The Bulwark Conglomerate

As of 2131, there are six megacorporations that make up this ICG, and they are considered to be the most influential tech companies in the galaxy. Unlike the Ivory Confederation, their power is shared fairly equally.   Hudson Dynamics is a producer of androids and AI's, as well as cheaply manufactured probes. It has also been exploring the possibility of researching and manufacturing weaponry for spacecraft, along with their partner Arma Corporation, who is also part of the Conglomerate.   Arma has many branches of its own, though its specialty lies in spacecraft armaments and station defense systems. It also specializes in cybersecurity measures, and a particularly large branch of it by the name of Armadyne produces human-scale weapons and armour.   Northstar Engineering specializes in infrastructure, especially pre-fabricated colonial habitats. This led the company to become well-established in the field of partnerships with colonial companies like Parlowe-Helix Inc.. It is also a leading manufacturer of survey and exploration spacecraft, as well as the designer of most colony ships and habitation stations in the modern day.   Valecore is primarily a shipping and freight company, and its trademark Herald relay probes exist as a quick way of delivering information between systems. Most current trade routes and transportation systems only exist thanks to them.   Aava Incorporated is a megacorporation on a massive scale. It began as an entrepreneur's idea to make computers more accessible to people in Rimspace, all the way back in 2009. Because of how disconnected Rimspace was in terms of distance and the cost of transporting goods, it was (and still is) difficult to obtain the most modern technology on off-world colonies. Michael Rolfsson, the CEO of the company, designed an easy-to-replicate model of a personal computer, the Aava Ironcore. They were ridiculously cheap, portable (in terms of shipping), and simple to mass-produce. On the very frontier of space, you can still find the occasional Ironcore being used to this day, though Corespace has moved on to the more novel Microsoft and Apple computers. Nowadays, the company has so many products that it's hard to classify them as any particular type.   Lastly, Nosorog Resource Solutions is a Russian company that began as a titan of the oil industry within the Soviet Union, later growing into the R&D-focused energy corporation it is now. It helped commercialize nuclear fusion reactors and turned them into a mainstay on board spacecraft, especially with the help of their partner BAS-Lehman, a French-Japanese energy company that is still in operation to this day. Unlike most other ICGs from the Soviet Union, Nosorog has not collapsed, mainly due to their cooperation with the Bulwark Conglomerate.

The Big Six are very heavily involved with matters related to Rimspace specifically, and what the corporations seem to pride themselves in is the fact that they care more about the lives of spacers on the Rim than other ICGs. This appears to be true, as they aren't focused on the sole profit of Corespace, though only marginally so. They are motivated mostly by greed, so despite them having social programs designed to help startups within the tech industry, the companies will only fund such entrepreneurs if they predict a net profit on their end. Curiously enough, they occasionally agree to safeguard newly-established ICGs in partnerships similar to protectorates. Overall, they are far more reserved and secretive in their methods than the Confederation or the USC.

The Conglomerate has the most technologically advanced war fleet out of any other ICG, as well as the highest GDP among them all. It owns the most military bases, though the Ivory Confederation outnumbers it slightly in terms of troops and ships. It also controls the transportation of ice, oxygen, and food, mainly thanks to Valecore's far reach into trade.