THE LIFE OF ROSE

1575 – Desiderius Marcus Rose, a young scholar, came aboard the brig “Ouwe Zon” for a short chart making mission on the Mediterranean Sea. It was nothing new for Rose as he sprung from a well-known Dutch family with a strong naval tradition. One night when he was on deck for a late night stroll he noticed a sloop approaching them rapidly. They didn’t have any lights nor flew any colours. The first mate saw it too and started to panic. Piracy was very common in the area and he knew for sure that it would be his last night amidst the living. The “Ouwe Zon” wasn’t armed apart from two old swivel guns mounted on the rail of the Quarter deck. Surely not enough for a confrontation like this. They had small arms, of course, but all the men were sound asleep. Their throats would be cut before they had any chance of knowing what happened. Rose knew this too. He had heard the stories his family told him when he was a child. Flee or fight it was. He didn’t hesitate and ordered the first mate to turn their bow towards the sloop at his signal and to not ring any bells until he instructed him to.
A few moments later the night sky filled with the smashing sound of shattering wood. The hull of the “Ouwe Zon”, much sturdier than the one of the old pirate sloop, appeared to be in the spot where the Main deck of the sloop used to be. Rose stood on the Quarter deck, grabbed one of the swivel guns and aimed it at the person with the biggest hat, lit the fuse and by that shooting the head of the pirate captain right off his neck. Forcing the pirate crew into a shock that led to a surrender.

1577 – Back in the Dutch Republic Desiderius Marcus Rose was received a hero. Because of his years on the “Ouwe Zon” and his family tradition he joined the naval academy and not much later got promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. He had the privilege to choose the ship he would like to get assigned to. A few months later the “Ouwe Zon” received new sails, got armed to the teeth and was ready for more adventures. It didn’t take long for Lieutenant Rose to rise in ranks and the day came that he took over the captain’s chair. By now he was an experienced and respected officer in the navy.

1595 – Being a scholar and a captain with his own ship created possibilities for Rose. He decided to focus more on exploration and undertook a mission towards the unknown east and ten years later he was the first Dutchmen to sail around the world (without being killed in the process). Laying the foundations for trade and progress.

1640 – Desiderius Marcus Rose was now Sir Desiderius Marcus Rose. He was now an old and wise man with a whole life behind him instead of in front of him. He was proud of it and so were his wife and child. Now an Admiral, he received an honourable discharge. But, as he was a pioneer in the field of exploration, he couldn’t just let go. He was too old to set sail so he set up a small private company to aid future missions to new worlds. Rose Corp was a fact.

1815 – After the occupying French, under rule of Napoleon, had been driven out, The Netherlands had a king again. Willem Frederik, Prins van Oranje-Nassau (Prince of Orange Nassau), had big plans but was also aware that this victory didn’t just fall from the sky. Rose Corp was led by Yves Rose, and being a true patriot together with the expertise of the company behind him, he made sure that enemy troop and naval movements were mapped, and even had an important logistical role in supplying Orange troops wherever needed. His role in the liberation of the Low Lands wasn’t unnoticed by the new king, and they were rewarded the title of Orange. Orange Rose Corp was born.
Being primarily sea based, they were also awarded the honour of using a prefix for their vessels, although slightly altered as they were not officially part of the Dutch Navy. From now on ORO got a right to the prefix HMRS, which stands for His Majesty’s Rose Ship (although many of the sailors below decks quickly converged it into “Hollanders Met Ruiche Scheepen”, carrying it with honour).

ORANGE ROSE CORP

2127 – By now Orange Rose Corp had aided many clients with their ever growing knowledge. The relations with grand organizations like NASA, ESA, CNSA and CCCP (later RFSA) were outstanding and though ORO was still relatively small it contributed to man’s greatest steps into the future. In that year Orange Rose Corp was led by a young woman called Elena Rose. She became famous for her great work in aiding the teams of surveyors that charted Mars to find the best spots for atmospheric processors. But the Great Mars Tragedy that followed five years after the terraforming was the organizations worst nightmare. Because of the organizations part on Mars, Orange Rose Corp was now connected to the 4.876 lost lives. Things were going downhill for us. Clients suddenly turned their backs at ORO with immense financial losses a result. Elena Rose took a bold step to deviate from the 487 years old ORO tradition to only aid and do nothing more. She sought other ways to make profit and found this in trading and transportation. She had found a way to keep Orange Rose Corp alive and her choices turned out to be a new milestone for the organization. Because of her they now had the extra financial boost to make Orange Rose Corp a standalone organization. Being able to survive without the continuous stream of, sometimes less honourable, clients. Orange Rose Corp was from now on a multi tasked organization with connections in almost every branch. It became bigger than ever anticipated.

2380 – 253 years later the United Nations of Earth (UNE, later UPE and UEE) was formed and Orange Rose Corp, now under the direction of the great grandson of Elena Rose, Hermanus Rose, saw its chance to make good use of this. Before the creation of the biggest alliance in human history of that time there were too many small organizations and nations who rather made sure that the other nations couldn’t reach out in the universe than to make sure they succeeded in this themselves. It was a mess and ORO saw no other solution than to keep the focus on transportation and trading. But now things were changed. Humanity had a common goal again and Orange Rose Corp immediately regained its focus on their traditional role of aiding clients in exploration. But this time it was only one client, the UNE. Relationships were built and ORO was back in exploration business as expansion of the human race through the galaxy was on top of the UNE list.

2438 – The year of the First Contact with the Banu race. Hermanus Rose was still at the rudder of ORO and didn’t hesitate to immediately prepare an ORO peace convoy to make contact with the representatives of this formidable new race. By doing this he had a good part in creating the Interstellar Peace & Trade Accord that we all know today. Making sure that Orange Rose Corp was as respected as when it was founded so many years ago. Because of the knowledge of trade that was acquired in over 300 years it was not very strange that strong connections and later friendships were created between the Banu and Orange Rose Corp.

2530 – Sometimes history seems to repeat itself, this was one of those times. Just like our founder, Desiderius Marcus Rose, did with his first chart-making mission, Orange Rose Corp was fully focusing its means into aiding the UPE with exploration missions. And just like the Dutch navy found it necessary to make that old brig “Ouwe Zon” ready for combat, so thought the UPE with the ORO fleet in 2530. Those were horrifying years. Humanity thought they could never run out of luck with new trade lanes added every day, more expansion of the human race and the Banu as its allies. Until they made contact with the Xi’An and immediately got into conflict with them. Suddenly humanity woke up from their dream and the first day in history arrived where they, as a unified human race, needed to arm themselves against a completely unknown alien race. For the first time in history the humans had a common enemy. On advice of the UPE, much of ORO’s new credits (they were only introduced two years before) were invested in arming their ships and hiring marines and sometimes even mercenaries for protection against boarding and securing unprotected landing zones. This soon proved to be too expensive to maintain and Orange Rose Corp decided to introduce their own military training which was based on that of the UPE. This also made it necessary to include ranks and to transform ORO from a Private Company (PC) into a Private Military Company (PMC) making Hermanus Rose the first Fleet Marshal.

2541 – Humanity was now not only in conflict with the Xi’An but also with the Tevarin. Big organizations were asked to provide ships and manpower to serve as a reservists role for the UPE. For the past ten years Orange Rose Corp had invested billions of credits into arming their ships and training its crew. It was no surprise that the UPE called upon ORO to take their share of the war. And it did. By that time Orange Rose Corp was led by Fleet Marhal Benjamin Rose. A young man and the only Rose at that time. Hermanus Rose, his father, had died a few years before and only had one son. Despite of the difficult time Benjamin was in, he still had big plans for ORO. In 2542, when a part of the EXDI fleet was supporting a SAR mission in the Oberon system they got ambushed by the Tevarin. Until this day nobody knows what exactly happened there on that day. All of the ships were lost including the ship of Benjamin. A massacre, they say. Making an end to the famous Rose bloodline who had been giving their lives to this organization for over 900 years. The organization was wrecked by this news. People didn’t know what to do but knew they had to do something to avenge the Rose family. Benjamin was initially to be wed with a woman called Tara Omnium. The daughter of one of the high ranking officers in Orange Rose Corp. The Omnium family served ORO for over eight generations and became very attached with the Rose family. In the chaos of Benjamin’s death, Tara rose up and took charge. With tears in her eyes she promised everyone the retribution that they were looking for.

OMNIUM AT THE RUDDER

2544 – In this year the time was there for Tara to fulfil her promise. They had been preparing for this moment for the last three years, arming the ORO fleet even more and spending most of their credits in offensive capabilities instead of the normal defensive roles that the ships used to have. It was in the Idris system where the complete Orange Rose Fleet, all divisions together, joined the UPE in what would be the last battle to put an end to the First Tevarin War. That day ORO witnessed and fought in one of the biggest and most brutal battles in that war. The humans and the Tevarin had incredible high losses on either side. In this battle almost 80% of the ORO fleet was destroyed or declared a total loss afterwards with almost 55% of the ORO crew killed or MIA. But in the end it was worth it. Not only for Tara, Benjamin and Orange Rose Corp, but also for humanity. At least, they thought it was.

2603 – After almost sixty years of peace the Second Taverin War began. Nobody expected this and neither did Orange Rose Corp. After their losses in the Idris system it had been struggling to regain its former strength. The few credits that were left were invested in patching up the ships that survived the battle and paying of all of the huge loans needed for weapons and training. Credits to buy or build new ships were nowhere to be found. The offensive weaponry had to be sold and the ships held only a minimum of defensive countermeasures. Tara Omnium and the UPE knew that it was best to keep the ORO fleet out of combat. Alas the Taverin didn’t share this idea. They knew the role that Orange Rose Corp had in that infamous battle and they had revenge on their minds. In those seven years of war the Taverin were suddenly everywhere and the remaining ORO fleet took substantial losses. In the end there was almost nothing left than a handful of T-XIII’s and only their knowledge to trade with.

2750 – Finally things were looking good again for the organization. After the Second Taverin War when things eased down a bit, the Banu offered ORO as a sign of their good relationship a few brand new Merchantmans to aid its fleet. That resulted in booming business as the trading game could be picked up again. Instead of the much smaller cargo holds of the T-XIII’s, Orange Rose Corp could now ship thousands of SCU all at once. In this year the oldest son of Tara Omnium, Jack, was promoted to Fleet Marshal. Because Tara knew that now that the highly aggressive Vanduul were in the picture, the peaceful days where she grew up in were officially over. For this reason she sent Jack Omnium at the age of sixteen to the UEE navy so he could learn how to act during Vanduul encounters. Her decision proved worthy as this not only created better connections with the UEE, it also made sure that Orange Rose Corp implemented better strategies in combat and SAR situations.

2931 – Present day Orange Rose Corp is led by Fleet Marshal Swift Omnium, the grandson of Jack Omnium. The almost 1.300 years of experience in exploration, trade, transportation and combat have given him much to study and apply. He knows the importance of what the Rose family had achieved and wants to honour this by focusing on their once main goal; exploration. He also sees the importance of trade and transportation to back up the ORO missions and to make sure that together with the Board of Admiralty the organization will exist for a thousand years to come.