The Worldwide Conspiracy

This article (The Worldwide Conspiracy), is unfinished in many areas so that anyone can come in and fill the missing information!
Due to the nature of this page, it requires many smaller sections done separately, instead of one arcing vision. Themes, writing styles, and different viewpoints can all be had here. Let your imagination run wild!

*"The world is full of enigmas, confusing facts and myths that blend together into a tapestry of part-human experience and part-whole cloth fiction. Is there a way to separate them? Tonight, for the first time, we will investigate, on Unresolved Enigmas."*

-  Rod Serling, opening statement of television show "Unresolved Enigmas" before it was mysteriously cancelled.
It's two in the morning in a dirty alleyway somewhere in the middle of Atlanta, and you and your team are running for your lives. You can hear Phoebe's camera clicking rapidly behind you, your colleage willing to face the risk of tripping or stumbling into your other members for the chance of one, even just one bit of solid evidence of the things chasing you down. You can hear Joseph gasping for breath, his special equipment pack weighing him down; how he's managed to keep up with you so far's a mystery, and truth be told you just know that he'll be the first one they catch up to first. Frederick's babbling nonsense into his recorder, a mixture of rapid-fire reporting and improvised will and occasionally a hint of sobbing. And you? You're running full tilt away from the people hunting you, down a dirty alleyway filled with discarded bags and leavings, fumbling through your pockets for spare rounds and hoping you don't drop your Winchester the first time you try to fire it because of the amount of sweat lining your hands.

Behind you, you can hear the sounds of your pursuers: the tread of their boots on the cement streets, the muffled thuds made as they kick away trash bags or other debris intervening in their chase, and loudest of all the sounds of gunfire: brief and wild and right now quite possibly the loudest noises you've ever heard in your life. But there is no talking, no voices, no person behind your pursuers - they are silence and darkness behind those hideous masks, almost inhuman in how coordinated they are despite the fact that they just. won't. speak. You hadn't expected them to be armed, hadn't expected them to be here at all: you were simply following up on the gas drone attack that had been delivered to your neighbors in Augusta, all the hallmarks of a Japanese cyborg cover-up to disrupt your efforts against them in Georgia. You had thought it was so easy at the time: how the clues seemed to fall into place one after the other as you followed leads and gathered evidence that went from Augusta to Columbia to Sandy Springs to right back here in Atlanta. And when after days of investigation and sleepless nights of working you had arrived at a nameless little abandoned factory, right when the cyborgs were supposed to be having their secret meeting...they had come. The men in black, with masks of red, who never said a word even as they tossed a firebomb into your investigation and began shooting.

You can hear them getting closer, and the gunfire getting more frequent - with the way this city has gone, the police'll just think it was another Continental militia force making the rounds. Your legs are burning and your shotgun is so much weight against your chest and the only sound in your ears beyond the sounds of gunshots is your heart pounding in your ears and then-

Your last sight, before you trip and fall into unconsciousness against the asphalt pavement, is that of a woman in her mid 40s, in a starched gingham dress, white apron and partial plate armour, yelling orders to what look like her husband and her sons in chainmail as she prepares to fire an ornate brass and polished wood crossbow at someone behind you. Your first sight once you wake up is the rest of your team, bleeding and bandaged but alive (which is more than you can say for some of the other teams of the Atlanta Clubhouse) and surrounding you in your hospital bed. The first story you read in the newspaper is the one related to the events of last night, where an old factory was torched by some hoodlums but were later chased off by some neighborhood residents with the help of a nearby militia team (the only bodies will be those of your clubmates, and not a word will be said of red masks or golden armour).

Your team, exhausted and weary, will receive its fifteen minutes of fame as neighborhood heroes before being forgotten once more in a weeks time, as news turns once more to the ongoing civil war and people remember what other beliefs your 'militia' had. And when you go to find the pictures, the recordings, the evidence, it will be destroyed. Erased. Fragmented. Useless.

Welcome to the Network.

## A World of Laughter, A World of Tears

### The Great American Political Mix-Up

The United States is in its darkest hour, and there's no denying that. America is tearing itself apart and it's clear that the house of cards is not going to be able to be reassembled in a recognizable format again. In this chaos; virtually everyone with a vested interest in promoting their ideology or just seeing the United States fall apart has thrown their hat into the American ring and contributed its continuing breakdown.

It wasn't until the house of cards crumbled down that the Network arrived at the disorganized mess once known as America. Making things more convoluted is the innumerable number of hands, placing their bets on the table, with the United States in the pot. But while most would eventually fold their cards, two major players will still bet all-in for America's mind and soul: the Continentals and the Unionists.

The Second American Civil War, from a certain point of view, bears a striking resemblance to the First; a war between a ragtag band of liberty-loving rebels and a consortium of authoritarian thugs who want to take them away. The Network, primarily a reaction against the powers that be (pretty much \*everyone\* with the Allies), operates with that point of view; of course they weren't going to integrate themselves with the very same establishment that laughed at them for seeing the truth. While remaining neutral seemed to be a better decision, it also meant being stuck in either the crossfire, targeted and fired on by both sides, or in the shadows, not being able to bring their ideals into fruition. So, a few hours after the Civil War inevitably erupted, it didn't take much debate within the Circle to figure out what side to ally with in the conflict: the Continental Revolutionaries.

Transition to the Continentals wouldn't come with much resistance, due to their own friends and family assisting the cause one way or another. Their only problem, however, was with their armed camp. The Network themselves are mostly filled with civilians - those with no actual military experience - and the few soldiers they do have are too valuable to waste on battle. Needing to join the rebels soon but needing a convincing impression as well, they came up with a trade-off: the Network would serve as the Confederacy's intelligence gatherers, and the latter would offer armed and monetary protection for the movement.

The Continentals was indeed impressed not only by the amounts of classified files in their possession, but by their determination to drive off imperialists as well. Giving the Network free reign on their operations in America, it set the stage for the second and third stages of the plan. PIs now brazenly sweep through enemy military documents, while prometheans try to one-up Allied wonders in technology with their own creations. More affluent cells in the Network established contact with the Dallas Dealers, providing a steady stream of firearms and money for clubhouses everywhere. Tracts, baked goods, used vehicles and survival kits are quickly becoming commonplace in Continental-aligned stores, and citizens in Boise, El Paso, and Philadelphia are now generous donators to Network causes.

This doesn't translate to full acceptance of the Network, though. Even when they serve as a drop-off for less stable members, they are strictly ordered by the rebels to be in their best behavior at all times. Something difficult to do when the Network is stubborn and opinionated to a fault. Due to their bizarre beliefs, major figures are already earning the ire of the many other factions making up with the Confederacy. It's no longer unusual to hear Network DJs try to steer the Continental Army to (often) imagined threats instead of just the Allies and Soviets. To see simple arguments between clubbies and Confeds over simple matters devolve to fistfights. The Confederacy, the Third Eye says, is far too inclusive of anyone with an axe to grind against the Allies, caring not about what they *truly* are on the inside. The politicians leading the pack are the same quislings working for the cabals, and Morrow and his ilk have been consorting with one of those cabals. Wallace and Little are doing nothing but to 'play the race card' just to get the White House, and many more. While Carville is sick of the Network are applying further friction into an already-uneasy truce, he believes that even a broken clock can be right once a day. A certain militia by the moniker of "Bloodied Hands" are the worst when it comes to attacking civilians, doing everything he spoke against. Instead of investigating the militia, it's a pity though that the rest sees this as the Network crying "cabal" once again, threatening with them expulsion if they keep doing so.

The Network's alliance with the Confederacy has never been cordially accepted by the Unionists, however, and because of this, the Network has another boogeyman to deal with at day and at night. The day after the alliance was made public, several well-known members of the Network were found dead in their beds, some right next to their spouses and partners who noticed nothing until they woke up to see their loved ones dead eyes staring at them in their last moments.

If the Confederacy works with a begrudging acceptance of the Network, the Unionists are the utter negative image. The Unionists claim the Network is filled with Soviet plants waiting to spring on orders from Moscow, and any member of the Unionists in possession of Network tracts or publications is surely in for hell at the next PTA meeting. This makes any discussion of any paranormal oddities, from lights in the skies to haunted houses, a no-go subject in Unionist neighborhoods. Parents punish their children for telling ghost stories, as bosses in the office will go out of their way to confiscate everything from dime sci-fi novels to Mad Magazine.

This has been reflected in Unionist policies towards fringe groups in their areas of control. When the Allies are concerned with trying to keep America working, the Unionists are swooping in on small independent bookstores to steal or destroy offending pages. Unionist GIs will often create massive, impromptu bonfires to rid their areas of such corrupting influences like Rod Serling or Kurt Vonnegut. Local children are often even encouraged to add to the fires, throwing in books belonging to their own parents if necessary. Afraid of retribution but keen to appear loyal citizens, the mothers and fathers of the East Coast say nothing as their literature is thrown to the fires.

Of course, this is only street level. Higher up, the Unionists are more concerned with the Network itself. The Continentals are one thing, they're actually made up of real fighters, soldiers, men and women who have seen combat and can fight. The Network are something they can't wrap their heads around for the first time. The Network don't appear to have any overarching plans or goals beyond "the Truth", something the Unionists' lead men can't afford to have come out. The Network aren't dangerous because of their combat capabilities (If anything, the Unionists would love to draw them into a single, drawn-out fight). They're dangerous because the Network wants to pull the rug off the Unionists to uncover the real answers to everything. BROCCOLI, MK-ULTRA, Area 51, all the hard work of decades destroyed by a few moron saying they're looking for bigfoot? No, the Unionists won't let it happen.

The hardest thing is actually neutralizing members of the Network. You can assassinate anyone if the timing is right, but the Network see such deaths as martyrdom to their cause. Eating a piece of underdone beef that puts a person in the ground is a sign that they're closing in, and the cockroaches flee to the shadows. The only real way to actually kill Network members is to face them in battle, which the Network actively avoids. The catch is starting to anger Unionist leadership, and a potential new plan is being put forward.

The Network, being so disorganized and unable to effectively perform the same kind of investigations they'd like to (despite how effective they think they are at finding the truth) has no way to censor what comes out of their people's mouths. The Unionists have realized that this can be used to their advantage, placing plants inside the Network to say things so offensive, so disgusting, that they can destroy whatever high ground the Network might have. It would start slowly of course, following the Network on principle with key differences. It's all because of Africa, Palestine, the Vatican. The claims slowly get more outrageous, accusing these forces of purposefully sabotaging the war for their own causes, and that the Network might even be allowing these crimes to take place. Conspiracy theories so racist, so sickening, that even the Atomic Kingdom would give pause when hearing them. The hope is that the Network will tear itself apart in it's own civil war, no longer taken seriously by anyone that once gave them funding and weapons. Slowly the first plants are being moved into position, men claiming that the Allies have been misguided by certain groups within, or that the Empire can't be trusted as a member state. Certain nations and the people inside are called "weak" or "worthless" for their acceptance of communism, leading to any members of these groups in Unionist territories giving everything they can to appear loyal citizens. True to form, the Third Eye has said little on these new voices, right in line with what the Unionists have hoped. Over time these views will become more and more extreme, the Network fractured by internal pressure. Once broken, the Unionists will move in, take stock and put things back together the way they're meant to be together. The Unionist way.

### Tripping the Light Fantastic

At the south of the border, one can say that Latin America is shining with light - whether it be the light of Knowledge and Utopia that the United Technate promises to bring upon the citizens of the world, the light ray that is shot out of a LUMOS hand cannon by a Federation Toki Battlesuit, or the light of the sun that the Inca god Inti gives off in the world. Regardless of the source, Central and South America are lands ripe with lights looking for truth and guidance in the darkness of human ignorance - and the Network are but one more group stumbling around with a lantern.

The Network does not find it as easy to operate in Latin America as they do in North America or Europe - the political climate has divided a large majority of the population already into various camps, and many of the cells within the Technate, Bolivia or Chile are composed of ex-patriots or tourists on extended visa stays, already notorious for being foreigners and thus allowing their esoteric interests to be overlooked. Those indigenous cells that do operate in the region tend to be quieter and less obviously Network-affiliated: years and decades of living under shifting political climates and the subversive elements of multiple paragovernmental agencies have left them battle-hardened and hard-edged, more inclined to finger petty corruption or military projects to explain mysteries rather than aliens or mole-men. These attributes also tend to make them a first target for elimination or induction into said paragovernmental agencies, which only makes it harder for the Network to gain a foothold in the regions.

Oddly enough, the Network's greatest asset and partner in South America is not the equally revolutionary MIR or the populist and agitating Inkarri party, but rather the established entity known as the United Technate of the Americas. Though initial cross-faction relations were problematic due to the latter's tendency to regard the Network as a new front for CIA activity, the persistent incompetence and curious naivety of the Network eventually evolved their relationship to that of an odd sort of patronage: several Network cells have found their searches and investigations covertly or (rarely) explicitly aided by CBURA investigators, and more than one Cryptid Chaser or UFO Hunter has risen in prominence after having their claims of monstrous crabs or strange lights in the sky substantiated with evidence drawn from Technocratic public data archives. When conflict and friction does occur, it is usually when a particular cell tries to delve too deep into restricted areas or make an attempt to access archives off the public record: even so, these actions often merely result in the offending cell being fined and deluged with a stream of "explanatory" files and records that consist mainly of words and little of content. As for the United Technate, it appears to regard the Network as an eager student in need of discipline at worst, and a potential recruit for their larger Combine at best if certain off-the-record remarks are to be believed.

If the United Technate is receptive to the Network's advances, however, the Unidad Popular is a different beast. Almost all of the Network's attempts to spread to the Southern Cone have been met with resistance and even occasionally violent force, the new government has publicly denounced the Third Eye and placed the Network on an official watch list, and even the few sanctuaries that have arisen like Elqui Valley and the Pellegrini Lake Encampment have been repeatedly raided by Federal authorities. The reasoning for the hostility varies depending on whom one asks: Network cells up north know for certain it's due to a secret cult of time travelers seeking to use the Federation as a linchpin for world domination, while those further south will attribute it to a cover up of KGB counteractivity against the CIA's historical power in the region. The Federation's official stance is that the Network is a subversive extremist group noted for smuggling both weapons and drugs into the region: the unsaid but implied connection between their rival the United Technate and said weapon and drugs smugglers is also no doubt a factor.

Outside of the Technate and the Federation, the Network has struggled to make much of an impact one way or another on the other assorted groups of the region. They are opposed as ever to the machinations of the Syndicate, but unlike in the United States or Europe the Network in Central and South America does not have the protection of the Confederacy or the Allies to shield them from mercenary or corporate reprisal. As such, actions against the Syndicate are less investigatory in nature and more simple survival: when the Network does take offensive action, it is often under cover of other groups like the MIR or the Inkarri performing their own raids on Syndicate positions. Even amongst these revolutionary groups the Network enjoy neither particular favor nor particular hatred. The MIR might share their populist cause, but their connections with the Technate and the Federation's official denouncement sours relations to the point where only business and the occasional raid on Syndicate camps ties them together. The Inkarri are more favorable and sympathetic, but the extremity and eccentricity of both groups means that anything more than a loose and informal association tends to result in infighting and violence between the two groups.

### Welcome to the N.H.K.

Ask any Network clubber about their opinions of the Empire, and you'll received mixed answers. One would deride them on the basis of them being imperialists who invaded Californian soil once, while another will express suspicion towards you as he will think of you as a psychic spy infiltrating his mind for any anti-Imperial sentiment. That's just what they want you to believe, though.

In actuality, the Network is quite of an aficionado for Japanese culture, complete with a growing 'otaku' (disparagingly named by local Japanese for their reluctance to go outside of their clubhouses) community inside it. At first, these clubhouse otakus had to hide their fondness for anime and manga for some reasons: first, they fear that they will be openly ridiculed by the rest of the Continentals who still haven't gotten over the shock of the Japanese invasion of Los Angeles. The other reason was that even some of their own clubmates posited that Japanese media had some sort of subliminal triggers implanted within them that can brainwash their viewers; a theory certainly not helped by the revelation that the Empire was using psychics in combat and in espionage. But as time passes, things change, as one can see Continental minutemen read Raiden comics (loosely based on Japanese mythology) while off-duty and Imperial Japan opening up its borders to the Allies.

That doesn't mean that the Network became completely trusting of post-war Imperial Japan, though. While the Empire would have anyone think that they've finally cast off the katana after the war, there has to be something that their friendly relations with the Allies merely conceals. It is indeed quite telling that Japan has experienced a surge of economic prosperity at the midst of their disastrous outcome in the war. Also quite telling was how parts of the world (even Australia and America) are now opening up to the Japanese way of life that threatened to oppress them a few years ago. Itching to find answers, some Network clubhouse leaders decided to emigrate to Japan in hopes to find some secrets that abound in the present Empire.

While Kamina might have softened his country's stance on foreigners, it is said that old traditions die hard. The locals were already leery of these eccentric immigrants for the first days of their visit, a feeling not helped by their bizarre actions in public such as a more... desperate clubber touching of Yuriko inappropriate and his subsequent stay at the emergency ward. Traditionalists within the Empire find their to emulate their language to be deafening to the ears, along with other civilians who also find their obsessions about their culture and animation to be annoying. Eventually forced to be socially reclusive as hikkikomoris do, they found it difficult to operate inside the country, with some of them considering to leave for other lands until some tattoo-covered men handed them an offer they can't refuse: for the Yakuza to be an ally in their intelligence-gathering missions.

This relationship quickly became a boon for Network cells located there, as this resulted in several clubhouses formed there that attract otakus, hikkikomoris, and enthusiasts of the unknown and the bizarre like moths to a flame. Notable cells include an amateur investigation team seeking out the truth behind a mysterious television channel that is complicit in several murders, a secret club along with a shady information broker clashing and perpetuating gang-related phenomena in Ikebukuro, a group of high-school students researching about a town containing a virus that causes homicidal impulses in its infectees, and lastly, a team of amateur scientists attempting to invent a device that allows communication with different timelines through mail. Hunters of the paranormal usually wander around the country for reports of school hauntings and 'ghoul' attacks and at times, rogue psychics with help from the Paranormal Defense Bureau as private-eyes are working with the Yakuza or paid by other people to dig up dirt from rival gangs, corporations or armies. By these actions, the Network can act on the good side of the Empire while some of its less-reputable cells get to work. It helps that Sprawlestia is being a cooperative trove of information pertaining to the Empire's main economic rival, the Mediterranean Syndicate.

As the Land of the Rising Sun certainly has secrets to hide under the dark of the night for years now, they will have to contend with delusional NEETs who are seeking to stake them out for the outside world to see. Meaning that the Yakuza themselves would have to deal with the more disruptive cells of the Network that they deem too rogue and dishonorable for their standards. Sane civilians just simply want to go through their lives without having to listen to whatever comes out of their mouths. In response to the cells who delved too far through the inner workings of Imperial technology, shinobis rummage through caches of anime, and Open your Eyes videos to look for any fils pertaining to wave-force tech or nanotech. Battle psychics are ordered to seek out the land for any paranormal hunter that attempts to partake in "unwarranted missions". The Yakuza themselves make it harder for the more criminal cells to operate by either blackmail, coercion, or good ol' Making Trouble. These actions would mean that the Network must cozy up to the Empire more and more to even last a day without their retrieved files disappearing, a decision that would garner suspicion from the normally anti-Empire Confederacy themselves.

### In Soviet Russia and Allied Europe...

Europe is a very different beast from the hectic Americas, darkest Africa, violent Middle East, and chaotic South Asia. The continent is a stable place with stable governments and much harsher restrictions on armaments that make the tactics of the Network in other areas next to unworkable. Ireland is the only real exception; where the Network enjoys an odd alliance with the Phoenix Front for reasons similar to their partnership with the Confederacy; mutually shared enemies threatening both of their extinction. In Allied Europe; the Network is frequently at odds with Unionist parties, and generally works through the more "stable" cliques inside of itself, such as Private Eyes, Cryptid Chasers, and Ghost Hunters.

Military operations in Allied Europe outside of Britain are rare, primarily due to a lack of an ally on the continent to lean on as much as they would like to and the strictness of gun laws preventing them from stockpiling the arms they need to really operate military. Not to mention that the seat of Allied power is there and heavily armed. Thus, their attempts at investigating the truth must be a fair deal more peaceful.

Curiously, a fair number of Network cells operate in Spain, counteracting Spain's Francoist government wherever possible as they battle against the brutal dictator's bloody regime. The Network claims that the Allies are covering up the true body count of Franco's regime, saying that the common count used even by other protesters outside of the right-wing nation are too low, claiming that "five hundred thousand's only accurate if you add a zero and times it by two" among other things. Given that Spain denies killing five hundred thousand, the enraged reaction to the accusation of being responsible for the deaths of ten million over thirty years was entirely predictable.

On the other side of the Iron Curtain however, the Network is barely able to operate any sort of military operations. The heavy state control of all arms and the rock-solid stability of the Communist Bloc means that engaging in tactics even remotely similar to what they pull elsewhere is liable to get them all in a gulag in an eyeblink. Given that Davidova's government is one of their biggest suppliers due to the USSR's vested interest in seeing the Network aid its part in destabilizing the Allies, the Network actually has to use a great deal of tact inside the land of the hammer and sickle. Especially because the Soviet Union serves as one of the great providers of the movement along with the Combine and Syndicate (though in the latter's case, not openly) as in them they see the kernels of a useful asset. And even the Network generally knows better than to bite the hand that feeds.

The Soviet Union, sensing how the civil war can be subverted for their cause, has covertly supported a number of elements of the Confederacy-Network alliance to a great deal, and rumor has it they are even looking for ways to subvert the Unionists towards socialism by feeding them information on dangers such as GLA plots and Atomic Chinese plans against America. Knowing that America has great industrial and economic power; though lagging substantially behind the Soviet Union, they have a vested interest in ensuring that the Americans either turn their way, too broken to do much of anything about their moves. This is where the Network comes in.

While as ideologically confused as the Continentals they are so attached to, the Network's Third Eye has expressed strong leftist sympathies, though of a distinctly anarchist or liberterian bent. With the Soviet Union currently pushing for libertarian forms of Communism as Davidova reverses the legacies of Stalin and Cherdenko, this gives the USSR an open door to step over and install what would be known as the American SSR. Through plants and moles, the KGB supplies the Continental-Network alliance with everything they need: from heavier firearms to other factions' intelligence, and even My Little Drone merchandise to keep them satisfied. As 'defectors'/double agents start covert deals with Unionist militias, the Soviets desire that with enough time and assistance, the two will be fighting for so long that the victor will come out heavily exhausted. Whether they be Continentals or Unionists, by the time they win the war, they will find America nothing more than a vassal state for the USSR, completely clean of any trace of capitalist filth.

### Good Morning, Vietnam/Indonesia/Australia/Chinese Wastelands!

The Eastern world has become a powder keg; on verge of exploding with all the madness going on with the region. With Victor Charlie being a flashpoint in the war against the red tide, Indonesian settlements in open insurrection, Australia prepping themselves for survival and China threatening the world as a whole, the Network has found themselves smack in the middle of a region not totally accepting of their eccentricities.

Everyone else sees the Vietnam War as either the revolution vs. reactionary junta, counter-insurgents vs. profilgate communists or a pointless conflict that their nations shouldn't take part in. The Network are all three, and explore more possibilities. **WIP**

Of all the rebel organizations in the world, the Industrial Guild is perhaps the only group actively shunning the Network. As the Guild is composed of former national governments and has a active interest in building a working government, the Network is largely seen as a disruptive force at best. On a whole, there are only two interesting questions in the Guild's sphere of influence. What happened during the massacres, and what are the Pahit hiding in their big bunkers?

Unfortunately, the network's quest to answer these questions ends either in derision from the Guild's apathetic members, or simply a prolonged stay in a Pahit prison. While the Pahit merely (rightfully) arrest the unimposing club members for illegal activity and force them to watch educational videos, the Guild merely shrugs at the network's activity, earning a large spot of hatred in the network's eyes. Network people have started smear campaigns against the Guild's image in other parts of the world, with rather mingled results. The only one who it really seems to be working on, however, is one of the Guild's own Chiefs; Thimothy Matthews Senior.

Enraged by the meddling activities of this bunch of kids, Matthews has started a personal quest to make life for the Network as hard as possible in Indonesia, using them as training for his sleuths or rolling tanks into Network clubhouses to round them up. To Matthews' credit, even while largely preoccupied by the Guild's logistical and accountancy needs, the Network is losing.

However, none of these countries or factions match up to the chief importance China is to the Third Eye's goals of exposing all knowledge what is suppressed by the cabals. The moment that they have heard about how the KMT and the PLA have blanketed China with weapons of mass destruction, they immediately thought that *something* was up, and that's not just the smoke rising from the craters that now adorn almost all of China.

**WIP**

If historians would grasp the full extent of the Chinese Civil War, its fiery conclusion and aftermath, it would have been written down as the most brutal war in history... if enough evidence or artifacts were recovered. Most of them are lost in atomic fire never to be found or secured in high-security laboratories still undergoing research. While these scientists themselves are still stuck trying to piece those clues together, media all over the world are pacifying the people by showing what to do in case of a nuclear attack as governments remind their citizens that "everything's just fine", the Network is not known for taking the media at face value like what the sheeple do. Given the sheer lack of knowledge the public has about the civil war or the Atomic Kingdom at all, there *has* to be something that the cabals so desperately try to conceal, nevermind that governments are just as flabbergasted about this devastating turn of events.

Actually, the Network is not wholly incorrect in this matter. As there are little official records that the Allies or the Soviets even have on what's truly happening inside the once-Middle Kingdom, the Network has to rely on hearsay and rumors coming from Chinese immigrants or others who came from the hellhole themselves. If these rumors are to be taken as facts, waiting to be proved by gathered evidence, then this will be the pivotal act that would catapult the Truth to the public consciousness. Which is why some monster hunters are preparing to travel through the wasteland to face the monsters that now prowl the desolate landscapes of China. The P.I.s search for contacts in Taiwan or even in China itself to get the lowdown on what happened in the civil war, and Prometheans are wanting to get their hands on the mystical 'Jade' that would revolutionize energy forever if harnessed properly.

While some cells have left for China to contact or assist any survivors, the rest prefer to stay out of the wastes (like any rational person would do) and gather evidence from indirect sources such as field reports and stray OCVs crashing through fields. The Overlord has stated that the Network as it currently stands possesses zero chance of survival in such a tainted place due to the fact that none of them know how to deal with radiation everywhere. There's also the aforementioned dangers of zombie soldiers, crazed bandits and Atomic warriors killing each other and any outsiders that is not part of them. The actions of those daring clubbers themselves do provide the strongest argument against forming cells in the Chinese wastes, evidenced by the fact that there had been no contact with them and vice-versa since the day they left. This means that the Network must be patient until they can marshal a force potent enough to establish a permanent stay inside China so they wouldn't end up like those who came before them. Wherever they are now.

### Fluent Blarney Spoken Here

How the Network got involved buying arms from the Phoenix Front is a sad story for Mr. Seamus Leary, a Front arms dealer that was moving through the US when he found out about a group of spoiled suburbanites arming up for war. Sensing a chance to both line the pockets of the Front *and* help his fellow fighters, Leary asked to be taken to their most populous spot, Amistad Falls. On his return to Ireland, Leary shoved the order slip into the barman's hand, stuck his head under the tap, and stayed that way until he was carted off to the back room to sleep for the next two days.

While willing to sell to any (reasonably moral) buyer, the Front has found their relationship with the Network is a bizarre one. Ghost hunters have begged to come with them to investigate sightings of elementals and fae on the island, as storm pursuers jump at the chance to get inside Allied Cryo-Command. This has resulted in the Front deciding that all dealings must from now on occur through the Confederacy, which at least means the dealers can share their misery at listening to a moron with someone else.

Of course, the Network has proven somewhat useful against the Legion. Thanks to intelligence gathered by the Network, the Front has learned more about the connections between the Legion and Straylight, as well as the mysterious SPIDER and how the drugs flooding Northern Ireland all tie into it. What Apollo Fowl's connection to Straylight is, and stories about a mysterious "Yoshiwara Sprawl", where the truth would result in Belfast being freed the next day. Then the Front starts talking about murdering priests and the Knights Templar, and the Front quickly shut off their ears. Only the Wild Geese seem interested in listening, but then it's only because they later report that the Network might be crazy, but that they've also seen priests killing men.

As far as partnerships go, the Front is happy to take the money. But the Network needs to start giving the Front more than just vague connections to work with, or the next shipment of rockets to the Network might just be as failed as their careers as science-fiction writers.

### Dark Corners of the Earth

It's a strange world out there, it seems. But all in all, it's a strange world situated in a stranger universe. The Network know too well that the shadow cabals ruling Earth are still pawns in an *even* larger game, spanning the observable universe as we know it. When the rest of their compatriots engaging the enemy, some more audacious cells decide to take on their friends in high places.

The moment sightings of purple robots reached tabloid headlines, the Truth Seekers began to dig deeper. In one of the biggest investigations done in Network history, Y Files documents and newspaper clippings were taken as evidence, noted witnesses were roped into giving testimony in radio shows, and entire garbage cans were rummaged through just to find any metal that doesn't quite conform to the laws of physics. When common patterns in sightings were isolated from the other fluff, it turned out that these "nanite robots" were in fact part of an army, mostly situated in Siberia, Madagascar, and other forgotten parts of the world. While they're still divided whether the Allies, the Empire or Hollywood were responsible for such monstrosities, it was decided that they will also travel to those parts of the world to combat the "Extraterrestrial Protectorate".

Even if Division "A" were willing to fund their operations on Siberia, the Network still stands on an *overwhelming* disadvantage against the 'Protectorate' they're fighting against. With the Continentals unwilling to back them on their secret war (due to pressing concerns), those intrepid cells came all the way to EP-afflicted areas only to hack their lungs out to death coughing due to airborne Rust. Their small numbers meant that swarms of robots are able to reduce those cells to a single man, often left irrevocably mad due to truths he is not supposed to know.

While these should have gained them knowledge about their elusive enemy, the truth is that that knowledge seems to cause them more misfortune than benefit. The rates of those who suffer from "machine dreams" are among the highest within the Network, as truth seekers (typically Prometheans) go insane building bizarre robots and killing those who "aren't enlightened by the Icon". Strange accounts on Interweb fora seem to 'debunk' every last of the Network's claims, and posting nothing else. Computer and television screens in clubhouses now often display 'Basilisk' patterns, rumored to be the cause of the growing psychosis within some cells. While many are willing to back off from going to Guyana and Siberia for a while, the truth is that the Network has set itself against an army that may or may not even exist.

For the Ecumene, however, the Network is an entirely different beast. The Core Mind Collective do not care much whether the rest of humanity know about their existence, and in hindsight, it might even be a boon thanks to *something* they have with them. But for the Ecumene, even the slightest amount of awareness can be a detriment to their long-term goals. A UFO sighting there, a telltale disappearance there, and with the Network reporting all of them, the rest of the world will eventually learn to take them seriously, prompting a major attack against the observation fleets. And there was the slight on highly-efficient abduction guard, not only letting one of their captives escape, but prompting them to start an organization that would ultimately undermine them. After a short time of discussion the Supreme Council have decided not to take any chances regarding those truth seekers; prompting the use of lethal force to shut their mouths for good.

At first, strike teams were targeting isolated clubhouses and descending upon them with the purpose of killing them all. Those who were incapacitated or killed were often horribly mutilated, as a warning to their curiosity going overboard. While it is tempting to exterminate the rest of the Network, they seem to be even more *emboldened* every time a clubbie or a Conduit die for the cause, making them with hunt down alien sightings much more zeal. Local authorities will soon rule out local serial killers, and the bigger intelligence agencies will surely see the bloodstains on walls on who truly murdered them. For this, authority over what to do with those who know too much was handed to the Research & Development Division, which already knew a different way of treating dissidents rather than just slaying them.

The scientists, seeing the potential value within those abductees, argued that captured Network members are more useful alive than dead. Not just in interrogation, but also in experimentation. Today, abductees now take the place of guinea pigs, having to undergo experiments which would shock even the most callous of Blue Mountains. A notable experiment had them test the anatomical constitution of humans and how they are affected by various weapons, from the stolen tech of other factions to the Ecumene's own. Those who survive are often exposed to the vacuum of space, sending them to other planets to see what decompression does to their bodies. Of course, all of these also happen to other abductees, but the Network has presumably the worst of them all; where their members have to undergo 'aversion therapy' - averting them from subversive influences to be good servants of their Ecumene masters. A clubbie is shown photos and videos of the Third Eye, and would be subjected to a shock when the subject showed positive responses. It will be gradually increased until the clubbie renounces his Network membership and bends his knee to the Ecumene; a fate the latter wants to extend to the rest of the world.

Out of all the intelligence agencies in the world, the Ecumenical Organizers have perhaps the most solid theory on the true identity of the third eye. Believing them to be a female abductee taken as a child and then "educated" to be a model citizen through insidious social engineering methods. At some point however, in the habitat ship "Olthor", there was an abducteee breakout staged by Talon operatives within in tandem with the Ecumene's continuing problem with rebels. While most of the abductees were put back into their place by Fleet Control, some managed to escape on shuttles headed back to Earth and evade attempts to shoot them down. While it is believed the Talon kept the craft they stole for study, the Organizers doubt that all of the escapees were with the Talon. They don't have much evidence to prove the theory beyond convenient timing and the Third Eye's seeming familiarity with Ecumenical tactics and politics and more worryingly; veiled remarks that express extreme hatred for the Ecumene's powers that be and coded references to the Primacy revolutionaries.

## International Clubbin'

### Amistad Falls, Oregon

*"Stocking up on brown meat, getting ready for the apocalypse."*

- Stanford Pines, typically sung from his kitchen.
Amistad Falls was a small logging town, typical of the small enclaves of the Pacific Northwest. The men are a hardy stock, the women not afraid to do what they need to. The children are smart for their age, and the truth no more than a question away. Yes, Amistad Falls was just your typical logging town.

Now's it's a freak show of the highest magnitude. The people have apparently gone insane, strange creatures are sighted nightly, strange conspiracies apparently rule everything, and the only place anyone can apparently find sanity anymore is the local tourist trap that has everything from "The *Cornicorn*", to "Rock that looks like a Face Rock; The Rock that looks like a Face". What happened? The Network moved in and decided that the town's most prominent geological formation looked like the crash landing site for a UFO and declared it theirs. Now the town is essentially Network HQ, centered around the local "Enigma Encampment" run by local shyster Stanford Pines.

This has not been healthy for the mental well-being of the locals. Being bombarded by constant conspiratorial claptrap and punishing paranormal prattle, the people have become stuck in almost rote behavior. Local lumberjacks are becoming obsessed with "manliness" to avoid "feminization of society". A local kook has become something of a prophetic, his mad ramblings interpreted as instructions to build massive automata capable of leveling city blocks. The local car salesman has started to tout his son as a "child psychic", with dozens crowding to see the child nightly. About the only people who haven't bought into the Network's insanity are the four employees of Pine's shop; his grandniece and nephew, a local girl, and the local handyman, who may already be a member of the Network without even knowing it.

The Third Eye is frequently spotted around the town almost waiting for something to happen, yet from what body language can be observed, they are constantly forced to wait until the time is right. This has almost made Amistad Falls the *de facto* capital of the Network, as storm pursuers and rocket stormers roll in and out daily. Cryptid chasers produce grainy, pathetic pictures of "hide-behinds", while monster hunters return half-burned from confrontations with minotaurs. The ghost hunters have staked out an abandoned general store, as UFO hunters sit around bored waiting for *something* to finally appear in the skies above.

Despite what seems like a whole lot of waiting for nothing, rumors circulate that strange government agents have been spotted in the town, observing almost everything that's happened. When asked, no one seems to remember seeing the men for more than a few seconds, before rapidly bombarding the questioner about their beliefs in the possibility that all Disney animation is, "dark magic".

### Elqui Valley

Once known as a placid valley, mostly for its fine liquors and for being the birth place of Chile's first Nobel laureate, Elqui Valley has gotten to be known as the unofficial Network headquarters south of south of the border.

Attracting seekers of the unknown the whole continent over, the valley has gotten to be known for its mystique qualities (and the ready availability of cheap liquor), UFO sightings over the mountains being common occurrences since the installation of the Cybernetic Government, while Cryptid and Ghost Hunters make tag teams after the rumours that ancient dinosaurs and lost batallions from the Pacific Wars can be seen roaming the deserts in the calm, cold nights when the moon is at it's maximum extension.

A plethora of encampments can be found the whole valley over with people living by the new principles of free love and their individual quests for inner finding, or to throw the wildest parties you've ever seen, all the while solar prophets and other wannabe messiahs can be seen going from camp to camp, calling onto the beliefs of the locals and indigenous roots of the people, calling onto ancient pacts of allegiance and saying that people may be saved if only they submit to the designs of the Inkarri right now.

Most intriguing of them all however can be the amount of Private Eyes and Conspiracy busters who can be found on the most formal towns, people speaking of strange activity on the old miner ghost towns and the abandoned facilities of the ancient saltpeter works people who talk about installations built inside and under these places for devious purposes, political prisoners kept drugged to do the dirty work of the People's government and keep the Cybernetic Machine well oiled.

Regardless of the truth of these claims, it is true that Carabineers do frequent raids on the Network Clubs in the region, mostly for the disturbance they bring to the local population, as well as the extensive drug trade that pours down from the north, not to mention the illegal weapons trade kept by these clubbers (Everybody knows that the Vigilante Force's weapons are government loans after all).

### The Truth Bastion

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