COUNCIL OF VALE
SPECIAL REPORT ON THE INCIDENT AT SECTOR 2 ("Mountain Glenn")
XX/XX/XX
K. CYRUS, B. DODGER, I. MALACH
It is in the professional opinion of this Body, hereby employed and entrusted by the People of Vale and the Council of Vale, representing the Popular Will of the Country, that Merlot Industries and its Subsidiaries are responsible for the destruction of, and subsequent abandonment of, Sector 2 (hereby referred to as "Mountain Glenn"). This 421 page report contains various citing of internal company memoranda, correspondences between management and employee alike, and research that lead to the eventual destruction of Mountain Glenn as a habitable zone for The People of Vale at large….
Marcus
I don't give a damn about your profit margins. What you (and be extension, 'we') did at Mountain Glenn was a crime against humanity. If we confess, together, and talk about what we did, we can be spared the death penalty. We can finally show the Council, and the world, that we're willing to improve. Willing to give back for all the things we took. But that isn't going to fucking happen unless we (not you or me, WE) confess. I don't want to die on this hill of bones we made for ourselves.
Jon
PAGE 23
…..internal memoranda in the management of Merlot Industries suggests a complete indifference towards the safety of Mountain Glenn, best displayed by the internal private messaging system of Merlot Industries between then CEO Marcus Chro and Board Member [REDACTED]:
"...Grimm research is a highly profitable (and highly expensive) field of research for the company at this point in time, and it is understand that you regard such expeditions into this unstable market unwise, considering the circumstances. However, these worries are unfounded, especially with our researchers having determined a cheap and effective way of capturing Grimm without the need of specialized and private market Huntsmen… if implemented correctly, the technique could be perfected, increasing profit margins with minimal loss of life…"
This "technique" alluded to involved amplifying the negative emotions of Mountain Glenn through the use of popular media, false reports of increased Grimm attacks on human populations, and the destabilization of economic services in the area….
Jon
I don't trust the Council to not give us the death penalty. Besides, you saw the trial back there. The judge violated every single standard of jurisprudence imaginable, and no one even blinked an eye. Our lawyer can overturn this, possibly invalidate the outcome of the trial. If so, we can walk like free men. I don't trust these Fanus hating fucks to give us a fair trial. Especially to privileged ones, like me. They'd rather see me shot than walk free. If I confess, I'll just be a dead man walking at that point. Marcus
PAGE 54
The exact research done by the Merlot corporation on captured Grimm is currently unknown, but from what we can gather, the research involved their metaphysical and biological properties on mankind, most likely for some form of war related purpose….
From what little information that can be gleaned from research notes and reports to higher management, they were concluding some connection between the Grimm's biological process and its powers….possibly to create a similar ability in mankind….whether this potential service was to be sold to the military apparatus of the countries or to private contractors and corporations is currently unknown….
….the few conclusions this investigative body has determined is that Merlot Industries discovered a specific biological function that both motivated and gave power to the Grimm….
Marcus
It's not about walking free. We DON'T deserve to walk free for what we did. For what we allowed OUR company to do in Glenn. By not going forward, by not showing everything we did to the proper authorities, we are allowing something like this to happen in the future. Do you want that on your conscience, Marcus? Do you want the thought of innocent men, women, and children dying because we cared more about our luxury and comfort over the lives of our fellow citizen? If so, I'll go forward myself, and while you rot in a jail cell somewhere, I'll be helping the Vale Council prevent something like this from EVER happening again. I'm giving you an opportunity to IMPROVE, to HELP, and REBUILD, and you would rather think of how to get out of this shitty situation. The only way we're getting out of this is by accepting our culpability in this shitstorm. Deal with it. Be a fucking man and grow a pair, and accept responsibility for once in your goddamn life.
Jon
PAGE 219
….Grimm research, while being the majority of the research at the then primary facility of Merlot Industries, was not the only research occuring there. However, most of this tertiary research was supplemental to the main focus. In the months before the fall of Mountain Glenn, a high quantity of electrical and Dust related technology was being transported to the Mountain Glenn facility. This technology is believed to be related to some form of space-time tampering, but this purely conjecture based off this investigative body's opinion, taking into account multiple different opinions from the scientific community….
INTERVIEW LOG
INTERVIEWER: Council Member Ozpin
INTERVIEWEE: Jonathan Baza
DATE: XX/XX/XX
BEGIN LOG
INTERVIEWER: Tell me what happened at Mountain Glenn.
INTERVIEWEE: How far back?
INTERVIEWER: Preferably the day it happened.
INTERVIEWEE: I got to work at 9:00 AM - I'm apart of the main guard force for floors A-C at Merlot Research and Development Center. Everything was normal up until around twelve o'clock, when I heard this loud bang coming from beneath me. I our security team got internal emails and calls from those on floors F-G, the research area. Scientists were coming in in droves, but they said the others were trapped along with the big project the company was developing. It was hard to know what exactly was going on, but from what we could gather, something blew up. At first we thought it was just a bunch of of injuries - burns, shrapnel, the works. My grandfather was a medic during the Great War, and he used to tell me stories of the things he'd see.
INTERVIEWER: Could you stick to what you saw, sir?
INTERVIEWEE: Oh, yes, sorry. My squad - Squad Z, if you needed to know, for the record - was one of the first to go elevator was busted, probably damaged in the explosion, so we went by stairs. As we went down, I smelled…..I smelled something awful.
INTERVIEWER: Describe it.
INTERVIEWEE: I. You ever see a rotting animal? I mean, really rotting? Like, flies swarming around the carcass rotting, with its skull and feet a combination of flesh and white bone? That's what it smelled like in those stairs. Harry - our main technical support - threw up in the corner. I felt like I was gonna pass out from the stench alone, and. Fuck, man. I felt high. Like I was standing off a ledge and wobbling. My hands were shaking, too. I just. I just.
SEVEN SECOND PAUSE
INTERVIEWER: Just what?
INTERVIEWEE: I felt like I was somewhere I really shouldn't have been. You ever walk into a town, and everyone around you looks at you like an outsider? That was how I felt then. I felt wrong there. Unwelcomed. Except. Except it wasn't really that? It wasn't like that at all, but like….like I was inside somewhere that didn't belong to me anymore. Something that had at once belonged to me and my species, but now belong to. To them.
INTERVIEWER: Did you know what was happening in the lower levels when you were sent down?
INTERVIEWEE: No, but at this point, I think I knew something was terribly wrong. We opened up a box, and it wasn't going to go back to normal anymore. We got to those floors, despite the….circumstances. I wish we didn't. We should have locked the doors and gotten out when we had the chance.
INTERVIEWER: When you got down there, what did you see?
INTERVIEWEE: Destroyed lab equipment and screaming. No bodies, or anything. We went in deeper, trying to find the rest of the scientists. I remember what my boss said about scenarios like this. For every egg-head dead on our watch, 10% of the department's funding is deducted for that month over damages. Of course, I think he was fucking with us, but I didn't want to test that. But something inside of me told me that wasn't going to matter. No, not anymore. Again, I felt foreign. Mind if I smoke?
INTERVIEWER: Go ahead.
INTERVIEWEE TAKES OUT CIGARETTE, LIGHTS IT WITH LIGHTER, INHALES, EXHALES
INTERVIEWEE: Thanks. Smoking helps me….
INTERVIEWEE TRAILS OFF, LOOKING OFF TOWARDS CORNER
INTERVIEWEE: ….helps me relax.
INTERVIEWER: Continue please.
INTERVIEWEE: My squad got to the far northern side of the level. That was where the screaming was coming from. When we got there, a giant pile of destroyed rubble lay in its place. It was rumbling slightly, but not enough to make a difference. Their screams were still muffled, but I knew that type of screaming. Something. Something was on the other side. With them. My team began pulling the rubble out, hoping to do something, anything, to get them out. After about five minutes, however, I heard growling, followed by more screaming.
INTERVIEWEE STOPS, TAKES DRAG, CONTINUES
INTERVIEWEE: Then it stopped.
INTERVIEWER: It….stopped?
INTERVIEWEE: Yes. It just. Stopped. And then the black fluids began to ooze between the cracks in the rubble.
PAGE 220
….whatever device that was being built at the primary Merlot Industries facility is believed, by a large quantity of experts, to be responsible for the large portion of Grimm that overran Mountain Glenn. It is believed that this device was responsible for forming a Grimm breeding pit. The unarmed population of the lower levels of Merlot Industries laid the groundwork for a healthy first generation of Grimm in Mountain Glenn….
INTERNAL SERVICES FOR MERLOT INDUSTRIES
TO: EMPLOYEES OF MERLOT INDUSTRIES
FROM: JACKSON TAYLOR
DATE: XX/XX/XX
SUBJECT: HELP
HELP HELP HELP HELP HELP DEVICE BROKE, GRIMM SPAWNING EXPONENTIALLY, TRAPPED, WE'RE GOING TO DIE, HELP HELP HELP PLEASE WE'RE GOING TO DIE
TO: Cyan Nell
FROM: Sapphire Harl
DATE: XX/XX/XX
SUBJECT: I love you
I love you cyan. I know you knew that already, but i think you deserve to hear this personally. I'm going to die down here. We're trapped and the grimm babys are starting to get hungry. Ive loved you for as long as ive known you. I just wish i could have told you earlier because now ill never be able to tell you to yor face how much i love you and think about holding you and kissing you and making you feel like the most important person in the world i love you i love you so muchand im sorry for being such a coward as to not being able to tel lyou to your face im sorry i love you please run run run away as far as poosible from glenn now grimm are everywhere and theyre going to ge out of here please get in the fastest train to vale. Take anything out of my apartment, the code is 2142 room number 303. Take kenny with you, he's a good boy.
I love you so much,
Sapphire
P.s yes those love letters were mine
TO: Lye Bluebeard
FROM: Kobi Bluebeard
DATE: XX/XX/XX
SUBJECT: This is it
This is it, little bro. The big one. The thing that was finally going to kill me. I'm beneath my desk now, a shotgun in hand, waiting for the grimm to start attacking. Get out while you can, it ain't safe here. If they stop you, don't, just keep running as far as you can. Forget our house, just get your girl and get the hell out of here. I can hear them right now. They're starting to get hungry. Don't worry, if push comes to shove, your big bro will make sure that no one down here suffers. I have enough bullets.
I love you. I know I don't make that known often, but, I love you. You were the best brother a man could ask for. Sure, you were a dick about Susan, but I guess a woman like her would make any man do that. Just don't think ill of me, please?
Tell mom and dad I died doing something heroic, like blasting grimm with dual machine guns, or saving a family from an ursa charging them.
Love ya, Kobi
P.s if you're gonna go to our apartment, go into my room and you'll find a safe. Code's 2134. My entire life savings. Use it well, Lye.
TO: Slate Lum
FROM: Gole Bress
DATE: XX/XX/XX
SUBJECT: dead man walking
I'm a dead man walking. Get your gun and get your family out of here. The railways should get you out safe. You saved me and my family once before, and it's only fair to return the favor. Tell Judy and Mac I loved them, and that I'm sorry daddy couldn't make it. Tell them he died doing something good for mankind.
TO: Sky
FROM: london bridge is falling down
DATE: XX/XX/XX
SUBJECT: london bridge is falling down
london bridge is falling down
falling down
falling down
london bridge is falling down
my fair lady
TO: Fechine Blumwood
FROM: Corbin Winchester
DATE: XX/XX/XX
SUBJECT: help
Fechine, I know I own you so much for all that you've done for me over the years, but please, as a final goodbye wish, please, deliver this message to my family. As much as I hate them, they deserve to know this before I die.
Dad: I've hated you. But despite that, I'm glad you're happier with a better heir to the Winchester blood line. I'm not a noble, I'm a republican by heart, it just isn't in my character. I know you'll hate me and spit on my grave, but I think it's only fair to tell you thank you for allowing me to gracefully leave the family.
Mom: Thanks for being there when I needed you, and for feeding me and clothing me and helping me on school projects. I'm sorry I couldn't be the son you wanted me to be, but I hope that I made you happy with something here. I'd like to think my work here at Merlot improved humanity for the better, even if my death says the opposite.
Cardin: Little brother, I love you, even if I could never get close enough to tell you that. When you're eventually given the official title of prince by your father, make the most of it. Don't go around hunting after glory, or money. Settle down. Marry, have children. Give to charity. Live humbly. Respect and love everyone equally, even if you don't like them.
Fechine: Thanks for being there man. I know I could be a real dick, but I want you to know how much I truly do (or did) care for you. I'm sure my dad would reward you for this. Now please, get the hell out of Mountain Glenn. Now.
PAGE 351
...the exact details regarding the fate of the Merlot Industries is unknown, but, what is known, is that after the evacuation of the surviving members of Mountain Glenn, the building collapsed, the only thing remaining being a Grimm breeding pit….however, this pit and its exact abilities seem generally anomalous in comparison to other pits of its nature….Grimm here tend to be more violent, and hunt out of hunger rather than a general desire for misfortune….whether this is a tactic or genuinely new desire for human flesh is unknown….
The man and woman sat inside the room of the Ghost Town walking, hundreds and hundreds of feet beneath the surface, and even further beneath the streets and buildings, housing the surviving members of mankind.
The man and woman held each other. Hours prior, they hated each other, but now they held each other, for they knew no one else would.
They hid from the creatures of pure blackness, the familiar bone armor undeveloped and non-existent. The man and woman prayed to Gods they did not believe in, and they hoped for safety that would never come.
They looked down the hallway, to the bringer of their destruction. A portal, if such a work could be used scientifically, had developed. Reality became unstable. The threads of atoms and matter becoming undone, turning into a mess of strings and cloth with no uniformity.
Reality itself was becoming black. No, not black. Nothing. Nothing was the true description of what was happening. The man and woman embraced one another. Not because they loved each other, but because they knew what it was like to suffer alone.
They did not die when the Nothing embraced them.
They felt hungry. A type of hungry that had never been felt before by anything else in existence in their world. The hunger of a Ghoul.
What became of the man and woman remains unknown.
WE OF THE HIGH COURT OF VALE
HEREBY DECLARE THAT
Marcus Bloodwater
CEO OF MERLOT INDUSTRIES
IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF THE COMMUNITY OF MOUNTAIN GLENN
HIS PUNISHMENT FOR THIS EXTRAORDINARY CRIME IS
DEATH
A man - a Fanus, to be specific - sat in his cell, thinking. Thinking about the things he had done. He thought about another man, Jon. Jon was a friend. Thought best of him. Thought about others before himself.
He didn't deserve someone like that in his life.
He had finished his final meal. A meal of eggs and bacon. The same type of food his mother used to cook for him when she was alive. He didn't deserve someone like that in his life.
The jailer clinked against the cell door. It was time.
The man sat up, hoping to face death penalty with dignity. Like his father did when the men hung him for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He didn't deserve someone like that in his life. He was lead down the corridor, into a long hallway type area, with a single pole in the middle. He was sat down there, his hands and feet bound and his eyes covered. He didn't deserve to die like this.
No. He deserved much worse. The last thing he could hear was the sound of a gun being cocked, followed by a loud bang. He didn't even feel anything.
He deserved this, at the very least.