Minamar Specialized Industries

Minamar Specialised Industries (MSI) is a major interstellar government organised as a megacorporation. Its capital is the relic world of Minamar, located in the Paraga System, where the humanoids Olinbar evolved. The population of MSI is highly materialist, viewing wealth and science as the guiding principles in life, and the society is hierarchical. Minamar Specialized Industries is ruled by its Board of Directors, who appoint a Chief Executive Officer to represent them every twenty years. Minamar Specialized Industries' corporate focus is the uplifting of pre-FTL societies to spacefaring, while extracting as much value as they can from them. MSI has an extensive public relations department that works tirelessly to convince the populations of pre-FTL worlds to accept their offers of enlightenment. However, MSI extracts payment in the form of indentured servants, who are forced to work to pay off debts, usually indefinitely. Diplomatically, Minamar Specialized Industries offers its services primarily to pre-FTL worlds, but also provides advisors to interstellar nations on their own uplifting and enlightenment programs. MSI prefers to avoid conflict, viewing it as a needless expense, but it has been targeted by both the Roccan Resistance and the Free Peoples of the Fall as revenge for their enslavement.

History

Recorded pre-Board history of Minamar is very scarce, primarily due to efforts by MSI to censor it. It is generally believed that the Olinbars were divided into various nation-states on Minamar, and exploited the Paraga System for several centuries. They were able to convert their homeworld into something resembling an ecumenopolis, though national divisions still existed. At some point, two or more nations on Minamar engaged in a devastating nuclear war that destroyed most of the infrastructure on the planet. Billions were killed, but the corporation of Minamar Specialized Industries was able to survive the fallout, becoming critical to the reconstruction process. Having secured most of their personnel and resources in bunkers before the bombs fell, they were in an excellent position to profit from the destruction of their homeworld.

Those Olinbars that accepted MSI rule were rewarded with food, shelter, and safety, but any who resisted the corporate security teams were forced into indentured servitude. This, coupled with a planet-wide media blitz that was made possible thanks to surviving MSI infrastructure, allowed the corporation to secure its rule over Minamar in the late 21st century CE. By the beginning of the 22nd century, Olinbar scientists had developed their first prototype hyper drives and began exploring nearby star systems.

The devastated orbital infrastructure of the Paraga System was cleaned up, and new, smaller scale, operations were started. Despite the availability of hyper drives, MSI was not particularly interested in space travel. Instead, they primarily focused on consolidating their control over their homeworld and securing profits for their shareholders. This changed in the early 2130s CE, when MSI scouts discovered a pre-FTL civilisation in a nearby star system. It was here that MSI began their tried and tested business strategy. Promising advanced technology to the inhabitants of the world, they instead slowly subsumed control and took over. Before any of the inhabitants realised what was happening, they had become indentured servants.

MSI repeated this process with every other pre-FTL world they found. Instead of colonising new worlds, MSI would bring pre-FTL indentured servants back to their core worlds and develop them. As MSI was the first of the current group of spacefaring societies to develop FTL travel, they faced little opposition, only encountering the fallen empires in their exploration. Due to this, MSI failed to seriously develop military technology or doctrines. Instead, their massive but poorly-armed Enlightenment Vessels awed and intimidated any opposition, and cloaked fleets could surprise any would-be aggressor. This would only change with the Rocs.

In 2164 CE, MSI explorers discovered the pre-FTL Roccan civilisation on the planet Nogg. After observing the avian civilisation for a year, an Enlightenment Vessel was dispatched to perform their standard uplift procedure, arriving on 15 June, 2166 CE. However, instead of successfully performing the enlightenment as they had so many times before, MSI instead suffered a major military defeat in 2190 CE. The Roccan Resistance was able to capture the Enlightenment Vessel and force back the expeditionary fleet sent to reinforce the planet's garrison. Rather than risk more assets on the operation, MSI instead opted to let the Rocs go, confident they would destroy themselves with their newly-acquired advanced technology.

In addition to the loss of an Enlightenment Vessel in 2190 CE, another one was lost several years prior in 2186 CE. A slave transport vessel carrying millions of abducted pre-FTL individuals experienced a slave revolt, but crash-landed on the planet now called Freedom's Landing. At this point, MSI was too busy dealing with the Rocs to find their missing slaves and ship, and simply let them go.

Once other species began developing hyper drives around the beginning of the 23rd century CE, MSI was in a perfect position to begin selling indentured labour to anyone with the energy credits for it. In addition, MSI also provides expertise in pre-FTL uplifts to other spacefaring societies.