Vaux Refineries

In the sci-fi novel, '*8113',*  Vaux Refineries is the ore-mining company owned and operated by Apollyon Vaux. It is responsible for the extraction, refinery, and exportation of precious ore to the UFC and Mars, where it is used to power geodynamic generators. While a privately-owned company, Vaux Refineries is overseen by the laws and regulations of the UFC.

## History

In the early, pre-Exodus days of ore mining, the company that oversaw robotic extraction of ore from the center of terrestrial objects (initially the Moon) was Surge Systems. Vaux Refineries took over the practice with the deployment of a larger and more efficient human workforce to these sites, aided by enormous mechs designed for planetary drilling, as well as heat-proof spacesuits for the laborers. With the invention of the geodynamic generator soon after, ore was suddenly in high demand on a global scale. Vaux Refineries began the planet-wide mining of Mercury, and set up a manufacturing and exportation base on the Moon, later renamed Module-1, where the company's headquarters were built.

Odyn 64 Vauxite (Apollyon's father) was the CEO of the company during most of the Seven Wars, during which Vaux Refineries and ore supplies played a central role. In 7840 AD (7590 OT), Odyn ignored the data given to him by Martian geological scientists, who tried to warn him that his overzealous operations and lack of safety precautions would result in Mercury's catastrophic implosion. Three years later, the planet collapsed in on itself, killing thousands of UFC and Martian miners (triggering the Mercurian Crisis). In retaliation, the Houixen military participated in a defensive blockade around Module-1, an invasive act within a UFC territory that initiated the Seven Wars. UFC civilians (mostly miners) were taken hostage by Martian soldiers in an attempt to spread a message of warning to Odyn and the UFC about their reckless actions. The UFC government sent their own military to defuse the situation, and the conflict ended without violence. However, the Houixen military forces staged a second, larger retaliatory act by attempting to capture and claim Venus as Martian territory, in order to possess the Solar System's second largest site of ore production. This resulted in a violent conflict between Mars and the UFC, known as the Venusian War. The victors were again the UFC, and Venus was eventually established as the newest mining site for Vaux Refineries to continue their operations.

Odyn's contempt towards Martians after these events resulted in the initiation of several sanctions and tariffs against Mars and restricted ore export to their planet, which ultimately fueled many of the subsequent wars between the two nations.

## The Embargo

An embargo on ore mining had been in place on Module-E for almost two millennia, but the switch to Venusian ore after Mercury's collapse quickly proved to be problematic due to its incredibly volatile properties. Odyn's lobbying campaign against the embargo (including loud media appearances and quiet bribes to front-bench UFC politicians), drew the attention of an increasingly popular preservationist cult wanting to protect Earth from harm, called Thornwell's Prophets. After numerous threats, which Odyn ignored, the Prophets staged a successful assassination of the mining magnate using a car bomb.

Apollyon replaced his father as CEO after Odyn's murder. The Prophets were labelled as a terrorist group thereafter, and while a state-wide police hunt was carried out to find and arrest the leader of the Prophets (the Olgethorpe), Apollyon also began his own war and was hellbent on eradicating the cult. He began imprisoning and torturing Prophets on Module-1 for information.

By 8113 AD, Vaux Refineries, under the command of Apollyon, is the largest employer in the UFC, mostly of uneducated and lower-income civilians, who endure extremely harsh conditions, long hours, and are exposed to a variety of dangers while extracting molten iron from the center of planets.