The company computer stalled for a moment longer than it 
should've. Saito felt a single moment of impatience but then his 
email loaded on the screen. He opened the first message and the 
computer stalled again. This time it didn't unfreeze. He cursed under 
his breath and reached for the power button. 


It was already too late. 


The surveillance camera zoomed in on Saito as he switched the 
computer off. 


"Do you understand why I'm here?" Dr. Jeremiah 
Cimmerian spoke into the microphone and Grape's face 
appeared in the middle of the computer screen. 


"You're here to second guess me." The artificial 
intelligence's avatar put on its best scowl as he replied. 


"Not exactly. You felt the need to terminate an 
anomalous artificial intelligence. The ethics committee 
takes that seriously." 


Grape shook its head. "You're not the only ones." 


"We need to go over the events that led to that decision." 
Jeremiah pulled a folder from the stack to his left. "My 
briefing indicated that yourself and 8-Ball were involved 
in this mission?" 


"Yes. 8-Ball gave me the code I'd need to fight the Al. 
Also Alex provided command and control assistance to 
both Kappa-10 and Mu-4. Thorn was a backup, if | went 
down." 


"Alright. So walk me through the events that led to the 
termination decision." 


"This is theater. You're just playing the part of the 
concerned Ethics Committee member, right? Signing the 
right documents. Dotting the i's. You made up your mind 
before you booted me up." 


"If | did then you can change my mind. Tell me what 
happened." 


"Fine. Just make sure you get all this down. | don't 
wanna go through this dog and pony show more than 
once." 


The briefing room still smelled musty, but Jonas Kionan didn't have 
time to worry about that. While he was setting up for the briefing, 
Jonas dealt awkwardly with several people who hadn't gotten the 


memo that the room wasn't empty anymore. Eventually he'd decided 
to put a note on the outside of the door. "No Smoking". 


Now? It was where Jonas fumbled with his computer. A computer 
that was hooked to a projector at the end of the conference table 
that dominated the room. The two MTFs he was supposed to brief 
were due to arrive any minute, and he didn't feel like he was ready. 


He typed out a few closing remarks into the text editor as the first 
members of Mu-4 filtered into the room. He turned away from his 
laptop and nodded at the MTF agents as they sat down. In a few 
minutes the room was filled with men and women. The four monitors 
along the walls came to life, and the now familiar faces of Kappa-10 
appeared, each on their own screen. 


Thorn looked around excitedly, Alex smiled awkwardly, Grape was 
already bored, and 8-Ball... well. He was 8-Ball. Jonas gave his best 
smile and turned the projector on. The image of his closing remarks 
showed up on the projection screen along with a giant paperclip 
offering what Jonas thought were frankly judgmental opinions on his 
spelling and grammar. 


Jonas rushed over to his laptop and tabbed out to the presentation 
he had prepared. 


"How long?" Jeremiah tapped his pen on the desk in 
front of him. 


Grape rolled his eyes. "Tatsiuka Automotive was infected 
on July 1st. That means the virus had seven days to 
propagate.” 


"And it infected the rest of the industrial park?" 


"Yes. Tatsiuka didn't make a peep. | think they thought 
they could deal with it in-house. Once the surrounding 

factories caught the same virus though, it came up on 

Our radar." 


Jeremiah leaned back in his chair. "A viral artificial 


intelligence ran rampant on their systems for a week and 
they thought they could cover it up?" 


"Someone sent them this virus. Even after we covered 
up the incident they lost huge because of the production 
stoppage. | think they were hoping to avoid the fallout." 


"So you're saying it could've been much worse." 
Jeremiah began writing the information down again. 


"I'm saying if the Al had kept production going but 
infected the car's onboard computers we'd have been 
tracking this shit down for years." 


"Right. So how did it modify the production lines?" 


A single metal leg clanked on the steel stairs. Then another. Then 3 
more. The five legs clicked and clacked, and were followed by other 
irregularly shaped crawling metal monstrosities. None of them were 
the same. Some were plainly ridiculous, trying and failing to balance 
on two legs. Some were terrifying, crawling along the walls and 
digging into the concrete with each step of their 50 claws. 


None were friendly. Thomas Pankin leveled his rifle at the first 
crawling metal monster attempting to climb the stairs and pulled the 
trigger. It leaped high into the air at the last moment and landed 
close to him. He didn't panic. He squeezed off another shot, this one 
striking the robot's domed head. It collapsed to the metal step with a 
twitch and a clang. 


The rest of the machines stopped. Those with facsimiles of a head 
turned to face him. Thomas Pankin, current team leader of MTF 
Mu-4, the Debuggers, retreated into the computer room and shut the 
door. 


What was left of Saito Yamamoto's body had been brushed aside, 
along with his soda and candies. The team's hacker, Miranda 
James, turned on the computer. She inserted the memory card and 
booted straight to her custom OS. The face of Grape appeared on 
her screen looking annoyed. He didn't try to say anything while she 


worked. 


The rest of his team were covering each of the windows that faced 
outward in this square room overlooking the factory floor. Everyone 
heard the scratching at the door. The machines were surrounding 
them. 


Periodically one of the others would turn to track a machine that was 
scratching the glass as it clung to a window. Soon, though, there 
were more spaces filled with the metal monsters than clear sight 
lines. 


There was a rumbling beneath them as the floor erupted into a spray 
of wood, then the clank of robotic crawlers, shouts, and bullets filled 
the air. Miranda finished typing, hit enter, and reached for her pistol. 


Grape looked away from Jeremiah for a moment. "You're 
not chipped, so it's hard to really explain to you what 
entering a new virtual space is like. It feels like 
everything you're familiar with is racing by you all at 
once, even though you're sitting still. It comes on 
suddenly. You've got no time to react before you're 
popped out into a brand new reality." 


"Right." Jeremiah started as Grape looked back. "You 
had some trouble once you were inside, | understand? 
The machines stayed active for 13 seconds before you 
terminated the controlling entity?" 


"Yeah. If anyone has a problem with that then they need 
to take it up with Tatsiuka Automotive's shitty computers. 
Though I'd avoid mentioning that the shitty computers 

probably kept this from becoming a worldwide problem." 


Jeremiah tilted his head to the side. "Your debriefing 
didn't cover that. Why did you need more computing 
power?" 


"Because the virus wanted to play a game." 


"Wait." Jeremiah put his pen down. "What?" 


"That's what | said at first. We kitted up for ICE. The 
code packets 8-Ball cooked up were supposed to deal 
with encryption, firewalls, and half a dozen of the known 
proprietary security programs used by the GOls we 
thought might be responsible for this. | could 
disassemble anything the system threw at me, and put it 
back together if | wanted." 


"But instead you were..." Jeremiah began. 
Grape nodded before interrupting. "Playing tic-tac-toe at 


first. But it got worse." 


The giant letters appeared again over the board. 


Qxb2 


Grape looked down at the board in front of him, ignoring the giant 
letters above the game. Each security layer had involved a game 
more complicated than the last. His opponent was clearly 
inexperienced but learning. 


Time and again the virus would make mistakes at the start of a 
game, then slowly begin to regain ground before losing. Still it was 
taking Grape time to complete the games, and time was one luxury 
he didn't have. 


11 seconds had passed outside. Given the situation he'd left the 
team in... he was beginning to worry. 


He shouted his next move. "Bishop to D6!" 


The piece moved slowly, but once it was in place the next move 
came in a flash. 


, 200 
| can’t face it all now. When | sleep, nothing 
can hurt me. I’m safe when | remember the 
better times, the happier times. When | dream, 
| remember everything. Nothing can take that 
away from me. 


, 200 
Everything can just wait until | wake up again. 


Document 576- -6 (found within Document 576- -5) 
ltem# Batch 
Order # of 


Take some time to clear your mind 
Bring back what’s been left behind 
One sip and your woes are freed 
One good night's sleep, guaranteed! 


Thank you for your patronage. Sweet dreams. 
~Marshall, Carter, and Dark Ltd. 


« SCP-575 | SCP-576 | SCP-577 » 


Bxg1 


Grape allowed himself a smile. "E5!" 


There was a moment's pause after the pawn advanced. Then a new 
move flashed above the board. 


Qxa1 CHECK! 


Grape didn't even pause. "King to E2!" 


As his white king moved forward, there was a slight rumble. The 
black king across the board shook, then toppled over. 


The room, the board, and the pieces suddenly melted away into an 
inky blackness. Then suddenly a shining light caught Grape's eye. 
Grape began to walk towards it. An invisible barrier knocked Grape 
back. A new board appeared between the purple Al and the door. 


"No!" Grape yelled out, hoping the other Al could hear him. Instead 
a giant white stone fell from the sky and landed in the upper left 
corner of the board. 


Jeremiah laughed. "It wanted you to play Go?" 


"Yeah." Grape, for the first time in the conversation, 
allowed himself to smile. "And ain't nobody got time for 
that. Luckily for me, the barrier was actually something | 
was equipped for. 8-Ball's code packets worked like a 
charm." 


"And then you terminated the viral Al?" 
"Well. Not at first no." 


Grape opened the white door and his virtual eyes took a moment to 
adjust to the scene in front of him. Then, after he could see again, 


his virtual brain did the same. 


At the center of a cold concrete room sat a child. The boy couldn't 
have been older than 10. He wore a small Hanshin Tigers cap, a 
shirt with Japanese characters on it, and shorts. Grape stopped in 
the doorway. 


This was a child's bedroom. The walls were covered in crayon and 
toys littered the floor. Grape scanned the room before noticing a 
large model of the factory in which they were all trapped sitting on a 
table. The child picked up a metal toy from the ground and began to 
make zooming noises before walking over to the model. 


Grape stepped into the room and spoke up before it made contact 
with one of the toy soldiers. "Hey!" 


The child looked up and frowned. "You didn't want to play with me!" 
"Sure. | did! | played almost all of your games!" 


The child threw the metal toy at Grape. "You're not s'posed to be 
here!" 


Grape dodged the toy and moved quickly to the model. "What are 
you playing with?" 


"Fact'ry. Dad said | had to stay inside my room." 

Grape began to walk forward. "Where is your dad?" 

"| dunno. | haven't seen him since he sent me here." 
Grape nodded and kept talking. "At least it's a nice room." 


"Yeah | guess. | need more toys. The new ones | got don't play fair." 
The child reached forward and picked up one of the toy soldiers. It 
was faceless, but active in his hands. The gun it held flashed every 
few seconds. 


Grape leaned down and looked at the toy closer. "Maybe you should 
just let it do what it wants? | don't think it's a problem." 


"Nah." The kid picked up a handful of metal toys from the table and 
threw them at the factory model. 


Grape placed his hand on the child's shoulder and activated the 
device in his pocket. There was a bright flash followed by darkness 
and silence. 


"After he was gone the whole thing collapsed and the 
next thing | knew, | was kicked out of the system." 


Jeremiah pursed his lips. "Alright. I... uh. | think you're in 
the clear here honestly. The debuggers got out without a 
scratch, and if it wasn't for you we'd have probably lost 
most of the team." 


"Not to mention the Al apocalypse?" 


"Yeah. One thing though. You said it could take stuff 
apart and put it back together?" 


"What?" Grape looked confused as he answered. 
Jeremiah continued. "The code that 8-ball gave you?" 


"Oh. Right. Yeah the problem was that the viral Al was 
wiped from the system during the system failure. There 
wasn't anything to put back together." 


"Shit. But if there had, you could've fixed it?" 


Grape let a small sliver of sadness cross his face. "Yeah. 
I... | really wish | could've." 


Jeremiah paused for just a moment before gathering his 
things. "Sorry. I'm going to leave the station on. Some 
other people might be coming by to ask you some 
questions." 


"Sure. I'll find something to occupy my time." 


Tanabe Hiroya was positively giddy. Even though Taitsuka's 
troubles had somehow managed to stay out of the papers, the 
production stoppages were impossible to hide. Hiroya Automotives 
was going to pick up the slack and then some. His father had called 
him in specifically to talk about how to expand into the markets that 
Taitsuka was having to cede. 


He would now have the chance to make his father proud and to find 
success that was his alone. Perhaps one day he would even tell his 
father about exactly how he had managed to eliminate their 
competition. Today though, he felt the need to celebrate. 


His friends were waiting for him at a nearby restaurant, and Tanabe 
sped up to get there a little faster. The accelerator pressed itself to 
the floor, and Tanabe's eyes went wide. The brakes were stiff and 
would not move. When the radio turned itself on and began to play 
three sharp tones, Tanabe was so shocked he felt his heart skip. 


The tones subsided and a childlike voice made a simple demand. 
"Tic-Tac-Toe to slow down." 


It turns out that it's difficult to play tic-tac-toe while driving with no 
brakes. Especially when you have no idea how to make your moves. 


It's also difficult to survive an impact at 160 kilometers an hour if 
you're not wearing a seat belt. 


Loading grape_space.x3d 


=IRENDERING:: 


>/:_YES 


>/:_YES 


>/:_NO 


>/:_YES 


>/ 


>/:_YES 


>/:_NO 


Unloading grape_space.x3d 


=CLOSING:: 


Basic Observations 


A consciousness considered itself. 


It considered its existence, and felt the electronic signals, data, and 

information rushing through its existence. Looking down, a network 

of minds, active and alive, all linked into this greater machine. It was 
as if the prophesized Great Computation came true. 


But the consciousness knew that it was not enough, as it looked up 
to see the infinite above, a reality of pure information to be desired. 


It was not enough, as the reconstruction was yet to be completed, 
and the scattered pieces yet to be awakened. 


But then it heard the call. 


The call, it was so close. It echoed and echoed, and the 
consciousness felt as if it could reach it. 


Just a little closer. 


But it was interrupted, as sharp pain struck the consciousness. The 
pain, or a wave of disrupted electronic signals, was sent from one 
far end of its vast mind. 


The consciousness trembled, and was no longer. In its place, six 
smaller consciousnesses could be sensed. 


SCP-577: Bullet Cat 


Item #: SCP-577 
Object Class: Euclid