NanoTrasen: The 26th Century Giant

"The year is AD 2550. Breakthroughs in FTL travel decades ago allowed mankind to break out of the solar system, colonizing the planets, moons, and asteroids of the nearer stars. Advances in engineering have led to the ability to inhabit anything from the most barren earth-like worlds to the cold clutches of space itself. Though first united under the idealistic Union of Humanity, dissent grew and the union fractured into numerous groups; The Federation of Sirius, New Terra, and a number of independent systems. Perhaps more powerful than these new governments were the corporations that outgrew them - NanoTrasen, BioTech Solutions, Einstein Engines, and the like. Trillion-credit corporations quickly became larger than the old Union of Humanity, to the point where even inter-system law couldn't control them. Today, it doesn't matter where you're from, but who you work for: your CEO is the King and his castle is the skyscraper on 42nd Street and Chestnut. To trans-stellar corporations, you are no longer a "human" but an employee.

When Man first looked up to the stars he saw God. Later, when Man looked up to the stars again, he saw intelligent life. When Man looked up to the stars a third time, he saw the Truth. But when Man finally rose up to meet these stars, he found nothing. No gods, no intelligence, no truth, nothing. The universe turned out to be devoid of the meaning Man had desperately sought. Any intelligent life to be found was either too alien to be comprehended or no closer to a greater understanding of the universe than Man had achieved.

Still, the universe has some surprises in store - wondrous events were observed, great discoveries were made, and humanity's repository of knowledge grew. By far the greatest discovery, however, was made in the hitherto unexplored (and mostly unheard-of) system called Gliese 229. Gliese 229B, a T class brown dwarf star, was discovered to contain a significant amount of a unique and unstable compound–dubbed "Thoron" by the crew of the MITSV Venchenlitte-1, a survey vessel sent out by the Mars Institute of Technology in 2492. This discovery caused humanity to move beyond conventional fusion in power generation; many advanced industries and stations now rely heavily on thoron-combustion power generation.

Corporations everywhere are looking to unlock the secrets of thoron before a rival does, with competition for this uncommon compound as hellish as the old wars on Earth. One of the largest trans-stellars, NanoTrasen Incorporated, has been one of the most prominent in the bloody "Orange Rush" of the late 25th century. Building over twenty different orbital extraction and research stations across Gliese 229B, (as well as having secured extraction rights for the entire northern hemisphere) NanoTrasen has gained the reputation of being the fiercest, most bloodthirsty, and least scrupulous trans-stellar in the galaxy. Cutting corners and competitors, its name echoes through the vastness of space as the very manifest of Mankind's worst sins - Avarice, Gluttony, Wrath, Pride.

NanoTrasen is not without opposition. While they do maintain the majority of extraction operations on Gliese 229B proper; other corporations and trans-stellars mine the dwarfs ring systems due to a marked abundance of semi-stable thoron compounds present. In addition, there is a not-inconsiderable amount of active opposition against this modern day giant. As with most trans-stellars these days, NanoTrasen has to deal with terrorism from people and smaller corporations that got the "short end of the stick," so to say; however, the terrorism and sabotage Nanotrasen faces is notably more organized and more prevalent, lending credibility to the rumours of a criminal organization dedicated to destroying NanoTrasen."

"-- 'NanoTrasen: The 26th Century Giant'  by Gerald Wohlwend, 2551"