"All the support you need from under the three suns."
-Centauri Provisions motto
Centauri Provisions does not provide any services that are particularly flashy nor groundbreaking: it keeps people fed, and that is it. Centauri's logistical network is awe-inspiring, capable of keeping much of the Frontier singlehandedly supplied with whatever food, water, and livestock they need, something that is a necessity with Frontier's exponential expansion. With Centauri's sheer number of assets, they are a ubiquitous sight on the Frontier, almost completely unchallenged in their mission, for good reason.
History
Post-Atomic Struggles
"Humanity's drive to expand and explore beyond their current boundaries boggles the mind. Such raw determination seems to be a deeper instinct than a mere survival mechanism."
-Skrell Xenosociologist Qars'Kalek in Regarding Humanity, 2345.
Humanity was left in a perilous situation when the Final War officially concluded in 2105, billions laid dead and billions more were left in a fragile state as the forces of Luna and Mars worked to restore order to the shattered planet. The struggle over resources which started the Final War only worsened in its aftermath as fuel and water became ever more scarce. The peace established by the remnants of humanity was tenuous at best, the nations formed in the skeletons of the pre-war superpowers consolidating what they could to keep their people alive while engaging in trade with the Lunar and Martian colonies.
The colonies themselves were kept afloat only by advancements in technology made during the Second Space Race and further developed following their independence from Earth near the end of the Final War. Both Lunar and Martian cities had dedicated sections to food production, mixing automation with human oversight to produce vast quantities of food, though only a small portion of this could be sent to Earth. Water was largely mined from the Martian ice caps and other subterranean chunks of ice, alongside vessels designed to capture ice comets.
Recovery from the Final War was difficult for the first few years of the 22nd century, vital infrastructure across Earth was left barely functional, if at all. The technological leaps accomplished in Earth's colonies aided in slowly building the planet back to its pre-war state, although the political landscape had been forever altered. By the 2110s, many of the nations on Earth had stabilized, borders becoming secured as political bodies sought to contact each other, forming trade pacts and agreements. Small skirmishes were unavoidable in some parts of the world, though the assistance from humanity's colonies prevented a much larger calamity and total societal collapse from occurring.
By the 2120s, however, it was decided that humanity needed to take further measures to recover and, more importantly, thrive in the Final War's aftermath. With the aid of various surviving corporations on Earth and in space, several nations on Earth came together to construct numerous generation ships, using the most advanced technologies available to humanity yet. These interstellar arks were outfitted with sophisticated cryogenic systems, meant to keep their inhabitants in stasis as the ships trudged through the vast expanse of space to their eventual destinations.
The purpose of these arks were twofold. The first was to give humanity a future beyond Sol, in much the same way the colonies on Mars and Luna were essential in preserving humanity after the Final War. The second was to relieve the burden on the population of the Sol system. It was perhaps cruel, pushing millions into cryogenic stasis and sending them lightyears away from home in the hopes that one day humanity would be in a more stable position that they could reconnect with their long lost kin. At the same time, it was a mercy, giving those who had been scarred by war a new chance away from their broken homeworld.
Pathfinder
"We commemorate this vessel in the name of humanity's future. A future of peace, hope, and prosperity among the stars. She and her crew will be the light that guides us into a new era.
-Fragment of the speech made during the Pathfinder's launch ceremony.
The IEV Pathfinder was the ship constructed to journey to the Alpha Centauri, at the time viewed as the height of humanity's technological progress. The Pathfinder represented the start of a new era for humanity, carrying millions of humans who had survived the worst chapter in Earth's history. While cryogenics had been used before, this was the first true, large-scale application. Naturally, the launch was surrounded with caution, with hundreds of checks being performed on the Pathfinder before the colonists stored within were placed into cryogenic stasis, to remain asleep in the century it would take for the vessel to reach the trinary star system.
The Pathfinder's target was Proxima Centauri b, the second known planet in Proxima's star system. By now, humanity was aware that Proxima was barren, its atmosphere stripped away by the radiation of its own sun, exposed to stellar winds that would make surface habitation difficult, if not impossible. The number of Martians aboard the Pathfinder seemed to be aware of this fact, and even the humans from Earth who had survived the aftermath of atomic annihilation were hardened to the elements. Maybe there was a silent acknowledgment among the colonists that their venture was one of desperation, success was not a guarantee.
The main benefactor of the Pathfinder and a contributor to its equipment was the Utopia Agriculture and Development Corporation. Based out of the Utopia Planitia on Mars, the UADC was a subsidiary of a larger corporation formed during the Second Space Race to build and maintain agricultural areas within Martian colonies, alongside pioneering research and development into new cultivation technologies for space habitats. After their parent company became collateral damage in the nuclear climax of the Final War, the UADC became its own corporation, seeing an expansion in the post-war era due to the importance of their services.
While the Pathfinder was not a corporate-owned ship, its mission would have been far more difficult without the advancements the UADC provided to them. Overseeing the UADC personnel aboard the Pathfinder was Frasier Hueber, a UADC executive. While Hueber was not in charge of the ship in any capacity, he was a major link between the command staff and the UADC's assets on-board.
A mere five years after the Pathfinder launched, however, humanity made First Contact with an alien species: the Skrell. It took another twenty years for the two species to establish proper communications, but after the fact, humanity saw a technological boom. Faster-than-light travel soon entered humanity's grasp, though this led to an awkward situation where explorers could possibly reach the destinations of the interstellar arks before the arks themselves. It was decided early on that, due to the vastness of space and the difficulty of even tracking the arks in their paths, they would be allowed to reach their destinations with minimal intervention. With humanity no longer restricted to its closest star systems, a planet like Proxima b was no longer appealing for colonization due to its hostile environment.
Proxima
"When the Express docked with the Pathfinder, a little green man and a squid-person were standing alongside the captain. That was when I knew we'd missed a lot."
-Captain Jenice Kim of the IEV Pathfinder, quoted in her book "Pathfinder: Resolve Among the Three Stars".
Predictably, the early years on Proxima Centauri b, newly designated "Asphodel" were rough on the crew of the Pathfinder. Asphodel was not a habitable planet, its atmosphere had been stripped away by the red dwarf star it orbits. The surface was constantly bombarded with radiation, its surface rocky and incapable of supporting any natural life. To compound this issue, the Pathfinder believed it would need to face the possibility that they would receive no help from Earth or any outside source due to the vast distance between Centauri and Sol.
The first signal from the Pathfinder made national headlines across human space. The Orion Confederation drew up immediate plans to send aid to the colony. It would take a month for a colony ship, the Express, equipped with an FTL drive and the best medical technology that had been developed from trade with the Skrell to arrive at Asphodel. Years had passed since the message's arrival, and in that time the Pathfinder had done what it could to build a new life on Ashpodel.
The Utopia Corporation was key to this development, using their knowledge in building agricultural facilities on Mars to adapt to the harsh landscape of Asphodel. The human settlements on Asphodel were located underground in vast complexes, utilizing state-of-the-art hydroponics and cloning technology to keep the colony fed. Even for its time, the Pathfinder had been equipped with the best advancements humanity had to offer. Even so, the radiation from Proxima Centauri hampered the colony's growth, and proved to be a constant threat to its stability.
The arrival of the Express marked a new chapter for Asphodel, providing them with better treatments for radiation damage, with radiation becoming less of a threat as genetic modification was introduced among the colony's inhabitants. More importantly, Asphodel was now on the Galactic map, allowing human and Skrell ships to pass by for trade and, in some cases, long term habitation. The original colonists were some of the brightest minds of their generation, with scientists among them adopting technologies that had been introduced since the Pathfinder left Sol to better enhance the life in the colony. The UADC personnel were, expectedly, at the forefront of this, with Hueber putting emphasis on not just utilizing advances acquired from trade, but building upon them further.
Contact between the Asphodel branch of the Utopia Corporation and its Martian headquarters revealed that their Sol counterparts had advanced little in the past century. While Mars had benefited from technology brought in from the Skrell and Tyrmalin, the Utopia Corporation had made few, if any, ventures to the expanding frontier of human space. After learning this, and of the Frontier itself, Hueber made a decision to seize on the potential that the UADC had decided to neglect.
Colony Ship For Sale, Cheap!
"...what's been called the 'Cryogenic Coup' as the Utopian Corporation's branch in Alpha Centauri has split off and rebranded as 'Centauri Provisions'. We reached out to the UADC for comment..."
-Excerpt from an ONN report, circa 2245.
Hueber's first move as Centauri Provision's CEO was the bold purchase of the IEV Pathfinder, through weeks of negotiation with Orion Confederation officials, especially as the new corporation's position was tenuous at best. A televised presentation in front of an OriCon committee saw Hueber demonstrate that humanity's expansion across the stars was untenable without Centauri Provisions. Of the many worlds humanity had settled, few were habitable, and even fewer had the infrastructure capable of supporting a growing population. More importantly, it would only be a few decades until the Confederation's resources were stretched thin supporting the Frontier.
A deal was reached between Centauri Provisions and the Confederation that the CRV Express would remain in orbit around Asphodel to support the colony while the Pathfinder, newly redesignated CPV Prosperity, would be retrofitted with more powerful engines and an FTL drive. The interior of the ship was further redesigned to fit its new mission of exploration and colonization, practically modernizing the century-old interstellar ark. After several test flights and thorough checks, the Prosperity set out for the Frontier in 2249.
Although the Prosperity was intended to explore new worlds, it was equally important as a means to establish relations with growing human settlements. A priority was on ship yards, various contracts being established to construct freighters and exploration vessels to further augment Centauri Provision's logistical fleet. Subsidies from the Orion Confederation were crucial in this period, giving Centauri more finances to push into their growth. The corporation saw a surge in personnel and material resources, especially as more worlds beyond Asphodel began to host Centauri Provisions.
The Prosperity led the charge in breaking new ground on various worlds, Centauri typically settling barren worlds or those whose conditions did not lend themselves well to habitation. Asphodel's hostility proved to be a blessing in disguise as Centauri Provisions had more than enough knowledge to create self-contained installations that could thrive in these conditions, allowing Centauri to claims the rights over worlds that other settlers ascribed little to no value to. The Prosperity continued its mission for over two decades, only ceasing in 2271, by which point Centauri Provisions had a fleet of smaller, more efficient vessels that could carry out the same purpose, and then some.
Proto-Megacorporation
"Helping humanity go further beyond since 2236!
-Tagline for a Centauri Provisions series of posters.
By 2273, Centauri Provisions was an economic force to be reckoned with. Hosting an immense number of ships, space stations, and planetside facilities, Centauri covered much of the human frontier from Rye-Egress to Goss Aguz. Centauri Provisions wasn't particularly aggressive with its competition, the fact was that other food-producing corporations could hardly meet the vast areas of space that Centauri Provisions were able to cover. As a result, Centauri Provisions became what's widely considered a prototypical megacorporation.
Centauri Provision's tactics reflected those used by later megacorporations, signing trade and economic agreements with frontier systems to grant themselves certain benefits when doing business in those sectors. While anyone could be a customer of Centauri Provisions, these agreements allowed the megacorporation to take root across several different planets and regions. The Frontier Act of 2274 did little to change the way Centauri Provisions operated, aside from adding further legitimacy to their business practices. The Act only further incentivized colonies to do business with Centauri Provisions.
The opening years of the 24th century weren't noteworthy Centauri Provisions, with the start of the century being commemorated by the Prosperity finally being retired from service. The ship was taken back to its home of Proxima Centauri, where it was, over the course of several years, converted into Prosperity City. Through decades of refining methods to survive on Asphodel's surface, several above-ground buildings could finally be built using techniques learned from colonizing equally inhospitable worlds. Prosperity City was a testament to Centauri Provision's progress, rising above the landscape and serving as a reminder of the corporation's beginnings and future alike.
Change in Management
"SkrellSnax, great taste straight from Qerr'Balak!"
-Centauri Provisions advertisement for their SkrellSnax brand.
Business proceeded as usual for Centauri Provisions for the first forty years of the 24th century. Unlike other corporations in the 24th century, Centauri Provisions experienced little to no active conflict with other corporate entities. Centauri was simply too massive to compete with traditionally or in combat, with a single blow against their trade network only being a minor inconvenience at most to them, while possibly dooming a colony to famine. It was understood that Centauri provided an essential service, even if they were further monopolizing their position in the food market.
The major shift for the corporation started in 2344 when Tixa Shovelclaw came to be Centauri Provision's chief financial officer. Shovelclaw had previously been one of the lead executives for Centauri's projects on the Frontier near Goss Aguz, helping to further build up and expand Centauri's holdings in the region. While Shovelclaw had little actual power to change the direction of Centauri Provision's business strategies, her advice to the CEO at the time and control of the corporation's finances, she was able to push for a slight but crucial shift of the company's business practices and products.
This time period saw Centauri adopt more aggressive business tactics to expand its markets. Many smaller food production corporations, including the UADC itself, were bought out by Centauri Provisions. Some were absorbed directly into Centauri, while others were kept around as subsidiaries, their products now reaching wider markets with the full production and shipping capabilities of their parent megacorporation. With the amount of money Centauri was able to bring to the table, smaller companies found it difficult to deny their offers.
Under Shovelclaw's guidance, Centauri Provisions began to produce more than their tried and true meat, vegetable, fruit, grain, and dairy products that were core parts of any colonist or spacer's diets. Instead, snack foods, soda beverages, and alcohol began to be marketed by Centauri, either directly or through some of the many subsidiaries they'd acquired. This move was regarded as controversial within the corporation, as it had been founded on the principle of providing essential food to colonists, whereas now it was felt as if Centauri Provisions was peddling junk food to the masses.
Even after Shovelclaw's departure from the corporation, these product lines were far too entrenched and profitable to simply take off the market. Their creation led to a slight split in the corporation, with part of it working on providing essentials in water, food, infrastructure, and livestock to Frontier colonies while the other part focused on marketing, shipping, and development of products for more established planets, stocking the shelves of stores with less essential options.
Modern Day
The Phoron War did little to affect Centauri Provisions; from the outset of the conflict the neutrality of the megacorporation was recognized and respected by both sides, especially as Orion Confederation vessels began escorting shipments near the climactic middle years of the war. While Centauri Provisions received some collateral damage due to reckless Syndicate attacks (mostly Gorlex Marauders), the war ended up boosting its profits as colonies that saw more violence came to Centauri Provisions for supplies.
Centauri Provisions has, however, lagged behind in the innovation that many corporations embraced after the war's end. Due to its firmly-established hold over the Galactic food market, the current corporate leadership has given a relatively small budget to the newly-established phoron research program. With the Frontier's sheer reliance on Centauri and its presence in humanity's core worlds, phoron is not necessarily seen as an element that will drastically change Centauri's current state in the Galaxy. Innovation as a whole has become a low priority for Centauri Provisions, the corporation content that the strategy which brought them to where they are now can work far into the future. The sole exception to this seems to be Project Ambrosia, though even that sticks close to the corporation's overall philosophy.
Life With Centauri Provisions
"Wellness of employees means wellness of customers."
-Centauri Provisions poster found aboard most CENTP facilities.
Having the largest number of stations, ships, facilities, and other types of installations of all the currently know Trans-Stellar Corporations means there are vastly different experiences for the average Centauri Provisions employee. Compared to the aesthetic of most TSCs, Centauri is noticeably sleek and refined in spite of its more utilitarian origins on Asphodel's radiation-torn surface. Centauri's architecture and aesthetic is built around conveying a sense of tranquility and calm, with smooth, white surfaces that intermix brighter colors to direct employee's attention to different parts of their environment. A major way through which this calming aspect is accomplished is through the integration of plantlife with the workspace, with greenery ranging from flowers, to bushes, and full trees depending on the space available.
The arrangements between a station positioned in space or under gravity tend to be similar. Compared to other corporations, Centauri Provisions practices a more open-air design with hallways that are wider and taller than what one might expect on an atmospherically sealed station. This can lead Centauri facilities looking more like shopping centers than workplaces, with the "shops" instead being different departments and locations aboard the facility. This generally leads Centauri stations to be larger on average, especially with the kind of work that goes on within the installations.
Centauri employees live on-site, meaning the facilities have to accommodate crew quarters, cafeterias, lounges, and other locations for long-term residency. This is balanced out by Centauri relying primarily on automated labor for their crops, from planting to harvest. Organics are employed to monitor the process and repair the equipment, alongside conducting other tasks that automated systems can't. These systems mostly come in the form of devices built into the facility itself, rather than utilizing independent synthetics and other types of robots.
The majority of facilities are dedicated to food production in some way, growing a number of different crops and raising animals, with a strict policy against the use of cloned animals over concerns about "authenticity" and potential genetic defects. These facilities also include laboratories where research staff can ensure anything being grown or raised is healthy and without any potential defects or diseases. While Centauri projects tend to get their own research stations, that are smaller in size to their production stations, it's not uncommon for production facilities to have smaller research projects occurring to break up the monotony of life in space.
In a similar fashion, the crews of Centauri's ships spend the majority of their time aboard their vessels. This is due to the level of demand Centauri tends to be under, with ships having strict times to arrive at their destinations and depart for new ones upon being loaded with cargo. Crews are changed out regularly nevertheless to avoid fatigue, with Centauri having contracts with numerous worlds to house their flight crews during their periods of rest. Evaluations are given heavy emphasis prior to crews returning to work, ensuring that they are mentally and physically fit for the job at hand. While most nations and corporations respect Centauri's neutrality, convoys are often targets of pirates due to their cargo, often leading to increased stress among pilots who work further from the more civilized core of Confederation space.
Ethos
"Anywhere can be Paradise; all you need is somewhere to start."
-Centauri Provisions advertisement for its hydroponics technologies.
Centauri Provisions falls closely to the likes of Vey-Med with its focus on aiding the Galaxy, for a price. Centauri Provisions has little to no concerns over expanding the reach of its power or being challenged by upstarts. Being as entrenched as it is, Centauri is left free to focus on the business model that was established over three centuries ago. Centauri's products range from supplying the average Frontier farmer to supporting whole colonies through purchases made by administrative officials.
The prices of these services naturally vary, but a key aspect of Centauri's philosophy is affordability above all else. Centauri's advertisements reflect its reputation as a megacorporation for the people, even if it still operates for profit rather than charity. The breadth of Centauri's customers ensures this profit is smoothly maintained without having to compromise on the core ideals behind the corporation.
Recent decades have still seen internal conflict within the corporation's ranks. These fall into two camps, those who believe more in Centauri's original purpose of focusing solely on food production, and those who focus more on and try to expand Centauri's role in snack foods and beverages. Both sides recognize that it would be impossible to excise the other from the corporation by now, due to Centauri's vital role in preventing famine across the Frontier and the amount of resources put into subsidiaries to churn out new brands of snacks for consumers all across human space.
Where these two sides mostly wage war is with experimental project funding. Centauri invests in many projects to test crop yield, size, nutrition, environmental impact, and other factors alongside searching for new flavors and ingredient combinations for less healthy food stuffs. Even with the sheer resources Centauri has, funding can only go to so many projects at once, and budgetary committees quickly become battlefields of different departments fighting over funding for one research avenue against another. In recent times, sabotage of the snack and beverage sections has been seen, usually leading to bland or bad-tasting items hitting shelves, possibly in the hopes of reducing sales of these products and, thus, causing the line to be discontinued as a whole.
Influence
Centauri Provisions has some of the most influence of all trans-stellar corporations on the Frontier. Similar to another of the first proto-megacorporations, Aether Atmospherics and Recycling, Centauri rarely, if ever, leverages this influence in any substantial way. Lacking any substantial military beyond a basic security force for its installations and ships, Centauri follows a strict policy of not using its services as a means to potentially exploit its customers. This follows on the guideline that a breach in any trust between the customer and the producer would inevitably result in the customer searching for alternatives, discounting the fact that leveraging any kind of power over anyone is unnecessary due to how reliant the Frontier is on Centauri Provisions.
This reliance is Centauri's biggest strength due to how much other corporations purchase from it. Whether it be the food stocking vending machines or the raw ingredients in kitchens or even the seeds used in a corporation's hydroponics bay, Centauri is typically involved in the process to some extent. This has led to some corporations, mostly notably NanoTrasen, to slowly create some distance from Centauri Provisions as time goes on, but that changes little when the systems these corporations operate out of rely on Centauri all the same.
Quirks/Questionable Activities
"Batch C-RT-451 was successful at inducing increased cellular mitosis, but unfortunately did so at an uncontrolled growth rate. We'll euthanize the subject and try again. This time, with a decrease in dosage."
-Leaked Centauri Provisions experiment log from Project Idunn.
The Phoron Wars served as an inspiration for Centauri Provisions rather than a warning about the dangers of unchecked corporate militarization. Project Idunn has its roots in the internal divide within Centauri, partially leveraged as a way to get more attention on Centauri's traditional products while still displaying they can be used to innovate and open a new market for the corporation. The objective of Project Idunn is to produce strains of plant life able to be used in military environments, namely in combat.
These strains include cellular regeneration, increased strength, pain dampening, anti-fatigue, and so on. While these by themselves are all covered by traditional medicine, it is the hope of Project Idunn's staff that the ingredients for these medicines can be grown in a more efficient manner as well as being more potent when further synthesized. Thus far, Idunn has been met with mixed success. While much of the medicine has its desired effects, these typically end up being too strong or too inefficient to grow, leading to a process of trial and error as the project hones in on strains it can sell to corporate security and national armies alike. The Project has not moved beyond testing with animals, mostly rats and other rodents.