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Perseverance

The Fate of Planetform Inc.

In the year 820 A.S. the Bretonian terraforming firm Planetform Incorporated was all but financially ruined. Planet Harris was their flagship project and had ground to a halt with the Gallic incursions in Tau 31. For months the invaders strained the projects' progress with relentless raids on supply lines and laid waste to the planet's locale. With no viable prospect of developing Harris under the strain of the war, the Bretonian Admiralty gave the order to withdraw. As news spread that the Battleship MacDuff was to cede the planet, the faith of the Bretonian people in the promise of Planetform was smothered. The Harris project changed hands overnight and was declared a total loss by the Bretonian government. Then within days the Gallic fleet poured into Edinburgh and seized control of the terraforming operations on Ayr. With the lack of competent specialists in the Gallic offence fleets, both projects were largely neglected. All the while, the work on both planets was slowly undone by the inevitable force of equilibrium.

With their entire charter snatched away over the course of a single week the Bretonian government slashed funding to Planetform to appropriate funds for the war effort. CEO Ollie MacTavish resigned shortly after and it wasn't long before rumours of the firm's pending liquidation were dragged into the limelight.

The dreams of Planetform were in tatters, but one question remained: what to do with this highly skilled enclave of geologists, charters and engineers? A popular choice was to divide the firm's assets amongst the house's remaining corporate bodies. However it was concluded that this would do little to resolve the nation's ongoing infrastructural problems. Natural mineral resources in Bretonia were waning. The house's incremental loss of it's industry to the Gallic advance threatened to cripple the war effort. Harris and Ayr held little strategic value in the war but had drawn much financial investment from stakeholders across the sector. Commerce was fleeing from Bretonia. With or without Planetform the Bretonian government desperately needed to find revenue.

Thus a decision was made. A few weeks after the loss of Edinburgh a mandate was presented to Planetform to overhaul it's exploratory fleet. Planetform was to launch a new incentive to chart and survey unclaimed territories on behalf of the Kingdom of Bretonia. The purpose; to rapidly uncover new potentials for colonisation and industrial exploitation in unclaimed systems across Sirius. To some this was seen as a desperate stab in the dark. Though Bretonian propaganda served well to sell this latest corporate venture as a heroic and innovative enterprise.

As for the projects on Atka and California Minor, funds were allocated to facilitate their development for the time-being. However Planetform was prohibited from accepting new bids for stellar terraforming until adequate resources had been claimed for the Bretonian nation.

At this time a new face stepped into the picture, one Mortimer Grant; a BOWEX careerist for 17 years and renowned for his reputation commandeering super-sized cargo ships. He was made famous by an incident involving the disappearance of the BOWEX container transport ‘Dylan’ of which he captained.

On February 4th 815 the BSV Dylan loaded with engine components and destined for Southampton Shipyard departed from New Berlin. Upon leaving Rheinland space the vessel's security detail was drawn away by a fake distress call deep in the walker nebula. The Dylan was to progress to IMG base Freistadt but was not seen or heard from for several hours. Over the course of a week the Dylan was reported as overdue, off course, AWOL, missing and eventually lost to pirates. At BOWEX hubs across Bretonia memorials were held for her crew and entourage. So it was a surprise to Bretonian officials to see the vessel on approach to Planet Cambridge two weeks later with a derelict Bretonian cruiser in tow. By the captain's account the Dylan was disrupted by Red Hessians and chased into a system they were later to learn was Omega 5. The persuit drove them further through the Omegas until they stumbled upon an unknown jump hole to an unhcarted system. Here in deep orbit of a large gas giant they encountered the remains of the lost Armed Forces expedition 'Benevolence'. Rather than turn back and face the pirates Grant decreed that an attempt should be made to restore power to the cruiser's artillery batteries to mount a defence. A group of volunteers from the crew were sent aboard the HMS Benevolence and were able to revive the ships point defence turrets. As the hessians bore down on the Dylan the transport lured their raiding party into a devestating broadside. With the pirates laid to waste the way to Bretonia was clear, though the captain and it's crew regarded the wreck of the Benevolence with sentiment. This lost ship that had saved them in their hour of need was not to be left to the maw of a swirling gas giant. It was unanimously decided that the crew of the Dylan would salvage the HMS Benevolence and return her home to Bretonia. The provisons still remaining aboard the Benevolence allowed for the Dylan's crew to work independently for weeks. After 17 days of patch repairs their engineers were able to breath fire into the cruiser's engines once more, and she made a gallant return to active duty months later.

A month after the delivery of the mandate to Planetform HQ, captain Mortimer Grant was head hunted for a special project incepted by newly appointed CEO Graham White. This new project was to be an enourmous undertaking and unprecedented in interstellar exploration.

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