Azimuth Decries Unlawful Assaults
04 Aug 2024Kasumi Goto
Azimuth has vehemently condemned recent attacks on several of its surface operations in the LHS 1163 system, qualifying them as 'illegal, barbaric and heinous acts'. No motives to these attacks have yet been identified, with initial investigations currently underway.Two industrial operations and one military outpost were assaulted by surprise just yesterday, with no signs preceding any imminent plan to storm the facilities. All the signs, however, point to a well-executed attack with military skill and precision, resulting in quick elimination of the security and work forces of the three settlements. In each case, the central computer appeared to have been accessed, and sensitive information downloaded, then the site was shut down entirely, with its power regulator stolen. Initial rumors suggested a business rival attempting to obtain secrets of the company's work, but according to the only surviving, and terrified, witness, a civilian worker in the command center of the military outpost, one of the attackers demanded information on "something important which the company took from them", and "to let them know I am coming".
She described the attacker as a tall woman with unusually sized body proportions - specifically describing the upper and lower halves - clad in an all-black protective suit and additional armor on top, with a helmet which hid her face and followed the contours of the nose, only two view ports placed at eye level on it. No audio or visual data from that outpost appears to have been available, thanks to the data on its systems getting found corrupted beyond all recovery. Security recordings from both industrial operations were intact, however, likely on purpose. They confirm the description provided by the lone surviving worker, showing a tall woman with a distinctly non-average physique, alongside an even taller man methodically and swiftly killing settlement security, not sparing civilians either, before the woman accessed the central computer system using a cloned security profile.
Additionally, the survivor mentioned being coerced into providing full access to central databanks, then left alive but knocked unconscious, to deliver the aforementioned message upon being found. She is currently undergoing physical and psychological trauma treatment. Torben Rademaker, acting CEO of Azimuth Biotech, said the following:
"I cannot show my disgust at these brutal acts, seeing those innocent people massacred without mercy, enough. While we are still working on identifying the second attacker, using available records from security databanks, and the audio of our surveillance systems' recordings, I can confidently say who the first one is. The woman is none other than the only human-Thargoid hybrid which we know to exist, and some of you may know her as Kira Goto, or under her alias 'Kasumi'. It is not possible for me to be certain on why she chose to murder not one, but three of our dedicated and hard-working teams, yet I am willing to believe she is not nearly as free of Thargoid influence as Aegis have claimed."
"If this was not an act of sabotage by one of our disloyal rivals - and you know who you are - then it is clearly a desperate act to sabotage our efforts to keep us from supplying the effort to defeat the Titans to the best of our ability, while they are losing this war. Her claims that we took something important from her are delusional fabrications of her mind, or just a misplaced, disrespectful desire for vengeance for actions which - I must repeat - my predecessor was responsible for, and I had no knowledge of, until they were revealed. The Thargoids may be manipulating those weaknesses in her mind to continue getting her to do their bidding."
"I would suggest for Aegis to keep her on a shorter leash and further continue monitoring. Evidently, her release back into public was premature, and their inferior methods could not detect these obvious signs of influence, or that she is simply no longer mentally stable, pursuing some vendetta that is costing innocent lives, without a reason. Our own superior knowledge and practices would have prevented these risks, had we been allowed to monitor and examine her instead. It also appears that, now, we must ensure justice is served for what has happened yesterday. And to our loyal supporters, I assure you that this has in no way or manner compromised our ability to assist in defeating the Thargoid menace."
Aegis, following a direct inquiry, have said to not be aware of any such acts on Kira's behalf, and that she has not been actively monitored in her acts, out of respect for her privacy. A spokesperson mentioned that an investigation from the tri-superpower organization has been launched to determine why Kira chose to commit these acts, but that she has not responded yet. They also issued a reminder that she would have been acting independently, rather than on Aegis' behalf, having had minimal to no contact with it following her re-release into public, late in February.
Independent observers, meanwhile, have noted that, even if the assault had succeeded in significantly hampering Azimuth's production capabilities, the effect on the war itself would have been negligible, on the basis that the large majority of Azimuth's contributions had an insignificant impact on its course, following the arrival of the Titans, with exception of the experimental weapon stabilizer.
Further updates to the situation will be provided as and when available.