Alexa Francetic

Alexa Elizabeth Francetic (c. December 4, 2014 - December 6, 2049) known by the handle ex-girlfriend was a Canadian born assassin and cybercriminal. Forensic evidence has implicated her as the perpetrator in the 2040 assassination of Herman Gage, the 2042 Regeron Foundation Breach and subsequent killing of Chuncheng Piao, the killing of Monika Lang the following year, the Douren database breach, and the 2045 Ross Tower bombing. She was also a prominent member of the hacker collective National Insecurity Agency, with her influence over the groups activities ultimately resulting in it being raided and dissolved by the FBI.

Early life
Little information is known about Francetics background. According to medical records obtained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Francetic was born on December 4, 2014 in Montreal, Canada.

The earliest confirmed details about Francetic's life occur around 2032, when 'Alexandra Francetic' enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania as an undergraduate, listing her date of birth as December 4, 2012 and her hometown as Montreal. Francetic's declared major on file was Computer Science, but she dropped out after three semesters, having been placed on academic probation and having had several encounters with campus security regarding trespassing incidents. Data from the NTLEC database indicates that she remained in the University City area of Philadelphia for at least another year, the Singh Center building and the Cambel building were burglarized several times during the spring semester of 2034.

Francetic was reportedly a well-known figure in the hacker community by the early 2030s, specifically in the northeastern United States. Chris Circosta, one of the founding members of the influential hacker group National Insecurity Agency recounted, during his own interrogation in 2049, that as early as 2033 Francetic was a regular and welcome presence at their hackerspace in West Philadelphia.

Subsequent years in Philadelphia
Francetic joined the NIA well after they began their acceleration towards extremist actions. Nevertheless, her presence within the group contributed to their increasing use of violent tactics. By this point, Francetic had already found a lifelong enemy in the NTLEC system, and according to several members was extremely vocal about the need to sabotage it. The NIA's practice of firing at NTLEC cameras from hidden compartments in vehicles is attributed to her influence.

Aside from her criminal activities with the group, she also participated in a number of less violent projects. She worked on much of the software put out by the group during the 2030s, and was considered an expert on embedded systems, machine vision, and operating system architecture, and was notably proficient in older, niche programming languages such as COBOL and Trifold.

Her residence during this period is unknown. While she would irregularly stay at the NIA headquarters for long periods of time, including sleeping and bathing there, she is thought to have also had some sort of residence somewhere east of the Shuylkill River, as she would regularly visit that half of the city. She would also stay with other NIA members who had permanent residences, including Fadi Haruna, Chris Circosta, and Simone Carlstrom.

Activity in Washington, D.C.
Francetic first arrived in the D.C. area in the spring of 2040. She was with a group of at least four other people, including Fadi Haruna and James Johnson, and had taken residence in an empty warehouse in Buzzard Point, an area in the city's southwest quadrant.

Most of her activities in the region seemed to be in preparation for the eventual assassination of then-Secretary of Homeland Security Herman Gage. She made several online electronics purchases using the name Kim Szujski. The packages were shipped to neighboring addresses in Buzzard Point, and would then be retrieved by Francetic or a member of her group before the occupant noticed them. She was also identified by several hardware and thrift stores as having made purchases in cash, perhaps most notably buying sheets of aluminum from a U-Fil which were then processed into aluminum powder fuel used to create the explosive that would kill Gage.

The explosive was manufactured by the group in the warehouse. At some point early on, the group had been trying to extract ammonium nitrate from fertilizer, bags of which were found in the warehouse. Apparently unbeknownst to the group, most fertilizer had phased out the use of ammonium nitrate since the mid 2020s, so they were unable to get any yield from the product.

By October 2040, the group had finished preparations on the explosive. The press conference that they were planning to assassinate Gage at was going to be held at the Richardson, a hotel and event center in Washington D.C., and was to be attended by several members of the Cabinet, including Gage. Though the personnel at the hotel were thoroughly vetted for security purposes, the guests did not receive as close of scrutiny, and Francetic was able to attend the event using the Kim Szujski identity, posing as an industry journalist. When there, she was able to swap the microphone that had been set up at Gages seat with the one containing the explosive. As the crowd was seated and the conference began, Francetic used a remote control to start the countdown on the explosive, then quietly exited the event.

The timer was set for three minutes. Francetic and her group had chosen this time based on the itinerary that was publicly available for the event. The intent was for the detonation to occur almost immediately after the start, just as everyone would be seated, in the moment that the speakers would be waiting for people to settle in before they started talking. This proved to be an inaccurate estimation, as the speakers commenced much quicker than the group had anticipated, and the person introducing Gage finished talking after less than 90 seconds.

Because they expected the explosion to occur before Gage would start talking, they had removed functional internal parts of the microphone in order to fit the explosive inside of it. When Gage began speaking, he quickly noticed that the microphone was not working, and attempted to alert event staff stationed near him in order to procure a replacement. It was shortly after this that the explosion went off, killing Gage instantly. Because of the confusion with the microphone, some of the cameras that were broadcasting the event had shifted focus to other areas, such as the audience or the other panelists. Thus, only four cameras caught footage of the explosion.

By this point, Francetic and her group were driving towards the city limits near Reston, Virginia. Their path after this point is uncertain, and it is unknown at what point they realized that the explosion had gone off in front of several live cameras.

Health
Based on the autopsy performed after her death, she fractured her right femur around the age of eight or nine, and also suffered multiple rib fractures during her late teenage years. Two 9mm bullets were found lodged inside her body: one was lodged in a rib near her liver, the other was only a fragment found embedded in her pelvis. Neither were the shot that killed her; the bullet in her rib was dated to around 2037, and the fragment in her pelvis was fired sometime in 2044 or 2045.

During the autopsy she was also found to be suffering from endometriosis. She was also missing the fourth and fifth toes on her right foot.

Mental health and personality
Based on analysis of her criminal history and what has been gleaned about her personal behaviors, researchers and psychologists have variously speculated that Francetic suffered from bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, borderline personality disorder, and antisocial personality disorder. She was known for her distant, sometimes erratic behavior by those who knew her, and was reportedly "in a near-constant state of paranoia", with many of the people who interacted with her regularly testifying that they didn't know her name, while others who did expressed doubt at the authenticity of 'Alexa Francetic'.

It is difficult to determine which of her behaviors were genuine symptoms of any underlying mental disorder and which were habitual byproducts of her lifestyle. She reportedly slept and ate very little, deficits which are probably not uncommon for someone with no apparent permanent residence, and her paranoia and lack of empathy are characteristics one would expect to see in a career criminal. She was found to have dozens of self-induced injuries, including several deep cuts in her arm, though these couldn't unequivocally be considered self-harm given her early involvement in the underground biohacking community, with many of the incisions containing homemade biotechnological implants.

Augmentations
Francetic engaged for a time with the burgeoning underground biohacking scene in the 2030s. She subjected herself to over a dozen amateur surgical procedures throughout the late 2030s, including BioKey implants and Cornea Display Implants. Some of these procedures were reversed; only a few were rejected by her body entirely. The latest procedure appears to have been performed in 2045, when an unknown implant was removed from the tip of her left forefinger.