A shining example of a true Nepleslian business, Vinross Yu-Cranker Materials is a massive corporate resourcing organization centered in and around the Nepleslian systems. Despite the bright public face, Vinross Yu-Cranker Materials lends its successful to the number of increasingly shady and underhanded deals that the heads of the company frequently exploit on a daily basis. With high-paid lawyers, bribed senators and skilled publicist, any suspicion of their foul-play is proved to be little more than speculation.

The company is lead by a board of directors, and headed conjointly by Laj Vinross Yu and Marrisa Cranker, and is centered in the massive headquarters complex on the planet Democratic Imperium of Nepleslia. Vinross Yu-Cranker Materials holds roughly 54% of Nepleslia’s metal and construction material market.

Vinross Yu-Cranker Materials started out modestly around YE 24, mainly working in Nepleslian economy and specializing in Durandium Alloy and civilian starship-grade metal and building materials.

Since then, the company has seen exponential growth, spreading their business and influence into other Nepleslian systems. This is largely due to the fact that many of their competitors seems to have terrible luck with their off-planet operations, often succumbing to numerous pirate raids and industrial accidents.

Unbeknownst to many, Vinross Yu-Cranker Materials is heavily invested in the Black Market, which explains their often astounding profit margins. Vinross Yu-Cranker is also behind many of the pirate raids plaguing rival resourcing companies, hiring mercenaries and pirates alike through dummy names and 3rd parties to harass their opponents to no end. If it were not for Vinross Yu-Cranker’s massive funds, able to buy off inspector and lawyer alike, the shady company might have already been dismantled…but as of now, Vinross Yu-Cranker Materials reigns high, hands clean and profits continuously growing.

In YE 27, Marrisa Cranker opened her own brand of luxury clothing and fashion, under the oh-so-non-egotistical brand name “Marrisa Cranker”. As of YE30, the Marrisa Cranker brand has grown to be a popular name in many fashion circles, specializing in high-expense designs that appeal to the more wealthy rungs of society. In YE 30, the Marrisa Cranker brand also began working on, oddly enough, high-grade security weapons and uniforms, which they sell almost exclusively to Vinross Yu-Cranker Materials. Because of the rapid increase in pirate activity in Nepleslian Colonial Expanse, none but the most skeptical found this series of events too odd.

The other founder of Vinross Yu-Cranker, one Laj Vinross Yu, also began working on his own company on the side. In YE 28, he unveiled Vinross Yu Aeronautical Aptitudes, a shipwright that specialized in transport and space excavation ships. Through a short timespan, Vinross Yu Aeronautical Aptitudes vessels quickly replaced many of the 3rd-party ships comprising of Vinross Yu-Cranker’s resourcing fleets, until the only ships the company fielded were from VYAA. Many speculate that this was done to reduce costs by eliminating the need to purchase ships from other companies.

• Laj Vinross Yu - Business minded, impossibly charismatic, smooth criminal CEO of Vinross Yu-Cranker Materials
• Marrisa Cranker - Super-eccentric fashionista queen, CEO of Vinross Yu-Cranker Materials
• Lisa Bell - Maniacal, crafty, skilled and DECEASED soldier, a Captain of the Vinross Yu-Cranker Uniques
• Nell Sarahs - Young, slightly naive newbie to the Vinross Yu-Cranker Uniques
• Odette Swann - Tall, dark and lovely Unique, with an unexplained connection to Laj Vinross Yu

Vinross Yu-Cranker Materials has many facilities and installations throughout the Nepleslian territories. However, there are three major facilities of great importance to the company.

The first is, of course, the Vinross Yu-Cranker Materials headquarters, based in Funky City, Nepleslia. This massive corporate building is where most of the trade information is circulated throughout the nation, as well as a hub for imports and exports coming from their many resourcing operations. Very little is actually manufactured planetside, however.

Most of the manufacturing of both Vinross Yu Aeronautical Aptitude vessels and company resources is done in a massive space-based shipyard and factory, dubbed “The Atrium” by Laj and Marrisa. The Atrium consists of several shipwrights for Vinross Yu Aeronautical Aptitudes and manufacturing plants that process, package and ship materials. Most of the facilities are connected in some manner or another, save for the Administration Complex in the center of the Atrium. The Administration Complex is simply a glorified office where the heads of each department hold offices, conduct meetings with business partners and oversee the work in the shipyards and factories. The entire Atrium is heavily guarded by a requested government military entourage, as well as built-in defenses in order to fend off pirates.

One of the largest digs in the history of the corporation is being conducted on, not surprisingly, one of the most resource-rich planets in the Colonial Expanse; the planet Fortuna. A few kilometers away from Gold Harbor is a massive, ancient sinkhole which has recently been discovered to unveil an astounding area of dense, raw metals and minerals. When discovered by civilian excavators, Vinross Yu-Cranker Materials almost instantly bought the land from them and set up strip-mining operations in the very same day.

Called “the Sinkstrip” by the workers and colonists alike, the entire surface of the sinkhole has been reformed, the once rocky, damp surroundings have been replaced with digging equipment, bright lights and lots and lots of noise. The Sinkstrip has its fair share of hazards, as being the largest mining operation also makes it have the highest number of workplace incidents, as well as a tasty target for privateers, pirates and thieves. The heavy rainfall isn’t a helping factor, but the ever-present ion storms also make conventional communications around the Sinkstrip difficult. Never the less, the first week of work coming from the Sinkstrip increased Vinross Yu-Cranker’s profits tenfold.

Marrisa Cranker, the exceptionally eccentric co-founder of Vinross Yu-Cranker Materials, was placed in charge of the security for the companies holdings. As such, Miss Cranker took the opportunity to flaunt her own personal company, the Marrisa Cranker-brand fashion line…not just the odd weapons and security armor side, but the clothing side as well, giving birth to the Vinross Yu-Cranker “Uniques”. Named by Marrisa Cranker herself, the “Unique” are security personnel hand-picked by Marrisa herself. The Uniques are solely comprised of women, and to this day no male has ever served as a Vinross Yu-Cranker Unique.

While the woman-only requirement startled many, Marrisa Cranker’s eccentric tastes did not stop there. Armed with powerful security weapons and advanced security suits designed and manufactured by Marrisa Cranker (fashion), the Uniques uniforms also consist of top-of-the-line Marrisa Cranker (fashion) clothing, always worn over the skin-tight security suits. Many speculate that Miss Cranker has this as a requirement for her Uniques in order to further shamelessly promote her clothing line. Laj Vinross Yu had nothing to say about it.

Uniques are well-trained and lethal, despite their names, appearances and employer.

Laj Vinross Yu and his own ship-building company, Vinross Yu Aeronautical Aptitudes, are responsible for all of the resourcing ships fielded by the company. Outwardly, they appear only lightly armed, for reasons of staving off pirate attacks.

However, in addition to working their intended jobs, each of the VYAA-designed ships hold several secret additions not mentioned on the official schematics. These additions include military-grade weapon systems, sensor systems, and several more illegal parts. With a few thousand DA in the right inspector’s pocket, Vinross Yu Aeronautical Aptitudes has managed to keep these illegal enhancements a secret.