Orientation Manual for Class "B" Personnel - Version 1.2.51
Although your career within the Foundation attests to your familiarity with our objectives, this promotion requires a recalibration of your perspective. Recall our true nature: we are the unseen guardians of an unknowing humanity, a global organization operating in the shadows to study and contain the anomalies that threaten normalcy. Our doctrine is absolute, etched into the Secure, Contain, Protect protocol. Every future decision you make must serve this sole purpose: to preserve the Veil of secrecy, the fragile barrier that protects civilization from chaos.
Primary objective: informational dominance and crisis mitigation. This phase requires the expenditure of Strategic Capital to deploy Assets for tactical observation, not direct engagement. Success is defined by understanding the anomaly's effects, establishing a perimeter, and gathering intelligence to prepare for the next phase.
With the crisis stabilized, your objective shifts to direct interaction with the anomaly. This phase consumes Strategic Capital to deploy specialized Assets with the goal of neutralizing the anomaly's harmful capabilities. A successful containment renders the subject inert and ready for extraction and subsequent long-term containment.
The final and most critical phase. Your objective is the complete restoration of the Veil. This requires a final expenditure of Strategic Capital for clean-up operations: mass amnestic application, media narrative control, and evidence removal. The success of your entire operation is judged by one metric: if the public remains unaware, you have protected normalcy.
The protocol to which every other Foundation directive is subordinate. The Veil is the conceptual and physical barrier that separates anomalous reality from that perceived by human civilization. Its integrity is the highest strategic priority, even superseding the containment of individual anomalies.
A failure in its maintenance would not be an incident, but a potential rupture of consensus reality, leading to the structural collapse of society. The Foundation's effectiveness lies not in our strength, but in our ability to remain unseen.
ASSIGNMENT MEMORANDUM: You have been promoted to the rank of Department Director by virtue of your proven operational efficiency. Your mandate is the application of the Foundation's primary directive: Secure, Contain, Protect. Your operational station is not the field, but the Site's strategic command center; your function is the analysis of data streams, resource management, and the authorization of critical operational protocols.
All operations are subject to review to ensure necessary evils remain strictly necessary.
It is imperative to understand the Committee's function not as a moral authority, but as a pragmatic control body. Its primary mandate is not to ensure our actions are "good," but that they are sustainable and efficient for the Foundation's long-term objectives.
The Committee intervenes when a procedure, however effective, risks compromising our mission through unnecessary cruelty, waste of valuable assets, or psychological degradation of personnel. Their purpose is to ensure that necessary evils remain strictly necessary.
An immediate understanding of the classification system is essential for assessing the severity of any threat. The classification is based on the difficulty of containing the anomaly. The following is the official doctrine, known as the "Box Test."
If you lock it in a box, you can leave it there and nothing will happen.
Its nature is so well understood that its containment is reliable and requires no active surveillance. Note: "Safe" does not mean "harmless."
If you lock it in a box, you're not entirely sure what might happen.
The default class for anomalies whose behavior is not fully understood. Requires active containment and constant monitoring because it is unpredictable.
If you lock it in a box, it will constantly try to get out, often successfully.
Designates anomalies that are actively and aggressively hostile to containment. The required procedures are complex, costly, and subject to frequent revision.
The box itself is the anomaly.
One of the Foundation's most secret assets. An anomaly that is actively used to contain or counteract other anomalies. They are our most powerful and dangerous tools.
The anomaly is the box, and it's about to open.
Designates an anomaly that is impossible to contain and is actively causing, or will soon cause, a Class-XK end-of-the-world scenario. Its discovery triggers emergency protocols at the O5 Council level.
We could put the anomaly in the box, but we've chosen not to.
A rare classification for an anomaly that, theoretically, could be contained but, for strategic reasons, is not. Its containment could cause an even more severe problem.
The Foundation is not the only organization operating in the shadows. Dozens of other groups, known as GOIs, have their own agendas regarding the anomalous. Managing relations with these entities is of critical strategic importance.
Organizations that are actively hostile and pose a direct threat to the Foundation, its mission, and its personnel.
Organizations with goals that overlap or conflict with the Foundation's, but are not necessarily hostile.
Groups with unique philosophies or opportunistic agendas, whose actions can indirectly help or hinder the Foundation.
Forces with a more localized scope of action or enigmatic individuals with personal agendas.
Your Strategic Capital (CS) measures your capacity to exert influence and authority during an operational phase (Secure, Contain, Protect). It represents your ability to authorize significant actions before logistical and bureaucratic friction degrades your effectiveness. Every Operational Action or Support Action consumes this capital.
Your Grade of Competence (GC) measures your innate skill and experience in four operational macro-areas. This value fluctuates based on the success or failure of your Requisition Actions. A high Grade of Competence (GC) represents your reputation and your ability to secure assets outside your own jurisdiction.
Every asset is rated with a Grade of Potential (GP). This grade determines the maximum potential of the outcome during an Operational Action (e.g., GP-D8). Success and failure in the field will modify this grade, reflecting the consolidation or exhaustion of your assets.
ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE DIRECTIVE: To optimize specialization and compartmentalize information flow, Site Departments are classified into four operational Divisions. As a Director, you hold absolute authority over your Department and are solely responsible for it. The Divisions serve as functional macro-categories; your chain of command is direct and answers only to the authority of the Site Director.
Standard directive for direct intervention in an anomalous contingency. Execution is subject to a probability assessment to determine its outcome.
Note: The Operational Resource must be an Operational Unit or a Specialist. The Support Resource can be of any other type; a Specialist can only act as Support if the Operational Resource is an Operational Unit.
Objective: The result must meet or exceed the contingency's Containment Level (LC).
Protocol for allocating one's own Strategic Capital (CS) to support an action undertaken by another Director. This action does not directly resolve a contingency but provides a crucial bonus to an ally's Operational Action.
Synergy Protocol: Each Director may perform only one Support Action per cycle. Likewise, each Director may receive support from only one other Director per cycle to prevent resource overlap and ensure operational stability.
Protocol for the formal request of assets outside one's own jurisdiction. Approval is subject to a procedural inquiry based on the requester's political capital.
Note: The Protocol of Appeal (PA) represents your negotiation skill. An interlocutor (another Director or the Narrator) assesses the quality of your argument and assigns you a bonus Grade of Potential to represent your influence in that specific request.
Objective: The result must meet or exceed the Level of Authorization (LA).
Where standard operating procedures prove inadequate to prevent a catastrophic breach, the Director's authority extends to activating extreme contingency protocols. Be advised that invoking such measures will be recorded, analyzed, and will have unavoidable consequences for your career and the integrity of the asset involved.
Operational Note: "This isn't a luxury, it's a last resort. An authorization to use a memetic trigger or other anomalous stimulants to push a resource beyond its limits for a single, decisive action. You'll call it 'giving it your all,' we call it 'squeezing every last drop.' The resource will not be the same afterward."
Effect: Before an Operational Action, you may temporarily increase a single asset's Grade of Potential (GP) by one step for that directive.
Limitations: Cannot be applied to GP-D4 or GP-D12 Assets. Can be used only one time for each cycle.
Consequences: In case of failure, the overcharged resource is considered exhausted and cannot be used for the rest of the operation.
Activation Condition: "There are situations where our doctrine, our manuals... are just scrap paper. When containment has failed irreparably and the only alternative is total catastrophe. That is when you invoke the Omega Protocol. You don't follow the protocol. You break the rules. Success is a fluke, mitigation a miracle."
Effect: Replaces the normal Operational Action. A direct GP-D20 roll is made against the Containment Level (LC).
Consequences: Regardless of the outcome, the entire Resource Type used is locked for the remainder of the current SCP Phase.
Each operation follows a strict procedural flow to ensure a coordinated approach. A crisis is managed through a series of phases, from the initial briefing to the final evaluation.
The operation begins with the convening of the Crisis Unit. The Site Director presents available intelligence, the nature of the anomaly, and the primary objectives.
The first active phase. The Crisis Unit gathers data and establishes provisional containment. This phase consists of one or more Coordination Cycles.
The second active phase. The Crisis Unit executes the plan to gain full control of the anomaly. This phase also consists of Coordination Cycles.
The third and final active phase. The objective is to erase all traces of the incident and restore normalcy, proceeding through Coordination Cycles.
Once the operation is concluded, the Crisis Unit reports to the Site Director for a formal evaluation. Successes and failures are analyzed, with a direct impact on the Directors' careers.
Within the SECURE, CONTAIN, and PROTECT phases, operations proceed in a series of Coordination Cycles. Each cycle represents a decision-making unit for the entire Crisis Unit and follows four steps:
The Crisis Unit analyzes the situation, discusses, and defines a coordinated course of action for the current cycle, determining which assets they intend to use and what orders they will receive.
Each Director simultaneously and bindingly declares one of the following three actions:
Deploys their own assets for direct intervention. The current phase's Strategic Capital is reduced by one step.
Temporarily increases the Grade of Potential (GP) of a single asset belonging to another Director. The Director providing support will have their current phase's Strategic Capital reduced by one step.
Holds position, analyzing data without intervening. No effect on Strategic Capital.
The decisions are logged and executed, necessary resolution calculations are made, and based on the results, the Site Director will provide the consolidated outcome of the actions taken.
After analyzing the results of the actions taken, the Directors may unanimously decide to consider the current SCP protocol phase concluded and proceed to the next one.
MEMORANDUM ON OPERATIONAL READINESS: Proactive threat modeling is a cornerstone of Foundation doctrine. Given the unpredictable nature of emergent anomalies, the O5 Council has mandated regular crisis simulation exercises for all Class-B command personnel. These simulations are designed to test strategic acumen and resource management under duress before an actual breach occurs.
The JANUS system is the Foundation's primary predictive engine, generating crisis models by analyzing paraphysical data streams. The following protocol provides manual access to a non-sentient iteration of the JANUS matrix, allowing Directors to calibrate new training scenarios by defining key threat parameters.
SITE DIRECTOR'S MEMORANDUM: «Your promotion has been ratified. This phase registers your operational profile into the Site's systems. The quality of the data you provide will determine the efficiency with which you can request resources, enforce protocols, and reduce friction on reality. Fill this out with precision: every point of potential is a commitment to the Veil.»
Confirm the Division and Department you are assuming directorship of. This confirmation initializes your operational perimeter and links your primary assets. See details in Divisions and Departments.
As defined in Section 2, you must now allocate your starting Strategic Capital for the three operational phases of the SECURE–CONTAIN–PROTECT cycle by assigning GP-D12, GP-D10, and GP-D8 (one for each phase). For the operational flow and costs, refer to SECTION 6: STANDARD OPERATIONAL FLOW.
For the four Grade of Competence (GC) fields, confirm the following Potential Grades (GP), using each value only once: GP-D10, GP-D8, GP-D6, GP-D4. For the definition and behavior of GPs, see Grade of Potential (GP). The relevant GC is used in Requisition Actions along with the Appeal Protocol (AP) to overcome the Level of Authorization (LA) (see SECTION 4: DIRECTIVE EXECUTION & RESOLUTION).
All Site Operational Assets related to your Department start at GP-D4. Confirm the four assets you are transferring from your original Site/Department, assigning: GP-D12, GP-D10, GP-D8, GP-D6 (each only once).
Deployment: in an Operational Action, you deploy one Operational Resource (e.g., Operational Unit or Specialist) and may associate a single Support Resource. A Specialist can only provide Support if the Active Asset is an Operational Unit. For resource families, consult Divisions and Departments.