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| Owner: | Fields Agricultural Corporation |
| Date of Completion: | December 6, 2042 |
| Telecom Grid Access: | (ORB/GREEN)
System Rating: Red-7 |
| Population: | 29 |
| Location: | @ 1146/1172 km elliptical
orbit Reference Points: Denver + Osaka |
| Type: | Disk |
| Access: | via approved chartered shuttles |
| Details: | The Fields Agricultural Corporation, founded in 2031, proposed to put up a station dedicated to the production of foodstuffs in 2038. Operating on a grant from Ares, and with that same company's assistance, they managed to construct their massive habitat in just under four years. The habitat also provides a home for 29 Ares and Fields employees. The project lost money for its first five years of operation, but has been a booming success since 2050, when foodstuffs exported from Greenstar have been purchased at prime rates. Recently Fields proposed to build a second such installation, but budget constraints have prevented that. |
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>>>>>[How
is it that a project like this can get off the ground (pardon the pun)
and then LOSE money for its 1st *5* years?]<<<<< >>>>>[The
Soy Wars, my friend. The Earth-bound competition did a quick and effective
job of hitting Fields with severe lawsuits within six months of Greenstar
being made public. ISC sued Fields for breach of contract -- that got
thrown out w/in a year but was enough to eliminate the profit margin
in the first year. The GSGPU sued Fields, claiming it was an anti-trust
issue -- much harder legal ground to navigate. The GSGPU case spent
3 years in various courts (every imaginable & remotely applicable
jurisdiction @ that) and then another 2 years for the Greenstar project
to recover fr/ the court costs. Just nasty, nasty business as usual.]<<<<< >>>>>[What
about the ISPG? I would've thought that they would've jumped onto the
GSGPU's case and tried to go class-action.]<<<<< >>>>>[Not
in the least. ISPG puts as much distance between themselves and the
ISC & GSGPU as possible. Members of the ISPG all seemed to unanimously
align themselves (in spirit) w/ the Greenstar project -- @ least as
far as the 2 cases were concerned.]<<<<< >>>>>[How
did the Soy Union manage to get the case brought before so many courts
though?]<<<<< >>>>>[Simple
deceit. The 1st case (brought before the UCAS Supreme Court) was listed
as a class-action suit among the various GSGPU companies based in the
UCAS. When that one fell through, they did similarly in the EU. Then
again in Macronesia after the EU case got bucked. Next, the GSGPU as
a whole submitted the case to the UGCJ's Inter-Corporate Appellate Court.
UGCJ heard the case for eight months before ruling in favor of Fields.
Then, as if that wasn't enough, GSGPU took it before Zurich-Orbital's
Corporate Court. That didn't last long -- the Corporate Court ruling
went in favor of Fields: 6-2. By the time it was all over, the combined
court costs were in the vicinity of 3¥ billion.]<<<<< >>>>>[Holy
hell. I'm surprised that didn't bankrupt BOTH companies.]<<<<< >>>>>[Unlikely.
GSGPU is big enough -- they easily absorbed the court costs. As for
Fields, between their Earth-based facilities and Greenstar, they're
not exactly hurting for cash. The court costs just slowed them down
a little. Nowhere close to a stop.]<<<<< >>>>>[OK...
Then what's all this about ISC & breach of contract?]<<<<< >>>>>[Fields
was a member of the ISC from 2031 to 2036. ISC claimed that Fields broke
off when they got the idea to loft the habitat. The idea behind the
breach of contract is that they didn't share their technologies w/ the
rest of the conglomerate. The reason Fields was able to get out of this
case so quickly was b/c they were able to prove that (1) although the
possibility of pulling off the "satellite farm" idea was the
impetus to pull out of the conglomerate, (2) they didn't seriously consider
implementing the idea until 2038, when they proposed the idea to Ares,
(2) who happened to be the primary developer of the technologies that
went into the habitat.]<<<<< |