DTP

## Definition

**DTP** (Desolation-Ticonderoga-Partnership) is the acting body in control of the Desolation Company and the Ticonderoga Company. It is the first and only corporation to achieve extra-jurisdictional status and offers service provision almost without limits. It is also unique in the fact that the company headquarters is located in the vessel Independent Desolation, which makes it the only company with mobile headquarters.

## History

In 2431 the Desolation Company was founded by Ferguson Miller in mutual partnership with his long-time friend Lisa Stark. They had recently acquired the mothballed Xenon dreadnought Desolation. The company of the same name started out as a simple service provider, shipping cargo, ferrying passengers and infrequently assisting law enforcement as hired forces. In 2435, in an attempt to expand their reach, the headquarters of the company was moved from its former location on Qatar station into the ship itself. This allowed them to take contracts fluently at any port in both systems. In 2437 the Desolation Company formally entered into a contract with the Systems' Alliance which granted them extra-jurisdictional status and the Desolation was refitted with the then state-of-the-art Icarus weaponry standard. How Miller and Stark managed to convince the Allied Council is not known, it is, however, speculated that it was a mutually beneficial move since the Alliance would now have a way of acting outside of its own law without a threat to its legitimacy.

The Desolation Company's extra-jurisdictional status allowed it now to take contracts more broadly and with no repercussions to fear from law enforcement. It was in this time that the image of the company as a multi-tool was forged. In an attempt to calm concerned citizens, a documentary called 'The Lawless Company' was commissioned. In it, multiple analogies were made to a simple tool, like a plasma torch.

> "Desolation is like a plasma torch. A plasma torch is made to cut metal and weld it back together. But nothing stops the user from burning another human with it or even worse, murdering him with it. In this scenario, the user of the tool is held responsible and will be tried and sentenced, not the tool itself. In the same way, you have to keep in mind, the Desolation Company is a tool. It can be used to do good and productive things but at the same time when someone tries to use it to do harm, they will be tried and sentenced." -Lisa Stark, Spokeswoman and Representative, DTP
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The official reason for the extra-jurisdiction agreement, given by both parties, is the fact that it frees the company from having to deal with minor infractions when crossing territory and that it is by no means a 'free pass for murder and violence' like many people might perceive it. In retrospect, many critics speculate that the real reason for the agreement was the planned conflict between the Alliance and the Consortium, in which case the Desolation Company could still operate without consequences, unlike many other companies which would be restricted to limit their operation to the space they inhabited.

In 2440, the company expanded their arsenal with the also recently mothballed Marina frigate Ticonderoga, which was smaller and faster than the Desolation which allowed them to take even more versatile contracts. Soon, the choice was made to split the company into two independent operations, the Desolation Company and the Ticonderoga Company. This made sense because now the Ticonderoga could take contracts completely independently from its bulkier and less versatile sister ship. In order to avoid the complete separation of both companies, however, another separate institution was created with the sole purpose of uniting the two companies under one name. Thus DTP was born and became the new public face of both companies.