105 PF - 95 PF
--- Introduction ---
Truane's Star, discovered and colonized in 200 PF, has flourished in the past century. Pale and New Pale are both lightly populated worlds, the former being an industrial world and the latter an agricultural one. Streele, Incorporated (which later drops the last 'e' prior to becoming a mega-corp) has offices on both worlds, with Pale being their home office. Jonathan Streele III, whose grandfather founded the company under morally strong business ethics shortly after Pale was colonized, resides as current CEO. That business model seems to have worked rather well, seeing as Streele, Inc. also owns the spaceship construction center orbitting Pale which is capable of producing ion driven starships but for the most part is entrusted to build the system ships in use within Truane's Star. An armed space station also orbits Pale, recently constructed and commissioned, capable of berthing craft up to HS:14 in size (Station Size: 3). New Pale has a docking station capable of supporting craft up to HS:10 (Station Size: 2).
By 100 PF (the year these adventures would take place), mining has become the #1 business, exploiting the other 13 uninhabitable worlds (including the gas giant Cygnus Omicron taking the outermost orbit, an invaluable source of fuel-based elements), various moons, and the asteroid belt for precious minerals. The two worlds trade peacefully, agro goods from New Pale for industrial products via Pale, but minerals are needed to support Pale's industrial production more than anything as they have yet to tap their own resources per local government regulation.
To this end, a Mining Guild has been established, with offices onboard orbital stations on both worlds. This Mining Guild is overseen by Pan Galactic Conglomerates, a large business that is poised to become the first "Mega-Corporation" (which actually happens by pf37). The Guild charges a flat rate of 5000Cr per officer grade or 25,000Cr per vessel, whichever is greater, for annual dues. In addition they recieve 5% of the sale of ore to Pale's industrial complexes. It is deemed fair, but there are those that believe otherwise...
As such, the Guild has influence over local militia craft from both worlds (who perform inspections on inbound cargo and may alert the Guild of non-guild members attempting to deliver ore). The Guild keeps a generous fleet of armed civilian craft on hand in order to "influence" membership. Still, there have been numerous blockade runners that have successfully transported ores to Pale's station or surface, albeit at the cost of bounties offered by the Mining Guild for preventing future occurances. As such, several piracy factions exist and have been ransacking shipments in order to deliver them in their own transport vessels under the guise of legitimate Guild memberships. Suffice it to say, Streele, Inc. has publicly decried the Mining Guild as a menace to peace and prosperity within Truane's Star.
This tension between Streele's production facilities and the Mining Guild opens the doors to many scenarios of oppostion, both on the ground and in deep space (this also defines future tensions between these two future mega-corp rivals). Jonathan Streele III has only recently assumed the helm of Streele, Inc. and continues to run the business under the successful model that his forefathers have instilled, but the pressure applied by the Mining Guild could be enough to tip Streele's hand with creative yet shrewd attempts at dodging the Guild's efforts.
While the discovery of ion drives and void travel is an older one, atomic drive technology is still a long ways off and despite the possiblity of outer system vessel encounters (as well as non-human core four races present), Truane's Star is isolated enough to allow for many "homegrown" scenarios that are predominantly human in nature. That is not to say a Dralasite, Vrusk, or Yazirian character can't be incorporated...but those three can expect moderate to severe racial tensions amongst the human settlers in Truane's Star, who have grown accustomed to the quiet life in the far reaches of the Frontier.
More so when you consider that the discovery of Dixon's Star predates Truane's by a mere twenty years, and after all this time Laco is still an outpost world. With Truane's Star nestled deep in the pocket of the Xagyg Dust Nebula (Zebulon has yet to be discovered), this affords the citizens of Pale and New Pale a large degree of isolation which was initially welcomed, but has now proven to be their undoing.
