Anomalous Research and Intelligence Office

The **Anomalous Research and Intelligence Office** is a clandestine subsection of the Department of Defense of the United States of America, dedicated to researching anomalous and supernatural activity that may pose a threat to the nation on all levels. Cooperating with the Clausewitz Association and the QuantaReal technology corporation, ARIO seeks to answer security questions pertaining to the nature of the Other and perireality. This is accomplished primarily through scientific study efforts, investigating supernatural activity in true reality, and direct exploration of the Other using personnel (and more recently, robotics).

ARIO's current headquarters is at the Bayfield Anomalous Research Center (BARC), located within the Bayfield peninsula of Wisconsin. Until 1970, its previous headquarters was in a confidential portion of the underground network of the Pentagon; relocation was necessary due to how much activity ARIO was conducting and a need for further secrecy of its operations.

## History

### Creation

The original iteration of ARIO, known as the **Supernatural Phenomena Task Force** (SPTF), was formed in 1948 after the finalization of Operation Paperclip and the collation of preternatural-related scientific materials from German scientists such as Dr. Erwin Gollwitzer. With the *Schutzstaffel* and individual German research groups having been previously involved in significant supernatural research as a means to further achieve German supremacy in the Second World War, the American government saw seizing such information and involved personnel as paramount before they fell into the hands of the Soviet Union and other communist-aligned states - or even the US's own allies. More specifically, the formation of the SPTF was a result of the USSR's Operation Osoaviakhim and intelligence relaying how several German scientists relocated during the operation were thereon folded into an unidentified Soviet parapsychological research program.

### Reformation

The Supernatural Phenomena Task Force was formally organized into the **Anomalous Research and Intelligence Office** in 1961, following a massive staff and facility expansion under a black budget provided by Congress to the Department of Defense (and as a result of the Mullins Experiment successfully creating a spatiotemporally-stable portal to an unidentified alternate reality).

The newly-founded ARIO was charged with spearheading the exploration of this newfound dimension, and thus took charge of a joint task force alongside the Clausewitz Association in what would be known as the Kaufmann Initiative. This mission would last from 1961 to 1964, being ordered to cease further operations in the realm as a result of a massive disturbance within the Other that distorted the metatopographical organization of known spaces. Such a disturbance had also cut off the main exploratory and research outpost, the Forward Anomalous Research Outpost, which had been previously operating on the last space that occupied the label of Space 0 prior. Over one hundred men and women were lost as a result, and the government would not resume operations in the Other until the reactivation of the Mullins Interspatiotemporal Permeation Gate in 1966 and the joining of the QuantaReal corporation to research and exploration operations.

## Subdivisions

The Anomalous Research and Intelligence Office is officially divided into four elements: the **Executive Council**, the **Metatopographical Exploration Task Force**, the **Preternatural Investigation Branch**, and the **Preterological Analysis Synchronization Group**.

### Executive Council

The **Executive Council of the ARIO** handles all bureaucratic and administrative matters of the office, in addition to holding the seats of senior officers that take part in decision-making processes that affect the whole organization. Officially, the Executive Council is superior to both the METF and the PASG, and receives top-down orders from clandestine commanding officers in the DoD.

The Executive Council has its own subdivision, the Anomalous Office Internal Security, or AOIS. The AOIS provides physical and cyber defense to ARIO facilities, and its personnel are empowered with the ability to arrest members of other ARIO subdivisions if they display psychological abnormalities often caused by long-term interactions with the Other.

### Metatopographical Exploration Task Force

Main article: Metatopographical Exploration Task Force
The **Metatopographical Exploration Task Force**, or METF, is a brigade-sized formation of soldiers entirely independent from the United States Armed Forces in command structure; they are directly in service to the ARIO, and are thusly considered both paramilitary and special operations forces. Even so, almost all soldiers in the METF were sourced from the United States military or other paramilitaries, with some even having served previously in the Preternatural Investigation Branch's sister Special Preternatural Reaction Units.

The METF is charged with providing the manpower and equipment necessary to explore, chart, and analyze the often-hazardous metatopography of the seemingly infinite amount of spaces in Other; alternatively, they guard ARIO or QuantaReal research teams with. They are also charged with coordinating with SPRU teams in confronting malevolent cryptids that present themselves in government anomalous research facilities or within the Other itself, and are the main unit responsible for guarding the current FARO. However, unlike the SPRU, they do not have the perogative to deal with domestic preternatural activities in the rest of the United States.

METF soldiers are always equipped with specialized MOPP 4 level gear designed by the QuantaReal corporation, and are armed with military-grade firearms on excursions in the Other. Such a loadout is to prevent unknown microbial infections and to defend against any malicious forces within the Other's various spaces.

### Preternatural Investigation Branch

Main article: Preternatural Investigation Branch
The P**reternatural Investigation Branch**, or PIB, is the largest division of the ARIO in the terms of manpower. With its function being to investigate preternatural activity in all territories of the United States, it conducts much of its activities under the guise of a special branch of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It has its own dedicated combat wing, the Special Preternatural Reaction Unit, which deploys to deal with preternatural activity in the United States under the purview of higher-ranking field agents.

Although the PIB is chiefly tasked with dealing with these anomalous activities in the United States, it also contributes heavily to its sister branches in paraphysical and parapsychological knowledge gained during field operations, further bolstering the ARIO's databases in general knowledge of the supernatural.

The PIB's agents come in a wide variety of apparel and equipment combinations, with some field agents being indistinguishable from normal American civilians. Others masquerade as agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in order to leverage the latter organization's clout in undercover operations, whereas members of the SPRU come equipped with state-of-the-art combat gear and experimental sensory and detection equipment.

#### Preterological Analysis Synchronization Group

Main article: Preterological Analysis Synchronization Group
The **Preterological Analysis Synchronization Group**, or PASG, is a large formation of military scientists and researchers dedicated to cross-examining anomalous research from the METF and PIB, in addition to directly identifying, researching, and rationalizing anomalous phenomena. Although they mainly coordinate research in true reality alongside the PIB, PASG teams often assemble under the escort of METF platoons to foray into the Other and collect evidence with equipment that normal METF troops are not able to bring.

PASG scientists operating in the Other wear sophisticated CBRN suits and often directly cooperate with QuantaReal expeditions.