On the Brace Conglomerate
By Yuko Bremer, Brace External Communications
On the Brace Conglomerate
A Reader's Introduction
By Yuko Bremer, Senior Director of External Communications
Published by the Brace Conglomerate Public Affairs Office
About This Booklet
This booklet introduces the Brace Conglomerate to new pilots and to anyone curious about how our pattern services work. We have tried to make it accessible.
If you have questions this booklet does not answer, your local Brace Representative will gladly help.
— Y.B.
- The Founding of Brace
Brace was founded in ES 12 by three of the First Light Group's surviving fold-engineers, who recognized that the new era would need an institution capable of preserving what pilots risked.
The original premise was simple: if a pilot's hull was destroyed in the line of work, the pilot should be able to come back. The founders understood that the fold-network's pattern-storage capability could be repurposed for civilian use.
The first Brace pattern facility was commissioned at Ceres in ES 15. The first successful unfold-after-destruction event was logged ES 17. By ES 30, Brace had facilities at five major Sol-Prime locations.
Today Brace operates over sixty pattern facilities across Sol-Prime and select outer regions. Almost every pilot in human space holds a Brace insurance policy. We are proud of that trust.
Continued.
- The Pattern Promise
Brace's commitment to every pilot is straightforward. We call it the Pattern Promise:
"Your hull is destructible. Your pattern is not. Pay your premium; come back to fly."
When you purchase Brace insurance, we encode your hull's complete physical specification into a fold-stable pattern and store it at one of our facilities. The pattern is your hull, encoded in folded space, waiting.
When your hull is destroyed, our facility retrieves your pattern and unfolds it into matter at your designated beacon. The new hull is, physically, the same hull. Modules, customizations, and your installed loadout return with it.
Note: Cargo is not stored in the pattern. Cargo is variable inventory, separate from the hull itself, and drops at the wreckage site when you are destroyed.
We continue to research extending pattern-storage to cargo; no commercial offering yet exists.
Continued.
- The Network of Facilities
Brace operates pattern facilities at concentrated, well-defended locations throughout Sol-Prime:
— Hub Prime — Mars Olympus — Ceres Yards — Europa Industrial
Each facility maintains the patterns of pilots who base their insurance there. In the event of regional infrastructure disruption, patterns at one facility can be relocated to another via secured fold-channels.
We also operate frontier facilities at select IPU outposts and major mining hubs. We recommend pilots maintain their primary insurance through a Sol-Prime facility.
Frontier facilities have shorter response times for local pilots but reduced redundancy.
Our trust record is unbroken. Brace has not lost a pattern in over forty years. We hold this standard as the minimum, not the maximum.
Continued.
- The Modern Era
Recent years have brought new demands on the pattern infrastructure. The new era's expansion has grown faster than anticipated. We have responded with new facilities, expanded queue capacity, and ongoing investment in fold-pattern research.
Piracy has also grown. We invest heavily in facility security and in our partnership with the IPU's Stargate Watch and Compact Ranger Corps. We will not discuss specifics here; suffice that our facilities are guarded.
We acknowledge that some pilots have, in recent years, voiced concerns about the security of pattern infrastructure generally. Our position: those concerns are not unwarranted.
We take them seriously. Our investments reflect our commitment to the Pattern Promise.
Continued.
- Frequently Asked Questions
Can my pattern be stolen?
No. Patterns are stored in fold-stable form at sealed facilities. Theft would require physical access to a facility and the ability to interact with the storage substrate. Neither has occurred in our operational history.
What happens if a facility is destroyed?
Patterns at the affected facility are mirrored at backup sites. The recovery process can take time but does not result in pattern loss. We have never lost a pilot's pattern.
Is my pattern stored separately from cargo?
Yes. Cargo is not pattern. We do not encode inventory. This is by design and by the limits of present fold-technology.
Can I cancel my insurance?
Yes, at any Brace Representative. Patterns are destroyed on policy cancellation; we do not retain inactive pilot patterns.
Continued.
About Brace
Brace Conglomerate has served the new era since ES 12. We employ over forty thousand staff across Sol-Prime. We are committed to the Pattern Promise.
If this booklet has not answered your questions, please visit your nearest Brace Representative.
Your pattern. Our promise.
— Y.B.
End of Booklet
On the Brace Conglomerate: A Reader's Introduction. Published ES 89 by the Brace Conglomerate Public Affairs Office. Distributed at Brace Representative kiosks throughout Sol-Prime.