Internal Defense Directorate
In the beginning of April 2010, many players who had closely followed the Bioshock 2 ARG Something in the Sea began to receive strange letters in the mail. They were from the Internal Defense Directorate and informed these individuals that they had been singled out for their expertise and would possibly be receiving additional evidence for their review. §

A few days later, these 'advisors' started receiving packages. The packages contained an introductory letter to Operation Hermes, an Infinivac Digital Data card and random pieces of evidence: newspaper clippings, photos, test tubes with a mysterious substance and reel-to-reel tapes. Put all together, the evidence reveal a series of disapperances that are connected by something that appears to be supernatural in origin.
 
Operation Hermes
With the receipt of the new packages, we now know that these CLASSIFIED materials are a part of Operation Hermes. §

The access number on the Infinivac card is actually a DC phone number. Calling it gives you instructions on how to access the Infinivac website with your data card. §

The point Charlie Oscar Mike gives us .com, so that makes the Infinivac Network address 2025409047.com. Unfortunately, only those people with Infinivac Digital Data Cards can access the site since it requires your codename and password. Hopefully that will change so that those of us who didn't get packages will be able to enter the site. It also requires a webcam, but you can get around that requirement by installing a program like ManyCam and having it use a still image as the source. Once you have access to the Infinivac website, you can upload your evidence and read various messages by others already in the system.

NOTE: As of April 2013, all of the original websites have been removed so the links no longer work. I have marked these links with colored dashed text and redirected many of the file links to local copies that I had stored.

Loweryi was nice enough to copy/paste a majority of the posts and JohnnyCon7 has also posted pictures of what the site looks like for those of us who do not have access.
  • Current Intel: Priority One §
  • Current Intel: Priority Two §
  • Current Intel: Priority Three §
  • Mission Statement §
 
The Evidence
So it appears that the main function of the Infinivac website is just to submit the evidence that you've collected. Which makes me wonder: if the IDD is sending out this information to various advisors, why do those advisors then need to upload that same information to an IDD website? I could understand if people found new evidence that wasn't already on the website, but obviously the evidence we have was already in the posession of the IDD once, so there should be record of it in Infinivac. Right? But what do I know? I'm not an Operation Hermes advisor.

There's been a lot of difference bits of evidence sent out to lots of different people. Some of it is duplicates, some of it refers to pieces of evidence others received. In order to keep a sense of order, I'm grouping evidence by subject matter rather than by who got what. However, if you want to know who got the various pieces of evidences, check out Kyburz's post on the 2K Forums. Kyburz also has a brief overview of the evidence as well.

I've placed all the evidence on a separate page to a: keep it better organized and b: keep it from overwhelming the rest of the guide.
 
X-COM
Because all of the known receipiants of the evidence had been players of the Something in the Sea game, there was lots of speculation that this game was also going to be for something in the BioShock franchise. When the evidence didn't seem to quite fit that idea, players started guessing everything from aliens to vampires. (I was actually a little suprised no one made the suggestion that this was going to be a baseball game with all the mentions/hints about baseball.)

We only had to keep guessing for a little over a week. It was then made clear that this was going to be an ARG for a new X-COM game (which means the people who guessed aliens were technically correct). I actually know nothing about the original X-COM games, but it's not like that's stopped me from playing a video game ARG before. We'll see how this one goes.
 
Project: Enemy Unknown
Oops. Spend a couple of days not checking in because you're trying to solve MUMS puzzles, and a fairly big update comes. Can't imagine what's going to happen during CiSRA.

But anyway, the update! After being down for several days and teasing everyone with a "Please Stand By" message, the 2025409047.com website finally came back up with an automagic redirect to ProjectEnemyUnknown.com. Not only that, but it now allows you to join the I.D.D. or enter as a guest. Joining allows you to enter your name, address, telephone number and email so that there's a chance you might get some goodies through the mail. You also set up a username and password so that Infinivac can remember you.

And for those of you who don't want to give your information, or just don't feel like logging in, you can use the guest login (after entering an age confirmation). Using the guest login doesn't seem to be any different, except for the fact you can't submit intel or review your profile. Or at least I think so. I registered at home, but I can't get my login accepted at work, so I can't verify that right now. I probably just typed something wrong but codename/password recovery now has to wait until I'm at home.

There are a couple of new Priority One posts to look at, plus a new mission briefing. There are also some Priority Two posts but nothing that hasn't already been discussed.
  • Current Intel: Priority One §
  • Mission Briefing §
The new mission briefing has images (although some of the links to larger images are broken at the moment) of all the evidence that was sent out, grouped into various subject matters and given color code names. When you see the codenames (COLOR)HERMES#, those are the people that originally got one of the evidence packets. Unless it's just someone being sneaky with their choice of username.
 
Suspicious Persons
This game seems to have a very slow update schedule. I guess in order to allow latecomers to catch up easily. I wouldn't mind the slow update schedule as much if the updates were substantial and/or had something for us to do, but minor updates once a week are a little bit boring. Hopefully it'll get better though.

The latest update warns us about suspicious persons who have been spotted investigating some of the "Phenomena Related Event" sites. These must be the some of the same people who Arthur Framington saw in his house when he arrived home. Infinivac doesn't state what kind of foreign accent these suspicious persons have, but I'm willing to bet it's Russian. §

The photos are from Burroughsille, Kansas, which is the site of the Betty Lou Harman murder (PEU-33-1499). Her body covered by a white sheet in the background. You can just see her goo-covered arm sticking out from under the sheet which matches the previous photos we received. Now you can also see that her body was surrounded by a circle of the black goo. Makes you wonder if there was a victim in the Littlevale Memorial Park incident that we don't know about.

Of course, what I want to know is: Who took the picture of the suspicious men? Infinivac says "a civilian who noted such individuals observing" but there had to have been others around besides just a civilian. The body is still on the ground covered by a sheet so there had to have been police around and possibly someone from the FBI since they were investigating her disapperance as well. But Infinivac just says "a civilian who noted such individuals observing". A civilian to me implies someone random person off the street - not a cop or other person of authority. I just can't believe that some random neighbor person was able to get close enough to the crime scene to a: get a shot of the body and b: get a shot of the suspicious gentlemen and no one else was around to notice. So either the police are completely incompetent in Kansas or this picture didn't come from where Infinivac says it did. Which of course opens up another whole can of worms.
 
@Infinivac
The links to the larger photos of the suspicious persons leads to a Twitpic account. Since you need a Twitter account in order to use Twitpic, that leads us to @Infinivac. Sadly, the account is protected and they aren't following anyone, so no new leads there. I'm a bit doubtful if they will accept any follow requests, but I've sent one off just in case.

And now it doesn't exist at all. Which is a little bit sad because it could have been a good way for Infinivac to send out critical mission updates in more or less real time. But now I'm wondering why even sign up for a Twitter account if you were just going to delete it later? For Twitpic access? Something wrong with hosting the images on Project Enemy Unknown website? It really doesn't make any sense, especially considering that now it wouldn't be too hard for someone to snag the Infinivac name on Twitter and cause all sorts of havoc. I wonder, if one were to reclaim the Infinivac name on Twitter and then signed into Twitpic - what would happen to the photos already on Twitpic? I think that might be an experiment for a later time.
 
Reports in the US
Infinivac has posted another update, this time letting us know that the strange events have been for the most part centered around the United States. They link to a photo containing headlines of several new clippings about black goo and strange fog, but sadly not the complete stories. §

SCISCIENGGAMMA wants us to "examine what this may mean both in terms of the strategy of the attackers and in our own strategy of response" but I'm still unsure of what they actually want us to do. Are we just supposed to make up stories about what we think is going on or what? Because honestly, that doesn't sound very appealing to me. That's sorta like going to a restaurant and being told that you have to cook your own meal.
 
Infinivac on Flickr
I'm a little hesitant to link this since there's a definite possibility that they'll just go and delete the account, but then again, if they didn't want it found, they shouldn't have linked to it in the first place. Or, you know, created the account as well.

Anyways, Infinifac is now on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/infinivac/ Too bad their account is private so you can't actually see anything. Still unclear as to why they need an outside photo service to host their pictures. Especially if there isn't anything for us to look at. At the very least they could make the photo linked to on the PEU site public on Flickr.
 
A Great Need for Help
Oops! Stop checking sites for two weeks because of CiSRA and an trip to Ireland and all sorts of updates occur. Sorry about that. Things should be better now on my end since nothing else is happening here for a while. So let's see, what's been happening?

SCIENGALPHA issued a public request to expand the ranks due to being overwhelmed with a backlog of requisitions. I guess that means they want us to get new people to come in and help out. But since this request went out during the lull when nothing new was happening, I'm not exactly sure that plea for help was very effective. §
 
Suspect in Pennsylvania
Another black goo death has been reported, this time in Pennsylvania. No reports of strange storms, just the body of a missing man found covered in the black goo. §

SECOPGAMMA states that one of the strange individuals spotted at Burroughsville was also at the scene. I'm guessing they are talking about one of the guys standing behind the police tape in the newspaper photo. But it's a little hard to tell for sure since you don't get a very clear picture of their faces. The man on the left isn't wearing glasses like the men in Borroughsville are. The man on the right looks like he could be wearing the same kind of glasses as the man on the left in the Burroughsville photo is, but the Coalburg man looks like he's there with a woman (note the hand grasping his upper left arm). So are either of these men one of the foreign operatives? Is the woman involved at all? And where is this report that states that the man was heard talking in a foreign accent? It's certainly not in the newspaper article.
 
Final Response From Bureau
INTELALPHA has been trying to get more funds from the FBI in order to prove that the black goo events are actually attacks and should be more fully investigated. However, the FBI requires more evidence before they can supply more money to gather more evidence. So INTELALPHA now wants us to double our efforts in uncovering more information. §

Again, not really sure what that means for us since all the information we have is coming from Infinivac. Maybe there is stuff out there on the interwebz to find. Maybe if I do a Google search for "black goo attacks" I'll find something. Hmm, nothing good. Oh well, I tried. Right?
 
Unknown Persons Identified
SECOP has gotten confirmation on the identity of one of the mystery agents: Dr. Nikodim Vesilyev, a Russian physicist. Not sure why the Russians would have a rocket scientist running around the US investigating the phenomena sites and not a trained spy who would be better able to blend in, but maybe their spies don't have the science background to understand what's going on. Makes me wonder if the second guy who has been spotted is possibly a spy/handler or another scientist with a different discipline. Another question: why doesn't Vesilyev have his glasses on at the Coalburg crime scene? Did he leave them in the coat of the absent second guy by accident or something? §
 
Suspect in Motion
SECOPGAMMA received information that Vesilyev was staying in a Pennsylvania hotel under the name "George Setlak". When SECOPGAMMA went to go pick up Vesilyev, Vesilyev ran and boarded a train and SECOPGAMMA lost him. Kinda sad that we weren't given the name of the hotel so that we could possibly go and check out the room. As someone who has ransacked a room before, I have to say it's a lot of fun and very nerve wracking when you're wondering if anyone is going to walk back in on you. Anyways, here's hoping that SECOPGAMMA can catch up with Vesilyev soon and we can get some answers as to what he's doing here. §
 
Vesilyev to Cooperate
So SECOPGAMMA finally caught up with Vesilyev and got him talking about what he knows. Unfortunately, the conversation is classified Above Top Secret and so the juicy bits are blacked out. Like what happened to his other companions and what exactly we're up against. But Vesilyev does tell us that whatever it is, it's intelligent and a worse problem than the Nazi's were. Which doesn't sound good for anyone. SECOPGAMMA has offered Vesilyev protection in exchange for a microfilm which supposedly has some answers/proof on it. Hopefully we'll be given copies of the microfilm information that hasn't been completely redacted. §
 
Vesilyev Presumed Dead
Well, I think we now know what happened to Vesilyev's comrades: they're dead, just like Vesilyev and SECOPGAMMA are now. The Pennysylvania field office was attacked and everyone is now dead. It looks like SECOPGAMMA and Vesilyev tried to escape the carnage, but they were tracked down and they bodies are now nothing but bone and goo. But why are these bodies more decomposed than the other ones have been? Or have we just not been shown that the other black goo attacks have left the bodies in similiar conditions? And is there anyone else left who would know where Vesilyev hid the microfilm? §
 
Microfilm Found
It appears that sometime before the attack on the Pennsylvania field office that Vesilyev led SECOPGAMMA to the hidden microfilm, because it was discovered by the SCIENG teams sent to check out the field office. Unfortunately, whatever was contained in the microfilm was so bad that instead of giving us a copy of the transcription, SECOPGAMMA is instituting a Code Black Lockdown. Whatever that is. But it really doesn't sound good. §
 
Code Black Lockdown
The Code Black Lockdown has hit Infinivac. They want to be sure that you don't miss it, so when you first visit the site, instead of the usual login screen, you get a giant flash intro telling you that Infinivac is under a CODE BLACK EMERGENCY and that all communications are temporarily suspended. However, you can still login to Infinivac, but I'm guessing that any comments made will not be posted to the website. Unfortunately, there is no indication as to how long the lockdown is going ot last, but they do say that you should register and/or update your contact information so that they can contact you when the lockdown lifts. §
 
A Tiny Rant
After the Code Black Lockdown, things went quiet for a year. So quiet that I thought it was dead forever and stopped randomly checking in on it as frequently as I once did. Apparently, this was a mistake as the game did eventually start back up - a fact I was not aware of until 2 months later. I wrote a lengthy post about my extreme annoyance at not being informed of the ARG reboot as I had signed up for updates on the I.D.D. I was completely prepared to ignore the rest of this game until the PM contacted me and apologized for my experience. While I still think the way things were handled sucks, I'm placated somewhat by the fact that the PMs are willing to extend an olive branch, so I'm back to guide writing. Of course, trying to catch up on and write about over two months worth of updates is slow going and a pain in the ass, so don't expect much until I actually manage to get caught up.
 
Letters from the Federal Security Special Investigative Committee
Players were first alerted to the fact that things were starting back up when they received a letter from the Federal Security Special Investigative Committee. The letter stated that because they had originally received materials from the Internal Defense Directorate, they were now ordered to destroy those materials as they had been ruled hoaxes. Players were also informed that the I.D.D. and Project: Enemy Unknown were being terminated. Oddly, the F.S.S.I.C. included a sample picture (now marked HOAX) in with the letter. I wonder if they expect that picture to be destroyed along with the original materials. §
 
Project Terminated
Well, the Code Black Emergency is now over. The entire project has been terminated. Visiting projectenemyunknown.com, you're greeted firstly by a string of binary that translates to UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS ATTEMPT.
01010101 01001110 01000001 01010101 01010100 01001000 01001111 01010010 01001001 01011010 01000101 01000100 01000001 01000011 01000011 01000101 01010011 01010011 01000001 01010100 01010100 01000101 01001101 01010000 01010100
Once that clears, you get the message that the project has been terminated. Clicking the screen then spits out an error, and the system restarts - but not before filling your screen with a bunch of garbage characters. Waiting a few seconds, the system will stop outputting and a blinking cursor will appear at the bottom of the screen. Clicking that starts a download of CTZN1.zip.

Unzipping the file, you get a 110 mb text file called CTZN1.txt. However, opening it up in a text editor gives you nothing but garbage. The "ftypqt" at the start of the file points us in the direction that this is really a .mov file and that we should rename it. Once we do that, you can watch the video.

It's a little hard to make out a times through all the static/interference, but the video basically tells us that we are at war, we cannot trust the goverment, we have now become the soldiers and the only person to trust is someone called Citizen One.

TRUTH HAS BEEN MADE THE ENEMY
THERE IS SOMETHING IN THE SKY
THE WAR WILL BE FOUGHT IN SECRET
CITIZENS WILL BE OUR SOLDIERS
REMAIN WATCHFUL
DO NOT TRUST THE GOVERNMENT
TRUST ONLY CITIZEN ONE
The video itself doesn't really give us any new direction to go in, and searching for any of the phrases doesn't give us a new website. However, searching for CTZN1.mov brings us to the Youtube account of CitizenSkywatch and they helpfully have a website listed: citizenskywatch.com.
 
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See the Intro page for a list of all the websites, plus brief information about this guide and the game.