Imperial Shipping

This is an NPC faction. 

Imperial Shipping
Origin	Federal Republic of Rheinland
Alignment	Corporation
Profile
Date of founding	unknown
Founder(s)	unknown
Base of operations	Alster Shipyard, Hamburg
Primary role
Сommercial Shipping

Synopsis

Imperial Shipping is a Rheinland shipping giant that also maintains one of the largest commercial shipyards in the Sirius sector.

History

Republican Shipping has a long past. It started long before the 80-years war. Back then, the company was known as Imperial Shipping. We were the major government shipping company and we did aid the Rheinland Imperial Forces in all ways we could during all the difficult times that it faced.

Republican Shipping aka Imperial shipping during that time, set the first foot in establishing themselves by building Freiburg Station. Freiburg Station was constructed in 312 A.S. as a clearinghouse for produce harvested on Stuttgart. It remained as a central collection place where participants maintained an account against which credits or debits were posted.

The Imperial Shipping then heightened their reverent relations with other Rheinland corporations and Police, with the establishment of Alster Shipyard. The shipyard opened in 412 AS, specializing in commercial transports and heavy lifters.

The Shipyard was acclaimed the most profitable installations for the company during that period until the unfortunate accident occurred in 512 A.S.

Three months later, the workers formed the Alster Union. Because of their highly specialized skills, the management had no choice but to capitulate to their demands. During the next century the union gradually strengthened and eventually included the dockworkers on the Altona Station above Hamburg.

When the 80-Years War broke out, The Company was sitting pretty on a mountain of government subsidies and contracts.

By the end of the 80-Years War, the union demanded increasingly high wages and progressively fewer annual hours. The system was out of balance. Republican was no longer competitive with Kusarian shipbuilders.

After the end of the war, Rheinland’s economy and government was collapsing in on itself, which directly affected the government contracts that already were under production in Alster.

With Liberty giving a large loan, Imperial Shipping managed to finish the on-going contracts and deliveries.

Adding to the difficulties was even another incident in history that shaped the company Republican is now.

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.

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 once controlled by the unions, who demanded ever higher wages and longer vacations.

Republican could afford their extravagant demands during the Eighty Years War. But when the hard times hit, we 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, they had to fire them.

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 our hostility and so with the Rheinland Police.

While the Alster Shipyards continues to operate, Republican Shipping in conjunction with the Rheinland Federal Police have managed to purge out most of the (so called) Unioners from the facility.

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, our technological team sorted this out.The Company decided to use all the new opportunities combined with latest technologies for making shipments easier to Gallian territories.

When the Federal Republic has ended the shipping giant was renamed back to *Imperial* Shipping

Known Bases

• Alster Shipyard, Hamburg
• Altona Station, Hamburg
• Freiburg Station, Stuttgart
• Ingolstadt Station, Munich
• Mainz Storage Facility, Frankfurt

Diplomacy

Faction Relations