PRIOR TENANT
CLASSIFICATION SAPPHIRE VORPAL JULIET
POTUS EYES ONLY
NSA/CANTRIP REF TAG U64FVLCNSM-BYUWK89-PXQXF8-2FIWOSF CODE GROUP SIERRA
PRIOR SECTION DEEP BLACK
NOTE: DO NOT READ THIS DOCUMENT UNLESS YOU HAVE READ NSA/C CODE NOVEMBER AND INTERVENING SECTIONS.
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Following the destruction of the Charlie-130 SPECWEAPS extraction transport at Desert One, all exploitation teams were put on high security alert. SITE GAMMA's air defenses both technical and thaumaturgic were brought fully online for the first time. Unfortunately, on November 28, 1979 a rune of transgression on Mt. Erebus signalled intrusion. Due to the looser ROE brought on by the alert, no human was in-loop and a major glamour was deployed as a precaution against observation. The glamour caused the pilots of an incoming sightseeing flight, Air New Zealand Flight 901, to undergo 'white-out' conditions and crash into Mount Erebus itself.
Immediately following there were unexpected seismic disturbances at SITE GAMMA near Mt. Erebus, resulting in the cave-in and subsequent loss of access to several sites of interest to the ongoing exploitation teams. These tremors seemed to concentrate on the subterranean sea access points from the main site. At the same time, a series of tremors were detected in the Pacific Ocean. Later examination of seismograph records revealed that these tremors were simultaneous across a narrow corridor of ocean which stretched in a straight line from a point just north of Guam, in the Marianas Trench, to the Pacific northwest coast of the United States. There were immediate signs of vulcanism at Mount St. Helens in Washington state; on May 18th, that volcano erupted.
57 people died and the mountain's summit was reduced by over a thousand feet. DEEP BLACK assets assessed the seismic data and determined that the eruption had most likely been stimulated by unknown forces beneath the Pacific Ocean, and speculated that if these forces were related to SITE GAMMA and SPECWEAPS that a surviving colony of Old Ones might be existant in the deep benthic regions. Considering the level of threat demonstrated by the eruption, this possibility was assigned a CRITICALITY OLIVE THUNDER threat rating by the NSC on DEEP BLACK recommendation.
Immediately following the threat escalation, the U.S. Navy dispatched submarine assets to survey the Marianas area. SSN and research vessels were tasked over a three-month period with mapping the bottom of the trench using remote sensors. Anomalies were detected below the three-thousand meter level which could not be explained hydrodynamically, and poor mapping resolution resulted. The U.S. NOAA undertook a seismocartographic expedition without the knowledge of DEEP BLACK. Standardized sounding charges were dropped in a regular grid pattern across the Marianas area, with specialized hydrophones utilizing return echoes from the detonations to provide mapping data.
The Oceanographic vessel was lost during its return to Hawaii with all hands. No explanation for its loss was produced, and no wreckage was ever found.
In 1981, DEEP BLACK, LAUNDRY, and ELDER DRAGON became aware of indications that various persons of interest to intelligence were vanishing unaccountably near seashores. All assumed that these disappearances were related to prearranged transport until two of these subjects attempted to assassinate POTUS Reagan and Karol Jozef Wojtyla in 1981. Following these events, during which both assassins were found to have no memory of their actions, necrotized tissue was discovered in their brainstems which, upon analysis, was determined to be Protean in origin, the Dresden/Yalta signatories convened an emergency meeting in Rio de Janeiro.
At that meeting, the signatory organizations agreed that a coordinated response to Protean infiltration and strike operations was necessary. The supranational code PRIOR TENANT was instituted to identify the benthic threat. LAUNDRY instituted surveillance coordination centers at Port Stanley and Diego Garcia; DEEP BLACK stood up centers at Pearl Harbor and SITE GAMMA.
British SPECWEAPS assets used for testing communications systems between D/Y signatories and PRIOR TENANT were relocated to Port Stanley. Intentional leaks stating that highly secret sonar testing equipment was being emplaced backfired when the Argentine government became convinced (due to the security measures undertaken) that MANHATTAN assets were present at Port Stanley. As the Argentine government was not a D/Y signatory, no correction was issued; the Argentine military goverment initiated an occupation of the Falkland Islands in response to perceived secret British escalation.
Her Majesty's Government was initially undecided on response, until a LAUNDRY briefing detailed the importance of the facility under threat. A special forces team with LAUNDRY minders was dispatched immediately for the facility and landed outside Port Stanley near Mount Kent, retaking the facility. The British military effort was launched both to reinforce and retrieve those forces as well as divert attention from the facility and attempts to secure it. In those respects the invasion was successful.
The ELDER DRAGON organization, around this time, apparently began omitting some details from their regular D/Y update briefings and transmissions. DEEP BLACK and ANCESTRAL GIFT reported on suspicious materials transfers within the Soviet Union in 1982. ANCESTRAL GIFT assets reported on deepwater containment systems being constructed at Rybachy, a Soviet Pacific Fleet nuclear submarine base near the port of Petropavlosk-Kamchatsky on the Kamchatka peninsula, a closed military reservation. In accordance with treaty obligations, DEEP BLACK, LAUNDRY and ANCESTRAL GIFT requested a verification inspection of the Rybachy facility at the 3Q 1982 convention and were refused access. ELDER DRAGON maintained that Rybachy was strictly a strategic nuclear weapons center.
Following this, several reconnaissance overflights were conducted using SR-71 platforms from Alaska and Diego Garcia between April and September, 1983. ELDER DRAGON did not respond but according to later reports briefed the Soviet military and PVO Stranyy that NATO spy overflights were suspected in the vicinity of Pacific Fleet assets, with no further information.
On September 1, 1983 a civil transport Boeing 747 enroute from Anchorage, AK to Seoul, South Korea deviated north from its track into restricted Soviet airspace over the Kamchatka peninsula. Soviet Air Defenses were already on the alert for a ballistic missile test, which turned out to be a cover for unknown activities at Rybachy. It appears, on later analysis, that ELDER DRAGON was coordinating the move of a large SPECWEAPS system from Rybachy to another location inside the Soviet Union, and the intrusion of flight KAL 007 was mistakenly interpreted first as a strike mission against Rybachy. This was discounted when interceptors reported a large transport airframe. However, local ELDER DRAGON advisors were concerned that the aircraft was a DEEP BLACK-modified RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft and recommended it be intercepted. The airliner was destroyed by two Soviet intercepts, crashing near Moneron Island. All D/Y parties maintained secrecy and the incident played out as a Cold War confrontation. At this point, all coordination with ELDER DRAGON on PRIOR TENANT operations and intelligence ceased until the 1992 timeframe when the collapse of the Soviet Union allowed ELDER DRAGON, under new management, to rejoin the Dresden/Yalta regime.
In 1984, the U.S. Navy, DEEP BLACK and the LAUNDRY had mapped at least seven PRIOR TENANT installations in deep benthic regions around the planet. They suspected an eighth site in deep water near the Azores and the Sargasso Sea. As part of this investigation, they concluded there was a chance that the 1968 loss of the USS Scorpion (SSN-589) in 3300 meters of water near that location might have been PRIOR TENANT action as opposed to malfunction or Soviet interference. A new mission to investigate the wreck was initiated, with the proviso that it be dispatched with a cover mission. A team from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institition was sent to take high-resolution imagery of the Scorpion, as well as the remains of the USS Thresher (SSN-593), lost on April 10, 1963 off Cape Cod. As cover, they were to attempt to locate the wreck of the RMS Titanic.
Imagery was recovered from all three wrecks. The Thresher was found with no indication of any outside interference; all evidence pointed to the original engineering casualty as the reason for its loss. The Scorpion was subjected to a much closer examination than has been publicized. Although confidence remains high that the Scorpion suffered an initial engineering casualty which caused her to lose way and begin to sink, she apparently survived intact to the depth of approximately 2100 meters. At that point, the submarine suffered catastrophic hull failure and separated into sections; however, evidence from the scene indicates that this failure was likely precipitated by external tampering. Large gouges in the hullmetal have been photographed in six locations on the outer surface of the hull; all of them directly over or near to critical structural failure points. Various systems inside the wreckage appeared to be missing with no indication of structural failure or wrenching; consoles, components and mounted items are simply not present, appearing to have been deliberately removed.
The expedition continued on to locate the Titanic, and was publicly advertised as a successful attempt to satisfy only that goal.
DEEP BLACK and LAUNDRY designated the Scorpion incident PRIOR TENANT OLIVE THUNDER and continued to survey the Sargasso region in an attempt to locate PRIOR TENANT installations, to no avail; however, the overt interference present in this instance indicates that either some installation or temporary presence was disturbed by the submarine's intrusion. It is possible that PRIOR TENANT was unaware the submarine was in distress, as other human equipment had often penetrated to that depth successfully and deliberately. DEEP BLACK and LAUNDRY speculated on record that PRIOR TENANT might be observing a benthic exclusion zone policy. Priority was set on determining if this was the case, and if so, what the exclusion zone limits were and/or contacting PRIOR TENANT for diplomatic interaction.
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NEXT SECTION: BENTHIC OUTREACH
CLASSIFICATION SAPPHIRE VORPAL JULIET
POTUS EYES ONLY
NSA/CANTRIP REF TAG JXLWV93314-SUIP188-ZRTEEJ-9D332K CODE GROUP TANGO
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