a defected plasmaman, he provided a unique perspective on Nanotrasen's corporate excesses. Mostly it was just that the other spokesmen kept getting murked, and it's harder to shoot a guy when he's encased 24/7 in a flammable fuck-off exoskeleton.

A notorious fashion plate, Dundee XVII liked to dress up in Nanotrasen head of staff garb, worn over flameproof gear and theatrically set on fire whenever he thought he had an audience, which in practice was several times per hour. Demand for these jumpsuits (and, when possible, jumpskirts) soared, both because of the rate at which Dundee went through them, and because of his army of fans and hangers-on who wanted to copy his style, even if it sent them to an early husk. But since Nanotrasen's supply chain is a closely-kept corporate secret, the only way to acquire a steady supply was to steal them. And luckily, Dundee was just the guy who told you what to steal.

Dundee XVII's dubious disappearance in 2556 put an end to the trend, and thus to the need to steal jumpsuits, though you can still find a few on the black market.

On the Syndicate and Corgi Meat

The delicate flesh of the corgi has always been appreciated among discerning Syndicate operatives, particularly if they can convince themselves that the meat came from a beloved Nanotrasen pet and not from some godforsaken puppy mill in the asshole of an asteroid.

Corgi meat, however, is no longer sought after by Syndicate operatives. The Animal Rights Consortium takes credit for abolishing this practice, but like almost everything else they take credit for, this is bullshit.

The corgi meat market actually collapsed when one operative, instead of bringing back the nuclear authentication disk, instead brought a strange and useless-looking object. He managed to escape summary execution when his boss threw the unwanted piece of junk at his feet, and out popped a live corgi, just bursting with meat. Since then Syndicates may enjoy nearly unlimited corgi dishes, if they can ignore the aftertaste.

On the Syndicate and Unused Slime Extracts

"Wait, wasn't that around the time Lily thought it'd be funny to make that fake leak about hiding our authentication disks in the extracts, and post it online? There's no way our most successful counter-intel op of the decade was an off-handed joke..."

-Special Director Watson, NT Special Projects Division, reviewing a spike in slime extract theft rates.

For years, Syndicate brass has been convinced that Nanotrasen's xenobiology department is secretly the cutting edge of their science division, more advanced even than plasma research, and that the hundreds of humble slime extracts generated per shift are actually the most secret, dangerous things on the station. Nobody at CentCom is quite sure why, though a significant amount of effort has gone into finding out. Perhaps it's because xenobiologists tend to be the most ostentatious showoffs of the crew, even worse than the clown. There's more than a few intel officers who believe the Syndicate seriously botched their intelligence gathering and put undue importance on them. Maybe it's just that bumming a few slime extracts off the research nerds is so easy that operatives rarely bother to do it.

Whatever the reason, operatives who do manage (or remember) to bring back a slime extract are treated upon their return like espionage kings. Many of them get promotions on the spot to be leaders of upcoming nuclear strike teams, which honestly explains a lot.

The Space Wizard's Federation

"GREETINGS. WE'RE THE WIZARDS OF THE WIZARD'S FEDERATION."

-The last recorded message prior to the complete and utter vaporization of Space Station 08.

The Space Wizard Federation is a collective of magic users, known to operate within the Spinward sector, and suspected of existing galaxy-wide. Wild claims have been made about their effects on human society, even before the age of spaceflight, with some claiming that every negative event, every dictator, and every freak accident can be traced back to the influence of a Wizard.

It is speculated as to whether or not Wizards actually can cast magic- the more cynical among normal humanity insist that magic does not exist, and that anything the Wizards do that appears to be magical is simply sophisticated technology masquerading as true spellcasting. Many do not care, however, as no matter whether it is real or fake, it works, and will kill just fine.

Recently, the Wizard Federation has been in a state of quasi-Cold War with Nanotrasen, for reasons that can only be speculated at. What does matter is that stations throughout the Spinward sector have been attacked by Wizards, and the sight of a blue hat and robes is rapidly becoming as dreaded by NT employees as the blood-red gear of the Syndicate. Survivors of these attacks could give no reasons as to why the Wizards were there, and what their true motives (should any exist) could be.

On a deeply classified level, Nanotrasen's higher ups try to maintains some contact with the Wizard Federation diplomatically, but very little has come of their efforts to talk, and the attacks ebb and wane with no relation to diplomacy. No one knows exactly what compels a Wizard into membership of the Federation, as not all magic users are members- occasionally, a friendly Wizard has been known to show up at station, performing parlor tricks and sharing tall tales of their adventures in exchange for the hospitality of the crew (which they seldom find, due to an uncompromising "shoot first, second, third, and last" policy on NT's part towards magic). Due to the actions of its members, many suspect that the Wizard Federation is joined only by the worst of the magic casting community- those who live for chaos, and will find any opportunity to wave their magic dicks at the powers that be.