Following the reviews of the NCIS findings, the Unity has finally acknowledged the VEIL -Viral Extraterrestrial Infiltrator Lifeform- or "Thingoïd" as my agents nicknamed it, as a galactic-ranked threat.

This means a lot as, despite being unable to infect non-data lifeforms, this creature is still willing and able to easily kill anyone standing against its expansion. We have had doubts about its origins but the second encounter on the planet Kamino and the data disk recovered in Equestria mainly debunked one of our three main theories, showing us that humans were not responsible for its creation as a secret anti-data-lifeform bioweapon.

While there is still a possibility of human involvement, this now seems highly unlikely as they reportedly don't have the technological level to both create this abomination and send it on distant other worlds using a meteorite-shaped projectile, unless they had some external "help" via "acquired" Monolith technology. While my teams still have some doubts, I do not believe humans would be that reckless to risk a war they have seen they can't even consider winning. Even a cold war against the Monolith creations would be suicide.

This leaves us with two other possibilities:
-the VEIL is a natural predator of the Monolith creations, automatically created to regulate their population
-it is something else, possibly something that isn't after the creations but the Monolith itself, and the victims are just a mean to an end for it

While the first hypothesis can be plausible, I find it unlikely, considering data lifeforms are completely unaware of this creature and it is far too virulent and insidious to simply be a population-regulating predator.

I lean towards the second hypothesis for one major observation:

While I have no proof it is related, I've noticed data lifeforms not only do not worship the Monolith or at least respect it for their existence but also inherently ignore its location. Plus, they don't just ignore its location, they reject it, seemingly on a subconscious level ; informing them on its location almost immediately results in them forgetting it and, if they can, deleting any record made, like some sort of mental safeguard.

I don't see any major reason for them not to know this crucial information as humans are not a threat to the Monolith, demonstrated by the result of 1967's Operation Shatterpoint showing the artefact can withstand the most powerful weapons humans have, and both humans and the Unity are already aware of its existence and location.

My guess is every single data lifeform is hardwired to be unable to know and remember the location of the Monolith because of the VEIL. We already know the lifeform feeds on data lifeforms and acquires all of its victims' knowledges and memories. If the Monolith's creations knew its location, then the VEIL would be able to acquire this information and probably work on reaching it for its own goals.

While we have no idea what would happen if a VEIL were to reach the Monolith or even a Shard -and I'm understandably unwilling to witness any occurrence of that- , I can only imagine something terrible would be the result.

Speaking of Shards, I have also noticed something similar in the behavior of my agents following our encounters with the VEIL. Some have been reported to have temporary memory losses regarding the location of their Shard, but they do seem to have it memorized it again after being reminded of it, at least for a while. This change of behavior never happened before and I refuse to believe in a mere coincidence with such a suspicious timing. It is my belief that they're getting conditioned to forget about the location of their Shard like they've been conditioned to forget the location of the Monolith.

All of these observations have led me and the scientific crew of the Queen of Saurold to think the Monolith knows what the VEIL is and is protecting itself from it. If it's true, then we have to acknowledge we may be dealing with a threat far more dangerous than we have imagined. If the Monolith -a construct capable of such feats as remotely creating entire civilizations with their own homeworld, colonies and advanced technology, including FTL travel - wants to stay hidden from the VEIL, then how powerful and ancient can it be?

That said, the Unity agreed it is not time for us to reveal ourselves to humans or even the Monolith's creations, so any operation will be a covert one in the name of the NCIS, secretly backed by the Unity members. While it doesn't please me to say this, the VEIL's existence must remain secret for now, to avoid any potential mass hysteria or misguided attempt to seek and try to control it.

However, we agreed we couldn't let this threat be unknown to everyone, which is why I came up with a plan involving my network of allies. As the main intelligence organizations failed to see the potential gravity of the situation, as well as refusing any anti-VEIL technology from us, believing this to be a deception, we cannot count on them. However, our allies could help fix that. Here are the main points of my plan:

• expand the network, while creating cells all across the galaxy, with agents reporting to the closest one
• keep each cell independent to the others, with only a few members knowing a couple of other cells to interact with in case of important discovery to relay
• equip each cell agent with a VEIL-detecting device (as well as secretly bug their equipment), which will be self-sustained and automated. Using data-lifeform technology, it will emit a subspace location signal when detecting a VEIL-infested individual, which will be received by the closest cells as well as the NCIS HQ
• equip each cell agent with anti-VEIL technology.
• if the threat is deemed containable, the cell will form an adequate squad to destroy the target.
• the NCIS HQ will send a team in these cases:
  • if the threat is deemed uncontainable by a cell
  • if the threat is not destroyed in 72 hours after first contact
  • if the cell leader's VEIL-detecting device emits a signal
  • if the threat is reported as destroyed but any VEIL-detecting device emits a signal afterwards
  • if half of the cell members' devices emits a signal
  • if I deem it necessary

We are aware that the worst case scenario is to have a homeworld with space-travelling abilities hit by an outbreak, which is why we keep working on improving the efficiency of the anti-VEIL equipment. My hope is we'll be able to develop and mass-produce a planetary VEIL-scan in less than a year thanks to the Unity technology. In the meantime, we need to work on getting as many allies as possible to make implementing this anti-VEIL equipment a much easier task.

Speaking of allies, I've been making significant progress:

• We now have full support of the Protoss armada thanks to Executor Selendis and about 1/3rd of their fleet is equipped with Anti-VEIL weaponry and scanners.
• Commander A. Skywalker informed me the Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic and the representatives of the Jedi Order and Sith Empire would like to meet me as soon as possible to discuss an alliance.
• Agents No-Name, Michel, Kennedy, Renamon, Cynder, Thompson have started to talk to their trustworthy friends and acquaintances, spreading the word
• A certain high-ranked individual in the Advent Administration has agreed to join the Ophidian Squad and hopes to pull her rank to have the anti-VEIL technology incorporated into their own and spread across their various colonies and homeworlds before the next year.
• The Ophidian Squad formation has been a success so far. Agent Oriale managed to entice and recruit agent Kiba and I am confident she'll be a valuable asset with advanced training. With my contact in Advent, I will have a trio of elite agents for special black ops while Midna and Ridley's team will continue to operate normally.
• If the Ophidian Squad continues doing well, it'll allow us to reach the next phase: the creation of the Squamata Network and hopefully, the beginnings of an official Counter-VEIL Alliance.

Until then, we can only hope we'll be strong enough to face another VEIL outbreak. This creature has been encountered 3 times already, each time with disastrous results but hopefully a good resolution, and I get the feeling this is far from over and that this is the prelude to more contacts.