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GoI-998 Wreck-21, 12/6/2015. Note the minimal corrosion.
Registered Phenomena Code: 998
Object Class: Alpha-Yellow (pending review)
Hazard Types: Extra-dimensional Hazard, Destabilization Hazard
Containment Protocols: The primary region where RPC-998 manifested itself is fairly benign. Transient passive monitoring of its activity continues, although the main reality distortion field has been considered neutralized since 8/7/1953. Containment will focus on the shipwrecks left from Incident-998-53, which are not considered anomalous but must still be retrieved to maintain secrecy. Oceanographic mapping efforts, tours, cruises, diving expeditions, and other marine traffic must be monitored in order to direct them away from RPC-998 and its immediate environs to avoid civilian contact with sensitive materials.
All RPC-998 salvaging efforts are organized at and are based from the Authority naval base AH-22; there is a small research wing housing all twelve recovered vessels and which serves as the site for researching this salvage. This includes other Invader artifacts of interest, such as aircraft, smaller watercraft, personal effects, etc. All research teams assigned to be on-site at RPC-998 have standing orders to alert the chain of command immediately should the field once again enter a phase of greater activity.
Description: RPC-998 is a roughly circular field of weakened reality 300 km2 large in the Central Pacific Ocean, about 1200 kilometers off the southern coast of Hawaii. Prior to its neutralization on 8/7/1953, it served as a Thorne-Taylor direct physical linkage between Earth and a planet or region of space with extremely similar qualities to the non-anomalous Pacific Ocean surrounding it, designated Continuity-998. While displaying certain properties that allowed for a safe interface with the surroundings, RPC-998 on Earth and its corresponding region elsewhere exchanged locations temporarily.
Taylor-monitoring records do not extend to the pre-1950 period, but it seems that its active phase began sometime after 1945. For most of this period, it went unnoticed by the world as most shipping lines were far from its area. It is known that in the period between 1946 and Incident-998-53, it was a staging area for espionage operations on the part of GOI-998, a large, highly organized military force that is known to exist on the counterpart region that RPC-998 connects Earth to.
Ultimately, this espionage ended in a large-scale armed conflict between naval elements of GOI-998 and the Authority's Pacific Fleet (Incident-998-53), which resulted in the destruction of the GOI-998 fleet and the successful containment of RPC-998 itself. Remnants of the Taylor field remain, but they show vastly less activity than prior to 8/7/1953, and the linkage between Earth and the unknown region is presumed severed. Some researchers have petitioned that RPC-998 should be considered Neutralized for this reason. A review of these petitions is still ongoing.
Due to the great difficulty of marine salvage operations, resource constraints, and residual radiation, only twelve of the thirty-two wrecks currently lying immediately underneath RPC-998 have been retrieved so far. After six decades undersea, little remains of the sunken Authority fleet, but the GOI-998 fleet has been surprisingly resilient to natural corrosion. Scientific study of the recovered vessels has revealed unique use of ultralight, saltwater-resistant composites, and alloys within their hulls. All of the largest vessels have remained relatively unexplored and untouched, but it is presumed their construction utilized similar materials.
