Stapleford Group

"'Stapleford's a hivemind that seeks control over all biology, and from that, all humanity. When I left VISTA and took the knowledge I had with me, I knew what I was doing. I'm marked for death for knowing their secrets.' — Robert Firestone Russell, ex-VISTA biochemist" The Stapleford Group is a multinational, pan-Coalition biotechnology mega-conglomerate based from Olympus Mons, Mars. Owning influential megacorporate subsidiaries such as MinervaCorp, VISTA Biotechnologies, and Tachi Pharmaceuticals, the Stapleford Group exercises control over a huge swath of the biomedical and biotechnological industries in the Coalition of Congressional Republics (and therefore that of humanity as a whole). It possesses over three hundred million employees across the Coalition, and is one of the sitting members of the Coalition Corporate Advisory Committee (CCAC), where the various mega-corporations of the CCR are able to exercise advisory over government decisions as a result of the Corporate Wars of the 2200s.

Currently, the Stapleford Group exercises most of its control from the Stapleford Corporate Headquarters Complex on Mars. One of the most powerful civilian supercomputer networks in the CCR exist in the confines of this complex, ranging from computers V-I to V-XII. As explained by a public press conference, the "V System" serves as a calculatory mainframe for the computation of many demanding processes that even subsidiary computer networks cannot handle. Such demand of power was what, according to the Stapleford Group, lead to the Olympus Mons Blackout of 2692.

Background
The conglomerate was originally founded as the biotechnology startup Vitalis by biology scientists (and brothers) Libertatem and Vincent Stapleford in 2080, and was done as a part of the anticipation of the burgeoning astromedical industries to arise from the successful colonization of Cherub in the Aton star system. The company quickly grew under enfranchisement of stakeholders and investors from a miscellany of peripheral industries such as terraforming giant TerraVigil. However, Vitalis was able to avoid being bought by such corporate actors through its own profit-generation by taking commissions from the Coalition government for deducing and producing various pharmaceuticals to combat "colony fevers" and diseases of xenobiological origin. With success in undertaking prophylactic measures for colonists of worlds with alien microbiological biospheres such as Hyperion through vaccinations and nanomachine pioneering, Vitalis ballooned and was transformed into the eponymous Stapleford Group in 2116.

Subsidiaries
As a biotechnology mega-conglomerate, the Stapleford Group exercises control over a bulk of the biomedical and biotechnological markets of the Coalition. Although not in total control of these industries, its sheer monopolization has dwarfed the influence of even its official "competitors" into being that of second-rate enterprises.

Ardor Incorporated
Ardor Incorporated is an "adult entertainment and health" corporation founded in the 2300s with the advent of somatic and gametic tissue editing, especially with proliferation of genital modifications. It was bought by the Stapleford Group for 10 trillion CCN in the late 2300s, and currently maintains its original purpose on an interstellar scale.

The company also has trans-corporate involvements in joint products such as sex synths, sex replicants, and sexual "simulation and stimulation" algorithms. However, both Ardor Incorporated and the larger Stapleford Group have been involved in recent scandals involving the purported "kidnapping, assault, and rape" of Coalition citizens in order to "bring greater accuracy to products and to please employees". All involved parties have rejected this claim, but the case is currently being deliberated upon in Kinoshita v. Ardor Incorporated.

Hecate Security Enterprises
Hecate Security Enterprises is a "bio-security" firm that employs a hybrid of private security contractors and CBRN evaluators in order to bring "proper conventional, chemical, biological, nuclear, and radiological defense to infrastructure". Leaked documents reveal that the majority of Hecate troops are garrisoned at Stapleford Group subsidiary locations, making many in the public call it nothing more than "Stapleford's private army". They are currently on contract with the Coalition Forces Authority on Mera.

Minerva Corporation
The Minerva Corporation (or MinervaCorp) is a mechanical augmentation corporation which was recently acquired in 2585, following the company's fall from grace as a result of the Minerva Augmentation Scare of the prior year. The Front for the Liberation of Human Purity (FLHP) claims that this scare and its subsequent consequence of MinervaCorp's acquisition was staged by Stapleford.

Polynomica
Polynomica is Stapleford's chief omics megacorporation, spearheading research into new biochemical structures and phenomena. They also serve as Stapleford's premiere bioinformatics company, and has been contracted by the Coalition government for hundreds of years in the record-keeping and maintenance of citizen bio-data - much to the chagrin of many libertarians and human rights organizations.

Tachi Pharmaceuticals
Tachi Pharmaceuticals is one of the Coalition's largest pharmaceutical companies, and has high interactivity with Polynomica in the cataloging of both medicinal molecules and patient bioinformation. Many hospitals in the Coalition are outright extensions of Tachi Pharmaceuticals, and the company's importance in relation to the vaccination and maintained immunity of Coalition populations means that it enjoys high enfranchisement from the government.

VISTA Biotechnologies
VISTA Biotechnologies is the Stapleford Group's leading biotechnology megacorporation. Based on the world of Hyperion and the Fallveil Archipelago, VISTA spearheads advanced cybernetics technologies in addition to research in novel chemical and biological phenomena. Rumors are abound that the corporation has a stake in the research of weapons of mass destruction or even in psionics.