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4/001 LEVEL 4/001
CLASSIFIED
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Item #: SCP-001
Pending
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Amoni-Ram.

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SCP-001, map.

SPECIAL CONTAINMENT PROCEDURES: Full containment procedures have not been finalized due to recent changes in the status of SCP-001, detailed at the conclusion of this file with a tentative response plan. Foundation policy on cybernetic implants is currently frozen, pending Council vote.

DESCRIPTION: SCP-001 is an extradimensional 'bubble' of self-contained reality, located in the southern Arabian desert, inaccessible to individuals that do not have prior knowledge of SCP-001's location. Traveling through the desert with only the intention of reaching SCP-001 is not sufficient; express and exact knowledge of its geographical position is required.

Notably, individuals with some sort of artificial implant — ranging from surgical screws and plates to complex prosthetics — appear to have a higher chance of success in locating and entering the anomaly. The purpose and range of this is unclear, but personnel with implants successfully entered SCP-001 in 88% of tests, compared to standard personnel's 62%.

SCP-001 contains an ancient metropolis partially buried in the sand. Maps and initial sonar testing indicate approximately two thirds of this city are aboveground and largely intact, while the subterranean portion has degraded heavily and is no longer structurally sound. The aboveground portion is made up of skyscrapers and buildings up to half a kilometer high using modern design techniques far beyond those available at the time of construction, which has been carbon dated to approximately 2,400 BCE. The buildings are fully set and furnished, and appear to have served residential, commercial, bureaucratic, and various other uses. The largest and most intricate of these buildings is a large temple structure in the center of the city that extends through all thirds.

There are no living organisms inside the city (See Section 001.4).

The buildings also contain artistic works and large bas-reliefs depicting a variety of scenes ranging from apparently-religious stories to historical events. These contain writing in an unknown language containing elements of Old Arabic (See Section 001.2). Most of these are concentrated in the temple at the heart of SCP-001.

The subterranean floors are dominated by extensive, complex machinery. These range from antiquated clockwork systems to vacuum tubes to power generators extremely similar to modern nuclear reactors. However, all machinery is nonfunctional and appears to be in a state of advanced disrepair.

SCP-001-A is a collective designation for all automata found within the city, chief among which is SCP-001-A1 (See Section 001.2).

SCP-001-A1 has identified the city as being the origin for the Quranic myth of Iram of the Pillars (See Section 001.1), but has clarified that its proper name is Amoni-Ram.

Section 001.1

HISTORICAL BRIEFING

The first mention of Iram in mundane literature is in the eighty-ninth chapter of the Quran, lines six through fourteen. They reference ”Iram – who had lofty pillars, the likes of whom had never been created in the lands” as a culture subject to divine retribution by God for their oppression of others.

6: Have you not considered how your Lord dealt with ‘Aad –
7: [With] Iram – who had lofty pillars,
8: The likes of whom had never been created in the lands
9: And [with] Thamud, who carved out the rocks in the valley?
10: And [with] Pharaoh, owner of the Pyramids? –
11: [All of] whom oppressed within the lands
12: And increased therein the corruption.
13: So your Lord poured upon them a scourge of punishment.
14: Indeed, your Lord is in observation.
Surah al-Fajr (6-14)

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From Lord Blackwood's private collection.

Many theories have been offered on the identity or location of the group or city identified as Iram, but nothing has ever been confirmed by the wider historical community.

SCP-001 first came to Foundation attention in 1983 upon the containment of SCP-1867. With the seizure of assets in SCP-1867's private vault, a series of journals were recovered detailing its experiences with the French Armée d'Orient during their campaign into the Middle East in 1801. One journal partially dictated an encounter with a vast, ruined city accessible only to those who knew its location, but moisture damage had left it largely unreadable. An interview was conducted.



▶OPEN ADDENDUM◀

SCP-1867 surrendered the location of the Aegean Tablets. Translation is ongoing due to the extremely specific dialect of Ancient Greek they are written in. The extant page of the journal mentioned by Blackwood contains a translation of the front of the first tablet.

ATTACHED DOCUMENT — JULY 1983


In the beginning, there were three.

A thousand years before, before man learned of Olympus, before the extinction of the giants, before the sea had full regressed, there were three. Three great cities dividing the world tripartite.

Mamjul and Korar, two dark fortresses resting in the jungles of the subcontinent. The magicians and sorcerer-nawabs allied themselves against the horrors of the jungle, and crossed a pact with something ancient. The Covenant of the Daeva was born, using the first magic gifted to Man - the magic of life and death.

Adytum, a city thrown into rebellion by a charismatic slave turned lay preacher who promised wealth, freedom, and power to those that would help him. Together they threw off their yokes, slaughtered their oppressors with their new sorcery and rebuilt their collapsed city, all under the name of the Grand Karcist Ion. The Nälka Empire freed the second magic - carnomancy, the magic of flesh.

Amoni-Ram, first great Ram of the Mekhanite Empire as it spread like a wildfire from the deserts. A gleaming, shining metropolis rising out of the dunes - a center of knowledge, science, understanding that the world had never seen. The magic of machines became known, the fervor for a new god that sought to uplift men, not subjugate them.

A thousand years before, the three great nations of men fought a war that destroyed the world.

The Aegean Tablets go on to clarify that Amoni-Ram was ruled by a theocratic cult in the area. The endonym of the group is unknown, but the Greek tablets refer to it exclusively as the Mekhanite Cult or Cult of the Broken God. No other evidence for this group had been discovered thus far.

Section 001.2

INITIAL ENCOUNTER

MTF Sigma-3 ("Magellan Men") were dispatched to the coordinates provided by SCP-1867 to investigate the location of SCP-001 and, if possible, gain entry to the city.

▶OPEN ADDENDUM◀

MAGELLAN team exited Amoni-Ram, and were not pursued by the SCP-001-A instances. On their way out, they noted many SCP-001-A instances milling about the city and traversing through the city's pipe system, indicating its purpose as transportation for the entities. The SCP-001-A instances expressed no hostility towards MAGELLAN team, and several approached to investigate. None followed past the borders of the city.

Section 001.3

INVESTIGATION

Upon debriefing of MAGELLAN team, and a series of subsequent expeditions to ascertain the area's safety and the docility of SCP-001-A instances, it was proposed that a long-term research outpost be established inside SCP-001 to study the history of Amoni-Ram, the then-unmapped undercity, and SCP-001-A.

ATTACHED DOCUMENT — AUGUST 1983

COUNCIL VOTE SUMMARY:

YEA ABSTAIN NAY
O5-01
O5-02
O5-03
O5-04
O5-05
O5-06
O5-07
O5-08
O5-09
O5-10
O5-11
O5-12
O5-13

STATUS
APPROVED

Forty-three researchers were flown in from various sites and departments, primarily specializing in archaeology, history (anomalous or otherwise), and paratechnology — accompanying them was 15-man Tactical Response Team India-Three "Cherno". As augmented personnel were still common within the Foundation at this time, individuals with complex prosthetics, bionics, and implants were favored, both due to the relative ease of accessing SCP-001 and for further study of the unexplained connection to SCP-001-A instances. Two co-leads were selected for the project: Doctor Robert Aram and Doctor Hedvig Nussbaum.

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Doctor Robert Aram

Doctor Robert Aram

Age: 33

Position: Senior Researcher in the Paratechnology Department, Special Consultant on Anomalous Robotics

Education: PhD in Thaumechatronics from ICSUT, Three Portlands.

Previous Assignment: Consulting on anomalous technology recovered from Group of Interest "Prometheus Labs, Incorporated".

Employment Summary: Left previous employer, Prometheus Labs Inc., in 1979 over a salary dispute. Accepted an attractive recruitment offer from the Foundation later that year, and was brought in to consult and advise on anomalous objects recovered from his previous workplace. Distinguished himself with superior, prodigal knowledge and skill in handling paratechnology; promoted to Senior Researcher in 1982.

Other Notes: Left arm and leg amputated below the elbow and knee following laboratory accident at Prometheus. Replaced with high-quality anomalous prosthetics that allow fine motor movement and limited tactile sensation. Due to his dependence on them to function in the workplace, they have not been placed into containment and are in his full-time custody.

All personnel selected were introduced through SCP-001 with substantial supplies and equipment, and organized a provisional dormitory and research facility in the temple and palace complex (designated ARF-01). SCP-001-A instances appeared intrigued by the new arrivals and approached to investigate before losing interest shortly thereafter. Researchers were organized primarily into two groups - an engineering team headed by Doctor Aram to investigate the technology of Amoni-Ram and SCP-001-A instances, and an anthropological team headed by Doctor Nussbaum to investigate the history, culture, and ultimate fate of the 'Mekhanite Empire'.

A general directive was given for all researchers and Tactical Response Officers to avoid the subterranean undercity until a detachment from MTF Zeta-9 ("Mole Rats")1 could arrive to map it out and declare it safe for study. In the meantime, both groups began investigating the rest of the surface city and compiling preliminary reports.

▶OPEN ADDENDUM◀

MTF Zeta-9 Fireteam ECHO passed through SCP-001 and arrived in Amoni-Ram on September 6th with no complications. The next day, they prepared themselves for insertion into Amoni-Ram's undercity in a controlled exploration. All members were, along with their individual digital augments and implants, equipped with Cochlear Topological Mappers, devices that use high-frequency echoing sound waves to construct maps of subterranean areas.

▶OPEN ADDENDUM◀

Section 001.4

FURTHER INVESTIGATION

Further inquiries from ECHO team to SCP-001-A1 were rebuffed or met with nonsensical statements. It repeatedly expressed the desire to speak with 'the scholars', interpreted to refer to Doctors Aram and Nussbaum. ECHO team spent the following hours mapping a path back to the surface, utilizing their CTMs. Upon arrival, researchers used the collected data to construct a 3D rendering of a significant portion of Amoni-ram's undercity, attached below.

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Sonar rendering of Amoni-Ram.

ECHO team was debriefed and declared that the undercity was largely safe for exploration, barring particularly heavily corroded passages and areas infested by the anomalous extinct vegetation species, tentatively classified as SCP-001-B, and the pods of acid, classified as SCP-001-C. Subsequent sample analysis determined that the external 'skin' of the pods was an organic but calcified substance similar to flesh.

Project leads Aram and Nussbaum were briefed on the discovery of SCP-001-A1 under the palace and its requests for their presence. Both agreed to conduct an interview, and were escorted by a contingent of armed Tactical Response Officers to SCP-001-A1's chamber the following day.

▶OPEN ADDENDUM◀

SCP-001-A1 presented Doctors Aram and Nussbaum with a series of documents printed from its "body". The documents were as follows:

  • A basic translation guide from the language all records within Amoni-Ram are written in, coined Mekhanite, to English, with some Greek bywords. Digitized and distributed to all members of the archaeological team;
  • A map of the undercity, fully annotated with sections of interest and unpassable areas that ECHO team had missed. Combined with the CTM map formed by ECHO team to offer a complete map of the undercity;
  • Full schematics of various technologies found within the city. Digitized and distributed to all members of the engineering team;
  • In addition, a small mechanical device of unknown function was provided to Doctor Aram;

With the assistance provided by SCP-001-A1, research into Amoni-Ram began in earnest on September 12th, 1983.

▶OPEN ADDENDUM◀

In the process of research and excavation, SCP-001-A instances led the archaeological team to a structure within the Southern district that appeared to be a record center, possibly a library or university. While the vast majority of the paper documents contained therein were rotted and illegible, the metal and clay tablets were remarkably well-preserved. The instances further directed personnel to a basement section containing a large metal safe, since rusted off its hinges. Within was a cache of several dozen metal cylinders measuring 10cm in diameter, imprinted with writing in Mekhanite. Due to their form, the language, and several other factors, only one was immediately translated.

ATTACHED DOCUMENT - NOVEMBER 1983


And the Shining Eye of the Empire rose as Bumaro took his anointed Seat on the Fuladh Throne. Amoni-Ram rose from the sands on the back of MEKHANE, her Pieces scattered to the six winds and the five corners of the world. As the slaves marched on Adytum in the East and the Covenants were struck in the South, so too was the holiest and the godliest of magics given freely to Man under the watchful eye of the Sun.

And the Sword of MEKHANE cut a swath through the world, and all those trembled in fear until they saw the light of the Ram. The greatest city of Man, gifted by MEKHANE but built by the hands of the workers, not the demons of the Covenant or the flesh-slaves. The Empire swelled and the Metal Road ferried new people, and Amoni-Ram swelled from their presence, and the world was good as Bumaro watched from his Throne for his reign of centuries.

And when his reign ended and his golden body passed, the Empress Hedara wept, and the city of Amoni-Ram wept with her, and they rested their hope onto the heir. And Hashir Bumaro grew into a wise king under the auspices of his family, and gave his arm and his leg for his empire just as his father had done, and in that way Bumaro lived on, resting in the soul of his son and his son's son and so on forevermore.

And the Emperor Bumaro used the Throne to invoke the wisdom of his past lives, and in that way the Empire conquered and slew its way into the world. And it was led into the continent and into the conflict with the other nations of Man, bloody and brutal. Devastation.

After several weeks and months of independent research, another interview was scheduled with SCP-001-A1 to seek clarification on the discoveries made as well as input on technical questions.

▶OPEN ADDENDUM◀

Due to the substantial amount of paratech and parahistorical findings submitted to Overwatch Command by the Amoni-Ram Initiative since active research began six months prior, O5-11 scheduled a meeting with the Initiative leads on March 2nd, approximately eight months after the initial discovery of the Mekhanite culture, using the Secure Leyspace Communicator.

▶OPEN ADDENDUM◀

Section 001.5

LATER RESEARCH

The additional personnel and requisitions arrived via airlift to ARF-01 throughout March and April of 1984. The sudden threefold increase in personnel required immediate expansion - ARF-02 was established in another structurally-intact skyscraper in the Southern district of Amoni-Ram, each site now holding approximately one hundred personnel.

To connect the two sites, the disused rail system of Amoni-Ram was brought back into functional condition to ferry materials and personnel. This further necessitated the repair and refurbishment of the city's power grid and reactors, using technical assistance from SCP-001-A1 and its automatons. While the cold fusion reactors required extensive study and repair, the relatively simpler nuclear reactors incorporating paratechnology were slowly brought online using requisitioned nuclear fuel. On April 12th, the first two thaumic reactors came online, providing power to the entire Western and Southern districts of the city, allowing use of lighting, air conditioning, and of the rail system to ferry personnel and materials between the two sites.

▶OPEN ADDENDUM◀

Upon their exit from the undercity, Project Leads immediately assembled a team and made for the palace to investigate the Throne. The hum of machinery was barely audible from inside - it was concluded that bringing the city's power online had returned the Throne to working order. The left armrest contained a port that fit the cylinders recovered from the library, while the right contained a depressed section molded around the grip of the Fist.

Testing was immediately commenced.

▶OPEN ADDENDUM◀

Doctor Aram was removed from the throne room and taken to the infirmary at ARF-01. Medical personnel found he had a slightly elevated blood pressure and heartbeat, consistent with strenuous physical activity, but was otherwise healthy. He was placed in an infirmary bed; the following day, he was conscious, active, and responsive within normal levels. Closer inspection revealed no lasting physical or neurological damage from the incident, and Doctor Aram indeed expressed a closer interest in the archaeological team's findings in the following days, citing his experience as giving him a newfound interest in the extant Mekhanite culture. While the findings from the Throne test were transcribed and analyzed, other records found in the city were translated.

ATTACHED DOCUMENT - APRIL 1984


And the sweep of the Golden Legion took three long centuries of expansion as the Mekhanite Empire's legates established beautiful, harmonious dominion on the oases and villages of the world. And as they expanded, they found relics - artifacts sheared from MEKHANE during their god's fall from heaven, scattered over the Earth, and with each relic carried back to Amoni-Ram the fervor of the people grew and grew as their leaders rose, warred, and died for their heirs.

And as the Legion marched forward over those long centuries, two other nations of man marched. The Covenant of the Daeva rode forth on their great horrible spirit-beasts, searing a path through the jungle from their twin-city of Mamjul Korar. And they used their black magic to open a gap, stepping from one side of the continent to another, and those that went through established another city - Adytum, that would after another two centuries fall to its own slaves, branding themselves the Nälka.

And all these parties marched into Asia, only vaguely aware of the existences of the other two until the Battle of Harumar, where they collided. The existence was an affront - the disgusting flesh-beasts of the Nälka an insult to the steel glory of MEKHANE, and the Covenant's plant-spirits choking and infesting the gears and wheels of the Legion, and so the Legion fired the first mortar, shattering the Covenant's ranks, and thus began a war that would end with the destruction of Asia.

The First War raged across the continent in every theater. Fleets of golden-hulled warships constructed in Amoni-Ram and pushed downriver to encounter the Covenant in the Bay. The Nälka raised an army of the dishonored dead from Adytum and marched them ceaselessly to throw themselves in the front line, choking the vines of the sorcerer-nawabs. There were no laws in war, and there is no honor in death - every corpse was fodder for future battles. Forests were scorched during retreat to deny the Covenant seed, and the warriors of the Nälka and Covenant chose to throw their weapons in the sea rather than surrender the precious metal to the foundries of the Legion. And the COLOSSI, great thousand-arm-tall goliaths of steel and bronze and fuladh that rent the sky down upon the Nälkan hordes. Every second man was killed in the fighting, and it raged for three hundred years and would have gone on forever until the Abominate landed his ships on the western coast of Aethiopia and began his march to Amoni-Ram.

Devastation.

A week later, Doctor Aram once again volunteered to use the Throne, citing his quick recovery and the wealth of potential ancient knowledge hidden in the accounts of the various Emperors Bumaro.

▶OPEN ADDENDUM◀

Upon the discoveries of the epochal scale of the First War waged between the three empires, research began to take a special priority on war records and weapons technology that may have been left behind. Over the course of the following weeks, records of manufacture and shipment for thousands of ammunition and supplies were translated, revealing a scale of war production previously considered impossible in antiquity and rivalling the war output of developed nations in the modern era. In addition, the references to the "Mekhane's Kiss", suggested to be an extremely powerful superweapon of some sort, incited a new flurry of research into the components and devices in the undercity.

▶OPEN ADDENDUM◀

ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT - JUNE 1984


And in the sixtieth year of the war, as the fighting reached a crescendo and Thamud burned with the shelling of the Legion on the flesh-hordes of the Nälka, the Matriarch of the Covenant and the Grand Karcist Ion met under the shadow of night in the black catacombs of Adytum. And there they came to understand a truth - bitter enemies though they might be, the flesh of the Nälka and the plants of the Covenant were an extension of each other, both extrusions of the natural world. Evenly matched, neither could truly destroy the other. But the Mekhanite blessed steel was something else - a gift from the sky, well capable of crushing each of them. But together, they stood a chance.

And such it was that as the invasion plans were drawn and the great siege engines were constructed and the polearms cooled in the foundries, the Golden Legion marshalled and marched themselves, beginning the long, bloody truck to Adytum. And as they crossed through the desert of Asia, the Nälka were lending their forces to another invasion, this one raised by the sorcerer-nawabs with the Daeva against Amoni-Ram. A black, wicked army secretly gathering in the jungles of the South, marching on the suddenly-vulnerable First Ram of the Mekhanites. And with them came the magics - the Nälka offered one of their greatest boons, a plague to infest the city. And the Covenant offered the Song of the Daeva to make the verdant greenery of the desert rebel against its masters.

And even then, their marshaled forces were not enough to dominate the colossi and take the city. But in the Far West, beyond the Gate, another storm was brewing. The Abominate, may his name never be spoken of, stood on the shores of the coast as the Damned Fleet disembarked from their massive ships. And his army assembled itself from his prisoners and his soldiers, and the march to the East, to Amoni-Ram, began. The city settled between two unstoppable forces, neither aware of the other's presence, as the two armies pushed to the walls of the city and the head of its king, queen, and general.

Another meeting with O5-11 was scheduled for June 26th to ascertain the progress of the Amoni-Ram Initiative and relay new discoveries regarding the fate of the Mekhanite culture. On June 25th, an unidentified aircraft was detected 10km away from SCP-001. Upon confirmation that the aircraft was approaching SCP-001's entrance, ARF-01 radioed it asking for identification. The aircraft responded with valid Overwatch Command credentials, coming to a close landing and allowing O5-11 to disembark and enter SCP-001, escorted by MTF Alpha-1 "Red Right Hand".

▶OPEN ADDENDUM◀

ATTACHED DOCUMENT - JULY 1984


FROM THE DESK OF DOCTOR ROBERT ARAM
AMONI-RAM INITIATIVE

Personal log

Progress on rebuilding the cold fusion reactors is progressing much, much faster than projections. Normally, I'd be worried, but I'm surprisingly calm. It's obvious - our people are getting familiar with the technology. The fuladh foundries are operating at amazing efficiency, we've worked out how to mold and shape the metal just how we need it, and what last year looked like a bizarre, nonsensical circuit structure and design philosophy now strikes me as beautifully idiosyncratic. A snapshot into a bygone era.

I've never really been one for history. More of a STEM type - I never looked down on those that pursued history. I just didn't see the attraction - machines are in front of you, something tangible you can see and hear and touch and interact with. You can't do that with history, not really.

The Fuladh Throne, of course, has changed that. I've spent lifetimes of ancient emperors in minutes. It's staggering. The depth of emotion and personality you can feel from only a few choice minutes in someone's body. Their grief, pain, joy, their story. Fascinating stuff. The technology of the Throne and any possible side effects remain elusive, but we've been testing it for a few weeks now, maybe a dozen times, and while I'm always tired after - not a surprise, at my age - I feel fine otherwise. And now I know Mekhanite, Greek, and Egyptian. Go figure.

I've gotten a front-seat view to the First War and it is… apocalyptic. There's really no other word for it. Gigantic mech suits crushing cities as the sky itself opens up? Spirit-demons fighting alongside human compatriots? Metal soldiers charging walls? Insanity. A secret, bloody history the world doesn't even remember. But as with all war, it's not quite so black-and-white.

Being inside Bumaro's - or, the various Bumaros' bodies - none of them were tyrants, or dictators. Maybe autocrats, but what emperor wasn't? They all wanted to protect their people, to raise them to something beyond human. I can't help but sympathize. Nothing impresses onto you the fragility of your body than nearly losing it - but they understood that and actively improved themselves using the bionics and implants. Reach heaven through transhumanism.

Speaking of implants and bionics, the cache we discovered some weeks ago along with the Legion armor; O5-11 denied D-class testing. It's frustrating. We can't use the glorious technology here to improve the world, we can't use it to improve ourselves, we can barely use it to improve the damn city. It's devastating, and most of the team agrees with me that we should use it.

So we did. I can't use D-class to test the implants, but using myself is a different matter. The new arm is… wonderful. It's smoother, more responsive, more sensitive and durable and it doesn't even hurt at the end of the day. I can sleep with it on. 99% of our personnel in Amoni-Ram are already augmented, so changing out their stainless steel arm for a fuladh one or something is no big deal. Why should Five be the only one that reaps the gifts the Mekhanites left us?

On July 29th, 2:05PM, Doctor Nussbaum and four members of the archaelogical team were excavating a number of mosaics in the undercity. Over the course of the day, the team progressed further inward, into an unstable section. The ceiling overhead suddenly gave way, causing a minor collapse. Due to a number of strength-enhancing bionic and cybernetic augments, the archaelogical team members were able to escape largely unharmed; however, Doctor Nussbaum sustained severe internal and external injuries from the collapse and was rushed into emergency surgery in the ARF-01 infirmary.

Due to the severity of injuries sustained - including a shattered collarbone, fractured spine, cranial injuries, and hemorrhaging - medical personnel were able to stabilize her in critical condition. Her likelihood of survival was deemed extremely low. At this point, Doctor Aram arrived with several engineering team personnel, an SCP-001-A instance, and a variety of Mekhanite implants and augments. He proposed, to the medical team's agreement, that utilizing the advancing Mekhanite augments to stabilize her and offer her a chance of survival was the ethical option, and was legitimately possible using SCP-001-A1's expertise voiced through the -A instance. A combination of medical and engineering personnel worked for 29 hours to implant 17 pieces of Mekhanite technology across Doctor Nussbaum's body. After 32 hours unconscious, she awoke on July 31st.

▶OPEN ADDENDUM◀

Doctor Nussbaum continued her recovery for two weeks in SCP-001, refusing medevac to Area-66 in Sinai upon seeing the extremely rapid recuperation offered by the implants. Evaluations by medical personnel provided insight into the enhancements offered by the Mekhanite augmentations. Internally, they integrated with her immune and nervous systems, offering fine, instinctual control and an increase in healing speed. Due to the relative lightness of the fuladh metalwork compared to steel, her body mass did not shift considerably. However, her strength, lift capacity, running speed, pull weight, and a suite of other measurements vastly increased in the weeks following her recovery. She similarly reported significant increases in her sensory ability, well beyond that given by her former Foundation-issue ocular and auditory implants. The spinal brace and its external portion, an artfully crafted pair of wings able to be extended and retracted by the user, allow a limited but notable ability to glide on strong updrafts.

On August 28th, Doctor Nussbaum declined an offer of a desk position in Area-66, choosing to continue her work as Project Co-Lead of the Amoni-Ram Initiative.

Doctor Aram was reprimanded for his unauthorized use of potentially dangerous anomalous artifacts on a colleague and himself, but was not given disciplinary action considering the extenuating circumstances and Doctor Nussbaum's expressed gratitude to him, stating that if she had been conscious, she would have consented to the procedure.

▶OPEN ADDENDUM◀

The following day, another experiment was scheduled with the Throne using the cylinder provided by SCP-001-A1.

▶OPEN ADDENDUM◀

Upon the discoveries made in the Throne Report, further testing was temporarily halted until a decision could be made on whether to inform SCP-001-A1 of its past. Until then, routine research into repair of infrastructural elements of the city continued as per regular schedule.

ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT - SEPTEMBER 1984


FROM THE DESK OF DOCTOR ROBERT ARAM
AMONI-RAM INITIATIVE

Personal log

This is ridiculous.

Preserver has been integral to the success of the Amoni-Ram Initiative. Far more so than any of the O5s arbitrating on whether she deserves to know her own identity. We wouldn't even have the throne if she hadn't led us to it and provided the Fist, the cylinders, everything. We owe her.

And even if we didn't, it's the right thing to do. "Mad scientist" is possibly one of the dumbest stereotypes of all time - scientists have ethics. Even in Prometheus, where progress was done for the sake of progress, we had ethics. Expectations of behaviour and morality. Making sure everyone knew exactly what they were signing up for. Not withholding crucial discoveries fundamental to their sense of being. The Foundation is not scientists, it is bureaucrats - and bureaucrats are the ones who will do away with ethics for efficiency.

I shouldn't get this mad. But it just begs so many questions. It's representative of how they think of this project - not a font of tools to improve the world, but of information that needs to be suppressed and released when the world is ready. Visionaries do not wait for the world to be ready to present their idea, because the world is never ready. We force the world to change. In the 60s, augments were a rarity in the Foundation. Agents who got them were freaks. They were a last resort to maintain functionality. Then they realized we were better, faster, smarter, stronger. And look at us now. A project and two Sites staffed entirely by augmented personnel.

But they obviously don't trust Preserver, because she's a machine. Even though she's not, really. She was human once, but they can only think of her as a machine - to use, to exploit. The same way they think of me and Hedvig and Tenz and Zaid and all the others. They don't trust us either, not really. We've done more for them and gotten fuck all in return except the permission to rebuild what has been our home for nearly a year. It's frustrating.

I've been thinking about what SCP-001-A1 said. About the Throne. It's not true - there's no paratechnology that can force a psychic connection, that would require a staggering amount of power and all sorts of bullshit. But it makes me wonder. I've been probing Nussbaum, seeing if she responds like Preserver said she would. I don't know whether I'm delusional or looking for what I want to see but I feel like there's something there. She just agrees to whatever. If it is true - and I'm not saying it is - it would logically extend to the others, too. Did they all agree to swapping out their augments with the Mekhanite ones because it was what they wanted? Or was it because it was what I wanted them to do?

On September 30th, the O5 Council approved a plan allowing the involvement of SCP-001-A1 in the Siege of Amoni-Ram to be declassified to it, but withholding the details of its activation of Mekhane's Kiss and destruction of the city. Doctors Aram and Nussbaum entered its chamber the following day.

▶OPEN ADDENDUM◀

The following unfinished email draft was recovered from SCiPnet email servers. It had not been sent, and was last modified several weeks before the conclusion of events in Amoni-Ram.

▶OPEN ADDENDUM◀

On September 19th, 1984, shortly after the one-year anniversary of the official beginning of the Amoni-Ram Initiative, another update meeting was scheduled with O5-11 following a general decrease in quantity of technology and archaelogical reports being transmitted from ARF-01 and ARF-02 to Protected Site-07 on a biweekly basis.

▶OPEN ADDENDUM◀

O5-11 was deposited outside SCP-001, 0.6km from his air escort, and quickly evacuated to the nearby Site-34. An Overwatch Command emergency session was called to address the events in Amoni-Ram, and voted on whether to scramble several task forces in the region and use military force to regain control over SCP-001.

ATTACHED DOCUMENT - SEPTEMBER 1984

COUNCIL VOTE SUMMARY:

YEA ABSTAIN NAY
O5-01
O5-02
O5-03
O5-04
O5-05
O5-06
O5-07
O5-08
O5-09
O5-10
O5-11
O5-12
O5-13

ADDITIONAL VOTE
Administrator YEA

STATUS
APPROVED

Temporary Task Force Alpha-6 was scrambled at Site-39 over the following 9 hours, consisting of Mobile Task Forces Epsilon-11 ("Nine-Tailed Fox"), Nu-7 ("Hammer Down"), and Zeta-9 ("Mole Rats"). An advance invasion plan was drawn and executed on 0367 local time.

ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT - SEPTEMBER 1984


Alpha-6 communications to Site-39 command marked normally. Internal Alpha-6 radio chatter italicized. Intercepted external radio chatter bolded.

«BEGIN LOG»

[Convoy in transit over South Arabian desert - five tiltrotor aircraft with personnel, three Skycranes with cargo and arms.]

ALPHA-6: Air convoy three klicks out from SCP-001. Coming in for a landing.

[Convoy lands, three kilometers from the entrance to SCP-001.]

ALPHA-6: We have touchdown, repeat, touchdown. Unloading packages.

[Personnel disembark and begin unloading cargo. After final unloading, there are 83 personnel across three MTFs, equipped with small and heavy arms and in armored personnel carriers.]

Z9: Jesus, we brought in an army.
E6: Yeah, call us the fucking cavalry.

ALPHA-6: Beginning approach to SCP-001. No movement sighted.

[The convoy begins slowly advancing towards SCP-001. 41 minutes later, they arrive. The minimal base camp set up outside the entrance is abandoned - a set of tents half-buried in the dunes. A golden curved sword is impaled into the sand.]

N34: That's a message if I ever seen one. "Abandon all hope", yadda yadda.
N45: This guy's not very subtle, is he?

ALPHA-6: Be advised, preparing to-

[Radio screeches, flipping through several frequencies. ARAM's voice becomes audible through the grain.]

ARAM: Please [static] back. I don't want to have [static]. We're on the same-

ALPHA-6: Adjusting frequency, OVCOM. Clear, over. Still clear for incursion?

OVCOM: You are a go, over.

[Convoy turns and advances forward, into the entrance of SCP-001. Several seconds pass until the entrance opens. The forces pass through the threshold, into SCP-001.]

ALPHA-6: Eyes on Amoni-Ram.

N10: Holy shit.
N50: That is god-damn beautiful.

[Amoni-Ram lies ahead of the convoy. Its walls have been considerably repaired, and the Eastern gate that faces the entrance of SCP-001 has been blockaded and reinforced, though it is largely obscured by a sand dune. Figures stand along the massive walls and battlements. Several fly overhead, dipping and swerving through the air.]

OVCOM: Be advised-

ALPHA-6: Yeah, targets spotted. Permission to engage?

OVCOM: Negative, wait for them to-

[Radio swaps frequencies. The static is considerably lessened, and ARAM's voice is much clearer.]

ARAM: HEAR ME.

[All members of Alpha-6 are momentarily dazed. The figures continue to fly overhead in circles. Distantly, there is movement on the battlements.]

ARAM: You don't understand. I made a mistake, okay? That [static], that wasn't supposed to happen with Eleven. I've learned [static] since-

E2: Fuck! That must be the cog-haz.

ALPHA-6: Swapping frequency, activating Breuchmann Engine, keep moving.

[Convoy advances toward the blockade. The figures on the battlements come into focus. They are a number of individuals dressed in the war armor seen in the reported visions, armed with a mixture of swords, polearms, and long-range rifle-like weapons, all of which are levelled at the advancing force.]

N23: They have high ground and unknown armament.

ALPHA-6: Unfavorable conditions for a firefight, command.

OVCOM: Acknowledged.

ARAM: [Through static] As soon as Eleven [static] another cylinder. Inside the statue's hands. Bumaro's last testament. I- we cannot have this fight, I'm begging [static]-

ALPHA-6: Command?

[Pause.]

OVCOM: Keep moving.

ARAM: [static] the Abominate. You don't understand, I didn't understand. It's not a person, it's not [static] a force of nature. Like a hurricane.

OVCOM: Aram. This is your one and only chance to tell your forces - all your forces - to stand down. We will retake the city and confiscate the paratechnology.

ARAM: You cannot fight a hurricane. You will need [static]. Me.

ALPHA-6: We will place you and Hedvig Nussbaum into custody. Then you can plead your case to the Council as you'd like.

ARAM: They're [static] to listen. Bureaucrats never listen to the visionaries.

[Convoy stops a hundred meters from the sand dune block the path.]

ALPHA-6: Last chance. If you don't want to have this fight, tell everyone to put down their guns.

[Silence.]

ARAM: I'm afraid I can't do that.

[Two dozen figures crest the sand dune from the other side. They are three to four meters tall, in hulking golden exosuits of plated armor with pneumatic limbs. Helmets obscure their faces. The central two figures are the largest - one is four meters tall in intricately designed and patterned silver and gold armor. ARAM pilots the suit. The other appears to be made of stone, a walking statue of a shirtless bearded man, holding a sword and spear.]

N4: Oh, fuck. Mechs.

ARAM: You might be unwilling to listen to reason. But you will not stop me from changing the world. Saving it.

[From above, a figure descends, hovering in the air above ARAM and extending her wings outward.]

ARAM: When this is over, you will beg for my help.

[Distantly, a cannon fires. The sand explodes a few meters from the Alpha-6 line. More cannons fire. Alpha-6 forces duck behind cover and begin returning fire as the war suits charge down the hill. Gunfire continues for several minutes. The engagement is too far from the walls for the troops on the battlement to fire, but the warsuits use a mix of brute strength and oversized ranged weaponry to break the Alpha-6 line. Automatic cannons from the APCs begin firing, and have considerable effect, bringing a number of the warsuits crashing to the ground. The reactor cores from fallen units eject, causing miniature explosions. Shouting and yelling from both sides is audible.]

N17: Fucking hell!
E9: Spread out! Don't give them easy targets!
Z3: Hit!

ARAM: DO NOT FAIL YOUR KING.

[Gradually, the superior manueverability of the Alpha-6 forces begins to turn the tide. While smaller and individually less powerful, the evasive tactics, spread-out formation, and multiple angles of attack wear down the warsuits. Several soldiers lay wounded or dead, but a similar number of Mekhanite warsuits are wrecked or disabled.]

ALPHA-6: Keep firing, evasive formations, keep them off the trucks.

N28: I see movement overhead, use the flak!

[Overhead, a number of flying Mekhanites divebomb, causing a squad to scatter. One grabs a soldier by the torso and pulls him into the air, screaming. Moments later, an anti-aircraft emplacement begins firing, sending a number of the flying units crashing to the ground. Nussbaum is considerably faster and more evasive than the others, and gracefully dodges flak while returning fire.]

ARAM: PULL BACK. Hedvig - go ensure Preserver is ready!

[NUSSBAUM rockets away from the firefight at extremely high speeds, shooting towards Amoni-Ram itself. ARAM lifts a portion of a destroyed warsuit and heaves it at an anti-aircraft emplacement, crushing it and its operator. The remaining warsuits, roughly a dozen, begin to pull back over the dune as Alpha-6 forces advance, firing on the retreating Mekhanites.]

Z7: Fuck you, assholes!
Z3: Conserve your ammo.
N57: Do you guys feel that?

[The ground shakes.]

ALPHA-6: OVCOM, we're getting tremors, standby-

ARAM: HEAR ME, COLOSSUS. HEAR YOUR KING AND DEFEND YOUR CITY.

[The ground shakes. A massive hand reaches out of the dunes, spilling vast tons of sand to the ground. Another similarly gigantic hand reaches out in the other direction, fingers wrapping around the massive wall of Amoni-Ram. A colossus - humanoid metal golem, easily a hundred meters tall and armored in all locations, peppered with autoturrets - drags itself out of the dunes, turning its gigantic head towards Alpha-6 forces.]

N34: Fuck, fuck fuck! PULL BACK!
Z5: WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT THING?
E3: Command, we do not have the armament to take that thing on!

ALPHA-6: OVCOM, please advise.

OVCOM: Begin a tactical retreat. Heavy armament and air support has been scrambled and is waiting for you outside the entrance to-

[The colossus takes a single step after fully dragging itself from the sand dunes. Several Alpha-6 operators and Mekhanites are crushed under its titanic foot. The ground shakes and several buildings in Amoni-Ram visibly shudder at the footfall of the colossus, which is larger than many of them. ARAM does not move, raising his sword to the sky.]

ARAM: Yes. This is how it should be. HEDVIG?

[NUSSBAUM appears in the air, descending and perching on ARAM's massive shoulder.]

NUSSBAUM: We are ready. At your command.

ARAM: Excellent. Finally.

[The colossus takes another step towards the rapidly retreating force of Foundation personnel, who fire rockets at it and machine gun rounds. They detonate on impact and scorch the armor, but otherwise have no effect.]

ARAM: [Over radio, addressing OVCOM] You didn't accept my help. You used and threw away this city. I saw something beautiful in it, and we fixed it and brought it back to life. All of it.

OVCOM: Robert, please-

[A number of operators reach the exit and throw themselves through, landing on the other side. The majority of the forces remain inside SCP-001, moving towards the entrance and pursued by the colossus.]

ARAM: No. I'll protect the world from the Abominate on my own terms. The Foundation is a relic. If the human race is to survive what is to come, they will need to adapt. To change. To improve.

[Silence.]

ARAM: My name is Robert Bumaro, and the world will change for the Church of the Broken God. Because it has no choice.

«ALL COMMUNICATIONS CEASE»

Following this, a massive power surge fried the electronics of awaiting aircraft three kilometers away. All communication in and out of SCP-001 ceased, and subsequent investigation has indicated the entrance to SCP-001 no longer exists in the South Arabian desert. It is theorized that the Mekhanite forces repaired and safely activated Mekhane's Kiss, teleporting Amoni-Ram to an unknown location.

The failure of the Amoni-Ram Initiative, the betrayal of Doctors Aram and Nussbaum, and the loss of SCP-001 with its countless amounts of Foundation knowledge, equipment, personnel, and paratechnology, have elevated Global Threat Level to Keneq-4 (considerable potential to disrupt the general population). Foundation policy regarding digital and paratechnological implants and equipment has been frozen pending further review by Overwatch Command.

'The Church of the Broken God' has been designated GoI-004. All efforts are to be made to locate Robert Aram/Bumaro and Hedvig Nussbaum and bring them into Foundation custody.

Laboratory samples of Daevite, Nälkan, and Mekhanite biological weapons used in the Siege of Amoni-Ram have produced viable specimens. They have been provided provisional SCP designations: SCP-697, SCP-610, and SCP-217, respectively.

Project FORERUNNER TRIAD has been organized to address the consequences of the Amoni-Ram Initiative, and report directly to Overwatch Command. Ascertaining the locations of the Nälka city of Black Adytum, the Daevic Covenant cities of Mamjul and Korar, and the identity & nature of the entity known as 'the Abominate' have all been elevated to Global Priority Level Alpha.

rating: +457+–x

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