StarCitizen:Tumbril Land Systems

Tumbril Land Systems is a StarCitizen:human ground vehicle manufacturer based on StarCitizen:Saisei in the StarCitizen:Centauri system. Founded on StarCitizen:Yar in 2536 by StarCitizen:Kavya Crosby and StarCitizen:Aaron Douze, the company became a fixture of the military after its first vehicle, the StarCitizen:DX20, proved itself during the StarCitizen:First Tevarin War. Tumbril declared bankruptcy in 2862, and in 2941 the StarCitizen:DevCo Group purchased the brand and resurrected its designs for the 30th century.<ref name="galactapedia">Template:Cite RSI</ref>

History

Kavya Crosby and Aaron Douze met as children on StarCitizen:Yar, where Crosby's parents operated the landing pad of a University of Saisei research center in the planet's Red Desert. Both developed an interest in the ground vehicles that struggled against Yar's fine sand and harsh weather. They later studied at the University of Saisei, married, and took unfulfilling work in Fujin City before returning to Yar to care for Crosby's aging parents. While clearing out the family hangar after her parents died, the two resolved to build their own vehicle.<ref name="portfolio">Template:Cite RSI</ref>

Working in their off hours as the landing pad operators, the couple built a prototype from parts salvaged from an old loader cart, which they nicknamed the "tumbril." A University grant let them work on the design full time, and they had a working production model by the end of 2535. They incorporated Tumbril Land Systems on StarCitizen:Saisei in 2536 and released their first commercial vehicle, the StarCitizen:DX20, later that year. The vehicle initially failed to find a market.<ref name="portfolio" />

The company's fortunes changed with the outbreak of the StarCitizen:First Tevarin War in 2541. Lacking suitable ground vehicles for its first interspecies conflict, the StarCitizen:United Planets of Earth (UPE) put existing manufacturers' vehicles through field tests, and the DX20 proved combat ready with only minor modifications. Tumbril won a large military contract, scaled up its operation, and began producing tanks for the war effort. The conflict established Tumbril as a trusted brand and drove civilian sales after the war, turning the company into a leading producer of ground vehicles for both the public and private sectors.<ref name="portfolio" />

Crosby and Douze ran Tumbril until they were centenarians, retiring a decade after the StarCitizen:Second Tevarin War and handing control to the board of directors. The company introduced several enduring designs over the following two centuries, including the StarCitizen:Nova, the StarCitizen:Timura, and the StarCitizen:C-series. Toward the end of the StarCitizen:Messer Era, the military prioritized spacecraft over ground vehicles and reduced its contracts with Tumbril, and these contracts shrank further after the regime fell and the new StarCitizen:United Empire of Earth (UEE) government redirected resources elsewhere.<ref name="portfolio" /><ref name="galactapedia" />

To recover the lost government income, the board pushed a series of designs into production without the in-house quality assurance that the company had long maintained, and chose cheaper materials to cut costs. The resulting unpopular vehicles damaged the Tumbril brand. The company replaced several CEOs during the 2850s in an attempt to reverse the decline, and in 2862, despite a few remaining government contracts with planetary surveyors, it declared bankruptcy and shut down.<ref name="portfolio" /><ref name="galactapedia" />

In 2941, the entrepreneur StarCitizen:Terrence Naban partnered his investment firm, the StarCitizen:DevCo Group, with outside investors to buy the defunct Tumbril brand. Believing that restoring the established name would reach customers more effectively than launching a new brand, Naban hired designers and engineers to revive Tumbril's designs and updated them for the 30th century. He named himself CEO. The revived company's launch lineup centered on the StarCitizen:Cyclone, offered in several variants, with the goal of producing one vehicle well before expanding the range.<ref name="portfolio" /><ref name="galactapedia" />

References

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