Triat & Associates / TAA

Triat and Associates is one of the most remarkable organizations to ever come out of the dorm rooms of the Space Academy, not counting the quite advanced civilization replete with a fully functioning democratic government that arose in a particularly virulent spore mold that grew in a grim corner of the refrigerator of a Mr Jeremy Rancic of Port St Lucie, Florida. The founders of Triat and Associates whiled away the hours between the mind numbingly dull drills of the Academy by planning for their eventual discharge and fortunes. That is, two of them did, while the third one spent their time hitting on their classmates and planning for a future of fame and fortune through gambling. It is from those sorts of humble beginnings that some great ventures grow, though any farmer can tell you how much manure is usually required to get that first sprout.

Fortunately, the third founder, despite being a terrible gambler, had the sort of skill which cannot be taught and which all corporations crave. He was the eldest son of a high ranking government functionary, which helped the nascent company to win their first government contract to supply the mining colonies of Fallia System. Initially operating from Port Brasta, the plucky company supplemented their income from official supply runs with “chartered” runs for some of the extra-governmental entities that always seem to pop up wherever mineral wealth does. As the saying goes, “nothing succeeds like success” (with it’s less often used corollary, “except for corruption, that tends to really do well”), and Triat and Associates found themselves growing steadily, and increasing the scope of their activities. This was not entirely limited to mining supply however, and that lead to the next large leap in the company’s evolution.

The decision to add a catchy phrase to the company name (“Triat and Associates, you dig deep, and we dig deeper!”) was hotly debated among the founders, but in the end it brought them attention. Unfortunately that attention was from the system authorities, who didn’t take kindly to being overcharged and told about it. And as the founders sat in the brig at Port Brasta they began to argue about the future path of the company, and finally found themselves in agreement – they needed to get out of the brig. So it was that they came to an agreement with the commandante of Port Brasta, which involved not a little bit of that Ol’ Janx Spirit, and a few concessions on future revenues. This ended the first stage of the development of the company and set the stage for the second.

A year later, Triat and Associates and their silent partner, Commandante Pilsphur, officially submitted a request to be recognized as a joint stock company with an expanded charter. They would be moving on from simple supply runs, to prospecting, exploration of newly annexed systems, and salvage operations in the wake of UEE territorial expansion. Sadly, this involved dropping the catchy phrase, but sacrifices had to be made. The creation of the joint stock company made it necessary to pull in more ships, and the expansion into prospecting, exploration and salvage necessitated the addition of armaments to those ships. The age of aggressive discovery had started.