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Going into the 1990s, the world had reason to be optimistic, because its denizens were blissfully unaware of the drastic changes that were to come.
On the surface, society looked to be moving in a positive direction. The growth of new technology such as cell phones and portable computers was making worldwide communication easier and creating a flurry of industry. The internet's creation gave rise to increased possibilities for spread of knowledge, helping to educate its users on important topics and issues of the day. The rise of corporations stealing land for projects and flexing their financial muscle was now being challenged by a wave of progressive governments elected in countries across the world. The key one was in America, where new President Jeffrey Lynch was sworn in in 1993 on an anti-corruption platform, resolving to clean up Washington. Lynch tried to accomplish this by gathering hand-picked judges to fill vacant Supreme Court positions, presumably thinking they'd be loyal to the government in important matters such as corporate versus government disputes. The economy was generally healthy worldwide, unemployment was lowering, and quality of life seemed to be on the up and up.
Towards the end of the decade, things changed. The event that changed corporations, the federal government, and their balance of power forever was simple enough on the surface: The New York City government offered a contract to a local Teamsters Union, the Union found it lacking, rejected it, and the truckers under said Union went on strike.
This caused a big problem, as many of the striking truckers drove food shipments across America. With less food reaching stores successfully, segments of the New York and even American populations began to go hungry as prices soared. The prospect of starvation turned to desperation, and one hungry, desperate group of poorer New York citizens went after a truck during a miserable April afternoon in 1999, thinking it contained much-needed food.
What it actually contained was medical waste to be disposed of by the Seretech company. It also contained a team of trigger-happy Seretech security guards, who did not take well to civilians trying to tear the truck apart to get its contents. The ensuing carnage led to the deaths of 20 Seretech security force members and over 200 civilians in a brutal firefight.
The disaster was met with a fierce response by the US government, who took Seretech to federal trial court for criminal negligence. Besides wanting good PR for "avenging" the civilian deaths, the Lynch administration wanted corporations across America to be collectively hammered by a guilty verdict with far-reaching precedent, hoping that it would curb the troublesome rise of private corporate security armies. The trial court ultimately did find Seretech guilty in Round 1 of the trials.
Seretech's appeal, however, was successful, and the government's final appeal to overturn Seretech's appeal was blown up by Lynch's own hand-picked Supreme Court justices, who ruled that Seretech's use of force was justified to transport the waste. The states of New York and New Jersey, by authorizing Seretech to be in charge of the waste's transport, were making Seretech liable to take any and all available means to protect its cargo. The court even commended Seretech for saving lives with its effective defence of cargo, arguing that the release of medical waste in a crowded urban area could've killed thousands instead of the hundreds that did die.
Seretech, and corporations in general, got a vital victory, one that essentially justified the existence of corporate militia to protect their interests. A few years later, they got a second vital victory that completed their master plan.
In 1997, the Shiawase Corporation opened a high-end aluminum production factory in California. The factory put a huge strain on the regional power grid, and locals saw their power bills rapidly increase. Shiawase decided to counter these problems by building a nuclear power plant to power the aluminum factory, but ran into roadblocks with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. One of the contentious issues was the NRC wanting local police officers for security staff, instead of Shiawase's corporate militia (Essentially, this was an attempt to work around the Seretech Decision). Shiawase battled in court to get the plant built, and eventually had it finished and online in late 2000, a stunning architectural feat.
Shiawase's power plant caught the eye of various eco-terrorists as a target, and a wild group among them called TerraFirst! decided to attack it. A well-trained group of TerraFirst! special ops forces made it through the outer containment zone undetected, but were brutally annihilated by Shiawase security forces as they tried to breach the containment building.
The NRC took Shiawase to court for criminal negligence, but stumbled and fell on their own sword. Shiawase lawyers argued successfully that the NRC's own attempts at applying security measures blunted the quality of Shiawase's plant security, and had Shiawase been allowed to set up its own security regulations unencumbered, the TerraFirst! team wouldn't have made it near the containment zone, let alone the building.
Shiawase then went for its biggest hand, citing the precedent of legal cases (such as the Seretech Decision) to ultimately argue that "Corporate Extraterritoriality" was needed, and that corps should be able to do whatever they damn well pleased to protect their property, as long as it worked and didn't do adverse harm to the people of America (at least, no harm to the non-criminal element of the populace). The Supreme Court blindsided the government yet again by agreeing with this stance, and, eventually, the Shiawase Decision was finalized.
What the Seretech and Shiawase Decisions had accomplished was making corporations powerful enough to be outside the government's jurisdiction on matters that necessitated armed force. Now, any attack made on a corporate employee could be judged as an act of war, and met with a response by corporate security forces from across the nation to neutralize the threat, without much fear of government interference (this became known as the "first-bullet principle" by legal scholars). Any attack on a corporation's property could be met with a response by a corporate security army, who would have legal jurisdiction over their own property and could play judge, jury, and (for the most part) executioner with anyone who invaded.
Corporations took advantage of this to buy large swaths of land, invest further in technological advancements in warfare, beef up their security forces with highly-trained, combat-hardened operatives, the whole nine yards. Eventually, megacorporations worldwide became above petty things such as national government regulations, and the world changed forever......
