Vertebrae (In Progress)

Prologue

Excerpt from the Newscaster's, issued on June 21st, 2014:

A meteorite was uncovered from its crash site in Chile. The scientists on the cleanup team noted that the meteorite consisted of an unknown material and crumbled into dust upon contact. Because of this, the meteorite's remains had to be vacuumed into a safe bag for further study. The only solid remains were strange spine-shaped disks closely connected by a flat but extremely flexible material. The disks were also made of an unknown metal but have been taken for study by a South-American research team. The meteorite's impact destroyed the home of a young couple who were not home at the time...

Excerpt from a diary entry from Corp. Jane Jenson's journal:

January 17th, 2015,

The war continues, but has died down greatly. The fighting has begun to be centered on my latest assignment. The little science branch that we were set charge of was overrun and a small metal casing was the only thing taken besides the lives of many of my men. The scientists tell us that it contained a strange metal device extracted from a meteorite. All of the data that they had collected was also in the casing. The device and data were meant to be sent to another research facility in the U.S.A. All that the scientists had learned from the device was that it fit into the spine of a human or animal, connected to the brain, and had many interesting properties. It was all very suspicious, but...

Excerpt from the Newscaster's headlines, issued on September 13th, 2016:

Astounding news: An astonishing new function has been discovered in the meteorite's remains uncovered June 21st, 2014. Not much has been revealed yet, but we have been told that this device from space consists of a metal that they call Iunctium. Signs of otherworldly life have been discovered through traces of...

Excerpts from the journal of Paul Ravens, a member of the Level's Hand:

...I simply cannot believe the impossible amount of fighting going on underneath the commoner's noses. The Iunctium Vertebrae are being snatched back and forth between too many different science teams. So many deaths... So much violence. The most recent report from the U.S. team's stats say that they barged in and ripped the Vertebrae right out of a German patient's back before it was fully installed by the German science team. They say that installing them into someone is how the invisible war will stop because the Vertebrae cannot be taken back out after they are installed, according to their studies. I think that the subject will be kidnapped, thrown back and forth between teams, and studied like a bug under a microscope. Not the life for me. No way am I putting that thing in my back. After the Americans left the building, we ambushed them and took the Vertebrae back. We do not know entirely what the Vertebrae will do once they are fully installed in a person, but we have our suspicions. Some believe it will drive that person mad. We are searching for an adequate subject to install the Vertebrae and end the madness but we cannot start to properly do so until we return to main base. The playing field will be levelled once again and we will be the hand that does so.

-Paul Ravens, July 25th, 2017

Upon our arrival back to home base, we were attacked and the base was invaded. I was thoroughly injured, but I managed to get to the Captain's quarters. She gave me her final orders and pushed me through a hidden chute, locking it behind me, just as the invading team broke through her door. I escaped through the hidden tunnels and regrouped with my team a good distance from the overtaken base. My probably final orders are to install the Vertebrae and the subject's file is included. I have no problem with this installation because it is not me, but what troubles me is that the subject is not a member of the Level's Hand, or any of the other teams. She is but a mere commoner, unknown to any of the teams except ours. She is the Captain's own sister which surprises me because most members choose not to involve family. I suppose that we can manage, though. I will execute the Captain's final orders.

I must find Willa Bean.

-Paul Ravens, July 27th, 2017