The Theta-9 Research Facility
(Note: the location doesn't exist in game, so I use the inner complex to represent it.)
Located roughly two miles from the Thaumanova Reactor site sits an innocuous entryway with an asura gate that does not work... or at least, it doesn't appear to work at first blush. Behind this gate, those with the proper clearance will find the Theta-9 Research Facility, previously overseen by Overseer Zaige, an influential mesmer within the Inquest.
Very little is known overall about the sort of research that had been performed at Theta-9 prior to what is referred to by traumatized survivors as the Fire Dawn Massacre. It is said that they were inspired by the research of Oola, and that Zaige was fascinated with the notion of younger minds being more malleable to golemic transfer, based on the initially canned research of the future commander, Vezz of Cautti.
Researchers from this facility were frequently seen at the Splorg Metamystics Laboratory, "recruiting" progeny who were enrolled in classes at the lab. There were several disappearances during the time the lab was active, leading to investigations that unfortunately went nowhere, leaving grieving parents with no notion of where their child might be.
At least, not at the time.
Roughly one year following the events of the Fire Dawn Massacre, former Inquest researcher and then Pact Commander Vezz opened up about actions and research he had witnessed prior to learning the truth about the facility.
Zaige's obsession with "youthful minds being more malleable to golemic transfer" and his secret reopening of Vezz's canned research had led to the kidnapping of and experimentation on multiple progeny, resulting in their deaths. The only survivor, a six year old girl named Yixxi, was eventually reunited with her mother after Vezz tore through the facility in a fit of grief, guilt, and anger.
There was a mixture of shock and outrage at this revelation, though one of the commander's guildmates - a merchant named Pheazza, whose daughter Yixxi had been one of the kidnapped - spoke in the commander's defense. The Inquest was heavily scrutinized, but Councilor Yahk quickly made a statement dismissing Zaige's actions as those of a rogue agent, and praised the commander on taking care of the situation quickly and efficiently, however bloody it may have been.
Many questions remain surrounding the defunct facility, but some have suspected that it may have been reactivated, as Inquest agents have been seen in the vicinity of the non-functional gate...
