Lost Stars, Inc.
Lost Stars, Inc. was a biomass harvesting and recovery corporation that was founded in YC106 by Yosif Veaulore and his son Perime. The corporation was acquired by Quafe Company in YC111. Following accusations of illicit use of biomass, the corporation was shuttered in YC112.
Foundation
Lost Stars, Inc. was founded in YC106 by Yosif Veaulore, following the death of Yosif's wife Verine. A member of a capsuleer crew, she died when the Thorax she served on was captured and destroyed before the ship's escape pods could eject. After being unable to retrieve the body, Yosif and his son Perime founded Lost Stars to assist others who had been in their predicament.
The company began with a single frigate and took on contracts from families to recover loved ones. The corporation employed crew to venture out into space to recover bodies following capsuleer battles. While the danger of these “death marches” was high, the company soon began to turn a profit. The sheer number of recovered corpses meant the company was able to quickly grow. While the majority of families were unable or unwilling to pay the recovery fee, the company sold the unidentified and unclaimed corpses for biomass.
Quafe Acquisition
By YC111, the corporation had grown to a fleet of 2000 ships and recovered millions of corpses. It collected an average of 5000 corpses per deadspace conflict and roughly 1000 per 30 capsuleer ship destroyed. It sold the majority of the biomass to cloning facilities across the Federation and other related businesses.
The success of the company prompted its purchase by Quafe Company under the direction of rising star Gheyr Aillon. Quafe immediately began upgrading the company's retrieval systems, including replacing 50% of the salvaging crews with automated drones. They additionally refocused the destination of unclaimed biomass, rerouting delivery to internal uses. Soon, its efficiency was up 200%.
Quafe+
Less than a year after the company was purchased by Quafe, it was involved in the disastrous Quafe+ project. Following an internal lead, Quafe Internal Affairs began investigating the source of the flavoring agent for Quafe+. It was discovered that the agent was made from biomass provided by Lost Stars, Inc. utilizing falsified documents as to its origin. Yosif Veaulore was arrested, as was Perime on an unrelated charge.
With the negative fallout from the investigation and the arrest of its two top executives, Quafe shut down Lost Stars, Inc.