You're probably wondering how the Owl Sector and the tech mites are related to Rise of Iron, or even SIVA. Want some questions answered? Here they are. [b]How does this relate to Destiny or Rise of Iron?[/b] As mentioned in the dialogues on the Owl Sector site ([url]http://owlsector.bungie.net/[/url]), the Owl Sector is an organization that first responded to the "[b]tech mites[/b]" swarming around some of the Guardians who have travelled to the [b]Dust Palace[/b]. They issued a quarantine, keeping Guardians in medical centers and away from the City. However, clearly as you can see in the game (and the website's dialogue), Guardians don't really care as they see it as a positive thing (hence the buffs) and still want to venture out in the system. On the flip side, it can potentially infect other Guardians. Storywise, this could be related to SIVA. [b]How the hell does this relate to the story in any way?[/b] [b]SIVA[/b], the main antagonist of Rise of Iron, is a Golden Age nanotechnology purposed for furthering...well Golden Age technology. As you can see in the recent Launch Trailer ([url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39jvouEt44s[/url]), the Iron Lords are fending off what seems to be nanotech swarms, which also resemble the tech mites swarming around Guardians' heads. These tech mites can be related to how computer viruses are spread (or any virus in general). The tech mites could be SIVA proxies or trojans, possibly unleashed by a located SIVA cluster which led to the infection of Guardians. The proxies are disguised as a good thing, and if it's a good thing, other Guardians might want it. In the short term (the four days before the release of Rise of Iron), it's a wonderful weekend for Guardians. However, when the DLC launches, because so many Guardians have already transmitted the disease and have already entered the Tower (or inside the Wall surrounding the Cosmodrome), SIVA has already infiltrated the Cosmodrome substantially via tech mite proxies and will reveal itself to be SIVA itself (thus ushering in the DLC's arrival). [b]So, WTF is the Owl Sector?[/b] The [b]Owl Sector[/b] seems to be an organization that first responded to the "foreign threat" that began to infect Guardians. What their true purpose is is unclear; but we do know that there is a connection between them and [b]Clovis Bray[/b], a science organization located on Mars and the creator (or co-creator?) of SIVA (which could possibly explain how SIVA could've broken out when Rise of Iron launches). Their website (as provided above) is as much information we can possibly get about this mysterious organization. It also shows the map of the entire world (minus Antarctica) and the frequent appearances of buffs which seem to correspond to the regions. [b]Has Bungie done something like this before? ARGs and whole infection idea?[/b] They have done ARGs for Halo and Destiny in the past, and they are quite well-known for it. In terms of the story, if you're familiar with how the Flood from Halo first arrived in the Milky Way, then you may have a better understanding of what's going on. Long story short, the Flood arrived in the Milky Way via containers of seemingly harmless powder. Ancient, technological, spacefaring humans retrieved these containers floating in space, researched the powder, found no harmful effects on the powder, and began applying it to their domestic pets. The powder seemed to grant them increased physical efficiency, but after decades(?) the powder began to mutate the pets and became hostile; thus marking the first born Flood-incorporated species (which then led to the Forerunners finding out and using the Halos and whatnot, but if you want to read the whole story, look it up because spoilers). So yeah, this tech mite infection could be very similar to the origin story of the Flood. That is all for now. Prepare to become an Iron Lord when [b][u]Rise of Iron[/u][/b] launches on [b][u]Tuesday, September 20th[/u][/b]. Horde those Engrams, collect those Legendary Marks, make peace with Eris about her ship, and watch those tech mites. If you have any thoughts on my theory, please comment below. If you're interested in how the buffs work, check out [url]https://www.bungie.net/en/Forums/Post/213089447[/url]