A String for Every Puppet - Printable Version +- Discovery Gaming Community (https://discoverygc.com/forums) +-- Forum: Role-Playing (https://discoverygc.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?fid=9) +--- Forum: Stories and Biographies (https://discoverygc.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?fid=56) +--- Thread: A String for Every Puppet (/showthread.php?tid=59212)

A String for Every Puppet - Lister - 04-29-2011 From:Head of Research and Design Kayleigh Wallace To:CEO Felix Sherman, Board of Directors RE:Project Themis and Project Hephaestus Greetings Directors. Both development projects proceed as planned. H-1 is nearing completion, with H-2 and H-3 not far behind. Estimated 1 month SUT to design completion and beginning of initial construction and prototyping. T-1 design is unfortunately not as far. Several redesigns have taken place and a key piece of structural research was lost in a Hacker attack on a convoy from Furyoku. However, the project is still on track for completion within the set deadline. Attached to this transmission is a base sketch for your viewing pleasure. At this time, no additional funds or resources are requested. ~Dr. Wallace ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Felix Sherman put the message down. It was the end of the day aboard Furyoku Station, the newly minted Headquarters of Interspace Commerce. For tax reasons, of course. Nothing like evading taxes by moving to a tax-less sovereign corporate state. One that soon would be his by law, although he hardly had the ships to enforce any laws. Hmmph. I'll have to ask the KNF for help with that. The chair crinkled as he stood, the leather taking on it's original shape. He strode over to a pile of as-yet unpacked boxes, the remains of his office on Newark. One of them held liquor, and he was determined to find it. An hour and a dozen phone calls later, the time finally came to call it quits. He uncorked the bottle he hadn't had time to enjoy until then, poured a shot, and inserted the holodisk from Wallace's message into his terminal. The screen in front of him blazed to life, flickering stock and accounting figures for a second before loading the image. Beautiful. Now to figure out who I have to bribe or blackmail to get it built. He left by the door, palming a switch that plunged the office into darkness, the afterimage holding on the screen for a second as it slowly faded away. A String for Every Puppet - Lister - 05-02-2011 The light's in Docking Bay E aboard Furyoku Station flickered on, circuits warming and filaments heating in response to the docking call from a lone armored transport. The ship slowly glided in, settling down as the great steel doors of the Execuitive docking bay slid shut and the chamber repressurized. The rear hatch slid open on it's hydraulic pistons, light pouring out as it clanged to the deck. Markus Lehmann, CFO Interspace Commerce, stepped out, his briefcase banging against the side of the hull. He sighed. Best get on with it. His shoes clacked on the deck as he left, the lights automatically dimming behind him. He slipped into the crowd outside in the general recieving bay, standing his place and pushing forward into the first available elevator. As the doors slid shut, a beam of light shot out from the small optical unit and traced everyone's eyes, reading retinal patterns. An electronic voice began to speak, and Markus groaned with his own stupidity. The core was programmed to give a full history whenever a new resident was sighted, and the public elevators were simply full of stopovers and transport captains. Worse still, the bloody thing wouldn't shut off until it finished, and it was one hell of a long ride up to Mr. Sherman's office. He began counting furiously as the gratingly cheerful voice droned on. "Hello! And welcome to Furyoku Station, a wholly owned and operated station of Interspace Commerce Transnational! As a public service to our clients, all new arrivals to any Interspace base are treated to a full length history of both the original Interspace Commerce and Interspace Commerce Transnational! The history of Interspace is tightly tied to the history of the very system that runs modern Sirius, the Trade Lane and Jump Gate system, developed by Ageira Corporation in partnership with Deep Space Engineering. This marvelous technological development allowed mind-warping speed and connected all of Sirius, but unfortunately for the governments involved, the technology and parts were fantastically expensive, so expensive that no government could purchase them or any bank underwrite the construction. To solve this perplexing problem, Ageira and DSE partnered up and in 218 A.S invested their capital in a new corporation, Interspace Commerce! The sole purpose of this corporation would be to finance Lane construction in the four houses, allowing the cost of the Lanes to be spread out over hundreds of years despite immediate construction. Their financial campaigns were wildly successful and by 350 A.S Interspace Commerce was the primary financier for all new Lane and Gate construction. For the next two hundred years all was well with Interspace Commerce. However, in 523 A.S., due to the economic war between Kusari and Rheinland, the respective governments nationalized their trade lanes, effectively wiping out their debt. However, in a bit of diplomatic brilliance on their part to counteract this horrifically unjust and staggering loss, Interspace Commerce managed to negotiate a toll system with the Emperor of Kusari and the Chancellor of Rheinland. For the next two hundred years, tolls on all traffic within the Lane-Gate systems of Kusari and Rheinland would be taken by Interspace. However, the sum total of these tolls was still far exceeded by the losses suffered unjustly by Interspace Commerce. With half of it's profit source gone, Interspace was forced to turn to other ventures in order to maintain it's margins. Thankfully, the vast amount of wealth posssessed by Interspace enabled it to quickly enter the cargo insurance market, the market it now dominates today as the largest, indeed, one of the few large-scale usurers in Sirius. As one of the few truly international corporations, Interspace Commerce also has a long history of arbitration among nations, including it's own diplomatic successes with Kusari and Rheinland, and the crowning achievement of diplomacy, the GMG-Rheinland Accord that formally ended the Eighty Years War and preserved the balance of free trade within the Sigmas. Of course, even to this day Interspace continues to heavily invest in Lane Gate technology, the most recent advances being the development of the Universal Ship Identification system by an Ageira-Interspace partnership in 700 A.S, allowing the real-time scanning of cargo passing through trade lanes and jump gates, giving Ageira yet another product to sell and allowing Interspace to keep a close eye and tighter records on it's insured shipments. Yet even in the modern age of Sirius, Interspace is still the primary financier of Gate construction, it's most recent investments in the Chugoku Gate in 794 A.S and the system of Okinawa in 816 A.S greatly benefiting the corporation. No discussion of Interspace history is complete without mentioning the Interspace Nueralnet Division, the team of engineers and programmers originally responsible for developing the Nueralnet, and who, in 815 A.S, achieved total control of Interspace through a series of ingenious financial manouveres, and led Interspace for three years before their departure from Interspace last year. It is here the roots of Interspace Commerce Transnational begin. After the unforeseen departure of the IND, several division heads, including the head of the Secure Transport Division, the Programming Division, the Security Division, and the great Thomas Mahone himself realized the great benefits accorded to Interspace by such a tight centralized control. They founded a seperate company, Interspace Commerce Transnational, incorporating within the space of Okinawa, and began to use their earnings to slowly buy their way into power. At exactly 09:49 PM Mar 20 819 A.S, the final transfers were conducted and Interspace Commerce Transnational was the majority owner of all four incorporated branches of Interspace Commerce, and a new era had begun. This concludes the history lesson. Please stay tuned for a series of advertisments from our corporate sponsors!" The elevator arrived at the top and Markus hurried off, glad to finally be rid of the ridiculously annoying voice. He nodded to Mr. Sherman's secretary and knocked on the door, entering soon after. The two figures at the table locked in a quiet discussion both rose and turned towards him. "Markus! I was wondering when you would make it out here!" "Good to see you, Felix, Tammo. It took a bit to get the secure files you requested."Markus set the briefcase on the table before dropping into a chair. "So, how have you all been? New headquarters working out so far?" "Aye, mate. Tax an' fancy free, lots o room, Kusari girls, horrorifically luxurious offices. Nae a thing ou' o place. Perfect." "Glad to hear it Tamm. Well, let's get down to business shall we? I have to catch a shuttle back to Newark to pick up some tech designs tommorow."And with that the three figures sat at the round table and began pouring over documents in the manner of all businessmen. A String for Every Puppet - Lister - 05-04-2011 The recruits slowly filed in to the blank room, grabbing the ubiquiteous cup of cheap coffee and a donut or biscuit. Behind the one way transparent wall the engineer looked over his instruments while Tammo examined the interns minutely. "This sorry lot the best we get? Wha'er happened to hot-tae-trot businessmen wit big dreams? Wha' 'appened to men loike ye an' me, Mike?" The engineer waited a second before replying, taking one last look at a dial. "We all got scooped up Tamm. These bunch are the refuse from last year's colleges. All the good ones get recruited fore they even leave campus, like that Jenkins down in Comms, or Milford in Systems Design. Those guys are the next us. This group of losers won't be anything more than claims adjusters or minor techs, maybe a low-level manager by the time they're fourty. The lucky bastards among them are going into security, and maybe one or two has some skill in a cockpit." He shrugged. "That's just how it works." Tammo clasped a hand on the engineer's shoulder. "Ah well. An'ways, the new progrem should run in half the toime an' imprint deeper than 'afore. Heh. It still bothers me tha' this was done tae me as well." With that Tamm left the room and headed back to his office. Mike the engineer took his customary seat, readying the program and the video that would mask it. When he was set, he flipped on the intro and rolled the film, sipping his cheap coffee. A screen built into one of the room's walls flickered to life, the ambient light darkening and the intern's heads all turning as the Core began it's speech. "Hello, young recruits, and welcome to Interspace Commerce New Employee Orientation! Interspace Commerce is commited to ensuring our new interns have all the neccessary available information, beacuse remember, YOU are the future of Interspace Commerce! Historically Interspace Commerce has been a financing and insurance corporation. However, over time this giant of industry has branched out into other fields of profit and study, fields like ship design, Lane Gate upgrades, secure transport, escort services, and banking. Let's begin with a guided tour of Interspace Commerce's internal structure. The entity known to Sirius as Interspace Commerce is actually five seperately incorperated subsididaries all wholly owned and operated by Interspace Commerce Transnational Holdings, the parent corporation. These five subsididaries are Interspace Commerce Liberty LLC, Interspace Commerce Bretonia Ltd., Interspace Commerce Rheinland GmbH, Interspace Commerce Kusari 株式会社, and Interspace Commerce Fundings. Both Interspace Commerce Transnational Holdings and Interspace Commerce Funding are unique in that, rather than having been incorporated within the four Houses, chose instead to take advantage of the Okinawa system and incorperated within the GMG's space, effectively putting their profits outside of the tax system. The four subsididaries are liscensed as usurers, and maintain the standard business practices of Interspace by insuring companies and shipping based out of their respective space, while all non-insurance activities have been reassigned to Interspace Commerce Transnational Holdings, herafter Interspace Holdings. As a new employee of Interspace Holdings, you will be assigned or have chosen one of the following divisions: Secure Transport, Security and Escort, Financing, Merchant Banking, Corporate Accounting, Sales, Financial Services, Investment Services, Marketing Services, Research and Development, Resource Aquisitions, Janitorial Services, Station Docking Services, or our sector-reknowned Legal Department. The beep and flashing on the console startled Mike. Damn, done already? He wasn't kidding when he said it was faster. Might as well cut it short. He palmed the red stop button, disengaging the program and winding down the film as the Core sounded the intermission. "Thank you for watching this engaging look at Interspace Holdings' structure. Please take a short break before returning to be introduced to a brief overview of our Corporate Standards and Practices! Food can be acquired from the mess next door." Mike smirked as the interns filed out to get lunch from the cafeteria. The brief overview was almost five hours long.