IPS-Northstar

Interplanetary Shipping-Northstar (IPS-N) was one of the largest corpro-states in the galaxy, being one of the Big Four. Originally two rival companies, Interplanetary Shipping Inc. and the Northstar Corporation, these two stellar shipping giants formed a mutual defense pact to combat against environmental hazards and space piracy. IPS-N, like its predecessors, specialized in space travel and zero-g engagement.
 

History

IPS-N was one of the oldest corpro-states in human history, and if one begins its history with the founding of its two primary constituent corporations, it was the oldest of the Big Four, with the creation of its predecessors occurring almost immediately after the development of nearlight travel and stasis technology.
  Interplanetary Shipping Inc. and the Northstar Corporation both began their histories as worker-owned shipping cooperatives during the beginnings of the Union Space Program, both operating out of Theseus Shipyard but nevertheless major rivals to one another.
  As early civilian-use nearlight technology allowed society to slowly expand beyond the Sol system in the First Expansion Period, interstellar piracy began to develop along the lanes used to ship goods between star systems. In response to this (and the more mundane environmental hazards involved in space-based shipping) proving to be an increasing detriment to their operations, IPS and Northstar signed a "mutual defense pact" to assist one another in mitigating their shared piracy problem. Eventually, this cooperation escalated to the point of a full merger between the two firms, creating IPS-N as a single legal entity at the tail-end of the third millennium u.
  At the time of its birth, IPS-N was not only the largest shipwright cooperative in Union space, but also the largest anti-piracy force, outstripping Union itself in both regards. IPS-N collaborated with high-ranking Union Navy members to develop early ship-to-ship and anti-boarding combat doctrine, as well as much of the first dedicated space-combat equipment, including (but not limited to) point-defense weaponry, combat-oriented EVA suits, and microgravity traversal equipment.
  With the discovery of blinkspace and subsequent development of blink gates in the early 4th millennium u, the newly-merged IPS-N greatly expanded its operations in terms of both reach and scope, most notably manufacturing many of the hulls used by colonial end exploratory parties, to the point that the first-ever recorded instance of successful blinkspace transit was done using a vessel built by IPS-N. Around this time, the company also established Trunk Security, tasking it with protecting interstellar trade and transit routes.