Document: Excerpt from a letter stored in the Monarch Security Historical Archive:
The following document, copied to the Authority as part of the PJCA, was sent by Major Lawrence Grand, head of Secret Intelligence Service Section D to a person or persons identified as K.H., whom Monarch Security representatives have identified as being the head of that organization in 1938.
Another useful piece of information your boffins might find helpful has tumbled into our lap. It is a letter from a retired Liverpool amateur radio enthusiast who claims to have developed a simple, mechanically reliable device which he says can make a grown man lose control of his bowels at fifty paces. He originally sent the plans and a functional prototype to the Office of the General staff, of all places, who forwarded it on to us. My men have tested the thing and can't make heads or tails of it, but I believe the particular skill set of your organization could best employ it.
Document: Excerpt from a Monarch Security weapons testing report, circa 1939:
Through the spring and summer of 1939, MI13 researchers experimented on and refined the RPC-223 prototype, which they referred to as the Type 1 Amplifier, Electromagnetic, to disguise its function. The original creator of RPC-223, a retired plumber from Liverpool named [DATA EXPUNGED], died of natural causes while working for MI13 in 1948.
The RPC-223 research work was designated Project JOB, because "it would make the enemy live in filth and misery."
Test # 5
Range: 30 ft
Unit Employed: Type 1-2
Effects: Device activated for 2 seconds and pointed at target's left index finger, which was secured on test stand. Subject complained of slight itching in the finger before violently voiding his bowels. Process continued for ten (10) minutes. Device was reactivated and fired at subject's torso with no effect. […] During subsequent test on subject 3 hours later, device functioned as normal.
Conclusions: Type-1 effect is activated by exposure to the device's beam for any length of time. Any part of the body can be exposed to the beam for the effect to occur. Symptoms of mild itching followed by violent muscle spasms and loss of bowel control consistent through all tests. Refractory period between effects of minimum 1 hour has been noted in all cases.
Over several months of testing, MI13 developed three different variants on the RPC-223 principle, refining the design and making it significantly more compact. Great improvements in range were also achieved. While Type 1 variants were bulky and had an effective range of less than 20 meters, the Type 3 variants could reliably hit targets nearly 10km away, were easily man-portable, and could be constructed from a variety of parts salvageable from civilian radios and optical equipment.
[…] It is the conclusion of this testing committee that Project JOB devices present a valuable new weapon in our covert arsenal against the German threat. They are nonlethal, perfectly accurate over very long ranges, easy to break down and reconstruct, and almost impossible to detect without extremely specialized equipment. Indeed, as tests #128 and #129 proved, only a detector aligned almost perfectly with the device's beam output could detect anything, as the beam naturally cancels itself when off-alignment.
BEGIN MASS-PRODUCING JOB DEVICES LATER.
-D.
Our only concern remains the lack of a physiological understanding of why it is that the device's effect takes place. A variety of medical experiments have revealed that it only consistently functions on human beings. It demonstrates remarkably consistent results regardless of physical stature, stomach contents, age, health, sex, etc. However, in light of the control-ability and stability of the anomaly involved, we feel that the benefits of Project JOB far outweigh any dangers.
MI13 supplied dozens of RPC-223 Type 3 to the Special Operations Executive between 1939-1945, and they were heavily employed as part of propaganda, subversion and morale disruption efforts. Authority researchers have been unable to determine exactly how many RPC-223 instances were constructed or utilized during the Second World War, and the Authority's involvement in the Austral War at the time led to the nature or existence of Project JOB, and its employment in, for instance, occupied France going unnoticed by Authority observers.
In late 1951, MI13 researchers developed the final version of RPC-223, designated the Type 4 Amplifier, Electromagnetic. This variant had even greater range than prior versions, and a notable capacity for penetrating walls or barriers- testing at the time revealed that the beam could penetrate six feet of reinforced concrete, and hit targets at the bottom of a 20-meter-deep lake with no reduction in beam coherency.
Document: Excerpt from a Monarch Security internal memo, early 1952:
Most of this document was heavily censored and redacted when provided to the Authority as part of the PJCA, but indicates a growing concern among MI13's staff about Project JOB.
The incident of last month indicates that the Project may have overstepped its bounds. That a member of our security staff could not only construct their own JOB emitter in their own home but employ it against a direct superior indicates not only a gross breach of military protocol and discipline, but also implications worrying for the sake of national security.
The JOB devices are simple, concealable and, as of the Type 4, completely unable to be blocked or neutralized except by counter-jamming on a scale unfeasible for any sort of wide-scale protection. They can be constructed in the field and maintained by relative amateurs, and we have just spent nearly seven years training relative amateurs on the means of their use.
While none of us deny the success of JOB, I believe that retroactively our security may have been too lax. We have done the equivalent of teaching hundreds of children how to construct explosives, and then letting them loose upon the world- I fear the havoc a single disgruntled former agent of ours with a home-made JOB emitter could wreak. And God help us if one gets into the hands of the Soviets.
Over the next year, MI13 began what was apparently a harsh suppression program to reduce knowledge of the RPC-223 program from within its own ranks, which only furthered the illegal use of the devices. The agency nearly dissolved into internal conflicts, with various factions arguing for different solutions to the problem of RPC-223 security.
During an incident at the MI13 headquarters on the 2nd of May, 1953, somewhere in northern Scotland an RPC-223 Type 4 emitter was accidentally discharged at a high angle, directing its beam upwards.
Document: Excerpt from radio communications between AV Olalla and Authority Ground Control Station Melbourne, 2 May 1953.
The Authority Research Division vessel Olalla, with a crew of two (Lt. ████████ S██████ and Sub-Lt. ███ Q█████) was testing a prototype high-sensitivity radio telescope in high Lunar orbit at the time.
Ground Control Melbourne: Okay, Olalla, let's move onto the next sequence.
Q█████: Roger, Control. We've got the array locked at azimuth two-niner.
S██████: Coil stability looks good from here. You copy, control?
C: Telemetry clear on our end. You are cleared to begin sequence 94.
Q: Roger, starting test and calibration sequence 94.
S: Damn.
C: Something the matter, Olalla?
Q: Readouts look good. Array is live and recording.
S: Just an itch. Carry on with the-
[Microphones aboard Olalla record a loud rumbling noise.]
Q: Jesus Christ!
S: [Pained grunting.]
Q: Fuck! Oh fuck!
C: Olalla, what's going on up there? Do you copy?
Q: Oh Christ, what did you eat?!
S: [Sound of vomiting.]
During the test, the beam from the RPC-223 instance fired in Scotland intersected the crew compartment of AV Olalla, causing Lt. S██████ to experience its effects. The vessel's radio telescope, which was functioning at the time, accurately recorded the source and nature of the weapon's beam, allowing it to be tracked to its rough location of firing.
The Authority registered a protest with the British Government via the United Nations Anomalous Activities Committee, which was answered by representatives from MI13. It was quickly established based on records from both sides that the firing of the RPC-223 device had exactly coincided with the moment of impact with the Olalla. The device's beam had propagated over a distance of more than 380,000km instantaneously, with no loss of signal strength.
The implications of this event led to the formation of the Project JOB Containment Agreement on the 28th of June, 1953, in which MI13 agreed to share details on RPC-223 in exchange for the Authority assisting with the suppression and destruction of all remaining RPC-223 plans and devices save for the two copies still in containment.
Document: Excerpt from a speech by Senior Researcher Seymour Kreuz to the UNAAC, 28 June, 1953
I know there's been a great deal of levity behind this project from many of you, and I appreciate that on the surface the whole affair appears faintly ludicrous. Our colleagues at MI13 have created a device which, while totally harmless to one's health, is utterly so to one's dignity, and fear a world where any enemy agent can make world leaders void their bowels at the most inconvenient moments.
But the real threat derived from Project JOB is hardly terrestrial. In tests over the past month, we have proved that the beam emitted by a JOB device is not affected by the limitations of the speed of light. It can hit a target beyond the orbit of Mars with apparent ease, and the beam seems to continue off into the void indefinitely.
Each time we fire a Project JOB device, there is a statistical certainty that somewhere out there the beam is intersecting with an alien world orbiting an alien star. The beam then passes through the planet- our tests have confirmed that matter presents no obstacle to it- and continues to propagate outwards. There is thus an equal statistical certainty that somewhere, eventually, that beam intersects with a life form.
Humanity has discharged Type 4 emitters hundreds, possibly thousands of times in the past several years, hitting untold numbers of targets. If your neighbor kept firing a pellet gun into your yard- even if it was harmless- wouldn't you want to investigate and stop them? That is the risk posed by Project JOB.
As of 2019, there are still 7 RPC-223 Type 4 emitters unaccounted for.
