MechaWorks

"'Mechaworks Incorporated is not res-responsible for pos-possible loss of life.' - Training Droid, Everdream: Stars Hold no Boundaries Chapter 6, Page 45"

Foundation
MechaWorks is a technology and A.I development company. It was founded in 4838 A.E by a wealthy human group of investors, two years after the end of the Corp War. MechaWorks made use of the power vacuum in the technology industry to emerge after the absorbtion of all major tech companies as a consequence of the Corp War. They offered jobs and hired many of the now jobless researchers, quickly growing to ascend in the industry. However, the new policies regarding private businesses and A.I development severely hindered the speed at which they innovated.

Dodging Laws
To get around these regulations, MechaWorks established an "independant" research outpost in uncharted space, outside of Federal legislation. Thanks to this, they were able to avoid the laws regarding A.I development, and were able to rise above all of their competitors. This started a wave of the practice known as "outsourcing", where a corporation would settle in an unregistered planet for research and mass production to avoid corporate regulations, claiming the outpost to be "independant but cooperative". This was harmful for all workers, since the factories were outside of national borders, they weren't liable for any kind of labour laws. Before the Federation was able to address it, too many of the most important companies of all industries were utilizing this practice, and it could prove extremely harmful for the economy to outlaw it. "Outsourced" factory worlds were some of the most horrific places to be sent to, and only people who have no other choice work in them. Unfortunately, all major corporations made use of this.

Lifelike Robots and "Outsourced" Slavery
Through outsourcing planets, MechaWorks ascended as a titan of technology development. It took a different approach to its predecessors, investing ridiculous amounts of money into domestic and everyday A.I technology. They created many machines made for use in society, such as vending machines, cash registers, dishwashers, visual transmission devices (VTs) and eventually even lifelike servant robots.

Servant robots, also known as Human Relations Androids, were created in 5033 A.E and started being mass produced the year after. Their popularity was humongous, to the point where every High World had androids working as all manner of workforce. From waiters to receptionists to secretaries. The mechanization of so many jobs led to the mass rural exodus, where hundreds of people left the High Worlds to look for work in other, lower planets, where human workforce is more affordable and abundant. This widened the class division in Federal society.

In many factory worlds of uncharted space, the usage of robots quickly automatized the workforce, forcing people yet again to look for work elsewhere. They were in luck, as a new energy source for spaceships was discovered in roaming asteroids: Hyperfuel. MechaWorks tried automatizing the extraction of the mineral, but discovered it was highly volatile. Meaning that any disturbance of the unrefined fuel or ignition could generate an electromagnetic field that would render any machines inoperable. So many machines were lost in trying to automatize hyperfuel mining that they had to give up. Off-galaxy mining colonies, requiring human beings to function, are some of the most horrendous places to be sent to in current days, and inherited the place of factory worlds as somewhere only the most desperate go to work, subjecting themselves to borderline inhuman treatment and corporate slavery.

MechaWorks is the biggest tech company in the Known Galaxy and one of the biggest corporations as of 5061 A.E.

Mentions

 * Everdream: Stars Hold no Boundaries - Chapter 6