Translation info:
Article: SCP-250-IT - Canned Devil
Author: just cave
Original: http://fondazionescp.wikidot.com/scp-250-it
Translator: just cave
Images: Credited in the license box at the end of the article.
This article won second place at IT branch's 200con.
Reading time: 40 minutes.
I want to give a large thank you to the whole contest jury that allowed me to get at this place with my second article at all. Thanks also to everyone that stopped by to give some crit over this work on the forum!
Last thank you, more special than the others, goes to friends. Mine, yours, friends of your friends. We wouldn't be who we are now without them.
Never forget about them.
Special Containment Procedures: The 45 SCP-250-IT instances currently obtained by the Foundation are to be kept each one inside a silver box in a specialized storage room in containment sector █, floor -4, Site Deus. Each newly acquired instance is to be put under the same conditions.
In order to minimize the possibility of sudden malfunctions in stored instances, the walls of the storage room have been reinforced with a 2 mm layer of lead and 53 catholic crucifixes varying in size and shape have been put on both them and the floor. Additionally, a series of third class and fourth class teurgical glyphs has been applied on the whole room's surface area. The shielding has been designed to generate a nullifying field of -0.012 Nortia/s and to release (silver boxes included) an Akiva radiation equal to 120 cAk/s.
The storage room is kept under surveillance by a CCTV system and an automated alarm connected to a detection system for observing movements and Akiva radiation.
In the case of a sudden opening of a SCP-250-IT instance, MTF-XIII "Arca Foederis" must be deployed immediately in order to neutralize the escaping entity before it reaches complete freedom of movement.
To minimize the possibility of SCP-250-IT devices going off in public, the idea of "tin bombs" has been diffused as a cover story among law enforcement. When receiving reports on similar cases, SIR agents must immediately transfer the defusing operation to Foundation control. Whenever a terror attack involving SCP-250-IT is ongoing, the SCP Foundation's efforts must focus on the neutralization of the escaped entity in coordination with the Confraternity of Saint George's Knights to guarantee the operations' success and to cover multiple areas in the occurring of two or more attacks simultaneously.
These events are to be disguised using massive misinformation strategies and mass amnestization of the civilians involved. Furthermore, any public rumours regarding satanic terror attacks and sightings of tartarean entities must be quickly put down.
Joint efforts between the SCP Foundation and the Confraternity of Saint George's Knights are now in place with the goal of identifying and bringing down every new production site of SCP-250-IT within Italian borders. Members of the GoI "Society of the Black Star" must be located and arrested1.
A freshly seized SCP-250-IT instance.
Description: SCP-250-IT refers to mechanical constructs similar to tin cans which are largely utilized for food preservation. These are provided with a spring key winding which is supposed to be plugged to a more complex mechanism inside the gear's body.
Texts, symbols and goetic glyphs of different classes are present on the anomalies' surface. This suggests that these are made uniting base demonics2 knowledge and advanced mechanics.
The mechanism of SCP-250-IT instances operates by turning the spring key winding clockwise on the side of the device. Every full turn is equal to one minute before the countdown ends.
A faint, arrhytmic ticking sound can be heard from the instance once winding has ceased: at the end of the countdown the can will open, projecting its inscriptions onto the surfaces around3, generating enough Faustian-Sacramental Energy to summon a tartarean ritual. This is connected to its glyphs and results, among other things, in the destruction of the gears inside of the device.
The direct operation of gears inside is unknown: it is forbidden to open the devices as a safety measure.
Once the key is turned, it is impossible to stop the detonation process of the instances and the immediate FSE emission cannot be reversed. It has been assumed that a field of Akiva radiation from religious symbols and objects can - partially, at least - neutralize the FSE emission from the cans.
Until now, rituals originated from SCP-250-IT instances have exclusively provoked the escape of tartarean entities from the same instances: These, once on Earth, appear in a confused and violent state attacking any human being in proximity, either physically or with anomalous means.
The devices are currently in production and are used by GoI-667 "Society of the Black Star" to cause panic and tension among the population. Since SCP-250-IT production sites still have not been localized, the efforts of the Italian Branch are currently focused on the neutralization of the summoned entities.
On ██/██/20██, the Italian Republic declared a national state of emergency in the name of a danger for public safety and ordered the closure of all borders.
The frequency at which terror attacks involving SCP-250-IT take place has reached 2.2 per month; the most recent, which occurred on 24/09/20██, has resulted in 16 dead and 6 injured, while the total amount of casualties has reached 192.
It is noteworthy how on an average of 10 devices, one of them is usually subject to malfuctions of any kind, including: jamming, sudden activation and general instability. It is unclear if this is due to the fact that the gears are not mass-produced (assumed due to the various shapes and sizes and later confirmed by further inquiries) or other factors.
Addendum 250-IT-a: Discovery
SCP-250-IT's discovery occurred on 12/03/20██, the day of the first detonation inside of a supermarket in the city mall of ██████, Terni. A woman, later identified as Francesca Martini, aged 28 and residing in Terni, left the instance on a shelf before fleeing. The instance was activated 6 minutes later. Before the entity was neutralized by MTF-I "Sagitta Iovis", it had successfully caused 6 deaths and 4 injuries in civilians. The footage has been confiscated after the incident and witnesses were administered class-A Amnestics.
Video footage of the incident follows.
After further inquiries, the woman has been detained with the help of the State Police five days later.
Once Once brought to Site Deus, she was interrogated by Captain Severini of MTF-XIII.
Addendum 250-IT-b: Interview with the attacker.
Log Interview on ██/██/20██
Interviewed: Francesca Martini
Interviewer: Cpt. Stefano Severini, MTF-XIII
Witnesses: Lt. Edoardo Mattei, MTF-XIII
Log start
Cpt. Severini: Fine. Good morning, miss Martini. As I think you'll guess, I have many important questions for you.
Martini: As I told the guards, I'm ready to talk. It wasn't my fault, I was forced to do that!
Cpt. Severini: I'll be straightforward: where does the artifact that you placed at the supermarket of ██████ eleven days ago originate from?
Martini: I made it… What will happen to me now?
Cpt. Severini: Currently, you have - or had, since you haven't shown up there for more than a week now - a job as a cashier; you have a degree in foreign languages, you live by yourself in a small flat lacking books on engineering or whatever dark arts and we know for sure that if you had those you couldn't have had any way to dispose of them. What I want to know is how you made it.
Martini: …I made a deal with a devil.
Cpt. Severini: Fine. So, according to your neighbourhood, every Thursday at 8.40 pm you headed out of your house to drive to, I guess, the place where the pact was carried out, right?
Martini: Uhm, uh, yeah. But hey, why aren't you people, like, bothered or perplexed? Look, I'm not crazy!
Cpt. Severini: Go on, it's my job. What was the pact about?
Martini: It would've given me the knowledge on how to make that thing and I'd have helped him escape from hell…
Cpt. Severini: And what would you have gained?
Martini: …A better job, income, a new house. My family is very poor and I'm the only one left that can bring some money home… I'm telling you everything, will I get better treatment, right?
Cpt. Severini: We'll see, you still killed people with that device. Please, go on.
Martini: I've… Killed? (Pause) I just had to bring that can in a public area and turn the spring key…
Cpt. Severini: Are you telling me that you're the only one who interacted with the device?
Martini: Yes? I was all alone. Nobody could have seen or touched it… I kept it hidden.
Cpt. Severini: (Huffing) …And this is false, am I right?
Martini: Huh? What do you mean?
Cpt. Severini: No one has touched the can after you placed it on that shelf, however some digital footprints are not yours.
Martini: How? Check again, please!
Cpt. Severini: Stop with the bullshit and keep it real, miss.
The woman remains silent for some time..
Cpt. Severini: Who helped you?
Martini: It was… My brother…
Cpt. Severini: False, again. Listen carefully, I'm not here to be made a fool of, okay? That "bomb" you blew up has caused casualties, and if there's more of them and you're not going to tell me I'll make you pay.
We've identified the footprints with those from your acquaintances. There's no trace of Faustian-Sacramental Energy on you or in the places you've been to recently. If you do not understand me, it means that you can't have made a pact with any tartarean entity. Now, again, who helped you?The woman does not respond.
Cpt. Severini: Edoardo.
Ltl. Mattei: Yes, sir.
Lieutenant Mattei leaves the room. Upon his return, he is followed by agent Filipponi with his kit for advanced interrogation.
Cpt. Severini: Miss Martini, agent Filipponi would like to know how much you care about your manicure.
The woman stays silent. After being tied, Her first nail gets pulled out and she screams in pain.
Martini: Okay! Alright! (panting) Stop, I can talk!
Cpt. Severini: (To lieutenant Mattei) See, Edoardo? This is important: the first nail is enough in order to make someone talk. If they resist, expect them to go on in silence after none are left.
Lieutenant Mattei nods from the wall.
Cpt. Severini: (To the woman) Go on, miss.
Martini: I'm part of a religious group… That's where I go every Thursday.
Cpt. Severini: Uhm… (Writes on a paper) Origin of the cult? Doctrine? I guess it's something about satanism… Tell me, is it anything similar to Lavey's theories?
Martini: The society of the Black Star worships… No, we don't worship anyone, we follow the teachings of Lucifer, King of Hell. Our goal is to pave the way for a new kingdom of devils on Earth.
Cpt. Severini: Alright, so it's a cult.
Martini: No! It's not a cult! The rituals are meant to communicate with them-
Cpt. Severini: Just as regular cults do.
Martini: No, no, you don't get it! We want to free them! Some of the older members gave me the device, we build them in order to liberate them.
Cpt. Severini: I feel like it didn't work that well.
Martini: This is phase one. Those bombs aren't loud and can easily blend in, but they're noisy in other ways. These disposable portals will spread terror among the people and will cause more and more tension across the nation until they'll fall to their knees, so that our brothers who'll come after will be unstoppable. That's what they're saying.
Cpt. Severini: Your brothers? Demons?
Martini: Devils are the brothers of Man since thousands of years ago. The angels above, those bloated bastards, have sent them to hell just because they hated them.They found them filthy and gross and nothing else. Our goal is to give them their land back and put an end to their suffering. I don't care about what kind of government agency you are… They'll make you dismiss this case very soon. There's plenty of powerful people among them…
Cpt. Severini: Miss, we deal with cultists on a weekly basis here. Come on, tell me, is there a leader? Do they have a name?
Martini: I don't think I can say that…
Cpt. Severini: You don't have to worry about that, if you're ready to cooperate. Just tell us.
The woman hesitates for a few seconds more. Suddenly, agent Delverde storms into the room.
Cpt. Severini: What now?
Agt. Delverde: Two more bombs went off. There are casualties.
Cpt. Severini: (Raising his voice) Alright, miss, do you want to answer my question or do you prefer we keep going?!
Martini: I… Uh… The leader, Giovanni D'Amato, is- (She suddenly stops for a few moments.)
The woman bites off her own tongue and then throws herself on the ground, gripped by what seems to be a seizure.
Cpt. Severini: (Standing up) What's going on? Call a medic!
The subject appears to not be lucid. After a few seconds, she collapses and dies of suffocation by her own blood, while an esoteric glyph appears on her forehead.
Log End
Note by Captain Severini: It is possible that miss Martini was bound to her cult by a curse. We tried to make some class-D personnel repeat her last sentence in order to confirm this and, as we thought, there were no lethal memetic agents in her words.
My take on this is that the memetic agent is the name of the cult leader and that, just as a curse, it works only on its members.
Regarding the two devices that have blown up today, containment is ongoing. I'm coordinating the concealment of the events to the population right now and I've already sent a support request to the Confraternity of Saint George's Knights, we'll need them.
Along with containment, the first investigations about GoI-667 sites were launched, as a way to arrest their members and stop SCP-250-IT production.
Addendum 250-IT-c: list of hidden SCP-250-IT factories
This section hosts a table with suspected addresses obtained by interviews with members of the Society fo the Black Star taken into custody.
| Building | Status and actions taken by the Foundation |
|---|---|
| basement of warehouse number 14, ███ ████avenue, Terni industrial district. | Closed. 12 instances seized. 6 GoI members arrested by SIR-I. |
| Abandoned farmhouse at 22, ███ street, countryside of Lecce. | Closed. 15 instances seized. 3 GoI members arrested; Two more have fled the area by thaumaturgical means. |
| Abandoned industrial complex in the suburbs of Velletri. | Closed. 17 instances seized. 3 GoI members terminated. Due to armed resistance from one of them, who had opened a SCP-250-IT instance, MTF-XIII was deployed. Lieutenant Mattei was lightly injuried. |
| Private hangar in ██████ road, Padova. | Investigations ongoing. |
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