Moons of Kaarp

Significant Sentient Population

2 Billion

Allegiance

None, system owned by Pegasus Heavy Industries (PHI)

Hazards

PHI maintains a private security fleet of Cruisers and space based guns which will be deployed against any craft that is "hostile" towards PHI activities. Ships flying too close to the Moons may be hit.

History

One of the earliest charted sectors after the discovery of hypergates, The Moons of Kaarp were first explored in 2056 by the Tibran light exploration vessel, "Flare" and were named after Lieutenant W.F.Kaarp (dec.) of the Royal Tibran Navy who was in command at the time.

The "Moons" are in fact more akin to planets, but in comparison to the massive planet Kaarp, around which they orbit, the title of Moons seems appropriate. Aside from the planet Kaarp and the "moons" there is little of note in the sector besides a few barren planetoids, all of which orbit with Kaarp around a middle aged and stable sun.

The Moons of Kaarp were originally claimed by the Tibran Royal Family (as were all the early discoveries) who, eager to expand their territory, ordered TRN Colony ships filled with unwilling Tibran serfs and terraforming equipment to set course for the sector. The Moon "Providence" being already habitable provided an ideal staging ground and as soon as 2070 after a brief struggle to suppress indigenous life, several colonies on Providence were already thriving with satellite colonies on other moons and terraforming projects progressing nicely. But as the more Tibrans migrated tot he sector and populations began to grow so too did the problems.

The sheer amount of power that rests in the hands of so few under the Tibran governmental model makes it absolutely out of the question for any significant member of the Royal Family to fly in space, it is just too much of a risk. This meant that all governance of the Kaarp colonies was done from Tibrar. Also, out of tradition, and for security, members of the Royal Family refuse to send or receive any governmental communique unless it is written on the ancient and incredibly expensive substance known as paper, sealed with wax and hand delivered by a trusted messenger.

Whilst manageable on Tibrar this system became extremely troublesome on the Moons of Kaarp. Communications were extremely slow and prohibitively expensive and governance suffered accordingly. By 2082 due to the massive early immigration the population was over 500 million and popular revolts against what little local leadership existed were commonplace. Time and time again the population revolted to be brutally and ruthlessly suppressed by stationed Tibran military.

As more and more hypergates to new sectors were discovered throughout the galaxy, powerful new alien races were encountered and galactic warfare escalated, drawing the bulk of the Tibran Royal Family's attention and also consuming the bulk of their resources. As a consequence, messenger ships between The Moons of Kaarp and Tibrar all but ceased as they were converted to fighters or redirected to other sectors, thus leaving the Kaarp Colonies under purely military control. In time, even this military presence was drawn away to join the battles against alien legions in other parts of the universe and increasingly at the homeworld itself.

Freed from the burden of incompetent leadership and the brutal violence of their military masters, the populations of the Moons of Kaarp declared total independence from Tibrar.

Stunned by this rebellious act and in the middle of fighting desperately against Ajaxians, the Tibran Royal Family was slow to react and it wasn't until 2085 that they finally sent a fleet to destroy this rebellion. In this time the weaponry producing Pegasus Heavy Industries (PHI) was far from inactive and when the small TRN fleet finally arrived, led by the now Admiral W.F. Kaarp it found itself instantly under attack by a more powerful fleet of PHI ships wearing independent insignia. The Tibran fleet was massively damaged and forced to retreat but with experience on their side were able to destroy a great number of PHI ships. Admiral Kaarp, kept youthful by a lifetime of hyperspace travel finally met his end, as his damaged flagship "Blackadder" burnt up fittingly in the atmosphere of the planet Kaarp he had first discovered some 30 years earlier, bringing to an end a truly remarkable career.

In the aftermath, Tibrar gave the Moons of Kaarp it's independence, and PHI mindful of the fact that war is most profitable when you are not in it, returned to supplying weapons.

With peace assured, the sector entered a productive and peaceful democratic system accompanied by massive population growth and unrivalled economic development. Then, seemingly from nowhere, in the year 2197, a series of powerful explosions ripped through Government House on Providence, killing all but 25 of the 1056 sitting members of the Kaarp Democratic Council who were meeting there to make the customary, Annual Parliamentary Pledge, the only time they ever all met in person. No group claimed responsibility for the mass assassination and in the shock, panic, and finger pointing that occurred after the event, the entire system collapsed into bloody civil war.

From the destruction and chaos one force reigned supreme, the corporations. Whilst everyone fought, the corporations grew rich designing, building and selling ships, weapons and munitions. Of these, the mega corporation Pegasus Heavy Industries (PHI) rose rapidly to the top of the corporate hierarchy with a viciously aggressive business plan.

PHI began life as Pegasus Corporation in 1984 based on Tibrar proper, as a small engineering firm specialising in various industrial filters. Even back then, the corporation possessed skilled management and diversified it's business rapidly. By 2050 the company was amongst the top 50 non Royal companies on Tibrar with Royal status all but assured.

Upon the discovery of the Moons of Kaarp in 2056, the Pegasus Corporation's design for terraformers won out and it was awarded the bulk of contracts in the new sector and awarded official Royal Status. In 2067 after an unfortunate (and unexplained) spacecraft depressurisation that killed the entire board of the company, new leadership took control, moved it's HQ to Moons of Kaarp and changed the company name to Pegasus Heavy Industries. Shortly after, the corporation began to devote significant amounts of capital towards weapons development.

As the Moons were terraformed, less and less money came in from new terraforming machinery orders and the company found itself making up the shortfall from weaponry servicing and sales to the local Tibran military. It also found a willing consumer market in the general populace for lower power weaponry.

For a time PHI maintained consistent profits until the formation of the Kaarp Democratic Council and the peace that accompanied it. With all terraforming projects now completed and weapons sales heavily restricted, PHI found itself looking at a shrinking bottom line, disgruntled shareholders and faced losing Royal Approval, not that it meant a lot anymore.

Luckily, the beginning of civil war reopened business for PHI. With a huge inventory of weapons and the best available local designs, PHI was already 10 steps ahead of it's nearest competitor in the weapons department. It aggressively marketed to all factions in the various wars showing loyalty only to those who could afford the products. However, unlike other corporations it chose to take an active part in the war, keeping an corporate division of soldiers equipped with top line weapons and ships not available to anyone else. These elite fighters selected their battles carefully which strangely seemed to occur in close proximity to the factories of PHI rivals.

One by one, PHI rivals disappeared until finally it stood alone supplying ships and weaponry to all sides in the war. Eventually the hierarchy of PHI decided that enough was enough, and in 2255, used it's now unstoppable might to end the war and take absolute control of the Moons.

The entire system is now controlled by PHI with large factories on each of the Moons. For a time PHI continued to produce small arms, munitions and ships but it quickly realised that the biggest money is in the larger wars and in order to promote the local peace required to meet production deadlines, ownership of weaponry of any kind by the locals is strictly forbidden. PHI once designed and built a large range of ships, but now focuses solely on building the PHI Cruiser, the most expensive and profitable spacecraft it has ever designed.

In keeping with it's successful business plan, PHI loyalty lies where the money is, and accordingly, even though the Tibran Royal Family continually protests about it, PHI markets its cruiser to anyone who can afford it with only very slight variations in design to account for the differing biology of the clientele.

All legions would love to take control of the Moons proper and the blueprints of the PHI Cruiser all to themselves, but the massiveness of PHI's assets and it's huge resource base means that it is capable of maintaining a private fleet of cruisers which are in number alone able to rival any legion and are also rumoured to have certain advantages over the ships provided for sale. With other hostile legions never more than a few ticks away, no one legion dares risk a battle with PHI. The corporation could enter the war proper if it so desired, but it is not it's financial interests to do so.

As such there is an agreement in place. PHI continues to sell to anyone who can afford it and allows fighting in and domination of it's own sector by the various legions, but it maintains it's fleet just in case the laser shots and bombs get close enough to the factories to make the board uncomfortable.

It is widely believed that PHI operates and always has operated a dark branch company outfitted with agents who's purpose is to deliberately incite tension wherever possible in order to create the wars that bring in the customers, an action which is in complete violation of the NSA agreement signed by all legions. From civil wars to galactic battles almost everyone suspects the rumours to be true but very few people are prepared to openly challenge PHI on this matter or make any attempt to prove it due to the fact that those who do tend to have an unfortunate habit of getting in spaceships that depressurise, catching strange new alien illnesses, die in freak holiday accidents, fall victim to piracy or just flat out disappear.

Moons of Kaarp (last edited 2013-04-17 19:22:23 by ecvej)