The Vucub Huan Hand Gang
13 May 2021Lotus Terranus
When the Vucub Huan Corporation opened Walter Prospect, their recruitment strategy was merely to take the first workers who could get to the refinery. Unemployment in the surrounding region was such that they could rely on demand. Not only did they not provide for relocation (not even for their former employees in the Old Worlds) but the station compartments set aside for accommodation did not have life support. Workers would do without gravity, and provide their own food, oxygen and water recycling. The poorly-paid refinery staff soon began to suffer shortages, and violent disputes were common.Into this vacuum stepped "The Helping Hand", later known merely as The Hand. Starting by running economy Python flights into Walter Prospect which could be paid for on credit, they subsequently started providing and maintaining life support for station habitation. They settled disputes and provided security patrols. This left the station inhabitants indebted to them in every sense. The Hand were strict in their repayment policy, though often strangely flexible about the means.
Despite this increased security, disappearances of Corporation property were not unusual, and this extended to equipment, raw and processed goods, and even staff. They began to suspect The Hand itself, but found themselves powerless to operate without their assistance. The Hand had become a protection racket, if it had ever been anything else, and the Corporation were now exploited as much as they had exploited their workers.