[i]"Serve? The board does not exist to serve, it does not exist to better the galaxy or its nations. The board merely exists. The reasons for its formation are centuries past and all that is certain is the passage of time. The board exists, then, now, and tomorrow. It will not bend to your will nor will it bend to the will of any man regardless of how righteous his cause. The board has one duty, to exist, nothing more and nothing less."

-Representative Toran Umbridge; spoken upon accusation by several groups that the IMIB had not done its duty in serving the public good on various worlds.[/i]

[b][i]Faction Name:[/b][/i] Astani Mining Corporation (ASM)

[b][i]Faction Type:[/b][/i] Corporate Entity/Colony

[b][i]Affiliation:[/b][/i] [url=http://www.nationstates.net/images/flags/uploads/canp__795895.png]Interstellar Mining Interests Board (IMIB)[/url]

[b][i]Leader(s) :[/b][/i] Chief Executive Officer Coro Astani

[b][i]Persons of Importance:[/b][/i] Offworld Interests representative Marco Astani, IMIB advisor Mira Comb

[b][i]Civilian Assets:[/b][/i]

[b]Super-Heavy BWEs:[/b]
A development of a simple vehicle going back hundreds of years the Super Heavy Bucket Wheel Excavator is indisputably the largest machine used on the surface of any world by Humans. Used to move vast amounts of cleared land and to operate in all stages of a mining operation the Super-Heavy BWE exists as a vast construct nearly a kilometer higher and with a wheel capable of moving thousands of tones of rock and soil per second.

[b]Assorted Medium to Small Excavators:[/b]
Smaller excavators, whether drag line, shovel based, stationary, or other are the main devices employed in gathering materiel during the mining process. Used in a ide variety of roles for digging or for moving materiel to haul trucks these simply machines are vital to any mining effort.

[b]Assorted Haul Trucks:[/b]
Haul trucks of nearly every size are utilized to move either unrefined or refined cargo from one area to another. Some trucks tower over every tree while some are scarely the hiehgt of a human being. Every truck has a purpose and a use.

[b]Dozers:[/b]
Dozers exist as vehicles used for land moving, usually employed to clear land or to push large sums of it into place dozers are the front line vehicles that operate to keep the mines running. 

[b]Boring Vehicles:[/b]
Designed to dig deep into any obstacle Boring vehicles are used to dig down shafts, build tunnels, or set a hole in a cliff so explosives can be used to their full effect.

[b]MATP[/b]
The Multi-Use All Terrain Probe is an unmanned device designed for exploratory work in mines and other hostile environments. Designed with a vast sensor array and various scientific equipment as well as a manipulator arm and four fans to keep it airborne the MATP is deployed before any human is allowed access to an area.

[b]Heavy Lift Vehicles:[/b]
Air based helicopters, some of the last ones in wide use, HLV’s are often substantially more durable than jet or rocket VOTL craft and as a result find wide use in the industrial sector. Used too transport cargo by air through suspension cables, the technology is merely a scaled up version of what was in place as early as the 1950s.

[b]Miner Assistance Suit:[/b]
An exosuit first used in the Lunar mines the MAS is standard gear for any miner whether underground or in the open. Boosting the strength of any human individual to new highs the MAS can also provide life support for space bound activates or in the case of an emergency. The MAS is modular and can be stripped down to the simply exosuit or be equipped with any number of tools.

[b]Logistics Station[/b]
A large station manned by 82 people the logistics station executes orbital scans for mineral deposits on the planet and is responsible for coordinating all on the move activities, while the land based office handles planning beforehand and emergency response. The Logistics station is heavily armed with SpeedStrike MkIII 46mm railguns, capable of automatic fire at 600 RPM.

[i][b]Military Assets:[/b][/i]

[b][url=http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/236x/63/9d/c5/639dc52723dbc0aa1446281e41ae2990.jpg]ASM Security Forces/SPS:[/url][/b]
All security forces within the ASM are armed with 7.62 caseless rifles and wear a combat oriented exosuit simply called the security protection suit. Not designed for combat the suit is capable of stopping small to moderate arms fire and has NBC protection. Deployable are sonic area denial systems and capsaicin based gas canisters. 

[b]Romo Armoured Personnel Carrier:[/b]
Produced by the Romo corporation for used on Earth and later retrofitted for riots this particular APC is NBC safeguarded. It also carries up to 15 people excluding the 4 man crew and is armed with a 30mm turret mounted caseless autocannon controlled from within the vehicle with a coaxial 12.7mm caseless machine gun. Left over from military use are two turret mounted ATGM's with milspec guidance systems. The APC is equipped with smoke launchers and if necessary a microwave based less then lethal area denial system.

[b]Romo Scout Craft[/b]
Produced by the room corporation for use in short range mission the scout craft is a small VTOL combat capable transport that can carry 8 people and 3 crew members. Armed with 2 remote controlled 12.7 caseless machine guns, one 20mm caseless autocannon and 2 mountable AAM scramjet missiles. the scout is used to verify the location of a threat or to respond to one as fast as possible.

[b][i]Brief History:[/b][/i]
Formed during the solar mining boom of 2130 the ASM grew from a small company based on the moon to a megacorp in ten short years during the boom by ruthlessly exploiting legislation to grant them ever expanding exclusive rights to mine within the solar system. Able to weather the crash that eventually, inevitably, followed by absorbing several smaller companies the ASM emerged as one of the main names in planetary mining by 2180. Ten years later, following the clear reality that within the next two centuries interstellar travel would be possible, and the reality that a post scarcity society could ruin the free market the ASM entered secret negotiations that resulted in the creation of the IMIB, a scarcely legal alliance between mining companies that for the moment guaranteed a controlling share in the resources of the solar system. Often attacked with legal actions the IMIB managed to survive and grow, even though its monopoly waned due to an expanding market it still managed to establish itself as the main voice for mining interests and became the prime target for so called "space environmentalists" who took their battle on earth to the stars.

This prosperity, even in the face of harsh criticism, lasted until 2230 when the environmentalist movement managed to push through legislation that would force the IMIB to disband. It was only hours after a closed session among its representatives that the IMIB declared itself a stateless entity, much to the horror of most governments. While there was constant talk of military action for the next ten years, and a considerable drop in IMIB member company stock it became clear that a confrontation with the IMIB was impossible, though it no longer held the monopoly it once did the IMIB proved to be a large enough supplier that no government dared cut themselves off. It was not long until the state of affairs returned to normal, the key difference was now the IMIB had no oversight but its own agents, a boon that would be vital to the organization in years to come.

By 2299 the IMIB had the resources to set itself up for expansion to the stars. Often piggybacking on colonial expeditions the IMIB would set itself up in numerous systems, creating a monetary base large enough that in 2325 the organization was among the largest forces in resource acquisition, even having branched out into to the chemical industry. Usually opting for peaceful coexistence with indigenous human colonial or defacto governments on various worlds the IMIB has gained a reputation for being reasonable when it can, and ruthlessly brutal when it feels the reward is greater than the risk. The ASM has always been at the center of the IMIB as a founding member, and to this day plays no small part in IMIB policy, but to say any one company controls the vast organization would be faulty.

[b][i]Other:[/b][/i]

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