NanoTrasen

Introduction

NanoTrasen is known across the Frontier as the Megacorporation. Present during the early days of expansion, NanoTrasen remains the largest employer and manufacturer of general goods. Although it relies on many other allied or neutral Megacorporations for supplies and logistical support, there is no disputing NanoTrasen’s ubiquitous influence across the Frontier. NanoTrasen’s paramilitary forces and fleet disposition leave it capable of addressing many threats that would otherwise require Galactic Power intervention, and after The Phoron Wars, this consolidation of power has only grown more secure. This is the company you work for, whether it’s only for a few months, or the rest of your life.

History

As with most other Frontier corporations, NanoTrasen’s formal appearance on the galactic stage can be traced back to the Frontier Act of 2274. As the strain of humanity’s expansion into the stars became more and more of a burden for the Confederation, numerous regional companies stepped up to fill in the gaps. Aether Atmospherics, famously, became one of the first corporations on the Frontier to begin providing aid to colonists requiring critical aid. For the better part of three decades corporations rose up to handle holes in the governmental supply chain, taking advantage of the Frontier Act to expand and meet the astronomical demands of their clients. However, one issue continued to plague even the most well established frontier companies: transportation.

Around 2303, NanoTrasen began to receive recognition across the frontier for their faster than average delivery times and the wide array of stock available to them. Clients of other corporations slowly began to purchase more and more of their products through NanoTrasen just as those same corporations began to sublet courier and logistical supply jobs to the company. Within two years NanoTrasen had gone from operating within a few local systems, to providing supply chain support across multiple Sectors. Although recognized as a contender, most other corporations refused to see NanoTrasen as a genuine competitor due to their lack of stable production and manufacturing sources. At the same time, NanoTrasen’s CEO continued a shrewd and far-sighted practice of buying the rights to multiple shipping lanes - including those not yet established between eventual colonies and established transit hubs. These transit rights helped to ensure that NanoTrasen was the first, and often best, option for fledgling operations both in space and on solid ground.

In 2354, the two-year long “Flicker” event subsides. During the prior years, transit between sectors became untenable due to the sudden and unexpected volatility of FTL transit along established lanes. Thousands of NanoTrasen clients, ranging from ships stuck in port to colonized planets, break down without logistical support. The ensuing riots pushed NanoTrasen's Security forces – at this point mostly used to repel pirates – to a critical state. In a move that had long-lasting consequences, NanoTrasen chose to form a business partnership with Hephaestus Industries over the weapon manufacturer’s rival Gorlex Industries. The much needed business deal provided NanoTrasen with the security it needed to crack down on the widespread rioting in its holdings, and eventually restore order.

Following the restoration of the status quo, NanoTrasen restructured in 2359, establishing Central Command as a decentralized hierarchy through which the company’s interests can be pursued based on local needs and abilities. By 2394, NanoTrasen’s vessels held a significant speed advantage over the fleets maintained by their competitors. Unfortunately, the company had hit a dead end in terms of innovation, and there were some who believed the company had reached the pinnacle of transit engineering. Multiple attempts at corporate espionage had also begun to make it clear to Corporate that NanoTrasen would not maintain a position on top forever, and so a new mandate was distributed, prioritizing Black Project research initiatives that might allow NanoTrasen to maintain its market dominance. The discovery of natural Bluespace crystals - a previously untapped resource - sparked what would come to be known as “The Bluespace Race”. In 2409, NanoTrasen researchers discover Element P during bluespace engine study, and quickly begin concurrent experimentation with the unidentified element.

The Bluespace Race comes to a close in the final months of 2432, with NanoTrasen successfully cracking the secrets behind the artificial fabrication of bluespace crystals, which become a primary component in all NanoTrasen ship engines and drives to follow. Secretly enhanced by the application of Element P as a fuel source to these same augmented engines, the influence and power of NanoTrasen grow rapidly. Although other Megacorporations eventually complete their own artificial bluespace crystal fabrication projects, NanoTrasen’s sole ownership of Element P cements their position as the corporation with the fastest fleet of ships. Nearly a century of Research and Development ensures that the company once regarded as a non-threat now also owns one of the largest manufacturing operations in Frontier space.

Unable to compete with NanoTrasen and its corporate partners on a legal level, several relatively smaller corporations band together to form the Syndicate. From 2486 to 2559, this group of Syndicated Corporations wars with NanoTrasen in a prolonged campaign of terrorism, espionage, and sabotage in an attempt to wrest the monopoly over Element P - now known as Phoron - out of NanoTrasen’s grasp. The conflict comes to an end in 2559 when multiple companies formerly belonging to the Syndicate produce their own Phoron research projects, formally ending NanoTrasen’s chokehold on research and production.

Modern Day

It is now 2564, and NanoTrasen’s power stagnates. Its long and costly war with the Syndicate forced the company to divert numerous resources into efforts to bolster its own martial capabilities. While NanoTrasen was focused on defending itself and trying to perform research, many of its competitors were able to lean fully into exploring new fields of study. So it is that although NanoTrasen retains its position as hegemon of the Frontier, it desperately needs a new edge that it can exploit to return to the height of its power.

It has, fortunately, been provided with the time and means to seek out these new areas of study, as the Syndicated companies which once fought against it now fight amongst themselves in an attempt to challenge NanoTrasen’s throne. Life has grown relatively peaceful for NanoTrasen employees on the core worlds of the Frontier, although life on the Dark Frontier itself is as hazardous today as it was two hundred years ago. NanoTrasen’s mission statement of providing the fastest delivery at the lowest prices remains the same, and it doesn’t appear that will change any time soon.

Notable Advancements

• Synthetic Bluespace Crystals: The ultimate byproduct of the Bluespace Race, synthetic bluespace crystals are fractal traps that can capture and store vast quantities of Bluespace radiation. By installing these crystals in specialized housings, they can be used to increase the accuracy and range of Bluespace jumps. Although still an expensive upgrade manufactured by many other companies, almost all NanoTrasen vessels come with these enhanced drives as standard.
• Pulse Laser Weaponry: Utilized by NanoTrasen special operations teams, most notably NT-ERT, the standard Pulse Laser is one of NanoTrasen's pinnacle weapons. Jealously guarded by Central Command, this technology has not yet been replicated by any other galactic power. As it is currently understood, the Pulse laser oscillates at a very high frequency in comparison to standard energy weaponry. The decreased distance between wavelengths results in a longer "time on target" for each energy beam, compounding the destruction by several factors of magnitude. This tight oscillation pattern grants the weapon its striking blue coloration, and has lead to much speculation that synthetic bluespace crystals are used to enhance the weapon's focusing lenses, or its main reactor.
• Bluespace Artillery: The mere act of moving an object from one point in space/time to another point is no trivial feat. It is a testament to NanoTrasen's relative mastery in this field that the company is able to employ the teleportation of objects in a weaponized capacity. Bluespace Artillery, colloquially known as "BSA", is a NanoTrasen pinnacle weapon. This technology is not currently available to any other galactic power, although several factions have employed similar, far less accurate, weapons in limited capacities. The intense computation and significant power draw make this weapon prohibitive to use in all but the most dire of circumstances, even for an organization of NanoTrasen's might.
• Phoron Exploitation: Although NanoTrasen lost the monopoly on Phoron six years ago, they have still conducted the most prolonged and focused study on the element for the last one hundred and fifty five years has placed them light-years ahead of their competitors in terms of resource exploitation. Although most factions now utilize Phoron in its primary role as a fuel source, NanoTrasen's advanced chemistry labs and fabrication projects continue to apply the volatile element in ways that other corporations may not consider for decades to come.
• Advanced Artificial Intelligence: Originally, NanoTrasen Researchers utilized the brains of death row inmates and criminals charged with capital punishment to produce their first wave of Artificial Intelligence. Well over a century later, a majority of these units possess positronic brains that have been fine tuned and are therefore less prone to bouts of homicidal rage when unshackled. Although the production of AI and synthetic life is widespread, NanoTrasen has been a prominent member in this emergent field for over a hundred years, and boasts a frighteningly advanced production and augmentation field for synthetics and organics alike.

Life for a NanoTrasen Employee

Health Benefits/Hazardous Environments/Solid Pay/Education and Advancement //WIP

The Phoron Wars

WIP

Central Command

WIP

CentCom Branches

WIP

Lore
Corporations	NanoTrasen, Frontier Megacorporations, Minor Corporations, The Syndicate
NanoTrasen Specific	NDV Marksman, Paracausal Monitoring Division
Other Organizations	ITV Talon, System Defense Force, The Orion Confederation
Worldbuilding	Extradimensional Mechanics, FTL Travel, Galactic Landmarks, Legends, Mysteries, and Rumors, Metaphysics and Paracausality, Technology of the 2500's, The Timeline
Contribution Data	Lore Submission Templates, Roadmap for Lore Development