ARC in the news[edit]
The main storyline of Uplink takes the form of a series of special missions. It is foreshadowed by several articles appearing in the news feed on the Uplink Internal Services System.
On March 25th, the first article tells of a mysterious research and development project being run by the Andromeda Research Corporation (ARC). They have been hiring a large number of Uplink agents to work on this project, while remaining silent about their ultimate goals.
On March 29th, an article features an Uplink agent warning that ARC's project could potentially be used as a weapon. He cautions anyone against working for them.
On April 1st, only two days later, another Uplink agent speaks out in support of ARC. He says the code couldn't be used for anything dangerous and that ARC will reveal its product soon. Fittingly, this announcement is made on April Fool's Day.
On April 8th, a week after expressing his support for ARC, the hacker is found dead. Cause of death appears to be suicide.
Dead agent's plea[edit]
On April 14th, the player will receive an email from the dead agent, now that its 7-day delay has expired. The email states that ARC cannot be trusted. The agent tried to break into their files to find out what project Revelation really is, but he was nearly caught. The email provides a username and password for the ARC server, asking that other agents come together and continue the investigation.
In response, Uplink Corporation issues a statement on the news feed indicating that they are investigating ARC in partnership with federal agents. They forbid any Uplink agents taking work from ARC, under penalty of account termination.
Attempting to use the provided credentials to access the ARC server doesn't work. It seems the user account was deactivated. The player will receive an email from ARC shortly afterward, indicating that the attempt didn't go unnoticed.
An offer you can't refuse[edit]
In the ominous email, ARC will invite the player to work for them by responding to the email. They'll give a 10,000 credit advance. The job is to test fire a new virus against the Arunmor Corporation. A short while later, the player receives an email from Arunmor asking that they cancel the attack and deliver the virus for analysis. At this point, the player has two options: side with ARC or side with Arunmor.
This is the point of no return - once you decide whether to side with ARC or Arunmor, you will commit yourself to the final campaign mission.