Rising Storm Industries
While the origins of RSI are rather unremarkable, in that they began as a defense contractor to the United States government during the 1950s and went through the usual changes of brand name and financial prosperity, the more recent days of the corporation are worth much more examination.
In 2008, RSI shifted stance. Research spending was increased enormously, aggressive head-hunting of executive talent was initiated, and RSI began to expand its security forces by orders of magnitude. Soon RSI secured the official sponsoring role of the first commercial deep space station -- L5. RSI oversees many geographical areas as Subject Territories and Production Camps, focusing on biotech research and weapons testing of new technologies, generating high amounts of revenue.
RSI has pioneered the area of military Autonomous Combat Units and Automated Antipersonnel Infantry, limited-AI drones created to bolster human troops. These troops proved their worth in an extended 2020-2021 ground campaign in Asia against The Black Obsidian. While the L5 station opened in 2025 amidst great fanfare and much media attention, 2026 saw it come to an end, as it was rocked by a large explosion and rendered near-uninhabitable.
In 2027, RSI executed a police action in the city of New Carthage, also known as old San Diego. In an effort to secure peaceful natural resource extraction services, RSI forces came into conflict with InterOrbital Operations.
After this venture, in 2031, a new board was appointed, with a mandate of respect for Corporate Convention and increasing shareholder value. At this point RSI were regarded a mild model corporate citizen weapons manufacturer. However, Gunshin took advantage of the new board's complacency and robbed RSI of much of it's R&D staffing levels before severing the corporate ties that bound the two corporations.
By January 2035, Rising Storm Industries were in the midst of deep restructuring talks; over the following years the structure of RSI has been steadily dismantled and its assets distributed among its erstwhile competitors and partners. Though the actual progress of the dismantling was a tightly kept secret at the time, many of the corporations that seemed likely to profit the most from the holdoff pre-emptively moved to protect the assets they expected to acquire. Tensions between the corporate parties involved rose sharply in the last months of 2035 and an analysis by War Watch International released in September anticipated actual direct action campaigns by early 2036.
Whilst it is unknown how accurate the predicted timescale was, a number of clashes between corporations striving to protect their interests did occur. Notably in mid 2037 Gunshin and rival weapons manufacturing group Sanguinius Arms were rumored to have entered in a series of tightly focused tactical engagements in South America and at warehousing locations along the Asian Pacific Rim where RSI properties and data were reportedly stored.
By 2044 the corporation was all but defunct, with only a few splinter corporations and individual entities holding claim to the name; the majority of their efforts were aimed towards salvaging what was left as bankruptcy proceedings begin to come to an end.
