Memospore collection D16LIx87HKi01 was intercepted on its way to IGS Requisitions & Review by Provincial Trade Offices (Standard). They detail days 31-33 of IGS Crossing 15, when STRIDENT assets were identified, engaged, and eliminated. Present: team member Damerarch Colass, team member Bremmon Davit, embedded PTO(S) agent [numinit]. These memospore recordings are included in this STRIDENT document as supporting materials only and not for general distribution. Your perusal only. Note accelerated decay rate, some details subject to untrustworthy aetherwane (6221285.00.1 aurbicle decay rate). Standard suite securities advised.

Dig site, continuing report, cogitocode: //yellowing page, propulsion and swan, the lean of her parasol//
Category: Intercepted items, incomplete, sleeveshell
Safety Procedure: Terrestonial compiled ruin (EC standard suite 4E11), aetheric retrogression (EC standard suite 4E11), Echophage baffler (Ghost Choral standard suite infinitial)

+ Day 33, major fragment, conversational, Colass and Davit (arcanologists).

C: Look at him back there.
D: Why, what's he-- [effort] Give, uh, give me a hand with this [effort]. Thanks. What's he doing?
C: What he always does. Shadows us. When we stop, he stops.
D: Yeah, so?
C: Garper said he's our escort. Nothing on the duty roster about any escorts.
D: He's not our escort.
C: What do you mean?
D: [effort] You could help with this.
C: Sorry, yeah, here [effort] Got it?
D: Hold on, yeah, wait [effort] Don't drop it.
C: I got it, let's drag it over there. More light.
D: Yeah. Sounds good.
[combined effort]
D: He's Trade. Not an escort. If anything, we're bait.
C: Huh? I don't-- what's Trade?
D: You know. [whisper] Provincial Trade Offices.
C: No shit?
D: That's why no duty roster. He's off-book, Garper says. Garper says the Survey insisted.
C: Oh, so Garper confides in you now.
D: Yeah. We were in Requisitions together when they pulled us for C Project. He likes me. No one likes you.
C: Garper say this guy's using us as bait?
D: That's me. That's just me guessing. [effort] This is good, right here, put your side down.
C: Okay, hold on, just a-- [effort]
[combined effort]
D: Watch your fingers. Drop it. I'm good, drop it. [effort] Fuck me that bitch was heavy.
C: Checking makeup.
[pinging sound]
C: The whole panel is lined with ebony. No wonder.
D: No fucking wonder.
C: We can't drag all this to base camp.
D: Yeah no. Automatons can come get it later. Put a local lock here.
C: Okay. [incantation] How's that?
[pinging sound]
D: Lock's good. No snakes. Let me sit a sec and we'll go back in.
C: Sure, we can-- wait, you're saying the whole dig site is the bait.
D: Shh. I mean, it's also research, but yeah, from the way Garper was talking and the way Trade guy is playing lookout, I think someone's interested in what we're doing here.
C: Locals?
D: I don't know, maybe.
C: You do know.
D: I don't.
C: You suspect.
D: Think it through. How long have we been digging through this shithole?
C: The shrines? Three days.
D: Three days at a very unimportant set of shrines carrying very unimportant but very heavy fresco panels out into the open like this. No one but us knows how unimportant it is, though.
C: You said yourself it's research.
D: Yeah, fine, it is, it's research, but it's also very "hey look at us paying very close attention to this dig site, look at how carefully we're dismantling these underground shrines--"
C: "You can't miss it because we've put all these fucking ebony-lined panels out here in the open, pinging them for pickup. Looks like real important shit here."
D: Right.
C: Bait.
D: What I've been saying.
C: You don't bait the locals like this.
D: Nope.
C: Trade Offices means, what--
D: Means it's international.
C: No fucking way.
D: Yeah. Someone else from the outside is inside. Our job is to look interesting so they investigate, tip their hand, make their move, whatever.
D: Then what?
C: I suspect kinetic action, son.

Dig site, continuing report, cogitocode: //yellowing page, propulsion and swan, the lean of her parasol//
Category: Intercepted items, incomplete, sleeveshell
Safety Procedure: Terrestonial compiled ruin (EC standard suite 4E11), aetheric retrogression (EC standard suite 4E11), Echophage baffler (Ghost Choral standard suite infinitial)

+ Day 33, major fragment, confrontation, Colass and Davit (arcanologists), unidentified STRIDENT operators, PTO(S) agent [numinit].

C: He's gone.
D: I noticed that.
C: Why'd he--
D: Shh. Company.

[EScapture distorted: STRIDENT operator (designate S) approaches Colass and Davit brandishing Skeinlock glove cannon. STRIDENT operator's synodite armorsuit exhibiting inadequate environmental and spiritual protections. Snake.]

S: Sit.
D: Yeah. Just-- just do as he says.
S: Where's the rest of your team?
C: He's got a snake.
D: We're the only ones here at the site. We've got three more at the Breacher camp.
C: Tell him about the guy.
D: Four more.
S: Supposed to be five total. Where's your camp?
C: Close. Can you, uh, just sheathe that, we're--
D: You don't look so good, friend.
S: Shut up. "Close." Give me a drift mark, dumbfuck.
D: I'm serious, I think that's an ichthyjinn.
C: You're sick. You've got something on your shoulders making you sick.
S: I know. I can't see it. Do you have medicine? Your camp?
D: You wouldn't be able to see it.
C: Your armor's shit for this.
S: I will blow you the fuck out if you don't give me the drift mark right fucking now.

[EScapture distorted: STRIDENT operators (designates T, U) loping up to the dig site from the perimeter, armorsuits trailing black smoke. Snakes.]

D: Hey hey hey. Hey. Don't. Keep those two back or everyone gets sick.
C: No fucking way. I'm leav--
S: Sit back down!
[spooling sound: Skeinlock]
C (fear): Please don't--
S: Sit back down!
D (panic): Hey! Stop, stop. Just-- look, tell them to stay back!

[EScapture distorted: approaching STRIDENT operators (designates T, U) vocalize sounds of dry trees cracking apart. Colass screams.]

D (panic): You don't understand--

[EScapture distorted: Three reports. STRIDENT operators eliminated. PTO(S) agent [numinit] emerges from dig site shrine. Sheathes glove cannon. Confirms kills.]

C: Holy shit...
P: Your suits compromised?
C: I don't think so.
D: No, sir, we're both--
P: Then fuck off.
D: What?
P: Back to camp. Fuck off back to camp.

[EScapture distorted: Colass and Davit retreat from scene. PTO(S) agent [numinit] unfolds Sy58j half-staff, disarms STRIDENT operator (designate S) before resurrecting him.]

P: Back with me? We're going to talk.

[EScapture end. Memospore retrieval disabled by Trade Offices security burst override.]

AAR Rogue Incursion (Morrowind Displacement), Case STRIDENT
Volter Piil, Scrivener, Provincial Trade Offices (Standard)

On or about 13th Second Seed 4E20 (temporal drift standard parameters), this agent confirmed, eliminated, and contained the Strident mercenary operation in the Morrowind Displacement (colloquially, The Blanket). Further in-field investigations indicated Strident's deployment was purchased from Skingrad Mercantile, likely by a consortium of elements of the ECP (Eastward Covenant Pact), Solstheim Recovery Inc., ATOLL (Aldmeri Territories Outland Legacies LTD), and remnant cells of the Fifth Southern Front. While classified as a rogue incursion, it is this agent's belief that the Strident organization's threat profile should be elevated to kill crimson. Granulated details of after-action follows.

At the Director General's discretion, senior leadership of the Imperial Geographical Survey was informed of a suspected incursion into the Morrowind Displacement by a hostile party. (Internally, Provincial Trade Offices (Standard) identified this as a Strident mercenary operation.) Upon EC approval, I was embedded in the Breacher team of the 15th Crossing under Field-Marshall Philominstus Garper III as tier echelon escort at Fort Shrikemoth 30th First Seed 4E20.

After the team crossed the threshold, around a month of regular Crossing activity followed until on or around the 1st of Second Seed (temporal drift standard parameters). I spotted signs of Strident operators in the Narsaris region, Blanket 144.22 drift t -023.0, 0.8 (cross: crowfly t -0.91). Discarded game and a small, ad hoc sundial construction suggested the operators were unprepared for and ill-informed about Blanket survival protocols.

An unaccounted for serpent influence prevented me from tracking the Strident operators to their (assumed) field base. I reshifted the goal into drawing them out. With the Field-Marshall's cooperation, I maneuvered an arcanologist team to perform material excavations at an uninhabited shrine site 156.22 drift -t03.2 to serve as decoy, 11th Second Seed (temporal drift standard parameters). On 13th Second Seed, three Strident operators, all exhibiting advanced serpent illness, approached the site, ostensibly seeking medical aid from the arcanologists. When the situation became hostile, I executed the Strident operators.

After containing the site, I performed a pre-authorized low-yield resurrection on Strident operator (designate "S") and proceeded with an interrogation. I was able to establish the following:

• 7 Strident operators made up the incursion team: field leader (spellcaster, conjuration), four soldiers, specialist tracker, chirurgeon (spellcaster, restoration).
• The Strident incursion team penetrated the Blanket on or about 12th Sun's Dawn from some point below the Deshaan region, employing one-use shunt-capable armored frames to achieve entry. Operator S was unaware of their planned method of return. Operator S was also unaware of how much time had passed since entry.
• The incursion team's primary objective was a 30-day reconnaissance of the Deshaan region, with an eye towards establishing a forward operating base there for subsequent Strident incursions. Operator S stated that their client had "a small army" ready to deploy once a proper landing zone had been secured. Operator S could not identify the name or affiliation of the client but was confident that his field leader could.
• The Strident standard synodite armorsuit was a mongrel affair, a reverse-engineered first generation sunbird-class bodysleeve with an outer alchamesh layer. As a package, wholly unsuited for Blanket traversal and extremely susceptible to psychic assault by its varied extramundic entities.
• Almost immediately after entering the Blanket, the incursion team met with heavy serpent influence. Operator S stated that "only hours in" the incursion team was off-program and in dangerous operational disarray.
• Within the first week of the incursion team's entry, their primary objective reshifted to survival. Operator S stated that their field leader insinuated Strident had contingency plans for emergency exfiltration.
• On day 10, the incursion team were visited by their first major temporal anomaly. Operator S stated that by the time he found his remaining team members ("months later"), they had already established a temporary field base in the Narsaris region. Operator S stated that none of the team members could recall his absence. Operator S reported seeing facsimiles of himself at the base on several occasions but could never make contact.

When I explained that these facsimiles were likely temporal afterimages of time spent at the team's field base that he himself could not recollect, Operator S became agitated. In response, the loa organism (taxonomy: ichthyjinn) riding him began to show signs of imminent hostility. I quickly established a more general location of the Strident field base. I went immediately to investigate, after re-kill of Operator S.

The Strident field base was a reappropriated fungal peel tower fortress long abandoned by the local tribes of the Narsaris region, Blanket 162.09 drift t -108.0, 11.2 (cross: crowfly t -2.74). Serpent activity in the immediate area had spiked in the last few years, Displacement-relative. With the Strident incursion team's failure to scrape their minds of pre-existing Blanket knowledge, they'd unknowingly hothoused a serpent nexus inside their own base by remaining put in such close proximity to one another. I was not going in there physically.

I performed a pre-authorized ghost choir 3 mind partition (see attached reimbursement form, 5bJ: operational consciousness (partitioned, degradational risk)). After housing my psychic personas (designate Bossy, Smartso, and Antsy) into wraith-configuration sleeveshells, I sent all three into the Strident field base. (See attached, pertinent EScapture.)

As ever, Bossy promoted itself to squad command, appointing Smartso as intelligence retrieval, assigning Antsy overwatch (despite inheriting my worst apprehensive qualities, Antsy was a perfect shot), and handing me perimeter standby for skelepresence as needed. Sleeveshell investigation uncovered the following before the initial encounter with the Sixth House operator (taxonomy: Ash Priest) resulted in full psychic cascade shutdown:

• The Strident field base was confined to the bottom three levels of the peel tower. Though not labeled as such, these levels had been more or less divided into Diagnostics, Planning, and Quarters.
• All of it was a mess. Fungal accretion covered most surfaces. The air was thick with a myriad of spore types. Rival poltergeists fought running battles for ownership of each floor. Signs of the incursion team's habitation were minimal.
• The remaining four team members were found deceased, two in Diagnostics, two in Quarters. All of them were covered in a combination of fungal growth and some kind of pitted "fabric" that from some angles resembled wasp paper tissue. The pair in Diagnostics had furthermore been aggressively colonized by serpent phenomena.
• The Planning level had seen no use for a long time. Smartso accessed the incursion team's crystal lathe array and recovered undeliverable missives to Skingrad Mercantile, Solstheim Recovery, Inc., and ATOLL, the contents of which were increasingly more desperate in nature. (See attached copies for review but note that increased aurbicle decay may render said content unreadable.)
• The identities of all Strident incursion team members were found, along with their operational histories. Most surprisingly, the field leader shared an open affiliation with the Fifth Southern Front. It is this agent's opinion that for all intents and purposes, the FSF has been co-opted by Skingrad Mercantile.
• There was no evidence of any contact between the incursion team and outside entities after Strident breached the barrier wall.
• The remains of three synodite armorsuits were discovered in the Diagnostics level. One was fully colonized by mimicule spores, the suit bloated out from the inside to suggest that it was presently being worn. The other two suits displayed more conventional damage resulting from what looked like a netch-bear attack. A slimleather user's manual was found on an engineering desk, confirming the suits' ATOLL manufacture and an exclusivity contractor arrangement with Skingrad Mercantile and their Strident mercenary groups.

The Sixth House operator was discovered feeding on the Strident team field leader in the Quarters level. When it spoke, a forced psychic merge of partitioned sleeveshell personas was immediate and total. I was Volter Piil in full again, suffering only a slight degradation in my soul integrity.

Knowing that Ash Priests absorbed the memories of the dead they consumed, I determined that my best course of action was to ensure the complete destruction of the peel tower and everything in it. Knowledge of the world outside the Blanket-- our means, methods, and dispositions-- could not reach Red Mountain. One of my mission parameters was to sanitize any trace of Strident's presence in the Blanket anyway.

I planted a pre-authorized high yield portable temporal storm at the tower's base, retreated to a safe distance, and watched it unmake reality in a sixty foot diameter sphere. To my surprise, the Sixth House operator stumbled out of the widening void and we engaged in close quarters (see attached testimonial of the pre-authorized vorpal knife used in the engagement).

With the Ash Priest dead and the Strident incursion operation contained, I traveled back to Shrikemoth, where I am preparing this report. In closing, I would once again suggest to the Director General to elevate Strident's threat profile-- they will do it again if we let them. Furthermore, after uncovering the scope of this operation, it is this agent's opinion that the full force of the Provincial Trade Offices (Standard) be brought to bear against our inimical counterparts in the Imperial City and its surrounds.

Burn the house down, sir,
Volter Piil, Scrivener, PTO(S)