11.15-The Agreement of 2248

Hello, and welcome to Revolutions. Episode 11.15, the agreement of 2248. In March 2248, the Omnicorp board of directors finally voted to negotiate terms with the Martians and the space shippers. After an eight month long staring contest, the Earthlings finally blinked and announced their willingness to try to attempt to reach some sort of agreement. And that's not just me doing an overly qualified sentence. That line was in the official statement. Not reach an agreement, not attempt to reach an agreement, but try to attempt to reach an agreement. Try to attempt. Really committing themselves to a lot there. But after Lomarich's leak in February 2248, they were gonna have to do something. Global pressure on Omnicorp to yield became too much to bear. There was now open talk of revisiting the contract that granted Omnicorp monopoly rights to everything beyond the line of lunar orbit. Phos five was the concern of the whole world. And if Omnicorp could not be trusted to deliver, then they didn't deserve to keep their monopoly. Now just to remind ourselves, there are four other major corporations on Earth besides Omnicorp. In order of relative size, they are Bicor, Calcor, Mascor, and T Corp. Omnicorp was the biggest by far, double the size of Bicor, which was its next largest corporate rival. But just for the record, while we focus on the five major corporations that dominated Earth in the twenty third century, there were smaller corporations and independent free cities and leftover rump states existing in between and around them. But in the main, the five major corporate powers dominated Earth. The major powers existed as broadly siloed off and vertically integrated companies. Inside their global corporate structures, each of the great powers owned, controlled, and distributed goods, services, resources, personnel, energy, and consumers such that they were mostly self sufficient. Mostly. All of them were tied together in a larger global system that accounted for resource imbalance and particular sectors of manufacturing or services being done better by one corporation than the others, or, say, one company had exclusive claim to something the others needed, like how Omnicorp controlled the Phos five and had contracts with the others to supply them. Now those contracts were not totally one-sided. In exchange for their monopoly over space, Omnicorp had shared Flexcel designs with the other corporations so that they could all manufacture their own. They also agreed to joint ventures that allowed the other four companies to reap further benefits in exchange for giving Omnicorp rights to everything beyond the lunar line. T Corp and MaScore, for example, were both cut into the spacecraft manufacturing programs. The contract they all signed gave Omnicorp rights to everything beyond the line of the lunar orbit. But inside that line, anyone was free to do anything they wanted. So all five of the major corporations eventually put up satellites and orbital platforms around Earth and bases on or above the moon. Calcor and MAZCOR's presence …