"When we found primitive societies, it was inevitable that some may stumble across our technology. They may not understand their functions, but they will understand our message; Do not fly too close to your sun, lest you burn to death." - Andrew ██████, founder of the primitive abduction teams
Examination room 001, Observation Post ANT-001, 384,400 km above Remnant, Antaria IVa debris field
"And you are sure that that's all you know?" Overseer Liu asked the "guest" who was across the table from him. "Your weapon is fascinating."
"Look, I don't know any more than what I told you," Forest said in exasperation. "I made my weapon myself if you're wondering."
"Really? If that's the case, I must admit it is fine craftsmanship. I might even consider recommending integrating these weapons into our armed forces."
Before they could continue further, a beeping in Liu's ear interrupted him.
"Sir, we have a situation and require your presence on the bridge," An analyst's voice said through Liu's earpiece. "Sophia says it's urgent."
"I'll be right there," Liu said. "Sorry to cut our conversation short, but something came up."
"Please just let me g-" Forest said before being cut off by the door closing. Liu quickly walked to the bridge where his analysts were at their desks, except for one who walked to Liu as he came in.
"Sir," the analyst began. "We just received the debriefing from Sophia and we have confirmed that there are only two individuals who know about the analyzer, or the 'mysterious device' as the natives called it."
Liu nodded at this. "So who are the two natives that know of this?" He asked the analyst.
"They are, or were, Head Researcher Robin Arlen and Head Researcher Lilly Thornton," the analyst put two pictures on a screen, one man and one woman, but the picture of the man had a red X over it. "Sophia terminated Arlen, but Thornton remains at large."
Liu pursed his lips, knowing full well what this meant.
"Thankfully, Thornton appears to still be unaware of the situation that unfolded at the lab, mostly because we jammed the signal, but the risk to our activities must be clear to you, sir. Thornton must not be allowed to remain on Antaria IV for the security of our operations, I recommend we either eliminate her in an 'accident' or we abduct her from the planet permanently."
"While I agree that eliminating Thornton would be the most efficient method," Liu said. "Her skills are considerably advanced even by our standards. I propose another abduction mission. Where is Thornton now?"
"She is scheduled to ride a convoy to get to the boarding area of Zone A, composed of about three vehicles, including the one she's riding. The rest of the vehicles contain armed security staff, along with a psionic riding with her as her bodyguard. There is also a snowstorm that will be rolling in during the commute and a domestic terrorist organization that operates near the area." Liu felt himself smiling, things couldn't have been any more perfect.
"Get an abduction squad ready ASAP, and file a request for an EMP device immediately. We'll nip this problem in the bud."
"Yes sir!"
Intercepted news broadcast from Vale city
The Vale News Network logo appears on the screen before disappearing and being replaced by the top half of Lisa Lavender.
"We begin tonight's report with disturbing news," she says as the front entrance of Vale Community Hospital is cordoned off is shown on screen. "A break-in at Vale Community Hospital has left investigators baffled. The hospital has refused to comment on this incident although there was a witness who provided us with much-needed details." A video of a woman in her late twenties talking to a reporter is shown.
"They were cops, or at least looked like cops, they had this stoic, stern face and a near-emotionless voice when they asked me for directions to the morgue and they didn't tell me why." The screen then shows still-framed security footage of the front lobby, red circles over the heads of two police officers.
"It is assumed that these individuals proceeded to the morgue, subdued the mortician and his assistant, then did... something to the skeleton on the examination. The unconscious pair were discovered by a member of the janitorial staff who called the authorities. The officers were then discovered unconscious inside a closet in a locker room by their sergeant when they failed to report in. These individuals who assumed the officers' identity are still at large, If you see them in public, they are to be considered armed, extremely dangerous, and masters of disguises. Vale Police are offering a 2,000 Lien reward for information leading to their arrest." The video shifts to an Atlas R&D lab front doors.
"In other news, two guards and a high-level researcher have been found dead in an Atlas R&D facility and an examination room had been found broken into." The still-frames of security feeds from various cameras are shown on the screen. It shows two guards standing by the front door before being taken down by two shadowy figures. "These unidentified figures then proceeded to the room where the strange device that was found in the Forever Fall forest was being studied, killed the only researcher present and stole the device before the alarm was sounded. The only person who survived an encounter with these individuals was a junior scientist, who provided their experience to us." The video showed a young man with brown hair. He was still shaking with fear.
"T-they were wearing guard uniforms so I didn't think much of it. Then one of them moved so fast towards me that I didn't notice until he pressed a knife to my neck, a-a-and-then they... they asked about where it was being stored. Of course, I told them! They were going to kill me!"
"These events occurred roughly a day after Vale and Atlas announced the study of the skeleton and the device found in the Forever Fall forest, respectively. An Atlesian representative has sworn in a heated announcement that they will find the individuals who did this and bring them to justice. It is unknown if the individuals in the Vale and Atlas incidents are the same, related or separate, or if they're a part of the White Fang or working for themselves. We'll provide updates as they come."
25 km north and 990 m below the city of Atlas, the continent of Solitas, 3:33 am local time
Lilly Thornton was in her vehicle in the convoy that was escorting her to her place of work, an R&D facility in the flying city of Atlas. She and her partner were both fascinated by the strange device that was brought to them two days ago, with Robin even volunteering to stay longer so he could finish more tests. Lilly was excited to see what results he had and to continue with further tasks. Unfortunately, a snowstorm had extended her travel time by about an hour so she was trapped in her vehicle with her "bodyguard," a huntsman named Jasper (Jasper).
"Storm's howlin'," he said while looking out the window. "Lucky we're in here instead of out there, right ma'am?"
Lilly sighs. Jasper wasn't the best of company most of the time, he had this aura of smug superiority that never seemed to leave him even when in the presence of his superiors. He could fight though and could even be charming on rare occasions which has prevented Lilly from dismissing him.
"We sure are," she said, uncaringly. "How long until we arrive at the departure docks?"
"Driver!" Jasper said through his comms. "When will we get there? What? You're kidding. He said that due to the snowstorm, it'll take another hour and a half."
Lilly groaned at that. "Look, I don't like it too ma'am, but we're all stuck here with nowhere else to go."
"I know that," Lilly said. "It's just that I can't wait to study that device again."
"What is it anyway? You haven't stopped talking about it since yesterday."
"I couldn't tell you, I wouldn't even if I did know what it was."
The two of them were interrupted by their vehicle suddenly stopping, driving Jasper into the divider separating them since he wasn't wearing his seatbelt.
"Stay here ma'am," Jasper said while opening the door, letting some snow blow in. "I've got people to chew out."
As he closed the door, Lilly pressed her ear to the window to hear better.
"Hey! What the fuck's going on?!" She heard Jasper yell at the guards through the howling wind.
"We don't know sir," a guard said back through wind. "Every vehicle's dead, they won't start!"
"Didn't I explicitly tell you retards to refuel them BEFORE we left?!"
"It's not the fuel sir, it's the electronics! They're fried! Check your scroll!"
Jasper checked his scroll and found that it wasn't turning on.
"So how in the world did this hap-" he started before being interrupted by a blinding white light. Lilly was also blinded by the light but after five seconds she could make out an outline of something being shrouded in the blowing snow. She then saw the thing shoot two missiles that struck the front and rear vehicles, sending the guards and Jasper who was sent into the snow. Then she heard gunfire as six figures began to take out her entire guard detail, whose bullets seemed to have no effect on the mysterious figures' armour. Jasper took cover next to a snow bank, but three figures spotted him and opened fire, shredding his aura and then his body. Lilly could only watch in horror as the figures surrounded her vehicle in an almost robotic-like fashion, with one breaking her right side window, dragging her out through the said window and injecting her with something that made her unconscious. The last thing she saw was one of the figures setting fire to her vehicle.
Charles felt proud of himself. The op went off without a hitch, the target was in the provided location, and the EMP device did its job. He looked down and saw the unconscious body of the target lying on the ground before picking her up and throwing her into the dropship which was still hovering above them.
"Alright," he yelled to everyone. "Let's finish this up before those black creatures swarm us."
He and the rest of the squad then painted the logo Liu provided them on each of the wrecked vehicles. It was a canine head on top of three claw marks. Weird logo, but fitting for a bunch of animalistic abominations. Charles shivered. Even in his warm weather gear, the cold still got to him.
"Abduction squad, report," Liu said, interrupting Charles's thoughts. "Do you have the target? Over."
"This is Charles reporting, we have the target and are finishing up here."
"Acknowledged, advise that you hurry up, the storm is predicted to worsen. Out."
The team then finished painting the logos on the vehicle wrecks then boarded their dropship before vanishing into the blowing snow. If anyone bothered to search, all that they would find would be a dead security team, three wrecked vehicles and White Fang logos everywhere.
Information Data Log:
Origins of Humanity on Remnant: Ever since the realization that the primitive society on Antaria IV was comprised of humans and animal-human abominations, scientific circles in the Technocracy have been hotly debating the topic of why this is the case. As we all (hopefully) know, Earth in the Sol system is the homeworld for all humanity, in all its forms, everywhere in the cosmos, so it calls into question how humanity reached Antaria IV when we all know that humanity has origins on Earth and no known recent colony ship has been reported missing. There are multiple answers people propose to this mystery, some more convincing than others, but there are three that are particularly popular.
1. The Convergent Evolution Theory: This theory states that the "humans" on Antaria IV are in fact not humans, they only visually resemble humanity, but have an entirely different genetic code. Supporters of this theory point to the fact that every single individual on Antaria IV is latently psionic when humanity is not latently psionic. They also point to the numerous hybrids that roam the planet as proof that the genetic structure of the population is profoundly different. This theory has been mostly debunked by various samples proving that the genetic structure resembles humanity exactly.
2. The Transplant Theory: This theory states that in the distant past of humanity's evolution/societal evolution, an unknown alien race abducted a large percentage of humanity from Earth, gave them latent psionic abilities and transplanted them to Antaria IV for some unknown reason. This would explain the sudden and sharp decrease in the number of humans 75,000 years ago as an alternative to a massive volcanic eruption that nearly drove humanity to extinction. The purpose of transporting a massive amount of humans to another world is unknown. Some think it was meant for scientific study, others think it was for preservation in the event of the Earth suffering an extinction-level event. There are some who even thought that Antaria IV was meant as a giant farm. This is the most widely accepted theory although no evidence has been found in any precursor dig sites and no fallen empires have responded to our inquiries.
3. The Lost Colony Ship Theory: While it has been stated that no recent colony ships have been reported missing, there are a number of historical colony ships missing when humanity was first branching into the cosmos, all from 尤利西斯计划, or the Ulysses Project. Only one of these ships has been positively identified, in the form of the Commonwealth of Man, which was annexed in the early part of the Technocracy's expansion. The rest of the colony ships have been assumed to be destroyed with all hands dead. Perhaps a colony ship went through the wormhole, something happened that gave the colony latent psionic powers and landed on Antaria IV where the four empires grew and prospered. As no debris or other identifying parts have been found that could be cross-referenced to archival records, this theory is to be considered false until proven otherwise.
No matter what theory you subscribe to, one thing is clear; this society is free for us to mould to our likeness and we alone decide their fate.