The Plow — March, 20th
SHAPE — Report #526/33 — On the operations in the vicinity of the Eastern European Object (EEO)
This article is based on the declassified report published on Friday, March the 20th by the Operation Trajan task force, which is responsible for the exclusion zone around the cylinder currently making its way within the Hungarian national borders.
Having received a copy of this report, the editorial team of The Guardian has created a series of visualizations using its most relevant data points, along with additional explanations.
Please note that, because the document has been written using metric units, we chose not to convert to the imperial system in order to publish this information quicker.
Shape & Size
While we now have plenty of images and videos of the Object, it still is often complicated to really appreciate its sheer dimensions. Hence, the report aptly starts with a comprehensive physical description of the volume itself. We illustrated the most useful numbers below.
The Eastern European Object (EEO), as NATO calls it, is a cylinder with a width, height and diameter of 4.1km, and a length of 9.7 km. Though, while it could be seen as smooth from afar, its curved surface is actually crenelated with thousands of peaks, each of them several dozen meters high. They are distributed evenly in 121 rings of 140 peaks, for a total of 16 940 peaks.
The sides of the cylinder aren’t completely flat either. They present a 216 meters deep inclusion, with a diameter of 3.3 km, leaving a height of 419 meters between it and the base. Since the object buries itself between 200 and 300 meters in the ground, some scientists postulate that this size is not random, but rather calculated to ensure debris from the ground don’t reach the inclusion — without providing any theory for its existence in the first place.
The task force’s report contains measurements for the peaks mentioned earlier :
As we can see, a single peak is about the size of a 25-story building. But it doesn’t even amount to 2% of the whole object’s height. This is why it often appears smooth when seen from a distance.
This is a comparison with the highest skyscrapers in the world:
These buildings, as well as the mountains below, are here only for illustration purposes. None of them, nor their surroundings, seem to be threatened by the object at the date of printing (editor’s note).
This last visual shows how no human structure could resist being crushed by the Object. It more appropriately compares to Earth’s natural reliefs:
Until now, the Object’s trajectory hasn’t been affected by the terrain’s topography, but it should be noted that, having appeared just west of the Carpathian mountains, it has since circulated in a relatively flat area.
A big part of the scientific community believes that the Plow could be deviated by bigger elevations in the future, specifically when reaching the Bohemian Forest, at the German-Austrian border. While being wooded, as its name suggests, the Bohemian Forest is also a low mountain range, with summits like the Großer Arber reaching 1456 meters, a full third of the Cylinder’s height — enough to potentially impact its bearing.
Speed & Bearing
Proportionally to its size, the EEO can be seen as slow. It moves by rolling on itself, with a perfectly stable speed of 5.217 kilometers a day (about 0.22 km/h), completing a full rotation every 2.5 days. Still, after a bit more than a month, it has now traveled nearly 170 kilometers, and could cover nearly 1500 more until the end of 2020.
Like its speed, the Roller’s direction is reported as constant, with a current 296° bearing, towards West/North-West — noting that a bearing naturally evolves over time as an object moves in a straight line.
This low speed is mentioned in Operation Trajan’s report as being why the exclusion zone’s forward size has been set to 20 kilometers. The reasoning is that, since it takes about 4 days for the object to move that distance, it leaves the forces on the ground enough time to ensure the proper evacuation of the endangered territories.
As for the 5-kilometer side exclusion, while it is not mentioned directly in the report, general Antonescu — Operation Trajan’s commanding officer — stated during a press briefing last week that it resulted from witnessing the impact of the vibrations on the structures nearby. “With complete destruction below a kilometer, gradually diminishing with the distance, 5 kilometers was the minimum safe figure” he added, “though we might reevaluate [the zone dimensions] in the near future, depending on ground composition, as well as the characteristics of buildings in the upcoming areas, specifically when approaching Budapest”.
Future Trajectory
Since the Plow’s apparition, on February 18, its trajectory has been scrutinized by all the satellite imagery agencies of the globe. So there isn’t a lot of new information in report #526/33, except precise projections of its path, revealing cities that could be threatened next.
First, locally, on the Romanian and Hungarian regions:
Then on the European continent:
Needless to say, if those projections turn out to be true, they represent a dramatic impending catastrophe for the whole Western World. 10 million people live in the listed cities only, 20 if we include London, and more than 40 million with the population living inside the whole path.
Of course, it would also be a major blow to Europe’s economy, destroying in several cases cities that are vital to their respective countries. Vienna, for example, is home to more than 30% of the Austrian citizens, and is responsible for a similar part of the national GDP.
And this doesn’t even take into account the tragedy of losing the countless irreplaceable architectural, cultural and historical treasures that go with these places.
Finally, this massive, unparalleled endeavor of evacuating almost 10% of Europe’s population comes just when most of the world’s countries have closed their borders and confined their people in the hopes of mitigating the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic…
Gaps in the report
Granted, Operation Trajan’s report, despite its tardiness, finally brings solid information and answers, ending constant speculation on the Object’s exact characteristics.
But most of it still remains classified. The majority of the data points and a significant amount of paragraphs are redacted; only 8 schematics out of 46 are visible (all published here), and even the names of the chief scientists are kept from the public.
As a consequence, a lot of questions still remain unanswered: for example, what about the object’s composition? What is it made of? What’s inside? Does it have steering mechanisms? Does it emit waves, signals? And above all, can it be destroyed? At least deviated, or slowed?
Neither general Antonescu nor his advisers have justified why the report was so heavily redacted, prompting angry reactions from the international community. The subject will no doubt be at the center of the UN’s security council session on Thursday, April 2, which should be attended by the general.
Meanwhile, inexorably, the Plow keeps rolling.
— The Guardian
The plow appeared like that, somewhere in eastern Europe. Since then, it slowly rolls west, crushing everything on its path. What is it? Why is it there?
Have you photographed, filmed, drawn the Plow? Have you witnessed, observed, heard something about it? Send your data and ask your questions at theplowinstitute@gmail.com
If you are just getting there, it might be easier to jump back to the beginning. You will also find all entries here.
The Plow’s trajectory is also being monitored on Twitter and Facebook.
Finally, this work is written by a non-native English speaker. If you see something weird about the grammar or vocabulary, do mention it via email or messaging.
