Echoes_005–2C
Nickname: “The Pale Vehicle”
Danger Ranking: 2C
First Reported: 1975-02-02, Outside McCleary, WA

Summary:
Echoes_005–2C, known as “The Pale Vehicle,” is a spectral or anomalous manifestation resembling a 1970s-era station wagon (white or light gray, with no license plates, windows tinted pitch black). It appears sporadically on isolated rural roads, most commonly in areas previously subjected to unreported or unofficial military activity during the Cold War period.

Witnesses report the vehicle as initially following at a distance, headlights off. Attempts to accelerate, pull over, or approach the vehicle result in its sudden disappearance or complete route obstruction. On multiple occasions, witnesses described being overtaken by the Vehicle only to find it parked ahead—idling silently, blocking the road—despite having never passed it.

Internal access has never been achieved. On one documented occasion in 1986, Field Team Echo-9 attempted to spike-strip the Vehicle. The strip was torn in half before the Vehicle vanished, leaving a faint odor of ozone and visible frost patterns on nearby vegetation.

It is unclear if The Pale Vehicle is autonomous, intelligent, or operating on a pre-programmed route. However, patterns of its reappearances suggest it is "drawn" to observers experiencing guilt, unresolved grief, or suppressed memory trauma. In rare cases, visual contact has triggered vivid hallucinations involving unknown roadways, static-filled radios, or reversed temporal flow.

Known Properties:

• Appears between 10:30 PM and 4:00 AM.
  
• Leaves no tire tracks or thermal signature.
  
• Cannot be recorded directly—video captures a blank frame or inverted exposure.
  
• Vehicle doors lack handles. Attempting physical contact results in nausea and disorientation.
  
• Associated with emotional disturbances in witnesses, including repressed memory recall.
  

Containment Procedure:
Perimeter road surveillance expanded in affected counties. Deployment of unmarked dash-cam vehicles with live-streamed feed to analog vault (digital equipment fails at 100m proximity). Witnesses flagged in PARADIGM's Tier-3 Emotional Anomaly Tracker.

In the event of a confirmed appearance, all roads within a 3-mile radius must be closed under “landslide hazard” cover protocol. Do not engage or attempt to block the Vehicle.

Encounters:

• 1975-02-02: First known witness was a forestry service mechanic who described being “followed by silence on wheels.”
  
• 1986-06-14: Attempted capture by Field Team Echo-9 failed; thermal systems disabled.
  
• 1991-01-23: Civilian couple drove off an embankment attempting to avoid a head-on collision with the Vehicle. The vehicle they reported was never found.
  

Recommendation:
Do not pursue. Monitor sightings and extract memory data from witnesses when possible. Consider connections between appearance frequency and Cold War test sites. Emotional profile modeling advised for proactive detection.

List of Case Workers:

• Operative Raymond O. Kane
  
• Surveillance Officer J. Hollow
  
• Dr. Emeric Salas
  
• Psychological Analyst Fiona Moen
  
• Tactical Lead Devon Arlow
  
• Vehicle Specialist T. Seo