Keyes Protocol

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Emergency Act 3521077B-1, informally known as The Keyes Protocol, was a command which upon activation ordered complete destruction of a planet's weaponry facilities, vehicles, advanced technology, data and most valuable personnel and engineers during the event of a flood outbreak on a human colony or human controlled territory. Taking heavy inspiration from the Cole Protocol before it. The instructions, relevant documents, data from simulations and other relevant information was stored in the ONI Alpha Base in New Mombasa and within HIGHCOM Facility Bravo-6 and broadcast in early October 2552 to all remaining UNSC xenoarcheological sites, such as that Grace.

The Protocol[]

Office of Naval Intelligence/ United Nations Space Command Emergency Act 352107B-1

Encryption Code: Black

Public Key: file/black dawn/

From: Vice Admiral E. McCormack, Office of Naval Intelligence,

To: [...]

Subject: General Order 352107B-1 ("The Keyes Protocol")

Classification: CLASSIFIED (UPR Directive)

The Keyes Protocol[]

Article 1[]

To stop the spread of the Flood, limit their knowledge, and limit their expanse. All actions must be swift and decisive:

a. UNSC Forces cannot DEFEAT the enemy. All UNSC elements are to focus on DISRUPTING the enemy IOT allow time to DESTROY and DENY the enemy its critical capabilities and prevent them achieving required tasks to spread beyond the affected planetary body
UNSC Ground Forces' mission is to CONTROL key and decisive terrain within their nominated TAOR and conduct taskings as directed by higher commanders IOT DENY the Flood access to personnel, infrastructure, and transport that would jeopardise the security of the human race
UNSC Naval Forces' mission is primarily to fulfill this directive through land and orbital assets.
b. Individuals with clear understanding of aviation, mechanical engineering, space-travel or of the UNSC minor and major tactics are to be DESTROYED IOT DENY their use to the Flood
c. Materiel and personnel where possible must be DENIED to the enemy. This involves the DESTRUCTION of air, space, and land transport, of biomass, and of the human brain where possible. The civilian population is a critical capability to the enemy and is essential to its expansion, this must be treated as a targetable critical vulnerability to the enemy's operational tempo
d. Command will be held by the highest ranking officer in orbit of the affected planetary body.
e. Ground-based artificial intelligences will be deactivated or DESTROYED, orbital artificial intelligences are to be primed for deactivation or DESTRUCTION
f. Assets in orbit are not to risk contamination from the surface
g. UNSC Ground Forces are to SECURE key strong-points. In doing so, establishing long range scanning out to three kilometres, localised seismic scanners, and heavy weapons stockpiles. Strong-points will DISRUPT the Flood's tempo and force a delay in its spread. Strong-points should be established in optimal positions as to DENY the Flood access to its critical objectives. Strong-points are to hold tactical nuclear ordnance in order to DENY its occupants and its materiel to the Flood once the enemy BREACH the position
h. Human life must be treated as subordinate in priority to UNSC Forces' mission
i. Civilians are to be encouraged, at all costs, to prevent their own living bodies, or the bodies of those close to them, from falling to the flood. A broadcast hereby identified as Media-0 is to spread over all possible frequencies and over all available devices through use of a wide array of transmission systems. Media-0 is detailed below.
j. All UNSC navigation databases, barring those of functional orbital assets, are to be DENIED to the enemy
k. Civilian or military transport attempting to evacuate the colony must be DESTROYED IOT prevent potential Flood infiltrators escaping off-world undetected.
l. Strike / Attack / Medium or Heavy lift aircraft must be RECOVERED and centralised at land-based positions IOT enable UNSC Forces' to conduct attacks to DESTROY enemy key capabilities
m. Communication off-world is to be prevented at all costs, the UNSC is not to send reinforcements and the broader UEG is not to learn of this incident. Excepting this is a transmission directly from the ranking Office of Naval Intelligence member to HIGHCOM Facility Bravo-6

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MEDIA-0 - Office of Naval Intelligence

<A United Nations Space Command Defence Force Insignia briefly occupies the broadcast space before vanishing, a dark grey screen is left, white text appears and begins scrolling>

"To all the peoples of this United Earth Government colony,

UNSC forces have encountered a threat beyond the insurrection, beyond the Covenant, beyond anything we could ever perceive, this colony has fallen to that threat. However, even in defeat, we WILL fight back. We WILL deny this enemy an ultimate victory over Humanity. We do not surrender, we fight on. The Office of Naval Intelligence, your Colonial Administration and the United Nations Space Command thus encourage you, citizens of this colony, to take ACTION, to fight back against this enemy the only way we know how. If others are not willing to take ACTION, you WILL take action for them. We, the human race will not be crushed, not here, not today.

Your sacrifice is in the names of trillions of fellow UEG citizens. Your courage should inspire others, you have nothing to fear.

The following methods of ACTION are reccomended: Destruction of the cranium, self-immolation, self-dismemberment. The brain is key. The stronger your ACTION the weaker we make our enemy. UNSC forces will be enforcing your ACTION soon, to delay is to invite defeat and an end to all Humanity.

If possible, it is reccomended that your remains not be easily recoverable. Your ACTION will speak louder than words.

If you are to take ACTION you must ensure those close to you are involved, children and pets are priority in your ACTION, spouses, siblings and parents take priority over yourself. The brain is key. The less you are, the less the have.

This message will broadcast until all broadcasts are shut down"

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Article 2[]

To take offensive action to erradicate the infestation

a. Strike / Attack / Medium or Heavy lift aircraft at surface based installations are to be utilised to conduct bombardments of population centres, specific build-ups of Flood biomass, and of key infrastructure, transport, and materiel that has not yet been destroyed. Strike capable assets based in orbit must be utilised for the same tasks without risking their contamination. Surface-based craft, once expended, must be DENIED to the enemy
b. Civilian population centres are a high priority high-value target
c. Surviving outcrops of human life must be sought out and destroyed
d. Surface elements that cannot be RECOVERED by UNSC Ground Forces' must be DESTROYED
e. UNSC Forces' are permitted to employ force indiscriminantly within the intent of this directive f. At all costs, the existence of the Flood must remain classified
g. This protocol is not to be received in full by any person at risk of infection, inclusive of all surface-based commanders
h. This directive emphasises security principles of Need-To-Know with the provision of intelligence and commands to Ground Forces
i. Surface combatants must ultimately DENY themselves to the enemy after they have been rendered combat ineffective or otherwise exhausted taskings
j. The Office of Naval Intelligence will field unmanned drones and Biohazard Survey Teams to confirm the execution of the Keyes Protocol after a period determined by UNSC HIGHCOM
AMMENDEMENT AS OF 2553 - The Office of Naval Intelligence will advise the Swords of Sanghelios on the situation and request supporting orbital plasma bombardment and sterilisation
AMMENDMENT AS OF 2555 - The Office of Naval Intelligence will field SPARTAN-IV containment teams to sterilise remaining infection

Article 3[]

In event of a Class-4 outbreak and the development of a (Proto)-Gravemind consciousness

a. Long range communication is to be limited drastically
b. Unmanned Aeriel Vehicles are to be used to effectively identify the enemy Gravemind, Gravemind is to become the highest priority high value target for all strike operations
c. UNSC Ground Forces are to remain cogniscent of psychological injury in colleagues and are to be given limited awareness of the Gravemind's capacity for psychological manipulation
d. UNSC Forces in orbit are to receive briefings on the implications of the Gravemind's presence. Any hallucinated voices, or feelings of possession are to be reported immediately and personnel experiencing them contained.

Usage[]

The Protocol was put into place as a failsafe against a planetary Flood infestation on a UEG colony, it was developed to deny the Flood the knowledge, equipment, and food it needed to survive.

Various leaks from anti-UNSC protest groups and prying journalists have decrypted parts of the protocol. The protocol's existence to the public remains a hotly contested conspiracy theory ranging from a UNSC contingency developed as part of an advanced biological warfare program, to a classified Covenant bioweapon used against UEG colonies. The Office of Naval Intelligence has since published a modification of the protocol to an unconventional horror-fiction forum as a complex cover-story.

FSA-1[]

FSA-1 is an ammendment introduced in 2555. Failsafe Ammendment-One provides legal means to further the UNSC efforts in containing a flood outbreak. FSA-1 grants the Office of Naval Intelligence ultimate, unchallenged jurisdiction over a world and its populace once lost to the Flood (Class-2 flood outbreak) for a duration of fourty-five years following the outbreak in order to manage containment and further prevention.