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LIVE BROADCAST – TRANSCRIPTION BEGIN

REPORTER: We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming for this breaking news. Any moment now, Christopher Pell, Commander of the global defense effort, will begin speaking to the United Nations General Assembly. 24 hours ago 14 members of the UN Security Council voted to hold an Emergency Special Session of the General Assembly after as yet confidential information was shared with them by Commander Pell and the U.S. government, with the only abstaining member being Russia. Here with me is Randall Grath, our global security expert. Rand, what can we expect from Pell today?

GRATH: Obviously no one can say with any specificity, but something big, Rachel. Keep in mind, this is only the 14th Emergency Special Session in UN history, with both of the last 2 sessions being held within the past 3 years – the first in the immediate aftermath of the Signal and the second after the disaster in Cairo. So this isn’t the sort of thing the Security Council votes to do lightly.

REPORTER: Russia was apparently the only member of the security council to abstain from the vote that brings us here. What can we read into that, if anything?

GRATH: It’s hard to say. Keep in mind, the Russian abstention was a purely technical one – their representative wasn’t able to attend the meeting and so wasn’t present to place a vote. Of course, this raises other questions about why the Russian members weren’t there to begin with.The meeting was called on very short notice, but relations with The Russian Federation have also been icy for months, so it could just be a simple scheduling issue, or something more.

REPORTER: I’m sure it is going to raise questions, in fact it already has.

GRATH: Right, well ,that’s the way things are today. People are of mixed feelings about this but, in my opinion, the internet has really showed its true colors since the Signal.

REPORTER: How do you mean?

GRATH: I mean the internet has become a breeding ground for humanity’s worst instincts. I’m sure the doomsday chatrooms are going wild over the Russian abstention, just like they do at every insignificant leak from even the least credible sources.

REPORTER: Sure, but can you really blame people for being afraid?

GRATH: No, of course not. I’m not saying the public is wrong for being afraid, I’m just saying the internet isn’t helping. Take the most recent rumors from so called “amateur astronomers.” Random people go onto these forums using assumed identities, without providing even a modicum of verification, and make outrageous claims about objects approaching Earth – energy beams, alien spacecraft – all in the name of drumming up views for their websites to get people to click on ads for survival food and personal freeze dryers. It’s disgusting – frankly it’s the digital equivalent of war profiteering. It helps no one and foments chaos. That’s what I’m talking about.

REPORTER: Fair enough, I don’t think anyone would recommend getting your news from some quack on a doomsday forum – but surely you can understand why people might be desperate for information given the circumstances.

GRATH: Of course I do. But information is only valuable if it’s legitimate, and these people…

REPORTER: I need to stop you there. Commander Pell has taken the podium. We now go live to the U.N. General Council.

[VIDEO FEED CUTS TO UN GENERAL COUNCIL CHAMBER, NEW YORK CITY.]

ANNOUNCER: The Most Honorable Commander Christopher Pell, United States.

PELL: Ladies and gentlemen, members of the Security Council, and esteemed representatives of the United Nations General Assembly. After a 14 to 1 vote, initiated by the United States, this Emergency Special Session has been convened, pursuant to U.N. resolution 377A(V), in order to discuss a matter of pressing international security. Approximately eleven months ago, two days after the events in Cairo, a secret mission was carried out by the joint forces of the UN Security Council nations. Spearheaded by Russian spetsnaz commandos, the purpose of this mission was to investigate an energy source being transmitted from the Great Pyramid of Giza into outer space. This mission was not made public.

[VIDEO FEED CUTS TO THE RUSSIAN REPRESENTATIVE’S TABLE. IT IS EMPTY. VIDEO FEED CUTS BACK TO PELL]

PELL: The aim of this mission was to reconnoiter the pyramid and ascertain whether it posed a threat to humanity. However, during the course of the mission the Russian team took unilateral action, interfacing with the Pyramid briefly before detonating explosive charges.

[VIDEO FEED CUTS TO PAN OF AUDIENCE, RETURNS TO PELL AS HE CONTINUES]

PELL: Immediately subsequent to the Russian sabotage the Russian government ceased most diplomatic activities and instituted a new iron curtain policy, denying global media access to the country as well as instituting draconian national firewalls and internet censorship. Travel over Russian borders has ceased almost entirely in the last ten months, and as the entire globe works together to fight the existential threat humanity faces, Russia has been an intelligence and logistical black hole.

[PELL APPEARS TO LISTEN TO A VOICE IN AN EARPIECE.]

PELL: I am also informed that as of half an hour ago the Russian government has cut all telephonic and fiber optic connections leading into the country, as well as shut down all communications satellites and radio transmission towers. It should be noted no Russian representative has appeared here today to either deny or explain these actions. Until now the Joint Strategic Command could not discern the purpose of the Russian sabotage in the Great Pyramid. However, we now believe we have deciphered Russia’s intent.

[PELL RAISES A SMALL REMOTE AND AN IMAGE APPEARS PROJECTED ON A LARGE SCREEN BEHIND HIM. IT IS A BLACK AND WHITE PHOTO OF THE COVER OF AN ORNATELY DECORATED BOOK]

PELL: At some point in the last two years the Russian’s discovered this object. The search and discovery were assiduously hidden from the international community. The object is a book written in a combination of ancient Coptic and Demotic Egyptian, as well as a host of symbols believed to be of non-human origin.

[PELL PAUSES AS AN EXCLAMATION IS RAISED BY THE AUDIENCE. PELL WAITS FOR THE SOUND TO DIE DOWN BEFORE CONTINUING.]

PELL: A fascimile of this document was secreted from within the Russian Federation by operatives of MI6. In order to obscure the breach of Russian Intelligence only one copy was made of the document and that copy has been under my sole control these last six months.

[ANOTHER EXCLAMATION CUTS PELL OFF. PELL RAISES HIS VOICE AND CONTINUES]

PELL: Thanks to Dr. Timothy Merriman’s translation, we now believe we have a working framework both to understand the events of the last three years, as well as Russia’s intent.

[THE SLIDE ABOVE PELL SWITCHES TO AN ILLUSTRATION REPRESENTING A SERIES OF IMAGES – A NEANDERTHAL, AN EGYPTIAN CITY, THE NEW YORK SKYLINE, AND A QUESTION MARK. BETWEEN EACH, FROM THE BOTTOM UP IS AN ARROW.]

PELL: The Signal is an announcement, an alarm that humanity’s deadline to evolve has arrived. Whatever entities are responsible for the last three years – the Signal, the Behemoth, the Book – has been watching us as a species for tens of thousands of years, possibly longer still.

[PELL RAISES THE REMOTE AND CIRCLES THE FIRST PICTURE OF A NEANDERTHAL WITH A RED LASER.]

PELL: The Book explains everything that has happened, as well as everything presently happening. Human beings passed the first test when we evolved sentience, along with several other species. We, Homo sapiens sapiens, survived by wiping out or assimilating out biological competitors. Once our dominance on this planet was assured, the first countdown began.

[PELL’S LASER CIRCLES THE SECOND IMAGE]

PELL: The second plateau was civilization, and it was the Egyptians who the watcher’s chose. They were visited by whatever is watching us and vested with technology and power sufficient to rule an empire for 2000 years.

[PELL’S LASER CIRCLES THE THIRD ILLUSTRATION]

PELL: With the Signal we have begun the third test. Being able to hear the Signal in the first place was part of it, as was being able to discover the Book. The third test requires of us a degree of technical ability and scientific acumen heretofore unheard of in Human history. In that sense, we appear to have passed.

[THE SLIDE CHANGES AGAIN AND NOW DISPLAYS A SATELLITE PHOTO OF A FORESTED AREA. THE BOTTOM HALF OF THE IMAGE SHOWS TREES BEING CLEARED AND STRUCTURES BEING BUILT.]

PELL: However, we may not be in control of our own fate. We understand now that the Great Pyramid was built by humanity at the instruction of those who watch us. Infused into the Pyramid’s masonry was a form of advanced communication technology. Our final task of this third test was to use that technology to send coordinates to the watchers, to name a place where we and them should meet in person – A place, if not to meet our makers, then at least to shake the hand that guides us. This is what the Russians did, this photo is where the Russian’s sent them, deep in the heart of the Taiga. The Russian’s decrypted the manuscript first and acted unilaterally to claim Russia as the center point of human civilization.

[THE SCREEN GOES BLANK AND THE AUDIENCE IS SILENT.]

PELL: We cannot know what will happen when the watchers arrive. We can only guess at a result. However, we have a past example to compare to. When the Egyptians met the watchers, they were given extraordinary advantage over the rest of our race, ruling for millenia. If we assume that passing the third test will result in technological discoveries of relative advancement being heaped upon the chosen people, then we must assume Russia now stands to gain an insurmountable geopolitical and technological advantage should they alone meet the watchers. It is for this reason that I speak before this body today. Russia cannot be allowed to unilaterally dictate the fate of the entire world. We must prevent the Russian’s from meeting the watchers alone. So far all efforts at communication have failed, and so I have come to this body to share publicly everything I know in the hopes that unprecedented international pressure might force the Russian’s to see reason.

[CHAOS BREAKS OUT AMONGST THE DELEGATES – PELL SPEAKS OVER THEM]

PELL: Should Russia’s government fail to see reason, then make no mistake but that a war of epic proportions awaits us all. It is my hope and my prayer that, so close to the eve of our ascendance, we do not self destruct. Thank you.

[PELL PAUSES AND LEAVES THE PODIUM. PANDEMONIUM ERUPTS AS PELL WALKS DOWN THE STEPS AND BACK STAGE. HE DOES NOT STOP FOR QUESTIONS. VIDEO CUT BACK TO REPORTER, SURPRISED.]

REPORTER: Uh, wow. We, uhm, we need to take a commercial break. Uh, now, guys.

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*TRANSCRIPTION END*

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