Planetary Consortium

A pioneer in the field of cognitive science, Cognite (pronounced cog-neet) drives forward the cutting edge of research into understanding the transhuman mind. Well known for their mental augmentations and the original menton morph design, Cognite also specializes in psychosurgery and nootropics. Their elitist and aloof image was not aided by their scandalous involvement with the projects to raise accelerated growth children that became known as the Lost generation (p. 233), nor rumors that they engage in research involving TITAN-influenced incapacitating input attacks. Nevertheless they remain a key member in the Planetary Consortium.

Descended from the remnants of several pre-Fall national military forces and private military contractors, this hypercorp made a name for itself in the period immediately following the Fall, where they helped manage refugee populations among various habitats and vessels while shattering any sign of unrest immediately and with full force. Direct Action today is known for its highly efficient shock troops and superior combat morphs, providing security and public police services to self-governing habitats or hypercorp installations. Shifting political alliances between habitat clusters, corporate rivalry, and the constant fear of TITAN agents cater to Direct Action’s paranoia-inducing marketing. The corporation maintains several habitats as physical training facilities and armament depots.

Living up to its name, Experia dominates the solar system’s news, media, and entertainment market segments, generating controversy not only with its publicly expressed pro-AI stance or inviting an AGI to its board of directors, but also by proficient use of hyperviral marketing and sophisticated XP-programming. Another core segment is the production of educational XP and infomorph or AI tutors, some of the latter regularly ascending to pop-culture icon status. Experia is the Planetary Consortium’s prime authority on designing and deploying customized viral memes, developed to counter anything posing a threat to the Consortium’s interests. The corp has automated nodes and VR centers on many habitats throughout the solar system, and it contracts thousands of freelance lifeloggers as live, roving, citizen journalistas. Claims by some infomorphs that Experia has illegally subjected indentured infomorphs to never-ending simulation experiments for forecasting and intelligence analysis purposes remain unsubstantiated.

The industrial giant Fa Jing is a powerhouse in the mining and energy production markets and also boasts a remarkable presence in the fields of biotech and industrial equipment manufacturing. The former megacorp has quickly adapted to the new economic environments and reputation-based systems, thanks partly to its dedication to network building and sharing social responsibility, epitomized in concepts like dàtóng and guanxi. Often considered insular and close-minded, its internal communal and protective mindset is a strong contrast to its manipulative and monopolist business attitude. Fa Jing is engaged in mining operations throughout the asteroid belt and the Trojans and maintains significant corporate assets on Mars.

Pathfinder is one of the first hypercorps to dive into galactic expansion, claiming new territories beyond the Pandora gates and establishing numerous colonies. Taking advantage of desperate infugees and gatecrashers, Pathfinder offers transportation to an exoplanet and a new morph in exchange for indentured labor. The corp has established several offworld mining and resource exploitation projects, much to the chagrin of preservationists. Though Pathfinder has but a small presence in the solar system, it is a frequent target of eco-terrorist attacks.

The Prosperity Group ascended into the hypercorp ranks before the Fall, meeting the high demand many new stations had for microgravity agritech, aquaculture, hydroponics, and other sources of food. Expanding into pharmaceuticals as well, Prosperity is considered the lead supplier for the poor man’s food and drugs. Their cultured faux-meats and protein-enriched nutrition additives are in high demand. This corp earned some sympathy when it lost an entire habitat to some sort of resurgent TITAN outbreak a few years after the Fall, though some have suggested this was just a cover story to hide an unfortunate accident resulting from experimental drug testing on an unwitting populace.

Solaris is the solar system’s leading banking and financial investment hypercorp, dealing in insurance, info-brokerage, and high-risk investment on cultural and social experimental speculation. A member of the Planetary Consortium, Solaris advises many habitats on regulating their transitional economies. Solaris has no offices or physical assets; each banker is a mobile virtual office. Solaris is rumored to maintain a secret base where the corporation runs simulations on the development of the entire solar system’s macro-economy, constantly adjusting its own strategies based on the dynamics of this big blueprint. Fueling these rumors, Solaris is known to hire “independent consultants” to tip the balance in politically or economically pro table high-risk investments.

Born from the ashes of the UN-governed Terran Intelligence Cooperative (TIC), surviving personnel and assets were collectively uploaded during the Fall and quickly regrouped under the name Stellar Intelligence. Emerging as a virtual collective, most of Stellar’s employees remain loyal to the corporation and its director, the reclusive infomorph known as Syme. Stellar offers an impressive array of intelligence services, including data mining, analyst think tanks, retro-quanti cation (bringing old secrets/data to light), memetic mapping, and more. Its services also extend to surveillance, data theft, espionage, media manipulation, and infiltration. The hypercorp’s specialty is pre-empting civil insurgencies and preventing political memes and movements from destabilizing a habitat’s or sector’s regime. Criticized by civil rights movements and especially anarchists, Stellar is known to embed programmed infomorph agents into the local population of any oppressive regime that will pay their price. While many view Stellar as the brainwashing and secret police arm of the Planetary Consortium, the hypercorp offers its services to almost any other faction or individual.