Final report

Primary Objective: Failed.

Secondary Objective: Failed.

Tertiary Objectives: Failed.

Mission Status: Failed.

Survivor Count: One.

Specter was right. Kind of funny in retrospect.

For those curious, I'm not going to bother with an entire transcript or report. We found Specter. We fought our way to him, getting killed off all the way. There were a lot of Indoctrinated between us and him.

We killed them, silenced a few witnesses. Nothing out of the ordinary. When we reached Specter, he was tied to a chair like you see in a lot of movies. We cut the ropes.

Next thing we know, one of us is shot in the back of the head with a gun he was hiding on him. He didn't survive the next few seconds, and then we had to fight our way back out. Almost as many of my men got killed on the way out as the ones that died getting in.

When we got back to the safehouse, those of us who were still alive ran into Twiggy. The damn thing had gotten in, and just killed everyone. Organs are all over the place. Lab equipment was in pieces. They tried to break out the Hammer of Thor to deal with it, and from the looks of the security cameras, it didn't work.

This entire mess with Specter makes me wonder how long he was Indoctrinated. I think that Twiggy had him under his sway for a while. Rigged the situation up so that we'd get strung along for as long as possible with no gains, before just taking us down. The PATCH was corrupted by Twiggy. I'd bet money on it. Specter was probably using it to covertly siphon money out of our accounts to hire mercenaries to attack us and keep us off balance as we worked. That attack on our hideout, back when we got the PATCH online, only happened because the PATCH was brought online. And then it started feeding us false data, just to mess with us even more.

We got played like a fucking fiddle the entire time. We can't fight something that can outsmart us like this.

Central Command, I'm requesting pick-up and immediate reassignment. You know where to find me.

I'm done.

-B2

Stop following me

B2, it's Specter.

Look, what we're dealing with is something I'm not convinced we can handle. I was convinced we could handle it, but, we can't. Over a year of work, and less to show for it than almost anyone else fighting this thing who's lasted this long.

I'm being held captive. You know where I am, and I'm telling you that they know you're coming.

Don't try to give pursuit. Write me off, disband the SMD, and move on.

We can't fight this anymore.

-Specter

Something came up

The transcript for that last mission is completely gone. Seems to have been deleted somehow. None of the science staff did it, but Twiggy was here for a while. It's completely possible it got rid of the file.

Well, we have the main important parts out there already: 50% casualties, Specter was dragged off, and the Indoctrinated are using weapons.

We'll resume searching for the file, but more importantly, we know where Specter is now.

Heading out.

-B2

50%

That was our fatality rate on this last outing. The bastards were waiting for us, and they had weapons. They're getting smarter. Specter was dragged off. I could see him being taken to a van during the shootout. We'll have a transcript for you sometime later tonight or tomorrow. Tomorrow's more likely.

As for everyone here back at our nice little hidey-hole, let's just say things were thankfully not so bad. Nobody's hurt, but everyone's scared out of their wits. The nerds get chills when we talk about face-to-lack-of-face encounters with Twiggy, but they hold up worse than we do under that degree of pressure.

Commencing with funerals. Then we take another crack at it. We've had people tracking the van.

-B2

Oscar Mike

B2 and the rest of the Military Department just set out four hours ago. They should be at the location the Friend gave us by now.

Best of luc

Shit. We have other problems.

It's here.

-Goggles

Can't sleep

A certain tall and slender friend has been sighted on the premises. Plans to rescue or capture Specter are in the works as I type this, but we need to get through the night, at the least.

Keeping eyes open.

-B2

And this brings us to...

Why I think we've been duped this whole time.

We're starting to suspect Specter may be Indoctrinated. Might have been for a while. We're not sure, and I honestly hope not, but looking back, there's a lot of things we've noticed that have pointed to this.

He was moved from his bed back in April. That's usually a sign of some kind of influence from the Slender Man. This is topped off by numerous orders given by Specter that saw little to no positive outcome, dating back to just after Nightcrawler was removed from the chain of command, and even before that. I was just chalking it all up to a run of really bad luck and little information to work with, but it's entirely possible Specter was setting us up the whole time, getting us picked off one by one, and sending us on wild goose chases to make sure we never accomplished anything that actually related to our mission.

The financial record discrepancies from the PATCH siphoning money out of our accounts would have been spotted by Specter, and I doubt he'd have let it continue if he knew what was going on. Either he didn't suspect the PATCH but still knew something was up and was running his own investigation without letting anyone know, or he was helping it along. One of the bank accounts that the PATCH was siphoning money into belongs to Specter.

If Specter's been Indoctrinated this entire time, then there's no telling just how bad things really are for us here. How better to keep a hostile organization from ever doing anything to harm you than to have an inside man in a command position giving orders that make it seem like they're accomplishing their goals when they're really not?

I'm on the fence here, but the Friend's given us Specter's location. We need to find Specter and set things straight. One way or the other.

From there, it's back to business as usual.

-B2