



Earlier today, I received a package in the mail from aspiring journalist and college student Tyler Cross containing evidence relating to a series of curious events taking place in Vancouver, Canada. It started in April when Cross was testing her reporting chops at Vancouver’s Fan Expo and captured an activist organization’s efforts to broadcast their propaganda in between panels. More recently, Vancouver’s city streets were rocked by an unexplained explosion.

It seems as though an activist organization called Liber8 is advocating for violent opposition against corporations, and infiltrated Vancouver’s Fan Expo to spread the word. In addition to the video hack Cross witnessed, members of the organization staged a protest during another one of the Expo’s panels, and fielded agents to hand out flyers at the event. Curious Expo attendees could follow this trail to the organization’s website, containing the group’s manifesto, printable propaganda posters, and a password-protected section cordoned off for members.

Tapping into her inner investigative journalist, Cross also took great pains to document her eyewitness account of the explosion that wreaked havoc on the city’s streets. In a video describing her experience, Cross describes seeing a bright light flash before witnessing an explosion large enough to collapse a nearby overpass. As she approached the epicenter of the event, Cross noticed eight figures fleeing the scene in red suits, pursued by a ninth figure wearing a copper suit. At the scene, Cross recovered a fragment of battered fabric bearing a star and the letters “VCP” and a strange, wedge-shaped object.

Cross sent me a photograph of one of the Fan Expo Liber8 protestors along with a postcard bearing the slogan “Rise Up, Liber8” on one side and the group’s manifesto on the reverse. She also provided a snippet of news coverage on the explosion, a series of photographs taken at ground zero, and the fragment of fabric she recovered from the scene. When the fragment is unfurled, the starred “VCP” insignia is almost visible despite the layers of dirt obscuring the image.

The events showcased in Tyler’s investigative care package ties in to an alternate reality game set to run concurrently with Showcase’s new science fiction series, Continuum, launching in Canada this Sunday May 27th at 9PM EST. The show features Kiera Cameron (Rachel Nichols), a copper-clad cop from 65 years in the future, as she pursues eight criminals known as Liber8 who fled to the past to escape execution and combat the pervasive hold corporations have in the future. According to Zeros 2 Heroes, the show’s extension will include both an alternate reality game and companion comic books.

So far, interaction with the story is limited to communicating with Tyler over email, keeping an eye on Liber8‘s Twitter account, and figuring out how to access Liber8’s password-protected Members Area. But be sure to pay close attention to Continuum‘s premiere on Sunday for additional clues. For more details on the television show head over to ContinuumtheSeries.com.

EDITED TO ADD: For more information about Continuum‘s alternate reality game, check out Continuum-the-Game.com.