Specter's fine. He found something. He'll update his blog sometime tomorrow with the details.
-B2
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Specter hasn't called back
Said he would by the time he got there.
Against everyone's advice, Specter went alone, and I sent a squad to tail him and keep him safe without him knowing.
I think something's happened.
-B2
Against everyone's advice, Specter went alone, and I sent a squad to tail him and keep him safe without him knowing.
I think something's happened.
-B2
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Indianapolis
Specter left our hideout by car.
In all likelihood, he'll be back by Thursday. Unless it's a trap. He didn't take anyone with him, on the off-chance our Friend wouldn't show if he did. Brought something with him to help him out if things get bad, though, so that's something. I'm in charge while he's gone.
-B2
In all likelihood, he'll be back by Thursday. Unless it's a trap. He didn't take anyone with him, on the off-chance our Friend wouldn't show if he did. Brought something with him to help him out if things get bad, though, so that's something. I'm in charge while he's gone.
-B2
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Well, crap
Didn't see this one coming.
Watching the security cameras right now, Crowley's packed his things and he's trying to slip out the back.
I'm giving the all-clear for the security staff to let him out without a problem.
Hey, when you get a heads-up from a likely-supernatural presence that doesn't hide blog posts from you, you're inclined to believe it when it says keeping a certain guy from leaving is a bad idea. Especially when that guy showed no inclination to leave until after that warning came through.
Specter can bother me about it later.
-B2
Watching the security cameras right now, Crowley's packed his things and he's trying to slip out the back.
I'm giving the all-clear for the security staff to let him out without a problem.
Hey, when you get a heads-up from a likely-supernatural presence that doesn't hide blog posts from you, you're inclined to believe it when it says keeping a certain guy from leaving is a bad idea. Especially when that guy showed no inclination to leave until after that warning came through.
Specter can bother me about it later.
-B2
I don't like Solitaire
OK, so, up early on Summer Solstice. 'A Friend' is back, and we're paying attention. He hasn't contacted us directly, so, either he didn't mean us when he said 'you', or he meant we'd be waiting a while.
Who likes Solitaire to pass the time? Because I don't.
On other matters:
Specter saw Dr. Zelphest's post, and we've been speaking about it at length. Pros and cons real quick.
PROS
1. He might be able to help his friend, which at this point, wouldn't be a bad idea. It's one runner, but, the Doc's helped us out, and this might be important enough to keep him useful to us. Might. Emphasis on that word. That may sound selfish, but, we've gotta stay focused on the bottom line.
2. We can't keep babysitting the Doc. We're not exactly shorthanded now, but we're still not swimming in manpower, and every squad we send to keep an eye on Dr. Zelphest as he wanders around the city we're hiding in right now is another one we could use elsewhere. Again, might sound selfish, but, the bottom line is more important.
CONS
1. For one, he knows where we're based right now, and with how many of our hideouts and bases have compromised in the last year, that's something we can't exactly risk getting out. Dr. Zelphest leaving the premises and not coming back would put that information in jeopardy by potentially allowing FBI or CIA elements to track us down by just capturing or arresting him, and then interrogating him to find out where we are. The guy cracks easily under serious interrogation efforts. I know that because I've done that. Lock him in a room and play Rick Astley songs, and he'll sing like a bird. (Yes, that's a joke, but it's fairly easy to see my point.) So, possible capture by non-Indoctrinated elements makes him a serious security risk, which leads to...
2. It goes against PTC protocol to let people go like this for the above reasons. Specter honestly doesn't care about this, but we just got the financiers back on our side and having a bit of a maverick attitude towards our own policies doesn't exactly show we mean business to the guys funding us. It's just something I'm concerned about.
So, we've spoken at length about it. He's helped us out, and he seems to be legit. No Indoctrinated influence we can see, he's helped us in the past, hasn't acted too weird, his laptop checks out. I think he's clean. He hasn't actually come to speak to us yet, but we have an answer for him if he comes to bother us about it here in person. We've got a car lined up and everything if he decides to leave.
In other news:
Been watching Crowley. This Reintegration thing is something we haven't actually explored, but I don't really care.
And finally:
This sick fuck is on my list.
-B2
Who likes Solitaire to pass the time? Because I don't.
On other matters:
Specter saw Dr. Zelphest's post, and we've been speaking about it at length. Pros and cons real quick.
PROS
1. He might be able to help his friend, which at this point, wouldn't be a bad idea. It's one runner, but, the Doc's helped us out, and this might be important enough to keep him useful to us. Might. Emphasis on that word. That may sound selfish, but, we've gotta stay focused on the bottom line.
2. We can't keep babysitting the Doc. We're not exactly shorthanded now, but we're still not swimming in manpower, and every squad we send to keep an eye on Dr. Zelphest as he wanders around the city we're hiding in right now is another one we could use elsewhere. Again, might sound selfish, but, the bottom line is more important.
CONS
1. For one, he knows where we're based right now, and with how many of our hideouts and bases have compromised in the last year, that's something we can't exactly risk getting out. Dr. Zelphest leaving the premises and not coming back would put that information in jeopardy by potentially allowing FBI or CIA elements to track us down by just capturing or arresting him, and then interrogating him to find out where we are. The guy cracks easily under serious interrogation efforts. I know that because I've done that. Lock him in a room and play Rick Astley songs, and he'll sing like a bird. (Yes, that's a joke, but it's fairly easy to see my point.) So, possible capture by non-Indoctrinated elements makes him a serious security risk, which leads to...
2. It goes against PTC protocol to let people go like this for the above reasons. Specter honestly doesn't care about this, but we just got the financiers back on our side and having a bit of a maverick attitude towards our own policies doesn't exactly show we mean business to the guys funding us. It's just something I'm concerned about.
So, we've spoken at length about it. He's helped us out, and he seems to be legit. No Indoctrinated influence we can see, he's helped us in the past, hasn't acted too weird, his laptop checks out. I think he's clean. He hasn't actually come to speak to us yet, but we have an answer for him if he comes to bother us about it here in person. We've got a car lined up and everything if he decides to leave.
In other news:
Been watching Crowley. This Reintegration thing is something we haven't actually explored, but I don't really care.
And finally:
This sick fuck is on my list.
-B2
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Miss me?
Time is short.
Pay close attention, and I will contact you directly when I can.
Do not obstruct Crowley when he attempts to leave, Leonard. The outcome will be unpleasant for everyone.
-A Friend
Pay close attention, and I will contact you directly when I can.
Do not obstruct Crowley when he attempts to leave, Leonard. The outcome will be unpleasant for everyone.
-A Friend
Monday, June 13, 2011
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Update on the budget
Specter's been explaining everything to the financiers in a conference, and I think he's managed to win most of them over so far. They've decided to return funding to its original state from back before the SMD was ever founded (huge step up from how things have been going ever since) and then step up recruitment for the Military Department (and then they send troops to every other Division's Military Department). But, it's not like we can plop a recruiting booth down on a street corner, so we won't be getting much in the way of recruits for a little while. Not long enough to seriously mess us up, but long enough for things to be short-handed down at Central Command.
So, disaster averted so far. If he can win everyone else in that conference room over, then we might actually end up with a surplus. I'm surprised the guys at Central Command let Specter do this; normally, they want to talk to the financiers themselves.
We'll keep you informed if anything else comes up.
-B2
So, disaster averted so far. If he can win everyone else in that conference room over, then we might actually end up with a surplus. I'm surprised the guys at Central Command let Specter do this; normally, they want to talk to the financiers themselves.
We'll keep you informed if anything else comes up.
-B2
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
List of Priorities
OK, me and Specter have been talking long-term priorities.
Priority 1: Killing the Slender Man.
This has not worked out for almost the past year. No progress made at all, and it's draining us dry - Money, supplies, personnel, faith in us from our superiors - everything. It's also impacting anyone who's been around the SMD long enough psychologically. The new guys aren't really getting the picture, but me and Specter keep finding it hard to sleep at night, and took to recording ourselves and reviewing the footage daily, just to make sure we catch anything important before things get too bad. Our best shot has to be the Hammer of Thor, but nobody's gotten close enough to actually hit him with it. So, fingers crossed.
Priority 2: Fixing this dimensional bleeding crap.
I'm not going to lie, this dimensional bleeding has everyone here rattled. No telling when things are going to get better or worse, but it seems like nothing's happened in a while. The science team has been working on it, but with the PATCH needing so much effort poured into it before, there wasn't much of an opportunity to really do anything on this front until recently. So far, no word, but Goggles (the head of the science team, you guys don't really hear about him much) has been getting the nerds back on track.
Priority 3: Figuring out what's up with these hacker posts, and the transcript and communication leaks.
You guys have repeatedly come to Specter in the past about blog posts on this blog, and on Specter's, obviously made by someone or something else that keeps hacking the blogs and posting transcripts that were supposed to be classified, up to the point of people apparently knowing Specter's real name, now. That's a problem and it needs fixing, so we need to find out how and why it's happening, then stop it.
Priority 4: Figuring out the identity of 'A Friend.'
Then there's the guy who hacked Specter's Blog ages ago and started asking nonsensical questions for a contest. We need to find out what was up with that guy, and see if he can't help us any further. Whoever it was, he seemed like he was on our side, and we can see the blog posts he put up. So far, that means he's being straight with us. We think, anyways. Apparently, he hasn't been active for a while, so there's no telling when and where he'll pop up again.
Priority 5: Killing Indoctrinated.
This part has worked out, but to a lesser extent than anticipated. It was bad enough to warrant direct attention from the Slender Man on at least one occasion (Or so we think, anyway), so, we must have been doing something right. Haven't engaged any Indoctrinated for a while, so that makes me think we need to really get back on the ball on that front. We did more damage when we were fighting Indoctrinated than whenever we started going after Twiggy directly. Besides, killing some more people will really raise morale around here. That's something.
Priority 6: Clearing up whether or not Father Paranoia is involved in any of this at all.
We honestly haven't been able to find any serious ties between the Wyoming Incident and the Slender Man at all. The Wyoming TV Hijacking not too far back (the one Dr. Zelphest helped inspect) was a definite sign something's up on that front, but nowadays we're not so sure. Eyes are peeled.
Priority 7: Figuring out what's going on with this attack by PTC Internal Affairs.
Specter keeps insisting it has to be someone else, but I honestly think that Internal Affairs is after us. The head of Internal Affairs is definitely a bit nuts, and has been known to make bad decisions. Like trying to kill PTC personnel for taking care of a problem that needed taking care of ASAP. So, another case of waiting for any response from the guys in charge at Central Command.
Priority 8: Ensuring the safety of the Reintegration Tablet.
Self-explanatory. Gotta watch out for the Tablet and Crowley. So far, so good.
Priority 9: Ensuring the safety of Dr. Cairo Zelphest.
Dr. Cairo Zelphest is still with us, but he's been keeping quiet on his Youtube channel, Twitter, and his own blog. No clue why; we gave him the passwords we changed them to. Haven't really spoken to him myself, and neither has Specter. We've both been too busy to associate with someone who's essentially an Irregular informant on any regular or consistent basis. Even one who's on-base. Seems like he's a bit scared of us, to be honest. Then again, I did interrogate him. So, might be a bit of a connection there.
Priority 10: Working out the kinks in the PATCH.
The PATCH has proven remarkably useful and has been at work reorganizing and sorting all of the files the command staff and science team need sorted out. But, the PATCH has a few problems with voice-command recognition. If the thing was any smarter, I'd swear it was deliberately ignoring us sometimes. We've been making sure not to use it too much. The thing runs hot, and we need to keep it in working condition. So, the science team's been trying to split themselves between keeping the PATCH running and fixing the dimensional bleeding issue.
Priority 11: Trying to convince the PTC's financiers to provide additional funding.
This part's actually critical to us continuing to operate, so it shouldn't be this low on the priority list. But, basically, the entire PTC has been dropping into the red financially. The guys who provide the PTC with their budget are looking at progress reports for the last few quarters, and decided that since we weren't showing results, they need to cut funding all across the board to cut their losses. It's at an almost ludicrous point. Ever since the Slender Man warranted our attention, we started failing to make much in the way of results as the Slender Man became a higher and higher-priority problem for us to deal with. It's at the point where the vast majority of the PTC's resources are being poured into our Division, which means every other Division can't show the results they need to, thanks to a lack of assets. Some Divisions are being cut altogether, others are being downsized, and it's all to keep us going in the hopes we'll make some big breakthrough, and the financiers are starting to figure that out. Central Command was happy about the Tablet, and us figuring out how to access the Path of Black Leaves, but that's the thing. Central Command doesn't finance us. They just do Division assignments and budget allocations each quarter. The guys who really run the show haven't put it all together that we need more money, not less. We can't keep this going until they see that, so that's Specter's job right now.
Gotta see if we can't pull this trainwreck together. Everything hinges on some good things happening over the next few days.
-B2
Priority 1: Killing the Slender Man.
This has not worked out for almost the past year. No progress made at all, and it's draining us dry - Money, supplies, personnel, faith in us from our superiors - everything. It's also impacting anyone who's been around the SMD long enough psychologically. The new guys aren't really getting the picture, but me and Specter keep finding it hard to sleep at night, and took to recording ourselves and reviewing the footage daily, just to make sure we catch anything important before things get too bad. Our best shot has to be the Hammer of Thor, but nobody's gotten close enough to actually hit him with it. So, fingers crossed.
Priority 2: Fixing this dimensional bleeding crap.
I'm not going to lie, this dimensional bleeding has everyone here rattled. No telling when things are going to get better or worse, but it seems like nothing's happened in a while. The science team has been working on it, but with the PATCH needing so much effort poured into it before, there wasn't much of an opportunity to really do anything on this front until recently. So far, no word, but Goggles (the head of the science team, you guys don't really hear about him much) has been getting the nerds back on track.
Priority 3: Figuring out what's up with these hacker posts, and the transcript and communication leaks.
You guys have repeatedly come to Specter in the past about blog posts on this blog, and on Specter's, obviously made by someone or something else that keeps hacking the blogs and posting transcripts that were supposed to be classified, up to the point of people apparently knowing Specter's real name, now. That's a problem and it needs fixing, so we need to find out how and why it's happening, then stop it.
Priority 4: Figuring out the identity of 'A Friend.'
Then there's the guy who hacked Specter's Blog ages ago and started asking nonsensical questions for a contest. We need to find out what was up with that guy, and see if he can't help us any further. Whoever it was, he seemed like he was on our side, and we can see the blog posts he put up. So far, that means he's being straight with us. We think, anyways. Apparently, he hasn't been active for a while, so there's no telling when and where he'll pop up again.
Priority 5: Killing Indoctrinated.
This part has worked out, but to a lesser extent than anticipated. It was bad enough to warrant direct attention from the Slender Man on at least one occasion (Or so we think, anyway), so, we must have been doing something right. Haven't engaged any Indoctrinated for a while, so that makes me think we need to really get back on the ball on that front. We did more damage when we were fighting Indoctrinated than whenever we started going after Twiggy directly. Besides, killing some more people will really raise morale around here. That's something.
Priority 6: Clearing up whether or not Father Paranoia is involved in any of this at all.
We honestly haven't been able to find any serious ties between the Wyoming Incident and the Slender Man at all. The Wyoming TV Hijacking not too far back (the one Dr. Zelphest helped inspect) was a definite sign something's up on that front, but nowadays we're not so sure. Eyes are peeled.
Priority 7: Figuring out what's going on with this attack by PTC Internal Affairs.
Specter keeps insisting it has to be someone else, but I honestly think that Internal Affairs is after us. The head of Internal Affairs is definitely a bit nuts, and has been known to make bad decisions. Like trying to kill PTC personnel for taking care of a problem that needed taking care of ASAP. So, another case of waiting for any response from the guys in charge at Central Command.
Priority 8: Ensuring the safety of the Reintegration Tablet.
Self-explanatory. Gotta watch out for the Tablet and Crowley. So far, so good.
Priority 9: Ensuring the safety of Dr. Cairo Zelphest.
Dr. Cairo Zelphest is still with us, but he's been keeping quiet on his Youtube channel, Twitter, and his own blog. No clue why; we gave him the passwords we changed them to. Haven't really spoken to him myself, and neither has Specter. We've both been too busy to associate with someone who's essentially an Irregular informant on any regular or consistent basis. Even one who's on-base. Seems like he's a bit scared of us, to be honest. Then again, I did interrogate him. So, might be a bit of a connection there.
Priority 10: Working out the kinks in the PATCH.
The PATCH has proven remarkably useful and has been at work reorganizing and sorting all of the files the command staff and science team need sorted out. But, the PATCH has a few problems with voice-command recognition. If the thing was any smarter, I'd swear it was deliberately ignoring us sometimes. We've been making sure not to use it too much. The thing runs hot, and we need to keep it in working condition. So, the science team's been trying to split themselves between keeping the PATCH running and fixing the dimensional bleeding issue.
Priority 11: Trying to convince the PTC's financiers to provide additional funding.
This part's actually critical to us continuing to operate, so it shouldn't be this low on the priority list. But, basically, the entire PTC has been dropping into the red financially. The guys who provide the PTC with their budget are looking at progress reports for the last few quarters, and decided that since we weren't showing results, they need to cut funding all across the board to cut their losses. It's at an almost ludicrous point. Ever since the Slender Man warranted our attention, we started failing to make much in the way of results as the Slender Man became a higher and higher-priority problem for us to deal with. It's at the point where the vast majority of the PTC's resources are being poured into our Division, which means every other Division can't show the results they need to, thanks to a lack of assets. Some Divisions are being cut altogether, others are being downsized, and it's all to keep us going in the hopes we'll make some big breakthrough, and the financiers are starting to figure that out. Central Command was happy about the Tablet, and us figuring out how to access the Path of Black Leaves, but that's the thing. Central Command doesn't finance us. They just do Division assignments and budget allocations each quarter. The guys who really run the show haven't put it all together that we need more money, not less. We can't keep this going until they see that, so that's Specter's job right now.
Gotta see if we can't pull this trainwreck together. Everything hinges on some good things happening over the next few days.
-B2
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
inconsistent
SMD Command Staff Conference 15 Audio Transcript
Attending:
SMD Head Executive Kyle Leonard (Callsign: Specter)
SMD Military Department Field Commander Anthony Wilson (Callsign: Basroil 2)
SMD Science Department Head Scientist Phillip Spinal (Callsign: Goggles)
Specter: OK, we're running out of options, here. Who could have possibly known how and where to organize this last raid?
Basroil 2: I'm telling you, Kyle, the only options were FBI or Internal Affairs. Knight's been liable to fly off the handle eventually. Us fixing a security hole that was his jurisdiction to handle? I wouldn't let that shit fly.
Goggles: The FBI's been quiet for the most part. Could be CIA, or foreign intelligence. We're not exactly contained to the USA.
Specter: [Audible sigh] Alright, from the top. Fisk's boys have been leaving us alone, and Knight's been known to outright threaten the rest of the staff at Central Command before. My god, are we looking at an internal conflict?
Goggles: We can't deal with that. Not in our situation.
Basroil 2: If Knight's actively working against the Slender Man Division now, then it means the PTC's in even deeper shit. Our funding's been coming out of every other Division that fails to get their jobs done. And they can't get their jobs done because we keep getting funding allocated to us. Twiggy's not the only supernatural gribbly out there, we all know that. If this keeps up-
Specter: Wilson, I've seen the reports myself. The PTC's dropping into the red. Half the different defense contractors that finance us have pulled their support entirely. The possibility of us being compromised by supernatural influence, combined with increased government attention after that helicopter crash when we picked up Scott, further combined with this 'dimensional bleeding' phenomenon that seems focused on our most critical Division since the Wyoming Incident makes us a liability more than an asset. They'd be better off cutting the entire PTC loose and starting from scratch.
Basroil 2: I'm not letting that happen.
Specter: Agreed. We need to sort out who's doing what. We'll have another conference sometime this week. Look over reports, deal with problems on-base since the attack, and start laying the groundwork for the SMD to break off from the PTC altogether.
Goggles: Break off? Damn. I didn't think we'd go that far.
Specter: If the PTC ends up going under because of what's going on, we need to keep operating. Gotta have a back-up plan. Do it.
Basroil 2: Done and done.
Goggles: I'll talk to the science team.
-AUDIO TRANSCRIPT CUT-
my friend is doing better
how are you?
Attending:
SMD Head Executive Kyle Leonard (Callsign: Specter)
SMD Military Department Field Commander Anthony Wilson (Callsign: Basroil 2)
SMD Science Department Head Scientist Phillip Spinal (Callsign: Goggles)
Specter: OK, we're running out of options, here. Who could have possibly known how and where to organize this last raid?
Basroil 2: I'm telling you, Kyle, the only options were FBI or Internal Affairs. Knight's been liable to fly off the handle eventually. Us fixing a security hole that was his jurisdiction to handle? I wouldn't let that shit fly.
Goggles: The FBI's been quiet for the most part. Could be CIA, or foreign intelligence. We're not exactly contained to the USA.
Specter: [Audible sigh] Alright, from the top. Fisk's boys have been leaving us alone, and Knight's been known to outright threaten the rest of the staff at Central Command before. My god, are we looking at an internal conflict?
Goggles: We can't deal with that. Not in our situation.
Basroil 2: If Knight's actively working against the Slender Man Division now, then it means the PTC's in even deeper shit. Our funding's been coming out of every other Division that fails to get their jobs done. And they can't get their jobs done because we keep getting funding allocated to us. Twiggy's not the only supernatural gribbly out there, we all know that. If this keeps up-
Specter: Wilson, I've seen the reports myself. The PTC's dropping into the red. Half the different defense contractors that finance us have pulled their support entirely. The possibility of us being compromised by supernatural influence, combined with increased government attention after that helicopter crash when we picked up Scott, further combined with this 'dimensional bleeding' phenomenon that seems focused on our most critical Division since the Wyoming Incident makes us a liability more than an asset. They'd be better off cutting the entire PTC loose and starting from scratch.
Basroil 2: I'm not letting that happen.
Specter: Agreed. We need to sort out who's doing what. We'll have another conference sometime this week. Look over reports, deal with problems on-base since the attack, and start laying the groundwork for the SMD to break off from the PTC altogether.
Goggles: Break off? Damn. I didn't think we'd go that far.
Specter: If the PTC ends up going under because of what's going on, we need to keep operating. Gotta have a back-up plan. Do it.
Basroil 2: Done and done.
Goggles: I'll talk to the science team.
-AUDIO TRANSCRIPT CUT-
my friend is doing better
how are you?
Monday, June 6, 2011
Just got hit
Our little hideaway just got hit. Again.
And this time, it wasn't Indoctrinated. These guys had guns, body armor, and fought like people who knew what they were doing.
This was PTC Internal Affairs.
-B2
And this time, it wasn't Indoctrinated. These guys had guns, body armor, and fought like people who knew what they were doing.
This was PTC Internal Affairs.
-B2
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Nightcrawler's dead
Got the bastard myself.
That was the purpose behind Operations Gone Fishing and Big Game Hunting. The PATCH narrowed down Nightcrawler's contacts for Gone Fishing, then we hunted them all down, picked them off, and moved onto Nightcrawler himself for the purposes of Operation Big Game Hunting.
The PATCH has officially finished an appropriate shakedown run.
Now we can move onto other problems.
-B2
That was the purpose behind Operations Gone Fishing and Big Game Hunting. The PATCH narrowed down Nightcrawler's contacts for Gone Fishing, then we hunted them all down, picked them off, and moved onto Nightcrawler himself for the purposes of Operation Big Game Hunting.
The PATCH has officially finished an appropriate shakedown run.
Now we can move onto other problems.
-B2
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