Hurston Dynamics

Hurston Dynamics is a Human weapons manufacturer and materials processor based on Hurston (Stanton I). It is the largest producer of standard munitions warheads for military contracts in the United Empire of Earth (UEE) and the third-largest refiner of antimatter precursor. It is also one of the longest continuously operating family businesses in the Empire.

I don't know why people are complaining about the workers on Hurston. I mean, sure, the contract is rigid and brutal, but it's honest. If they read the thing rather than snatching the signing bonus, they'd know what they were in for. - NPC conversation Cite game build=Alpha 4.2

This whole week's been great at the plant. They signed up a new shipload of recruits and they've been taking up a lot of the slack. Plus, I love watching as they realize what exactly they've been signed up for. Never gets old. - NPC conversation Cite game build=Alpha 4.2

Someone was complaining to me the other day about how 'unfair' the Hurston employment contracts are. Honestly, if you're dumb enough to sign a contract like that, you deserve to be indentured for as long as humanly possible. - NPC conversation Cite game build=Alpha 4.3.2

History

Hurston Dynamics is the United Empire of Earth's premier producer and distributor of both quantum cascade lasers and a wide variety of electron guns. It is also the single largest outsource producer of standard munitions warheads for military contracts and the third-largest refiner of antimatter precursor in the current economy. Though few finished products bear the Hurston name, its raw materials and manufactured components are found in nearly every piece of space technology in flight.

Copies of Hurston dies are used in manufacturing facilities across the galaxy, with illegal copies even crossing the border for use in Xi'an production hubs.

The Hurston family has been involved in the manufacture of arms for generations. It traces the name back five hundred years, to the development of the first power lasers for space defensive platforms. More fanciful family histories connect the present-day Hurstons to Earth's dark ages, crediting the family with everything from broad axes and crossbows to fixed-wing aircraft and atomic weapons. The current patriarch, "Colonel" Gavin E. Hurston, adopts this backstory wholeheartedly, decorating his office with millennia of weaponry and infusing the company's advertising and corporate culture with medieval armaments wherever possible.

Hurston Dynamics is one of the rare megacorporations that owns its own planet, having secured Stanton I from the UEE government in a money-and-stock deal worth an estimated fifty trillion credits. Prior to the acquisition of Stanton I, Hurston was based on Earth, with mining assets and weapons testing ranges scattered throughout the galaxy. In the past fifty years, these have been significantly consolidated to the facilities in Stanton.

A glitzy showroom and a formal pilots' bar, Viola's, contrast with the overall situation on the planet. Unlike the other inhabitants of the Stanton system, Hurston has run the planet into the ground: every part of the world not assigned to corporate facilities is either mined for antimatter precursors or used for research and development tests. Soot and smog pollute the atmosphere to the point that inhabitants must be issued breathers when conducting work outside their habicubes. The worker satisfaction rating on Hurston is 0.5 out of 10, and few miners remain beyond a single conscription tour. The corporation continually seeks to import low-skilled workers, and rumors persist of a market for Human slaves on the planet.

Privateers find that Hurston pays well for those who provide it with involuntary labor, and the company is a source of low-cost munitions and metals.

As a result of its disregard for Stanton I's ecology, Hurston is frequently a target of environmentalist groups, including the Citizen's Clean World Alliance (CCWA) and the Wildlife Conservation Project (WCP). The Colonel does nothing to hide his disdain for such movements, frequently citing the number of indigenous species his company has exterminated (mounted Osoian heads and flatcat sensor nubs decorate his sitting room), organizations that are in any case unlikely to be purchasing radioactive munitions. In response, more militant environmental groups have been known to target Hurston space convoys. Illegal bounties on Hurston corporate spacecraft are plentiful, though the corporation pays better for the escort pilots required to counter them.

Jurisdiction

Travel within Hurston Dynamics governed space is subject to local jurisdictional laws in addition to UEE laws. A violation of local laws, even an unknowing one, can result in expulsion, a fine, arrest, or imprisonment.

As with UEE Military and Advocacy agents, local security personnel can require submission to identification scans to establish identity, conduct searches of a person and vessel, and detain individuals with due cause.

Hurston Security enforces the laws within this jurisdiction, which applies within Hurston's gravitational sphere of influence and includes its four moons Aberdeen, Arial, Ita, and Magda.

|Operating a Stolen Vehicle

|Attempted Escape from Custody

|Unauthorized Computer Access

|Unauthorized Interdiction

|Tresspassing (First Degree)

|Anauthorized Interdiction

|Trafficking of Class A Controlled Substance

|Trafficking of Class B Controlled Substance

|Possession of Class A Controlled Substance

|Possession of Class B Controlled Substance

|Possession of Prohibited Goods

|Possession of Stolen Property

|Trafficking of Stolen Property

|Altruciatoxin • Maze • Neon

|Gasping Weevil Eggs • LifeCure Medsticks • Osoian Hides • Redfin Energy Modulator

Weapons systems

Although its weapons technology is found throughout the Empire and beyond, Hurston currently manufactures only two lines of branded ship weapons: quantum cascade lasers and electron guns. Both lines are available in multiple sizes, configurations, and purposes. Weapon sizes range from small "needle" cannons to the large capital batteries found on UEE warships. Hurston's tool and die experience allows both weapon types to be sold in Gatling repeater and cannon configurations. Variants of the guns, at various grades, are designed for different markets: cheaper grades for export, Standard to Quality grades for licensed civilian use, and Excellent grade for the UEE military.

Hurston's "Spectrum" line of external cavity quantum cascade lasers has been used by a variety of operators for nearly a century. Quantum cascade lasers fire electromagnetic bolts that convert any material contacted into plasma. A Hurston Dynamics Spectrum 7 QCL is recommended by the Bounty Hunters Guild as a standard for starter laser cannons, while the Spectrum 9 Gatling variant has been adopted by the UEE for destroyer-based CIWS systems undergoing space trials. Although many corporations produce cheaper quantum cascade lasers, mostly based on Hurston's technologies, the Hurston name continues to carry a strong reputation.

The less-celebrated "Magnitude" line of electron guns is generally considered a specialist's weapon. Standard UEE units do not use Magnitudes, although they are mounted on particular special operations and Advocacy spacecraft variants. The guns strip electrons from hydrogen atoms and then accelerate them at high speeds, suspended in a magnetic bolt focused through a multi-stage Einzel lens.

Extensive weapons labs have been established on Stanton I, and rumors of a third line of guns continue. These rumors gained traction when the corporation put out a record-high ten million credit bounty believed to be for a mercenary who stole a test artifact from the corporation. It is unknown whether the bounty was claimed or the artifact recovered. Observers consider it unusual that Hurston produces conventional and antimatter warheads without its own delivery system, and many believe it is only a matter of time until the company premieres a new antimatter-derived slug thrower, an event that could shift the balance of power among civilian pilots and potentially affect the course of the war against the Vanduul.

Situation of contract workers

A central feature of Hurston is the Life/Labor-Style Employee Contract introduced in the 26th century, possibly inspired by the Banu Souli system. Under the design of the contracts, workers are de facto bound to Hurston for life in exchange for basic housing, medical support, and other services. The system is criticized by workers' rights groups, since the contracts are designed so that they cannot be easily terminated or fulfilled under normal circumstances.

Known CEOs of Hurston Dynamics

• Solomon Hurston: 1st CEO Founded HD in 2438, retired 2488
• Isiah Hurston: 2nd CEO Acting CEO in 2488, son of Solomon
• Arial Hurston: 3rd CEO Born 2466, in office 2514, died 2537
• Archibald Hurston: CEO Born 2618, died 2689
• Alton Hurston: CEO In office 2786
• Aberdeen Hurston: CEO? Weapon engineer Born 2821, retired 2877, died 2912
• Magda Hurston: CEO Bought Stanton I in 2865, retired 2915, died 2921
• Gavin E. Hurston: Current CEO In office since 2915, son of Magda

Other known members of the Hurston family

• Julius Hurston, employee in the financial department of Hurston
• Ita Hurston, Warrant Officer of Advanced Special Operations in the UPE Navy, namesake of Stanton 1d
• Constantine Hurston
• Maria W. Hurston, namesake for Maria Pure of Heart hospital in Lorville
• Chesterfield Hurston, Maria W. Hurston's son, and father to Magda and Bertram Hurston
• Mariah Park Hurston, wife of Chesterfield Hurston

Source: StarCitizen.tools. This article includes adapted Star Citizen Wiki content shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license. The Impound has added formatting, navigation, summaries, related links, and shopping links.