People of Capital City,
A dear friend once told me: ‘we all learn at a young age that there’s more to integrity than a cape’. ‘But,’ he went one to say, ‘however simple that lesson is, we all tend to forget it when that cape is on our own shoulders’. For the past six months, I have allowed hesitation and deceit to compromise my own integrity – and proved myself vastly unworthy of both cape and station. This ends here. I stand here today to tell you the truth about two organisations I once viewed as twin bastions of integrity and justice: Gamasot and SPEAR.
I have been a loyal supporter of SPEAR for my entire adult life. Upon joining the Furies last year, I was prepared to defend this city, and the world at large, from all sources of supervillainy, anarchy and discord.
I hardly expected to learn that the greatest threat originated, not from without, but from within the very organisation I once venerated.
Many of you will be aware – or at least will have heard whispers – of the existence of a plausible-deniability department within SPEAR: an organisation known as Dis. Headed by Orcus, a man whose superpowers grant him control over blood, this organisation is responsible for the elimination – or, to speak plainly, the murder – of any potential threats. Knowledge of this agency is supposedly limited to agents of Oculus alone.
However, I have had indirect dealings with Dis. Around two months ago, I and two of my fellow Furies, Prometheus and Menoetius, were contacted by ARGOS: an AI working for Oculus – and, I suspect, for Dis. We were offered the chance to participate in a top-secret mission, concerning the capture of the Separatist Grey Wolf, and rogue agent/Separatist ‘Deaddrop’, a.k.a. A. Hamilton. We were authorised to use deadly force against any Separatists that engaged with our strike forces, and issued a standing shoot-to-kill order on A. Hamilton. Although capture was advised in the case of Grey Wolf, termination was mentioned as an option, “if sufficient information on the Separatists is extracted beforehand’.
I refused the mission, on the grounds that I could not willingly involve myself in a scheme involving direct termination orders. Unnerving as it was to learn that Oculus was hiding a secret assassination unit, however, the information I later uncovered was worse.
In addition to ordering numberless deaths, Orcus was heavily involved in a conspiracy within SPEAR: a grouping of corrupt, high-powered individuals which, for convenience’s sake, I’ll call the Cabal. With roots in the Separatists, the Heart, Gamasot, and Jeeves Corp, this conspiracy’s precise aims are unknown – but its influence is doubtless malevolent. What we do know is that it extends far beyond the reach of SPEAR, and almost certainly covers Oculus in its entirety.
Oculus is not, as most would believe, run solely by Apollo. Rather, its agents answer to a higher authority: a woman named Minerva, whose powers enable her to mark any document written in her hand with a distinctive seal. It is through these documents that she makes her orders known – and it is she who commands the Cabal.
It is also Minerva who, from what I have been able to ascertain, has organised a secret deal with my other erstwhile employers: Gamasot.
For several years, I have been working under my secret identity as a low-level lawyer for Gamasot. I looked upon my position as nothing more than an inconsequential day-job, but it did place me in the thick of things, investigation-wise. And… in other respects.
Doubtless you will remember the case of the missing people, beginning several weeks from before the first Moon Summit. These people, who, to judge from official records, only existed perhaps two weeks prior to their disappearance, resurfaced soon after: all in a state of substantial confusion; all incapable of remembering the events of their capture; and, most importantly – all imbued with newfound super abilities.
Upon investigating Gamasot’s computer records, I was able to uncover one thing: a list of the names of all the missing people, signed off by Dr. Kelly Moon, confirming procedures on each name. Seemingly dated from before the time of the disappearances. These procedures were associated with a body named Division Eight, within Primary Testing.
My investigation of Primary Testing is incomplete thus far – but I have evidence to confirm my theory that Division Eight is indeed a facility for human experimentation: currently being used to aid development of artificially engineered superpowers. This much is clear: Gamasot have been kidnapping civilians and conducting genetic experimentation without their consent. I have reason to suspect that they have also been experimenting on me – and perhaps other super-powered employees – in order to perfect the process.
As far as I am aware, these experiments are being kept hidden from the Hospitals Initiative: and, indeed, all employees bar those associated with Primary Testing. Their purpose? Ultimately, it seems likely they answer to Minerva. Recently, it has been brought to my attention that agents of Gamasot and SPEAR made some kind of illicit deal, twenty-five years ago – and I suspect that recent events are a result of this bargain. However, it is also abundantly clear that in bringing together groups of newly-empowered – and, indeed, as of recent developments, newly licensed – supers, either SPEAR, Gamasot, or the Cabal intend to create an army.
There’s more. Namely: California. Common opinion suggests that the destruction of the Californian Free State Headquarters in 2064 was the work of a single lunatic: Jane Flint, alias Scream Shifter. This, however, is most assuredly not the whole story.
Scream Shifter’s real name is not Jane Flint, but Alicia Marie Ihejerika. Alicia was once an agent of Oculus, working specifically under the division Dis. Her codename? Orpheus.
Orpheus was one of the numerous covert agents willing to perform acts of mass murder for the purpose of perpetuating SPEAR’s hegemony. Her attack on the CFS headquarters was no spontaneous act of an anarchic rogue; it was, at least partially, the result of planned retaliation on the part of Oculus. At the peak of the California riots, Dis sent their assassin orders to terminate one member of the Council. Presumably, this was to be a precision strike, intended to propel the Californian independence movement into chaos – and to annihilate anti-World Government sentiment through fear.
Orpheus was not so subtle. Acting on her own initiative, she murdered the entire Council to send an even greater statement – and, in doing so, was disavowed by SPEAR. However, before Dis could send one of their own to eliminate the woman who could potentially reveal their existence to the world, she was captured by the Furies, and imprisoned in Tartarus.
Nonetheless, Scream Shifter’s current escape is no coincidence. It is my belief that the Cabal, knowing the exact nature of Alicia’s fanaticism, have purposely arranged for her release. Their motive? To preserve SPEAR’s supremacy. To prevent the Licensing Act from ever coming into effect, and to rid themselves of a troublesome Executive.
To enact a repeat of California.
I am well aware that divulging this information is not without risk. Kelly Moon has already sent one assassin after me, following my investigation of Primary Testing. I imagine my contract as a Fury is being terminated as we speak. To say nothing of actual, literal termination orders being issued amongst the less savoury sections of my agency – which, if this information is to believed, constitutes roughly 90% of SPEAR as a whole.
To which I respond: do your worst. The truth is out, and my ‘termination’ will only serve to prove it further. I urge you all to do whatever you can to help root out this conspiracy, and bring the fight to Minerva, the Cabal, Dis, Orpheus, Kelly Moon – all of the individuals who would compromise the safety of this city, and the integrity of its most noble and longstanding of organisations. Together, we will weather this storm.
Be courageous. Stand up for truth. Fight back.