Imperial Shipping was first established many years before the 80-years war began. For many years, they were the major government shipping company, and offered aid to the Rheinland Imperial Forces as required.
In 312 A.S. Imperial shipping, set the first foot in establishing themselves by building Freiburg Station. This was constructed with the purpose of acting as a clearinghouse for produce harvested on Stuttgart, as well as goods being both imported and exported into Bretonia. Today, Freiburg Station is used as depot for those who do not wish to venture into Rheinland, as well as a supply station for mining operations in Omega-7.
In 412 A.S. Alster Shipyard was opened for business, specializing in commercial transports and heavy lifters. The shipyard has become known for its role in the formation of the Union movement. After the economic collapse of Rheinland after the 80 year war, Republican was forced to scale back operations on Hamburg and the Alster Shipyard. In an attempt to cut costs, Republican fired hundreds of shipwrights and thousands of laborers on the surface, citing it had no work left for them. In truth, the company was getting rid of any members of the "Alster Union", a laborer rights organisation that had dominated the labor negotiations with Republican for years. The Unioners reacted violently to their expulsion, and began an armed campaign against Republican, which continues to this day. The shipyard was pressed into the construction of smaller military ships. Many of these ships
are still in service, and the yard does still see the occasional contract from the Rheinland Military; however, most of the contracted jobs are civilian. Attacks by Unioner raiding parties looking to disrupt operations at Alster are frequent, but usually routed quickly by Rheinland Military from Westfalen, and Rheinland Police from Lübeck.
With the war over, demand for ships plummeted. The bloated headcount of Alster was now a sore point for Republican Shipping, desperately trying to restore profitability. This shipyard was now controlled by the unions, who demanded ever higher wages and longer vacations. Imperial Shipping could afford their extravagant demands during the Eighty Years War, but as the recession took hold the company had to make adjustments in order to remain profitable. Republican Shipping had no choice other than decreasing the working staff. They looked for assets and started numbering the liabilities. With a stipulated grade pay, Many employees were fired. Unfortunately, the workers felt the company was backstabbing them. The Company tried to reason with them but only in vain. They soon started to disrupt our convoys which made them move up the acclivity of Imperial Shipping’s hostility.
Other factors leading to hardship for the company were directly linked to Rheinland’s economy and government collapsing in on itself. This negatively affected the government contracts that already were under production in Alster, and the Imperial shipping was beginning to consider forfeiting some of the workload to try to avoid bankruptcy. Fortunately Imperial Shipping was provided a large ‘bail out’ loan through Liberty which allowed for the completion of existing contracts and deliveries.
On Von Rohe's Day, 672 A.S., Daumann mining stations in Dresden were seized and locked down by miners in a widespread general strike. Supplied by Bundschuh revolutionaries, the miners managed to hold out on the station for weeks before word finally got out to the rest of Rheinland. Three months later, workers disabled other Daumann facilities on Planet New Berlin, joining in the protests. With the industrial heart of the economy grinding to a halt, riots beginning to pop up all across Rheinland. The Union of Imperial Shipping actively took part in the revolt despite the order of the executives which had asked them to step down their support.
There were no more government contracts, and unemployment skyrocketed. A period of tense negotiations follows, and a coalition government is eventually formed, and the former empire would now become a federal republic.
Imperial Shipping became Republican Shipping after the Popular Revolt and thus it got formally announced on 672 A.S.
Soon after, Republican built a base with their newly formed and staffed members, Altona Station was re-established in 706 A.S. to handle all the goods flowing into Rheinland from Liberty, It has been an important base for Republican Shipping for over a century. In recent years, especially with the increasing tensions with Liberty, business onboard the station has slowly been declining in favour of relatively new warehouse facilities on the surface of planet Hamburg.
With the outbreak of war between Rheinland and Liberty in 712 A.S., the Altona Station is finding itself in an increasingly Military role. The close proximity to Hamburg and the Docking Ring already had been providing a moderate level of security to the station and with a slowly increasing Military garrison, enhanced armor and a new turret defense system the station is being used as the first line of defense against Libertonian attacks against Hamburg now.
Ingolstadt Station was constructed in 730 A.S., a considerable amount of time after the initial colonisation of the planet Nuremberg, in order to handle the ever increasing exports of military vehicles from Nuremberg. Most of the space onboard the station is taken up with secure storage bays for the vehicles, and dozens of ships dock with the orbital facility every day.
After the Nomad War ended in 801 A.S., Republican Shipping decided to move its center of operations to the Munich system, and although there are large corporate offices planet side, Ingolstadt Station was expanded considerably with additional modules to accommodate the increased administrative workforce, and now serves as the headquarters for the Republican Shipping Corporation throughout Rheinland.
In recent years security has been tightened considerably around the station after the Unioners have expanded their operations in the Munich system. After an attack by the Unioners in 815 A.S., which left over seven hundred personnel onboard the station dead, Republican Shipping has requested additional weapons platforms to bolster defenses.
On 819 .A.S. Gallia had secretly been constructing a Jump Gate in the Rishiri system and several weeks after the Kusari Republican Government has reached a trade agreement with the Kingdom of Gallia, opening their respective borders for commercial traffic. The small group of Republican Shipping’s pilots were sent to Gallia to investigate a new way and establish a cooperative relationship.Though the way appeared not short it became clear that Kingdom of Gallia is interested in mutually beneficial trade cooperation and is ready to buy necessary goods at the high price. Supply of ore and diamonds appeared the most needed and Republican readily agreed to supply hem what was needed. The problem was only one, the long range, but to general good luck, the Republican Shipping technological was able to resolve this issue.The Company decided to use all the new opportunities combined with latest technologies for making shipments easier to Gallian territories.
Modern times - 827 onwards:
With modern Rheinland in political turmoil and various Heads of State are under investigation for alleged infractions against Sirius as a whole, the void created by this major power vacuum has allowed various groups to vie for positions in the industrial sectors of the House. One of those groups are a bunch of entrepreneurs hoping to claim a stake in the Rheinland economy and have started a new Corporation in the hopes to stimmy the decline in Rheinland’s failing infrastructure. The woman leading this new endeavour, Amelie Reitsch, was a pilot for the now defunct Republican Shipping company and sought to fill the vacancy left by the last major logistics company to wield dominance in the domestic market. With the Republic of Rheinland now facing a political shift towards imperialism, naming of the corporation had to take into account the nature of the new Rheinland stigma. Between Reitsch and Till Lindermann, another former employee of the embattled Republican Shipping, they managed to secure financial backing from foreign investors. With the little bit of capital gained and a promise to investors, Rheinland Shipping Corporation has now applied and successfully managed to trademark their namesake as well as the correct licencing and have successfully financed a small fleet to start making a stamp in the Sirius Sector.
Since the imperial regime came to power, Republican Shipping has renamed itself Imperial Shipping and is ready to serve the interests of the Kaiser and the Rheinland.
Diplomacy:
Allied:
None as of yet
Friendly:
Daumann Heavy Construction
Kruger Minerals
ALG Waste Disposal
Bounty Hunters Guild
Rheinland Police
Rheinland Military
Neutral:
Marinenachrichtendienst
Zoners
Ageira Technologies
Gallic Metal Service
Gallic Royal Police
Gallic Royal Navy
Deep Space Engineering
EFL Oil & Machinery
Orbital Spa and Cruse
Gateway Shipping
Border World Exports
Independent Mining Guild
Bretonian Mining & Manufacturing
Bretonia Police
Bretonia Armed Forces
Interspace Commerce
Kishiro Technologies
Kusari Naval Forces
Samura Industries
Gas Miners Guild
Unfriendly:
The Order
Hostile:
Wild
Red Hessians
Xenos
Mollys
Lane Hackers
Unioners
Blood Dragons
Gallic Brigands
Corsairs
Liberty Rogues
Farmers Alliance
Golden Chrysanthemums
Outcasts
The Maquis
LWB
Bundschuh
Gaians
Fleet:
Transports:
"Pelican" Civilian Armored Transport
CT-49X "Gull" Civilian Transport
CT-39X "Albatross" Civilian Transport
CT-53 "Heron" Civilian Train
BK-65 "Serenity"-class Transport
568-ARKG-B6 "Behemoth" Rheinland Transport
CT-73 "Stork" Civilian Advanced Train
CT-69 "Crane" Civilian Large Train
RT-41-PFT "Uruz" Rheinland Container Transport
"Colossus" Rheinland Train
CTE-6000 "Eagle" Civilian Very Heavy Fighter
IR-7 "Raven's Talon" Civilian Very Heavy Fighter
IDC K-VI-18 " Sunrider " Civilian Very Heavy Fighter
Renzu Corp " Sutinga " Civilian Very Heavy Fighter
90-ARKM-N45 "Wraith" Rheinland Very Heavy Fighter
E78-12 "Spatial" Civilian Deep Space Explorer
MEMV-971-AH "Arrastra"
19-ARKM-N82 "Mjolnir" Rheinland Super Heavy Fighter
CTE-19000 "Roc" Civilian Bomber
140-ARKM-N58 "Bergelmir" Rheinland Bomber
WAR-4b "Waran" Civilian Bomber
13-ARKM-N37 "Fafnir" Bomber
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