StarCitizen:Gold Horizon

Gold Horizon (formerly the Gold Horizon Extrasolar Mineral Prospecting Corporation) was a StarCitizen:Human orbital platform manufacturing company that went defunct in 2655. Established as a prospecting corporation in 2546, it transitioned to manufacturing pre-fabricated mining stations and then to StarCitizen:terraforming support stations, which made up the bulk of its business. Imperator Corsen Messer V nationalized all terraforming support concerns in 2654, halting the company's main line of profit. Gold Horizon officially ceased business in 2655, though some of its old stations can still be found around the universe.<ref name="galactapedia">Template:Cite RSI</ref>

History

Formation

Gold Horizon, formerly the Gold Horizon Extrasolar Mineral Prospecting Corporation, was named after a line from StarCitizen:Messer's ascendancy speech during the Messer era. It was founded as a dedicated prospecting corporation in the middle of the 26th century, intending to take advantage of the new government's series of tax breaks for asteroid mining concerns. The company found immediate success, buoyed by the discovery of the StarCitizen:Grakneth lode, a high concentration of titanium-bearing asteroids in the outlands of the StarCitizen:Terra system. Gold Horizon's mineral profits quickly led to its establishment as an industrial concern, producing pre-fabricated mining stations for quick deployment in newly surveyed star systems. At this time, interstellar claim jumpers had become common, taking advantage of the long lead time between corporate surveys and the actual start of large-scale mining. With Gold Horizon's prefabs, an entire mining operation, complete with drilling rigs, storage, and spatial defense perimeters, could be carried along with survey ships and deployed immediately. The project was another major success for the company.

Gold Horizon Space Station

Template:Main By Gold Horizon's second decade of operation, the StarCitizen:United Empire of Earth had become an established reality, and StarCitizen:Human civilization had taken up terraforming. Observing that vast amounts of the Imperial economy were now devoted to supporting general expansion and terraforming projects, Gold Horizon opted to move from mining support into planetary transformation support. The result of this shift was the StarCitizen:Gold Horizon Space Station, the distinctive ring-shaped platform deployed around the galaxy to house terraforming workers, their equipment, and their support systems.

Unlike Gold Horizon's mining equipment, the Gold Horizon Station series was massive, with the ability to support hundreds of workers in their difficult task. These starside base camps offered semi-comfortable living quarters, fully equipped medical bays, and dedicated entertainment arenas. As large-scale standardized terraforming equipment came into existence, it was designed to transit seamlessly through the Gold Horizon station systems that supported the first wave of biosphere conversions.

The Collapse

With direct ties to the expanding empire and a growing number of politicians in their pocket, Gold Horizon took in billions from government and private contracts, many rumored to have been acquired through bribes. The company had its name directly attached to the reigning social movement. That changed in 2650, when CEO and majority shareholder StarCitizen:Dennis Acevedo decided to move the corporation's headquarters to Terra.

Historians remain divided on the reasoning for Acevedo's decision. Terra was an increasingly popular center of StarCitizen:Human culture, but many in StarCitizen:Corsen Messer V's circle of advisers feared that its popularity was also shifting the cultural focus away from Earth. Whether the company was seeking to reduce its overhead with the relocation, or it was actively protesting the increasingly martial focus of the Empire's expansion, is lost to history. The StarCitizen:Imperator took note and proclaimed Gold Horizon's move to be a personal affront. Government contracts completely ceased, and private developers were urged not to continue purchasing Gold Horizon equipment. In the space of just five years, Gold Horizon was driven out of business.

In 2654, the StarCitizen:Imperator nationalized all "terraforming support" concerns, that is, Gold Horizon's space platforms, ostensibly in the name of protecting the citizen settlers who would rely on them while laying claim to the new worlds. Gold Horizon found a significant portion of its assets frozen and the sum total of its long-term business plan untenable. Two CEOs, serving in rapid succession, attempted to right the company with a move back to mining and then general heavy industry support, but the decline could not be stopped. Gold Horizon closed permanently in 2655.

Gold Horizon today

The lasting impact of Gold Horizon is partly the fact that in 2944 trillions of StarCitizen:Humans live on worlds that were uninhabitable centuries before. Even if humanity was destined to expand to the stars regardless, Gold Horizon's support backbone was still partly responsible for keeping StarCitizen:Human worlds closer to one another than would otherwise have been possible. From that, it is not unreasonable to say that the geographic strength of the Empire today owes something to what the corporation enabled. Still, Gold Horizon's distinctive 'G-in-abell' logo remains a divisive symbol in contemporary society. As it has long since entered the public domain, it occasionally reappears as an avant-garde fashion accessory, and in the more conservative areas of old Earth, Gold Horizon purses and messenger bags remain strong sellers.

A major lasting impact of Gold Horizon comes from the general indestructibility of its stations. Dozens of surviving Gold Horizon stations remain scattered throughout the Empire, mostly in areas of space where terraforming began but was deemed unprofitable midway through the process. The stations have become warrens for illegal activities. Inhabited by loners, survivalists, corsairs, and worse, surviving Gold Horizon stations in distant systems can range from black market bonanzas to deadly battlegrounds fought over constantly by competing pirate forces.

In 2943, the StarCitizen:United Empire of Earth StarCitizen:Senate conducted an undercover investigation of the Gold Horizon bases and ultimately determined that it would not be possible to relocate civilians based aboard them. The formal recommendation was that the military pursue a campaign to destroy the remaining bases from space, although these plans have fallen by the wayside in light of legal issues and the increased StarCitizen:Vanduul threat.<ref name="portfolio">Template:Cite RSI</ref>

StarCitizen:Ruin Station in Pyro is one such Gold Horizon station.

References

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