NEW KOUROU SHELLAC CORPORATION (NKSC)

• Founding Year: 2625 (six months after Day Zero)
• Founder: Vira Antonis — former Last Frontier data-archivist
• Headquarters: Plant of the New Kourou Shellac Corporation, New Kourou
• Purpose: Manufacture tone-encoded shellac data disks and the hand-cranked lathes & sequencers required to read/write them, thus restoring a low-energy data-distribution chain for GAIA and its Local GAIA Hubs.

When orbital relays, satellites, and the ship’s quantum drives were fried in the crash, settlers lost every high-bandwidth channel; they needed an energy-lean, tamper-evident medium to keep GAIA’s Local Hubs patched. The New Kourou Shellac Corporation (NKSC) stepped up, pressing fungus-resin disks that could be tone-engraved and read on hand-cranked sequencers — no Quantum Fusion Battery drain required.

In 2631, after the Great War, the plant was nationalised by the newly founded Federal Confederation and re-flagged as the Federal Shellac Manufactory (FSM), which still produces GAIA firmware disks.

• Vira Antonis salvaged a micro-lathe and proved that native fungal resins could substitute pre-war shellac.
• The Settler’s Council granted NKSC an exclusive charter to supply every settlement with blanks, writers, and sequencers.

• NKSC engineers standardised the “tone-30” encoding (30 tones / sec = 9 kB / min) and sold upgrade kits to match.
• A travelling “Maintenance Carriage” toured Hope, Arla Town, Morningstar, and Firetown recalibrating village lathes.

• NKSC began pressing limited-run “Studio Shellacs” of Weber Broadcasting Services live-music sessions and sold them — together with hand-cranked tabletop players — to settlers at a stand on the New Kourou Food Market.
• Owning the week’s WBS disk became a mark of status; The New Kourou Courier Service and the Firetown Courier Service carried copies to Firetown, Arla Town, Hope and Morningstar, which got mainly sold in local pubs, spreading a shared repertoire across the Free State.
• * Output scaled from 50 to 500 disks per month; half reserved for GAIA firmware, half for administrative ledgers & Weber Broadcasting Services broadcasts.

• Upon the formation of the Federal Confederation the plant, patents, and staff were folded into the Federal Shellac Manufactory (FSM).
• When the plant was folded into the Federal Shellac Manufactory (FSM), retail sales were banned. The disk presses now run almost exclusively for GAIA firmware and official communiqués.
• Ex-NKSC technicians covertly press “ghost batches” of music disks and player parts after night shift, feeding a thriving Gamma Age black market centred on Firetown.

• Data Lifeline: Without NKSC/FSM there would be no practical way to move GAIA firmware under Beta/Gamma energy caps.
• Low-Tech Renaissance: Sparked a cottage industry of mechanical craft, from music boxes to cipher wheels.
• Cultural Icon in the Gamma Age: Disks doubled as mixtapes and manifestos; Individualists and Outlaws still hoard “first-press” NKSC blanks.
• Audit Trail: Physical, inspectable media underpin legal transparency — every treaty clause and land deed in the Federal Confederation exists on resin.

• “The Arla Town Murder Disc” – A popular tavern in Arla Town has just received its weekly “Live Session” shellac from the New Kourou Shellac Corporation — supposedly a folk-set recorded by Weber Broadcasting Services. The publican mounts the fresh, fungus-resin disk on his crank-driven sequencer, drops the sapphire stylus … and the room falls silent. Instead of music, the groove plays a breathless audio log: a woman whispering coordinates, the scrape of boots, a panicked plea—then a visceral scream and the sickening crack of bone. The cut ends in hiss. Patrons scatter, the local Guarding Trooper detachment seals the tavern, and the bewildered Trooper-Chief hires the PCs to investigate …

• Beta Age
• Shellac Records (Overview Beta and Gamma Age)
• GAIA
• Local GAIA Hubs
• Weber Broadcasting Services
• Technology in the Beta Age
• Exohuman Communication Technology and Media in the Beta Age
• Plant of the New Kourou Shellac Corporation
• Federal Shellac Manufactory (Gamma Age)