ALTAR
Overview
Deep below the foundations of Atla, beneath the swirling currents of the Atlantic, lies the ALTAR complex – the headquarters of the most clandestine institution in GATA.
ALTAR explores new techniques and scientific principles, and their groundbreaking work has produced an awe-inspiring array of new technologies.
Their careful investigation and cataloguing of these new technological primitives helps safeguard humanity against the threats posed by technological innovation. ALTAR works closely with the AIC in order to introduce new tech, and maintain the NDA’s doctrine of 'mutual incompatibility', ensuring each district's technological paradigm is distinct.
In GATA's halls of power many secrets lurk beneath the surface, however the unseen influence of ALTAR remains undeniable.
History
Established concurrently with the founding of Atla as an extension of the Research Corps intended to handle all programs that were only permitted under the Existence Doctrine. Since its founding, ALTAR's public mandate has always been to protect humanity against the threats posed by unregulated innovation.
However, those closer to the seat of power purport to know an unspoken truth; ALTAR's true prime directive is the safeguarding and study of the mysterious "Found Objects."
Believed to have been collected by the Joint Atlantic Command (JAC) in the tumultuous early days of the Dark Decade, for most people around the world these anomalous objects remain shrouded in myth and fiction. The origins of these rumored artifacts remain uncertain, though many boldly speculate an extraterrestrial connection.
It is said that the Objects range in size from a mere 3cm to an imposing 155m, that they have been the source of ALTAR's tremendous innovations, and that they have been secretly coveted by black budget operations, governments, empires, and religions for all of recorded history.
Deep Sea Complex
GATA’s Innovation Engine
Boasting a recruitment roster that includes the most brilliant minds from not just GATA and Sol, but also from the recognized territories of AU, Aryabat, New Imperial Japan, and URSA, ALTAR is a multi-national hive of innovation and, albeit indirect, collaboration.
Researchers, usually working solitarily or in compact teams, delve into the frontiers of the most top-secret research and unravel the mysteries concealed within ALTAR's deep-sea complex.
While the primary motivation of their inquiries is ostensibly advancing scientific understanding, if a team's work produces new processes or technologies that are cleared by ALTAR and paradigmed by the AIC, the researchers are rewarded with enterprise licenses, granting them the right to transform their discoveries into cutting-edge products or license them to qualifying legal enterprises.
Leadership
ALTAR is helmed by a small twelve-member council of undisclosed scientists, industrialists and military leadership who serve 10-year terms bound within the confines of the deep-ocean ALTAR complex. Some confident speculation can be made about past and present appointments, however no official confirmation has ever been provided in its long history.
ALTAR leadership also includes a thirteenth member, known as the Speaker; a liaison who is responsible for all communications between ALTAR and GATA leadership (generally only the First Quorum, with occasional exceptions). The Speaker does not participate in deliberations and has limited insight into ALTAR's operations in order to preserve the organization's tight compartmentalization. They never meet with the rest of the council in person.
Idle whispers and speculations about ALTAR's leadership permeate the corridors of Atla, and beyond. Its secretive nature is a legacy of compartmentalized programs predating the Dark Decade fueling numerous conspiracy theories, however, none have been substantiated.
Interaction with Government
ALTAR leadership works "closely" with the First Quorum, following strict protocols in all such interactions so as to preserve dangerous secrets while also providing the First Quorum with actionable information, recommendations, and abstracted choices to permit oversight.
In the event that dangerous secret information must be revealed to the First Quorum in order to facilitate a decision, one Quorum member will be required to go to the ALTAR complex in person where they will meet with the Speaker, learn the information, make a decision on behalf of the First Quorum in-situ, and in most cases, will then remain quarantined within the ALTAR complex for a period, based on the sensitivity of the information.
The policy is that the First Quorum member considered most qualified for membership on ALTAR’s council would be asked to do this, creating a natural opportunity to freshen the First Quorum's ranks and begin the councilor's transition into a position at ALTAR.
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