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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.

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 goals.

Gorlex Marauders

The Gorlex Marauders make up the bulk of the Syndicate's paramilitary forces, and are composed of hardened ex-commandos.