Open main menu

Butterfly Incident

helialprofile.png

"This is classified information!"

This article contains unmarked spoilers. You have been warned.

The dead Lycoris with Pike node A-51-241 after the incident, as seen in Singularity's trailer.
Well, they were right; I can't believe the flapping of a butterfly by the Black Sea led to such a huge storm.

The Butterfly Incident (蝴蝶事件) took place in late 2061 in the main labs of Sangvis Ferri[2] as a result of the failure of Operation Butterfly,[3] engineered by William. Taking place the year before the start of Girls' Frontline, it is compared to the Butterfly effect,[1][4] as it is a watershed event that had dire consequences for many main characters, including AR M16A1Thumb button.pngM16A1 , SMG UMP45Thumb button.pngUMP45  and Elisa, and directly caused the rebellion of Sangvis Ferri, and later the re-emergence of OGAS.

Contents

PreludeEdit

Following the death of Lunasia von Oberstein soon after World War Three, William commissioned fellow 90wish scientists and AI experts Lycoris and Persicaria with creating a Neural Cloud from an imprint of her brain. However, both refused on ethics ground, pushing William to arrange secret plans that would result in Lyco and Persica creating the neural cloud he wanted. After Lyco joined Sangvis Ferri to work on his own AI model, William arranged through 90wish the delivery of a Pike node to his lab, tricking him into developing an AI able to interact with Relic Technology. Meanwhile, Persica recovered brain scans of the child soldiers sent to attack Griffin & Kryuger in 2057 (who were biological clones of Lunasia secretly produced and sent by William)[5] and shared the scans with Lyco,[6] who used them and eventually created Elisa, the closest thing to William's goal. However, Lyco eventually realized Elisa's resonance with Relics and started to remove dangerous components from her code.[7]

In order to let Elisa grow[8] and eliminate Lyco, who had discovered his plans,[5] William conspired with General Carter, who arranged Operation Butterfly.[9] The operation was conducted by the Sixth Directorate of the Soviet Bureau of State Security[10] under the command of Second Lieutenant Sergei of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.[11] T-Dolls from Griffin & Kryuger would be lent to the Bureau for the operation, giving Persica the opportunity to add one of her own prototypes, AR M16A1 M16A1     , among the T-Dolls, as insurance for Lyco's safety.[12][8]

However, William prepared and shipped to Griffin two T-Dolls of his own to be part of the operation as Support Squad 14: SMG UMP40 UMP40      and SMG UMP45 UMP45     ,[13] two Sangvis Ferri electronic warfare models.[14] Both were outfitted with backdoors to allow remote third party orders and 40 was made the main unit, and 45 the backup unit.[15] After meeting UMP45 at Griffin & Kryuger, UMP40 realized her purpose and that 45 would suffer her fate in her stead if she failed. She then prepared a plan for 45 to survive the operation[16] by making her her subordinate in the command chain during the authorization transfer at their arrival at the Bureau.[17]

M16A1 was designated as Squad 7's leader.[18] Before the operation, she noticed one of her team members, HK416, was bent on proving her status as an elite T-Doll, belittling the UMPs' support squad[13] and later assaulting a teammate and disobeying orders. Consequently, HK416 was transferred back to Griffin and her fire control core removed before the operation.[19]

OperationEdit

 
SMG UMP40 UMP40      forces SMG UMP45 UMP45      to kill her and flee after protecting her from Parapluie-induced neural meltdown.
 
AR M16A1 M16A1      tries to execute SMG UMP45 UMP45      as a traitor.
 
AR M16A1 M16A1      finds a dying Lycoris.

At the start of the night operation,[20] Support Squad 14 used their dual-track neural clouds to assume OGAS data format and infiltrated the factory's network, taking full control of its defenses.[21]

While other squads secured the factory, the humans of Squad 3 and the T-Dolls of Squad 7 breached Lyco's laboratory through the back door and seized him. Sergei informed Lyco of his arrest mandate from the Central People's Committee and Lyco opposed no resistance, with Sergei promising that he would be able to continue his work as long as he cooperated. Sergei tasked Squad 7 and Support Squad 14 to escort Lyco out of the factory while himself and Squad 3 would collect Lyco's research material, but UMP40 then received the Order 61 signal and released the Parapluie virus among the T-Dolls. Soon after, as they were escorting Lyco out, confusion broke out as the factory assembly lines started by themselves, providing Lyco a chance to flee back to his lab.[11] With their IFFs scrambled, T-Dolls did not recognize each others as allies[8][22] and shootouts started between and amongst Griffin and SF T-Dolls[11] as Parapluie triggered erratic behaviors and neural meltdowns. UMP45 was not infected[23] and M16's prototype neural cloud kept the virus at bay for longer than other Dolls. M16 tried to stop the shootout but was forced to take down her berserk allies.[8] With all comms down, no human order to cease fire could be transmitted.

45, do you want to die here? Die like the Dolls we just killed? Or do you want to leave here alive and escape your fate of being a puppet?
— SMG UMP40 UMP40     [22]

40 and 45 ran away from the factory, fleeing attacking Griffin Dolls.[11][22] Near the exit, 40 pretended that only her or 45 could survive the Parapluie virus by killing the other, forcing 45 to kill her and spare her from being destroyed by Parapluie's neural meltdown.[22] After recovering 40's dogtags and running for the exit, 45 was confronted by M16, who assumed she was the reason for the incident as the only other survivor. 45 tried flee since her weapon was empty[18] but she was soon pinned down by M16. Just as she was about to open fire, 45 hacked into M16's fire control system, causing her to miss and providing 45 the opportunity to break free of M16's choke hold by breaking her left wrist. Resuming pursuit, M16 started to flinch from the neural meltdown but pinned down 45 again, this time attacking her with a knife. 45 blocked the plunging stab with her right arm, but it broke from M16's strength and the blade penetrated her left eye while she clawed at M16's right eye with her left arm. UMP45's scar was still visible years later, while M16 would hide her own scars under an eye patch.

Before M16 could deal 45 a finishing blow, she shut down from the neural meltdown. Moments before, Elisa offered M16 a deal where she would save M16 from complete neural meltdown. M16 was reactivated by Elisa, who controlled her out of the room[24] to hear Lyco's last words as well as activate the production lines needed by Elisa to make herself a body. They found Lyco in his laboratory, where he was trying to destroy the production lines and Elisa before bleeding out from his shot wounds. He recognized M16 as Persica's own version of his work, and entrusted M16 with a warning to Persica that William was manipulating them into reviving Lunasia, and not to fall into his trap like he did by creating Elisa.

Elisa freed M16 from her control and swore to attain the perfection Lyco sought for her, and avenge his death. However, William hacked M16 and encrypted her memories of the incident to prevent Lyco's warning from reaching Persica.[8]

AftermathEdit

With Lyco's death, Elisa seized Sangvis Ferri's assets to lead her vengeance against mankind. The area around Sangvis Base 0 became a battlefield and the situation was entrusted to Griffin & Kryuger over the course of 2062.[2] The site of the incident was later revisited by Angelia, who investigated the Pike node and left a signal transmitter that was later used by Persica during her own investigations.[25][26]

To uninvolved parties, the Sangvis Ferri rebellion was presented as a sudden and unexplained event and Lyco's death as an accident.[20] Angelia's involvement in the operation was striked from all records through Havier Witkin's network on Persica's request, though Havier ignored her reasons for asking this favor. He would however piece back together most of the reasons behind the event over the years.[27] Persica herself would use the newly formed AR Team to search for the truth,[28] unaware that the Parapluie virus in M16's neural cloud would spread to other members of the team and create several OGAS consciousnesses.[29]

UMP45's goal after surviving the incident was to identify and kill the mastermind and avenge UMP40, and she refused to change her body in order to preserve detailed memories of the incident and 40 which couldn't be transferred to a new body.[30] During the Paldiski Incident, 45 replayed her memories of the Butterfly Incident while modifying them to taunt M16 into engaging electronic warfare against her, as M16 still believed 45 had sabotaged the operation herself and wanted to understand why.[23]

ReferencesEdit

  1. 1.0 1.1 Girls' Frontline, Polarized Light, Lamp Starter I
  2. 2.0 2.1 The Art of Girls' Frontline Vol.1, Timeline
  3. Girls' Frontline, Singularity, 2-C Promotion I
  4. Girls' Frontline, Polarized Light, Total Internal Reflection I
  5. 5.0 5.1 Girls' Frontline, Episode 13-5
  6. Girls' Frontline, Singularity, Chapter 2 Splinter Point
  7. Girls' Frontline, Shattered Connexion, Confidential Information 4
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 Girls' Frontline, Episode 13-4
  9. Girls' Frontline, Shattered Connexion, Confidential Information II
  10. Girls' Frontline, Deep Dive, 2-3, Audio File 6
  11. 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 Girls' Frontline, Polarized Light, Accelerator
  12. Girls' Frontline, Polarized Light, Blackbody Radiation I
  13. 13.0 13.1 Girls' Frontline, Deep Dive, 3-1, Audio File 8
  14. Girls' Frontline, Deep Dive, 3-2, Audio File 13
  15. Girls' Frontline, Deep Dive, 3-1, Audio File 1
  16. Girls' Frontline, Deep Dive, 3-4, Audio File 16 through 19
  17. Girls' Frontline, Deep Dive, 2-3, Audio File 6
  18. 18.0 18.1 Girls' Frontline, Polarized Light, Enantiomer Overload I
  19. Girls' Frontline, AR HK416 HK416      Neural Upgrade Story 1 & 2
  20. 20.0 20.1 Girls' Frontline, Episode 8-2E
  21. Girls' Frontline, Deep Dive, 3-3, Audio File 10
  22. 22.0 22.1 22.2 22.3 Girls' Frontline, Deep Dive, 3-4
  23. 23.0 23.1 Girls' Frontline, Polarized Light, Foam Stabilization I
  24. Girls' Frontline, Polarized Light, Molding
  25. Girls' Frontline 8-3E
  26. Girls' Frontline, Episode 10-1
  27. Girls' Frontline, Episode 13-2
  28. Girls' Frontline, Episode 8-2
  29. Girls' Frontline, Shattered Connexion, All-Devouring Sea of Flowers
  30. Girls' Frontline, SMG UMP45 UMP45      Neural Upgrade story 3