Hello, I’m Program 516-20! You may know me from other education publications like, ‘Blackhole Reactor Safety’ and ‘Parasites, Pets, and How to Tell the Difference.’ If you are reading this, someone from your world was contacted by a being not native to your planet, who requested a DNA sample from one of your species.
DO NOT TAKE THE OFFER!
They are intergalactic criminals committing a scam!
You may be asking, ‘How does it work?’ To answer that question, here is a similar recorded incident, with identities and locations of those involved changed for relatability to your civilization:
Muhammad Wang was an average human Earth male, who ate soup, played football, and lived in a single-family domicile. One night, he was visited by a trusting-looking extraterrestrial, who was in need of DNA from a prime specimen like him to create a clone who would lead an elite team to defend their home world. In exchange, they would pay him in a large amount of the native currency of his choice, in a way that would not raise suspicion within his culture. Little consideration was applied before he agreed to the sample extraction, but little did Muhammad Wang realize, he is now a victim to the SAMPLE PURCHASE SCAM!
Every Earth year, about ten billion individuals throughout a single galaxy cluster are contacted by these scammers, with around an eighth accepting the agreement. The reasoning behind the sample extraction told to the selected victim for wanting their DNA, may be a story like the one used on Muhammad Wang, or something different such as finding a cure, or unlocking a star map to find a new home. Whichever the story given, it is never for that reason, but rather something highly illegal.
Rentable droid armies can be an important tool in defense of planet, people, and property, but can be dangerous in the wrong hands. According to Robotics Regulation Code 282-01101 of the Economic Consortium Charter, all droid army control ships require the DNA signature of a sentient being to operate. The DNA entered into a ship’s reader must keep a record of each one of its users, which is electronically imprinted onto each droid unit. Any user of a neutralized droid unit can be traced by using the recorded DNA signature. The main perpetrator of a sample purchase scam harnesses the DNA of the victim to access control over the droids, using said stolen identity to conduct raids on planets, to steal valuable resources and ransom its inhabitants. If a unit is neutralized, the recorded DNA can be traced back to the sample’s origin, not the actual suspect.
Whoever’s DNA on record matches the duration of the crime, Economic Consortium law requires them to be arrested and taken to trial, where they will most likely face living out their sentence on a penal asteroid. Of course, this is if the sample’s individual source resides within the jurisdiction of the charter’s signed members. Outside of its influence on the other hand, willing yet unwitting participants have something far worse to worry about. More often than not, the ones behind sample purchase scams are members of an intergalactic criminal organization. In this instance, the ones responsible for targeting Muhammad Wang, used his DNA to launch a droid attack on a rival space cartel. In retaliation, they sent one of their enforcers to track down and eliminate the originator of the DNA on record.
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Meanwhile, five Earth years passed and Muhammad Wang had been living his life to the fullest, buying stocks, spending on coffee, and living in a mansion. He lived having no idea that he was not chosen for importance, but for being an inhabitant of a Class 50-2 civilization. This class of civilization tends to be the preferred targets for these types of scams, due to the cultures’ usual propensity for relying on systems that apply artificial worth to invented currencies, based on materials of no natural intrinsic value. Muhammad Wang sold himself to scammers for little to no expense, while they made off with the real profits, and now he is under the eyes of a deadly assassin.
Muhammad Wang turned in for the night and goes to bed, knowing he had nothing to worry about thanks to his property’s top security, keeping him safe as he went to sleep. He was about to drift off into a dream when the sound of an explosion awakened him. Guards ran into his bedroom and escorted him to his panic room. Muhammad Wang entered the shelter; the security personnel closed and secured the door after him. He turned on the surveillance console to see what was going on around the home. A couple of camera monitors showed static, while the others showed guards running about armed and taking positions, ready for a fight.
Something quickly moved across one of the camera’s views for an Earth second before its screen blanked out into static. The camera watching the front door did the same after capturing an explosion blowing open the entrance. Muhammad Wang picked up the panic room’s emergency phone to contact the local authorities, but the line was dead from an unknown jamming device. On each monitor he watched his men shoot at something out of view of the cameras, to then see each of his guards get atomized, yanked off screen, or thrown by explosions, prior to the screen losing functionality. He heard the firefight happen outside of his door. It soon ended on the sound of unknown firearm blasts.
Muhammad Wang waited and hoped to hear something to indicate victory. There were a few heavy slams on the vault’s metal door. Then an explosion cut through the frame, causing the door to fall over into the room. From the smoke stepped in a Centinoid; a many multi-limbed, arthropodal warrior, known for skilled combat as well as a penchant for sadistic brutality, which Muhammad Wang was to find out firsthand.
One of the Centinoids’ favorite ways to dispatch their targets is by Devurous Quartering, outlawed from a thousand solar systems for its extreme cruelty. The enforcer turns on its recording device for proof for its employers. The Centinoid made Muhammad Wang stand with his arms and legs out to the sides, then used a stasis beam on him. Muhammad Wang’s body slowed down to ten thousandth times normal speed, but his mind was still experiencing time at a normal pace. The assassin shot all four limbs, and finally the torso, with its disintegration ray. Unlike the near instantaneous vaporization of the security detail, when the ray encounters a stasis beam’s time field, the disintegration process slows down to ten thousandth times normal speed. Muhammad Wang felt all the sensation of getting torn apart at a molecular level. Not even the merciful release of brain death came within enough time before Muhammad Wang experienced himself completely become dust. Once the last bit disintegrated, the stasis beam was disengaged, and the Centinoid departed from the planet, leaving behind a scene that would baffle the world’s investigators for the foreseeable future.
Avoid becoming a victim yourself, and remember:
If any being visits you and asks for DNA, say, “NO WAY!”
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*Sponsored by the Economic Consortium Charter Enforcement Division*