Aerfel Industries
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Aerfel Industries
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| Industry | Advanced Technologies
Aerospace Defense |
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| Location | |||||
| Headquaters | Aerfel, Sarconia | ||||
| Area Served | Doren | ||||
Aerfel Industries was a Sarconian aerospace, arms and defense corporation active in two periods from 2031-2066 and 2077-present. During both it's periods of operation it would rise to economic prominence in the local region. Plagued by funding, infrastructure and employment issues for much of its existence through multiple periods of Sarconian strife and recession, the company would nevertheless persist in various forms throughout the majority of the 21st century. Responsible for supplying many insurgent factions of the turbulent nation, and briefly the Combined Provinces of Doren, it would eventually become the state of North Sarconia’s largest military contractor.
Following a massive data breach in 2128 in which several private internal databases were exposed to the public, it was revealed that sections of the company had engaged in clandestine paramilitary activities for much of its history.
History
2128 Data Breach and Controversy
In the summer of 2128, Aerfel Industries was the victim of a large scale cyberattack. Amongst the data compromised was evidence incriminating the company in dealings with terrorist Davedhrein Kerman and providing proof that assets of the company had been involved in skirmishes during the unification of the CPD, anti-counterinsurgency operations in Saracon, Plumland and Esperi, and played a significant role in the Fall of Aquaria. Despite one ex-General describing the past actions of the corporation as an ‘open secret’ within the higher ranks of the military, the public reaction was largely that of outrage. In an investors conference held after the breach, CEO Lisockmew Oneatt Kerman did not refute the reported military activity, but categorically denied allegations regarding the corporation answering to those other than official powers of Sarconia during this timeframe. Nevertheless, the revelations contributed to a poor fiscal year for Aerfel Industries, which did not reverse itself in the following decades. As of 2153, its market share has shrunken considerably since the formation of the United Doren Front.
Paramilitary Activities
As revealed by [] Throughout the 2070s and until as late as 2116, Aerfel Industries deployed several test pilots and aircraft into combat across Doren for both research and later strategic purposes, ostensibly solely in collaboration with the Sarconian state. By the turn of the century this practice had attained a high level of integration alongside official national Armed Forces, but never formally operated under their command, resulting in the corporation’s branding as a paramilitary organisation.
Second Sarconian Counterinsurgency and the 'Ghost of Esperi'
Beginning in 2082 after the dissolution of the Combined Provinces of Doren and desolation of the continent by slow bombs, Sarconia one again descended to a state of near anarchy, and much of the nation was rendered a wasteland. Nevertheless, a skeleton group of Aerfel Industries engineers would reactivate it's E9 Spectre development program after the rediscovery of a near-functional prototype at one of the company's old facilities, and quickly gained the backing of an unknown figure within the region.[1]
The initative would be spearheaded by Aerfel Industries’ chief test pilot Arcellian Kerman, a veteran of various Dorenic air forces who would later go on to become the only superace in the country’s history in an experimental aircraft built by the company. Flying this restored stealth fighter, he would conduct dozens of flights over the provinces of Esperi, Aerfel and Saracon, initially purely for research purposes. As the program advanced however, he would come into conflict with small flights of AQAF aircraft from the ongoing Counterinsurgency on multiple occasions.
Over the following years, he would become notorious amongst Aquarian pilots for a series of these combat flights, earning the moniker 'the Ghost of Esperi'[2] for a pattern of emerging and disappearing from thick cloud cover to disguise his point of origin in the region. Eventually several of these missions would be carried out with solely military and no secondary scientific objectives as part of an unspecified arrangement for mutual aid, reportedly with the leaders of Northern Sarconia. Despite having an overall limited impact on the theatre, he was the only obstacle to the Aquarian’s otherwise complete air dominance of the southern provinces, which earned Arcellian a great deal of ire amongst Aquarian strategists and a certain mythos among enlisted personnel. By the conclusion of Operation Requiem-10 he had become the target of a massive yet ultimately unsuccessful intelligence manhunt within C140 to identify and neutralise the mystery ace.
His successes against contemporary aircraft would motivate the expansion of the program, which would take over and covertly reactivate a disused airfield from the era of the Red Horde nestled at the base of Zeuldopine-114 within Esperi.[3] These operations, at first conducted alone and infrequently, would increase in both scale and intensity in the decades prior to Aquaria’s collapse, culminating in the winter of 2114 with the formation of a force of approximately a dozen test pilots and military aviators known as Wisp Squadron.
Wisp Squadron
Lead by Wisp 1 the Ghost of Esperi, the squadron ostensibly operated under contract of the Sarconian government and were deployed to great effect during the Fall of Aquaria. Flying prototype pre-production units of the E27 Wraith air superiority fighter, they would score a combined 29 aerial victories over the first 24 hours of the invasion and be credited by many historians as largely responsible for the near disaster of Operation Twilight Spike.
The following day they would provide air cover for Sarconian landing craft during the Siege of Arrataxt, suffering significant losses after flight leader Arcellian Kerman was shot down and killed by Aquarian fighters. Though their numbers were severely depleted, they were ultimately successful in defending the attacking vessels after the bombing of the Pallikon Bridge. The squadron’s surviving members would go on to take part in a series of small engagements leading up to the surrender of Zeoul, mainly in an air support capacity, and are believed to have ceased operations in 2116.