I'll preface this idea by saying this 'suggestion' is intended to be more of a talking point then anything else; I'm making this initial post to try and stimulate other ideas and suggestions along these lines.  If you wish to say "it won't work" please at least say why and offer an alternative or amendment to the concept.

So, one thing that seems to be a concern in Perpetuum is the establishment of power blocs that, once dominant, are able to maintain a solid grip on the in game market through communal activity.  Another regular complaint appears to be the relative weakness of the player economy outside of internal Corp. trade.  Lastly but certainly not the least of issues appears to be the lack of PvP and incentive to initiate said PvP due to the relative cost and lack of benefit when ones Corp maintains control of an outpost.

One solution that occurred to me (thanks Peter Hamilton) was the introduction of NPC corps with no 'on the ground' assets; that is to say they do not have access to the Perpetuum Program and as such cannot deploy their own resource gathering and military forces.  What they could do however is contact individual Agents and Corps requesting aid in the form of resource orders, technology orders and information gathering operations. 
What I am proposing is not an extension of the pre-existing NPC missions but rather a active presence in the persistent world of off planet market forces which desire a piece of the Perpetuum pie. 

Now, insofar as addressing the previously raised player concerns goes; these off world interests would effectively be seeking to circumvent the processes of the larger parent companies that exist on Perpetuum and hence would incur the ire of said companies if discovered.  This would obviously limit their access to the Perpetuum network.  In game this could be easily represented by limiting the access of these transient 'interests' to specific Outposts in the game, hence the Corp which controls Outpost 'x' is contacted by an off world company with an order for a significant sum of one specific in game item (everything from titan ore to Mk2. Heavy Mech prototype or CT). 

The key factor here is that the off world company doesn't care which Corp fills the order, so long as said corp has access to Outpost 'x'.  The price offered for the requested materials would have to be quite significant so as to make the risk/reward ratio viable.  When you extrapolate out from this and examine the 'in game' ramifications it suddenly becomes interesting; 'Why is that Corp not allowing anyone to dock at the station they control?'.  One would assume that there is a very healthy price being offered for something at that outpost by an off-world interest... does it then become worth attacking the outpost in the hope that our corp will be able to hold it until the order is filled?

This concept could also be downsized to individual Agents being contacted at random by off-world interests with specific requests.  This could be particularly interesting as it may involve said agent having to interact with other player corps without divulging their true intentions.

Player Corps and Agents caught out trading with these off-world interests could also be subject to embargoes from the in game parent corps. What was once an Alpha island for them becomes a touch more dangerous if they are considered an enemy by the parent company which controls it.   

As to offering more high tier tech for sale; there also the possibility that these off-world interests selling back into the Perpetuum market, again limited to specific outposts.  The same logic applies but in reverse.  If an off-world corp were to offer for sale/trade enough resource to prototype a Mk2. Mech it would be a significant prize.

This interaction, though controlled by the game Developers/Managers, would doubtless add a little more spice to the nature of the Perpetuum world by altering significantly the supply/demand dynamic.  Large buy orders would become a cause for suspicion, hoarding certain items would become market speculation as their relative value may plummet due to an off-world fire sale, etc... 

What do you all think; rip hell out of this idea, please.