Smith-Shimano Corpo
One of the earliest founded Corpo-states in the Empire, Smith-Shimano Corpo was a partnership made by the joint ventures of industries occupying the The Great Expanse and outskirts of the Panem Region.
SSC’s emphasis on private stellar and interstellar travel, the fantastic wealth of its founders, and favorable contracts within the old Republic had made them pioneers in technological advances of sublight ships, EVA vehicles, and would eventually make strides into Jump Ships and mechs. They also leaned into the Mercandoles' strides made in transhumanism, and the galaxies best privately made cybernetics are usually SSC made.
It rapidly dominated the Core market for biological and cybernetic enhancements in the heyday of Empire's liberal, pre-Silence transhumanism. Following the Mechanicus Jihad, the First Discovery of Psionics, and the ensuing crackdown on machine-mind creation and ontologic and singularity-focused experimentation, SSC adopted a more “natural” philosophy toward human enhancement. Instead of pursuing the marriage of human consciousness and artificial intelligence, SSC researchers began to focus on improving the bodies we live in; instead of negating the need to step to the stars, they sought to make it so we could step among the stars. SSC’s corporeal research pushes the edges of what it means to be human.
Human+
Cybernetic enhancements, subdermal nettings, aural communicators, neuroneutral omnihooks, ontologic bridges, cosubjectivity nodes, Panacea glands – the list is exhausting, and that only covers the tech designed by the Foreign Bodies Department of SSC’s massive research and development program, not to mention the wide portfolio of goods developed by artisan enclaves and masterwork fabricators associated with SSC worlds. The backbone of SSC’s power is demonstrated in the form of its own citizens, a population of millions spread across a constellation of moons, worlds, stations, and habitats in the Great Expanse. The social and genetic composition of these populations is monitored and precisely cultivated using cultural suggestion, infrastructural guidance, and societal coercion. SSC’s goal is to produce best-fit genetic material for the corpro’s bigmoney buyers: colony firms looking to license bespoke populations for as-yet-unexploited worlds.An Elegant Chassis
Smith-Shimano frames reflect the corpro-state’s pedigree and its agile, adaptable business model. They are built not to take hits – though they’re resilient enough – but to avoid them entirely. SSC designs emphasize mobility and sleek profiles, precisely tuned to land not the hardest hit, but the most accurate. Economy, precision, and singularity is the name of the game for this manufacturer: why fire a thousand rounds when one can be just as effective? The mechs developed by SSC are known for their license exclusivity, appealing silhouette, and exacting design. Their LUX-Iconic line of chassis are coveted, single-designer models, each unique to the pilot with the requisite licenses and access to afford them; as such, unlike other manufacturers, SSC frames tend to be longer-lasting in service, with more emphasis on retrofitting and repair than recycling and reproduction.Structure
SSC’s home campus is a shared virtual space in the omninet that connects the wide, anarchic net of SSCaligned worlds and moons into one cohesive body: the Constellar Congress, or, the Constellar. Worlds with membership in the Constellar – those directly administered by SSC, which are few in number, and worlds that administer themselves, but whose populations are genetic constituents of SSC and choose to associate with the corpro-state, which are far more numerous – are the “Constellar Worlds” that comprise SSC’s “population”. The Constellar Congress is shielded by layers of security coding (including hypersolipsistic, anticausal, and paradox-generating safeguards) managed by Demon Constructs seeded from proprietary subjectivities and tightly administered by ranks of Constellar bureaucrats. This well-defended virtual
state and represents the bleeding edge of organic/synthetic virtual interfacing.
The Constellar Congress’s virtual campus is represented as a palatial, many-chambered estate where the representatives of SSC’s populations meet in virtual space. The building does not appear to have a counterpart in realspace, though it is often suggested that its architectural inspiration comes from a building on SSC’s first colony world, Opal, rendered inhospitable following bitter civil violence in the First Trade War.
The SSC is technically an entity under the Imperial Senate, and is allowed to send a representative for each world the corporation has under its control. The Constellar regularly meets to elect these representatives, who regularly end up being higher-up executives in the corporation.
Culture
Worlds under SSC’s direct control are dramatic in their environmental variance. They include everything from lightly developed atmospheric moons through to arcadian worlds. In all cases, their populations are tightly controlled through deep cultural manipulation to generate biome-specific lines of colony seed materiel. The people of these worlds are aware of SSC’s mission; they are freely associated members of the corpro-state, most of whom are as invested in its mission – literally – and are generally unconcerned with SSC’s human experimentation projects. Save for regular, culturally-appropriate samplings of genetic material (a few hairs, a drop of blood, a swab from inside the mouth) and an expectation of arranged coupling, life on Constellar Worlds is unremarkable and quiet. Most Constellar populations view the Constellar Congress and its myriad environments as their primary cultural space, not whatever realspace world on which they reside.
Despite SSC's use of Constellar worlds as advertisements for the quality of genome available for license, these worlds remain only that – advertisements. SSC does not sell people; according to its marketing, it sells potential. Cells and data are at the heart of the SSC’s business, not whole persons or populations. The corpro-state’s power comes from the cultivation of best-fit, healthy genetic material for colonial projects, medical and military applications, and private use.
Assets
SSC is also known for luxury consumer goods and machinery. Elegant ships, mechanized chassis, and hardsuits for the discerning Spacer. Fabrics and materials that feel perfect against the owner’s skin; cybernetic and biological enhancements that will never fail or be rejected by the body; flash-grown internals and extremities – insurance, should the worst happen. SSC’s LUX-Iconic line of consumer goods is bespoke down to the atom, crafted specifically for the purchaser of that ship, chassis, suit, or bottle of wine. There’s only one of you in the galaxy – shouldn’t there be only one of these?
The average galactic citizen knows SSC as a luxury brand that brings value to the material world through craft and expertise. SSC’s advertisements emphasize the hand-designed nature of its products and the long-cycle growth of its biologicals.
What little of SSC’s power doesn’t derive from its genetic libraries comes from the licensing of luxury goods, cybernetics, and biological lines to mid-rim governments , colonial missions under the Empire, factions within the Zym Cartel , and powerful private individuals.
You Only Need One
Founding Date
974 Pre-Silence
Type
Corporation, Conglomerate
Alternative Names
SSC
Parent Organization
Controlled Territories
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