The Hoshikaze 2250 universe splits from our own timeline in the early '80s. During the early 22nd century, singularities known as jump-points were discovered, that linked the systems by wormhole "tunnels". In 2132, on Mars, a new company named "Better Worlds" entered operation, promnising colonisation expeditions to wealthy groups willing to establish new human settlements on exoearths. The vessel pictured above was one of the mainstays of this compagny, an insystem freighter converted to hyperjump operation. At the beginning of the 22nd century, many families settled isolated areas in Mars, farming "t-bacts", bacteria used to make the local soil edible for Earth-imported crops. Several of these "terrafarms" contracted with the Mars Terraform Authority to supply them t-bacts. Lucy Wayland was among them. Her family moved to Mars while she was 3 and she considered the planet her home. She grew her parents' terrafarm into a huge empire, taking at its height around 25% of the MTA market share. Around 2125, as hyperjump became common, several groups contacted her for purchasing large quantities of t-bacts for terraforming projects on exoearths. Most of these deals were never cut, as the groups never secured proper transportation and authorizations. When she encountered Ryosuke Tottoriken, a wealthy businessman who made a fortune in selling used starship equipments to large concerns, they began toying with the idea of selling turnkey colonies to wealthy groups of would-be emigrants. She had access to the terraforming equipments, he could convert ships for qualifying exoearths and transporting colonists, and they could get Extrasolar Terraforming Authorities clearance for expeditions. They named their new venture "Better Worlds" and began organizing colony expeditions with 5-years support. The first two trips were widely publicized, with news from the thriving colonies. But BW explorers came into smugglers-dominated areas and soon set up a secret agreement : the smugglers would let BW freedom of movement for a part of their supplies expeditions at a bargain price. Everyone won on this agreement, except the colonists. As it was learnt afterwards, PoliCorpos used BW to discreetly send away potentially threatening dissident groups. Those never stayed in touch with their relatives back on Sol, so any bad news from a colony was easy to suppress. In 2145, the Harushita PoliCorpo bought a BW colony for Ziffel IV. BW would rather have played this round fair, as Harushita was not to be antagonized, but just couldn't, as they had to cope with raising demands from the smugglers. With no news from Ziffel in the ensuing years, Harushita special enquiry department searched and finally found the thruth. The Ziffel sleeper ships had trouble reaching their destination and support ships never reached the stranded colonists, who passed very near extinction. Investigators tracked down the company's double-sell business and its links with a group of smugglers who ironically called themselves the "Chiffoniers". The sinister truth began to surface in 2147, but was not widely known until 2051. Out of 29 expeditions, 4 became lost in space, 5 died at their destination in the first 10 colony years, 3 were barely surviving and 8 colonies thrived despite of hostile environment. In 2051, an anti-BW riot turned to disaster. BW headquarters were taken over by an angry mob of thousands of colonists' relatives. The company high staff fled after destroying vast amounts of evidences. Hundreds of casualties were counted among BW employees and rioters alike. It was later revealed that BW agents sparked the riot among the crowd and arsoned the building so that BW leaders could escape Harushita anger. After that, Harushita took over the remnants of BW and turned them into a Corporate Colonisation Corps. The ship shown above is an example of BW colony/supplies ship. It is an insystem freighter converted to ISV by adding jump motivators to the existing dual warp drive pods.