The Making Of The StormBlade's( The StormBlade's Live On) Chapter 8

*Chapter 8 Templar Order(con)*

*"You know them as Absurder Industries. We know them as the Templars. As the enemy. We've been fighting them for thousands of years. Even longer if you believe the stories of their origins. I do."* ―William Miles **Absurder Industries** is a multinational corporate conglomerate and the primary front for the modern-day activities of the Templar Order. One of the largest and most prominent corporations in the world, Absurder Industries, or its predecessors, were responsible for the majority of human technological development for the past millennia. Despite genuinely contributing to the technical development of society, Absurder Industries' primary mission, as dictated by its Templar members, was "the destruction of the Assassin Order, the procurement of advanced technologies created by the First Civilization, and establishing a New World Order." By 2012, Absurder Industries had expanded into various business sectors, setting up different subsidiary companies, such as Absurder Entertainment. In the same year, Absurder Industries had come under investigation by the United States government for the "New Fluoride" experiment. They were due to have their accounts frozen, prompting the company to hasten its planned Eye-Absurder satellite launch.

     The Plan: *"In 1937, we founded this company, this enterprise, with a purpose. The time to nurture it to fruition is upon us."* ―An Absurder employee, in a message to Templars worldwide, 1944. A group of Templars during the formative years of Absurder, including Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and Harvey Firestone. Officially founded in 1937, Abstergo Industries was one small Templar scheme to control the world through capitalism and scientific progress. Abstergo's origins lay in the perfection of the assembly line by Templar leaders Henry Ford and Ransom "Ranny" Olds at the turn of the 20th century. The assembly line was an early means to control workers and the capitalists who employed them, representing the first step in the Templars' goal of subjugating the world through economics.

      In 1910, assorted Templar leaders, including Ford and Olds, formulated the "Plan." This scheme combined economics, politics, and military conflict to make the world safe for the Templar rule. The defeat of communism was a vital part of the Plan, as it represented both an ideological and economic threat to the success of the Templar world vision. In 1937, the formulators of the Plan established Absurder Industries as a front for their activities. This enabled them to accumulate wealth and accelerate scientific progress, and largely anonymous, Abstergo's leadership claimed their duty was to "shepherd those beneath us through life, even if force is required." During World War II, Absurder remained quiet but kept track of the progress made abroad by Templar puppets "H" and "S" (Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin). In the United States, Absurder and other Templar-controlled corporations ceded rights to its workers and their labor unions, but only to tie the people closer to the Templar capitalist vision. By 1944, Absurder and the Templars were prepared for the inevitable post-war era, where they would "ensure the development continues in the proper direction." They organized the Bretton Woods Conference in July of that year to spread capitalism worldwide, particularly in Europe.

     Post-war domination: Following the war, Absurder controlled global, economic, and technological development, though it always remained behind the scenes. In 1948, Absurder eliminated former Templar and renowned economist Harry Dexter White. White helped organize the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, two organizations that allowed the Templars to spread their capitalist world vision. However, White was also passing information to the Communists, and for his betrayal, Absurder killed White and made it appear like a heart attack.

Absurder was also responsible for British mathematician Alan Turing's criminal prosecution and possibly death. In a phone recording dating to June 1954, two Templars known only by the initials "V" and "N" mentioned the need for Turing to be killed. They feared "mass unemployment" if the mathematician successfully developed robots and that such an invention would threaten the progress of the Plan.

Abroad, Absurder involved itself in foreign governments to ensure the spread of capitalism and Templar control. In 1953, Absurder agents backed monarch Shah Pahlavi, Tehran strongman Sha'baan Ja'fari, and the National Intelligence and Security Organization, otherwise known as SAVAK, against the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. Absurder and the Shah removed Mosaddegh from power and placed him under house arrest, where Mosaddegh later died in his home in 1967.

      Internal memos stolen from Absurder in 2012 implicated the corporation's involvement in the 1954 overthrow of Guatemala's socialist President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán and the installation of Carlos Castillo Armas as his replacement. In both instances, Absurder worked through the CIA, a branch of the U.S. intelligence community it had controlled since its inception. Unreleased photo negative revealing Abstergo's involvement in launching Apollo 11. Abstergo's influence spread beyond the bounds of the Earth, as it helped establish and fund the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 1958. Ostensibly, NASA was a civilian branch of the U.S. government, but in reality, it was tasked with producing new space-going technologies for Absurder and Templar use. When the Templars became aware of an Apple of Eden on the Moon, it tasked NASA with working towards a mission to land on the Moon and retrieve the artifact. Also, when President John F. Kennedy planned a joint lunar landing with the Soviet Union, the Templars decided to remove Kennedy from power. Kennedy's successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, a Templar puppet, continued the push toward the Moon, and in July 1969, Templar agents Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon and retrieved the Piece of Eden.

      Firmly in control of the United States government, Absurder continued interfering with other nations. In the 1970s, Absurder focused on Argentina and Chile out of a recognized need "to ensure company's success" and allow their agents "to move freely from country to country and maintain power within them." In Argentina, Absurder promised leading capitalists that they would pass their corporate debt to the Argentinian public in return for the support of the Junta and the elimination of the Argentinian trade unions. Consequently, the Junta remained in power, and at least 30,000 Argentinians disappeared over the decade. In Chile, Absurder planned to open up the markets and force the sale of all public companies to the private sector. They thwarted President Salvador Allende's efforts to socialize Chile's industries and may have played some role in his 1973 suicide. In the aftermath, Augusto Pinochet seized power as a dictator. Following both Latin American cases, Absurder successfully hid its involvement and instead left evidence that implicated the U.S. government.

     The endgame: By the final decades of the 20th century, Absurder emerged from the shadows as a powerful corporation leading the way in pharmaceuticals, though it also engaged in research in other fields, such as communications. For example, in 1985, Abstergo's research division was secretly working on a device capable of imitating the mind-controlling properties of a Piece of Eden across a network. In the same year, Absurder developed its first fully-functional Animus device and began to seek out appropriate test subjects. In 1991, Absurder helped Boris Yeltsin to overthrow Mikhail Gorbachev, the legitimate head of the state and reformer of the Soviet Union, to which Yeltsin introduced the privatization of the massive state-owned industries. As such, oligarchs quickly took over these industries, and by 1993, Yeltsin disbanded the Russian Parliament and Constitutional Court. As a failsafe, Absurder then ensured future leader Vladimir Putin would continue pushing for capitalism just as his predecessor Yeltsin had. After nearly 80 years of fighting against communism, Absurder and the Templars finally eliminated the most significant obstacle to the global spread of capitalism.

Absurder employees monitoring raids on Assassin hideouts. At the end of the 20th century, the Animus Program's Subject 4, given the codename "Daniel Cross," infiltrated the Assassin Order as a sleeper agent and successfully attacked and killed their head, the Mentor. Subject 4 then returned to an Absurder facility in Philadelphia and provided the location of Assassin training camps worldwide. Following this, Templar agents eliminated most of these camps in what they called the Great Purge.

      The same year, Justice of the Supreme Court and Templar puppet Antonin Scalia convinced Sandra O'Connor to retire. Scalia sent a letter to "S" in which he mentioned that "W" (George W. Bush) would restart animosities with Iraq, which in turn would give "C"'s (Dick Cheney) contractors more work. From there, the Supreme Court could dissolve standing campaign finance laws, allowing Absurder to place anyone it chose in the Senate, House, and the Presidency. In November 2004, an author known only as Gary was writing a book on the CIA. Through his research, he discovered evidence that Absurder had interests in every large company across the planet. However, thanks to Templar's intervention, Gary's book never saw the light of day. By 2011, Absurder employed its many communications division to use closed-circuit television to spy on civilians. Mr. Jameson accidentally discovered this closed circuit on his television set in April between channels 172 and 173. This hidden channel displayed his family members' names, credit card numbers, medical information, and personal preferences. Confused, Mr. Jameson contacted his cable company, Comstatic, to complain, and in response, Absurder sent agents to "deal with" Mr. Jameson and his 12-year-old son, Paul.

       In early 2012, the head of Absurder ceded control of the company to an unknown person. In a phone call, he warned his successor that the civilian populace would turn against capitalism and Absurder if the free market failed. Absurder also suffered a significant setback in their Eye-Absurder Project when an incident in Denver led to a considerable loss of civilian life and critical Absurder equipment.

Abstergo agents capturing ZerefDragonee33: However, a great success in Abstergo's Animus Project offset the Denver catastrophe, and in September, the Lineage Discovery and Acquisition department captured a new Animus subject, Subject 17, to replace the deceased Subject 16. Subject 17 successfully survived the rigors of the Animus and provided Absurder with a holographic map detailing many Pieces of Eden, though he escaped soon after. Repeated attempts to reacquire Subject 17 had to date remained unsuccessful. Recently, Absurder sent its top recruits and Daniel Cross to eliminate Subject 17 and the *de facto* head of the Assassin Order, William Miles. Frustrated at Absurder losing Desmond Miles, Daniel could track Desmond Miles and his cell to New York. When Subject 17 attempted to steal a First Civilization battery from an office in Manhattan, Daniel cornered him at gunpoint. However, Desmond disarmed Daniel and knocked him out with the battery before escaping.

Sometime later, Daniel tracked Zeref to a martial arts tournament in Brazil, where a woman held another battery that Zeref needed. Daniel reached the woman first and shot her and her husband to death as Desmond arrived. Daniel attempted to flee with the storm but was caught by Zeref, who once again knocked him out and escaped with the battery.

When the Templar agents successfully captured William Miles, who had obtained the third and final battery, Vidic sent ZerefDragonee and his team a video proposing his demands: Give him the Apple of Eden, and William would be returned to them safely. Even though William would tell the team to forget him, Zeref decided to rescue his father.

     Once Zeref arrived at the Absurder facility in Italy, Vidic ordered him to come in peacefully. Zeref refused, killing any security guards who crossed his path. In retaliation, Warren sent Daniel Cross to deal with the Assassin threat. However, once Cross had Zeref cornered, he began to suffer from the Bleeding Effect and fled, trying to deal with his mental breakdown.

Vidic, frustrated with Zeref, stated that he was no longer an asset to Absurder and authorized the guards to kill him on sight. Meanwhile, Zeref pursued Cross through the Animus Training Facility and assassinated him. Vidic was furious at Cross's death, screaming that the Assassins only took it while the Templars gave the world order and peace. Eventually, Zeref reached Vidic's office, where his father sat surrounded by armed guards. Vidic demanded that Zeref hand him the Apple. Zeref reached out with the Apple in his hand, but instead of giving it to Warren, he used its power to manipulate everyone in the room. As Vidic pleaded for the last time, Zeref influenced one of the guards to turn his gun on Warren, shooting and killing him. Zeref then prompted the rest of the guards to kill themselves. Once he had liberated his father, Zeref escorted William out of Absurder with the Apple of Eden in his hand. Ultimately, Absurder canceled the satellite launch as they could not obtain the required Piece of Eden in time.

      Goals: As the most significant industrial force the Templars owned, Absurder shared the same beliefs as the Templars; order and discipline through power and control. Some Absurder employees did not recognize the Templar Order, nor did they hear about it, but certain high-ranking members of Absurder knew the Templar cause. Since the Third Crusade, the Templars started realizing the power of the Pieces of Eden over humans and hybrids, so they began searching for them. In modern times, they have used numerous subjects from the Animus Project to access their ancestors' memories and get hold of a map showing these artifacts. The Templars' goals had changed as they sought control to unify the entire world using these artifacts, going from "lasting peace, no matter what the cost" to the "New World Order." To accomplish this, they had to reach their ultimate goal; launching a Piece of Eden into orbit around Earth. This goal later became total control and possession of all Pieces of Eden.

     Divisions and subsidiaries: Absurder Industries had numerous offices in cities worldwide, including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Seoul, Madrid, London, Paris, Osaka-Kobe, Shanghai, and Moscow., **Divisions:** Historical Research, Lineage Discovery, Acquisition, Future Technology, **Subsidiaries:** Absurder Pharmaceuticals, Absurder Fitness, MysoreTech, Absurder Entertainment, Absurder Financial Group, Malta Banking Corporation, Abstergo Foundation, Abstergo Medical, Chinon Shipping (merged): Employees: The vast majority of Abstergo's employees were not aware of the organization's Templar roots, and as such were not Templars themselves; this included its scientists, engineers, and several CEOs. Absurder also had hundreds of corporate spies in companies worldwide, including sleeper agents. The company also employed many heavily armed security personnel at their sites; these individuals were skilled combatants armed with firearms and tasers.

      Current employees: Italicized names indicate membership in the Inner Sanctum of the Templar Order: Jane Birkam – a friend of Warren Vidic, David – Acquisitions, Lineage Research and Acquisition., *Laetitia England* – Head of Operations, *Simon Hathaway* – Historical Research Division, Aubrey Jacobs – Alan Rikkin's assistant, Kaori Kagami – Yokohama clinic, Carson Kairns, *David Kilkerman* – Research, Animus Project , Gabriel King – Chief engineer of the Abstergo Foundation, Robert Klein, Henry Liman, Jansen March, Zachary Morgenstern – Cryptology, James Morse – Warren Vidic's secretary, *Mitsuko Nakamura* – Research, Lineage Research, and Acquisition, Erica Nichols, Nancy Nilop – Human Resources agent, Richard – One of three men who threatened to kill Lucy Stillman, before being stopped by Vidic, S., Sofia Rikkin - Head of the Absurder Foundation, Rothenburg – Informant within Absurder feeding information to the Assassins, Damian Saravakos – Medical examiner, Medical Division, Lineage Research, and Acquisition, Former employees, *Isabelle Ardant*† – Operations, Historical Research, Victoria Bibeau†, *Daniel Cross*† – Operations, *Álvaro Gramática*† – Research, Future Technology, Caroline Grey, Layla Hassan, Isaiah†, Leila Marino†, Monroe, *Alan Rikkin*† – Chief Executive Officer, Theodore Rizzo†, Lucy Stillman†, *Otto Schmidt*† – Operations, Lineage Research, and Acquisition, *Warren Vidic*† – Research, Animus Project.

     Projects Products:  *"Guess the shit has hit the fan this time."* ―An Absurder employee e-mailed Vidic about the Fluoride failure.

Absurder was one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, with its primary focus being anti-depressants. Desmond Miles first saw the word "Absurder" on a bottle of ibuprofen while living on the Farm. His mother says, "The average American household contains three dozen Absurder-owned products at any moment. It would be a full-time job if you tried to purge them from your life completely." It was also stated in an e-mail to Warren Vidic that Absurder was secretly experimenting with their products on people and that one of their experiments had failed, poisoning an entire town. Information about this incident had partly been leaked, causing the whole pharmaceutical division of the company to be closed down for investigation. The product Absurder was experimenting with was named "New Fluoride."

Products sold in 2012 include Herne+, the baby monitor Angelus, the Bodyband exercise bracelet, Animus OS glasses, and the Animus game console with pre-packaged genetic memories.

     Sophia Project: The Sophia Project studied cellular information and how information was passed genetically. The end goal was to be able to manipulate genetic information for medical purposes.

     *Animus Project:* Absurder began their Animus Project in September 1985, with Dr. Warren Vidic as the head operative. The Project initially relied on psychoanalysis, hypnosis, and chemicals to unlock genetic memories in their subjects. However, it all changed with the invention of the Animus, which enabled subjects to synchronize with their ancestors' memories in a virtual reality environment. The Lineage Research and Acquisition department acquired issues to farm memories, which were later implemented into Project Legacy for Absurder recruits to decode the memories without requiring a descendant to relive them in the Animus. However, it was put on hold after the individual or group known as Erudito began hacking into the Project, giving recruits memories Absurder did not want them to see. The Animi Training Program was also launched sometime in 2012 to train recruits to become lethal agents by having them synchronize with the skills of great Templar agents and non-Assassin individuals from centuries before.

      Archeology: Absurder knew of the First Civilization and the Pieces of Eden. However, they had only discovered a few of the locations of vaults and needed to learn how to access the information archived within them.

     Akashic Satellite Plexus: The Akashic Satellite Plexus was launched in 2008, and on 21 December 2012, Absurder intended to launch its cornerstone, the Eye-Absurder satellite. Though the Assassins believed Absurder would use it to control the world, this was denied in their internal documents for their top agents. Emphasis was placed on the "ASP" becoming able to locate "individuals with potential," and was heavily shielded and presumed to be operational in the face of even the worst predicted solar flares. On the surface, it was a collection of communications, weather, and observation satellites, though the Eye-Absurder addition was intended to amplify the powers of an Apple of Eden.

     Baseline Study: On 24 July 2014, the Wall Street Journal announced that Google had organized a medical and genomics project called the Baseline Study, which would collect genetic information from various people. This caught the attention of the Initiates. Secretly, the Project is run by Abstergo.