Although Uplink can be played without really touching the storyline plot, if you want to have the full Uplink experience then it is advised that you delve into the storyline when it becomes available to you.

The first inkling that something is not quite right within the hacker community is when a news post appears on the Uplink bulletin board regarding unusual hiring practices being noticed by analysts. Reading the news article informs the Agent that a company called Andromeda Research Corporation (otherwise known as ARC) have been extremely busy hiring all of the top Uplink Agents in the past couple of weeks to work on a top secret project.

A few days later another news piece appears, this time telling of a top ranking Uplink Agent who is raising some doubts over the morality of the work being done by ARC. He informs the hacker community that they do not know anything about the company and some of the work being done for them is seen as ‘highly suspicious’ and has the potential of being used in a very destructive manner if properly exploited.

Not long after the number one rated Uplink Agent comes forth and tries to re-assure the community and informs that he has been working for ARC on a confidential project for the past two weeks. He states that the project is immensely ambitious in nature but is nothing sinister and certainly nothing to worry about.

A week later ad a rather shocking press release is brought to the community’s attention informing of the apparent suicide of the top ranked Uplink Agent, adding more mystery to the top secret project that ARC is working on.

After a seven day delay from the release of the death of the top ranked agent, all Uplink Agents receive an email from the very same agent that was reported dead. In it he states that if people are reading it he has been caught by ARC. He goes on to explain that he was able to gain access to the ARC mainframe and copied the files that they had been working on, but had not had the chance to examine them himself.
He urges agents to use the link and codes he included with the email to attempt to hack into the ARC Central Mainframe and retrieve the files so that they can be studied. However, by the time this is read the code no longer works and attempting to use it on the server triggers ARC to contact the Agent a week or two later offering them a job. Accept this mission and the storyline begins.

At this point, the Agent is able to choose whether or not to work for Andromeda Research Corporation (the ‘bad guys’) or their rival corporation, Arunmor (the ‘good guys’).

Read the Storyline Missions section for details on the missions that follow.