Chapter Text
6 months before the Endministrator's awakening.
Weather conditions are sunny and clear skies.
Current agenda: site survey for future AIC deployment.
As grand as the vision of Endfield Industries is, and with all the happenings of society ever since making its way to this planet (and subsequently losing its way back to Terra), the boots-on-the-ground reality is, to be perfectly honest, completely mundane.
Sploosh!
Mud and water splash as Perlica's boot finds itself deep in the ground. A conundrum that, for most Endfielders, means having your feet wet and caked in dirt.
But Perlica is not most Endfielders.
As the protege of the mysterious yet genius Endministrator, and heir-apparent of the organization, the young liberi shoulders the weight of leadership, making calls that lay the foundation for civilization's continued survival on this hostile world.
Calls that, due to her busy schedule and constant need to move, are often made by radio.
Her radio.
Which she keeps in a convenient spot where it does not get in the way of her hands. Strapped to her ankle.
Her ankle.
That is now completely soaked in muddy water.
Barely suppressing a shiver, Perlica regains her footing and scampers out of the puddle, when her radio begins to crackle.
A communication. For her. On the radio.
She presses the button to respond. The button does not move. And the crackling remains garbled.
Though she is not as well versed as her mentor in the fields of electronics and originium circuitry, with her expertise mostly lying in administrative affairs, she is not completely helpless in matters of technology. Being a supervisor over many projects involving state-of-the-art sciences and engineering, it was only right that she took up some studies in the fields.
Knowledge of which leads her to a fairly safe conclusion.
The conclusion that her radio has been destroyed by the water.
She sighs sharply.
To Supervisor Perlica:
This letter is to inform you that we have received your request for a new radio and have begun the procurement process.
Unfortunately, due to this being the 90th such item that you have requested in this month, your request has been flagged for a more extensive review by the logistics personnel.
We apologize for any inconvenience that this delay may cause. Should you wish to expedite your acquisition of a new radio, the logistics department recommends seeking alternative channels for procurement, such as with our partners in the UWST.
Thank you for your understanding!
They. Denied. Her request.
Endfield Industries' procurement personnel, of which she is technically the superior of, has effectively denied her request.
A deep breath as she tosses the paper in the bin.
Well, this is certainly a major hurdle - considering the extortionate rates for getting anything from anywhere else at the moment, any attempt to finance this little venture is bound to be...expensive.
But certainly not unaffordable!
If she can't purchase one - certainly it must be easy to temporarily commandeer some Endfield facilities for the task!
Yeah!
How hard can it be!
It is impossible.
Increasing landbreaker activity has been causing demand for radios to skyrocket.
To make matters worse - the AIC, the holy grail of manufacturing in this day and age, does not work.
Activating the machinery requires the authorization of the Endministrator.
The Endministrator, who is in a coma. And has been for the past several years.
The mathematics involved are largely guesswork, though the science is sound...theoretically.
But it will have to suffice.
Attempting to bypass the need for the Endministrator's access privileges had proven to be a fruitless endeavor - especially when you do not have any official support from technical experts who might have had a chance of even understanding the system.
And her requests for funding from more private individuals had largely gone unanswered.
The decision to "lose" canisters of highly experimental blight and aether technology in landbreaker territory was not made lightly.
The (radioless) legwork was equally painful.
But the task is done.
According to some fringe science, if the energy fluctuations are made just so, then they should be able to replicate the conditions needed to awaken the Endministrator.
The risk of collateral damage had been weighed very carefully, of course. And, of course, the decision to continue was made anyway. A gaggle of landbreakers won't be able to inflict any large scale lasting damage, surely. Especially when the Endministrator is up and about to deal with them anyway!
Miscalculations were made.
The landbreakers had proven unexpectedly strong, significantly stronger than anticipated.
The Endministrator, for whatever reason, has not only lost all memories, but also taken on many...personality quirks. From refusing to walk anywhere without a large cable reel ("in case we see any pylons!") to spending hours on end trying to fine tune factory layouts and spending some occasional periods of time standing as still as a statue in seemingly random places around Talos II, and refusing to call some operators by their proper name, making allusions to an "Eyja", "Hellagur", and "Surtr".
An outcome that is...far less optimal than Perlica had hoped. Downright concerning, if she is being honest with herself!
But at least the AIC works now.
...even if it is extremely hard to get some personal time on it.
Because the Endministrator's watchful, optimizing eye would notice any stalling of the industrial process.
For a brief moment, Perlica wonders if perhaps it isn't actually normal to need new radios as desperately as she does.
No.
Surely not!
It only makes sense to use them that way, doesn't it?
The Endministor glances to Perlica as she enters the office, and then back to the monitor, before gesturing to one entry in the sheet of monthly expenses.
While they technically use different resources on Talos owing to its unique frontier situation, the conversion system to Terran currencies still remains in the system.
All this to highlight, of course, an expense that was made under Perlica's own name.
30k dollars. For radios.
"You really need to stop putting your radio on your foot, you know."
