HERMES

HERMES (the Hyperion Enterprises Relayed Multimedia Exchange System) is an interplanetary civil communication network, using the HYP-TP protocol. Operating across the expanse of Libertan space, HERMES connects civil, corporate and government networks, allowing the transmission, storage and recall of a vast array of information.
HERMES forms the backbone of communication in Libertas. It allows the transmission of large amounts of information between the disparate stations and planetary colonies in Libertan space and accounts for the transmission delay between planets by keeping local copies of the network at relay stations for quick access, updated regularly.
Mass media, entertainment, data sharing, communication, cloud storage, and machine intelligences all utilize HERMES in a variety of ways. The network is accessible by most Libertan citizens, either from personal communication devices or with Neural Lodge. It is also directly networked with by a number of Sophont Machine Intelligence.

Discovery

The HERMES network was developed by Hyperion Enterprises, an Eostre City based megacorporation and released in E2.Y416. It was developed as the First Expansion began to establish many disparate colonies throughout the Libertan system, exposing flaws in the slow and clumsy INet protocol used previously. The transmission delay between planets made the previous system inflexible, and a simple request for a file could take hours or more to fulfill.