Hello there and welcome to the year in review for the Niantic Investigation! 2015 was a colossal year in terms of story as the century-old conflict between the Shapers and N’zeer heated up due to Agent activity across 3 powerful global anomalies.
2015 began not with a whimper, but with a bang – a large one, to be exact, in Afghanistan at the start of the Shonin Anomaly Series.
On February 21st, a large-scale explosion took place at the site of a 13MAGNUS Nest – a Portal of immense power used by a duo of ancient societies: 13MAGNUS and the Anti-MAGNUS. On site were 3 groups of people:
- Hank Johnson, Jahan and Azmati, who had been taken there as hostages in order to watch her summon the N’zeer.
- Oliver Lynton-Wolfe and an associate of Visur.
- Devra Bogdanovich and Hubert Farlowe, an associate of hers.
When Azmati lept into action, destroying the Shonin Stone – a powerful artifact that could be used with the Nest to summon the N’zeer – the explosion happened. Azmati died in the attack and and at that moment, OLW, Devra and all other known members of the original Niantic Project would disappear (except for ADA, we’ll get to her later.)
On March 5th, 2015, 31 XM Shards of Devra would appear in the Portal Network. Immediately, the Investigative community began to fear that Devra was the precedent of the possibility that all the missing people would return as Shards.
During this time, ADA began making discoveries about herself, learning with the help of Susanna Moyer of another AI living inside her: Truthseeker, created in one night by Richard Loeb, who has no coding experience, in 1997 at the NSA.
Further details would elucidate that Verity Seke, the operator of the Niantic Project G+, is actually Truthseeker.
Due to their control of the Anomalies and the majority of the Shards, the Resistance controlled Shonin and Devra.
Following the finale of Shonin, Hank Johnson revealed that he would travel to the ancient city of Persepolis to confront Jahan, who was in route there and stop her.
This Anomaly series revolved around the fight for the next Researcher in the Portal Network: Stein Lightman – the expert of Shaper Glyphs. This also included the rumored showdown between Hank and Jahan in the city, which was destroyed by Alexander the Great. However, the destruction had failed to destroy ancient AntiMAGNUS artifacts that were buried beneath the city. Jahan planned to activate them to further her cause. Agents lept into action again to control the Anomalies and the 41 #LightmanShards.
In the midst of the series, P.A Chapeau had managed to separate Klue and ADA once and for all.
Once again, the Resistance continued their string of victories, controlling the overall Anomalies despite the Enlightened control of the majority of the Shards. Hank would end up abandoning his goals of Persepolis at the request of Devra, who warned him if he went “There’d be no coming back.”
As things began to cool down, rumors began to emerge of Tycho creating a new comic book, entitled Ingress: Origins, and a potential attack on ADA began to form. The calm before the storm ended and the first wave of the storm began on August 6th, when ADA had been ‘terminated‘ live on Behind the Scanner:
Meanwhile, Susanna would discover a mysterious secret tied to the very creation of the Niantic Project itself: A secret project codenamed Abaddon:
This mysterious name, only known by Calvin and a secret few, would be the cause of the most massive Anomaly series yet as all the remaining 12 researchers of Niantic would be up for grabs via a new form of XM Anomaly codenamed “Flash Shards”.
During the series we learned the greatest truth of all: Ezekiel Calvin, as the Niantic Project was slowly beginning, somehow arranged for all the members of Niantic sans ADA to be killed and turned into Simulacra. He then had their bodies stored in a secret facility built below CERN. The codename of the lab: ABADN.
Why did Calvin do it? Many suspect he’s actually a member of the Anti-MAGNUS like Jahan and secretly created Niantic to strike a blow against the Shapers. What became known was that if the Resistance controlled the anomaly series, the researchers would return into our world as Simulacra with no recollection of what happened since the beginnings of Ingress and the Investigation while if the Enlightened won, they’d return as human beings.
By controlling the majority of the Anomalies plus 6 of the researchers, the Resistance closed out 2015 with another win. Hank Johnson and Jahan would work together to return to Geneva, revive the Researchers and explain the truth of what happened to them in the last 3 years.
The Resistance had claimed all 3 anomalies: Shonin, Persepolis and Recursion. The Researchers are now Simulacra and are out in the world.
2015 is over….but what mysteries will 2016 bring?
As always:
Serious investigators dig deeper. Seeking the truth, no matter where it may lead, is our calling. Faction, race, gender, age – none of these things matter here. To potentially dig down the rabbit hole, join us at Operation Essex. Keep a close eye at the Niantic Project G+ as well as pages of the Niantic Researchers, sensitives and Corporations to learn more.
See you all in 2016! I can’t wait to explore the Investigation with you all! 🙂