Between January 2198 and March 2200, GLMZ orbital imaging has captured twenty-three instances of structures appearing at coordinates that ground survey confirms are empty. The structures are not artifacts of sensor malfunction. They cast shadows consistent with the sun's position at the time of imaging. They have rooflines, walls, roads connecting them. Several appear to include vehicles. One image, captured over the Wisconsin highlands on August 3rd, 2199, shows what appears to be a settlement of approximately forty buildings with smoke rising from three chimneys.

The coordinates have been visited by ground teams within hours of each capture. The sites are empty. Not abandoned — empty. No foundations. No cleared ground. No tire tracks. No footprints. No evidence that any structure has ever existed at the location. The vegetation is undisturbed. The soil is uncompacted. The ground is exactly as it would be if nothing had ever been built there, which — according to every physical evidence method available — nothing has.

The structures are not consistent across sightings. Some appear to be pre-Collapse architecture — wooden frames, shingled roofs, styles that have not been built in the GLMZ since the 2050s. Others appear modern. One set, captured over the Indiana dead zone, appeared to be constructed from materials that our imaging analysts could not identify — angular, dark, with surface properties that do not match any known construction material.

The shadows are the detail that disturbs our team most. The structures are not there. The ground teams confirm they are not there. But the shadows they cast in the satellite images interact correctly with the terrain — they fall across hills, they pool in depressions, they shorten and lengthen with the time of day. Whatever is casting those shadows obeys the physics of light and geometry perfectly. It simply does not exist.