A.C.R.E.

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## A.C.R.E.

### Faction Tag

Plutocratic

A.C.R.E. is the largest corporation in the Acheron Rho Sector.A.C.R.E. is the largest corporation in the Acheron Rho Sector.There is virtually nothing that A.C.R.E. cannot make or provide: it provides the everyday person with everything they need, from food and clothing to housing and guns. A.C.R.E. sells resources like metal and rare minerals to the Houses and other companies, especially House Fornax,House Reticulum and the Trilliant Ring. As such, A.C.R.E. Products are found everywhere in the sector.

A.C.R.E. also owns a Bulk Freighter Fleet to ship their manufactured products.

A.C.R.E lost most of its workforce in the war against the Synthetic Humans. This situation was made worse for A.C.R.E. by an uprising of UPC dissidents on its primary agricultural world, Yakiyah. As such, A.C.R.E. is currently facing a labor crisis.

The real meaning behind the acronym for A.C.R.E. has been lost to time: hidden underneath a pile of refuse there is a discarded dataslate containing the real meaning of A.C.R.E., but until it is found, the meaning will remain unknown. There are many theories about the original meaning of the name, spurred by the fact that each A.C.R.E. Department name spells A.C.R.E. in its own right.

A.C.R.E., along with the Prism Network and the 14 Red Dogs Charity Organization, is a founding member of the Sector Trade Organization (STO). House Vela joined the STO shortly after, followed by the Church of Humanity, Repentant and the Yakiyan Mandate Constitutional Assembly.

## Demnoph

*For main article, see **Demnoph***

A.C.R.E.'s homeworld is the city-planet of Demnoph, which it directly administers. Demnoph is known for its massive population and its great arcologies, the most prominent of which is The Ziggurat, A.C.R.E.'s headquarters and the object of their logo.

## Leadership

*For main article, see **A.C.R.E. Corporate Titles***

A.C.R.E. is controlled by a board of Directors. Each director is head of their own department and has equal voting rights on board meetings. Almost all Directors are former nobles who gave up their noble titles, most often due to a lack of opportunity for advancement. Some also give up their titles due to a feeling of not fitting in with their house. Nobles who join A.C.R.E. are placed in upper management, from which they have the opportunity to advance to a Directorship. While there are Directors who do not come from nobility, this is an exception—for a non-noble to advance from middle to upper management is a sign of singular talent.

## Worker Treatment

A.C.R.E.'s primary concern when dealing with its employees is cost-efficiency. Treatment of workers is designed to ensure maximum efficiency over an employee’s natural lifetime at minimum cost. The exact details of working conditions vary depending on the Director overseeing the department. Working conditions are hard, but no more so than anywhere else in the Sector.

For most departments, the wage of an employee is dependent on their performance. A.C.R.E. subtracts a set amount per week for housing, food, clothing, transport to work, etc. from this amount. Additional costs like medical expenses or entertainment are also deducted in this way. If an employee does not earn enough to cover their expenses, the difference is added to their debt to A.C.R.E. For most employees, this debt is slowly growing, especially if they take care of people who are elderly or otherwise not fit for work, as they only earn a little over the fixed costs of living.

Most employees choose to work for 10-12 hours a day for the maximum allowed 6 days a week. The free day is enforced by A.C.R.E. to reduce costs from accidents and errors made on the job.

Employees in lower- and middle-management earn more than the average worker, but are still paid on a performance basis. This changes at upper-management, where a fixed amount high enough for a comfortable living, and a bonus is paid.

#### U.N.I.O.N.

U.N.I.O.N. is an in-house institution designed to co-opt worker dissatisfaction by allowing workers to feel heard without giving them any real power to press for better pay or working conditions. The system is compulsory and a subscription fee is deducted automatically from workers' pay.

Set up in part to derail authentic unionization, U.N.I.O.N. is sold as "a direct line for feedback to senior leadership".

U.N.I.O.N. representatives are appointed at each facility by A.C.R.E. management and become the face of the organization for employees. The role is a poison chalice as most U.N.I.O.N. reps are despised by their fellow workers. A.C.R.E. has attempted to offset this by offering representatives monetary compensation for their additional work.

## Culture

*For the culture of A.C.R.E.'s primary workforce, see Demnoph Culture.*

A.C.R.E.'s leadership is comprised of former members of every noble house, and it employs workers in virtually every Imperial system. Culture varies across Departments and across planets, but there are some common threads. All A.C.R.E. corporate policy is directed at ensuring its employees are as productive as possible. A sense of responsibility to the company is encouraged in all workers, supplemented by a system of rewards and punishments when this fails. Cultural quirks are tolerated so long as they encourage consumption and do not interfere with productivity. Corp Cant is often used when communicating between A.C.R.E. operations on different worlds, but otherwise Imperial or the local language is used. Most of A.C.R.E.'s business on its homeworld of Demnoph is conducted in the local language.

## Military

*For main article, see **A.C.R.E. Military***

A.C.R.E. has traditionally avoided participating in wars, outside of selling weapons, provisions, vehicles, and so on to participants. As such, A.C.R.E.'s military has traditionally been smaller than one might expect from an organization of its size. It was mostly used to quell worker rebellions and riots, or to deal with dangerous criminals. However, A.C.R.E.'s military forces have been expanded in recent years.

When military force is necessary, A.C.R.E. has two specialized military units, named C.O.R.E. and R.A.K.E. Outside of its regular units, A.C.R.E. silently encourages its workers to train with VR games so that they can be used in a theoretical war with minimal training. The average A.C.R.E. worker, in excellent physical shape from their work, forms a deep pool of manpower should C.O.R.E. face a problem it cannot handle. A.C.R.E. avoids addressing the reason behind its training programs, so the high popularity of shooter games on Demnoph is a frequent field of study in psychology.

## History

### The Formation of A.C.R.E.

By 2804, many houses were in disagreement over the Imperial succession. While the upper echelon of the Eridanus Imperial Bank squabbled, many in the middling Eridanus nobles grew dissatisfied with the political climate. These frustrated members of the nobility began to pool resources from various planets and searched for like-minded nobility within the other Houses. They transferred these resources to a planet they could seize control of while House Eridanus directed its attention elsewhere. In 2806, the A.C.R.E. Corporation became an official entity with Demnoph as its headquarters.

### The First and Second Imperial Civil Wars

A.C.R.E. was able to quickly assert control over the agricultural and mining industries. When the First Imperial Civil War broke out, A.C.R.E. fed and supplied all sides with much-needed rations and vital resources for weapons and technology upkeep. As the civil war wound down after a hundred years, however, many in A.C.R.E. became worried that profit margins would plummet. A.C.R.E. secretly supported the Blood Eagle because of her aggressive and expansionist viewpoints. Shortly after her crowning as the Empress VI, a Second Imperial Civil War broke out. With the aid of the newly formed PRISM Network, A.C.R.E. was able to remain in the good graces of the Noble Houses and enjoyed fifty more years of war profits.

### The New Empire

After the mysterious death of The Blood Eagle and the ratification of the Accords of Peace, war was no longer a viable way of achieving high-profit margins. However, A.C.R.E. no longer had need for war, as it had used the Second Imperial Civil War to establish monopolies over most major industries. For many years A.C.R.E. maintained its control over industry and invested heavily into synthetic research and manufacturing to establish a synthetic workforce. The official A.C.R.E. Psiball team, the Demnoph Harvesters, was also established during this time period.

### The War against the Artificials

When House Crux started its war against House Cygnus and its eradication of synthetics, A.C.R.E. faced mounting pressure from multiple houses to disband all of its synthetic laborers. After the Bombing of Gats, the winning side became obvious, and A.C.R.E. relented. Many factories and farms, and a huge proportion of A.C.R.E.'s wealth, were lost during this period and it took years for the company to stabilize. A.C.R.E. became heavily reliant on its farm planet Yakiyah, and worked its employees there brutally to make up for the lost synths. This was one of the reasons for the formation of the UPC on Yakiyah.

## New Initiatives

### G.R.O.W.

*See also Demnoph Education.*

G.R.O.W. is a volunteer program for parents to send their children to work at A.C.R.E. facilities when they are not at school. These children receive training, hands-on experience, free meals, and later, access to higher education. The G.R.O.W. program was started after the Great Purge of the synths to help with the labor shortage that resulted. It also functions as a PR stunt by helping families struggling with rising food prices. With the help of House Serpens, participating children will also be screened for M.E.S.

Created and run by Director A. Smith.

### H.E.R.O.

H.E.R.O. a program for Imperial veterans. Those who enroll in the H.E.R.O. program are given suitable jobs and are fast-tracked within to some of the best positions in the workforce. Candidates are recruited out of the general population of the planets of most of the Houses, with the exception of that of House Reticulum, whose warriors seek death in combat and do not retire from service.

Created by Directors A.Smith and A. Guisman, run by Director A. Guisman.

### P.U.R.E.

P.U.R.E. is a program to put criminals apprehended by House Crux to work. The program is meant to help with the labor shortage after the Great Purge of the synths. Participants are put to work in comet and asteroid mining operations under the supervision of House Crux, where they can be productive members of society while serving their time.

Created by Director B. Vitrandic, run by Director K. Neumann.

### R.E.A.P.

R.E.A.P. is a program to mine materials from asteroids and other space bodies. For this purpose A.C.R.E. constructs small, independent complexes to house miners on some of the larger asteroids and process the mined material on-site. After the useful materials are mined, these complexes are retrofitted and extended into residential space and holiday homes.

Created and run by Directors G. Zandasal and V. Kohl.

### H.E.L.P.

H.E.L.P. is a program centered around the design, production, testing and dispensing of pharmaceuticals targeted to increase worker satisfaction and productivity. This program aims to reduce the mental fatigue placed upon A.C.R.E. employees by intensive work conditions, promoting greater labor efficiency. Several products are currently for sale or undergoing testing. SMILEs make the most menial task enjoyable by manipulating the pleasure centers in the brain. FASTs increase the peak speed and intensity of physical labor through the targeted release of adrenaline, and EXCESS allows employees to work for multiple days without sleep.

Created and run by Director W. Krüger.

## Secret Projects

### Project GAIA

*For main article, see **Project GAIA***

Project GAIA is a heavily redacted project that was leaked. News of the leak was broken by Exec Editor Shar Paige - Intel of the PRISM Network.

Head of the Project is Director K. Shall.

## Efficiencies

### Ordinal Indicators

By rationalizing the excess ordinal indicators "st", "nd", and "rd" to "th", A.C.R.E. has experienced unprecedented sector-wide efficiency gains.

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