Corporation

The Corporation is no one single entity but rather a collection of large mega-companies, private militaries and personal armies

Well trained and equipped with the best in military technology, Corporation Troopers are used to fighting against much greater number of opponents with ease. The Troopers armour is often invulnerable to the natives’ weapons, leaving them free to mercilessly mow down scores of the enemies with pulses from their laser weaponry. If they encounter heavier resistance, the Troopers can bring about the awesome firepower of their tanks and powered exoskeletons, or even unleash their more specialized force to quickly dispatch the most stubborn of foes.

Enforcers

The Co-Prosperity Sphere is vast, comprising thousands of star systems, and well over 500,000 inhabited worlds, orbital stations, moons, asteroids, deep space facilities and other, more esoteric places; although this is but in truth an estimate. Within its borders peace reigns. The Co-Prosperity Sphere promotes harmony between species, free interstellar trade and prosperity for all. At least it does ostensibly; many cultures have found out too late that the promises of co-prosperity are hollow, and that you cannot entirely trust the news on the Corporation infosphere. To its inhabitants and enemies alike, The Co-Prosperity Sphere is commonly known as The Corporation, for corporations are its principal units of political power. The corporations are engines of commerce, government and society – if the bland consumerism foisted upon the citizens of the Co-Prosperity Sphere is worthy of the name “society”. The Corporation’s model of governance is strictly hierarchical, an oppressive plutocracy, but to view the corporation as a monolithic entity is something of a mistake. Centralised power rests with Corporation Central, made up of three chambers of representatives of increasing legislative power. In law they are independent, in truth they are answerable to the Council of Seven, the executive body which rules the Co-Prosperity Sphere in all but name. Members of the Secondary and Tertiary chambers are drawn from all layers of the Corporation’s society, not solely from the corporations but to a lesser extent also the media, the various clergies of the Corporation’s bewildering number of religions, independent traders, artisan houses and so forth. The Primary House is filled solely with fully franchised corporation members, as is the council of Seven. The Seven are elected in secret ballot from the CEOs, princes, non-executive board members and dynastic heads of the most powerful corporations to “oversee” the three chambers. The council of Seven are astoundingly wealthy men, so well remunerated for the duty they undertake that they are supposedly above the turmoil of inter-house bickering. Naturally, this is not the case at all. Rich men will always wish to be richer. Brave souls have dubbed Corporation Central “Corruption Central”, and with good reason. Corporation Central passes the laws that define the Co-Prosperity Sphere as a political entity, and supposedly strive to ensure prosperity for all. But in truth the corporations are vastly powerful, and constantly put their own interests first, jockeying hard for influence and power. Corporation Central is thus a hotbed of endless economic and political machinations, deal brokering, and betrayal, where the general well-being of the Co-Prosperity Sphere’s hundreds of billions of citizens comes a long way down the list of government priorities. That the corporations differ enormously from one another only adds further layers of intrigue. Some of them are purely commercial entities confined to one or two systems, others might be quasi-elected governments of several star systems, a few are stakeholder entities, a handful are run by non-humans, while many are the personal property of venerable and fabulously wealthy dynasties. A rare handful can trace their lineage back through innumerable takeovers and mergers to the ancient companies of pre-corporate Earth, and they are the mightiest of all. This diversity of interest and ambition (softly-worded language is as much a hallmark of Co-Prosperity government as propaganda, jargon, and outright lies), poses some difficulties in keeping the Co-Prosperity Sphere, populated as it is by a range of human and alien cultures, entire. Thus Corporation Central is vested with the powers of arbitration and judgement in inter-corporate house disputes. Key among these is the granting of licenses of exploitation to new worlds, deeds to monopolies, and patents on new technologies. The three houses may propose and vote on these issues, but it is the Council of Seven which has the ultimate say. Companies such as Trontek Industries field teams in Dreadball such as the TronTek 29er's