Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-10390252-20150427084942/@comment-26018514-20150512225209

Shadow at Morning wrote: Let's clear some things up, shall we?

Your argument, as I understand it, is that given some compromise at the tournament with Penny going rogue, there will be enough internation pressure to cause Atlas to shitcan the entire project in fact, rather than merely shuffling it off into the black budget, if it isn't already there, taking custody of the hardware (or soldier) who did it? This in turn allows the principal component, and the compromised asset, to be free to join a foreign power, abandoning her family and everything she's known, as well as her country?

Is this broadly correct? No, I am saying that:

"given some compromise at the tournament with Penny going rogue, there will be enough international pressure to cause Atlas to shitcan the entire project".

In reality, it goes back into black budget, however they cannot disassemble Penny themselves due to mistrust preventing them from touching her, so instead they allow her to be trained into being a huntsman, which is as far as we know NOT restricted to any one government's police force, but rather a separate entity much like the jedi. This works for them, because they can see how she compares to elite field operatives, Polendina disappears into the new black budget project while presumeably retiring to the life of a reclusive hermit, occasionally reappearing with upgrades, claiming loyalty/responsibility to Penny while secretly Beta-testing mark 2 parts in the field.

The universal grim protection service hunters give is then Penny's only option because no Kingdom can technically claim her without potentially starting the next World War. Keep in mind Penny herself said nothing about having a specific loyalty to Atlas. She may have said that her father "loves her"... but only as a precursor to the justification of "he only wants to protect me" which can also be a justification for abuse.