Eligius Corporation

The Eligius Corporation (also known as the Eligius Mining Company) was a company founded prior to the first Nuclear Apocalypse. It was responsible for carrying out interstellar missions to mine asteroids for resources as well as searching for habitable planets.

Eligius IV was the last mission launched before the Apocalypse, and was used to transport prisoners to the Asteroid Mining Penal Colony.

History
The company was started before the Nuclear Apocalypse and began deploying national prisoners in order to mine "Hythylodium" from the asteroid Proxima Six.

Eligius I was an unmanned explorer ship which was sent to the asteroid Proxima Six and found a Hythylodium gold mine.

Eligius II was the first manned mission to mine Hythylodium, but it failed because it didn't have enough manpower, which was the reason why they switched to prison labor for Eligius IV.

Eligius III was sent to a new habitable world to tap for oil since Earth had been "tapped dry" of all of its oil. Nightblood was used on the crew to help them withstand the radiation caused by the two suns that the planet orbited. The Eligius IV crew mentioned them several times.

Eligius IV was a mining ship designed to be used for interstellar missions to mine asteroids or to search for habitable planets. Originally it was sent to 24-year long mining mission to the asteroid Proxima Six. However, on April 4, 2047, onboard Eligius IV, when the crew reported that the prisoners were getting sick, the Eligius Corporation decided to start "Order 11", which would abandon the prisoners on an asteroid, and bring home the Hythylodium. Captain Stevens agreed, but the ship's crew member, Miles Shaw did not, which led to the shock collars being deactivated, causing a mutiny on the ship that killed Captain Stevens and the crew of the ship, except Shaw, and destroyed one of the engines. The prisoners decided to return to Earth, but with one less engine working, the journey home would take decades. Therefore, the prisoners were put into cryosleep, and in 2156, they finally returned to Earth.

Throughout the Series
In Echoes, an article titled "Contact Lost With Asteroid Mining Penal Colony" from the West Coast Herald can be seen on one of Raven's monitors as she explains 2048 nuclear reactor technology to Jasper and Monty. This is the first mention of humans living in space farther out than Earth orbit. It was implied that the Eligius Corporation was involved with the penal colony in space as well as mining.
 * -|Season Four=

In The Tinder Box, Jackson mentions to Abby that Becca first developed the Nightblood for the Eligius Mining Company to protect against solar radiation for long space missions, in which criminals were put into hypersleep and were given Nightblood to protect them from radiation. This likely refers to Eligius III or Eligius IV.

In Praimfaya, Clarke and Madi see a ship land on the ground. On the ship, Clarke see the words "Eligius Corporation", "Cell Block B", and "Gagarin Prisoner Transport".

In Sleeping Giants, a mining ship called, Eligius IV, was owned by the company. Monty Green mentions that there are missions sent to mine asteroids or search for habitable planets, and company were mining for "Hythylodium", an incredibly efficient energy. Miles Shaw also mentions that there's a ship called Eligius III and they have Nightbloods.
 * -|Season Five=

In Pandora's Box, Raven shows Murphy a list of four Eligius-class ships and explains the information and details about it.

In Damocles (Part 2), Monty reveals that Eligius III was sent to a new planet to tap for oil, since Earth's oil supplies have run out.

In Sanctum, Bellamy reveals that according to the file, Eligius III was a colonizing mission and it went to 5 planets that met necessary conditions for life, dropping mission teams on each one. Eligius III came to the first habitable world called, "Alpha."
 * -|Season Six=

According to Raven Reyes and Clarke Griffin, Becca Franco did the coding and the tech for the Eligius Corporation. The Lightbourne family is also introduced via old photographs.

In Red Sun Rising, a flashback shows that a mission team from Eligius III is on Alpha. They decided to name Alpha, "Sanctum". Later, one of the members of the mission team suffers a psychosis.

Prisoners
These prisoners were convicted criminals from the mid 21st century who were sentenced to hard labor. They were incarcerated by the Eligius Corporation and sent on Eligius IV to mine the asteroid Proxima 6. The prisoners are roughly divided into two factions, one led by Charmaine Diyoza and the other by Paxton McCreary. After the prisoners started getting sick and the Eligius Corporation decided to initiate "Order 11", Miles Shaw made a deal with Diyoza to deactivate the shock collars. This allowed the prisoners to kill the rest of the crew and take over the ship. The prisoners decided to return to Earth, however one of the ship's engines was destroyed in the mutiny, causing the journey home to take over a hundred years during which they went into cryosleep. Diyoza planned to launch an insurrection back on Earth to overthrow the government using weaponized hythylodium as leverage. However, when the prisoners arrived at their destination, they found a desolate post-apocalyptic world.

Gallery

 * -|Eligius=

Notes and Trivia

 * The company owned at least four spaceships.
 * The prisoners are the fourth faction introduced.
 * One of their members has been named as Zeke Shaw, and is billed as a "cocky space explorer", who willingly joined a mining mission to uncover the "secrets of the universe".  His first name was later changed to Miles due to some legal reasons.
 * Showrunner Jason Rothenberg teased that the prisoners aboard the Eligius Corporation ship will, at first, be antagonists. Unlike the juvenile delinquents, these arrivals are "real hardened criminals" and will be a threat.
 * The prisoners are from before the first nuclear apocalypse and were in hypersleep.
 * They include: Charmaine Diyoza, a former military strategist; Paxton "Graveyard" McCreary, an enforcer from a powerful crime syndicate; and Vinson, a serial killer.
 * The corporation has a universal fail-safe code - 47815