GenTech, Gencultura, Gencultura Tech, GcT Group.

Before the global chaos of 2031 Gencultura Technologies did not exist, though several of its subsidiaries under a now dissolved umbrella company did. As the nations of the world collapsed a group of wealthy conglomerates banded together to purchase many of the assets of the world at a vastly reduced price – effectively picking apart the decaying husks of still dying nations and corporations alike before dismantling and selling much of what they took to those who would come after. With this newfound capital and a lack of regulations the conglomerates found themselves able to invest heavily in many previously denied avenues of technology, hiring in the most intelligent of the world with the promise of support and stability in exchange for unparalleled progress for all. This was achieved through a carefully maintained corporate image, modern propaganda in practise and it was very effective.

It painted a picture of a not so distant future in which a utopian society could be achieved, of course through the newly created Gencultura AgriTech Corporation. With the total collapse of both the Turkish and Cypriot governments the group was able to purchase the island of Cyprus in its entirety and within several years it was established as the first Gencultura mega-facility under Paradise Solutions and formed the Gencultura Technologies Group. Within the first twenty years Gencultura made huge advances in genetically modified agriculture, specifically the creation of several strains of extremely hardy and resistant crops alongside air, soil and crop sensors that could have revolutionised the farming industry as global levels of pollution continued to rise. They attracted much of the world's once greatest and wealthest, those seeking a shelter from the storm that the world now was.

As a food crisis continued to grip much of Africa Gencultura expanded its holdings under the guise of humanitarian assistance, securing much of what was once North Africa causing much of the African population to migrate northwards or starve on the now even more hospitable continent. They established Paradise Solutions population centres notably in Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco – at this point effectively becoming a nation in their own right. The Gencultura Group established the Bastion Group subsidiary to handle the influx of population by creating a professional security service and the infrastructure to equip and support them. Throughout this period the leadership and direction of Gencultura had been decided by the board of directors, however an internal conflict around this time resulted in their dissolution and a new corporate structure being established with a new Executive Director with ultimate control. Over the next twenty years the corporation branched into several more sectors, namely biological engineering and biometrics culminating in in-vitro farms, fisheries and vertical farming. They expanded and acquired further territories in the Mediterranean securing effective control of the entire sea’s external shipping lanes completing their monopoly of the area whilst establishing more Paradise Solution centres.

Most recently Gencultura has expanded further into Africa carving out what was once Somalia, having spent the last ten years priming an ambitious project after their expansions in the Mediterranean. Over the last thirty or so years Gencultura has changed much, both internally and externally. The once public image of technology for all has disappeared into the slightly more ominous Gencultura machine that continues to grow.

For all purposes run by an Executive Director, publically the head of the company who has the majority say in any decision, though a board of directors still exists to advise. In reality they are all public figureheads, manipulated from behind the scenes to give a semblance of transparency and accountability. The true leader of the Gencultura Technologies Group is a single dynasty, or rather a single man. One of the initial conglomerate investors who over the course of his and the companies life has taken total control through a combination of buyouts, bribery and more nefarious means. Charles Lawson, assisted closely by his family whom he has trained and prepared for his entire life are the true controllers of the Gencultura Technologies Group. He has final say in every regard, though aged 98 with the help of the most cutting modern medical science he still feels as young as he did at 60. His eldest son is his second, carrying out many of the tasks his father sets and making them a reality. He too has his own agendas and personally runs several off-shoot divisions of some of the subsidiaries so he is able to direct their research.

Gencultura Agritech (Agriculture - Origin)
Paradise Solutions (Contained Living Environments)
Gencultura Bioheal (Pharmaceutical research)
Bastion Group (Arms Manufacturing)

Publically the Gencultura Technologies Group is a very ethical and transparent company, or at least most parts of it are. The majority of the company does in fact run in a very ethical and transparent way, the majority of individuals within the company being none the wiser to anything otherwise. There are however divisions amongst practically all of the larger subsidiaries that are very guarded and closed off, of course publically these are the areas most sensitive to corporate espionage such as experimental research and development. In truth these sections are far from ethical and the workers within these branches generally have no qualms about what they are doing, after all the profits and luxuries of the Gencultura Tech Group are many.

Security is handled almost exclusively by The Bastion Group within the Gencultura Tech territories. Initially a peacekeeping force established to protect the Southern Med-Paradise centres due to the huge influx of ‘immigrants’ it soon grew into a mixture of peacekeepers, private security force and eventually a capable strike force. As the Gencultura group expanded and secured more natural resources the Bastion group expanded too, gaining mining and manufacturing subsidiaries of its own as the need for arms and equipment grew. Initially comprised of a large number of ex-military or mercenary forces it now exclusively hires from within the Gentech family. Most recently the Bastion group were used to outs the many rebel factions and settlements that had littered Somalia for countless years, bringing ultimate security and Genecultura oversight to the shipping lanes in that area as they forged down the red sea’s west bank. Of course the territory was seized and the lands natural resources with it, adding another planned Paradise Solutions centre to Africa, the world can celebrate another ‘victory’ as countless lives will surely be saved in this ‘humanitarian’ move.

Originally one of many shipping concerns trading across the globe, Trifecta slowly accumulated more and more market share - and more and more influence - through the use of sophisticated shell companies and holding funds, obscuring the ultimate owners and preserving the appearance of far greater competition between firms, thus avoiding monopolies legislation and regulatory breakups. At the time of the Great Collapse, business was booming; Trifecta's ships, planes, trains and lorries moved megatons of cargo every month and its ledgers were creeping inexolerably ever higher, as the world knit itself tighter and tighter together. Peppers from Jordan, opals from Australia, white goods from Germany, automobiles from Japan...everyone wanted them, and one of the best ways to move cargo, any cargo, was with Trifecta or a Trifecta front.

The company weathered the Great Collapse better than most; indeed, in a way it thrived on it. Trifecta was family-owned, and had been careful; they had limited exposure to toxic stocks, and a healthy balance sheet buoyed by substantial physical assets, things that held their value when virtual funds vanished in a hailstorm of binary.

Trifecta was also mercenary, and its leadership had a weather eye for the main chance; when companies folded by the thousand in the wake of the stock crash, their cargoes in transit became Trifecta property by default. When contracts to supply or to receive were not honoured, Trifecta took its dues, in cash and property and assets all across the globe, swelling its portfolio and growing its influence in leaps and bounds.

There was a plan, of course. When the full effects of the Great Collapse became apparent, Trifecta capitalised on the panic and the lack of basic goods, money and services. It was all carefully orchestrated from the Trifecta Tower, their HQ in London - social order would be permitted to break down, to a point; government would grind to a halt and people would become increasingly desperate...and then Trifecta would ride to the rescue, its ships disgorging tons of expropriated food, drink, medical supplies, machinery...the list went on and on. Security, prosperity, luxury; only Trifecta could provide.

The corporation was hailed - in the countries it provided relief to - as saviour and guardian, keeping the people fed and society functioning, even if it was a very different society to the one that had gone before. In the UK, the grand old lady of democracy was swept aside, the Palace of Westminster becoming the new corporate HQ, company directors and Board Members moving into the palatial site en-masse, solidifying control and legitimacy from the ancient political heart of the country.

In India, meanwhile, Trifecta conquered from the sea, as its British predecessors had done centuries earlier. It already had interests in ports up and down the coast, and still more in the form of shipbreaker's yards on the beaches of the Bay of Bengal, sites that desperate Indians flocked to when word began to spread of Trifecta's bounty. Quietly, much as it had done in Britain when the social fabric began to unravel, corporate largesse and humanitarian gestures turned into quid-pro-quo arrangements with local villages, then towns, then cities, the corporation rebuilding an interconnected - and totally Trifecta-dependent - network of production and consumption, aggressively expanding and taking advantage of the chaos of the Collapse to enforce its own version of the British Raj. Even more than in the UK, the corporation rules.

The corporate strongholds, the great cities of Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Jaipur, they are neon beacons of wealth and prosperity, staggering amounts of money washing through them, heady and alluring. In these monuments to money, corporates are king and their every whim serviced eagerly.

Concorrant is, for all its size, still a family-owned concern and has resisted numerous calls for IPOs and stock market flotation throughout its history, often emerging bloodied but unbowed from each corporate clash and – in the fullness of time – growing larger and ever more completely under the control of the Paradis family. There are eleven members of the Executive Board; the Chairwoman and CEO at the helm, then two members of the senior management team of each of the subsidiary corporations, representing their interests and concerns at the very highest level, the Director-General of Security and finally the Executive Director of Acquisitions, a position whose brief is to augment the corporation’s forward planning and to pinpoint business interests which might be susceptible to one of the many, many means of takeover at Concorrant’s disposal.

The Chairwoman and CEO is currently Aurelie Paradis, the fourth generation of her family to occupy the lonely corporate throne.

Luminary Systems – Dreaming the Future – (Orbital) – a relatively new venture, Luminary Systems is expanding rapidly as demand for its services skyrockets. One of the few companies capable of regular, reliable, efficient surface-to-space launches, Luminary Systems holds a commanding position. It designs, builds and launches satellites, probes and other key orbital infrastructure, both for itself and for other clients, civilian and military.

Trifecta Corporation – (Shipping) – Original Industry. The Trifecta – air, land and sea – was one of the few organizations to come through the Great Collapse, and indeed was the springboard for much of Concorrant’s later successes. Trifecta’s vast number of hulls keep the arteries of commerce open and moving smoothly; many products complete at least part of their journey in a Trifecta-owned vehicle of some kind, and in the chaotic days after the Great Collapse, it was Trifecta that kept the goods coming in despite the turmoil.

Horizon Energy – Lighting the World - (Energy) – Headquartered in Mumbai, Horizon Energy is a vast organization devoted to keeping the lights on and the air conditioning running. Everything from coal-fired power plants to fusion reactors fall within its ambit, all to keep the neon excesses of the new post-nationhood corporatocracy glowing brightly. It is aggressively expanding, bringing the light of civilisation wherever it goes – at a reasonable price.

Heterodyne Synthetics (Robotics) – Focusing on ubiquity, Heterodyne Synthetics pioneers development and deployment of fully artificial intelligent platforms integrated into every aspect of modern living. Everything from smart windows showing your view-of-choice through to menial drones and hazardous-environment platforms, Heterodyne Synthetics can deliver.

At the highest levels of Concorrant, in the words of Aurelie Paradis herself: “Ethics are useful, applied intelligently.” Intelligent application of ethics, of course, being when it is beneficial for Concorrant and its interests, either from a PR or profit basis, and preferably from both. Concorrant likes to project an image of a forward-looking, progressive corporation, a benevolent capitalist hegemon striving for a better world for our children, and our children’s children, and the corporation as a result invests heavily in its employees and those regions under its control.

In return, the corporation expects – and gets – loyalty and hard work. The bottom line is comfortable, but only that; Concorrant dangles greater luxuries before its legion of employees as one of its many incentives to strive harder, rise higher. In the upper echelons, money and power flow like water and corporate executives live as aristocrats could only dream of. Rich rewards, yes, but only if you’re of value to the company; the corporation giveth, and the corporation taketh away.

Above all, Concorrant is pragmatic. Reactor explodes thanks to shoddy maintenance work, causing millions of pounds’ worth of damage and a clean-up bill extending for decades? Inefficient, avoidable, and costly – the three most toxic words in Concorrant; one of the Board’s ‘never events’.

Morally-bankrupt brilliant scientist with new ideas and a lucrative new approach, but several little peccadilloes that would once have been highly illegal? Give them what they want - it’s only wrong if you’re caught on camera, after all.

Overall Conglomerate: AUC, The Conglomerate, Auckie
Australasian Excavation and Forging: AEAF, DrillCorp
Oceania Farming and Fisheries: OFF, Foodie
Ours is (the) future: Future Tech, OIF, OITF
Australian International Security: OzSec, the army, AIS

When James King first founded King Excavations and Smithing, he probably never imagined that his small outback mining business would one day rule most of Oceania. Throughout most of its existence, KES was a rather average mining business, just one of thousands in Australia, that made its money through the mining and refining of iron, and subsequently coal, mostly exporting back to England, to support the booming industry there. It was only in 1980, when then-CEO Connor King decided to do something revolutionary, and start mining uranium, that the business really took off.

In just two short decades, they grew from two mines and a small office in Sydney to one of the biggest mining companies in Australia, and they had picked the perfect time to do it. They were one of the first to start mining Uranium in Australia, and they sold it for vastly inflated prices, until the industry caught up with them and they were forced to drop the price, but the ball had already started rolling.

Plumbob Fishing and Farming was the first company that they merged with, and it was here that they soldified themselves firmly in the Australasian market. By 2020, Ours is the Future had joined them, and they had officially undergone name changes into what we know and serve under today, as well as formally declaring themselves a conglomerate. During the increasingly risky times of the mid-to-late 2020's, they not only lobbied heavily and got many of the higher-ups in the conglomerate into government, they also created AIS PMC. This turned out to be a very good move.

By the time of the collapse, they were already a huge company, with links to the Australian and New Zealand government, vested interests in China and India, and were world leaders in bioengineering and genetic tinkering, having made a breakthrough in anti-aging technology. In 2031 however, this all changed. As the Australian Government was about to collapse, their political links allowed them to call a snap election, and with a PR push, the first CEO/President of AUC got into power. What followed was a series of systematic political assassinations in order to seize total control.

By 2039, they declared war on Australia, and the infamous ground invasion that followed marked what would be the beginnings of hundreds of human rights violations. New Zealand was half-destroyed by the soldiers, and many looters were executed in the largest crackdown the AUC has ever done. Soon after, they declared Australia to be no more, and for the entire controlled territory to be the United Subcontinent of Oceania, or simply just Oceania.

The Conglomerate's leadership consists of nine men and women, two representatives from each sub-corporation and then the president of Australia, who is the official CEO of the entire organisation. Whilst the representatives are elected from each companies' elites, the CEO position is hereditary, and goes down the line to the original founder of the AEAF. The CEO holds executive power, however s/he can be outvoted by the representatives. The CEO is also the only person capable of authorising Order 001, giving Department 5 permission to deploy a dirty bomb at a specified target.

AEAF (Australasian Excavation and Forging) The original company founded by ex-penal colonist James King. Pre-fall, this company was the singular most powerful and largest mining company in the entirety of Australia, and they have continued their operations, and it's due to their efforts that bauxite, gold, uranium and much more has kept coming out of the ground.
OFF (Oceania Farming and Fisheries) The second company to join the conglomerate, this company deals in more traditional ranches and farms, as well as biodomes, fishery operations, and more recently, have been managing offshore oil rigs as well. They work closely with both AIS and OIF.
OIF (Ours is (the) future) The third company that joined the corporation, they're a technological and scientific research team specialising in genetic engineering and biotechnology, and are responsible for the breakthrough in biodome technology that OFF uses so much.
AIS (Australian International Security) The conglomerate's PMC and also a global security firm, largely comprised of ex-soldiers and hired mercenaries. They provide armed guards for everything, be it the transfer of valuable materials to actual land invasions. Also, the official army of Australia.

The conglomerate prides itself on being the best and biggest in their fields, a remnant of their former glory as Australia's biggest mining company. They provide nationals with a quality of life few others can afford, but cover up what would be horrendous human rights violations towards foreign workers. They are also notoriously ethically dubious when it comes to their mines and military; invasions by AIS often results in mass killings, theft, arson and rape, and thousands die in preventable mine accidents every year.

AIS, better known as OzSec, is not only the official army of Australia, but also an international security firm, responsible for the takeover of New Zealand in 2039. They're mostly comprised of members of the disbanded ADF, however foreign soldiers and mercenaries have been known to fill their ranks.

Department 5. Whilst not technically an actual company, Department Five is essentially a secret service. They specialise in industrial sabotage and espionage, however their most potent weapon is when they are authorised for Order 001. Department 5 does not have an official product, and is not officially part of the overall conglomerate.

Melinda Carson King
35
Female
18th August

Like every CEO since the rise of AUC as political leaders, Melinda is a direct descendant of the original colonist who founded AEAF. Born in Canberra to then- CEO Adam King and his wife Joanne Caraway, she was groomed to become the leader of the corporation almost from as soon as she could read, learning the ins and outs of both business and the world. She never studied with other students, and in fact had a very isolated childhood. When her father was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, he announced that he would be stepping down. As her mother didn't want to take over the business, and having come of age almost ten years earlier, both her father and the board of directors agreed that she was qualified enough for the job, and she has been serving the company faithfully for the past 8 years.

Known to be one of the shrewdest of the Kings for decades, Melinda has a keen mind for both profit and negotiation, and is famous within the board of directors for convincing AIS General Jonathan Heer to step down without bloodshed. She's also notorious within her social circle for sleeping around, and despite recommendations from her directors to settle down at last, has continued on doing so.

Publicly, both as President and as CEO, she's regarded as an intimidating woman, and her unusual height (6') combined with her tendecny to never be seen in public without wearing a pair of 2" heels has certainly aided her in this mission. Her public messages have been short and concise, and those that live under her often regard her as a bit of a phantom, rarely making public messages and delegating most jobs to her various ministers.

Although her father died four years ago, her mother is still alive and well, if getting on a bit. She has an excellent relationship with both of her younger siblings, and indeed her younger brother is on the board of directors as a delegate from OFF, with whom he works with very closely.

As previously mentioned, she has few long-term romantic partners, her life being dotted with relations of a month or two, and only one person managing to stay with her and her rather hectic lifestyle for longer than a year. Socially however, she maintains a number of friends, both within the board of directors and outside it, and prides herself in knowing many world leaders personally.