In 2173, the political party Terra Firma was involved in a kickback scandal with Nashan Stellar Dynamics. The political fallout was immense and forced the leader of Terra Firma, Inez Simmons, to step down from her position. The company also manufactured T6-FBA Couplings. This model of couplings was eventually discontinued prior to 2185, but obtaining a set of them proves central to the engineers' maintenance work on the Normandy SR-2.