Lore:Nanotrasen

FACTION

Nanotrasen

Other Names: NT Related Pages: Nanotrasen Consultant Related Lore: SolFed, Nova Sector Languages: Sol CommonAnd when contact was established, the Admiral waved at the screen and said, "Mi parolas la lingvon de la Homines!" - I speak the language of Mankind. A simplified mix of Esperanto and Modern Latin, and the only recognized official language of the Sol Federation. This peculiar constructed language became popular during SolFed's earliest days, and was almost entirely overtaken by other popular tongues - it became widespread through heavy-handed political maneuvering with the help of corporate bureaucrats and other undesirables. Nowadays, it's a near-universal tongue and a must-know for any sentient being that plans to leap forward into space. Contributors: Template:Contributor/SableSteel

Many well known space stations on the frontier are operated by Nanotrasen – a company originally from Earth that holds interests in a variety of fields, but focuses on expanding, colonizing and claiming the resources of the frontier.

Nanotrasen

Nanotrasen (often shortened to just “NT”) has a mixed reputation. Some people might think of NT as a benevolent entity, but those that work for them or know them well probably call them capitalistic and opportunistic, with a “profits before people” ideology. Their business extends into multiple fields so as to maximize their profits – from buying and managing patents, to building ships and stations, doing technological research and, notably: colonizingThe nature of Nanotrasen's colonization efforts in the Nova sector have often come under intense scrutiny, accused of both merely repurposing abandoned structures, and of claiming crew members' independently-constructed buildings as official Colonies. Legally, both fulfill contractual obligations, so any scrutiny is merely superficial. the frontier.

The frontier is an untapped land of resources and valuable information... untapped from a commercial standpoint, that is. With the support/management of an ever growing NT Military branch, Nanotrasen’s colonization movements have been the recent focus of their business and the driving factor for much of their research. They manage a number of stations and outposts in valuable sections of the frontier, bringing in profit in the form of resources and research.

Which sections of the frontier are valuable? The anomalous ones, usually. One solar system in particular is home to an unusual number of anomalies (anomalies which can range from strange occurrences on station to odd creatures to weird ruins), especially affecting nearby planets such as Lavaland. The resources left behind by the anomalies, and the resources they draw in are a major line of profit – as is the research into the anomalies themselves.

While Nanotrasen isn’t some all-powerful company, and it has no support from governing bodies aside from vague permission to operate in SolFed space, its influence continues to grow. NT sits on the Luna board of directors and continues to expand, exploring and claiming new parts of the frontier without hesitating to consider the moral cost of its growth.

History

Nanotrasen was founded on good ideals. A generally altruistic group of founders, from Earth, had bright plans for it – a company that helped with technological research and with expanding the frontier, bringing that technology to those who need it. While they weren’t the ones to invent bluespace drives or FTL travel, they were some of the first to commercializeWhich would cement their rise to glory somewhere between 2212 and 2230, likely predating 2212 as a lesser company (think Nintendo making playing cards). it and make a profit off of it. They made new innovations in the field of AI research and picked up many patents for their growing list of inventions, such as the Supermatter crystal.

Unfortunately, that benevolence only lasted so long. As the original founders, the old guard of Nanotrasen, started to age and step aside, the people who replaced them were not so nice. These were the people who had succeeded inside Nanotrasen from a business standpoint – even those who might have originally shared some of the founder’s ideals were now jaded by capitalism. NT shifted to a new mindset: it had to make a profit to stay competitive, and sometimes people had to set aside their morals to make a profit.

Some of the old guard saw this change and did not like it. But there was no good alternative - the only people willing to listen to them were the Lore:Syndicate, who were no saints either. Still, some of the old guard decided on those as the lesser of two evils and moved over to aid the Syndicate. Others remain in Nanotrasen, though those that stayed are more or less out of touch with the way Nanotrasen runs now. As far as they know, it has continued to follow their benevolent ideals and the new, current, management of NT would like to make sure they keep thinking that.

All the while, Nanotrasen has continued to expand. Its efforts in colonizing the frontier and claiming its resources have proven the most profitable, so that’s where they focus - and as with any sort of colonization, they need a good military to back them. That’s where Nanotrasen’s Military branch comes in, overseeing and protecting their colonization efforts (and for clarity; these members of NT Military do not work for random outpost research stations. They are not the station’s internal security - a role that is often outsourced for liability reasons - but rather the big guns that are brought in from off station to resolve crew conflict or protect NT interests.)

Because of the quick expansion of these frontier stations, their culture varies greatly. They hire a more diverse crew on the frontier than they would in the more central areas of space. These crews are often kept on a looser leash than the more central stations, and hold ideologies that are often a bit less violently capitalistic, just due to the logistics of being far away and being relatively new.

Branches

Nanotrasen is split into a few different branches. The most important ones include:

Directorate

The very highest levels of command, who don’t go out to the frontier in person, but rather manage their interests with the Luna board of directors.

NT Military/Sector Command

These are the ones in charge of the operations of the frontier sectors. NT’s military is the power backing its colonization. With duties ranging from keeping stations in line to protecting them, and ranks that vary just as greatly, NT’s Military is the acting arm of the company’s authority. While not infallible, they are NT’s most trusted force when it comes to protecting their interests on the frontier - to maximize profits, ensure expansion and reduce expensive PR incidents.

Research

Nanotrasen has a strong R&D department, with multiple stations who focus primarily on research. While some of their effort goes to research for the sake of expanding upon the company's already existing patentsBy all Corporate metrics, the Nova Sector chain of stations has proven to be a research goldmine. With each station producing dozens of patents per shift, upper management finds the expenditures to be well-recouped. They're hardly concerned, or even aware, that each shift's patents are effectively identical to the previous shift's, with miniscule alterations to the background conditions.
See: Patent 700605: Design for a Femto Manipulator in a 17% CO2 atmosphere, Patent 700606: Design for a Femto Manipulator in a 17.5% CO2 atmosphere..., the majority of it these days goes into developing improvements for NT’s other departments - such as optimizing bluespace travel for the sake of their exploration efforts or improving weapons for the sake of their military branch.

Engineering

NT’s engineering department oversees the engineering and upkeep of its stations and ships - and oversees the production, use and distribution of NT’s proprietary power sourceWhile the concept and use of a Supermatter Crystal existed well before the company, Nanotrasen developed a unique means by which to grow a small shard into a ceiling-height crystal. As most Supermatter shards must be carefully cleaved from a larger source, or produced through near-impossible atmospheric trickery, this trade secret is one of Nanotrasen's most profitable processes, leading rivals to routinely attempt to steal and reverse engineer slivers of any Nanotrasen Artificial Supermatter Crystal. , the Supermatter Crystal.

Exploration

As part of NT’s colonization efforts, it has invested into exploring the frontier so it can be the first to find, claim and profit off of valuable resources found in newly mapped sections of the frontier. NT uses its best technological advances to try and speed up exploration in a constant contest against others who want to lay claim to the resources of the frontier.

Shipbuilding

With as many ships and stations as NT has, at some point they have decided to economize by building their own ships and stations in house. The shipbuilding section of NT works on designing new station designs and at building NT’s new outposts, handing the station’s upkeepThe myth of a "cleaning crew" handling the station before and after a standard crew shift came about through strictly organic means, in counterculture response to the more sinister rumors, including:
-The stations are scrapped wholesale, biological material and all.
-A swarm of Drones and Spider Clan operatives scour stations to return them to a pristine state.
-A chronological Task Force rewinds the surrounding area to a previous point in time.
-Enough noospheric discharge is released to trick the anomalous zone into forgetting the station had ever been altered.
The rise of the "cleaning crew" myth stems from an innate desire to avoid uncomfortable questions from the prior claims, and also the presence of a janitorial staff who sweeps through.
No matter what the story, crew members finding themselves waiting for the Cleaning Crew come back with few memories of the event and oft conflicting stories, but no worse for the wear. over to NT’s engineering department once the station is put into service.

Artificial Intelligence

Working alongside NT’s research department, but with a larger focus on production than on new designs, Nanotrasen’s AI department is also quite powerful. NT AIs and cyborgs are in high demand, though most of them go towards work within Nanotrasen instead of towards third party buyers. NT’s AI department is not only responsible for the research and production of cyborgs, drones and AIs, but is responsible for the management of all the silicons currently in service under Nanotrasen - to keep them productive and to keep them in line.

Ranks

This is the general rank structure of the NT Military. Some NT Military ranks have equivalent civilian ranks inside Sector Command - those ranks will be listed in parenthesis.

• Chief Advisor of Military Affairs
• Admiralty
• Section Chiefs
• Commander (Bureau Director)
• Lieutenant (Manager)
• Ensign (Asst.Legally, this encompasses any form of lessening modifier: Auxiliary, Deputy, Sub-, etc., as well as Senior Supervisor. Manager)
• Sergeant (Supervisor)
• Private (Intern)
• (Consultant / Station Representative)

Shields

Not a real rank!
Formally, only the Blueshield exists as a legitimate job position, holding no authority in the Sector Command chain outside of their immediate job duties. However, certain individuals in various ranks have been known to exercise limited stylistic freedom within their standard-issue equipment to express their specialties.

First to gain traction were the "Whiteshields," individuals whose medical skills inclined them to routinely be deployed as Crisis Response Emergency Response Team technicians. Sensing the marketability of this label, Nanotrasen immediately produced a three-season cartoon, the Super Shield Squad consisting of (up to) seven interchangeable color-themed Shields, often facing against the vile forces of the All-evil Syndicate Shocktroops. While the series caught on, it did so with a demographic uninterested in cheap consumer-grade toys. Additionally, contracts with existing Action Figure manufacturers ran into Conflicts of Interest, leaving merchandising to rot in warehouses until liquidation. The show remains a cult classic among a small fanbase but will likely never see a fourth season.

In modern times, the "Whiteshield" organization exists as an internal group chat between numerous Privates, Ensigns, Interns, and a notable few Lieutenants, with bimonthly newsletters and an annual potluck. Other notable Shields include the "Goldshields," typically Blueshields assigned to individuals outside of Sector Command, be they VIPs or important Prisoners, and the "Redshields," a contradictory group of disloyal employees, protesting Sector Command's numerous mistakes or whining about insufficient pay. This incidentally matches with the show, as the Red Shield was given most of Season One's planned character arc but was quickly cut as test audiences found it difficult to tell the Red Shield from the red-clad Shocktroops.

Notable Products

As a modern Corporation, Nanotrasen is responsible for numerous products, innovations, and assorted capitalistic outputs into not just SolFed, but society as a whole. As taken from the Nanotrasen Noncomprehensive N-ventory of N-ventions, here are some of the good, services, and disservices the average consumer in the Nova sector may be familiar with:

• Positronic Brains, (Cube): The positronic brain style used in over 1/5th of all Synthetic life originated in a Nanotrasen laboratory to address a critical bottleneck in the mass manufacturing processStacking issues. Modern mass-production of the Positronic Brain involves casting a monolithic fractalized brain, then cutting it into smaller cubes.
  Additionally, repeatedly disgruntled employees threatened to quit over the competitors' product rolling everywhere and being a pain to stack.. As per the marketing, the sharp corners actually serve as an ionic focal point, directing thought patterns to be at least 15% faster and 5% less disjointStudies have failed to replicate these findings, but for philosophical reasons, not procedural ones. than the leading brandAlso Nanotrasen..
• NTNet Quantum Relay: An uninterruptible local communication network, capable of incredible speeds even during intense ionospheric disturbance. Keeps a superposition of common company-approved holonet data, such that even with a loss of connection to the Snail-based Galactic Holonet, station-based operations continue without interruption.
• Plasma research: If you're browsing through the SolFed Patent Registry, 8 out of 10 patents in the last 50 years stem directly from Nanotrasen Research Stations like yours. The "problem" is so bad that the registry has an explicit filter to hide near-redundant NT patents.
• Mugs. The 25 Credit Nanotrasen Souvenir Mug serves as a low-cost bookend for rounding out your year-end budget and has proven to be distressingly popular.
• Standard Procedures and Technical Knowledge: A long tenure at a frontier station is as good as a weak degree from a dedicated school. Any frontier station, but as NT's scaled up station production production, they're proportionately large on the good worker vibe checkThe "Vibe Check," introduced as a placeholder name to the SolFed council, passed into law too quick for the name to be changed.. Engineers and Doctors alike often find themselves on the less glamorous path to accreditation: working in the Frontier.
• Stations: The NT Engineering team actually produces a slight surplus of stations. Some detractors consider this an embezzling scheme, wherein the budget for station replacements is overinflated based on intentionally bloated station loss statistics, but any StructuaryPortmanteau of Structure and Actuary. will easily justify the projected loss rate through a standardized Risk AssessmentFor an hourly salary matching your monthly wages..
• Shuttles: The Shipbuilding Division produces a wide array of shuttles, each available as a shuttle evacuation solution that's right for you, for the right price.
• Colonies: Founded on "Worker-driven initiatives" and "unique, designer homes," Nanotrasen exports structures constructed by employees on company time as prime real estate for up-and-coming Frontier workers who want to live in the heat of the action.
• Salvage: Sometimes NT stations prove inviable for cleaning and immediate reintroduction to the cycleThey just whoopsy drift away, full of corpses. These stations continue to drift, staffed by a small clade of Derelict Drones until they prove feasible for rehabitation or reuse.
• Salvage: As part of the Nanotrasen Frontier Program, various unemployed and underutilized crew are paid a stipend for creative or unorthodox works. Sometimes this means a work of art, sometimes it means locating a derelict ship and repairing it. While obligated to offer right of first refusal to the employees who have recovered the lost items, Nanotrasen draws no small profit from auctioning these recovered vessels, landmarks, and trinkets.
• Detention: Various transnational pactsMost notably the Transgalactic Incarceration Commodification Pact. and contractsBoth for specific individuals and as broad, vague promises. offer distant stations a small profit to house various prisoners in onboard prisons. While these prisons are often already filled with rebellious employees of the corporation, stations are legally permitted to acquire the prison sentence of external prisoners and enforce it themselves. The pacts are offered in hopes that the exported prisoner would find the distant system enriching and rehabilitativeDie to some Frontier nonsense. and return to society as a better personCorpse..

Notable Personnel and Stations

Important stations

• Lavaland, and stations/ships in orbit around it and its icy moon.
• Stations/ships in orbit around other planets and bodies in that same star system - the Nova system.

Important Members of NT

CEO

For legal inquiries, please reference today's((This changes regularly and randomly through Wiki Magic, so don't get attached to one specific name!)) CEO below:

The NT Logo

Rank: Iconograph
Organization: Nanotrasen
Species: Geometric Perfection

Additional Notes

The Nanotrasen logo itself is, at present, a legal entity capable of sharing liability and negotiating legal contracts between persons affiliated with Nanotrasen and potential litigants.

Notable Individuals

In the Nova Sector, you may find yourself interacting with one or more of the following persons, in no particular order:

John Mitchell

Rank: Not Particularly Clear
Organization: Nanotrasen
Species: Genetic Doppelgänger

Additional Notes

John Mitchell has been in an elevated position for as long as anyone can remember... which is weird considering some people are pretty old, and... that no one can remember which position he fills specifically. He's almost always present for board meetings, military affairs, sometimes even specific station visits, and lastly, sometimes he just shows up to an event uninvited. No one's really sure how he keeps ending up at these events, and even less-so, why he's there to begin with.

Patience Butterfield

Rank: Compliance Investigative Manager
Organization: Nanotrasen
Species: Human

Additional Notes

Patience Butterfield was a strict woman with an eye for detail. Her ability to spot filth from a parsec away extended into the social realm, and her intense focus on cleanliness quickly spurred her promotion to Compliance Investigative Manager. Nanotrasen will struggle to find an investigator as stalwart and utilitarian as Patience.

Azyre W. Ruina

Rank: Guidance Counselor
Organization: Nanotrasen

Additional Notes

Azyre W. Ruina, known to friends as "Azy," exists to fill a void in the bureaucratic weave that heralds over pitiful stationeers.

Jim Tern

Rank: Assistant to the Fax Machine
Organization: Nanotrasen
Species: Assistant

Additional Notes

Jim Tern, Assistant to the Fax Machine, serves his mechanical master through verbiage and competence. Faxes must be responded to, and Jim Tern fulfills that niche with bureaucratic optimality.

Zachary Richardson

Rank: Auxiliary Manager of Cybernetics
Organization: Nanotrasen

Additional Notes

The creator of Nip and N-I-P. Headhunted by NT for his skill in robotics, he's managed to work his way up the command chain. Now he tends to assist with many of the NT science projects.

Mare Crisium

Rank: Crisis Response Ensign
Organization: Whiteshield (Nanotrasen)
Species: Synthetic Lizard

Additional Notes

Mare Crisium was assembled by the Research Department to serve as a specialist amongst an already curious (but informal) group within Centcom: the Shields. Nanotrasen's solution to the 'Who delivers the mailman's mail?' found within their upper operative echelons, this synth finds her purpose watching the backs of extremely valuable individuals and their Gold and Blackshields, tending to the bodies they tend to leave in their wake.

Servire Semper

Rank: Lieutenant of the NT Security DivisionOversees the training and deployment of various in-house private security, including Blueshields.
Organization: NanotrasenCo-Lead of NT Crisis Response Division "Informally known as SpecAct"
Species: Semi-Synthetic Humanoid

Additional Notes

Very few things are on record about this man, mostly the scent of burnt fabric and his fondness for keeping a secretarial squad specifically for paperwork. One thing is certain: you can consider yourself extremely lucky or unlucky to meet this man face-to-face.

Amherst Lockner

Organization: Nanotrasen

Annie Gustaffmann

Rank: Ensign
Organization: Nanotrasen
Species: Vulpkanin

Additional Notes

6'7" tall, very well built with a strongly curated appearance.
Annie's been working at Central for a good majority of her 47 year life, around 25 years now. She works at managing assets all over the place along with intelligence operations, and on occasion tagging along with operations.

Charon

Rank: Paranormal Supervisor
Organization: Nanotrasen

Additional Notes

Former priest before falling to booze and women. Now he works for NT's paranormal division.

Michael Dudley

Rank: Sergeant
Organization: Goldshield (Nanotrasen)

Additional Notes

Old and divorced corporate climber, retired from Frontier Station Warden to Goldshield.

Work in Progress: Footer subject to change at a moment's notice. Do not take a red link's presence, struck-through or otherwise, as confirmation (or denial) of their canonicity.

Nova Sector Lore
	Common Species	Humans, Tiziran, Unathi, Moths, Ethereals, Azulae, Slime Hybrids, Teshari, Synthetic Humanoids (and assorted robots), Pod Persons
	Other Species	Genemodders (Felinids, Ice Walkers, Dwarf), Ashwalkers, Hemophages, Snailpersons, Ordoht (Formerly Skrell), Plasmamen, Flypeople, Vox (Primalis et al), Tajaran, Vulpkanin, Xenomorphic Hybrid, Rouges (Abductorkin), Miscellaneous Species
	Nanotrasen	Nanotrasen, Central Command, Emergency Response Corps
	External Groups	The Syndicate, Interdyne Pharmaceutics, DS-2, Cargo, The Spider Clan
	Nova	The Nova Sector, Indecipheres, Freyja
	Concepts	Bluespace, Plasma, Faster Than Light Travel, Resonance ("Souls"), Death
	SolFed	SolFed, Earth in 2565, The SolFed Armed Forces, The SolFed International Capital District