OUR STORY

January 12, 2945

After a successful career in the UEEN, rising to the rank of Commander and having command of a Perseus-class warship, Lucian Briggs left the Navy to help bring his skills to the civilian market and provide security, resources, and opportunities for the citizens of the UEE.

February 17, 2945

After leaving the Navy, Lucian Briggs purchased a Reliant Kore class ship, and began hauling cargo as an independent contractor. The ship had enough weaponry to assist in security operations as well, and to Briggs, this was the start of his journey to protect the Empire he loved. However, after some time, Briggs was not satisfied with his small impact on the Empire. He turned his vision on a bigger and better future.

May 26, 2946

After a year of cargo hauling and minor security contracts, Briggs purchased a Vanguard Harbinger, and began taking security and bounty hunting contracts in earnest. Along the way, he made several contacts which would become vital to the future creation of Nightingale.

September 12, 2951

After several years in the security industry, Briggs felt it was time to go bigger. As he pondered ways to expand his outreach, an old friend from the Navy reached out, letting him know that a new batch of Navy vessels was being decommissioned and sold to the civilian market. Among them?

A certain Perseus-class warship.

It didn't take long to secure the funds, and Briggs was soon once again at the helm of his illustrious Perseus, which he renamed: The Nightingale.

September 13, 2952

After several years of successful small-scale security operations and earning a reputation as being a reliable self-proprietor, the Nightingale had earned a become a well-known name among the Security contractors of the Stanton and Terra systems. It was here that Commander Lucian Briggs decided to take his security operations to the next level, incorporating “Nightingale Industries,” naming his company after the ship that started it all - his Perseus, the Nightingale.

During this event, Briggs also met one Ender "Mad Hatter" Vaedorn, who had assisted in defending against the attack. After some discussion, Ender agreed to join Nightingale's Security Forces once he had his affairs in order.

September 19, 2952

Six days after the founding of Nightingale, Lucian Briggs met with Mr. Dibbington of Dibbington Shipping & Handling. During this meeting, the two signed a merger, which brought the shipping and hauling operations of Mr. Dibbington’s company under the Nightingale banner. This was the first major step in the formation of Nightingale Industries.

September 26, 2952

While working the Dibbington, Briggs made contact with a miner known as "Infamous." The pair hit it off, and after some discussion, Infamous agreed to join Nightingale, and help start the company's Industrial Division. In the following years, Infamous would become a well-known name around the company, and legendary in his ability to find high-quality ore deposits. In the first year of Nightingale, almost every miner in the company would be trained by the one and only Infamous.

September 30th, 2952

Late in September, Nightingale Industries received a distress call from Hurston Dynamics. A group of pirates had launched a surprise attack on Everus Harbor using modified Argo Rafts, hoping to seize control of some of the mass amount of weapons shipped through the station. Nightingale responded in conjunction with several other PMCs, and the attack was driven off. For this action, Nightingale was awarded their first official security contract with Hurston Dynamics, and took up headquarters in Everus Harbor.

October 3, 2952

Nightingale Industries' first official combat patrol took place in the Crusader system around Daymar. Briggs, OreotheDJ and Infamous engaged outlaws over Brio's Breaker Yard, successfully turning in the bounties before Oreo's Vanguard Sentinel would experience catastrophic failure.

After a failed rescue attempt, Oreo failed to land on the roof of Briggs' Vanguard Harbinger. Oreo Clone #384 plummeted to his death, careening past Briggs' cockpit three times before hitting the ground.

October 5th, 2952

What would become known as the Security Forces was still in its infancy when Ender "Mad Hatter" Vaedorn officially joined the company. Pirates had murdered his parents, and he was left with a sense of justice that would come to guide the Security Forces well.

October 7th, 2952

After meeting members of Nightingale Industries operating on microTech, a former Marine, Hawk Drakkarsson of Drakkarsson Logistics Incorporated joined the company, and agreed to train the Security Forces to become an effective fighting force. He and Ender would form the backbone of the Security Forces in the coming months.

October 11, 2952

As the company grew, it became apparent that Briggs would not be able to directly oversee every aspect of the company. So when Bix "Creed" Andine joined the company as a pilot, Briggs immediately noticed his command potential. Creed would soon rise to become Admiral of the Nightingale Fleet.

October 13, 2952

The need for medical aid across the Empire was becoming more and more apparent, and Briggs continued to realize that Nightingale needed a medical division if it was going to be successful. With this in mind, Briggs reached out to the command staff at Ophiuchus Emergency Response [OER], one Venusian Taurus, and his lieutenants Drew "Cutlass" Casey, and Aeriza, to discuss potentially bringing their company under the Nightingale banner, and working together to achieve their common goal of bettering the Empire.

OER agreed, and members of their original command staff run the Nightingale Medical Division to this day.

October 13, 2952

Under the tutelage of Hawk Drakkarsson, the Nightingale Security Forces, then the Nightingale Marines, held their first formal training. Using Hawk's flagship, the Anvil Carrack Tranquility, on the surface of Hurston, the foundation for the Security Forces would begin to take shape.

October 20, 2952

During the first official Fleet combat patrol around the Stanton system, Briggs' Anvil Arrow malfunctioned, leaving him stranded halfway between microTech and ArcCorp. The rest of the Fleet contingent stayed with him until help arrived, bringing with them much-needed fuel to rescue the stranded pilots.

November, 2952

Over the month of November, then-video director Slushy helped organize the Divisions of Nightingale into recording the first ever advertisement that would be played across the Verse, advertising Nightingale's many professions and opportunities. This video would serve as many people's first introduction to Nightingale for the first year of the ad campaign. Video below:

Video Here

November 5, 2952

Following the successful launch of the Security Forces, Nightingale began to conduct regular basic trainings. On this day, the Security training would include a Fleet escort of Cmdr. Briggs, as well as a Medical Division compliment, who also ran the training.

Hurston would continue to be the home for most Security Forces trainings in the many months to come.

November 9, 2952

The Medical Division conducted its first official training, and welcomed its first four Nightingale-trained medics to the fold. These medics would include:

Mal_Caindenite, Irishaid, Andros & Deeken97

November 11, 2952

As Nightingale grew, it became obvious that Infamous needed support with the burgeoning Industrial Division. To this end, Briggs reached out to "Slushy" of Slushtopian Mining Industries to discuss bringing his operation under the Nightingale banner. Slushy readily agreed, and would come to run the Industrial Division with Infamous for almost a year, helping to get the Division on its feet and set up for the future.

November 15, 2953

During a recording session for the first company advertisement, a confident Drew Casey showed off his skills with the RSI Scorpius. The experience was immortalized in the words of Jim Bishop, then still relatively new to the organization:

"It was around the time of the great footage gathering. Picture a young and innocent Jim, unaware of the great universe around him or the people he would get to know. Poor ol' Jim was in his first week of being in the org. Poor ol' Jim was completely unaware of the horror that he would soon be witness to.. It's sometime in the afternoon and there's a man standing on the landing pad of a remove mining outpost at the base of some mountain cliffs. He's watching the skies and listening for the tell tale sounds of engines. In his hands he holds a device capable of long distance communications called a 'Disc Cord' and he's using it to talk to a high ranking official of an organization called 'Nightingale Industries.' It's not long before he gets an answer to the question he just asked over his comms device.

"I'm almost there. Just a few minutes out," the voice over the Disc Cord said with an air of confidence. The person on the other end of the comms unit, one Drew Casey Clone #226, had recently acquired a ship with a gunner turret. He had put out a call to those within his voice channel to see who would want to fly with him and do the honors of being his turret gunner. Poor Jim. Poor ol' Jim. He had no idea what he would witness after agreeing to be gunner seat for Drew Casey.

Minutes pass and Jim spots the telltale drive plume of the scorpius heavy fighter in the distance. Over the crackling Disc Cord comm device he hears the last words of Drew Casey Clone #226.

"Hey, Jim, wanna see something cool?" The smirk was audible even through the voice channel.

"Heck yeah I do," Jim responded gleefully, ready to see something truly wonderful- unaware of the terrifying consequences of his words.

"Check this out!" Drew Casey said as he flew past Jim on the landing pad, pushing past the speed of sound with the ease and grace of an X-wing. There was no time to react. Not for Drew, not for Jim. The only thing that could be done is for Jim to stare in stunned silence as Drew Casey flew his brand new Scorpius fighter straight into the cliffside of a nearby cliff, instantly ending what could have been a phenomenal career for Drew Casey Clone #226. Jim will always wonder what cool thing he might have seen if not for the cliff face that stole away Drew Casey #226.

"Whoops," came a similar voice over the comms a few moments later. The voice belonged to the newly born Drew Casey Clone #227, who was fortunately unaware of the horrific sight Jim still stared at on the cliff face of his new friend Drew #226 smeared all over the cliff. And now, forever immortalized in story form, we have the demise of Drew 226.

ˢᵗᵒʳʸ ᵇᵃˢᵉᵈ ᵒⁿ ᵗʳᵘᵉ ᵉᵛᵉⁿᵗˢ. ˢᵒᵐᵉ ᵈᵉᵗᵃᶦˡˢ ʰᵃᵛᵉ ᵇᵉᵉⁿ ᵈʳᵃᵐᵃᵗᶦᶻᵉᵈ ᶠᵒʳ ᵗʰᵉ ˢᵃᵏᵉ ᵒᶠ ˢᵗᵒʳʸ. ᴺᵒ ᵒⁿᵉ ʷᵒʳᵗʰ ᵐᵉⁿᵗᶦᵒⁿᶦⁿᵍ ʷᵃˢ ʰᵃʳᵐᵉᵈ ᶦⁿ ᵗʰᵉ ᵐᵃᵏᶦⁿᵍ ᵒᶠ ᵗʰᶦˢ ˢᵗᵒʳʸ"

November 20, 2952

During the IAE celebrations, Nightingale Industries hosted a crash-up derby over the skies of New Babbage. This event sparked a tradition that continues to this day. The NMSS Resolution, Briggs’ Hammerhead, lined up against Aeriza’s Reclaimer, a C2, and a Starfarer, while Andros observed from the bridge of his 890.

The race was chaotic, Aeriza’s Reclaimer lost both portside engines, and ended up stuck on its side somewhere in New Babbage. The Resolution dispatched the Starfarer, and then streaked through the skyline of the city before ramming head-first into the C2.

Heavily damaged, the Resolution circled back to finish off the last racer, ending the Derby by victoriously exploding as it rammed into Aeriza’s stranded Reclaimer.

November 23, 2952

As Nightingale grew, so too did their presence in the bounty-hunting sphere. It was here that one Galidrum, aka "Gali," joined Nightingale. Gali had a reputation amongst bounty hunters for being effective at drawing bounties onto his ship under the pretense of safety or evacuation and then proceeding to take them into custody.

This unorthodox method would serve Nightingale well, and Gali eventually would become the Head Marshal of the Nightingale Hunters.

November 23, 2952

The same day Gali signed up with Nightingale, one "Jumper" Darkwrath [Dark] joined the company. Dark would be a stellar example of what it means to be a Nightingale, as he would quickly rise to become a strong officer within the Industrial Division before being called away from the company a few months later.

November 25, 2952

As the Medical Division grew, it drew the attention of one Jim Bishop. Jim saw the formation of MAGE Teams and decided to sign up and join the fledgling Division. This decision would prove pivotal, as he quickly rose up the ranks, becoming the Divison Lead of the Medical Division before his first year with the company.

November 26, 2952

Under the direction of Slushy, the Industrial Division hosted its first official mining expedition, with elements from all Nightingale Divisions present. This marked the first time Nightingale Industries would embark on such an endeavour, and would serve as a landmark event for months to come.

November 28, 2952

After request from members of the company, the Nightingale Racing Team was created. Employees from across the company would test their mettle against other members of Nightingale, and engage in races around the Empire. The Racing Team has ebbed and flowed in popularity across the company, but remains a staple to this day.

November 29, 2952

After months of basic trainings, the first Security Forces - then Marine Corps - fire team passed the Crucible, becoming the first officially Nightingale-trained operatives.

These first graduates were:

Ender Vaedorn, Mal_Caindenite, CherriCola & Hunter Fyth.

December 9, 2952

After months of creating a training curriculum, the Nightingale Industries Fleet’s first Cadets passed the Fleet Forge and graduated to full-fledged Starman.

This graduating class included:

CarrierKaga, EFGgaming, Hunter_Fyth, Iowa_K2, Irish, Mal Caindenite, Deeken97, and Darkspetznaz

Fleet’s training curriculum has changed many times since this event, but the Fleet Forge has remained the final test of all Nightingale Fleet pilots.

January 8th, 2953

As Nightingale's presence became more well-known across the Stanton system, so too did their draw of new members. Such was the case for a man from ArcCorp, one Wynter Wyrm. Wynter had a reputation for being a highly skilled ship mechanic whose attention to detail and meticulousness were second to none. He was a tinkerer with a keen interest in exploration and exhausted an exorbitant amount of funds pursuing lost artifacts, but his handiwork and highly sought-after skills kept his coffers full and his passion burning.

However, when the opportunity to join Nightingale, work with like-minded individuals, and help shape the future of the newly founded Salvage Branch, Wynter felt he could make a difference.

And a difference he made. In the coming months, he would quickly climb the ranks of the Industrial Division, becoming a highly-respected leader of the organization, blazing the way for Nightingale to become a bastion of industry.

January 8, 2953

After the formation of the Racing Team, the first ever Nightingale Racing event was held, with Commissioner Prophyy taking the victory.

January 13, 2953

After training individual operators for months, the Industrial Division conducted its first official Mining Operator training, graduating several new operators to bolster their operations. These graduates included:

Drew Casey, Aeriza, Dimitar, JGonzales, Prospector Jeremiah, Jim Bishop, and the then fresh-faced Wynter Wyrm.

January 16, 2953

After much request, the Hunters hosted an event testing their mettle against the battle-hardened Security Forces. The event ended with the Security Forces winning the first battle, and the Hunters winning the second.

February 1, 2953

After some dispute and growing disagreement over the direction of Nightingale, Hawk Drakkarsson left Nightingale to return to his own company. This was a blow, but the Nightingale High Command wished him nothing but the best. Hawk would stay in contact, and continues to communicate with various members of Nightingale to this day.

March 28, 2953

Nightingale began expanding into salvage, grabbing the attention of enterprising salvagers everywhere. The captain of the Reclaimer, "Ravenous," affectionately known as "Grey" would join the company in March of 2953. Grey's experience was unparalleled, and his gusto inspired many younger members of Nightingale to also expand into the world of salvage. Grey would go on to become a great leader of Nightingale's Industrial Division, rising the ranks quickly, and continues to be a respected voice in the company to this day.

April 26, 2953

Nightingale Industries was expanding rapidly, and their efforts drew the attention of one "Ward" Wardonova. Ward was a very adept bounty hunter and gun-for-hire and was drawn to the Nightingale Hunters, quickly rising to Senior Marshal of the then-Division. His motivation and passion for the project were unrivalled, and under his eye, the Hunters would grow to become a viable fighting force.

After the dissolution of the Hunters into the Nightingale Security Forces, Ward would spend some time working with the Industrial Division, before moving over to join the Nightingale Industries Fleet. His motivation to continually improve Nightingale as a whole has continued to be a driver of activity and progress to this day.

May 25, 2953

Nightingale's increased presence across the Empire, both in military and law enforcement roles, drew the attention of yet another gun-for-hire.

Showalter was a mercenary well-known for his love of all things explosive. He would join the Nightingale Hunters and join Ward as bastions of the then-Division, working hand in hand until the Hunters became deadly efficient in their craft.

After the dissolution of the Hunters, Showalter joined the Nightingale Security Forces, where his passion for high-ordinance solutions would propel his popularity amongst the troops, and he quickly rose to the rank of Captain, where he continues to serve today.

June 3, 2953

The Security Forces continued to ramp up their training regimen, conducting trainings on the various moons and planets of Stanton.

June 5, 2953

Nightingale's reputation continued to grow, drawing the attention of another enterprising pilot, "Soldier." Soldier would quickly join the Nightingale Industries Fleet, establishing himself as an accomplished pilot, and eager to help develop new training regimes to improve the abilities of Nightingale's pilots.

Soldier would quickly rise up the ranks of the Fleet, becoming an established voice in directing the Fleet's future.

June 6, 2953

After increasing complications with his personal life, then-Executive Director Slushy resigned from Nightingale Industries, to focus on the areas of his life that needed it most. He is still in contact with several members of the company, and we wish him nothing but the best.

June 21, 2953

Nightingale's Medical Division quickly established itself as an elite force in the Medical field. This was only bolstered when Garak "Rammer" Salwi joined the company.

Garak was instrumental in the formation of the current Medical Division. An extremely accomplished rescue medic, Garak would become the most accomplished MAGE Medic in Nightingale to date, logging over 150 combat rescues.

Garak eventually transferred his skills to Nightingale Transportation Services, where he continued in his ways of overachieving, setting a high standard for future cargo haulers of the company. Garak was eventually invited to join the Nightingale Industries High Command, where he serves to this day.

June 21, 2953

Following Slushy's step down from the High Command, Wynter quickly rose through the ranks. On this day, after recommendation from the now-legendary Infamous, Wynter was promoted to the Executive Director of the Industrial Division, a position he maintains to this day.

December 8, 2953

After the acquisition of several new Argo SRVs, Nightingale Industries formed the Starship Services, to join the Response Sector and help in the repair, refueling, rearming and recovery of ships.

October 11, 2953

After over a year of functioning as separate Divisions, Nightingale Industries restructured itself, to foster more involvement and collaboration between Divisions. Divisions were put in Sectors, with Fleet and Security falling under the Military Sector, Medical and Hunters falling under the Response Sector, and Industrial, Transportation and Racing falling under the Civilian Sector.

December 9, 2953

From his adventuring in the Verse, one mercenary known as "Snail" had heard of Nightingale Industries. A quick wit with a sharp eye, Snail had set himself apart as an asset to any team he was a part of. When the opportunity arose to join Nightingale, he leapt at the chance.

Snail's dedication to his fellow Nightingales endeared him quickly, and he quickly rose the ranks of the Security Forces, where he remains one of the leaders of the organization.

March 22, 2954

A little over a year after he was called away from the company, Dark, aka "Jumper," returned to Nightingale. He began working for the Medical Division, and rapidly rose through the ranks, re-taking his place as a trusted officer of the organization.

June 23, 2954

As cargo hauling increased in popularity amongst enterprising pilots across the UEE, a new pilot known as "Bounty Hunter" joined Nightingale. He quickly became known for his eagerness to help and lend a hand wherever possible, and quickly achieved a position within the officer corps of the Transportation Services, where he remains to this day.