UWIAEE — Object Classification and Field Response Protocol

Document ID: CLS-002-4b (Classification Protocols, Document 002, Revision 4b) Classification: UWIAEE-INTERNAL // FIELD OPERATIONS // ALL CLEARED PERSONNEL Last Revised: ████████ Issued By: Field Operations Division, in coordination with Containment Division Distribution: All Field Operations and Containment personnel. Available on request to Research and Linguistics & Translation.

Purpose

This document outlines the standing classification system for recovered objects and observed phenomena, and the response protocol associated with each classification. The system is the result of forty years of refinement and is treated as authoritative across all divisions.

Misclassification is a serious matter. Both under-classification (treating a dangerous object as safe) and over-classification (treating a safe object as dangerous) carry real costs. The first costs lives. The second costs trust — and trust, in our work, is also costed in lives.

Read this document carefully. Re-read it annually. The classifications are not intuitive; they are the product of bitter experience.

The Classification Scale

UWIAEE uses a five-tier scale, designated M, O, S, C, and B. The tier governs handling, study permissions, and reporting cadence. It does not govern an object's apparent investigative significance, which is tracked separately under Research's own indices.

Class M — Mundane

Definition: Object appears entirely normal. No confirmed anomalous property at the time of recovery. Flagged for our attention due to provenance, context, the circumstances of its discovery, or the reasoned intuition of the recovering personnel.

Examples: A book recovered from a sealed room nobody in living memory remembered being sealed. A coin found embedded in tree bark a meter above ground level. A letter delivered to an address by mail systems that do not appear to have processed it.

Permitted Handling:

• Personal study by the assigned analyst is permitted.
• The object may be removed from secure storage and taken to the analyst's office, laboratory, or — if no other secure facility is available within working distance — to their residence under the standard Class-M residential protocol.
• Standard protective equipment is not required for Class-M objects, though gloves are encouraged for the preservation of evidence rather than for the analyst's safety.

Reporting:

• Weekly written reports to the assigned handler, even if the object continues to display no anomalous properties. Especially if the object continues to display no anomalous properties.
• Any change in the object's properties, any unusual occurrence in its proximity, or any change in the analyst's own perception, memory, or mood that the analyst cannot otherwise account for must be reported immediately — not at the weekly check-in.
• The analyst may, at any time, request that the object be re-classified upward. Such requests are honored without question.

Important: Most Class-M objects remain Class-M. Some do not. The reporting cadence exists for the second category.

Class O — Observed Anomaly

Definition: Object exhibits one or more confirmed anomalous properties of minor intensity. The property does not, in any documented case, pose immediate harm to personnel under standard handling.

Examples: An object that produces a faint sound audible only to one observer at a time. A document that resists translation by all standard means but yields when handwriting samples of a specific deceased individual are present. An object that warms in proximity to certain emotional states.

Permitted Handling:

• Study is permitted, but only in a designated laboratory environment.
• Standard protective equipment is required. The lab will advise on case-specific requirements.
• The object does not leave the lab without supervisor approval.
• Personal residence study is prohibited.

Reporting:

• Daily reports during active study.
• Any change in the object's behavior triggers an immediate review with the analyst's handler and a Containment liaison.
• Sustained changes warrant re-classification.

Class S — Sensitive

Definition: Object exhibits anomalous properties that may directly affect personnel — perceptually, physiologically, or psychologically. Effects may be subtle, cumulative, or delayed.

Permitted Handling:

• Containment Division assumes primary handling. Research and Field Operations may consult.
• No solo study under any circumstances. A minimum of two personnel must be present whenever the object is removed from sealed storage.
• All handling sessions are recorded. Sessions exceeding forty-five minutes require a mandatory break and welfare check.
• Personnel handling Class-S objects undergo mandatory weekly psychological screening for the duration of the engagement plus thirty days after.

Reporting:

• Reports are filed by the handling pair jointly, after each session.
• Discrepancies between the two reports are flagged and reviewed by Internal Audit — not as a disciplinary matter but as a diagnostic one. Discrepancies often indicate the object is acting on perception.

Class C — Containment Required

Definition: Object exhibits anomalous properties of significant scope or unpredictability. The object cannot be safely studied through ordinary laboratory procedures.

Permitted Handling:

• Sealed containment environment only. Specialized facility, controlled atmosphere, restricted access.
• Multi-person handling protocol with rotation; no single operative spends more than thirty minutes per session in proximity to the object.
• Site supervisor approval required for every interaction beyond routine monitoring.
• A standing extraction order is maintained for any personnel showing behavioral or physiological change attributable to proximity. Extraction is involuntary if necessary — this is the only category in which UWIAEE personnel may be removed from a workspace against their stated wishes, and only because the wish itself is the symptom under suspicion.

Reporting:

• Continuous documentation by dedicated monitoring staff.
• The object's containment status is reviewed daily by a panel including representatives from Containment, Research, Personnel Welfare, and Internal Audit.

Class B — Black

Definition: Object or event is associated with one or more of the following:

• Personnel loss (missing, fatally injured, or deceased)
• Violent action by a contained subject toward personnel
• Unexplained disappearance of personnel in proximity to the object
• Cascading anomalous events traceable to a single source
• Civilian casualties or significant civilian exposure
• Loss of containment from a Class-S or Class-C object

Permitted Handling:

• None. Class-B classification means the object is no longer under your routine handling. It is no longer your case.
• Reporting personnel are to evacuate the immediate area and contact PSC. Do not approach the object further. Do not photograph it further. Do not attempt to retrieve property left behind.
• Documentation of what has occurred is to be written after evacuation, from memory, in a debriefing room. We would rather have your account in your handwriting after the fact than have a recording made on-site at the cost of your safety.

Class-B is not a permanent designation. Many Class-B incidents are eventually downgraded after PSC stabilization and investigation. Some are not. Either outcome is acceptable. Neither outcome will reflect on the personnel who reported the situation, provided they followed evacuation protocol.

On PSC — Protect, Secure, Contain

PSC is UWIAEE's specialized rapid-response task force, deployed in response to Class-B incidents and any other situation in which routine field protocol has been exceeded.

The acronym describes the operational priorities, in strict order:

1. Protect. Civilians first, then uninvolved personnel, then involved personnel. PSC will move a wounded operative before stabilizing a scene. This ordering is not heroic; it is calculated. Lives are recoverable. Information is recoverable. Civilian trust is recoverable only at considerable expense.
2. Secure. The site, the perimeter, the line of sight, the witnesses. PSC will establish containment of people before containment of things.
3. Contain. The object, entity, or event itself. This is third because it is, in most cases, the priority that can wait. Most Class-B incidents are caused by the object having already done what it was going to do.

Deployment Criteria

PSC is dispatched automatically upon any of the following:

• A Class-B designation has been issued by any field personnel.
• Personnel have failed to check in for more than ninety minutes during an active engagement, without explanation.
• A contained subject has demonstrated violent or self-defensive behavior toward staff.
• Loss of containment from any Class-S or higher object has occurred or is suspected.
• Civilian casualties or significant civilian exposure has occurred in the course of UWIAEE operations.
• A site coordinator has formally requested deployment, for any reason they deem sufficient.

The deployment threshold is deliberately low. PSC has been deployed, by retrospective audit, more often than was strictly necessary. The institution considers this preferable to the alternative.

Composition

A standard PSC deployment includes:

• Four to six field operatives, in full protective gear suited to the suspected hazard. They are armed. They are trained to use what they carry; they are also trained to consider every other option first.
• A Personnel Welfare specialist, whose primary role is the care of any UWIAEE personnel on-site. The specialist arrives first into a debrief and last into a confrontation.
• A trauma medic, with full field surgical capability.
• A Containment specialist, who advises on the object or entity in question.
• A site coordinator, who maintains the line to central administration and is authorized to commit additional resources without further approval.

Response Time

PSC maintains a four-hour global response window as a standing operational guarantee. Most deployments arrive considerably faster, depending on regional proximity. The four-hour figure is the worst case the institution will accept; in practice, it is rarely tested.

Conduct on Arrival

When PSC arrives at a site, on-site personnel may expect the following:

• PSC will identify themselves by code phrase, not by name. The phrase is rotated on a known schedule, published internally. Memorize the current phrase. If anyone claiming to be PSC does not use it, they are not PSC, and you should treat the encounter accordingly.
• PSC will not engage with civilians except through the Personnel Welfare specialist. Civilians will be addressed calmly, informed of an evacuation, and offered the standard Civilian Welfare Protocol (see Onboarding Document, section On Civilian Exposure).
• PSC will not extract you against your will unless a Class-C-or-higher object is acting on your perception or behavior. If you are conscious, ambulatory, and asking to remain, you will be permitted to remain — but you will be asked, repeatedly and patiently, whether you are sure.
• PSC will not lie to you about the situation. If you ask what has happened to a missing colleague, you will receive the most accurate answer they are able to give. If the answer is that they do not yet know, that is the answer they will give you. They will not soften it. They will also not embellish it.

After a PSC Engagement

Every operative on-site during a PSC deployment is enrolled, automatically, in Personnel Welfare's Post-Engagement Program. This includes:

• Mandatory medical evaluation within twenty-four hours.
• Mandatory psychological evaluation within seventy-two hours.
• Paid leave of not less than two weeks, regardless of injury status.
• Standing access to long-term counseling, without time limit.
• Family support resources, if applicable.

You will not be asked to "return to work" until Personnel Welfare confirms you are ready. The institution's metric for ready is your own assessment, supported by clinical judgment, in that order — not the reverse.

A Note on Misclassification

UWIAEE has, in its sixty-five years of operation, made classification errors in both directions. We have treated as Class-M objects that should have been Class-O, and we have lost personnel as a result. We have treated as Class-C objects that should have been Class-M, and we have spent resources and human attention we did not need to spend.

Both errors are taken seriously. Neither is treated as cause for individual blame. A misclassification is reviewed by a panel that includes the classifying analyst, with the express purpose of refining the classification process — not assigning fault.

If, at any time, you believe an object you are studying has been misclassified, say so. The reporting line is your handler. If your handler is unavailable, your handler's handler. If neither is reachable, Internal Audit. If Internal Audit is unreachable, the emergency contact number printed on your credential card. The line is always answered.

We would rather receive ten unnecessary reclassification requests than miss the one that was needed.

Issued by the Field Operations Division, UWIAEE.

This document is to be kept current. The current revision supersedes all prior revisions. If your copy is dated before the most recent revision listed above, request a replacement.

Do not photograph it. Do not photocopy it. Do not allow it to leave your locked desk.

See Also

• UWIAEE Onboarding Document — for new personnel orientation
• Earth — operational plane