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We’ve just received intelligence about an uncontained anomaly, hidden in some sort of storehouse at coordinates █████, █████, █████. It’s heavily guarded, but we’re sending in MTFs Mu-12 and Epsilon-30 to raid it. You are to be sent in as a containment expert and diplomat.
The raid will take place at 2300 hours on the 27th. Please arrive at Area-253 by 2100 hours for briefing and equipment.
Thank you.
- O5-█
Dr. Ende slumps back in his chair. ‘But I don’t like night shifts.’
‘Hi there.’
‘Hello,’ Dr. Kiera waves back. She’s in charge of equipment. ‘Do you know where O5-█ is? He was meant to see us off.’
Dr. Ende isn’t sure. ‘Maybe he couldn’t make it. Or maybe he’ll arrive later.’
‘Anyway, here’s your equipment.’ She passes him a few pieces of what looked like netherite armour, probably enchanted, plus a sword and… some weird long metal thing? Kind of like a long cylinder with a funny handle at the end.
She probably saw his look of confusion. ‘Yeah, we put some Quick Charge crossbows through MSCP-042 and these were what came out. You put some little bits of metal into it and some gunpowder, and then press this thing and it shoots out really quickly. It’s called an assault rifle.’
‘There's nothing like these back in Site-55.’
‘We discovered them ages ago when we were experimenting with 042, and now we use them all the time. They’re really good, kill most things in one shot.’
‘Are there any shields?’
‘Yep.’ She passes him one. Of course it has the MSCP logo on. ‘One of these days I'd quite like to put myself in 042, though. See what happens - will I die again, or will it make me super-strong or something? Maybe you could help me get in there to do it?’
‘Maybe.’ He quickly changes the subject - everyone knows what happens when she gets into an MSCP containment cell. ‘What is this miskip we’re going after anyway?’
‘No-one knows exactly, but the 155 slot has been reserved for it. Don’t try to look for it, though, they’ve put what they do know under lots of kill agents.’
‘Memetic kill agents? I love those!’ Ende reaches into his pocket. ‘Have you seen this one bef-’
‘Not looking. Don't wanna transfer again this soon.’
‘Fine, whatever.’ He goes quiet, looking over everyone else. All the sea of netherite helmets, dark for camouflage in the forests of the night. So many people.
Among them are a few unarmoured ones, passing out swords, crossbows, bows, shields, even a few of those ‘assault rifle’ things - Ende can recognize some people, like Dr. Keo over there, and that person in the corner, smiling cruelly as usual and eating something she probably shouldn’t be allowed to have at this moment in time.
Someone Ende doesn’t recognize comes into the room holding a megaphone. He can just about make out the badge on his uniform: O5-6.
Everyone falls silent.
‘Greetings, I am [REDACTED], a.k.a. O5-6. Unfortunately O5-█ couldn’t come, so I’ll be seeing you off. Here’s the brief.
‘You are about to raid a well-defended complex, to retrieve an anomaly. All we know about it is that it’s humanoid - but if you find any other anomalies you must bring them back, of course. It is in the side of a mountain, with a gravel path leading up to it and an iron door at the entrance, but its layout is unknown so you must navigate it yourselves. ‘The powers in charge of it are not thought to part of any known GoI, so please try to take hostages, or at least communicate with them. We need to find out exactly who they are and why they are holding anomalies. 'They are thought to also be holding several instances of MSCP-077, -139, and possibly -074, as well as at least one MSCP-111; so please take them if you can.
‘That will be all. Thank you, and good luck.’
They begin to file out of the door, into the helicopter waiting outside. It will carry them to a point just over the horizon from the base, from which they must then walk the rest of the way.
After casting a sidelong glance towards Kiera, Ende follows them.
‘Researcher Yelsan - how’s 4335 doing?’
‘Perfectly fine, as usual. Mob farms going at full capacity, feeding 4335. That thing won’t be moving for a long time.’
‘Just wondering, because over by the entrance I saw an MTF coming in.’
‘What?’ Yelsan looks over at D-9743’s screen. Now he can see it too - a troop of people going past, dressed in full netherite and carrying shields. ‘Those aren’t ours. Do you see the shields?’
They have a logo on them. It looks like a diamond shape over a circle, with another circle inside.
Lead Researcher Jason Yelsan leans over to another researcher nearby, also using a computer. ‘Sheila, call out MTF Eta-84. There are intruders.’
[SECTION PENDING REWRITE]
An individual in a lab coat pushes through the army of the other side. ‘I am Researcher Yelsan. Come, let’s be diplomatic about this. You do realize that your actions constitute a grave security breach, I am sure?’
Dr. Ende steps forward. ‘Security breach? We are the authorities. You have no right to be holding anomalies, even if you are supposedly containing them.’
‘No, you are normal people who obviously know enough about the SCP Foundation to find the right server to break SCP-4335 out of containment - and that you very nearly did, too. I don’t know how you knew about us, but it would be better for you if you spoke up.’
‘What’s SCP? We are the MSCP Foundation.’
‘Whatever.’ Yelsan types out a string of letters which induces catatonia and functions as a Class-C amnestic.
‘That won't work, we are all inoculated against those. But how did you get hold of a strong memetic agent? Are you employed by DOMTOR or something?’
Yelsan reels back in shock. ‘Who are you, the Chaos Insurgency?!’
‘I just had an idea… Where are you?’
‘In Site-15, using the computers to access Site-M1. Why?’
‘I thought as much. We are from different realities, and you see ours only through a computer program.’
‘It is a game! And anyway I refuse to believe that.’
Another researcher leans over to Yelsan. ‘Ummm - I’m looking into the code, using a few commands, and - they may be player entities, but they aren’t linked to accounts. You can see for yourself, they don’t have nametags over their heads. They’re just there. Not real people.’
‘Then might they, like, actually be people in the game? As another reality?’
‘It’s possible. Though I can’t say for sure.’
Yelsan turns to Ende. ‘Then, unless we find out later that this isn’t true - let us be allies.’
