Lucerne System

When the Foundation was still in the throes of the Stellar Renaissance, that was when Lucerne got its name. Initial scans and surveys indicated a star rich in celestial bodies, home to not just one but two planets with ideal conditions for terrestrial life to survive and thrive. Truly a ray of light shining from the void, with its pale bright star.

It’s no wonder that, when the Llewellyn Drive became powerful enough to send a colony ship to Lucerne, two different expeditions backed by two different corporations arrived within a year of each other. Paragon was settled by the security corporation Hornet, while Beacon was settled by Pathfinder Networks. Neither corporation was interested in backing down from their claim, and neither were the settlers who’d staked their lives on an alien world. The ensuing cold war manifested in many forms over the years: legal battles, petty obstruction, inter-colony espionage, even outright sabotage. No missiles were ever fired, but the rival colonies certainly came close more than once.

The conflict between Paragon and Beacon lasted through the final decade of the Stellar Renaissance. It was only when the boom ended and the supply ships stopped coming that the two colonies, floundering and desperate, were forced to work together and trade with each other for the sake of survival. The declarations of independence from their absentee landlords came not long after.

That’s how we get to the Lucerne we have today. You have Paragon and Beacon on one hand, old rivals with old grievances and bitter grudges. On the other, you have the coalition of Hornet and Pathfinder Networks, competitors forced into an unwelcome alliance of their own. Neither corporation is willing to fully withdraw from the system, to forfeit its claim and its stake in the system’s precious resources. Meanwhile, the only thing that Paragon and Beacon hate more than each other are the corporations that pitted them against each other and then left them to fend for themselves.

Paragon

TODO

Beacon

TODO