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External view of RPC-171.
Registered Phenomena Code: 171
Object Class: Gamma-Orange
Hazard Types: Mechanical Hazard, Extreme Temperature Hazard, Extra-dimensional Hazard, Memory Alteration Hazard
Containment Protocols: A 25km exclusion zone has been established around RPC-171. The government of the Russian Federation has been cooperative with the Authority in this matter: due to geographical proximity (and the scarcity of Authority assets in the Russian Arctic), Russian naval and air forces are responsible for enforcing the exclusion zone.
OL-Site-171-RU has been established in a small building in the new Russian military base on the Franz Josef Land archipelago. Research expeditions to RPC-171 are to be attempted at the Site commander's discretion, pursuant on weather conditions and availability of leased Russian vehicles.
Owing to the extreme cold in and around RPC-171, personnel entering RPC-171 during an expedition must wear special environmental hardsuits and maintain constant radio contact with their command vehicle.
Rising Arctic temperatures and the resultant drifting pack ice continues to change RPC-171's location; in future years, there is the threat that RPC-171 will drift towards shipping lanes or coastal population centers. As RPC-171's extreme temperature phenomena form a permanent ice pack around it, the huge mass is only influenced by the wind in summer months, making containment infeasible. Studies for altering RPC-171's direction of travel in the summer months are ongoing.
Description: RPC-171 is a heavily damaged Wind-class conventional icebreaker exhibiting acute anomalous phenomena, frozen into Arctic pack ice (currently 45km north of Franz Josef Land, an archipelago in the Russian Arctic.) As all baseline Wind-class vessels are accounted for, RPC-171 must be regarded as extra-dimensional in origin; this conclusion is supported by the phenomena and material evidence detailed below.
The immediate exterior of RPC-171 (approx. 200m) is extremely cold, with a consistent air temperature of -76°C (-105°F). A rough path has been hewn into the pack ice by previous Authority expeditions, leading up to the sole access point to RPC-171's interior: a hatchway on the rearward side of the superstructure. All other access points and windows are frozen in place and impassable to the limited dexterity afforded by environmental hardsuits.
From the interior of RPC-171. Note the disruptive level of ice and decayed machinery.
The interior of RPC-171 is even harsher, with a consistent temperature of -84°C (-120°F) and dangerous material conditions. The blueprints to a baseline Wind-class icebreaker have been minimally helpful. Severe internal damage from liquids freezing & other unclear sources has transformed RPC-171, particularly below the waterline, into a frozen maze. Many parts of the structure are exceptionally brittle in the cold, and there have been several incidents of collapsing floors.
The vast majority of equipment, interior fittings, cargo, or personal belongings are destroyed and frozen under layers of ice & snow. Circumstantial evidence, particularly the near-total erasure of identifying details (personal names, country of origin, etc), suggests that the internal decay is at least partially anomalous & targeted in nature.
Addendum 171-A: Recovered Material
Authority expeditions into RPC-171 have discovered, with great difficulty, several examples of reasonably legible text. As the technological level of RPC-171 & its equipment is conventional and outdated (with the exception of an unknown, destroyed "device" that transported RPC-171 to our timeline), text is the only source of information on RPC-171's original timeline, which suggests severe deviations from the baseline. However, as noted before, most written information appears to have been expunged by an unknown force.
All materials listed below were discovered in a damaged, incomplete state, preserved by the extreme cold. However, attempting to remove objects with legible text or identifying marks from RPC-171 invariably results in severe material deterioration. All efforts to remove these objects from RPC-171 while preserving their recovered state have failed. Removal efforts have been halted, and modern Authority expeditions are solely focused on documentation; the upper galley has been transformed into a makeshift storage site, and portable objects are relocated there.
171-RM-4
Recovery Details: Found on a table in the lower galley.
Description: Titled as a menu for "dependents".
December 24th, U.C.S. [Illegible].
1/4 portion mixed emergency rations (rice/leather, boiled).
extra 1/4 portion available for deck volunteers
Pipe water.
really contaminated ask for cup w/ string to get snow off the side
Printed by [Illegible]
Hey, 1st. class cook [Illegible] writing this. You hate me, I hate you. You lot are going to starve soon, so it doesn't matter, but for what its worth I'm sorry. We have to keep the ship moving. The Congressman won't be [Illegible] I know any who could join the crew already has, but if you've still got kids on their feet, I can call them an 'assistant' and get them the extra rations. They'll have to live in the bow quarters
171-RM-9
Recovery Details: Nameplate set over an entryway to an especially devastated room. All surfaces inside are covered in ice and soot. Several recognizable instruments & books disintegrated when touched.
Description: Nameplate reads:
Historical Archives Office.
On the final journey of the Republic, we will not forget our rich history! Truth is the enemy of the Crowns' lies.
171-RM-12/25
Recovery Details: Discovered in a filing cabinet in an officer's mess.
Description: Several hundred printed photos of apparent families. Ethnicity is predominantly Caucasian and Chinese. Two captions and part of a handwritten note tucked into a folder are the only surviving legible text.
Jiang Lei & Daniel Peterson with a child on the way, 49 Union St.
Family of Preston Zhen, Sgt. of the Sino-Columbian Republic in happier days. 157 Coastal Rd.
[…] and with the choice bits of the state archives of the Republic and the free [Illegible] states stuffing every spare room in this ship, this ought to be the only record of [Illegible] Town in all the world. And I am its last son. It was the least I could do for their memory, for a wonderful and vibrant mixed community, and mourn how short it lasted and celebrate the brief flowering…
I never saw natives and transfers have more harmony, even with all the news and the raids. I hope generations to come, wherever we end up, can look through all the faces and see the humanity. Imagine the sights they saw and the stories they could tell. I will take the regret with me to the grave that I couldn't sneak more aboard the vessel.
171-RM-15
Recovery Details: Discovered on a fragment of a disassembled portable generator.
Description: Manufacterer's markings read:
Howlett-Xiuying Industry - Seattle - est. 1978
171-RM-17
Recovery Details: Scrawled into the wall in the engine room; the rest of the room is an indiscernible mess of wrecked machinery and ice.
Description: The writings appear to be an ersatz engineer's log for the aforementioned device.
STARTUP ATTEMPTS:
|||| ||
FUEL RUNNING LOW, TRYING JACKSON'S IDEA
KILL US ALL
THEY ALREADY HIT US WITH THOSE CRYSTAL MISSILES, NO TIME. NEXT SHIFT, ACTIVATE
I DID I-
171-RM-18
Recovery Details: Only legible passage in a diary recovered from the RPC-171's radio room. The equipment was destroyed by water/ice damage from a burst pipe running along the ceiling.
Description: Text in scrawled, haphazard handwriting; theorized to be written by someone suffering frostbite on their hands. The radio equipment may have required glove-less operation, though this is impossible to confirm.
I hope I'm dreaming, or dead. Radio has been useless since the engineers activated the [Illegible] Device. Christ have mercy, I can't believe what I'm seeing past the glass. Even with the horrific weapons the Crowns' [Illegible] used on us when we were escaping - and God, have they made it cold!! We are traveling through time and I occasionally see some drugged vomit from my high school geometry class turned into a whole world, passing by…
Are we even sailing anymore? Or floating in some horrible void? No wonder they won't let anybody topside. God, the archivist, [Illegible] has been telling me about the knowledge we have in the hold. We can't let the Crowns snuff that out. It has to be saved. Hundreds of millions left behind, culture and history, they must be remembered.
God, I want to be remembered. I've lived a life as real as any, I don't want to be forgotten. None of the views outside seem very real, like I'll be swallowed up - did God follow us through, or is he property of the Twin Crowns too? This is Radio Operator Sarah B. [Illegible] I will write again soon. Not much else to do.
171-RM-23
Recovery Details: Election poster on the floor of the captain's quarters, legible beneath a half-meter of clear ice.
Description: A stylized depiction of a bearded man dominates the poster. Notably, the large-font printed text is largely intact.
DON'T GIVE THOSE MONARCHIST BASTARDS AN INCH
EVERY VOTE IS A BULLET IN THE BACK OF A EURO INVADER
RE-ELECT JOHNNY QIANG FOR WASHINGTON/LIAONING-EXILES SENATOR
A handwritten message is scrawled at the bottom of the poster.
Things were simpler then, huh? Hate the Crowns, win over the transfers and the natives with your genuine, earnest respect… Johnny, you're so honest. I love you for it, and everything else. Neither of us could make an exception when I didn't get picked in the lottery, left behind on the Seattle dock, it's cruel to make you read that but you can't deceive yourself. Not now, and not with everything riding on you. Stop thinking about the beautiful days we had. You put this together, you defied the blockade; now see it through and find them a new home. I'll be with you the whole way. I swear it.
forever yours, [Illegible]
171-RM-25
Recovery Details: Message scraped into the hull in the forward bilge.
Description:
Still drifting. The Crowns cursed us. Everyone is fading. Can't feel my legs. I think this is it.
See you in a bit, Milly. I hope my soul can still go back.
Addendum 171-B: Anomalous Phenomena
RPC-171-1 is the designation for intermittent sightings of foreign landscapes through portholes in RPC-171's hull.
- A tropical coast, filled with gigantic crabs. The decomposing remains of an enormous (approx. 120m) squid is visible.
- An endless yellow sea. The sky is filled with zeppelins flying in apparently organized lanes.
- The remains of a sea battle; the blackened hulks of WW1-era warships and bobbing corpses are visible for kilometers around.
- Complete pitch blackness, save for a tiny light illuminating a distant buoy.
- Violent, disorienting geometric shapes & flashing colors. A fishing trawler & a modified Boeing-707 jetliner are visible, suspended in air.
- A calm blue sea. What appear to be mountains moving at an estimated ~200kmph are visible on the horizon, maneuvering and crashing against each other.
RPC-171-2 is the designation for recurring incorporeal, cognito-hazard phenomena. 171-2 manifests at irregular times and locations inside RPC-171's hull, with a statistical preference (75% of recorded instances) in remote corners of the lower hull, engineering passageways, or behind the aforementioned barricaded doors. The presence of a 171-2 manifestation is physically indicated by a spherical area of warmer air; when a human brings their head into this sphere, the anomalous cognito-hazard effect is triggered. Affected individuals report foreign memories and emotions, often in a disorienting and intrusive manner. The content of these cognito-hazard effects have been best interpreted by staff psychologists & Anti-memetics Department personnel: their accounts, anonymously logged below, provide clues to the lives of RPC-171's crew.
RPC-171-2-1:
Extreme feeling of lethargy, I nearly collapsed - was kneeling to stick my head in it. Like most of the manifestations, position seems about right for somebody sitting against the wall, where their head ought to have been. This guy was unbearably lonely. Even with Engineer Makarov standing right behind, I think I forgot everyone I ever knew, like - that kind of primal awareness of other humans being out there, somewhere, absolutely gone. I can hardly describe it. Aware of the ship, and the walls, and the ice and the unbearable scale of the landscape outside.
RPC-171-2-5:
An overwhelming sense of loss. My eyes drifted with the memory to the porthole; facing south. Thoughts were entirely centered on a vague face, a splash of auburn hair in warm wind. Deeply remembering someone, but also aware that it is absolutely gone forever, no matter what this journey comes to. Can't stress that enough. It turned from loss, a kind of mourning, into full awareness of the loss - the permanence. A broken heart, but at least it - he - wasn't lying to himself.
RPC-171-2-8:
Smart guy. I'm - me, I mean, not the borrowed memory - terrible at math, charts, but he - she - sure wasn't. Despair, the kind of helplessness you feel when you're an expert - when you know the exact details of why and how it's doomed. Those charts are still burned into my mind, triangulating the pursuing ships and aircraft, guiding the vessel away… and how they will inevitably trap you. Staring at that, going over all the routes, and seeing how it will end. And the only hope is an insane leap of faith, the device being activated; I could taste her disdain, and also her fear of where they would go. Out of her knowing - everybody is counting on you, and it's very stressful, but fate is solidly in your hands. Get rid of that, and suddenly it's the fear of the unknown. From navigator to passenger.
RPC-171-2-15
Heavy sense of responsibility. Beautiful memories pushed to the side, same pain of loss - and being out of your depth. Everyone looking up to me - you - to him, and you half spouting what the technical officers & scientists are saying. Politician out of his depth, he's a politician. Sorrow and determination all mixed up and hardened. Lying to yourself. But what can you do?
RPC-171-2-25
I'll keep this log at the bottom, as it applies to over 3/4s of the 171-2 manifestations. The scant details change; faces, memories, but it's all dull and blurs together. Many people with the same feelings; utter loneliness. Sense of self is buried under the cold, under the despair, and it's fading. Distant sorrow. The details don't really matter, it's all the same. They all felt the same in their last few minutes, propped up against a wall in a corner of the ship. Cold, more than anything else. Cold, fading, and then the memory is gone and the manifestation ends.
