Diamondback Research and Exploration / DR3

Diamond Back Research & Exploration was founded in 2085, long before the age of commonplace space travel. It was then, and is now, a tight knit organisation staying close to the founders original ideals of bringing cutting edge technology to furthest reaches of the worlds we inhabit, whilst advancing Science by means of Exploration.
DRE’s origins however can be traced back further than a mere date at Companies House.

The DeArcwell twins were born in England, Earth, on 15th June 1997. Both were christened Maximilian. In their early twenties, the twins formed a loose business partnership based around their mutual love of mountaineering, SCUBA diving, the great outdoors and simply “being first”. Following some minor Polar cartography successes and the notable 16K mapping of the Juan De Fuca Ridge in 2045, they were controversially awarded the not-for-profit contract to map, in unprecedented 32k detail, the Mariana Trench. Several companies had been vying for the United Nations cartography contract but the experience and reputation the twins had gained in mapping the Juan De Fuca Ridge was enough for them to win through.
One of the contract clauses Maximilian had “sneaked in under the radar” (his own words, taken from his autobiography of 2097, “Maximilian: 200 years in the making”) was that the twins were to be awarded mining rights to any minerals or metals found as a direct result of the mapping process. A master stroke of forward thinking by Maximilian. The UN contract was signed 28th October 2045, with the mapping process beginning several months later during June 2036.

The discovery of the DeArcwell Diamond Field in 2054, coincided with the Roberts Space Industries’ (RSI) desire for unprecedented quantities of large natural diamonds needed to further their research various technologies including the now famous “self-sustaining” Quantum Core Engine. The huge pressures at the bottom of the Trench proved to be the perfect environment for the creation of such large, flawless diamonds. Of the diamond field, Maximilian was later quoted as saying it was their “light at the end of a long and very dark tunnel”. The year 2073 saw the discovery of the Eye of Earth, a 5017 carat uncut diamond. The following year, EoE was gifted to all the peoples Earth by way of a donation to the United Nations. This gesture catapulted DRE into the public eye and placed them very much on the radar of RSI. During 2074, the forward thinking twins were able to negotiate a deal with RSI for the continued supply of diamonds in exchange for (amongst other concerns) several of the first commercially viable Quantum Drive Engines. Quantum Core Technology was in its infancy and wasn’t announced publicly until 03rd May 2075. QCT wouldn’t become commercially viable for a number of years, however this proved to be a further master stroke by the twins. Early access to Quantum Core Technology (in the form of a customised Zeus Starship in 2139, 18 months before the spacecraft was available to the general public) proved invaluable in the formative years of DRE, enabling the company to extensively map all the inner planets of the SOL solar system throughout the mid part of the 2100’s.

By 2082, the loose partnership enjoyed by the twins since the mid 2020’s, was proving to be an inadequate platform for business growth. A larger, more robust, platform was needed to handle the huge contracts and considerable logistical demands needed to supply RSI. And on a personal note, the Twins desire for exploration and the great unknown was no longer being met by the partnership.
In order to concentrate on more fulfilling endeavours, the mutual decision to step back from day to day operations taken. Diamondback Research and Exploration was incorporated 18th November, 2085. The Twins remained as majority shareholders.
The profitable link with RSI continued for over 100 years, supplying diamonds for not only the Quantum Core project, but also for the first stages of laser development required by RSI’s Terraforming Technologies (cica 2113), and the new Poseidon spacecraft (capable of flight speeds of 1/100th the speed of light). The DeArcwell Diamond Field was eventually depleted and declared exhausted in early 2221.

Today, DRE continues to further the development of Human kind through research and exploration, pushing ever deeper into space looking for new discoveries, new technologies, new races and, of course, DeArcwell Diamond Field II.

The DeArcwell Twins spent their twilight years looking down on the Earth they knew so well from their orbital platform home in geostationary orbit of the DeArcwell Diamond Field.
The funds raised through the mining of the Mariana Trench and the creation of DRE allowed the twins, in their retirement years, to oversee the 128K mapping of Earth’s entire seabed.
The Twins died of natural causes in 2116, within 36 hours of each other. They were 119 years young.
In accordance with their wishes, they were buried deep within the Mariana Trench.
Their exact resting place is unknown.