A Corporate Mech World - Battletech inspired

So I've been putting together a scifi mech world for a webcomic, and I've run into a block on the setting. The mechs are relatively battletech style so more walking tanks with arms rather than Gundams and all that.

The basic setting is that this story takes place over numerous colonized solar systems accessed through the FTL Drive called Driftdrive, Driftdrive is a hyperspace drive that gets you from point A to B by calculating the distance between two gravitational bodies and then sending the ship into "Driftspace" where the ship is fundamentally drifting along this path until it exits at a set point. This FTL research was done in the early 22nd century and is pretty much the most unreal part of the setting along with some terraforming as the rest is all real technology we can currently extrapolate (plus a particle cannon or two).

Megacorps had risen up at this time but weren't in power just yet, but did provide a lot of the resources and funding needed for space colonization so quite a few worlds became one nation under copyright in a sense, the corps being a bit smarter since lasting to see the creation of the Federated Alliance (A league of nations sort of deal that was the overarching government) was not a easy thing to do. Planets were terraformed and societies were built, good times for everyone and the corps were making money and the Federated Alliance had a solid grasp of everything.

Over the next 100 years corporations rose and fell, new governments were formed, and new ideas, businesses and ways to exploit people were made. And with this, especially since Corporations were now larger than a few buildings across some land, came outright warfare for corporate greed and concerns. The wars were bloody, violent, and pretty much unnecessary in the view of the Federated Alliance who after stepping in demanded that the Corporations find a new way to fight each other or else the Alliance would start dealing with corps who shed blood directly.

In response, the Treaty of Ford was made and served as the answer to their problem, it was a document that stated outright warfare was illegal but gladiatorial style matches with champions dedicated to fighting could be used, with the caveat that the loser fork over what was agreed upon. Nobody liked it but agreed to it as the alternatives they liked even less.

As a result a company called Olympus Robotics used the new research they had to build walking weapon platforms and sell them to everyone else for these conflicts, as a lot of their research wouldn't work in warfare otherwise. In a battle between a mech and a tank, the tank always wins, and Olympus Robotics counted on this, as the Mechs made outright warfare more impractical and more based around champion designs and good pilots. This worked out and the Treaty was amended for Mech Combat, unfortunately for Olympus Robotics, it was put out of business once other corporations, especially ones with robotics research started stripping their mechs for parts and reverse engineered them.

As time went and the Megacorps gained more power and planets, they eventually outpaced the Federated Alliance and took over as the governments, keeping the Treaty of Ford however active as they found the Mech combat more effective for their needs, with less collateral damage. It's been over 700 years and now the Corps are effectively governmental bodies and run all of colonized space, the Treaty of Ford still applies and no one has seen actual warfare in all that time.

This is not meant to be a good thing, as effectively the Megacorps run everything and any sense of rising up against them is unlikely. However this is not where my issue lies, I'm stuck creatively on justifying other elements in story as beyond the corps serving as backstories for many of the characters in my comic, I want to tell something beyond just them.

So how would I justify something like feudal houses, backwater worlds, and so on in this setting? I'm stuck with what I've made so far and I'm hoping some fresh eyes can help.

Without a government to keep them in check, Corporations would end up devolving into a pseudo-feudal state similar to the Gilded Age. In some ways, Feudalism would actually be a step up from the attempted oliarchy we see some business owners try to enforce. Freemen can at least leave a domain run by an abusive nobleman whereas the victims of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire were actually locked in.

The biggest change would be terminology. You'd see Dukes, Counts, Barons, and Knights replace with Vice-President, Director, Manager, and Supervisor.

Interesting, so feudal and noble houses and all wouldn't be out of the realm of unbelievability then. That's good.

Feudalism is all about who you own fealty to. This can also be changed. In a sense, this is little different from a corporation owning you.

Feudalism as a system worked because after the fall of the roman empire, the ability to respond across large distances sucked. So rather than the king sending his private army around (which due to loss of empire was now not feasible), he simply told the local... mafia boss that he's in chance as long as he pays. Feudalism is not that different from a mafia racket.

In a hyper corporate system with accessible-but-not-too-accessible FTL, a similar system could arise. The local director is in charge through hypercorp mandate, as long as he pays his fees.

Also, this sounds quite similar to The Outer Worlds, which is a great game so you could go play that for....inspiration.

Edited by devak on Jan 5th 2020 at 8:48:27 PM

This was in my head before the Outer Worlds came out and all, so I assure you similarities are highly coincidental. I'll be trying to play the game later.

As for Feudalism and accessible FTL, interesting, would it be out of the realm of reason to have Corps make noble houses and put people into positions of Fuedal lords to ensure a "down payment" over control of worlds and all?

I'm not accusing you of ripping it off. Outer Worlds isn't super original either.

I'm not sure if people would actually want to call it feudalism. Though in the future you never know, maybe they successfully rebranded it?

If FTL is too accessible then the corporation would simply assume direct control. Everything would be micromanaged. Whereas the (story) benefit of feudalism is that the local lord can do what he wants unless the higher ups arrive. It's also highly personal (as in, maintaining relations with vassals and overlords is essential, much moreso that in a relatively impersonal democracy), which is great for drama.

If FTL is too hard then you would be founding independent worlds that would form loose alliances and relations, since actually enforcing the power structures would be too expensive.

Hence, feudal-like societies would thrive in a setting where power belongs to a specific group, local rule is preferred yet centralised power can still exist.

It takes a bit even with FTL to get from solar system to solar system, and Driftspace can be used to go from planet to planet but unlike jumping from Star To Star where you have a large margin of error due to the sheer size of that gravity well and how far out you can calculate, you risk getting pulled in by a planetary gravity well so standard thrusters are used instead.

So even with FTL communication it'll still be a bit for local power structures to get hit with corporate enforcement.

That works out pretty well actually.

Note that it also helps with avoiding getting the big boss called on you. Corporate's going to think twice about sending inspections if the payments are on time and no news of any problems occur. They won't care about how the business is run unless it's run badly. Which is all the incentive for directors to cover up, bribe and suppress failure, for corruption and whatnot. But since sending an interstellar cruiser with an inspector and enough firepower to deal with revolting directors is quite expensive and bothersome, you need to pretty spectacularly fuck up before anyone's gonna care.

This also means heroes have unconventional means of defeating a bad guy, such as leaking to the press or embezzling funds to ensure the big dogs notice the system (though this may also cause other uniquely bad new situations)

Now mercenary companies, the story involves my characters forming their own, but I'm wondering if they're as likely to pop up in setting considering everything else.

If the corporations are the sole remaining authority, what incentive is left for them to stick to the treaty? I could see them abiding by it if there was still a governing body enforcing it, but without that the profit motive seems like it would inevitably lead them back to to cheap and effective conventional warfare.

Inertia largely is what I have, things have just gone on for so long that nobody's bothered to question the treaty and at this point everybody sees it more as a proper guideline to conflict in this world they've made. Why bother going back to the other ways when this way works just fine, why bother paying for a million soldiers to invade a location and possibly die and blow stuff up when the treaty makes it so that if you send in some mechs and they win against some other mechs, the place is yours?

Of course that's just my reasoning, I'm now wondering if there will be a better reason, or if I'll just have to leave this to the rule of cool and willing suspension of disbelief.

These aren’t governments though, they’re corporations. They aren’t necessarily motivated by a duty to their constituents or even a desire for stability. War is great for business, and if they’re not getting what they want out of the treaty it’s not like anyone will stop them from just taking it instead.

Okay then, what would you suggest as to why the Corps haven't abandoned the treaty and started lobbing bombs at each other as soon as a ship pops out of driftspace?

Conventional warfare is anything But cheap. Between fuel and food for campaigning to collateral damage from artillery fielding a conventional army is expensive even when you win. Defeats, on the other hand would be absolutely disastrous with key personnel killed and materiel lost.

Champion warfare, even with the extremely expensive mechs, would be far cheaper. Destroyed mechs can be salvaged and defeated pilots can be ransomed. Battles can be arranged to be far from anything valuable and conflicts can be decided in days or weeks instead of months or years.

Conventional warfare is expensive for governments. It’s phenomenally profitable for corporations. If you manufacture arms a war is about the best thing that could possibly happen to you.

Moreover, if a corporation is unhappy about the result of a mech battle, what’s stopping them from just sending their fleet in? If the only enemy forces are gigantic champion mechs it’s not like the battle would be all too difficult.

All of the corporations would have to maintain standing armies to make sure everyone abided by the terms of whatever deal was being made, not to mention someone or something has to be doing treaty enforcement.

I mean, I assume there are terms to the treaty. What kind of battlegrounds are appropriate, the rules for the bouts, what kind of weapons and mechs can and can’t be used, and so on. Perhaps all the corporations donate forces to an enforcement organization, or the most powerful corporation in the setting makes sure everyone plays by the rules at gunpoint.

Edited by archonspeaks on Jan 6th 2020 at 2:40:39 AM

I was thinking every corp just behaves because they're all enforcing the treaty out of their own interests, add in the fact that they're kind of the governments of space now.

There’s zero motivation for all of them to play nice by an arrangement like that, though. What if one company decided they were going to raise a conventional military and conquer all their unprepared rivals? Everyone just maintaining their own interests would just lead to regular old conventional militaries and boring conventional war, for your setup someone has to actually be enforcing the rules.

I wonder if fear of the Federated Alliance would be a good reason, even though as far as the story is concerned the Federated Alliance technically doesn't exist anymore.

Well regardless, that's just one of the aspects that won't get explained much, it's just part of the setting and readers will just have to accept the Feudal corporate worlds with Mechs.

Edited by EchoingSilence on Jan 6th 2020 at 10:21:56 AM

@Archon

"Profitable for the Corporations" Only because the Government foots the bill. In this case the Corporations ARE the Government so they're stuck paying for everything.

I was also hoping the fact that it took a few hundred years for the Corps to outpace the actual government, plus another few hundred to reach the "modern" day which has caused the treaty to go from a document preventing all out war between corps to a sort of guidelines and practices of conflict.

Presumably the corporations in this setting still control the means of production, so increased demand for any reason is still good for them.

Humans notoriously do not follow “guidelines and practices” for armed conflict. At least, not without someone bigger and meaner breathing down their neck.

Edited by archonspeaks on Jan 7th 2020 at 12:50:39 PM

Even if you do control production you still end up expending manpower and resources. At best this is net neutral and your only losses are in comparison to safer investments. At worst you end up loosing wealth with every man killed and fighting vehicle destroyed.

I'm just setting how the corps run with the treaty as a Acceptable Break from Reality for now. I got the big question I was looking for answered at last.

Fuedal Houses can exist which creates a lot of locations and political maneuvering which is good.

Now Mercenary Companies existing is the next big question, people hired to fight for nobles, fuedal houses and the occasional force multiplier for Corps. Could that be a thing? I think it could but I'm biased to the idea.

Likely. Corporations would want to cut costs whenever possible and yet professional soldiers are almost always better than conscripts.

On the other hand, Feudalism is enforced at gunpoint so there would be on hand enforcers to keep the peasantry down.

So Mercs work out, excellent. That's the two major issues I had building this world sorted.