The Meridian Extraction Consortium is an alliance of mining, energy and heavy-engineering firms. It joined the Continuity Directorate in 2212, a year after the Accord, and has funded roughly two-fifths of Asterion Station’s operating budget ever since.
# Interest in the Rift
Meridian’s interest is simple. A phase coupler draws a small, stable current from a Rift Shard for as long as the shard lasts, and no one has yet seen a shard run out. If shards can be recovered at scale, they would be the most valuable energy source on Earth. Meridian’s laboratories hold the second-largest shard collection outside Asterion.
# Suspicions
Meridian is the most popular suspect whenever something at Asterion goes unexplained. It has been accused, without proof, of sabotaging the survey-era relay chain, pressing for the 2214 calibration and planting caches to encourage deeper descents. Meridian denies all three. Its representatives point out, reasonably, that a consortium that wanted shards would not have stopped the lift program for three years.
# The C-9
After the blackout, Meridian’s council members voted against recalling the C-9 by force. Their published reason was the safety of the pilot. In private, the vote was understood differently: Marek Venn is the deepest-reaching collector of shards the Directorate has ever had, and he is not on anyone’s payroll.
Related articles
ARCHIVE RECORDContinuity DirectorateThe treaty-backed authority that controls all descent into the Rift. Its charter puts containment first. Its members disagree about what the Rift is worth.
ARCHIVE RECORDRift ShardsFragments of anomalous material that keep a stable energy signature after removal. Power source, research material and possibly memory.
WORKING THEORYThe cachesSealed Directorate supply crates found where no Directorate vehicle has been. Their scratches match crates still sitting in Asterion’s stores.ARCHIVE RECORDThe Asterion Accord (2211)The treaty that built a station, closed a basin and created the Continuity Directorate to keep the Rift under control.