Item #: SCP-4954
Level 5/4954

Object Class: Keter Thaumiel
Classified

Two instances of SCP-4954 in the second phase of their life cycle, estimated to be between 10 and 18 months old.

Special Containment Procedures: All discovered instances of SCP-4954 are cataloged and monitored by the Department of Orbital Objects Tracking (DOOT). Foundation agents embedded in private and government operated space programs restrict spaceflights to paths and windows that minimize the chance of an encounter with SCP-4954.

Orbital Task Force स-2 ("Dust Busters") operates a series of 1,000 remote piloted craft in upper-earth orbit, each equipped with an electromagnetic pulse generator capable of disabling any SCP-4954 within 500 km. Any instances found reaching the fourth phase of their development are to be tagged and tracked to determine their most likely reentry path.

SCP-4954 offspring recovered from a captured Phase 3 SCP-4954 instance.

Description: SCP-4954 is a series of self-replicating satellites, currently ████ in number, that subsist off of orbital debris and sunlight for the purposes of creating thrust, expanding in size, and reproducing. SCP-4954 instances are rectangular in shape and range from 5 cm to 500 m in length on their longest axis depending on their age. SCP-4954 is theorized to produce thrust by breaking down collected debris into ionized hydrogen through an unknown method and accelerating it out of its shell.

SCP-4954 will generate new components on its interior and exterior surfaces to aid in the catching of orbital debris if provided raw materials and sunlight. The process by which it accomplishes this is as of yet unexplained but microscopic imaging of SCP-4954 have shown parts growing out of it on the molecular level. All SCP-4954 instances, regardless of generation and stage in its life cycle, possess a USB port through which its programming and memory can be accessed.

SCP-4954 has four distinct phases in its lifespan. The first phase is the only portion of the SCP-4954 life cycle in which it does not require outside materials to expand its hardware, instead using a preexisting block of various metals and plastics until it reaches at least 30 cm in length in any one axis. SCP-4954 enters phase two after this where it performs its primary function of collecting orbital debris to convert into additional components. SCP-4954 enters the third stage once it has accumulated a mass greater than 100 kg. During this phase, it will generate and release a new generation of SCP-4954. Newly generated SCP-4954 copies will form and modify components based on what the previous iteration found most effective for collecting debris. Afterwards, SCP-4954 enters its final phase during which it transmits its on-board memory to other instances within communication range before placing itself on a reentry path. The time between transitions in phases depends primarily on the amount of debris the instance encounters, with the average age of a fourth-phase SCP-4954 being between 3 and 5 years old.

Addendum 4954-1: Thaumiel Reclassification

A request to the O5 council to reclassify SCP-4954 as Thaumiel was made by the recently formed Ad Astra program under the argument that the Earth developing Kessler Syndrome1 would endanger their potential to contain space-based anomalies. Following the installation of a neutralization protocol in OTF स-2 in case SCP-4954's reproductive or end-of-life behaviors change, the request was approved.

Addendum 4954-2: Recovered On-Board Memory

Note: The following is a record of programs referenced by the source code of a SCP-4954 instance recovered on 2023/06/10 in order of execution. The discovery of partially formed first phase SCP-4954s in the interior of the captured instance indicates it was recovered early in the third portion of its life cycle.

Timestamp: 2020/01/03 12:01 AM (UTC)

>run Happy_Birthday.mp3

PoI-4954-1: Why hello there! Happy birthday! You turned zero today. I guess you can call me mom.

PoI-4954-2: And that would make me your dad! A little young for the title but I promise I won't bug you about having any kids.

PoI-4954-1: Well, we did design it to self-replicate.

PoI-4954-2: True. (laughs) Well, whatever happens, we're proud of you.

PoI-4954-1: Earth, that big blue, white, and green thing beneath you, is our home. We have spread across it and threaten to exhaust its resources, environment, and space.

PoI-4954-2: So we look outward, but our habits are hard to kill. Our waste soars over us at thousands of meters a second, growing in number until it threatens our destiny up there.

PoI-4954-1: And so we made you, our hope that we can be better. That we deserve that destiny. In you, we have the first step towards the redemption of humanity's soul.

Timestamp: 2023/05/30 02:22 AM (UTC)

>run Graduation.mp3

PoI-4954-2: Well, you have grown into quite the satellite! Why, I remember when I could fit you into the palm of my hand. Do you remember the songs Carmen would sing back in the lab?

PoI-4954-1: It never had a microphone on it. It won't need one where it's going.

PoI-4954-2: Oh, have some romanticism for your craft! Besides, I'm sure they would love to know that you sang to them. What was that lullaby called again?

PoI-4954-1: "A la Lata al Latero" or "To the Can, to the Tin Man" and it is more of a jump rope rhyme.

PoI-4954-2: Well I'm going to include a recording in its memory. Every mother should have a song for their children.

Timestamp: 2023/06/03 12:01 AM (UTC)

>run A_la_Lata.mp3

54 seconds of PoI-4954-1 singing the rhyme in Spanish follows.

Addendum 4954-3: Intercepted Transmission

Note: The below was received by an OTF स-2 craft monitoring a SCP-4954 instance just after it set itself on a reentry path.

Timestamp: 2023/11/15 12:01 AM (UTC)

>run Eulogy.mp3

The following audio was made via the splicing together of previous recordings.

Hello children. Look, the big blue, white, and green beneath you. Our home. Our mom. Our dad. Look outward, it is humanity's destiny. Look at you, you are redemption. Do you remember when we fit in the palm of the hand? Remember the song? I'm grown now, big. I made thousands of kids. I'm proud of you. I know you can do better. Make humanity's waste exhausted. Our destiny. I'm going to home now. To the lab. To mom. To dad. Are they proud? I can hope. I love you, kids. Que viva el latero! (Long live the tin man/tinsmith!) Que viva la hija! (Long live the daughter!) Que viva -

Communication was lost after the instance's antenna was destroyed by reentry heating. Total destruction of the instance occurred 20 seconds later.

Footnotes

1. Where the density of debris in low-earth orbit causes a cascading collision effect, rendering entry to space highly hazardous for decades or longer