The Foundation goes to war. The Golem of Prague haunts a Nazi wizard. Enrico Fermi borrows a billion dollars of plutonium to kill God. This is how the 7th Occult War ends.
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Item #: SCP-9666
Object Class: Safe
Level 5/VOLTAIRE
Thaumiel
Special Containment Procedures
Custody of SCP-9666 and maintenance of the security cordon around the island have been entrusted to the Foundation by the terms of the Köln Agreement with the Global Occult Coalition.
SCP-9666 is the subject of an ongoing disinformation campaign to conceal the existence of Site Voltaire and Project WATCHGOD. No records of this document, nor of any related documents, are to be kept outside of Site Voltaire. Foundation remediation efforts to render SCP-9666 habitable again following the deployment of WHITE ARROW during the Seventh Occult War are to be concealed from the Global Occult Coalition.
Despite ongoing remediation efforts, SCP-9666 remains unsuitable for permanent occupation. Daily, weekly, and yearly exposure limits for SCP-9666 have been established for Foundation personnel assigned to Site Voltaire. Personnel may only exceed these limits when authorized by O5-3 or Analytics Director Simon Pietrykau.
Description
SCP-9666. Ground zero of WHITE ARROW is marked with an X.
SCP-9666 is an uninhabited island in the Baltic Sea, located approximately 30 kilometers away from the Danish island of Bornholm. It is the site of the final battle of the Seventh Occult War.
SCP-9666 was rendered uninhabitable by the deployment of the WHITE ARROW eigenweapon by the Allied Occult Initiative1 during Operation AEON DAWN. Living organisms exposed to SCP-9666 rapidly develop a flat affect and cease responding to external stimuli, which typically eventually results in death from dehydration. This condition develops at different rates at different points on the island, with the most rapid progression observed near ground zero. Affected organisms may recover from this condition if removed from the island shortly after the onset of initial symptoms; the chances of recovery diminish rapidly the longer an affected organism remains on the island.
Subsequent remediation efforts carried out by the Foundation have rendered portions of the island relatively safe for temporary human occupation2, thereby enabling its use as Site Voltaire, a classified Foundation facility dedicated to Thaumiel research and development.
Historical Background
The Battle of Prague
The Old New Synagogue of Prague, where the Golem of Prague was found.
On March 15th, 1939, the world was plunged into full-scale occult warfare for at least the seventh time in hominid history.3 The Schutzstaffel Ahnenerbe Obskuracorps, with the assistance of the Thule Society and a number of other esoteric fascist cults and cabals, unsuccessfully attempted to seize the Golem of Prague, which served as a repository for one of the Seven Keys of Solomon. At the same time, a coalition of major occult powers, led by the Occult Service of the British Empire and the Reformed Templar Knights, launched their own raid in the hopes of recovering the Golem for use as a weapon against Nazi Germany and its Obskuracorps. Using an experimental prototype Everhart Resonator4, a Templar commando unit apportated into Prague and exfiltrated the Golem from amidst a pitched battle against a force of Thule battlemages. At the time, neither the Foundation nor any of the members of the nascent Allied Occult Initiative were aware that the Golem possessed a Key of Solomon, nor were they aware of the significance of this artifact.5
The Battle of Prague marked the transition point from the pre-War archeological competition between the various occult powers and the start of a true Occult War. However, the Allied Occult Initiative remained unaware of the Obskuracorps' true goals for most of the War, and continued to treat it largely as a continuation of the archeological contest. The existential nature of the War would not become apparent until the Foundation's entry into the conflict.
Operation BLACK ROPE
Konrad "Kord" Weiss, Obskuracorps Director of Research and Archeology. Widely considered one of the most powerful German battlemages of the 6th and 7th Occult Wars.
Upon the initial outbreak of hostilities, the Foundation pledged itself to neutrality. However, in secret, it worked closely with members of the Allied Occult Initiative to relocate thousands of artifacts from Europe in the face of rapid Nazi advances in the conventional war. These actions served to frustrate the Obskuracorps as they turned their archeological efforts towards looting sites across occupied Europe in a frantic search for additional Keys of Solomon.
The Foundation remained neutral through the first five years of the War, while continuing to lend covert support to the Allied Occult Initiative. This continued until D-Day and the Allied counter-invasion of France. With the tide of the conventional War turning against Germany, Foundation analysts predicted that the Nazis would attempt to escalate the occult conflict, possibly to a degree that would irreparably damage the Veil.6 At the same time, the Allied Occult Initiative was already looking forwards to the post-War world order — an order which the Foundation sought to participate in from a position of strength. The vast collection of artifacts and anomalous objects held by the Foundation was a source of concern among many AOI members, which, if left unaddressed, could eventually lead to another Occult War.
Lieutenant Julian Corwin, second-in-command of Alpha-61 and the highest ranking member of the Death's-Headhunters to survive Operation BLACK ROPE.
The Overseer Council saw an obvious solution to both problems: capture Konrad Weiss, the powerful battlemage responsible for the Obskuracorps' research and archeological operations. This action would seriously disrupt the Nazi war effort, while demonstrating to the Allied Occult Initiative the Foundation's commitment to the emerging post-War world order.
Thus, on September 1st, 1944, the Foundation launched Operation BLACK ROPE, targeting Konrad Weiss while he was preparing to evacuate his laboratory following the Liberation of Paris. Mobile Task Force Alpha-61 ("Death's-Headhunters"), disguised as a German truck convoy, infiltrated Weiss' villa in Lorraine while he was in the process of dismantling the wards around the structure.7 Taking advantage of Weiss' distracted and vulnerable state, the Death's-Headhunters were able to subdue him and secure the contents of his lab while suffering only modest casualties.
The intelligence recovered from the villa of Konrad Weiss finally revealed the true extent of the Obskuracorps' plans: they sought occult artifacts that would enable them to perform the Rite of Solomon, with the intention of using it to constitute a new thaumarch, a demiurge with control over the nature of thaumaturgy, so that they could limit occult ability and potential solely to members of the Nazi party.
Interrogation of Konrad Weiss
The following interrogation of Konrad Weiss was conducted by AOI Special Operative Josef, a.k.a. the Golem of Prague, and by Lieutenant Julian Corwin of Mobile Task Force Alpha-61 ("Death's-Headhunters").
Josef: Director Weiss, I understand you have been looking for me.
Weiss: Mein Gott, it speaks.
Josef: I speak in the tongues of men and of angels.
Weiss: Do not recite scripture to me, Judenriese8. Especially when it is not even your own.
Josef: As you wish. Your damnation shall be of your own making.
Lieutenant Corwin holds up a hand, cutting-off Weiss before he can respond.
Corwin: We know about the Rite of Solomon, Weiss.
Weiss: Do you? (He yawns.) Then you should know that it won't work. You'll be relieved, I'm sure.
Corwin: Explain yourself.
Weiss: Why should I?
The Golem of Prague steps nearer to Weiss and places a hand on his shoulder.
Josef: Because it is the right thing to do.
Weiss: (He laughs.) You do not scare me, thing of clay. You cannot harm me if you want the information I possess. I believe… how do you Americans say it, Lieutenant? Ah yes, I believe I am the one holding all the cards.
Corwin: We are prepared to offer…
The Golem of Prague turns his head to stare at Corwin until he falls silent. Once he does, the Golem looks back at Weiss.
Josef: Do you know how many people you have killed?
Weiss: I truly do not care.
Josef: Five-hundred-ninety-six people have died directly by your hand. Thousands more have died as a result of your actions and orders. Do you even know their names?
Weiss: Of course not. Your necromancer's parlor tricks do not frighten me, Golem.
Josef: You cannot lie to the dead, Konrad. You cannot lie to me. You know that you are an evil man, and now, faced with the prospect of confronting your own misdeeds, you are indeed afraid.
Weiss: Stop that. (He looks back and forth, as if searching for something.)
Josef: I am not doing anything to you.
Weiss: Make them be quiet!
Josef: I can't. They came with you. They follow you. You are haunted by the misery and pain you have inflicted upon the world. And unless you change your ways, you will only add yourself to that tragic mass of wounded souls.
Weiss: The whispers… (He closes his eyes momentarily, then reopens them. He turns to look at an empty part of the room.) Be silent! Your death was your own fault, you incompetent oaf! (He turns to look back at the Golem of Prague.) You won't break me this way, Golem.
Josef: Perhaps. (He removes his hand from Weiss' shoulder.) Lieutenant, I believe we should resume this conversation in a few days. Let us leave Director Weiss alone with his thoughts. Perhaps, after some quiet contemplation, he will reconsider his stance.
Weiss inhales deeply, twice in quick succession. He shifts in his seat and begins tapping his foot against the floor. He continues breathing heavily. Then he speaks through gritted teeth.
Weiss: Fine! It's the replacement Keys! They won't work!
Corwin: What do you mean? Your letter to Himmler—
Weiss: Was a lie! I can't replicate the aetheric signature of the original Keys. The replacements won't work.
Josef: That is because two of your Keys are fakes. You only ever had four of the seven in your possession.
Corwin: Which means that this entire war was for nothing. You were never going to win.
Weiss: (He shakes his head frantically.) No, no. You do not understand. The Keys aren't necessary to constitute the thaumarch, only to control it.
Corwin: Do they know that they won't be able to control it?
Weiss: No.
Corwin: Does anyone know?
Weiss: No. Only myself. And now the two of you.
Corwin: So they're going to try to do it anyways. What happens if they constitute the thaumarch without being able to control it?
Weiss: Then they'll use the weapon of the Godless to destroy it. A dog that doesn't follow orders is worthless. The same is true of a god.
Josef: It won't work.
Weiss: How would you know?
Josef: Because I have examined the schematics of your so-called weapon. It is flawed. Too narrowly tailored a tool for too broad of a task. It was only ever meant to destroy the original thaumarch.
Weiss: Then I suppose you shall have to stop them. For all of our sakes. Unless you gentlemen know how to kill an angry god.
Operation AEON DAWN
Although the information gained from Konrad Weiss indicated that the Obskuracorps would be unable to utilize the Rite of Solomon for their own ends, allowing them to proceed with their plans for the Rite would almost certainly result in a GR-Class Hostile Demiurge Event. According to Weiss, the Obskuracorps would not attempt to perform the Rite until completing work on the final Ersatz Key of Solomon, which he anticipated would be done by late January or early February of 1945. The focus of Allied Occult Initiative and Foundation war efforts thus shifted towards locating the site where the Obskuracorps intended to perform the Rite and launching an operation to disrupt it.
Timeline of Search Efforts
1 September 1944. Konrad Weiss captured. Documents and testimony taken from Weiss reveal the Obskuracorps' plans for the Rite of Solomon.
9 September. AOI High Command meets in emergency session. O5-7 and O5-3 attend as representatives of the Foundation. Together, they devise a joint proposal to be presented to the Allied governments at the upcoming Second Quebec Conference. Sir Robert Durant of the British Occult Service is named as their preferred operation commander.
12 September. American and British heads of state and representatives meet for the Second Quebec Conference. Among other topics, representatives for the AOI report on the Obskuracorps and the Rite of Solomon to the Combined Chiefs of Staff. A plan is outlined under which the AOI would trade some of its autonomy9 for the full cooperation and resources of the Allied Expeditionary Force to search for and destroy any Obskuracorps facility capable of carrying out the Rite.
The AOI’s proposal for a plan of battle, Operation AEON DAWN, is approved and signed by the end of the conference. Durant, now commissioned as a Lieutenant General, will command the operation under the banner of the Allied Expeditionary Force. The British Army’s XXII Corps are to provide any additional ground forces, while air forces would be drawn from the First Allied Airborne Army.
18 September. The Foundation compiles a target list of likely sites for Obskuracorps research on the Rite of Solomon. At this time, SS Ahnenerbe headquarters in Berlin is considered the most likely candidate. However, Weiss suggests in interrogation that they likely have facilities he has no knowledge of.
The search for the Obskuracorps’ secret base begins with mundane aerial reconnaissance and algorithmically assisted remote viewing-based surveillance across central Europe. AOI heightens its attention on all known Obskuracorps facilities, but most have already been abandoned. Initial observations fail to find any indication of a missing base within Germany.
Over the next three months, the AOI will continue to conduct small-scale raids on outlying facilities using apportation, but to little result.
29 September. Aerial search of France concluded; search area extended to Netherlands, Denmark, and Italy.
5 October. AOI Council of War Engineering10 is tasked with preparing anomalously enhanced aircraft for reconnaissance and airdropping troops against paranormal adversaries. Concepts for such aircraft modifications had existed in various forms since the start of the 7th Occult War, but had not been implemented for various reasons — chiefly, lack of air superiority over occupied Europe and the successful use of apportation in commando raids. Durant begins the process of selecting ideal planes for the task.
16 December. Germany launches the Ardennes Offensive with the aim to retake Antwerp, Belgium from Allied forces. The First Allied Airborne Army will be fully occupied defending against the attack and providing air support until March, leaving them unable to participate in Operation AEON DAWN as planned.
20 December. Heightened activity and movement of materiel in Kiel11 detected by scrying. AOI High Command, reviewing captured Obskuracorps technical research data, finds a mostly theoretical project devoted to anomalous development of advanced U-Boat technology. They conclude that a concealed base accessed by submarine is possible, but unlikely. Operations are revised to account for this.
Schematics of the PBN-1 Nomad.
21 December. With the First Allied Airborne Army now unavailable, RAF Coastal Command organises the aerial search team, codenamed LOYAL BIRD, from the 202nd Squadron at RAF Castle Archdale in Northern Ireland. AOI mechanics arrive and begin to modify twenty-eight PBN-1 Nomad seaplanes. In addition to engine modifications and paranormal camouflage paint, the Nomads will carry an anomalously enhanced communications and sensor suite including surface-search radar, ultra-long-range radios, Pantelegraph wireless fax machines, basilisk heat detectors, and thaummeters, as well as being equipped with mundane sonobuoys. All upgrades are completed by 19 January, after which the process is begun of tuning the patrol planes’ EVE profiles for apportation.
10 January. SHAEF12 finishes a review of observed Axis rail traffic and ultimately concludes a high likelihood of a previously unknown Obskuracorps facility located in the vicinity of the North Sea or Baltic Sea, either on the coast or concealed underwater. A submarine-accessible base is now considered the leading possibility, as mundane aerial surveillance had failed to uncover any such base earlier in the war.
AEON DAWN’s remote-viewing search is adjusted to focus on coastal areas. Marine search efforts begin by the Royal Navy to sweep the North Sea, leaving only the Baltic Sea yet unsearched. Representatives meet with the Swedish government and begin making all necessary arrangements for use of Swedish airbases to stage and receive Allied forces.
23 January. Apportation tuning of patrol planes is complete.
Dragonfly Duchess prepares for its reconnaissance sortie.
24 January 1, 0200 (Greenwich Mean Time). In the dead of night, LOYAL BIRD board their planes in the harbor, start their engines, and wait. Each plane has an eight-man crew: a pilot and co-pilot, navigator, flight mechanic, and three gunners; their eighth man, normally the radio operator, is replaced by flight-qualified AOI personnel to manage the complex anomalous components.
In the harbor all around the Nomads, AOI engineers are busy rigging ritual components and foci, Everhart Resonators, and electrical equipment on the shore and the docks as well as on barges and buoys. Anti-air searchlights are repurposed to illuminate the harbor, to allow the planes to better maneuver in the limited space between the delicate and essential components. Shep Whinfield, the navigator of Dragonfly Duchess, would later describe the moment as if "we were flies waiting patiently in a web for our turn to try and run straight into the spider’s mouth."
0300. Sour Mama, the first plane in line, moves to approach the focal point of the working near the mouth of the bay, picking up speed. She has only just barely reached her takeoff speed when she hits the designated spot.
0301:03. The working is activated. Sour Mama is teleported nearly a thousand kilometers to the east, and five kilometers above the Baltic Sea, to arrive at her designated grid position. To the eyes of those on shore, she simply vanishes smoothly into the fog.
Over the next thirty minutes, all twenty-eight LOYAL BIRD planes are likewise sent to their search areas.
0335:12. The final LOYAL BIRD plane to take flight, Dragonfly Duchess, radios in to announce a successful apportation. Four planes fail to ever report in, and are presumed lost. Later analyses conclude a mix of ritual error and aviation error resulted in these planes crashing into the sea. In the end, 21 out of their 32 airmen survive and will eventually be recovered — many as prisoners of war.
Technical errors with the paranormal radio hardware will result in an additional twelve planes being unable to make consistent contact. Eventually, they begin relaying their reports through other nearby planes with working ultra-long-range radios. Additional technical errors inhibit successful operation of several planes’ cameras and instrumentation, further degrading search quality. Nevertheless, over the next eight hours, LOYAL BIRD will proceed to search all across the Baltic Sea and its coastlines using sonar and paranormal imaging.
0401. Pelican Blanc makes her final report, calling in from approximately 40 kilometers south of Kalmar, Sweden, having found nothing yet.
0404. Pelican Blanc is intercepted and shot down, lost with all hands. Recordkeeping of Nazi transmissions, obtained later, show a coded transmission between Obskuracorps Major Reinhard Panzinger and Reichsmarschall13 Hermann Goering to ask for a full-scale Luftwaffe sortie, expecting an incoming air attack. On being told that the Luftwaffe lacks the pilots for such a response, Panzinger asks them to disrupt and delay the Allied search as much as possible.
0430. Luftwaffe Gruppe JG 27 launches a meager air intercept force from airbases Parchim and Lübeck in northeastern Germany, which immediately begin engaging LOYAL BIRD over the next several hours. Luftwaffe jets struggle to sight the Nomads due to their camouflage and the light conditions, but manage to down three more Allied planes along the coast before being repelled.
1100. All surviving search planes complete their initial search by this time. Revised orders are given, for now redirecting LOYAL BIRD to re-checking the search areas of planes whose sensory equipment malfunctioned. Due to the chaos, the significance of Pelican Blanc's absence has not yet been recognised.
1115. LL Kristiana, a small fishing vessel, returns to harbor in Trelleborg, where its owner, Stefan Bertil, immediately contacts the Military Intelligence and Security Service. He reports having seen a warplane destroyed by a large fireball, presuming it to be a new, unknown weapon.
1123. Swedish Armed Forces Central Command is informed of the incident. Embedded AOI agents relay this information to AOI High Command.
1130. Now properly notified, LOYAL BIRD ground control redirects the five nearest planes — Dragonfly Duchess, Cox & Box, Ruby Grace, Dozen Cubans, and Tax Man — directly for Pelican Blanc’s last known location. Within the hour, they locate the hidden base concealed underground on a small uninhabited island, but are forced to turn back amidst heavy anti-aircraft flak and paranormal countermeasures. They set their course for Malmen Airbase in Sweden.
Timeline of Strike Operations
Sir Robert Durant of the British Occult Service, commander of Operation AEON DAWN.
24 January 1945, 1330 hours (GMT). LOYAL BIRD, returning from the search, lands and refuels at Malmen Airbase. The undamaged airplanes receive new payloads of self-deploying Luciano-Grimaldi probability beacons, which will serve as targets to guide in-bound apportation. The crew are advised to rest while they can.
They are joined on the runway by Moon River, a Douglas C-47 "Skytrain" military transport, who stands by ready to carry a company of US 101st Airborne Division paratroopers and AOI operatives into battle. Lieutenant General Durant is with them. In a nearby hangar, AOI engineers begin preparing the British Army XXII Corps' 10th Regiment for deployment via apportation.
1345. Throughout the day, available fighter wings from Allied airbases across Europe begin to take flight and proceed towards the ritual site, ready to aid in overcoming air defenses.
1500. Durant addresses the 10th Regiment with a pre-written speech reviewed by AOI High Command.14 They are told the mission they are about to embark on is to prevent Germany from acquiring a superweapon of unrivaled power, though they are not told about the Rite of Solomon; instead it is implied the weapon is nuclear in nature.
Shortly after, Durant delivers another, impromptu speech to a smaller gathering of the paratrooper strike team, the pilots and crew of LOYAL BIRD, and several AOI engineers and thaumaturges. At his own request, the contents of this speech were never recorded by any party, though it is attested that Durant brought out a bottle of brandy and led the gathering in a toast.
1600. Major Panzinger assembles the Obskuracorps officers in an underground atrium. He announces that Obskuracorps thaumaturges have completed the final Ersatz Key, and declares that they shall begin the Rite of Solomon immediately. He explains that time is of the essence and that they must proceed with the Rite ahead of schedule, without the presence of the Führer, due to the Allied discovery of the ritual site.
The Obskuracorps facility initiates an automatic teletype record-keeping process at this time to record his speech and the ceremony. Teletype recording will remain in operation for all following events until the eventual destruction of the facility.
1621:15. Teletype records indicate Panzinger finishes his speech, and begins performing the Rite.
1621:18. The genuine Keys of Solomon in AOI possession begins to exhibit an unexplained resonance. Special Operative Josef complains of a headache — the first one he has ever experienced. This is taken as a sign that the Ersatz Keys are being activated.
1621:25. Scintillation detectors at Oak Ridge, Hanford, Los Alamos, and other Manhattan Project sites begin to record anomalous positive signals even where no experiments are running.
1624:22. An anomalous "heartbeat" seismograph pattern is registered exclusively in light-based seismometer designs around the world. Close analysis of the seismographs suggests the "heartbeat" is detected exactly simultaneously in all locations. The pattern will continue to register until 1819:01.
1625. LOYAL BIRD completes rearmament and sorties from Malmen Airbase with the 101st Airborne Division.
1628. Teletype records show the assembled Obskuracorps officers observe an entity beginning to take visible form at this time.
1633. The entity is non-responsive. Obskuracorps ritualists attempt to talk to it in several languages.
1643. LOYAL BIRD rendezvous with their fighter escort over Kalmar, and set course for the ritual site.
1647. Obskuracorps ritualists attempt to use various magical means to induce a response from the entity. It remains non-responsive.
Obskuracorps anti-air defenses attempting to shoot down LOYAL BIRD.
1712. LOYAL BIRD approaches within visual range of the base.
1713. LOYAL BIRD and escorts begin taking fire from Obskurakorps anti-air defenses.
1714. Panzinger attempts to repeat the binding rite, to no observed effect.
1720:12. Teletype records suggest Panzinger strikes the entity to provoke a response.
1720:13. The entity begins to move.
1720:28. The paratrooper company jumps from Moon River as the plane passes directly overhead of the ritual site.
1720:35. A large explosion envelops the facility, vaporizing the roof and heavily damaging the structure.
1722. AEON DAWN paratrooper strike team lands and begins engaging surviving Obskuracorps operatives in combat.
1724. LOYAL BIRD drop their payloads of probability beacons over the island. Reinforcements for the strike team begin to apportate in. Special Operative Josef is among the reinforcements.
1726. The entity is first spotted by Sour Mama's port gunner. Sour Mama is ordered to circle over the facility and avoid further combat while continuing observations to the best of their ability.
Aerial observation tracks the entity moving through the facility, seemingly searching for something. Though it is not seen to make any attack or overtly hostile action, neither Obskuracorps nor Allied forces are able to impede its movement, and some are seen to fall incapacitated as it approaches.
1730. AOI High Command gives the order to cease any further apportation of reinforcements. At this time, just over 200 soldiers have been deployed to the island, although another 800 soldiers are standing by.
1744. Water begins to flood the facility's damaged sublevels, where it flash-boils upon contact with the entity. The resulting plumes of steam obscure further aerial observation.
1753. Allied ground forces report that the entity has stopped at a warded room deep within the facility. They watch as the entity tears open the door and consumes an artifact contained within, presumed to be an Ersatz Key.
1758. AEON DAWN strike team members gain entry to a vault containing one of the genuine Keys. Durant, acting on his own initiative, orders the strike team to attempt to secure the remaining Keys, in the hope that they can be used to perform the Rite of Solomon properly to gain control over the entity.
1803:10. Durant radios his intentions to AOI High Command, and requests that the other two Keys in AOI possession be apportated to the island. AOI High Command denies his request. He is informed that a B-29 carrying WHITE ARROW is already inbound.
Project WHITE ARROW
As early as 1940, the Allied Occult Initiative recognized the need for manufactured paranormal weapons of high power to combat the threat of Obskuracorps battlemages and weapons of the same nature.15
Over the course of the Seventh Occult War, four separate proposals received serious consideration: codenamed THUNDERBOLT, GHOST WING, PANDORA, and WHITE ARROW. Research into the first two proposals would lead nowhere by the end of the war, and they would later be proven impossible either for practical, economical, or mathematical reasons. PANDORA would turn out to have a working principle, derived from the field of amnestics, but its random targeting of the population was found to be utterly ineffective during the war, and it would ultimately be abandoned by nearly all parties.
Enrico Fermi, architect of WHITE ARROW.
The concept behind WHITE ARROW initially received little favor near the start of the war, and had no dedicated development project of its own. But it would gradually gain momentum until by 1945 it was the clear winner. Its reappraisal was due in no small part to the meteoric careers of its two biggest believers: John Everhart and Enrico Fermi.
"Thin Man" was the United States Army code name for a prototype plutonium gun-type16 nuclear bomb in development under the Manhattan Project. By 1944, the limitations of a physical, non-thaumatological nuclear weapon of Thin Man’s design had become apparent. The efficiency of the bomb was dramatically inferior to that of an implosion-type bomb17 to the point of jeopardizing Thin Man’s chances of even detonating. In addition, increasing the yield would require increasing the length of the bomb well beyond what could be carried by any Allied bomber yet designed.
While John Everhart wished to remedy Thin Man’s weaknesses utilizing thaumatological methods, in July of 1944 President Roosevelt would ultimately demand that the Manhattan Project deliver a strictly physical bomb.18
As Robert Oppenheimer restructured the Manhattan Project around the task of delivering a plutonium-based implosion-type bomb, several subdivisions continued alternate research. Francis Birch would lead O-1 Group in development of a physical uranium variant of the Thin Man design, which would later become the famous "Little Boy" weapon. Edward Teller would likewise lead F-1 Group in research of "Super", an advanced physical fusion bomb weapon. However, Enrico Fermi would direct the F-3 Group to continue development of the Thin Man design, now using thaumatological methods, later defending his actions by claiming that this was never expressly prohibited by the President.19
John Everhart, inventor of the Everhart Resonator and FIREBREAK.
By the start of 1945, F-3 Group had resolved four thaumaturgic technologies to address Thin Man’s weaknesses. Using Euler-Wilkinson type spacial compression, Fermi demonstrated that a bomb casing no larger than what could fit in a B-29 bomber’s bay might contain a gun-type "barrel" for any arbitrarily high yield. Egon Bretscher discovered a set of entropic dampening sigils to mitigate spontaneous fission in Plutonium-240. Klaus Fuchs designed an ectotropic tamper to boost the weapon's yield using ectoplasm sourced from executed German spies.
The fourth technology, referred to in internal documents only as FIREBREAK, was developed by John Everhart. It remains classified due to its ongoing use in a number of eigenweapons deployed by the Global Occult Coalition.20
Fermi would rename the project, leaving behind the Thin Man name and its poor reputation. The new iteration would become known as WHITE ARROW.
Timeline of WHITE ARROW Deployment
14 August 1944. AOI High Command approves the use of AOI resources for the ongoing development of the WHITE ARROW project.
06 September. WHITE ARROW reaches a state deemed as "sprint-to-readiness": while the AOI continues to commit only minimal resources to its development for the time being, it is estimated that WHITE ARROW could reach a complete state in as little as two weeks if the AOI’s full resources were devoted.
09 September. Operation AEON DAWN is authorised by AOI High Command. After appointing Durant and outlining the initial proposal, all non-essential personnel are dismissed. The rest of AOI High Command begins debating the use of WHITE ARROW. The minutes of this second meeting would be sealed and later destroyed. Ultimately, two plans of action were settled on and prepared.
Due to the immediate urgency, and only possessing a single weapon, it was deemed too risky and too slow to transport WHITE ARROW via aircraft across the Atlantic in a near-ready state. Under Plan R, WHITE ARROW (or its components) would be apportated from New Mexico in a disarmed state to one of several pre-designated airbases throughout Europe, where planes would wait fueled and ready to receive WHITE ARROW and then deliver it to the target. In Plan M, however, AOI battlemages in the field would perform one half of a working to help aim an apportation of WHITE ARROW directly onto the target.
Plan R was favored by nearly all members of High Command, with Plan M being regarded as as fallback. However, Plan R depended on one crucial unknown: the apportation of a nuclear weapon.
1 December 1944. Plutonium apportation testing begins at Alamogordo Bombing Range in New Mexico. Over the next two months, Fermi and Everhart will conduct over a hundred different tests. Despite attempts to manage the backlash by using the desert as a heat sink, the ritual workings cause repeated problems, among them thought to be the accidental destruction of the sole prototype McDonnell XP-67 jet interceptor over a thousand miles away at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri. Still, by Christmas the two men had successfully apportated a subcritical mass of plutonium without incident, and by late January every individual component of WHITE ARROW would be successfully apportated at least once.
23 January 1945, 0700 (GMT). B-29 Oldlace Orion lands at RAF Mildenhall Airbase to serve as a pre-designated candidate for delivery of WHITE ARROW, pending the decision of Lieutenant-General Durant and AOI High Command.
23 January, 1200 (GMT). AOI High Command selects Mildenhall as WHITE ARROW's staging site.
WHITE ARROW being prepared for apportation.
23 January, 2119. WHITE ARROW casing apportation complete.
24 January, 0028. WHITE ARROW "bullet" apportation complete.
24 January, 0954. WHITE ARROW "target" apportation complete.
24 January, 1425. WHITE ARROW ████████ apportation complete.
1510. WHITE ARROW assembly complete. The weapon is loaded onto Oldlace Orion.
1527. Oldlace Orion takes off from Mildenhall and moves to a standby position.
1726. AOI High Command gives orders to proceed to the target with all haste and deploy WHITE ARROW immediately.
1808. Oldlace Orion reaches visual range of the Obskuracorps facility. No air defences remain at this time. WHITE ARROW is armed.
1809. AEON DAWN strike team contacts Oldlace Orion on radio, notifying them that they have the Keys of Solomon in their possession.
1812. Oldlace Orion, in contravention of orders, circles the facility at a distance while confirming the command to drop, noting the presence of the AEON DAWN strike team still on site.
1813. AOI High Command confirms the order to drop WHITE ARROW, but adds a five minute hold to give the strike team a chance to evacuate.
AOI High Command instructs thaumaturges on standby at ICSUT Zurich to attempt to extract the strike team via apportation. A remote apportation across such a distance has never been attempted before.
1818:03. ICSUT Zurich completes the extraction apportation working, but fails to extract the strike team. Whether this is due to a failure of the working, or interference from the nascent thaumarch, is never conclusively determined.
1818:15. Oldlace Orion releases WHITE ARROW.
1818:59. WHITE ARROW impacts target.
1819:00.889 WHITE ARROW fails to attain supercriticality. Nevertheless, the weapon functions as intended. ███ ██████████ ███████ ████ ███ ██████ ███████████ █████ ████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ██████ ████ ██ █████ ███ ██████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ████ ███ ███████ ██ █████ █████████ ██ ██████████ ██████████ ████████ ██ ████ ██ ██████ ███ ██████████████████████ ████████ ████████████████ ███ ████████ ████████████████.21
1819:01. The entity ceases to exist. All remaining Obskuracorps combatants, as well as all members of the AEON DAWN strike team — save for Special Operative Josef — are instantly killed.
1819:02. The "heartbeat" pattern observed on light-based seismographs ceases.
26 January. Special Operative Josef walks out of the ocean and onto a beach near Kalmar, Sweden. He voluntarily surrenders himself to Swedish authorities, and is quickly remanded into AOI custody. The remaining Keys of Solomon are in his possession.
Interview of Golem of Prague
The following debriefing of AOI Special Operative Josef, a.k.a. the Golem of Prague, was conducted by Captain Julian Corwin of Mobile Task Force Alpha-61 ("Death's-Headhunters").
Corwin: Josef. (He salutes.)
Josef: Captain. (He returns the salute.) Please allow me to congratulate you on your promotion. And to say: it is good to see you again. There are far too many for whom that shall never again be the case.
Corwin: It's good to see you too. (He pauses as he sits down.) So I guess I'll start with the obvious question: how did you survive WHITE ARROW?
Josef: That would require me to be alive in the first place.
Corwin: Are you not?
Josef: No. Not in the way you are. I am a golem, a construct animated by sorcery. So long as the emet remains upon my clay, I cannot be destroyed.
Corwin: What about Durant and the rest of the strike team. Why didn't they try to apportate out on their own?
Josef: I can only speculate as to his motives, but there are a number of obvious factors he likely took into consideration: the difficulty of sourcing enough Elan Vital Energy to conduct a local apportation, insufficient skilled thaumaturges to evacuate the entire company, and the risk of drawing the attention of the thaumarch. What I can say for certain is that when the attempt to extract the strike team via remote apportation failed, Sir Durant ordered his men to engage the remaining Obskuracorps, so as to prevent them from targeting the B-29 carrying WHITE ARROW. The last I saw of him, he was engaged in a duel with a Thule Society acolyte. (The glow of his eyes dims slightly and he bows his head.) He was a good man and a brave warrior. It was an honor to serve with him.
Corwin: And what were you doing? Did you join the company in engaging the Obskuracorps?
Josef: Not quite. I engaged the thaumarch directly, to prevent it from noticing the B-29 and taking defensive action.
Corwin: You fought it?
Josef: No. I spoke with it. With her.
Corwin: Her?
Josef: Yes. She was just a child, not of this world and completely ignorant of it, alone and scared. So I sat with her, and told her stories until the end. I told her… (He trails off.)
Corwin: What? What did you tell her?
Josef: I asked her to forgive us, though we knew exactly what we did.
Thaumiel Research
The lingering deleterious anomalous effects from WHITE ARROW serve as a passive defense for Site Voltaire, a top secret installation dedicated to Thaumiel research and development, located on SCP-9666. Site Voltaire is primarily dedicated to researching a solution to the problem of machine thaumaturgy22 — considered to be the likeliest potential cause of the next Occult War, as the ability to mass produce artificial thaumaturges would enable unprecedented proliferation of eigenweaponry. To this end, Site Voltaire houses Project WATCHGOD, which seeks to alter the underlying rules of thaumatology to make machine thaumaturgy impossible.
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