The early terraforming tended to use genetically engineered biological processes that would change the atmosphere of a suitable world over many decades to a breathable atmosphere using energy captured from the star via biological processes. This process was both slow, expensive (it was made up of many stages) and only a narrow set of worlds were suitable. The idea of doing direct chemical conversion on a vast scale was there, but not practical because of the vast power requirements.<ref>Tourist Beacon 0208</ref>
The early terraforming tended to use genetically engineered biological processes that would change the atmosphere of a suitable world over many decades to a breathable atmosphere using energy captured from the star via biological processes. This process was both slow, expensive (it was made up of many stages) and only a narrow set of worlds were suitable. The idea of doing direct chemical conversion on a vast scale was there, but not practical because of the vast power requirements.<ref>Tourist Beacon 0208</ref>
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=== Sirius Navy ===
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Sirius Navy is a large organisation, providing vigorous protection for all Sirius Corporation interests. It owns its own cruisers built by Imperial [[Gutamaya]] yards, and built under license in Sirius' own naval yards, branded in the Sirius Corporation's own royal blue livery, but much of their naval force comes from a large number of [[Imperial Cutter|Cutters]] built under license and by Imperial Gutamaya, operating as patrol ships, and a great many fighters.<ref>Tourist Beacon 0209</ref>
== Background ==
== Background ==
Revision as of 19:45, 3 August 2017
The Sirius Corporation is an independent interstellar corporation, the first and most powerful mega-corporation.[1]
Sirius Corporation logo
Its headquarters are in the Sirius system, which can only be visited by holders of a Permit granted to those with a Reputation of Allied with the Sirius Corporation.
Li Yong-Rui is the CEO of Sirius Corporation. Its divisions include Sirius Catering, Sirius Mining, Sirius Power, Sirius Luxury Transports, Sirius Industrial, Sirius Atmospherics, and Sirius Gov.[1]
One of Sirius Corporation's interests is the exploration and colonisation of the galaxy.[2] It also has a near monopoly on the manufacture of large Power Generators.
A secret female leader of The Club manages major corporate activities of Sirius Corporation.[3]
The Sirius Corporation has a great many subsidiaries, but its main business centres around fusion reactors of all sorts - it makes and sells hyperdrive fuels, hyperdrives, power plants large and small, luxury surface transports, waste processing reactors, atmospheric processing units, industrial facilities for smelting, refining, and a wide range of mining equipment. It has cemented its position by using standardised parts for its power plants - whether it is at the heart of an industrial smelter, a luxury highliner or a surface city.[4]
The Sirius Corporation now runs several dozen systems. These have a strict legal system, their own penal code (based on Federal law), and their own law enforcement. They even have their own navy.[4]
Sirius Industrial
Sirius Industrial makes a broad range of bespoke heavy industrial installations for smelting, refining, processing and manufacturing. There are largely automated and easily assembled on site, using local materials for key elements of the construction where possible. All are centred around large Sirius power reactors - often multiple 100GW units are used in a single plant.[5]
Sirius Atmospherics
The early terraforming tended to use genetically engineered biological processes that would change the atmosphere of a suitable world over many decades to a breathable atmosphere using energy captured from the star via biological processes. This process was both slow, expensive (it was made up of many stages) and only a narrow set of worlds were suitable. The idea of doing direct chemical conversion on a vast scale was there, but not practical because of the vast power requirements.[6]
Sirius Navy
Sirius Navy is a large organisation, providing vigorous protection for all Sirius Corporation interests. It owns its own cruisers built by Imperial Gutamaya yards, and built under license in Sirius' own naval yards, branded in the Sirius Corporation's own royal blue livery, but much of their naval force comes from a large number of Cutters built under license and by Imperial Gutamaya, operating as patrol ships, and a great many fighters.[7]
Background
The Sirius Corporation was founded in 2350. It utilized vast amounts of cheap energy available on Lucifer in the Sirius system and was able to synthesize custom elements, including military grade fuel. Sirius quickly increased its financial status as a result of supplying the war fleets of both the Federation and Empire during the first interstellar war. They engineered shortages whenever one side was winning. This prolonged the war and resulting casualties which gained Sirius a legend of notoriety.[8] It's denied by Sirius and blamed on a few unscrupulous and deceased individuals.
During the 3270's, the Alliance reverse-engineered Thargoid technology to produce the Frame Shift Drive. It became available to the public by 3290. To prevent one power from leveraging it, The Club ensured that this technology fell into the hands of Sirius Corporation. They monopolized it and distributed it to all powers and factions to provide a level playing field.[3]
New Drive Technology
In 3278, the Corporation saw a turnaround in its decline with the introduction of a new, faster drive system. Any similarities to the system in the Antares incident were denied at the time, though acknowledgements decades later revealed it was based on the results of the same research program. In the following years further improvements were made available both by Sirius and by its rivals, each dramatically reducing jump times, eventually resulted in very rapid hyperspace travel - journeys that previously took days could now be made in seconds - triggering a further age of expansion.[9]
Not only did this success trigger a new period of galactic expansion, but expansion of the Corporation itself. It has expanded into other fields, with offices throughout human space.[9]
Lore
The Sirius Corporation – The First of the Mega-corporations[10]
In GalNet’s series relating key points in human history, popular historian Sima Kalhana addresses the rise of the first mega-corporation.
Apart from a few isolated backwater systems, the presence of mega-corporations is ubiquitous throughout civilised space. Massive as many of these organisations are, none of them compare to the wealth and influence of the Sirius Corporation.
The rise of the largest corporation in history started in 2339 when the Sirius Corporation launched the first completely corporate colonial mission arrived in the Sirius star system. The continual state of conflict between the Federation and the Empire catapulted the Sirius Corporation into an economic powerhouse as they became the lead supplier of fuel, then later drives and other technologies.
Within a century, its products were integrated into military and civilian production. It also developed an envied trusted status with both superpowers and indeed supplied both sides during their conflicts. This in part was due to strict information restriction protocols and an open promise that it would favour neither side during any conflict.
The Sirius Corporation developed its own code of strict laws to ensure fair dealing as well as the good governance of its workforce. Its influence reached such a state that the so-called ‘Sirius Convention’ was applied not just during deals with the corporation, but between independent systems as well.
Throughout the years, fuel and drive production has remained their core business, although judicious expansion into other markets has driven its astronomical growth. The Sirius Corporation now operates several product-oriented divisions including: Sirius Catering, Sirius Mining, Sirius Power, Sirius Luxury Transports, Sirius Industrial and Sirius Atmospherics. Most recently they launched a new venture, Sirius Gov, to provide governmental services for population management on all scales.
Its history has been marked with some failures, most notable of which is the Antares incident which I will examine in the next article. However, its successes have far exceeded those failures and the Sirius Corporation remains the most powerful corporation in known space.
The Sirius Convention
The Sirius Corporation operated under its own strict laws, governing workers rights, privileges etc., and also put in place conventions whereby in dealings with customers for large projects it voluntarily operated under a special hybrid of local law and Sirius law - where the strictest provision was deemed to be in place. This became known as 'The Sirius Convention' - and was often applied in treaties between independent systems.[11]
The Sirius Corporation developed a strong reputation for fair dealing too. It would never refer to rival jurisdictions or deal terms in a negotiation with a government, and would keep such negotiations strictly to the scope of the deal - not using any of the many levers less scrupulous organisations would frequently call upon. Such deals were said to be conducted 'under the Sirius Rule' - another term that effectively entered the language, much like the 'Chatham House Rule' a millennium earlier.[11]
Individuals
Li Yong-Rui, CEO of Sirius Corporation
Li Yong-Rui - Sirius Corporation CEO,[12] and CEO of its government division Sirius Gov.[13]
Ana Quin - Sirius' Junior Vice President of Interstellar Logistics.[14]
Vessels
Antares - An experimental passenger liner that went missing during its maiden flight in 3251.[15]
Li Yong-Rui announced that the search had resulted in the recovery of the wreckage of the Antares.
The wreckage appears to confirm that the component failure described in the ship's final status report did indeed result in the destruction of the Antares. My hope is that by subjecting the wreckage to further analysis, we will be able to determine exactly what caused the malfunction and apply this knowledge to the development of new safety protocols. With luck, we will be able to reintroduce the innovative drive technology used aboard the Antares. This discovery could serve as the catalyst for a whole new era of interplanetary travel.
Li Yong-Rui, CEO of the Sirius Corporation's government division, announced a new official search for the Antares. He asked for Wreckage Components to be delivered to Davy Dock in the Procyon system.
Since the Antares was lost 50 years ago, there have been great advances in scanning technology, and we believe it may now be possible to find the remains of the ship. We are inviting every pilot in the galaxy to deliver wreckage components to our research base at Davy Dock in the Procyon system. Once we have accumulated enough material, we will subject the debris to comprehensive analysis to determine its origin. With luck, not only will we find the remains of the Antares, we will be able to determine her fate.
The Sirius Corporation's appeal for osmium to at HIP 8396 came to an end, after a positive response in which hundreds of miners contributed.
The pilots who contributed to this initiative have performed a great service, and proved that the people of this galaxy are motivated as much by altruism as by the promise of reward. We are all humanitarians at heart.
The Sirius Corporation's appeal for osmium to revitalise the economy of HIP 8396 started.
The people of HIP 8396 are part of the Sirius Corporation family, but if we are to help our compatriots, we will need help ourselves. So I implore all galactic citizens to contribute to this initiative, and bring a new era of peace and prosperity to HIP 8396.
Following increased pirate activity in the Robigo system, Sirius Corporation offered a generous reward for anyone who helped clear the pirates out, in line with the corporation's zero-tolerance approach to those who threaten its holdings.[20]
15 OCT 3301
Following their expansion earlier in the year into the HIP 8396, Almagest, Sothis, Ceos, and Robigo systems, Sirius Corporation CEO Li Yong-Rui announced a new initiative to revitalise the economies of those systems. The fist stage would consist of an appeal for independent pilots to deliver osmium to HIP 8396.[12]
15 SEP 3301
Investigation data was handed over to the Sirius Corporation that a spokesman for Federation Vice President Nigel Smeaton’s family said might help to locate the wreckage of the Highliner Antares. The data was encrypted, and had been found on a device among Nigel Smeaton's personal belongings.[21]
04 AUG 3301
A Sirius Corporation shuttle crashed into Patterson Enterprise in the Sirius system and was destroyed, when its docking computer failed on approach to the station. Five died, including Sean Richards, a senior consultant engineer who helped to compile the incident report on the disappearance of Starship One and, 50 years earlier, had been part of the task force of the Highliner Antares enuiry.[22]
27 MAY 3301
In the aftermath of the disappearance of Starship One, specialist teams from Core Dynamics and the Sirius Corporation attempted to analyse the wake and uplink data captured by the President’s Guardian Wing escorts in the moments before all four ships jumped.[23]
12 MAR 3301
The Sirius Corporation announced that it would be returning to its colonisation roots with the launch of 12 new colonial outposts in 9 systems: The Wredquia cluster: Wredquia SX-L D7-92, Wredguia SX-L d7-91, Wredguia WD-K D8-66, Wredguia QA-N b34-4, Wredguia XD-K d8-78 and the Sirius Outposts: Gliese 97.2, HIP 8396, Col 285 Sector WA-L b9-3, CAO Junga.[2]
02 MAR 3301
The Sirius Corporation announced that the reconnaissance portion of its latest colonisation project had drawn to a close. Hundreds of scout ships had contributed, gathering data on tens of thousands of potential candidate systems.[24]
28 FEB 3301
Sirius Corporation announced that, thanks to the work of hundreds of explorers, 8 new colonisation candidates had been identified.[25]
23 FEB 3301
Sirius Corporation announced its plan to launch a number of new colonial outposts to the very edges of occupied space. They offered sizeable monetary rewards for exploration data submitted to Nourse Orbital in Lambda Andromedae.
We're very excited to move forward with this project. It's been a long time coming, but finally the board have agreed it's time to get the ball rolling. We've got the tech and the volunteers, all we need now is to know where to send them.
— Ana Quin, Junior Vice President of Interstellar Logistics[14]
3251
A Sirius Corporation vessel known as the Highliner Antares disappeared during its maiden flight in the Sirius system. It was the first ship to use a production version of a new type of hyperdrive. When attempting a hyperspace jump it experienced a simultaneous explosion and mis-jump. The final report concluded that the most likely cause was that a part in the drive had failed just before the jump. No wreckage from the vessel was found. This led to considerable speculation and many conspiracy theories concerning what actually occurred.[17][15]
2339
The Sirius Corporation launched the first completely corporate colonisation mission, and arrived in the Sirius system. Sirius Corporation had become integrated into military and civilian production, and they had earned a trusted status with both the Federation and Empire, supplying both sides during their conflicts.[1]
