Seattle NewsNet — Special Feature: What’s Really Happening at Rainier?

 

Title: Shadows Over the Mountain: What’s Really Happening at Rainier?

Byline: Kara Dempsey, Senior Investigations Correspondent

Dateline: Seattle Metroplex — September 19, 2097

In a quiet but unmistakable move, the UCAS Federal Land Office has confirmed the leasing of nearly 1,200 square kilometers of Mount Rainier National Park to a newly-formed “security cooperative” led by Aztechnology.

The lease term? Ninety-nine years.
The details? Sealed under corporate privilege.

Through a combination of satellite imagery, on-the-ground reporting, and leaks from inside the Department of the Interior, Seattle News Net can confirm:

• Joint Operations: The cooperative includes Saeder-Krupp, Vivekan Federation security firms, Tir Tairngire magical consultants, and several First Nations paramilitary contractors.

• Obsidimen Sightings: Multiple witnesses describe towering, stone-skinned humanoids patrolling newly-erected perimeter fences.

• Mage Recruitment: Classified recruitment drives for “Class-A magical personnel” have spiked in Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver over the past month.

The UCAS Government insists this is “routine private leasing of underutilized federal land.” But why lease a dormant volcano to a consortium of the most secretive megacorps on the planet? And why now, in the wake of an uptick in seismic activity in the region?

Seismologists note the mountain has registered a dozen deep tremors in the past 60 days — more than in the previous decade. Official agencies call it “minor magma movement,” but other sources speak of something stirring deep underground.

The last time Rainier erupted, in 2078, Seattle was spared the worst. But whatever this project is — and whoever it’s meant to keep out — it’s clear Rainier is no longer just a national park.

Matrix Buzz — Thread Snippets Following SNN’s “Shadows Over the Mountain”

@GeoHack: Ninety-nine years? That’s a land grab, chummers, not a lease. You don’t dig in for a century unless you’re hiding something that’s already there.

@BasiliskBoi: Heard from a cousin in Tacoma Port Authority — Aztech’s been unloading “geo-containment modules” the size of arcology cores. Whatever’s under Rainier, they’re building the cage first.

@GhostChord: And yet we’re all ignoring the whisper-name going around: the Devourer. No one will say what it is, just that it’s “older than the first sunrise” and “hungry.”

@StaticRitual: I dug through some internal field from our feathered friends, and they have a name for it, something they tried to redact, but it seems like it's “Vel-ax-something.”

@SoftSignal: Funny how that name popped up right after Halo did Berlin. Coincidence? I think not.

@GraveLight: Keep digging, and you’ll wind up under that mountain too. Mark my words.