Athena Corporation
The company that found the key to the energy future of settled space. Publicly a mining company. In practice, the reason the war started.
Summary
Athena Corporation is a mineral extraction and energy company incorporated under outer-system trade law. It colonised the frontier world of Athena under a standard settlement charter and operated as a conventional resource extraction concern until 2324.
It is no longer a conventional anything.
The Discovery
In the depths of an open-pit mine at the centre of the Athena colony — a mine whose origins predate the colony by a period that remains undetermined — Athena Corporation extracted samples of a previously uncatalogued mineral formation, now designated the Athena Crystal.
Initial analysis understated its significance. Subsequent analysis did not.
The crystal stores and amplifies energy at rates hundreds of thousands of times beyond all prior battery technology. It can be arranged to modulate and direct power output with precision. In a single discovery, energy scarcity as a strategic condition became obsolete.
Internal containment of this information was maintained for approximately two years. How it was contained, and by whom:
Intelligence Breach — 2324
In 2324, intelligence about the crystal reached external parties. The channel through which this occurred:
Whether this was a leak, a sale, or a deliberate choice is not determined at this clearance level.
Current Status
By 2327, Athena Corporation does not control what it started. The colony is under active invasion. The crystal is the reason two blocs are at war in the outer systems.
The corporation has no relevant military capability and is not an operational party to the conflict. It is the cause of it.
The distinction between starting a war and fighting one does not reduce liability. It does reduce survivability.
Motto: Power is progress.
// Viewer Access +
Athena Corporation's board was aware of both external intelligence contacts by mid-2325. The decision made in response to that knowledge is not documented at any accessible clearance level. What followed — the war now visible from orbit — is the result of that decision, whatever it was.