c.chun ➤ 001 ➤ text

[arkproject]

Hi, everyone. I'm Catherine!

I've been talking to a few people about our mission, and I've been thinking... Do we have any ideas for how to restructure the government that don't require full-scale fighting? Like, if we could gather evidence of the corruption and expose it to the public, through, say... cyber espionage? It would at least give us more information, even if we don't go that route.

Reconnaissance is a good first step!

I'm not an expert in this, but I figure one of you is. So I want your thoughts! Or if you have experience hacking and want to teach me. It sounds like it would be easier to sneak in and put a physical receiver into one of their central systems, but in the spirit of keeping our options open, I might as well learn.

Even if doing it the manual way is going to be very slow.

Comments

[arkproject]

Hi, Finn! Nice to meet you.

It seems worth doing, at least. I appreciate the vote of confidence. It's okay if you aren't a hacker! If we got a wireless signal receiver installed in the right computer on their internal systems, we wouldn't have to hack anything. So, that's another option.

[militarized]

Probably best if a small group attempted that. Sounds like it could be risky, but worth it if we can pull it off.

I'd be willing to volunteer.

[arkproject]

So you don't think it's a useless waste of time to try to learn the government secrets?

I mean, thanks. That's kind of you. Yuna said she'd be willing to go, too, and she has experience breaking into things.

[militarized]

Why would it be a waste of time? Can't keep it from coming back if you don't know what's going on inside, right?

I'm more useful as muscle than anything else, so if she needs that, then she's got some.

Do we know where those central systems might be located?

[arkproject]

Other people think it's not possible to find a peaceful solution here, or that I'm excluding the Rost, or something.

Which, speaking of them-- that's probably a question for our employers. [ See, Simon's friend, she doesn't exclude them!! ] I'm sure we could get some idea. Anyway, we definitely always need muscle. I'm about as useful in a confrontation as a dishrag.

[militarized]

I'm not sure there's an entirely peaceful one, but we can do the best we can to limit casualties. I think that's the right thing to do.

Besides, if they didn't want our help, they wouldn't have hired us.

Hey, we all have our strengths. Nothing wrong with that.

[arkproject]

That's what I think, too! I'm glad you agree.

Oh, I'm not ashamed. Most people can't do what I do, either. But you should probably know if we're going to try to sneak in somewhere that the most I can do is throw things and yell.

[militarized]

Hey, having someone around to watch my six is useful in my book.

What's your specialty, out of curiosity?

[arkproject]

Watching things I can do!

I'm an engineer. Primarily I code artificial intelligence and environments to house human consciousnesses, but part of that is some proficiency with robotics, so I've been getting myself back up to speed with the hardware side in Drakstaden.

[militarized]

Yeah, that definitely sounds a little out of my league. Or most people's for that matter.

I bet you'll catch up in no time.

[arkproject]

Hey, that's what I'm here for. How many A.I. experts could you possibly need, anyway? We only had a few at my old station.

It's been pretty fun so far! I don't know how I'm going to leave!

[militarized]

Ha probably not too many.

You don't necessarily have to. The team, I mean. Every place they've taken me I've been ready to leave when it was time, though.

[arkproject]

Oh, I'm not going to leave the team. There's not really anything for me to go back to. But as great as the Vulphytes were, I'm more into robots than trees.

[militarized]

You have an incentive though, right?

[arkproject]

Don't we all? Yes, I do. It's not a secret or anything, it's just hard to explain.

[militarized]

You don't have to. It's not my business or anything. Most people just want to do something specific where they came from from what I can tell.

[arkproject]

[ She honestly doesn't mind, she's just not sure she feels like getting into the whole ordeal again... People invariably don't understand at first blush, and it turns into a conversation. Catherine tries to find an abbreviated version. ]

Essentially, I saved what I could from a dying planet, and I want to make sure it stays saved. But that's not why I joined. Are most people here because they want their incentive, and that's it?