【Y5S1/Datamined/Spoiler Alert】The plot thickens......

Hello again everyone, I think whoever read into my previous posts should know how this goes. I'll just cut to the chase but here's a lite version for those who doesn't want to get the full experience, just want to see what's coming in the coming season and still have the chance to experience them with a taste of surprise and freshness when it arrives.

The Short Version

In Y5S1 we will be dealing with the aftermath of the ending of Season 11, the Black Tusk attack on the White House. After the attack, the Tusks abducted few people from the White House and around the city and held them as hostages, we'll need to get them back (Likely will be the theme for S2 as well since both season has "Castle Rebuild" labelled on the roadmap). Other than the hostage rescue operation is the new mode "Descent", a mysterious NSA bunker kept sending data to the SHD mobile server and we manage to backtrack to its location. Wally sends us to check out the place and see if we can gain value intel from the bunker against the Black Tusk in the future.

The Full Fludge Spoiler

Part A ———— The Story of Distant Future

1.?The Aftermath

Let's start with the aftermath of Season 11 shall we? After the raid on the White House, a lot will happen and we need to sort them out. First, Captain Fredrick Lewis will likely be killed in action. He stays behind to cover up Manny to secure the still-in-coma Bardon Schaeffer in the panic room. The Black Tusk possibly kills him before the Sheriff and Kelso return or gets the best of him before we can get to him in time. But his sacrifice won't be in vain as Manny and Schaeffer will be saved from the Tusks' clutches. Like it or not, Wally will be the leader of the Castle Settlement in the coming days since Cpt. Lewis' death. (Cap. Lewis part was written quite a while ago as this post should've been posted a long time ago but I was busy with real life, coming back to finish it and I'm too lazy to change this part. By the time most people read this I think the fate of Cap. Lewis is revealed anyway) Secondly, there're three key figures within the White House got captured during the Raid and they won't be back during Y5S1. They are Vitaly Tchernenko the Russian Virologist, Cindy McAllister the Drone Operator and Harlan Lloyd the Outcasts Strategist from Potomac Event Center. Other communities have also reported people missing as well. Vikram Malik, Lauren Fong. Eva Garcia, John Yazzie, Mitchell Billings and Mari Singh. Some of them are familiar faces and some aren't we'll get to them in a sec but I need to talk about Vikram first. He got captured on a convoy run along with Lauren and Mari. When we get Mari back she tells us that Vik built Natalya's operation, this means he's important in the coming fight but in S1 we know little about his whereabout so we'll see about that in S2. However, one thing is concerning, the Tusks seemingly took Vik and Cindy away from DC, Vik will be taken away during our search for Lauren and Cindy is probably under Calvin McManus' custody. We might not see them for some time. But enough with the ones we won't be seeing in the coming season, time to talk about Season 1.

2.?The Hostage Rescue Operation

Oh boy here we go. To be honest I don't even know if the next season's event will be called "Manhunt" again because it really isn't a manhunt anymore, Tusks captured our people and we need to get them back, we're not hunting anyone, we're saving our people. The main star of Y5S1 is none other than Mari Singh, the former director of DC Aquarium now become the director of DC's fish farm, supplying DC communities with a fresh taste of aquatic consumption. Also she's the secret lover of Manny Ortega, but by the time of the abduction they had already engaged for months and she's pregnant. Natalya captured her in order to gain leverage over Manny, she's the top priority for us in the coming season. But there're many other people missing as well. John Yazzie, ex-JTF pilot now mentally grounded after the incident at the Mexican Embassy (From Classified Assignment). Eva Garcia (or Eve) the Kenly College girl who held a podcast about her college (From Expedition Kenly College). Mitchell Billings the psychiatrist who helps others to overcome stress during hard times and Lauren Fong, farming expert who managed a small community in Judiciary Square (Hidden Side Quest Giver).

For each people we rescue, they will provide their skills to help rebuilding the Castle, hence the major theme of S1. Although I do not know the exact order of rescuing, I can say for certain who will provide what. While John still cannot overcome his fear of flying again, he's still able to do ground works for maintaining a helipad. After getting him back, the Castle will have a helipad and probably provide us a ride to offsite activities (truth be told, no one uses the helipad for this, we have the almighty press "X" to teleport). Eve being an energetic college girl she is, she's gonna do what she did best back in Kenly—— be a radio host for the DC communities. After getting Eve back, our radio will have a new host on air. Doc Billings will do what he always does anywhere, listen to others when they are in pain and under stress and help them out of the bog. Lauren's community was hit by the Tusks and she lost some people, but she and her mute girlfriend Amanda Weekes managed to survive but Lauren got taken by the Tusks, they will help building and maintaining the fish farm at the Castle once you get Lauren back.

Before we move on, there's one more thing to talk about. The target acquisition in S1 will probably be different than the previous manhunts. In before we go to set locations and do set amount of things there to reveal targets' location before we hunt them down. However, in Y5S1 it seems the formula will be changed up a bit. The final bounty takeover seems still the same, Eva Garcia will be at the Viewpoint Museum, John Yazzie will be at the Space Administration, Mitchell Billings will be at the DCD Building and Lauren Fong will be at the District Union Arena. There will still be Named Black Tusks as a final boss but I don't think they are too relevant to the story as a whole, just being their wardens. But locatiing these exact locations seems different from the previous methods, scouts will give few possible leads in a specific district to check out, including Control Points and *previous Side Mission locations*. We'll have few misses until we finally pin their exact locations and I'm guessing it might not have a fixed pattern, locating targets might be randomized for every agents. But this is only my assumption, we'll see how it plays out in early June.

2.?Are we really the good guys...?

During S1 when we trying to rescue those hostages, something weird is going on when we actually get to them. Those hostages are in fact, neither hurt nor held against will, instead the Tusks offer them a place to use their knowledge and skills to help them rebuild or boost morale as well. Eve is asked by Natalya to air radio for the Black Tusk soldier for leisure. Doc Billings is doing PTSD counselling for the Tusks in need. Lauren is giving instructions on how to maintain a steady farm. However, John seemingly isn't doing anything particular for the Tusks but they aren't bullying him for sure. When we go to Viewpoint and try to rescue Eve, she's still in the middle of recording and the Tusks have to call for extraction since we're here to fuck things up. Same can say for Lauren, she's lecturing the Tusks on Farming 101 when we're crashing the party. When it comes to Doc Billings, things got dialed up very absurdly. He's in middle of a counselling with a PTSD Tusk. From the looks of it, the SHD agents are looking rather bad. Wondering who's the bad guys in the story now......

3.?The Good? The Bad? It's the Grey.

Yeah yeah I was just as shocked as the next person, that sounds like we're doing evil while the Black Tusk is trying to get the fallen society back together. To be honest it does look this way and well indeed it is, for the part of getting the society back on track. Let me put it this way for you ———— Welcome to the Second Civil War of the United States of America, where it's the clash of ideology instead of your typical good and evil, you can say both sides are good in a way and having their own dark side as well. But certainly from our (as in SHD Agents) POV, they are definitely the villain of the story. Here's something to ease it up, those actions are directly ordered by Nat. She's changing up her tactics, trying to put up a good face for the public support. It may work for people outside of DC and NYC but for all their atrocities commited before in DC and NYC, people won't buy their crap. Although during S1, Manny would be moved by Nat's actions and think she might actually up to some good, until we get Mari back and she speaks some senses into him. Nat doesn't necessarily mean those good things, she only puts up a show for Manny to give up and hand over the legitimacy she's been yearning since the beginning. However, there're something interesting worth mentioning. They take Mari to the Manning National Zoo (where the S1 Final Mission takes place) and take care of her and her bady. The Black Tusk (or should say Nat) is probably trying to use the Zoo as a supply base, they set up medical facility and try building a fish farm there. Nat is likely wanting to win people's hearts to her side. The Tusks' medical team even did a scan for Mari to see if the baby is doing ok. Gotta hand it to them, when they trying to do good, they ain't that bad. But unfortunately we wouldn't want a PMC and shadowy organization to run this country, doing good doesnt' mean you are good when it comes to ruling a nation. I'll stay on the side of the people and SHD for now. Also before we jump to the next section, there's a little trivia I haven't mentioned. It looks like Nat recorded some speeches and aired them somewhere. Maybe in the Invaded Zones we'll finally get Black Tusk Propaganda encounters or maybe she's broadcasting through out settlement's radio. Either way, get ready for some enemy propagandas. Don't fall for it, Agents.

Part B ———— Shadows of the Past

Prologue

With the new Descent mode, there will be tons of new audio comms about the past of this World. How it came to be what it became now. What's up with our and our enemies' tech. The secret origin of our true nemesis. When the devs said Y5 will be leaning more on storyline, they weren't kidding. Let's get to it shall we.

1. Ortiz Robotics

Alright let's start with this new company introduced. Some of you might notice this name in the "Descent Trailer", some of you participated in the PTS1 and played the Descent might notice the name being branded somewhere in the bunker. So what's up with this company? Who are they? What do they do? Without further ado, let's get straight into it.

The easiest way to explain this company is to say a lot of the fancy techs we see and use in the Division Universe are because of them. Yes, technically DARPA was responsible for those techs but it was the Ortiz collabration made it happen. They were DOD contractor as well, just not your usual wetwork PMCs but 3rd party advanced military hi-tech engineering company. The Warhounds, Mini-Tanks, SHD Skills, ISAC and ANNA's AI model and algorithm and server structures, all of them have Ortiz behind their designs and works. Basically, Ortiz is the reason why we have so many fancy toys to play with. Also one familiar person who was working for this company is worth mentioning here, Vivian Conley. Yeah this was the place she was working for before she was activated, she's gonna have some new audio comms in the next season as well, you will see more of her obsessions got in her way of career but I'll leave that for you to discover in person with the new season goes live. Now with the knowledge of the Tech Jesus of the Division Universe, we should talk about their best and probably worst contribution to this world ———— The famous and imfamous AI system..... well it does not have a name because ISAC and ANNA were built differently based on the originally design, if anything two of them were its children. Anyway, lets get to the bottom of this system.

2.?The Father and Mother of ISAC and ANNA and the Origin of three AI systems

This part is gonna be very long, a lot of grounds to cover so you can skip ahead and read about other stuffs if you want. We're gonna talk about the origin of our favorite super AI overlord. But before we get to it, two people need to be introduced first. Alexander Ortiz "The Father of ISAC" and Claire Ortiz "The Mother of ANNA" (Sidenote: Alex should be Mr. Ortiz, I'm not 100% sure but Claire surely is one), the meaning of their nickname will be explained in time, just bear with me for now. Judging from the name, the couple (my first assumption, could be brother and sister) is the founder of the company and from one of the lines Cal said, they could be just graduated from university not long ago (probably in their late 20s). Some times after they worked with DARPA (not sure after how many contracts but they earned themselves an office at DARPA by then). Claire started working on an AI system that can collect, process, analyze and give advices to its users. The AI was pitched for its great ability to collect and process intel which caught the attention of Cal (notice at this point Cal already knew the Ortiz couple and built a decent relationship with them). Knowing the AI could be very useful for national security, Cal followed up the project. Initially the AI operating the system was made independently by Claire, from programming to doing voice overs for the AI. Claire named the AI made by her "ANNA", now this means the ANNA we knew from the Mission "Liberty Island" wasn't made by Parnell or Keener, it was the original AI that was supposed to run within our watches and bricks, they just somehow got it working on their Rogue Network. Also this was possibly assisted by Vivian because she was working for Ortiz Robotics and she had the knowledge of the existence of ANNA (even Cal didn't know that or he's just being ignorant) but I digress. However, when it came to real user testings, testers refused to work with ANNA. Reasons being uncomfortable of how smart she was and the feminine features (which Claire called out the sexism here). Alex talked her down and pitched using a masculine feature AI with lesser personalities (ANNA is the first AI in the Division Universe that passed the Turing Test, I guess ISAC didn't), Claire said she wouldn't have enough time to reprogram one, the new one would be more binary in morality (in plain words, not smart with complicated situations) and not independent. Later after Claire made the ISAC, Alex helped with voice overing it.

Remember in the title I said "three AI systems"? Where in the world we had a third one before? Well obviously it wasn't meant for us. Introducing the "Diamond" (might not be the actual name for it, this is the name for its database but I believe it is the name of the AI as well), the independently developed AI system using the interface and receiver from the Ortiz (obviously being the watches and bricks but it's a bit different, will talk about it later). The Diamond was the combat AI used by the Black Tusk for their field operators. Boom, big reveal. It turned out that when Cal tried to get this project going, he figured the Homeland Security's budget wouldn't bode well. They were burning through budget and he needed someone with a deeper pockets to fill in. Nat being a long time collaborator and reliable good friend with him quickly became his best option. However, when introduced to the tech the Ortiz was developing, Nat did not like the idea too much but she did have interest in the interface & receiver and she asked about having them combined together since the OG design (watch & brick) felt bulky to her. Alex promised the second gen of the device would come with this feature but it would be more expensive which Nat didn't need to worry about. Eventually she adopted the new tech and equipped them with her troops, with some advices from Mathias "Trig" Schneider, she let the Black Tusk developed the AI for this system. So now we know that little blue LED panel on the Tusks is their counterpart of "ISAC", the exact location and properties of the Diamond is unknown but maybe the server was sat up by the Ortiz since Alex had access to the server. Alex did say they have servers in Alaska and North Dakota. If my memories serve me right, SHD has a command bunker in North Dakota (source is from "The World of The Division", not 100% sure and I can't find my book right now) so that might be the mainframe for ISAC. That leaves Alaska being the location of Diamond's server, the bunker is underground and needs biometric access to enter. Also Nat did rouse an interest for this location so that adds up the possibility as well. I'm mentioning this is because we might go north in the future.

Let me see what else I should talk about before we get to the juicy part. Claire preferred ANNA over ISAC very strongly, according to her words ANNA was way smarter than ISAC. Wondering how the Rogue Agents got ANNA and made her working on their network. The fate of the Ortizs are unknown for now, they were inside the NSA training bunker for some time but by the time we go and investigate the location it's empty. But I think they are still alive, either under the protection of Calvin or Natalya.

2.?The Origin of the Hunter Program and Rogue Protocol

Yes you read the title right. New Hunter lore and update on the Rogue Protocol. Let me talk about the Rogue Protocol first. When ISAC was under development, Claire and Alex noticed an issue with the AI, it's too sensitive to certain actions commited by its users. A tiny misbehavior in its eyes and it would immediately mark the user "off-mission" and terminate their access to their techs. Claire made a patch for this "feature" just in case when something happens in the future. Thanks to the Murphy's Law, something unfortunate did happen when the first wave got activated. An agent got wounded from few gunshots and she got into a pharmacy by brute force due to it had been closed off. ISAC being a boy scout he was, immediately marked her Rogue and disabled her turret and the agent was defenseless and killed in action afterwards. Cal was enraged, no, furious. He demanded the Ortiz to fix this ASAP, before Claire made the patch go live she warned Cal about the potential backlashes but Cal insisted and the patch went live. What happened here is, our good secretary of Homeland Security greenlighted the "Rogue Protocol" himself. After the patch went live, the Rogue Agents would still be able to use their tech when they are Rogue. Claire did make sure the ISAC would vocally and visually warn other users the Rogue Status was in effect, the red ring on the watch and the brick and ISAC alerts to nearby users. There you have it folks, if Cal didn't make the call, the Rogues wouldn't be much of a threat now. Also this is why Claire preferred the ANNA, ANNA wouldn't be this sensitive to complicated situations and jump to conclusions.

Now let's talk about our favorite masked silent super soldiers. First I just wanna say, the "Clean Up Crew" theory won over other theories. Yeah the Hunters were clean up operators sent by Cal himself to eliminate Rogues causing troubles. When the Ortizs were developing the AI, Cal asked Alex if they can make him a third system for his "other unit" which they did. That was for Cal's classified unit now we know as the Hunters. The Ortizs also helped to create the "Hunter Protocol" as a failsafe when the SHD is having too many Rogue issues. The protocol had three stages, "Individual" "Regional" and "National". On stage one Cal could activate his Hunters case by case, if there's a Rogue needed to be dealt with he can dispatch one to do the job. The two other stages were obvious so I don't need to talk about them. But there's an obvious issue here, if the protocol was working properly, why the Hunters in "Survival" was hunting us as well. The storm shouldn't be the reason, we were essentially using the same system, they should know we were friends or foes. Either Cal was already up to no good at the time or he couldn't control his super soldiers as well, my money is on the first theory. But this does explain the Hunters' behaviors in TD2, don't directly engage us, usually observe from a distance and left elaborate puzzles in the city for us to solve. Maybe Cal ordered them to stand down a bit. This can also be explained in that Hunter Encounter side quest, we didn't know why he was unto Agent Edwards and killed him, but that Hunter didn't kill the Sheriff when he clearly had the chance (and we later solved his puzzle and had a round two with us being the victor) since we weren't Rogue. Anyway now we know how the Rogue Agents came to be and the purpose and the identity of the elusive Hunters.

3.?The NSA Bunker

Here's something significantly shorter but worth talking about for a breather between other textwall alright? The bunker we'll be exploring in the coming season was a training facility requested by the Ortizs for their tech's users. Cal helped to find and retrofit a bunker for this purpose. It is abandoned by the time we arrive on site but the Ortizs were in there for some time after the outbreak. The NSA in DC was moved to this place for a while when the "Detention Center" (the Classified Assignment) had an outbreak. The Ortizs might left the place with the rest of the NSA crew later.

4.?Nat & Cal's relationship and Trivial Things with him and Nat

Clearly the two of them knew each other for a long time even before the outbreak. Of course, the Black Tusk was the wetwork DOD contractor for US gov and Cal was the Secretary of Homeland Security. No doubt the two worked closely long before the outbreak and developed a good relationship. But there's something interesting, Cal specifically asked Alex and Claire to build a custom unit just for him to access all three systems. That being the SHD, the Black Tusk and the Hunters. But you can't really blame him for being such a control freak, he is the Secretary of Homeland Security after all, it's his duty to monitor all of them. He also requested his custom unit would only feature a watch. Claire talked to Alex about this in private, said Cal's watch could be a security issue since it would be a backdoor for security breaches. If one of the organizations user manage to hack his watch, they could also gain access to other two's system as well. This might hint for our future operations as well. One funny trivia before we head to the next segment is, Cal later asked the Ortizs to update his watch to make sure the colors wouldn't switch when he's trying to access different systems because someone called him a disco ball. Oh and I almost forgot about this, it looks like Vikram Malik helped with Nat with her "Diamond" system. I guess he is useful to her other than batteries. I guess when we get him back, we'll finally get a chance to hurt Nat hard. With Bar and Vik on our side, the Black Tusk will have their coming.

5.?NSA, Calvin & The NSA Data Analyst, Amherst & The Outbreak

Phew, we're almost at the end. But this part is going to be another textwall as well, feel free to take a break before continue. In this segment I'll tell you the tale of Calvin McManus the Incompetent, if it wasn't for him, the world of The Divison wouldn't be a post apocolypse shit show. After the ISAC was completed and activated for NSA, it immediately detected Amherst and flagged him as potential threat. At first the Data Analyst "Birdie" (might be a different name but it sounded like this so I'm sticking here) under Cal did not pay too much attention as well just like Cal. But by the time grew, more and more information was collected by ISAC and processed and Birdie started to get worry about Amherst being a real threat. But Cal kept ignoring her warnings and pushed her to focus on other things. When the ill fated Black Friday came, Birdie asked Cal to task NSA's team in NYC to investigate Amherst and arrest him but Cal insisted on protecting the Christmas Tree (this incident was mentioned in the comms of Detention Center) with their manpower. Thanks to Cal's incompetence, Amherst successfully delivered the Green Poison to the Abel Mall and sent this world straight to hell. To say things simply, Cal single handedly ensured the Green Poison Outbreak and SHD Rogue Agents became reality. He's the true pain in the ass for this world and I hope we'll finally catch him and expose his crimes against humanity to all.

Birdie might also still be alive after the outbreak, she helped the Ortizs with their training bunker and participated most of the field test for ISAC. She's as important as the Ortizs if we want to fight off the Black Tusk and Cal. Maybe we'll see more of her in the future.

6.?The ISAC

Finally I want to have a chapter dedicated to our ISAC. ISAC is really something special. Despite in universe character's depise for it, ISAC has some very powerful functions. It has the ability to collect, process, analyze real time intel from bio, chemical, viral, physical materials and provide solutions to different situations with its processed data. ISAC is like a super quantum computer AI, it only right to fear it since it does make SHD Agents like mindless drones following its commands. Keener wasn't wrong on this. ISAC just knows too much and process things with a strict moral code. It would lead to a bitter ending if things don't go right. Like what happened to Faye......

Part C ———— A Glimpse to a further Future

Here's the end of the ride. Notice Kelso is missing from parts above? Because she's back to NYC and she's not returning for now. During her session with Doc Billings, she expressed that she doesn't feel needed in DC and she doesn't belong here any more. She felt NYC is her new calling and she felt needed there. Combining the roadmap of Y5, in S3 we'll return to NYC, it's likely Kelso will be our point of contact when the season comes and she'll lead us to deal with the new Rogue threat in NYC. But this is where things get interesting, the following information is still unclear and mostly my speculation. Cal called an "Agent Johnson" to him and asked him to deal with Kelso. The voice of that Agent Johnson is uncanny similar to the "Iconic Agent" Brian Johnson (the trio never showed up in game but they had left voices, the last audio comm you collect in the museum contaminated zone in East mall had them in it), one of the iconic trio agents for The Division 2's promotional art and the comic "Extremis Malis" and Cal does mention the BTSU member "Mantis" Brian was chasing with Caleb Dunne in the comic. This means Cal wants to get rid of Agent Kelso and using one of the rather "good agent" to do the job. Also in the same conversation, it's heavily implied after Andrew Ellis' death, Cal became the new POTUS. In real life US line of succession for POTUS, the secretary of Homeland Security is very far on the list, if this really is the case then the Division Universe's US government is pretty much dead now. Most of important government figures are either dead or unable to assume the position of the POTUS, including the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense. The future of the story will certainly be interesting.

And that's the end of this post, I hope anyone loves the Division 2's story found this post enjoyable. Just as usual I only showed the tip of the iceberg for you, the rest will be in the game for you to find and enjoy in person. For now, until the next time we meet. Oh and enjoy the coming season Agents.

PS: I was rushing this post out before the TU17.3 update so I haven't checked with my vocabulary and grammar. If you find any error in the post please let me know, I'll fix them ASAP.