Interplanetary Shipping

History

Interplanetary Shipping began as an assortment of smaller shipping companies began on the distant core worlds, each determined to dominate the frontier of interastral shipping. However, as each began operations and competed for market space, it was soon realized the utter cost of the process. The chance of devastating and expensive accidents due to environmental hazards made the highly-speculative investments in these companies soon dry up. Economic disaster was avoided, though, with the merging of these companies into a much larger Interplanetary Shipping, the size and combined expertise of which could mitigate the extreme costs of the business.

However, as humanity gradually moved further into space, a new problem emerged. Lancers within the company were leaving and banding together to steal IPS cargo in the advent of space-piracy. Thus began the militarization of mech technology as IPS needed to protect its operations from opportunist mech pilots. In this new market, one independent manufacturer, NORTHSTAR, emerged as a cut above the rest. IPS began exclusively buying their quality mechs, eventually buying the company entirely and incorporating them as a branch of IPS, forming IPS-Northstar, the mech manufacturing, anti-piracy, and eventually militant branch of IPS. (IPS-Northstar unification - 3352 A.D.)

IPS arose to dominate the interastral shipping market, forming a nearly complete monopoly over a vital sector of trade. Of course, as they dominated this market, the company began to expand upon planetary operations, especially on pre-Deluge core worlds. This expansion was, of course, met with significant pushback by planetary governments and populations. Ironically, this resistance to IPS expansion eased tensions between planetary governments and coerced them into stabilizing and eventually unifying in to the Blueshift Confederacy. (Blueshift Accords - 3456 A.D.)

The founding of the Confederacy set the balance of power within IPS controlled systems; with IPS controlling inter-planetary operation and Blueshift remaining in control of planetary commerce with their psuedo-corporation GMS. IPS were to remain in space with limited operations on planets or moons, with the amount of jurisdiction they held being related to how developed a planetary settlement was. (The more developed, the less influence they had.) This created a constant struggle for power between the two bodies, creating a (relatively) stable society within IPS-controlled worlds through this psuedo-separation-of-powers.

This balance of power faced its greatest challenge upon the commodification of Ichor. IPS, maintaining the interests of their NORTHSTAR branch and desiring control over the resource, wished for exclusive rights over the extraction and control of Ichor. Most Blueshift systems were strongly against this, fearing such a move would lead to the gradual overshadowing of Blueshift under IPS (which arguably would end up occurring, but for different reasons.) Debate ensued in the Blueshift senate, and eventually compromise was reached: IPS would be granted rights to the extraction and distribution of Ichor on Blueshift systems as long as they re-invested at-least half of the profit from the extracted Ichor back into the system the substance was extracted from. (Great Ichor Compromise - 3544 A.D.)

The trade of Ichor, as such, would emerge as IPS' main focus in the coming centuries. Their desire for control over the resource was only matched by their utilization of it, with the corporation's R&D branch becoming almost solely dedicated to creating new technologies using the substance. Their work lead to the invention of starship engines capable of making short blinkspace "jumps" in mimicry of Polaris' Cynosure. They also make significant advancements of mech technology (in parallel to SSC developments) that allowed the agile and responsive modern mech frames through the use of ichor-infused engines. Ichor-based medicinal solutions allowed the significant extension of the human life-span, with those treated with Ichor from birth being capable of reaching an age well past two centuries, and the development of cloning technology.

By this point, IPS organized into the structure that it mostly still follows today, with the company separated into five branches and lead as-a-whole by the board of directors consisting of the head of each branch. Notably, though, NORTHSTAR possessed a significantly smaller amount of sway in the company’s policy, though there were Factions that wished that to change.

Zeke Cossack had always been an ambitious director of the NORTHSTAR branch. His board meetings were filled with claims of the “potential” within NORTHSTAR and IPS as a whole. And, for the most part, he succeeded where directors before him failed by placating the demand for increased funding, militarization, and formalization among the NORTHSTAR officers while keeping the higher-ups of the other branches at bay. Trouble came, though, when, in a secret meeting of the board, presented what he called the Proposition for the Protection of Future Interastral Trade (otherwise known simply as the FIAT Proposition): a plan to invade and violently take over the holdings of Smith-Shimano Corpro. Cossack’s rationale behind the plan was that, according to him, war between IPS and SSC was inevitable in the future as both would expand into the frontier to the point of coming into conflict, as such, it would be best to take care of them now while IPS is apparently much larger. The director of the interastral trade branch agreed with his proposition, while the remaining three directors dissented. Information about hit meeting soon leaked, though, and a growing number of expansionist IPS officers grew to place their faith in Cossack’s proposal. As it was becoming increasing apparent that the board wouldn’t accept Cossack’s plan, he, assessing the following he had amassed, decided to take matters into his own hands.

On the other side of the aisle, Gerome Farz, director of the Planetary Development branch, led the counter to Cossack’s aggressive expansion. Gathering an alliance of his own branch as well as R&D and Finance, Farz worked to oppose the idea of turning IPS into a psuedo-paramilitary organization. The combination of interests with the loose alliance, called the Sustainists, made the alliance much weaker and disjointed in comparison to military discipline of NORTHSTAR in comparison to Cossack’s Protectionists.

Cossack, though, mustered his influence to arrange and execute an attack on the SSC worlds in question, beginning the Brontestar Trade War.

The war itself, while tumultuous, is not as important as its impacts on IPS, which summarized as follows:

• NORTHSTAR organized into a fully militarized branch, essentially becoming a corporate army instead of a mere anti-piracy force.
• NORTHSTAR and a sub-branch of R&D began to research and create their own unique lines of mech chassis.
• However, IPS had their power curbed by the formation of an organized Blueshift army, taking away IPS’ “power of the sword” over Blueshift.
• Control over the Ichor trade shifted to become the main focus of the company, at least in the eyes of most directors, as the problem of interastral had become thoroughly solved and much less contested.
• Of course, as per the treaty, IPS gained control of the captured SSC systems in return for the exile of Zeke Cossack.

Notably, Cossack grew to despise his cause and IPS as a whole later in his life and during the end of the war. As stated during his trial before IPS and SSC, he grew to believe the Ichor trade to be the thing that would cause the next great collapse of civilization or “Deluge” once the substance starts to dry up. He also chastised IPS for their perceived opulence and imperialistic rule, something he admitted to be the face of previously. Chastising IPS for their hubris, his text “The History of the Decline and Fall of Interplanetary Shipping” began the seeds of IPS' skepticism within Blueshift citizens, raising question to the government's "doctrine of non-interference" with IPS.

An era of relative peace would follow though, eventually, of course, to be shattered during the Synthesis War.

With the shock of the conflict, the young Cossack's dream of NORTHSTAR militarization was fully achieved. NORTHSTAR took the situation to assume emergency powers that granted them a much greater sway over the board, with most of IPS' resources funneled into the war effort for its entire duration. Minos, the director of NORTHSTAR during the breadth of the war, oversaw this effort and worked tirelessly to both bargain with SSC over spoiled relations and combat Saladin's ever-encroaching horde.

NORTHSTAR maintains much of this sway today, and their demands shattered much of the post-scarcity dream within the Blueshift core worlds, as automation couldn't keep up with the exponentially growing demands of the war. Capitalistic structure was reinstated on many systems, with some being affected far more significantly than others (see: IPS-A).

IPS Today

Today, IPS' hold over known space is a shadow of what it once was. IPS now controls a little over half of what it once did, having lost ground to EVERY faction in the Synthesis War. Nonetheless, it holds strong on the lands it has now, and is currently undergoing a rapid expansion into the frontier. This brings the two conflicts, or flashpoints, in the organization today.

Flashpoint: The Diaspora

The Synthesis War had no clear winner, but it did have a clear loser: IPS. Out of all the Factions involved, IPS is the only one to have gained nothing through the conflict, losing nearly half of their controlled systems in the outcome. This had provoked a crisis within the company over its own gradually fading existence.

Daedalus, CEO of IPS, has a solution, though, with a system of rapid expansion into the interastral diaspora, or frontier. Previously, most colonization of frontier worlds was undertaken by groups of volunteers from blueshift core worlds, and done with little company involvement other than transportation. However, in the past decades, Daedalus has undertaken a massive corporate colonization effort to revitalize the diaspora and, hopefully, surround their main enemy, the Apperatic Empire, and slowly choke them out, or at least prevent them from becoming a threat.

Granted, this expansion invoked by Daedalus would unquestionably strengthen NORTHSTAR's already tight chokehold on power within the company (Daedalus, of course, being the director of NORTHSTAR). Daedalus, acknowledging this, as reassured the company that the power of NORTHSTAR will only be expanded as is necessary for swift expansion.

On the other side of the aisle though, is Caelus Cossack, director of interplanetary shipping, who has their own faction that reasons that a rapid corporate expansion into the diaspora would actually stifle progress and lead to internal struggle due to the growth of NORTHSTAR influence. Instead, Caelus argues, IPS must focus on developing the core worlds and reinstate free enterprise in their governing systems. A renewed, but controlled, capitalist system, Caelus argues, would revitalize the core worlds and, apparently, cause the same expansion into the diaspora. However, unlike the expansion through Daedalus' plan, Caelus argues that this expansion would be decentralized and motivated by the spirit of the entrepreneurial masses, making their efforts much more natural and productive than the forced colonization invoked by Daedalus.

Of course, this all comes at the consequence of ending utopic, post-scarcity conditions of the core worlds via the renewal of capitalist structure. This has been the main point of contention with Caelus' alternative plan, since such a move will require either the approval of Blueshift, which is unlikely to occur, or the transferring of power from Blueshift to IPS. (of course, Caelus also happens to be the director of Planetary Management within IPS.)

Flashpoint: Blueshift

The shock of the Synthesis War has greatly immense political turmoil among the elected and electorate of the Blueshift Confederacy. The conflict allowed the formalization and creation of the Azuremarine, the confederate military, but, now that the confederacy has a professional military, many are rightfully asking: what's the point of NORTHSTAR, or even IPS as a whole?

This has brought IPS to a point of scrutiny its never faced before, the role of the company now being brought into question.

The hardliners in support of Blueshift believe the company should be completely incorporated into the Blueshift government-elected and all. This position is generally unpopular though, with consideration made to the conflict that the process of incorporation would unquestionably provoke. Most simply support gradual reform, with IPS being placed under supervision of governing agency. Blueshift governance, while more democratic, would unquestionably create a less efficient system that could undermine the post-scarcity state throughout the core systems.

Any reform, though, is extremely difficult to get moving throughout Blueshift governance, as any system's government risks having their economic ties to IPS cut or undermined if they publicly speak against the company in Blueshift government.

On the other side of the aisle, hardliners in support of IPS believe that the company should have even more control compared to Blueshift. IPS brings productivity, in their eyes, and their leadership would lead to greater development among their controlled systems. This would come at the cost of democratic process-but proponents argue that the inefficiencies of Blueshift governance would ultimately lead to destruction at the hands of the supposedly-more-efficient Cygnan and Apperatic governments.

Unlike the issue of the Diaspora, IPS is internally deeply divided on the issue, lacking any sort of clear dividing Factions. Both Daedalus and Caelus are relatively moderate, with Caelus supporting some greater governing power given to IPS.

Organization

IPS-N has their headquarters on the industrious Alpha Centauri system, where the original Interplanetary Shipping corporation was established.

IPS is organized into five distinct branches, being NORTHSTAR, Planetary Management, Interastral Shipping, R&D, and Finance. Each branch maintains a degree of independence, though there's obviously a great deal of cooperation between branches when interests align. The overall direction of the company is managed by the CEO, whom traditionally is also the head of NORTHSTAR, and the Board of Directors, consisting of the director of each branch. The personalities dominating the board determine the direction of the company, and whoever is controlling the board usually serves as an analogue for the trend of the company as a whole.

The Hierophant: Daedalus, CEO of IPS and Director of NORTHSTAR

Daedalus, eerily reminiscent of the Cossack of the past, has a reputation and personality nearly as large, and well-known, as the company he's in control of.

Appointed at the very end of the Synthesis War with the resignation of Minos before him, Daedalus was already well-known at the time as the face of the steadfast, if brutal, repression of the Alectan Revolution. He managed the NORTHSTAR delegation in charge of that front, and, despite being significantly outnumbered, significantly mitigated the potential disaster for IPS forces that the front could have been.

This earned him a great deal of infamy, either good or bad depending on who you asked. That fame and recognition would only grow with his appointment through his rapid militarization and re-assessment of IPS and NORTHSTAR military assets. Through his public statements, Daedalus made clear his belief that the foolish notion of interastral peace, and the demilitarization that came with it, before the onset of the Synthesis War is solely to blame for the humanitarian disaster that the war entailed. The utopic conditions of IPS controlled systems, in his vision, naturally arise envy from surrounding Corpro-States, and thus an expansive corporate military force is necessary for the security of the company.

Evidently, expanding NORTHSTAR's power over the company is one of Daedalus' long term projects, thus continuing a trend that has been present for the last few centuries. Although, unlike the reign of previous CEOs, Daedalus has faced far more public and governmental resistance. The ultimate failure of IPS in the Alectan Revolution and the unfavorable result of the Tau Ceti Accords has significantly dropped confidence and trust in the company, and Daedalus has fought a continual battle to win back that trust: a battle that seems to be going in his favor. The CEO's charisma and unwavering temperament has caused him to develop and sort of cult-of-personality among those still supporting the company. To them, Daedalus stands for Turing's Preservation more than anyone else in the universe, and not just because of his status as a Harbinger. To his supporters, the CEO is a living representation, even more so than director Minos before him, of the company's ideal: a stable, peaceful universe.

And that view of the man extends even beyond his cult of personality to one area of his directorship that has faced significantly less public resistance: that of the "foreign policy" of the company, particularly in dealing with the Apperatic Empire. Daedalus has made clear his antagonism towards the apperatum king, stating fervently his belief that the empire, if not contained, will gradually sprawl out into the stars and overpower both IPS-N and Blueshift. If anything, Daedalus' ceaseless fury towards the empire is what he is most known for, with recruitment drives for his colonization programs present in nearly every IPS core world. In this, Daedalus has both stoked and quelled the fears of the Blueshift populace, stubbornly continuing Synthesis-era hostilities despite the Apperatic Empire's apparent plea for peace.

As it goes, Daedalus has characterized his tenure as CEO as one of rapid expansion fueled by post-war paranoia. His legacy will be determined by either the success or failure of his colonial efforts, whether or not he can surround and contain the fledgling empire, even if there was no threat at all.

The Capitalist: Caelus Cossack, Director of Planetary Management

Caelus, in contrast to the CEO, has defined himself in the opposition of his great-grandfather's perceived legacy.

While Cossack was exiled at the end of the IPS civil war, his next of kin received no-such barring from service, and, given the remaining popularity and sympathy for Cossack's cause, his descendants all maintained rising and prevalent positions in the company. Some lived up to the young Zeke's imperialist legacy, but an even greater number lived up to the beliefs he held later in life: those of steady growth and conservation, rather than vapid imperialism.

None have lived up to that belief more than Caelus, the highest ranking IPS officer in the family since Zeke himself. Caelus originally in quiet opposition, has now made clear his opposition to the imperial direction the company is headed towards. IPS, Caelus argues, was founded on a partnership between the planetary government and interastral commerce, and to pursue colonial expansion in the way Daedalus is championing would betray that founding partnership, resulting in tyrannical chaos that would doom both IPS and Blueshift. The Apperatic Empire, in Caelus' eyes, will not be defeated on the battlefield, rather, they will only be bested through economic dominance.

Indeed, Caelus, along with most of his faction, perceives the struggle for interastral dominance between the big three corpro-states in a very different way than Daedalus. While the CEO views the ongoing cold war as a struggle of classical nation-states, one of armies and landowners, Caelus has made clear he perceives it as a struggle of economics and ideals. Each corpro-state has a different style of management and control, and, naturally, the most efficient system will emerge as the victor. Following that line of reasoning, Caelus believes the company's colonial efforts to simply be a distraction, a waste of time. Only by adhering, and further implementing, the capitalist principles the company was founded upon can they emerge as the victor in the interastral struggle.

As such, Caelus seeks to further entwine corporate and government operations to create a more productive and more efficient system of core-worlds. Individual ambition and entrepreneurship ought to be the only source of corporate expansion-thereby making any expansion happen much more naturally, and thus be much more beneficial. A renewal of free market, capitalist principles will help serve the creation of a more efficient economic system-even if it comes at the cost of the utopic, egalitarian conditions on the post-scarcity core worlds.

The Imperialist: Alessandro Vedro, Director of Interastral Shipping

Alessandro, formerly of NORTHSTAR, may be both Daedalus greatest asset and, potentially, his future undoing.

Alessandro is the oldest director within the board, and, as such, is most changed and characterized by his experiences during the Synthesis War. Those experiences have apparently made him a staunch ally of Daedalus within the board, likely due to a fondness for director Minos that preceded him. Nonetheless, Alessandro has championed the CEO's expansionist doctrine even more than the CEO himself.

According to the director, rapid expansion is the nature of human civilization, and basically a requirement for IPS continued existence. The Synthesis War, particularly its unfavorable outcome, was caused by continual apathy and inactivity by the company following the Brontestar conflict.

Alessandro, in his fanaticism, has laid bare the company’s future ambition. In doing so, the director has turned away many potential supporters of the company, a fact that has drawn loathing from many of his peers. His status as a veteran member means his directorship is mostly protected from ousting, however, the tumult of the post-war era could cause that to change.

The Rationalist and Idealist: Carmella, Director of R&D, and Rousseau, Director of Finance

Carmella and Rousseau loathe nothing more than the factionalism the company is starting to devolve into.

Being new directors, both rose to their positions on the promise of maintaining stability in the company, with alleged Blueshift support on their side. A dramatic shift in company direction, to both of them, would be a step in a very wrong direction that could throw an already unstable universe into chaos.

Carmella, though, has made the notion that she supports Caelus vision rather than Daedalus, turning down his expansionist attitude on the principle of it. Although, she has stated that, more than anything, she will support the views of her department as a whole, whom generally seem to favor Caelus vision.

Rousseau, in charge of finance, has made sure that both himself, and his department, are completely neutral in the conflict, much to the ire of both the warring Factions. In his public statements, he's made apparent his belief that the company's stability can be preserved with the neutrality of the company's finances.

Rousseau is a Harrison Armory plant, determined to keep IPS-N disunited through his neutrality.

IPS in Practice

IPS, despite their influence and affluence, are a distant thing for most laymen within their core worlds.

In the post-scarcity core worlds, after all, IPS has little jurisdiction-or reason-to operate outside of their interastral shipping infrastructure and Ichor wells. Planet-side economics are solely in the realm of planetary governance, and, with the exception of special cases-worlds that IPS has direct or otherwise extended control of-IPS does little to intervene on those closed markets. Most planetary economies are well-beyond the capitalist systems that IPS favors, instead implementing systems of centralized planning powered by NHP governance.

As such, IPS has little apparent presence on the lives of those within their controlled systems. While their operatives may be going in and out of their cities, they usually do so unnoticed, practically in an entirely different world in the eyes of common inhabitants.

IPS' separation from public life sets them apart from their competitors, with SSC and HA having their cyber-campuses and foundry worlds respectively, which both serves and working against them. On one hand, their obscurity from public eye allows them a degree of discretion with their operations, due to their work staying out of the limelight. This, of course, means that most have a generally favorable view of IPS on the blueshift core worlds, since they generally don't witness the more unfavorable aspects of their operations. However, their separation from public life also limits their profits and potential areas of expansion, leading them to have to fully exploit the ichor reserves and shipping market for all of their revenue.