Kuiper Belt Salvage and Mining Corporation

## Stats

**Registered**: Yes

**Nation** **of** **Registry**: Solarian Empire

**Known** **for**: Salvage, Mining, and Shipbuilding

## History

The KBSMC was originally five rival companies who competed for the Kuiper Belt and the first to arm their ships to defend against pirate, though more than once, a company ship tangled with another, especially over the joint refinery station they'd all erected. The United Nations had had enough and actually armed their own ships, sending in the first ever human space navy to stop the infighting. A deal was reached and, in exchange for the absolute sole mining rights to the entire Kuiper Belt, the five companies merged into one megacorp and provided 100 years of shipbuilding free to the united government of Earth. The joint refinery station, now called the Beltway, was deemed their Headquarters and expanded to include a variety of shipyard, salvage bays, and actual living quarters and office space. Over the past 2,500 years, the KBSMC has become synonymous with efficiency, speed, and quality, even holding government contracts to this day, being one of the three shipyards authorized to build ships for government personnel. The KBSMC is unique in that employees are paid based on the type of job they do, not their position in the company, which has resulted in the CEO not even making the top ten. The highest paid position is tied between individuals that manually mine with hand tools and those that have to enter confined spaces in ships being scrapped to manually cut away at parts of the structure.

## Services

### Salvage

The Beltway holds a multitude of salvage bays, where they can rip a ship apart for scrap to be recycled for future use of melted down into slugs for kinetic weapons. The KBSMC is the only civilian shipyard authorized to scrap light Naval ships.

### Mining

The KBSMC uses a dual combination of manned and unmanned mining vessels to extract resources and bring them to the Beltway or a secondary refining station, or to the docks for loading on a cargo ship, where it'll be shipped to another company that has purchased a bulk supply of ore. The Kuiper Belt is estimated to have another 200,000 years of resources left at the current rate of extraction.

### Shipbuilding and Sales

Probably the most well known and active of all KBSMC departments, ships are constantly being constructed or modified in the various bays in the Beltway. The Beltway is also where many surplus warships are kept for sale. Ships can be built, or modified, with military grade equipment, or even armed, though permits are required. The KBSMC carries permit applications on site and can generally get them looked at the same day, as the Navy tends to front load KBSMC permit requests, since they won't touch the ship until the permit is approved. All KBSMC ships come equipped with a fifteen year warranty and free maintenance is provided for any damage occurred due to a warranty issue, up to, and including, a new ship of the same specs, if the damage is too catastrophic.

#### Ships Built In-House

While the KBSMC builds ships to custom specs, they also have some standard, albeit expensive and high end, ships that they build as part of a catalog. Standard Production ships are always unarmed civilian ships. This list is not complete, as the KBSMC also offers standard ships large enough to carry entire populations.

##### Orca-class Yacht

Length: 400m

Width: 350m at greatest point

The Orca Yacht is built for speed and luxury and comes equipped with standard civilian-grade equipment, though most people buying an Orca tend to pay extra for better systems. The Orca is the most expensive pure civilian ship the KBSMC offers as a standard production ship.

##### Beluga-class Traverser

Length: 500m

The Beluga is designed for those that prefer long distance, extend stay voyages over luxury and speed, packing better armor and shielding than the Orca, with better range, though less comfort than usually found in a yacht. The Traverser has been likened to a houseboat or an oversized RV.

##### Sailfish-class Runner

Length: 350m

The Sailfish is marketed toward those that desire speed over anything else, being called a civilian Dispatch Boat, due to the sheer speed of the ship. the ship doesn't come equipped with weapons, but the KBSMC specifically designs the Sailfish with armament in mind. Their biggest customer for these ships are civilian news services, as well as private courier companies. The Sailfish has no armor and shielding is incredibly basic, as the ship is designed to be as light as possible, with the sub-light engines being fast enough to outrun other ships her size, as well as handle the stress of landing and takeoff in atmo.

## Holdings

### The Beltway

The Beltway is the HQ and primary operating station of the KBSMC, holding the distinction of being the oldest continuously operated station in human space. The Beltway contains powerful shielding and defensive weapons emplacements, as well as in-house security. However, due to the station being located in the Sol System, Capital Fleet is only seconds away, making the defenses moot. The Beltway is AI equipped, with the first civilian T2 AI by the name of THOMAS.

### Secondary Refineries

All over the Kuiper Belt, secondary refineries dot the region, allowing mining vessels to offload their extracted resources without the sometimes day-long trip across the Sol System. Secondary Refineries are manned, but purely by personnel needed to process ore and minerals, as well as cross-load cargo.

## References

1. ↑ However, it took two years for the Free Human Alliance to be formed to meet the United Earth government part of the deal.
2. ↑ The other two being Echelon and the Solarian Naval shipyards, though the Naval yards only work under special permit from the Emperor.
3. ↑ Shield Base is older, due to the presence of the International Space Station being the original frame. However, the ISS was derelict when the Beltway was built.
4. ↑ Named after Thomas Walsh, the American Miner.