Protocol 006, unlike protocols 001, 002, 003, 004, and 005, is focused on entities that do not fall into the traditional classifications of aggressive, non-identified, or hostile. This protocol should be considered in effect for contact with:
- Infected Civilian Targets
- Altered Individuals
- Non-Hostile Vector Individuals
- Early-Onset Breach-Tier Individuals
This Protocol should not be engaged with the above criteria if the target is a part of a larger organization.
The Protocol is designed to engage with high-risk individuals who have not yet engaged with such risks in their totality, but still represent a danger to or potential infection vector for further warping of foundational concepts. Baseline humans which fall into these categories enter multiple phases of development, with worsening symptoms throughout their progression- Protocol 006 is designed to engage with, subvert, and ultimately capture or neutralize these individuals within the first two phases of transformation.
PHASE 1: Denial: The subject refuses to acknowledge their ability to warp reality. The infected / Vector Subject will attempt to rationalize away their abilities by various means or shut down entirely, attempting to deny them. In some cases, the Infected Vector subject will terminate their development at this phase, but such a possibility is never assured, and must be taken as the least likely scenario.
PHASE 2: Experimentation: The subject acknowledges their abilities and begins to test the limits of their powers. In general, the Infected / Vector Subject will begin experimenting in one of two ways: slowly, methodically, and carefully, advancing a small amount at a time over long periods, or will take larger, riskier leaps forward, occasionally altering between the two. This is the final point where Protocol 006 should be considered viable.
PROTOCOL 006: Part 1
Engage the target sympathetically for the sake of gaining its trust. This can be done by using the authority of one’s position in law enforcement or governmental rank, imitating sympathy for the subject’s condition, or ingratiating oneself into the subject’s personal life. By placing yourself in a position of authority and trust with the subject, the individual can be further manipulated through the Protocol.
PROTOCOL 006: Part 2
Attempt to discern the origin of the infection so as to better diagnose the target. Using one’s position of authority / trust over the subject, attempt to gain access to the site / object / individual which acts as the original infection site. If possible, isolate the individual from the source and contain it. If such isolation is impossible, revert to Protocol 001.
PROTOCOL 006: Part 3
If the subject remains non-hostile, and isolation from the source has succeeded, one should attempt to further isolate the subject. Arrest, incarceration, imprisonment, or elimination if necessary are all functional methods for the continuation of the Protocol. However, if a subtler touch is required, social isolation through misinformation campaigns or the removal of key figures in the target’s life can also be enacted.
PROTOCOL 006: Part 4
Should one have arrested, but not eliminated the subject, the subject should be taken for evaluation with the proper authorities. If the subject remains uncooperative in spite of imprisonment and isolation, or continue to show signs of metaphysical manifestation and infection, the subject should be restrained, rendered unconscious, or eliminated as needed. If such acts are not possible at the time, the target is to be eliminated.
PROTOCOL 006: Part 5
If elimination of the subject is no longer possible, despite the arrest and isolation of the subject, the subject must be categorized as a Tartarus Grade entity, and slated for indefinite imprisonment. If elimination remains possible, but is not currently viable or necessary, and the total isolation / neutralization of the subject has been achieved, it may be classified as Purgatory Grade entity, and slated for further research and potential implementation as a field resource.
Author’s Note
(wrapped up into a small letter-package, against the side of the official document)
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Out of all the protocols described above protocol 6 is the most difficult for most new agents to engage with. It is the one that is, in many ways, the hardest to write. In spite of the choice of words, selected for both accuracy and intentionality, there is no abbreviation, obfuscation, or modification of language that I can use that will not, ultimately, fail to disguise the truth of what this document is about.
Protocol 6 is the procedure created for dealing with people. People with powers, yes. People who represent a clear and present danger to themselves, other people, their surroundings, and even the world at large. But people nonetheless. People who will often be confused, and disoriented, and afraid of what’s happening to them, and what they’re now capable of doing. People who will be looking to you for help more than anything, and who you will not be able to help.
The naive, the blind optimists, will tell you that things can go back to what they were before. That those who have been changed by these forces outside our world, outside the foundations of what we know and need to be true, can go back to who they were before. They’re wrong. The infection is permanent. The alterations, if it has already progressed to that level, cannot be wholly reverted, even if things are put back to right on the surface. Trauma cannot be undone. Whatever it might look like, what is happening to these people is trauma, and it is foundational.
These people, these subjects, these targets, will be human beings. They will be normal people, up until the point where they aren’t. They’ll have families, friends, jobs, dreams, and none of that matters in the face of the fact that they are now, first and foremost, a threat.
Oftentimes, this will not be their fault. They will, in some cases, be explicitly and completely blameless for what has happened to them. Many infection vectors do not care about intent, mindset, or fairness, and even those that do, by their very nature, cannot be upfront about the consequences of engaging with them. To comprehend them is to be infected, often even more aggressively than simply suffering their attention.
In spite of this, our job, your job, if you’re reading this fucking document, is to stop these people. It is to remove them from where they can do the most damage and to remove their ability to do damage. The only way to do that, in totality, is to kill them.
Sometimes, to kill them, we need to use others of their kind. The only way to do this that guarantees they don’t escape and cause more harm is to make the chains that bind them so profound, so bone-deep, so carved into reality, that they cannot be anything other than under control.
All of these things are true.
They are people. They are threats. They are an infection. They are a tool. Thus, the Protocol.
If you are reading this, then you should also have read protocols 1-5. You’ll have read about what to watch out for, how to properly cauterize some of the wounds you’ll undoubtedly receive, how to identify the difference between the abnormal and the truly alien. Most of you will not survive to need the contents of protocol 6. You won’t be senior enough to be trusted with negotiation, won’t have been given the tools to properly work against your fellow man, and won’t be senior enough for us to know you won’t sympathize with your target. You’ll be dealing with the weird dogs and the fucked up bugs and weird artwork and music that makes your friend’s faces melt off.
All of these infection vectors and subjects are still worthy threats. There is no work you can do in this organization that is not in some way protecting the world, your fellow man, and the sanctity of physics itself. But there is a difference between fighting things, fighting monsters, fighting people… and manipulating, imprisoning, or killing people who aren’t fighting you at all. Who don’t know what’s going on, who don’t want to hurt anyone, who might not even know what they’re capable of or what they’re doing.
If you’re reading protocol 6, then you know that you’ll have to. That it’s so crucial we put it here, in the front of the fucking briefing, before you get to find out where you’ll be deployed and what the procedures are for bunking and whether or not you’re allowed to carry weapons on whatever job you’re on. You will be confronted with horrors the likes of which no one outside of the nuremberg trials has ever seen or perpetrated, and worse, and sometimes the only way to prevent them and to keep the world safe is to shoot that little kid, or that grieving wife, or that confused old man, right in the fucking head.
And, if you can’t do that, to drag them off to a blacksite.
I’m not going to sugarcoat this. These people will never see their loved ones again. Cover stories will be put into place to explain their disappearances. They will be placed into rooms with no windows, one door at most, and we will design a plan for each and every one of them so that they remain drugged, unconscious, tied to the floor or otherwise incapacitated for the rest of their lives. Those we cannot use will be eliminated. Those we cannot use and cannot eliminate will simply be kept in that box for as long as the organization exists. Those we can use will come out of those boxes exactly as often as is required for them to not break, and even then, only so that they are not broken, that we might make use of them.
We’re not the good guys here. Protocol 6 more or less demands that to be the case. But we are what’s necessary. Not because it’s fair, or because it’s the best possible version of what can be, but because it’s the best we can do in the face of the fact that any one of these infection vectors could kill billions, and end the world as we know it.
Fucking sucks.
To the brass; fuck you, put this shit in the document. Pad that shit out. Folder’s way too skinny, you gotta really scare them with it.
As for the rest of you who’ve read this far- take it from someone who’s seen more shit than you can imagine, and I mean that literally. This job sucks. It’s the worst job in the goddamn world, and it’s the only reason there’s still a world left to begin with. Thank you for your service. We will likely never meet, never interact, never know that the other exists beyond this message, but we are both fighting the same fight. It will tear you open and pull you apart. It will unmake you limb from limb if you let it.
You are doctors. This is triage. You cannot save everyone, and you cannot let yourself care about them after they are lost.
Best of luck. Try not to kill yourself.
- Briefing folder left behind a filing cabinet, long collecting dust. Some of the words used have smudged, as if wiped away with an oily finger over the course of a long period of time.
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