LTE-1998-Burnout-Blaecca-Parallax

rating: +57+x

BY ORDER OF THE UNDERSECRETARY GENERAL


The following file describes a para-threat phenomenon whose liquidation and engagement have been deemed severely inappropriate and mishandled. As such, following its neutralization, it is now primarily used as an example of an improper GOC approach to phenomena it handles.

The entire PSYCHE Division Directorship is required to read the below file.


HIGH COMMAND
UNGOC



Threat Entity Database Entry

Threat ID:
LTE-1998-Burnout-Blaecca-Parallax ("Train to Hell")

Authorized Response Level:
3 (Moderate Threat) N/A (Confirmed Destroyed, File Archived)

Description: Threat was a Gen+2/TanGenT paratechnological train-like vehicle created and used by Prometheus Laboratories between 1994 and 1998 in accordance with the original order from Marshall, Carter & Darke Ltd, which was made in late 1993.

Its primary paranormal traits were its extreme durability, its ability to warp through the local layers of reality.See — briefing appended below. without destabilizing its structure, its ability to continue operation without any tracks below it, interpreting any solid body / gas / liquid as a suitable host, and its ectologically-powered engine, whose proper utilization in accordance with Prometheus' operation protocols allowed for the vehicle to remain in motion near-indefinitely.

Prometheus Labs primarily utilized LTE-1998-Burnout-Blaecca-Parallax as a way to continuously carry out illegal paranarcotic trade in layers of reality occupied by the souls of conscious beings. The method through which this operation would usually be conducted is as follows:

  • 1. Prometheus utilizes LTE-1998-Burnout-Blaecca-Parallax to enter an afterlife reality, distributing severely addicting paranarcotics to its population;
  • 2. Following its clients inevitably running out of items they can offer in exchange for the paranarcotics they are now addicted to, they offer their souls as a payment method;
  • 3. Prometheus accepts the soul of the client, adding it to the soul gestalt hosted in LTE-1998-Burnout-Blaecca-Parallax's engine, using the energy generated this way to propel the train forward into another universe;
  • 4. Those souls that are unnecessary to keep the vehicle running are captured and sent to MC&D for sale; a similar fate is suffered by the possessions of the souls which were exchanged for the paranarcotics before the soul payment.

During a single trip, LTE-1998-Burnout-Blaecca-Parallax would visit between 1 and 147.Highest recorded number. afterlife realities, allowing it — and its proper owners, MC&D — to come into the possession of extreme monetary gain caused by the system, at the cost of severe soul suffering and rapid and extreme destabilizations of baseline reality in places it re-entered following the conclusion of its journey. It is currently estimated that between its initial launch and its neutralization, LTE-1998-Burnout-Blaecca-Parallax partook in as many as 251 voyages, inflicting damage to over 200 000 sapient souls.

Liquidation: LTE-1998-Burnout-Blaecca-Parallax was successfully terminated by Strike Team 2013 ("Semiautomatic") on 19/07/1998 after the rapid and widespread destabilizations of baseline reality caused by the exits and entries into it by the train were deemed an unignorable danger to the goals of the Third Mission (Protection) and on a grander scale, with potential for Second (Concealment) and First (Survival) Mission breaches by the Council of 108. This — paired with the fact Prometheus' operations were deemed gross violations of international agreements for not only intervening with afterlife realities but actively causing immeasurable harm to uncounted sapient beings — resulted in the aforementioned deployment of Strike Team 2013.

Further details regarding Operation Orpheus and its consequences are available in PHYSICS Division Casefiles, appended below the PSYCHE Division briefing.


PSYCHE Records

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PSYCHE Division Database


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Those present during the funding of Prometheus Laboratories in 1892, original directors, main researchers, and other co-founders.

[…] To understand why Prometheus Laboratories would ever build and utilize PTE-1998-Burnout-Blaecca-Parallax despite knowing fully well it was a drastic infringement on international paralaw agreements regarding maintenance of reality stability, we need to first put forward some of the context that surrounded the company's status in the late 20th century.

In its early days, Prometheus wasn't primarily a weapons company — it was, just as its founding goals intended, a scientific institution, hellbent on taking the "Laboratories" in its name and making the best of it. And, for more than fifty years, it has worked. Riding on the wave of the ongoing post-Sixth Occult War paranormal renaissance, Prometheus was able to significantly expand the understanding of the unknown. From every corner of the paranormal world, one research order or gigantic breakthrough project came, one after the other — but then came the Seventh Occult War and the Cold War after it. And, well, Prometheus did the only thing it could to survive in times when the only thing everyone that mattered cared about was weapons. It adapted.

Practically every month, it churned out a new eigenweapon powerful enough to level a whole continent, earning absurd amounts of money from whatever Soviet or American crazyman was generous enough to give them the order. The Coalition did indeed make the first attempt to offer Prometheus a position at the Council of 108 after SAPPHIRE's leave in 1953, but Prometheus declined, as such a decision would have significantly decreased its paraweaponry trade. But then… then the War ended. With nobody wanting any more magic nukes and the paratech black market being flooded with illegal post-Soviet paraweapons, Prometheus Labs was suddenly left almost entirely alone — alone with nobody but Marshall, Carter & Darke by its side. So it took up the only chance it had to not entirely fall apart in just months — and it happened that that chance was whatever the hell the twisted minds of Marshall, Carter, and Darke wanted to be delivered to them.

Prometheus isn't evil. Just like the science it so loves, its usage entirely depends on who wields it — which is to say, it depends on who gives money to Prometheus. And, well, it so happened that the ones that became its masters didn't particularly care for international laws. They wanted their magic hell train to give them absurd amounts of profit from selling souls en-masse, so its dog listened, not wishing to literally die, since that was the only other option it had. And that's how we arrive at PTE-1998-Burnout-Blaecca-Parallax, a threat to not only the stability of afterlives, but also baseline reality as we know it. Naturally, there's only one way to go about it, liquidation. But, here's the thing — the same thing doesn't have to happen to Prometheus Labs, which without their golden train, would inevitably fail in less than a decade, as predicted by the Servants of the Silicon Nornir and their supercomputers.

We propose a solution to this problem which we have already tried once — the integration of Prometheus Laboratories into the Council of 108. With the New Crypteia's leave of the body in 1997, there has been a single empty seat within its ranks — and we, frankly, do not see a single better candidate to take it than Prometheus, and we are more than sure it would accept this time, wanting nothing but freedom from the Dark. While it would truly be unwise to annoy a man as powerful as Mr. Darke, imagine the unlimited possibilities the group would have with our funding. The death we could fight and defeat together, the ilnesses we could cure, the peace we could upkeep with tens if not hundreds of its Samsara units. Just think about that, for a single moment.

After all, keeping up Prometheus' undying flame is the best thing we can do. Both for ourselves and its bearers. […]

— Excerpt from "A Peaceful Approach to PTE-1998-Burnout-Blaecca-Parallax" by Jane Miranda, released by internal UNGOC publishing (1998).

Shortly after the above paper was written, the motion described in it was put to a Council of 108 vote during the annual GOC General Assembly to either accept or reject it. Below attached is its log.

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53rd Session of the GOC General Assembly


Proposal: "Instead of putting Prometheus Laboratories in front of the International Court For the Paranormal for breaking several of its guidelines regarding PTE-1998-Burnout-Blaecca-Parallax, treat it as a victim of Marshall, Carter & Darke Ltd and as a neutral, manipulated third party. Once again offer it a seat at the Council of 108 after the organization itself, with the help from Coalition, will liquidate the PTE-1998-Burnout-Blaecca-Parallax, allowing it to officially become a fully funded and independent member of the United Nations Global Occult Coalition."


UNGOC/GA53-011 Voting
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For: 56.48% (61) | Against: 25% (27) | Abstain: 17.59% (19) | █ Absent: 0.93% (1)

Vote Summary: MOTION APPROVED


Conclusion: With the motion approved, appropriate orders were forwarded to PSYCHE Division ambassadors by the High Command to issue an official proposal to Prometheus Labs regarding joining the Council of 108.

On 08/06/1998, PSYCHE Division sent an official proposal to Prometheus' Coalition Liaison, Dana Mercado.

PSYCHE Division
Sender Ambassador Harrison Recipient Dana Mercado
Subject A Proposal
To Whom It May Concern,

The Global Occult Coalition's Council of 108 has officially decided to once again offer a position in its ranks to Prometheus Laboratories. Even keeping in mind your previous declination, remembering our years of good cooperation, we decided to repeat our proposition. We believe it would be in our mutual best interest for you to rethink this truly outdated decision in these unstable post-Cold War times.

In addition to securing a stable future for Prometheus's financing, such a change would also lead to the clarification of any misunderstandings related to your previous violations of the international paralaw regarding maintenance of reality stability. This would include the forgiveness of the most recent one; posing an active threat to the Coalition's Third Mission (Protection) by the Prometheus-created, illegally-operating extrauniversal paratrade vehicle.

Prometheus' willingness to cooperate in the capacity of an official member of the Council of 108 would guarantee it a status of a neutral party manipulated by Marshall, Carter & Darke Ltd, mitigating the felony in eyes of the International Court for the Paranormal to the latter group entirely. In the process, it would be judged as innocent.

We hope that you will make the best decision, keeping in mind the benefit of both the Coalition and yourself.

Sincerely,
Ambassador Addison Harrison
United Nations Global Occult Coalition

On 19/06/1998, the PSYCHE Division received an official response from Prometheus Laboratories regarding the above-mentioned proposal.

Prometheus Laboratories
Sender Liaison Mercado Recipient Ambassador Harrison
Subject Re:A Proposal
Mister Harrison,

Although our holistic and effectively collaborative aggregates have accurately formulated a distinctive and ethical appreciation application, the collective committees of our integrated networks cannot in the client-focused spirit of this engineered experience adaptively and accurately deploy acceptance information. The unbashingly surprisingly intellectual human capital and organic infrastructure our leadership, partnerships, and benefactors function off on cannot be effectively enabled in such a technique as to authorize this scientific conglomerate to strategically and frictionlessly embrace such competitive employmentship offers.

Our methodologies — albeit outside the box, highly innovative, and artificially architectured — pose an imperative expense that grants valuable and frankly imperative capital and resourceset al to this broadcaster (similarly et al). The interfering legalities as well as any such functionally unprofitable inquiries cannot and should not pose an intermission that should stall the subject's operation. Client-focused performance and this strategic chain pose utmost priority now and ad infinitum, still keeping in mind the above-appended ultimatum. Therefore the client supply will not result in termination, even under appropriation, consideration, and appreciation.

We solemnly aspire this finds you well.

Regards,
Liaison Dana Mercado
Public Relations Division, Prometheus Laboratories

PHYSICS Records

Due to Prometheus' apparent rejection of the proposal, Coalition High Command determined that the only option was to officially reclassify PTE-1998-Burnout-Blaecca-Parallax to KTE, with Response Level 3 (Moderate Threat) as well as take official action to stop its operations in the form of Operation Orpheus, with the hope that Prometheus Labs will reconsider the proposal of joining the Council of 108 following the destruction of their primary illegal asset.

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PHYSICS Division Database


Mission: Via the usage of synchronized apportation with the path of KTE-1998-Burnout-Blaecca-Parallax as predicted by the Servants of the Silicon Nornir's Supercomputers, engage with the threat, eliminate MC&D cyborg security present onboard, take control of the vehicle via any means necessary, and peacefully share the Coalition's offer to Prometheus Labs personnel within. Following the acceptance of the aforementioned proposal, safely re-direct KTE-1998-Burnout-Blaecca-Parallax to a Coalition base in baseline reality and liquidate it in accordance with appropriate protocols.

Engaging Party: Strike Team 2013 ("Semiautomatic"); Camille Caldwell (Team Captain), 9 Gen+2 Augmented Coalition Assets (Team Members)

Appended Briefing: Excerpt from the "SOLUTION" part of "GRANT REQUEST FOR THE CREATION OF AN EXTRAUNIVERSAL ECTOLOGICALLY-POWERED VEHICLE TO ENGAGE IN POST-MORTEM PANANARCOTIC TRADE" by Prof. David Wilson, released by internal Prometheus publishing (1993).


SOLUTION

[…] However, such an extrauniversal vehicle wouldn't simply travel to any of the existent stacks of reality around baseline reality. Indeed, to properly carry out its trade without any possible issues that would arise from high levels of human freedom, it would primarily target volatile and entirely defenseless and easy-to-harvest sapient souls inside of afterlife stacks of reality, which would not only power the train's engines, but could also be sold for high monetary resources to other clients of Marshall, Carter & Darke.[1]

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Fig 2.1: Visualization of the first Prometheus expedition to the borders of local universe.

Prometheus Laboratories has been, so far, operating primarily on the research of Dr. Shanahan R'yann during his first expedition to the borders of known existence in 1908 as well as the Scranton-Micheals Multiverse Model, both of which assume there are realities around baseline reality that still count as a local universe and are entirely separate from the rest of the alternate realities inhabiting the Multiversal Compass.[2] This set of assumptions — whilst unquestionably true and revolutionary — does not however account for the nuanced differences between standard realities in which life operates normally and those that are commonly referred to as "afterlives" and are mainly inhabited by undead human ectomorphs (or, colloquially, souls). This also means its model cannot be fully utilized as a proper set of theory for our proposed project. And so, with this in mind, we have decided to commit ourselves to research.

Shortly after, me and my team fully discovered how to differentiate between normal universes and those inhabited by the dead. We hereby then propose the Wilson Extension to the Scranton-Micheals Model, which accounts for the aforementioned nuances. For you see, the primary difference comes in the way a reality treats its "expectation of the baseline state of its inhabitants" based on the emitted EVE aura of its residents. While realities that are mostly populated by the living have this "value" set to a "positive" (since its inhabitants are, indeed, alive), afterlives do not; their "value of expectation" (or VOE for short) is set primarily to some "negative" number.[3]

This is not only useful for scientific purposes, but also for the needs of the train we propose building in this document. Utilizing such a method in the construction of the vehicle's engine and navigation system could allow it to freely enter the realities we wish for it to enter (i.e. afterlife realities), whilst simultaneously blocking its access to planes of existence with positive VOEs without losing any of its engine power of time should it fail to enter the right reality, as it would under normal circumstances. […]

Bibliography
1. Darke, P. (1869). The Value Of A Human Soul. Journal of Alchemy and Parascience, 5-12.
2. Micheals, J. (1990). The Nature Of Omniversal Reality. Internal SCP Foundation Publishing, shared globally during the parascientific summit of 1992, 78-94.
3. Wilson, D. (1993). Regarding The Multiverse And Its Afterlives. Internal Prometheus Publishing, 20-43.

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The logo of the Primordial.

Primary Threats: Although the PHYSICS Division does not expect any major issues that could come up during the operation — even the hostile extrauniversal environment, whose unexpected dangers won't prove a difficult challenge as Strike Team 2013 entirely consists of heavily augmented humans made resilient to the possibility such incidents — PSYCHE Division personnel have obtained unconfirmed information that suggests that the KTE-1998-Burnout-Blaecca-Parallax security might employ heavy augmented Primordial mercenary Asset S'amh Armh (KTE-1852-Indigo-Léon). Should this prove true, even though it could become a significant threat to Strike Team 2013, it is believed that due to their skill, augmentations, and Cptn. Caldwell's Gen+2/TanGenT augmentations, they would be able to eliminate him without any significant difficulties.

On 29/07/1998, all assets necessary for Operation Orpheus have been officially and fully prepared. The mission was then launched in the evening hours of the same day. Below attached is a log of their deployment.

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Strike Team 2013 ("Semiautomatic") Mission Log


[BEGIN LOG]

Nine figures get apportated in the final non-engine room of KTE-1998-Burnout-Blaecca-Parallax. At the front of the team stands Captain Caldwell, scanning the surrounding area with her augmented eyes. The rest of the team readies their weapons, and similarly looks around themselves.

On top of the wagon's walls, a series of irregular windows open up to reveal a gigantic red plane of existence. It is filled with sprawling cities built from bone structures shielded from the red sun up by what looks like black feathers that are covered in thick, red vines. Stretching into the horizon, it is inhabited by a plethora of demonic entities, waking its skies and streets alike. The train, however, doesn't seem to be impeded; it simply threads the amaranthine, bleeding sky on nothing but air, relentlessly pushing forward, too high for any of the demons to notice, care, or even be able to take action.

SEMIAUTOMATIC-1 moves towards the window, gently touching its pane of dark glass with his mechanical hand. As he does so, he quickly moves away, startled by a white trail moving from the skies towards the engine of the train. He squints, and realizes that it isn't just one stream, but rather a series of human souls being sucked into it by the machine, their faces twisted in agony and terror. The operative's eye twitches.

SEMIAUTOMATIC-1: Jesus Christ.

Caldwell looks at him, scoffing silently with her artificially-skinned face.

Caldwell: If you don't want to meet a similar fate, get moving.

Caldwell is now located at the end of the room. She touches the door's control panel with her index finger, connecting the two, and briefly closes her eyes. Then, seconds later, the doors quickly open up, showing a technical room with a ladder leading towards the top of the train. Caldwell points her team to come up alongside her.

The team rapidly ascends, coming up to the top of the train. They stand in a formation behind Caldwell, who shows them all to stop, carefully scanning the surrounding area with her eyes. A series of bullets comes from seemingly nowhere in front of them. The shots are deflected by the team's force shields. Caldwell takes one of her knives and throws it forward; however, it is deflected as metal against metal fills the air. With a buzzing sound, the invisibility of the enemy falls off, revealing a tall, Fae-like cyborg figure. The barrels of the guns located in his hands are still hot.

Armh: And here I was, thinking you wouldn't show up.

S'amh Arhm stands more than 2 meters tall. His entire body is built from irrilite and steel, riddled with various exhaust pipes, sharp items, and gears, imitating the looks of a normal Fae. The only thing that is still organic in him is his eyes. He stretches his arms. Where normal sidhe wings should be sits a jetpack contraption, constructed in such a way as to appear like the biological structure. He cracks his nonexistent knuckles and presents forward a large irrilite katana sword, buzzing with thaumaturgic energy rippling through its various runes and symbols. It crackles with red electricity.

Caldwell: Do n

The nine squad members behind her start to fire. The Fae smiles again and extends his sword, slashing half of the bullets at the speed of sound with the edge of his sword before they reach him. The rest of the ammo either misses or bounces off the side of his weapon, coming back at those that fired them. Two Semiautomatic members suddenly grunt, losing their balance and falling off the train; one of them gets picked up by a gigantic bone bird that smashes their metal head. Caldwell sighs silently.

Caldwell: …Fuck's sake.

Armh grins once more. Caldwell squints her eyes angrily.

Armh: Oh c'mon, don't be grumpy. There's still a lot of fun to be had.

Suddenly, from the wings located on his back, a series of drones dispatch, beginning to rapidly approach the seven still remaining people behind the captain. He looks at them, and starts to move his sword in his hand in a circular manner.

Armh: Go get 'em. But her — <points at Caldwell> don't touch 'er.

Then, as KTE-1998-Burnout-Blaecca-Parallax's engine starts to quickly rotate, it hums with pure energy. Armh notices it, and rapidly lounges forward towards Caldwell.

Armh: She's mine.

As the train plunges into the darkness in front of it, it breaches the boundaries of reality and jumps to another afterlife. For a split second, everything goes dark, only to then reappear as visible to the sound of clashing steel. Caldwell's arms, which now turned into long, vibrating blades, block the incoming attack from Arhm's sword. She clenches her lips and pushes forward. As some of the operatives behind the captain start to tackle their respective drones, the Fae begins to move his sword in a playful manner.

Instead of staying in place, he attacks again, this time from another angle. Caldwell parries it with more ease than before, her blades starting to vibrate. She forces them forward, trying to make the sword snap; however, its runes resist the force. Armh raises his eyebrows in pretended respect.

Armh: Subatomic vibrating blades. Fancy as hell.

He then grabs a knife from his back and stabs Caldwell, who jumps backwards, grabbing the wound.

Armh: But not fancy enough!

The burning landscape is now gone, replaced by a shallow lake, spreading into infinity. Caldwell suddenly regains her composure, coming back to her battle stance. She accelerates forward, closing the gap between her and Armh in a matter of seconds. She then thrusts her arm forward, forming it into a long blade, and aims for her enemy's head. He grins, preparing his own blade to block the attack, but before Caldwell reaches him, she suddenly changes the position to aim for his jetpack wings. He is unable to parry it in time, and part of his equipment gets slashed off, falling into the burning abyss below. Armh curses, and enters a defensive stance.

Caldwell: Still gets the job done.

The train suddenly starts to shake. Its engine glows with energy, and both realize it began to siphon souls once more. Suddenly, a series of bird-like creatures rapidly ascends up to the team, lured by both anger at their new enemy and the souls lurking near KTE-1998-Burnout-Blaecca-Parallax's engine. Armh notices it, and, for a split second, focuses on them instead of Caldwell.

Before they can clash once more, the bird horde approaches their train, beginning to storm the crew. While Caldwell and Armh have no issues eliminating the beings, the rest are overwhelmed by the duo of the birds and the drones. When one of the Semiautomatic members gets overwhelmed by the being, he starts knocking it profusely, until he gets it off, making it fall onto the soul-river flowing towards the engine.

When the two interact, the engine starts to cough and move roughly. Suddenly, one of the Strike Team members shoots the bird attacking them thrice, terminating it. Stopping to move almost immediately, its dead body falls into the engine, engulfed by a thick layer of souls clinging to it. Moments later, all of it gets swallowed by the machine. For a split second, everything is quiet, and all remaining survivors simply stand, panting with exhaustion.

And then, as a blinding and deafening explosion coming from the engine engulfs the whole sky, the Semiautomatic member responsible for it evaporates in a second. The rest immediately take cover, ducking from the incoming shockwave. They notice the engine is rotating even more quickly than before. And, as Armh stands up again, the train starts to accelerate again. His eyes widen, and, with myriad coughs and clicks and booms that don't sound quite right, KTE-1998-Burnout-Blaecca-Parallax booms forward into another reality.

Everything is black again. This time, when the train re-emerges, the entire structure starts to violently shake, the engine emitting bright blue smoke and suspicious sounds. All present atop it try not to lose their balance, with Armh making his arms fuse with the floor and Caldwell anchoring her weaponized legs to it.

Speaker: ATTENTION, CRITICAL ERROR OF LOCAL REALITY MAPPING SYSTEM ENCOUNTERED. REMAIN CALM AND FOLLOW STANDARD EMERGENCY PROTOCOL BETA/4212.

Both Caldwell and Armh are standing, unmoving, their bodies overheating. They are deadlocked in looking at each other, unwilling to make any move. Noticeably, Armh's eyes no longer glow with a mischievous grin; it is now replaced with a visible presence of some worry, as if he was beginning to lose his ground.

Armh: <quietly:> Why? Just… Just why?

Caldwell raises an eyebrow.

Caldwell: What what?

Armh extends his hands, pointing towards the horizon of the burning land below them.

Armh: Why come here? Why come into literally hell after Prometheus? Without even getting paid?

Caldwell: You were conducting illegal para—

Armh sighs.

Armh: Oh cut with the self-righteous bullshit, will you? You know what I mean just as well as I do, Captain Caldwell. <pause> Why are you here?

Pause. Caldwell inhales.

Caldwell: Because duty made me. Because that's the right thing to do.

Armh: Don't be ridiculous. I can see you're just as much of a money-hungry lonely wolf as I am. You crave power. You wouldn't remake yourself just for the fun of it.

Another pause.

Caldwell: …So?

Armh: So why not choose the easy way out? Why not just… Why not just give your stupid fascist pseudo-government the middle finger and run to do whatever batshit insane things you want to get up to?

Caldwell crosses her arms. Her team behind her exchanges nervous looks, but she quickly silences them. She scoffs.

Caldwell: …Like joining your little drug ring?

Armh sighs, and rolls his eyes.

Armh: For example, yes. But you're missing the point here. Why not just—

Caldwell: I could ask you the same, you know.

Armh: Huh?

Caldwell: I could ask why you wouldn't just join us, going to hell with all of this and your stupid losing contractors. The Coalition is surprisingly lenient on criminals if it benefits them, and they want to cooperate, you know.

Armh: Because it's ridiculous! You are fucking ridiculous! You're willing to go so deep down because what? Because it helps humanity? I call bullshit!

Caldwell sighs.

Caldwell: We're willing to go so deep down because Prometheus is valuable. Above anything you can offer me. It's an endless well of insanity-driven brilliance that is only held back by the fact it needs money. The GOC has nothing but money. Imagine what we could do with ten Samsara units. What peace we could bring into otherwise hostile regions of the world. Now imagine what we could do with one hundred of them. Imagine what we could do with death beaten. With every illness cured. With total control over everything that isn't humanity. Just imagine.

Armh scoffs, shakes his head, and readies his sword, entering an offensive stance.

Armh: You're insane.

Caldwell grins, showing her team to prepare their guns. She too readies to leap forward.

Caldwell: And your trick to buy yourself more time has just run out.

Both jump at each other again, Semiautomatic guns sending a flurry of firing bullets towards Armh. This time, he isn't able to deflect all of them, getting hit by a series in his forehead and legs. Broken cooling circuits spill liquid onto his eyes, making him blind for just a second. And, in that second, Caldwell's blade arms cut his right arm off. He screams, but the sound dies out as KTE-1998-Burnout-Blaecca-Parallax's engine starts to rotate once more, and Caldwell's eyes widen. The train shoots forward again.

As a red sun, burning with unfiltered hatred illuminates her wholly robotic body against the otherwise dust-gray wasteland below the non-stopping vehicle, the display imitating her eyes flicker with pure terror. The rest of the Semiautomatic members twist in agony, their bodies melting and merging into an amalgamation of flesh, eyes, and, teeth. The captain backs off, realizing the forming creature leaves behind her colleagues' mechanical augments and weapons; that, however, doesn't stop it from quickly crafting its own body into a 7-meter-tall giant mass of flesh, hungrily looming over both Caldwell and Armh. The former lets out a quiet whimper, and readies her weapons.

Behind her, the Fae mercenary cries out in a short expression of sharp pain, grabbing his right eye. He quickly closes the peephole into his eyes, but is already too late; the few grams of liquid that his eyes melted into already begin slowly moving towards the meat colossus, trying to merge with it. He shivers, and similarly raises his glowing sword up, unable to grab where his eye used to be moments before with his now nonexistent other arm. For a single second, the gazes of Caldwell and Armh meet. They simply nod, and come toward each other, looking up at the monster in front of them.

And then, they both charge at the creature, their weapons in perfect synchronization. With a quick few slashes, they cut the legs of the giant, bringing it a few centimeters down; however, before it can fall, its form quickly regenerates. It roars in fury with its malformed jaw, crafted from the teeth and eyes of the Semiautomatic agents, and it lunges forward, attempting to bite into the head of Armh. His sword slashes through the rotting mouth, sending chunks of flesh onto his face. He throws them off, and attacks again, this time aiming for the eyes.

The beast screeches, and slightly backs off, shocked by such opposition to its own offensive. Caldwell doesn't waste the opportunity, rapidly running to the back of the giant, and aims her own arms at her enemy's neck. Before she can do that, however, the engine right behind her starts to tremble again. She loses just a second of attention, and the creature makes the most of it. It lunges forward, and drills its tendrils into Armh's body. He screams as the engine activates.

When Caldwell's eye sensors adapt to the new environment, they realize KTE-1998-Burnout-Blaecca-Parallax is no longer threading forward. Instead, it is floating in a thick, black void that expands in every direction; throughout it, various objects, puddles of liquid, and unidentifiable phenomena levitate, going in no and all directions at the same time. Though the train's engine is still puffing, is it now permanently trapped by the primordial soup of the interdimensional void. The vehicle is effectively stuck.

Caldwell: <quietly:> Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck!

She looks around herself, and notices the flesh being standing tall at the end of the train. She readies her blade, and begins to move forward at increasing speeds.

Caldwell: Goddamnit.

The unmoving cadaver of S'amh Armh sits beneath the creature, several fatal cuts present atop it. Though the body also lacks a leg and a few fingers in the still present hand, his grin still persists on the facade of his face. The blade, now snapped in half, keeps radiating with magical energy, which also leaks out of several wounds in the malformed arms of the entity. Due to the damage done to them, the tendrils the enemy is clinging to KTE-1998-Burnout-Blaecca-Parallax with are thin and malnourished, barely supporting its weight.

The being focuses its myriad eyes at nothing but Caldwell, making all its jaws drip saliva that starts to fall on the steel floor below. Caldwell looks at the body of the Fae mercenary, takes a deep breath, and closes her eyes. When she re-opens them, they are burning with determination.

Wasting no further time, she readies her blades, making them take the longest form they have taken this evening, and smoothly begins to run at the entity. She throws one cut after another, barely dodging its attacks in return. Even if a few hit her, they do almost no damage as her nanorepair units do their job. Her entire body starts to shake with overheating, steam and blue cooling liquid start to leak out of her forehead and eyes. She ignores these signs, though, continuing her attack through the curtain of blue flooding her eyes.

The beast is now visibly smaller, parts of its flesh flung out into the void around it, but it gets angrier, too. Its attacks get more frantic and aggressive, eventually making one of them land directly onto the central computing unit of Caldwell located in her abdomen. She lets out a silent yelp as circuits and other mechanical parts fall onto the train, the cooling liquid flooding out of her other orifice, too. But she doesn't back down, instead doubling down on the frequency of her slashes.

The creature moans and groans as it struggles to keep up the tempo, only causing the captain to speed up, even through the failing joints and burning circuits. The fleshy punches land more and more frequently on her, but they have no impact on her overheated body, practically evaporating upon coming into contact with the burning metal skin.

She refuses to even catch a breath as a storm of steel slashes everything but the head of the creature. In a final attempt at mercy, the monstrosity looks her deep into her eyes, fake pleading plastered all over it. Caldwell simply smiles and spits with melted silicon at it, readying her blades for the ultimate attack. And, she closes her eyes, she sends a final flurry of hits to her enemy, making its head nothing more than a puddle of liquid flesh that drips to the ceiling of KTE-1998-Burnout-Blaecca-Parallax with a silent echo.

Anger in her eyes, she smashes the crying remains of the creature with her boot. Now, she is only panting, her body unable to regenerate, her mind unable to stop, her soul unable to give up. She simply looks far onto the black horizon in front of her, swallows hard, and then falls to the floor, her body unmoving.

With a shaking hand, she reaches for her exclusionary extrauniversal hard drive. With a violent scoop of her finger, she takes out the body camera from her armor onto her hand, and gently tucks it into the storage unit. She then looks directly into its lenses, and faintly smiles through pain.

Caldwell: This… This is Captain Camille Caldwell of Semiautomatic speaking. They're— [CRITICAL SYSTEM ERROR. HEAD TO THE CLOSEST REPAIR UNIT IMMEDIATELY] <coughs violently> They're dead. Armh, my team, Prometheus personnel — they're all dead. I… I couldn't have done anything more than I did. I'm… so sorry.

She takes a moment to rest, trying her best to gather up enough energy to record the rest of the message. Though she succeeds, she clearly struggles in doing so.

Caldwell: Everything about the mission is here. The briefing, the files — e-everything. Just— [OVERHEATING IMMINENT. SELF-REPAIR DEDICATED AS UTMOST PRIORITY] Just please don't make any of this go to waste.

She looks one final time into the dark infinity around her, and closes her eyes.

Caldwell: Don't let the flame die out.

All movements cease.

[END LOG]

In the evening hours of 29/07/1998, the above file was recovered from Coalition Exclusionary Intermission Archive in Station-EU-23 as sent from Captain Caldwell's account. As the file and log-in records confirm the fact all Semiautomatic members did indeed perish and the fact that establishing any permanent contact with individuals located in the interdimensional void is entirely impossible, no further contact was initiated.

KTE-1998-Burnout-Blaecca-Parallax and KTE-1852-Indigo-Léon have been reclassified to LTE.


High Command Records

Due to LTE-1998-Burnout-Blaecca-Parallax's position as a pillar to the entirety of Prometheus Labs' infrastructure, the organization was now left without any monetary sources significant enough to support its existence. That — paired with Marshall, Carter & Darke abandoning all of its previous sponsorship over the group — resulted in official collapse of the primary holding company and the dissolution of the whole Prometheus conglomerate on 01/09/1998.

As a result of this, many groups and organizations — including the Coalition — have decided to acquire and secure the leftover Prometheus projects, resources, personnel, and now independent companies which led to chaos in anomalous society over the following months. Additionally, during this process, much of the expertise and knowledge about many fields of parascience were lost, setting research in some areas back by over a decade. The consequences of this incident are still being fully compiled.

Below attached is an official comment regarding the situation as made by Undersecretary General D.C. Al Fine.

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Office of the Undersecretary-General


Ah, yes. LTE-1998-Burnout-Blaecca-Parallax. The big Coalition fuck-up case. The one they teach to all freshman PSYCHEs as some sort of holy warning lesson. I don't think it'd be an overstatement to classify this entire fiasco as one of our worst mistakes.

It's undeniable the entire case was handled awfully. From the first approach to literally sending a death squad as the primary contact, it was… a catastrophe, and a many-layered one at that. Even with the knowledge that the times were different and that we were desperate, that doesn't truly change much — the unfortunate truth is that we tried to set Prometheus free, but instead of killing the vulture that feasted on its liver or destroying its shackles, we smashed its skull with the impact of our badly calibrated weapon.

Yes, we let the once biggest and most potent paratech company fall because we were too stupid to see we needed to be more careful. Yes, Marshall, Carter & Darke are still unpunished, even despite the egregious sins they've committed before and since. Yes, that is entirely our fault, and we just cannot blame anyone else for it, even if most of us would jump at any opportunity to do so.

But we can't let that define our modus operandi. We can't let that define our relationships with others. We can't let that define us.

I realize most of the people I've actually assigned to take care of the database will bash me for adding this note, but this simply needed and still needs to be said, I'm afraid. Ultimately, I'm writing this for one reason and one reason only — so that you may be better. See what we've done, and don't make the same mistakes some stuck-up UN bureaucrats made twenty years ago in their hubris. Be what we could have never been.

We did what we did, but that only truly means one thing: we simply need to live with its burden as best as we can. And it is a burden we are not only going to bear — it is a burden we are going to improve because of.

We stand for our Fivefold Mission:

Education. Destruction. Protection. Concealment. Survival.

We might have killed Prometheus. But that doesn't mean we can't take his torch and carry it into the world to come ourselves.

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Undersecretary General D.C. Al Fine
United Nations Global Occult Coalition



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