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The Exodus to Sagittarius
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Astrosynthesis Sector File
A listing of significant corporations colonizing the arm.
Sagittarius Development Corporation
Headquarters - Fury, (HM+53 0102 System)
The Sagittarius Development Corporation (SDC) was founded in a partnership between Dr. Gavin Aurimas, Frederick Mercer, a representative from the Bank of Sol, and members of the Mercer and Aurimas families as primary officers of the corporation, with several other silent partners. The SDC financed and built the Sagittarius Stargate through the sale of Aurmias' Solarian Space-Time Engineering corporation (SSTE), as well as the ten Bonaventure Class explorers, Gateway Station, and sent the first survey and pioneer teams into the Sagittarius Arm to pave the way for colonization. Currently, the SDC provides basic infrastructure in the sector to include Ice Stations for collecting, storing, and delivering volatiles for passing spacecraft; Way Stations that offer a place for information to be transferred, ships to be replenished, and a general haven for starship crews to get some R&R far from civilization; an Interstellar Baseline Interferometry Telescope system utilizing large optical and radio telescopes in multiple star systems to simulate a telescope several parsecs in size to continue scientific and exploratory work in Sagittarius; and what passes for an interstellar security force against any potential pirates, nihilists, and outlaws. The SDC also has a system for the delivery of mail and personal freight, utilizing its own ships and offering mail franchises to reputable independent captains. Current SDC policy tends towards a hands off approach to independent or corporate colonies, letting them develop their worlds as they see fit and only intervening if necessary to keep the peace. The mere threat of withdrawing basic infrastructure services is usually enough to force a peaceful settlement between quarreling parties, but if that should fail the SDC is prepared to enforce a peace using their heavily armed Bonaventures as well as their starfleet of smaller frigates, destroyers, and corvettes.
Mercer Heavy Industries
Headquarters - Fury, (HM+53 0102 System)
Mercer Heavy Industries (MHI) began as a manufacturer of machine tools and heavy equipment, and soon was taking on colonization machinery, defense system production, starship construction, and even its own interstellar shipping company before being made the general contractor for SSTE to build Linelayers and Stargates. Mercer Heavy Industries is a critical partner to the SDC, and the families of both Aurimas and Mercer are very close, even intermarrying in several cases. Currently MHI has the lion's share of its operations around the Gateway and Fury systems, and other than demand for its automated manufacturing plants, design templates, and other finished high tech goods, has little direct influence in the sector.
Helios Corporation
Headquarters - HM+53 0102 System
Helios Corporation's Sagittarius division was contracted by the SDC to provide antimatter in support of AMPLAR torch drives, Antimatter-Catalysed Fusion reactors, and Long Jump Stardrives. Helios generates antimatter using massive cyclotrons powered by solar energy harvested close to a star. The market for antimatter has made the corporation extremely wealthy, and given their virtual monopoly status in Sagittarius, are in a position to become an economic and hence political force to be reckoned with. At the moment they are on excellent terms with the SDC, which provides protection for their facilities in exchange for cheap antimatter for their starfleet.
Royal Dutch Shell Corporation
Headquarters - Fury, (HM+53 0102 System)
Royal Dutch Shell corporation entered into a development partnership with the SDC to provide mining facilites, mineral refineries, and related infrastructure for the initial colonization effort in Sagittarius. Since then, they have opened up mining concerns in several systems beyond the Gateway-Fury nexus, and have a production contract with MHI to supply them with raw materials for industrial production.
Terradyne and Terradyne/SDC Corporations
Headquarters - Fury, (HM+53 0102 System)
The Terradyne Corporation was invited to Sagittarius by the SDC to assess worlds for terraforming operations, and to begin such operations on worlds deemed to be economically viable. To respond to the SDC's invitation, they formed a joint-corporation known as Terradyne/SDC, which has in turn entered into a cordial relationship with Helios to supply the antimatter needed to operate the Catalysed Fusion furnaces necessary to transmute atmospheric constituents into breathable nitrogen-oxygen atmospheres, and with Fa Enterprises of Sagittarius to develop new colony worlds.
The Bank of Sol
Headquarters - Fury, (HM+53 0102 System)
The Bank of Sol was founded in 2044 to supply a common currency system for offworld trade independent of Earth. Its basic unit of currency, the Solarian Dollar, is an index currency whose value is pegged to the market prices of the six major Earth currencies, plus the price of 1 gram of 0.999 Fine gold. Solarian dollars are purchased with gold or an index currency at the current market rate plus a 2% exchange fee, and are freely convertible back to gold or an index currency at the current market rate after a 48 hour holding period has passed to discourage currency manipulating and hedging. Interest held in Bank of Sol accounts is paid in Solarian dollars. The advantage of the Solarian dollar is that it is a freely convertible unit of exchange that is very stable against overall market fluctuations - to devalue the Solarian Dollar, one must depress all six index currencies plus the market rate for gold simultaneously. The Bank of Sol was invited to Sagittarius by the SDC to provide financial infrastructure and its common currency to facilitate the fledgling trade system. The Bank of Sol has assets nearly everywhere in Sagittarius, and its cash cards, credit vouchers, trade notes, and gold and silver specie are accepted by everyone. With the crash of the Stargate, the Bank of Sol is the only major interstellar financial institution in Sagittarius, and its lending policies affect the economy of all the colonies in one way or another. At the moment the Bank is pursuing a policy of rapid economic growth via the means of cheap loans at the behest of the SDC (Gavin Aurimas sits on the Bank of Sol's Sagittarius Division board) to strengthen the colonies against collapse now that outside support from Orion is gone. The bank is very conscious of the threat of an inflationary monetary policy and the increased risk of non-performing loans, but the alternative is widely seen as the literal withering away of humanity in Sagittarius outside of a few economically self-sufficient colonies.
Gazprom Interstellar Corporation
Headquarters - Arkhangelsk, (HM+41 2746 System)
Gazprom Interstellar Corporation is one of the few major corporations that was not initially invited to support colonization in Sagittarius. Gazprom is a Russian energy corporation specializing in petroleum and natural gas production, as well as geothermal energy. Gazprom currently provides petroleum distillates, petrochemicals, and feedstock for plastics and composites, as well as liquified natural gas for use in fuel cells as well as HEPLAR and AMPLAR torch drive propellant. It is rumored that the president of Gazprom operations in Sagittarius is a member of a Russian mafia, who was sent here to escape assassination from a rival within the organization.
Sakura Consortium
Headquarters - Sakura, (HM-31 0629 System)
The Sakura Consortium is a conglomerate of Japanese and Oceanic corporations primarily involved in heavy industry and defense contracting headed up by Masamichi Sakamoto. The colony of Sakura is a corporate colony, and is building up its infrastructure to compete with its rivals, Mercer Heavy Industries, Ceres Metals Corporation, and the industrial conglomerates of the Jin Xian Commonwealth (especially Dahan). Sakura Consortium is on good terms with the SDC and supports its efforts to maintain a trade infrastructure, but has no desire to join any potential political entities the SDC might attempt to create. Sakura is a very traditional, some might even say a throwback, Japanese organization in spite of its multinational makeup, and Sakamoto himself has a very large hand in the dictates of how the colony is run.
Ceres Metals Corporation
Headquarters - Tartarus, (HM+31 5806 System)
Ceres Metals Corporation was one of the first corporations formed offworld and thus not subject to any Earth laws. It has developed an anti-authoritarian attitude over the last couple centuries under the leadership of its founders, the Farrior family, one that has led to isolation and legal squabbles with the Great Nations, and this in turn made the opportunity to come to Sagittarius one it couldn't pass up. Currently residing in orbit above the cold, dense, high gravity world of Tartarus, Ceres Metals is attempting to make its fortune exploiting the heavy and rare earth metals needed by high tech industry. Ceres Metals also has rich holdings on the moon of Gamma in the SAG+55 2007 System, though why they have chosen to make Tartarus their headquarters instead of the lush moon is open to speculation. It is believed that they were in negotiations with Fa Enterprises of Sagittarius for a partnership in developing several mining and industrial sites in currently uninhabited systems, but the untimely death of Fa Zheng De had thrown the deal in doubt until the efforts of James Farrior could rectify the situation in his family's company's favor.
Fabrique-Quebecois/ETE (Exo-Total-Elf) Consortium
Headquarters - Avignon, (HM+31 3323 System)
Fabrique-Quebecois/ETE Consortium was originally a joint Franco-Canadian colonial development corporation that became independent of the parent company shortly before the Sagittarius Stargate was opened. FQ/ETE prides itself on its minimal "footprint" on the biospheres of worlds it develops, and leads the way in expensive but ultimately clean and non-intrusive infrastructure improvements. It is very expensive to live on a world developed by FQ/ETE, but also extremely pleasant. The colony on Avignon serves to support the mineral rich planetoid of Motherlode with volatiles and foodstuffs in exchange for raw materials for the orbitng factory complex which is the only source of industrial production in the system.
Weyland-Yutani Corporation
Headquarters - Jewel, (HM+45 0955 System)
The Weyland-Yutani Corporation is a multifaceted corporation orginally based in the Carib League, but then transferring its flag to Mars and then finally to Terranova in 2289 to minimize its exposure to taxation and regulation. Weyland-Yutani Corporation has their hands in everything - from terraforming to genetic design, to interstellar shipping and mining, to defense contracts with the United States, Brazil, Japan, and Argentina. Weyland-Yutani has a reputation for ruthlessness in business and for maximizing profit for its shareholders, making it a frequent propaganda target for left-wing activist groups and anticapitalist NGOs. Weyland-Yutani's principal operations in Sagittarius are in the shipping and mining industries, though they have set up a genetic design and engineering lab on Jewel (HM+41 0955) to continue their work with exobiological applications in terraforming, food production, and biochemical synthesis.
盛大中国 - Dahan (Grand China) Corporation
Headquarters - Jin Xian, (HM-45 4415 System)
The Dahan, or Grand China, Corporation is a venerable conglomerate dating back to the early days of interplanetary colonization. Dahan was one of the few Chinese corporations owned by the People's Liberation Army to survive the breakup of the People's Republic of China into Manchuria and Guangzhou. Following the breakup and the Manchurian loss to Guangzhou in the brief civil war that followed, Dahan shook off its Army roots and became a modern capitalist entity, albeit one firmly under the heel of the new fascism of a deeply embarassed and vengeful Manchuria. Dahan began an aggressive capital investment program funded by generous loans from Russia and the EU - particularly France. The purpose of Dahan's new growth was to expand to become a great economic power to challenge the corporate state of Guangzhou and its reunified ally Taiwan. Dahan never quite managed to overwhelm the mighty Guangzhou congolomerates, but in the process of trying became the very backbone of Manchurian wealth and technology, such that the president of the conglomerate is often referred to as the 13th Cabinet Minister of the Manchurian State. Dahan designed and built the first spacegoing warships in human history, as well as the spacecraft used to prosecute the war against the Jovian Association, and from there expanded into civilian cargo and colonization ships and supporting machinery. Today, Dahan is a major partner in the Jin Xian Commonwealth, a development some consider suspicious given the Commonwealth's stated desire to escape from Manchurian fascism, but given the totality by which Dahan is interlaced with Manchurian commerce and colonial development, it seems only natural to those who understand modern Chinese society.
Fa Enterprises of Sagittarius
Headquarters - Scherzo, (SAG+55 2007 System)
Fa Enterprises of Sagittarius was founded in 2357 by Fa Zheng De, a wealthy entrepreneur and former minor politician in the Guangzhou Directorate. Fa Enterprises of Sagittarius specializes in mining and shipping concerns, terraforming in a partnership with Terradyne/SDC, and was in talks to form a partnership with Ceres Metals Corporation over the development of the HM+47 4301 System when Zheng De met an untimely death in a rockslide on May 28, 2361, while surveying the moon of one of the system's gas giant planets. As of 17 November 2361, Fa Enterprises has had most of its assets sold off to competing companies, and exists primarily as a hollow shell company for legal purposes under the direction of Fa Mei Ling, the daughter of Zheng De.
Ganges Mercantile, LTD
Headquarters - SS Ahura Mazda (AMC-115)
The Ganges Mercantile Company is solely owned by trillionaire merchant prince Varun Amra, and run from his luxury super yacht, the Ahura Mazda (AMC-115). Varun is a self-made man, rising from a humble deckhand on a third rate free trader out of Tycho Colony, Luna, to become one of the youngest licensed ship's masters in known space. Sharp, handsome, and preternaturally clever at interstellar trade and commerce, Amra turned a series of shrewd trades and well-timed speculation backing other captains' ventures into a mercantile empire encompassing a hundred starships, from tiny Novorossiysks to mighty VLCCs, across two dozen star systems. His wealth is so great that only quadrillionaire Dr. Gavin Aurimas surpasses him. Amra came to Sagittarius in 2360 with a handful of vessels from his merchant fleet for the adventure of forging new trade routes and aligning the destinies of entire worlds according to his whims, and with his vast wealth and experience, there is no reason to believe that lightning can't strike twice. Even with the collapse of the Stargate cutting him off from most of his assets, Amra has moved to consolidate his position in Sagittarius, and has already become a potent force for trade and communication among the stranded colonies. In spite of his potential as a rival, he maintains good relations with the SDC, and has no real enemies in Sagittarius. His ships are reliable, his rates are competitive, and his hand-picked captains have a well deserved reputation for shrewd but scrupulous conduct of their affairs.