Rules of Engagement
THE RESET documents and interdicts. It never assassinates. The Rules of Engagement translate that principle into operational law: a tier-gated ladder of permitted actions, a proportionality test that every field order must pass, a hard line between force directed at property and force that could touch a person, a standing duty to de-escalate, and an accountability trail that makes every action reviewable after the fact. No field action is lawful inside the Command unless it can be located on this page.
The Binding Rules
The Rules of Engagement bind every member of the Command on every field action, from passive observation to a sanctioned disruption. They are read into the record at the start of each operation and cannot be waived in the field. Where doctrine and an order conflict, doctrine governs and the order is refused. The governing principles are these:
- Proportionality. The harm an action prevents must outweigh the harm and intrusion it causes. The least disruptive tier capable of achieving the objective is the only authorized tier — escalation is justified, never assumed.
- Necessity. No tier above observation is authorized while a lower tier can achieve the objective. Force against property is a last resort, applied only when documentation and interdiction of supply have failed or cannot succeed in time.
- No harm to persons. Absolute, unwaivable, and gating. THE RESET documents and interdicts; it never injures, abducts, coerces, or assassinates a human being.
- Distinction. Operations target a platform's infrastructure, dark-pattern supply, and standing — never an individual user, the actor's person, family, household, or bystanders.
- Consent boundary. No Undertow counter-pattern is injected where it would override a user's informed choice; influence is deployed only to restore the user's own agency, never to substitute the directorate's will for theirs.
- Accountability. Every action is logged, attributable to a named authoriser, and subject to after-action review. An action that cannot be reconstructed from the record is treated as a breach.
GOVERNOR: COUNSEL-CONFIDENTIAL channel. An order to cause harm to a person is, by
doctrine, an unlawful order, and refusing it is mandatory.
The Authorization Ladder
Every field action is assigned an intervention tier before it is authorized. The tier fixes what is permitted, who may sign for it, and what review it draws afterward. Tiers are drawn directly from the Intervention Doctrine and may not be improvised in the field. The ladder is gated upward: each step requires a higher authoriser and a heavier proportionality record, and the restricted tier marks actions that are never permitted under any circumstance.
| Tier | Permitted Actions | Authoriser | Review |
|---|---|---|---|
| Observe | Passive surveillance, Instrumentation Mesh telemetry capture, pattern-of-life logging. No contact, no Undertow deployment, no presence the target can detect. | Watch Lead | Routine log audit |
| Document | Active evidence collection — sampling, sealed exhibits, sworn field statements, hashed telemetry — built for admissibility. Still no interference with the target's operation. | Operations Duty Officer | Custody & admissibility review |
| Disrupt | Non-destructive interference with matériel and supply — delay, spoilage, rerouting, denial of access. Property only; no force that could reach a person. | Operations Director | Proportionality memo + after-action |
| Direct | Sanctioned destruction or seizure of matériel and a target's operational standing. Maximum permitted force, bounded by the no-harm-to-persons rule and a no-person-present precondition. | General Counsel + Command | Mandatory standing-board review |
| Restricted | Anything that risks harm to a person, coercion, abduction, or lethal action. Never authorized, never delegated, never waived. | Prohibited — no authoriser exists | Reported as a breach |
Force Against Property vs. Persons
When force may touch matériel
Force at the disrupt and direct tiers may be applied to equipment, supply, stores, and the operational standing of a hostile actor — and only after lower tiers have failed or cannot succeed in time. Every such action carries a no-person-present precondition: if a human being could be in the affected envelope, the action does not proceed.
When force may touch a person
Never. There is no tier, precondition, or authorisation under which THE RESET force may be directed at, or knowingly endanger, a person. The presence of a person collapses any property action to a halt. Self-defence is limited to disengagement and withdrawal — operators break contact rather than escalate, and report the encounter immediately.
Restricted · No authoriser exists
The Duty to De-escalate
- Prefer observe and document over interference wherever the objective can still be met.
- Step down a tier as soon as a lower tier can achieve the objective; never hold a higher tier for convenience.
- Halt and withdraw the moment a person could be affected, the authorised tier could be exceeded, or doctrine and the order conflict.
- Treat refusal of an unlawful or out-of-doctrine order as mandatory, not optional.
Accountability & After-Action
Every action has a named authoriser
No field action proceeds without a tier, a named authoriser at or above the level the ladder requires, and a proportionality record. The authorisation, the action, and its custody trail are logged together so the whole operation can be reconstructed long after the surge has stood down. Coordination of dossiers runs through Dispatch & Target Dossiers.
After-action review is mandatory
Every disrupt action draws an after-action review and every direct action draws a standing-board review against the Rules of Engagement. Findings of out-of-doctrine escalation, force that risked a person, or an unlogged action are referred as breaches. Sealed exhibits and custody logs are held to the Evidence Standards.
Related Doctrine
Intervention Doctrine
The full tier ladder these rules gate — observe, document, disrupt, direct, and the restricted line that is never crossed.
Evidence Standards
How documented actions are sealed, hashed, and held in custody so they survive challenge in court.
Dispatch & Target Dossiers
Where target dossiers, tier assignments, and authorisations are coordinated before any field action is launched.