Factions - Niilo007/Stationeers-Research GitHub Wiki

History

timeline
  section 21st century
    title Timeline
    2030s : European arms manufacturing collapse
           : GeFabrik is formed
    Unknown : Earth Crisis
    2070 : ODA founded
    Unknown:  Sinotai lands the first humans on Mars
    2079 : Sisyphus disaster
         : ODA bans asteroid relocation
    2085 : CHAC founded
    2095 : ExMin formed 
         : ODA starts the Stationers Program
    Unknown : Enviromental disasters
            : Agrizero emerges
  section 22nd century
    Unknown : Asura Biomedia is founded
            : The Manaus Space Elevator comes into operation
    2110s : Aftermath of economic bubble
         : Hiiragi is founded 
    2150 : Survey reveals that the Xigo 'X' is one of the most recognized symbols in the world
    2155 : Xigo starts mass production of "Battery Cell (Large)"

Earth Crisis

DATA LOST

Sisyphus Disaster

Also known as the Sisyphus Hit

The Sanders colony on Mars was REDACTED by an asteroid that was being relocated for mining by one of Norsec's tugs.
In 2079 the ODA banned asteroid relocation due to this event.

Chengdu Event

Nuclear battery cells were completely banned from use on Earth after the Chengdu Event.

Factions

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Agrizero

alt text Agrizero is an agricultural biotech firm focused on researching and deploying offworld farming technology. The company’s aim is to provide a network of self-sustaining, self-contained 'bio-factories' that will ultimately feed a projected 1 million humans in space. Emerging from the late 21st century's environmental disasters, the firm has roots in China's world-saving artificial farming initiatives, and has now spread to facilities in the Asteroid Belt, where the supply of ice asteroids makes vertical farming and controlled-environment agriculture extremely promising. While many of their facilities are still under construction, Agrizero is already one of the main suppliers of offworld groups like ODA, Sinotai and ExMin through the ever-expanding Trader Network.

Notable Products:

Asura Biomedia

alt text Asura Biomedia was founded in the early 22nd century by Mumbai-based trillionaire Ashan Gurwaja. Nominally focused on 'biotechnology', the company has always had an ‘elastic’ notion of exactly what that entailed: everything from pharmaceuticals to pet food. Gurwaja's background in bio-engineering firms put the company in the highest echelon of bio-science industries from the very beginning, and it grew exactly as its founder intended: rapidly and reliably, structured specifically to swallow up any smaller firms in its way. Near mid-century, Asura's ambitions evolved to embrace entire health systems – it is now the largest provider of healthcare on Earth, integrating hospitals and primary care with medical supplies, pharmaceutical production and retail, residential care and funeral services. By 2150, Asura's business was a simple proposition, as captured in their famous – if not infamous – advertising slogan: 'We're in you'.

  • Pharmaceuticals
  • Healthcare

Notable Products:

CHAC

China Hangzhou Armament Company

alt text Founded in 2085 to produce weapons for Sinotai's space forces, the company is known for making highly reliable and affordable weapons for off-world use. Their pragmatic approach is reflected in their focus on designs suitable for 3D printing and mass production, as well as a high reuse of components across models and weapon classes. As a result, although CHAC guns excel in no particular category, and have certainly never been accused of greatness, they suffer no great failings, and perform sufficiently well by most known measures to have earned their designers the informal title of 'armorer to the Solar System'.

  • Weapons

Notable Products:

ExMin

alt text In the aftermath of the Sisyphus disaster on Mars in 2079, asteroid shifting was officially banned by the ODA. This sea-change forced the newborn space mining industry to reconsider its strategies, but until the opening of the Manaus Space Elevator, marginal economics meant offworld resource extraction was effectively impossible. Formed in 2095 by a long-standing Swiss-German mining conglomerate and a consortium of other interests, ExMin was more an idea than a commercial reality for several decades. Created with the certainty that a space elevator would eventually arrive, ExMin was one of the first to exploit the access it offered. Subsequently it has become one of the Solar System's most powerful commercial entities. With access to space secure, ExMin became a central player in the flow of resources to the Inner System. It has competition, principally from Brazilian mining giant Recurso, but the company has never entirely lost its lead on off-world mining. Synonymous with rare earth metals and pioneering off-world resource extraction, it stands at the forefront of development throughout the Solar System.

Notable Products:

GeFabrik

Gewehrfabrik GmbH

alt text Officially known as Gewehrfabrik GmbH, GeFabrik is one of the world’s oldest and most highly regarded armament firms, known for producing exceptionally accurate, high-end firearms. In the wake of the European arms manufacturing collapse in the 2030s, a group of unemployed armament staff formed GeFabrik. Dedicated to renewing original design principles, the company is legendary for extensive testing, sometimes lasting as long as 10 years, in order to produce ‘ganz’ weapon formats. GeFabrik is widely regarded as having single-handedly salvaged Germany's manufacturing reputation, while doing nothing for their sense of humor.

  • Weapons

Hiiragi

Hiiragi Communications

alt text Founded by Noboru Hiiragi in the aftermath of the 2110s economic bubble, Hiiragi Communications absorbed several prominent offworld assets, quickly becoming the most widely used trans-Solar System communications network. If you’ve communicated with friends and family offworld recently, it’s been through the Hiiragi network, even if it’s been branded under one of its many child companies. Hiiragi is also the number one seller for PCD’s (Personal Communication Devices) as well as a deep, if difficult to assess investor in terrestrial telecommunication networks.

  • Communication Systems

Norsec

Northern Security Systems

alt text With its roots in early 20th Century defense industry, Norsec (a.k.a. Northern Security Systems) was an early adopter of asteroid mining – one of its tugs being involved in the infamous Sisyphus Hit on the fledgling Martian colony at Sanders. Norsec was officially cleared of any wrong-doing, but when the ODA banned asteroidal relocation, the company shifted its focus to infrastructure and manufacturing. Norsec’s orbitally-based Space Systems Division is responsible for the design and production of ODA’s core transport systems, while also being rumoured to hold a large interest in ExMin. The company is also noted for its willingness to engage in experimental robotic technology.

  • Transport Systems
  • Robotics

Notable Products:

ODA

Offworld Development Agency

alt text In the aftermath of the Earth Crisis, humanity’s focus on space diminished. Yet many felt that, without ambitions beyond our home planet, our species might falter. Created in 2070CE by a newly revamped United Nations, the Offworld Development Agency was given a very specific goal - to guide and encourage human space exploration at a time the cosmos was fading from the public mind. It inaugurated the Stationeer Program in 2095. Understanding that funding would be difficult to come by, the ODA conceived the program as a slow-burn, low-outlay space initiative. While some derided Stationeers as 'cut-price cosmic castaways', the success of the program is testament to the wisdom and pragmatism of ODA's vision.

Recurso Espaciais

alt text This long-standing Brazilian mining group branched into space in the late 21st century. Focused primarily on bulk minerals and metals, the company is perhaps best understood as an extension of the Brazilian government – very few upper echelon political figures in modern Brazil are not implicated in one arm or another of this industrial behemoth. Enmeshment with South American politics has given the company heavy influence over the Manaus space elevator. This deep state control has led to other groups – the ODA included – to exercise a certain ‘flexibility’ toward Recurso. Accusations of illegal asteroid relocation, safety violations and numerous commercial infringements have barely touched it. Meanwhile, defenders point out that very little has been proven in court, and Recurso is hardly alone – hence the truism: 'In space, we all live in glass houses.'

  • Minerals

Notable Products:

Sinotai

alt text The sole 'traditional' state entity to survive offworld politics, Sinotai’s reach and power is second only to the ODA itself. In many ways a relic – a sub-agency of a staggeringly complicated Earth-bound corporate-bureaucracy – its structure has allowed Sinotai to achieve incredible things. Proving its mettle in the early 21st Century by putting the first humans on Mars, establishing the first offworld gigawatt power system, and the first space-borne fuel refinery, few space-going organisations lack some degree of relationship with Sinotai. A common joke has it that it's impossible to do anything in space without them. Regardless of the truth, Sinotai's approach to off-world development has involved a 'soft power' approach, from MOU's with Recurso (giving them preferential access to the Manaus space elevator) to murkier alliances of convenience with a range of Trader groups.

Notable Products:

TK Systems

Tanzanian Kinetic Systems

alt text Originally a defense contractor specializing in brute force, high power weaponry, Tanzanian Kinetic Systems executed a large-scale, peace-time pivot to become the African Assembly’s leading designer of high-speed goods conveyors. Now producing a range of chute network designs and components, TK has a strong offworld presence as a result of the Afro-Sino partnerships in the latter 21st Century. Based in the ‘reconned’ Kigamboni district of Dar E Salaam, the Company regularly enters into development partnerships with CHAC and, as a result, many of their products show distinct similarities. After all, what is a gun but a ‘high speed goods conveyor’.

Xigo

alt text A 2150CE survey revealed the Xigo 'X' as one of the most recognized symbols in the world. Yet few participants could clearly describe the company's actual scope. Precisely where the company begins and ends has been the subject of endless theories, financial studies and lawsuits – originally a website for price comparisons, the conglomerate expanded to embrace data, then distribution and finally production. It was a seemingly indiscriminate expansion, focused not on one industry, but all of them – taking in so many fields that business analysts have largely rejected the idea of Xigo as a single entity. Rather, it is a conceptual grouping for a branch of human activity. And while such statistics are – by their very nature – difficult to confirm, recent estimates suggest Xigo employs over 1.5% of the entire human race. Suffice to say, it produces almost everything.

Notable Products:

Stationeers

alt text In the early 22nd century, Earth was emerging from a cataclysm. Its resources eroded, our population reduced, rebuilding was the spirit of the era. Initiated by the Offworld Development Agency (ODA) in 2095CE, the Stationeers Program was dedicated to a single ideal: keeping humanity pointed at the stars. Stationeers are everything: astronauts, engineers and explorers, deployed with limited equipment and tools, trained to do more with less. Turning the environment to their advantage, their job is to provide infrastructure for humans in space, at a fraction of the cost of traditional space programs. Able to build and maintain bases anywhere from the Moon to Mimas and beyond, Stationeers are our vanguard in the cosmos. Schooled in offworld survival, mining and construction techniques, basic metallurgy, electronics, rocketry, hydroponics and more ‘arcane’ sciences, Stationeers do what they must to survive, and thrive. Renowned for having no entry criteria, there is no such thing as a ‘typical’ Stationeer. Psychological profiling suggests successful Cadets show a ‘baseline’ pragmatism and single-mindedness, but some of the most famous Stationeers possess neither of these qualities. Recruiting from civil engineering backgrounds, military and aerospace industries, software development, mining groups, as well as scientific fields and even religious orders, the Stationeers Program is – fundamentally – open to all humanity.

Notable Products: