SCP-2904

This test log is to remain a part of the briefing materials for this object for as long as my wishes hold any sway. I humbly request that my successors keep it for reasons that I hope are self-evident. It is preserved not for its scientific merit but as a cautionary tale. Let those who engage in the scientific method without thought for the consequences of their actions take heed. – Harold Dunelm, Site-19 Assistant Director of Research, June 1943.

Test #: 2904-2

Test Date: November 11^th, 1942

Subject is one ████████████ of ██████, Idaho. Subject was transferred to the Foundation from federal custody for testing purposes.

Test begins:

Subject is introduced to test chamber where SCP-2904 has been placed on a steel table.

Subject: So I just have to pick this thing up and run my finger around the groove, yeah?

Test Control (via loudspeaker): Yes, that's right. Would you do that please, subject?

S: OK. And it’s not going to… going to do anything to me, is it? Only the guys back at the barracks told me stories about what can happen in tests and —

TC: Relax, this isn't anything like that. You're going to be fine.

S: Uh-huh. Let's just get this over with. [Subject picks up SCP-2904 and touches the polar depression] Like this?

TC: That’s right. Now follow the groove all the way to the end.

S: No problem. [Subject runs a finger along the groove] So far, so good. [Subject reaches the end of the groove] Huh. I really thought that something was going to happen.

TC: Excellent work. Now can you descri—

S: Shit! It’s hot! [Subject drops SCP-2904 on the floor. It is undamaged.] What did you do to me? I can feel it inside me! This is just like the stories the guys were telling. What's happening to me? [Subject paces across the test chamber with his head in his hands, muttering under his breath.]

TC: Calm down. Everything is going to be OK. [Subject ignores Test Control.]

S: [Subject stops walking and addresses the wall near the loudspeaker.] What's going to happen to me? Am I dying? The guys told me something like this would happen. I should've listened. [Subject paces across the test chamber with his head in his hands, muttering under his breath.].

[Subject continues this pattern for three more cycles before Test Control gives up trying to calm him and ends the test.]

2904-1-2 (as the test subject is now known) is still in Foundation custody. As of the date of preparing the updated version of this document, 2904-1-2 has been repeating this pattern with only minor variations for 63 years. — ██████████████, Lead Researcher for SCP-2904, December 2005.

Directive A120873 of the Committee for Memetic Hazards, Cognitohazards and Related Phenomena, 12^th August, 1973.

The formation of Mobile Task Force Pi-20, to be known as “The Oathkeepers” is this day ordered by the authority vested in this committee by the O5 Council. The creation of this new task force is pursuant to the aims and objectives of this committee, to wit; providing the Foundation with the tools, protocols, methods and knowledge with which to counter the increasing menace of memetic hazards, cognitohazards and other related phenomena.

This committee hereby appoints Dr. Geoffrey Cobholm, currently serving as Assistant Scientific Advisor to this committee, as the commander of this new task force. Dr. Cobholm is given full authority to make such requisitions of personnel and materiel as are necessary to bring Mobile Task Force Pi-20 into a state of operational readiness in as short a timeframe as is practicable.

The basic structure of Mobile Task Force Pi-20 shall be:

• Twenty Operators who will provide the primary operational capacity of this task force. Operators will be exposed to SCP-2904 which will confer a high degree of resistance or immunity to a wide variety of memetic hazards, cognitohazards and related phenomena. Operator candidates are to be selected only from Foundation field operations personnel who have been diagnosed with dementia or a similar condition such that their quality of life can be expected to be improved by this assignment. See document 2904-B-12 for further details regarding Operator selection and preparation.

• Such support and management personnel as are necessary to enable the Operators to carry out their assignments. These personnel are to be recruited from the ranks of the Foundation’s existing support and field operations personnel wherever possible, or where necessary, from approved partner organisations.

This directive is to be distributed to all level 4 personnel using the Foundation Secure Bulletin Service. Further information regarding protocols for identifying situations requiring the intervention of this task force, for requesting such intervention and for setting up information conduits to and from this task force will be provided in later communications.

Report F011114c, Operational Oversight MTF Pi-20, 1^st November 2014.

This document is the executive summary of report F011114. It contains background material relating to an incident involving MTF Pi-20 Operator #7 during a sanctioned mission on 12^th September 2014. It also contains an overview of the results of the investigation into that incident. For full details please consult report F011114.

An excerpt from Operator #7’s mission recorder follows for context:

All is serene. Situation check; there is no movement nearby, green for danger. I am in a large, industrial room filled with control panels and glowing displays showing a complicated web of blinking lights. There are screens showing a swirling pattern of colours, like a shoal of rainbow-hued fish. It makes me dizzy. I turn away. I feel better now.

I look down at my left hand. It's empty. I look at my right hand. There is a tiny screen on the back of my glove. It shows a picture of a control panel. I look around. The picture matches one of the panels opposite the door. I move over to it and look down. There is an array of switches, sliders and typewriter keytops. Time to get further instructions.

I raise my voice from the continual murmur of my auto-dictation "Control, this is Operator seven, I have reached the objective. Please advise, over."

There are a few seconds of silence. Control comes through, crystal clear: “Operator seven, retrieve the package from your number-one pouch, over.”

I reach into the pouch on the left side of my chest. I pull out a handful of fragments of plastic and metal. It looks like it used to be a cylinder about the size of my thumb.

"Control, we have a problem with the package. It's been destroyed, over."

“Dammit. Okay. we need you to stand by while we find an alternate solu—”

There is the loud crump of a grenade going off in the corridor outside, followed immediately by screams. I must've set a trip-wire trap. Judging by the swearing mixed in to the screams it didn't get them all. I take a firing position behind a control panel. A man and a woman dressed in tactical gear rush through the open door and look around. They notice me and start to turn their weapons towards me. They are too slow. I fire a three-round burst and the man falls. Clean hits to the chest. The woman fires. She has not aimed carefully. Bullets slam into the control panel I’m crouched behind and sizzle past me. I hunch down behind cover, keep my head down. She’s firing on full-auto so I pause a second while the recoil pulls her weapon up. The bullets start tearing up the ceiling. I don’t give her time to recover her aim. I pop up and put a burst into the center of her chest. She drops.

I line up on the doorway and wait; one, two, three, four five. Nothing. I ease out of cover and move over to the door, glance up and down the beige-carpeted corridor. There are three bodies, one of them still moving weakly. The blood collecting under him says not for long. I check the two people I’ve just shot and find they’re both still breathing. Their body-armour took the hits. I take a deep breath. I finish them both off. I don’t like it but it has to be done. I stand and breathe, letting myself relax.

All is serene. Situation check; there is no movement nearby but there are two corpses at my feet and my weapon has recently been discharged, amber for danger. I am in a good-sized, industrial room filled with control panels and huge display panels showing an array of flashing lights. There are bullet-holes scattered about and several screens and displays are damaged. The remaining screens show a moving pattern of colours, like broken shards of a rainbow falling. It makes my head spin. I look at the floor. I feel better.

I look at my left hand, which is empty. Control speaks in my ear:

“Operator seven; we've found a solution. Are you still at the objective, over?”

"One second, Control." I check my right hand. There is a tiny screen showing a picture of a control panel. That one. I move over to it. "Control, I am at the objective. What do I need to do, over?"

“Okay, Operator seven, we need you to retrieve your comms array.”

I reach over my shoulder and unfasten the array from its pouch. I take the tangle of wires and plastic boxes and hold it.

"I have it, Control, over."

“Operator seven, we want you to locate the green USB cable and disconnect it from the backup module, over.”

"I see a green cable. Which end is the backup module, Control, over?"

“The backup module is the smaller unit, over.”

"Uh-huh. I have disconnected the green cable from the backup module. What do I do with it, over?"

“If you look at the back of the control panel you should see a connection point that matches the green cable, over."

I crouch behind the control panel. I see a mess of cabling entering and leaving the machine. There are too many to count.

"Control, I don’t know where this goes. I'm going to need a little more help, over."

“Right, okay, Operator. There should be a USB hub tucked in there… a small plastic rectangle with lots of cables connecting it to the control panel. Look for an empty socket there, over."

I look. Everything is rectangular. Everything is plastic.

"Control—"

I hear movement; rapid, heavy footsteps inside the room. I jerk out from behind the control panel. I see a single combatant kneeling next to the dead bodies. He is checking them. He sees me at the same time as I see him. We both reach for our weapons. Mine is caught in a nest of cables, I tug it free but he’s already aiming. I see where the shot is going to fall. I'm moving away. I'm not fast enough. His first shot grazes my shoulder. The second caught me in the stomach. It feels like I’ve been hit with a hammer. My vision greys…

All is serene. Aaah… it hurts. Situation. Check. My eyes won’t focus. I feel cold, red for danger. I’m in, inside? I’m lying on the floor. The floor is wet. I am injured and bleeding out. I roll onto my back and reach for the first aid kit on my belt. My right arm is numb. I reach awkwardly across with my left and… ahhh. I nearly passed out again. I open the kit one-handed. Bandages and dressings have rolled out onto the floor. There is a shadow standing over me. I hope it’s a friendly.

All is… cold…

[Excerpt ends]

Operator #7 appears to have died at this point. As a result of this loss the mission was deemed a failure. Regular forces were sent in and managed to clear out the attackers, although with unacceptably high casualties.

The as-yet unidentified attackers had managed to insert a cognitohazardous image into the electricity grid control station’s office network which was then shown on monitors throughout the facility. This image rendered nearly the entire staff unconscious with a small number of fatalities. The attackers were then able to enter the facility unopposed and divert power from the entire G4 grid of Chicago to a single, rural substation for six hours. It is currently unknown what purpose this served.

The oversight committee has determined that neither Operator #7 nor her handlers, Agents Gail Ipupa and Cameron King are to blame for the incident that occurred. They all acted in an exemplary manner.

However; it has been determined that Operator #7’s inability to deal with modern technology was a significant contributory factor to the negative outcome. This inability is through no fault of her own but is inherent to the process used to treat her in preparation for her role in the task force.

It is the recommendation of this committee that a review of MTF Pi-20 be carried out at the highest levels. It should be considered if there is a place for MTF Pi-20 in its current form in today’s Foundation and how best to decommission redundant Operators.

Memorandum from the office of the Revd Dr. Justine Urchadainn , Commander MTF Pi-20, December 21^st, 2014.

It is with a heavy heart that I write to inform you that I will be stepping down as commander of this task force.

I have nothing but respect for the men and women of the Oathkeepers. I am proud to have served alongside and led such dedicated and professional colleagues. My time with you has taught me much about what it means to serve and what it means to sacrifice. I hope those lessons serve me well in my future career.

I know that many of you have expressed concern about our Operators’ futures. They become hampered by their inability to understand or operate in what is to them, an increasingly-alien world. Unable to learn or change, they become obsolete, outdated and gradually become operational liabilities. After the recent incident it has been decided to retire the longest-serving of them.

Please be assured that I am bringing to bear the full weight of my political power within the Foundation to ensure the honourable treatment of those of our Operators who are to be retired from active service. These are men and women who gave their lives to this organisation and then, when asked for more gave with both hands, holding back nothing for themselves. They are not test subjects nor anomalous objects nor broken machines but the bravest among us. They are exemplars of what is best in the Foundation and I will not allow them to be treated with anything less than the greatest respect. Though they neither need nor ask for anything more than their music and a comfortable place to sit they will have those and every comfort we can provide them.

The Operators may not remember what they have done for us and for the world, but we will remember for them.