Thursday, April 29, 2021

Inmate 003

Welcome back, darlings! In this week's installment of The Agency, we're introduced to the entity behind the Tunguska Event and a character created by my wonderful fiancĂ©, Myrrh. They've truly been so helpful and inspirational when it comes to this project--and many of my other ones--and created the character Ellis to fit into the world of The Agency around the same time they wrote "Artifact 0535C." I fell in love with Ellis' mysterious nature and decided to keep them around.

Inmate 003

Inmate Description & History

Inmate 003, known colloquially as Tunguska due to the location of where it was acquired, is a powerful entity to be sure and it is a testament to the collectors’ determination and skill that they were able to apprehend such a creature. It is also impressive that the wardens are able to contain it and have been able to for over a hundred years. Inmate 003 does not look as though it could have caused as much destruction as it did. It stands at an average height of five-nine and appears disturbingly humanoid. Its skin is the color of iron, though mottled with rust streaks running through it. It has no hair. Its eyes are an unnatural golden yellow with veins of black and no pupil or iris. Its eyes also glow, lit from within by an unearthly light.

            Inmate 003 was apprehended in the late afternoon of June thirtieth, 1908, in the Podkamennaya Tunguska River region of Yeniseysk Governorate (now Krasnoyarsk Krai), Russia. The area where it was found was a 830 square mile zone of flattened forest—approximately 80 million trees—and resembled a gigantic spread-eagled butterfly with a wingspan of forty-three miles and a body length of thirty-four miles. Three people were killed in the initial event and another seven were killed when collectors arrived on the scene to apprehend Inmate 003.

            It is entirely possible that Inmate 003 was involved in the creation of Lake Cheko, though this has been disputed since its discovery. Inmate 003 has not communicated any answer one way or another regarding this. Studies are still being conducted on Lake Cheko and the Tunguska Nature Reserve in the hopes of uncovering the answers to Lake Cheko’s origins and monitoring any potential side effects of Inmate 003’s presence on the surrounding plant and animal life.

Testimony 1908-06-30-A

Arch. Fox: Statement of Demyan Krupin regarding the incident that occurred on the morning of June thirtieth. Statement is recorded direct from subject, translated by Iota support team member Archival Assistant Logan Ellison by Archivist Charles Fox.

Arch. Asst. Ellison: The sky split in two and fire appeared high and wide over the forest. The split grew wider and spread and the northern side was engulfed in fire. It was so hot, I wanted to rip my clothes off, but then the sky shut and there was a powerful thump sounded, from somewhere in the forest far off. I was thrown several meters and lost my senses for a bit, then my brother helped me into the house. Then came the sound of rocks following or cannons firing and the Earth shook and we were on the ground. The sky opened and hot wind raced between houses and left traces in the ground like pathways, crops were destroyed. It was terrifying and we hid in the house, waiting for it to be over. Once we felt it safe, we went outside and saw that many windows were shattered and part of the iron lock in the barn was snapped. We also found three of our neighbors dead. My brother and I have decided we’ll keep them because they need someone to look out for them now.

Arch. Fox: Statement ends. Mr. Krupin returned home and resumed his life farming with his brother, adopting the two orphaned children. As of Mr. Krupin’s report, there are three casualties, though these have not been confirmed by anyone in an official capacity in Russia. Many other statements have come in regarding this celestial event and collectors have been sent out to retrieve anything that may have appeared after the event, meteorite or entity.

Testimony 1908-06-30-B

Arch. Fox: Statement of Collector James Booth regarding the capture of Inmate 003 who caused the incident over the Tunguska River region earlier this morning. Statement is recorded direct from subject by Archivist Charles Fox.

Coltr. Booth: That was such a shitshow. God…seven. Seven. It took down seven of us before we managed to corral it. And it wasn’t just collectors. Four of them were support team Alpha. The rest of us…God. That was a good call on Superior Read’s part, sending two groups of collectors and an Alpha squad. Still, it took out four of them. Four soldiers with military training who have been trained how to handle many of the things we do. And this thing just…annihilated them. It was effortless. The thing…God. I mean, you’ve seen it. Or at least, the photos of it in the file. You saw the photos of the destruction from the…what are we calling it? An airburst? A meteorite that exploded?

Arch. Fox: I think we’re going with that one.

Coltr. Booth: Right. You saw the photo. The moth pattern. We don’t know how that connects to it, but I assume that the Omega eggheads will get to figuring that out. Anyway, we had very little trouble finding the area where it…landed, I guess. The trees were flattened, so much land was destroyed. It was standing in the middle of all that devastation, just looking at all the trees it knocked down. The Alpha squad moved in first and we began forming a perimeter. One of the Alphas stepped on a twig and God…that thing’s head snapped around so fast. It raised its arm and just…it made a flinging gesture. Like a ‘shoo’ gesture. The Alpha was flung into a tree at the edge of the impact zone with such force that I heard his bones crack. The other Alphas moved and…God, it was a bloodbath. One collector—Alfie Jackson—went over to the Alpha that hit the tree, trying to see if he was going to live long enough for extraction. Meanwhile, the rest of us were backing up the Alphas as best we could, but it was just so powerful. It killed three of us then three more of the Alphas. We finally got it subdued—those new Tasers seem to work, but I don’t know. I think it just…it just stopped and let us capture it. I think it just got tired of killing us and let us capture it. I don’t think the Taser really did anything to it. It didn’t exhibit any of the signs that the Zeta test subjects did, but that could be because it isn’t human. It just seemed…bored, I suppose. It didn’t seem to understand why we were trying to capture it, but it let us bring it in…after it killed seven of us.

Arch. Fox: Statement ends. The Tasers will need to be tested more to see if they are indeed a viable option when it comes to apprehending entities, but for now, Inmate 003 has been captured and will remain locked in a secure location. It doesn’t appear to have any malice to its actions or seem particularly interested in doing much more than observing those watching it.

Testimony 1912-04-15

Arch. Fox: Statement of Warden Malachi Vance regarding an incident that involved Inmate 003. Statement is recorded direct from subject by Archivist Charles Fox.

Ward. Vance: It was a normal day. I was making my rounds as usual when the radio that Superior Read gave us—he called them…walkie-talkies? Strange name. Don’t think it’s going to catch on though I have to say that they are useful—crackled and one of the Sigma officers—Officer Jonathan Henderson—asked me to come to A-Block. Knowing how dangerous entities in A-Block can be, I rushed over there and…well, A-Block was gone, B- and C-Blocks were barely standing, and D-Block had substantial damage. This wasn’t surprising given how Inmate 003 arrived four years ago, but seeing the full extent…I mean, the Tunguska area where the trees were destroyed was a fraction of a size of the containment facility and certainly nowhere near as durable. Currently, Inmate 003 is being housed in a temporary containment area while the facility is rebuilt. It is also semi-sedated, thanks to the efforts of the Omega scientists. I asked a nearby Zeta, badly wounded but he was alive, what happened—I believe his name is Ethan Black—and was informed that another Sigma officer—he didn’t mention a name, but I have reason to believe based on roll call and his personality it was Officer Patrick Carter—had been insulting and taunting Inmate 003. Inmate 003 has never shown any recognition of insults before, but whatever was said was apparently enough to earn its ire. Though, I don’t think it was angry as much as annoyed. Black mentioned that Inmate 003 didn’t seem to react until after Officer Carter made a derogatory sexual comment about Black. That was when Inmate 003’s eyes began glowing and the streaks of rust running through its body began to glow as though heated. According to Black, soon Inmate 003 appeared as though it was composed of molten iron and…well, Black isn’t sure what happened next because there was a burst of light and a shockwave that knocked him unconscious.

Arch. Fox: Statement ends. It would seem that Inmate 003 is more powerful than we ever expected. If it is capable of causing this amount of destruction when it seems it was mildly annoyed, it is very likely possible it could be an A-Class entity if it were angry enough. I now understand why Superior Read insisted that Inmate 003 be placed there. I will need to discuss the containment protocol regarding Inmate 003 with Superior Read and see if perhaps we can make arrangements to keep Inmate 003 content and harness Inmate 003’s abilities for the agency’s purposes, whatever they might be.

Testimony 2019-03-26

Arch. Montgomery: Statement of support team Delta medic…erm…Ellis regarding the recruitment of Inmate 003 to support team Mu. Statement is recorded direct from subject by Archivist Angel Montgomery.

Med. Ellis: Callum—I mean, Superior Read—asked me to recruit Tunguska—that’s what he likes to be called—to support team Mu and I did. It wasn’t hard, you know. Just had to talk to him for a minute and he was willing to join. He’s sorry about the trees, by the way. Thought that was why he’d been locked up, destroying the trees. Anyway, he’s a sweetheart and can’t wait to start working with us. He sees it as an apology for the trees.

Arch. Montgomery: It was that easy?

Med. Ellis: Yes. Things go swimmingly when you talk to people. They’re usually willing to talk back, you know. Some of them even like talking to people, like Adam Evans and the shapeshifter currently known as Jack Lowe. Others need to be coaxed into talking with people due to the abuse they’ve suffered, like Brady Simmons. Poor thing. He really did get treated horribly before and conditions haven’t improved.

Arch. Montgomery: While that is off-topic and hardly my place, I agree with you on that front. But, returning to the main topic, I’m pleased to hear it was so easy to get Inmate 003—er, Tunguska—to join support team Mu. Any ideas what will happen now?

Med. Ellis: He’ll likely be assigned a room and possibly go through some training to learn how the Agency operates, then get assigned to a team to go on missions with. More than that, I don’t know. Hard telling what Callum’s got up his sleeve.

Arch. Montgomery: Statement ends. Ellis should be able to rein in Inmate 003’s destructive nature and harness it for the benefit of the Agency. Having an entity like Inmate 003 working for the Agency will be greatly beneficial and given that Ellis has a rapport with it, I believe with reasonable certainty that Superior Read will assign Inmate 003 to work with Ellis.


That concludes "Inmate 003." I hope you all have enjoyed getting to read either full entries or partial ones from The Agency for the past four months. I've certainly enjoyed sharing them. If anyone has any questions or comments about The Agency or writing in general, feel free to comment on this post and I'll be sure to reply. 

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