Freelance Traveller

by Peter Gray

Ling Standard Products was once the largest and most diversified of the Third Imperium's megacorporations. Now defunct, as the last surviving portion within the former Regency of Deneb perished during the Zhodani invasion of Lunion subsector in NE 35, several spin-offs have emerged from the wreckage, using the company's massive industrial base to carve out their own niche in the more heavily regulated economic environment of the Commonwealth of Deneb.

Founded early in the Imperial period, LSP had accumulated a portfolio that included mining and processing, heavy manufacturing, production of naval and ground weaponry, electronics, ship construction, banking, insurance and even real estate. This diversity of interests, combined with the company's zealous protection of its interests, made it a number of enemies among the other megacorps, most principally Sternmetal Horizons and GsBAG. In the region known as Behind the Claw, LSP established its main headquarters at Lunion (SM 2124) and Strouden (SM 2327) in the Spinward Marches, at Starn (Deneb 1417) in Deneb sector, Tobia (TR 3215) in Trojan Reach, and Colony Five (Reft 0707) in Reft sector. The main offices were concerned mainly with ordinary economic operations, leaving the subsector chiefs with considerable leeway in pursuing the company's interests as they saw fit. Most infamous of these were the Aramanx Situation between IY 1103 and 1121, the Bowman Confrontations of the late antebellum period, and the Marastan Meltdown of 1114, among others.

During the Civil War and Black Years period, the corporation enhanced its image through slick PR maneuvers, including its acquiescence to the Corporate Rechartering following the founding of the Regency of Deneb. Behind the scenes the senior surviving leadership lobbied Norris frenetically for a return to a more liberal business environment, and this opposition turned to resistance after the government announced the Representational Reforms in IY 1152. With its extensive properties threatened by new democratic governments, the board formed a series of shell companies in conjunction with various "Minotaurs", and began funding reactionary politicians in an effort to undermine reform and roll back enforcement of business laws back to their permissive antebellum standards. Besides funding underground groups, the company put its money and clout behind up-and-rising politicians that it perceived as being friendly to its interests, which brought it into an alliance with the young governor of Lunion Subsector, Lemat Arthurian.

Though the company helped to hoist Arthurian into a position from which he could succeed as Regent following Caranda's death in NE 21, the board became ambivalent about many of the policies that he enacted subsequently. The strong tack he took against the Zhodani hurt many of their business ventures in Foreven Sector and other regions to spinward, and the visible link between the Black Regent and their company was attracting unwanted attention from Dawn Heralder terrorists. Additionally many LSP brass were suddenly regretful of the expedient alliances it had formed with many Minotaurs and other unsavory groups, particularly the surviving members of the Tukera family and their business trusts. As Arthurian began directing the Ministry of Justice to conduct mast-to-keel investigations of its business practices, his hostility began to encourage other enemies to step up their attacks. In the midst of deteriorating security, a number of Minotaurs (including Sternmetal's Foreven division) launched vicious attacks against LSP installations and personnel, oftentimes in connivance with Zhodani mercs or terrorists paid to carry out the attacks themselves.

To stave off these assaults, LSP's board began to shed its skin in multiple directions. Several divisions were simply abandoned, with corporate envoys promising their assets to several companies all at once in order to occupy and divide their opposition. Others were reincorporated as subsidiaries, in alliance with local politicians and agencies. But the bulk of the corporation was spun off as three different investment trusts registered under different authorities, with LSP's central office becoming little more than a holding company with few direct assets. This not only frustrated Arthurian and his allies, by forcing them to divide their efforts among different jurisdictions, but it proved providential in their survival after the main office was nuked out of existence by the Zhodani a few years later. Since that time the three trusts have subdivided into four discrete corporations, with their business operations divided along regional lines corresponding to the old sector corporate offices. All other surviving assets have either been consolidated under these companies or have been liquidated at auction. These companies include Omega-LTH, Ling Consolidated Commercial, Twelvestones, and CF-Hercules.

Omega-LTH

The last of the four corporations to be formed after the Crucible War. Omega was originally a property recovery and management company established by former LSP shareholders to recover and operate the main companies remaining direct assets in Lunion, Sword Worlds, Plankwell and Five Sisters subsector. As the region recovered from the war, the company transcended its original interim status to become a major corporation in its own right.

Operations

Omega-LTH operates primarily in the Enterprise Federation of the Commonwealth. It has main offices at Lunion/Lunion and Karin/Five Sisters (SM 0534), and operates on every world in the federation with a C-class starport or better. It also possesses a number of assets in the former Sword Worlds, and those regions of Foreven and Trojan Reach that border Enterprise.

Portfolio

Omega-LTH is mainly into heavy manufacturing, principally big ticket items like starships and transportation equipment. It also has a significant stake in the most bureaucratic service industries, such as accounting, real estate and insurance. The company possesses a small transport line for in house use, giving its operations significant security in one of the volatile regions of the Commonwealth.

Practices

Omega-LTH is an old fashioned and somewhat unimaginative conglomerate that is something of a throwback to ancient industrial societies, a mill firm in mothballs. The company was cobbled together under the aegis of ex-military personnel, and there is a kind of strict discipline enforced among its divisions. Personnel are crewcut, white-shirted, dedicated professionals that were so often missing among antebellum and Regency-era corporations. Corporate leadership is strictly conservative, and even somewhat blinkered by their prejudices. Nonetheless the company survives by its concentration by dint of its deep engineering resources, its strict insistence upon good deportment from all of its employees and managers that endears it to the public, and its massive R&D budget. The company hardly puts out cutting edge products (which is hardly a problem in this day and age of consumer product shortages) but compensates through its timely ability to reverse engineer technology to fit their systems and their monopolistic domination of manufacturing in tech levels between 9 and 13 within the Enterprise Federation.

Ling Consolidated Commercial (LCC)

All that remains of LSPs proud Deneb Sector division is this freewheeling trading firm. This division remained loyal to the Purifier cause, even as the main office tried desperately to sever the link with Arthurian and his zombies. When Elizabeth Bonesteel did her run across Sabinar, she blockaded Starn and seized LSP Deneb's other assets under the flag of war. After the war the Commonwealth transferred most of these seized assets back to the Sabinar Federation, who sold them at auction to a consortium of Starn based companies that once competed with LSP. LCC has a spotty reputation, the result of its highly speculative ventures within the recovering Vargr Extents.

Operations

LCC moved its headquarters from Starn to Pretoria/Pretoria (Deneb 0406) and has concentrated the majority of its operations in Pretoria Federation. It has major operations on every high population world in Pretoria, and several in Sabinar, notably Kubishush (0917) and Inar (1213). It possesses significant assets in Tuglikki and Provence sectors, principally in the Lair Federation and Urnllaer Union.

Portfolio

LCC is a conglomerate cobbled out of acquisitions of other successful companies, or various speculative ventures across the coreward frontier and outlands. The central office is mainly interested in canvassing for profitable ventures, the hiring experienced personnel to operate and manage these ventures for their mutual profit. Many of its operations tend to contradict the Commonwealths own standing customs, though most of these are based in neutral or nonaligned space.

Practices

The company is actually a confederacy of different business interests with shared philosophy and a common logistical network. The headquarters on Pretoria exists simply to coordinate finances and handle bureaucratic matters. Otherwise the firm is acephalous, with authority shared consensually between different managers. Additional linkage is provided by the company's "Office of Research and Security" which sends operatives, known as "Bloodhounds", to actively search out relevant information and persons for future business profitability. Persons hired by the company are considered contractors rather than employees.

Twelvestones

LSP's Trojan Reach division barely survived the Aslan invasion that accompanied the Crucible War to coreward. Just a dozen different recognizable divisions and subsidiaries remained after the war, and the resulting company they created was named after that fact. Twelvestones was subsequently purchased by the Totality Church's Tobia branch, and was reforged along religious lines. Despite this ecclesiastical focus, of perhaps because of it, it has a very good reputation for customer service and discipline. Each of the twelve divisions are symbolized by a different "birthstone" corresponding to its precedence according to some kind of formula derived from the ancient Biblical Book of Revelation.

Operations

The company is essentially an inversion of LCC, trading extensively with the Fteirle/Aslan. Though it retains its headquarters on Tobia, the majority of its manufacturing occurs on Albe/Sindal (TR 2211) and Dolberg/Sindal (TR 2113), or within the frontier subsectors acquired by the Commonwealth in the postwar peace settlement. The company owns three small shipping lines that operate extensively within the Trojan Reach and Riftspan, with one company trading across the Rift and all the way to Reaver's Deep.

Portfolio

Diversified conglomerate, with each division concentrating in one industry. For example Twelvestones Ruby handles medical, Twelvestones Amethyst insurance etc.... There exists one division that handles acquisitions, and another "supernumerary" thirteenth division that handles most bureaucratic aspects.

Practices

Many other congregations have objected to this vulgarization of the Bible, but there doesn't exist any kind of law against it, and Commonwealth courts have allowed the imagery to stand. And the company has managed to do a pretty good job of living up to its religious pretensions. On the other hand, the companies arcane structure tends to separate each division into an ecclesiastical fief, with oftentimes bitter bureaucratic battles breaking out between the base twelve, and the Bishopric Council (i.e. the Board) and the Morals Section of the Supernumerary Division left to adjudicate between these battling busybodies. The company frequently hires secular employees, though their success and continued employment depends greatly upon their ability to uphold the company's moral and business philosophies.

CF-Hercules

The Reft sector division was the smallest of the four offices maintained by LSP. The division oversaw mainly the LSP shipping line and trade along the Rift Wall between Tobia and Deneb. Today it is a publicly owned corporation under the aegis of the Colony Five planetary government. Colony Five has used it to obtain several key monopolies, particularly in fuel harvesting and processing, and competitive advantages in several other industries, in an effort to stave off economic domination by the three main worlds of the Tribune Federation.

Operations

Concentrated on an axis between Tobia and Pikha (Deneb 1633). Operations in Corridor and Trojan Reach sectors are usually handled by allied firms. The company also owns several major assets in Gazulin (Trojan Reach D) and Trin's Shroud (Spinward Marches P) subsectors that are operated by holding companies.

Portfolio

Diversified conglomerate, with primary concentration in shipping, fuel processing, chemicals and construction. The companies tanker and bulk transport arms dominate about fifty percent of their respective industries in Vestus and Macon Subsectors. The company also has a significant stake in public industries on Tuwayk (Deneb 0339) and Lilad (Deneb 1135), and is effectively in alliance with the planetary governments and their corps on those worlds.

Practices

The smaller worlds of the Tribune are dominated by upstart economic elites that raised themselves, by hook or crook, in spite of strong competition from the federation's three ruling worlds (Tobia, Lintl and Beaxon). This means that they are very blue collar in their formality, and rather unsophisticated compared to more established corporations. Nor do they necessarily use legal or ethical means to survive in their federation's high pressure business environment. CF-Hercules was deliberately established by Colony Five to fight off competition, and it always uses an appropriate kind of response to handle their rivals.