@VENGERS: THE IP.

V WAR

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CONTENTS
Forward from our Leader here at S.H.I.E.L.D. ............................................................................................... 3
A Brief (not really) History of @Vengers and the IP.V Stones: ..................................................................... 3
The origins of the Universe… .................................................................................................................... 4
Tor’s background ...................................................................................................................................... 5
TL; DR ........................................................................................................................................................ 6
Introduction to Duties:.................................................................................................................................. 7
Tor’s SCADA Operations:............................................................................................................................... 7
Museum Website Usage and Changes: ...................................................................................................... 10
@Vengers Protocols and Duties: ................................................................................................................ 10
Service Agreement: ..................................................................................................................................... 11
Non-Disclosure Agreement: ........................................................................................................................ 11
Communication:.......................................................................................................................................... 12
Change Management Policy: ...................................................................................................................... 12
Rollback Policy: ........................................................................................................................................... 12
The Power Supply Stone ............................................................................................................................. 12
Memo ...................................................................................................................................................... 13
What this means ..................................................................................................................................... 13
Known Threats ............................................................................................................................................ 14
Final words .................................................................................................................................................. 14

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FORWARD FROM OUR LEADER HERE AT S.H.I.E.L.D.
Welcome aboard to S.H.I.E.L.D. We thank you for your willingness to assist our company with the disastrous
situation we’ve found ourselves in.

You’re basically all that’s left due to the chaos… don’t be discouraged, I’m sure you were left for a reason!

The last five years have been insane, to the say the least. The disappearance of half of all life in the universe
has been devastating to global economies, governments, and even planets! We at S.H.I.E.L.D. have been
unwavering in our determination to protect the planet and keep humanity safe.

In the event you have been stuck in the quantum realm for the past five years like Rant Man, I’ll have my
assistant write you a memo to help me update you on what happened…

A BRIEF (NOT REALLY) HISTORY OF @VENGERS AND THE IP.V

STONES:
Speaking of Rant Man, we were going to have his friend Luiz give you the background, but we realized he
doesn’t have all the necessary clearances in order to divulge this information to you, let alone understand it,
so I hope you’re OK with me doing it. If you’re not, oh well, what can you do about it now? Nevertheless,
buckle up, I’m known for being long winded. There are five pieces below related to what you need to know:

- The @Vengers
- Tan.OS
- IPv Stones
- Your mission
- Tor, son of Odidn’t.

You’re no doubt familiar with the @Vengers: a group of extraordinary individuals and superhumans recruited
as part of one of our initiatives to help defend Earth. We at S.H.I.E.L.D. know that not only are we not alone in
the universe, we are also severely outmanned (what?!), outgunned (what?!), and even out-planned. Sorry, I’ve
been listening to Hamilton the last few years in order to cope effectively… Anyway, the @Vengers were
recruited to help us take a stand, be our right-hand man. Ok, I’m done with the Hamilton references, I
promise…

There have been a number of intergalactic conflicts since the @Vengers initiative was organized back in
1995. We learned of a number of threats that not only exist but are actively seeking to exploit our
vulnerabilities in order to destroy us. One such Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) is the virus known as
Tan.OS.

Tan.OS is a ruthless, hacktivist, warlord who believed that the universe was on the brink of overpopulation
and wanted to do something about it so he doesn’t have to watch the universe fall into chaos as his home
world allegedly did.

In his limited visits to Earth, he became the frustrated that world didn’t all move to IPv6 and seeing that the
address space for IPv4 is on the brink of collapse, he had to decide between freeing up half of the IPv4

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address space or half the life in the universe. It was a tough call, but he went with the universe as it is a
slightly bigger picture, but some of us believe he may be back for IPv4... *gulp*.

Before I continue, it would behoove us to step even further back in time to give some additional context:

THE ORIGINS OF THE UNIVERSE…

In the beginning, before the big bang, before the creation of the universe, occurred there were six
singularities that existed. The big bang caused these singularities to become six, separate IPv stones
(interchangeably called IP.V stones when the lowercase context is not permitted). These stones can only be
brandished by those with considerable security strength. These stones are of potentially limitless power and,
when wielded by malicious actors, are considered to be zero-day exploits to any entity that tries to stand in
their way.

The IPv stones are as follows:

- The Address SPACE stone – this stone gives the user control over space and allows them to move
freely throughout the known universe, as well as allocate any amount of addresses in any one
namespace to any one subnet.
- The TIME to live stone – this stone gives the user control over time, and allows the user to prevent
any packet from being dropped.
- The POWER supply stone – this stone grants the user immense power, enough to even destroy a
planet! It also grants the user the ability to infinitely stay off the grid, with a UPS that never dies.
- The Sorcerer’s stone – this stone was initially discovered by Nick Flame a good friend of the ‘Dumb
Old Door’ as we call him and has been shown to grant the user control over life, to create, end, and
perhaps gain understanding of the soul.
- The Virtual REALITY stone – this stone grants the user the ability to shape, modify, or distort reality.
It also grants the user a monopoly on all virtual reality headsets.
- The CPU/ALU Stone A.K.A. the NeverMIND stone – this stone grants the user intelligence beyond
compare, and the ability to control the minds of others. It also grants the user the ability to enslave
any CPU, to create a botnet unparalleled by any in the known universe.

One who wields all six IPv stones will have unlimited power and potential. You’d even have the power to
destroy half of the life in the universe if decided to. Are you picking up what I’m laying down here?

Many have searched and continue to search for these IPv Stones. Tan.OS is one who searched for, and
eventually obtained all of these stones. He hacked into the Industrial Plant at Nidavellire and forced the
employees there to build him a device capable of wielding all the stones at once. We tried to stop him, but we
were unsuccessful: he and his army of wurms and viruses destroyed half the life in the universe, and half of
all the computer systems as well... well, they stopped responding to pings at least… but that could just be a
firewall issue… or DNS… why is it always DNS…?

Tan.OS collected the six IPv stones and used them to ‘dust’ (murder, eliminate, kill) half the universes’
population via the Clap™, which, by the way, also turned on the lights in the room where it was performed.
Tan.OS then destroyed the stones, so his Clap™ could never be undone or done again. This clap was
devastating to us as it killed our entire Cybersecurity Team and we have been unsuccessful in adequately
replacing them until we found you. I hope we made the right choice…

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The Clap™ is illustrated below:

FIGURE 1 - DIGITAL REPRESENTATION OF THE CLAP™. FUN FACT, THIS IMAGE USED MOST OF OUR BUDGET…
This was assumed to be final, the end, and inevitable, until the help of Rant Man. Rant Man’s discovery
combined with the intellect of Bryce Banter and Toni Shark resulted in the discovery of the millennium, the
ability to travel through time. This is where your help comes in.

Your team is tasked with gathering information pertinent to the ‘Spring-Time Highst’ (the operation involving
the time travel) to allow the @Vengers to go back in time to acquire the IPv stones from key situations and
circumstances, which they can then use to undo the Clap™ and fight Tan.OS in an epic, final, battle. You will
obtain and collect this information via completion of injects and CTF challenges while dealing with various
points of contact who may have useful information. In addition to collecting the IPv Stones, you will need to
maintain availability on our systems and produce celestial weapons to arm our troops for the final battle.
Wait what?! Celestial Weapons? Are you wondering what I mean? Well, our systems are not just located on
Earth…

Among all of the life forms in the universe, not all are hellbent on our destruction! We have learned that we
do have some allies. Less now than before, and even less now than then… if that makes sense…

One of these allies is named Tor, the son of Odidn’t. Tor is from a place called Asgard. Asgard is located at a
key spot in the universe that allows for interspatial travel via a device called the Bifrost. This allows Asgard
to effectively govern it’s 9 realms (a group of Linux machines honestly). All of these realms are a part of the
Tree of Life, called the Yggdrasil.

TOR’S BACKGROUND
Unfortunately, Tor’s story is not a happy one… Tor’s father Odidn’t created a family-owned information
security company called AsGUARD, who was tasked with defending the 9 realms from hackers, pretty simple

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job right? Well it was a very profitable company and was doing really well. However, Odidn’t passed away
and it was very hard on Tor. To make matters worse, as he was inheriting the family owned business, a long
lost, completely unknown older sibling of Tor’s named Hecka* emerged with her legal team and began to lay
siege to the company to claim it as her own as it was allegedly her birthright.

Long story shorter, Tor knew that Hecka* had ties to a malicious group of hackers and realized that if she
gained control of the company, she would drive it into the ground and corrupt/steal all of the private data of
all of their customers. So Tor decided to self-destruct the company, which turned out to be horrible timing
indeed as the apocalyptic event known as Ragnarök (story for another time, I don’t even have the clearance
to understand all of those details) happened as well, which resulted in Asgard (the place) being completely
destroyed. So, Tor lost Asgard and AsGUARD. Terrible double-whammy if you ask me, which I guess you
didn’t…

To make matters worse, as Asgard was being destroyed, Tor and his band of onions (honestly, they’re just
people, their story just makes me cry so I call them onions), tried to flee on a refugee ship. This ship was
called the Cityman (horrible name, don’t worry about remembering it) which got attacked by Tan.OS in his
initial conquests when he first acquired the Address Space Stone.

Tor, understandably so, was devastated by the destruction of his home Asgard via Ragnarök, his InfoSec
company: AsGUARD, AND further motivated for revenge after the destruction of the Cityman (the ship I told
you not to worry about remembering) by Tan.OS and his crew, initiated operation “New Yggdrasil” which
entails the creation of a computer network called “New Bifrost” which unites his allies with other enemies of
Tan.OS and they begin their work to undo the Clap™. This is how we became involved with them and why we
have the network we have. The one you are tasked with defending.

Whew, nearly done. Now we can get back to talking about those celestial weapons again. Remember when I
said that Tan.OS hacked into the Industrial Plant at Nidavellire? Yeah well, they hate Tan.OS now, obviously,
so Tor recruited them (the one employee left) to join our cause! Now, the plant is up and running again
(hopefully Tan.OS doesn’t find out…) and we are actively building weapons of mass destruction (didn’t know
you’d be dealing with an arms dealer besides Shark Industries, did you??) We must defend this plant and
keep the weapon batches building throughout the day in order to arm some of our forces in a final battle
with Tan.OS that we know is coming. Before Tan.OS retired, but after he was struck with a powerful celestial
weapon, was quoted to have said: “You should have left me on Read.” At least, that’s what our working theory
is. Either that or something about his head, but given his affixation with technology we believe it is the
former. But, this raises the question: why would he be coming back if he ‘retired’ and was later
assassinated? An excellent question, this will be addressed later.

Ok, that is not nearly enough information for you, and I’m sure some of it if not all of it was confusing. We will
go into more detail on the important pieces of this later. But to sum up, let me help you via the next section.

TL; DR
Tan.OS killed half of the universe. That is why we recruited you – our team is dead. We want to undo that
mass genocide, so we need to acquire the 6 IPv stones. Unfortunately, it is not super clear where to get these
and time travel is a mess, but we have various points of contact who will be requesting favors of you in
exchange for this vital information. Your job is to:

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 1. Defend the Network that has united a number of our allies (which is growing) together.
2. Complete the tasks asked of you by our important clients in exchange for vital information for the
acquisition of the IPv Stones, as well as the appropriate CTF challenges.
3. Build enough Celestial Weapons via the HMI to effectively arm our troops in a final battle.

EDIT: My boss says I should have followed the BLUF format (Bottom Line up Front) but I don’t have time to
rewrite this, hopefully you remember the use of such and executive summaries in your correspondence with
my boss… as my job is now on the line… maybe I’m more like Luiz than I thought…

INTRODUCTION TO DUTIES:
Hopefully you saw the TL; DR from above and understand the three main tiers of your duties. To reiterate
once again, these are:

1. Defend the New Bifrost Network that has united a number of our allies (which is growing) together
2. Complete the tasks asked of you by our important clients in exchange for vital information for the
acquisition of the IPv Stones, as well as the appropriate CTF challenges.
3. Build enough Celestial Weapons via the HMI to effectively arm our troops in a final battle.

You will find a vast number of tools and software already configured in the environment to assist you with
this task. You will also be dealing with a number of different groups and peoples, it is imperative that you
treat them with respect and carry out their requests.

We are sorry all of these jobs have fallen on you, but we’re stretched so far beyond thin right now that it’s
the best we can do.

TOR’S SCADA OPERATIONS:

Tor’s Axe Forging System Monitorization and Control

Once you have entered a remote desktop of Nidavellire, navigate to the VTScada application. Once the
VTScada Application Manager is opened, click the start application triangle next to “Tor’s Axe Forging
System.” Once the application loads, click the Overview Page in the bottom right hand corner of the Page
Menu. You should now be looking at the SCADA graphical interface for Tor’s Axe Forging System. Pictures
are as below:

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The supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) interface shows the automated industrial environment
that Tor engineered himself, to more effectively forge axes to fight TanOS. The local control enclosure
houses the motor control center (MCC), the programmable logic controller (PLC), and the human machine
interface (HMI). You are not able to make a presence on Nidavellire to interact with the local control
enclosure. You have to use the SCADA that Tor has implemented in his operational technology (OT) network
segment to remotely control the forging system.

Tor’s Axe Forging System has three inputs and one output –
Inputs:
• Nidavellire (Energy Source)
• URU Ingots -> Molten URU (Axe Material)
• Axe Head Molds (Shapes Axe Head)
• Cooling
Outputs:
• Axe Heads

The energy source input is the neutron star Nidavellire, which fuels Tor’s forge. The energy gate is the final
element used to control the energy flow to the forge. The URU ingot input controls the flow of ingots into the
crucible, where the energy flow to the forge will melt down the URU ingots. Once the ingots are turned to
molten URU, the molten URU will be casted into the axe head molds that are running on a conveyer into the
cooler. Once casted, the axe head molds will immediately be sent into the cooler for hardening. The final
output of Tor’s Axe Forging System will be a batch of axe heads. Each batch of axe heads will then get sent
by conveyer to Tor’s Axe Handle Forging System, but that system is outside the scope of this objective. You
are only responsible for forging axe head batches and keeping your SCADA available.

SCADA Operations –

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To start forging a batch of axe heads:
• Open the energy gate by pressing the green push button on the SCADA interface
• After opening the energy gate, the URU melt down will begin and the axe head batch will be in
progress
• The URU melt down will take 7 minutes to complete. Once the URU melt down is complete, the
cast/cool will automatically begin and take 7 minutes
• Once the cast/cool is finished, a single batch of axe heads will be produced, an axe head batch will
not be in progress, and the counter will increment up by 1
• A full axe head batch takes 14 minutes, which is the amount of time from when the energy gate is
opened to the completion of cast/cool
• Once a batch of axe heads is complete, the batch done indicator will light up and the axe head batch
in progress animation will stop
• Click the red push button to reset the system
• To start another batch of axe heads, open the energy gate by pushing the green push button

It is highly critical that you put in the due care and due diligence to keep this SCADA available and that you
continually start a batch of axe heads every 14 minutes.

MUSEUM WEBSITE USAGE AND CHANGES:

You were briefed above about The Accumulator, Tantamount Titan and how it is because of him that our
Yggdrasil and Bifrost’s work appropriately due to his third piece the Spine of Jemiah. Due to his influence and
importance, if it is critical to defend his website.

Though, our sources indicate that at the current moment it has been defaced and is in ruin… we are certain
he will be reaching out to you about this.

Please note that his website, when up and working, connects through the Spine of Jemiah (a VYOS router) to
a machine on Earth where it’s corresponding database is stored. Any changes to that machine, the
credentials to database users, etc. should be reflected in the both the website and the database server in
order to prevent it from breaking and therefore losing availability points. The website is a wordpress
website, and if the credentials to the database change, go and change their database connection string in the
wordpress config file. It is in one of the php files in the repository (in the accumulators_museum folder in
/var/www).

To initially log in, you can use the credentials: blueteam:niccdc2021. Feel free to create new accounts for that
website as you see fit, its security is in your hands.

@VENGERS PROTOCOLS AND DUTIES:

Each of you has been entrusted with the knowledge of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s most important tools and
techniques. Most of these systems are of the utmost secrecy. Your knowledge is given only to our
most trusted servants. Your clearance provides you a direct tap into one of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s most
important arteries.

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Given the sensitive nature of most, if not all, the information you as a S.H.I.E.L.D. defender team will
process - take abundant precaution when handling any information that could be used to identify
key individuals, figures, tools, or places to our enemy. If any word of this escapes to our enemies,
there will grave consequences for all involved.

SERVICE AGREEMENT:
The reason for your existence here is for your undying service to S.H.I.E.L.D. By reading,
acknowledging, and committing to blood, you recognize that all information and dealings within
S.H.I.E.L.D. and its Information Technology Sector are on a need-to-know basis.

This employee of S.H.I.E.L.D. will fulfill to the best of their knowledge and ability any request,
objective, and mission presented to them. Should the signer violate any rules of engagement or fair
play policies S.H.I.E.L.D. reserves the right to take appropriate action. Should any disruption or
infringement occur, S.H.I.E.L.D. will hold the culprit liable for the cost of the damages by a factor of
three. This contract holds the signer to the highest degree of confidentiality, integrity, and
availability during their service for S.H.I.E.L.D.

NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT:
As aforementioned, given the nature of the resources that each of you is connected to now, we
must keep in mind the intended, and more importantly, the unintended consequences of our
thoughts, speech, and actions. The potential ripple effects of a mistake committed by a S.H.I.E.L.D.
member travel much farther than the average.

Each S.H.I.E.L.D. member must sign this oath of secrecy. By agreeing to this sacred oath of secrecy,
the signer recognizes that no information discussed or spread within our facilities will ever reach
anyone on the outside. Any and all information of any format must not leave our minds. To spread or
leak information in any regard is the highest treason against S.H.I.E.L.D. or any of its allies.

Upon any breach of this confidentiality agreement, your fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. members will be
encouraged to dispose of you and erase your memory from our records. Although this non-
disclosure agreement is not a blood oath, for all intents and purposes, it is. Walk boldly before our
enemies and lay the path for the future of Earth.

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COMMUNICATION:
S.H.I.E.L.D. must consider any and all possible threats to our IT infrastructure and maintain a
straightforward chain of communication and command for maximum efficiency. This group reports
to the Commander at S.H.I.E.L.D., better known as Commander King, for the duration of your stint
with S.H.I.E.L.D.. Tasks/Injects will be communicated to you via email, and we expect your
cooperation in all assignments. Expect these emails and their contents to guide your work
experience and schedule while here.

CHANGE MANAGEMENT POLICY:

In order to maintain a system with minimal conflicts, any changes to the Active Directory, Network,
Routing Rules, or HMI changes must be submitted to management for approval. To perform these
tasks, one should reference Commander King. Reference the Rules packet before making any
changes, as some may negatively impact your score.

ROLLBACK POLICY:
If any of your machines break or are otherwise of no use beyond the standard repairs and rollbacks, then we
will restore it to its previous baseline. You must note that this rollback will restore your machine to their
beginning working state. Any changes from that point will no longer appear. Here at S.H.I.E.L.D., rollback
requests are only permitted until 4:00 pm. Furthermore, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s administration can briefly snapshot any
system in its current state but will perform this measure no more than three times. One must submit an
email rollback request form to the Help Desk to initiate this process.

THE POWER SUPPLY STONE

We were able to successfully piece together some crucial information that led us to be able to acquire the
Power Supply Stone. This information was received from the Super Nova Corps in exchange for help in
rebuilding what was left of Zandar. We then used this information and sent Nebulous and Corporal Captain
back in time to acquire the stone per their instructions. This mission was nearly a 100% success but we
accidentally tipped off the Tan.OS from the past of our intentions and so he has been actively pursuing us
ever since. Therefore, it is the old, unpatched version of Tan.OS that is hunting us. His more up to date
counter part couldn’t care less, and can’t, as he is dead. You’d think we could exploit some unpatched
vulnerability but he seemingly has none…

Here is the transmission we received from the Super NOVA CORPS, we have added numbers at the beginning
of each section to help you understand what this means:

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MEMO
“1. Hello Commander King, thank you for your help. We were greatly devastated by Tan.OS and your
assistance greatly helped what is left of us get back on our feet. We will gladly join the New Bifrost, though
we have doubts about some of your comrades…

As you may or may not be aware, the first documented user of the Power Supply stone is one infamous
printer manufacturer gone warlord named Epson the Searcher. Epson the Searcher used this stone for a
millennium until it was hidden in an orb on a remote planet, but not before he wreaked much havoc and
destruction with it. The stone grants the user immense power, and has been documented in many instances
to have killed the possessor if ever touched. The Power Supply stone also allows one to avoid the usage of
UPS’s and other alternate forms of power for different datacenters, you can channel the stones energy to
provide limitless energy to your systems. Note that this stone represents the annihilating power of the
universe, so it must be used with extreme caution.

2. We used the stone for this after we acquired it from Stare Lorde and the Juardians of their Galaxy. They
stopped our planet from being completely annihilated by a one Conan the Assumer who was horribly racist
and hated our entire species. However, you cannot acquire the stone from us any time it is in our possession.
We know of your intent to go back in time to acquire the stone, but unfortunately our security is too good that
we seriously doubt that unless you’re packing the kind of firepower Tan.OS was, you’ll be unable to social
engineer the Super Nova Corps to hand over the stone, especially given the fact that we didn’t even know
who the @Vengers were at that point. You must acquire it from where Stare Lorde acquired it initially, from
the planet Norag.
3. Specifically, you must go back to the Earth year of 2014 in order to acquire this stone, this is where the
events line up perfectly for you to be able to snag it. Stare Lorde informed us that the stone was practically
defenseless on the Eastern quadrant of the planet at the coordinates 60.192059 x 24.945831 x 44.9916. Note
that in order to acquire this stone you will need an instrument not made of flesh, if you attempt to remove
the stone from the orb without the right equipment you risk melting the flesh right off of your body…
Thank you again for your help, we look forward to working with you and your team. Please ensure the stone
is returned to that exact spot at the exact time you removed it.

Iran Real

Super NOVA Prime”

WHAT THIS MEANS

In your mission you will be acquiring and piecing together memos quite like this. We have reached out to a
number of contacts that we believe have access to vital knowledge regarding the histories of the stones and
where we can acquire them. However, they will probably not give this information up freely, and due to the
law of equivalent exchange, ask for assistance in completing certain tasks. In fact, some may even take
advantage of you and lead you on. In our case (and we predict it will happen many times to you) Acquiring
this information was a 4-step process:

1. First, we helped them locate a number of missing persons from their capital attack. They “rewarded
us” with a document that was password protected….
2. We gained that password from them after helping them repair a number of their space crafts that
used similar technologies to ours here on Earth.

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 3. This password unlocked the protected zip file, and inside was a word document. This word document
was missing some core pieces, two to be precise. Sections 2 & 3 were missing from the document,
which was horrible as it is those two sections that tell us precisely where, when, and how to acquire
the stone.
4. We were able to retrieve the missing pieces by doing minor tasks for them.

You are tasked with the creation of the 5 other documents containing all the information regarding the
stones. We have already reached out to certain points of contact for each stone that will be contacting you
through Commander King with various tasks for you to perform. We had reason to believe they would take
advantage of you as well, and so we created a central hub for them to put additional requests. This is the
Facebook CTF engine, and is located at https://172.25.0.240:10081. Based on what content is in these
documents you receive, they should direct you to the challenge you must complete in order to gain access to
the stone. Check the rules packet for your credentials.

The format of your documents will probably follow the same template:

1. A password protected document you’ll earn by doing some task for a Point of Contact (POC). This
document will no doubt probably only contain a history of the stone and what it can do.
2. You’ll unlock the password via the completion of another task for the appropriate POC.
3. Then, there’ll be two sections missing. The missing text will be acquired via the completion of two
challenges in the CTF in the appropriate category for the stone you seek.
4. Create the final form of the document and email it in to us. We will then hand the information over to
the @Vengers and they’ll try and pull of a mission in which they’ll go back in time to acquire the
stone. We will inform you of their success, the usefulness of your information, and the end result.

More information regarding the Acquisition of the IPv Stones is located in your Rules Packet, please refer to
that to know how to log into the CTF engine and how to score points, as well as how to use the flags you find
in order to unlock the missing pieces of the other memos to the IPv stones you’ll receive.

KNOWN THREATS
As noted above, acquiring the Power Supply stone tipped off the old, unpatched version of Tan.OS who is now
actively pursuing us and is somehow hacking us from the past and the present. We are unsure of how they
are attempting to connect to our network. We suspect espionage but cannot figure out how… yet. We just
know eventually his army will come to Earth and we will have to be ready.

FINAL WORDS
Follow the rules. Work hard. Save Earth.

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