Item #: SCP-4341

Object Class: Keter

Special Containment Procedures: No Foundation personnel belonging to the biological kingdom Animalia are to enter the town of Grantsfield. A Class-III Biohazard Quarantine Unit (Unit Alpha) has been erected around the town as to completely isolate it and any non-animal waste matter within from entering the surrounding environment. Provisional Site-4341 has been constructed around the unit and is adjoined to it. SCP-4341-A instances that approach the interior perimeter of Unit Alpha will be terminated by AI-operated turrets, using bullets containing HCl capsules that burst on impact. Audiovisual monitoring equipment has been established by Remote Control Vehicles (RCVs) in all areas of Grantsfield except for the town center.

Cover stories regarding the evacuation and closure of Grantsfield due to an industrial chemical spill have been disseminated. Roads leading to the town have been diverted, and map information on the town's existence has been removed. Further cover stories attributing the replacement of the town's former population to death from hazardous chemicals, suicide, and various disappearances have also been disseminated.

Researchers assigned to SCP-4341 will undergo a psychological examination before being sent to Provisional Site-4341, which will be followed by monthly examinations of the same nature. The results of these will be compared to the baseline psychological profile established in the first examination, with any severe deviations resulting in removal from Research Team 4341 and subsequent amnesticization.

If an inability to properly identify animal life is recorded in the examinations, on-site security are to subdue the researcher in question and transfer them to a V-Model Habitational Infoquarantine Chamber for a period of one month. Information on animal life and exercises in which the goal is to properly identify animal and non-animal life will be provided in this time, after which they will be removed from Research Team 4341 and be amnesticized. Covert monitoring will be performed until it can be ascertained that the researcher is following normal behaviors.

Personnel are to be reminded on a daily basis that no animal life exists within Grantsfield.

Description: SCP-4341 is the absence of animal life in the town of Grantsfield, Kansas, US. Following initial reports of anomalous activity, no organisms belonging to the kingdom Animalia, including humans, have been observed to exist within the town borders. Animal life that enters Grantsfield is replaced by SCP-4341-A instances. SCP-4341-A instances are not animals.

Addendum.1: Research Log 4341/1

Research Procedure
Outcome

Four domesticated rats (Rattus norvegicus domestica) are sent into Grantsfield.
Four SCP-4341-A instances are created. SCP-4341-A1 and SCP-4341-A3 experience immediate bodily collapse, while SCP-4341-A2 and SCP-4341-A4 attempt to reach the Unit Alpha perimeter. Both instances are terminated by autonomous systems.

D-4765 enters Grantsfield.
One SCP-4341-A instance is created. SCP-4341-A5 moves toward the town center but collapses when its appendages convert into hyphae.

RCVs χ1, χ2, and χ3 are sent into the town.
All three RCVs encounter minimal obstacles during the first five minutes, being able to deploy multiple pieces of monitoring equipment. Aside from the absence of animal life, no abnormalities in Grantsfield are noted. However, after six minutes plasmodium structures grow into the wheels and internal mechanisms of χ2 and χ3, disabling both. χ1 nears the town center before contact is lost.

Drone κ1 is deployed to investigate the town center.
The town center becomes obscured by a rapidly forming dome of spore clouds. Drone κ1 is redirected to investigate the outlying houses and stores, finding former residents and no signs of animal life. Contact with the former residents is attempted, though this results in former resident Jonathan Brams initiating binary fission. Drone κ1 is crushed beneath additional Jonathan Brams.

RCVs χ4 deploys a nutrient growth mixture then exits.
SCP-4341-A responds to nutrient sources as would be expected of non-animal organisms. However, one instance acts erratically and redirects its root structures to connect with Turret 1. Turret 1 becomes non-animal life and is fired upon by other turrets, neutralizing it and the instance in the process.

One organic disintegration bomb is placed by Drone κ2 inside Grantsfield. Provisional Site-4341 is temporarily evacuated.
The organic disintegration bomb becomes non-animal life. Detonation fails.

Addendum.2: List of Containment Proposals

The replacement of HCl bullets with bullets containing capsules of Acid REGALITH/2178, which have been proven effective at bypassing the hydrochloric acid-resistant shells of SCP-4341-A instances. — APPROVED

The implanting of remotely activated Acid REGALITH/2178 capsules in the crania of all personnel at Provisional Site-4341, intended as a failsafe for the possibility of an absence of animal life emerging in the facility. — APPROVED

Detonation of a neutron bomb above Unit Alpha to create an absence of non-animal life in addition to animal life. — DENIED: Radiation from the detonation would endanger outlying civilians.

The development of a replacement for Acid REGALITH/2178 to bypass shells resistant to the acid. — APPROVED

The neutralization of the excess biomass within Grantsfield via the flooding of acidic compounds. — UNDECIDED: No acids or alternative means which could achieve this currently exist.

Evacuation of civilians within a 5km radius of Provisional Site-4341. — PENDING VOTE

Detonation of a neutron bomb above Unit Alpha. — PENDING REVOTE

Addendum.3: Incident 4341/A28/UN1

On 12/07/2022, an opening grew on the spore dome surrounding the town center, and Grantsfield mayor Gordie Landon exited from it. Researchers identified Landon as being animal life. Drones rapidly guided Landon to the nearest Unit Alpha entrance, which was then sealed for temporary quarantine. At this point Head Researcher Ken Innes sent an email with the following text to all Provisional Site-4341 personnel.

Staff is compromised by SCP-4341.

Landon is not an animal. Look at its eyes.

There's roots strangling the veins, green dots blotting the pupils, gemma eating the irises.

How many cilia can you count in those pupils?

ENTER INFOQUARANTINE NOW.

Panic spread among onsite researchers. Head Researcher Innes triggered site alarms and conflicts over keeping the entrance sealed emerged. Soon after Researcher Marlene Mohren, acting without supervision or approval, sent override commands to unseal the entrance.

On release, Landon's head sloughed off to expose root structures. Sector 1 became devoid of animal life, with the spontaneous growth of macroscopic organelles in the sector's walls causing complete structural collapse. Former resident Landon then breached. The entity moved 1.2km towards Site-1281 before it was neutralized by long-range ordinance.

Despite the expected fallout that would occur from the mass release of SCP-4341-A instances, the surrounding environment did not develop animal life absences. Fauna and flora were not affected, and no forms of contamination by spores or toxins was observed. However, individuals with connections to the Foundation were contaminated or attacked by SCP-4341-A instances if in areas where the anomalies were present. Outlying towns contained animal life until Foundation personnel arrived.2 Aside from this, no civilians were harmed.

The neutralization of all breached SCP-4341-A instances is in progress. A media coverup will be maintained until neutralization is complete, at which point the amnesticization of witnesses will begin. Construction of a fortified Class-II Biohazard Quarantine Unit around Sector 1 is underway. As animal life is wholly absent from Sector 1, the area is to be treated as an extension of SCP-4341's region of influence.

Additional V-Model chambers are yet to be constructed. Infoquarantine of all compromised researchers is presently impossible.

Addendum.4: Exploration Log 4341/κ6/1

Displaying Log

[EXTRANEOUS DETAILS HIDDEN]

Drone κ6 reaches the spore dome. Openings on the sides nearest to κ6 widen, all large enough that the drone could easily enter without its rotors becoming jammed from hardened spore substances. The drone lowers and it passes through, entering the town center of Grantsfield.

All buildings in the town center repeatedly undergo mitosis, frequently enveloping one another. The bodies of former residents protrude from streets and release clouds of spores. Duplicates of former resident Gordie Landon, legs replaced by columns of mycelium, walk over the area while spilling slurries of non-animal colonies from their chests. Dozens of SCP-4341-A instances are stretched in a web-like network that lines the interior of the dome and attaches to several buildings, such as the Grantsfield Courthouse.

One of the Landons embraces Drone κ6. κ6 rapidly develops non-animal organs, macroscopic organelles, and spore sacs that replace much of the machinery, including rotors. The top of the spore dome widens into a tube that connects to the underside of Unit Alpha's roof, which SCP-4341-Aκ6 flies through until contacting said roof. It merges into the roof's metal framework. Contact is lost.

During this time, personnel outside Provisional Site-4341 report the formation of sheets of photosynthetic structures on the top of Unit Alpha.

Footnotes

1. The nearest Foundation facility to Provisional Site-4341.

2. Surviving involved personnel frequently debated whether the generated absences of non-animal life were truly present, necessitating them to be put into infoquarantine. Said personnel have not regained their ability to distinguish between animal and non-animal life.