Dawn Bloom/Investigations/Drones In False Point
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This page details an investigation in the Dawn Bloom ARG.
Contents
Background
| Round | Drone | Agent |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | W | L |
| 2 | T | T |
| 3 | L | W |
| 4 | W | L |
| 5 | L | W |
| Score | 3 | 3 |
Information Regarding Drones
Though capture of an intact drone has proven elusive some information has been gathered regarding the overall design and capabilities of the drones so far.
- The overall design of the drone is similar to that of the REMUS 100 Drone, its currently unknown if its actually the same drone or is simply based off it. (See included picture above)
- The main body of the drone has another tube shaped device mounted on it that serves as its weapon system, this weapon uses a gas firing system that shoots an approximately 1 inch diameter rod rapidly like a sewing needle, quick enough to the point where the rod can't be observed by the naked eye (Liaison stated he didn't see the rod itself strike Diagnostic in the first attack).
- The drones are colored in a yellow and black paint scheme in a pattern similar to a bee. This is believed to be a form of dazzle camouflage.
- These drones are operated remotely by competent human pilots and don't use any form of automated software.
- The drones seem to be very susceptible to getting ensnared in nets and it takes some time before the pilots realize something is wrong.
- The drones have some sort of failsafe measure on board that can be operated remotely but don't appear to be consistent as the first run in with this measure was an explosive while the 2nd time was simply white prosperous.
- They have a propeller propulsion system though only a single small propeller.
- There seems to a drive of some sort mounted in the back of the drones on the inside that contain an explosive device and launch a program called CHRP.exe when plugged into a computer. (Its unknown right now if this is universal to all drones or if was unique to the drone it was recovered from).
As of 2017-04-01, a new type of drone is active that has highly advanced technology that were used by the Faunus 2 Expedition and all previous information cannot be applied to them.
Notable Events of January 2017
2017-01-12
The first incidence of a drone attacking Q98A66 occurred when Liaison, Brain, and Diagnostic were attempting to collect signal #3 off of False Point. The drone punctured through the hull of their boat, and also through Diagnostics leg (essentially turning it to jelly). Just prior to the drone engaging them, Brain stopped playing the ukulele he had found on the boat and pushed Diagnostic away from where he had been standing. Had he been standing in the location he was before that, the rod-like weapon employed by drone would have gone through his chest rather than his leg, and likely killed him. When asked about the drone attack, Brain said that he heard a sort of siren noise (he likened it to a dial up tone). He then saw the drone attack the boat and kill Diagnostic, but then realized he hadn’t actually seen that and so he pushed Diagnostic out of the way. The three fell back to a safe house in Rhode Island to regroup and plan as because of the attack the boat and equipment on board were lost. This event is believed to be the cause of Diagnostic's Medical Status as some sort of bone or material from the rift entity was probably stuck on the rod that attacked Diagnostic and exposed him to it.
2017-01-18
Liaison, a patched-up Diagnostic, and Brain all went out on a stolen fishing boat to attempt to pick up Signal #3 again. This time, they had a plan for thwarting the drone. They draped multiple nets around their stolen ship, and mixed thermite on board the boat to dump onto the drone and hopefully incapacitate it. The plan worked well up until they attempted to use the thermite. Either the damage from the thermite or the amount of time it was kept out of the water caused the drone to detonate (Its predicted the drone operator noticed something was wrong). Brain, again, seemed to be able to sense this would happen before it did. He made a beeping sound like a bomb before bailing off the side of the boat. Liaison followed behind him, but his legs were still caught in the blast and were injured by the thermite and shrapnel. Diagnostic, who was holding the drone, recalls being blown apart entirely. However, he managed to recover completely (likely as a result of his parasites) as well as gain an additional 3 inches of height. At the current time its believed the explosive on board the drone was C4 or some sort of plastic explosive.
2017-01-30
A second attempt was made to capture or incapacitate the drone after successfully capturing signal #4 using an inland water source. Again the team utilized nets, as well as the ‘Roswell Device’ that was provided to Q98A66 by Dispatch. This device appeared to be a large, kite-like piece of metallic material that could fold down for transport. In the presence of radiation, it glows and floats upwards and could be manipulated so has to rotate and preform finer movements in the air. The plan was to ensnare the drone in the nets, and then use the Roswell Device to lift the drone from the water, where Tactical would proceed to shoot at it to disable it using a rifle designed for hard targets.
Early in the morning on 1-31-2017, around 3:30 AM EST, Liaison contacted the Discord channel to ask for assistance in calling shots on the drone. Considering the late time barely anyone was on but one agent was available to call shots but did not have the current data we'd gathered on the drone. Based on Liaison's description a first shot was taken on the weapon tube that was mounted on drone which released a gas like burst with blue flame and white smoke that quickly went out. A rod was launched from the tube that went into the water that Diagnostic wanted to quickly dive after for but he was advised by the discord to stay back. A 2nd shot was then taken above a set of 3 protruding cubes on the side of the drone which ended up splitting the drone in half causing the front of the drone to dangle from the engine section by the intact cables it still had. Rather then risk bringing the bomb back down a shot was taken at the body of the front section which caused it the shatter and and explosion occurred consisting of bright white light, white smoke and sparks that generated intense heat but no shrapnel. The back side of the drone was recovered and lowered back down to the ship and though Diagnostic wished to still recover the rod it was imagined the rod had been taken away by the currents at that point. A drive was recovered from inside the back part while the remains of the drone itself were put on ice in a blast proof container. During this engagement Liaison had taken off his mask to try to breathe in the smoke to try to identify the ozone but instead ended up breathing in some of the smoke that is believed to be white phosphorus and had to get medical attention for it.
Notable Events of February 2017
2017-02-07
The drive initially was sent to Nite Team 4 to be analyzed but because this operation does not receive much assistance it ended up being sent back after an initial look was done of the drive before NT4 moved on to more important matters according to dispatch. The drive was reacquired by Q98 on this date after it was sent back and it was hooked into an isolated computer so that we could attempt to crack it. A program named CHRP.exe was found on the drive recovered from the False Point drone. It auto-executes, and initializes a small screen with a 3x3 grid of white dots. When speakers are attached to the computer with the drive inserted, a 'chirping' noise like a bird is played from them. The drive itself was determined to be booby-trapped by NITE Team 4, so any physical tampering with it will result in total data loss. They also figured out that the drive is likely also a bomb, making working on this project fairly difficult. Trying to interact with the program via the keyboard or mouse yielded no reaction from the program or drive so it was believed that some sort of sound input might've been needed but was not attempted until we could get a recording of the audio. As of the Turkey Mountain incident, the drive has self detonated and is no longer available to pursue.
Notable Events of March 2017
2107-03-12
Notable Events of April 2017
As part of the new parameters we have received from Q98A66, another drone threat has arisen which has been confirmed to be controlled by SIGIL. Using a programming language which we know is called Glyph, SIGIL has managed to interface with the Faunus 2 Expedition's technology. Part of this technology is a collection of hi-tech drones that were originally Randall's but have since be hijacked by SIGIL. These drones are highly advanced, drones we've never seen before with our level of technology and are a significant threat. Currently no known weakness of the drones has been found.
Investigation of Rift Entity
A discussion occurred prior to the events of 1-18-2017 which focused on the entity that drones may be hunting. Control had previously stated that she believed the drones were being used in a hunter killer capacity to kill some sort of unknown rift entity. By looking back at news articles, agents were able to determine that there was a mass die off event of fish in Southampton, which is several miles down the coast from Montauk. 2 million pounds of fish washed up, covering miles of beach. This event occurred on 11-14-2016, which coincidentally was a full moon. It’s likely that this die off was caused by a rift entity underwater chasing the massive amount into a lock or other enclosed space, where they rapidly depleted the available oxygen in the water and suffocated.
Investigation into Drone Launch Sites
An investigation into finding out where the drones are being based at and possible sites were complied here. Several sites had been found and a full report was sent to Q98A66. Certain criteria had been given as the kind of things we believe are needed for this launch site:
- Some sort of warehouse or open space for building these drones and mixing of explosives used inside them.
- Some sort of private dock or harbor that could store a possible stealth ship away from prying eyes.
- A shipping solution that wouldn't look suspicious as we can expect several trucks and vehicles going to and from the site regularly and they'd be delivering restricted materials.
The results of this investigation came to fruition on 2017-03-12 after one of the sites had suspicious activity and a raid was conducted. Full details are available here. At this time its unknown if the drone threat is dealt with completely or has simply been dealt a serious blow.
