Solstice Blackout

TransForum Special Report 1.2.2076 on the events of 12.19.2075-12.21.2075, popularly known as the 'Solstice Blackout'

Authorities have released to following information and allowed us to assemble this rough timeline of the confusing events of the weekend of Thursday 12.19 to Saturday 12.21, 2075:

12.19.2075 (Thursday) between 19:30-20:00: Terrorists infiltrate the Harwood Securitract for purposes still not known. While there they disable the security systems and do sporadic damage, leaving one resident, Kilbourne Urban Design's Chief Astral Officer Hector Belasco, dead, destroying his home and Harwood workspace and setting the 7th Floor tennis court on fire.

12.19.2075 (Thursday) 19:58: One of the regular patrols from the UCAAF 119th Fighter Group out of Hector AFB spot the tennis court fire and put in a report to emergency services. When the authorities arrive, the terrorists have already left the scene.

12.20.2075 (Friday) 07:32: In a pirate broadcast, wanted fugitive and former Goldmark-Scheel-Craig Comptroller Nelson Klein takes credit for the Harwood attack. Borderlands Security puts the Block on security lockdown in response.

12.20.2075 (Friday) 23:38: A sudden and coordinated attack begins against the Block, on orders, authorities now believe, of Nelson Klein. Groups involved in this attack include known terrorist groups such as the so-called 'Prairie Public Underground' and hackers such as the 'Broken Chains'.

The Block's AI TANNIN was disabled through DDOS attacks, using modified forms of Ares Commercial Products' "Kooba" campaign (Ares spokesperson Carlo Brunelli has confirmed to TransForum InfoMedia that early rumors that Ares had a hand in the attack are false), they were able to insert an as-of-now-unidentified corruption (currently called 'Code X' by GOD investigators) into the system, distorting its command structure and memory systems. The unclassifiable nature of this 'Code X' is still disputed, although current consensus points to Technomancer terrorists among the insurgents.

With TANNIN disabled, the main body of insurgents made an attack on TANNIN's servers, largely it is now believed as a distraction for a small group of elite operatives (perhaps even so-called 'shadowrunners') who entered through the roof of the Block and staged a focused assault on Kilbourne headquarters. They set off a bomb in the lobby and engaged security forces in a series of battles that left 20% of BlockSec personnel dead. They then went on a killing spree that left all of KUD's Supermodern Design Team, and many key personnel, including CEO Helen Ness, Comptroller Nadine Corwin, dead. Even non-Group personnel, like Dr. Danielle Sinner (director of the Lindenwood Elven School), were subject to violent death at the hands of the terrorists. Others, such as CFO Logan Offutt and VP George D. Sinner were taken prisoner and survived only because of the heroism of BSI officers such as Russell Tallboy, who was vital in keeping the terrorists from destroying the Block.

12.21.2075 (Friday) 00:01: Working on confidential information provided by BSI Mage-Investigator Vivian White Crane, Oceti Sakowin Commissioner for Region 3, Pipe Holder Harold Standing Bear activates the 9th Border Warband out of Maitomoni'ohe and imposed martial law over the Block and central Fargo by the power of Paragraph 13 of Section 2 of the Alexandria Accords, quoting the need to intervene in the face of an existential magical threat (the nature of which is being kept confidential by the Sioux Defense Force). Arrests are made of Group personnel believed to have been collaborating with the insurgents (including Ness' executive assistant Cybele Vikram, Community Impact Manager Lorraine Hoeven Operations Manager Roland Stenjhem, Account Manager Roger Koppang and Accounts Receivable Officer Whitney Jung).

At the same time, the Corporate Court's Grid Overwatch Division, working on a request by Huang Hui Yin, stages a full Convergence-level intervention in response to the corruption of the TANNIN system. TANNIN was shut down while GOD operatives (including Alpha-Level Operative Annika Kasperov and her AI counterpart ZIZ) isolated and cleared the corrupted parts of the system. CIO Brock Danielson is also arrested on GOD's orders for criminal negligence and possible conspiracy to compromise the matrix.

12.21.2075 (Saturday) 09:03: Sonja Oxnard, Sr VP of Ares Agribusiness-Fargo, announces that the previous night's disasters have provided sufficient cause for her to activate the Security Clause in Ares' loan agreement with the Group, effectively giving Ares full control over (but not ownership of) the assets and processes of the Group in order to protect their financial interest when it becomes obvious that current management cannot be trusted to maintain sufficient peace and order to repay the loan. Her first act is to command the Group to break their contract with BSI and sign on a contract for Ares' own Knight Errant Security.

*12.31.2075 (Tuesday) 24:00: Projected date when martial law is scheduled to be lifted in Region 3.*

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