W15.I

W15.I (3.5 AU orbit) is a Class J Gas Giant.  Ten times larger than Zemlejos, presenting a theoretical surface gravity of 3G, it orbits about C.271 XIV every 3085 days.  It has an atmosphere composed mainly of dihydrogen and ammonium.  It is a useful source of helium-3 for Zemlejos' hungry fusion plants, and siphoning it is one of the most dangerous and lucrative activities in The Threads.

 

Another important resource of W15.I is the White, a belt of asteroids made up of millions of inexhaustible chunks of orbiting ice, exploited by "rock-hoppers", and exported throughout the C.271 XIV System. 

Ventrax Dynamics

Ventrax Dynamics is one of the dominant corporations involved in helium-3 extraction from W15.I. Founded during the early expansion into the C.271 XIV system, Ventrax quickly became a keystone of the fusion economy. Its siphoning operations involve vast atmospheric skimmers that hover just within the upper atmosphere of W15.I, drawing in gases and processing them through orbital refineries.

Company headquarters is on Zemjelos Major, but the major operations hub is its 60-strong skimmer fleet "Nexus Alpha", located at W15.I Lagrange Point 3.

Ventrax mostly depends on a private paramilitary force known as Black Aurora to protect skimmers from sabotage, piracy, and rival corporate interference, and to provide a cadre for its fleet of warships which can be deployed if necessary.

Corporate Culture is : High pay, high risk, high turnover. Skimmer crews are notorious for being thrill-seeking engineers and ex-military types. The company’s motto is: “Breathe Fire From The Stars.”  Helium-3 extraction is one of the most dangerous occupations in the system—storms of ammonium lightning, gravitational micro-shear zones, and unpredictable atmospheric tides make even automated systems risky to operate.

In many ways, Ventrax is the pride of The Threads, since it is rare that a "homegrown" corporation can rival with those mastodonts whose HQs are in Unity space. Obviously, Ventrax could not hold its own militarily against such an entity, but Unity doctrine prevents domination from being based on naked force.

There have nonetheless been explosions of violence, the most recent two decades ago.  Unity reports called the Glast Conflict "not a war, just a hostile adjustment", but they doubtless underestimated the consequences had Ventrax lost.

Glast Interstellar was a young, well-financed and brash corporation that had decided to enter the C.271 XIV system without even concerning itself with the prior manoeuvres that generally lead this sort of operation.  Armed with cutting-edge siphoning tech, AI-piloted atmospheric craft, and an aggressive acquisition strategy, Glast Interstellar established Operation Vortex Bloom, a cluster of skimming platforms within W15.I’s northern hemisphere—an area historically monitored but undeveloped due to volatile ammonium jetstreams.

Glast’s incursion was a direct challenge to Ventrax Dynamics’ de facto monopoly. At first, there was diplomacy, which didn't last long but at least allowed contracts to be established. Then there were contract violations. Then there were “accidents.”

Ventrax seemed to have been caught with their spacesuits around their ankles, using outdated siphoning tech, and having a rather aging fleet of combat cruisers manned by rather unenthusiastic career military.  At the time, Black Aurora was employed as a limited strike team mostly used for station security and sabotage response.  Its Managing Director, Vera Cale - callsign "Null Void" - saw the opportunity.  She convinced Ventrax to stall for time, whilst redeploying her entire company to its service and working on an integrated strategy for bringing down haughty Glast.

After nearly two years, under the transparent cover of contracts and mediatised handshakes, of tactical back-and-forth (platform hacking, ion jamming, pressure collapse ambushes), Glast deployed its flagship Krypt Hydra to disable Ventrax’s central refinery node at Lagrange Nine, aiming to force a complete system withdrawal. It was meant to be a quick, decisive strike so as not to awaken Unity—until Black Aurora intervened.

Unbeknown to Glast, it was Black Aurora that was setting the pace of operations, and Vera Cale was certain that the time had come.  Black Aurora had secretly embedded sensor drones inside the ammonium clouds weeks before, tracking Glast’s movements. As Krypt Hydra descended, Aurora's Ghost Lance unit boarded from a stealth carrier, jamming the ship’s lensing field and disabling its shielding from within using viral nanites.

Then came Operation Cloudburn—a full offensive from Ventrax’s skimmer fleet, patiently converted into Q-ships, coordinated in real-time by an integrated AI system. Black Aurora led boarding operations against two of Glast’s platforms while cyberwarfare units crashed three more using deep-implant sabotage. The skies turned to fire above W15.I. In under nine hours, Glast’s entire Vortex Bloom operation was dismantled.

Glast’s surviving units fled the system under emergency acceleration. Within a week, they had declared bankruptcy.

The success of the Lagrange Nine battle elevated Black Aurora from a minor external group to a core player of Ventrax Dynamics. It possesses full police powers on the skimming platforms, and command authority in all security matters, including war.  Vera Cale has a seat on Ventrax' board, and is widely expected to become the next Managing Director.

To this day, the Glast Conflict is studied in corporate war academies as a recent example of precision retaliation, asymmetric disruption, and the supremacy of prepared intelligence over brute force.  It is also a source of considerable pan-world patriotic fervour for the inhabitants of The Threads.

 

 

Rock-Hopper Consortium: The Eighteenth Pact

The Eighteenth Pact is a loosely governed but well-organized consortium of independent ice miners (known as "rock-hoppers") who extract and transport ice from the White. The ice is critical for everything from water and oxygen supplies to fuel refining.

Like their seventeen predecessors, fifteen of which are still in existence, P18 have a decentralized guild-like structure. Member crews retain independence but follow common trade and dispute protocols.  The ethos is solidarity and survival. Many members are former colonists, outcasts, or refugees—tough, fiercely independent, but bound by necessity. 

The sixteen Pacts have an informal alliance commonly named "The Syndicate", whose purpose is to control ice pricing across the system, often undercutting corporate suppliers. 

A cultural quirk is that rock-hopper crew gives their ship and ice-hauls poetic names, rivaling in creativity.  Examples are The Frostward Bride or the Lament of the Hollow Sun.  This practice of "skill-naming" is reinforced by surprisingly dashing choices in ship colours, uniforms and accoutrements, which can become pretty extravagant !  A fruitful combination of these different aesthethic choices can bring considerable prestige to a captain and to his crew, although history has also been marked by "fashion failures" that have cast ridicule for generations.

 

The ice was old—older than W15.I, some said. Scarred by solar storms, cracked by centuries of tidal pull. They called it The Hollow Bride, a jagged, kilometer-wide chunk of layered methane and silicates drifting just outside the White’s busy corridors.

Tama Renn caught sight of it through her visor, the faint glow of her skiff’s spotlights carving out its pitted surface. She eased the throttle. The navscreen blinked green. No claim tags. No beacons. Uncut ice. A miracle.

Tama bit the inside of her cheek and keyed the broadcast.
“By right of sight and name, Tama Renn, P18-certified, marks this mass. Logging image, orbit track, and crew tag.”

She fired her mag-harpoons. Two sank in with dull thuds, anchoring her skiff to the icy body. Then she drifted across the void with practiced grace, boot magnets locking her onto the surface. Her breath fogged the inside of her helmet.

She wasn’t here to strip the whole mass. That took big rigs. She was after the deep-core tracewater—pure, ancient hydrogen locked beneath the outer shell. Worth more per kilo than anything outside fusion-grade helium. Enough to pay off her docking debts and maybe repair her second engine array.

As she set her core drill, a proximity ping sang through her wrist console. Tama froze.

Another ship.

Unclaimed, huh?

She turned slowly. The new arrival was small, low-signature. No visible markings. Pirate? Rogue hopper?

Her voice was cold. “Mass is tagged. You’ll want another rock.”

No response. The ship kept its approach slow, deliberate. Tama’s fingers hovered over the drill controls. She toggled her pulse flare launcher instead.

Then the stranger stopped. A pause.

The channel lit.

“Didn’t see the tag. Long day. No harm.”

The ship rotated, revealing a nameplate beneath frost: Lowlight Wren. An old P15 vessel.

Tama exhaled.
“You always sneak up quiet like that, Wren?”

A crackling laugh. “Only when I smell good ice. You cut this Bride first. Fair’s fair.”

The ship peeled away, back into the dark. Tama watched it vanish, then turned to her drill.

The bit bit deep, and vapor hissed like breath from a grave.

In the void, trust was rare but honour was everything. It lived—faint, like frost on an old hull.

 

The Solar Chord Pulse

W15.I was the furthest planet away from the source of all three EM pulses.  This thankfully preserved the hundreds of rock-hopper vessels, which, if not, would surely have been destroyed en masse.  Ventrax' skimmer fleet was also preserved, unwittingly assisted by the forces of W15.1's atmosphere that usually seek only to destroy them.

The main problem is, of course, the lack of transport vessels to distribute the ice and helium-3 that has been mined, to its destinations.  The various corporations, be it Ventrax, Pynx or any of the others, have small numbers of warships that were, on average, sufficiently well shielded or brought up to speed by rapid repairs, but they are not willing to commit them to transport efforts and thus expose the extent of their surviving strength to their rivals.

The dramatic fall in ice shipments will produce rapid effects throughout the solar system.  Zemjelos has numerous saline-extraction plants which allow it to be theoretically self-sufficient in water supplies, but they are unequally distributed across the globe and there is no wider transport network in place.  They are also expected to be targeted for control by Helion, or damaged during fighting.

51-Pegasus has recycling processes in place but...well, try drinking someone else's poorly recycled urine for a few months, whilst working in abysmal conditions, and see how you hold up.

The downturn in helium-3 processing and distribution will have to be resolved promptly indeed.  Although Zemjelos relies heavily on it, it does also have tidal, solar and wind energy resources that will enable all key systems to function, although citizens will have to accept blackouts and energy rationing.  The crisis may even lend enhanced credibility to Green Horizon, as many of their ongoing projects can take credit for this relative degree of energy autonomy, whilst ongoing projects might be able to increase it dramatically.  Depending on how scarce helium-3 becomes, other areas of civilisation are likely to deploy intense diplomatic activities to secure it for themselves, and will likely use force if they have no other choice.  Well aware of this, Black Aurora has already, at Ventrax' initiative, set foot on Duzara as "security consultants".  Some even foretell that Black Aurora might actually absorb Ventrax, and Vera Cale become the most powerful individual in the Threads...as they say, one man's poison is another's meat...