User Guide

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valor. They did not interfere with the elder Crayven’s plans any further, and the
old man went ahead with his new initiative unopposed.
Crayven personally took the helm of the new division, Crayven Enterprises, and
laid out a bold plan for building a large-scale terra-forming project on Mars.
The result was the Domed Gardens, an indoor paradise containing over 50
square miles of ancient Earth-style forest. Filled with sparkling waterfalls and
lakes, a self-sustaining weather system, and over 5,000,000 species of plant
and animal life, this man-made Eden became the jewel in the Crayven corpo-
rate crown-as well as providing a test of Reno Crayven’s terra-forming theories
on an unprecedented scale. With the passing of the six-month milestone for
viability of the Gardens, plans moved forward for the colonization of the planet
known as Vesta 3-better known to us today as the jewel world Ney Vesta.
Because Reno Crayven’s own body was too frail to survive the rigors of FTL
travel, he was never able to see his dream being realized by the planetary engi-
neers, construction crews, and science teams of Crayven Enterprises. Crayven
died on Mars in 2237, in a small pavilion in the center of his Domed Gardens.
A modest granite obelisk stands in the same spot today, and bears a simple
panel of stainless steel with his name, date of birth, and date of death inscribed
on it. It was the only monument stipulated in his will.
For nearly two hundred years since the landing of the first terra-forming crews
on Ney Vesta, the Crayven Corporation has pursued its goal to be first and
foremost among the stars. They have established seventeen colonies on four-
teen separate worlds, as well as countless water- and ore-mining facilities on
asteroids and nearby moons. Crayven expertise in both terra-forming and
genetic engineering has made their consulting services the most valuable
investment that any would-be colony can make in its own future. This is why
the Crayven Corporation’s motto hasn’t changed for 182 years: “We Bring
New Worlds to Life”.
Crayven Security Forces
The Crayven military grew from a small self-defense force in the era following
the 16 Minutes’ War to a fully-fledged military unit during the Heresy Wars.
Crayven technology has always placed reliability at the forefront, and while other
Corporations can field equipment with higher performance characteristics,
Crayven vehicles and battle-suits are unmatched in their strength and durability
under fire.
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genius. Most of the profits from these rebuilding projects was funneled into
CrayArms, the wholly owned weapons and ammunition subsidiary of the Crayven
Corporation.
Reno Crayven was more just than a builder and an artist, however; he was
also a visionary. It was his dream not just to indulge his talent for architecture
on Earth, but to shape whole new worlds for the future. The discovery of FTL
drive in 2207 interested him greatly, and for many years he obsessively battled
other members of the GCC for their technological secrets. If his earlier busi-
ness tactics might be regarded as unscrupulous, the Reno Crayven of this peri-
od could be called downright Machiavellian-but as always, he could never be
formally charged with any misconduct, since witnesses or claimants against
him had a tendency to die before they could testify against him. In the year
2231, when he was diagnosed with a rare and terminal form of bone cancer,
many of his enemies rejoiced and began counting his days.
But Reno Crayven was not finished. He was already heavily invested in anti-
grav and jump drive technologies. Given the limited time he had left among the
living, he decided to risk everything that he had gained from a lifetime of hard
work and sound investment to realize his greater dream. His impending death,
rather than inspiring cautious consolidation or the need to make amends,
made him even more bold in his ambitions; he felt that he had nothing to lose.
Unfortunately, Crayven’s descendants did not agree. While Reno Crayven liqui-
dated billions of dollars of corporate assets, as well as the totality of his per-
sonal wealth, to form a new subsidiary known as Crayven Enterprises, his
immediate heirs, the children of his half-sister Murielle Crayven, protested this
endangerment of their long-awaited inheritance. Reno Crayven responded to
their gambit for control of the “family” company by ruthlessly crushing their
attempts to have him declared mentally incompetent, and writing them out of
his will completely. His eldest nephew, Julian Crayven, was ousted as chair-
man of the board of the Crayven Corporation, after his Uncle moved to deprive
him of his controlling share of the company’s stock. Whether Julian Crayven
intended to put up more of a fight against his Uncle Reno is unknown; the
younger man died in a plane crash within two weeks of the signing of the new
will, and thereafter his siblings decided that discretion was the better part of
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