SCP-6013: The Leviathan of the Aegean

Written by Rhys Tanner, an ancient evil entombed below the waves

The "Tricuspid" image of SCP-6013 was a commission made by Valdevia. You can support his work here and here.

The sketch of SCP-6013-B1 and B2 was a commission made by Dem0onn. You can support her work here.

There's magic in the water that attracts all men

Across hills and down streams

The turning of the tide

Outlook, future bright

Selfish beauty shines

Light cloud rain drive on

Thirteen years to this day red planet aligned

Into sight sixty thousand years of light

Fascination with a mountain put to sea

Built to slay and conquer

All with teeth of beasts

―Brent Hinds, Bill Kelliher, Brann Dailor and Troy Sanders, Leviathan

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Content Warnings:

This story contains depictions of violence, blood, gore, body horror and mention of self-harm and suicide. In-depth content warnings are provided below to use at your discretion.

Blood, Gore: Characters bleed in RP: Translation Logs 6 and 7 after being shot. The character Hannah Langford vomits up organs and viscera (RP: Translation Log 6), separates her torso to eject a harpoon from her body (Incident 201 Log) and restructures her right arm into an assembly of bones, muscle fibers and tentacles (RP: Translation Log 8).

Body Horror: Body horror related to disease, blood/gore, organs and mutated animal life is featured throughout. Multiple character's bodies are radically changed against their will; two characters are compelled by SCP-6013 to say and do things without their consent, causing them great distress. In RP: Translation Log 8, the character Hannah Langford demands that SCP-6013 "get out" of her.

Violence: Characters are attacked by SCP-6013's internal defense system in RP: Translation Logs 1, 7 and 8. Characters are subjected to gunfire in Translation Logs 6, 7 and 8. Multiple boats are sunk in the Incident 201 Log, killing their crews (these deaths are not described in detail). In RP: Translation Log 8, the character Joanne Greer's left arm is cut off at the shoulder.

Self-Harm/Suicide: SCP-6013 can influence people to make them harm themselves or others; this effect is discussed in passing in the Special Containment Procedures. In RP: Translation Log 7, the character Ezra Hadina is influenced by SCP-6013 and ritualistically kills themselves by slitting their throat with a dagger. Multiple characters in the Site-82 Casualty Report kill themselves by various means (these deaths are not described in detail). In the epilogue entry Quarantine Log, the character Hannah Langford makes a joke about a past suicide attempt but shows no other signs of suicidality in the article.

by Rhys Tanner

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION IS LEVEL 6013.RP CLASSIFIED.

ANY PERSONNEL WHO ATTEMPT TO ACCESS SCP-6013 OR ANY OTHER ROSETTA PROTOCOL DOCUMENTATION WITHOUT PROPER CLEARANCES WILL BE SUBJECT TO DISCIPLINARY ACTION, UP TO AND INCLUDING EXCOMMUNICATION IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE ANATHEMA CONTINGENCY.

To proceed, authenticate one or more of the following security clearances:

Level IV Personnel Clearance or Sitra Achra Personnel Clearance

Rosetta Protocol Personnel Clearance

+ Input Credentials?

- Acknowledged. Credentials Approved.

Welcome back, ID *****-3505.

Site-82 Correspondence: For Your Eyes Only

A History of SCP-6013

Project Deep Silence Internal Memo, 1981

SCP-6013 Procedure

ACCESS PERMITTED

Hello. My name is Joanne Greer. I am the head researcher of Site-82 and co-founder of the Rosetta Protocol. It is with a heavy heart that I request your presence here to assist in the containment of SCP-6013.

My reputation precedes me. I can take an educated guess about the things you might have heard. My work isn't glamorous, it's true, but I won't tolerate gossip. I've taken the liberty of writing this supplement to dissuade the rumors that will inevitably spring up as you make preparations to join us.

Yes, we communicate directly with SCP-6013. No, we are not feeding it. No, we are not weaponizing it. No, we are not excavating it. No, we do not have control of it. Not truly, anyway.

These are stories, of course. False ones. Know that the truth is far worse.

Site-82 is a congregation of some of the Foundation's greatest minds. Your work will take you across the Kara Sea, as well as to the bottom of it, and possibly into 6013 itself. When you land onsite you will look left and right and see a dozen other scientists: linguists, chemists, geologists, biologists, psychologists, botanists, all necessary in their own ways. Collectively, you and them will create a cipher, and with that cipher we will persuade a weapon not to kill. If we do not succeed, we face the possibility of complete ecological collapse.

I'm sorry that this has fallen on your shoulders, but we are running out of manpower and time. This is preferable to our other alternatives.

SCP-6013 has given us a profound burden. This burden, physical, psychological, and emotional, will be great, and it must be borne by many, many people. Dozens have already come and gone from SCP-6013. You are far from the first person to join us here. Hopefully, you will be the last.

You could call what we do many things. I prefer diplomacy, but some call it capitulation. "Sleeping with the enemy," even. I don't care what you call it. If it helps you sleep at night, call it treason. I've considered the possibility.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that your work will be instrumental in preventing global catastrophe. God willing, our time together will be short. I hope for your sake that we do not interact enough to develop attachments.

Site Director Kamski will give you a whole routine about this, I'm sure. He'll be kind and jovial in a way completely unbecoming of our assignment. Then, when you don't play along, he'll throw titles and jargon at you in a petty display of authority. He'll tell you that I'm cruel, that I'm bitter and distant. And, to his credit, at least one of those is true. But know this:

I promise, with all my heart, that I will keep you safe.

Be seeing you soon. Then, hopefully, never again.

Regards,

—Joanne

I won't clutter this correspondence with pleasantries. Unlike Director Kamski, I have respect for your time.

The Foundation became aware of SCP-6013 in 2018 following an intelligence leak from within the Russian Federation. Person of Interest Nadia Sokolov intercepted an acting field agent within the Russian oblast.An administrative division of the Russian Federation, comparable to a state in size and function. of Arkhangelsk, claiming that members of her family were involved with a GRU Division "P" operation called Project Deep Silence. The project describes a "Benthic Initial Contact Scenario" with a macroorganism in the Kara Sea codenamed Alkonost. The Foundation would later designate this organism SCP-6013 during its own initial contact measures.

These Division documents and timelines of operation match those recorded by Foundation espionage within the Soviet Union at the time. Attempts were made to schedule an in-person interview the next day. Ms. Sokolov refused to cooperate with field agents in any capacity; after several days without correspondence, she was found hanged in her home in Severodvinsk. The Foundation established a survey fleet in the Kara Sea over the following weeks, leading to the creation of Site-82 and the discovery of SCP-6013.

In the interest of better preparing you for your work with the Rosetta Protocol, I have translated and declassified part of Project Deep Silence.

This order is CLASSIFIED by the authority of the 9th Section Head of the General Intelligence Directorate

25.11.1981

Comrades,

The General Intelligence Directorate greets you in high spirits. The fruits of our labor, hard-won as they are, are all the sweeter for our efforts. Today, we set in motion a magnificent thing.

In March of 1977, the Division submarine K-160 Gramsci discovered a flourishing reef ecosystem during seafloor surveys of the Kara Sea basin. The wreckage of the previous survey vessel K-099 Kropotkin was also discovered there in an advanced state of decay, despite having only vanished four months ago. A low-frequency sound in excess of 200 dB was detected at the center of the reef, repeating at a set interval. When the Gramsci approached for a more comprehensive survey, it was bombarded with a combination of sound and light signals of great complexity.

Even the depths of the ocean are not safe from the abnormal, it seems. This reef is bountiful with life the likes of which are previously unseen upon this Earth. When the time comes, perhaps the world may share in its treasures. For now, the Division keeps its secrets. We call this marvel of nature by one name: Alkonost.

For years, nearby listening posts have catalogued the lights and sounds transmitted by the Alkonost. Theories have abounded; they could be a weapon, a beacon, a warning … speech. Now, after much deliberation, the Division has decided to reply with transmissions of its own.

In accordance with the Shadow Upon the West Directive, GRU Division "P" Branch 131 is hereby APPROVED to move forward with Alkonost initial contact efforts. The following crew will depart for the Kara Sea basin in the K-000 Rusalka to attempt communication with the Alkonost Object:

Project Overseer: ████████ █████████████.This text was redacted by the staff of Project Deep Silence. All of our attempts to recover the original text have been unsuccessful.

—Joanne

Captain: Anatoly Sokolov

Research Staff: Ilya Petrovitch, Petr Stravinsky, Ivan Nedev

Personal Protective Seafloor Traversal Apparatus Testbed: Nikali Vlasova

Be swift and be studious. Diplomacy is an option, but failure will not be. The Union's enemies are numerous and their schemes even more numerous. They may seek to take what is ours. Do not let that come to pass.

No matter what awaits us, we will persevere, and through diligence and commitment secure the providence of our Union.

—████████ █████████████

The Foundation investigated the seafloor around SCP-6013 for traces of the Kropotkin and the Rusalka. We found nothing. SCP-6013, however, was happy to speak with us. Its transmissions were not an effort to communicate in the traditional sense.

They were prayers. And threats.

We know now that SCP-6013 is not only intelligent, but malevolent. It is a living, breathing, Sarkic weapon that communicates in a language called Soonsaran. During your time at Site-82, you will learn to understand Soonsaran and aid in the collective effort of interpreting what SCP-6013 has to say. In effect, you and your colleagues will be interrogators.

SCP-6013 gains more agency and strength by the day. Our containment measures are stopgaps and last-resorts. If we fail to engineer a countermeasure to SCP-6013's anomalous abilities, it will inevitably wrestle control away from us and do what it was built to do: terraform. The world's oceans will become inhospitable to any life you recognize. We must interpret, outsmart and disable it before that becomes a possibility.

Through great sacrifice, the Foundation has made SCP-6013 an open book. Now, we must learn how to read it.

SCP-6013 is a devoutly faithful animal. It has a penchant for metaphor and explaining the material as though it were abstract. Therefore, our interpretations are similarly abstract. Sentences in Soonsaran are broad, sweeping things whose exact meanings are less important than their attitudes and statements of intent. Our understanding of the language is still deeply imperfect. With time, and your help, we will change that.

Site-82 maintains a comprehensive guide on translating Soonsaran written by Site Director Isaiah Kamski. With my guidance, he has assembled our translation efforts into an invaluable academic resource. As much as it pains me to admit it, he has some important things to say, and understanding Soonsaran will essentially be impossible without him.

I suspect that some of you have already heard about Soonsaran. There are … individuals with greater influence (and poorer self-control) than me who make a spectacle out of work like ours. I harshly condemn these kinds of breaches, of course, and would encourage you to do your part in keeping this project as close to your chest as it is to mine. That being said, the studious among you can find a copy of the Soonsaran field guide attached to this correspondence, if you really are so eager.

I want to be clear that Site-82 will walk you through the basics when you arrive. You will have many opportunities to review site literature prior to initial contact. So if you would rather wait, go ahead and cherish the time you have without Director Kamski in your life. I know I would if I had the chance.

I won't belabor this any longer. I've already taken enough of your time.

I've prepared you as best I can. It won't be enough, I think; SCP-6013 has to be seen and heard to grasp the full scope of it. I'm sorry that I couldn't make this easier for you.

This is difficult work, not for the faint-hearted. And if we succeed, it will inevitably be at a great personal cost. I hold you in high esteem, for what it's worth.

Thank you. Welcome to the Rosetta Protocol.

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