Bristol Constructions and Manufacturing - Public Netpage

[Bristol Constructions]

Type: Worker Cooperative Federation Founded: June 826 Headquarters: Bristol Bay Station, Bering Key People: Esme Blake, Jaina Wheeler Products: Container shipping, logistics and freight forwarding, recycling, ore surveying, space salvaging, space engineering, small scale shipyards and manufacturing, Employees: ~15,700 (835)

Bristol
Constructions & Manufacturing

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Bristol Constructions & Manufacturing, commonly known as Bristol, Bristol C&M, or Bristol Constructions, is a corporation and federation of worker cooperatives based in Bering and across the independent worlds.

It was founded in Bering in 826 by a group of Freelancers and engineers where they occupied a former Separatist installation known as Bristol Depot. Now known as Bristol Bay Station, it has grown to be the largest legitimate depot, manufacturing installation, and quasi-Freeport within Bering, leveraging its position between Liberty and Rheinland. From this station, it maintains a number of system presences in Pennsylvania and Galileo.

Since its establishment, the company has experienced substantial, consistent growth. At the end of 828, it employed about 4,700 people. By 835, Bristol C&M employed approximately 15,700 employees across 11 companies. Bristol operations extend across the Houses, and even to a limited degree the Edge Worlds.

Contents 1 History 2 Installations ----2.1 Bristol Bay Station ----2.2 Akutan Production Facility ----2.3 Arcetri Station ----2.4 Cleveland Station ----2.5 Aruba Depot ----2.6 Mississauga Station 3 Planetary Operations ----3.1 Planet Hallam 4 Transport & Logistics 5 Mining Operations 6 Salvaging & Repairs 7 Space Engineering 8 Controversies

History

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Bristol Constructions & Manufacturing was founded in Bering in June 826 by a group of Freelancers and engineers. Their main business relied on taking over Bristol Depot, which had been abandoned by the Separatist Navy in May 826. Quickly boarded and restored to normal operation, Bristol faced little repercussions from the effort - as such, most assume the facility had already played its role for the Separatists. Since then the company has taken on more employees, repurposing the installation for manufacturing alongside salvage. As it has defacto replaced the Freeport 2 Zoners as a half way point within Bering, their situation has stabilised.

When salvage continued to turn more sparsely, the company made the decision in early 828 to act on various other projects within the independent worlds. With Cleveland Station in Pennsylvania and Aruba Depot in Cortez, the company positioned itself for mining in those respective systems, providing for the local economies. A number of surveys took place at this time, largely based from Cleveland Station into the neighboring systems.

When the jumpgate blackout hit, Bristol was greatly affected, with all supply chains disrupted and a number of transports lost from the issue. With such a great economic strain, the decision to abandon Aruba Depot as it lost immediate financial viability came rapidly. Personnel from the depot were redirected to efforts in Pennsylvania, largely employed with Heavy Water production.

Installations

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Proficient in space constructions that they provide to various clients, they also maintain various of their own installations.

Bristol Bay Station

Main Article: Bristol Bay Station

Bristol Bay Station, formerly Bristol Depot, functions as the headquarters to Bristol Constructions. Within the system it acts as a salvage collection, sorting and recycling plant. With the destruction of Freeport 2, Bristol has slowly taken over its role as a trade station between Liberty and Rheinland, playing host to a number of independent factions that otherwise would not have a place to do business. Bristol has proven to be less accommodating than the Zoners once were as far as illegal business, though in a move that has surprised few it has begun to salvage the Freeport itself after acquiring the wreckage from Liberty. With the outset of the Bulwark class, however, Bristol Bay Station has begun to complete component installation and finalize purchases for the expensive and costly vessels.

Akutan Production Facility

Main Article: Akutan Production Facility

Akutan Production Facility is the second largest production facility within Bering owned by Bristol. Previously the station was weapons facility for specialized equipment, producing a number of high quality systems beyond what would normally be expected for a group of Freelancers. However, following major issues in the supply of components the installation shuttered its public storefront in preference to interior dealings. Today Akutan primarily concerns itself with aiding in the ship production processes on Bristol Bay Station, taking advantage of the lesser traffic at its junction.

Arcetri Station

Main Article: Arcetri Station

Arcetri Station was built and is owned and operated by Bristol Constructions & Manufacturing. Focused entirely on the mining and refining of Platinum, Arcetri operates on Bristol's open docking policy and many parties that would usually not be able to acquire refined metal are occasionally seen near the station. As a result, it plays host to an informal market similar to that on Bristol Bay.

Cleveland Station

Main Article: Cleveland Station

Within the Pennsylvania system, Cleveland is Bristol Construction's primary depot for mining Heavy Water, staging shipments from Planet Hallam, and moving survey teams through the former Insurgency systems of Kansas and Vespucci. Previously intended as the staging ground into the deeper ‘independent worlds’, significant setbacks in the charting and surveying of these systems has forced the issue to become a secondary concern for the station, where it now acts primarily as a mining and refining station to produce Deuterium for various fuel-producing organizations.

Aruba Depot

Main Article: Aruba Depot

Aruba Depot used to be located within Cortez, near the Coronado gate, Aruba Depot functioned as a drop off point for Tau-bound goods as well as some returning ones. As its primary business was the holding and reselling of Pristine Ice, mined in Cortez, it lost its financial viability as those resources suddenly turned up dry.

Mississauga Station

Main Article: Mississauga Station

Mississauga Station was a Bristol installation of unknown purpose, operating prior to 834 AS before being closed once Ontario operations by Bristol ceased.

Planetary Operations

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When Bristol reached the size necessary to expand out of Bering, it begun looking elsewhere for new business opportunities. Some of these were established planetside, to include an office on Planet Houston and Planet Hamburg respectively.

Planet Hallam

Main Article: Planet Hallam

An icy planet within Pennsylvania, various resources have mined exclusively by Bristol Constructions in exploratory efforts. Bristol maintains a base camp on the world, Camp Lakewood.

Transport & Logistics

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Bristol is operating a small fleet of mostly transports for their logistics. Around half of these vessels are tasked with supplying Bristol's own installations at any given time. In addition to the transport fleet, Bristol operates multiple small freighters to assist unloading and smaller shipments, especially to aid in the operations at Planet Hallam.

In recent years with consistent growth for Bristol Constructions, the company has expanded its fleet with a number of heavier vessels. These include, alongside the Bristol-made Bulwark, Libertonian Bison-class heavy transport vessels and a Colossus-class train which are used to supply the vast amount of resources which station construction and maintenance consume. The Colossus-class, BCV South Louisiana, is rarely seen however.

Mining Operations

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Bristol cooperatives are well-involved in mining, with several taking part in operations in Galileo as well as Pennsylvania. The operation in Galileo, undertaken by the Arcetri Group, is largely comprised of dissatisfied DSE members of the Boron trade on Pittsburgh - as a direct result, the organization has proven both competent at Platinum mining and extremely aggressive against DSE operations in their area of space. The operation in Pennsylvania, however, is composed of a Cortez organization which formerly mined Pristine Ice in that system and a formerly Zoner organization native to Pennsylvania, rumored to have been the former occupants of Philadelphia. That organization primarily mines Heavy Water, which is sold to and stored on Cleveland Station before then being refined to Deuterium. From that station, a surveying team is constantly searching for new opportunities, though Bristol has not announced any findings. In its yearly reports, the surveying division has not once operated at a profit.

Salvaging & Repairs

BCV Pittsburgh as seen in Bering

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Among Bristol's fleet vessels are multiple vessels for repairs and salvaging. Operating a number of Kauser-class mining vessels refitted for salvage, as well as Hegemon-class vessels likewise modified for the role, the forerunner for these craft was the BCV Pittsburgh. Equipped with scanner devices for ore and deep scans of ships, it served the company as a testbed for these technologies to salvage ships and installations as well as more standard operations such as Heavy Water mining in Pennsylvania.

This sector remains one of the most consistent aspects of Bristol’s portfolio, in part due to the sheer amount of material generated from the Hudson War and the Scouring of Bering.

Space Engineering

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With Bristol Bay's considerable expansion being their biggest accomplishments, Bristol has been involved in the constructions and maintenance of multiple installations. Their experience with constructions in dangerous environments has earned them a few contracts, expanding their fleet by a "Hercules"-class construction vehicle in late 826.

With the completion of Cleveland and Arcetri, Bristol Constructions is continuing to expand in station construction.

Controversies

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With the installation initially built by the Liberty Separatists and Bering slowly drifting into a state of approaching anarchy, there's been doubts in Bristol's actual independence. Though the station is controlled entirely by Bristol Constructions, they act more like a Freeport in Bering in regards to docking permissions on their public installation. Bristol employs a small security detail that so far has kept order akin to the old Zoner presence on Freeport 2.

After the Separatist, Insurgency and Erie incidents there have been occasional accusations that fugitives were finding employ in Bristol. The only cases where Bristol has admitted to employing a former Zoner or Insurgency civilian was after they had served their time on LPI prisons.

Bristol's organisation as a cooperative has caused market consultants and other companies to ridicule the organisation. The most famous of these being the rescue of one Adam Rayleigh. The Bristol employed miner had lost control of his ship in the Pennsylvania system, leading to estimated loss of life within four hours. Cleveland Station teams immediately despatched what was considered a "ridiculous waste of resources" in a salvaging team and a scout craft. Arriving on site the crew did not manage to rescue the miner as trying to dislodge the vessel vented all air from the craft. Bristol holds this situation up as its "workers first" approach, promising employees they would not be abandoned.

Market advisors repeatedly said how it shows the inefficiency of this behaviour. One reportedly told reporters, "If every company operated on this policy, they would need dedicated security teams and feasibly this could only be done with company funded health and accident insurance. Outright ridiculous."

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