SCP-3033

E-1260 suffers from persistent migraine headaches. In order to treat this, he has been prescribed a drug regimen of topiramate and timolol. E-1260 is also missing his left hand at the wrist - a prosthetic has been provided. Appears to have SCP-3033-2 implants, but has not been directly examined due to patient risk.

E-1260: Oh, hey doc. Another interview?

Dr. Foster: Yes. Before we start: taking those meds yet? They working okay?

E-1260: Yeah, actually. I can actually think coherently for more than half an hour at a time.

E-1260: What's the topic today?

Dr. Foster: Go ahead and start from when you got transferred to the project.

E-1260: Alright. So I had been a subject for a long while. I'm told they run internal lotteries for things like this. They just pulled me from my cell in the middle of the night, packed me into a shipping container with maybe a hundred others. Several uncomfortable hours later, we unloaded in some desert lab. Couldn't tell you where.

E-1260: They sorted us into two groups - I got put in the smaller one, which is generally a good sign. Got packed into a classroom. Mentioned something about "genetic markers" and "obedience metrics".

E-1260: There was a lady - introduced herself as a Doctor Craggs. I'll never forget her, she was very… interesting. Spent three or so hours lecturing on what the goal was, what she was going to do the others, and what she was going to do to us. In exquisite detail, what chunks of our brains would be replaced, what would happen, getting lobotomized - all with this oddly giddy tone, like a kid talking about what everything is in his favorite TV show. Her dedication was admirable, but her ethics were a bit off-kilter.

Dr. Foster: What else do you remember of her?

E-1260: Not a whole lot - she was the overseer for the training, but didn't really acknowledge us otherwise. Always talked at, never with, you get me?

Dr. Foster: Yes. Continue.

E-1260: Over the next few days, all of us got these -

E-1260 taps the port on the back of his head.

E-1260: - in the back of our heads. They told us we would be controllers, because, as Craggs put it, "We had been good little boys and girls." She then said that only four of us were necessary - the other six would be vivisected for future iterations.

E-1260: We had to demonstrate our ability to control the subjects and get them to accomplish tasks and complete objectives. Don't ask me to explain it, I haven't a bleeding clue on how it actually works. The way you got the mikes - that's what they're called over there - to do anything was more an art than a science. I couldn't tell you how I got through it - they just did what they were supposed to do, like clockwork.

E-1260: I was told I passed with flying colors. Went straight into further training. A fine-tuning of sorts.

E-1260: Come to think of it, I was actually treated pretty well. Decent food considering I was a prisoner at one point. Access to books. Little bits of conversation.

E-1260: Anyway, at some point, something goes really wrong. Convoy gets hit by some kind of special forces group. I get black-bagged, and pop up here.

E-1260: That's the whole story. The abridged version, at least.

Dr. Foster: Interesting. You never had any direct interaction with the subjects?

E-1260: The mikes? None. They're just husks, shells. Vehicles requiring a driver.

Dr. Foster: Alright. That's all for now.

As a result of the SCP-3033-1 implant malfunctioning, visual and audio-based perception of characteristics unique to humans results in excruciating pain. Due to these constraints, E-1261 resides in an automated containment unit, and communicates with staff via a computer link.

kgrimmer: Hey, just checking in for the day.

E-1261: im still around. surviving, at least.

kgrimmer: You mind if we ask a couple questions?

E-1261: ill answer what i can. a lot of it is unpleasant and i really dont want to think about it.

kgrimmer: Alright, all these questions are entirely voluntary. You don't have to answer something if you don't want to.

kgrimmer: What was it like being under the influence of a… I think you call it a controller?

E-1261: yeah, i can talk about that.

E-1261: natural movement, but not mine. if that makes any sense.

kgrimmer: Interesting. I'm sending a file called 'alien_hand_syndrome.txt'. Take a quick look at it. Does it describe something similar?

E-1261: ok. hold on…

E-1261: a bit i guess. a more extreme version. total lack of control over everything. couldn't even resist.

E-1261: like while watching a videotape of someone elses life in high quality complete with sounds smells tastes touches.

E-1261: i got disconnected from my own life. i was a passenger in my own head while someone else was driving.

E-1261: the first time it was just weird. i kind of resigned myself to it. i figure it could be a lot worse. but then it got worse far worse than i can possibly imagine

kgrimmer: Can you elaborate further?

E-1261: i cant. i physically cant. not possible.

E-1261: it reminds me too much of the people.

kgrimmer: The people? What do you mean?

E-1261: the people i killed.

After this, E-1261 refused to communicate with staff for sixteen days.

Per the terms of her extraction, PoI-7701 has been provided a small cottage near Site-74, where she resides under house arrest.

PoI-7701: Hello, Dr. Carlson. Good to see you again. I hope you remembered the tape recorder this time?

Dr. Carlson: You as well, Dr. Craggs. And it's already recording.

PoI-7701: I suppose I should start explaining then, right?

Dr. Carlson nods.

PoI-7701: Well, you probably know how this goes. Work as wholesome US employee. Defected to Soviets. Soviet Union collapses. Where else is a bioweapons researcher supposed to find meaningful work?

PoI-7701 chuckles.

PoI-7701: Anyway, they brought me in and I was able to swipe a bunch of old GRU equipment - some of it self-developed, some of it 'borrowed' from other groups. In particular there were a couple old UK Ministry of Defense prototypes on something they called 'Blue Falcon' in their old rainbow-code project naming scheme. I had a bit of a laugh at that one. I didn't think the Brits would use American military slang, but they did.

Dr. Carlson: I don't understand.

PoI-7701: 'Blue Falcon' is a euphemism for 'buddy fucker'. It's the soldier in your platoon or company or whatever that would screw you over in a heartbeat just to get ahead. And what this 'Blue Falcon' project did was allow you to seize control of a person remotely at range. It seemed like the Limeys were trying to use this to start friendly fire incidents.

PoI-7701 gestures with her hands as if she has a gun, and points it at Dr. Carlson.

PoI-7701: It was pretty limited - not a long range, not a long time. But all you needed was maybe fifteen seconds - pop, pop, pop - and three of your buddies are down, and you're about to get turned into swiss cheese, and everyone else is going to be really confused and scared.

Dr. Carlson: That's horrifying.

PoI-7701: There were more issues than that, though. It was bulky, hard to use, caused psychological damage to operators, didn't always work… a real laundry list of issues. Eventually we scrapped that whole idea. Turns out brains are complicated and hard to manipulate at range.

PoI-7701: But it did provide a good starting point for the "Mike" program, which is what I presume you're actually interested in.

Dr. Carlson nods.

PoI-7701: We decided to abandon the whole friendly fire thing. The range bit was the hardest part. There aren't many good ways to manipulate brains, and most them require you to be in the meat - er, brains, I suppose.

PoI-7701: Instead, we decided we could use this as a rudimentary form of mind control. I mean, we already knew the principles and processes - and having a bunch of hardware crammed inside someone's head gave us a lot more control and finesse over what we could make happen in there, rather than taking figurative pot shots at range.

PoI-7701: So I send this proposal to the Delta Command, and they send me a couple million bucks, a lab, and maybe a hundred or so live subjects.

PoI-7701: While that sounds like a lot, it was actually a shoestring budget - I only got maybe a third of what I requested, and they told me to make it happen or I would be a test subject for the next guy.

PoI-7701: First order of business was to design the hardware. We were really breaking new ground - I know GRU 'P' wasn't doing anything like this, you guys certainly weren't doing anything like this, and I now know that Prometheus Labs didn't get very far. Given that this was something totally new and foreign… there was a lot of trial and error.

PoI-7701: Fun fact: a lot of brain surgeries often occur while the patient is awake. Brain surgery still isn't super well understood, and you need the keep the patient aware of what's going on to make sure that what you're cutting isn't too important. First fifteen or so died on the table, and the next fifteen ranged from comatose to retarded to paralyzed.

PoI-7701: After the first thirty or so practice surgeries - to figure out what modules worked and where, and where we could stick hardware without impairing stuff like motor skills - we started making real progress. Other than a few oopsies here and there, the other fifty we got implanted - we were even able to save most of prefrontal cortex, in most cases.

PoI-7701: Not that they'd need it or anything. Once that chip is in, any control they used to have is overridden.

PoI-7701: Next step was controller. That was pretty straightforward. Just had to find a cooperative test subject, which wasn't too hard. A fairly standard surgery and some implants later, and he's now got a serial port in the back of his head. Plug him into the machine, and BOOM! All the test subjects can be 'controlled' by our controller.

PoI-7701 airquotes the word 'controlled'.

PoI-7701: I say 'controlled' because - as I understand it - it wasn't really direct control. He could give them objectives, and designate certain things, but he couldn't make them to do anything directly. But hey, not bad for a first try.

Dr. Carlson: Can you recall the mechanism of control? Did controllers have to exert willpower, thought?

PoI-7701: Hm… I can't really remember right now. I think some nice scotch and an internet connection might jog my memory though.

Dr. Carlson: We'll take that into consideration. Please continue.

PoI-7701: So I send my findings back to Delta Command, and they give me a target. First, I'm disappointed. There's so much potential for these guys! Clearing minefields, bioweapons dispersal, forced dangerous labor. Even plain old distraction.

PoI-7701: But I read further. It's an old GRU site, run by someone I used to know. Piece of shit named Dmitri Kalasov, GRU 'P' interrogations guy. He kept count of how many bones he broke. I think it was somewhere in the thousands. Pretty sure he keyed my car. Anyway, he was old and decrepit at that point, in a nice sunset position. Apparently a CI guy defected to his site, and they wanted him offed. I saw an opportunity for payback, and I told them I would make an example out of them.

PoI-7701 whistles.

PoI-7701: By God, did we make an example. We put a bunch of extra bells and whistles in these poor sod's heads - they're virtually immortal as long as the implant's intact and the muscles still function. We armed our subjects with some old Soviet equipment - knives, AK-47s, what have you - and sent them on their merry way. That GRU site had maybe seventy-five security personnel, and a hundred others. Every one of them died a grisly death. Can you believe they ran old Dmitri through with his own fuckin' cane? Brutal.

PoI-7701 walks up to a cabinet and begins digging through files.

PoI-7701: I think I still have the AAR photos from that one, you want to see?

Dr. Carlson: Are they in the official files you gave us? If yes, don't bother.

PoI-7701: Spoilsport. Anyway…

PoI-7701 checks her watch.

PoI-7701: Oh, lunchtime. I guess I'll see you next week?

Dr. Carlson: Probably. Not sure if they'll send someone else.

PoI-7701 shrugs.

PoI-7701: Try to? That Dr. Foster squirms too much.

E-1261 expressed interest in talking about her time with the Chaos Insurgency that she had previously withheld in prior interviews.

kgrimmer: Are you awake? Some of the other staff told me you're willing to talk more. Now a good time to discuss the CI program?

E-1261: its never a good time but i think i am prepared now. i remember a lot more.

E-1261: where should i start?

kgrimmer: Go ahead and start from the beginning.

E-1261: the beginning beginning?

kgrimmer: Sure.

E-1261: alright. after all the stuff they shoved in my head, a lot of this is fuzzy.

E-1261: born in 1417¹ somewhere in pakistan, not sure where. lived somewhere near a smaller town. not too modern but modern enough dad was a grocer. mom helped him out. had three brothers. i was the youngest.

E-1261: cant remember any names. faces even. just people that existed.

E-1261: can hardly remember anything of childhood.

E-1261: clearest memory is day of capture. it was rajab 24 1431.²

E-1261: i remember that exact day clearly. we were on a trip. dad always got good lamb from a cousin who worked as shepherd in the east. he rented a refrigerated truck and drove it all back to his store. they never took me before but my incessant begging had payed off this year.

E-1261: he always said "this journey is no place for girls, its too dangerous." but he relented.

E-1261: we get held up. not a big deal. highwaymen arent uncommon. just have to pay a modest fee.

E-1261: but then they shoot him. my dad i mean.

E-1261: and then my brother. i hide behind the seat. dont know what to do.

E-1261: the shooting stops. they open the truck. they find me.

E-1261: put a bag over my head. push me into some kind of vehicle.

E-1261: truck unloads. there's maybe a hundred of us altogether outside. bunch of men with rifles. a guy tries running at one of them, gets cut down.

E-1261: we get packed into shipping container. shipped to some forsaken lab in the middle of nowhere.

E-1261: pumped some kind of gas into the room. everyone gets really woozy or passes out.

E-1261: put into hospital rooms. some kind of chemical cocktail keep us woozy and mostly immobile.

E-1261: weeks pass. people slowly disappearing one by one.

E-1261: theres a long hazy time. kind of all ran together. medical procedures. doing basic tasks over and over again. i remember opening a door repeatedly. but it felt wrong. really really wrong. i didnt figure out why until later.

E-1261: next thing i know someplace way different. cold. some kind of research facility in the distance.

E-1261: i get some kind of combat gear. a bunch of others get rifles. i dont. i get a big knife.

E-1261: a bunch of us start sprinting toward the entrance. theres a guy with a machine gun or something. starts firing.

E-1261: someone shoots machine gun guy. everyone rushes in the entrance.

E-1261: more people with guns. more wounds. no deaths. lots of being very close. my body stabs someone ten times times. not wildly even. mechanical. like this was something i did regularly.

E-1261 i see his face whenever i blink. it was a sad panicked faced. he was wearing a black suit like he just walked out a funeral. i dont think he was a soldier. he didnt even try to fight back. he just screamed.

E-1261: i hated it. killing is bad. i didnt think anyone deserved to die for any reason even the people that killed my family. it was horrible what they did but i have no right to punish.

E-1261: no more knife. my body rushes the shooting guy. strangles him to death.

E-1261: he hits me and hits me and hits me but my body doesnt let go. his face turns an ungodly shade of purple.

E-1261: and this continues for hours. at the end of the day, down maybe ten of us and a lot are really badly wounded - arms are missing, blood everywhere.

E-1261: craggs comes out. i try with every fiber in my being to move, but cant. she picks a handful of the wounded ones. stick some kind of shot in them. they drop. probably dead.

E-1261: after that everything starts blurring together. more missions. more death. more wounds.

E-1261: i think it has something to do with when the chip broke but theres a couple things that are permanently burned into memory. like a highlight reel of the most horrible things i watched myself do.

E-1261: an old man impaled by his own cane. something with a pregnant woman and a socket wrench. lots of blood and screaming and crying and sick crunching noises.

E-1261: they replay in my dreams. dont worry about the mental health bits. i have it handled. i found a purpose.

E-1261: at some point, something snaps in my head. chip probably burnt out. for the first time in months maybe years i have control. i try to move and then pass out. i think it was you guys that brought me here.

E-1261: couple months of figuring out what doesn't hurt me and here we are.

kgrimmer: Alright. Thanks for speaking with us. You said you found a purpose earlier? What might that be?

E-1261: yeah. i want to kill that demon craggs. i think some parts of the implant still work. my body doesnt break.

E-1261: we were her playthings not people. toys to be taken apart modified put back together broken smashed just because she thought it was fun.

E-1261: given all this i think you want her dead too. give me a gun and i will get her. not even a gun. a knife. a pointy stick. a grenade. i wont ask questions. i can come straight back here you can do whatever you want with me.

E-1261: her still being alive is the only reason i havent ended mine yet.

On ██/██/██, E-1261 escaped from captivity. E-1261 complained of malfunctions in the nutritional dispenser present in her containment unit. After being provided sensory deprivation equipment and restraints, E-1261 removed both and proceeded to attack staff. After neutralizing staff and escaping from her cell, she hijacked a regularly scheduled Safe-class anomaly transfer via helicopter between Site-██ and Site-██, the location of PoI-7701. As the transfer also included SCP-████, transport staff were instructed to comply.

A video log was recovered.

E-1261 enters room with PoI-7701.

E-1261: Hello, you bitch.

PoI-7701 sighs.

PoI-7701: I thought our moles were better than this. It took you six whole weeks to find me. Old CI could have done it in two.

E-1261: Irrelevant. No one leaves the Chaos Insurgency.

PoI-7701: Incorrect.

E-1261 lunges at PoI-7701, but stops just short of contact. E-1261 is frozen in position.

PoI-7701: You thought you would use a weapon of my own creation to cut off this loose end, in some kind of absurd poetic justice? Quis ímperat dominam ipsam?³

E-1261 collapses.

PoI-7701: That actually is pretty funny, kinda.

PoI-7701 turns around, and fails to notice E-1261 beginning to twitch.

PoI-7701: What a mess.

E-1261 stands up, seizes a brown glass bottle from a nearby table, and lunges at PoI-7701. Again she stops short.

PoI-7701: Ooh! You almost had me there! You're quite the resilient one.

PoI-7701: I can't say they haven't made progress. Much finer control than I used to have! Still can't get speech to work with my setup - I guess that's the cost of using a subdermal implant rather than an in-brain one.

E-1261 begins crying.

PoI-7701: Can't control emotional response either. A shame, too. These would have been a hell of a lot easier to use than the other controller units, but we can't have a bunch of silent, crying flesh puppets. To be honest, I'm surprised you're still sane. A remarkable specimen.

PoI-7701: Hold still.

PoI-7701 giggles, and digs through a drawer, retrieving a field surgical kit. E-1261 is unable to observe this.

PoI-7701: I haven't had opportunity to examine any of you for a long time. And one drops right into my proverbial lap! What luck!

PoI-7701 begins a live, standing vivisection of E-1261, beginning at the brain stem. E-1261 begins screaming.

PoI-7701: Hush, you. It's hard to cut cleanly when you're screaming bloody murder.

Vivisection occurs for 12 minutes, at which point E-1261 collapses. Foundation security forces retrieve the VIP 4 minutes later.

After the incident, E-1260 was found to have asphyxiated due to a crushed windpipe. Autopsy revealed both SCP-3033-1 and -2 style implants.
E-1261 was declared dead at the scene and cremated and interred at Area-██ per standard procedure.
PoI-7701 was relocated to another housing area near Site-██ per the terms of the agreement.