BARD PAPER: PERI0008

Tanny Project

by Carlos Alos-Ferrer

In pre-collapse times, Tanny was owned by Garunda Trading, a mid-sized corporation controlled by the Vilani Megacorporation Zirunkariish. Garunda Trading controlled half a dozen of agricultural worlds in Massilia, including also Liaw (Forquee subsector, 2017). In the huge corporate asset exchange of 1121, Garunda Trading felt into the control of Hortalez et Cie. The new corporate managers for Tanny soon realized the potential of the two low population neighboring systems of Nilton and Wewarbinner, and actively started to establish a firm commercial presence there. By 1122, the Tanny branch of Garunda Trading was in control of the three-world cluster. The cluster, not being a military objective, had been relatively isolated from the interstellar developments of the ongoing Rebellion, but Hard Times hit it hardly through the end of commerce. The worlds were raided several times, and the Tanny managers were effectively cut from Garunda Trading and Hortalez et Cie control.

In 1124, all the area was in the middle of the Outlands. The Tanny managers, using their remaining starships, attempted to obtain military resources from falling worlds of the subsector, in order to build up some defenses against raiders. In Nagiida (1233), they contacted the local branch of Hortalez et Cie, and were able to convince the local managers to salvage part of the corporation assets in the rapidly falling world and move them to the Tanny cluster. The move soon evolved into a massive migration attempt when word spread to the population. Riots and civil uprisings forced the Nagiida branch of Hortalez et Cie to totally abandon the planet, taking with them hundreds of thousands of employees and their families, in low berths.

The success of the migration led the corporate executives to design a plan to transform the cluster in an autonomous, self-sufficient polity. The "Tanny Project" was born. Using the fleet that served to evacuate Hortalez et Cie's personnel from Nagiida, in the course of the following years, many refugees from all over the subsector were transported to the cluster.

The new colonies were relatively low-tech and counted with huge agricultural resources, and thus, when the virus arrived, were able to survive without heavy losses. In fact, the isolation helped the cluster development.

Nowadays, the Tanny Project is a Pocket Empire ruled by a bureaucracy which can be traced back to Garunda Trading and Hortalez et Cie's executives from Nagiida. A dozen of starships travel among the three worlds, but the bureaucrats have no interest in interstellar exploration outside the cluster. Remarkably, the society of the Tanny Project has a noticeable influence of traditional Vilani ways, due to the Vilani origins of both Garunda Trading and most of the refugees from Nagiida.