Containment Breachs & Dinner Conversations
"THIS IS SITE DIRECTOR REYNOLDS. THERE HAVE BEEN MULTIPLE CONTAINMENT BREACHES. INITIATING STANDARD BREACH PROTOCOL. THIS IS NOT A DRILL, I REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL."
Ali shot up and got out of bed, throwing on her tactical vest as quickly as possible. She grabbed her pistol, her id badge, radio, and her key card and rushed out the door, she didn't have time to put on proper clothes.
Shit, there hasn't been a containment breach at this site in over 3 years, why now?
It doesn't matter, I know protocol. I need to rendezvous with Site Security, they'll know what's happening. They'll tell me what to do.
Ali ran through the corridors, heading to the site's armory. Given that almost no one was in the Site-997 common area currently, it was probably still part of the workday.
She radioed into the standard Site-997 security channel, "Field Agent Hanover here! I'm on my way to the central armory now, and awaiting orders, over."
"This is Commander Shawn Drew, get here asap, we're sending out response teams. I'll brief you on the situation while you get here, copy?"
Ali nodded, before remembering this was a voice based interaction. "Copy, over."
Senior Researcher Emily Archer was not having the best day. Some idiot had opened half of the Heavy Containment Cells. Standard protocol in a breach such as this one was to sit and wait for Security to rescue you. Emily however, wasn't about to sit around and do nothing.
As she exited the testing chamber, a guard escorting other scientists spoke, "Follow me!"
Emily shook her head, "No, I can help. I was a part of Gamma-15, 3 years ago."
"Alright, try and find others that need evac." The Guard said. "Oh here, take this." Emily was handed a pistol.
Emily walked down the hallway, deeper into the facility, to the Heavy Containment Zone. It was probably foolish to head in without backup, or a way to call for help, but Emily accepted the risk.
She approached one of the Heavy Containment Zone Entrance. The Heavy Containment Zone was the deepest, most dangerous part of the site. Unlike other areas in the site, there was only one way in or out of the HCZ. The Entrance consisted of 3 airtight chambers, each one fitted with an incinerator controlled from a remote control room. The two outer chambers could be entered by any staff with a Level 3 key card. The central chamber needed to be opened from the remote control room.
Emily entered the first chamber, and waited for the door to the second to open. After a few minutes, it did. Once she was in the next chamber, and the door was closed behind her, the next chamber opened. Emily exited, and walked into Heavy Containment.
Ali had been put into a search team and sent into Heavy Containment. It wasn't going well. Some scip, Ali didn't know which one (the site was more-so a base of operations for her to operate out of as a field agent, so she didn't know what was contained there), had breached containment and killed most of the team she was with. Luckily, she was able to get away along with a member of security.
Ali and the guard agreed to head towards the Standard Containment Zone, where it would hopefully be safer. Unfortunately, their only way out that didn't involve going back to where the rest of the team had died, was through a locked security door (the Heavy Containment Zone was fitted with multiple blast doors controlled by panels on the wall). The would have to take the risk of releasing some anomaly contained behind it, besides, the camera feed on the panel for the door showed that the other side of the door was clear.
They opened the door, and once safely beyond the threshold, closed it again. Better to keep that scip in there, rather than letting it roam around.
The two continued to make their way through the facility. That was until Ali heard a scraping sound behind her. She turned on instinct.
Ali didn't know what scips were contained at Site-997. But this one she knew.
She was standing face to face with the scip that everyone who worked for the Foundation knew of.
She was standing face to face with SCP-173.
SCP-173 was a statue made of rebar and concrete. One that, should you turn away, would kill you.
Ali shouted, "173!" as she did her best to refrain from blinking.
She heard the gaurd shout, "Blink!"
Ali replied, "Blink," taking the chance to blink.
The two repeated this back and forth, each one only blinking when they declared it.
The two continued this for what felt like hours, until...
"Blink." they said at the same time.
Fuck.
Ali heard a sickening crunch sound, and in an instant, the guard was dead, with SCP-173 standing above the guard's corpse.
Ali struggled to keep her eyes open. She couldn't die here, she... she... she needed to survive.
Ali waited, keeping her eyes open, slowly backing away.
...
...
Don't blink.
...
...
Her heart pounded.
...
...
Don't blink.
...
...
Her eyes grew dry and irritated.
...
...
Whatever you do, don't take your eyes off of it.
...
...
She used her fingers to pry her eyes open.
...
...
I need to blink
...
...
Ali heard a familiar voice call to her.
"I'm looking at it, come to me!" Emily instructed.
Ali ran towards Emily, before turning around and staring at the statue.
The Blast Doors closed in front of her.
The pair sat in silence for a moment.
"Come on, there's a storage room down the hall. Let's hole-up there and wait for rescue." Emily said.
The pair walked towards it.
"Emily, why are you alone in Heavy Containment, with nothing but a pistol to protect yourself?" Ali asked.
"I wanted to help. You're here too." Emily responded.
"Yeah, I went to security and joined a search party. You're here alone." Ali said.
"Come on, if I wasn't here you would be dead. I saved your ass. And besides, I know what I'm doing. I was also in that breach 3 years ago, or did you forget?" Emily said.
"Okay but why are you here alone?" Ali asked.
"Alright, fine. I probably should have gone with a group." Emily caved.
Ali helped Emily barricade the entrance to the storage area. Once that was done, Ali sat down, leaning against a crate. Emily sat down next to her.
"Reminds me of the old Gamma 15 days." Emily said.
"Heh. Yeah." Ali said.
"You know, apart from all of the having to fight for our lives every day, it was pretty fun." Emily joked.
"Provisional Task Force Gamma 15." Ali started. "Everyone other than me got a promotion, I was just moved sideways, from Security to being a Field Agent." she complained.
"Yeah you kind of got screwed over." Emily admitted. "That whole situation was crazy, like how the fuck did that happen? How the fuck did almost an entire site's staff die, and then how the fuck did it take an entire month for backup to arrive?"
"No yeah, there was definitely something going on behind the scenes." Ali commented.
"Yeah, though we probably shouldn't say that," Emily pointed to the security camera, "if Overwatch Command is somehow behind it, they probably won't like us talking about it."
Ali nodded.
"Unfortunately, we're probably not gonna be able to have dinner tonight, due to, you know, this." Emily said, "some other time, maybe."
"Oh uh," Ali spoke up, "I'm being assigned elsewhere tomorrow."
"Oh, where to?" Emily asked.
"Operation Floral Skies." Ali said, under her breath.
Emily dropped her smile.
"You know about it?" Ali asked.
"Of course I fucking know about it. I have level 3 clearance." Emily said.
Ali nodded.
The two sat in silence for what felt like hours, listening to the gun fire and screams from different parts of the facility. Another announcement rang out over the loudspeakers.
"ATTENTION. MOBILE TASK FORCE EPSILON 11, NINE TAILED FOX, HAS ENTERED THE FACILITY. I REPEAT, MOBILE TASK FORCE EPSILON 11, NINE TAILED FOX, HAS ENTERED THE FACILITY."
"Quicker than last time." Ali remarked.
Again, they sat in silence.
Emily broke the silence, "You know, I think SCP-6113 is really unfair."
"I'm sorry, what?" Asked Ali.
"It only appears at the lowest point in your life, and then you get to have a nice conversation and go to a nice lake." Emily said, "Which sounds good, except for when you realize that since it only appears at your lowest point in life, if you're trans and haven't been visited by it, than your life will get worse." Emily explained, "and yeah, there's SCP-113, no 6, and conventional HRT but the former is immensely painful, and doesn't account for non-binary identities, and the latter is very limited."
"I don't know, having experienced the lowest point in my life, I think I'd rather just deal with a minute of pain." Ali said.
"I mean I guess. You always want what you don't have, I suppose." Emily commented.
The two woman sat and talked in the storage room for hours, until, finally, they heard an announcement over the site's PA system.
"ALL ITEMS HAVE BEEN RE-CONTAINED. I REPEAT ALL ANOMALIES HAVE BEEN RE CONTAINED. THIS CONTAINMENT BREACH IS NOW OVER. THIS CONTAINMENT BREACH IS NOW OVER." Site Director Reynolds said.
"Uh, Do you have the time?" Ali asked.
"19:00" Emily responded.
"Uhh, so that's-" Ali started.
"Seven at night." Emily explained.
"Oh that's not too late, we could-" Ali started.
"I have a lot of paperwork I'm going to need to file, sorry." Emily said.
"Well, what if I went to the Site Cafeteria and brought food to your lab?" Ali suggested.
"Yeah sure, though the Cafeteria's food is bad." Emily said.
"Yeah. Though at least it's not Synthcubes." Ali pointed out.
"At least it's not Synthcubes."
After reaching Emily's lab, Ali had deposited her gear with Emily, and then went off to grab dinner for the two women. Emily however, started filling out paperwork.
The Post Breach-Event Conclusive Report was a standardized document across site 997, that every staff member with level 3 or higher clearance had to fill out, on top of the the regular Post Breach report that every single employee had to file. The two combined to make a 32 paged headache, and, the worst part, is was only two in a veritable multitude of documents that needed to be filled out in the aftermath of a large-scale containment breach such as this one. Oh, and they all had to be filled out in Triplicate.
Emily turned as she heard the noise of her lab door opening. Ali walked in, still in her pajamas, carrying a cafeteria tray.
"Hi!" Ali said, setting down the tray on a table.
"Don't put that there, I'm testing how some chemicals react to the organic material produced by five fifty-four fifty-four." Emily ordered.
"Oh, sorry." Ali responded.
"No need to apologize, I just don't want chemicals in our food; Or anomalous organic material for that matter." Emily explained.
Ali nodded, moving the food away from Emily's workstation.
Emily had gotten rice and bread, alongside a glass of water, not the best meal, but not the worst either.
Ali had gotten herself a sandwich of some kind, Emily couldn't tell.
The two ate together, chatting as Emily filled out the multiple forms and documents she had too.
"Do you ever wonder about why the universe exists?" Ali asked, out of the blue.
Emily, splitting her attention between Ali, filling out the forms, and eating her not-so-good dinner (The bread was stale and the rice bland, with the water having a metallic aftertaste), read the next line of the document before responding.
By signing bellow, I agree that:
A: I followed proper procedure
Emily looked up, finally responding, "Uh... I mean, not really. We kind of already know, or well, we have an idea."
"Wait... we do?" Ali asked.
B: I did not hinder re-containment efforts.
"Yeah, Pataphysics." Emily said, "I only know the basic principles of it, you'd have to talk to a Pataphyscisist to get an answer worth anything." Emily said.
"You still haven't answered my question." Ali pointed out.
C: I helped prevent loss of life/personnel/materials/objects.
"Okay, well to my knowledge there are like, author-entities that exist in a higher plane of existence, and they influence something called the universal narrative." Emily tried to explain her rudimentary knowledge of the subject.
"Wait, so we're like, fictional characters?" Ali asked.
Emily put the document to the side, "I don't think so? I think it's more so that the authors just influence what happens, though some interpretations have a conscious narrative? And then there's Swann's Proposal, which says that God is a bunch of horror writers. I don't know, it's confusing, I try to not think about it."
"Interesting" Ali said.
"Can we talk about something else?" Emily asked. "This entire conversation is contrived, probably because some author-entity likes pataphysics and wanted us to talk about it."
"You know, that last option is just wrong. God exists, and we have him in a containment cell at Site-17." Ali half-joked.
Emily stood up. "Hold on, why the fuck are we even bothering with Floral Skies? We have reality benders! If we asked three forty-three nicely enough he could probably just delete the Affini from existence!"
"Who knows what goes on in the minds of the 05 Council." Ali answered.
"Speaking of Floral Skies, how did you even get transferred to it?" Emily asked.
"Oh, uh..." Ali started, "Reynolds recommended me to Overwatch."
"Fucking bitch." Emily complained.
"I'm going to miss this place." Ali said.
"Hm?"
"Despite the overall blandness of Site-997, it will always be my home."
"Yeah, I know what you mean." Emily said. "It has an odd sense of coziness to it, once you get over the fact that every day you stand a pretty good chance of death."
"I mean that's a pretty big thing to overcome." Ali pointed out.
"I suppose your right." Emily said. "I do have to ask, why are you in your pajamas?"
"There was a breach! I didn't have time to change!" Ali said.
"I meant why didn't you change when you went to get dinner." Emily corrected.
"Oh." Ali said. "I guess I just didn't think of it."
Ali returned to her quarters. It was a long day, even if she had most of it off. The breach... the breach took a lot out of her, even if she spent most of it locked in a storage closet with Emily.
There was probably a joke to be made about that, but Ali wasn't going to be the one to make it.
Ali got in bed, and tried to go to sleep.
She couldn't.
Emily was awoken at some time in the early morning, to the sound of an email from the work terminal in her lab.
Shit, when did I fall asleep?
Doesn't matter, I should check this.
Emily hadn't had signed out of her terminal, so she simply just opened her SCiPNET email.
She was met with an email from Site Director Reynolds.
You have been promoted to Head Researcher of SCP-233985, effective immediately. You have been provided Level4/233985 security clearance. Transport to Provisional Research Site 958-B will be provided in two days time, at seven pm. More information will be provided then, for now you may access the SCP-233985 documentation.
-Site Director Arnold Reynolds, Site 997.
Two Weeks Prior:
05-13 looked up from their desk. Leaning on the doorway to their office, was 05-11, an attractive red-headed woman, known only by her pseudonym, 'The Father of Lies,' 05-11 was one of the more elusive members of the council (well, the entire council was elusive by nature, but this fact still applied), second only to 13 their self, and the ever elusive Blackbird.
"Eleven. Good to see you." said 05-13.
"Cut the bullshit Tamlin." 05-11 said. "Are we ready to initiate Project 928-OAKTREE?"
"Straight to the point, I see." 13 said.
"Efficiency is required." 05-11 explained.
"If you want to be so efficient, than why are you breaking protocol? We agreed at the meeting to not travel away from our respective offices, we can't risk one of us being captured by two three three four six four." 13 added.
11 paused, before speaking, "I said cut the bullshit. Is Project 928-OAKTREE ready?"
13 sighed, "Yes."
05-11 nodded, before turning to leave.
"Eleven." 05-13 called out.
"What?" She responded, not turning to look at thirteen.
"I like your dress." 13 said.
"Thank you. It costs more than it would take to buy entirety of the Sol System."