Mole
Give me 50 of our best moles and I could rebuild this company from scratch in less than a decade.
Reginald Howell, Founder and CEO of Hegemony International
M
oles are Hegemony International's corporate scientists. Almost all of them work under Hegemony Labs. While "mole" may be perceived by some as a perjorative, Hegemony's scientists tend to wear the label with pride.
Career
Qualifications
A
lthough there is no company-wide template for the qualifications of a mole, Hegemony Labs enjoys a well-earned reputation as employing only the best and the brightest of scientific researchers across a wide array of disciplines. They can afford to be so choosy because Hegemony International provides their researchers with more funding, more resources, and more time than that which is granted to their peers in almost any other company. The wide leeway provided by the corporation has made a position in Hegemony Labs highly coveted by some of the world's greatest scientific minds.
Perception
Purpose
B
y some measures, moles are the very heart and core of everything that is Hegemony International. Even for those who loathe the corporation as a whole, it's difficult to discount the unfettered commitment they've shown to scientific research and the fruits that have been borne of such research. To this day, Hegemony plows such a significant portion of its profits back into R&D that many have characterized it, first-and-foremost, as a "research organization".
The Long Game
Of course, the ultimate goal of this ongoing investment has always been profit and expansion. And there is little doubt that Hegemony's dominance is directly attributable to the stream of advancements that are produced by Hegemony Labs. But moles are allowed to toil away on very expensive projects - often, for decades - before anyone even thinks about pulling the plug on a particular research initiative.
Social Status
O
wing to their revered status within the corporation, moles have a well-earned reputation as being somewhat aloof and condescending. They can also be resented by their colleagues outside of Hegemony Labs because they are not subjected to many of the more brutal rituals within the company.
Shielded
They're protected from the periodic bloodletting known as culling. They are rarely (if ever) pulled in front of Tribunals. They maintain their own peer-review process which exempts them from 360s. Whereas other employees find themselves in hopeless debt as a result of the company's LifeSupport initiative, moles have any such medical bills immediately forgiven. Finally, while most employees scratch and scrape throughout their career for the mere chance of being granted access to Elysia, all moles are allowed to retire there, assuming that they end their Hegemony careers in good standing.
History
Reginald Howell may be the rotten heart of Hegemony International, but the moles are its evil genius.
Carlotta Duarte, CEO of Canadian Royal Enterprises
D
espite the stellar reputation of Hegemony Labs as a world-class research organization, the public view of moles can sometimes be decidely... mixed. This is because, while moles have produced some stunning advancements that have had great benefit to mankind, they have also made "discoveries" that are indirectly responsible for the deaths of millions. They are also well-known for giving little consideration to the legal ramifications of their research when they are in pursuit of the next great breakthrough.
Imperative to Innovate
To be fair, these legal ambiguities are hardly the direct responsibility of the moles themselves. They have long been given broad directives, starting from Reginald Howell himself, to simply innovate. If those innovations run afoul of local laws, or if they're ultimately deployed in unethical ways, those actions are more accurately placed at the feet of the broader behemoth that is Hegemony International.
Regrets
Nevertheless, there have been some moles who, over time, have come to question - or even, regret - the role they played in developing world-altering (devastating?) technologies. But for most who are deeply embedded in their research, they are merely working dilligently to expand the body of scientific knowledge. How Hegemony ultimately chooses to leverage that newfound knowledge is... another matter entirely.
Alternative Names
Researcher, Scientist
Type
Research / Scientific
Famous in the Field
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