Aeslinger: So, you plan to just wait it out? 
Conwell: Pretty much... this too shall pass... 
Conwell pauses again. 

Aeslinger: You don't seem so certain. 


Conwell: Merlo and Holman have something big planned, and \ 
hands. | just know it... 


Conwell chuckles. 


Conwell: | wonder if this is how Nobel felt after dynamite... 


August 15th, 2023 


Assistant Director Sasha Merlo sat upon a park bench within 
Portland's South Park Blocks. Despite the balmy summer weather, a 
cup of coffee was nestled in her grip. Watching several children 
nearby play around a statue of Abraham Lincoln, Merlo smiled, 
thinking about her own daughter who was also at that carefree age. 


"Ahem." 


Merlo looked up to see that company had arrived and taken a seat 
on the park bench next to her. 


"Agent Thorne," Merlo greeted her guest, an agent for the UIU's 
Three Portland's division. 


"Agent Merlo," Thorne replied. 

"It’s Assistant Director now, I'm afraid," Merlo chuckled. 
"Right. Congratulations, by the way." 

"Thanks." 


Thorne handed her an unmarked folder. As she skimmed the 
contents, Merlo's eyebrows rose, followed by the corners of her lips. 


"We're onboard," Thorne explained. "I think you'll find our terms 
more than reasonable.” 


"What finally convinced you guys?" 

"The law?" Thorne shrugged. "The Hoover Mandate doesn't protect 
you from getting arrested for replacing a Congressman with an 
android. There’s been a warrant out for Anderson's arrest since 


2018. Just didn't have the resources to do much about it. Until 
now...” 


"Yeah," Merlo snickered. "Imagine the frustration of having the 
resources but not the jurisdiction.” 


“Life sure is a bitch, isn’t it?” Thorne said with a smile. 


“It really is.” 


“You confident this will work?” Their smile vanished. 
“As confident as | can be. We'll get him this time. | promise." 


"| really hope so..." Thorne sighed. "If this goes wrong, we're going 
to have problems. Big problems. Even if this goes off without a hitch, 
a lot of people in Three Ports will be pissed off. There'll be protests. 
Maybe even riots. We're spread pretty thin as is without the 
Foundation shooting us in the foot." 


"| hear you," Merlo replied, placing a sympathetic hand on Thorne's 
shoulder, "and if you have a better way I’m all ears, otherwise we're 
just going to have to deal with the hand we are dealt. Anderson is a 
hydra whose heads need to be severed all at once." 


"So it is." 
Thorne looked at their watch and then stood, brushing off their coat. 


"We'll be in touch," Thorne said, beginning to head out. They then 
paused and turned around to deliver one last comment. "You do 
know severing a hydra's heads only causes more to grow in its 
place, right?" 


Merlo chuckled and shrugged. 


"What can | say," she replied. "I don't get paid to make analogies.” 


=SCP Foun 


Overwatch 


Office of the Overs 


Director Holman, 


Your and your assistant director's persistence has certainly bee 


SCP-743’s base. SCP-743 seems to prefer consuming live 
humans, particularly those who have consumed SCP-743’s 
liquid, but will also consume live animals, dead humans and 
animals, plants, fungi, and even some processed animal and 
plant material (e.g. leather, cotton clothing, and paper). These 
ants have been known to travel more than km round-trip, 
bringing a carcass piece by piece back to SCP-743. 

4. Hunting: If sufficient organic material is not readily available to 
SCP-743, different types of arthropoid entities start to emerge 
from SCP-743’s crown. Many of these entities resemble 
known arthropods (particularly insects and arachnids), but a 
large number resemble no known species of arthropod or 
other animal. These arthropoids, which are always the same 
color as SCP-743’s liquid, are usually specialized for a 
particular task. Types of arthopoids that have been observed 
include: 


* Small, winged insectoids used for scouting, observation, 
and reconnaissance. 

« Insectoids that can bore through most materials, 
including steel and titanium. Although individuals can 
each only bore out small amounts of the hardest 
substances before expiring, a seemingly endless stream 
of insectoids from SCP-743 will eventually bore clear 
through. 

¢ Larger, more aggressive insectoids and arachnoids 
used to hunt down prey in a manner similar to instances 
of SCP-2031. Again, individually they are nothing more 
than a nuisance, but SCP-743 has been known to 
produce swarms of aggressive arthropoids numbering in 
the billions, more than enough to [DATA EXPUNGED]. 


8. Maintaining: SCP-743 has been known to use arthropoids to 
clean and polish itself; repair dents, scratches, holes and 
nicks; and even put itself together when disassembled. 
SCP-743 doesn’t need to be turned on to start flowing, but it 
can change the positions of its controls by itself. 


Although the arthropoids that emerge from SCP-743 are significantly 
stronger than their normal counterparts, they are not significantly 


given recent developments, including the cooperation of the Unt 
approve OPERATION FALCON PUNCH. Expect the official doc 


Good luck, and for the love of god please come up with better ci 


O5-3 


Secure. Contain. 


=OPERATION FAL 


Transcript from Joint Ta 


May 23rd, : 


Afternoon, everyone. 


For those of you who don't know me, I'm Assistant Director Sas! 
see your bright and smiling face again. 


By now you've probably heard the rumors that the bigwigs at O& 
in the Location of Interest known as Three Portlands. They have 
between the Foundation and the UIU will launch a massive raid 
known aS Anderson Robotics — under the title of Operatior 


Yes, Agent Spencer. | can see you. Put your thumbs down. 
And yes, Shaw. | did come up with the name. 


Moving on, the operation will consist of three main components: 
Agent Clarissa Shaw, Mobile Task Force Tau-51 under commar 
Delta-3, under the command of Agent Kenneth Spencer. Each t 
Way, all within a kilometer of the Anderson HQ. From there, Gat 
Tau-51 will be detaining all persons of interest within the corpore 
perimeter to ensure minimum civilian interference. 


Yes, Agent Carter, we will be trusting the UIU to "watch the wizé 
Unit's job description, they are more than capable of doing that. 
success of this operation, I'd appreciate it if you would not refer 


Excellent. It's up to Agent Spencer and his crew to accept your : 


The official story is that Anderson is being arrested by the UIU fe 
fiasco back in in 2018. All personnel will be operating under the 
and expected to play the part. While the US Government is willit 
of Three Portlands has no such intention, and word of the Foun 
would cause panic if not outright occult warfare. So yeah... let's 


You will now break out into your respected task forces. Your ind 
specifics of your individual assignments. 


A lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into getting us to this point, 
out all the stops in getting us equipped with the gear we will nee 
facility, and has been feeding AR's spybots false info for months 
expect this to be a quick and clean shut-down. We won't get this 


Godspeed. 


Dismissed. 


May 24th, 2024 
11:30 AM PDT 
THIRTY MINUTES TO RAID 


Agents Spencer and Thorne sat within a large unmarked van, 
parked in front of an alley within Portland, Oregon. Around them 
were the members of JTF Delta-3, each dressed in FBI raid gear 
regardless of their Foundation or UIU origin. 


"Think it'll go well?" Thorne inquired, taking the opportunity to check 
their gear over one last time. 


"Knowing Merlo's track record," Spencer replied, "not at all. This still 
feels like a huge mistake." 


"Probably is," Thorne shrugged. "When the dust settles it's going to 
be the UIU dealing with the fallout. Not the Foundation. Still... 


Anderson needs to go down.” 


"Don't remind me." Spencer sighed and looked over his own gear in 
turn. The Foundation had loaned them numerous toys for the 
duration of the raid; it was truly impressive how many bells and 
whistles you could afford when you legally didn't exist. 


Thorne looked at their watch and sighed. "Shall we, then?" they 
asked. 


Spencer nodded and cleared his throat. 


"Alright, listen up," he called. All heads in the van turned to him. 
"Just a reminder that we are on crowd control. Non-lethal crowd 
control. | can promise you that if you unload on any random wizard, 
you won't make it back to Baseline reality alive. Clear?" 


The van briefly filled with mumbles of affirmation. 
"Right then," Spencer concluded. "Let’s kill some robots." 


Excerpt From "The Three Portlands Investigator" 
May 25th, 2024 


rometheus Plaza - May 24th, 2024 At approximately 
3:00 PM EDT, multiple FBI strike teams emerged from 


the Asimov Street, Clark Place, and Bradbury Street 
Ways and converged upon the Anderson Robotics 
World Headquarters, launching a massive raid on the 
facility of a scope unseen since the days of the 
Chicago Spirit. 


"The Asimov Street Way opened with a flash, like it 
always does, and immediately this FBI team decked 
out in all this fancy gear came pouring out and crossed 
the plaza," Tyler Henderson, a local vendor operating 
within Prometheus Plaza who witnessed the start of 
the raid, claimed. "They quickly dispatched the security 
droids that are always sitting motionless at the gates. It 
was like watching those giant South American army 
ants swarm over a downed bird or something. It 
became pretty clear after that, based on the noise, that 
there were more teams coming in from other streets. 
Whatever Anderson did, these guys were coming to 
kick his teeth in and kick them in hard." 


"It was like a war zone, or something out of the 
Terminator movies," said Sophia Fisher, a bike courier 
who had been leaving the Anderson Robotics lobby 
when the fighting began. "| ducked behind a desk and 
just waited for a chance to break for it. Guns were 
going off. Shelled out and disintegrating robots 
clattered to the ground. Some of them were made to 
look like people..." 


UIU representatives could not be reached for comment 
at this time as to the catalyst of the raid, though 
speculation as to Foundation involvement has begun to 
run rampant... 


Transcript of Surveillance Footage 


Anderson Robotics H 
Main Productior 


<15:10:33> Multiple Anderson Robotics employees are visible 2 


<15:11:22> Security alarms go off on the floor. The employees | 
instructions. 


<15:12:45> Multiple squads of Peregrine Units armed with a vat 
throughout the floor. Employees have hidden under their desks, 


<15:15:40> A door visible at the back of the production floor car 
is tossed inside the facility and goes off. 


<15:16:10> Multiple canisters are thrown into the facility from th 
released by the canisters can be seen disintegrating. 


<15:16:50> Agents of MTF Gamma-13 enter the facility from the 
machinery. Fire is exchanged between the agents and the Pere. 


<15:18:22> Anderson Robotics employees near the MTF are ar 


<15:19:29> Additional Peregrine units arrive. The current firefigt 
down. 


<15:19:35> Firefight continues with Peregrine units unable to ge 
destroys the last Peregrine unit visible at 15:28:16 


<15:30:09> MTF Gamma-13 press further into the production flc 
moved outside. 


<15:32:18> Additional Anderson Robotics employees are seen 
additional alarm begins to sound on the production floor. 


<15:33:49> Aplomado units are visible descending the facility w 
personnel as they descend. Agents Snyder, Lopez, and Rosa al 
take cover behind available desks and machinery. 


<15:35:52> Agent Shaw is visible tossing a Bewit EMP Grendac 
detonates. Aplomado units appear stunned. Gamma-13 operatiy 
orange mist before returning to cover. 


<15:36:10> The Aplomado units begin to fall apart, and are quic 
Gamma-13. 


<15:37:45> MTF Gammaz-13 press further into the production fl 
moved outside. 


<15:38:20> The camera begins to shake as a third alarm begins 
unit rises up into the production floor. 


<15:39:45> Taita unit activates. Gamma-13 operatives are seer 
<15:40:15> Agents Henderson and Kang are eviscerated by the 
<15:40:30> Agents Kim and Smith are eviscerated by the Taita 
<15:40:50> Agents Swanson and Jensen are eviscerated by the 


<15:41:15> Additional Gamma-13 operatives arrive on the floor 
unit with metal canisters that quickly cover the Taita unit with at 


<15:42:00> Vision is obscured by smoke until 15:44:39. 
<15:45:20> Vision is fully restored. A large pile of ash remains v 


<15:46:22> No further resistance is apparent. Gamma-13 opere 
casualties from the production floor. 


<15:50:11> Anderson Robotics Main Production floor is locked « 
leading a strike force deeper into the facility. 


Anderson Robotics Headquarters 
R&D Lab 


"God fucking damn it!" Jason Contos shouted, throwing the contents 
of the nearest desktop to the floor in anger before running a hand 
through his curly blond hair with a panicked sigh. 


He and his team had been watching the battle on the production 
floor from monitors in the R&D lab. They had been hoping the Taita 
unit would stall the incoming task force, giving them enough time to 
copy their research data and destroy the originals. Unfortunately, 


much like said unit, their hopes were quickly disintegrating. The task 
force was on its way, and the copies were only about 60% done. 


"It stopped them for quite a while..." one researcher commented 
under his breath. 


"That's little comfort, Gregg!" Jason snapped back. 


"What do we do now, Mr. Contos?" another researcher asked, her 
eyes bouncing nervously between her supervisor and the door. 


Jason pulled off his glasses and began to clean them nervously, the 
gears turning in his head as he thought through the situation. 
Eventually, he returned his glasses to their proper place, and 
snapped his attention to the pair of Peregrine units standing at 
attention in the back corner of the room. 


"Widget," Jason ordered, "you stay here. Hans, pull Security Team 3 
and get everyone to the subbasement. There's a passage there to 
the Undercity." 


"Sir," Hans protested, "Team 3 has already been assigned to 
security detail in the warehouse, | can't-" 


"Vocal Override Thirty-One, pass code Alexvyla," Jason interrupted. 
Hans immediately fell silent and nodded. 


"Understood, sir," the android replied. "Ladies and gentlemen, 
please follow me to the subbasement. We must hurry." 


"You can't stay here, Jason," Widget protested. "Anderson explicitly 
stated-" 


"I'll override you too!" Jason interrupted again. "Someone needs to 
stay here and make the copies and burn our tracks. I'm the co- 
captain of this ship, so I'll go down with it. Once the copies are ready 
I'll put them on that Amur drone, Terrance, or whatever my Mom 
calls it, and send it on its merry way. The Aplomado's in the halls 
should hold off the task force until the deletions are done. From 
there, hey, let’s see how lucky | am. Understood?" 


Widget nodded. 


"That cool with the rest of you?" Jason asked his researchers. They 
replied with low mumbles begrudging acceptance. "Awesome- 
sauce. Now get the hell out of here. You're all fired." 


The Research and Development team quickly exited the lab, Hans 
losing no time in acquiring additional back up and leading them 
down to the waiting subbasement below. Meanwhile, the sound of 
gunfire growing closer indicated that the task forces were in the 
offices proper. It would only be a matter of minutes before they 
found him here. 


"Might it be wiser if | performed this task, and you used this 
opportunity to escape, Mr. Contos?" Widget asked, looking over 
Jason's shoulder as he worked at a nearby computer. "I'm more 
than capable." 


"We don't have time to delete everything at each individual 
computer," Jason responded. "| have a prototype that will do the 
trick, but you can’t touch it. So, no dice."