Corporate Court
You know how sometimes you imagine there’s a secret group of people meeting together to plot the fate of the world and make sure things work out to their advantage? Well, that’s happening, and this is the group. Formed after corporate warfare started cutting too deeply into profits, the Court exists to smooth the path forward for the largest corps in the world. Never make the mistake of thinking they have any other purpose, including anything resembling justice. The Court is above us all both literally and figuratively, as it is based in the Zurich-Orbital Habitat. It designates corporations as unrated, A, AA, and AAA; AA and above are considered megacorporations. The Court has thirteen seats. Seven of them belong to representatives of the original founding corps of the Court. Those seats are sometimes called “golden tickets,” because they guarantee AAA status. Here are the current holders of the ticket, with the source of their ticket indicated in parentheses if it’s different from them:
• Ares
• Aztechnology (ORO)
• Mitsuhama
• Renraku (Keruba International)
• Saeder-Krupp (BMW)
• Shiawase
• Spinrad Global (JRJ International)
Traditionally, other representatives from the AAA corps also get a seat. There are ten such corps right now, three who are not listed above, so Evo, Wuxing, and Horizon get a seat. That leaves three seats up for grabs, and they’re quite a prize, as having double representation on the Court makes it that much easier to sway. As of this writing, the extra seats are held by Ares, Mitsuhama, and Saeder-Krupp. With Ares’s recent troubles, their extra seat is likely the most vulnerable. The Court’s powers have been downplayed from time to time, and it’s true that the individual corps tend to wield more might outside the Court than in it. But don’t dismiss how the Court can shake the world. It can make a formerly mighty corp ripe for acquisition, elevate a smaller corp to a status thought beyond its means, or focus the ire of the most powerful entities on earth at a single target. Suffice it to say that if you have drawn their attention, you have gravely erred.
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