Ad Astra

Ad Astra (Eng: To the stars) is a secret society featured in the fifth season of Criminal Case, appearing as a central figure during the University and Spring Fields cases.

Pain in the Neck
After arresting René Narcisse's killer, Gloria and the player investigated Grimsborough University's amphitheater and found DreamLife CEO Rozetta Pierre's old desk there (which she had doodled the DreamLife logo on). On the desk, Gloria and the player also found the words "AD ASTRA D2231" scribbled on the desk. Per Cathy, "Ad Astra" was a Latin phrase meaning "to the stars" often expressing ambition, but she was unsure of its connection to Rozetta. However, she was certain that "D2231" referred to the room number of philosophy professor Kevin Charles during Rozetta's time at the university. The team then talked to Kevin about their findings, who nervously claimed that Ad Astra was just an "old study group" that convened in his classroom before he hurriedly left the team. After all the events, the team decided to look further into Ad Astra.

Deadeye
After arresting Sam De Witt's killer, Gloria and the player investigate Iota Psi Omega's sorority house as Cathy told the team that Rozetta was a member of Iota Psi. There, they found an old picture of Rozetta with text on the back mentioning Ad Astra. Per Gabriel, it was written by someone who wanted to join Ad Astra recently, implying the group was still active. The team then talked to Monica in jail, who said that it was Sam who wanted to join Ad Astra before pointing them to the sorority house for clues. They then found a USB key, which (per Cathy) confirmed that Ad Astra was founded by Rozetta, and that student Courtney Guerra was a member of the group. Upon interrogation, Courtney revealed that Ad Astra had disbanded when Rozetta went after bigger projects but it was resurrected one year ago, when the meteorite fell on Grimsborough. When questioned further, Courtney refused to give more answers. After all the events, the team resolved to find out about Ad Astra's objectives.

Game, Set, Murder
After arresting Stephanie Griff's killer, Gloria and the player searched the university's library for more information on Ad Astra. They then found an entire volume on the secret society. Per Gabriel, the volume was an Ad Astra manifesto stating that those who were physically and intellectually superior deserved to control the rest of society who were better off without the burden of decision-making, a philosophy reflected in Rozetta Pierre's actions with DreamLife. After finding out that Professor Kevin Charles had introduced the concept of "selective superiority" to Rozetta, the team grilled him about Ad Astra. Kevin said that Ad Astra started as a group consisting of Rozetta and her like-minded peers talking about the future of humanity, which she started per his encouragement. However, he became uncomfortable with how they wanted to put the theory of selective superiority into practice. The team then asked for his help in identifying the society's current members, but Kevin said that he had been done associating with the group years ago.

After all the events, the team began suspecting that the new Ad Astra had something to do with Rozetta's plans, making the team resolve to investigate further into the matter.

Trick or Treat
After arresting Gregory Lynn's killer, Monica Pozie had told Jones and the player that she had overheard Rozetta Pierre mentioning Gregory's Halloween party during her transfer from solitary confinement to the visiting room. Outside Gregory's house, the team found a visiting pass for Rozetta, which belonged to computer science student Azeeb Patel. Upon interrogation, Azeeb let slip that Rozetta had given him a card to share to his fellow Ad Astra members. After Azeeb told them that he had lost the card during the party, the team searched Gregory's bedroom and found a musical card, which (per Gabriel) was transmitting a Morse code message translating to "I trust you to take care of the Kevin Charles problem." The team then decided to dispatch an officer to Kevin's house.

Soon after, Chief Parker said she had dispatched officers to Kevin's workplace and house, as well as tasked Cathy to track down the Ad Astrans. A few hours later, Cathy told the team she had tracked Courtney Guerra to the scenic viewpoint. Before the team could go there however, beat cop Mia Loukas told them that Kevin was found murdered.

Lashing Out
After the police came to Kevin Charles' protection as they found out that Rozetta Pierre had instructed the current members of Ad Astra to take care of him, however, Mia Loukas told the team that they had found Kevin Charles's body in the forest on the university grounds, prompting Jones and the player to go to the forest and found the body of Kevin, tied up to two trees and whipped to death.

Mid-investigation, Mia told the team that they had discovered Ad Astra's hideout cave, which was not far from the university. Later, behavioural science student Lucius Roth confessed to the murder with details contrary to the forensic evidence the team had found. They then kept investigating, discovering economics student Dorothy Kix to be the leader of the new Astra and finding international relations student Polly O'Brien guilty of the murder.

Upon admitting to the murder, Polly said that she had chloroformed Kevin in his office, dragged him to the forest unconscious, and whipped him to death upon Rozetta's orders. She also said that she did not know why Lucius falsely confessed to the murder. Judge Powell sentenced her to 35 years in prison.

Post-trial, Jones and the player went to Ad Astra's cave, suspecting that there was more to the murder than Polly had confessed. There, they found a makeshift stretcher, proving that Polly had an accomplice in the murder. Per Amir, the stretcher contained Azeeb Patel's DNA. They went to interrogate Azeeb, who admitted that he, Dorothy, Polly, Lucius, and Courtney all took turns in whipping the professor, directing them to the cave to search for a tablet containing proof. There, the team found the tablet, which (per Cathy) contained the master plan for Kevin's murder that they had concocted even before Rozetta's instructions, which detailed the roles all five Ad Astrans played in the murder, with Lucius giving the false confession to learn what the police knew about the murder. Their hope was that five people committing the murder would produce evidence so contradictory that the murder could not be pinned on any of them. The team then went to arrest Courtney and Dorothy.

Meanwhile, Gloria and the player headed to the professor's office to discover Rozetta's motive for killing him. There, they found a mousepad with scribbled letters, which (per Cathy) was his password to his University intranet account. On the account, he had noted that the old Ad Astra may have wanted to kill him to protect their identities. He also said that he planned to leave a message for the player. The team then went off to the forest clearing to find the message and found a note half-burned in the campfire. The note said that the five original Ad Astrans hid behind constellation codenames and that "Fornax" was in Spring Fields, the city's agricultural district. The team informed Chief Parker of their discovery, who recalled that Fornax was also the name of the warehouse DreamLife had planned to ship the Protozane to, meaning that some of the drugs may have landed in their hands.

After all the events, the team attended Dorothy, Lucius, and Courtney's trial (Azeeb had taken a plea deal that would give him a 7-year prison sentence). There, the Ad Astrans said they followed Rozetta's orders to kill the professor and burn his papers because she had told them that they were special and that she needed them for her plans (which she would only detail to them after the murder). Judge Powell then sentenced the three Ad Astrans to 30 years in prison. Outside the courtroom, the team resolved to go to Spring Fields and catch "Fornax" before they could unleash Protozane into the city.

A Pointy End
After arresting Christy Cole's killer, Gloria and the player went to the AgriMeadows warehouse to retrieve a sample of their corn as there were some secrets there. They then found out (per Amir) that the corn was infused with Protozane, meaning that Fornax's plan was to mass-distribute Protozane. They then talked to Abel, who told the team he did not know of the Protozane in the corn, only that the modifications were unethical. He then told the team of a safe disguised as a painting in AgriMeadows HQ, which the team then found. Inside, they found documents, which (per Cathy) proved Julia Brine's identity as Fornax and her plans to orchestrate the corn crisis and spread the Protozane-infused corn. Furthermore, the painting contained the code-names of all five members of Ad Astra, namely Fornax, Andromeda (aka Rozetta Pierre), Orion, Cassiopeia, and Perseus. The team then arrested Julia for criminal conspiracy. After all the events, the team vowed to unmask all of Ad Astra.

Like a Pig to the Slaughter
After arresting Sheriff Roy Loukas' killer, Jones and the player decided to head to Spring Fields post office for more lead about the other three members of Ad Astra. They then found the AgriMeadows' post-office box there, which (per Ramirez) showed that five years prior, Julia Brine (aka Fornax) had received massive injections of investment capital from a company called Orion Inc. in order to get AgriMeadows to grow quickly. After finding out Orion Inc. was run by venture capitalist and convicted killer Christian Bateman, they went to Grimsborough Prison, where Warden Mallory Banks told them that he was released a few days prior after some psychiatrists determined he was "under extreme psychological duress" when he killed artist Meera Kat and was thus not responsible for his actions, saying that he was no longer a threat. Also, Mallory explained that she had no idea about Christian's whereabouts then. However, after that, Ramirez discovered that Bateman's family owned a vineyard in Spring Fields after he had done some more digging. The team then quickly headed there to catch Bateman again.