PassiGear Manufacturing Company

PassiGear Manufacturing Company, abbreviated to PGM, was an interplanetary civilian company based in the Jovian Colonies. A declining business by the time of the Human-Covenant War, PassiGear was principally known for its immense shipbuilding facilities specialized for constructing starships several kilometers in length. Aside from shipbuilding, PassiGear is also responsible for the production of high-quality safety equipment and starship components.

Originally established in 2148, PassiGear grew slowly by producing a range of civilian technologies, eventually expanding into colonial equipment for inhospitable environments. It was responsible for a number of major innovations, starting with the development of prefabricated structures capable of withstanding extra-solar conditions of which it had an early monopoly of. Eventually, the company slowly began turning to shipbuilding as an increasingly more important section of their business. This led to the creation of the Jovian Superheavy Drydock in 2403, the largest spaceborne structure of the time, and allowed them to construct vessels several times larger than anything built before. To streamline production costs, many of these were built with the components of PGM's first major starship success, the Gaia-class colony ship.

The downfall of the company was a somewhat complicated matter. From 2415-onwards, competition with corporations based in the colonies began to slide into the favour of the newcomers, with goods from the colonies becoming increasingly cheaper than those from the core planets. Initially, PassiGear compensated for this by buying up emerging competitors and shutting them down, or spreading lies to consumers through unofficial channels. However, the first major setback would be in 2454, when after decades of declining revenue the company shifted its focus towards shipbuilding to prepare to dominate the emergence of the next big industry: military manufacturing. This would backfire spectacularly; many of PassiGear's massive designs would be ignored by the UNSC in favour of a fleet of smaller, more versatile and cheaper vessels. Additionally, as the Insurrection grew more and more violent, many of the company's assets would be frequently sabotaged by rebels. Finally, the years spent preparing for military manufacturing had allowed many of PGM's competitors to take over many of the company's alternate sources of income. Because of all these factors, by the early 2520s PassiGear had fired so many employees that it became little more than a supplementary shipyard. Although experiencing a slight resurgence during the Human-Covenant War, the company would cease to exist by the war's end due to its offices and factories being utterly destroyed during the Covenant's invasion.

Original Designs

 * Civilian ships:
 * Gaia-class colony ship
 * Warships
 * Blenheim-class battleship

Under Contract

 * Civilian ships
 * Carriers
 * Cruisers
 * Carriers
 * Cruisers
 * Cruisers