Growing from the financiers of colonization in the earliest days of extra-solar travel,
to inseparable pillars of interstellar-society, the rise of the so-called megacorporations
was a development that many barely noticed.
Was it the wealth of dozens of worlds that led to the creation of such dominant entities,
or was expansion across the stars simply a side effect of their perpetual growth?
Regardless of whether power begot wealth or wealth begot power, none could deny the influence
of these modern “Merchant Kings”.
On colonies across the frontier, entire populations were completely dependant upon a single conglomerate
for their current livelihood and future prospects. For the food they ate and the air they breathed.
These megacorporations operated without oversight, free to pursue their own agendas, to keep
their own secrets, and none kept more than Weyland Yutani.
While the company was officially founded in 2099 resulting from the largest corporate
merger in history, the vision for what Weyland Yutani would one day become was affirmed in
a dramatic fashion over seven decades earlier.
In a now legendary conference talk, Sir Peter Weyland of the eponymous Weyland Corporation
promised to change the world.
Although even at the time of this declaration, it could be argued he already had.
Since its founding in 2012 the company had achieved extraordinary success with tremendous
breakthroughs in renewable energy, climate change, cancer research and weapons development.
The limitless ambition of the Weyland Corporation matched that of its founder.
For the remainder of the century, the company not only kept up with the rapidly accelerating
pace of technological development but seemed to set the standard by which progress was measured.
Each year brought new discoveries and new acquisitions.
Atmospheric processing, powered exo-skeletons, aerospace craft and vehicles intended for
use off-world, automated surgical stations and cybernetic individuals completely indistinguishable
from their human counterparts.
It was this latter development that brought Weyland Corp into direct competition with
the Yutani Corporation, whose own developments into synthetic lifeforms sparked a series
of patent disputes between the two megacorporations.
These would eventually be resolved in Weyland Corp’s favor, paving the way for the hostile
takeover of their competitor.
Now fully in control of assets and capital that nearly rivaled those of the largest sovereign
states, the newly rechristened “Weyland Yutani” quickly became the primary supplier
of humanity’s extra-solar colonization efforts.
Atmospheric Processing Plants were the backbone of this endeavor; immense, automated pieces
of machinery that could convert an inhospitable atmosphere to one capable of supporting human
colonization in just a few decades.
Entire company towns would spring up around these structures, its citizens employed by
Weyland Yutani to oversee day to day maintenance or provide amenities to the primary workforce.
Such settlements were often referred to as “shake and bake colonies” due to their
quick construction and nearly immediate self-sufficiency.
While most worlds would eventually be turned over to various governments upon completion,
others were intended purely to serve the needs of the company.
These were mainly large-scale mining operations but also included research outposts and even
privately-owned penal colonies.
In addition to its predominant status in the civilian sector, Weyland Yutani was also heavily
invested in the interstellar arms market.
Despite its origins as a British and Japanese conglomerate, the company was one of the chief
suppliers of the United States Colonial Marine Corps as well as the other branches of the
United Americas Allied Command.
The company manufactured everything from the sidearms used by Marine Corp personnel to
the massive starships that carried them into battle.
The close relationship the company enjoyed with the military of the United Americas was
one of Weyland Yutani’s most controversial aspects.
Critics at the time often argued that it was difficult to distinguish whether Weyland Yutani
worked for the military, or if it was the other way around.
This view was supported by events such as the campaign on Cristóbal in which the USCM
was deployed, ostensibly to remove the dictator Hetos from power, but was later revealed to
have been the pretext by which the AmArc corporation was allowed to secure the world’s economic assets.
While the United Americas Allied Command never operated so openly in favor of Weyland Yutani,
the company’s overwhelming involvement in the military industrial complex when compared
to rivals like AmArc meant that such a relationship almost certainly existed.
At the very least, Weyland Yutani officials would routinely accompany any Colonial Marine
forces fighting on company property, serving as local advisors.
Weyland Yutani’s position of power allowed it to operate in many legal grey areas, exploiting
loopholes and ignoring local ordinances without fear of serious repercussions.
It was common knowledge even within the company’s lowest levels that the conglomerate was highly corrupt.
Bribes frequently replaced paperwork and many of their ships and facilities were never forced
to undergo safety inspections or reviews.
There even existed a special private security force, one equipped with military grade hardware
and tasked with the protection of the company’s most sensitive assets.
To what degree the United Americas and other major governments were complicit in this state
of affairs has never been proven, but leaked information reveals that the company had a
deep interest in pursuing top-secret research into dangerous or illegal fields, the applications
of which would have dramatically upset the balance of power in favor of whichever group
made use of them.
These secret projects dated back to the era of the Weyland Corporation, apparently stemming
from the directives of Peter Weyland himself.
How such projects might have been involved in the disappearance of the USCSS Prometheus
and USCSS Covenant in the earliest days of the colonization era has never been fully
explained, but a pattern has emerged across the decades and centuries, one that had apparent
ties to Weyland Yutani’s Bio-Weapons Division.
The Prometheus and Covenant were only the first in a long line of missing or destroyed
ships, vessels and colonies that would eventually include the Nostromo, Sevastopol, Sulaco,
Hadley’s Hope and Fiorina 161 and many others.
The nature of these incidents remain classified but the evidence suggests that Weyland Yutani
found something of great interest or perhaps something found them.
Who or what this might have been remains a mystery, but the greatest clue can be found
in Special Order 937.
A classified directive issued in the aftermath of the Prometheus expedition that was entrusted
only to the highest levels of the company and issued specifically to synthetic crewmembers:
“Priority one - Ensure return of organism for analysis.
All other considerations secondary.
Crew expendable.”
The Templin Institute investigates alternate worlds and realities.
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