Hunt the Truth/09 VO

A new report surfaces about a Spartan abductee, but there’s no time to check the facts. FERO is missing, and the Senate meeting is about to begin.

PETROSKY: Testing, testing, one, two, three... Ya hearin’ me okay?

BEN: Yeah, just don't move around too much. It messes with the sound.

PETROSKY: Alright, roger that.

It was all coming down to the wire. In a couple of hours, FERO was going to hack into a closed-door session between the UEG and ONI, and I was going to expose all of the intelligence agency’s ugly secrets to Senate leadership. Having Petrosky remotely record his statement in advance like this was going to give me one less variable to worry about once we were in. But… I was still waiting on final materials from Mshak, I hadn’t heard from FERO all day, and I was urgently trying to pull it all together. I was a wreck.

BEN: C’mon, c’mon…

Considering he was about to accuse ONI of atrocious human rights violations, Petrosky, on the other hand, seemed completely calm. He wanted to chit-chat about the Chief.

PETROSKY: So, high treason. Man. You, uh, you think that’s for real?

BEN: Uh… I guess. That’s what people are saying. Can you- Can you stay sitting up like that, please?

PETROSKY: The Master Chief. Damn… that’s gotta be a black eye for ONI PR, huh? You know boots all across the military are gabbing like they’re at a slumber party or something.

Three days ago, FERO had leaked a suppressed incident report from an embassy in the outer colonies that had everyone in disbelief or disarray. Less than twenty-four hours later, FERO dropped the real bomb; a security video from that same embassy, showing that everything in the report was true. The Master Chief had turned diplomatic peace talks into a shooting gallery that claimed nineteen lives. The shock of that second leak immediately turned to outrage, polarizing everyone by the same familiar geography; the staunch patriots of Earth, versus the dogged survivalists of the Outer Colonies. It was the same caustic regionalism that had far too recently defined us. And now those old ideologies were creeping back out, masquerading as opinions, angrily cracking open the scabs. Meanwhile, the Master Chief, the subject of my entire investigation, was now the most wanted man in the galaxy. I hadn’t even had a chance to dig into any of it.

PETROSKY: So, do you think he did it?

BEN: What?

PETROSKY: Do you think the Chief shot up that embassy on Biko? Maybe he finally went nuts, maybe he thinks we’re still fightin’ insurrectionist guerrillas or somethin’? I don’t know. But, man, working for the Covenant? That’s a stretch, right? I mean-

BEN: I really don’t know, man, I’m sorry, we just gotta lay this down.

PETROSKY: Alright. Roger that.

We were running out of time, and I needed Petrosky to focus. I started recording, I asked him to introduce himself and tell the world about the SPARTAN program. From then on, he was totally on-point.

BEN: So just say who you are and then just go into it.

PETROSKY: Okay. I am Corporal Anthony Petrosky, retired trooper of the 105th ODST division. I am testifying by my own free will, under no duress by any parties, and I wish to make the following statement:

In April 2525, while serving on a detachment on the UNSC Atlas, I witnessed first-hand, an incident involving a 12 to 13-year old male who identified himself as John-117. He had extensive scarring on his torso, consistent with post-procedural scarring I’ve seen on recently inducted Spartans. And under orders from an ONI CPO, John killed two ODST’s and critically injured two others in an attack that greatly exceeded natural human ability.

He didn't stutter. He didn't stammer. His thoughts were clear as crystal, told with purpose. As if he'd been waiting his whole life to speak with this much conviction. After a grueling military career that took his left arm, Anthony Petrosky should have been rewarded with dignity and opportunity. Instead, he was one of countless veterans the government had left behind. But this was his moment… and he'd never sounded more alive. As he laid out his damning testimony about ONI’s biological augmentations of children, I knew FERO had been right. Petrosky’s words would humanize this story and persuade even the most jaded Senators to listen. I had exactly what I needed from Petrosky.

PETRISKY: I am testifying, with absolute certainty, that the speed, power, and co-ordination this person exhibited was categorically impossible without the benefit of a full battery of military-grade augmentations. Afterwards, the Office of Naval Intelligence, through our CO’s, issued an order of absolute suppression of all accounts of this incident. Through coercion, pressure being brought to bear, we were ordered to keep silent, to never speak of this publically, upon fear of court-martial.

How was that? That okay?

BEN: Uh, yeah, that was amazing. I- I can’t thank you enough.

PETROSKY: Yeah. Alright, give ‘em hell.

Now I was just praying Mshak would come through, FERO would be able to bypass the most sophisticated security system in history, and I could get hacked in to a meeting between the most powerful people alive. I needed a miracle. And I needed it to happen in the next ninety minutes.

I’m Benjamin Giraud, and this is Hunt the Truth.

BEN: Oh, God, what was I thinking?

As I tried and failed repeatedly to get a hold of Mshak, I was trying not to dwell on what my plan had been. Particularly because it sounded absurd. I was trying to corroborate my accusations against ONI, by having Mshak Moradi convert nut-job conspiracy theorist data into documentation that a senator would find compelling. But I didn’t have time to rethink the plan. I needed the documents. My calls to Mshak kept dropping though. Something was up—the networks were a mess. I did not have time for this and I was starting to panic, when a message from the Outer Colonies finally came through.

BEN: These files better make sense, Mshak.

But there were no files. And it wasn’t Mshak. The message was from Katrina, the old friend of John’s that Ellie Bloom had put me in touch with; the woman who had told me about John’s death. I hadn’t spoken to her in weeks.

KATRINA [MESSAGE]: Hey, Ben, I didn’t really know who else to call, but I was hoping you could maybe tell me what feedback you were getting from your Outer Colonies this week.

I had no idea what the listeners were thinking. Ever since I’d gone incognito, I hadn’t heard any of their feedback. Stupidly, when I set it up, I hadn’t properly secured the feed, and now I was afraid if I accessed it to hear what people were saying, ONI would trace my new location. I’d figured after my latest episode, the revelation that ONI had heavily poached the Outer Colonies for their child abductions, would be garnering a strong reaction out there. But the way Katrina made it sound, the reaction was stronger than I could have imagined.

KATRINA [MESSAGE]: People are going nuts, switching over to only using local Chatternet services like it’s fifty years ago or something. It’s this New Colonial Alliance group, they’re everywhere, holding all these demonstrations in the streets. Thousands of people are turning out. And they keep chanting about self-reliance, talking about how we need to be preparing for this big embargo, all these boycotts, the UEG offices shutting down. I don’t know… It seems peaceful right now, I just… I feel like we should get off-world, just in case it breaks bad. I’ve kind of already been freaked out anyway. I don’t know if I’m being paranoid, but I think someone may be targeting me, for helping you. And Ellie’s in the same boat. All these power surges and crazy service interruptions. Last time I talked to you, my entire system was overrun with corrupted files and the whole neighborhood lost power. I don’t know, but if someone is trying to get us, I’m worried what will happen if things get too chaotic out here. Um… I don’t really feel safe, so if you know anything about this, or, um, what we can do to protect ourselves… I mean, they’re already shutting down the-

Katrina’s message got cut off. I had no idea what was happening. I had no idea what the central government was going to do. I had no idea how to help this woman, or Ellie, or their families, or anyone else. We were all in the dark. All I could do was present the Senators with the ugly truth, and hope it would convince them to help us all. And I was running out of time to make that a reality. Thankfully, Mshak finally emerged from his subterranean world.

MSHAK: So I just sent it.

BEN: Perfect. Got it. Thank you, thank you. God, I hope it’s convincing enough.

MSHAK: You should have a clear breakdown that exposes the blatantly unnatural pattern of child auto-immune deaths on the beginning of the SPARTAN Program, particularly in the Outer Colonies.

BEN: Yeah, I see that. It’s good. It looks solid.

MSHAK: And I also cleaned up and edited that police scanner data. It’s one of ONI’s abducted kids returning home and running into their clone.

BEN: One of the suicides?

MSHAK: Yeah. So officer gets called to the scene of a home invasion, it’s this middle-aged couple and their teenage son, who’s in a wheelchair. The officer comforts the victims, assesses the situation, calls it in. There wasn’t a confrontation or anything, no valuables appeared to be missing, victims didn’t even get a good look at the guy. The perpetrator just entered the house, went into the son’s room, son freaked out, perpetrator fled the scene, blah, blah, blah, now everything seems to be okay. During his report to dispatch though, the officer gets startled by a sound, reports a possible shots-fired somewhere nearby. Back-up arrives, they canvas the area, about ten minutes later, same officer reports discovering a body in a nearby field. It’s a teenage kid, dead from what appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

That’s where the officer’s report to dispatch took a turn.

DISPATCH [RECORDING]: Seven-Charlie-Nineteen, what’s the rush on-

OFFICER [RECORDING]: It’s the exact same kid. The kid from the home invasion over on Stanton. I mean, the 10-56 looks like his identical twin, I don’t even know what to say.

DISPATCH [RECORDING]: Seven-Charlie-Nineteen, M.E. is en route.

The medical data Mshak had sent along with the audio made the picture even uglier. The son was in a wheelchair, because months of medical procedures had left him with permanent nerve damage from when he was six years old, under treatment for auto-immune and significant cognitive disorders. Those procedures that left him paralyzed? Were nearly identical to those from John’s medical records. Before the survivors had been removed from the data, this boy had been one of the dots on Mshak’s scatter graphs of likely clones. I didn’t know what to say.

MSHAK: So, I realize it’s messy. Whether you can use it or not, at least now you know.

I didn’t have enough time to wrap my head around this new piece, so I made the difficult choice not to use it. But hearing yet another ONI horror story made me all the more determined to blow it open. I just needed FERO to show up in the next few minutes with a miraculous way to get in the door.

BEN: Thanks, Mshak. So, this should all be going down here in-

MSHAK: Don’t be nervous, you’ll be great. I’ve got all my channels open, ready to go. Whenever it pops off, the murmurs will pop up. And if the Senators are making moves against ONI, that’s the kinda chatter that rattles teeth, so don’t worry. We’ll know soon enough if it worked.

BEN: Thanks, man. Okay, I’ll-

MSHAK: Hey, just real quick. I know you’re super-busy right now with your crusade of honor, but as soon as you can, you need to get caught up with what’s happening in the Outer Colonies. Your last episode is turning kernels into popcorn and there’s a fault line in the tectonics I need to talk to you about, so-

FERO: Ben will call you back.

Hacking in and cutting off Mshak? Yet another dramatic entrance for FERO. And this one came not a moment too soon.

BEN: FERO, what’s happening? I’m all ready. Do you have a way in?

FERO: I’m already in. And this is how it’s going to work. You have the files ready for upload. I’ll secure the connection and give you a direct feed into the hearing. You’ll present Petrosky’s testimony, upload the files, and make your case. Quickly, because they’re going to do everything in their power to shut it down. They might even be able to trace your location. If they run too much interference, I’ll have to scale us back to a one-way feed. So, we may end up flying blind, but they’ll still see and hear everything you say, for as long as I can keep the connection open. Are you ready to play for real?

I had to be.

BEN: Yes.

FERO: Good, I’m patching you in now. Go for the throat, Ben.

This was it. Every shred of journalistic integrity I had left was about to go out the window. I had a strongly biased opinion and I was about to deliver it to some of the most important policy-makers in government. This wasn't just an exposé of ONI’s deeds. it Iwas an indictment that constituted a call-to-arms. I just hoped the senators would listen.

There was no audio, but I suddenly had a full view of the congressional chamber hosting this meeting. I couldn’t believe this was happening. My eyes scanned the room. The twelve senators who represented Senate Armed Forces committee seemed to be there, and three of the six ONI directors lined up in front of them. My heart was racing. Then I saw someone else.

BEN: Wait, is that Sully?

FERO: Ben, you’re live in three, two, one…

I saw my face pop up on the main display at the head of the room. The proceedings seemed to stop, as all the heads turned and looked at me. For a moment, I froze… And then I began.

BEN: Distinguished representatives of the Unified Earth Government and the Office of Naval Intelligence, my name is Benjamin Giraud. I was a journalist hired by Commander Michael Sullivan to do a profile on the Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, and my contract was terminated for exposing a widespread cover-up by ONI on his true origins.

As I spoke, I tried to look at the camera and ignore the return feed. The image of my own face speaking to a room full of supremely powerful people was incredibly distracting. I could see out of the corner of my eye though that it was working. They were listening. Then my feed went black.

FERO: Keep talking, Ben. I had to cut the return feed, but you’re still live in the room.

I tried to focus.

BEN: ONI has gone to great lengths to keep you and the public from knowing critical information about the SPARTAN Program, their lack of institutional control of the Master Chief in the Outer Colonies, and the genetic modification of abducted children that eventually became warriors like the Master Chief. What I'm about to play for you is testimony from ODST Anthony Petrosky regarding the SPARTAN Program.

As Petrosky’s testimony played, I was starting to doubt whether or not it was actually still live, when I got a message from Sully. It said, “You're out of control, Ben. Last chance to stop.” I typed back, “I can’t be a party to the crimes you and the rest of ONI have committed. Not anymore. I’m done.” There was a brief pause, and he responded. “Yes, you are.” My gut sank, but I wasn’t going to back down.

FERO: You’re gonna have to finish up quickly, Ben. They’re hitting the hack hard. I can’t keep it open too much longer.

As Petrosky finished up, I quickly edited my final piece, chopping out any unnecessary language. Then, it was time to bring it home.

BEN: Senators, for their SPARTAN program, ONI kidnapped young kids and illegally engineered doomed-to-die clones to replace them. They kept the children as military property, subjecting them to horribly unethical training regimens, and eventually performed dangerous biological augmentations on them, while they were still growing. This was how they made the Spartans. Half of these children most likely did not survive. I’ve provided you with files that corroborate my claims as to these egregious human rights violations. I ask you to review them with an open mind. ONI has gone to great lengths to cover up this story, including elaborate fabrications.

FERO: Wrap it up, Ben!

BEN: I have also provided you with clear evidence of this disturbing cover-up-

FERO: Come on!

BEN: -as well as audio evidence of the threats I have received in the past several weeks for pursuing this information.

FERO: We’re about to lose this feed!

BEN: I come forward at great risk to my personal safety-

FERO: Come on, come on, come on!

BEN: -and my only hope is that you will look at the facts and take the directors of ONI

FERO: Keep going!

BEN: -and all those responsible to task for these atrocities. Thank you for your time.

The feed cut out at the last moment…. I was in shock. What had just happened?

FERO: Perfect. Now let’s watch it burn. The revolution has started, Ben. And you were the spark. From now on, you’re under our protection.

BEN: FERO?

She was gone and my head was buzzing. It felt like I was in a dream. What had I done? I looked down at Sully’s last message, his response to when I said “I’m done”? It was chilling. “Yes you are.” That was all he said. That was all he needed to say. I felt dizzy, I had to keep moving, find out if that kamikaze mission had had any effect whatsoever. The first ripple popped up right away. It was a message from my bank.

AUTOMATED FEMALE VOICE: We regret to inform you that your account with Outer Trust has been deactivated. If you have any questions, please speak with a financial representative.

I called immediately and got a representative on the line. She told me I was under investigation for the unauthorized possession of sensitive government materials. The audio files from my story. I was being fined an astronomical sum for keeping them, and as a result, my assets had been frozen indefinitely. I couldn’t believe it. I checked all my accounts. Either locked down, or zeroed out. In retrospect, cashing out should have been Step One before I took on the most powerful government agency in history. But it was too late now. ONI was bringing down the hammer and I’d been financially ruined. I was reeling from this realization when two delayed messages popped up in my queue. The first one loaded quickly. It was Mshak.

MSHAK [MESSAGE]: Ben, things are getting a little hectic out here, so I don’t even know if this is going through, but I was trying to tell you before I got cut off that… Okay, no. We need to talk in person. It’s urgent, it’s very- It’s something I found. We can’t talk over coms about it so I’m coming to see you in-person day after tomorrow. Don’t talk to anybody, don’t try to reach me. I’ll be there soon and then we can sit down and just go over the whole-

I couldn’t wait for Mshak to get here. So against his wishes and my better judgment, I tried to raise him. But something was wrong. Like everyone else in my region, I’d had plenty of failed calls to the Outer Colonies in my time, but this was different. Like it didn’t even send the call. I checked my Chatternet feed. It was full of comments from people just like me, panicking because they couldn’t reach the Outer Colonies, scattered reports that the communication buoys themselves had been shut down. That didn’t make any sense. The second delayed message finally finished loading. It was from Katrina.

KATRINA [BROKEN MESSAGE]: Ben! It’s- I- I can’t even- Waypoint is down, it’s totally gone, we’re completely- My parents, Ellie, no one from that whole system is- Chatternet. And, and there’s a full quar- Please, if you can… If you can tell someone what’s happening, or get somebody to-… we need help and-

And then, silence. That was it. I couldn’t get through again. No one from the Inner Colonies could. The Outer Colonies had been completely cut off. After years of ONI quietly committing atrocities from their high perch, it felt like their phantoms were finally in motion, shifting the landscape with unknown objectives, somewhere out in the shadows they’d created. I listened to Mshak’s message again. I needed him to help me sort this out. The idea of sitting here, waiting in that darkness for him, scared the life out of me. I had to be patient. I just had to get through the next 48 hours.

But he would never show up. That message… was the last time I heard from Mshak Moradi.

Please join me for the next episode of Hunt the Truth.