SCP-4011 / Discussion

This is the discussion related to the wiki page SCP-4011.

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Author Post

incidental_cabbage 06 Jul 2018 19:56

A 4K entry about a war that was never fought by a Foundation that never existed.

Page image: modified from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Victoria_crater_from_HiRise.jpg

Header images are my own work. Feel free to use them in your own articles - message me in #site19 (my IRC nick is "cabbage") if you'd like the SVG files.

Thanks to DrClef, Tat0b910, taylor_itkin, reverend-ravenclaw, and neptune (on IRC) for crit.

Thanks to Bluedanoob for idea feedback on IRC. Also, thanks to Jacob Conwell for clearing up a few things about AR canon, and notgull for telling me the syntax for inserting a user link.

Listpages trickery borrowed from sirpudding's SCP-2111, who borrowed it in turn from Eskobar's SCP-2998.

Note: the individual fragments for this page can be found here:

• Low-clearance
• Level-5-clearance

> Edit log

Rev	Date	Summary
0	2018-07-06	Page created
1	2018-07-07	Changed crosslink from "peregrine" to "scp-1360"
2	2018-08-04	Corrected Finn -> Fenn in a few places
3	2018-08-07	Fixed a timestamp problem, made monospace text larger
4	2018-08-17	Updated 4000 -> 4011 after end of SCP-4000 contest

Last edited on 27 Feb 2021 21:14 by aismallard Show more

Could be the winner, but needs work

mrkarrot 07 Jul 2018 00:27

(+1) I really enjoyed this, great concept and use of formatting, but I feel it relies too heavily on linking to other pages. 1000 and 2000 worked by being interesting on their own and I feel that this could still work very well by itself. I loved the idea of a foundation site that erased the "true" history of the foundation, but I had to learn a lot about semi-obscure GOI's to fully understand the whole thing.

TL333s 07 Jul 2018 14:51

It's long, maybe even bloated, but damn does this have a lot of good ideas in it. Like, there's interesting stuff before that point, but you really hooked me at "1551".

Finn had been assigned to Site-64 before the formation of MTF Upsilon-53, where he had served as a research assistant for SCP-140 and SCP-3560.

So, the link to 140 becomes apparent in time, but is there any significance to invoking 3560? Other than the Anderson link, I was kind of surprised that it wasn't more Daevite-focused.

incidental_cabbage 07 Jul 2018 20:09

Thanks for reading! The link to 3560 is mostly there to strengthen the Site-64 connection and indicate that Finn didn't only work with 140. I considered leaving it as an SCP-████, but in that case I still would have had to reveal it in the O5 version.

TL333s 28 May 2021 13:14

So I come back after three years to discover I had already read this skip, which I have zero memory of. c.c I feel so gaslit right now, and this only enhances the article, gfj.

Gilphon 07 Jul 2018 23:58

I'd suggest linking to 1360 instead of the Peregrine tales; that's the only part that's directly relevant to this article, and would be a more informative link for people unfamiliar with AR.

Anyway- there are, as TL333s said, lots of good ideas here. But it feels bloated in some parts and underdeveloped in others. For example, I question the wisdom of creating an entire separate document when the majority of the important stuff in the Level 5 version is in the last three addenda, and would've like to see the 'SCP' deity elaborated upon a little more.

And I also have say that I liked those little tag headers a lot.

So, all in all, this article ends up in 'upvote after the contest' territory for me.

incidental_cabbage 08 Jul 2018 00:14

Those criticisms are reasonable. I've changed the link like you suggested. Thanks for reading!

Jacob Conwell 08 Jul 2018 20:33

Interesting use of Anderson Robotics. It makes me quite happy to see the PSHUDs getting some more attention. I also enjoy the clash here between the Foundation's History Rewriting Device and that of the Daevites, and how desperate the SCP-4000-1 instances become once they realize they must go through the Foundation in order to complete their mission.

All in all, some great work cabbage.

+1.

sirpudding 08 Jul 2018 22:25

I'm a little confused by the presence of Thaumiel on the lower clearance document. Is that distribution for people with level 5 clearance wrt Thaumiel but lacking need-to-know for the complete document?

incidental_cabbage 08 Jul 2018 22:52

In the lower-clearance document, the SCP was Thaumiel because it had seemingly-unlimited historical knowledge of SCPs and GoIs, which the Foundation used to improve containment procedures and such. That property was known to lower-clearance people who worked with the SCP, though most of the individual documents they got out of it were classified separately. That's why the low-clearance document is Threat-Level Orange, by the way - that document doesn't acknowledge that it can modify history, so they can't justify calling it TL-Black.

Last edited on 08 Jul 2018 22:54 by incidental_cabbage Show more

sirpudding 08 Jul 2018 22:56

Lower clearance personnel aren't cleared for Thaumiel at all.

incidental_cabbage 08 Jul 2018 23:21

I don't know if that's a core part of canon - I've seen quite a few SCPs with an object-class of Thaumiel but without being explicitly level-5 only, and 3667 has a separate "level 3 clearance required" section while still being Thaumiel-class.

In any case, the only people who would have the 3/4000 clearance necessary to see the low-clearance document would be researchers in Area-R01 and a few RAISA officials dealing with the documents. The former are isolated on Mars and could probably be safely given temporary clearance to know about this specific Thaumiel SCP; they could then be amnesticized before returning to Earth. The latter need to know the information in order to analyze the produced documents, and RAISA probably has its own internal system for dealing with classified information.

T_Kirsansky 01 Aug 2018 18:38

Best one so far, I hope it wins!

keiya 04 Aug 2018 16:16

Is the switch from 'Fenn' to 'Finn' in the middle of Addendum 4 intentional? Retrocausal effects are involved so it's possible, but it seems odd.

incidental_cabbage 04 Aug 2018 21:31

That wasn't intentional. Thanks for pointing that out - I've corrected it.

Gummy_Dragon 04 Aug 2018 20:50

+1
History is written by the victors, and the defeated are history.

Mortos 06 Aug 2018 21:40

This is very good and I like it a lot. It builds nicely over time, there are a lot of cool hooks and reveals as it progresses and the security restriction conceit actually works very well here. I'm a little confused by the ending though - it says that U53 were the only survivors and 68 other people were killed, but the log to me implies that U53 were destroyed by the 4000-1 instances. Either that or I'm just missing something completely here.

I have a couple of visual nitpicks; the text in the green areas of your logs is a touch too small, which makes reading it slightly more difficult that it needs to be. And, while I do like the concept behind them, the graphical headers look a little too rough for me to really buy into them. Neither of those points are enough to stop me upvoting though, so +1.

+ show block

In addendum 5, you have the following:

<Timestamp: 2052-12-26 05:22>

U53-Fenn: Mallow?

U53-Mallow: Hmm?

Followed shortly by:

[U53-Mallow removes the volumes. A summary of their contents is available in Addendum 3.]

<Timestamp: 2052-12-26 05:21>

The second time-stamp seems to be dated before the first one. So, unless there's some time-travel shenanigans going on here, seems like an error.

incidental_cabbage 07 Aug 2018 17:45

Thanks for reading!

re: ending

I'm a little confused by the ending though…the log to me implies that U53 were destroyed by the 4000-1 instances.

Basically, Incident 4000-28 was SCP-4000-1's (nearly-completely-successful) attempt to take over Area-R01 and terminate all personnel using only -B instances. Here's a summary, as well as some clarification on events which weren't mentioned in the logs:

01:05 [R] BREACH ALERT! LOCKDOWN INITIATED!
01:05 [R] BROADCAST [from: [e-mail]]: CODE VIOLET!
01:05 [L] Internal API: Radio communication disabled by user (automated userscript alphabreak.sh).

Having suspected something like this was going to happen after the ultimatum the previous day, and knowing that 4000-1 likely had access to the PSHUD remote-override signals, U53-Lily had set up a script to automatically brick her own radio module when a breach alert triggers, thus making it impossible to receive remote-override signals in the first place. This was good because, soon after:

01:05 [M] Remote SSH Access Signal A received. Control transferred.
01:05 [F] Remote SSH Access Signal A received. Control transferred.

This was SCP-4000-1 using a remote-override signal to take control of U53-Mallow and U53-Fenn. At this point, -1 has control over the facility's computer systems, as well as 2/3 of Upsilon-53.

01:05 [R] API Error. Environmental control cannot be shut down by remote request. Incident logged for manual approval.
(this line is repeated 384 times)
01:06 [R] API Error. Atmospheric mixture cannot be modified by remote request. Incident logged for manual approval.
(this line is repeated 617 times)
01:06 [R] API Error. Exterior airlock doors cannot be opened by remote request. Incident logged for manual approval.
(this line is repeated 51 times)

4000-1 tries to take various steps to kill the humans in Area-R01 (shutting down environmental controls, modifying the atmospheric content, and opening the exterior airlock doors). Fortunately, the system won't allow obviously-fatal actions to be performed remotely.

01:06 [M] Movement actuator system: external access.
01:06 [F] Movement actuator system: external access.

Unfortunately, 4000-1 happens to have control over two Foundation personnel. Mallow and Fenn are sent off (Mallow to the environmental control room, Fenn to the exterior airlock). Lily, realizing that the rest of her task force has been taken over by -1, starts looking for them.

01:10 [R] ALERT! REGISTERED DAMAGE TO EXTERIOR AIRLOCK DOORS!
01:10 [R] SECURITY: USER [e-mail] HAS PERFORMED A HOSTILE ACTION! DEPLOYING REMOTE DISRUPTION SIGNAL A!
01:10 [R] RDS-A cancelled by ▒▒▖▚▛░▌▏▏
01:11 [R] ALERT! CRITICAL DAMAGE TO EXTERIOR AIRLOCK DOORS!
01:11 [R] ENVIRONMENTAL ALERT! ATMOSPHERE COMPROMISED! LETHAL ATMOSPHERE IN 3 MINUTES!

U53-Fenn (controlled by 4000-1) arrives at the exterior airlock and begins to perform a "manual override," a complex process which likely involved a large metal pipe, heavy rock, or similar blunt tool. 4000-1 prevents the security system from doing anything about it, and Fenn breaks the door fairly quickly. Mars atmosphere starts leaking in, breathable atmosphere starts leaking out, and 4000-1 prevents the breach-protection systems from activating.

01:12 [R] ENVIRONMENTAL ALERT! ATMOSPHERE SEVERELY COMPROMISED! LETHAL ATMOSPHERE IN 2 MINUTES!
01:12 [L] Warning: Registered damage to external systems.
01:12 [F] Alert! Registered severe damage to external systems!
01:12 [F] Internal API Error: Remote communications module not responding. Possible hardware compromise.
01:12 [F] Alert! SSH session disconnected! Remote override lifted!
01:12 [R] User [e-mail]: account disabled by ▒▒▖▚▛░▌▏▏

Lily arrives soon after Fenn disables the airlock. She is damaged, but she manages to overpower him and manually break his communications module, severing the connection. Unfortunately, the airlock is damaged irreparably. Lily goes back, toward the environmental control room where 4000-1 is still trying to use Mallow to override environmental-system lockouts.

01:13 [R] ENVIRONMENTAL ALERT! ATMOSPHERE CRITICALLY COMPROMISED! LETHAL ATMOSPHERE IN 1 MINUTE!
01:13 [L] Warning: Registered damage to external systems.
01:13 [L] Alert! Registered severe damage to external systems!
01:14 [M] Alert! Registered severe damage to external systems!
01:14 [R] ENVIRONMENTAL ALERT! ATMOSPHERE LETHALLY COMPROMISED!
01:14 [L] Internal API Error: Movement actuator module not responding. Possible hardware compromise.
01:14 [M] Internal API Error: Remote communications module not responding. Possible hardware compromise.
01:14 [M] Alert! SSH session disconnected! Remote override lifted!
01:14 [R] User [e-mail]: account disabled by ▒▒▖▚▛░▌▏▏

Lily arrives and is just barely able to overpower Mallow, disabling her communications module and breaking the connection. In the process, Mallow damages Lily's movement systems, leaving her paralyzed. Also, by the time this is complete, the atmosphere throughout Area-R01 has become completely compromised. All still-living humans in the Area die from a lack of oxygen soon after, leaving U53 as the only Foundation personnel on-site.

Mallow, seeing the situation as lost and having only recently gained back control of her body, picks up the paralyzed Lily and carries her to the remains of the airlock. They and Fenn take a portable communication device meant for Martian surface missions, leave, and activate a manual breach alarm on the exterior of the facility to throw it into a lockdown which -1 cannot remotely override.

01:21 [R] ALERT: MANUAL-OVERRIDE BREACH ALERT TRIGGERED! LOCKDOWN IN EFFECT!
01:21 [R] API Error. Manual-override breach alert cannot be disabled remotely.
(this line repeats 11,526,380 times)

4000-1 can almost certainly break through the lockdown. Why it hasn't done so, and why it hasn't simply retrocausal-ed Area-R01/MTF U-53/the Foundation in general, is a subject for a future tale.

This has been SCPDeclassified That is, essentially, what happened in the ending. If there's still anything that needs clarification, please feel free to let me know.

re: nitpicks

the text in the green areas of your logs is a touch too small

For some reason, wikidot defaults to making monospace text smaller than normal text. I bumped up the css to "font-size: medium", so it should look better now.

the graphical headers look a little too rough for me to really buy into them

Thanks for the feedback. I'll put some more work into polishing them up before I use the same style of header for anything else.

The second time-stamp seems to be dated before the first one.

Thanks for catching that. It has been fixed.

Mortos 08 Aug 2018 09:56

[ENDING STUFF]

Ah right, yeah I basically got none of that at all. I didn't even realise there were humans on the site - I thought the whole point was to use the robo-peeps so they didn't have to worry about pesky things like atmosphere. And yeah, I didn't get most of that stuff - I thought the 4000-1 robots were basically just beating the shit out of U53 and trashing the site. All makes sense now that it's laid out like that, though.

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