RPC Authority

Purpose: To summarize the events concerning the Sub Vesuvia sanctuary which took place in the period from 25/07/1943 to 07/05/1944 and recommend further action.
Author(s): Dr. Anselmo Sorci, Agent Oscar Bull, [REDACTED].
To: [REDACTED], Head of the Western Command.
Date: 10/05/1944

DAFA involvement:

According to the testimony of brother Andrew, agents of the German Anomalous Research Division and soldiers of the Waffen-SS arrived on-site on the first of August 1943 - seven days after Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was removed from power and imprisoned. Previously Mussolini had not allowed any GARD agents into the area, citing Article IV of the secret appendix to the Lateran treaty, according to which the Abbey of the Order of St. John the Hesychast was under the authority of the Holy See.

Fearing the worst, the monks used anomalous means to "seal" the monastery from the approaching German troops. Brother Andrew refused to speak of the anomaly used. Data gathered from the interrogation of pvt. Günter Fiebig indicates that the monastery became practically invincible to any physical manipulation - an attempt to blow the main door with a panzerfaust did not result in any visible damage to it or the nearby rose bushes. Facing this predicament, the German contingent put the monastery to siege and waited for additional reinforcements. On the night of August the 12th the Germans used makeshift siege ladders to silently climb into the building's courtyard. Once there it took them more than 30 hours to completely disable the protective anomaly. The following captures and interrogations took the life of 12 monks.

The GARD made no effort to thoroughly research any of the objects on site or transfer them to the Reich, leaving the monks to perform their containment duties. Working with great haste due to the unstable situation on the Italian front they demolished a part of the eastern wall in the crypt, unveiling an entrance into a lava tube. According to the monastery archives the chassis was accidentally discovered during the crypt's construction and 300m of it (in both directions) were explored up to points where the ceiling had collapsed. Both the 16th century explorers and the GARD noted traces of much earlier human presence. Encouraged by this discovery the Germans pushed on to clear the debris blocking the passage and explore further in the direction of the Vesuvius summit.

British X Corps involvement:

After the success of the allied landings in Salerno (09/09/1943) all members of the Waffen-SS were ordered to evacuate the site, leaving some 15 GARD personnel behind and significantly slowing the clearing of the tunnel. By the 29th of September the British X Corps surrounded Mount Vesuvius on their way to Naples but were initially misled by locals that all German troops had left the area. The remnants of the German unit managed to keep a low profile for 6 months until negligence led to the escape of Brother Mateo, who notified allied command and requested contact with the Authority. On 12/03/1944 soldiers of the British 46th Infantry Division attacked the Abbey killing all 9 defenders. Two more had perished in the hands of Brother Mateo during his daring escape and two were court-martialed earlier for advocating for surrender. The commanding GARD officer and the senior researcher were never found. The soldiers who went looking for them underground traveled more than a kilometer in the darkness before triggering an explosive trap which killed all of them immediately and collapsed the surrounding tunnel.

Authority involvement:

The Eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 1944

Despite Authority operational abilities being stretched to their limits due to the Austral war and WWII, a RAVAAF¹ company managed to arrive in six days. On arrival Authority personnel were told that everything in the crypt was under control by the Order and denied access. However, they were forced to evacuate the monks due to the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius which had began the previous day. Due to the removal of its anomalous defenses the Abbey was destroyed by the eruption. Only the crypt was spared along with the three monks left inside to take care of containment. The surviving British soldiers were temporarily transferred under RAVAAF command.

A possible connection between the GARD operation and the costly volcanic eruption immediately caught the interest of the Authority and the allied forces. This assumption was made based on the GARD's disinterest in the anomalous objects supposedly hosted in the Crypt and their efforts to clear a path leading in the direction of the Volcano's cauldron. Arguing that the Order of St. John the Hesychast had no authority on anomalies beyond the crypta sub Vesuvia, RAVAAF personnel under the command of Sgt. Ray Daniels started a mining operation aiming to reach the lava tube from outside of the monastery. The month-long excavations followed the crypt's eastern wall but failed to reach the cave, leading them to believe it was part of a dimensional anomaly. At some point during this period brother Andrew left the monastery without notice and crossed into German-occupied Italy.

Further requests to access the crypt to reach the anomaly were denied. On 05/05/1944 Sgt. Daniels gave command to force the entrance and arrest the monks without the use of lethal force. His soldiers were discouraged from doing so by several warning shots from the monks inside, who had armed themselves with left-behind German weapons. Once again the Order was put to siege. Two days later brother Andrew returned with a couple of letters. One signed by Pope Pius XII, asking the authority to cease any operations in the area and one from the ███ stating that they consider the Order as de jure part of their organisation and threatening retaliatory action. Brother Andrew claimed that the Order had no previous dealings with the ███ and that the letter was handed to him by a boy on the streets of Rome.

Recommendations:

Having regard to the above-mentioned series of events, we recommend:

1. The Authority withdraw all of its assets from the monastery.
2. The Authority gather more intelligence on the GARD operation in the area.
3. The Authority continue negotiations with the Holy See and the monks of the abbey to gain access to the crypt.
4. The Authority conduct further research on Mt. Vesuvius and anomalous activity in the area.
5. The Authority design a strategy for the evacuation or destruction of all anomalous objects from the crypta sub Vesuvia in case of a German counter-offensive or communist takeover in Italy.