The Colonial Agency

When the Horizon was new and unknown to the Zenithians, the Yriedes family started an agency tasked with financing, launching and establishing new colonies. Nowadays, they rarely find new colonies themselves, and the Colonial Agency, through its extension the Colonial Bank, has shifted its main focus to financing, educating and tech leasing to independent entrepreneurs looking to start mining operations, colonies and factories. They also run a school on Coriolis, the Colonial Agency’s Higher Education Center, where they train the Horizon’s best scouts, explorers and colonists. The top students are recruited to the Colonial Rangers – special ops teams used to secure sensitive investments that require a little more finesse than the blunt fist of the Legion. Through investments in the Consortium’s heavy industry, the Agency has access to dust trawlers, mining drones, mobile smelters and other heavy machinery that an entrepreneur might need to lease. Hyperion shuttles and bulk haulers handle transportation. The Zenithians and the Consortium are not the only ones who employ the Agency – many Firstcome rulers and merchants, including recently the Iconocrate of Sadaal, are clients here.   [h2[A HATED FACTION Being a colonial agent is a responsibility that comes with many perks, but also risks. Many view the Colonial Agency as an exploitative, parasitic corporation, thieves that ship resources off-world and pocket the profit – especially so on Algol, where they are strong but despised. They are accused of having caused a terrible natural disaster in which an entire ocean was drained in the search for precious minerals on the ocean floor. The most reputable agents are celebrities whose advice is sought before any large project. Ares Kleon, who found the Uharu-12 diamonds, or Minna Jifha, who discovered the silk fields on Menkar and mapped the monolith there, are names that often come up in connection with new expeditions and Bulletin reports. Compared to them, the Agency’s council member, Desaron Kai, is a relatively anonymous figure. The one area the Agency stays clear of is archaeological expeditions. After the catastrophic failure on Menkar when the monolith there crumbled and fell, all such undertakings are left to the Foundation, although joint efforts are not uncommon.