[PLEASE INPUT CORRECT 5/5100 SECURITY CREDENTIALS]

[CREDENTIALS ACCEPTED - DISPLAYING FILE: SCP-5100]

Item #: SCP-5100
Level 5/5100

Object Class: Keter
Classified

Site-271, located in Gansu province. Photograph taken approximately 4 months after SCP-5100.

Special Containment Procedures: Knowledge of SCP-5100 is restricted from all personnel globally apart from senior administrative members, and personnel in relevant regional sites. Personnel in these sites are forbidden from discussing SCP-5100 with personnel in sites in other countries, with severe penalties for violation of this rule.

Immediate containment procedures are focusing on re-containing the anomalous entities that have been lost as a result of SCP-5100. As of the time of writing this document, 13 entities have been recovered and contained at sites in border countries by Mobile Task Forces, and the locations of 8 more have been identified and are awaiting recapture.

The second priority is the reclamation of Foundation sites in China, and powering them back up as soon as possible. If lost personnel cannot be recovered, then sites are to be resupplied with personnel recruited from local organizations. Engineers are to be imported to repair containment equipment after the sites have been restocked.

The Chinese civilian government has been made aware of SCP-5100, but has been advised that their assistance is not necessary or desired.

Description: SCP-5100 refers to the complete cessation of all Foundation activity within the borders of the People's Republic of China, which occurred on 12th February 2019. All complex machinery lost the ability to function, all personnel either stopped communicating or were confirmed as missing, and all 201 sites in the country lost electrical power. Fifty-three anomalous entities breached containment immediately after the event due to the failure of containment equipment.

The cause of SCP-5100 is currently unknown. The event occurred spontaneously, and as of the composure of this document, no organizations or Groups of Interest in China or elsewhere have claimed responsibility for the event. No anomalies powerful enough to incur such an event have been connected to SCP-5100.

A large-scale investigation is still ongoing into the cause of SCP-5100. At the current time, the location of all missing personnel and equipment is unknown. Kant counters have not registered an abnormal Hume Count in China before or immediately after SCP-5100, which has generally ruled out the possibility of a reality alteration event being responsible.

Discovery: SCP-5100 was noticed after an operation being undertaken as part of Project Carnarvon (details of this project are attached at the end of this component) near Xi'an suddenly ceased to communicate with researchers at Site-346 in Southern Mongolia. Subsequent efforts to recontact the team failed. Site-346 then tried to contact sites close to the team's operation, which was unsuccessful.

Site-346 raised a regional alarm, and a message composed of information regarding the situation was relayed to the central Foundation site in Beijing. However, this message was repeatedly unable to get through to the site after multiple attempts.

Project Overview

INFORMATION CORRUPTED

Project Carnarvon

A Project excavation in Northern Afghanistan in the 1960s.

Project Carnarvon was founded in 1960 by a group of Foundation archaeologists when they presented a proposal to the O5 Council. The proposal detailed an incursion into the Valley of Kings near Luxor, Egypt, in order to capture potential anomalies before civilian teams could locate them. Since the 1960s, this has expanded into a global operation. The current aim of the project is the interception of important archaeological finds after they are discovered by civilian teams, and the exploration of them for anomalous artefacts or properties before civilian teams can perform their own operations.

The Project has been responsible for the successful investigation of numerous high-importance sites across the world, and the retrieval of numerous anomalous artefacts of high importance. These artefacts have allowed Foundation researchers to understand the anomalous capabilities of past civilisations and peoples, as well as solving some contemporary archaeological mysteries.

Some of the most significant Project Carnarvon activities include a study of the Shroud of Turin, an excavation of Göbekli Tepe in Southern Turkey, a dive off the coast of Antikythera Island, Greece, and the current Project excavation in Xi'an, China.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: As of the 12th of February 2019, the SCP-5100 event has led to to the de facto end of all Project Carnarvon operations, as the vast majority of Project equipment and personnel were located within China at the Xi'an site when SCP-5100 occurred. The Project has been shelved and returned to a conceptual phase, pending revival once the more direct impacts of SCP-5100 are dealt with.

Note: This document is automatically updated with archived logs from the current/most recent Project Carnarvon expedition.

[DATA CORRUPTED - ARCHIVAL EQUIPMENT FAILURE]

Team Leader: Look up. Stars. Or, they look like stars at least.

Drennan: Pearls? Or some other gemstones?

Tai: It's paint. Comes off in my hand. Potentially anomalous substance?

Team Leader: Make a note of that. We'll collect some samples when we're finished exploring the main chamber. Sharapov, how close are we?

Sharapov: Not far now, I think. I'm not detecting any anomalous reading from the central chamber.

Drennan: The way the front door was, I'll believe that when I see it.

Tai: I hope the guys back at 221 got these suits working properly. I don't want 13 years of effort to end with mercury poisoning.

Sharapov: Don't worry, they'll work. Nothing they've ever made has fucked up before.

Tai: Hope you're right.

4 minutes of no communication, with the sound of footsteps discernible.

Team Leader: We're here. Drennan, torch?

Drennan: Right.

Team Leader: Looks like Sharapov was right, no sign of anomalous protection. Just some very old rope and a simple slider.

Tai: We need to cut that?

Sharapov: I don't think so. I'll just slide it across?

Team Leader: Go ahead.

A very quiet, soft scraping sound is recorded.

Sharapov: There we go. Easy enough.

A slow, heavy creaking sound is heard.

Drennan: Here we are, then.

Tai: Shit. Well, it's certainly grand enough for a man like him.

Drennan: Look at all that jade. We could make a fortune, if we were here for that. That structure in the middle, is it…

Sharapov: Has to be.

Team Leader: Right, enough staring. Let's get to work. Drennan, go and test those sculptures over there. Tai and Sharapov, there seems to be a coin horde of some sort of there, go and sort through those.

Tai: When has the Project ever found anomalous money?

Team Leader: Today could be the day. Just sort through it.

Drennan's microphone picks up a light scraping sound.

Drennan: Can't see any anomalous properties on these sculptures. I'm not quite sure what they're depicting, though.

Tai: Looks like some kind of serpent to me. Any kind of art we can-

Sharapov: Stop. I hear something.

Tai: Hear what-

Sharapov: I said stop. I heard something.

A minute of silence, before a light tapping sound is heard.

Drennan: I think I hear it too.

Sharapov: It's coming from in there.

Team Leader: We're going to open it up.

Tai: Are you sure that's a good idea?

Team Leader: It could be an anomaly, and we don't want it to damage itself bouncing around in there. Four people is enough to lift the lid.

Tai: Fine. Let's all take a corner… there.

Team Leader: Lifting in 3, 2, 1…

The sound of rock scraping against rock, the team making audible sounds of struggling.

Drennan: Fuck, this is heavier than it looks. That was tough.

Team Leader: Quick, put it on the ground.

A loud thud is recorded.

Sharapov: Looks like some kind of tarp, or cloth. It's beautiful, look at the imagery…

Tai: Should I pull it away?

Team Leader: Go for it.

[ERROR - ARCHIVAL EQUIPMENT FAILURE]

Addendum.1: Approximately 4 months after the SCP-5100 event, the containment breach was stabilised to the point that other actions relating to the event could be carried out. A Foundation site in China was selected for exploration by a team consisting of MTF Zeta-9 ("Mole Rats")

Exploration Video Log Transcript

Date: 15th June, 2019

Exploration Team: MTF-Zeta 9 ("Mole Rats")

Subject: Site-271, Gansu Province, China

Team Lead: Ahmadov

Team Members: Myung, Persaud, Wainwright

[BEGIN LOG]

COMMAND: Ahmadov, please instruct your team to check in so we know their comms are working.

Ahmadov: Affirmative. Confirm comms, everyone?

Myung: No issues here.

Persaud: All good.

Wainwright: Confirming.

COMMAND: Noted. Ahmadov will lay out the plan of entry.

Ahmadov: Gather around everyone. We're going to enter from the loading door on the East side, it has the least protections. From there we'll head up through the reception and into the main wings and hallways.

Persaud: This site doesn't hold any live entities, if I'm remembering the briefing right?

Ahmadov: That's correct. Just objects, nothing particularly dangerous. But don't interact with any anomalies unless we specifically need to enter a containment area. Clear?

The team nods.

Ahmadov: Good.

Myung: Thermal camera is working as normal.

Ahmadov: Great. Are we clear for entrance, command?

COMMAND: You're clear, drones aren't picking up any life signs nearby.

Ahmadov: Let's move.

The team walks around Site-271, converging on the East side loading door. Wainwright runs his hand along the door before knocking on it.

Wainwright: Security measures have failed, just as suspected. Should be easy to get inside. Persaud, hand me the tool.

Wainwright slides the tool in the door, forcing it open.

Ahmadov: Good job. Move in, stay close together.

The team moves forward into the reception of Site-271.

Ahmadov: Myung, thermal?

Myung: No signs. Hang on… something isn't right.

Wainwright: What?

Myung: I studied the map earlier. There should be a door right there. Can someone shine a little more light there?

The torches illuminate in front of the team, revealing a large bronze vase, around 6 feet in height, embedded in the wall. Small pieces of debris rest on top of it.

Persaud: Is this an anomaly?

Ahmadov: There's nothing like it in the research logs. Don't touch it, we'll find another door. You getting this, command?

COMMAND: We are.

Myung: The next door is around here, I think…

Wainwright: Another locked door… Give me a second.

Myung: If that vase was a fluke, then there should be a long corridor behind this door. That should lead us to the research wing.

Wainwright opens the door and swings it open. There is virtually no visibility past the door due to the lack of light.

Persaud: I'll turn the light up a few levels.

Ahmadov: Affirmative, Persaud. Light the way.

Persaud turns up his torch to its maximum level, illuminating the hallway. Several large cloth banners hang from the ceiling of the corridor, as far as the light can reach.

Myung: I've never seen anything like that in a site before.

Ahmadov: Move inwards. There's some writing on them. Wainwright, can you translate?

Wainwright: No. It looks like some kind of Chinese script, but… it's ancient. Outside what I can translate.

The team move further down the corridor. Persaud stops suddenly and points to the left.

Persaud: Look. There's another one of those vases. Looks a bit bigger than the one in the door, though.

Ahmadov: Do you want samples of anything we find, command?

COMMAND: No, just explore. That can be done on a later expedition.

Myung: There's so many of these banners. These couldn't have been put up by just one person.

Ahmadov: Let's not speculate until we explore the rest of the site.

Myung: Right. There should be a left corner just up ahead.

The team turns the corner. Persaud's light illuminates something standing still around 20 metres down the corridor.

Wainwright: That's not another vase.

Ahmadov: Don't do anything. It's likely a researcher, or someone like that.

The team pauses, before Ahmadov calls out to the figure multiple times. There is no movement.

Ahmadov: Perhaps not. Let's approach.

Persaud: Are you sure?

Ahmadov: We have weaponry. It's fine.

As the team gets closer, the figure continues to stand absolutely still. Around 5 metres away, it becomes fully visible.

Myung: That's a terracotta soldier. How did that get here?

Ahmadov: Nothing like it in the anomaly logs. Just be glad it's not anything living and move on.

Wainwright: The paint's been oxidised off this one, just like the ones in Xi'an.

Persaud: Look. Down there. There's two more.

Two more terracotta sculptures are located around 30 metres away, flanking either side of a closed door.

Ahmadov: Myung, where does that door lead to.

Myung: It leads to the… staff cafeteria.

Ahmadov: Let's go in.

Wainwright: This shouldn't be locked.

Wainwright opens the door. The interior of the staff cafeteria has been completely shifted. All the original items are gone - instead, a large, gold throne sits in the centre of the room. Terracotta sculptures are located in symmetrical formations around the throne, the entire room lit by large flaming candles. The walls are coloured in a deep red, with various symbols and scripts painted on the walls in a golden colour. Four pillars extend from the floor to the ceiling, placed at asymmetrical locations throughout the room.

Persaud: What on earth?

Ahmadov: Command, we're confirming that there has been mass structural change to Site-271.

Myung: Should we go in?

Ahmadov: Yes. Permission to change the mission objective and interact with what we find, command?

COMMAND: Granted.

The team enter. Persaud and Wainwright run their hands along the chests of the terracotta sculptures. Ahmadov inspects the central throne, while Myung studies some script that has been written on the wall.

Myung: Same as the banners… Look at that.

Myung points to a large creature painted on the wall.

Wainwright: Looks like some kind of… serpent. I don't recognise it from any Chinese culture.

Ahmadov: Persaud, Wainwright. I want you to knock over one of the statues each and try and break them.

Persaud: Why?

Ahmadov: A hunch.

Persaud: If you're sure.

Persaud pushes over the terracotta statue, and it falls down to the ground, cracking and breaking open at the upper torso. Ahmadov leans down to look inside.

Ahmadov: Well, it's hollow. Wainwright?

Wainwright pauses, before walking to a row of statues closest to the throne. A statue is pushed over and falls, cracking open as it hits the ground. Something slides out of the broken statue.

Wainwright: It's… it's a bone. But it looks just as ancient as anything here, certainly not new.

The team gathers around the broken statue to study it.

Myung: Wainwright is correct. I've seen skeletons from ancient sites in Turkey. These bones look about the same age.

Ahmadov: Understood. Persaud, take one for sampling, and then we're going to head back down to the reception to exit.

Persaud: Affirmative.

Persaud takes a small sample of bone before the team traces the route they travelled back to the reception, and exits Site-271.

[END LOG]

Note: The sample of bone taken from Site-271 was tested by a research team shortly after delivery. Dating found the sample to be approximately 1800 years old.

Addendum.2: On the 16th August 2019, a MTF-Zeta 9 team entered Site-221 near the city of Xianyang in Shaanxi province as part of reclamation efforts. During the exploration, several unwrapped bamboo scrolls (the site had contained several of these due to archaeological research), seemingly thrown randomly on the floor, were located in a room in the research wing. These sheets had been written on in an archaic Chinese script, and were scanned through the Antibabel translation AI to provide a readable English text.

This is the first time I've had the chance to transcribe my thoughts.

The drawback to all rituals is that they didn't always work. Evidently, the one that kept me alive and slumbering in that jade tomb persisted as planned for all that time. I do not know how many seasons it has been. It could be ten, it could be a million. It doesn't matter.

I was awoken by men donned in strange armour, their faces hidden behind glass. They ruled over a vast network which I have commandeered. Another piece of magic that evidently worked. But, as I said, not all of it worked. Until now I have tried to revive my closest advisers. They agreed that they would join me in the new world we awoke in. But the magic failed. Within the shells, all that remains is their bones. I am not a sorcerer. I cannot bring them back.

But it seems the world I have returned to has been infested with sorcerers. Not just in the court. They are everywhere. Everything has been touched by their magic. I sit in this building with its strange white walls that seem to close in on me when lit with candles. I don't know how the tiles were made that line them. They are too clean, too precise, to be done with the hands of a craftsman. I managed to find some scrolls to write on. At least these were familiar.

I have made it my resolution to find out. It cannot all be the work of magic. I will study this new world, before I make my way back to the top to rule it.

Object: An orange flame enclosed in a sphere of clear crystal.

The flame can be lighted and extinguished with a single touch of a raised piece underneath the glass. The glow it produces is magnificent, and lasts for far longer than any normal fire or candle. It could be an illusion.

I dismantled the whole thing. All that I found inside was more crystal and metal. No fire, no light, just crystal and metal. Undoubtedly magic.

Object: Some kind of weapon. Long, smooth and black.

I originally believed it to be some kind of condensed crossbow, given the hole at the end. But it dispenses a small piece of metal, not an arrow. It pierces through materials an arrow cannot hope to pierce through.

I took a man from the city and lined him up against the wall, before setting the weapon against his head. The result was viscera. If the armies of the new world are armed with these weapons, then taking back the state from whoever owns it now may be far more difficult.

Object: A cube. At the front of the cube, lies a layer of glass, on which a series of moving images continuously play.

Perhaps some kind of moving painting. The artwork looks completely realistic. This is clearly the work of a sorcerer. A moving painting is something even the sorcerers of our day could not hope to achieve.

The images shown vary. The most recurring one is of a man standing in a great room surrounded by other men. They wear thin, sleek garments of black and white, no armour. All the men listen to the one standing at the front intently. On the wall, there is a symbol which I do not know. A golden building below a series of golden stars. Perhaps the man is the leader of the state. Perhaps he is an entertainer.

As usual, I do not know.

Object: Not an object. A man, wearing sleek black garments - different from the ones in the paintings, however.

I tried to speak to him. He doesn't understand my language. I don't understand his. He speaks a tongue that sounds familiar, yet I can't make out a single word of it. He had a smaller version of the weapon on his person. I took it for myself.

I brought him to the paintings and gestured to them. He said what I imagine to be names, but I obviously don't know a single one. This endeavour ultimately was not useful. I took the weapon to him once I had realised his uselessness.

These white hallways are strange and lonely, constantly.

Object: The same yellow armour the men who awakened me were donned in.

This armour is useless. It defends against nothing. Not the black weapons of the new world, not even a bow or a sword. Even the teeth of the statue of the great serpent tear through it like it is a piece of parchment.

It can't be armour. Or at least, it can't be armour against real weapons. Perhaps it defends against sorcery. There are many sets of this armour hanging up around this place. If my assumption is the case - and people in this new world need constant defence against magic that may pain them - this world may be immeasurably more dangerous than I know.

Object: Books and scrolls.

I finally found something I know in this strange site. A library at the end of the corridor. I do not know the script they are written in, and so what they say is a mystery. But there are images - these ones don't move - that I can make out. There are maps that show lands far beyond the state. The borders show that the territory I once held has rapidly expanded. And there are more states. More states that I could never even imagine.

There are people, too. That man in the hall from the moving paintings appears a lot. More typical paintings of men that are clearly emperors. And then, I turned a page and saw a painting of myself looking back up. I do not remember commissioning it. At least it's good to know that I have been remembered here.

The desire to live forever is a curse if the world you come back to is not yours anymore.

Object: The city.

I donned the new world clothes from one of the men I tested and walked among the citizens the city I am in. There are temples and shrines which look familiar to what I know. But there are also buildings that are foreign. Great, metal, twisting spires and cubes made of beige tiles. Taller than anything that could be built by normal craftsmen.

I was almost struck by something that moved inhumanly fast. A great ugly carriage of metal. No horses, nor camels. Single people or groups of people sat inside, seemingly not doing anything to make these carriages move. This is the clearest example of sorcery I have yet seen. Objects do not just move on their own when they are natural.

There were great, massive paintings located on the top of some of these buildings. They did not depict great dragons, or the serpentine father. Instead, just people. Perhaps they were eating some strange dish, or holding bleach white bottles. They were all happy, all smiling. But there was no life behind their eyes.

I went back to the site shortly after and spent some time studying books on the throne. The shells of my advisers cannot move, but they seemed to mock me.

I cannot describe myself as anything but an exile in this world.

I will leave these white halls, I cannot hope to understand anything but glimpses in here. And I will go back into the world, walk amongst the common men of this state. Thirty-five years of rule, many many more of slumber. I shall not waste the life I have been granted by magic, at the mercy of magic I do not understand. That was never my destiny.

And, with each passing day, I will carefully unlock each mystery that this world has transformed into normality, until they are mysteries no more.

Following the discovery of these scrolls, the team discovered two corpses elsewhere in the research wing. One was stripped of its clothes, and the other was wearing an average Chinese police uniform. No live entities were discovered. The identity and location of whoever or whatever caused these bodies to enter the site remains unknown.