SCP-7545

+ Show component code
+ Show component code

 
rating: +199+–x
5/7545 LEVEL 5/7545
CLASSIFIED
classified-bar.svg
classified-bar.svg
classified-bar.svg
classified-bar.svg
classified-bar.svg
classified-bar.svg
Item #: SCP-7545
Safe
bunker.png

Aboveground portions of SCP-7545.

SPECIAL CONTAINMENT PROCEDURES: The information regarding the exact location of SCP-7545 is currently limited only to the O5 Council and personnel deemed necessary for SCP-7545 research. SCP-7545 is otherwise self-containing. All SCP-7545-A entities reside within SCP-7545 and are similarly self-containing. In the absence of the Administrator, custody of SCP-7545 is retained by the O5 Council.

DESCRIPTION: SCP-7545 is Sanctum Eleven, an underground bunker complex located in [REDACTED] and owned by O5-11 from 1919 up until his death in 1998. As Sanctums are built as extended safe work and living spaces for Overseers and their staff members, SCP-7545 contains extensive accommodations for long-term occupation by up to forty personnel.

SCP-7545-A is the collective designation for four biological machines, genetically identical and visually similar to the late O5-11, currently inhabiting SCP-7545.

Addendum 7545.1

DISCOVERY

TRANSCRIPT OF A RECORDING OF A TELEPHONE
CONVERSATION BETWEEN O5-1 AND O5-11 ON APRIL 30, 1998 FROM 7:46 TO 7:53 P.M.

O5-1: Hello? Who is this?

O5-11: (Heavy breathing.)

O5-1: This is a secure government line. I would strongly recommend you hang up the—

O5-11: (Dry, hacking cough) They're not people.

O5-1: Eleven? Is that you?

O5-11: Little more than automata of flesh. Conditional machines.

O5-1: What are you talking about? Listen, are you alright? We haven't heard from you in—

O5-11: (Voice rising) Remember it! They're failures, facsimiles of— of me. Half-remembrances.

O5-1: What are you saying? Where are you?

O5-11: Come to the Sanctum, Django. See for yourself. You've been a good friend.

[Call terminated.]

Immediately following this conversation, O5-1 dispatched Mobile Task Force Alpha-1 ("Red Right Hand") to Sanctum Eleven to ascertain O5-11's condition. Upon arrival in [REDACTED], Fireteams TRIPTYCH, RAZOR, and SHRINE overrode the security protocols and automatic defenses, gaining entrance into SCP-7545.

Despite containing enough living space for dozens of staff members and guards, the vast majority of SCP-7545 was abandoned and littered with objects of disparate make and function. Alpha-1 operators quickly moved through and secured the facility, finding O5-11 within his private living space and study on the third and final sublevel. He was pronounced dead on arrival by Alpha-1 medics, who requested and received authorization from Overwatch Command to secure O5-11's body and transport it to the nearest Foundation facility. In the process of removing the body from SCP-7545, they encountered four SCP-7545-A instances within O5-11's apartment and instead moved to secure the anomalies.

Upon confirmation that SCP-7545-A instances were non-hostile, O5-1 arrived three hours later to evaluate the situation. He ordered that he be the one to interview the SCP-7545-A instances, along with assisting in the cataloging of the contents of the Sanctum.

Addendum 7545.2

ASSORTED LOGS

FILE 7545.B83: Statement from Odongo Tejani, chairman of the Ethics Committee, when informed of the death of O5-11.

What a horrid man. It's not kind to speak ill of the dead, and I recognize that — but I'm of the opinion that at a certain point, once you commit enough atrocities in your life, you lose the right to a peaceful death. If there's anyone on Earth that qualifies for that dubious achievement, it was Benjamin.

FILE 7545.L91: Overseer Edict #111, c. 1890

AND with regards to the Indian encroach on the Western Containment Facility, Overseer Lambda1 has arranged for the Government of the United States of America to relocate the native tribes from federal-held land leased to the Foundation for private use. Their claim to the land has been deemed of secondary importance to the security of the facility and the continued operation of the Foundation.

▶OPEN ADDENDUM◀

FILE 7545.O23: Ethics Committee Edict #001 (regarding SCP-5549) c. 1977

For egregious and excessive ethics violations in the treatment of SCP-5549 and in the course of Project LONDON BRIDGE, O5-11 is hereby placed on administrative leave for a period of no less than two years. It is the opinion of the committee that the judgments made by O5-11 were motivated by a desire to weaponize anomalies for Foundation use, rather than in the greater interests of the Foundation.

While this in and of itself is a significant ethical violation, it is noteworthy to point out that the Foundation has done so prior to the 1920 Restructuring. O5-11's violation was doing this through institutional support and protection of a baseless project rather than through official channels and with the consent of the rest of the Council. His decisions resulted in the deaths of several dozen Foundation staff and the creation of a dangerous anomaly extremely hostile to the Foundation.

While this committee does not have the power to permanently remove members of the Council, it is our urgent recommendation that the Administrator reconsider O5-11's station in light of recent events. There is blood on his hands.

FILE 7545.Z31: United States Army Field Promotion Order c. 1863

[…] AND FOR taking command of his regiment when his superior officer was struck down in the line of battle and leading a successful charge to protect a civilian from massacre by enemy forces, Benjamin ████████ is HEREBY awarded the Medal of Honor of these United States for gallantry in combat AND promoted to First Lieutenant of the 15th New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Signed by President Abraham Lincoln and witnessed […]

▶OPEN ADDENDUM◀

FILE 7545.K82: Memo from the office of O5-11, 7-18-1963

I'm disappointed in you, Director Conway. Very, very disappointed. My understanding when I hired you was that you were a visionary. And visionaries are what define the future of our organization — strong men, doing what needs to be done, seeing the whole board when most people can barely look a square or two beyond.

I can however now see that that is not true. Your vision is still utterly limited by the prejudices and biases of the old world. The Foundation has the unique ability to exist without having to conform to society's idiosyncratic bigotries. And our mission is too important to compromise because you're too much of an insecure spineless buffoon to realize that someone's skin color has no bearing on their ability to do the job. Probably better than you, frankly.

Drop the racial hiring embargo at your Site and onboard Ms. Jones, or I'll fly down and make you.

FILE 7545.F72: Excerpt from Operation TANGIER CUT debriefing, c. 1969.

Per O5-11's orders, all suspected GRU-P infiltrators were covertly detained by Internal Security agents in a simultaneous action across 8 Sites and involving nearly 39 personnel at 2:11 AM GMT. Where possible, Persons of Interest were brought to on-Site interrogation units and exposed to both anomalous and mundane interrogation performed by Atypical Persuasion Unit personnel. 21 of the 39 detainees confessed to being GRU-P deep cover agents. In accordance with O5-11's standing orders, this accounts for over half the number of detainees; as such, all 39 of them have been terminated to reduce the Foundation's risk factor.

▶OPEN ADDENDUM◀

FILE 7545.B12: Communication from the Administrator to O5-11, c. 1976

Hello, Eleven.

It's been quite some time. I hope you've been well. Despite recent events, know that I have no hard feelings toward you; I'm not sure I'm capable of grudges anymore. But that's neither here nor there. You made a mistake. An egregious, ugly, incomprehensibly large mistake, perhaps, but a mistake nonetheless. You did not seek to undermine the organization, only bring it back to a time when you thought it was stronger, more effective in its mission.

You were wrong, needless to say. That is the only reason your removal from the Council is temporary — I sincerely believe you have failed to understand how the Foundation has evolved. So allow me to illustrate it for you: the Foundation has cycles. Ebbs and flows. Periods where the use of anomalies is encouraged, and periods where it is discouraged. When I began the organization two centuries ago, we were a loose confederation of alchemists, mages, and scholars, trying to understand and use the anomalous to protect humanity. That is the Foundation you came into.

After the Restructuring and the Great War, things changed. There was a strong sentiment that the Foundation should not get involved in these mundane wars, even if they trickled into the Occult World. This is the Foundation we are now in. Scientists and researchers more interested in containment than use.

I understand this doesn't sit well with you. I don't care. You are a relic of an older time, Benjamin, much like myself. I have adapted to the times, as you must. Adapt or die. Your sabbatical from the Council is set for five years. Make the most of it.

Yours,
Franz Williams, the Administrator.

▶OPEN ADDENDUM◀

FILE 7545.Y17: O5-1 delivering O5-11's eulogy, March 5th, 1998

It's nice to see all of you, gathered here. Many faces I haven't seen in as many years. To be honest, Ben and I didn't expect crowds at either of our funerals. We've both outlived practically everyone else we knew. There are no brothers and sisters or sons and daughters left to mourn us. In Ben's case, there was another reason he didn't expect tears at his death.

I could very easily stand here and lie to all of you. You wouldn't know the difference. I could sit here and tell you that he was an unequivocally good man who tried to do the right thing, even if he made mistakes along the way. I was his best friend. I have an obligation to make the last memories people have of him good ones. Don't I?

But I'm not a liar. He wasn't lucky enough to be a good man. Or a bad man. Instead, he was like most dead people: infinitely complicated. A Foundation man to the bone. I saw him step away from his beloved granddaughter's birthday party to order the termination of an entire department. We pushed for the Foundation to drop old-world biases against women and minorities while he consolidated power in his own office. He encouraged the Administrator to intervene in the Great War to save lives, but was more than happy to sacrifice entire units to deny GRU-P or PENTAGRAM control of anomalies during the Cold War. Infinitely complicated, no matter how much we'd like to pretend they're not.

Many people here will only remember him at the end of his life — a paranoid authoritarian, trying fruitlessly to bring back the good old days he so desperately craved. Supporting ethical atrocities and causing the loss of one of our greatest assets. I don't blame anyone for judging him as they did based on the things he had done. But in the same lifetime and often in the same day, he was an ardent pusher for change in the Foundation, to support our people from all walks of life, to make us a force for good in a cruel, uncaring world. Like all of us, Ben was the sum of his experiences. Born in a different century's war, and spending his entire life trying to apply what he learned to peacetime. Some people will say he was a monster. But just as many will say he was a hero.

The only thing I can say for sure is that my friend is dead.

FILE 7545.A11: Excerpt from autopsy report on O5-11's body.

CIRCULATORY SYSTEM: At the time of death, blood samples indicated the presence of apoaequorin, cholinesterase inhibitors, and █████████ in the system, substances which are rarely encountered together outside of their role as active ingredients in Foundation mnestic drugs. The levels encountered were significantly higher than what would constitute a lethal dose.

▶OPEN ADDENDUM◀
rating: +199+–x

REMAINDER OF FORERUNNER TRIAD MATERIAL IS:

NOW AVAILABLE

PREVIOUS
« INTERREGNUM I »

REDTAPE

NEXT
« THE JADE PROPOSAL »

Footnotes

« SCP-7544 | SCP-7545 | SCP-7546 »

‡ Licensing / Citation
_cc_licenseboxalivebuildinghumanoidodongo-tejanisafesapientscpsubterranean
page revision: 14, last edited: 30 Jun 2023 11:19
Edit Rate (+199) Tags Discuss (18) History Files Print Site tools + Options
Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License