By Ada Herschel, Science and Technology & Hunter O’ Leary, Business

25/6- In the wake of Sir Rigel Rinkenbach’s sudden flight during the Industry and Innovation Conference last week, the Empress Marcellete Bastian has issued orders for the search and seizure of Rinkenbach Research and Development.

The order of a private citizen’s business to be seized by the government has been met with some controversy, yet the Empress stresses that the measure is necessary.

“I do not like this at all,” Her Imperial Majesty said. “And were there any other option, I would take it. But the technologies that Rigel Rinkenbach was developing are of grave importance to the security of not only the Nor Eastern Empire, but the Triumvirate.

“Already we’ve heard reports of thieves and other shady types, how do you say, ‘casing the joint.’ If we don’t seize it, put it under lock and key and guard it, someone else will take it. And judging from the reports of my men who are currently on site cataloging their findings, you do NOT want that to happen.”

Rumors of what has been found are shocking to say the least. The items range from innocuous (plans for some sort of ‘electric toothbrush’) to the deadly (fifteen hundred different types of previously unknown poisons and twice as many devices to administer them) to the plain weird and esoteric (a box, full of wires and boards, with a glass front and metal poles sticking out of the top).

The most popular rumor, however, is that the Empress’ insistence on protecting Rinkenbach’s contraptions is merely a smoke screen, and that she is actually searching for something in particular.

“This is about Blackwood,” said conspiracy theorist Oculus in his weekly rag The Exhumanor, and for once, he may be on to something. “It’s always been about Blackwood. The Empress’ goons are rooting around that old compound looking for Rinky Dink’s formulae. Everyone knows it, but everyone’s afraid to say it: those who control Blackwood control the Triumvirate and, by extension, the world.”