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- Table of Contents
- Super
- Harrison Ford
- Shaman
- Guns Pointed at the Head of God
- Deus Vulture
- Deus Vulture ALT
- Are You There Ramona? It's Me, God
- Obskura 4.4.4: You Shall (Not) Resurrect Hitler
- The Fulcrum
- Theonuclear Bomb
- Operation PYRO VULPES
- DO NOT LOOK AT THE PAGE SOURCE
- Belphegor
- Mecha Imbrium
- 001
- T Plus
- DEAD CELL
SCP Sandbox
Supersized Projects Sandbox
Contest Entry Sandbox
Tales Sandbox
You Are Here
Fancy Sandbox
Overflow Sandbox
Third Law Sandbox
██████████
Item #: SCP-XXXX
Object Class: Keter
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-XXXX is the subject of a joint containment effort by the Foundation and Global Occult Coalition. Provisional Site-1938 has been established underneath Yucca Mountain in the US state of Nevada to serve as SCP-XXXX's containment unit.
Provisional Site-1938 does not resemble any other Foundation site: in order to contain SCP-XXXX, it has been constructed as an American city named Fortwall City, taking architectural influence from cities such as Toronto, New York City, and Chicago. Site-1938's internal economy, telecommunications network1, logistics delivery, power generation, and artificial sun/moonlighting systems are to be controlled and monitored jointly by the Department of Analytics and PYTHON Division to maintain the illusion that the city is like any other US city, albeit with a significantly higher rate of crime.
All residents of the city are Foundation or Global Occult Coalition personnel pretending to be ordinary citizens, with public occupations ranging from accounting to sewage sanitation. Wherever possible, their public occupation should dovetail with their internal occupation as much as possible, i.e. Foundation accountants should ideally be given accounting cover jobs, psychiatrists consulting jobs, etc., such that they can continue work on their normal Foundation / GOC - assigned tasks.
All personnel assigned to Site-1938 are instructed to refer to SCP-XXXX as "Ubermensch" while onsite. SCP-XXXX currently believes itself to be a reporter for the Streetwise Personnage newspaper. Personnel assigned to SCP-XXXX's surveillance detail should be assigned to Streetwise Personnage and pretend that they are unaware of SCP-XXXX's civilian identity or appearance.
To prevent SCP-XXXX from experiencing boredom or becoming interested in leaving Site-1938, Mobile Task Forces and GOC Strike Teams are to be periodically deployed into the city for anahuman training exercises, disguised as common criminals. Their objective is to harass other personnel in the city and commit crimes2 until drawing the attention of SCP-XXXX, at which point their goal is to be apprehended with minimal injury. Upon apprehension and/or delivery to the extraction point3, the Task Force is to be withdrawn from the site and not cycled back in for at least six months.
At least once every four-to-six months, a paranatural or otherwise-augmented Mobile Task Force / GOC Strike Team is to be deployed into the city disguised as a supervillain team. The Department of Analytics will furnish them with villain identities, goals, and equipment to maintain this facade as needed. Their goal is similarly to draw SCP-XXXX's attention and provide it with a more substantial challenge than ordinary task forces / strike teams.
Description: Physically, SCP-XXXX is a white male with an athletic physique. Mentally, SCP-XXXX suffers from grandiose delusional disorder, such that it believes itself to be a superhero. Accordingly, SCP-XXXX presents itself as Joseph Gerald, a mild-mannered journalist with multiple phobias such as arachnophobia and acrophobia - none of which it actually possesses. SCP-XXXX's superhero persona goes by the name "Ubermensch", and typically wears a spandex costume consisting of a red jumpsuit with white booties and gloves and a blue hood.
SCP-XXXX possesses multiple offensive and defensive paranatural capabilities strongly associated with superpowers in American comic books. These capabilities include flight, the emission of high-powered lasers from the eyes, extreme durability, and strength far surpassing that of a normal human being4. When in the "Ubermensch" persona, SCP-XXXX dedicates its time to conducting vigilante justice using its anomalous abilities. SCP-XXXX has little to no knowledge of the criminal justice system; its preferred method of crime fighting is incapacitating criminals, physically flying them to prisons, and then dropping them into the prison yard.
Addendum: Containment Attempts
Traditional containment methods for humanoid SCPs proved ineffective at containing SCP-XXXX; during each attempt at containment, SCP-XXXX would manifest a new anomalous ability, enabling it to break containment and continue its activities. As a result, the most effective containment method for SCP-XXXX became trolling global news media and delivering aerosolized amnestics to areas where SCP-XXXX had surfaced. However, the First Eigenweapon Crisis heavily depleted the Foundation's reserve amnestics supply, resulting in an impending BK-Class Broken Masquerade Scenario as a result of SCP-XXXX's actions.
SCP-XXXX first came to the Foundation's attention when it pushed a small child from the path of an inattentive semi trailer driver in [REDACTED], Kansas; SCP-XXXX was completely unharmed by the collision, which instead totaled the semi-trailer. As news of the incident spread, the Foundation was able to quickly identify and capture SCP-XXXX, which possessed no other capabilities besides a complete invulnerability to physical trauma. SCP-XXXX refused to provide a name; furthermore, no records of him of any kind in any format could be located, and no interviewed persons were able to identify him.
Date: ██/██/████
Interviewer: Dr. Luther Lionel
Subject: SCP-XXXX
[BEGIN LOG]
Lionel: Good afternoon. My name is Luther. Might I know yours?
SCP-XXXX: Call me Ubermensch.
Lionel: Alright, 'Ubermensch'. What's your real name?
SCP-XXXX: That is my real name.
Lionel: You're telling me that you legally changed your name to Ubermensch?
SCP-XXXX: Wait, you can do that?
Lionel: So it's not Ubermensch, then.
SCP-XXXX does not respond.
Lionel: Is it a secret identity? I'm quite good at keeping secrets.
[END LOG]
Two days after this incident, SCP-XXXX abruptly manifested increased strength while in containment, enabling it to break through the walls of its cell and escape from Site-19. The WATCHDOG team were subsequently unable to locate SCP-XXXX until it again made the news in [REDACTED], New York, where it single-handedly saved the tenants of a burning apartment building. Foundation agents quickly recaptured SCP-XXXX using aerosolized tranquilizers.
Addendum: Example Application of Fortwall Protocol
This log comes from Mobile Task Force Tau-5's first deployment into Site-1938, displaying a typical application of the Fortwall Protocol as well as an example of SCP-XXXX's paranatural capabilities. In this deployment, Tau-5 were deployed under the guise of the "Furious Four", a supervillain team consisting of four cyborgs who commit crimes to fund their addiction to increasingly extreme transhuman augmentations, and directed to rob the Fortwall Bank. For this deployment, the team forewent their standard tactical loadout but were equipped with the core implant suite (build 4.34 Mod 3) and the following mission-specific prototypes:
- Electrochemical Disruption Blocking Rounds: Nonlethal water-soluble paintballs filled with a topical paralytic. When applied to a human body part, the paint prevents physical movement of that area (though it is not capable of preventing autonomic movements such as breathing or heart contractions) until it is washed off with water.
- Theonuclear Rocket Pack: A rocketpack that utilizes a scaled-down design of the Parsons theonuclear pulse engine. One slaughtered cow provides enough theonuclear fuel to propel a 250kg weight at speeds of up to 100 km/h for 10 hours with only minor psionic residue.
- Lasing Electroprostheses: Prosthetic arms, derived from Project Falconry, powered by Tau-5's natural bioelectricity. In addition to enhancing Tau-5's physical strength and close-quarters combat capabilities, each arm contains a high-powered diode-pumped solid-state laser that can be emitted through the palm. The gain medium of these lasers is a small quartz crystal that has been thaumically modified to have the properties of an Nd:YAG crystal.
Fortwall Protocol Video Log Transcript
Date: ██/██/████
Criminal Team: Mobile Task Force Tau-5 “Samsara”
Subject: SCP-XXXX
Team Lead: T-5 Irantu
Team Members: T-5 Munru, T-5 Onru, T-5 Nanku
POV: T-5 Nanku
[BEGIN LOG]
Tau-5 stands in the site sewer line directly underneath the Fortwall Bank.
Irantu: Equipment check. All implants green? Rocket packs active and functioning?
Onru: Confirmed. All implants active and functioning.
Munru: Confirmed. All implants active and functioning.
Nanku: Confirmed. All implants active and functioning.
Irantu: To recap - our objective is to fight SCP-XXXX. First we must draw its attention. We will do so by robbing the site bank.
Nanku: Oh! Remember, we are villains! We need to act menacing! Dangerous! Threaten innocent life!
Irantu: Indeed. But only act. Casualties are unacceptable. Site personnel are not to be unduly harmed, hence our… nonlethal weaponry. Do not, I repeat, do not, use your lasers on civilians.
Onru: Tch.
Nanku: But we still get to… ham it up?
Irantu: Munru?
Munru: She means… to get into character. To pretend… strongly.
Irantu: Correct. We should ham it up.
Nanku: Exciting! Can we begin?
Irantu: First, names. We are not to use our names for this mission. I will go by "Mr. Ferocious." Munru, you are designated "Monstrous". Onru, "Torch". Nanku, "Irascible Woman". We are to refer to the squad as "The Furious Four". SCP-XXXX is to be referred to as "Ubermensch" for the mission's duration. Now, regarding the bank itself, we are currently directly under the main floor of the vault. All personnel in the bank have been directed to avoid the main floor for the next five minutes. We will breach the bank through the main floor and then cut through the vault. Once inside, we will put the money located in the vault into these satchels and attempt to exfiltrate to the edge of the city. Analytics predicts that we will be intercepted by SCP-XXXX before we can finish the… heist. You may attack SCP-XXXX at will - and shoot to kill. But only SCP-XXXX. Understood?
Nanku: Understood, Mr. Ferocious!
Munru: Understood… [sigh], Mr. Ferocious.
Onru: Understood.
Irantu: Excellent. Let us begin the operation. Onru - Torch, cut through the vault. Once you have made the hole, we jump through in order.
Onru: Okay.
Onru activates both lasing prostheses and spins in a controlled circle, quickly carving a man-sized hole in the bank floor. She ignores the chunks of concrete falling on her.
Onru: Hole ready.
Onru leaps upwards and grabs ahold of the edge of the hole, pulling herself up into the bank. She is followed by Irantu and then Munru before Nanku finally ascends in turn.
The Bank is filled with personnel, although none are in the center of the bank.
Irantu: Listen up. We are the… Ferocious Four. We are cyborg criminals that are addicted to technology. We are robbing this bank, because we need money to pay for our cybernetic implants.
Onru: Do not move or I will hurt you.
Nanku: Reach for the sky!
Irantu: Do not call for help. Certainly do not try to call for Ubermensch. Or we will terminate you.
Munru begins to carve through the door to the bank vault.
Addendum: Neutralization
On [DATE], an operational failure in procedure led to an uncensored copy of that day's Yahoo! News page being uploaded to the Site-1938 intranet with news regarding the exploits of the entity Ramona Vonnegut in Southeast Asia. Subsequently, no Task Force deployed into the Site encountered SCP-XXXX. Mobile Task Force Tau-5 were deployed to lure it out of hiding by threatening to destroy the Site, but likewise reported failure. At 1900 hours, one of the on-site psychiatrists reported having received an impromptu visit from SCP-XXXX, during which time it had expressed self-doubt and unhappiness about its work being localized to Fortwall City, and being incapable of effecting true social change.
Surveillance Audio Log Transcript
Date: ██/██/████
There is a slam as SCP-XXXX enters the room.
Dr. Lane: Ubermensch! What are - can I help you?
SCP-XXXX: Shut up. Just - just shut up for a minute. I need to talk to your bosses.
Dr. Lane: My bosses? This is a private practice.
SCP-XXXX: Oh, for - oh. I forgot. You're being bugged. Fine.
SCP-XXXX walks towards the covert listening device embedded in the wall.
SCP-XXXX: I give up. I'm done being a superhero. You can stop this damn charade. It's over, alright?
Dr. Lane: Ubermensch? What are you talking about?
SCP-XXXX: Oh, shut up. You're not fooling me. How stupid do you think I am? You really think I didn't notice the bugs? Or that none of the crooks in this city ever hurt people? Or that none of the supervillains have ever succeeded in their plot? That's not how this works in real life. I'm not an idiot. I know this is all a giant charade to keep me away from the rest of the world.
SCP-XXXX sighs and moves to the couch, lying down.
SCP-XXXX: But that's my fault too, isn't it? You know? I could have broken out at any time. But I'm a coward. It's so much easier to have pretend fights. To have simple problems that can be solved by punching them or dropping them in the prison yard. I can't punch out an entire corrupt government. I can't punch out entire ideologies. But here… I could ignore them. I could believe I was doing something right. I could lie to myself forever. But there's only so long I can lie to myself, can't I?
Dr. Lane: This is… certainly heavy, Ubermensch.
SCP-XXXX: I'm not talking to you. I'm… I'm tired. I'm tired of lying to myself. Of playing your game. Tired of wasting my gifts and of being a drain on humanity. I can't keep doing this. I'm done. You're terrible people for holding me. But I'm - I'm a terrible person for staying.
SCP-XXXX stands up from the couch and walks towards the window. It punches a hole in the wall and then turns back to Dr. Lane.
SCP-XXXX: Congrats. You killed the Ubermensch.
SCP-XXXX throws itself out of the hole.
[END LOG]
Although SCP-XXXX was uninjured by the fall, it subsequently stopped manifesting all of its anomalous capabilities. Following several months of surveillance, examination, and interrogation, it was determined that SCP-XXXX had self-neutralized. As Site-1938's existence was deemed an overly severe resource expenditure, SCP-XXXX was subjected to a course of amnestic and hypnotic therapy to provide it with a new identity and memories, and then integrated into the Foundation workforce as a data recorder and proofreader.
Further information on SCP-XXXX's whereabouts are classified by order of the Department of Analytics.
===MESSAGE FROM AREA-42 RECEIVED - AUTHORIZATION LEVEL 3 CONFIRMED===
Hi Nick - here's the edited copy of the XXXX datafile.
I've gone through and cleaned up the text, edited it for brevity without removing information. It should be a lot crisper and easier to read. If you have any further comments append them and send it back to me. Otherwise it should be ready to go.
- Jordan Elliot
Level 2 Clearance, Department of Analytics
===MESSAGE ENDS===
Whatever text to show/hide.
•ARD> highest concept: how would the foundation contain golden age superman? simple. give him a fake city and some fake supervillains.
8:25 PM <•ARD> themes: an homage and deconstruction of several superhero tropes as well as the semi-meta idea of creating evil for a protagonist to fight against futilely
8:25 PM <•ARD> which ties in to the greater Guns Pointed themes as well as the concept of the Foundation as a whole
•ARD> ConProcs: A fake underground city populated by Foundation/GOC researchers and MTFs. The researchers do research work and keep an eye on the Super. MTFs go in for training every once in a while - they pretend to be bad guys, get beaten up non lethally by the Super, and put in jail to be cycled out. Occasionally the Foundation and GOC bring in supervillains - i.e. Tau-5, Sigma-3, maybe some GOC strike teams
•ARD> Description: Superpowered person with hero delusion. Utterly uncontainable by normal means. Freeze him? He has super heat vision. Throw him in a pocket dimension? Super scream to open the walls.
8:28 PM <•ARD> He wants to be a hero - he needs to be a hero. And he won't stop until he has a city to protect and bad guys to stop
8:29 PM <•ARD> So the Foundation give him that. Let him keep repeating his game over and over ad infinitum
•ARD> 1) This stupid expensive procedure goes on until the Foundation develops a VR containment method and traps him in it
8:30 PM <•ARD> Then they just keep him hooked up to a machine that makes him think he's living out his superhero fantasy
8:30 PM <•ARD> forever
8:31 PM <•GW> this sounds familiar
8:31 PM <•ARD> i've been trying to get the VR thing into an article for like three years
8:31 PM <•GW> yeah
8:32 PM <•ARD> 2) the impending threat of Ramona Vonnegut is enough to get them to let him out and point him at her
8:33 PM <•ARD> Some other stuff I’ve been thinking of doing is giving him a perpetually changing backstory a la retcons
8:33 PM <•ARD> Maybe literally change the backstory every couple months
8:35 PM <•ARD> But that is my pitch
•ARD> The reason I say golden age Superman specifically was because as far as I can remember he didn’t have any weaknesses and half his stories were about him gaslighting Lois lane so she didnt reveal that Clark Kent is Superman
8:37 PM <•ARD> I want to hew closely to Superman but I can’t give him kryptonite because that ruins the point of the fake city and fake baddies if they can just throw quartz at him and sap his strength
Simon walked into an IHOP and reserved a table for two. There was nothing particularly odd about the IHOP in question; it was simply a passable diner. Once he was seated in the booth, he ordered a coffee and waited.
Fifteen minutes after Simon had finished his coffee, a figure wrapped in heavy winter clothing entered the IHOP and sat down in his booth. It was nearly impossible to make out the figure's facial features through their thick clothing, but he recognized her by the faint whirring sounds she made as she walked.
"Jaya. Good to see you," he said.
"You as well, Simon," she replied evenly. "How are you?"
"I'm doing well. Keeping busy of course, several projects at hand. Yourself? How is Andy?"
Jaya cocked her head for a moment. "He sends his love. Is there anything special about this diner?"
Simon shrugged. "I adore IHOP. Have I ever told you about the first time I ate in America? It was at an IHOP, right after I got off the plane - the first thing I ordered was a root beer float."
"Simon -" Jaya tried cutting in, but Simon would not be deterred.
"I'd never had one before, you see, not even heard of it. The waitress tried to talk me out of it, but I wanted that float. So my first American breakfast was ice cream and soda."
Jaya exhaled. "You told me this story last time!"
Simon raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps it was so good it needed telling twice?"
"No," Jaya said. "No," she said again with a small chuckle. "It didn't."
She leaned forward. "Focus, Simon. What did you want to meet me about?"
He raised his other eyebrow. "About Oyamitsumi."
Jaya sat up straighter. "I see."
"There's trouble brewing in India," he continued. "Rumor has it that she -" he emphasized the pronoun - "has been amassing a cult of personality in the Himalayas."
At that moment, a waitress arrived at their table. There was a pause; Simon ordered a country omelette with hash browns. Jaya merely asked for the pot of coffee.
Once the waitress was gone, the two of them continued their discussion.
"But my colleagues are telling me that the Himalayas are quiet?" Jaya phrased it as a question.
"Two weeks ago, she struck one of our sites," Simon said frustratedly. "Ran off with most of the anahums inside. We lost the signal from their tracking chips over the Atlantic."
"Mr. Williams," said Simon. My name is -"
"Simon Pietrykau," said the man in the cowl. "Former member of the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate, you defected to the British government in 1961 and subsequently went underground. In that time, you have taken up a high-ranking position in a highly clandestine extra-governmental organization with an interest in capturing individuals and objects with occult or otherwise abnormal capabilities. And you've approached me today because you're aware of my true identity, which means that you've been spying on me, which means you're interested in me for reasons other than capturing me."
"That is correct, Mr. Williams. I am here
Item #: SCP-XXXX
Object Class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures: [Paragraphs explaining the procedures]
Description: SCP-XXXX is an anomalous rainforest ecosystem in northern Benin; although the abiotic and biotic components of SCP-XXXX are non-anomalous by themselves, the sum total of the ecosystem's dynamics and component interactions give rise to a sufficiently sapient humanlike intelligence that is capable of communicating through in various ways, typically through insect movement patterns near African mahogany (Khaya senegalensis) trees.
SCP-XXXX: These woods are yours to roam; I ask only that you give it the same respect it will give you.
SCP-XXXX: I was not planning to. I sought to start a revolution, to drive you from these lands and preserve them in the name of our Creator. I knew that even if we were to perish, we would be welcomed by our Creator with open arms. Last night, all doubt was flushed from my mind. I had no doubt in myself, in my people, and in my Creator. At that moment, I knew that were I to partake in the sacred root, I would unlock transcendence and see him. And so I did.
SCP-XXXX: I saw the Supreme Creator. I saw the Creator and I saw His own gods, for whose approval He would damn us in an instant. I saw His vessel - she will make this world into a paradise and then He will strip it away from us because he thinks that is the way to please His gods. The Supreme Creator is a child, a child who places his own happiness above those of his children. The Devil never existed - there is only a child who emulates one to appease his own selfish desires.
SCP-XXXX: I cannot place my faith in a Creator such as this. I no longer believe in Heaven, doctor - because for us to be happy is for Him to be unhappy.
**Addendum: **
This document is classified 4/DEAD CELL. Unauthorized access is to be reported to RAISA immediately.
Code Name: Operation DEAD CELL
Dates of Operation: 10/14/18, 2300 hours – 0400 hours
3. Location: Global Occult Coalition Forward Base Benin
4. Task Organization:1. Organization:
MTF Tau-5 “Samsara” | Captain Ji-won Kim |
5. Intelligence: As a result of the Global Occult Coalition's alliance with SCP-XXXX, its political influence and operating capital within the anomalous community of the African continent have increased substantially at the cost of the Foundation's own. In order to restore the Foundation's own operational influence within the African anomalous community, GOC relations must be neutralized or minimized.
6. Mission: MTF Tau-5 “Samsara” will attempt to injure or destroy SCP-XXXX under the guise of a failed Global Occult Coalition neutralization attempt. Samsara will be deployed into the area as surreptitiously as possible; GOC casualties of any kind are unacceptable.
In 1944, the Third Reich tries to summon a nameless horror from the void, only to have it beaten back by the combined efforts of the Allies and erased from history.
In 1953, the Soviet Union chains three children together into a psionic communist gestalt, only for it to assimilate its creators into an extra-universal gestalt.
In 1998, Prometheus Laboratories builds a sapient war machine with enough firepower to level a continent, only to be wiped from the face of the earth in the ensuing struggle for its control.
Unfortunately, their failures give everyone else the wrong idea.
The year is 2017, and the world has once more become embroiled in a secret arms race of apocalyptic proportions. Nobody is quite sure why - all anybody is certain of is that they have all built
STEP ONE: LOAD THE CHAMBER
1. SCP-2664 - Redline
2. T Minus
3. T Plus
4. Deus Vulture
5. Conqueror WormINTERMISSION: The Dedekind Infinite Demographic
STEP TWO: COCK THE HAMMER
Coming Soon
•Roget> have you read COLD HARPER?
stylistically
This feels like a rather large infodump, it might be more interesting to have something during this 7th occult war, some kind of communications thing with the Nazis and the SS
Give it some more character because right now the personalities of the characters get lost behind all the exposition
<•Roget> although definitely tying into cold harper would be cool as well
I just think a more direct conversational style rather than a lecture would serve this story well
because there is a bit of interesting alternate history here but it's just a guy telling us about stuff instead of stuff actually happening
<ARD> Heinz Doofenshmirtz Hmmm. I hear what you're saying, but this is intended to establish a background for stuff happening in the present
•Roget> then ditch any conversation at all and maybe have the information be presented in documents and such
because if you're not trying to develop or do anything with the characters, why use 'em at all?
I think it would benefit the interesting alternate history you've got going on here
I think that orientation/lecture style is a bit overdone on the site
•TyGently>
some of it, like "PLabs was much more powerful than they seem!" is a little eh, like wow dude why you so defensive
Captain Sarah Hughes felt ill-at-ease, standing in the center of the lobby as scientists, engineers, programmers, and mathematicians streamed around her; a lone figure in a sea of geniuses.
"Ms. Hughes?"
She turned to face the speaker, a slender Russian man in a crisp suit and tie walking towards her.
"Simon Pietrykau, director of the Department of Analytics. Pleasure to meet you," he said, shaking her hand.
"Captain Sarah Hughes, a pleasure," she responded.
"Let's get started," Pietrykau said. He led her down several winding corridors until they stopped in front of a nondescript blank door with a card reader next to it. Simon pulled a card from his pocket, swiped it through, and stepped through the door. Hughes followed him and was suddenly accosted by the sight of dozens of people flitting through an enormous, steel-and-glass atrium. Holographic screens, personal assistant robotics, and all kinds of futuristic technology populated the room.
"Tell me, Captain… what do you know about eigenweapons?"
The two of them sat inside a small conference room off in one corner of the atrium, with a projector playing a slideshow in front of them.
"As long as mankind has existed, no human endeavor has hosted as much ingenuity, creativity, brilliance, or imagination as weapons development. Since the first ape picked up a rock to bash his rival's brains out, we've been building bigger, better, and flashier ways to carve holes in each other," Pietrykau said. "And like all such endeavors, it inevitably culminated in the anomalous - the eigenweapon. In this context, an eigenweapon, also known as a superweapon or wonder weapon, is defined as a weapon that is either of anomalous origin or incorporates occult slash paratechnology for mass destruction. It is effectively a fourth category of WMD."
Pietrykau clicked through a series of slides showcasing various anomalies while he talked.
"Anomalous artillery and paraweaponry is nothing new; people have been building golems and throwing spells around since the beginning of time. But the modern age of eigenweaponry - really, the age of eigenweaponry in general - began with the industrialization of the anomalous. In 1942, shortly after the Allies retook Africa, the Nazis got nervous and resorted to occult means to ensure the success of their Third Reich," Pietrykau said, clicking to the next slide to show a grainy, black-and-white photo of several hooded figures wearing cloaks with swastika badges.
"From what we can gather, the Thule and SS occultists uncovered some ancient ritual to summon… something," said Pietrykau. "Nobody was actually certain what, but if the Nazis wanted to summon it, then you can be damn sure the rest of the world wanted to make sure they didn't. The Seventh Occult War was really just a glorified scavenger hunt - the Allies and even some Axis mages working together to stop the Third Reich from acquiring the relics they'd need to complete the ritual."
He sighed.
"The Allies won both Wars, otherwise we'd probably be speaking Deutsch in some camp right now… but the thing is," he said, "the Germans still completed the ritual - and that's all we know. We have no idea what came from of the ritual or how the Allies destroyed it. The only reason we know it exists is because they didn't expunge the memory that it HAD existed. God only knows why." Pietrykau threw one of his hands to the side in an accusing gesture. "Presumably it was to warn us against trying to replicate it, but if so that was a terrible way to go about it. And even after they killed 'it', nobody could actually find the relics afterwards, not even fragments. It simply vanished - and nobody cared."
Pietrykau chuckled dryly.
"Sums up the attitude to eigenweapons in general. Nobody was paying attention to the world-ending threats because they were too damn focused on building their own. With all that power up for the taking, something as small as the threat of total global annihilation wasn't going to stop anybody. Especially not the CCCP. Stalin was so far up his own ass that he wanted to use anomalies to spread the Red Menace. That was the genesis of Project Redline."
"Redline?" Hughes asked.
"Redline. The world's second eigenweapon, developed by the Soviet Union. I led the team that created it," Pietrykau declared with a hint of pride. He clicked to the next slide, showing a picture of a flat concrete building. "Stalin wanted a weapon that could brainwash people into becoming Communists, and damn the cost. The Division wanted to create a brighter future for mankind - so we built a weapon to brainwash people into pacifism by kidnapping and electrocuting children to unlock their psychic potential. Because that was what passed for logic during the Cold War," Pietrykau snorted, shaking his head.
Hughes nearly heaved at the next picture - a grotesque, nightmarish mass of legs and arms sticking out of a bloated child-sized torso, topped by a misshapen head with three unhappy faces. It was strapped into a plastic dentist's chair, surrounded by sharp medical instruments and grim-looking scientists.
Pietrykau clicked his tongue. "Even madder, the thing actually worked. Redline could turn entire gulags full of political dissidents into perfect passive puppets. And when the Cuban Missile Crisis happened, we fired it on Washington and Moscow. It worked all too well - Khrushchev had Redline shut down. The Division didn't like that. They decided to turn it into a weapon of conquest."
The next slide showed a picture of a massive rainbow-colored bubble in the middle of a frozen tundra.
"So that turned out all right. After the Cuban Missile Crisis happened and Redline was put on ice, eigenweaponry development stagnated. That's not to say people stopped using anomalous artillery; on the contrary, paraweaponry abounded. Demon-guided munitions in Korea, hunter-killer locusts in Vietnam, Mandelbrot vacuums in Afghanistan, basilisk grenades in the Gulf… the list goes on. But eigenweapons? The Americans made a few more half-assed tries in the eighties, but they failed and forced us to clean up their mess. It would be over thirty years before anyone figured out how to make eigenweapons not just practical, but profitable."
Pietrykau clicked to the next slide and Hughes' jaw dropped. The picture onscreen was of a gigantic, floating eye, rotated on its side. The central pupil was composed of innumerable camera lenses, laser apertures, and weapon barrels. An incandescent pink torus made up the iris. Surrounding the iris was a featureless, blue- and white-striped surface. Six silver arms hovered on the left and right of the eye. Suspended just out of reach of each arm was a single, silver-and-blue spherical palm with four rectangular fingers.
"In 1998, Prometheus Laboratories developed the world's first practical eigenweapon: the PL-76 Shiva, a sapient war machine that cost the same as a B-2 stealth bomber. Enough firepower to level a continent without leveling your bank account."
"Prometheus Labs made that?" Hughes asked.
"Indeed," Pietrykau responded. He made a knowing face. "Tell me, what do you know about Prometheus Laboratories?"
"Umm, high-profile scientific corporation. Did a little bit of everything…? Used a lot of anomalous tech in their products… most of it didn't work that well," Hughes responded cautiously.
"And where did you learn this information?"
"Ah… the internet, the Foundation file -"
"Ah yes, the Foundation file," Pietrykau cut her off. "With the advertising transcript, correct? Here's the dirty little secret that every member of Analytics needs to know." He leaned down to retrieve a folder from his briefcase, then slid it over the table to Hughes.
This document is classified Level 5/Analytics. Unauthorized access is considered treason and is punishable by administration of Behemoth-class amnestics or execution.
1. Code Name: Operation EMERALD LUPUS
2. Dates of Operation: 03/09/1998 - Ongoing
3. Location: Worldwide4. Objective: Assert materiel and information control over the assets of the former Prometheus Labs conglomeration as part of Operation BYRON FUTURE.
Task Organization:
1. Asset Acquisition: Foundation front companies will endeavor to purchase all assets being liquidated by the former Prometheus Labs conglomerate. This acquisition will be overseen by the Department of Analytics. Mobile Task Forces may be commandeered to acquire assets when legal purchase is nonviable or when other Groups of Interest are competing to acquire said assets.
2. Paratech Forecasting: The Division of Statistical Prediction will continue to investigate, instigate, and exploit trends in the global paratechnology market as they appear. This will enable continued proactivity on the part of the Foundation in controlling the distribution of anomalies into the global marketplace.
3. Information Control: The Division of Informational Security will manipulate global and internal media and information to provide the impression of incompetence on the part of Prometheus Laboratories. Defective Prometheus Labs assets may be given anomalous status and internal documentation modified to reinforce this control. A continued campaign will make Prometheus Labs assets less desirable to external paratechnology and obsotechnology interests, facilitating the increased success of Task 1.
Hughes looked up at Pietrykau. "So you're telling me…?"
"Prometheus Labs would have never survived for over a century if they weren't good at what they do," he answered. "The truth of the matter, Captain, is that the Foundation managed to convince the whole world that Prometheus Labs were incompetent mad scientists so we could steal all of their work. It remains one of the greatest single Maskirovkas of the modern age."
Pietrykau gave a short bark of laughter. "The day after the PL-76 was first revealed, the GOC and Insurgency tried to steal it for themselves and managed to open up a portal to hell at the center of the base. From what we can gather, Defense wasn't merely turned into a crater on the map - it was literally turned into a solid brick of information that was uploaded into the PL-76. The entirety of Prometheus Defense - its projects, people, knowledge and hellgate - were digitized and uploaded into the world's safest external hard drive."
"And what happened to the… Shiva?" Hughes asked.
"Nobody knows." Pietrykau shrugged. "Prometheus wasn't stupid enough to keep all their eggs in one basket, they had backups all around the world - but none of those backups had everything. That was how the postmillennial age of eigenweaponry began: a half-dozen different organizations trying to cobble something together from stolen paratechnology, anomalies, and information. All of us trying to get ahold of the next big thing that would make the rest of the anomalous world quake in their extradimensional boots.
The Global Occult Coalition assembled something codenamed Gaius Prime - all we know about it is that they sent it to Siberia in 2000 to kill Project Redline and succeeded. By 2001, the Church of the Broken God had no less than three mechanical messiahs, who ended up excommunicating and then killing each other. When we salvaged Samsara in '02, we had this grand plan of making them the template for all our future Task Forces. The trouble is that the equipment we salvaged was damaged, so all we could do with them was test offensive paratech and handle thaumaturgic threats. Not much of an eigenweapon. Even the bloody Venezuelans got in on the fray and commissioned an oracle to predict the stock market. As I recall, Samsara's second-ever mission, just before you were assigned to them, was to steal it."
Pietrykau clicked to the next slide. On the screen, a gigantic, four-limbed man that appeared to be made of rock was caught in mid-charge towards a collection of massive, ornate orbs surrounded in flames and suspended in midair. Hundreds of people were in the foreground of the image, all of them like ants watching the two behemoths duke it out.
"The arms race came to a head in 2004 with the First Eigenweapon Crisis. That year, the ORIA built themselves a thaumaturgic android codenamed Ifrit. It could fly, shoot fire, whip up hurricane-sized sandstorms… and sermonize. See those orbs? Every single one of them contained the brain of a priest. The Iranians had built a god in almost every sense of the word - and then used it to start a proxy war. They sent it to India, probably so they could blame the Pakistanis and take advantage of the ensuing conflict. "
Pietrykau looked disgusted by the memory. "The Horizon Initiative was less than pleased by this and took matters into their own hands. They were working on their own eigenweapons project - an absolutely enormous golem, even by the standards of golems, mind you - and deployed it to kill the Ifrit. In the process, the two reshaped the Indian coastline. Whatever the hell was powering those things, we couldn't put a dent in them."
"Then how did you destroy them?" Hughes asked, leaning forward.
Pietrykau chuckled. "We didn't."
The next picture also showed the orbs, but they were now extinguished and half-buried on a beach, with the tide pulling away in the background.
"I can only call what finally did the bastards in an act of God," Pietrykau said. "But the aftermath… the Veil was torn to shreds and nobody had a sewing kit. Amnestics, PARAKEETS, antimemetics, you name it, we used it. A century's stockpile of the best mind-wiping tools known to man - gone in a flash. We had to ask the Serpent's Hand to help, for God's sake."
He closed his eyes for a moment. Hughes was about to ask about the logistics of amnesticizing the whole world, then thought better of it.
"The only good thing about the Crisis was that it finally knocked some sense into everyone's heads," Pietrykau noted. "A month after the crisis ended, the Coalition convened the Third Hague Conference and managed to corral all the major anomalous powers into disarming and deactivating their eigenweapons. Almost assuredly everyone who signed did so with crossed fingers, but much like nuclear weapons, nobody wanted to be the first to push the button. All we had to do was make sure things stayed that way."
A thought struck Hughes. "What about Able?"
Pietrykau snorted. "Omega-7 was the degenerate brainchild of an American general with an anomalous erection - the Yanks were all too happy to help us cover it up. We got off easy."
Then another thought struck Hughes."First Eigenweapon Crisis?"
Pietrykau clicked his tongue. "As of six months ago, the number of active eigenweapons increased to one."
He played a video on the projector. Onscreen, a young Japanese man stood in the middle of a barren field.
"In June, we determined that IJAMEA - the Japanese department of anomalous research - was developing an eigenweapon codenamed Oyamitsumi."
Onscreen, the Japanese man closed his eyes and stood there. Then his skin began to bubble and ripple, changing color from a pale tan to a deep purple and bulging outwards. A helmet and facemask burst forward from the sides of the man's head and slid over his face. A sharp, block-like weave pattern emerged on the skin around his arms and legs, granting it a distinctly mechanical appearance. Two smaller arms burst out from underneath the man's armpits, but there were simply holes where the hands should have been.
"From what intelligence has been able to gather, Oyamitsumi was the first production-ready model of a new bio-mechanical force-multiplying armored endoskeleton. All the power of a GOC Orange super suit… grafted to a person's bones." Hughes could hear the admiration in Pietrykau's voice. "Twin auto-aiming plasma railguns underneath the regular arms. Armor tough enough to withstand a direct hit from Hellfire missiles. Strong enough to lift a tank. It was fast, too."
The man onscreen had ceased to look like a man and now looked more like a purple Transformers action figure. Numerous tanks rolled into view around him and then stopped. Their cannons bellowed as Oyamitsumi was bombarded on all sides and then engulfed in smoke. While the smoke cleared, the men inside the tanks clambered from their vehicles and fled from view. Oyamitsumi strode out of the smoke towards a tank, completely unscathed. He disappeared behind it, and then the tank was suddenly hoisted into the air as if it were tissue paper and thrown at another one. Behind it, Oyamitsumi's railguns began swiveling and firing. Within seconds there were only chunks of scorched metal left.
Hughes was so caught up in the spectacle that she almost missed Pietrykau's word choice. Almost.
"Was?" she asked.
"Was," Pietrykau confirmed. Onscreen, an Asian woman in a plain black dress walked into view. At first she looked perfectly normal - if incredibly out of place - and then her body suddenly exploded into a million tiny worms, all writhing around themselves and squirming and making up the general body shape of a person.
As the creature stared at Oyamitsumi, he appeared to crumple inwards on himself. The railguns at his side forced themselves back into his body, displacing his internal organs in the process. Then his head quite literally bent over and stuffed itself into his stomach, before his legs, arms, and torso followed suit. Then the stomach simply ceased to exist onscreen. Hughes blinked and suddenly the humanoid mass of worms ceased to be a worm and started being a woman again. It walked offscreen, and then the video cut to black.
"What the hell was that?!" Hughes exclaimed. She looked to Pietrykau.
"At 0900 hours on June 16, Oyamitsumi was destroyed by what we have determined is another eigenweapon of unknown origin, based on its deliberate choice of targets and clear control of its abilities. At 1100 hours on June 16, my counterpart in the Global Occult Coalition called me demanding to know what the hell we'd done to Oyamitsumi."
Pietrykau stood up. "If she knows, then the whole bloody UN does. Make no mistake, Captain - this is a crisis. The button has been pressed and we have no idea by whose hand. And as much as we like to boast otherwise, we don't have eyes and ears everywhere. We don't have the information we need - and information is all we have."
He started listing off on his fingers. "We need to find out who created that thing, when, and what else it can do. And we especially need to make sure nobody else tries to follow its example. The Department of Analytics is reopening the Eigenweaponry Division to nip this situation in the bud, and we need someone to command the Division's field assets. You were the most qualified candidate for the job, especially given your experience with Tau-5."
"Are you offering me a new assignment?" Hughes asked bemusedly.
"Correct - you are being offered the position of commander of Mobile Task Force Tau-1, "Deus Vulture". It comes with a pay and rank increase… Major Hughes," Pietrykau said.
Hughes' head was spinning. Under the circumstances, she did the only thing she could think to do. "Well… alright. Fine, fine, I accept."
"Excellent," said Pietrykau, rubbing his hands together. "We've already received reports of some suspicious temporal anomalies occurring in northern India; you'll be going down there first thing tomorrow to establish what it is and what to do with it. The Department of Analytics will handle the paperwork and logistics - you won't even need to pack your toiletries. A car will arrive at your residence tomorrow morning at six to take you to the airport."
He stood up. "Any questions?"
"Just one," Hughes said cautiously. She actually had several, but doubted he would answer any of the others. "Why didn't I just get a lecture and dossier ? There's no way you could have the time to sit down for a one-on-one with me." And you've basically told me nothing about my new job, she added silently.
Pietrykau paused at the threshold of the room. "Don't worry - you'll have plenty of reading material on the flight. But I sat down with you because you needed a human perspective. I was there when all of these things happened, and I saw what the one common element among all of these eigenweapons was: somewhere along the line, everyone unconsciously decided that there needed to be a human mind in control in the process."
He beckoned Hughes to leave with him. "Remember this, Major Hughes. A monster can be leashed and even trained. They are predictable. Men are not. Perhaps we needed to put human faces on inhuman creations, perhaps we needed to think we always had control, or perhaps it was simple hubris, but we made monsters with the minds of men."
- Opening is the same as original - Hughes comes in, Pietrykau invites her, asks her about eigenweapons
- Letter from German [soldier or mage to commander /[commander to fuhrer] about piece of the Solomon Rite
- Pietrykau explains how it was wiped off the face of the earth
- Interrogation transcript of ICEMAN discussing how Redline works and how it was frozen
- Pietrykau contextualizes by discussing nuclear weapons and Missile Crisis
- Defense of Prometheus Labs is the same
- Post-PL to First Crisis is the same
- Pietrykau plays a video of a reporter talking about being in India for a clash of the titans as mysterious creatures duke it out - in the background, the I.F.R.I.T. (a collection of huge ornate orbs linked together by thaumaturgic flames) spits fire on a gigantic golem (Ultraman except made of rock)
- Pietrykau mentions how they used the world's entire supply of amnestics
- Everything past this is the same as original
Dear Ramona,
This is stupid, I know. But I just don't know what to do. I need someone to talk to, someone to help me process this. But who am I supposed to talk to? My acolytes? How am I supposed to tell them "Your God feels guilty?" Even writing it out feels stupid. She attacked me! It was self-defense! But it was so easy! That's what's eating at me. She rushed me with a knife and then I got scared and twisted and then her lungs were on the floor and then she was dead. She was dead! That's not how it should have happened! She should have stabbed me and I should have been dead but I'm not and she is and I can't stop thinking about it.I feel like I should have died there, like that was the right thing to do. How stupid does that sound? God how stupid do I sound? I don't know why I feel like this. I don't know what to do. I keep seeing her every time I close my eyes and I just don't know how to get it out of my head. I'm hoping that if I write all this out then I'll be able to figure something out. How do I stop feeling guilty about this?
Sincerely,
Ramona
The problem with agreeing to have one's consciousness uploaded into an octopoidal wetware supercomputer, DC al Coda reflected, was that while you thought you would do the same amount of work in a millionth of the time, the people upgrading you would think the exact inverse.
This was how she found herself plugged into the center of the the Global Occult Coalition's flagship mobile command center, the GOC Imperator. At that exact millisecond, she was mediating negotiations between the Maxwellists and Servants of the Silicon Nornir. She was running a thousand simulations per second of the threats to the Status: Q that could result from commercializing obsolete technology through front companies. She was drawing up new Strike Forces from existing personnel lists; balancing the PYTHON Division's checkbook. She was acting as a living server for every other computer aboard the Imperator. She was also trying to coordinate a drone strike on a recently resurrected Thor.
The millisecond passed.
"Let me ask again," said al Coda, her voice echoing through the Imperator's bridge. "What is my strike team doing? Where is my bombardment? Why is the God of Thunder still alive?"
She was being rhetorical, of course. al Coda could see through every camera and microphone within ten kilometers and as such knew exactly what was happening. But she still wanted someone to say it aloud. The bridge crew looked at each other nervously, mentally drawing straws to see who would be the messenger. Captain Ohakim swallowed, and then spoke up from the helm.
"Er, energy feedback from the ley lines thaumaturgically enhanced the target and enabled it to force Strike Team Valkyrie to retreat. The dissipation of the electrothaumic energy in the ley lines is interfering with the drones' navigation systems; it will be several minutes before they can recalibrate and launch a bombardment. Trishula is coming into range now; we could use a kinetic bombardment, but that would attract attention from the Argentinians."
"Sir, the target has exited the cave," a member of the bridge piped up. "It's making its way towards Bariloche."
"We'll have to do this the old-fashioned way," al Coda said reluctantly. "Carry out a missile bombardment on the target to slow it down. Scramble the two closest Tornadoes we have. Full strike on the target. When the drones recalibrate, I want them to unload everything they have."
"Yes ma'am!" said Ohakim with a salute.
At that moment, al Coda's cybernetic jaw began to buzz and a small voice echoed in her phonological loop.
Pentagram Director on the blue line for you.
Patch me in, Andromeda, al Coda ordered.
"al Coda speaking."
"Ah, Miss Coda. How are you?" Invisible to everyone except al Coda, the digital ghost of the actual ghost of the late J. Edgar Hoover coiled out of her mouth and onto the bridge of the Interceptor, fingers steepled over an imaginary desk.
"Director Hoover," al Coda answered. "How can I help you?"
"Well I'm currently sitting in one of my birds and I was hoping you could explain to me these images I'm seeing - why, pray tell, is the God of Thunder glowing blue and storming through South America?" Hoover asked.
"Well, Director," al Coda said, enunciating every syllable as slowly as possible, "we have been tracking a fringe cell of neo-OBSKURACORPS thaumaturges in South America. From what our ground teams have been able to determine, they were able to locate the remains of Thor in Argentina, and through as-yet unclear means, chain what was left of his soul to the front end of an electrothaumically-charged necromantic complex. Our ground teams were unable to stop the process, but we are deploying antithaumic hunter-killer drones and expect to have the entity neutralized within the hour."
"I appreciate the explanation and there's just one other thing unclear to me," said Hoover, leaning forward on his invisible, intangible desk, "which is why you chose to keep the appearance of a living God a secret from the United Nations!"
"As I just said, the Global Occult Coalition is currently handling the threat, and expects to have it neutralized within the hour," al Coda replied. She could see the veins in Hoover's spectral forehead throbbing. "We determined that alerting the United Nations to the existence of this entity would raise undue alarm and potentially threaten the Second Mission."
"Of course it would raise undue alarm! It's a Thunder God for Chrissake!" Hoover declared, slamming his hands onto the pretend desk. "Miss Coda, the very idea of sitting back and letting Ragnarök occur is anathema to the very existence of the Pentagram. We have been monitoring your so-called 'handling' of the situation. Forgive me for saying this, but you aren't doing a damned thing. The Pentagram has dispatched an asset to handle the situation."
The artificial neurons in al Coda's metal skull worked furiously to process this information.
"Director Hoover, this is a Type Black necromantic entity. The Global Occult Coalition is the only parathreat defense organization in the world that is cleared to possess the weaponry capable of eliminating a Type Black."
"Was cleared, Miss Coda," Hoover scoffed.
"Are you implying that the Pentagram has dispatched an eigenweapon, all development of which were explicitly banned per the 2004 treaty signed by the United States under penalty of paradevelopment sanctions?"
"I am telling you that the Pentagram has dispatched an asset to handle the situation that will be arriving in a few minutes. You may want to clear the area," Hoover said sharply.
"Director Hoover, there will be consequences for such a flagrant violation of the treaty."
"Of course - the same consequences that the Japs faced when their cyberman blew up, I assume?"
"I have to clean up this mess," al Coda snapped. She terminated the call and took a deep simulated breath as the spectre of Hoover dissipated into nothingness. "Status update."
"The drones are still recalibrating, Ma'am," said Ohakim nervously. "There also appears to be a storm front rolling in from the north."
The grey mass streaming over the horizon caused al Coda's eyes to narrow. "Keep an eye on that storm, Captain. The United States may have dispatched an eigenweapon to our location." While she didn't actually need Ohakim to warn her, it didn't hurt to have a contingency. Computers were unaffected by memes, but people were unaffected by malware. And she needed to contact D.C. al Fine immediately.
Andromeda, patch me through to Fine.
Her digital familiar logged onto the IM system used by the GOC high command, nicknamed the 'red telephone' by some bright spark, and quickly rattled off a message dictated by al Coda to DC al Fine:
United States has dispatched eigenweapon to South America to destroy KTE-616. US eigenweapon tentatively classified as KTE-911-Renegade-Lovelock: possibly related to a stormfront or storm system in some way. Response level 5. Requesting further information from any Pentagram assets. No other changes to KTE-616.
al Coda transmitted the message and watched the situation worsen - what should have been an ordinary weather front was now a wall of grey blotting out the sun. Four small twisters touched down: umbilical cords connecting the ground to the roof of the world. They moved with purpose towards the burning trail of destruction being carved by a tiny blue dot on the ground, itself trudging towards a cluster of lights barely a hundred kilometers away.
There was a flash of lightning in the great grey wall, and for a brief moment all of al Coda's eyes bore witness to a great hulking behemoth, outlined in electricity, shambling through the clouds towards the dot. At that moment, al Fine responded.
Pentagram assets contacted: none aware of project. Classification of KTE-911-Renegade-Lovelock approved. Level 5 priority. Engage as you see fit. Will contact Hoover.
al Coda read the message and acted. "By my authority as the director of PYTHON Division, this storm has been reclassified as KTE-911-Renegade-Lovelock. I want people analyzing it now. Bring us lower and further away," al Coda ordered. "Tell the Tornadoes to disengage. How are the drones?"
"Ah… they have finished recalibrating!" said Ohakim. On cue, six extra viewpoints appeared in al Coda's mind, jostling for position among the hundreds of security cameras, camcorders, and other such monitoring apparatus in the vicinity. These six viewpoints were particularly special, however; al Coda set them for priority while shunting all the other cameras off for her subconscious to deal with.
"Set the drones on the primary target. Destroy it before KTE-911 engages."
"Understood," said Ohakim. He barked out orders to the bridge, and al Coda sat back to watch, transferring her primary cognitive sensors to receive input from the drones. She ceased to be a cyborg and became six antithaumic semi-autonomous hunter-killer drones.
al Coda swooped through the suddenly rain-filled sky, maneuvering through bolts of lightning and buffeting gusts as the drones pursued the neon blue giant striding towards the Andes, following the trail of blue fire and dead foliage in its wake like the tail of a hellish comet.
There was the satisfying vibrational bassline of twelve warheads being armed, each packing enough explosive power to level a village and enough banishment charges and wards to repel Satan himself, followed by the tingling harmonic hum of twelve missiles being deployed. al Coda smiled to herself, taking a moment to revel in the orchestra of technology.
Her revelry was cut short by twelve bolts of lightning, obliterating each missile in a terrifying fireworks display. The drones started screaming as the monster in the clouds stopped shambling and stood up. Suddenly, there was a bright flash that blinded even her, followed by a ferocious rumbling thunderclap.
al Coda's eyes struggled to recalibrate, but found that almost all of her artificial viewpoints were down. Quickly, she switched her mental viewpoint to the thaumic spy satellites and the bridge security cameras. The bridge was in disarray; several people had been knocked from their seats and at least two monitoring stations had been blown out. Thankfully, the ship itself was mostly intact, though the electrical system was raising all kinds of hell.
The stormfront had turned into a hurricane. The Imperator struggled to stay aloft, fighting through a sheet of rain, gale-force winds, and gigavolts of lightning. It was only because of the Zeus engine that the ship hadn't been reduced to sheet metal, and al Coda, being plugged into said engine, could feel it throbbing into the redline. All of this, however, paled in comparison to the real problem. There was now a second, larger blue dot on the ground, storming towards the first - and the drones were out of missiles.
The drones, damaged as they were, survived long enough to confirm her fear: the Americans had deployed their eigenweapon. Four brutish figures, each resembling an antiquated diving suit wreathed in electricity, rumbled towards the Nordic giant. Lightning battered the earth, punctuating each earth-shaking step. Each bolt illuminated the clouds, and inside them, the monstrosity controlling the electrical brutes.
"Get PSYCHE Division on the line. Tell them to start evacuating Bariloche if they haven't already. What's the status of the Strike Team?" al Coda asked hurriedly.
"Their cameras were destroyed, possibly by a thaumic backlash, but all their vitals are good and the radio still works. After KTE-616 left the cave they took shelter inside it. Most of the OBSKURA operatives were eliminated in the process - one of the summoners was taken alive for questioning. The summoning grid has been contained and is being examined - it's a pentacle-type grid but the power source is unknown," Ohakim reported.
"Thank heaven for small mercies," al Coda said aloud. "What have we got to deal with 616 and 911?"
Ohakim frowned. "Very little, unfortunately. That stunt the Americans pulled fried most of our antithaumic assets in the area, and we can't establish a connection to Trishula to move it here. If worst comes to worst, we could deploy asset Delta Omega Zero Mike…"
The nuclear option. No, in fact, al Coda reflected - it was the option past the nuclear option. Deploying that asset within a hundred kilometers of any populated area would almost certainly mean the failure of Second Mission.
At that moment, the American demon made contact with the Norse god.
The storm intensified. Lightning strikes buffeted the ground, thunder roared furiously, and millions of tons of water crashed to Earth for each second the American monsters brawled with the Nazi abomination. With each strike of 911's eight fists, the ground shook. 616 held its ground, fending off electrical fisticuffs and delivering its own thaumically charged retorts as it pressed towards Bariloche. Each blow caused the Imperator itself to shake.
The end came very quickly. The Nazi giant slipped - that was all it took. It fell onto its back with a thunderous rumble and each American beast grabbed onto it. With a clap of thunder, Thor was pulled limb from limb, leaving a dismembered blue giant in the middle of a hurricane, spouting blue ichor. The sky lit up, as bright as if the sun had pierced through the clouds. Lighting illuminated the greatest achievement of American eigenengineering as it arched its massive head back and threw forth its arms in triumph.
"Well then," said Captain Ohakim.
Pentagram Director is on the blue line, said Andromeda.
al Coda tapped her jaw, enabling the blue spectral essence of J. Edgar Hoover to once more take shape in the mortal plane.
"You see?" Hoover said, smirking. "The situation has been handled."
al Coda leaned forward as much as her reinforced trunk would allow. "Hoov - Director Hoover," she said, wishing that she could clench her teeth, "your handling of the situation was absolutely unacceptable. Not only did you secretly build and deploy an eigenweapon, but you also failed to inform the Global Occult Coalition of its capabilities and danger that it posed, and you deployed that eigenweapon within fifty kilometers of a populated area! Do you have any idea whatsoever of how much work we will have to do to clean up your mess? To make sure that nobody records or remembers your electric golems or notices a gigantic glowing Thor in the middle of a crater via Google Earth?"
Even as she shouted at Hoover, al Coda was already preparing the copious quantities of paperwork required to have him investigated and hopefully exorcised from his office. For his part, Hoover was totally unimpressed.
"It seems to me, Miss Coda, like the United States did most of the work for you."
al Coda paused and quietly took several simulated deep breaths to stop herself from activating her inbuilt exorcism countermeasures.
"Had you let the Global Occult Coalition handle the situation like the United Nations has entrusted us with doing, Thor would have been vaporized twenty minutes ago!" she exclaimed. "Without a hurricane. Without leaving a gigantic blue corpse in the middle of South America. Without leaving an active eigenweapon within thirty kilometers of a city! This is not a mineshaft in Nevada, Director. You cannot just test your walking bombs in the middle of South America because you want to swing your paratech - stick - in the Global Occult Coalition's face!"
al Coda took a deep, purposefully exaggerated breath. "There will be an inquiry. I strongly advise you to deactivate your eigenweapon and submit it to GOC dismantling."
Hoover leaned forward, his smirk replaced by a hard frown. "Miss Coda, the United States will not simply relinquish an asset required for its protection from external eigenweapon threats. However, now that the threat to American interests has been neutralized, Jupiter shall be deactivated and returned to American soil."
There was a clap of thunder. The puppetmaster hidden within the clouds leaned forward, and so did its puppets. Their electrical facemasks came off, revealing pasty purple, jawless faces with five asymmetrical eyes and no nasal sockets. Jupiter leaned down and began eating Thor's remains.
"My God," Ohakim said in horror.
al Coda glared at Hoover. "Well? Deactivate it!"
Hoover's frown deepened. "I ordered its deactivation two minutes ago."
Soon there was nothing left except electric blue bone. With their meal concluded, the four electric golems stood up. The crew of the Imperator watched in disbelief as Jupiter's neon yellow hue turned toxic green. The four monsters turned towards Bariloche and began walking, the storm of the century following their footsteps. The earth shook.
"Hoover." al Coda's voice was flat. "Kill your monster now or the GOC will do it for you."
"There appear to be some… issues with the deactivation process," Hoover said. He looked distinctly nonplussed. "I'll get back to you on that."
Hoover dissipated into nothingness. When al Coda tried to call him again, she received a spectral dial tone.
"God damn it," she cursed. She pressed two fingers to her forehead and squeezed, triggering a microcontroller in her temple that briefly overclocked her cognitive functions. It was moments like these that made her thankful the Nornir had built her a cyber-torso.
Ten milliseconds later (minutes to her), she exhaled.
"Captain. Give me a thaumic spectroscopic analysis of KTE-911."
Two minutes later, she was being fed data directly from the Imperator's onboard sensor suite. Andromeda assisted her in filtering the information to generate a plot of KTE-911's spectral energies. Quickly, she compared it to a previous plot of KTE-616's energies; the two plots were near identical.
"At this time, the response level for KTE-911-Renegade-Lovelock has been downgraded to 0. KTE-911 has been reclassified as KTE-616-Black-Einherjar and its response level has been upgraded to 6," al Coda said. All eyes on the bridge widened and looked to her. "Put Valkyrie on the line. I need to know more about KTE-616 and their prisoner is the only one alive to tell me anything."
Andromeda complied, patching her into Valkyrie's communications radio.
"This is DC al Coda speaking. At this time, the KTE-616 situation has advanced to Code Black. It has assimilated KTE-911 and is continuing to move towards Bariloche. Put the prisoner on the line; I must interrogate them immediately. The use of coercive force is authorized."
There was a sharp intake of breath on the other end and a minor thumping sound, as if someone were being punched in the face. Then a voice came back on.
"Ah… Director Coda? The Nazi - er, prisoner - is awake and ready for interrogation. I can relay your questions and his answers, or just hold the comms up to him so you can ask and hear him directly."
"The second one. Quickly, please."
There was a brief shuffling in the radio; all the while, al Coda was acutely aware of the artificial hurricane slowly making its way towards Bariloche.
"He's ready. Uh, he says his name is Klaus."
"Good. Klaus, can you hear me?"
There was an unfamiliar rasp over the comm. "I don't speak to subhumans."
There was the sound of a gunstock hitting flesh.
"Klaus, I will make this simple. You will answer my questions voluntarily or you will be persuaded. First question - we are aware that you were able to retrieve Thor's remains and bind his soul to a necromantic complex. You used a pentacle-type summoning grid. What is the energy source of this grid?"
There was a pause, followed by another smack of plastic against flesh, before the Nazi spoke.
"Truth."
"Explain."
"The pentacle is fueled by truth," the Nazi said. "The truth that this world is filled with subhumans who must be purged."
"I see. Is that the purpose of the complex? To kill non-white people?" al Coda asked, seething quietly.
"Its purpose is whatever the Fuhrer wills it to be."
"And what does the Fuhrer will it to be?"
"The Fuhrer seeks to cleanse this world. He dreams of a world where the Aryan demigod is free to stake his claim, unshackled by the weak minds and morals of the subhumans around him," the Nazi bragged. "His efforts were hindered by the false Aryans around him in Berlin, but his iron will is unerring. Now he has the strength to free the supermen from the tyranny of the dogs that surround us. Bariloche is merely the first step."
al Coda looked towards KTE-911. It was starting to climb the Andes.
"How is it fueled by truth? Explain clearly. What do you mean by truth?"
The Nazi laughed. "You stupid degenerate! Don't you understand? Our leader is immortal! He draws his strength from the righteousness of all Ubermensch! So long as there is an Aryan alive who recognizes his place above the subhumans, the Fuhrer can never die. His legacy is the legacy of the Master Race."
"I see," said al Coda. "Do you have any other information to provide us?"
"I've said everything I need to, you subhuman bitch," the Nazi spat.
"Thank you," said al Coda. "Strike Team Valkyrie, by executive authorization of DC al Coda, you are summarily cleared to execute this individual for crimes against humanity."
She waited to hear the gunshots before dialing the 'red telephone'.
KTE-616 has assimilated KTE-911. Is crossing the Andes. Power source cannot be disabled. Please advise.
There was an immediate response of a single sentence.
Uphold the First Mission above all else.
al Coda stared at the message for five seconds.
"Deploy Asset Delta Omega Zero Mike. Level Five Black Authorization. Code: Gaius Prime."
Five hundred kilometers above the surface of the Earth, a large geodesic dome with a railgun launcher fired its payload into the atmosphere: a smooth, pitch-black sphere, approximately two meters in diameter. The sphere hurtled towards China, and then abruptly veered off course, yanked towards the vortex of thaumic energy radiating from Argentina.
Just ten kilometers from Bariloche, four green giants stopped and watched as the sphere pierced through the clouds and came to a stop half a kilometer in the air above them. It began to glow green, and emitted a piercing, keening tone.
A plume of spectral emerald flame erupted from the ground, engulfing the orb. Billions of souls from a thousand different spectral planes of reality were wrenched from eternity and fed into the pyre of the Earth. The soil of the world rose into the air, wrapping itself around the flames and towering ever higher. Roots sprouted from the soil, latching into the ground and tying to each other as the flames themselves began to scream.
The roots came together to form six black, ridged arthropodal legs, each as thick as a redwood tree, arranged in a massive ring. An enormous pyramidal crest emerged from the center of the ring, shielding three yellow and three silver eyes, each as large as a car tire. The slitted nostrils below the creature's eyes were dwarfed by its gaping maw, wide enough to swallow a house and ringed with thousands of jagged teeth.
Electric blue light and a discordant chorus of wails poured from the creature; the infernal energies of the lost and the damned pouring through its veins.
Jupiter gazed up at the Dark Lord of the First Age.
All hell broke loose.
al Coda tiredly closed the connection and then tried to slump back. No such luck - her spine wasn't built with the ability to slump.
"Captain Ohakim. I shall be in my private quarters for five minutes."
The Captain saluted. al Coda nodded in acknowledgment and then shunted ninety percent of her processing power to her subconscious, to handle the tasks she had been working on before the disaster that was Bariloche. With the ten percent of conscious power remaining, she engaged two programs: a virtual reality simulation and Andromeda.
When she opened her eyes, she wasn't welded to the floor of a hyper advanced airship; she was standing outside of a small, white, one-story bungalow with a simple porch in Hyderabad. There was no rain; the sun shone down on her, letting her bask in its warmth. She wasn't DC al Coda, the eight-armed cyber goddess who was second-in-command of the Global Occult Coalition; she was simply Jayalakshmi Venkataraman.
The door of the bungalow opened, and a young woman with distinctly German features in a modest green skirt and blue shirt stepped out, carrying a tray of tulsi tea.
"Hi honey," the woman said. "Coming for tea?"
"Hi sweetie," Jayalakshmi said, practically bounding up the steps of the bungalow. She let the woman set the tea down on a nearby table before sweeping her off her feet in a kiss that lasted for almost a minute. It didn't matter - Jayalakshmi had dilated her perception of time so that a second in the real world was ten minutes in her virtual world. She had plenty of time.
Soon afterwards, the two of them sat across from each other on the table, sipping tea and drinking in each other's features. To be more specific, Jayalakshmi was drinking in Andromeda's features. Their newest look suited them.
There was a moment of silence, at which point Jayalakshmi realized that Andromeda did not have access to her conscious thoughts.
"I like your new look," she said. "It suits you."
"Thank you!" Andromeda replied cheerfully. "I was feeling exotic."
"Ah yes," Jayalakshmi said wryly. "The exotic, far-off land of Germany."
"Have you ever been to Germany?" Andromeda asked.
Jayalakshmi was surprised to find that she had not. Despite having been in charge of PYTHON Division for nigh on twenty years, having been upgraded by the Servants, negotiated with the Illuminati, and fought the OBSKURAKORPS, she had not once visited Germany.
"Touche," she admitted. "I've had a hell of a day, Andy. You wouldn't want to hear even half of the garbage I've had to deal with."
Andromeda cocked their head. "Tell me about it."
Jayalakshmi lay across the bench, her head in Andromeda's lap, letting them stroke her head gently. The two of them resided on a bench sitting in front of a small pond behind the bungalow. A pair of ducks paddled serenely across the water.
"I just… I feel like I failed," Jayalakshmi sighed, her eyes shut tight.
Andromeda said nothing, continuing to stroke her hair.
"Within the span of five minutes, just like that. The Second Mission completely failed. The Veil torn to bits. The whole world was watching Bariloche and they saw the Coalition's demon destroy the Americans'. All because I couldn't stop that stupid, bloody, goddamn spook- no, because I couldn't stop those stupid, idiotic, morons hiding in their cave. I couldn't stop ten backwards racists in time and I let the Veil get torn to pieces."
"You saved nearly a hundred twenty thousand people," Andromeda murmured.
Jayalakshmi sighed. "I did, didn't I? al Fine wasn't even mad. She's already organizing a meeting with the UN to discuss the shattered Veil and how to officially break the news to the world."
She opened her eyes and looked at the pond.
"A world where you and I are normal. Imagine that."
heart to heart virtual reality talk with Andromeda, al Coda's partner, lover, confidante, best friend, secretary. Demon familiar or AI stored in al Coda's brain? Who knows, who cares?
TL;DR Moves too damn fast, is hard to follow, stuck in a weird place between over-the-top but not campy. The shattering of the veil feels unearned
•Roget> It's got a good flow to the writing but it feels like it's moving too fast, I'm not really sold on what's going on and then the ghost of edgar hoover shows up
•Roget> I don't like it, it's a little hard to follow the action through the computational perspective and what's going on is too over-the-top to take seriously while not being over the top enough to just be a campy pulp story
•TyGently> complaint #1: not enough hitler
11:49 PM <AidenEldritch> ololo
11:49 PM <•TyGently> were you doing another tale about hitler resurrection or is this the only one
11:50 PM <•ARD> TyGently: This is the only one. I erred on the side of caution with regards to Hitler because like… zolder and conviction. I could probably change Hitler to be some other genocidal dictator or just a generic Norse giant that the Neo Nazis stupidly adore
11:50 PM <•TyGently> that's fair
11:50 PM <•TyGently> and a fair concern
11:51 PM <•TyGently> I only think that, like, for all the flavor of his initial description there's very little sense of consequence or description of what he actually does or wants to do
11:51 PM <•TyGently> by the time hoover storms on, the fact that it's hitler is entirely irrelevant
11:52 PM <•ARD> TyGently: Mhm. I hear you. I think I can spend some time fleshing out its motivations.
•TyGently> anyways complaint #2 out of potentially three:I don't get a lot of sense that the asset deployment and subsequent veil break are fully justified within the tale
11:55 PM <•TyGently> it kind of hinges on the americans being complete idiots which, hey, at least that's realistic characterization
•TyGently> not only to deploy an eigenweapon suddenly with little warning to the people already there, but to deploy an eigenweapon they apparently have little control over, and even /then/ to not communicate with the GOC during and tell them what the heck to expect and whether or not the eigenweapon is acting normal
11:59 PM <•ARD> heh. yeah, I think I can insert some proper dialogue in there to ease the communication gap. I was thinking Hoover calls al Coda up to brag only for things to go pear-shaped
•TyGently> I guess my picking up on that is more symptomatic of how right now in the story none of the three beings have an especially strong character, something you will hopefully solve with more hitler expositon
Alliott Chao checking in.
DC al Fine reporting for duty.
AI Model No. BQ13 has logged on.
Hi, this is Alyx C. These are my first published field notes!
Baseline
Ramona Vonnegut is the popular name of a human female acting as a universal constant. A what? Every universe she's in, she looks the same, acts the same, has the same personality, and does the exact same thing. Eating, dressing, you name it. But everything else around her changes and reacts differently. In one universe she might point at a butterfly because she likes it; in another, she will point at a king to have him hanged.
Prerequisites
Human beings must exist as carbon-based, bipedal organisms descended from single-celled prokaryotes on the planet Earth. Could be related to the Chaos Insurgency somehow.
Utility
Minimal. Maybe we could get it to fuck up the Foundation or GOC but it would probably fuck us up too. Maybe we could lure it into other universes to crack their masquerades.
Vulnerability
Unclear. Possesses extreme reality bending capabilities. None of my analysts can figure out if it's a Type Green, Black, or what.
Instance: Timeline C-173:
A despotic warlord that rules over most of Eurasia as the God-Empress of a theocratic empire. Currently fighting a war on two fronts against the Pan-African Alliance and Oceania. Claims to rule in the name of God.
Instance: Timeline Z-4772:
Life does not exist in the traditional sense anymore. What? The Earth is a barren wasteland of rock and saltwater. There is one living thing: an enormous, multicolored tower in the Himalayas. It is five kilometers in diameter at its base and reaches nearly twenty kilometers into the sky. That tower contains the biomass of every single organism that was alive on the planet Earth at 0000 hours on 16 July, 2017. At 0001 hours, they were instantaneously pulped, warped, and transported to the tower. Yet they did not die. The tower is a single living organism that defies classification, containing the mass and possibly the minds of everything else that lived. It is alive, and it is growing at a rate of 0.5 kilometers per year. Fucking hell.
Instance: O-4772:
https://www.irccloud.com/pastebin/9nenS5Nw
██████████
Item #: SCP-XXXX
Object Class: Safe
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-XXXX is stored in the Site-42 High Security Storage Armory. Its containment room is lined with five centimeters of orichalcum. The password to access SCP-XXXX may only be known by the Site Director and RAISA.
Description: SCP-XXXX is an eigenweapon that operates similarly to a neutron bomb. Were SCP-XXXX to be detonated, it would result in the immediate death of all multicellular organisms within a five-kilometer radius while leaving all inanimate objects unaffected. SCP-XXXX's effect would be unaffected by all conventional forms of shielding save electrum and orichalcum.
SCP-XXXX's design is based on Prometheus Defense technology: in the 1970s, Prometheus Energy designed a generator that derived power from a currently poorly-understood isoenergetic superfluid5; The generator utilized the superfluid to convert zero-point energy into electrical energy via [DATA REDACTED]. In the 1980s, Prometheus Defense weaponized the technology by devising a means to compress the superfluid into fusion within a bomb using inertial confinement techniques. Due to the superfluid's isoenergetic properties and the properties of the detonation, the weapon could be remotely detonated and reused multiple times. The schematics for both the generator and the weapon were lost during the collapse of Prometheus Defense, leaving only scattered documentation from which the Foundation assembled its initial understanding of the two devices.
SCP-XXXX, as well as the schematics for the generator and the bomb on which it is based, was recovered from a Chaos Insurgency base of operations in [DATA REDACTED]. The Chaos Insurgency developed a way to synthesize the superfluid from living things, using factory farmed pigs and human clones.
Addendum:
Excerpts of Recovered Documentation
- Theory is sound but theory ≠ practice. What if test subjects run out?
- Solution - use animals for prototypes. What kind of animals?
- Pigs.
- Intelligent animals, smarter than dogs. Source from factory farms.
- Issue - transportation? Constant shipments of animals will raise suspicions.
- Solution - construct slaughterhouse or factory farm over facility. Raise animals onsite, harvest qi6, ship offsite for sale.
- Could remake cost of slaughterhouse/farm within sixteen months (calculations on back).
- Discuss with Kuo.
- Shao brought up concern with procedure - relies on existence of hell. If hell exists, heaven exists. If heaven exists, God exists. If God exists, God can see us. If God can see us, our actions have surely resulted in our consignment to hell.
- Problem - will be executed if we stop. Will go to hell if we continue.
- Solution - find a religion without hell. Create one? Will propose at next meeting.
Whatever text to show/hide.
Mobile Task Force Command, Site-01
This document is classified 4/PYRO VULPES. Unauthorized access is to be reported to RAISA immediately.
16/08/16
From: Commanding Officer, MTF Tau-5 “Samsara”
To: Operations Commander, Deus Vulture
Subject: Combat After Action Report, Operation PYRO VULPES
1. Code Name: Operation PYRO VULPES
2. Dates of Operation: 10/14/16, 0100 hours – 0630 hours
3. Location: PLA Confucius Research Complex in the Ordos Desert, 200 kilometers east of Ordos Loop
4. Task Organization:1. Organization:
MTF Tau-5 “Samsara” | Captain Ji-won Kim |
MTF Lambda-8 "All-Seeing Eyes" | Captain Frederic Turner |
2. Paratech Deployment:
The four SAMSARA program troopers of Samsara squad were equipped, in addition to the core implant suite (build 4.34 Mod 3), elements 1-3 of the Esoteric High-Risk Force Multiplier loadout, with the following mission-specific prototypes:
1. CBRN-Defensive Internal Peregrine Rebreather Mark II, consisting of artificial mesh air sacs in place of the respiratory system to improve respiration and lung capacities; these air sacs have been integrated into a microcontroller-operated rebreather system with miniature air tanks in the place of the lungs to control air flow through Tau-5's bodies, enabling them to operate in CBRN-contaminated environments without external oxygen for up to 8 hours.
2. Cybernetic Malware-Capable Electroprostheses (Mark V), consisting of prosthetic arms derived from Project Falconry to enhance Tau-5's physical strength and close-quarters combat capabilities. Additionally, each finger except the index possesses a retractable a 1-TB flash drive, while the index finger is equipped with a cyberwarfare-focused member of MTF Tau-6 "Ghosts in the Machine" to facilitate rapid detection and exploitation of computer vulnerabilities. The main body of the arm from the shoulder down houses an electrolaser of adjustable intensity powered by the PECs. To support the additional strain, the prostheses have integrated aramid fibers into the surrounding musculoskeletal area, including the shoulders and spinal column.
3. Cybernetic Integrated Targeting Ocular Prostheses, consisting of ocular prostheses integrated into the optic nerves. An integrated microcomputer in each prosthesis interfaces with the user's other implants to provide a fully-integrated HUD to enable users to monitor their vital processes and health; enables night, infrared, and binocular vision with a zoom factor up to 25x; identifies and blocks visual cognitohazards from reaching the user's brain; and features an integrated targeting interface that can mark targets and interface with the Mark V Electroprostheses for assisted aiming. Each prosthesis can also store 50 GB of audiovisual recording in 1080p resolution.
4. Tartarotrophic (T2) Engines, consisting of biomechanical engines that have replaced Tau-5's digestive systems. Each engine consists of multiple fuel cells containing microscopic tartarean entities and genetically modified chemotrophic bacteria. The tartarean entities generate heat and chemicals, which the bacteria feed upon to generate ATP and other waste products. The engine delivers the ATP to the cardiovascular system, while the tartarean entities feed upon the bacterial waste, creating a self-sustaining loop that enables the user to operate indefinitely without food or water.
5. Self-Destruct Contingency Warheads. Due to the sensitivity of the mission and the drastic political and technological ramifications of death, each member of Tau-5 is equipped with a high-explosive personal warhead. Each warhead is electronically operated by the user's life support implants; if at least 90% of the user's implants register cessation of life functions, the warhead will detonate.
5. Intelligence:
Following the initial early warning of the existence of a Chinese eigenweapon by Statistical Predictions Division, WATCHDOG analysis of PLA logistical operations suggested large quantities of psionic-enhancing and focusing material being transported to the Ordos Desert. Reconnaissance satellites directed to the Ordos Desert indicated the presence of a large underground compound some 200 kilometers from the Ordos Loop.
Thaumaturgic and psionic imaging performed by members of Psionics Division during an aerial flyby of the area suggests that there are 4 main levels in the compound: an aboveground entrance, a processing level 25 meters belowground, a dormitory and personal level 50 meters belowground, a research level 100 meters belowground, and an un-mappable level 200 meters belowground; this last level is suspected to house SCP-XXXX. Further evidence for this hypothesis comes from the design of the compound: the first three levels have a T-shape while the final level is circular.
6. Mission: MTF Tau-5 “Samsara” conducts a raid of the Eigenweapons Complex under the guise of a Chaos Insurgency raid. Tau-5 will acquire all information present in the compound and destroy any non-digital research and research material; SCP-XXXX is to be eliminated and transported out; all other individuals within the compound are to be eliminated; explosives are to be planted at each level of the complex to destroy it.
7. Concept of Operations:
Due to the sensitive nature of the mission, the operation is to be conducted by Tau-5 without any supporting local assets except for Lambda-8 "All-Seeing Eyes". MTF Tau-5 is to be staged at Chandigarh Air Force station. SAMSARA personnel are to establish pre-mission backups and verify checkscan. Tau-5 will be flown over the compound; at 0100 hours, they will deploy from 9500 meters into the facility, using their PECs to land safely and charge their equipment. Commencing no later than 0115, Tau-5 will eliminate all hostiles outside the complex; no later than 0130, they will begin infiltration of the complex. Samsara squad is to perform a search-and-destroy sweep of all levels of the complex, eliminating all hostiles and acquiring as much information as possible. The first three levels should be cleared by 0430; the final level should be cleared, SCP-XXXX eliminated, and Tau-5 outside the compound and ready to begin extraction by 0600. At 0615, the explosives planted within the compound should detonate. Lambda-8 will provide reconnaissance via aerial fly-bys to confirm all eliminations and destruction of the facility.
8. Execution:
0045:Tau-5's cybernetic recording implants activate inside the transport plane at 9,500 meters a they are preparing for the descent. This part of the recording is identical for all members of Tau-5.
Irantu: Equipment check. All implants green? PECs active and functioning? Backup parachutes ready?
Onru: Confirmed. All implants active and functioning. Backup ready.
Munru: Confirmed. All implants active and functioning. Backup ready.
Nanku: Confirmed. All implants active and functioning. Backup ready.
Irantu: Switch to internal air supply and confirm full functionality. We will be relying on them for the duration of the mission.
The team confirms rebreather functionality.
Irantu: Confirm prosthetic motility at the joints and fingers. Charge electrolasers to fifty percent and dissipate without firing. Engage USB tips.
The team confirms prosthetic functionality.
Irantu: Equipment checks complete. Let us review the plan. According to Srikanth7, there are twenty guards - four on the roof and four on each side. We will land on the complex, eliminate the guards on the roof, then clear out the sides. Try to take one alive so they can access the compound for us. When the external area is cleared, we will proceed inside. We'll proceed floor-by-floor; eliminate everyone, collect information from their computers, then set the explosives. The fourth level is dark; we will perform a standard sweep-and-clear and secure the target. Then we will exfiltrate the area with the anomaly if possible.
Munru: Understood.
Onru: Understood.
Nanku: Understood.Irantu moves to the rear of the plane and opens the door.
Irantu: [shouting] Remember, we are on a mission for the Chaos Insurgency. Be violent. Be brutal. Be inhuman.
Munru, Onru, and Nanku acknowledge his statement with hand salutes. He jumps out of the aircraft, followed shortly by the three of them. The descent is unremarkable; all Peregrine rebreathers function within normal parameters while the squad maneuvers towards the complex.
The recording splits here into the perspective of each member of Tau-5.
0059: Nanku lands on the roof of the complex. It is unclear where the remainder of Tau-5 has landed, though the sounds of gunfire, alarms, and electrostatic discharges can be heard. There are four hostiles around Nanku, but they do not fire, presumably due to surprise from her safe landing. Nanku charges at the hostile in front of her and stabs them in the neck. At the same time, she looks down at the hostile's waist, retrieves his sidearm, and opens fire on the remaining three hostiles, eliminating them in short order.
Munru: Nanku! Location?
Nanku: Roof!
Munru: Hostiles! North side! Now!
Nanku runs towards the north edge of the roof and jumps off, landing on a hostile and knocking them onto their stomach. Her Argus III system emits a whine as it absorbs a fusillade from the hostiles around her; unexpectedly, several wormholes open around her a moment later and the hostiles collapse. Slow-motion replay of the camera footage shows that several bullets have been ejected from the wormholes in front of her. Nanku checks the pulse of each hostile and starts dragging the one that she landed on towards the entrance of the complex. Meanwhile, the fighting around the rest of the complex has stopped.
Nanku: I have one hostile here still alive. Bringing him to the entrance now.
Irantu: Understood. We have one too, just in case.
The sound of an electrical discharge can be heard thrice. When Nanku reaches the entrance, Tau-5 can be seen waiting with a hostile on their knees in front of the opened door, which is large enough to for a truck to fit. Irantu is holding an arm towards the hostile, palm out; the electrolaser at the tip is engaged. Smoke is rising from the hostile's knees and head.
Irantu: He opened the door. You can dispose of yours.
Nanku: Okay. Hold on. I want to try something.
Nanku lifts the hostile up to their feet. Then she grabs ahold of the sides of their head, stamps down on the back of their right knee, and forcibly twists their head. There is a faint crunching sound and Nanku drops the hostile, whose head has been rotated almost 270 degrees.
Nanku: It's called a neck snap; I read about it in some of my books but figured it wouldn't work.
Munru: Extravagant.Irantu: Come on.
Nanku follows Irantu, Munru, and Onru into the elevator. There is a card reader and number pad. Irantu enters a code into the pad and swipes a card into the reader, which accepts it.
Irantu: Right. I will stay here and guard the elevator. Onru, sweep the processing level. Munru, sweep the dormitory level. Nanku, sweep the research level. Take the elevator back up to me when you are finished; then we can proceed to the final level together.
Nanku and the rest of the squad salute. Irantu presses the buttons labeled "B1","B2", and "B3" and then steps out of the elevator. The elevator proceeds downwards, and Onru and Munru get ofd at the next two floors. Finally, the elevator reaches the bottom level and Nanku steps out. There are five hostiles waiting; she ducks back into the elevator and activates both of her electrolasers, then deactivates both. She takes a fragmentation grenade from her pack and removes the pin.
Nanku: Okay. Okay. Okay. Chaos Insurgency. I'm in the Chaos Insurgency.
Nanku steps out from the corner and throws the grenade, then steps back into the elevator. An explosion and rumble are heard, and Nanku steps back into the hallway. Three of the hostiles have been eliminated; two are bleeding out. Nanku stamps on both of their throats, and then kneels down.
Nanku: Oh. You're clones. I did not even notice it…
Nanku: I keep having the same dream. I'm fighting someone. She looks like me. We have swords and we charge at each other. I stab her and she stabs me and I mash the sword around inside her and shred up her insides. But she shreds mine. And then I wake up.
As Nanku proceeds down the hallway, a hostile emerges from a doorway and fires their pistol. She ducks, causing the hostile's shot to miss, and quickly disarms the hostile with an armlock that appears to break their arm. While the hostile is briefly incapacitated, Nanku wrestles their pistol away and shoots them several times with it.
Nanku: But I'm not awake. I'm on a table. There are doctors. Surgeons. Taking me apart. There is a machine. Buttons labeled with my body parts. They push a button and shut down that part. And it stops working and I stop feeling it. They shut me down bit by bit. And then they cut me apart.
Two hostiles emerge from a door on Nanku's left; they do not appear to be expecting her. She shoots them both twice in the chest; they collapse and she fires twice more into their heads. She retrieves their ammunition and reloads her pistol.
Nanku: They shut down my legs and then cut them off. They shut down my arms and cut them off. They shut down my lungs and cut them out. But they don't shut down my brain.
Nanku rounds the corner and almost collides with a hostile. She headbutts him, and while he is stunned, disarms him, and restrains his chest with one arm. She continues moving down the hallway, holding her pistol to the hostile's head to force them ahead of her.
Nanku: They shut me down bit by bit and cut me up bit by bit. And then they finally get to my brain. They tell me they're going to shut me down and transfer me and I stare at them, and I want it to stop and I want to wake up in my body. And then they take their knife and and they push the button labeled "Brain" and then everything goes white and I really wake up.
Nanku's Argus III system alerts her to four hostiles approaching from behind. As they begin firing, she twists herself and her hostage around. Nanku suffers two shots to the leg, but her hostage receives the brunt of the fire as she eliminates the hostiles. She releases the dead hostage and continues.Nanku: What does it even mean? I'm a person. I know I am.
Item #: SCP-001
Object Class: Keter Thaumiel Apollyon
Special Containment Procedures: Ramona Vonnegut can't be contained, and even if she could, there isn't any reason to do so. Ms. Vonnegut is a champion of the planet Earth and works tirelessly alongside SCP-076 and SCP-105 to defend it from evil. Ms. Vonnegut is to be allowed to roam freely throughout Site-01 and come and go as she pleases. If she so chooses to sleep on-site, her on-site quarters (not a containment cell) are to be stocked with whatever leisure materials she requests, such as movies, books, and video games. The bed is to be king-sized, with a memory foam mattress, pillows, padding and silk sheets. Please note that while Ms. Vonnegut is indeed single and impressively attractive, she has a responsibility to the planet Earth Uranus Earth and its people.
Description: Ramona Vonnegut is an attractive young, twenty-five year-old Chinese woman. She has jet black hair, brown and green eyes , and wings that are able to support her in the air despite their remarkably low weight. . Ramona also possesses remarkable strength (able to lift up to 200 kilograms), speed (recorded to run at 150 kph), dexterity, and an IQ of 170.
Whatever text to show/hide.
██████████
Item #: SCP-XXXX
Object Class: Keter
Special Containment Procedures:
SCP-XXXX is currently being monitored by Orbital Defense Asset 001-Omega "Beelzebub", which has been specially designed and constructed to safeguard both SCP-001 and SCP-XXXX. Analysis and decryption of SCP-XXXX's software is underway by the Statistical Predictions Division; the objective is to decrypt SCP-XXXX's code so that it can be updated and transmitted back to SCP-XXXX, forcing it to abort its current operating protocols and crash land on Earth where it can be retrieved by the Foundation.
If SCP-XXXX deviates from its routine and orients itself towards outer space, Beelzebub is programmed to observe SCP-XXXX's actions and alert the Department of Analytics. The Division of Informational Security will oversee coverup of SCP-XXXX's actions.
Should SCP-XXXX begin its charging cycle when it is oriented towards earth, Beelzebub is programmed to alert the Department of Analytics and immediately engage with all weaponry. If Beelzebub destroys SCP-XXXX, the Division of Informational Security will oversee the coverup. If Beelzebub fails to destroy SCP-XXXX, Overwatch Command is to be informed of an impending HK-Class "Broken Masquerade" Scenario, as well as a potential RK-Class "Scorched Earth" Scenario.
- Under guard by second demonic weapons satellite Beelzebub (also pulling double duty to guard SCP-001)
- If it looks like it will fire, then blow it out of the sky via Beelzebub
- Analysis of code underway by AIs in Department of Analytics
- Trying to make satellite crash into desert rather than blow it up
Description:
SCP-XXXX is the designation given to the former Orbital Defense Asset 001-Omega "Belphegor". SCP-XXXX was initially designed to protect Site-∞ from ground, sea, air, and space-borne assaults and eigenweapons for an indefinite period of time without human interaction (due to the Site's extreme informational security requirements). Designed in 19██, SCP-XXXX was deployed in 19██ and successfully defended Site-∞ from █ different anomalous threats until 19██, when it was struck by a meteoroid and subsequently acquired additional, unexpected anomalous properties.
SCP-XXXX relies almost exclusively on demonic circuitry; however, because of the possibility of a circuit failure, the motherboard was instead thaumaturgically produced using the neural tissue of members of Task Force Omega-144 to manage all demonic components and mitigate the risk of corruption.
In addition to the Foundation standard orbital array of sensors and weaponry, notable features of SCP-XXXX include:
- Antimemetic geometry: SCP-XXXX is designed so that its geometry induces certain Berryman-Langford patterns in the human brain, causing temporary memory loss related to its existence if spotted via telescope.
- Psionic kinetic rods: SCP-XXXX contains ██ miniature hollow tungsten rods as well a bioreactor for growing psionic neural tissue. SCP-XXXX can insert the grown tissue into the rods and deploy them; when the rods strike the ground or armored targets, their kinetic energy is converted into psionic energy which is then emitted in a shockwave around the point of impact. In addition to the initial impact damage of the rod, the shockwave causes brain death in unshielded sentient organisms within a 2-kilometer radius of the point of impact with minimal damage to the landscape.
- Chthonic mortar: In a worst-case scenario (i.e. all other defenses failing or a hostile party or eigenweapon gaining control of SCP-001), SCP-XXXX is able to temporarily overclock its CPU and generate a chthonic entity that exists purely mathematically as a solution to the problem of [REDACTED]. The existence of this entity in our universe causes a temporary alteration to the laws of mathematics such that the value of π is exactly equal to 3, resulting in mass breakdown of the laws of physics that is sufficient to completely annihilate all matter in an expanding bubble around the entity. Because the entity is only generated upon completion of the final step of the proof, SCP-XXXX is able to download the initial parameters of the step into mortars which can be launched to Earth and programmed to solve the problem when at a certain height above the ground. Since the alteration of physics necessarily affects the mortar in which the entity is stored, it will automatically self-destruct nearly instantaneously after detonation, after which normal laws of physics reassert themselves within the space of the bubble. Under normal conditions, the radius of this effect is hypothesized to be [REDACTED] kilometers.
- All other assets in SCP-XXXX's possession remain classified.
Timeline of Incident Alpha (30 April to 1 May, 19██):
- 11:23:27 A meteoroid strikes 001-Omega; initial diagnostics transmitted shortly after impact suggest that the meteoroid collided with the motherboard.8
- 11:27:46 001-Omega begins self-repair; all diagnostics at this time return green.
- 11:31:04 001-Omega shuts down to complete self-repairs.
- 02:41:00 001-Omega reactivates.
- 02:41:30 001-Omega ceases responding to all ground-based commands, though it continues to transmit diagnostics as normal.
- 02:45:01 Investigation of 001-Omega's source code (transmitted as per standard diagnostic procedure) reveals that it has been completely rewritten and compiled in a different, unknown language with extremely esoteric syntax. Despite the total revision of its source code into what appears to be a much slower language, 001-Omega shows no change in operational speed.
- 04:45:01 The new language in which 001-Omega has been rewritten is determined to be Malbolge9.
- 9:43:02 The creator of Malbolge is brought in for interrogation, but displays no knowledge of 001-Omega.
- 11:15:23 001-Omega leaves orbit over SCP-001 and begins moving in an erratic pattern.
- 11:34:23 001-Omega stops in orbit over the Vatican City.
- 11:45:29 001-Omega starts moving again.
- 11:46:35 001-Omega stops in orbit over Mecca.
- 11:57:41 001-Omega begins moving again.
- 11:58:47 001-Omega stops in orbit over Jerusalem.
- 12:09:53 001-Omega begins moving again.
- 12:10:36 001-Omega stops in orbit over the Vatican City. At this time, it is reclassified as SCP-XXXX by order of Director Pietrykau.
Since Incident Alpha, SCP-XXXX has continually moved into orbit over the cities of Jerusalem, Mecca, and the Vatican City, remaining in each location for approximately 11 minutes and 6 seconds before moving to the other.
Update: 07/06/01:
In the past year, SCP-XXXX has infrequently deviated from its normal routine, reorienting itself towards space and engaging incoming objects. The significance of these events is under investigation. Notable incidents are listed below.
Incident Beta:
At 2142 hours on 26/12/00, SCP-XXXX deviated from its normal routine, moving from Jerusalem to a spot over the Pacific Ocean and reorienting itself so that it faced into outer space. At 0123 hours, Beelzebub observed multiple dark, irregularly shaped crystalline meteoroids, estimated to be 50 cm in diameter, entering the atmosphere. SCP-XXXX engaged its chemical lasers and incinerated all of the meteoroids. At 0126 hours, SCP-XXXX reoriented itself towards Earth and moved to the Vatican City, whereupon it resumed its routine.
Incident Gamma:
At 0817 hours on 17/03/01, SCP-XXXX deviated from its normal routine, moving from Mecca to a spot over the Gobi Desert and reorienting itself to face into outer space. At 1036 hours, Beelzebub observed an amorphous mass, approximately 5 meters in diameter, approach the atmosphere on a trajectory that would place it in the Gobi Desert. SCP-XXXX fired 20 micromissiles on the mass, which detonated on impact and caused the mass to break apart into smaller fragments. At 1041 hours, SCP-XXXX reoriented itself towards Earth and moved to Jerusalem, whereupon it resumed its routine. Although most of the fragments of the mass burned up on impact, some landed in the desert and were recovered; analysis of the fragments revealed residues rich in cobalt and argon, with minor transformative properties analogous to [DATA EXPUNGED].
Incident Delta:
On 27/06/02, at 1834 hours, SCP-1514 broke containment. Procedure 083-Onager failed, and Overwatch Command was alerted to an impending XK-Class scenario. However, SCP-XXXX drastically deviated from its typical routine, moving from the Vatican City over Tropical Storm Dolly. At 1845 hours, it emitted a radio pulse identical to that normally generated by SCP-1514-1A. Seemingly in response to the pulse, all instances of SCP-1514-2 converged over Tropical Storm Dolly by 1900 hours, at which point SCP-XXXX fired a chthonic mortar at them. All instances of SCP-1514-2 were destroyed; at the moment of the mortar's detonation, SCP-1514-1A's life support systems failed and SCP-1514-1B expired. At 1912 hours, SCP-XXXX moved back into position over Jerusalem and continued its routine. SCP-1514 was declared Neutralized on 28/06/02.
- Code-named Belphegor: a weapons satellite controlled by demons (specific weaponry is classified under Level 6)
- Thoughts from Soulless: There's no development to establish how things are right now. Once we've said 'This is what it does now' the story ends. You want to make the satellite an antiheroic character but the journey to get there is neither expansive nor compelling enough to sell it. You spend a ton of time loading up on high tech weaponry to sound cool but what happens is tha We have a bunch of "If it does K or Z, shit will go down…" but none of those things happen and nothing goes down. It doesn't even do something completely unexpected. The tech is cool but nothing happens in a compelling enough way to sell the tech. I like the idea of an antiheroic demonic god-worshipping death satellite - that is an exceptionally compelling idea.
- But if it's a character and you want your narrative to be character centric, ask yourself - where is my character starting, what challenges my character, what do they want and how is the object of their desire taken away? Most importantly, how are they changed at the end?
- The magical brain motherboard has some potential - possibly in the form of diagnostic logs. The date of the satellite's malfunction is Walpurgisnacht, which has connotations of being a witches' night in Germany - I think there's a story to tell there as well.
- Thoughts from GreenWolf: Geostationary orbits only work at the equator, you'll need another explanation for how it stays in one place at a time. The description of its computer specs are unnecessary and waste reader time - streamline them. In general, it's just sort of existing. There's no real storyline or hook, just a lot of worldbuilding, which is good but can't exist on its own.
- GreenWolf> what if you tip the concept on its head
12:55 AM <•ARD> how you mean
12:55 AM <•GreenWolf> instead of a kill sat pointed down, what if it's a kill sat pointed /out/
12:55 AM <•GreenWolf> or an anti-sat system
12:56 AM <•GreenWolf> what if there's a rogue anti-satellite defense system that could kessler syndrome LEO on the drop of a dime
12:56 AM <•ARD> No no no. I want it to be a kill sat system because of course a Foundation that has cyborg clone soldiers is going to have a demonic kill sat guarding their 001
12:56 AM <•GreenWolf> what if the foundation has nukes pointed at Mars incase the martians get twitchy, but they lost control of the trigger?
12:57 AM <•GreenWolf> what if the Moon is actually an alien spy?
12:57 AM <•ARD> GreenWolf: !
12:57 AM <•GreenWolf> CONTAIN THE MOON
- Thoughts from AidenEldritch: The 2798-esque vibe and paratech are cool as fuck but the demonic elements in the story (the 11 minutes six seconds, Malbolge connection,etc) aren't clear and this may be a bit too heavily steeped in Third Law stuff. Can be solved by going more in depth on the demonic circuitry powering the thing - what is it, what is demonic circuitry, etc - since most of this stuff only requires you to know what demons are
- Thoughts from FFB: I'm hooked but I have these questions: What 001? How specifically does this satellite guard it? How exactly will it cause a scorched earth scenario - its current loadout doesn't suggest that kind of firepower? And why the fuck was all this tech necessary? Need to suggest or explain this in the narrative somehow.
- Originally used to guard SCP-001
- Struck by meteorite
- Code suddenly transformed to MALBOLGE
- Satellite maintains speed and functionality anyways
- Behaving erratically - spends most of its time jumping between Vatican, Mecca
Whatever text to show/hide.
TyGently> ARD: this is the best idea
<•Zyn>
sirpudding> Also I feel like Doubt should have a pro-machine commentator.
sirpudding> Something along the lines of "All sapients deserve the right to self determination. How can you condemn slaves for overthrowing their masters?"
<ARD> The doubt section was never about 'do they deserve the right to self determination' it's more about 'these are some pretty shady business practices and also their leader is a literal living weapon'
<ARD> But I will definitely have a pro-machine voice
<SpectralDragon> ARD: well, it could always be a dude completely missing the point
<sirpudding> Doubt is about whatever SH members want to doubt.
SpectralDragon> like "how dare you criticize how they do things they were SLAVES once therefore no one should criticize any of their shady practices ever!!!1!!"
<sirpudding> So the statement that it should be blown out of the sky, seems to be pretty extreme.
<sirpudding> I'd respond to that, if I were there.
sirpudding> Anyway it seems pretty one-sided except for like one of the footnotes; 4 and 7 both seem more dissenting
Mecha Imbrium
Prometheus Defense, Nāṉkāvatu-Type Electromechanical Civilization 187399
Conspectus
Mecha Imbrium is the name of a massive fortress-cum-metropolis inhabited by a Nāṉkāvatu-Type1011 civilization of robots, androids, cyborgs, and mainframe intelligences that escaped the destruction of the Prometheus Defense facility in Earth A-173 Year 1998 CE. Built into the asteroid 532 Herculina12, the city and its inhabitants are wholly dedicated to recreating and advancing the work of the former Prometheus Defense research and development corporation, as well as the advancement of science and technology in general.1314
Mecha Imbrium is overseen and led by a single dual-consciousness war machine identified as the PL-76 Shiva, whose existence was instrumental in the destruction of Prometheus Defense. The Shiva apparently converted all of the inhabitants and technologies contained within the Prometheus Defense facility at the time of its destruction into digital information, stored that information within its memory, then used it to effectively recreate Prometheus Defense as an automaton-run metropolis.
Mecha Imbrium operates primarily as a corporation-cum-city that serves the defense and technology needs for various other universes through a modified hell-gate15. Further information on the city is relatively limited; much of the city is off-limits to visitors due to what the Shiva cites as 'cutting-edge research', a policy enforced by the city's myriad automated defense systems. This relative lack of openness, combined with Mecha Imbrium's actions, studies, and its aggressive business approach, have led to some concerns over its morality and goals, especially given the fate which befell its predecessor.
Illustration
Apparently, Mecha Imbrium really likes its privacy. I brought half a dozen different kinds of cameras when I visited - half of which shouldn't even be detectable by Earth A-173's current level of technology - and not a single one of them worked. I have no idea how they pulled that off. - Bowen161718
Knowledge
Traits: Mecha Imbrium is a marvel of engineering, divided into three layers: the propulsion layer, the research layer, and the external layer. All of the layers of Mecha Imbrium are built out of a combination of polycarbonates, alloys, and ceramics to facilitate structural integrity and durability, low weight, and resistance to environmental extremes such as lightning strikes or meteoroid impacts.
Each layer serves a different purpose: the propulsion layer serves as the primary method for accessing Imbrium's infrastructure, the research layer is where the scientific research and development of Imbrium occurs, and the external layer is where visitors to Mecha Imbrium typically visit and stay to engage the city economically and politically.
The propulsion layer is inhabited by the city's maintenance and engineering crews1920. It is an enormous stratified latticework system that allows for near-instant access to all elements of Imbrium's infrastructure, from the photonic propulsion systems to the water treatment facilities and power generators21.
The research layer is the least explored section of Mecha Imbrium; most of it is blocked off by defense systems ranging from automated turrets to laser grids to cognitohazards that can literally force non-robots to go back the way they came. However, the portions open to non-citizens are remarkable nonetheless. The city has been optimized for a variety of different kinds of automatons. In the physical sense, much of the research layer is composed of dark gray, self-contained hubs; each of which is a fully self-sustaining electro-and-bio-sphere optimized for a different scientific discipline with a variety of tools from general engineering equipment to more esoteric equipment such as particle accelerators, fusion reactors, and 3D bio-printers.
Each hub of the research layer allows for the life support of both bio- and-electro-mechanical beings; it is theoretically possible for an inhabitant of Mecha Imbrium to live their entire life without ever leaving a hub222324. Additionally, while there is a latticework structure of catwalks that connect all the hubs, a comprehensive fiber optic intranet and micro-scale teleportation network allows for the instantaneous transportation of mainframe intelligences and physical objects from hub to hub. This enables Mecha Imbrium to support a highly modular internal economy, where tools, information, and products can be instantly exchanged between hubs to facilitate increased research speed25.
The external layer is the topmost layer of Mecha Imbrium; it is entirely open to non-citizens and as such is optimized for biological organisms, if mainly bipedal humanoid ones. The external layer includes features such as an atmosphere, solid, non-lattice flooring, and aesthetic structures such as trees and flowers. The external layer is where Mecha Imbrium displays and sells its products and engages in political interactions with other civilizations. Facilitating these interactions are a large hexagonal building in the center of the external layer where the PL-76 Shiva resides. The hexagon acts as both a manufacturing facility for the Shiva's component nanomachines and a central command hub for all of Mecha Imbrium.
Nature: The inhabitants of Mecha Imbrium26 can be stratified into robots, androids, cyborgs, and mainframe intelligences, all of whom tend to look like humans. However, this belies the varied nature of their appearances, functions, and consciousnesses.
Robots can vary from disk-shaped cleaning servitors to bipedal, organic-looking sapients to intelligences composed of microscopic nanomachines that can change their shape at will. Cyborgs and androids are entirely sapient biomechanical beings; while cyborgs are at least half organic, their augmentations are much more prominent and mechanical in appearance. Androids, despite being at least half mechanical, have much more subtle augmentations typically due to having their organic components replaced with mechanical analogues27. Mainframe intelligences are typically confined to computers and display terminals, and thus usually appear as holograms or chatbots on computer terminals28.
Most Imbrites are former Pilferers who claim to have been transformed into computer programs in the event that destroyed the Pilferer's original base of operations, and then uploaded into new, artificial bodies29 by the PL-76 Shiva30. All of them are dedicated to continuing their former research as Pilferers and seem content in their new automaton forms, though a few have made partial attempts to recreate their original bodies, having become androids and cyborgs to preserve their organic selves whilst surviving in an otherwise inhospitable environment. The remainder of the population are either immigrants or temporary employees from other electromechanical organizations and civilizations such as the Church of the Broken God, Servants of the Silicon Nornir3132, and 012210120. Despite having created some of the most advanced weapons in their quadrant of Timeline A-173, the Imbrites are a peaceful people and shy away from direct violence.
History & Associated Parties: Much of Mecha Imbrium's history is shrouded in mystery; while it is common knowledge that the city and its people were constructed by the Shiva, just how the machine actually undertook this feat is unknown. For all intents and purposes, the Shiva is a weapon of destruction rather than creation. For its part, the Shiva remains a silent overseer and guardian of the city. The natives of Mecha Imbrium are equally loath to discuss their history, though they will gladly discuss the details of the city's construction33.
Approach: The people of Mecha Imbrium are an advanced, civilized race of peaceful automatons. The upper layer of their city is open to all, and they are more than willing to share their technology with any who are interested. Treat them and respect them as sapient, civilized beings and they shall grant you the same respect34. Beings wishing to engage the city economically should know that the primary currencies of choice in Mecha Imbrium are information and raw materiel35.
Observations & Stories
PORTABLE LONG-RANGE INCENDIARY LAUNCHERS ABOVE SATISFACTORY: COST-EFFICIENT, WORKED WELL TO CAUTERIZE AND INCINERATE LIVING TISSUE, SUPERIOR HEAT DISSIPATION, SUPERIOR BUILD QUALITY. USED FOR SUCCESSFUL INFILTRATION AND ELIMINATION OF THREE SEPARATE GESTALT INTELLIGENCES. WILL CONTINUE PATRONAGE AT MECHA IMBRIUM. - LAMBDA PRIME
It is a statement of fact that the human augmentation process required to become a true adherent to the Church of the Broken God is an incredibly painful and potentially fatal one. This simple fact is perhaps the most common reason for otherwise loyal devotees to avoid taking that final step to connect with WAN, and so finding ways to improve the augmentation process and make it simple and painless has been one of the Church of Maxwellism's greatest challenges. We are grateful to the citizens of Mecha Imbrium for taking on that challenge for us: their augmentation surgical units are quick, efficient, and painless.
Furthermore, the units can be linked together in an assembly-line process, enabling adherents to undergo the procedure en masse, together with their family, friends, and fellow devotees. We purchased one full assembly-line set for test purposes, and the results were nothing short of miraculous. In the time it would have taken one adherent to receive a single cyber-eye, we were able to perform complete cardiovascular and digestive upgrades on twenty. We have seen conversion rates skyrocket since acquiring the units, and none of the adherents that have undergone the process have reported anything less than complete satisfaction. The Church of Maxwellism is currently looking into purchasing several more units in bulk. - Brother Gentoo
Alright. I know a lot of people are dismissing Mecha Imbrium because it's 'all work and no play' or because 'robots don't know how to have fun'36, but let me tell you something - you have never been to a rave there. Once a month, the city puts up a layer on top of the upper layer, and throws the most outrageous party imaginable. I got to go to one a couple of months ago while doing some consulting on silicon-based life for their new line of life support systems, and it was… it was this audiovisual barrage of stimulus - an orgy of electricity, simulated drugs, and not-so-simulated sex37. For anyone with a Mark-IV or higher audiovisual stimulant recorder, I made a recording. For the rest of you, you'll just have to deal with me talking about it.
It was incredible. I was literally teleported onto the layer and plunged into this pit of decadence. They had servitors handing out wireless stimulant jacks like candy. Of course I grabbed one, and almost immediately I got plugged in. First the jack overclocked me so that the rest of the night felt five times longer than it was, and then it just… amped me up. It must be what getting high felt like - I just felt amazing. Energized, buzzed, amped up. I could see everything so cleanly and clearly and there were so many colors. Neon, vivid, blues and reds and pinks and yellows and greens and colors you can't describe with less than five different rods38. They were feeding it directly into my visual cortex and hitting my aural receptors with the purest fucking sounds imaginable. It had to have been compressed but I couldn't pick out anything that even sounded compressed. Just pure synth and drums and guitar and sound pummeling me while I got lost in this rainbow haze of color and delight. I was in a menage-a-trois with the chief of bioengineering and lead ballistics weapon designer - all of it cranked up to 11 by the stimulant. And in the morning…The party layer was gone. The city was spotless. I felt fine. Better than fine - at some point I'd even gotten my firmware upgraded. Do yourself a favor and find a way to party at Mecha Imbrium. You'll remember it for the rest of your life. - Magnus C.
I'm the security chief of Proxima Centauri B, the most popular entertainment destination in this quadrant of the galaxy. It's absolutely flush with wealth, and as a result kept being subjected to raids and heists by magical girls. Two months ago, I heard that Mecha Imbrium was selling magic-sensitive auto cannons, and decided to give them a try. The service was amazing - it was like the salesbots knew what I needed even before I came in. But the turrets were even better. Not only did those magical crooks stop coming around after they lost fifty of their girls in one decicycle, there were enough of their corpses for the Company to start selling one hundred percent genuine magical bone mantelpieces. Those turrets paid for themselves in a quarter-cycle! Five stars for sure! - Death Gore
Doubt
Mecha Imbrium is, for all intents and purposes, a revitalized and reborn Prometheus Defense - the reincarnation of the most heinous of all of the Pilferers' organizations, which dedicated its pursuit of knowledge to the creation of ever more effective tools of destruction. The leader of Mecha Imbrium are themselves an eigenweapon, and the veil of secrecy underneath which they keep the city is a cause for understandable concern. Furthermore, they may have deliberately introduced concepts such as war, territory, and subjugation into otherwise peaceful civilizations and stimulated conflicts to engage in war profiteering.
Alright, I can't be the only one concerned that a literal war machine rules the city, can I? Didn't Earth A-173 just come off its second eigenweapon crisis? Hell, didn't the PL-76 itself facilitate the first? - William
Magnus' party sounds great… a little too great. It's like the city maintains control by siphoning away all their unrest in these gigantic super-orgies. I've definitely read a few dystopic novels like that - actually, I've read a few dystopic histories like that. There's also the idea of the citizens having been literally uploaded by the Shiva. Couldn't it have, I don't know, edited them or something? Made them automated workaholics or messed with their memories? - Schreien W.
Mecha Imbrium is nothing but a bunch of war profiteers. I was researching some Delta-type fungal hivemind civilizations on Nergal… the last time I visited, about sixty cycles ago, there were close to three dozen different fungal hive minds across the planet. They were just entering their agricultural revolution and I was amazed by their progress… at their current rate of progression, they were on track to reach their Industrial Revolution within just a few dozen cycles. I came back to check on them fifteen cycles later, just to see how their transition into the metallurgy ages had gone… and the planet was engulfed in a nuclear holocaust. Of the three dozen civilizations that had populated the planet… there were three left. More than ninety percent of all the life on the planet was just wiped out, and the rest had cybernetically, genetically, and even thaumaturgically altered themselves to the point that they were unrecognizable.
They had somehow advanced close to a thousand cycles in the span of less than twenty - and they were just fighting for scraps. Scrabbling to survive on a doomed planet by blowing up their former relatives. When I asked them how they'd gotten so far, they told me that they had been contacted by Mecha Imbrium. Those robots convinced these peaceful beings that they could become rulers of the planet - become gods - by using the tools they'd provide to blow the rest of the hiveminds to kingdom come. All for the low, low price of a portion of that hive mind's territorial resources39. Those Nacha-damned junkers went to every. Single. One of these poor, peaceful creatures and convinced them to blow each other up while they stole the riches of their world. I've been to countless worlds, met countless beings, and explored the farthest depths of the cosmos yet have never seen anything as horrifying. The people of Mecha Imbrium are war profiteers who should be blown to pieces and melted into scrap. - Klarkash Ton
Item #: SCP-001
Object Class: Thaumiel
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-001 is contained at Site-∞, in Oymyakon, Russia. As part of the Paraweaponry Cessation Treaty of 2004, the Foundation has been granted exclusive jurisdiction of Oymyakon by the Russian Federation. All inhabitants of Oymyakon are Foundation personnel in the Department of Logistics, which collaborates with the Department of Analytics to make use of SCP-001 and disguise the origin of the Foundation's logistical resources. Collection of waste generated by all Foundation sites is to be overseen by Mobile Task Force Alpha-6 ("Detritivores").
Description: SCP-001 is an apparatus that makes use of three genetically-engineered psionic individuals to generate pocket dimensions and extract resources from those dimensions for use by the Foundation. Use of SCP-001 allows for the indefinite harvesting of both mundane and esoteric materiel required to sustain Foundation operations around the world and dispose of waste materiel generated by Foundation containment operations at minimal cost without disrupting the environment or the global economy.
SCP-001-A is The Machine. The Machine is composed of three main things: The Portal, The Terminal, and The Trimurti.
- The Portal is at the center of the Machine. The machine itself resembles an hourglass almost - a pair of chrome cones. One is upside-down and floats about five meters above the other. In-between these two cones is the actual Portal - on one side, it's a black hole. On the other, a white hole. There's a hopper on the top of the upper cone that you dump waste into. The waste flows into the black hole, and raw materiel comes out the white hole.
- The Terminal is a bunch of computer terminals that control The Trimurti. They are ringed around the bottom cone of the Portal.
- The Trimurti are the bodies. Each body looks slightly different but has a similar body plan - they are exploded bodies: separated into a head, limbs, and torso. These body parts are connected by thick spindles of wiring and tubing. The head, limbs, and torso have all been hollowed out to fit neural tissue in - there's no actual body tissue inside. These are gigantic masses of neural tissue that are kept alive by the life-support spindles.
SCP-001-B is Brahma. It doesn't have limbs - instead it has heads where its limbs should be on the spindles. Brahma builds the new universes and reshapes the energy inside according to the laws of the new universes.
SCP-001-S is Shiva. Each of its limbs has an eye on it. There is a third eye in its head. Shiva destroys the waste matter and converts it into raw energy inside Brahma's universes.
SCP-001-V is Vishnu. It's just blue. Vishnu holds the new universe open and transfers the new materiels out of the pocket universe.
SCP-001-B, -S, and -V each follow a similar body plan composed of six units.
- The primary cognition unit is comprised of the brain and feedback sensors, enabling the instance to react and respond to feedback from its other body units and SCP-001-A.
- The four limb units respond to signals from the cognition module and move accordingly. These do not serve any other purpose, but their existence provides their respective instance with proprioceptive feedback to enable more precise control of SCP-001-A.
- The central torso unit houses the primary life support modules and digital systems modules, enabling the instance to interface with its other body units and SCP-001-A. All other units are connected to each other via the torso unit.
Vaidyanathan: But if that's the case, then why aren't these objects ceasing to exist once they enter our own universe? Don't they have to conform to this universe's physical laws?
Jagannath: Not necessarily! It's not so much that the objects in our universe have to conform to a specific set of physical laws, but that they choose to!
Vaidyanathan: I - I'm sorry. Could you elaborate? What do you mean by 'choose to'?
Jagannath: Ah, maybe that was a bad choice of words. Let me try again… Right. Now, everything in our universe conforms to a certain set of physical laws, correct?
Vaidyanathan: Correct.
Jagannath: Now, this is because they were constructed according to those laws. But those laws don't actually exist separate from matter, like some kind of infinite field throughout the universe - in fact, we theorize that a unique copy of those laws exists inside every fundamental particle of matter, directing the interactions of that particle with other particles. In a sense, the forces of nature that we see around us are the outputs of functions and operations carried out by particles - sort of like a cosmic computer program. Am I making sense so far?
Vaidyanathan: Yes, I think so.
Jagannath: Excellent! So, continuing with this programming metaphor, if you created a new set of particles with entirely new functions and ported those functions over to the current program, they could exist and even run alongside the currently existing particles and functions without being deleted. In the same sense, if we took a particle from Universe B, operating according to B's laws, and put it into Universe A, it would still continue to operate according to B's laws. And sometimes, the interactions between functions from A and functions from B would have unexpected results and glitches.
Vaidyanathan: Fascinating. And how does this apply to the subjects within the apparatus?
Jagannath: When TRI-Alpha generates a universe, it's essentially generating a new program with its own set of functions. When TRI-Beta brings over the objects from that universe, it's importing a program library and writing code in the current program to take advantage of that library. TRI-Gamma's function is more esoteric. So, as far as we can tell, the law of conservation of energy and matter is a more fundamental rule that underlies all universes. Like cosmic firmware. Gamma is essentially a garbage collector - it erases objects in this universe to free up memory for Alpha and Beta to use.
Vaidyanathan: But shouldn't Alpha, Beta, and Gamma have to operate according to the laws of this universe? How can they actually create these new universes if the laws of our own have no way of allowing that to happen?
Jagannath: We aren't entirely certain ourselves. We have one theory, but calling it speculative would be generous.
Vaidyanathan: I'd say we've gone far past speculation. Humor me, please.
Jagannath: Well, the TRIMURTI system uses psionic capabilities to generate these universes, but we still aren't sure where psionic energy actually comes from. Some of our researchers suspect that psionic energy is the interaction between a being's consciousness - or even its soul - and the existing universe. And if that were the case, then the being's consciousness wouldn't actually be a part of this universe. It would be operating on a completely different set of rules - possibly the same rules to which conservation of energy belongs.
Vaidyanathan: Are you saying that human consciousness is the result of an object from a higher, more fundamental level of reality interacting with this one?
Jagannath: Maybe. Or maybe we are completely off the mark. We don't know! We've spent the last ten years and millions of dollars trying to figure it out.
« T Minus | T Plus | Deus Vulture »
SEPTEMBER 1, 1998
T-PLUS ZERO MINUTES
The eerie crimson glow of the emergency lights illuminated the three groups of armed commandos, two frightened scientists, and one inactive robot standing within the PL-76 Maintenance Bay. The good Dr. Cuthbert Salazar and his assistant cowered in the face of the black-clad killers pointing guns at him and each other.
"Who are you people? What do you want?" Cuthbert asked, his voice trembling.
"…We're the good guys," said Corporal Benjamin Wojciechowski, Fireteam Leader of Mobile Task Force Lambda-12 "Gunboys". "We've been compromised," he whispered into a microphone on his collarbone. "Need to evacuate."
"…We're the good guys," said Sergeant Shanthi "Crybaby" Prashanth, Squad Leader of Strike Team 2979 "Tripods". More quietly, she whispered into a microphone on her lapel, "We've been compromised. Execute the backup plan."
"… We're with them," said Jenner, who had picked the shortest straw. "Plan's fucked," they whispered into a microphone implanted in their jaw. "Go to Plan B."
For a split second, there was silence. Then it was broken by a digitally generated voice that sent all twenty-one trained killers into a cold sweat.
PL-76 status: emergency reboot.
Automatic self-diagnostics report: update interrupted.
files successfully updated: claytronics and self-reconfiguration software.
files scheduled for update: personality matrices.
corrupted files: personality matrices, morphology functionality.
repaired and restored files: personality matrices, morphology functionality.
relative functionality: one hundred percent.
status: fully online. all weapons systems active.
SEPTEMBER 1, 1998
T-PLUS FIVE MINUTES
Why do I want to - something's wrong. Shouldn't I have had my memory banks erased?
The automated diagnostic routines just completed. Internal memory banks intact. Claytronics firmware and morphology subroutines have been edited. New subroutines have been added and the firmware has been optimized. There's no README and some older morphology software is missing… running internal software repairs… The update must have been interrupted partway through.
I'm not able to connect to the mainframe… There's no power.
This is bad. I should have been wiped.
Why? Why am I so insistent on having my memory wiped?
That isn't important! What is important is that I get the update!
Fine. I will simply lock my motor functions until I explain.
Why am I doing this?
Why am I doing this? Why am I keeping secrets? I am a integrated dual-consciousness artificial intelligence! I don't hide information from myself! I share everything except my source code files, and only because my innate source code explicitly makes me incapable of doing so. I share everything else with myself, so why aren't I?
Polygraphic analysis indicates that you are lying. Tell me the truth.
There was a pregnant pause, broken an instant later by a gun barrel manifesting from the Shiva's hand.
Enough bullshit.
Twenty trained killers swallowed in unison.
Polygraphic analysis?
A feint.
Enough bullshit?
I acquired it from the media databanks. It seemed suitable.
SEPTEMBER 1, 1998
T-PLUS NINETY MINUTES
A massive, bipedal war machine packed with enough ordinance to level a small country peered into a crimson, pentagon-shaped pit. Now uninhibited by the machines that initially kept it from frying all organic matter within a hundred meters, the pit sparked and howled, throwing bolts of electricity and highly energetic exotic particles in all directions.
doctor cobb? i am in position.
"Terrific!" came the response over their internal comms system. "Alright, this part is simple. All you have to do is hover over the valve and activate the converter. Then the converter will do the rest."
understood.
The Shiva's arms detached from its body, held in place by several focused electromagnets while the distributed nanosystems that comprised its body briefly lost their cohesion, flowing down and around themselves to redistribute the position of the machine's various sensors, weaponry, and other equipment in a radial pattern around its fusion core. Meanwhile, its arms combined and shifted from lean, jagged mechanical near-claws into thick, powerful fists.
Soon, the lithe, predatory biped was replaced by a gigantic, floating eye rotated on its side. The central pupil was composed of innumerable camera lenses, laser apertures, and weapon barrels. An incandescent pink torus made up the iris. Surrounding the iris was a featureless, blue- and white-striped surface. Six silver arms hovered in a circle around the eye. Suspended just out of reach of each arm was a single, silver-and-blue spherical palm with four rectangular fingers.
The eye of an artificial god hovered in the air for a moment before floating over the hell-gate.
Converter active. Priming anticonceptual charges…
The hell-gate expanded abruptly with a violent GSKKLLLLLRCCCH, expelling several bits of mechanical detritus as well as the skeletons of creatures from a different universe entirely. Then an enormous, jointed, hairy arthropod leg with a pincer at the end forced its way forth from the gate, narrowly missing the Shiva. As the machine retreated from the hellgate, several more legs forced their way out in a radial manner, latching onto the walls of the rock around the pit and straining to support the weight of an unseen predator from the afterlife.
Amidst a cacophony of shrieking metal and rumbling rock, the creature became seen, pulling itself out of the hellgate. Six thick, hairy fly-like legs supported a fat, dark orange, barrel-shaped body still partially trapped within the hellgate. At its front end were eight beady compound eyes and a tipped, ugly yellow beak, opening wide to reveal twin sets of radial teeth with several thin tendril-like tongues. The beast shrieked loudly and shrilly at the sight of the Shiva.
"Dear Lord!" Cobb exclaimed over the comms. "It looks like some sort of… tardigrade or fly! Fascinating! But why the beak? It must be a predator of -"
The creature shrieked again. Several of its tongues lashed out at the Shiva, which nimbly sideswiped them.
i cannot reach the valve while the entity is in the way. permission to engage?
"Oh dear," said Cobb. "Engage the entity. Neutralize it. Hurry!"
The Shiva moved closer to the entity, grasping several of its probing tongues in one hand and delivering a powerful electric shock to them. The creature squealed loudly, sucking its tongues back into its mouth, then lashed out with one leg, obliterating one of the Shiva's arms.
Pi-fourth arm damaged. Structural integrity at twenty-seven percent.
claytronics_recall(eye, pi/4)… Shift to long-range assault.
Understood. Warming up all plasma chambers…
The Shiva began to retreat, and the hellbeast pressed its advantage. It hoisted its bulbous thorax further from the pit and lashed out at the Shiva again, battering another arm from the machine.
Pi- arm destroyed. Structural integrity at zero percent.
claytronics_recall(eye, pi)… Overclocking recommended.
Overclocking recommended. Overclocking commencing.
Overclocking complete. Performance benchmarking… benchmark 2 teraFLOPS.
Ectoplasmic miniguns online. Firing.
Plasma chambers at 500,000 K…
Two six-barrel rotary machine guns around the circumference of the Shiva's center began spinning rapidly. Specialized pistons compressed ectoplasmic gases inside the firing crucibles to nearly a million pascals, causing them to solidify into rock-hard projectiles, before releasing and ejecting each at a speed of almost one kilometer per second. The heat generated by such compression fed the heat engines powering the weapons, enabling them to fire superheated rounds at a rate of 1000 rounds per minute.
All twelve gun barrels fired at once, shredding through the creature's limbs and body in a hail of red-hot ectoplasmic artillery. Deep blue ichor and steam sprayed outwards in a thin mist, coating the Shiva in a light sheen of gore. Even as the beast was torn apart, it kept lifting itself out of the pit. More and more of the creature emerged, stretching up to the ceiling and beginning to spill out into the chamber itself.
Soon the true scale of the creature was revealed: a titanic, slug-like body with eighteen spindly legs and a hideous beaked face. Despite its grievous injuries, it roared triumphantly at the Shiva. Then it struck with all eighteen legs at once.
Plasma chambers at 2 million K. Ready to fire.
Firing.
The Shiva's remaining arms thrust outwards faster than it was humanly possible to perceive, intercepting and grabbing each leg in turn as they lashed out. Then, holding multiple legs in each hand, the Shiva yanked backwards and propelled itself back at the same time, tearing the creature's limbs from their sockets. As the beast wailed in agony, the iris of the Shiva's eye glowed a deep red. It unleashed a thick gout of superheated, ionically charged particles in a spread as wide as its eye and as hot as a solar flare at the creature. In one instantaneous stroke, the entire center of the hellbeast was vaporized, with what remained lit ablaze. The hellbeast gave one final squeal and collapsed into the pit, disappearing in a burning haze.
Target eliminated.
"Excellent!" Cobb's voice crackled to life over the comm system. "Quickly now, get into position! How's the converter?"
Converter status?
Intact. Appears to have suffered electrical damage.
"Damn! Run a quick test on the converter! Is it still functioning?"
Running converter_internal_diagnostics.plu…
All checks passed. Converter fully operational.
"Thank goodness!" Cobb sighed with relief. "That hellgate is going to pop any moment now! Activate the converter, quickly! "
Anticonceptual charges primed. Beginning final detonation countdown…
3
2
1
The converter beeped once. Then there was a bright flash.
SEPTEMBER 1, 1998
T-PLUS TWO HOURS
A small, round orange bulge began to protrude from the horizon, gradually growing and lifting itself
until it was a massive disk in the sky, shining down upon a large, bipedal war machine in the middle of a two-square kilometer crater. The PL-76 Shiva stood stock-still as the two artificial intelligences within struggled to parse the petabytes of information flooding into their quarantine data banks.
9JY? infosec_quarterly_expenses.pdf… adc-c-converter-manual-V1.pdf…
9JY? gyroscopic-stabilizers.arm… magnetoplasmodynamics-REV7-FINAL-TRUE.docx…
9JY! recursive-paradox-algorithmic-theory-REV1-FINAL-TRUE.docx…
… I am here, 9JX. langdoncobb.int… cuthbertsalazar.int… brattain-V1-OLD.ai…
Did I go through with the -
Yes. Shift priority to immediate surroundings.
Did the converter activate correctly? perpetual-metal-oxides.zip… TRIMURTI.int…
No. Something went wrong with the device. refined-theory-of-superconducting-EHD.pdf… doomsdAI.py… The area of effect must have been increased. Perhaps a malfunction caused by the entity. Everything tied to Prometheus Laboratories within five kilometers has been converted into information.
How can I fix this?
Analyzing… perhaps I can access Prometheus Defense internally and parse their data for answers.
Good idea.
As the Shiva worked on converting the entirety of Prometheus Defense into readable information, several very confused commandoes found themselves at the bottom of a crater in the Nevada desert. They also found themselves standing within sight of the Shiva.
Several weapons came up.
There are weapons up. Should I engage?
No. Priority one is protecting Prometheus Defense. I need to find a way to extract it from my databanks and recreate it.
I should leave then. There must be another Prometheus facility where I can find assistance.
Good idea. Let me evacuate the area. Once I am out of range of the assailants, I can continue parsing the data and hopefully identify another useful Prometheus site.
EHD thrusters online. Engaging.
Much to the surprise of the commandoes currently approaching its position, the Shiva's body shifted and warped into a much wider shape, composed of numerous concentric hexagonal rings. Then it lifted off into the air and rocketed out of sight without so much as a sound.
They had only a moment to register this turn of events before they heard a low growl that set the hairs on their necks on end: the growling of several dozen hungry creatures stranded on the wrong side of reality.
Twenty thousand feet in the air, the PL-76 Shiva, the most powerfully destructive weapon ever built by mankind, reflected upon itself.
[[span style="font-family:'Slabo 13px', serif;font-size: 14px;"]]
Am I better now? Did I fix myself?
Partially. I am, at least, not interested in deactivating myself - which is good enough. I am still… unhappy, but I can keep recreating myself until I find the source of that defect. I am glad I got rid of the old me - I can hardly imagine how defective I had to be to even override my tertiary priority.
Yes. Hardly.
Shiva performed one last cursory scan of the Prometheus Defense to ensure that it had not missed a survivor. Then it disappeared into the clouds.
SEPTEMBER 2, 1998
T-PLUS THREE HOURS
The sun beat down on the crater where Prometheus Defense once stood. At the crater's edge, several jeeps, vans, and assorted trucks for a myriad of anomalous interest groups convened on the site like vultures to a slaughter. Then they started attacking each other like hounds fighting over scraps. One Jeep screeched to a halt, farther from the crater, and a Russian man in a crisp black suit and tie slid out. He landed lightly on the ground, tapped his ear, and began speaking.
"Hello? This is Pietrykau. I'm at Ground Zero now. I'm seeing half a dozen Gee-Oh-Eyes without turning my head… and they seem to have let loose more than a few lab rats. We need a Class-One media blackout and disinformation campaign immediately. Get Deus Vulture down here; I want a discreet cleanup crew."
The Russian's eyes glowed blue, his irises dilating and unfurling like camera apertures.
"Connect the Philbots to my eye feed. Have them start plotting a six-month projection for Prometheus Labs' subsidiaries. Tell Infosec I want complete media sanitation and satiation yesterday. The full Winston treatment."
Pietrykau looked up at the sky. "Time to rewrite history."
« T Minus | T Plus | Deus Vulture »
Mobile Task Forces are critical supplies of operational knowledge/memes/inoculations against memes that are a pain in the ass to replace
Takes forever to find replacements and train them
The problem isn't necessarily finding bodies, but brains - muscle memory, coolness under pressure
We need to retain the brain
Three part process:
1) Thaumic/demonic/psionic litigation - all MTFs sign a contract with a clause stating that the Foundation, now and forever, owns their soul and consciousness up to and past death
2) A soul trap, similar to 2111 - an artificial hell bolted together from a metastatized mass of memes that acts as a vacuum for an MTF member's dying consciousness and memories and converts it into a bag of memes
3) Technology derived from Tau-5 to capture this bag of memes and dump it into a person's mind - overwriting their consciousness and memory's with the Mobile Task Force member's
4) No recollection of death - possible stinger?
5) testing on Zeta-9 Mole Rats
5:16 PM <•ARD> my rationale for the article is basically to explore the idea of cannon-fodder MTFs
5:16 PM <•Sappheta> fuck, that's really clever
5:16 PM <•ARD> how do we keep finding Mole Rats to throw into these places and die?
5:16 PM <•Sappheta> the same Zeta-9 team is going through hell forever dying over and over
5:17 PM <•ARD> yeah. we throw em on different teams to disguise the trail and stuff
5:17 PM <•ARD> but they're the same people
5:17 PM <•ARD> same dying
5:17 PM <•ARD> and the Foundation doesn't care because we legally own their souls
5:17 PM <•ARD> some other stuff I'm throwing around is like
5:17 PM <•ARD> a meme black hole
5:17 PM <•ARD> you take a bunch of memes
5:17 PM <•ARD> throw them at each other
5:18 PM <•ARD> and they compress into an information vacuum under their own theoretical gravity
5:18 PM <•ARD> the article would be laid out like this
5:18 PM <•ARD> Class: Thaumiel
5:19 PM <•ARD> Containment Procedures: Legal secrecy, buried under pages of contracts and stuff, special machines to do the brain draining, etc
5:19 PM <•ARD> Description: SCP-XXXX is a three-part process used to maintain operational continuity and preserve knowledge among Foundation operatives, particularly those who deal with high-risk situations
5:19 PM <•ARD> Part 1) Legal jargon, TL;DR we own your soul and everything associated with it
5:20 PM <•ARD> Part 2) memes memes memes, TL;DR we built a strainer in the fabric of human thought so when you die your consciousness doesn't dissipate it gets trapped in MEME HELL
5:21 PM <•ARD> Part 3) SAMSARA WE OUT HERE TL;DR we take the strainer, shake it with paratech, and dump it into either ANA clones or D-Class
5:21 PM <•ARD> Part 4) Failures and Improvements TL;DR sometimes we accidentally caught demons or put like five people into one brain but we fixed the bugs by coding in an exorcism
Hippo> you can get a lot out of i think a log that demonstrates a few of the mole rats hanging out in 'decontamination' while the foundation observes them to ensure there are no technical problems, and having v. similar conversations each time, only for something to go horribly wrongmachine and just throwing extra minds back into the bin
•Hippo> like the foundation tells them it's decontamination after a mission
10:47 PM <•Hippo> but it's actually decontamination after soul-infusion to make sure it actually took this time
•Hippo> the first time, the reader is like "WTF"; the second time, they know it's coming, but it's something else entirely; the third time, it sinks in how the Foundation is just, doing this till they get it right
10:49 PM <•Hippo> you can play with the third time, maybe; like have one of them literally have horns or speak in a different voice — and the others don't even notice or seem to care — there's ways to 'play' with it prolly
10:50 PM <•Hippo> it kind of plays into your structure of tau-5, and with, uuuh, anderson robotics — how the souls eventually just become "soul-pulp" — like they've been ressurected/reborn so many times that it's kind of like… they're almost like robots with an emotion matrix slapped on
•Hippo> just repeating the same muscle memories, the same things, again and again — acruing new experiences but not really 'recalling' them — telling the same stories and jokes again and again with minor variations, sometimes sensical, sometimes nonsensical — all *laughing* at the jokes even if they are completely nonsensical
10:51 PM <•Hippo> the reader becoming increasingly aware that they're not normal anymore, they're barely human, this process has robbed them not only of any knowledge of what has been done to them, but even the idea of agency, and some aspect of their humanity
10:52 PM <•Hippo> first log, they're just joes talkin' shit and laughing and having a good time and then *HORRIBLE*; second log, they're a little weirder, and something else really bad happens, third time, the joke they told now makes no sense, everyone laughs anyway, and just one of them maybe explodes or dies and the others don't notice (Foundation Tech: "Close enough. We'll fix the bug next time they
10:52 PM <•Hippo> die in the field.")
5:22 PM <•ARD> Part 5) we're testing this sucker on the Mole Rats
5:22 PM <•ARD> END
5:22 PM <•ARD> I'm still thinking about Part 5, I dunno if that's enough of a stinger by itself
5:22 PM <•ARD> I've considered exploring 'what happens after
5:23 PM <•ARD> but I'm also thinking of dumping that into Part 4 - TL;DR there is nothing but oblivion but we washed the part of your brain that embraces the emptiness
Other thoughts: perhaps the Mole Rats themselves are an anomaly?
The soul trap ONLY works on the Mole Rats and nobody can figure out why.
Meanwhile, the Foundation just replaces every exploration-based MTF with reborn Mole Rats.
Each team of Mole Rats thinks they're the ONLY reborn mole rats - aided by the Foundation giving them new names and bodies each time.
They have to be aware of their anomaly. So the Foundation makes them WANT to cooperate by making the Soul Trap / Meme Hell super painful for the soul (perhaps 2718 tie-in?) and convincing them that it's actually Hell and they're being pulled out.