Officially founded during the Boskone War, Hyperlight Industries is a multifaceted organization dedicated to spreading humanity out from Earth, and hopefully eventually into the stars. Primarily, it currently operates helping to move migrant workers from Earth out to the Jovian system, along with transport of mundanes who are looking for a job in the more fertile market of space work. Secondary fields include a mining, refining, and small-scale construction division led by the company's AI [Insert Name Here], and planned in the future is an extra-solar division dedicated towards large-scale colonization of other worlds, hopefully via convincing Mundanes to join with Fen on joint projects; the chief of which is the nearly Black Project Yorktown.
It's CEO is the relatively reclusive Captain Jonathan Rich. Native to Northwest Florida, he left Earth shortly after Grover's Corners alongside his XO Leroy Davis by handwaving an airliner parked in the Bob Sikes Airport in Crestview Florida over the course of a weekend, replacing the forward hatch with a standard airlock, and then stealing most of the Airport's aviation gas supply to launch. The pair are wanted for Grand Theft Aircraft in the US and associated territories, and have not set down on Earth since.
Said Airliner became the start of their business after several months of participating as a contractor for Operation Great Justice during the War. The Viridian Fool, as it came to be known for the distinct paintjob, served as an AWACS craft and recovery vessel for some time, until Rich and Davis declared they were satisfied with their performance and quit after the incidents that led to OGJ getting kicked off Stellvia, citing the behavior and actions of the leadership as being 'Unconcinable, Unacceptable, and no better than what we left behind'.
Looking for work, they picked up a small AI-run independent mining operation as a part-time source of income, retrieving it's drones and helping them back into the field. They served in this capacity, making runs on small asteroids far off the Ecliptic until the end of the war. At that point, they helped in the acquisition of an improved mining drone carrier and began refitting their airliner into something approaching a state of business readiness. Their time during the war endeared them to the Browncoats and Belters, who were both in need of a dedicated travel line to and from their primary transportation hubs. Taking up the challenge, they hired on several flight attendants and began offering $250 dollar tickets to and from the belt, and $300 dollar tickets to Ganymede and back. They weren't expecting to be sold out entirely on every outbound flight as workers flocked to the relatively high-paying jobs available.
To facilitate the nearly unmanagable load, they consulted with their AI-led mining branch for the construction of a limited set of additional spaceframes based off of their original aircraft to match demand. By 2018, between their main offices and maintence on Ceres, the aircrews of their 15 spaceliners, and travel offices the company boasts nearly 300 human personelle, and anywhere from 30-50 AI's in the travel sector and mining sector. Rumors persist, though, that the Mining Operations are vastly larger than they let on, from fanciful tales of a hidden base in the Oort Cloud working on something, to semi-confirmed reports of mining drones that refuse to identify themselves in the belt that loosely match the configuration of their mining craft. In addition, as the company has grown in size, several former workers report having come across plans for a 'Project Yorktown', which they claim to be plans for a massive colony ship for hunting down and colonizing worlds beyond the Solar System. However, any proof of these plans in the form of files or hard-copies has yet to turn up.
Relations:
While they cooperate as much as they possibly can with the Space Patrol, they refuse any and all OGJ passengers, and have made it publically known that they will not do business with the organization until it's current leadership is removed and harsh oversight is put into place. They are attempting to file Criminal Trespassing charges against someone believed to be an OGJ 'Troubleshooter' who broke into their offices on December 12, 2017 and attempted to steal several files from the CEO's office.
With most other factions, they have neutral to positive relations, and are somewhat loved by the Browncoats and Belters for the spaceline services at relatively cheap rates they provide.
However, despite their services, they go out of their way to remain off of the major and minor faction's collective radars, attempting to maintain as low a profile as possible while still remaining profitable. It is unknown as to whether or not this is due to their relations with OGJ, or if there is something more to this active image control.
(more to come tomorrow)
It's CEO is the relatively reclusive Captain Jonathan Rich. Native to Northwest Florida, he left Earth shortly after Grover's Corners alongside his XO Leroy Davis by handwaving an airliner parked in the Bob Sikes Airport in Crestview Florida over the course of a weekend, replacing the forward hatch with a standard airlock, and then stealing most of the Airport's aviation gas supply to launch. The pair are wanted for Grand Theft Aircraft in the US and associated territories, and have not set down on Earth since.
Said Airliner became the start of their business after several months of participating as a contractor for Operation Great Justice during the War. The Viridian Fool, as it came to be known for the distinct paintjob, served as an AWACS craft and recovery vessel for some time, until Rich and Davis declared they were satisfied with their performance and quit after the incidents that led to OGJ getting kicked off Stellvia, citing the behavior and actions of the leadership as being 'Unconcinable, Unacceptable, and no better than what we left behind'.
Looking for work, they picked up a small AI-run independent mining operation as a part-time source of income, retrieving it's drones and helping them back into the field. They served in this capacity, making runs on small asteroids far off the Ecliptic until the end of the war. At that point, they helped in the acquisition of an improved mining drone carrier and began refitting their airliner into something approaching a state of business readiness. Their time during the war endeared them to the Browncoats and Belters, who were both in need of a dedicated travel line to and from their primary transportation hubs. Taking up the challenge, they hired on several flight attendants and began offering $250 dollar tickets to and from the belt, and $300 dollar tickets to Ganymede and back. They weren't expecting to be sold out entirely on every outbound flight as workers flocked to the relatively high-paying jobs available.
To facilitate the nearly unmanagable load, they consulted with their AI-led mining branch for the construction of a limited set of additional spaceframes based off of their original aircraft to match demand. By 2018, between their main offices and maintence on Ceres, the aircrews of their 15 spaceliners, and travel offices the company boasts nearly 300 human personelle, and anywhere from 30-50 AI's in the travel sector and mining sector. Rumors persist, though, that the Mining Operations are vastly larger than they let on, from fanciful tales of a hidden base in the Oort Cloud working on something, to semi-confirmed reports of mining drones that refuse to identify themselves in the belt that loosely match the configuration of their mining craft. In addition, as the company has grown in size, several former workers report having come across plans for a 'Project Yorktown', which they claim to be plans for a massive colony ship for hunting down and colonizing worlds beyond the Solar System. However, any proof of these plans in the form of files or hard-copies has yet to turn up.
Relations:
While they cooperate as much as they possibly can with the Space Patrol, they refuse any and all OGJ passengers, and have made it publically known that they will not do business with the organization until it's current leadership is removed and harsh oversight is put into place. They are attempting to file Criminal Trespassing charges against someone believed to be an OGJ 'Troubleshooter' who broke into their offices on December 12, 2017 and attempted to steal several files from the CEO's office.
With most other factions, they have neutral to positive relations, and are somewhat loved by the Browncoats and Belters for the spaceline services at relatively cheap rates they provide.
However, despite their services, they go out of their way to remain off of the major and minor faction's collective radars, attempting to maintain as low a profile as possible while still remaining profitable. It is unknown as to whether or not this is due to their relations with OGJ, or if there is something more to this active image control.
(more to come tomorrow)