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RPC-043 prior to construction.
Registered Phenomena Code: 043
Object Class: Alpha-White (Utility)
Hazard Types: Mechanical Hazard, Electromagnetic Force Hazard
Containment Protocols: Due to RPC-043’s remote location and the harsh environmental conditions surrounding Site-075, it is highly unlikely any civilians will accidentally discover RPC-043, making security patrols around the site unnecessary. Instead, motion detectors will be situated every 90 meters around a 1500 meter radius surrounding Site-075. In the event that motion is detected and confirmed to be human in origin, Authority Security Force units will be dispatched to intercept the trespassers. If the trespassers are civilians, the ASF units are to redirect them away from the site under the guise of ecological conservation concerns. If the trespassers are a military force or otherwise hostile to the Authority, the ASF units are authorized to use lethal force against them to defend Site-075.
Civilian mapping services are to be modified to cover up a 25km radius around RPC-043 and Site-075, and all commercial and military flights are to be redirected to avoid the airspace above this same area.
On a bi-monthly basis, the nuclear reactors of Site-075 are to be inspected and repaired as necessary. If at any point a reactor must be disabled or fails on its own, power must be siphoned from RPC-███ until the reactor(s) can be repaired and full power can be restored to RPC-043. Due to the unpredictable nature of this event, the use of RPC-███ to provide power to RPC-043 is indefinitely suspended.
Research into using other anomalous items in Authority custody in order to provide energy for RPC-043 is ongoing.
In order to meet the growing power demands of RPC-043, more nuclear reactors are to be built in Site-075. Due to the high cost of transporting all the necessary components for the reactors to be built in secrecy, as well as the difficulty of employing enough nuclear power specialists to maintain them, new reactors will be built as soon as RPC-043’s power demand eclipses the power generation of the current reactors at Site-075.
According to Authority projections, a new reactor must be installed within:
0 years, 7 months, 3 days
Description: RPC-043 is a machine designed to generate an anomalous field of energy projected around the Earth. RPC-043 was designed in 1951 during a clandestine joint operation between the United States and the USSR under the name “Project Tiresias.” RPC-043 is housed in a facility 1.6km underneath the Gakkel Ridge within the Arctic circle. The said facility, as well as the ground above it, is to be designated Site-075.
Surviving documentation regarding Project Tiresias expressed that the intended effect of the energy field, designated RPC-043-1, was to repel any life forms outside of Earth’s exosphere away from the planet. To do this, the field was to produce a Cognito-hazardous effect creating the perception that the Earth is completely lifeless and uninhabitable for all forms of life. The objective was to have a fixed perimeter around the Earth occupied by this field in order to prevent any alien life forms from interfering with life on Earth.
Either due to a flaw in RPC-043’s construction or due to the nature of the anomalous mechanisms necessary to its function, the actual effects of RPC-043-1 deviated from its original design. Rather than generating a fixed energy field around the exosphere of Earth, RPC-043-1 continually expanded outward into space. This expansion has continued since the initial activation of RPC-043 and is recorded to be accelerating. Current Authority predictions estimate that RPC-043-1 is expanding at a rate of 0.█c per year. This establishes that RPC-043-1 may have a radius of ██AU around Earth.
This expansion has also resulted in RPC-043 requiring significantly more power than initially intended, while also causing its energy demands to continually grow. The original specifications of RPC-043 required only a single graphite-moderated nuclear reactor to operate at 100% capacity. In the years of its continued and expanded operation, its power demand has grown to require the installation of █ pressurized heavy water reactors within Site-075. If the power demand of RPC-043 continues to grow at its current rate, modern non-anomalous power sources will be inadequate in providing RPC-043 with enough power to function within [DATA EXPUNGED] years.
RPC-043 during installation into Site-075.
After the fall of the USSR, the U.S. took full control of the operation of RPC-043. In 20██, the power demands of RPC-043 exceeded the U.S.’s ability, and thus was willingly turned over to Authority custody for containment with the expressed orders to keep the machine powered at all costs. Due to the highly secretive nature and circumstances of RPC-043’s construction, very little documentation concerning the function of RPC-043 exists, nor how the anomalous mechanism was created. Disassembly for the study is prohibited due to the unpredictable and dangerous effects of disabling RPC-043. Moving RPC-043 from Site-075 is also impossible at this time for the same reasons.
See interview log 043-A for details regarding the effects of RPC-043-1 upon deactivation of RPC-043.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, several U.S. and Russian scientists speculated to have worked on the development of RPC-043 died under unusual circumstances. Of the remaining █ members of Project Tiresias still alive, one is in Authority custody, with the remaining members reported missing since 1991. █ are assumed to be in Russian internment, while the whereabouts of the others are unknown.
Interviewed: J████ M██████, a former member of the research team of Project Tiresias. Abbreviated as “J.M.” for the purposes of this interview.
Interviewer: Dr. Green
Foreword: This interview was conducted shortly after RPC-043 was turned over to the Authority. After documentation regarding the device was provided to the Authority, efforts were made to locate surviving members of Project Tiresias to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms of the anomaly. As Authority security forces approached J.M., an unknown assailant attempted to assassinate him with a suppressed firearm. Authority Security was able to defend J.M. against the attack, but the assailant escaped. Their motivation or allegiances are unknown at this time.
[BEGIN LOG]
Dr Green: Please tell us everything you know about project Tiresias.
J.M.: Or what? You’ll keep me locked up here?
Dr Green: You were brought here for your own safety. That man could still be after you, for all we know.
J.M.: What if someone didn’t try to kill me, would it still be for my own safety?
Dr Green: Please answer our questions. It will benefit all of us.
J.M.: Sounds familiar. [He pauses for a moment and stares at the table.] I can’t tell you how the machine itself works.
Dr Green: Why not? You were a member of the research team.
J.M.: We just put the thing together. The Russians gave us the materials. Soviets, I mean. I know that’s what you’re looking for.
Dr Green: What can you tell us about what they gave you?
J.M.: We didn’t know what they were. [REDACTED] just told us where to put them and not to ask any questions, he was the head of operations. You’d get a lot more out of him, but they put him down in ‘76. You’re more likely to get blood from a stone than get a peep from the Russians.
Dr Green: The Russians? Not the Soviets?
J.M.: Who do you think tried to kill me today? They’re tying up loose ends. They don’t want word getting out about Tiresias. I’m sure they’ve their own derivatives under development, somewhere.
Dr Green: Why did you continue to power the machine after its initial function failed? What’s so important about keeping it on? Is there an alien threat to our planet?
[J.M. scoffs, gritting his teeth.]
J.M.: No. Not anymore, at least. We saw them in ‘48, just little red specks from a telescope. Things weren’t good with the Soviets, but we both understood it wouldn’t make things any better with someone else butting their nose into it. We were keeping ourselves safe, and it worked. But not how we wanted it to.
Dr Green: That doesn’t answer my question. What happens if the machine turns off?
J.M.: It’ll come back for us. Total field inversion. Did they tell you about the Heindecker experiment?
Dr Green: Tell us.
[J.M. snorts.]
J.M.: Maybe it’s better they didn’t. What happens when the world thinks it’s dead? When it thinks it's not alive, and never should have been? We wouldn’t last a week. We’ve seen it before.
Note: At this time, an explosion occurred within the site where the interview was conducted. J.M. was moved to a secure holding cell for safety, but upon his entry a remote explosive device detonated, killing him as well as 5 Authority security personnel. Security cameras were scrambled throughout the site during this event, preventing the identification of the attackers. No hostile personnel were found on-site during the attack. It is possible hostile agents were embedded into the Authority and deployed during the attack. An investigation into Russian connections to this incident are ongoing.
[END LOG]
With the information that RPC-043-1 may invert if RPC-043 loses power, combined with the fact that RPC-043-1 is rapidly accelerating, it can be assumed that the inverted field will also accelerate back towards Earth. If this is true, upon the event of RPC-043 losing power, RPC-043-1 is projected to reach Earth within █ days.
Addendum 043-1: On 7/3/████, Mobile Specialized Team Sierra-1 ("Moonlighters") conducted a raid on a Russian black site within the Oldjikan state nature preserve suspected of containing anomalous items. The MST found the site abandoned seemingly within an hour before they arrived. Containment cells were found on the site as well as a series of ██MW power generators, but no anomalous items could be located. Nearly all of the physical and digital documents were apparently intentionally destroyed. Of what could be recovered, documentation relevant to Project Tiresias and RPC-043 was found. A summary of this newfound information is included below.
Investigations into Russian connections to Project Tiresias, as well as Russian subterfuge within the Authority, are ongoing.
Among the documentation recovered from the Russian site, several files referenced both Project Tiresias and RPC-043 by name. Unfortunately, all information within these documents was either corrupted or burned to the point where little useful information could be ascertained. However, documents related to Project Tiresias are dated at earliest to 1957, and the latest being 20██.
How this organization obtained Authority documentation regarding RPC-043 is unknown.
Of the few successfully recovered documents, an audio file dated 1962 was found in working condition. A transcription is provided below.
Foreword: All dialog has been translated from Russian to English for reading convenience. Contact Senior Researcher █████ ████ for alternate translations.
[BEGIN TAPE]
[The tape begins with a large amount of unintelligible audio distortion, presumably from its failed destruction]
Unidentified Voice 1: -ill commence in 45 seconds. Open the primary observation port and prepare for the activation of stage one. Stage two will commence 60 seconds after radio contact is re-obtained. Remember the exercises you did, Stepan.
Stepan: Of course. The inoculation should help, right?
Unidentified Voice 1: As far as we are aware, yes. 10 seconds now.
[There is a 20-second gap of silence until a distant buzzing or whirring noise can be heard. It grows louder over the course of 10 seconds, at its loudest it completely drowns out all audio, then it fades out similarly to how it came. Rapid, heavy breathing can be heard on one end of the radio communication.]
Stepan: Dear lord… Command! Please report! What am I seeing?! Did the test fail? What happened?! Please, anyone, please report! [Breathing becomes faster and panicked.]
Unidentified voice 1: [Away from the microphone.] His inoculations failed. The second phase will be even worse, we need to abort befor-
Unidentified voice 2: No. We won't have an opportunity like this again. All data we can get from this experiment is invaluable.
Stepan: Why isn't anyone responding?! Command, are you there? Is anyone there?! All the lights went out, this wasn't supposed to happen! Where did everyone go?! Where is the water?!
Unidentified voice 1: Stepan, relax! Remember your training, this is temporary, you're looking at someth-
Stepan: Who is this?! Where is command?! You shouldn't be talking… it shouldn't be you! No one should be there! Where is command?!
Unidentified voice 1: [Away from the microphone.] This is wrong, you know it. You know he will k-
Unidentified voice 2: Silence, the second phase is about to begin.
[A similar buzzing noise rises in intensity again, although ending abruptly after it reaches its loudest point. The frantic breathing has ceased.]
Stepan: This isn't right. It shouldn't be like this. I shouldn't be like this, shouldn't be here. Something's wrong, I'm wrong, all wrong. Make it right.
[He begins taking short, rapid breaths.]
Stepan: I have to make it right. The shuttle wasn't supposed to make it, I wasn't supposed to make it, we weren't supposed to be here. We need to make it right. The way it's supposed to be.
[The sound of tearing fabric, frantic, wet scratching, and rapid, heavy breathing are heard, interspersed with rambling, unintelligible muttering.]
Unidentified voice 2: Shut the communications relay off. Activate the return thrusters. We've gotten everything we can out of this experiment. We're done here.
[In the background, the first unidentified speaker can be heard mumbling what sounds like a short Orthodox prayer.]
[END TAPE]
