Consortium

The Proxy
"Greed is good."

An all-purpose lackey for one of the big firms, this ambitious corporate climber is equally happy crunching numbers as crunching zGear.

Capitalism, always a powerful force for change and progress, has evolved from the entrepreneurs, corporations, and conglomerates of the 20th and 21st centuries into the Consortium of the 22nd. This powerful collection of industries constantly competes and cooperates to feed the consumer maw of Earth. The Consortium is the economy of the EGS, and as such is as powerful a body as the Senate bureaucracy and military Syndics in its own right. For the Consortium, profit is the sole motivation. Everything else, credits, power, even human life itself, is a means to that end.

The Consortium is the beating heart that pumps the economy of the EGS, driving everything from technological innovation to interplanetary colonization to entertainment media. Within the Consortium are specialty companies who exist within a complex web of equity ownership, financing, and internecine corporate warfare and espionage. These large and small companies compete for niche product and service markets primarily among the privileged of Earth, but also among the rest of humanity in the Inner and Outer Solar System. The average new product or service has an hourly product cycle, is distributed via just-in-time-manufacturing right to the consumer, and dies out in a day's time. Fads and trends for every conceivable product sweep through markets like storms, leaving profit for the Consortium in their wake.

Consortium employees exist in a cutthroat world where a thin veneer of civility barely conceals a profit-driven necessity to cheat, blackmail, lie, cajole, and intimidate their way higher on the corporate ladder. Titles are the measure of an individual's achievement, though none displays any loyalty to a particular company and constantly jump or are recruited into (by force if necessary) other firms. Some actually create new products or author new media works, but the vast majority exist in finance, sales and marketing functions that have little to do with anything but spinning the next fad or creating the next trend.

Constantly skirting the edge of what is legal and ethical, the Consortium must constantly think of novel ways to interest jaded consumers with the same product. Ultra-stressed managers are pressured by their executives, who in turn pressure their underlings to drive the profit margins through the roof - yet again. The rare "successes" end this cycle by becoming a senior executive and retiring to Earth or a luxurious custom-made Orbital.
Syndic Champion:
Petra Moore, Executive Vice President of ZGXL Public Relations, ABSA Corp.

In the sea of high-tech research and development, Petra Moore is a shark with row upon row of shiny teeth, always looking for her next meal. She displays a perfect corporate veneer of professionalism, but underneath she plays as dirty as possible. Sabotage, blackmail, reverse-engineering, theft, assassination: All are tools of equal value to Petra. In the ZGXL arena she is no different. Her brutal corporate efficiency translates into win after win as she field-tests the newest and most powerful ABSA zGear up close and personal. Never satisfied, Petra loves the triumphant feeling she gets from both a hostile takeover and from slagging the competition, regardless of cost. However, neither soothes her greedy soul so much as turning a profit.

Consortium Strongpoints:
System Trade Index Orbital (Earth Orbit)
General Product System Headquarters Complex (North America)
KosmosMediaFeed (Indian Subcontinent, Earth)
CreditInfinite Finance Tower (Earth Orbit)
Matago Halo Complex (L5 EarthSun Orbit)

Base of Operations: Distributed throughout Solar System

Sphere of Operations:
The Consortium researches, develops, designs, manufactures, markets and sells every conceivable product or service that humans use and abuse. All media feeds are generated and distributed by Consortium media and telecommunications firms. Consortium companies are nominally limited by the laws of the EGS, but are adept at creating false fronts or manipulating other Syndics to profit by unseemly activities and in the black market. Transport vehicles and ships and manufacturing facilities are innumerable, though each one is owned and controlled by different firms within the Consortium. Some larger firms (especially weapons or military suppliers) maintain their own internal security forces and equipment, including assault ships and orbital bases.

Relations Analysis 

Hostile: Cartel, Mavryk, Mummer, Trancer, Virago 

Rival: Exotic, Lunar, Monzon Ezut, Skrag
Friendly: Androgyne, Avatar, Exarch, Null Foundation, Omniclone, Paragon, Protostar, Savant, Sleeper, Solon, Terran, Thesper 

Ally: Armada, Cestus, Freaker, Orbital, Vanguard

Power Levels (1-10) 

EGS Influence: 9 

Firepower: 5 

Respect: 7 

Renown: 5

Syndic Drives: Ambition, Reason, Resolve
Syndic Flaws:Fear, Obsession, Stubborn
Syndic Skills: Alertness, Command, Savvy