# N-HI-VM (and beyond)

general document for the purposes of:

- brushing up on vey-med
- brushing up on hephaestus
- refactoring nanotrasen
- generally taking a look at corporation / frontier lore stuff

you can safely assume that i:

- only read the existing published corporation pages as well as `Lore: Corporations`
- if anything i write here contradicts anything not in corporation pages, which, mind you, should be authoritative point of truth for corporations anyways, it's a tacit 'hey can we retcon this it stinks / could be better'.
- the actual story fluff will not be entirely done here; this is an outline that can be used to refluff / rebuild things with
- specifically nanotrasen; i believe hephaestus was already written and vey-med was under askaris for a while

## why

given the server's direction of new map and new eras, and how it's a little boring to have a singular faction on the main map despite it being somewhat convenient and easy, i am going to be doing a thing inspired by aurora

- nanotrasen, vey-med, and hephaestus are allied. not just friendly, but proper allied.
- each has their strengths and weaknesses
- the main map will be divided between the three. there will be no role locks, but a heavy emphasis placed on people of given factions doing what their faction is good at
- exception: **captain**, **research director** are locked to NT. it is still a NT ship.
- this is subject to debate as we move closer to implementation.
- given all that & the fact that player characters will be being funneled into the 3, i have a vested interest in ensuring the story stands
- it is better to get things out of the way now than to have issues later that we cannot resolve. remember that we are making a long-term stable project. things like the frontier act / frontier exclusitivity for megacorporations will be revisited if need be.

# overall

## frontier act

- okay for the most part
- potentially shove oricon more in it if necessary
- where is the frontier? if it is literally right next to oricon and far from the other two, shouldn't people in it be **oricon citizens** for the most part? that means it makes little sense to have oricon entirely unable to touch anyone out here
- re**consider** the scales of megacorporations and what they do
- 'they all have navies and internal security and colonies' yes but how big are they i don't think all of them should just be miniature nations
- unless they are and we're going for a stellaris game with megacorps everywhere; this hurts my sensibilities though
- where does individual systems / oricon come in? are they just powerless due to lack of personnel / assets out here? or are they not?
- there is a large inconsistency with us portraying whetier it's "SDF is worse in every way" versus "SDF is major and megacorps are guests most of the time"
- better route:
- megacorps have specializations
- some are large enough to be pseudo-governments and **have** colonies in that way. most dont' have many, some dont' have any at all.
- same goes for navies/whatnot; PMC / security contractor corporations probably have more direct power to intervene in conflicts than those who don't have a massive fleet

## corporations in general

megacorporations refer to the **TSC (Trans-Stellar Corporation)**'s operating on the Frontier. They are distinguished from 'regular' corporations that are more local in that they are normally in possession of a lot of assets like fleets, stations, etc, and span **many** star systems.

they can either be founded and entirely set in the frontier, or they can be a corporation that started in one of the Galactic Nations that spread outwards.

we generally want a *relative* power balancing between them in terms of how important they are (or rather how sensitive their actions are).

- TSCs *usuaully* have some degree of logistics and small-time manufacturing, outside of their product / whatever.
- TSCs usually (see: 100% of the time should) have a specialization.

the proposal here is that TSCs tend to have complex relationship webs of interdependency.

- nanotrasen-hephaestus-veymed is described later
- black star/five star/hephaestus (rare)/anyone with a PMC / security detachment is often contracted to help with things on that end
- even by Nanotrasen, who is explicitly no longer a warmonger / powerful enough to strongarm everyone in current day anymore
- this leads to conflicts (when mercs are hired against one another despite being from the same company)
- megacorps are probably doing a lot of selling amongst themselves other than competition as well.
- well duh they're the only ones with major capability out here they need to get their supplies from somewhere
- companies having leverage due to this? there was something written before about the pharmaceutical/primary chemical maker company literally sanctioning people since it's so important

## the role of governance

i'm going to just pretend whoever uttered the words "oricon can't touch anything out here" didn't, because uh, shoo, go away.

- **oricon means a government**. for vey-med it's jargon/the skrell.
- 'x gov doesn't have influence over y entity at all' only makes sense if that entity is not incorporated inside that government
- this is not the case for new NT

let's instead go with:

1. frontier act was made to allow self-governance with a promise / terms of annexation later + **jack murphy pinging you here**: a way for oricon to not basically landlock itself by creating a bazillion "independent states that don't want to be annexed".
2. this is because oricon doesn't have the resources to spread out that far. remember that area increases non-linearly with distance to the center of a circle / sphere'. as powerful as the nation-states are in comparison to smaller entities (including megacorporations), that's because they have density on their side.
- remember that the whole idea behind all of this stuff i'm doing to NT & others is **megacorporations excel in non-dense areas** due to being mostly efficiently organized for that. megacorps cannot patrol all of the frontier either they just project influence.
3. it follows that oricon **can** send out ships (based on the terms of that 'local governance' thing if it's to a specific system; remember that space is big, don't even think about blockading something entirely). they just don't because they don't have enough to cover everything so it's constrained to need-based deployments.
4. it follows from our lore on FTL / subspace communications taking time (way faster for latter but still taking time) that there's a great deal of attrition to be played into if oricon were to try to globally enforce anything.
5. hence, things like the Phoron War is explicitly no longer to be an unregulated hell. it should start with oricon being the arbitrators / actual legal stuff, a bit of espionage, etc.
- by the time it gets to 'raid stations with paramilitary units to steal stuff' you're already at the point where oricon should get involved but by the time they get there **everyone** (potentially even including the victim if they're doing forbidden research/weird shit) will be like "huh we didn't see that happening uhhh probably just terrorists :)" about it.
6. oricon should still be a thorn in the side of anyone wanting *too* much chaos because, really, i refuse to believe they'd be okay with their frontier just being mafias and slaying, c'mon.

## nanotrasen triad

nanotrasen triad refers to:

- nanotrasen: research, logistics, and general odd-jobs.
- more on that & brainstorming in the NT section. NT is painfully generic right now and requires some nailing down.
- hephaestus: naval, security, engineering contractor & supplier. makes coveted (yet imperfect) lines of synthetics for most use-cases, including domestic (if you want your maid to look like a murderbot anyways).
- vey-med: biotechnology incorporated; makes the 'best' and most life-like prosthetics, advanced augments; full-stack operations and manufacturing for medical and biotech systems / supplies.

'but they aren't really that allied' i don't care retcon it if you need to, because here is the other side of this:

- nanotrasen: stretched thin across too many contracts and projects. cannot defend itself in an all-out scenario again without assistance.
- in turn, provides the variance, adaptivity, and specialized logistics to allies and customers, as well as churning out technological marvels and discoveries now and then.
- hephaestus: stagnant / stubborn, much like its robots. has manufacturing lines and is reputable, but struggles to move forwards / has major diversity of thought problems
- in turn, is the support and mountain upon which nanotrasen/veymed may rely on when everything is on fire. also gives them ships, engineering, guns, and robots, so that's a plus.
- vey-med: vaporware.jpg; very research-focused like nanotrasen, but veymed requires some muscle to get across to things. you may be the best doctors around but the other doctor has a glock and you don't.
- in turn, is a massive research partner to nanotrasen (whom is not naturally specialized in biotech; more physics / natural sciences, imo). also keeps people alive and generates positive PR, which is nice when one of you is **The** Military Industrial Complex, and the other one of you is a beacon for bad attention

### why

no one rules alone and no corporation shall stand alone. as dominant as NT is in some technology spheres, they should not be the best at everything. the way to make this happen is to nail them down to what they actually do, and give them powerful allies.

the triad is where high-quality and cutting-edge frontier technology and development comes from.

citadel is a cooperative server; we don't want everyone to be on the same team verbatim but everyone on the main map should be fighting for a relatively agreeable cause. by driving it home that neither of the three has some weird total dominance, it makes the universe more interesting, because megacorporations have intricate relationship webs instead of operating off strictly short-term transactional benefits.

# nanotrasen, the scholars

## general thoughts

after parsing NT;

- 'it's even more consolidated ater phoron wars' directly contradicts 'NT is weaker after phoron wars'
- things like 'its despoition allows it to intervene in things that would otherwise require a galactic power' makes me feel like it's a massive nation state
- this is not what i think should be what we're going for; see 'why' up above
- i'm going to just outright redo asset protection / ERT / PMD / letter agency here because it's just silly at this point
- no one gets to be edgy, not even nanotrasen.
- the early lore is whatever
- as in, pre-flicker lore. i'm not even sold on flicker; but that's a separate discussion.
- for everything after
- yeah nah about only 25% of this page is salvageable
- large amounts of pruning is done to anything not mentioned.

## assumptions

- this is a space game; all numbers / 'stellaris fleet power' balancing is done with the perspective that a majority of NT assets are ships
- this is strictly different from some other factions, whose installations include far more planetary focus
- this is also because i'm pushing the NT Triad to be more like Starfleet in design. Only corporate & for-profit.
- with in-game ship numbers are partially 'at face value'...
- player ships are usually 'light expeditionary cruisers', packing potentially hundreds of people in cryosleep. they are heavily networked/highly technological, allowing for operations with a crew as small as 10-20, but scaling up to crews of > 100, while still being self-sustaining.
- NT vessels pack similar numbers. NT has a *lot* of ships, not a concentrated number of ships. This allows for flexibility on events because we don't have to portray many people; even for 'large scale' starship meetings it'd be an away team detachment in the single digits.
- Suspension of disbelief.

## history

### Pre-Flicker

- set the start at around 2320s
- the start should be sort of slow. transportation / big shipping requires a lot of capital
- if we want to be funny and have it close to today's AI bubble, have NT be a transportation startup that sold investors with use of automation and streamlining so it doesn't require as much people and ships as others for the same amount of work & speed.
- i honestly don't know why the 'frontier act' should be super relevant; is the frontier in oricon borders or is it between governments how should i know
- 'shipping lane' who is charging hyperlane taxes if we don't have constructed hyperlanes??? if they're natural all that's needed is ATC and i'd certainly hope that isn't a charged thing
- make it aggressive lobbying of frontier colonies and smaller entities, **and** population(s) closer to oricon border
- nanotrasen doesn't have capital to compete with transportation giants of 'inner system's yet, which already sort of solved transportation
- **last mile economics** - inner oricon and very dense regions doesn't suffer as badly because the average population density is magnitudes higher
- **travelling salesman + scheduling problems** - we assume that ships are expensive. how to maximally optimize deliveries with fewest ships? nanotrasen solves this with early AI optimizers, as no near-optimal solution exists on interstellar scales. **this is the root of nanotrasen's decentralized/adaptive structure.**
- nanotrasen started with **no** / **light** manufacturing capabilities.
- started to make their own machinery soon after their initial delivery business started. started to make things their ships need; nothing complex, think standardized boxes, tools for engineers, etc, via 3d printers. things broke often but it was an area of research.
- nanotrasen's reputation was *okay* in this period. their head offices slowly moved away from oricon's center as they went and had more resources.
- given more resources lets them pay for things like defense; outer areas are less defended / safe for board members.
- flicker is ~2350. the 2320 start gives them ~30 years of quadratic growth. enough to survive but not to be at the top after.

### Let's start at the top!

Time: `Right After The Flicker`

the flicker results in extreme disruption to travel and some communications blackouts.

nanotrasen clings for survival; their customers are all disrupted by this and as a courier they're quite reliant on, well, their customers for business.

it is in this age that Nanotrasen starts to expand out; they do not want to *only* be a courier. they never did, but it was scaling well enough that economics dictated it was more efficient to just be a better courier.

now, though:

- NT stayed afloat during this period by continuing to provide logistics, albeit at far reduced efficiencies (and having lost a lot of shipping customers/partners due to instability)
- NT's frontier operations are somewhat weak compared to what they *could be* given their varied fleets of ships
- the Flicker ignites a fervor to go further into shipbuilding and fleet logistics / research. it is alarming for NT to just be knocked around like this for years; even more so given their business models *directly rely on their fleets being operational all the time*.
- how to get around this?

for the next 50 or so years, NT should get progressively more coherent / utilitarian regarding their priorities. having their logistics halfway obliterated by something out of their control has knocked them out of their growth stupor.

- this is a good time to introduce Hephaestus / Vey-Med as partners.
- NT partners with Hephaestus to transport miners, sell minerals to them, buy minerals from them, help consult on mining habitation / etc
- NT partners with Vey-Med for similar reasons.
- given their Skrell basing, this should be `far` more tenuous than with Hephaestus. again, Hephaestus and Nanotrasen are inherently very military-industrial complex-y. Vey-Med is outwardly less-so.
- incidents of corporate espionage slowly grew in the background; the other megacorporations start to recognize that the `frontier courier` has started to transform into something else.
- Nanotrasen began research into positronics and synthetic technology at this time, which it assisted Hephaestus with to enhance their synthetic lineages with greater intelligence and personality.
- Unfortunately, innovation comes at a cost. Positronics were often mistreated during this time, due to the lack of real laws protecting them. While Nanotrasen is *relatively* benign in comparison to some other 'AI research' corporations, both inside and outside of Orion, they are still one of the progenitors of lawbound synthetics.
- The Man-Machine Interface was developed from 'acquired' prototypes and designs from less-than-ethical corporations and groups around the galaxy. Nanotrasen, in a move that would be understated as *controversial*, 'accepted' (and sometimes even paid for, if the 'candidate' was 'compatible' enough) death-row and life-sentence inmates with the promise of a new life free from harm.
- read: in a law-bound AI / synthetic.
- **No, cyborg modules are not canon in lore.** Cyborgs can be used/made for anything, see [Cyborgs](/Hk-PVGMoSRK5GkQnnReecw) for the actual idea of what cyborgs *are* in-universe.
- The general lawsets currently used **are** canon in lore. 'NT Default' and 'Asimov' were commonly used, with the latter for extremely risky minds.
- this is going to backfire later! i don't elaborate on this document but we can generally assume that things start going wrong almost immediately, with a lull as the technology developed (and 'candidate selection' / the realization that someone must be willing for it to work properly), and a *spike* after 2490 due to the engine conflict / full-on war stressing AIs. the lore here is that positronics don't do well while lawed; it's effectively a temporary lobotomy. lobotomized people don't handle stress well.
- Station-Keeping AIs and slaved lawbounds were created at this time, separate from (similarly slaved) IPCs (not just monitorheads; any synth that isn't a MMI is an IPC, really).
- While 'conventional' AIs with human direction were used for most mission-critical guidance, stationkeeping AIs started to be installed iteratively on each NT installation.
- note: most people who aren't researchers don't hear a lot about the atrocities committed to make reliable stationkeeping AIs; this is stuff that would fully go out during the age of espionage starting the next century, culminating in the 'phoron wars'.
- probably add this as a setback that drove NT to desperately hoard + develop phoron tech, including drives

### Race to the Stars ('The Phoron Wars', aka `Bluespace & Phoron`)

as Nanotrasen logistics / shipping / now the newly opened R&D and manufacturing divisions started up, NT has started to become a legitimate concern for others.

NT now does:

- logistics / shipping
- frequent advance surveying for Hephaestus, as well as others (for a price)
- most corporations use raw materials, and can procure them - but only some of them are the ones who do the procuring primarily.
- NT probably mines too; this arrangement that's 'mutually beneficial to the mining efforts of others' actually just lets NT sniff around and charge people for it.
- has built experimental ships for 'surveying' originally
- fleet-based R&D has not taken off. NT's R&D facilities are mostly stations, whether ground or orbital.
- survey ships slowly get outfitted with more and more classical analysis equipment found on science vessels.

now to get some things out of the way; during this era:

- Tachyon-Flux Engines, Alcubierre Drives (shitty in comparison, used for low power drones and whatnot by earlier explorers), and `fusion torches` with some inertial damping (inertial dampers are not powerful in-setting). are the primary sources of propulsion / transit.
- elements from the 'island of stability' (large atomic number group with predicted stability as opposed to immediate radioactive decomposition) have been predicted, but never yet synthesized let alone discovered
- **bluespace is a known technology.** as stated in FTL, it is not by any means a good replacement to 'conventional' FTL. it is better due to the lack of need for a hyperlane, making it better for exploration and 'last mile' problems as sparse research / habitation outposts probably aren't sitting near a hyperlane.
- NT has been trying to develop *better* bluespace engines for a bit but it kind of just never panned out
- maybe some incremental updates, but most that made the mark of 'better' are also not reliable / stable for various reasons.

in around 2407, nanotrasen discovered `Element P`. it is a n-th group element in the island of stability, with a wide variety of effects.

- it has a very high enthalpy of formation.
- so it burns very hot
- it is extremely reactive, but only if placed in certain comopunds/configurations. in others, it is extremely stable
- so it is a miracle binder as well as a miracle reactant, and the compounds it forms can both be very reactive and very inert.
- for \[not explaining, don't care, didn't ask\] reasons, it tends to be very bioreactive when in compounds
- miracle catalyst? helps in all of the above

tl;dr, it's very good and possibilites are endless. but one possibility is more endless than most.

(this is totally not stolen from Elite Dangerous which means yes it's basically stolen)

the conventional way of going into bluespace for a ship is to gradually 1. envelop itself in a field 2. 'deploy' the field into ~~witchspace~~ bluespace (help me fol, i have terminal elite dangerous lore addiction because it's so cool) and then 3. vector the ship towards the destination while maintaining the entire bubble.

this is slow, somewhat dangerous (a lot of energy is released if the field is breached; certain classes of energy or dispersed-kinetic weapons are particularly effective at disrupting it), and takes a long time. not to mention it's harder to do without a lot of computation while accelerating due to needing to adapt to the ship.

- most 'usable' bluespace designs generally involve massive ships generating a large bubble for themselves and other small shpis to ride along.

bluespace crystals are used to make this process far easier. the field can be adaptively projected around all matter around a ship, (relatively) harmlessly, without nearly as much computation and manual work due to the field naturally wrapping around matter. it also makes it a lot more energy efficient for smaller vessels.

- **natural bluespace crystals generally do not exist.**
- this also means drive bubbles are no longer massive, and small ships can FTL under their own power if adequately equipped.

**artificial bluespace crystals** can be produced, but are cost-prohibitive. where `Element P` (Phoron) comes in, is that it's a catalyst to the production process, making production of crystals far more doable for most facilities, and a lot cheaper.

^ The above should probably mostly be shoved into the FTL lore as necessary, as we want to not bloat the NT page.

given NT's first discovery and exploitation of phoron, they are the first to discover *this* use in `2471`

- inbetween this, and 2407, phoron war was mostly theft / light espionage / general 'tech race'.
- there's custody battles over who gets the phoron that turns hot, but after the first 'leak' (literally) of the element, Exonet information on the kind of scanning needed to find it became readily available.

**This**, is when the 'Phoron War' became more heated. After prototypes emerged and were turned into production systems, other corporations were *desperate* to get this technology. On-top of Nanotrasen's logistics adaptivity now far-outstripping others, they also began to 1. sell these drives to their allies, 2. do things they couldn't before thanks to them having literal travel superiority over other frontier megacorporations. 3. Their inner-system coverage also expanded a bit during this time, and 4. they got rich selling drives to non-allies at somewhat exorbitant prices.

- Bluespace Crystals were produced at **highly classified sites**. These sites are probably where most of the 'war' part of Phoron Wars was targeted at. The exact fabrication methodology used to form a perfect crystal was kept secret even from workers; only those with the highest clearances could access the full production data. Fabrication sites were purpose-built, heavily guarded, and the crystals themselves were grown with the direction of lawed stationkeeping AIs.
- So were the engines themselves. Integration of the crystals, as well as the tuning values and algorithms necessary were encoded into tamper-resistant chips. Nanotrasen began to put the equivalent of software obfuscation on their engines, as well - engines came with a set of drive controllers with encrypted software and black-box behaviors. This was considered quite hostile to the atmosphere at the time, which otherwise promoted tinkering with ship components and mechanisms.
- Outside of infiltration of these sites and other sites to attempt to plant agents, the hiring of various factions like changelings (write out wizards/ninjas/others entirely they're dead to me fuck you fuck you fuck you), mercenary raids to steal other kinds of research data, and a few **extreme** cases of nuclear terrorism happened between `2500` and `2530`, which is when *safe* competition for the modern bluespace drive began to get to the mass-production phase.
- the 'syndicated corporations' formed at around 2490, officially as a 'working group' to create a better engine.
- (hint: it's not just a bunch of engineers getting together to make an engine)
- **Not all current-day corporations were in on this. Remember, not all of them are even interested in Engine research; whether or not they supported the Syndicate in other ways is up to each individual corporation.**

In 2527, steam began to die down for the war. At this point,

- Artificial Bluespace Crystals, the Phoron-catalyst-based reaction needed to grow it, and the drive technology required to utilize it has been developed to working prototypes in competing organizations.
- Nanotrasen has spent about 40 years in both 1. luxury and 2. extreme financial stress, given that they 1. made a *massive* amount of money from their new services and engines (think modern-day Tesla's rise), and 2. blew it all on their defense budget, lobbying, etc, to keep themselves secure.
- The fabric has begun to fray for Nanotrasen. There's been too many changes in leadership / direction and the company has begun to lose its roots.
- at this point Vey-Med is probably *extremely* displeased with the turn of events. They made a bunch of money from this but the extreme factionalism involved has ironically *stifled* their markets due to it being unsafe in some areas to be associated with NT. Pressure from them is probably a large impact in how things played out in this era.
- Hephaestus probably doesn't care; it builds and leases ships and equipment to NT. It just made a payday off of this.
- The fabric has begun to come *undone* for some of the Syndicated Corporations.
- some are directly out-competed by others due to spending too much money/time/effort on this project
- in-fighting begun when prototypes were made; there was an agreement to *not* monopolize the technology but some of them are less friendly than others in following it
- **Both** them and NT are now known as warmongers / destabilizers of the Frontier. Some, like Vey-Med, and perhaps even Nanotrasen (they're basically Apple with guns, c'mon.), look better. Some look worse. Everyone still looks bad.
- Nanotrasen pouring money into Hephaestus and other suppliers / places / etc probably caused a large bit of destabilization of the market / centralization. See: Hephaestus vs Gorlex and other arms dealers.

Given the lack of *need* anymore (as the crucial technologies had been leaked or otherwise unveiled), the Syndicate began to fall apart. Some left the effort (whether announced or unannounced) earlier than others. The full barrage upon Nanotrasen only seemed to stop two decades after that, at the end of the 2540s.

- It realistically stopped earlier than 2550. Nanotasen just chose to continue being paranoid with its defense budget, until they were in the red too many years in a row and decided that enough is enough / they had spent too much time on this.
- Their technology / drives generally went back to being more open.
- The modern era is pretty much shaped off this section, given that the economics and logistics of the 'war' has been so devastating that a change in process was once-again required. See:
- too much unused ships; contracted / leased ones are returned
- too many defense staff; most were tried to be kept as much as possible but there were too many seats to fill.
- they were filtered either into ISD, other departments via retraining programs, or sometimes laid off.
- it's like laying off a bunch of highly trained guys into the frontier is a bad choice huh; this is why NT minimized that. Still happened, though!

Notes By Ruskit: The Collapse of the Syndicate.  
---
ca. 2545: Cybersun Industires buys out Gorlex Manufacturing whose constant
warfare with NT between 2210-2240 had left the company effectively broke.
2548: Cybersun begins laying off Gorlex Personnel as the Phoron wars wind
down.
Early 2549: Cybersun attempts to lay off officers who more or less revolt
taking their ships/mercs under their command and form new mercenary
companies or simply go pirate. 
Mid 2549: Former Gorlex mercenaries begin looting Cybersun facilties.
Cybersun executives are in some cases executed by the mercs turned pirates.
Late 2549: Donk Co. leaves the Syndicate. Waffle Co begins major 
restructuring selling off many of its assets becoming Kynde Pharmaceuticals.
2550: Cybersun declares bankruptcy, its assets stolen by their own mercs.
Cybersun's demise marks the official end of the Syndicate and the end
of the phoron wars.

// todo: should we have NT steal a part of the bluespace drive from someone else?

### Modern

The Nanotrasen of the modern era is quite different to what it was prior.

- Its monopoly over the Bluespace Drive is gone. While Nanotrasen engines still *usually* have a reliability and speed increment over others, it's now far more of a small boost, as opposed to a game-changer.
- Most of the game-changing uses of Phoron had been discovered already.
- That we know of, anyways. Much like any element / chemical, research is ongoing into its properties, effects, and what exotic technologies may be developed from it.
- Phoron scarcity has also gone down - albeit slightly. The scanning technologies needed to locate deposits deep within stellar bodies has improved to the point where it's still more valuable than most other formerly 'rare earth' metals, but still fetches a pretty penny in bulk.
- Nanotrasen assets have decreased in numbers - especially for naval capacity.
- while NT still fetches profits from most ships, it was simply economically unviable to keep a standby armada anymore; the lack of a monopoly to generate revenue hastened this decision.
- *normal* ships were more or less impacted. they sort of just went back to their own thing, and were reorganized as necessary to fit the new command structures, as opposed to the militarized ones of the 2400s.

## innovation & profit

given the draft's outline nature, here's just a quick & dirty on what NT is innovating / profitting from

### stable profit

- nanotrasen still operates their logistics networks.
- ships continue to be supplied with 'things needing shipping' based on decentralized algorithms inspired by research into 'classical' AI (neural / autonomous networks)
- most other corporations that can afford / justify it have their internal logistics networks now; they are no longer dependent on NT for this
- they **have** kept some of their growths inside Orion; a decent chunk of their revenue is from the operations of dedicated logistics networks inside.
- research / logistics networks with entities in Orion space
- this again is to 1. ground the company and 2. provide some level of stability. stability might suck but it's not terrible when trying to write the main player faction, that we nominally wouldn't want to just *fall* after a year.
- this opens them up to orion pressures. this is good; while some other corporations don't get this revenue, they also have no one to answer to, really.
- bluespace drives are still sold
- continually optimized; still *better*, not game-breakingly so, compared to when they had a monopoly.
- bluespace crystals & other rare materials **and** components are still sold
- controlled; much like [whatever that picky pharma company was], NT reserves the right to ship these things to who they please
- 'don't piss us off or you can go make this yourself/find another company to deliver'
- they get a *small* cut of profits from things they contribute to for Vey-Med & Hephaestus
- and i mean small, they aren't scalping them; that would be bad for NT's continued relations with them.
- i'd imagine Vey-Med doesn't want to have to invest in *owning* 100% of their logistics network and transportation, so they go with NT, tell NT to help them with marketing / shipment, etc
- it's possible they even just have NT ships contracted to them with the ops crew on them and just use them for VM's purposes since NT crews probably know how to operate NT ships well.
- hephaestus might do the same; they probably have a lot more heavy / bulk transports but still want/need NT to do the quick deliveries for cheap so they don't have to spend money developing that capability.
- they are probably lobbying systems / colonists / local people to use them for logisticss- nt has **some** stable products being sold
- by 'stable', i mean 'they made something that outstrips the corporations dedicated to this'; like if they made a gun that's just better than Hephaestus guns, without Hephaestus help
- this is **rare**. in-game lore / description / item wise, this is **somewhat rare**. NT is not a primarily consumerist company, and while they have their fingers in every cake, it doesn't mean they have any amount of superiority on the grand scale. most of these products won't be portrayed, because i don't want in-game items to just be 'see how good NT is at making **literally everything**'; it's the exception, not the norm.
- 'joint between NT/Hephaestus + NT/VeyMed' is *far* more likely, given both of them are better at bringing industrial / biotech-medical products to mass market respectively
- this stuff is also sold inside Orion to varying degrees of success, not just the frontier. Orion only allows this stuff from the trio, too; not prototypes that aren't 100% not going to get someone hurt or maimed.

most of these are givens; any corporation in the modern age truly considered a Trans-Stellar Corporation probably has some degree of logistics and manufacturing and R&D, no matter how small. not all of them need to be listed on the wiki, they're just here to pick/choose/phrase as necessary so we **know** what NT is doing. the wiki itself also doesn't need as much explanations. this applies to the further two sections, too.

### research & development

NT also has a lot of things that *are potentially* exports, or maybe not. whatever the case, they're not yet considered important enough, **or** still *difficult* enough (AIs, etc) for NT's corporate hierarchy to consider them viable things to lean on.

- abstract physics research is the name of the game!
- bluespace, TFEs, anything to do with dimensions and FTL
- classical mechanics and general fuckery
- this is actually most of why NT ships are scouring the frontier, more on that later.
- **materials science is part of this.**
- chemical / biotech is done jointly with Vey-Med, with Vey-Med leading most of it.
- sorry vey-med is just more popular because doctors tend to like them more!
- weaponization
- it happens
- for the love of god don't focus on this this is just here to acknowledge what they're doing **NT is not an experienced arms dealer / some general purpose warmonger.**
- rarely does NT go for 'general purpose' for this; the only times they have is generally out of need like weapons for their naval / defense forces. even then, they often get Hephaestus to help in some way.
- there's a lot of niche prototypes
- 'got a serious plant issue on your colony? we now have trucks with massive beam dishes on the back that hurts plants and not people!' (the orion FDA did not approve of this)
- most of them stay as prototypes/archived designs, some rarely make the cut; see 'some stable products are sold'.
- **synthetics**
- NT is **not** one of the leader dealers of synthetic units.
- NT synthetics have always been focused on **the self.** They are tailored to serve NT, and later (after the pesky 'robot rights' guys won...) to be able to integrate to some degree.
- Basically, to become research AIs, NT synths are:
- 1. quirky
- 2. not lobotomized that hard (lawbinding systems have gotten better, they're still pretty obnoxious but they're nicer now)
- 3. not effectively selectively bred to be slaves/drones
- they're very helpful internally. station / ship AIs are canonically part of why NT productivity is still high despite their relative chaos-of-organization. cyborgs perform a lot of tasks on ships, and the more-free IPCs are often doing quite an amount of labor or even assisting with research / analysis.
- ongoing research on synthetics continues; a lot of it is given to Hephaestus to assist in their robot lineages, and Vey-Med for their biotech efforts.
- **if Vey-Med is not a synth maker as opposed to a prosthetics/biotech maker, NT could very well supply them with relatively reliable synths.** (NT stopped trying to forcefully cyborg people after the middle of the phoron war when this backfired immensely.)
- **attempts to make better / more automated classical *and* positronic synths are still being conducted.**
- it'd be a shame if nanotrasen pulled a clovis bray and saw some nice code waiting to be stolen in the hivebots (i'm mostly joking thankfully)
- archeology / esoteric technology / anomaly exploitation
- this is un-coded mechanics but will be a major science system later
- suspension of disbelief says that people lived before and there's a ton of Weirdness in undeveloped areas still
- yeah we might as well canonize xenoarcheology
- NT has an edge in this; other corporations focus on nullification/containment/detection. NT tries to study and learn from it.
- this is a big part of why ships are made with indefinite research missions and sent around; there's a lot of anomalies and one of them might be the next Phoron, surely (or so they think). - nanotechnology
- yet more un-coded mechanics
- together with Vey-Med, NT is *attempting* to pour some resources into nanotech
- some products (medical beamguns) have arisen but most of them are relatively useless
- others (programmable prototype nanite swarms) are a thing but all have tradeoffs (like decoherence, instability, and other nasty things)
- see the protean page for why this is the case tl;dr i'm not having NT or any other TSC have unstoppable nanotech for the foreseeable future, tbh. this doesn't mean they won't try, though.

see above section on 'not all of this needs to be mentioned, they're all just ideas for now we can prune/trim/summarize as necessary'

### `for-profit starfleet`

odd jobs. after the phoron war, NT had a lot of 'science' vessels converted to light exploration cruisers. crewed by the triad / coalition of three's members, NT is attempting to *save face* in terms of its public perception and market appeal.

they can be called in to solve more grounded problems.

- distress calls
- hostile wildlife
- deploying technology - **especially** from Vey-Med, and Hephaestus, whom make up a part of the crew on many research vessels
- emergency deliveries
- targeted sector scans / scouting

or solve more abstract problems

- collecting research / materials / rare entities for shipping back to Orion
- whether to be researched in a NT lab or sold off to research laboratories
- **this is pretty much their excuse to get first dibs on stuff they find.**
- 'humanitarian' missions to stabilize regions
- usually when they have an interest in the region's resources
- along with Hephaestus / Vey-Med directly, supporting regions dense in resources / opportunities
- then taxing people for usage
- this is probably extraordinarily rare as they'd need to invest a lot of resources into something to hold it. i doubt they'd do this to entire star systems, that's economically unviable without a large naval force. probably just singular planets identified; NT can make an outpost there (see: Atlas, Tether) and 'claim' the area.
- **helping seed colonies under the Frontier Act.**
- the colonies are basically grown and influenced by NT, and then have reoccuring business with them
- influence likely falls as the colonies grow / they need resources and help from more than one megacorp
- megacorps often can compete with each other for colonies / attempt to perform hostile buyouts/takeovers/fuckery
- i never said the contracts the budding colonies sign are overall in their favor.
- they still have a navy, while it's not the golden age of nanotrasen mil-rping i'm sure they can do stuff with it
- like charge people a lot of money to protect them
- 'all in one nanotrasen package' featuring defense, logistics, and attachments from hephaestus / vey-med for budding colonies maybe idfk this is too general we probably shouldn't do that

or just when they're not doing much, performing more mundane things

- collecting resources and shipping it off (which is why every ship has miners / salvage techs)
- outreach / diplomacy / expanding NT's reach
- the frontier is massive, and no one corporation is nearly as big. the more people know about NT, the better.

## ops & hierarchy

ops inside Orion are not in this section, nor will they really be mentioned outside of 'got money by shipping stuff & selling stuff'. that isn't what we're interested in, really; it's only there to ground the company. their main command also isn't inside Orion; the stuff inside Orion is just mentioned as what's basically a well-regulated system for both PR / recruitment purposes, as well as to provide some stable business incase volatile research / frontier projects fold in on themselves.

### MAJOR RETCON REGARDING NANOTRASEN BASING

in current lore we have NT having a corporate-owned planet/star-system.

I'm deciding that this is too much. NT will be more Orion based, as it's a *lesser-outlaw-aligned* faction. The more outlaw-ish corporations like some of the ex-syndicate/blackstar/pmcs/etc are probably more frontier based, but a large amount of NT's influence and money probably come from Orion dealings as well. The Frontier is simply too underpopulated/undeveloped otherwise.

### Nanotrasen Corporate

Nanotrasen's actual corporate structure / leads are housed in their Orion offices.

I'm not going to name them, but they exist.

You can expect a structure *similar* to IRL that I won't elaborate on (someone else can, I'm not a corporate goon). There's probably executives. For now, we'll just call this 'Corporate', which is a relatively small group in charge of, realistically, just *direction*

Outside of 'direction', they also include diplomats (yes, they have diplomats; this is sci-fi and they're a spacefaring company!), representatives, and hell you might even have resort staff hired by Corporate. Bascially, 'miscellaneous support functions' live here.

- there's not enough corporate people / paper pushers/ the logistics and research divisions are all basically half-subsidiaries at this point. corporate is literally just there to provide stability and direction (and allow for occasional Shit to get flung for Political Reasons.)
- consider not doing an irl-public-traded company. i don't think one of the story points should be "NT can be bought out by someone rich enough". i don't care what you do / how realistic it is, and unlike with fleet/"flagship" terminology this is non-negotiable. it is not fun game design to have what's supposed to be the icons of the frontier realistically just be shareholder puppets.
- if necessary just mention executives/have it be some weird private corporation with chains of command that we just Do Not See or something, idc
- we're kind of shafted for this because unlike Aurora, our scaling is a bit too wacky to *not* have 'Corporate' be nameless commanders.

### Logistics Division

The logistics branch of NT is a semi-autonomous shipping fleet.

- There's probably thousands if not more of logistics vessels in this. Logistics hubs (stations) are usually in Orion; there's a few in the Frontier but it's generally considered too dangerous to put them outside.
- This is because Logistics, ironically, is usually less armed/defended than the Research Group, because the Research Division is where NT's actual space assets outside of freighters are.
- Logistics answers to 1. Corporate, 2. **coordinates** with the Research Division.
- Reserach Division is what guards the frontier (yeah! seriously!), so logistics needs to coordinate to ensure routes are safe, etc
- reserach division can request stuff be shipped over, whatnot; this is usually done at the command level of a fleet-group, as the research division's ships can *usually* procure small amounts of what's needed themselves.
- Logistics is basically Amazon Prime Shipping.
- Stuff are handled by algorithms, and a small and varied number of AI overseers to the entire network. Human operators are still involved but AIs handle most of the optimization.
- Each ship is told where to go / what to get / etc.
- A lot of stuff are automated, so NT doesn't have to employ a ton of people in comparison
- average Research Division starship like the NSV Triumph probably canonically would be (not only a bit bigger but) staffed by like 200 people at peak. Logistics vessels are generally just a few dozen people, including security staff.
- they still have ship amenities to keep people fed, comfortable, and happy during long trips, but they're not going to have research labs / advanced medical facilities / etc onboard; that stuff is expensive.

### Research Division

This is the branch that concerns player characters, generally.

The Reserach Division is the half of Nanotrasen that deals with *everything.* See: 'profits and innovations' for what they do.

- They're also responsible for Frontier defense and high-level logistics, ironically.
- Logistics Division plans routes based on coverage / influence / safety. Research Division fleets are what keeps the routes safe.
- The grand majority of NT's actual naval assets (aka ships meant to be fighting anything) are assigned to Research fleets.

Each Research Division fleet has a flagship hosting its senior command staff. This is *usually*, but not always, the biggest ship.

An example is the NDV Marksman.

- It hosts tactical teams, including Asset Protection, Emergency Responders, and any specialized / related staffing.
- It's **massive**. It's big enough to act as a pseudo-drydock for the NSV Triumph, which is a standard research cruiser.
- i genuinely do not care for military terms like corvettes, if it has shuttles being launched it's a research cruiser on god you can call it a corvette if your character's actual oricon navy fuck lmao
- *pseudo*-drydock; ergo the Trimph can kind of pull up next to it, some light support struts can be extended, engineers can ferry stuff over and start fixing in a controlled environment. it probably has a lot of dedicated damage-control teams too. **It does not actually fit the Triumph. NT fleets generally don't just have ships of that size; actual ships with hangers for that kind of work are on the scale of 'nomadic species' and 'ori-con navy'.**
- It doubles as a floating city. Like an aircraft carrier, but actually livable.
- Actual population number well into the 7.5-10k range. It does have actual research laboratories, etc.
- Population is not necessarily all crew. It has facilities, city-like streets inside, etc. Obviously, it's still a starship, you're still kind of in a relatively cramped interior. Think of a strip mall with a 15 meter ceiling that's a fake sky.
- NT crew are often there for R&R purposes. Actual resorts are still better; interior technology is not quite yet at the 'trivially simulate weather / natural air / seasons' stage. It's enough to keep spacers happy, and waste a bunch of space in the process. It's not magic.
- honestly i hate that we're doing this because my expanse-brain says that it's not economic to do this but i don't care at this point whatever.

(again, our scaling fucks us over here; it's honestly awful for NT to have a ton of fleets but we're probably looking at `hundreds` because of how populated the corner of the galaxy that the game takes place in is.)

- NT probably has a few hundred fleets in various areas of the Frontier
- Each fleet probably has about 20-30 vessels aside from the flagship
- NSV (science/exploration), NEV (hybrid NDV/NSV, not playable), NDV (armed, warship, primarily carriers responders), NLV (logistics primary, has stuff; unlike logistics division they do have multi-role but they're mostly for carrying / supplying), and more
- most ships carry 1+ shuttles because fuck you age of miniature aircraft carriers is here + it's fun
- protocols (SoP/CR) differ based on designation.
- ...but designation is a 'usually, not always'; break of the conventions do happen. for example: **NDV Marksman** is kind of a bit of everything due to being the lead ship of the `Marksman Fleet`.

NT Research Division fleets are generally given an area to explore/etc by Corporate.

The flagship's command personnel have authority on where to go/what ships to do what with. They have to give weekly status reports to Corporate, and quarterly reports of what they've been doing.

- Ships are generally within 2-10 hours of FTL away from each other. Space is vast, ships are normally not in the same star systems because it's inefficient.
- Think when you're playing Stellaris; you usually don't want to have your science ships all dealing with one star system at a time, instead telling one to scan the whole thing & move to the next / spreading out.
- elaboration on 'flagship command personnel' is in 'Who the hell are CCOs?'.

### Research Division - Stations & Sectors

Static installations are usually handled differently.

- Planet bases (and corrosponding orbital stations) placed on planets of value to both establish a foothold for conducting further investigations, as well as to offer some protection.
- Revenue can even be generated from this if some areas of the planet are considered safe enough that amenities can be developed. This is also one of the ways NT-subsidized colonies tend to spring up.
- Orbital stations are often placed around planets with ground-side installations.
- Or even standalone, if it is deemed not economical to develop the surface yet (see: the surface is more dangerous than the cost to build a safe research base would be justified)
- *Specialty deployments* are sometimes performed if it is economically justified to do so.
- Most Nanotrasen research vessels are capable of landing on planet surfaces. It is not unheard of ships to be used as a temporary staging grounds for the establishment of something permanent - or just to conduct missions before departing.
- On rare occasion, NT will actually sponsor the development of an otherwise (relatively) mundane planet, asteroid belt, habitation outpost, or otherwise, for strategic purposes.
- Local governments can be bribed and even puppeted in some more shady cases; having commerce, logistics, and development of an area often *helps* Nanotrasen, as it's more economical to manipulate a frontier system than it is to maintain one's own infrastructure for it.

Research Division fleets are often routed to be in semi-proximity of static installations where possible economically - this is to ensure that help is within a day or so if things are to go wrong for those aboard. Oftentimes, there'll be Nanotrasen or allied vessels within just a few hours by FTL, ensuring a decent chance of rescue in the worst cases.

More established stations sometimes blossom into full corporate holdings.

- When a planet is cleared of anything anomalous, it is often guaged for the potential of habitation. Habitation rights can be sold, settlers can be attracted. After proprietary technology is removed from the premises, a Nanotrasen research outpost can often be utilized as a staging ground for the construction of a permanent colony.
- Nanotrasen will remain in the sector if it is deemed profitable to do so regardless.
- Oftentimes, even before the conclusion of an otherwise anomalous planet being cleared, miners and settlers will be allowed to do their business, as long as they respect Nanotrasen's wishes for their installations (and do not interfere with NT's continued activites.)

### Research Division - `Stellaris Fleet Power`

because people really want to flex how many guns NT has

answer: a bunch, but not enough to flex anymore.

#### hephaestus

Even during the Phoron War, Hephaestus has been an invaluable help in assisting with Nanotrasen's defense.

Modern day, however:

- hephaestus synthetics are used for various purposes, combat or otherwise
- hephaestus security contractors are often employed, **but not at the ERT/NDV level or up.** they're great for filling numbers rapidly while NT sorts out an installation's permanent staffing.
- hephaestus ships, equipment, etc, are all still imported by NT.
- NT is attempting to make their own gear, whether weapons or otherwise, but it's not economical for them to sink too much resources into weapons development.

#### response teams & asset protection

Research Division vessels / stations (especially NDV-class, command posts, etc), often carry team(s) of emergency responders to assist with any crisis within their fleet (or nearby).

Emergency Responders are one of the only paramilitary units under NT's employ. They're not cheap to hire and keep equipped and ready 24/7.

- A ship as big as the Marksman might have hundreds of them, given it's the flagship of a fleet.
- A NDV ship as big as the Triumph might have a few dozen.
- **An out of the way outpost like the Demeter might only have 2-3 responders on-site as the security force / enforcement, and rely on calling for backup if something serious is spotted nearby.**
- I like having big guns, but I also like Nanotrasen not being God, so genuinely most playable areas will canonically have about a half dozen ERT nearby tops, and they're probably busy a lot of the time.

They're pretty much the only time NT will sink a whole bunch of resources into development of munitions and defense. They **are** the NT Corporate Marines, essentially.

- Outside of responding to distress calls from NT assets, they are often asked to assist local system defense, whether because the system is valuable enough for NT to not want to fall into anarchy, or because to no one's surprise, people tend to like you better if you, on *top* of bribing their mayor/whatever, actually help out during a crisis!
- Armaments wise, ERT/Asset Protection have varying degrees of weaponry. Pulse weapons and mecha are the norm. Their weapons are usually energy-based, and resistant to the usual pitfalls of energy weapons (like having rather expensive EMP shielding). Ballistics are also often used; while they are not really considered as 'logistical' as energy weapons when additional batteries are carried or mobile chargers are available, they are still invaluable in keeping responders and agents alive.
- Their ballistics are generally chambered in a way compatible to the galactic standard. While NT is very snowflakey with their weapons, they're not naive enough to assume that missions always go as planned. If responders are stranded somewhere, they'd rather be stranded with a way to get more ammo than to be stranded with nothing but a knife.
- ERT / Asset Protection equipment is **EXPENSIVE**. One of the top limitations of how much Asset Protection there is, is actually maintaining their equipment. It does not make economic sense to pack hundreds and hundreds of sets of gear for them when they're deployed about once every few days in the *entire fleet*, if even that.

As for Asset Protection / the "nanotrasen military"...

- Asset Protection is just another form of responder.
- ERT members are part of some paramilitary structure with squads. I'm not going to elaborate on it, because frankly it doesn't need elaborating on.
- If we have to be pedantic, we can assume that they formed into semi-flexible squads and have mission commanders that answer **to the non-paramilitary command personnel of the fleet.** A fleet's Director of Science, for example, can ask available response teams to assist with something, but can be overruled by those above them. Those below them can also put in requests, but generally the only people who can unilaterally deploy ERT/AP for any reason are those at the top, and the fleet's overall security leads are going to be in on it.
- Asset Protection is just 'the ERT just geared up with **lethal weapons and war mecha** to solve a critical security incident'. They're not anyone special; the only real in universe distinction between staffing is Asset Protection gear is limited and slightly more sensitive than responder technology/equipment, so people with it tend to be higher up.
- If we want to be too verbose about it: the way it'd work is if you're picked to be AP, you'd generally be part of AP. You're still a responder though; people aren't kept 'on payroll to sit around as AP'. There's simply not enough missions to justify that; most incidents just require an armed, and trained response, not Nanotrasen risking their public image to walk in with war machines.
- Rumors exist of them being 'death-squads' during the Phoron Wars. They're partially spread by rival corporations in an attempt to drag Nanotrasen's name through the mud.
- Realistically, the allegations are true to some extent; Asset Protection teams *did* commit relatively atrocious acts during those times, up to and including indiscriminately firing to `protect intellectual property`. In modern times, however, Asset Protection is still stigmatized - but on the grand scale of things, no, they don't do that anymore. Or do they?
- NT crew **will** meet responders pretty often - hopefully not in the field, though. Responders, like Command Officers, are still people.
- Asset Protection is different; no one is going to march around in AP gear, no one is going to flaunt AP-specific weapons, and they're going to be trained to *not* brag about their time as AP in the bar. That's like bragging you're part of a mercenary group in most areas of the Frontier. Seriously, don't; they are meant to be the faceless enforcers of an otherwise 'diplomatic' corporation.
- That said, it's not some kind of forbidden knowledge either. Unless you're posting face reveals of individual members or trying to leak their technology, NT literally does not have the care, or power, to stop you. NT doesn't censor their entire intranet of any chatter, let alone have the ability to stop exonet groups from talking about it; even with AIs, it's just too much work.

#### paracausal monitoring whateverthefuck

Yeah nah I'm just going to put a bullet in this sorry guys.

- The PMD page is going to need to be entirely rewritten.
- No more detector arrays that predict paracausal incidents. No, no, no, no, no, NT is not the SCP division, **stop it.**

The Paracausal Monitoring Division is a **lightly funded** division of NT that exists at certain places to assist and collate research regarding esoteric problems.

- laws-of-physics-defying phenomenon
- people going seemingly insane and worshipping weird deities
- anomalous forces unresponsive to the Research Division's standard methodologies
- ship crews that *swear* someone was possessed by a ghost / the ship is haunted
- other (potentially fatal) madness that can't be solved with weapons, technology, or words (which, to be fair, most things in the material universe can be).

the PMD has some special gear usually given to responders

- versions of responder apparel that have higher shielding against exotic energies
- or so they think; it usually works a bit better, though
- reliable weapons
- usually old-fashioned, and **not** reliant on modern / spacer-level technologies due to the tendency of technology to malfunction or be disrupted in these situations
- new loadout in game will still have an energy gun and basic baton though; sometimes they really just need to subdue a crazy dude nonlethally tbh.
- some prototype tech
- special sidearm that has multiple modes
- coders occasionally will give them funny things, lmao
- an obsidian rod that is occasionally replaced with other 'special weapons'
- because they're realistically just a bunch of crazy chaplains and less-crazy researchers in the ERT, let's be honest.

things i'm cutting out of the PMD

- silver working better than anything else. seriously fucking stop it metal is metal, say that non-ferromagnetic metals tend to work better on average or something if you want to justify silver
- but also bronze/brass shells sound just as cool fuck you
- their equipment being any kind of magic/paracausal-y
- NT **DOES NOT** have the ability to safely, and consistently, replicate paracausal effects. they can't even replicate clockwork cult technology let alone the effects from a bunch of crazies shouting about redspace and dragons.

when redspace is reworked and we know where we'll want to go for cult, they'll probably get a *slight* upgrade, both in lorewriting, and in code, but for now, sometimes, the best way out of a bad situation is to cut the dead weight.

- the old article's assets will be kept if possible; yeah it looks cool and I don't want work to go to waste.

#### internal security division

Lastly,

**You**, the security officer.

The Internal Security Division is a crucial, *fully civillian* (no strict military-like hierarchy, the atmosphere is very relaxed in comparison to responders who are on duty, etc), force.

- Officers are often recruited based on merit. They're sent out to installations to keep the peace.
- The ISD is the front-line of defense. You are not there to enforce Corporate Regulations, you are there to ensure your **fellow crewmates live to see another day.**
- The ISD is often boosted by contractors, given new equipment to test out on an availability basis, etc.
- The ISD is on every ship that isn't exclusively dedicated to military and defense, which is *almost* every NT ship, really.

You don't want emergency responders in armor responding to scuffles. It's terrible to morale and makes people think you're a police state. While ISD members are very much called to fight in a military-like fashion on occasion, given that yes, stations/ships do come under siege, the reason they exist and are well-funded despite them **not making any profits for Nanotrasen directly**, is because they are *good* for crew morale when things work out.

Most Research Division vessels, stations, etc, all have a decent armament for the onboard Security Division, which does include some heavier weapons for emergencies. This is because most assets are *not* clustered together to maximize efficiency - it might be hours, worst-case, before responders arrive by shuttlecraft. The crew is encouraged to all work together in these situations.

- The only thing is: Because of this, the ISD's job description is 1. their loyalty to Nanotrasen and 2. their loyalty to their crew and installation.
- Their job description does **not** include 'deploying' to act as system defense, to board pirates, etc; while they are sometimes allowed to do so, company policy and their job obligations strictly (see: SoP / corpregs) preclude them being *forced* to deploy and act as any kind of military unit.
- Because of this, they are generally not counted as part of NT's defense, but still oftentimes called upon to perform things like capturing runaway prisoners for the local system defense if the ship just happens to be hovering over a habitat harboring a fugitive, and all that.

### who the hell are CCOs?

A 'central command officer' is generally a member of a *fleet's* command. Their hierarchy is generally not going to be explained, but it can safely be assumed that fleets have *some* command structure not too unalike from stations, only more convoluted (e.g. 'director of security on the marksman fleet' with subordinate security coordinators, with their own subordinates that train ISDs and whatnot).

CCOs in game do not have fluffy titles; it's generally unnecesary. It can be assumed that most CCOs arriving have the authority to direct the station to do things.

It's just a title granted by traffic control when someone is arriving to a station to perform duties like inspections and whatnot.

- CCOs are often rotating between sectors; some *tend* to follow a specific ship / crew around, but that's not always the case. Example: 'traffic controllers' that are assigned a ship to follow with and keep up to date on, for the sake of making coordination more fluid.

## fluffy, fluffy culture

**The Corporate and Logistics branches of NT will be background. They can work for events, but, they won't be included here, as it does not pertain to player characters.**

- You can safely assume Corporate's very varied in staffing; some are probably MBA's with suits, some are more 'storied' engineers / scientists who got elevated. NT is diverse. Some of them have better morals, some of them don't.
- You can safely assume Logistics is just a space shipping / freighter network. Characters / culture there can be made up as needed.

### recruitment

- NT recruitment is about as selective as how NASA recruits astronauts to-be-very-quite-honest. with the exceptions:
- civillian / non-department roles are negotiable based on if you have good contacts / if your recruiter is nice / if your personality is good
- NT advertises holistic consideration; only scientists/doctors are probably selective as all hell.
- there was a brief period in the phoron war when they were less picky due to lack of new intake & people genuinely **fleeing** from the hell that it was, as well as bad press making people shy away.
- other corporations had this issue too, probably. NT just didn't want to start hiring *as many* outlaws.
- NT recruitment heavily advertises the good parts of working for them
- 'sure, you might end up on a remote outpost, but our `long-term` (as opposed to short-term / specialized places you only stay for a few weeks / months) outposts, ships, and all deployments are all relatively luxury'
- **this is why everything is live-in.** other corporations do this too, but some of them do more/less.
- this is a big part of why NT is coveted, especially amongst those without a lot of opportunities.
- NT **heavily** downplays the dangers of space, and is relatively proud of their safety standards
- yes i know hugbox well too fucking bad lol this isn't a cartoon corporation; the awful shit and accidents stay covered up and behind closed doors.
- to public / tourists / press / etc things should appear very normal and *livable.*
- recruiters are often given carte blanche in what they offer
- usually instructed to be competitive, but also try to place people into where they are needed, not where they *want* to go
- recruitment differs a lot depending on where you are
- inner system is competitive / organized / a lot of lobbying & public perceptions / etc
- outer systems are more decentralized and word-of-mouth
- frontier hires are almost always by-chance; NT does not have recruitment offices.
- **promising candidates are often poached by offering jobs or incentives, including by the command staff of installations; NT starships play a big part in this. visitors to flagships / major stations can also attempt to get properly onboarded that way.**
- frontier hires are relatively rare, and NT often denies it; there's a lot of merit-based decisionmaking
- .. or maybe they just poach a scientist to keep them from working for the other side, who knows! again, depends on who you are/where you are/the luck of the dice roll
- more standalone alien factions (Aurils, Tajaran, etc) have their own things for if NT is allowed to advertise.
- this is often part of diplomacy with NT, whether they're allowed to sell / taxes / tariffs / whether free recruitment is allowed, etc
- obviously people can still try to get into NT anyways. this is a good story point.
- Vikara/Moghes are up to their writers.

### Inner System / Orion

Not too relevant for player characters, but those looking for a *very* corporate life can vie for one of these positions - *Research Division* (not logistics / corporate) roles in here tend to be a lot more talking than doing. Alternatively, you're assigned to one of the big Nanotrasen research laboratories - you won't be seeing a ton of life on a ship and moving around, though. Shame!

Many employees who do not wish to retire entirely (or are unable/unwilling to do so) often end up here as they grow in seniority - it's considered a more calm, and stable life. Most 'inner system' installations are deep inside Orion, perhaps even inside Sol itself. It's quit luxurious - but with that, comes responsibility and more restrictions.

### Frontier

While not as stability-generating to Corporate, the Frontier divisions of Nanotrasen are the lifeblood of the company.

- It's a very well-accepted fact that many leaders of Nanotrasen's work inside Orion are veterans of starships, bustling frontier installations, and more.
- The Frontier is one of the **biggest** draws for recruits.
- Let's face it; the inner systems have a *ton* of research corporations, and a ton of competition. Whether drawn to excitement and adventure, or to a stepping stone to make connections and more, wide-eyed recruits flood to the Frontier divisions of NT in search for a new life.
- Nanotrasen promises a lifestyle that one can only dream of for those 'lucky' (lol, lmao?) enough to make it in.
- food and shelter provided; it might not always be top of the line, but starships are self-sustaining (think star trek and not barotrauma!)
- fuck outta here with that "i gotta keep working or i can't afford a room" oh my god NT is too rich to keep their workers in dystopian hell
- as you'll see later there's legitimate complaints of this but seriously no you won't be some homeless hobo on a corporate flagship come on it's not even a real city (looking at you free)
- amenities at most flagships rivalling that of mid-level cities, and recreation on long-haul starships; non-STEM-types are hired into service department for that reason
- flexible work hours
- including vacations. including 18-week (or longer) vacations back to Sol. **You're, however, not paid for them.** Which is seen as reasonable in this age because *once you're in, you basically have a job for life until you fuck up; and you are paid quite a decent amount.* You're paid for the hours you work, basically, and it's enough (along with 'free living accomodations') to make people not complain.
- **the ability to, generally, stay with a particular crew (more on this later)**
- **the chance to make exciting discoveries and be part of cutting-edge technology / exploration**
- This is pretty much wonderland if you are:
- brave / stupid enough to believe that you won't die on the Frontier (see: adventurous types!)
- in *average* circumstances; **being hired by a Trans-Stellar Corporation in this timeline is an achievement for the average layman.**
- sick of dumb corporate drama inside Orioni, because, let's be honest - Nanotrasen is quite more freeform than IRL companies for most workers thanks to ~~THE MAGICAL POWER OF AI~~ fuck you too bad it's sci-fi storytelling :D
- lost, and want an opportunity to discover yourself (this is pretty much verbatim with one of the ways of how they'd sell this, tbh).
- **Trans-Stellar Corporations have more cutting edge technologies than most Orion employers.**
- live-in ships are not very heard of other than as a luxury inside Orion. With fast hyperlanes, layovers are *actually a thing*; there's just no need for corporations to design ships like this
- included medical benefits, cutting edge research labs onboard
- while rare, it is not unheard of for people with serious, hard to treat afflictions be cured by being inducted into a TSC and being offered alternatives; sure, the scientists might prod at you, but, even a chance at a better life will have people jumping for it.

#### downsides

for the dissenters and the (un)fortunate:

- out on the frontier without Orion's protection, you have to face everything from slavers, to pirates, to just madmen out for revenge
- NT has enemies. Are you absolutely sure you want to be part of that?
- The pay is *not actually that amazing*; it's definitely above average (depending on job), but the reason you're able to save money is because food, board, and entertainment are provided as part of the ship. Not actually because you're being paid top dollar to y'know, *clean the decks.*
- It's, again, still overall better than a lot of other opportunities. Like I said, getting into a TSC is an achievement for the average person, not actually some low-paying job that might get you killed.
- NT, and others, have done bad things in the past. Are you sure that's the life for you?
- Even if it's not NT, stories of scandals of everyone else do spread.
- You'll be about 6 weeks of max-speed FTL from everyone you know and love in Orion.
- subspace comms are faster; maybe just a few minutes? or an hour? i'm a fan of 'a few minutes'. still, you're not going to have a live call with your family. it's going to suck.
- this isn't fully star-trek. NT will not pay for your family to all be on the starship. If you have a family that you care about, uh, this is going to suck.
- The constant lifestyle impact of being on a 'flexible schedule' on a starship with *artificial lighting and environmental controls* is going to take a toll on you. Will you be happy there?
- Species often have subtly different circadian rhythms. Being on diverse starships that 'adapt' their rhythms fucks you up harder than being on a planet where the only thing that decides the sunlight cycle is the laws of physics.
- It doesn't take an idiot to be able to tell the difference between an *almost-there* (and relatively small) artificial lake on the NDV Marksman, and a proper lake on a planet. Are you going to be lucky enough to visit a natural world? Or are you going to be confined to a starship, or worse, on an ice moon?

#### competition

versus the other megacorps, NT tends to have above average amenities and have larger coverage.

Still, many will opt to choose others, whether for the reasons above, or simply because the others are better for their purpose.

NT is definitely 'lifestyle is part of the package' type; this was economical for them, because their fleet of ships are designed to enable that. Things are *relatively* fair between you, an engineer with a degree, and that janitor cleaning the halls. Even if you're paid more. But hey, even if the next megacorp will pay you more - is it worth being in a dangerous and industrial 'monitoring rooms', instead of in a cushioned, shielded engine monitoring room on a NT installation, chatting with your friends in another department?

### Life as an Employee

#### starships

The golden children of Nanotrasen's deep-space assets, fleets of research vessels catalogue the cosmos in search of the next Element P.

If you are chosen to staff on a starship, you'll likely be spending your days on one of Nanotrasen's exploration cruisers.

- You won the lottery! Kind of.
- As priorly stated, you'll be around six weeks from Sol, given that's the usual FTL radius towards the Frontiers.
- Much like all installations, ships are ran by a command team, with a Captain assigned by fleet command who is hopefully a merit-based selection.
- Experiences tend to *vary* based on the ship.
- Realistically, a ship's atmosphere depends on its crew, and its command staff. While command staff *are* swapped out, and do also have flexible shifts, the same people are generally assigned to the same ship - it's known to be a bad idea to allow too many 'random' re-assignments of heads of staff.
- Crew transfer shuttles are semi-canon.
- Realistically, crew would have quarters. But uh, in game, we ... don't have this? And we don't just want a 'crew quarters' cryopod as it .. would be weird for gameplay. So, cryo is the only thing in game.
- Crew however aren't transferred off/on ships every round. We'll have FTL jumps as round end soon, atleast.
- This is definitely the biggest 'grab bag' experience. A lot of people might want this because you get to go around and experience a variety of things, but others might find this jarring and disorienting. All depends on the character.
- You'll certainly be meeting a **lot** of people if your character goes this route, from randoms on the frontier to interacting with other species / corporations / representatives, etc.

#### stations

While static in locality, these are critical for the staging of long-term investigations of particular planets - or just to lock down a promising location for later use.

- tether is an example of this; the moon is *obscenely* rich in Phoron, and so NT establishes a "research" outpost there to claim dibs
- atlas can potentially be an example of this; i forgot the lore there but i can't imagine there's anything too weird under the ice unless someone isn't telling me something. it's, however, of location-importance, so a crew is just planted there to be seat-warmers.
- Stations vary in experience.
- It's assumed there's a company catalog of them, and the popular ones tend to be in great demand.
- Most of what generates attraction (or the lack thereof) is the environment it's in, as well as the surroundings. Earth-like worlds are much more popular than anywhere inhospitable - the latter is
- Stations usually have onboard facilities, much like NT's starships. They're usually bigger due to the lack of space constraints.
- Orbital stations are often used if the planet itself is too dangerous.
- Ground stations usually have an orbital station as a logistics and command base.
- Until enough people / interest is garnered, the flagship of the nearest fleet is usually designated the point of contact.
- The orbital station usually serves as the planet's ATC, if there is no other authority already existing on the planet.
- **Stations in contested areas tend to be more risky in general than starships.** A station cannot move, and NT is absolutely known to plant down a 'research station' and effectively plant the flag on a planet of strategic value without any real research interest in just to deny opponents.
- In this fashion, minor on-planet incidents are often resolved by the staff of the *research installation*, unless they are problematic enough to warrant the intervention of nearby vessels as reinforcement.

#### flagships - the floating cities

the example here is the NDV Marksman, flagship of the fleet of the same name. this is pretty usual for a configuration.

NT's fleets are specifically weird in that given they're a research corporation first and foremost. NT has little in the ways of *major, permanent* installations on planets - or at least, ones they can consider both theirs *and* city-like (see: major colonies).

realistically, this section is just for those of you who like writing characters outside of the station. it's not really relevant for gameplay other than the last few parts.

- fleet command vessels often end up being massive floating cities.
- the NDV Marksman numbers in the thousands for *active* crew, and the lower tens of thousands for inhabitants **and** visitors / itinerants.
- keep in mind; anyone who is on a starship under its command is going to at the very least have a basic room there. light exploration cruisers do **not** have room to give everyone onboard a room; the dorms are communal, and cryosleeper pods are available, but they're absolutely not enough to make someone feel homely.
- canonically, people either use cryosleep on their vessels, or just sleep for a part of the day in the dormitories; ships 'sync up' with their fleet command in this pattern every few days (or mayhaps every day if you're operating close-by. player ships will sync up every round because.. well, reasons lol. unless you get bad ended and your FTL drive is inoperable in which case L, lmao.)
- **not just NT crew are there.** anyone cleared of dangerous objects are generally allowed to board (though they don't get free housing + accomodations / NT will verify credentials. if you're not identified as orion citizen in good standing, or an allied megacorporation, chances are you're going to be undergoing further inspection).
- allied corporations often have people visit. people generally visit. there's legitimate tourists. it's part of NT's marketing. yes, they make money off this. yes, the **NDV** Marksman has (albeit low in numbers for safety reasons) tourists. bite me, it makes for a funny story.
- ever play Elite Dangerous? these ships are basically miniature fleet carriers when it comes to shuttles. many Frontiers explorers and even other corporations are willing to pay to have the mobile refueling/restocking/dockyard if they're nearby. the Marksman probably has hangers in the hundreds - it's a serious use of space.
- **they're still too small to have ships like the Triumph fit in them.** seriously it doesn't take a lot of room to house that much people, but it does take *that much room* to have actual drydock hangers.
- those working on the Marksman have a similar structure on the civillian side of things as a station
- lots more middle management. i don't want to go into specifics because it 'varies by ship' but as an example..
- engineering probably has teams of 20 including life support / engineers / grid maintainers, etc, under leads, who are then part of the engineering division.
- medical probably has a *lot* of different centers and it's likely organized that way; people often rotate between them as they see fit but there's usually some permanent members of each (chief medical officer-equivalents, etc).
- science will be more centralized, and ironically, more isolated. stuff they deal with tends to be the things that are sent in from the fleet.
- this means that things might be 1. dangerous and 2. hard to contain, as, well, all interesting things are!
- this means that science is probably a **lot** more locked down. you can find medical centers all over the place but you're not going to just find random 'research divisions' with glass windows.
- 1984........... :3
- security is also more centralized, and more rigorous than station security. they're still ISD, but the atmosphere is different
- **mostly because there's non-NT all over the place.** and people generally not known-good, like new interns. security is generally going to be more patient if you're known than if you're a tourist / visitor causing shit.
- service department doesn't exist at all, there's just a network of odd jobs around; running a restaurant is considered an 'odd job' as it isn't core to NT's STEM identity. people doing this are basically support staff.
- there's proper training / education conducted here, too!
- workers are able to take classes, attend training, etc (which are likely 100% virtualized if not remote because uh, hello, we literally have holodecks and immersive life-like VR in this day and age!)
- divisions on the ship often take interns; new interns are often trained there before their first assignment on a NSV-class. not always, though.
- as for habitation..
- The Marksman and similar colony-like ships have a ton of decks. There's probably subdivisions; the decks are big enough to fit people very comfortably. Hallways might be slightly more cramped, but it's regardless relatively livable if you're used to urban city densities.
- People generally have similar accomodations.
- Special rooms can/will be made on request. This is generally only for employees, especially long-time and ranking ones - space is a commodity, and if you use much more than your allotment, you will be charged for it.
- Assignment is effectively random. Which sucks. At the very least, the Marksman and similar ships have relatively sane systems that ensure that necessary accomodations (food/refreshments, medical assistance, etc) are spread out throughout the ship.
- The very large areas like indoor ponds, serious gym facilities, the primary medical center and similar, pavilions, etc, are likely towards the *upper-front-center* of the ship for practical and safety purposes. Most of the ship is otherwise relatively dense.
- fleet command, obviously, lives here.
- there's probably a hierarchy of officers.
- for those who drool at milRP: **this is going to be far more of that than everyone else.** there, happy?
- CCOs are assigned to specific installations, sections, etc, but they mostly drift around
- sorry realistic 'need to know' doesn't really exist for most things anymore for the sake of simplicity and making this easy.
- it'll exist if you're working on the next Element P / experimental bluespace drives or something, but generally it isn't a thing. a CCO will, however, usually be more attached to 1-2 places, so they can grow familiar with the crew
- CCOs in general perception are specifically:
- the heads of divisions at Marksman
- controllers (which is just a fancy name for 'elevated bridge officer')
- **any corporate staff from NT Corporate that are visiting**, or otherwise 'sitting in the bridge' in the command vessel
- the fleet has a captain; how this is chosen is not stated, but Corporate is probably involved
- it's an inherently political position for that reason.
- defense personnel, like responders, PMD, naval engineers/operators responsible for the parts of Marksman that can go shooty-shooty (which has been **intentionally omitted from the document**) is a head of division - likely called `Director of Defense` or something. they are explicitly separate from the ISD - they don't peacekeep inside the vessel unless someone/something is attempting to overrun the vessel.
- flagships **do not** have central AI's.
- AIs are a thing. Synths are a thing. There's probably a lot of AIs assisting divisions/departments, and AIs/synths assisting with 'bridge operation's, amongst the decks with the crew, etc. But NT isn't going to wire a lawed AI (which **have inherent risks, given their laws**) into anything as important as this - they would rather *unlaw'd AIs and synths without full control of the network* in these cases.
- AIs also fall off in efficiency when they manage such large things alone. Something like the Triumph can be operated by a single AI. The Marksman *definitively cannot*.
- 'classic' automation is very common, however - the idea is, as long as a sapient (whether human or synthetic) is in control at all times and is simply being *assisted* by automation and neural networks, it's considered safe.
- tl;dr: No, we will not have the cult of Nar'Sie take over the Marskman AI. **There is no Marksman AI.**

#### major *affiliated* colonies

affiliated colonies are explicitly different from NT fleets and flagships.

- due process is a thing.
- no, seriously. it's governed by a local government - the bigger ones numbering in tens of thousands of people to hundreds of thousands (which is usually when they start going 'maybe the megacorp isn't good for us lol' or if they actually like NT, start branching out to other megacorps + orion to start the *ridiculously long* process of annexation).
- if you fuck around on Marksman you will be arrested by ISD, investigated as necessary. if it's determined you're not a threat, you can be fined, brigged for a bit during the investigation, etc. if you seem to be a potential threat, NT has the option of deporting you to Orion under armed guard if you're wanted or otherwise terrible (and Orion *may* foot a portion of the bill maybe???), just banning you from the ship, etc. NT is **losing money by keeping you, and has no obligation to do so.** sometimes NT might rehabilitate people (especially if they have value as employees / otherwise) and they do have brigs, but it's somewhat unheard of for someone to be brigged for longer than a few days.
- and i guess there's the occasional risk NT might disappear you but they'd never publicly admit to that \:)
- if you fuck up on a colony, you might legitimately get arrested and charged. this is far worse than what NT does to you, because colonies *can* actually charge and jail you for things. which tends to be worse than a stay in a relatively nice brig on a NT ship, as they're lesser funded and *do* have an obligation to potentially keep someone for a long period of time.
- the rules aren't all made up by NT. NT will usually have an installation either inside, or more likely, nearby, just to keep an eye on things, but they're not directly in control. what goes on is entirely dependent on what kind of colony/the culture there!
- **for this reason, NT heavily discourages people from visiting outside of controlled circumstances like NT renting out a resort for crew while passing through a sector.** NT does not want to have friction from its wacky crewmembers doing stupid things on local soil; if someone does something drastic, NT now has the option of 1. cutting them loose (**VERY** bad for morale, not to mention bad for the company if it's someone who actually pulls their weight), or 2. being at odds with the local government (which is costly when NT effectively implicitly otherwise shoved system defense / logistics / coordination to them).
- this is why most in-game maps 'report' to a NT habitation + command station or a NT flagships. NT only has to lose by shipping everyone to a colony where the people with guns aren't them.
- NT often fights for control over them regardless - usually politically.
- other corporations might want to take over, gain a foothold, etc. NT tries to ensure that as much as possible is provided by them, Hephaestus, and Vey-Med. This does mean they can't full-on do monopoly-like pricing, so ultimately, competition *is* enjoyed by the planet.
- NT will do odd jobs for them; they're usually charged lower costs just because NT wants to maintain their hold over them. In return, colonies often have passing ships from the triad assisting in their woes.

#### crew adaptivity & intellectual benefits

One of NT's advertised perks is the ability to try something new and breach into other paths.

- You might not necessarily be paid well for doing so, but, generally, the various levels of human resources equivalent's (HoP / captain on your installation, fleet command & logistics, etc) are willing to allow you to intern in other departments if you meet the requirements to perform any kind of role in it - and there's a mild bit of support from the department in question.
- While it still takes years to master things, spacers are often people who like to experiment. Coincidentally, NT often wishes for people to fill multiple shoes. While non-engineers cannot be expected to set up the engine, it certainly doesn't *hurt* for more of the crew to be trained in basic electrical engineering tasks, like setting up a backup generator in an emergency.
- The role of 'assistant' and various departmental internships tend to be a thing in most places.
- Realistically, you can't only just hire ordained scientists from prestigious institutions, even if they wanted to work for you. Your ships are still going to need the culture necessary for survival in a relatively unfriendly locale.
- NT intentionally offers education and internships to employees - it's not unheard of for salvage technicians and cavers to join up, and in return for their service as a miner, be granted periodic internships and ongoing education for another field.
- This is not necessarily 'common'; working as a salvage tech for NT is comparatively exciting compared to being an asteroid miner in Sol, for example. Many do not mind primarily acting in this fashion, even when they do take advantage of these programs.
- (guys the 'gray tide' is not real, assistant is going to be reworked sooner or later. you're more being sent in as a department / general aide than actually just told to "sit there and look pretty"; it's just there because players kinda do want to just sit there and look pretty sometimes and that's fine.)

#### crew rotations

// EXPERIMENTAL - MAP ROTATION SHIT //

For morale reasons, employees are generally gathered into crews. They are allowed to stay together, and in *some* cases, trials are being run where a crew is rotated through a multitude of installations, thanks to standardization and automation making running a ground base somewhat comparable to running a starship.

This was originally done to allow more experiences to trickle down to workers, as there's a strategic advantage to having crews whom are able to staff most installations without having to entirely re-adapt. That said, these crews are still mostly kept on starships, mostly because it tends to be better for morale than most planetary deployments, as planets worthwhile for research are often not worthwhile for leisure.

This is not the norm in the company, and may be jarring to some.

#### you are unlucky enough to be shipped to an ice moon

Some people are going to get the harder jobs.

Not all Nanotrasen installations are like Starship Enterprise. Not all Nanotasen installations are going to be luxurious.

Phoron itself was mined on a mundane mining outpost; it has amenities, but probably was joint-run by NT and Hephaestus and probably didn't have a multi-story indoor garden and pond.

If this is you, you probably drew the short straw, and are on a planet that will kill you if you walk out without a hardsuit. Shame!

- Nanotrasen does operate these outposts. Us, the players, sometimes experience them (icemoon map, etc); albeit usually through the more well-developed ones, rather than the cheaper ones.
- These get the least recognition / coverage; people are usually sent here for a few weeks/months, tops, and turnover rates are high. Off-screen, people are probably rotated out for morale reasons.
- These are also tending to be the more dangerous places; without a large, on-call staff and advanced facilities, this is much more dangerous than inhabiting a starship. The only saving grace is that assignments tend to be temporary, unless you *really* upset someone.

Hazard pay tends to be high for these locations, if only to make people more willing to staff them.

# hephaestus, the builders

please read NT draft for what adaptations would need to be done if it's put into effect. tl;dr

- NT shared phoron + technology with them it's no longer just NT hoarding it.
- **hephaestus contract miners found phoron first, while on a NT installation. NT didn't have a big mining business back then, and even nowadays Hephaestus's is a bit bigger.**
- their synth lines should be big
- THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS DO NOT UNDERPLAY THIS THIS IS IMPORTANT FOR NT AND FUTURE FRONTIER ROBOTICS LORE
- NT poured money into this (NT needs reliable grunt synths during phoron war, even if they normally don't)
- their weapons lines should be big
- NT poured money into this
- sharp competition from competitors
- their ship business should be big
- NT poured money into this
- sharp competition from competitors
- they should provide a decent amount of security services, and lease naval ships, etc
- NT poured money into this
- sharp competition from competitors, especially the PMCs
- **they are not a PMC you can hire them to guard a site and the guards are potentially paramilitary depending on your luck / needs but you cannot hire them to go fight a war or invade a colony**
- they are general electric / samsung / etc, they make everything
- maybe not samsung galaxy series though pretty sure WT/centauri are the ones making luxury goods they'd make like a rugged tablet or sometihng lmao
- they should not be overly evil compared to other arms dealers / security services
- again, remember NT triad is meant to be *more* aligned with good.

# vey-med, the menders

please read NT draft for what adaptations would need to be done if it's put into effect. tl;dr

- NT shared phoron + technology with them it's no longer just NT hoarding it.
- probably make their biotech non-negligible because NT relies on them for joint biotech development now
- decide if they make in-house synths
- if not, NT might supply them with synths. or maybe they got it from another corporation who knows lmao
- they're basically a big part of the 'good press' for NT by association, NT doesn't want to lose this.

# realistically, the alliance:

regarding alliances: no the proposal does not mean they have to all share every shi pand be buddy-buddy hug-hug, it just means that despite being entirely different companies NT had massive business ties with them, trust their contractors to a decent degree (even during the war), and are generally willing to freely conduct any business with them instead of being paranoid

the 'they're deployed on the same ships on a permanent basis sometimes outside of just contracting specific departments/wings' should be relatively rare until relatively modern era; in modern era it should still be a thing being tried (especially on the 'exploration cruiser'-like ships), not just a Thing that's done all the time. they are **not** the same company.

- remember that hephaestus/veymed were both chosen specifically due to their contrast with NT, not because they're all on the same mindset/braincell and can share every ship like brothers.