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Backstory

Timeline

2535

• NanoTrasen stock valuation plummets after a major accounting scandal, with several members of the board implicated and promptly removed.
• Their replacements lay out a plan of investment and development, which carries major expansions in both R&D and the corporation's internal security force, causing significant concern in the inhabitants of the corporation's assorted facilities and colonies.

2537

• Discontent spreads amongst colonists at a mining facility known colloquially as Rimward Virginia, with riots breaking out over pay and working conditions.
• Local security struggles to maintain control over the facility for months, with striking miners driving them back and violently expelling the company's security forces completely.
• NT media (and affiliates) condemn the violent revolutionaries and their actions, though propaganda spreads declaring it a success and an important step along the way to a worker-lead society.

2538

• 'Rimward Virginia' is bombed extensively from orbit, completely destroying the facility and the revolutionaries within.
• The orbital bombardment is broadcast across all NT news networks; it is strongly hinted this is meant as a message to other workers, that NT will go to any lengths to keep them safe from violent revolutionary acts.

2539

• A disgraced former NanoTrasen director, due to stand trial for their part in the accounting scandal, and claiming to be giving evidence against the company in exchange for more lenient sentencing, disappears without a trace. This causes a lengthy pause in proceedings and spawns further investigations, but little is found.
• The disappearance is still unexplained, and unsubstantiated rumours run wild that NanoTrasen vanished them as part of a cover-up, or that the former director defected to a group of pirates in the distant reaches.
• Later this year, the first of NT's new expansion stations is launched, with a further series already under construction for mass deployment.
• Rumours begin to spread that this is the start of a power-grab and expansion of empire to amass enough power to loosen TerraGov's control on the megacorporation
• The Seventh Seventies Revival hits its orange and brown peak.

2543

• SS13 is launched in the Spinward Periphery. It is announced that several teething problems encountered by previous iterations have been prevented by modifications to the design, and safety has been improved going forward.
• The accounting irregularity investigation grinds steadily onwards, with NanoTrasen expected to come to an agreement to settle with TerraGov rather than face withering punishment.

2544

• NanoTrasen settles the case, in a complex agreement that includes construction of fabrication and repair facilities for TerraGov military operations; ensuring stable jobs and continued prosperity!
• Critics declare this to be a colossal miscarriage of justice and NT not only dodge punishment that would have broken up the megacorp -- or at least greatly restricted its power -- but now profits heavily from the ongoing maintenance of the facilities in the future.
• Rumours of bribery or blackmail abound, but are robustly denied.

2545

• Construction of the first of the new TerraGov repair facilities is announced, with fabrication getting underway mostly by repurposing a half-completed station already in the dockyard.

2546

• Construction of the TerraGov repair facilities hit difficulties, as the shipyards are rocked by a series of explosions that cripple vital equipment.
• Credit for the attacks is claimed by members of ARC.
• Two further shipyards are hit in quick succession, prompting swift action by security forces.

2547

• SS13 receives a refit, upgrading the power generation capabilities and expanding the research wing.
• During these refit works, the station undergoes a structural failure and ensuing explosive decompression, that tears the fore-end of the station completely off and leaves it requiring even further work.
• ARC sabotage is blamed, though they make no claim regarding responsibility.

2548

• The refitted & repaired SS13, with its expanded science wing, is returned to service and re-crewed; tasked with investigating the properties of a strange material that has been encountered in mining operations.
• The data gleaned even quite early on is promising enough that NT quickly -- and quietly as possible -- stakes claims to as many locations containing it as possible.
• In order to protect the company's investment, and avoid claim-jumpers, these stakes are described as "plasma mining operations". The name sticks, much to the frustration of scientists throughout the galaxy.

2553

• TerraGov elections result in a surprising shake-up of the Council, with several new council-members promising to take the increasingly powerful megacorps to task.
• Speculation flies over whether or not either party can survive a direct fight should it come to a clash of empires.

2555

• TerraGov launches investigations into corporate practises in the distant colonies. NanoTrasen comes under intense scrutiny over its behaviour in the Spinward Periphery and its coveted Plasma fields; particularly due to the concerningly frequent losses of workers and station facilities in unclear circumstances.
• The board strenuously denies allegations of widespread unsafe working practises, poor training, and lax hiring standards; instead pointing out the dangers of operating large, complex facilities on the frontiers of knowledge

Organisations

NanoTrasen

NanoTrasen Systems, often known as simply NanoTrasen or NT, is the largest^[disputed] manufacturer and employer in known space; leading the way^[dubious], and setting the standard^[disputed], for other galactic corporations to follow. Operating multiple cutting edge research and development facilities across the galaxy, with a heavy investment in the Spinward Periphery; where their private security forces help ensure the safety of all^[disputed].

Their internal corporate laws are -- by sheer force and a myriad inter-corporate agreements -- the defacto standard across large reaches of the Spinward Periphery; their business practises, and heavy-handed control, employed throughout their corporate empire has drawn the ire of many, from their competition, to citizens of worlds and facilities under their control. However, very little in the way of complaint has been heard from their employees.