Harrison Armory

History

Harrison Armory rose from the ashes of IPS' industrial base on Epsilon Indi by a group of inquiring Bio-Apperata at the behest of ev6. Through reverse-engineering IPS manufacturing facilities and captured mech chassis, Harrison Armory vastly expanded the arsenal of the Inorganic Collective during the decades of relative peace following the capture of the systems. Importantly, Harrison Armory, unlike every other manufacturer, was founded for the sole purpose of war against humanity-any civilian applications for their work are based off of military-made chassis.

The history of company is first marked by the influence of the Bio-Apperatum, though. Nearly every frame produced by the company in the first half of the war was originally made to be a Bio-Apperatum protocol-essentially a blueprint uploaded into an Apperatum that determines their physiology after Synthesis-and then-after turned into a mech frame for non-BA use. Most early frames followed a very similar design process in which a new IPS frame is captured and reverse-engineered, an original Harrison Armory design is created based on the reverse-engineered frame, first as a Bio-Apperatum protocal, and then turning into a standard mech. It's based on that process that HA gets the naming convention they use for their designs-an intentional choice made to mock IPS and how they name their frames.

And, its the first product of that design and naming process that the head of Harrison Armory for most of the Synthesis War also takes his name, that of course being Saladin. One of the original founders of Harrison Armory, Saladin began working as an envoy between ev6 and the company, often travelling directly to the supercomputer on 22-Eridani to receive direction. It was under the ev6's instruction (allegedly) that Saladin transitioned the company to his sole rulership from the council rule that the company was originally managed under.

Soon after Saladin took over, Harrison Armory released their first original design for use in the war effort, the HA Saladin based on the IPS Drake. Over the course of the coming decades, the company would expand across the entire Epsilon Indi and Tau Ceti sectors, repairing and ruling over most of the manufacturing space on those systems. For the rest of the "first era" of the war, HA would expand into nearly all military and even some civilian industries for the Inorganic Collective, becoming the dominant force in control of the state, second only the ev6 themself. Over this time, Harrison Armory would develop a number of frames using the same reverse-engineering process. However, as the gains of the initial phase of the war were slowly taken back by Organic forces, Harrison Armory would take drastic action--ensuring both their dominance over the Inorganic faction and saving the war effort.

It's unclear exactly how Saladin changed from a shadowy, distant figure pulling the strings on Harrison Armory to a public, intellectual demagogue, however, his decision to appeal to Tazarak as the savior of apperatum-kind certainly played a large part in that transformation. Previously lacking in a patron Numen, Harrison Armory and the newly iterated ev7 had determined that they needed a deity on their side in order to contend with IPS' Turing and any other future Factions that may join the war effort. Naturally, the second most powerful faction in Inorganic space, the Antiquital Inquiry, came to the forefront-now was the perfect opportunity for this niche faction to enter the limelight-but as it turned out, their efforts would become fruitless (much to their resentment, something that would come back to bite Saladin and HA later on). Saladin, either with or without approval of ev7, had chosen Tazarak, the Propogation to the shock of Inorganic and Organic alike. It's unknown exactly how Saladin had approached, or been approached by the feral Numen, but by the time he had approached other Inorganic leadership-he had already been made a harbinger of the Propagation. Once the case for the Numen was explained to the public, many understood why he had chosen the deity, at least on the Inorganic side of thing-after all, what better deity befit the Bio-Apperatum, the supposed superior species combining humanity and apperata destined to propagate across the universe and become the dominant species within it. Even the suggestion that Rend would befit their cause was antithetical in Saladin's eyes: Synthesis was the future, and binding themselves to a deity of the past would doom the Inorganic Collective to a death by contradiction.

And so, just as it had began, the Synthesis War reignited as Inorganic warfleets spread out from the Tau Ceti sector. Now able to produce a much greater number of Apperata thanks to new Propogation-infused Bio-Apperatum designs, the Inorganics were able to overwhelm and outlast Organic armies and secure victory after victory against the exhausted IPS and wavering Blueshift Confederacy. It was different this time, though, as the ev7 drifted into the background of the Inorganic cause and Saladin became the face of their side of the conflict. Saladin championed the idea that war was for both human and apperatic kind-that both of them were doomed should they not evolve into one, and that idea was backed by the work of Harrison Armory at the time with the newly launched Organic Synthesis Project.

Synthesis needed not to be a violent thing, according to Harrison Armory, and the equation itself could be changed such that the organic or neither side of the combination is in control. Such was the doctrine of the Organic Synthesis Project, a Harrison Armory initiative working in collaboration with the Soterian Baronies and SSC to develop new variations of the Synthesis Equation as well as new technologies, particularly mech frames.

That project was at the forefront of Harrison Armory's projects at the time, as Saladin was doing their best to exploit the wavering Organic civilian populace by recruiting more and more human officers to the Inorganic side through non-violent Synthesis. By this point, the company had abandoned all reverse-engineering efforts, instead devoting their time to creating new, original frames for the Inorganic armies and creating new versions of old IPS-based frames.

During these times Harrison Armory oversaw the strongest years of the Inorganic war effort, when both IPS and Blueshift were on the brink of collapse, until it all came crumbling down-starting with the collapse of the Organic Synthesis Project. The exact details of the collapse were heavily censored and keep secret by the governments and corporations involved but severe abuses and secrets kept about the project by Harrison Armory were cited by both SSC and the Soterian Baronies as reason for their cancellation of the project (both also made vague notions alluding to a kind of internal massacre causing the end of both branches of the project, and many of the people involved were either imprisoned or otherwise punished).

With the failure of the project, Saladin's rhetoric collapsed in turn as nearly all of whatever support existed for the Inorganics in Organic territory faded. SSC, in their fury, even overcame their hatred of IPS through a deal with NORTHSTAR director Minos that had them join the war against the Inorganic Collective in return for their stolen lands. For now though, Harrison Armory bitterly held on to the possessions they had, with Saladin and upper management seeing no possibility of an olive branch given the current state of the war (not to mention the still incomplete ev7).

And thus, the unraveling of the Inorganic Collective began. It was a slow meticulous process, where every Bio-Apperatum disabled was able to take down five regular Organic soldiers, but no longer did they have the clear advantage in the conflict. SSC provided vital support in the war, with their genetically modified resolutes nearly being able to take on Bio-Apperatums on their own, and by providing crucial advanced cloning technologies to the IPS-controlled sector to allow a more rapid replenishment of battlefield losses.Harrison Armory, though, became unusually stagnant during this period, focusing more on long-term, classified projects rather than taking short-term opportunities to aid in the war effort. Signs of infighting were present as well, with the company making few public appearances to encourage the Inorganic struggle.

Fronts continued to collapse for the rest of the war, with the Inorganics suffering defeat after defeat, and only achieving mild success during a counter-offensive on the Alectan sector during the IPS-A revolution. Instead, Harrison Armory devoted much of their effort into vast mining and resource gathering operations in order to get new material for ev7 back on Eridani-22b, which was slowly approaching completion.

But the true, final death rattle of an Inorganic victory was sounded with the death of Saladin. In 4471 A.D, during October of the solar year, Saladin was revealed dead to the world by the Inorganic Collective, reportedly dying in battle to an enemy harbinger amidst the defense of Procyon. The exact circumstances of his death, though, have never been revealed, even now, and his Bio-Apperatum body has yet to be found--causing many to believe he was captured by either IPS or SSC, dead or alive, and has yet to be shown to the public.

In the wake of his death, HA formed a loose council of upper executives to manage the company in his absence--an arrangement that was ultimately ineffective and merely a voice for whatever ev7 thought the best course of action (which was usually devoting all of their resources into iterating the supercomputer). Inorganic military efforts thus felt a significant shock to their effectiveness on the field, given the lack of logistical information from the impeded Harrison Armory upper management. A final battle was arranged, though, in the last stand of the Second Inorganic Starfleet and Tazarak near Eridani-22, right as it neared its final iteration. However, this battle was ultimately just a show of sound and fury on the Inorganic side of things--a suicidal last stand meant to make an impression rather than achieve a tactical victory. It succeeded in that effort though, as the battle was costly enough for Organic forces that, combined with the wavering cohesiveness of the Alliance and the Alectan Revolution, put the Organics in a bad-enough position that they would concede to a peace deal rather than go for complete and total victory. And, with ev8 ascending into Numenity soon after, that was believed to be the right course of action.

Thus, what was left of the Inorganic Collective did its best to gather together their higher-ups to form a provisional leadership in the Tau Ceti Accords. They were, of course, ineffective in that conference, leading to the terms of peace in which over half of Harrison Armory's officers and management were imprisoned or executed-with even more being taken away due to convictions of war crimes. Harrison Armory became toothless and leaderless, a perfect opportunity for new blood to enter the limelight. A perfect opportunity that an apperatum calling himself Louis LXXXIV, along with the Antiquital Inquiry, took.

Filling the void left by Saladin, Louis LXXXIV was already quite the celebrity in the final decades of the war. Filling a certain cultural void within the Inorganic Collective, Apperata whom weren't very drawn to Synthesis rallied behind him. Always an outspoken one, Louis championed the idea that Synthesis as they had engaged with it, was a mistake. Louis believed that, before something like it could even be considered, Apperata needed to come into their own as a species to stand alongside, or rival, humanity. By going straight into Synthesis, Inorganic civilization was unable to find any identity other than the equation, a fact that many knew all too well after the fall of Saladin and the ascension of ev8 left the remaining Inorganic space soulless, and most impactful of all, devoid of purpose.

All of that combined gave the Antiquital Inquiry the popular support of apperatum-kind, in contrast with Harrison Armory of whom most were furious with. The Antiquital Inquiry thus made their play, taking reins of governance from Harrison Armory and establishing the Neo-Bourbon monarchy with Louis LXXXIV at the head of this new Apperatic Empire. Harrison Armory was forced to submit-no longer would they be the sole directors of Apperatum-controlled space. New leadership filled the vacancies left in the company, with most coming from leaders in planetary industrial efforts. With the company falling under the wing of royal authority though, it fell into secrecy even more than the company had done during its time in complete control. The operations of company, and even their internal leadership structure, is thoroughly kept behind the royal veil.

Nonetheless, Harrison Armory has maintained a discrete, but noticeable presence on the worlds of the Apperatic Empire. The company lacks the overbearing sensibilities of SSC or the backroom power of IPS, instead, the company focuses on its core purpose: to make weapons of war-nothing more, nothing less. Its unclear how much power they wield over regional populations, and exactly how far their control extends, but its clear that they certainly hold some sort of sway. Local governance always makes way for the company, especially in regards to harvesting and refining Ichor.