TO: Kusari Naval Forces; Ministry of Defense

[Ionic Inc.]

Target: Naval Forces Command, Ministry of Defense
Sender: Emily Furukawa
Subject: The future

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Esteemed readers,

Greetings once more. I have matters to discuss that are broad in scope and of great importance for the security of the nation, thus I am sharing this transmission directly with the Ministry of Defense as well.

To start, we have received a number of naval personnel starting this new semester, who from the feedback we have received have shown great interest in our material. We are currently planning for new courses that integrate exploration and martial education, which I will get to later.

Now for the greater picture. As you know, our company specializes heavily in hyperspace technology, the advancements in which are in the early stages of what will likely become revolutionary. We must work with the assumption that it is only a matter of time before hyperspace tunneling progresses from small scale experimental use to the new method of mass transit, which would represent a technological paradigm shift not seen since the development of jump gates.
This development is also fraught with competition; hyperspace devices proliferate, and although we are unaware of any manufactured entirely without Kishiro technology, we have to assume that other entities, Ageira in particular, but possibly even non-state aligned actors cannot be too far from independent manufacture.

This brings me to my next point. The usage of hyperspace breaches has led to the discovery of the system dubbed Earhart by explorers, which contains alien structures that act as an "anchor" for hyperspace travel, as confirmed by many human wrecks found, some of them centuries old, which appear to be leftovers of older failed hyperspace experiments or mishaps.
The nature and origin of these structures, or any relation to the alien species known as "Nomads" is at this time hotly debated, but it is our currently strongest theory that they formed the nexus of a hyperspace travel network of enormous scale. Exploration of this strange system, its connections, and the collection of anomalous materials found within, has been a major priority for Ionic.

Because of the link between hyperspace technology and the Earhart system, we strongly believe that it is in the highest national interest to aggressively pursue exploration and study of this sector. It is possible that understanding of the alien technology found could lead to a "Valhalla moment" which completely changes technological development in the colonies, and it goes without saying that the pioneers of this knowledge will hold tremendous advantage - and conversely, there are massive strategic dangers that could result in unpredictable actors making such technological gains.

So allow me to circle back to some more practical points. Ionic has been adapting Kishiro's original Ikazuchi plans for our purposes. It is our intention to create a next generation exploration vessel specifically designed for hyperspace travel. The base design already fits well into our requirements, since it integrates the last generation of the Jintsuriki scanner suite. We are currently working with a small independent organization, the "Starfliers", on an updated version better suited to anomalous reading analysis as suited for exploration. These Starfliers have impressive hyperspace exploration know-how and have proven valuable partners on the academic as well as the practical exploration front.
Every previous vessel equipped with hyperspace technology has been an adaptation, blending existing technology together as best as possible. This craft will be different: A purpose-built design specifically to pierce the veil, so to speak.

Now I can return to the first point, the integration of exploration, technological development, and national security.
We propose the creation of a joint exploration task force, centered around the vessel currently in the final planning stage, tasked with hyperspace exploration and securing the advantage of the Empire of Kusari in this field. Now I must be clear here, this is not to be a friendly-faced outreach group, this is a martial task force with the objective of securing Kusari interest in a rapidly-developing sector. The Ikazuchi platform was not chosen just for its technical superiority, but for its defensive and offensive prowess. For the purposes of this task force, we suggest we develop a course to train such naval exploration personnel, combining our technical perspectives with military training.

We firmly believe that this represents the most secure investment in the future we can currently make, and we are confident the Empire will share this perspective.

Emily Furukawa
Chief Executive Officer
Ionic Incorporated