"In the early days of fighting the Tide, we realized that it was using nanotechnology to convert terrestrial matter into more of itself. You all know that. What you don't know is that one of the early projects we started up was to use and enhance our own existing Earth nanotechnology, in order to try and fight the Tide on equal footing. It proved... less than successful, but it yielded other results that, if it weren't for the Tide, would have made life on Earth much more interesting. We called it Project Ascent, and that's what I'm here to tell you about tonight.