Terran Intelligence Dispatch: 08/04/2175 0545 EST

Terran Internal Intelligence Commission-Terran Global Hegemony President's Office: At 0413 the staff of Vice President Yong An-Hong noted that the Vice President was not in his chambers. Further search of the grounds did not succeed in locating him. His Interlink tracking has been disabled. Investigators noted that his personal journal was also gone, and concluded that his departure was intentional. End Dispatch.

Doctor's Note: Dr. Thando Babatunde MD: 08/04/2175: Translated by Ibrahim Kayode

Patient William Aucaman, 7:51 PM

Patient was brought in with minor lacerations to the face, hands and legs. Although the injuries were minor, he seemed to be in intense pain and had to be subdued. Patient took to sedatives with great reluctance; I had to prescribe an abnormally high dosage. He is asleep now, although I don't know how long to expect him to remain asleep. Condition remains erratic. I suggested to Ms. Mwangi that he be kept under observation, even though his injuries were minor.

News Article: The Beijing National Times: 08/05/2175

By Yao Min-Xiao

The Terran Internal Intelligence Commission recently published new findings in the attempted assassination of Vice President Yong An-Hong. According to investigators, Novan backed terrorist groups were responsible for the bombing targeted on the Vice President's motorcade two days ago. The TIIC arrested two men, Gerald Folotov and Mikhail Korsakov, Russian nationals associated with the Russian dissident movement lead by Gennady Semyonov.

Folotov and Korsakov have both confessed to the premeditated assassination attempt and await sentencing. It is expected that both will face the death penalty, although a plea bargain has been floated that may allow them a temporary sentence integrated into an Ambience Mainframe system. This would provide the Hegemony with extensive insight into Semyonov's networking as well as Novan links.

TIIC spokesman Yang Soo-Ming said that Korsakov and Folotov have confessed to direct ties with Nova and the rebel government currently in place on that planet. Evidently, Semyonov himself has long been in communication with high ranking Novan intelligence officers who have fed him rhetoric, information, and resources. Semyonov himself has long been known to have taken money from anonymous donors; however, with the recent confirmation of his ties to Nova, his anonymous donors may no longer be quite so anonymous.

The Hegemony has issued a demand for the immediate arrest of Semyonov and his associates within the Russian based dissident movement. Semyonov himself has eluded capture for now, although with TIIC investigators and Mainframe probability assessments against him, he is expected to be apprehended soon. His last known location was in Moscow; however, when agents raided his residence, he was not found.

The President has yet to give a statement on the news, however he is expected to do so within a week of this publication. Many expect him to condemn the actions of the so-called Novan Alliance, and some speculate that he may call for military action against the Novan rebels.

Doctor's Note: Dr. Thando Babatunde, MD: 08/05/2175: Translated by Ibrahim Kayode

Patient William Aucaman, 8:17 AM

Physical injuries seem to be healing as expected. He's still asleep and his vitals are kind of haywire. Blood pressure was abnormally high, adrenaline rates were higher than expected. There's an odd stimulation in the prefrontal cortex and occipital and temporal lobes. According to Ms. Cynthia Mattingly, who was brought in with him, the other unconscious patient Olivia Mattingly experienced the same symptoms several weeks ago. She thinks that they may relate to the presence of the Zaha-Katchem, which they encountered the same afternoon which they were brought in. I will consult with the doctors monitoring Olivia Mattingly. Patient seems agitated even though unconscious. I'm keeping him under careful observation.

Official Transcript: The Recap with Michael DeVoris: 08/05/2175

DEVORIS: Welcome once again to the weekend recap, I'm your host Michael DeVoris. New legislation passed by the Hegemony on Thursday this week makes the new fourth gen Interlink device a requirement in all Hegemony territories. The good news is that means that fairly soon, you won't have to hear about it from me anymore. The bad news is...well, I'm not sure there is any bad news, is there? I thought not. This is a win-win-win deal, ladies and gentlemen. Greater security for the Hegemony, greater access to internet resources for you, and greater power and influence for Ambience CEO Shen Wei-Fun, a public supporter of the advancement of Hegemony sciences and arts and an all-around philanthropist. And now, to the news. Probably the biggest story this week was the attempted assassination of Vice President Yong An-Hong when a roadside bomb detonated on the path of his motorcade. This morning, the Terran Internal Intelligence Commission released initial findings in the investigation of the attempted assassination. The Vice President has issued a statement to the press saying that, quote, "I am returning to my duties today-" this was yesterday,-"with all the vigor and dedication that I have brought to this job since the people came together to elect me. I will continue to serve the people with dedication as TIIC expels these traitors like viruses from a body." He was not able to give us an interview tonight. Instead we have joining us the commissioner of the Terran Internal Intelligence Commission, Byung-Ho Moon. Mr. Moon, welcome to the show.

MOON: Your welcome, Michael.

DEVORIS: Now, Mr. Moon, the Hegemony has been understandably hesitant with the exact details regarding the attack on the Vice President, but in such times, it's important for the public to know the facts as they happened, so I'd appreciate it if you could help in any way that you can to clear up some of the details about the attack and the investigation that the TIIC ran.

MOON: I will provide any answers that I can. Of course, the TIIC reserves the right to refuse any kind of questions, as is its prerogative as a national security advisory.

DEVORIS: Absolutely. I suppose that you could perhaps help us to clear up some of the general details of the incident. Now, the Vice President was in his motorcade at the time of the attack, we don't know where he was going, but he was on the streets of Beijing and had just left the Presidential Manor, where he lives in the West wing. Sources from inside the Presidential staff have told us that the Vice President had requested this transport unexpectedly and that they barely had time to assemble his motorcade before he had left. Is this true?

MOON: My investigators have found mostly the same thing. Obviously, some of the details are wrong, but that's understandable since you don't have access to TIIC sources.

DEVORIS: The question that follows, and I'm sure that many of the people tuning in tonight on their fourth gen Interlinks are asking the same, is how did Novan operatives know to set the bomb at that location at that time in order to attack Vice President Yong An-Hong? They would have had to know beforehand that Mr. Yong was leaving and where he was going, and even his staff didn't know that even an hour beforehand. How were these Novan operatives able to learn and anticipate for something before anyone knew it was happening?

MOON: The simple answer, I'm afraid, is that Novan spies have infiltrated Earth in a far more efficient and effective way than any of us had ever realized. And you're quite right, Michael, this sort of high level infiltration and espionage, as well as the coordination necessary to place a bomb on such short notice, is nothing short of incredible for intelligence operations. I was shocked when I'd heard that the Novan infiltration could possibly have gone this deep, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who felt that way.

DEVORIS: So how did they do it? Arrests have been made, of course.

MOON: Of course they have, Michael. Did you not trust that the TIIC is equal to the threat of Novan spies and terrorists?

DEVORIS: Absolutely, of course. What can you add to the information already available to the public?

MOON: Well, as you know, there have been several arrests already in relation to the assassination attempt. The first was a member of Yong An-Hong's staff, Lila Kaur, an undersecretary who had been acting as a deep cover mole since 2164 when he began his tenure as Regional Representative of the Indian subcontinent. She had been in touch with movements in India that represented certain pro-Novan viewpoints, such as the legalization of private schooling and subsidizing competitive small business markets. When these policies were inevitably overturned in the course of Terran progression, she obviously became radicalized and was recruited by Novan intelligence groups. She was in touch with several Novan operatives on a ground level, also deep cover agents that we call "sleeper" agents. When she contacted her handler, he contacted these sleeper agents and had them place the bomb on the roadside. As of today, the TIIC has arrested these sleeper agents on multiple counts of conspiracy, attempted murder, and of course espionage and treachery to the state. One was a local schoolteacher, Gerald Folotov, a Russian national who had become radicalized some years ago while traveling in the American continent. He was the one who constructed the device using his knowledge of chemistry; that is what he taught at Xi Xiao-Duan secondary school. The second, who placed the device, was a reporter from St. Petersburg, Mikhail Korsakov, who was living in Beijing and reporting weekly for several dissident publications. I think you can see easily where the radical, treasonous elements came from in his life's story. The mastermind behind the assassination attempt is still at large today; we raided an apartment that we suspected as being the focal point for his operation, but he had already left. They are devious, these Novans.

DEVORIS: So, what you're saying is that the ringleader of this particular-cell, and I hope I'm using that word correctly in this context-is still at large?

MOON: All of our information to this point would seem to suggest so, Michael. And he or she isn't the only one to be afraid of. We have reason to believe that Novan spies have infiltrated the Hegemony on every level of society.

DEVORIS: One of the weeks smaller stories came out of a small town in Montana, where according to local police, two local high school students captured advanced experimental weaponry and were planning to use it to attack an Ambience facility in Helena. They were apprehended, but escaped police custody and are still at large. Is this another example of Novan influence, I suppose?

MOON: That's exactly the sort of thing we're talking about, Michael. This case is especially dangerous because the people involved are so very young. One was even a fairly high scoring individual, while of course the young man had a sesame score of only about a hundred. It shows just how subversive the pro-Novan narrative can actually be. The girl was not only a successful student, and the daughter of an important local businessman. She wanted to attend Sun Yat-Sen University when she graduated. No one would have ever noticed that she'd been radicalized by Novan sympathizers. That's how subversive the Novan spy network really is.

DEVORIS: So, I'm sure that many of our viewers are wondering what they can do to help the TIIC to locate these Novan spies within the population. Is there anything that you can tell us that might make it easier to see and apprehend these foreign agents?

MOON: Well, public support is going to be absolutely vital to curb this espionage threat, of course. Of course, there are some easy indicators; if someone has an abnormally low sesame score, then they are more at risk for becoming radicalized, and the TIIC will find it extremely helpful for people to identify and monitor such individuals. Otherwise, I would like to advise basic vigilance; you may not necessarily know who might be a spy working for Nova or the Grushan until it is too late. If someone has opinions that go in line with Novan or Grushan agendas, that might be an indicator. If someone refuses to go through with the Interlink upgrade, that might indicate that Novan propogandists have reached them, and may in fact be influencing their actions or thoughts. And, of course, if people are simply acting suspicious; the fourth generation Interlink has a number of analytical subroutines that are keyed in to analyze other's behavior and alert the user if something doesn't match up, and sometimes, if it's processing, people might be suspicious or on edge. If that's the case, I recommend that citizens not take that feeling lightly; that's what the device is designed for, after all. If citizens have concerns, I recommend that they take them to local police first; they have tools and processing devices that can aid in the discovery and apprehension of foreign agents. There will be a credit reward for raising suspicions and another if those suspicions are proven to be helpful. However, I should also mention that it will be noted in a citizen's permanent record if they raise a suspicion and it proves inaccurate; this is merely a precaution to prevent people from raising suspicions out of spite or personal biases. However, citizens should always remember that it is better to raise a suspicion and have it prove to be inaccurate than to let a spy fall through the cracks.

DEVORIS: Byung-Ho Moon from the TIIC. Thank you very much for speaking with us.

MOON: Thank you for having me.

[End Transcript]

Personal Journal: William Aucaman

08/05/2175

Hey, Billy. It's me, Cynthia. I hope you're feeling better sometime soon to see this. I hope you don't mind me writing in your journal, but...I figured that you'd want to have some sort of record of what happened. I mean, I know how you like to write everything down so you can remember it, but you haven't been able to write that much for the past day or so, so I thought you might like it if I wrote it down for you. You know, in case you forget or something. And as something of a coping mechanism, I guess.

So, yesterday, we were in camp next to the black probe that Adrian found and Olivia was inside. Then your dad got a phone call from someone who claimed to be with the African dissident movement who told him that there was a Zaha-Katchem coming toward us. I think I could have told you myself. Do you remember how I told you I could feel when it was getting close? First at the cabin and then in jail? Well I started to feel it out there in the woods too. I think poor Olivia probably felt it too, because she started to panic in her sleep. It was a little like when little kids have bad dreams and cry out in the night. I was very scared. You and your dad started grabbing guns as soon as you heard. Adrian wanted to too, but you and your dad told him that he needed to focus on getting the black probe to fly. Your mom and I took pistols too, and we helped Olivia into the black probe for better protection. I think that was the first mistake we made though. I think that once she was inside again, the Zaha-Katchem could hear her. I'm not sure, because if they heard her then, why not all the rest of this week?

The first thing we heard was a gun firing in the woods. I asked you, and you said it sounded like a machine gun. You and your dad decided to investigate while your mom and me stayed with Olivia and Adrian. I don't know what happened to you out there. We waited for about five minutes. There was a lot more gunfire, and I started to hear the alien blaster or whatever it is. It was getting closer, too. I was looking out into the forest and I started to see the laser blasts in the woods. Suddenly, I saw you and your dad break out of the underbrush at a full sprint. Your dad was yelling to Adrian to start the engine. Then you both turned and started shooting back into the bushes.

Then it showed up. It broke through the bushes. It looked even more powerful in the daylight, but strange, like its skin absorbed light the way the probe does. It fired its laser at you and you had to roll to avoid being hit. Then your dad turned around suddenly, and hit it in the face with the back of his rifle. You pulled a knife on it and tried to stab it in the knee, like you did with the one we fought. Then it reached out and grabbed your head in its hand. It threw you away and you landed next to me. You were screaming out in pain. I think that's when it got into your head and did the same thing to you that it did to Olivia and me.

I shot at it a couple of times, but it had some kind of body armor, and it walked it off. Your mom jumped out of the probe and started shooting it; I saw your dad trying to choke it out from behind. I started pulling you into the probe. That's when Adrian turned it on. I felt the entire ship vibrate underneath me. Then the door shut. The ship started moving; it lurched about and shot up. Adrian didn't mean to do it; he was looking for a weapon to use against the black creature. He told me later that that was his plan. He didn't mean to leave your parents behind.

He really needs you, Billy. He thinks that your mom and dad are dead, and that it's all his fault. I'm trying to be there for him, but he needs his big brother. And I'm not much good; my world fell apart and it's all gone. We both need you, Billy. Please wake up and be all right.