Alarms rang in the offices of the Suburban Coalition Council at 3pm on March 27th. By all indications disaster was about to strike, one of the suburban island communities was about to destroyed.

The Council collects taxes from the suburban island communities that sit upstream of The Enclave and in exchange help to fund and run the larger projects that no single isle could handle on its own. One of those projects has been a co-development opportunity with a GMO-focused HermitageCorp subsidiary that would drain the area below water level near Cypressmont in order to turn it into farmland to make the loose coalition of communities more self sufficient. HC worked to build out a wall similar to the one that surrounds The Enclave that helped drain and dry the area. It also built a command and maintenance center for SCC at their headquarters in Kers which has allowed the Isles to work in their own benefit to help maintain and run the operation.

But on Tuesday of last week, what had been a low-sakes self-improvement project for the island suburb, known by the uprooted trees that wash up on its shores, it looked like the project was about to backfire terribly. The system that allowed the wall to bend and move with the surrounding water, dependent on copy-protected encrypted blackbox software from HC and an underwater power cable running direct from HC Tower, was failing. At any minute, it appeared that the wall would fail and the entire suburb would be flooded and destroyed with the force of the held-back water.

Less than an hour after the alert began, it ended. The system reset itself and the wall stabilized. Everything was back to normal. None of the residents had the time to realize their lives and town had almost been demolished due to a software malfunction. Officials from HC, who supplied the program, stated that there was nothing to be alarmed about, the system had worked as intended.

"Our flood-barrier suite of technology is the best tested and best built of all the applications we provide, as we are well aware lives depend on it in the suburbs and indeed in The Enclave. The glitch experienced by the SCC was an adaptive algorithm attempting to adjust for some weather changes and our system supervisors immediately corrected the issue, which happened quickly because any decision made by the system gets checked by humans."

The island's representative Sheri MacLaughlin, was unavailable to comment, either through her office or the Suburban Coalition.

Read the rest of our in-depth report in our Virtual Space…

Despite living most his life in The Enclave, presidential candidate and ex-CFO of HC Tuck Braedy has garnered little support from his hometown, one of the most populous regions he would be responsible for as President. Polls find that, at least in the case of Braedy, familiarity does indeed breed contempt. Enclave residents polled him the lowest among the current candidates, a stat which coincides with their especially low consideration of HC in general.

Living in the shadow of HC has apparently not made Enclavites particularly sympathetic to the company, which is generally seen positively elsewhere. The poll reported that among members of The Enclave's population HC is seen as more criminal than legitimate organization, unfairly overruling their interests in the local government. Reports found that they fear HC would have an oversized influence in national politics as well.

We gathered a number of on-the-ground reactions to the announcement that you can find in our Virtual Space. If you'd like to join them, we have the tools here!

You should already have a profile registered with the authorities. Once that's done and you've got the initial work under the belt, you'll likely have to register your new higher level of experience! You'll have to register the new stats that come with joining our great adventure of reporting on morons every day for the next two years.

Here's how it works:

Add +1 to a rating : You can mark permanent changes to a specific rating, though your profile should note a limit beyond which you can't go. Consider what each rating can do for your character and choose carefully. You can't go beyond your registered limit.

Take another Move from those available on your profile : Everyone's profile has a variety of moves you can make. If you're going up a level you can take one of the moves that you haven't already marked as having.

Take a Move from those available on another profile : All the profiles we've supplied show what they can do under the Moves section. You can learn something new and unusual though! If you do you can take a Move that describes your new skill from any of the other profiles below, just check their Full Descriptions to think about what you'd like to do.

Gain an Ally/Gain a Team : You can gain some support staff that will be registered as working with you! You may already have some people you know that you're picking out, or just putting it out there that you're recruiting and getting some folks to show up. Allies and teams work similarly, they both are organized around a single motivation, even if a team comprises of 2 to 6 people. However, members of your team may have their own motivations outside of the team's requirements.

The motivations you can register for your new Ally/Team:

• Subordinate (motivation: to follow your exact instructions)
• Lieutenant (motivation: to execute the spirit of your instructions)
• Friend (motivation: to provide emotional support)
• Bodyguard (motivation: to intercept danger)
• Confidante (motivation: to give you advice and perspective)
• Backup (motivation: to stand with you)

Ally/team members should have names registered along with what their background is too, how they look, and any special skills they bring.

Register a Haven Feature : Have you got a serious home base to operate out from? Are you intending to improve it? Then you need to add that information to your profile! Select a new haven option from the list in the Expert profile. You have added this facility to your haven.

Don’t bother trying to register a new feature if you don’t already have a haven!

HC Pushes Employees to City Core Political Roles | City Core region seats on the borough council remain unfilled as we look towards an emergency election at the end of this week. The most well-funded campaign for the empty rep seats comes from HC employees who have said that they are interested in "doing their part" for the community. It's unclear why these particular people have chosen to run, but it is clear that they enjoy support from their employer. The two HC employees have received funding for their campaigns and an unprecedented vacation in order to run.

Wall Maintenance Failure Spreads | West Central Wall district, which now houses evacuees from WeSoWa along with its own residents, is seeing its own flooding as whatever phenomenon caused the wall to spring a leak in WeSoWa has spread to the central district, causing fear as it becomes unclear if WeCentWa faces its own evacuation order.

Pollution Scrubber Failure Kills Over a Dozen | East South Wall saw the neighborhood pollution scrubber fail in the late evening yesterday. The sudden influx of bad quality air, especially during the humid season, impacted hundreds of residents who suffered from choking and asthma attacks. East Hospital was overwhelmed by emergency crews who evacuated the worst impacted while repairs were underway. Before the scrubber could be turned on 15 were dead.

SoCentWa Troubles Earn Maintenance Attention | It is unclear if HC has stepped in, if The Enclave has diverted resources, or if SoCentWa has somehow fixed itself, but Flare events are down in the area and the network is stronger than it has been in weeks for the residents of SoCentWa, who remain in control of their central square after having faced down EPD and The Free Battalion.

Flares Continue to Plague Wall Districts | Flare events continue to spread to other Wall neighborhoods, with residents seeing network malfunctions and strange behavior from flatscreens across the lower levels of The Enclave. Our reporters have been investigating the phenomenon but other than badly impacting the ability of Wall-regions to sustain themselves and interfering with HC systems of all types it is unclear what is the cause or solution. HC continues to refuse to comment on the phenomenon of The Virtual leaking out of devices to project where it shouldn't.