NOTICE FROM THE ARCHIVAL SERVICE OF THE UKRAINIAN BRANCH

THE DOCUMENT PROVIDED BELOW WAS RECEIVED FROM THE RUSSIAN BRANCH OF THE SCP FOUNDATION AND HAS BEEN TRANSLATED FOR REFERENCE ONLY.

THERE ARE CURRENTLY NO CONTAINMENT PROTOCOLS IN PLACE FOR SCP-2014-RU (NOW DESIGNATED AS SCP-2014-UA-EX)

Designated translator: A.D.

Ukrainian volunteer unit about to start an assault. SCP-2014-RU can be observed on most of the combatants.

Item #: SCP-2014-RU

Object Class: Euclid (provisional)

Special Containment Procedures: Foundation's agents planted into the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Federation and the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation are tasked with locating, detecting and confiscating SCP-2014-RU specimens from corpses, prisoners of war and civilians, as well as from seized inventories. Due to the context of the object's employment, access to the relevant documentation should be restricted to the staff of this Branch until the source of SCP-2014-RU can be definitively established.

If a live carrier or unused specimen is seized, it shall be transported immediately to the nearest properly equipped Branch facility for further examination.

Description: The object constitutes a yellow adhesive tape, visually identical to the packing tape of the same colour. Although the analysis of the used samples has not yet revealed any deviations of chemical or physical structure from the typical substances and composition of the non-anomalous product, the nature of the anomalous properties of the object suggests such differences in the active samples. Therefore, their securement and further research constitute a high-priority task.

SCP-2014-RU is widely employed by the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Ukrainian volunteer military units involved in the conflict in the east of the country. It may usually be observed in key frontline positions and on advanced units during combat operations. The origin of the object has not yet been established; stability of the form and supply suggests the existence of a single source — either in the form of centralised production facilities, or in the form of several production points that coordinate and employ common technical standards and production technologies. The information available to the Branch indicates the absence of independent groups in Ukraine that would be both capable of producing anomalous items and interested in participating in the abovementioned conflict.

Anomalous properties of the object are manifested when it is applied to the clothes or body of a living person, and cease either with their death or after an indefinite period of time following it. They can vary depending on the width, number of layers and place of tape application, as well as, apparently, the carriers themselves. At the time of writing, the following manifestations of SCP-2014-RU properties have been recorded:

improved accuracy of firearms. During the analysis of video data from the battles for Slovyansk, Donetsk Oblast, it was established that some members of Ukrainian volunteer and freshly mobilised army units demonstrated shooting accuracy 40% higher than modelled for their civilian professions, even if accounting for the standard error. Thus, Agent Vorobiov, who was at that time attached to the 1st Detached Motorised Infantry Brigade of the 1st Army Corps of the DPR Peoples Militia as s Deputy Commander of the Technical Support Company, has been terminated by a gunshot from a distance of 790 meters. The shooter has been later identified as ███████████ — a programmer from the Irpin city of Kyiv Oblast, with no previous military record. Similar cases have been repeatedly reported for teachers, musicians, librarians and other civilian professions in no way related to the firearms expertise. This effect usually correlates with SCP-2014-RU being applied to subjects' arms and is usually observed during offensives;

decreased sensitivity of pain receptors, as well as interference with standard nervous' and endocrine system's reaction to trauma. This allows the subjects to withstand injuries that are usually incompatible with active operation. Illustrative is the example recorded by the servicemen of the 31st Detached Guards Air Assault Brigade of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation during their offensive near Ilovaisk, Donetsk Oblast. When they stormed one of the Ukrainian strongpoints as a part of the general encirclement effort, a VOG-25M1 was fired directly into the pillbox's embrasure, exploding inside. Despite that, machine-gun fire, directed at the unit, continued for four more minutes; when the shooting ceased and the assault squad entered the room, it found a body of a soldier with his legs torn off above the knees, his right arm slashed heavily with shrapnel, still clutching the machine gun, and SCP-2014-RU on his bulletproof vest and helmet. Such place of application is considered to be typical for this kind of effect;

increased endurance. Aerial photography has repeatedly recorded the forced marches of infantry units, the distance and speed of which exceeded those modelled for the relevant terrain and personnel anthropometry. Interestingly, as in the previous case, SCP-2014-RU was mainly applied to the bulletproof vests and helmets of the marchers.

Expert assessments of the possible nature of the object:

The sum of available observations and known characteristics of SCP-2014-RU allows us to draw a well-founded conclusion that we are dealing with a thaumaturgical product, to which similar can be found in most of the warlike nations of the world — including the Sarmatians, who previously lived within the territories of the modern Ukraine. This is how Diodorus of Sicily describes the preparation of a Sarmatian detachment for an important battle with the Romans:

The youngest of them brought a cow from the pasture, heavy with calf and ready to birth in few nights. The warriors briskly surrounded her, and grabbed her horns and legs; and the woman, who followed them in their march, made her eyes straight with the eyes of the beast, and whispered something to her in her alien tongue. When the cow had calmed down, Anakara, who had a beard of grey and hair crowned with hawk feathers, stood up from the bonfire, took his hammer in both of his hands, and struck her hard in the abdomen. The horned one roared, and dropped her child, but restrained she could do naught. Anakara then snatched the dagger from his right scabbard, took off the baby's caul, and carefully inserted the blade into their abdomen, cutting the convulsive frail body from top to bottom. After removing the bowels, Anakara unfolded them to their full length and cut guts into short ribbons, which he then wrapped around the arms of as many men as there were ribbons and placed them in the front row. The calf was then burned, and their mother was blinded for the eyes to give to the woman who aided them in their work.

Later, in 1674, during the Chyhyryn campaigns, Russian Prince Grigorii Romodanovskii wrote to his Tsar, Aleksei Mikhailovich:

No later than yesterday, I had an opportunity to be present at the Cossacks' preparation for an attack on a Turkish convoy. They then just got their gunpowder soaked, dropped by our pososhniks2 on the river crossing; then among the ranks of the Cossacks Sirko3 identified a dozen, which he called "harakterniks"4, and ordered them, either by hook or by crook, but to get the army two carts by the dawn. The Cossacks talked among themselves for a moment, then lit a large fire, grabbed the horse from under our jilets5 Alekseev and, after stabbing it and draining the blood, threw it into the flames. Afterwards, they took out white rags, soaked them in the blood and fastened them in place of their belts; and when the fire has burned itself out, they took the ashes left of the horse and smeared them around their foreheads and eyes. That night they returned with five carts of gunpowder.

The concept and operational principles of the object were borrowed, most likely, either directly from the Sarmatian culture, or from its successors, such as the abovementioned. The relatively low residual level of Humes, uncharacteristic for such items, can be easily explained by the fact that its operation is thaumaturgically linked to the death of the carrier. Keeping this in mind, I implore you to get us a living specimen as soon as possible, so that we can better research it — this "modernised" ritual could be very useful to us.

Dr. Boris Lisitsin, Seniour Researcher of the Archaeological Unit of the Anthropogenic Anomalies Division, Site 7

It is clear that we are dealing with an anomaly of chemical origin, if it can be called an "anomaly" in the full sense of this word. Adhesives, if properly prepared, can serve as a medium for psychoactive substances and inhibitors that are subsequently absorbed/disintegrated or excreted from the human body. This is supported by the results of the study of the bodies of some of the carriers, which found varying amounts of such substances. It is further substantiated by the recent history of their use, albeit through a different medium, in related events. There is a public knowledge about the spread of drugged oranges during the so-called "Euromaidan", which unfolded on the eve of the separatist crisis. There is no reason not to believe that this was a piloting of the instrument, the mass use of which can now be observed in the Ukrainian army.

The object is based on a rather progressive concept of pharmaceutical emulation of the main nervous and biochemical effects of SCP-3033 implants using removable and highly mobile medium, which should simultaneously reduce the costs, simplify use and complicate the detection of relevant interventions. Nevertheless, such form comes with some obvious limitations:

short-term nature of the effects, limited by the amount of active substance placed in the adhesive;

relative weakness of the effect caused by the above-mentioned limitation on the applicable amount of the active substance;

impossibility of operative remote control of carriers' actions - though it can be assumed that one of the substance's effects is an increase of subjects' suggestibility when active.

However, these cons do not diminish the effectiveness of the object in certain contexts, such as in military conflicts and clashes, where the participation of combatants is voluntary and requires only improving their combat capability, instead of creating it from scratch. The foremost area of concern here is that the object's existence stipulates for an organisation in the territory of Ukraine, equipped with scientific and technological capacities sufficient for such kind of research and sustainable production — the Intelligence Division has definitively ruled out the possibility SCP-2014-RU's supply from abroad.

Katerina Fortshrit, SSO, Deputy Head of the Laboratory Diagnostics, Chemistry and Biochemistry Division, Site 7

+ Note from Agent Brashov. [ADDED ON 12.02.2015]

- collapse

Our independent attempts to discover the nature of the object have led us nowhere. It seems that the active phase of the military conflict will soon come to an end, and with it — the use of SCP-2014-RU. This will mean that we will lose any opportunity to identify the party behind it and, no less important, that we will not be able to put it to the service of the Foundation. Of course, approaching the DAT SSU is out of question. Nevertheless, the Branch Director has sanctioned my contact with a trusted person within the Ukrainian branch. If anyone can shed more light on this matter, it is them. The assigned staff will be informed of the results accordingly.

Agent Brashov, External Relations Division, Site 7

Footnotes

1. 40 mm shrapnel grenade for under-barrel launchers.

2. Translator's note: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pososhniye_lyudi

3. Translator's note: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Sirko

4. Translator's note: Militant warlocks and mystical healers of Zaporozhian Sich, rumoured to possess potent and powerful magic.

5. A sub-class of "sluzhilyye lyudi" (free people, obliged to perform military or administrative duties for the Tsardom of Muscovy), enlisted exclusively for military service.