Episode 09: Phantoms

Previous episode:	Episode 08: Drip, Drip, Drip
Next episode:	Episode 10: Gag Order
Episode 09: Phantoms
Series overview
Series:	Hunt the Truth
Season:	Season 1
Episode specifications
Episode:	09
Air date:	May 24, 2015
Run time:	20:43

Episode 09: Phantoms was the ninth full episode in the first season of the Hunt the Truth audio drama. The episode was originally released on Soundcloud on May 24, 2015.

Official summary

“

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.

”

Plot summary

With less than two hours left until the senate meeting starts, Anthony Petrosky records his recollection of the events that happened on the UNSC Atlas in 2525. With time running out, Benjamin Giraud anxiously waits for Mshak Moradi to send him compelling enough evidence to show to the senate, but Ben instead gets contacted by Katrina. She tells him she fears for her life because of the tension heating up in the Outer Colonies and the New Colonial Alliance rallies going on, and that she is constantly getting communications failures. However, before she can continue, she is cut off. Mshak finally sends the files, including a recording of police radio when the Spartan who encountered their identical twin was found dead from a self-inflicted wound. Mshak tells Ben to find out what's going on in the Outer colonies as soon as he can, but FERO cuts him off. FERO tells Ben she has hacked into the meeting and that once he is ready, he can start. FERO patches him through and Ben introduces himself and the purpose of his announcement, and then plays Anthony's statement. Ben then tells the senate of the kidnappings, cloning, training and biological augmentations that the SPARTAN-II program comprised of, just in time before the feed was cut.

FERO informs Ben that he is now under their protection. Shortly after, Ben receives a message from his bank, informing him his account has been disabled. Ben also finds a message from Mshak, telling him he will meet him the day after tomorrow to tell him something important. Not willing to wait for Mshak, Ben tries to call, but can't get through to him, he finds he can't get through to anyone in the Outer colonies. A delayed message from Katrina arrives. Katrina tells Ben that there is violence breaking out all over the outer colonies, but once again Katrina is cut off. Ben has no choice but to wait for Mshak, but he never arrives.

Audio transcript

• Anthony Petrosky (in call/scratchy): Testing, testing 1, 2, 3. Can you hear me okay?

• Benjamin Giraud: Yeah, just don't move around too much, it messes with the sound.

• Petrosky (in call/scratchy): All right, roger that.

• Giraud (voiceover): 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.

• Giraud: Come on, come on.

• Giraud (voiceover): Considering he was about to accuse ONI of atrocious human rights violations, Petrosky, on the other hand, seemed completely calm. He wanted to chitchat about the Chief.

• Petrosky (in call): So... high treason. Eh, you, uh, you think that's for real?

• Giraud: Uh, I guess. That's what people are saying. Can-- can-- can you stay up sitting like that please?

• Petrosky (in call): The Master Chief! Damn, that's gonna be a black eye for ONI PR, huh? (chuckles) You know, boots all across the military are gathered like they're at a slumber party or something.

• Giraud (voiceover): 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 (in call): So, do you think he did it?

• Giraud: What?

• Petrosky (in call): Do you think the Chief shot up that embassy on Biko?

• Giraud: Uh--

• Petrosky (in call): Maybe he finally went nuts. Maybe he thinks we're still fighting Insurrectionist guerrillas or something, I don't know, but man, working for the Covenant? Doh! That's a stretch, right?

• Giraud: I really-- I don't know man. I'm sorry, we just gotta lay this down.

• Petrosky (in call): All right, roger that.

• Giraud (voiceover): We were running out of time and I needed Petrosky to focus. He started recording. I asked to introduce himself and tell the world about the SPARTAN program. From then on the was totally on point.

• Giraud: So just, uh, say who you are, and then just go into it.

• Petrosky (in call): Ok. (clears throat) 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. (clears throat) In April 2525, while serving on a detachment on the UNSC Atlas, I witnessed, firsthand, 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 ODSTs and critically injured two others, an attack that greatly exceeded natural human ability.

• Giraud (voiceover): He didn't stutter. He didn't stammer. His thoughts were clear as crystal, told with purpose, as if he had 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 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 the story and persuade even the most jaded senators to listen. I had exactly what I needed from Petrosky.

• Petrosky (in call): I am testifying with absolute certainty that the speed, power, and coordination 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 COs, issued an order of absolute suppression of all accounts of this incident. The coercion, pressure being brought to bear, we were ordered to keep silent, to never speak of this publicly upon fear of court martial. How's that? That okay?

• Giraud: Uh, yeah! Tha-- that was amazing. I-- I can't thank you enough.

• Petrosky: Yeah. All right, you give 'em hell.

• Giraud (voiceover): 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 into 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.

(beeping)

• Giraud: Oh God, what was I thinking?

• Giraud (voiceover): 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 was sounded absurd. I was trying to corroborate my accusations against ONI by having Mshak Moradi convert nutjob 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.

• Giraud: The files better make sense, Mshak.

• Giraud (voiceover): 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 (in call): Hey, Ben. I don't really know who else to call but I was hoping you could maybe tell me what feedback you were getting from the Outer Colonies this week.

• Giraud (voiceover): 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 ever imagined.

• Katrina (in call): (sighs) People are going nuts. They're 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 keeping 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. (sighs) I've kind of already been freaked out anyway. I don't know if I'm being paranoid but I think... someone maybe targeting me for helping you, and Ellie's in the same boat. All these power surges and these crazy service interruptions. Last time I talked to you, my entire system was overrun with corrupted files and my whole neighborhood lost power. I don't know, but if someone is trying to get us I'm worried what would happen if things get too chaotic out here. Um, I don't feel safe so if you anything about this or what we can do to protect ourselves, I mean they're already shutting down the st--

(call disconnected)

• Giraud (voiceover): 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 could 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 Moradi (in call): So I just sent it.

• Giraud: Perfect. Got it! Thank you, thank you! I-- God I hope it's convincing enough.

• Moradi (in call): You should have a clear breakdown that exposes the blatantly unnatural pattern of child autoimmune deaths on the beginning of the SPARTAN-Program, particularly in the Outer Colonies.

• Giraud: Yeah, yeah I see that. It's good. It looks solid.

• Moradi (in call) (in call): 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.

• Giraud: One of the suicides?

• Moradi (in call): Yeah, some officer gets called to the scene of a