IPS-N

“O’er the glad waters of the dark blue sea, Our thoughts as boundless, and our souls as free, Far as the breeze can bear, the billows foam, Survey our empire and behold our home!”

Conflict and Foundation

The oldest of the three iconic corpro-states is Interplanetary Shipping-Northstar, better known as IPSN, a shipping and transport conglomerate that has existed since the invention of nearlight drives and stasis protocols first made interstellar commerce possible.
IPS-N began as a mutual defense pact between Interplanetary Shipping, Inc., and the Northstar Corporation, rival shipping giants plagued by environmental hazards and early stellar piracy. The lineage of both corporations can be traced back to the early years of Union, when they began as worker-owned shipping cooperatives in command of Theseus Shipyard, a pre-Fall orbital facility near Luna, Cradle’s only moon.
Plagued by constant intra-system piracy – and the normal hazards of space travel – IPS and Northstar elected to merge, combining their resources to create not only the single largest shipwright cooperative in Union space but also the largest private antipiracy force. Working with Union Navy officers, the newly named IPS-N developed the first ship-to-ship and anti-boarding doctrines, as well as the first purpose-built point-defense weapons, combat EVA suits, microgravity mobility aides, and various other force-multipliers.

Cosmopolitan Growth

Access to blinkspace opened new markets and fields of trade, as well as a host of new dangers. IPS-N, by then a venerable institution, continued to build and perfect the iconic hulls, suits, and weapons of space trade and combat. Across the expanding universe of human space, it was IPS-N hulls that carried colonists, explorers, and navies forward. It was an IPS-N hull that first survived exposure to blinkspace. It was officers of IPS-N Trunk Security who defended the deep interstellar trade routes, making sure colonists and Cosmopolitans could progress unmolested.
The relationship between IPS-N and safe, secure interstellar commerce has persisted for millennia, becoming so firmly ingrained in galactic practice that the manufacturer is now a household name on many Core and Diasporan Worlds, as well as building the literal houses that many Cosmopolitans live in. Trunk Security and its close allies, the Albatross, are often looked at as de-facto peacekeeping forces in much of the galaxy’s distal spread.
As trade grows and humanity’s reach expands, so too does IPS-N; the company needs growth to survive.

Corporate Holdings

IPS-N’s largest holding – its corporate headquarters – is located on Carina, in the Argo Navis system, just beyond Cradle. Carina is a bucolic world of warm, shallow seas, azure skies, and rolling plains of deep grass. A world of terrestrial and aquatic oceans, perfect for the part-stellar, part-maritime corpro-state. Its historic headquarters on Luna is now a museum devoted to the history of interstellar travel.
Outside of Argo Navis, IPS-N maintains numerous field offices and Cosmopolitan lounges on blink stations, serving long-haul merchants and diverse Cosmopolitans both. The corpro-state’s field offices are often the first contact point for aspiring engineers, mechanics, navigators, and pilots, as well as a common point of contact for people looking to crew or rent berths on outbound interstellar ships.

Interstellar Operations

Pilots are most likely to encounter IPS-N employees, officers, and personnel on blink stations, around uplift stations, and on spaceports. Almost every blink station has at least one Cosmopolitan lounge or field office run by IPS-N, where players can get civilian updates on news and check travel reports.
Of the three largest corpro-states, IPS-N remains the least diversified in terms of its catalog of goods. Outside of mil-spec chassis, hulls, and equipment, IPS-N primarily sticks to vessels, equipment, and gear designed for interstellar travel, from the fleet-tierto the personal consumer. IPS-N is a sure bet for any interstellar travelers, with a brand boosted by thousands of years of banked goodwill.

IPS-N, in addition to developing interstellar ships and legacy chassis, runs a humanitarian mission: Northstar Realignment. Northstar Realignment is the primary temporal embassy and education center for Cosmopolitans returning from long-haul relativistic voyages.