From the outside, the building appears to be just another high-rise that is part of the Manhattan skyline.
Not so very long ago, however, it had proven to be anything but that. One fateful day, the building's upper levels were heavily damaged in a battle between beings who were, at the time, largely beyond the scope of the typical human's experience. On that day, the building was revealed to be the hidden outpost of a malevolent entity from the depths of unknown space, an alien laboratory in which nefarious experiments were conducted under the unwitting nose of humanity.
Not that the typical human ever learned of this, naturally. Almost immediately following the battle, shadowy agents of even more shadowy arms of the government descended on the ravaged high-rise like carrion crows on a conventional battlefield. Alien technology, after all, was not something considered to be for the public's consumption, as a general rule. Rather than risk transporting the damaged technology that remained to a more secure facility, the government opted to continue with the location's subterfuge, concocting a story of mechanical failures and declaring the building unfit for habitation until a full repair and renovation was completed, using the bustle of reconstruction to cover the creation a new lab, this one designed to study and experiment upon the technology of the old. Perhaps doing so in the middle of a populated metropolis was not the wisest course of action, but this was government bureaucracy at work, after all.
However, the full folly of that decision was made painfully obvious one spring evening, when the clandestine research facility came under attack by a mysterious enemy. A, 18-wheeler pulling a large container trailer crashed through the guarded gates and into the lobby of the building, it's rear hatches open to disgorge nearly two-dozen men in heavy combat gear and armed with military-grade weaponry. With staggering brutality, they swiftly fought their way to the labs on the building's upper levels, the defensive fire of the well-armed and well-trained security officers not causing a single casualty among their ranks.
Entering the lab, the assailants swiftly locked it down, only then removing their masks and helmets to reveal grinning, metallic skulls.
By this time, sirens could be heard blaring in the streets below, and the sound of many boots and voices echoed up from the lower levels. Any fight to escape the building would be much tougher than the one that gained the attackers entry, but that would only be a factor if escape was one of the mission parameters.
It was not.
With fittingly robotic efficiency, the metallic aggressors placed high explosives at strategic locations, designed to eliminate any traces of the otherwordly tech beyond a shadow of a doubt. Once these were in place, they were detonated without hesitation. The resulting explosion, while not enough to level the building in its entirety, would all but vaporize its upper level, sending molten bits of slag raining upon the streets and only adding to the chaos of the night's events.
In the aftermath, the government's official statement would place the blame squarely on the shoulders of an environmental terrorist organization, despite that group's vehement denial of the charges. With no surviving witnesses and the only identified remains belonging to their own employees, however, the true nature of the attackers could not be proven.
Suspicion, however, required little in the way of proof.
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