Part 36: Episode 1 Timeline: The Story So Far That Nobody Mentioned

New Music: From the End -The 3rd Birthday-



I mentioned previously that a whole lot of The 3rd Birthday’s backstory, and just general helpful information in understanding what in the flying hell is going on, is hidden away in datalogs back in the CTI Headquarters. Today we are going to jump in and take a look at part of this junk.



That’s because parts of the datalogs, especially the Timeline, update every chapter. It will be adding even more information that would really be good to know up front and not in some optional text file the game doesn’t even bother pointing out exists.

Anyway, here is the timeline of events in The 3rd Birthday. Not pictured: Everything that happened in Parasite Eve 1 in 1997 or Parasite Eve 2 in 1999.





Dec. 24: Aya Brea Discovered

Christmas Eve 2010: A light snow was falling in Manhattan, where a woman had collapsed on the street outside St. Thomas Cathedral. Her body was as cold as ice beneath her wedding dress, bloodstains blooming on her pale skin.

She was later identified as Aya Brea.

Aya had not a single memory about her own past. Hyde Bohr, the man who found her, took her under his wing and followed her progress.



December: First Twisted Sighted

Around the time Aya Brea was discovered, sightings of unknown organisms were coming in from all over New York State. At first, the US government treated these alarming events as acts of terror involving some kind of biological or chemical weapon.

The flurry of reported Twisted sightings died down before long, but only because the strange organisms were deep underground, preparing for the birth of the Babel.



December: Counterterrorism Division Established

In the winter of 2010, unknown life forms began attacking and abducting innocent civilians. Believing them to be part of a terrorist act perpetrated by enemies at home or abroad, the government established a Counter Terrorism Unit (the precursor to the CTI) under the FBI's direct control. Hyde Bohr was selected as its chief researcher.





January: CDC Advisory Committee Established

A string of inexplicable incidents were considered biohazard events caused by an astounding new virus, prompting the President to establish an advisory committee.

The Committee on Epidemics with Unknown Vectors was launched as part of the CDC. Its members included the Homeland Security Secretary, the Attorney General, and the heads of the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Science Foundation, and the Environmental Protection Agency, all working together to make sense of the current situation and to enhance biosecurity. The committee prepared for further biohazard threats, refining a hotline system for gathering information from affiliated agencies.



May 22: The Peter Feldman Incident

Case No. 0063S-444

Twisted were sighted at the time-honored, high-class Peter Feldman department store on Fifth avenue in New York City. In an unprecedented tragedy, multiple Twisted appeared near the establishment's first floor jewelry counters, killing close to 200 female shoppers.

The SWAT team was instantly on the scene, cordoning off the first floor. Their prompt action and the fact that the Twisted had gone into hiding prevented further bloodshed on other floors. The massacre forced the government to acknowledge the existence of the Twisted, but the government did everything it could to keep all Twisted cases under wraps, classifying the case files as top secret - that is, until the Babel emerged.



June: Defense Secretary Releases ''Twisted Papers''

On the 12th, the 21st Century National Security Council, advisory panel to the department of Defense, released their final report finding the Peter Feldman Incident to be an act of bioterrorism against the US mainland. During the same period, however, the US Defense Secretary secretly released another report to the military: the so-called Twisted Papers, a compilation of battlefield strategies against the outrageous organisms.



August: Aya Brea's Overdive Ability Analyzed

CTI completes analysis of Aya Brea's ability to leap through time and space and delve into mysterious domains with her psyche. Hyde Bohr dubs this capability ''Overdive.''



August: Counter Twisted Investigation Team (CTI) Formed

Its official name is the Counter Twisted Investigation Team.

Once the government acknowledged the existence of Twisted, they turned the old Counter Terrorism Unit into an organization dedicated the stopping the strange organisms, making use of Aya Brea's unique Overdive talent as its chief investigative tool.

At the end of July, Hyde Bohr formed the Overdive Tactical Research Unit and began developing an Overdive device. That same day, Hunter Owen came from the FBI to take his post as the first head of the CTI. The CTI initially consisted of some 1,400 professionals at the tops of their various fields. They were divided into 42 units, including an Overdive Investigation Unit, an Overdive Tactical Research Unit, a Science and Technology Unit, and a Data Analysis Unit.

Owen placed Agent Aya Brea in solitary confinement and put her under increased observation.



November: Special Ops Team TDM Established

Thanks to the Twisted Papers, the government and the military's top brass became acutely aware of the importance of a highly specialized anti-Twisted team. Thus a new elite unit, TDM (The Dead March), was established as part of the US Army.

The unit's name referred to the resolute determination of its members, conjuring up an image of a suicide corps that would continue fighting even in death. The formation of TDM and the training of its members were conducted behind closed doors, and the unit's very existence was classified as top secret.





Jan. 7: Operation Red Fog

Case No. 1536D-205
Codename: Operation Red Fog

On January 7, 2012, a year after the first Twisted sighting, the Babel began twining its subterranean roots around Grand Central Station. The military carried out a daring assault with Captain Russo of the elite Delta Force heading up the advance team. The platoon was wiped out in just over an hour, as was the National Guard unit that had been fighting by their side.

Thelonious Cray, a former member of Russo's platoon who had just assumed his post at CTI and did not participate in the operation, has said that the Captain's final transmission mentioned an encounter with a little girl who had become a Twisted.



Feb. 13: Orders Issued for DEFCON 3

After reviewing Operation Red Fog, the US Defense Secretary issued orders for DEFCON 3. To avoid panic among the populace, the five branches of the US military quietly worked to ramp up their combat readiness behind the scenes. Tragically, because the populace wasn't warned, the Babel caused a great number of casualties when it emerged.



May: Report Issued on Abnormal Crustal Changes

With the help of GPS-assisted observation, the US Earthquake Engineering Research Center identified abnormal changes in Earth's crust in and around New York State, and reported their findings to the government.



Aug. 19: Operation Violet Storm

Case No. 0516G-104
Codename: Operation Violet storm

The elite unit TDM was mobilized to eliminate the Twisted that had infiltrated the landmark Marianne Hotel in Manhattan, breaking through windows on the 53rd floor. The Twisted decimated TDM's ranks and killed 347 hotel guests before suddenly disappearing.

Contrary to government and military expectations, the much-lauded TDM unit was no more. Records on the new flying Twisted proved unrecoverable.



November: Overdive Device Completed: Investigations Begin

At the end of November, the Overdive tactical research unit completed work on an Overdive device. The special agents of the Overdive Investigation Unit began putting it through its paces.



Dec. 24: The Babels Emerge

On the evening of Christmas Eve 2012, the earth rumbled and groaned in spots throughout the US before buckling upward and shattering to reveal Babels, thought to serve as twisted nests.

Already at DEFCON 3, the Army mobilized at once. They lacked the means to stop the relentless onslaught of huge numbers of Twisted, however, leaving the organisms free to destroy most of the country and claim it as their own. That day has come to be known as ''The Beginning of the End'': the opening salvo in a battle between humans and Twisted - with the very existence of the human race at stake.



Dec. 24: The Sacrifice Incident

Case No. 1536D-205
Codename: Operation Rainbow Dust

On the eventing of Christmas Eve 2012, a large-scale Twisted outbreak occurred at Club Sacrifice in New York City, part of ''The Beginning of the End.''

A National Guard unit stationed nearby stormed the club to carry out a rescue operation. However, the Twisted's sheer ferocity swiftly transformed the club into a living hell. The army maintains a record of the bloodshed; it has proven to be a valuable resource in analyzing the Twisted's ecological characteristics.



Dec. 25: US President Calls Emergency Press Conference

The President called an emergency press conference at the White House on the 25th, telling the nation that ''the greatest threat in the history of humanity is approaching'' and outlining plans for waging all-out war on Twisted.





Feb. 9: Development of New Nuclear Weapon Okayed

Chief Perry of the National Nuclear Safety Administration (NNSA) requests a budget of $370 million, explaining that ''the design and development of a new nuclear weapon effective against Twisted is of the utmost urgency.'' The government grants Perry's request.



April 1: Prediction: US to be Wiped Out in Two Years

According to supercomputer calculations at the US Army Research Laboratory's large-scale shared resource center, the country's population is predicted to be wiped out by 2015, two years away.



Sept. 4: Air Force One Crashes

On the afternoon of the 4th, Twisted attacked Air Force One en route to carrying the President outside the country to safety. The plane exploded in midair and crashed. In accordance with the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution, Vice President Harry S. Russell succeeded to the office of President.



Sept. 30: Pentagon Destroyed

In the early morning of the 30th, Twisted appeared inside the Pentagon, the US Department of Defense headquarters. A mass of Twisted filled one square mile of space, destroying the building that for 70 years had stood for safeguarding the freedom and peace of the American people. Approximately two thousand employees and military personnel were rescued, including the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.



October: NY State Casualties Top Five Million

The Department of Defense disclosed on the 12th that the number of casualties in New York State since the Babel first appeared in December 2012 had surpassed five million, or 25 percent of the total population.



Oct. 3: The Leavenworth Incident

Case No. 4516N-339

Over 20 twisted made an appearance at the CTI and Army joint exercise and training grounds, attacking Aya Brea and her fellow CTI agents in mid-training. Agent Gabrielle Monsigny perished while shielding Agent Brea from the creatures.



November: Babels Emerge in Asia

Reuters reported that on the afternoon of the 17th, multiple Babels appeared in Japan, portions of the Korean archipelago, and throughout China, bringing the total number of Babel-infested countries to 24 - about an eighth of the world.



Dec. 1: UN Security Council Calls for Coalition Forces

French Prime Minister Annabella Larbeaud chaired a domestic summit at the end of November, during which the attendees pushed for the immediate formation of a contingent of UN Forces. The next day, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution calling for the creation of the first-ever militarized Coalition Forces tasked with driving out the Twisted.

The resolution states that the new unit would carry out operations in coordination with the US, British, and French governments, while supporting the US Army in close-range deployment operations across North America.



Dec. 9: US Survivors Seek Refuge in Ireland

Irish president Nora Townshend announced that she had accepted a request from the US government to take in American survivors as refugees, with approximately 300 thousand arriving in the first wave.



Dec. 21: The Met Incident

Case No. 0190X-221
Codename: None

An incident took place at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City in the early morning of December 21, 2013. Employees and delivery personnel were unloading assorted works of art under the protection of the US Army when several Twisted suddenly appeared.

CTI Special Agent Thelonious Cray responded to a request for backup. He encountered a brand-new giant Twisted in the museum's central lobby, but his visual imaging system was destroyed in the skirmish and all footage of the oversized Twisted was lost.

Cray made it out of the museum with nine survivors.



Dec. 23: FBI Headquarters Destroyed

At around 4:30 PM on the 23rd, a great number of Twisted appeared both at FBI headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. and at the regional FBI office in New York, resulting in many casualties. Reuters reported that there were three thousand people killed and more than 800 injured.

As with the destruction of the Pentagon, the massive damage sustained by yet another of the institutions vital to the preservation of peace in America struck a crushing blow to its citizen's collective morale.



Dec. 24: Present Day

Babel-stricken regions: 47 countries worldwide
Estimated number of Twisted: Approximately 18 million



And that’s a wrap for all the stupid, terrible shit that has gone down thus far in The 3rd Birthday that they never bother to mention directly. You'd think they would be upfront with an encroaching apocalypse and not just... trying to save Manhattan from it's 100th weird disaster. But what do I know?

Tune in next time when we’ll begin attempting to change some of that terrible nonsense and see if anything weird happens!