Space Salvage Corporation

''One man's trash, is another mans interdenominational metric of currency.''

## Overview

The Space Salvage Corporation, or SSC, is a ruthless and opportunistic company specialising in sending its low-cost disposable work force to any armpit of the galaxy, so long as their is at least a vague promise of some valuable, ownerless salvage to be recovered.

Designers and manufacturers of the Personal Assisted Recovery Pod, or PARP, these cramped angular craft can be found wrecked amongst the stars almost as frequently as they're seen buzzing amongst heaps of interstellar ruin, diligently piloted by an overworked employee.

The SSC is also known for its efficient, if somewhat callous, Salvage and Recovery Assistant AI, or SARA. The AI has proven to be both a useful logistical tool for the everyday pod operative, as well as providing some semblance of human interaction for members of a workforce that spend the vast majority of their time crammed into a fragile metal box, drifting alone in the infinite abyss of space.

## History

Although humanity had been polluting the cosmos with interstellar waste long before the evacuation of earth, once they became a fully space-faring race, the volume of waste being tossed out into the abyss increased immensely. The presence of this endless flotilla of space garbage created new opportunities for those with the means to recover and sort it, and within a decade the deep-space salvage and recovery industry had exploded into one of the most profitable sectors of the Corperium. By 2250, the biggest salvage companies had become household names.

Amongst these was the then fledgling Space Salvage Corporation. Originally syndicated in 2248 by Jolen Murrata, the company experienced a rocky start struggling to distinguish itself among other similar businesses. It was not until Jolen's mysterious death in 2256, and the subsequent ascension of his eldest daughter, Cynthia, that the company began to thrive.

Cynthia Murrata, a woman who would become known as 'The Matriach' amongst the Space Salvage Corporation, was a ruthless and effective industrial magnate. Within six months of her premiership she had already fired the vast majority of the company's traditional employees, replacing them with 'indentured aides'. The Space Salvage Corporation would lend these 'aides' the craft and equipment they needed for salvage work, for an extortionate fee. This created a work force that not only didn't need to be paid, but also owed the company significant sums of money that they must work to recoup. This masterstroke of human rights violations allowed Cynthia to propel the Space Salvage Corporation's profits into the stratosphere. She also took the liberty of informally renaming the Space Salvage Corporation to the SSC, this also turned out to be an act of genius as a humanity dominated by corporate interest and bureaucracy was unsurprisingly much better at remembering acronyms.

Under Cynthia's leadership the SSC flourished and set a new galactic precedent for how to bypass your workforce's basic dignities, and by doing so, increase your profits. Her time at the helm was not without incident however and with the rise of scav society, operating in the fringes of space became more and more unreliable. With almost constant scav attacks, as well as her recipe for success being essentially copied wholesale by every competitor, the SSC's seemingly insurmountable lead in the market began to diminish rapidly. In 2290, for the first time in three decades, the SSC lost its status as 'most profitable salvage and recovery corporation' to their top competitor, the Salvage Acquisitions Group, or SAG.

After the SSC's loss of prime status, Cynthia became reclusive and less involved in the operation of the company up until her untimely death in 2311. With the matriarch gone, her twin sons Sleeme and Elroy Murrata were thrust into corporate power. Their policies have largely been the continuation of their mother's legacy, but unlike her, neither have been granted a position in the Corperium's lobby. The SSC remains a powerhouse within the salvage and recovery industry, but is bogged down in its attempts to reclaim the glories of the past.