Where the River Touches the Roots

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Registered Phenomena Code: 052

Object Class: Beta-Orange Beta-Black

Hazard Types:Additional Properties: h-sentient.png Sentient h-explosive.png Explosive h-auditory.png Auditory h-mind-control.png Mind-Control h-immeasurable.png Immeasurable

Containment Protocols: RPC-052 is to be contained at Site-███ in a 4m cubed cell comprised of 1m-thick reinforced concrete, capable of maintaining integrity against detonations of up to 18 kilograms of TNT.

Access to RPC-052 is restricted, and may only be requested for research by personnel of security clearance level 4 or higher. In the event that access to RPC-052 is required, for either inspection or upon request, personnel suffering from acute or permanent hearing loss are preferred for direct interaction with the anomaly. If no such personnel are available, or personnel with undamaged hearing must enter its cell, all healthy personnel are required to wear no less than three layers of sound protection NO HEALTHY PERSONNEL ARE TO BE PERMITTED NEAR RPC-052 UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. Failure to comply will result in moderate to severe punishment, and may result in immediate termination, dependent on circumstances.

In the event of a Class-1 containment breach, RPC-052’s cell is to be remotely sealed and a concentrated chloroform solution is to be administered into the room via aerosol. In the event of a Class-2 containment breach or total containment failure, MST Echo-21 ("Sleeping Sirens") will be deployed to recontain RPC-052. Lethal force against instances of RPC-052-1 is authorized at this time. Due to the residual effects of RPC-301, MST Echo-21 is considered immune to RPC-052's hazardous properties; as such, a team of three (3) operatives have been requested to maintain a permanent garrison at Site-███.


Description: RPC-052 is a 1.2m tall statue depicting a hooded angel with its head bowed in prayer. On physical inspection it appears to be made of marble; however, mineral tests have confirmed this not to be the case. Due to its bizarre crystalline makeup and durability, it is believed that RPC-052, or at least the material it is composed of, is not of this reality.

RPC-052 does not actively display any anomalous properties for the majority of the time, and can be considered dormant in this state. However, at random intervals, RPC-052 can become active in the presence of humans. During these periods of activity, the statue’s mouth opens and begins to “sing.” When listened to by humans, RPC-052’s song will produce one of two effects in exposed subjects, seemingly determined at random.

RPC-052’s primary effect is that of a powerful memetic agent. In subjects within which this manifests, hereby referred to as RPC-052-1’s, all compulsory control of their actions is disabled as their bodies begin to act against their will. These actions are almost always geared towards extending the song’s reach and exposing it to more subjects; as a result, it is theorized that instances of RPC-052-1 are under the direct or indirect control of RPC-052. It will rarely have more than one instance under its control at any given time, though it has shown it has the ability to field any number of RPC-052-1s.

Instances that are knocked unconscious, separated from exposure to RPC-052’s anomalous effects, or are otherwise blocked off from its song immediately lose all anomalous properties. Aside from any mental trauma suffered by the experience, they are not affected by the anomaly in any permanent fashion, and may be allowed to return to work after psychiatric treatment and recovery PERSONNEL AFFECTED BY RPC-052'S PRIMARY EFFECT ARE TO BE IMMEDIATELY TERMINATED. NO EXCEPTIONS.

RPC-052’s secondary effect is far more common, consisting of 93% of cases. The effect manifests with immediate excruciating chest pain as the subject’s core temperature begins to rise around the heart at a rate of roughly 120-150 degrees per second. This invariably results in the flash-boiling of the subject’s blood, often vaporizing their remains in the ensuing explosion. This process takes effect immediately upon exposure to RPC-052 and acts very quickly, the longest-lasting instance of this effect taking only 73 seconds. These explosionss have been recorded to be as powerful as the yield of 2.3 kilograms of TNT on average, though each explosion's power is directly proportional to the length of its build-up.

To date, there is no way to determine whether any given subject will suffer from RPC-052’s primary or secondary effects. However, subjects who are affected by its primary effect will never be affected by the secondary; as a result, in the interest of reducing structural damage, any personnel that spend any time as an instance of RPC-052-1 will often be reassigned to RPC-052.


Addendum-052-1: As of 14/05/2020, Dr. Branch will be will be relieving Dr. Mallard of his position of authority. However, in light of Dr. Mallard's performance for the past two years, Site Authority has approved his request for a promotion to security clearance Level 4.

Dr. Branch has proposed several new tests for RPC-052, and has suggested there is still more to learn. To date, Site Director ███████ has yet to approve them.


Addendum-052-2: In light of certain details contained within RPC-052's documentation1, Dr. Branch believes RPC-052 is capable of sentience and has proposed adding the Sentient Hazard to its description. His proposal has been approved.

Dr. Branch has also expressed concerns over the absence of several of RPC-052's research logs, and has ordered for these documents to be properly restored. Dr. Mallard has been placed at the head of these efforts, due to his experience with the project's history.


Interview Log: 29/11/2008: Following a Class-2 containment breach affecting nearly a fifth of Site-███, Dr. Henry has requested an interview with the sole instance of RPC-052-1 that was recovered, ASF Sgt. █████ Flint. The request was approved. Research assistant Dr. Mallard was tasked to conduct the interview.


Testing Log: As of 17/01/2018, all future testing with RPC-052 will be discontinued. Site Administration has deemed further tests with RPC-052 to be inconclusive, fruitless, and a potential waste of lives, resources, and Research efforts. Any Researchers that wish to propose an experiment that is both safe and useful may speak with Site Director █████ ███████. Below is a record of past experiments with RPC-052.

Experiment-001:
[DATA LOST]

Experiment-002:
15/09/2003: The following experiment took place after a Class-1 containment breach on 13/09/2003, resulting in the loss of 7 personnel. An instance of RPC-052-1 was recovered alive, albeit suffering from acute paranoia. Having lost all anomalous properties, it was returned to its previous status as CSD-9312.

Dr. Henry requested CSD-9312's assistance in an experiment with RPC-052, with the intent to both test its music's effects on remote forms of listening and to discover whether CSD-9312 would revert to an instance of RPC-052-1. CSD-9312 refused the request, but was later coerced into participating by Site Administration on the condition of ample access to Class-A Amnestics. The condition was accepted.

Conclusion: Over a period of several trials, Dr. Henry confirmed both that RPC-052 is effective over distances of up to 1.5 kilometres over radio and that previous instances of RPC-052-1 will consistently succumb to RPC-052's primary effect over its secondary one. CSD-9312's mental health has declined drastically in response to the repeated testing, despite being administered Class-A Amnestics after each trial; he has been temporarily transferred to St. ████████'s Mental Hospital as a result.

Experiment-003:
[DATA LOST]

Experiment-004:

10/04/2018: Dr. Henry has requested the use of several past instances of RPC-052-1 to gauge whether RPC-052 is capable of controlling all of them at once, or if it will ignore some or subject some to its secondary effect to secure "processing power." He proposes that, should it be the latter, it may be a valuable weakness the Authority can exploit, as well as potential signs of sentience. The request was approved, and Dr. Henry was issued five (5) subjects for his experiment.

Conclusion: RPC-052 appeared to have no trouble controlling all five instances of RPC-052-1. As well, the experiment was not properly secured, resulting in the first actual case of total containment failure. Over █0 personnel were lost.
After the incident, Dr. Henry was demoted to Level 2 security clearance and transferred off-Site. As Dr. Mallard was the only member of Dr. Henry's staff to voice a complaint over the potential danger of the experiment, he has been temporarily promoted to Dr. Henry's prior position until a more suitable replacement may be found. Dr. Mallard's security clearance will remain at Level 3 for this duration.


Discovery Log: RPC-052 was discovered in northern Italy on ██/██/2001 after a string of missing persons reports were brought to the Authority’s attention. MST Echo-21 was sent to █████, an abandoned village in the ████████ province. After the demise of the initial infiltration team, countermeasures were quickly produced to resist RPC-052’s anomalous effects. It should be noted this event occurred before Echo-21 encountered RPC-301, and were thus not yet immune to RPC-052's effects.






ATTENTION

Due to ongoing investigations, examination of the rest of this document is PROHIBITED by order of the Global Directorate.
Access is restricted to personnel with security clearance Level 5 and personnel directly involved in any associated investigations.







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