When humanity took its very first steps beyond the boundaries of the Solar System,
it was through individuals of distinct courage. Their settlement of what is known today as the
Core Worlds was achieved through peerless bravery backed by the full support of entire nations. Yet
by the time those Core Worlds had grown to rival Earth, the settlement of distant stars had lost
much of that broad support. While new colonies were sorely needed, civil strife, political
inexpediency and the sheer cost of frontier development had killed the dream of exploration.
Instead of great ships bearing national flags, the colony vessels that journeyed to the Frontier
Worlds did so without federal support, at the sole expense and risk of their crews.
The first settlers to reach the Frontier were that same breed of intrepid explorers,
seeking to build a home beyond the limits of human civilisation, but they would do so entirely alone.
Yet the worlds they left behind still hungered for raw materials, and it was a hunger that
grew more intense every year. When fantastical reports of natural resources within the Frontier
drifted back to the Core Worlds, a second wave of settlement began. It was not motivated by
dreams of discovery, or the hope of a better life, but by purely material considerations.
It was a promise of wealth that drove the mass conveyors,
planetary mining vessels and warships of the Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation.
The Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation or IMC is the legacy of the industrial and
scientific magnate Dr Heinrich Hammond. A genius in both practical engineering and business acumen,
Dr Hammond was renowned for almost single handedly reshaping the fields of science,
politics, commerce and warfare over his astonishing centuries long lifespan.
Founded as Hammond Engineering, his company grew from a small Earth-based engineering
firm into a truly immense and manufacturing megacorporation spread across all of human
space. Between their unrivalled assets and their vital role in supplying the intensive demands of
the Core Worlds, IMC came to wield the political clout and economic influence of a superpower.
Thanks to this primacy, the IMC was one of the few corporations with both the support of Earth
and the Core Worlds to administer and centralize settlement efforts across the burgeoning Frontier
colonies. Operating both as an economic juggernaut and a private military force, the IMC, despite
notable setbacks, became the single largest organized entity across the entire region. Their
greatest impact on the Frontier was the successful introduction of the IMC sponsored “Servicemen's
Readjustment Act”. This policy granted veterans of conflicts involving the IMC the right to claim the
property, resources and hardware necessary to establish themselves on the Frontier.
Sold as a progressive means of supporting veterans and providing essential services for the colonies,
this act transformed the vast wilderness of Frontier planets
into a demarcated series of fiefdoms, held through force and firepower.
Conflicts of various scale within the Core Systems diverted IMC funding and the public's attention
away from the Frontier for several decades. Those who had participated in the Servicemen’s
Readjustment Act were largely abandoned to fend for themselves. By the time the Interstellar
Manufacturing Corporation again had the resources to reassert its authority across the Frontier,
the colonies present there had not only survived but flourished.
Asserting its initial investment across the Frontier and its right to declare imminent domain,
the IMC began occupying the region in a campaign more akin at times to a military invasion. In
the face of overpowering economic domination, widespread ecological destruction and crushing
military superiority, the colonial populations, who had grown resentful of IMC interference,
formed the Frontier Militia in an attempt to retain their sovereignty. Striking at industrial
assets, mining sites and logistical centers across the Frontier, these initial hostile
acts became the first spark that began the ongoing conflict known as the Titan Wars.
The conflict between the IMC and Frontier militia went through many stages, with the Corporation
occasionally declaring victory after major battlefield triumphs. In each instance however,
the Militia withdrew and reoriented itself towards guerilla strikes and other methods of
irregular warfare. During the Battle of Demeter, the Frontier Militia unexpectedly won control
over a key transit hub, stranding the remaining IMC forces within the region and cutting them
off from all supplies and reinforcements. The IMC would eventually again lose much of its
influence in these territories, focused again on more pressing concerns within the Core Worlds.
The modern IMC exists as an immense conglomerate of industrial,
corporate and military subsidiaries. These range from the legacy companies of Hammon
Engineering and its many offshoots, to the Kodai industrial and Mining Concern,
the vast military assets of Wonyeon Defense and Lastimosa Armory, the stock market services of
the Canis Major Trading Company, and the cutting edge research and development of Vision Dynamics.
Through its immense reach, there is no corner of the economy that the IMC does not influence.
Its monopoly in many territories has won through its immense security services.
Dozens of separate military contractors and private military corporations are collectively
known as the IMC Armed Services. These are likewise subdivided into several branches:
the IMC Colonial Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps.
The IMC Colonial Navy is split into several distinct fleets
each controlled by an Admiral or Vice Admiral.
These fleets consist of dozens of privately owned warships and utilize the offensive capabilities
and advanced technology comparable to any national navy. The fleet is heavily supplemented by the IMC
Air Force, which primarily operates in a support role. It provides air cover and reconnaissance
for planetside forces and ensures that heavier assets reach the ground safely.
The IMC Marine Corps is a mixed force of mobile infantry
and specialised armour divisions designed to conduct planetside operations.
Included amongst their number are the elite Titan units and their pilot, a key element that decided
the wars within the Frontier and the dominant force within modern conflict. Coordinating closely
with the Navy, IMC Marines utilise orbital drop and rapid assault systems to conduct immensely
effective shock-and-awe campaigns, epitomised by the thundering experience of a Titanfall.
Mercenary outsourcing allows IMC to field additional varied military assets across the
Frontier without the usual strain on corporate logistics. Many different mercenary groups have
been employed in warzones and high priority areas by the IMC, though most notorious of all are
the Apex Predators. A company of highly skilled private military contractors, they were essential
to IMC’s wider successes during the Frontier Wars. However the reliance of mercenary groups proved
to be a desivie weakness, with the Predators switching sides over the course of the war.
The wars across the frontier led to the fragmentation of IMC military
units stranded there. After the events of the Battle of Demeter, the remaining IMC forces
within Frontier space were reorganised into a force known as the Remnant Fleet.
This unit represents a more closely integrated task force composed of elements from every service
branch, and exists under the direct control of the computational integrated AI known as Spyglass.
Standing apart from the regular IMC military structure is ARES, the Archaeological Research
Division. Predominantly an exploratory and research wing, ARES nevertheless has access to
immense funding and significant military assets. A somewhat autonomous division within IMC, their
role in the recovery and study of alien technology within the Frontier worlds has left them with
access to weapons of unrivalled power. Led by the notorious General Marder, ARES increasingly
utilized unorthodox and devastating tactics across the Frontier worlds through the exploitation of
some of the most dangerous and ill understood technology ever encountered by the human race.
Though the asset losses sustained by the IMC during the Frontier Wars were significant
enough to cause damage to IMC’s bottom line, the corporation is far from insolvency.
Their facilities are spread across all of human space,
involved in every aspect of the economy and tied inextricably with the survival of entire worlds.
Their lines of trade and commerce keep some of the most heavily developed planets alive,
their institutions conduct research backed by interplanetary superpowers,
and their centers of industry employ a measurable percentile of the human race.
The IMC has long since eclipsed the previously understood limits of what a private corporation
could become. The loss of entire armies, entire fleets, the destruction of entire worlds has been
reduced to a line on a budget. Whatever the future holds for the human race, whatever new frontier
the pioneers of civilisation will face next, IMC will be there to face it down and turn a profit.