Protocols for Interacting with an Outer Dark Information Console

Handout for The Esoterrorists

You have been forwarded this confidential Ordo Veritatis Supplementary Operations Manual Entry because you have either discovered an Outer Dark Information Console (ODIC) or have reason to believe you will encounter one during the course of your current ongoing investigation.

As you proceed it is essential to balance two competing but equally important priorities:

1. The safety of yourself and the rest of your team.
2. The successful extraction of information, which is likely of high relevance to
   1. the investigation at hand.
   2. Deep study and analysis of ODE activity and methods, to be conducted by the intelligence department after your job is done.

To this end we offer a variety of suggestions. As always your on-scene judgment must override advice in a protocol document, which cannot possibly anticipate the full range of circumstances you face. Every situation is unique!

1. Survey and document the console from the safest possible distance before directly approaching it. Record it using still and video images, and audio. Note any particular olfactory sensations, variations in temperature and humidity, and whether the console appears to be alive and/or sapient.
2. If any components of the console attack, disregard the above to conduct maximum defensive responses.
3. Where you can control the timing of the closer approach to the ODIC, first determine which components of the device most resemble defensive entities which may respond with force to your intrusion.
4. After assessing the threat from such entities, engage them in a fashion maximizing your chances of survival and minimizing potential damage to the information-bearing elements of the alien demonic apparatus.
5. Having successfully neutralized all active opposition, repeat survey and recording protocols (Item 1, above.)
6. Then identify the component of the console that appears most likely to store information. Look for: repeated elements, glowing geometric forms, rapid acceleration of your internal monologue, auditory hallucinations of parademonic language.
7. Probe the identified component.
8. If a flood of distressing images rushes into your mind, withdraw. Note which team members should be designated for psychological debriefing post-mission.
9. Otherwise, look for clamps, wires, plugs, or other connectors suggesting the presence of a detachable storage medium. These may be mechanical, pseudo-biological or both.
10. Using gloves or other protective gear, gently remove that which appears removable.
11. Place the presumed information storage component (PISC) in an authorized containment bag (ACB.)
12. If you have not been issued an ACB, or the ACB has sustained damage during steps 2 or 4, use the most robust alternate container available.
13. Remove yourselves and the PISC from the environment.
14. Assess whether the environment poses a risk to the community or to the membrane.
15. If yes (the default assumption) determine whether you possess the means to destroy it.
16. If yes, do so safely. If no, inform your Mr. Verity of the need for a Special Environmental Containment Forces (SECF) detail. Provide full coordinates leading to the environment along with any relevant warnings.
17. For opsec reasons, do not expect to interact with SECF.
18. If the documentation, extraction and destruction of the OCIB does not complete your investigation, but remains ancillary to it, continue to complete your primary mission objectives.
19. At your discretion, experiment to see how information might be extracted from the PISC, as this may be relevant to step 18.

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