To the Lancer Association:
By now, you’ve all likely heard the rumors about Kepler. The forced labor, the testing of dangerous weapons, the anti-Lancer protocols, and even human experimentation...
I’m afraid to say it’s all true. I’m even more sorry to say that those rumors are just the tip of the iceberg.
I worked at Kepler for a long time—even before the Smash-Up. It was a high ideal that first drew me there: the noble pursuit of advancing Kepler's greatest dream of understanding the stars. We were building rockets, researching ways for humans to comfortably live in space. I believed in the work we were doing. I thought it would solve so many of the challenges that humankind faced.
But then glunite was discovered, and everything changed.
Kepler quickly became interested in researching glunite's properties and what it was capable of. A new field of study was thus born, one that we now know more colloquially as “catastrophe physics.” It began as an innocent curiosity, but it wasn't long before it transformed into something truly terrifying. All ethics were thrown out the window as Kepler raced to be the first corporation to unlock to secrets of glunite.
First came the experimentation on living beings, to better understand glunite's effects on living organisms. They started with rodents, of course, but it didn't stay that way for long. Eventually they brought in human test subjects, often poor citizens who had been promised a low sum of compensation. One by one, I watched them die in horrible agony from glunite exposure. Despite the immense loss of life, Kepler showed no signs of stopping.
Things somehow got worse once Kepler realized glunite had the ability to open rifts to other worlds. The first one was a complete fluke, and it was so small you could only peek through it like a keyhole. That was enough, however, for Kepler to see that the rift led somewhere beyond our known reality. They became obsssesed with recreating the rift, and I’m sorry to say I helped them do it. Our work got sloppy as we got more ambitious. And then…boom. The Smash-Up.
That's right: Kepler is the reason our world is shattered. Why Acme teeters on the very edge of extinction. I thought they would have learned from their mistakes, but I shouldn't have been so hopeful. They were actually fascinated by the Smash-Up. If anything, it made them redouble their efforts. You see, Kepler still thinks they can open another rift like that, and in their ignorance, they're marching us towards another Smash-Up. We barely survived one. I'm not sure we could survive another.
In recent months, rumors around Kepler have spread like wildfire among the public. Despite their efforts to save face, they've lost the trust of the public. They've also grown deeply distrustful of the Lancers, even the ones working for them. It's likely Pathojen, Axon, and Zephyr will be excused from their positions. Or perhaps they'll want to keep them around to test their anti-Lancer devices. They've been working on those a lot.
In the midst of all this internal chaos, Kepler has a plan to secure its position in Acme and continue its exploitation of the Shardverse. And that brings me to my next warning: something else is coming. Something Kepler calls the “Calamity Project.” I was unlucky enough to be assigned to the development team, and even unluckier to realize I couldn’t stay complacent any longer. When we got the plans, I saw it for what it really was. Of course, Kepler tried to sell it as something that would "help the world," but it's really just another kind of weapon. It's something that can kill with efficiency, with precision, and without thought. Their inital plan was to make a whole army of them, but thankfully, recent developments have made that quite impossible.
You might wonder why I risk sharing all this, and the truth is I’m a dead man anyway. I became one the moment I stepped out of Kepler’s doors for the last time. They made the price for leaving very clear. They've got a big red X on my back, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Calamity project is the very thing they send after me to do the job.
I can’t say I’m not afraid, but I'm ready to be rid of the guilt and the lies. I want this to be over. I share this with you because a new era is upon us. The worst is yet to come, so you must be ready.
-Anonymous
