Prosperous: Chutes & Ladders
Merchant Raitor Union

‘SolCivilizations, Vol. 4’

WITH THE TERALLIANS DEFEATED, and many humans havingdeveloped a lust for life in space, space-faring vessels became a commodity notjust of the government or wealthy. The first human to venture outside of oursolar system, or Sol, was Andrew Jacobs. He flew solo in a craft measuring 7.1meters by 3.26 meters by 2.35 meters. Jacobs was an American who believed inthe American dream. Not the one about freedom, or the one about baseball andapple pie. He believed that a man should die rich and get there by any meansnecessary. The first alien species he encountered was the Avinion.

In his memoirs, Jacobs wrote, ‘They almost shot me down onthe spot. I was surprised that they could even understand me and I couldunderstand them. I didn’t know about translating devices then – hell, no humandid! But somehow the conversation turned to trash, which is what they werehauling. I don’t know exactly what kind of industry they have back on theirplanet, even to this day I don’t, but the waste put out mountains of gold. WhenI got on their ship and saw cargo holds the size of jet hangers filled withgold, that’s when I knew space was going to become a very friendly place.’

He was able to entice them into sampling his food storesand they developed a taste for dehydrated pineapple and ice cream, and in 2576the first intergalactic trade between an alien race and human was made.

Jacobs’ success brought more and more humans out of theSol system in search of trade. Some with fast, sleek ships, some with old tugboats that took them generations to get to the next solar system. Theydiscovered another little known fact about the Universe. There were species outthere trying to kill each other and anyone who got in their way, and spacepirates who made Earth pirates look like innocent children’s tales. Fortwenty-nine years, space trade was a risky, often deadly, business.

Jacobs returned again to the business of space trade in2610 but this time to ensure its future. He had amassed a fortune large enoughto buy America (he had already purchased Jamaica) and was president of severalmining and space trade corporations. At age seventy-one, he was still one ofthe sharpest businessmen on the Intergalactic Trade Market, and he had watchedthe market rapidly drop toward a crash as the wars and attacks among racesbegan to take their toll on the economy.

He contacted several of his fellow Trade Marketcommissioners, a few other influential individuals in space trade, andambassadors of the races he traded with, and requested a summit at the JupiterTwin resort. From this summit Merchant Raitor Union was formed to help ensuretrading across galaxies would continue, along with sustainable economies on theworlds in the Union, and protection along trade routes. As time progressed, theunion became more military-like, adopting ranks and commissions. The MerchantRaitor Union goals shifted to their primary interest of protecting traderoutes, secondary interest of ensuring longevity of the Union commerce influence,and lastly the protection of nations who had joined the Union.

By 2609, the Merchant Raitor Union was overseeing all tradeand commercial traffic, and managing all space related business. While tradingoutside of the Merchant Raitor Union wasn’t banned, most nations chose not to.The Merchant Raitor Union offered protection of highly traveled trade routes,supplies, maintained a fleet of luxury and cargo ships, had the best spacefaring wages known to any nation, and guaranteed buyers and sellers that cargoand payment would arrive within a reasonable time. The peace and prosperity thatMerchant Raitor Union brought helped to stabilize numerous alien nations.