Incident ████-c/A/001 Recovered Materials - SCP Foundation

Foreword: This film and several documents were recovered during the acquisition of SCP-████-01-c. Though the documents did not survive prolonged exposure to the tropical climate, the film provides excellent insight into the effects of SCP-████-01. Irrelevant footage has been removed for time considerations but may be viewed by request.

Incident ████-c/A/001 Recovered Material-1: Transcript of 8mm Film, First Segment

[Camera is angled downward, pointed at a large stone slab roughly 1.5 meters lower than the surrounding area. The slab appears to be a block of roughly worked limestone. The stone is covered with hundreds of insects of multiple species, moving as a group in a complex pattern. The insects appear to be unaware of external stimuli and biological imperatives; predators ignore prey species and vice-versa. A male voice, designated Subject #1, speaks.]

Subject #1: I think I finally got this damn camera working! Alright, this is-

Off-camera Voice, designated Subject #2: [overlapping] I'll take it from here, James. This is Dr. Aaron Meier speaking. It's, ah, seven thirty-one A.M. local time at the [REDACTED] University Archeological Expedition to [DATA EXPUNGED]. We woke up this morning and found this. Phenomenon. On top of our next work project. I'm not a biologist, so from here on I'm just going to let the camera roll and interject with any observations.

[The insects continue to move in increasingly complex and intricate patterns. Filming continues for an additional twenty minutes without any input Subject #1 or #2. Foundation archivists unanimously report feelings of intense revulsion during this period, with four having gone so far as to attack their monitors. After roughly twenty-five minutes of footage, a shovel is violently swung from out of frame into the largest concentration of insects. The next four minutes of footage consists entirely of a pair of shovels repeatedly swung at the insects on the slab until interrupted by another male voice, designated Subject #3. Subject #3 positively identified as Professor Mitchell Romansky]

Subject #3: What the hell are you doing? Stop that! Goddamnit, stop that!

[Shovel impacts slow and stop.]

Subject #1: What?

Subject #3: I leave you two alone for half a fucking hour and what do you do? You start hitting a previously unknown behavior. A behavior to which we are, as far as we know, the only witnesses. With shovels. James, what the hell were you thinking? Actually, no. Meier, what the fuck were you thinking? You know what? Don't answer that. I don't even want to hear it.

Subject #1: What was his problem?

[Recording ends.]

Incident ████-c/A/001 Recovered Material-2: Transcript of 8mm Film, Second Segment

[Camera is in an environment confirmed to be the interior of the so-called "Catacomb". The "Catacomb" appears to be a room, roughly five meters by five meters, constructed of a dull gray stone, presumably limestone. The walls are covered in engraved symbols, consistent with those associated with the Killke civilization. The center of the room is dominated by an object now classified by the Foundation as SCP-████-01-c. Several rectangular stone constructions, roughly two meters long and a meter tall, surround the center object. On each construction is a mummified cadaver. A significant area of the far wall is dominated by what recovered documents refer to as a "door". It is heavily decorated with symbols similar to those on the other walls, however, the symbols are interrupted at regular intervals of images of [DATA EXPUNGED], which is now understood to be associated with death and calamity in the Killke religion. The entire [REDACTED] University Archeological Expedition team is present, and appears to be in varying states of readiness for a group shot. Professor Mitchell Romansky, designated Subject #1, is in the center of the group.]

Subject #1: Are we rolling? We are? Finally! Christ, almost ten minutes to set up a camera. Okay, everyone get together for the group shot!

[All members of the █UAE team attempt to take their places. This process takes several minutes. Subject #1 steps away from the group, considers their arrangement for some time, then returns to his place, nodding.]

Subject #1: Well, here we are! I am Prof. Mitchell Romansky, team lead for the [REDACTED] University Archeological Expedition to [DATA EXPUNGED]. This is what we're calling the Killke Catacomb, found underneath the ruins at [DATA EXPUNGED]. Won't you join us for the tour? [Group laughs. Subject #1 begins to move about the "Catacomb".]

Subject #1: This structure is well preserved to a degree almost unheard of in the field of archeology. The walls, as you can see, have many engravings. We've identified several as Killke in origin, and are confident that the rest are also Killke, implying that they had a writing system similar to the hieroglyphics of ancient Egypt as opposed to the pictographic system once believed to have been standard. We're all very excited.

[Subject #1 motions the assembled █UAE team away from the center of the "Catacomb". The group scatters.]

Subject #1: And this is the pièce de résistance. This appears to be an altar of some kind, perhaps sacrificial. Note the presence of the cadavers. They were placed here purposefully, with ritual significance. This is a huge insight into Killke funerary rights! As for the altar itself, we're not sure what. It's.

[Subject #1 and the rest of the █UAE team slowly stop whatever they were doing and turn to stare at SCP-████-01-c. They remain motionless for the following seventeen minutes and thirty four seconds. The film quality progressively degrades during this period, becoming so distorted at seventeen minutes twenty seconds that any identifying features are lost. Distortion ceases at the same time the █UAE team "wakes up".]

Subject #1: Made of, or how it was constructed. Um. Hey. Joseph? I think we're done. My eyes are really starting to hurt. Might be the dust or something. We'll try again later. Turn the camera off and someone get me an ice pack.

[Camera is obscured by a human figure (presumably Joseph Asta, a doctoral student at [REDACTED] University) and switched off.]

Incident ████-c/A/001 Recovered Material-3: Transcript of 8mm Film, Third Segment

[Camera is in an environment confirmed to be the interior of the lab tent at area designated "Dig" for the duration of Incident ████-01-c/A/001. Seated in front of the camera is a male Caucasian, approx. 50 years of age, with brown hair and dressed in a off-white button-down shirt and khakis covered in dust. He is designated Subject #1. Subject #1 later confirmed to be Professor Mitchell Romansky, a tenured archeology professor at [REDACTED] University. He is rubbing his eyes. An off-camera female voice (believed to be [REDACTED], a doctoral student at [REDACTED] University) begins speaking. Voice designated Subject #2.]

Subject #2: Professor? We're rolling. Whenever you're ready.

Subject #1: My eyes are fucking killing me. Hm? Oh, right, right, just a moment. We'll just edit this out when we present our findings to the AIA.

[Subject #1 stops slouching and hurriedly brushes his hair back with his hand, attempts to smooth his shirt, etc. After several seconds, he begins speaking in a more professional tone. Amusingly, it appears his Standard Received English accent in the remainder of the film is feigned.]

Subject #1: We've made. A discovery. This could change everything about our understanding of Killke society. About our understanding of all ancient peoples on the entire continent! Exploratory digging at [REDACTED] unearthed a previously unknown structure directly underneath the site. It appears to be a tomb. Or perhaps a temple. It wasn't very far down, four or five meters at maximum, and I don't think it was buried. Well, I do think it was buried, but intentionally, by the builders. There's a long entrance hallway that slopes upwards, like a surface access, that was hidden by a large stone slab, and what appears to be an exit tunnel, presumably leading further underground or to a secondary room, but it's blocked by a large ornate door that we can't shift at the moment.

Subject #2: [Indistinct. Comment appears to be directed at another person, also off-camera. Subject #1 appears not to notice.]

Subject #1: [Subject #1 begins punctuating his speech with increasingly frantic gestures.] It's definitely not Incan, it's too old, and the interior is riddled with what we believe is a complete Killke alphabet. Dr. Meier is already attempting translation as we speak. And the tomb itself! There's a supremely well crafted stone polygon, maybe an altar in the center of the structure. We're not sure what it represents, or even what it's made out of, but I. Believe. What? Why are you staring at me like that?

Subject #2: Um. Professor. You're bleeding.

Subject #1: What? Where?

Subject #2: Your. Um. Eyes. I think I'm gonna be sick.

Subject #1: Don't be ridiculous, girl, I'm not bleeding-

[Subject #1 touches his face and looks at his fingers.]

Subject #1: Oh. Oh my.

[Subject #1 gets up. Several seconds later, recording stops.]

Incident ████-c/A/001 Recovered Material-4: Transcript of 8mm Film, Final Segment

[Camera appears to not have moved since the recording of the third segment. Seated in front of the camera is a distraught looking east Asian male, age approx. 30, designated Subject #1. He is believed to be Park Sung-Joon, a post-doctoral student at [REDACTED] University. Subject #1's clothes, a [REDACTED] University t-shirt and blue jeans, are filthy and torn. There appears to be significant retraction of the bulbous oculi into the orbit, and Subject #1's face is coated in what appears to be dried blood. The source of the blood appears to be a combination of superficial wounds and Subject #1's tear ducts.]

Subject #1: Uh. I don't know how to. Christ. How to start. We were doing an archeological study of the Killke ruins at [DATA EXPUNGED] and we. Found something. Buried. Oh fuck my eyes hurt.

[Subject #1 violently rubs his eyes for nearly a minute.]

Subject #1: It was a temple or something. I don't even know how we found it. Professor Romansky just kept pacing around the same area of the site, this empty area. Then he made the guides and a few post-docs grab shovels and dig until they hit something, maybe five feet down. We didn't know what it was, but I'm pretty sure it was trying to keep whatever's happening to us. In. We cracked the thing open anyway. We shouldn't have. We should've seen the fucking bugs freaking out and left it alone, but we're scientists. We have. Had. An obligation. To fuck things up.

[Subject #1 pauses for some time, apparently lost in thought. He intermittently rubs his eyes.]

Subject #1: I wasn't even supposed to go on this fucking trip. Carl got sick. And they needed another post-doc. My focus is fucking Hellenic architecture.

[Subject #1 alternates between manic laughter and sobbing for several minutes before composing himself. Archivists note that no tears are produced during the sobbing portions.]

Subject #1: God. Whoever finds this. If anyone finds this. Don't go down that fucking hole. It's. It's probably killing us. And. Just. If you find this, just cover the temple back up. Or bomb it. Just, don't. Don't go in. And. Tell my moth-

[Subject #1 convulses violently for nearly two minutes, falling off his chair and out of frame in the process. After three minutes and thirty seconds, he stands up. His eyes have completely retracted into his skull, leaving only empty sockets, and is at this point, considered a specimen of SCP-████-02. Frame by frame analysis of this section of the film is disallowed following the unexplained illnesses of three Foundation archivists. Subject #1 stiffly walks past the camera. Recording continues for three more hours before the camera runs out of film.]