An Ocean Bear
tagnone
 #1 Article |
 #1 Joke Article |
 Top Ten Article |
 Active Contributor |
 Contest Winner |
 Contest Runner-Up |
 Challenge Winner |
 Art Contest Winner |
|
|
|
|
{$translationblock} |
 |
A junior researcher within a segment of RPC-332-1, circa 198█.
Registered Phenomena Code: 332
Object Class: Gamma-Purple
Hazard Types: Climatological, Geological, Organic, Corrosive, Electromagnetic Force, Ideological, Titanic
Containment Protocols: Containment of RPC-332 is focused on two objectives - researching its metabolism & biofeedback, and with aid by China's "People's Committee for the Acquisition of Anomalous Objects", minimizing damage dealt to civilization by MDW-Lucidity events, which are caused by RPC-332's anomalous behaviors & attributes. RPC-332 cannot be restrained by artificial structures due to its biology, however it is also left sedentary by this, and its active location is naturally remote. This allows for a perimeter on land to be designated surrounding RPC-332. Every 150 km along this perimeter, a monitoring station has been established, the primary of which being in northwestern Bayan Nur, Mongolia. Half of these stations are organized by the Authority, the other half by mostly the People's Committee in collaboration with the Authority, and the primary station entirely by the Committee. These monitoring stations are each the size of a small Alpha-Class storage facility, however the Bayan Nur station is approximately the size of a small Beta-Class containment facility.
Each monitoring station on the perimeter of RPC-332's area is to be equipped with the best in seismographic and meteorological equipment, including [REDACTED] technology, and each station is built and to be maintained at the highest standard of resistance against seismic and meteorological damage. Class B Personnel trained in using and maintaining this equipment are to work in pairs per device and are to each have a minimum of one backup operator in reserve for emergencies and exceptional circumstances. At all times, monitoring of seismic activities for anomalous signatures within RPC-332's area is to be performed, and weather forecast instruments are to be checked for signs of storms anywhere up to 1500 km outside RPC-332's area perimeter. RPC-332's vitals are to be monitored at all times for signs or instances of increased synaptic activity. These surveillance reports are to be submitted to the Bayan Nur station every Saturday between 6 PM & 11:59 PM. If the earliest signs of a MDW-Lucidity event are detected, reports proving such are to be submitted immediately.
People's Committee personnel currently perform all ground surveillance within RPC-332's area. Any request to aid them with this task requires permission from at least one Eurasian Regional Director in order to schedule a negotiation with a People's Committee emissary at the Bayan Nur station. Similarly, any requests to assemble & launch an Authority research expedition to RPC-332-1 requires the direct involvement of a Eurasian Regional Director to negotiate with the People's Committee.
For Authority stations around RPC-332's area, a standard ASF Gamma-Class Site protection protocol is to be in effect, however with Class B Device Operators being highest priority staff. For Committee stations, security is regulated by their own personnel, however there is to be a lifeline communication channel always available to the Committee for requesting emergency reinforcements from ASF. A minimum of one platoon of ASF is to be reserved for this purpose. Requests for MST deployments are to be forwarded directly to an available Eurasian Regional Director.
In the case of a Class 1 MDW-Lucidity event, Authority & Committee personnel are prepared to trigger a severe thunderstorm safety procedure across all civilian settlements within the forecasted path of the lucidity-induced storm.
In the case of a Class 2 MDW-Lucidity event, Authority & Committee personnel are prepared to contact local governments to warn them of the event and suggest they immediately enact a 9.0 earthquake evacuation procedure across all civilian settlements within the damage radius of the identified seismic epicenter.
In the case of a Class 3 MDW-Lucidity event, Authority & Committee personnel are prepared to first contact local governments and then the most-endangered nearby national governments for the purpose of presenting a sub-continental or continental evacuation plan of all civilian centers projected to be within the radius of the lucidity event. Global leaderships are to only be contacted if need arises for worldwide evacuation of all civilian locations within the immediate vicinity of: oceanic coastlines, volcanic pyroclastic radii, or tectonic fault lines.
In the case of a Class 3 MDW-Lucidity event being containable on mainland Eurasia, global leaderships must be prevented from learning about said lucidity event at all costs.
In the case of any MDW-Lucidity event, if knowledge of RPC-332's existence can be contained without sacrificing efficiency of first-response protocols, efforts are to be made to do so.
Should an Authority research expedition to RPC-332-1 be permitted and performed, it is to be accompanied by an Expedition Director designated by no less than two-thirds vote between three Eurasian Regional Directors, as well as their dossier being approved by the People's Committee. Research personnel are to be screened extensively before assignment to an expedition to check for any noteworthy sensibilities or inclinations towards natural spirituality, religious superstition, or significant empathy for animals. Such psychological traits disqualify researchers from expedition candidacy.
Before spelunking RPC-332-1, personnel are to be outfitted with oxygen-sealed suits & equipment containers made of materials proven to be resistant to electrical discharge as high as 1 billion volts, acid with a pH of 1, and temperatures as great as 1000 degrees Celsius.
Disobeying the assigned Expedition Director is grounds for greater punishment than is standard, with specific penalties being grounds for immediate termination.
Description: RPC-332-1 is a cave fissure located in the Gobi Desert approximately 5.5 km deep and the only direct means by which to have line-of-sight of RPC-332. From an observation chamber, RPC-332 appears as a wall of semi-transparent calcified animal epidermis. Survey study cross-referenced with People's Committee surveillance reports allowed researchers to estimate the dimensions of RPC-332. DNA samples acquired during RPC-332-1 Expedition █ revealed RPC-332's heredity.
RPC-332 is an individual subterranean megafauna residing below the Gobi Desert, approximately 966 km long from end to head, 462 km at its greatest point of lateral width, and just under 58 km at its greatest point of vertical width. These body dimensions make RPC-332 the largest creature on Earth, and indicates that RPC-332's underside nearly breaches the bottom of the Eurasian continental plate.
Approximation of RPC-332's length relative to the region it resides under.
RPC-332 is more than 90% water in body mass, confirmed by specialized instruments during RPC-332-1 Expedition ██, with most of its solid mass composing the thickness of its epidermis. Biological electricity has been & can be detected within RPC-332, the highest concentration at its eastern-most end. Because of its enormity and entrapment by solid landmass, RPC-332 is considered immobile and catatonic, with the exception of when it presents a minuscule amount of motion or increased synaptic activity during a MDW-Lucidity event.
Research has shown that haphazard penetration of RPC-332's epidermis triggers a fast-acting metabolic defense, observable as an immense vacuole that forms within RPC-332. The vacuole contains an acid possessing a pH of ██ capable of melting [REDACTED] at a rate of [REDACTED]. Once formed, the vacuole appears behind the point of penetration and presses against it. The vacuole seals & opens around the penetrative point before rapidly compressing, pushing the acid out & shooting it at high velocity. Afterwards, the vacuole membrane serves as a clot to cease any bleeding of vital fluid. If left undisturbed, the acid degrades and dissipates completely between 14 to 37 hours subsequent of ejection from RPC-332.
Another metabolic defense is observed upon haphazard attempt to access RPC-332's biological electricity, wherein a surge of biofeedback occurs within RPC-332's body to suddenly unleash a deadly electrical discharge. 92% of these discharges are directed at the origin of interference within the RPC-332-1 observation chamber. This biofeedback has resulted in ███ casualties across all Authority expeditions into RPC-332-1, henceforth requiring RPC-332 bio-electricity experiments to have cautious oversight.
The Gobi-Altai Earthquake, caused by a Class 2 MDW-Lucidity event, circa 1957.
Over decades, technological & analogue observation alongside research of the Gobi's history revealed that RPC-332 can cause cataclysmic events, referred to as MDW-Lucidity events, circa 19██. The earliest lucidity event definitively identified in recorded history was the Gobi-Altai Earthquake of 1957, an earthquake that scaled 8.1 in magnitude and created a fault-line as high as 8.85 m. Ascertainment of whether or not Class 2 MDW-Lucidity events have occurred prior to this is ongoing. The number of Class 1 MDW-Lucidity occurrences prior to 1957 is unknown.
After consequences of RPC-332's anomalous properties had been observed and measured adequately, classifications as of ██/██/████ were updated. To clarify: there are three Classes of MDW-Lucidity events, each being a specific event tiered upwards based upon threat level:
- Severe, dense, ionized lightning-storms.
- Earthquakes between 7 & 9 in magnitude.
- Tectonic bifurcation of East Asia and/or RPC-332's subterranean containment breach.
To conclude MDW-Lucidity briefing: lucidity event occurrence rate decreases as the tier of severity increases. To date since 1957, there have been █ dozen Class 1 MDW-Lucidity events, less than █ Class 2 MDW-Lucidity events, and there is no sign yet indicating that RPC-332 can enact a Class 3 MDW-Lucidity event. For extended description on MDW-Lucidity event research & causality, see Research Logs 332.1, 332.1B, & 332.MDW.1 through 3.
Agreement as to whether or not the Gobi Desert is an anomaly itself is pending. Classification as natural or anomalous is ambiguous, as it is an indirect consequence of RPC-332 rather than a direct consequence. However, 100% confirmation that the Gobi would not be a desert in absence of RPC-332 is also pending.
Echiniscus granulatus, a close relative of RPC-332.
Taxonomic reference of RPC-332's DNA match it as being part of the Echiniscus genus of Kingdom Animalia, making RPC-332 a sibling species to the common tardigrade. Colloquially "water bear", this animal is usually a microscopic extremophile, the previously largest species being only 1.2 mm in length. The Authority taxonomist who discovered this dubbed RPC-332's species Echiniscus atlasi. While this is officially recorded within Authority taxonomic records, information about RPC-332 has not and will not be released outside Authority jurisdiction in the foreseeable future.
Addendum 332.1: [DATA EXPUNGED]
Addendum 332.1.A: [DATA EXPUNGED]
Addendum 332.0.A: As of 20██, the following has been made a mandatory transcript for any new personnel assigned to Gamma Duty on RPC-332 who have a minimum of Level 3 Security Clearance:
"From the start, RPC-332 had proved significantly difficult to deal with, but not for reasons you may first think. Back in the day, there were locals originally situated around 332-1, who warned of the great "olgoi khorkhoi" and refused negotiating passage through their territory. This drew immediate suspicion from Authority ground personnel at the time, as the reason for their investigation was a strange pattern of seismic activity from that part of the Gobi, which couldn't have possibly been a mere coincidence. Removing the tribes-folk from the area in order to conduct the investigation was troubling, as quite a few of them were willing to resort to violence to prevent us from locating 332-1. The unfortunate need of deadly force left higher-ups at the time sick to their stomachs. And it certainly didn't get better when the Chinese found out as well. To top it off, it seemed almost as though every expedition down that pit was doomed to discover a unique danger unseen by the last. After decades of escalating surprises and fluctuating tensions with China's changes in leadership, things calmed down… only for that calm to be immediately broken when a Site Director turned around and sabotaged his entire expedition. He destroyed equipment, killed his own personnel, all while proclaiming things such as "they were right, we were fools for coming here", and "disturbing the Worm will be our end". When that dust settled, most of us couldn't help but feel at least a little bit like he was the sane one in all this. We knew, before the doctors had figured it out, that he wasn't under an anomalous memetic condition. And they proved us correct.
Obviously, I'm paraphrasing much of this. And I am very well aware of the irony, hubris, & metaphors-made-literal over the past events involving RPC-332, just as you too will be. But you'd be stuck on this transcript for far too long if I went over the whole history. It's not important to immediately know all the unnecessary and uncomfortable details. It's over and done with, the lessons have been learned, the message received. The invitation: denied. Our mission is clear.
It is set in stone that RPC-332, while intriguing, poses a continental threat, and potentially a global one. Whatever the case is of what needs to be discovered about RPC-332, intelligent or mindless, immobile or mobile, asleep or awake, the priority stands: Stopping it from choosing to, and succeeding in, creating a new destiny for itself. For it would undoubtedly be one that allows our world to fall apart."
Research Logs:
RL.332.1: █/█/████, [DATA EXPUNGED]
RL.332.1B: ██/█/████, [DATA EXPUNGED]
RL.332.MDW.█, █, █: [DATA EXPUNGED]
Authored by former Lead Researcher & RPC-332-1 Expedition ██ Director Dr. █████ Huang, prior to reassignment as Lead Researcher to another Gamma-Class project after RPC-332-1 Expedition ██ successfully concluded without issue, circa 2/3/201█.
What is critical in understanding RPC-332 is to change your outlook. For so long we have held ourselves in a box when examining it. We are mystified by it, marveling in its size, ability, and control it may have over the regional environment, nay, the world environment! Even when trying to use science to our advantage, we constantly reference it in our minds as some kind of supernatural being. Perhaps a god. And this has led to a LOT of mishaps, if you could call them that. While doing my time in that nearly literal hellhole of a cave, I came to realize that in order to gain more insight into RPC-332, I would ironically have to learn how to employ what I believe to be Echiniscus atlasi's greatest trait: obstinance.
RPC-332 is NOT a god, or even a monster. It is an animal. A force of nature, as cliche as that sounds, no matter how much we otherwise would scramble to call its nature "impossible."
Why does it create storms? To bring in moisture when annual rainfall is low in the Gobi. It creates weather patterns dangerous enough to ravage villages, towns, and sometimes even cities, all so it does not dehydrate. Is it that simple? Well, after going through the data (while I still could), there was a clear pattern correlating the formation of these storms with extended drought. This also explains why the storms always drift inland towards and over the Gobi before dissipating. How does it do it? That's a bit harder to delve into, but I feel we made progress. We can say that we understand the "why", which I believe will be fundamental in figuring out how to lower the number of Class 1 MDW-Lucidity occurrences, even if previous Expedition Directors didn't think so.
Why does it create earthquakes? With this, I had to double-over my 180 degree thinking pattern. You'd think I'd walk right into my own backside, but I believe my theory works. One of the biggest saving graces of a Class 2 MDW-Lucidity event is the fact that they can be predicted faster than ordinary earthquakes. And this is because the tech-that-shall-not-be-named allows us at a distance to track the firing of RPC-332's neurons prior to that electrical information reaching another part of its body. Some may say my thinking is dangerous here, but I don't consider it a stretch to suggest RPC-332 is intentionally, on some kind of lower level of consciousness, commanding a part of its body to shift. So in other words, it twitches a bit because it's thinking; maybe trying to scratch an itch for all we know. Past researchers believed RPC-332 couldn't possibly have a true thinking brain because it is too big, and while conventionally you'd be inclined to agree, I - nay, we - have reason to believe that its size doesn't prevent thinking, but instead just makes it think slower. As a result, maybe we perceive a constant, unerring torpor, when in actuality, it could be wide awake.
I wouldn't stretch this much further though. Being able to think doesn't imply high levels of intelligence, just that it has the minimal requirements for advanced ganglia. We won't get to know more for probably a long while. I was only able to manage a single bio-electricity experiment with my time there, and it didn't yield much more than previous ones. This isn't a criticism, but the reason for this is the extremely cautious experiment parameters. We can't go deeper into our understanding if we play it too safe the whole time. If I were to actually criticize, I'd say the number of safe experiments performed should be increased on future ventures. I am confident we have explored the territory of this study enough to perform these procedures much more often than we presently do.
But the caution is understandable, given past expeditions. The early ones, to be exact. I'm not stupid, I know there is a mass expungement of certain RPC-332 documents taking place, so of course I did my homework before those incident reports & research logs were lost. Now I'm not going to blacklist my entire consolidatory essay by mentioning anything too extreme, so I'll keep it tongue-and-cheek. We know of RPC-332's metabolic defenses, as we observed them in action. And we also know that expedition personnel have been KIA over the decades. You can put two & two together, without knowing little details. Suffice it to say, our history of experimentation with RPC-332 has been particularly costly.
I almost have a desire to do as past Expedition Leads have done and insist that a Class 3 MDW-Lucidity event is impossible. But at this point, I think that would make me inconsistent. It's not that it couldn't ever happen, but moreover seems to be something more preventable than we currently consider. Yes, that is largely conjecture and intuition. But despite the accursed adventure that is a 332-1 spelunking, despite the disturbing history behind merely examining this animal up close… I am somehow left feeling optimistic.
So, if I were to begin a conclusion to this report, I'd start by saying that our B Class working at RPC-332's play-pen are doing god's work. So much about Echiniscus atlasi can be explained due to the endless hours of work they put into cataloging every little pinprick shift in their equipment's sensors. And if I were to end a conclusion to this report, I would like to pose a query: Of all the ordinary animals in the animal kingdom, if any of them were to somehow end up so bizarrely adapted as this, was any researcher actually surprised that it was a blasted tardigrade?
