History
Founded in GSC 43, early in Era-1, from the merger of several large pharmaceutical and biotechnical concerns, Cosmid was to become one of the largest corporate states. Shortly after the invention of FTL space travel, several corporations from seemingly different fields discovered that they were all seeking the same fundamental goal: to productize and profit from the very processes of life, itself. The resulting chain of mergers left the Cosmid name on an even wider array of products and services.
Cosmid grew into one of the largest of the corporate states in Era-1, using many planets and space colonies as the locations for experiments that would otherwise be illegal. This network of colonies also served as the manufacturing base for their extensive line of products. The corporate state also included a number of exclusive medical resorts where the wealthy and the powerful could get treatments not available on the general market. (Amadeus Krieg was headed to a Cosmid medical resort, when his ship was lost in a storm.)
One of the more notable of Cosmid’s colonies was the planet Midori, which was the founding-place of the Church of God, and later the Capitol of the Midori Republic.
Throughout Era-1, Cosmid continually came into conflict with the Edenites, who saw Cosmid's practices and methods as immoral, and unnatural.
In the run up to the Great Reckoning, Cosmid started mass producing cloned soldiers and biological weapons for the Holy Empire of Man (both of which were highly illegal in the Planetary League). During the Great Reckoning, Cosmid officially became part of the HEM, and its ranks of engineers and scientists became the source of the Empire's Bio-Chaplins, and Bio-Priests, who performed all manner of bio-enhancement and medical services for the imperial war machine.
Products
Cosmid's products and services included:
Bioreactors, and the organisms used in them
Various medicines
Cloned organs for transplant
Crops, and other food-organisms
Various Bioenhancements, including Algal Symbiosis
Human Clones, while illegal in most developed civilizations (such as the Planetary League), were one of Cosmid’s most lucrative products.
The Gene-Right system repaired the mutations that can occur in space travel, but required users to continue taking Gene-Right treatments, lest all the built-up mutations manifest at once.
Colonies of Note
Ovid was the first of the "Garden-Worlds", an experimental colony deep in the Tartarus Sector.
Midori was a testing site for various mind-control experiments, and founding world of the Church of God.
Creations
Sarnak The Immortal was a powerful star-god, accidentally created by Cosmid.
Product Containment
Since so many of Cosmid's products are potentially dangerous, experimental, or illegal, a specialized department was set up within the company to keep things contained. Product containment specialists are equipped with bio-hazard equipment, medical supplies, and the latest in weaponry for those occasions when the company's latest R&D projects get off the rails.
R&D
Cosmid's research and development efforts were a massive undertaking, spanning multiple worlds and space habitats. Some of the more "controversial" projects were developed within the Cosmid corporate state to avoid laws and regulations (especially those of the Planetary League).
Terraforming Solutions
One of the more prosperous divisions within Cosmid was Cosmid Terraforming Solutions which would send shiploads of supplies and equipment to newly colonized planets to improve the environment. Many of the small states that sprung up around the fringes of the Planetary League turned to Cosmid for turn-key terraforming. For an extra fee, Cosmid would even send clones of intelligent species to work as slave labor on the colonies. Even though the practice was illegal in the Planetary League, and other democratic societies, the financial rewards were high enough that Cosmid would do it anyway. As Era-1 progressed, and the Planetary League grew corrupt, law enforcement crackdowns on illegal cloning became rarer and more easily bought-off.
