Chapter 1: The Earth Died Screaming
"Only this, and no more, will I say of the inscrutable Glasslings: woe unto the madman who thrusts adulthood upon children eternal."
- Collected Sayings of JALAKÅRA, Volume 573
NOTICE
As of 4/10/2028, Project Valkyrja is no longer accepting new passengers.
If you are seeing this message, you will never be forgotten.
Item #: SCP-001
Object Class: Apollyon
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-001 is projected to render the Earth's surface uninhabitable in approximately 17 days. There is no means to establish even temporary containment of SCP-001 in such a timeframe. As such, containment efforts will focus on the interstellar evacuation of Earth via the already-established Project Valkyrja.
All foundation personnel selected for participation in Project Valkyrja have been notified. For all other personnel, capsules of Self-Termination Compound CF-12 are available upon request. All staff are advised that oral ingestion of CF-12 is painless, euphoric, and 92% of trial participants have reported that it tastes like strawberries.
Description: SCP-001 is a massive spacecraft of unknown origin. To the public, SCP-001 is known as "the January Third Entity" or, more commonly, "Tarrare."1
SCP-001 is trapezoidal in shape, measuring 20.58 kilometers in length, 3.4991 kilometers in height, and 1.372 kilometers in width. The top half of the ship is occupied by 492 structures of different shapes and sizes that resemble towers. A rectangular section comprising 79% of the ship's bottom (heretofore the "Gate") leads to a space considerably larger than the ship itself — as a result, its mass and volume are currently indeterminate.
It is not currently known if SCP-001 is a manned craft. No transmissions or communications of any kind have been received from SCP-001. Its material composition and means of propulsion are also unknown.
Once SCP-001 descends to 12.03 kilometers2 above ground level, the internal temperature of object below the Gate will increase to an average temperature of 1,700 degrees Celsius - enough to incinerate organic life and melt commonly-used inorganic materials.
All objects heated in this manner gravitate toward the Mouth until they are eventually consumed. Whether SCP-001 has a maximum capacity for consumed materials is unknown.
This effect has a minimum radius of 2 kilometers underneath SCP-001, but this can be expanded up to 20 km. UPDATE 2/10: Following the catastrophic expansion event of 2/9, the maximum radius is currently unknown. Materials consumed are funneled into the mouth in a manner similar to tornadoes. Smoke and vapors are also absorbed in this manner. Approaching aircraft and projectiles (such as missiles) are aggressively drawn into these vortices by unknown means, rendering the majority of military countermeasures useless. Nuclear devices launched into the Mouth have had no noticeable detrimental effects.
The rate of consumption varies — i.e. SCP-001 was able to destroy Mt. Rainier in this manner in 17.4 minutes, but consumption of downtown Seattle took 2.3 hours. The reason for this variation is currently unknown — hypothetically, a result of the diversity of materials.
Discovery: SCP-001 first became known to the Foundation when it appeared in the orbit of Venus on December 12th, 2027. Its presence coincided with catastrophic changes to the surface of Venus which, at the time, had not been fully understood.
Its first descent to Earth was on January 3rd, 2028, over the Puget Sound in the Northwestern United States. Despite a rapid response from the US and Canadian militaries, the Global Occult Coalition, and Mobile Task Force Nu-7 "Hammer Down," SCP-001's assault resulted in a loss of 2.3 billion human lives in the first three months, incalculable property damage, and the conversion of 89% of North America's surface area into a lake of slag.
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