Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-4830106-20140808001942/@comment-10390252-20140808100453

But remember that Atlas's ultimate objective is to totally remove the human soldier from the battlefield. The logical next step is an AI so sophisticated that it might as well be human. Penny is likely a coding prototype - not ment to be operational in most ways, rather an experiment to see if they can get the software working properly. That her creator has started to personify her and treat her as a 'daughter' is an unwelcome wrinkle from the General's point of view.

Wild Speculation With Non-Existant Proof

Ironwood killed Summer Rose personally. She'd found out about his little long-term plot involving White Fang.

Cinder is not a nice person but she owes Summer's memory a few favours. Ironwood thinks Cinder is working for him but is setting him up for a fall: Cinder, Emerald and Mercury are going to bug out at a key moment, leaving Ironwood to be exposed and captured. Everyone is going to think they've caught the big bad, leaving Cinder and her possible sponsor freeer to act as everyone thinks that they've averted the crisis.