Teams
You may have heard of Boston Dynamics? The little robot dogs? They were step one on humanity's journey down a path of robotic automation - everything from warfare to manufacturing to leisure has been touched by Adiotics (Advanced Biotics) Corporation.
We were once a multi-national conglomerate whose profits eclipsed even the big software companies. Now, we're the Ark's premiere engineers, fixing every part of this damned ship that some inept soldier or depressed civilian breaks. But, it gives us the opportunity to study the ship and its technology, to create tools and even... augmentations for people to use.
We tried to stop the world going down the drain. We really did. We tied ourselves to trees, we stuck ourselves to roads, we threw food at art. Some of us even blew up refineries and oil pipelines. We obviously didn't succeed.
These days, we're just trying to survive, trying to help people get back to their roots and remember the beauty of Earth. We hope for a better way than the way that led us onto this metal coffin.
For the first few years, we ate military rations. You cannot imagine how depressingly flavourless they are. Sure, it's a perfect package of protein and fibre in a little bar accompanied by perfectly portable and infinitely preservable slop, but it is intensely tasteless. It has no life, no passion, no heart.
There's a lot of danger in space - weird, arguably habitable planets with dangerous alien life forms; risky science we need to fly a ship we didn't make. But just because we might all die out here, doesn't mean we have to die hungry and doesn't mean our tastebuds have to go first.
Why is everyone on this ship always so uptight? Yes, it's true - space is dark, dangerous and depressing. Great. Does that mean we have to be depressed also? No. Just because we're the "last survivors of humanity" and we're probably going to die out here, doesn't mean we don't have the right to have some fun.
On Earth, we were streamers, musicians, writers, filmmakers. We were the culture. On the Ark, that's still us. While everyone else is arguing about who should be in charge, we'll be over here giving the people what they really want - a fun night out.
Everyone on the Ark is a worker. Circumstance has left us with no choice but to all be cogs in the machine that keeps this ship flying and keeps us alive. Too many leaders have no issue exploiting those who labour in the Ark's more menial work - the people who tend the plumbing, who haul the food, who cook in the kitchens. The Ark's economy may be well controlled, but the exploitative mindset of capitalism definitely didn't die on Earth.
We are the unions, the agitators - we fight the good fight so that everyone has an equal share, not just an equal opportunity. We ask for very little in exchange: loyalty to the cause and the party.
In its waning days, the United Nations was forced into establishing the Ministry for Preservation. We drew from disaster management agencies, from banks to finance the work, from militaries to protect it. Our objective was simultaneously simple and complex: survive. Every project we could push to buy Earth one more year, we pushed - oftentimes, violently.
The Ark was a saving grace for humanity, but we are nowhere close to saved. We are hurtling through space in a machine not of our creation, our destination unknown. Our objective is as relevant today as it has ever been, and so we continue the work.
We are the sports stars, the elite athletes from all corners of the globe, from every walk of life. From gymnastics to swimming to darts, we welcome anyone with enough passion and perseverance to succeed against all odds. Our fierce drive to be the best will keep us and the rest of our Ark-Mates fit and ready to confront any challenges ahead of us. Some may call us single-minded, but if we don't think about our physical bodies as well as our minds, where will we be 100 years? Sports aren't just for the elites, though, and we believe everyone on the Ark deserves the chance to let off some steam on the court. And zero-gravity doesn't mean zero-gains, so we are invested in creating a new gravity defying sport that would take exercise and recreation on the Ark to a WHOLE NEW LEVEL.
When the world began to collapse, we knew we had to look to the skies and the infinite possibilities in the stars beyond.
NASA has always been at the forefront of humanities' exploration of space, and since the Earth's death, we have consolidated all of the best astronomers, physicists, and cosmonauts into one seamless organisation. Striving for excellence and creativity in science, we are sure that the answer to the Ark's problems can be found through the exploration of new celestial bodies. We are on a mission to find humanities new home-world, and we will do whatever it takes to get there.
CRISPR was a remarkable innovation in genetics, heralding a new age of experimentation, some sanctioned, some not. More importantly, it lacked the kind of branding required for real money to flow into its development. That's where EVOLVE comes in.
Our pitch is simple - we want to create the perfect human, and we don't mind changing what it means to be human (literally) to do that. We want a world where human immune systems resist all disease, where everyone has the opportunity to live a healthy and beautiful life. As the Ark's largest group of medical professionals, we're also the ship's primary medical care provider.
"In peace, we left our shores. In love, may we find the ground again. We pray for safe passage on our voyage. We hope those we lost are met again."
So goes our prayer, forged from the spiritual carcass of all of Earth's religions grappling with a new reality. People need faith, that their sins are forgiveable, that the unpredictable has meaning, that there is a peace we can find - that one day, our voyage may end with something more beautiful than the vast emptiness of space. People need hope.
The Louvre. The British Museum. The Met. The Egyptian Museum. Even the Vatican Museum. These are institutions dedicated to capturing humanity's artistic and cultural history - oftentimes, by any means necessary.
When we left Earth, we knew we couldn't preserve it all, but we had to try. Future generations have to be able to learn the things we did well and not, if they're going to have any chance of surpassing us. This has evolved into the International Powerhouse Museum, a place to explore the past scientifically, to understand humanities cultural and technological leaps forward.
If you walked the halls of power on Earth, you would know that the United Nations was never where the real work got done. When everything really began falling apart and nations started turning to the G20 and "requesting" aid, it became even clearer. Helping was both ethically sound and diplomatically useful, our two equally relevant criteria for acting.
It proved fortuitous, because when it came time to discuss how to govern the Ark's citizens, our model of liberalism and capitalism has proved a key bulwark against the more authoritarian and military figures. We do miss Davos though - no more fun with friends from all around the world...
We used to fight each other. NATO, Russia, China. Proxy wars and real ones. There are no more countries now, but that doesn't mean humanity doesn't have need of soliders. Where there's danger, there's a mission, and on the Ark, there's quite a bit of danger. That might be on the alien worlds we send people down to explore, it might be in the vastness of space, or it might be in the soft civilian leadership that doesn't take threats seriously.
Whatever that danger is, we're here to stop it. We won't hesitate to use force to do so.
"The hardest hitting stories and the most breaking news, delivered right to your holo-lens, 24/7."
In the final days of Earth we were deliverance. As the schemes of the powerful left humanity behind we held them accountable. We were the ones to reveal their deceptions. Now our broadcasts beam through space as the Ark's most watched source of news and current affairs. Here, we are the ones who keep the citizens informed. While the factions scheme amongst themselves, we continue to hold them accountable and search for the truth.The official channel for all Ark governance related news, there is nothing that happens on the Ark without us knowing.
Money Makes the world go round, its true that it doomed old Earth, but its also what drove the technological developments that had a chance to solve it!
We were the largest company, and while others were jealous of our success, we know that it was our hard work and ingenuity that allowed us to survive and rise above the competition on old Earth. The other corps - Adiotics and Evolve - are too specialised, we always diversify our investments and that has meant we always come out on top. Some people say our methods are too cut-throat, too unethical, but to that we say "that's just good business"
We are the best and the brightest academics, all that remains of the once great universities of Earth. Anything from advanced mathematical theory to art history, we can and will teach you. We hold all of the most important human knowledge in our hands and it is our mission to pass this information on to the next generation. Through fostering intelligence and curiosity within the youth on the Ark, we will ensure humanity's ongoing survival. Working against misinformation and conspiracy, NESA are the authoritative source of truth and learning on the Ark. We are also the ones who set the standardised testing regulations year after year, as our combined experiences make us experts in molding young minds.