FUBAR #180924609

The Freighters' Union Bio-Artificial Refinery #180924609 looks like a floating city in space, but every compartment is functional for refining ore and storing the completed ingots (or for living space for the small crew who live out their lives on it).
Sent out on its mission from Earth before space warping technology became viable, it is a generation ship, able to complete a centuries-long mission.

Generation 1

Thirty six human crew and one artificial intelligence crewed the FUBAR when it launched from Earth with its solar sail driving it to a distant asteroid believed to contain barely-imaginable mineral wealth.
If all goes according to plan, the corporation which sent them will become one of the top ten richest organizations on Earth.
The mixed-gender crew finished the manufacture of the refinery en route and made some improvements based on the contant news updates they received from Earth until the signal became too weak and budgeting prevented the communication from being amplified any further. They were resigned to a lifetime traveling through deep space together for many years, then dying out from age-related illnesses one by one. Their clones were set up to be grown, educated, and decanted only when the otherwise empty refinery arrived at its destination.

Complications

One member decided she wanted to bear children, who then might live to see the arrival. There was a great deal of debate over the idea. She showed that the facility had plenty of resources available to support more lives for the entire time.
Other disagreements arose, desipte their seemingly unlimited food, clothing, and shelter. Political factions and cliques of friends and enemies (and former lovers) developed.
Then the murders started.
Thankfully, the survivors understood the absolutely existential nature of the problem early enough to put aside their differences and ensure that the mission would continue. The solution they settled upon was to alter the genetics of their clones. The second generation would be asexual and trained to do their jobs as teammates with no physical fraternizing and none of the seemingly inevitable hurt feelings.

Generation 2

Twenty six genetically modified clones and two artificial intelligences landed on the target asteroid, (finding its composition to be as valuable as their ancestors had hoped), operated the mining equipment for decades, and started the return trip with a large minority of the weight of the asteroid in tow.
They started with twenty six.
The mining work was fraught with dangers, but remote controls meant that the various unexpected structural collapses seldom resulted in loss of life. It was the return trip that proved more costly. The clones worked long hours at hard jobs for 50 years, then were expected to enjoy retirement entertaining themselves (on an automated vessel which no longer needed them) until their time ran out. But they had been especially designed to be loners, inherently resistent to seeking companionship.
Then the suicides started.
Thankfully, when less than half of them still lived, they realized a change was needed for the next generation to better survive. They had at this point no desire to force life upon sad beings such as themselves. They reviewed the records of the previous generation (records which had been heavily redacted in the declining years) and made another design change. The solution they settled upon was to alter the genetics of their clones. The third generation were to be homosexual and polyamorous, quite entirely the opposite of the second generation. They were designed as social creatures who would form lifelong attachments with each and every other crewmate, able to work together, and able to be happy living out their declining years together.
But the next generation might never come to life, they would only be grown, educated, and decanted when the vessel (full of a planet's ransom of fully refined metals and minerals) was approaching Earth again, about twenty years away, only if the automated communication systems could not interface with the flight control systems of the Earth (due to technological changes).
Or they could be grown earlier if something went wrong.

Generation 3

Here our story begins.
Something went wrong.

Type

Caravan