PHASE REPORT

Document Text:
Progress Report:
Ural Mountains Breach – Phasic Threat Assessment

Colonel, in response to your concerns about “The Phase,” I dispatched two survey teams to study the phenomenon. As with Outpost 25’s outbreak, this phasic energy barrier has proven quite lethal, with a significant impact on our operations. You have seen the reports of soldiers trapped inside, driven to insanity, violence, and, ultimately, death. Even in the case of my own survey teams, two men were lost. For those who did return, they have posited some… “illuminating” theories.

Firstly, the Phase is not simply a perimeter wall. It represents a deadly “No Man’s Land” connecting the many regions of the Outbreak Zone. As one of my officers put it, “imagine the Outbreak Zone were an
ocean, with each region representing islands – The Phase is the water surrounding, and linking them all.” Take that for what you will.

Second, the Phase is being maintained by crystalline structures. Aetherium Processors. These structures pump large quantities of Aetherium into the environment, chemically altering the oxygen (along with other elements) in the area. This is the reason why our men cannot survive inside the Phase: the environmental conditions have been rendered uninhabitable. Dr. Peck believes the Phase is “terraforming in action,” the Dark Aether’s attempt to make our world hospitable for its own kind.

One final observation: as the survey team was studying the barrier in Ruka, they observed the Phase wall grow approximately 100 micrometers. It seems – however slowly – the Phase is expanding. We will continue to monitor.

Gorev
Spetsgruppa Omega