On March 3rd 1921, Director Loyd attempted to flee the dig site after injuring Agent Carter and several others. A detachment of RRH in their insurgency guise intercepted Loyd four kilometers from the premises and he was terminated after firing upon the task force.
In his possession was a newly discovered stele, as well as a seed of the extinct Judean Date Palm tree. The latter was quickly discovered to possess powerful but mundane flesh manipulation and replication capabilities. It was designated Anomalous Item-001, and was given to Dr. Christopher Zartion to assist in the development of Project Lazarus. The Stele's contents are as follows:
When he had borne him aloft a third league,
The eagle said to him, said to Etana,
"Look, my friend, how the land is now!"
"The sea has become a gardener's ditch".
After they had ascended to the heaven of Anu,
At the gate of Sin
The eagle and Etana did obeisance together,
But the Mother would not give him the Seed.
They passed through the gates of Anu, Enlil and Ea,
The eagle and Etana did obeisance together,
But each would not give him the Seed.
He saw a gate with windows, it had no seal,
And went inside.
A remarkable young woman was seated therein,
She was imposing and beautiful of feature.
A throne was set out, the ground was trodden down,
Under the throne lions were crouching.
For she was Shamash, and the eagle and Etana did obeisance together.
Etana beseeched Shamash once again,
"Shamash, why do the Annunaki refuse me?"
The goddess cried out,
"King of Kish, that power is not meant for you!"
"You will live long, and then another blood must reign."
Etana was cast out from the gate.
No god in heaven would help Kish.
On Eagle's wings, he ascended above heaven.
Beyond the sky, the Black Moon.
The eagle and Etana did obeisance together,
before the throne carved of ichor.
The King beyond time whispered to Etana,
"I know what you seek, and I will give it to you."
"But l must be given a gift as well."
"You desire it not for yourself, but for your people."
"They will bear me a gift in your stead."
"Kingship will reign in Kish, and order in Man."
"But for an age you will give unto me your nature."
"The beasts shall fall silent, and the Annunaki fade."
"Time's call will be heard, and the deathless shall die."
"To rise you will fall, and my howl shall resound."
"In time, the Life you have purchased will begin to fade,
"As the soul you have sacrificed will return."
"You will know the age is done, when you hear the Black Moon's howl."
And Etana fell back to the earth, as Eagle could no longer hear him.
Seed in hand, Bilah was born unto Kish. But his life was far shorter than his father's.
Kish did not cry as in Etana's vision,
But Kish did cry.
Excerpt from Overseer Emergency Meeting 29:
O5-1: You've heard the account. How do we proceed?
O5-3: You're certain we can trust this? It could be any old mythological hogwash.
O5-2: There's no doubt. It fits too well with the scattered accounts we've recovered from the Children of the Night about the interregnum between our civilizations. They never made sense before.
O5-8: Because we didn't know the truth about our own natures.
O5-2: Yes.
O5-6: Was everything we've done pointless? Are we just hypocrites in the end?
O5-1: We've always been hypocrites, this merely extends the scale. But it doesn't change what we have to do.
O5-11: Even if that means we've been locking up the only "normal" ones this whole time?
O5-5: Right or wrong, I can't turn back. If I do, it means everyone who've died have been sacrificed for nothing. Can anyone here stand that weight?
Brief Silence
O5-12: I don't give a damn what an anomaly is in an empirical sense. It's an anomaly to our society, and that should be enough.
O5-7: Hear, hear. What we once were does not change who we are today.
O5-4: And what happens when the Black Moon howls, which this seems to imply will be soon?
O5-1: Most likely, we fall. But on a timescale as long as this, even relatively close may give us centuries. No reason to despair over this when any of a hundred anomalies could end the world on any given day. In the meantime, we set precautions and try to create a warning system. It is all we can do.
O5-13: There may be one recourse we can take to counter this threat, though it is not a guaranteed success.
O5-1: What do you propose?
O5-13: We have the Seed now, and with it the chance to complete Project Lazarus. Project Thaumiel and its component parts were intended solely as a failsafe, but with proactive use it may delay or prevent this event.
O5-10: …Agreed. Let us replace a blighted crop with a cutting of its former self, as many times as is necessary.