NSS Adephagia, or 'The Tether'
Established ten years before it's official opening in 2562 CE on the planet Virgo 3B, the NSS Adephagia is (formerly was) a hybrid surface-to-space installation. The planet is known for it's composite atmosphere, being mostly phoron and nitrogen, and for being cold, with temperatures of -10 C being common even in the summertime. It's unique designation lies in it's 'tether'; a space elevator, leading from the surface installation to an attached space station, high in orbit. The main purpose of the Adephagia was mining; V-3B was rich in a variety of materials, and recent advancements in particle acceleration could allow for even more esoteric minerals to be made with the planet's phoron-based atmosphere as a catalyst. With both the atmosphere and the ground rich in phoron, Nanotrasen couldn't say no to establishing something grand to process it all. As such, the facility's mining department, science wing, and civilian workplaces were all situated on three surface levels. Taking the elevator up, the station section consists of three levels, housing Security, Engineering, Cargo, Medical, and Exploration.
The facility was in operation for two years after it's opening, taking in employees from the attached colonies at 'Central Command' (an abandoned quarry left behind by an unidentified race that had been bought up and built upon by Nanotrasen), and beyond. And in it's two years of operation, it has only had an acceptable amount of work-place incidents. However, as of now, the facility lies in ruins on the surface level, due to a two-fold incident that saw an immediate shuffling of the crew to the newly built NSV Triumph.
Late into 2564, a section beneath the facility, known as the 'undertether', was opened up, with access initially limited to both Security and Exploration personnel. Explorations deep into the undertether were fraught with peril, as the facility's depths were home to displaced wildlife, abandoned drones sent to clear the facility grounds years ahead of construction, and leaking gas veins. The last one would be the facility's undoing. At some point into an average shift's operations, as the NSV Triumph was en-route to dock for refitting, a fire sprang up in the undertether. This fire was fed by oxygen coming from above, and gaseous phoron coming from below, springing forth into a firestorm that melted the metal walls beneath the facility. Employees were quickly evacuated, in various states of injury, and the undertether was sealed off until Nanotrasen could organize an official response. Then, disaster struck again, as the Triumph had docked with the facility. The facility's atmospheric engine, for lack of a better word, broke. It fed infinite amounts of oxygen into infinite amounts of phoron, with no signs of stopping. That, combined with the pressure caused by the firestorm in the undertether, resulted in white-hot fire springing forth into the surface levels. Those trying to escape found their route blocked, by incredibly secure firelocks and anti-phoron measures. Even those who'd managed to get to the space station weren't safe, as the fire climbed up the space elevator shaft. Fortunately, it didn't spread into the station proper. However, it managed to punch a hole in the side of the elevator shaft, high in space, creating a blazing white streak of light that could be seen by ships in orbit of the station. Surviving crew were encouraged to escape via the teleporters and escape shuttles, moving to the Triumph as the newly commissioned exploration vessel slammed the release clamps and broke free from the station. Thus was the 'Lighthouse Incident'.
Nearly a year has passed since the incident saw the Adephagia left abandoned. The fires have been contained, remarkably, but not without significant strain on company resources. It may be a while before the Adephagia is back in any operational capacity, but the company has been optimistic in public statements regarding their most ambitious installation yet.
NSV Triumph
The NSV Triumph is a spaceborne installation, a fully self-sufficient exploration cruiser, and the second pride of the Nanotrasen fleet, with the first being their main vessel, the utterly massive NTV Marksman. As part of a fleet of vessels, the Triumph accomplishes the vital task of research, and continuing similar mining operations as the Adephagia, at a more limited scale. Spread across four decks are the familiar sights of any Nanotrasen facility, but the Triumph's strengths lay in it's exploration department, and it's expanded range of operations.
Operations unofficially began after the 'Lighthouse Incident', and the ship was sent to explore the distant Sigmar Sector. The vessel has nearly reached a year of standard operation, and it's already been pulled into much; between cult uprisings, brushes with Vox shoals, and the odd mechanical failure, the vessel has been refit countless times whenever it's docked with the Marksman. It has gone above and beyond it's calling as an exploration vessel, devoting crew to clearing out cultists aboard the Marksman itself, fighting off xenomorph invasions from the ship's gateway, and narrowly avoiding death by cosmic anomalies that threatened to tear the ship apart on a molecular level. To say the crew has earned their hazard pay is an understatement.
However, things might soon change. After it's extended operations in the Sigmar Sector, the Triumph might be assigned to be something of a transfer vessel between Nanotrasen facilities. These plans seem far in the future, however; the Triumph's current orders are to continue exploring the sector, and wait for the call to return to civilized space.
APRC (Atlas Phoron Research Facility)
A recent acquisition by Nanotrasen, the Atlas Phoron Research Facility is currently in the midst of refits and paperwork signing. Not much is known about the installation itself, other then it being obviously focused on phoron, and the planet it resides upon. Lythios is an icy world, much colder than the third moon of Virgo-3. Below-freezing temperatures make the planet perilous to unprepared explorers, and the atmosphere is thin, requiring employees to wear breath masks and full snowsuits to exit the facility. However, deep beneath the surface, lays a treasure trove in geothermal heat, and untapped mineral resources. Nanotrasen seeks to tap both of these, and is currently renegotiating contracts with crew from outlying facilities, including the NSV Triumph. Refitting the APRC has proven to be more work then refitting the husk of the Adephagia, but which project gets completed first is still up in the air. Only time will tell which red-hot iron Nanotrasen will strike in the future.
NSS Clymene
Fími mésa apó tin axía - Renown through merit
The NSS Clymene Xenobiological Research Institute (CXI) is a massive space installation that serves as the hub of Nanotrasen interests within the Tau Ceti system. Originally built to house dangerous xenofauna and flora, the Clymene was built with many large modular labs denoted by the greek alphabet that can be sealed off and jettisoned in the event of a containment breach.
Shortly after Prometheans were discovered by various NT stations, resources were poured into the Clymene’s labs in order to further develop applications for the Aetolian giant slime and the Prometheans forcibly evolved from them. Since then, the NSS Clymene has produced a vast number of prometheans, put through a prestigous education program taught by the scientists themselves, and then encouraged to seek employment within Nanotrasen or organizations that can meet the Clymene’s high advertising fees.
Nanotrasen itself assumes the responsibility of handler for each promethean from the Clymene, usually assigning a off-site official from their workplace’s Central Command, or a local equivilant.
Though the NSS Clymene is known for it’s Promethean research, it also acts as Central Command for Tau Ceti while functioning as a small space colony, and advances biological research in other areas, including Phoron-derived medicine, genetic modification compatibility with humans, commonly known as ‘splicing,’ and other species as well, including skrell and tajaran, these areas of research often staffed with promethean interns from the educational labs.
Prometheans from the Clymene are named with a regular, human-esque name with a dash with the greek designation of the lab they originate from, such as Charlotte-Alpha
The human-centric faculty of the Institute have resulted in many of the prometheans modeling themselves after human and human culture, and indeed, taking human first names. Though occasionally they’ll receive an alien instructor as both an experiment and to appease diversity activists, lending them to develop in differing directions depending on the class or lab.
From an early age, they are taught sign language in order to speak in EVA conditions, and then either Sol-Common or an alien language depending on their instructor.
Clymene Prometheans tend to vary between green, and blue, to pink, though other colors have been observed. Universally, they’re polite, well-mannered, and extremely curious, more-so than other prometheans, thanks to their upbringing. Outliers exist who have passed their aptitude tests with high enough grades to have their behavioral issues swept under the rug. While not all of them go on to become scientists, the scientific method tends to become a part of their creed, as they go forth to try to prove themselves.
While the Clymene is proud of it’s high graduation rate, there are those who consistently fail and are held until they improve. Should they continue to be unable to meet a basic standard or can’t unlearn bad habits from a past instructor, they are reviewed to determine if they know as much as a baseline human, and, if they can survive outside the installation, discharged to fend for themselves without the Clymene’s resources. These failed prometheans often choose new names, to distance themselves from their corporate upbringing.
Many of them have a habit of mimicry born out of this intense curiosity, as a way to test the empathy of other people. This behavior is encouraged due to being seen as a cheap way to impart social skills, though every one of them will know the public service campaign about the danger of “Bad Influences,” These posters or media productions warn against inappropriate behavior or anti-social cues that Nanotrasen deems unfitting for their future laborforce, though it’s effectiveness is hard to determine.
Alien rights groups have heavily criticized the Clymene, claiming their administration mass-produces and indoctrinates an exploitable slave race for the corporation, though NT officials in Tau Ceti have dismissed this claim as misinformation, limiting the number of prometheans they produce per-year to about a thousand while presenting a superior education regimen and their prometheans employable in desirable jobs.
The limit on Promethean production allows other Nanotrasen facilities to experiment with their own slimes, allows more resources to be spent on each class, and eases concerns from the Confederate Senate that prometheans could replace the jobs of the existing population within settled systems, though the artifical nature of the species makes awkward comparisons to synthetic rights an uncommon conversation. Though the limit has been relaxed during certain states of emergency, such as during the Hegemony-OriFed War and Phoron Wars to fill up auxiliary non-combat roles, the Institute isn’t keen on celebrating those times.