[h2][b]PART 4: “THE THIRD FACTION” [/b][/h2] [i]MAY 8TH, 2042 SOMEWHERE IN THE YELLOW SEA[/i] “Oz takes ‘need to know’ to a whole new level,” says Mackay with a theatrical eye roll. “We get our destination via telegraph with a fortune cookie’s worth of intel -- then hold onto your butts." Hence why we’d been floating aimlessly in the Yellow Sea for two days, waiting to hear from on high. Thankfully there had been a steady stream of news on the wire to keep me focused on something other than losing my lunch. One AUN story in particular would soon intersect with this boat in spectacular fashion and shed light on Oz’s machinations. At approximately 7:30am, an executive assistant at Daesong Electronics made out with 10 petabytes of internal data from their headquarters in Songdo, South Korea on a stolen corporate helicopter. The criminal responsible for the breach, an unassuming Korean woman in her 20s, was suspected of being a foreign intelligence asset, most likely American or Russian. They couldn’t have been more wrong. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//40697820/b5e671f660c1cc1f17a93986ec1f41243f11cd79.jpg[/img] [i]The Songdo Grand Park after the explosive events at Daesong headquarters.[/i] South Korea’s economy is one of the success stories of the last decade, not just surviving, but thriving. However, one company deserves the lion’s share of the credit: Daesong Electronics. Before the Blackout, almost the entire world had switched to satellite internet. After that disaster in 2040 plunged us into the dark ages, this earth-bound ISP sprang up from obscurity with a next-gen solution they’d developed for underserved markets. It was called K-Net, promising to get the world back online without needing to repopulate the heavens with expensive hardware. By the spring of 2041, Daesong had 60% of all internet traffic running through its veins, which eventually flowed into the Quantum Data center in the heart of Songdo. For the US and Russian intelligence networks, infiltrating that trove of information would provide an overwhelming tactical advantage. What I didn't realize was that there was a third faction interested in Daesong, entrenched in these intel wars... [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//40697820/a03ec13ce313b2ba42fced8604676ec73358a392.jpg[/img] [i]Daesong funded the construction of Grand Park in the wake of Hurricane Vera. [/i] I finish the news and go above deck for some air when I spot something in the distance - a flaming jet black helicopter with the unmistakable Daesong logo emblazoned on its side. Everyone rushes over to the edge of the ship as the chopper crashes - when that unassuming Korean woman from the headlines floats down across the deck with her parachute. I’ll come to know her as the Specialist Ji-Soo Paik, the No-Pat mole who infiltrated Daesong at Oz’s behest. As Casper and Rao usher her below deck, my brain is firing at a million miles an hour. After Singapore, I was convinced all No-Pats were sympathetic underdogs, making hard choices to help the destitute survive. But here were some infiltrating tech giants, beating the superpowers at their own game. Perhaps the conspiracy theories aren’t all fake news. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1517290/Battlefield_2042/