Three miners using SCP-4894 instances while working for the Midas Mining Corporation in Yukon territory, Canada circa 1898 (hover to zoom).

Item #: 4894
Object Class: Safe
Special Containment Procedures: All mining sites previously owned by the Midas Mining Corporation have been acquired by Foundation front companies. All SCP-4894 instances under Foundation control are contained within them at their deepest accessible depth. Access to the site interiors is restricted under guise 44G6 "Industrial Waste Hazard". Due to the nature of their past use, SCP-4894 instances are otherwise considered self-containing and self-protecting from unauthorized access.
Description: SCP-4894 is a series of pickaxes of indeterminate number used exclusively by the Midas Mining Corporation between 1891 and 1917. A subject in possession of SCP-4894 is physically incapable of experiencing pain or exhaustion while holding it, although adverse health effects from overwork still occur. Each instance is inscribed with the words "TOOL FOR EVERY USE" on the sides of the axe head. Prolonged use of SCP-4894 imprints this same message into the skin on the back of its user's dominant hand by the gradual manifestation of scar tissue.
Due to its recent discovery, the side-effects of long-term SCP-4894 use are based on the verbal reports of SCP-4894-A at this time. Effects vary and require multiple years of cumulative exposure to manifest but unilaterally increase the subject's potential productivity. Testing using SCP-4894-1 through 15 is underway to verify these claims.
SCP-4894-A is a 172 year-old Canadian man by the name of Percy Aloysius McDonald and is the only known former employee of the Midas Mining Corporation still alive. Due to approximately 25 years of SCP-4894 use, SCP-4894-A does not require sleep, does not age, and possess near-perfect memory of his entire adult life. SCP-4894-A possess scar tissue typical of prolonged SCP-4894 use and a non-anomalous scar on its left thigh consistent with a bullet wound.

Addendum 4894.1: Discovery Interview Log
Note: SCP-4894 was discovered in a sealed mine shaft exposed by a Canadian strip mining operation 83km northeast of the township of Whitehorse in the Yukon. Foundation agents conducted a search of the surrounding area after the cataloging of SCP-4894-1 through 300 held at the shaft's bottom. SCP-4894-A was found by thermal imaging 63km away in an isolated, one-room log cabin. The individual was brought to Arctic Site-87 for questioning after responding agents recognized SCP-4894's engraving on the back of SCP-4894-A's left hand.

Date: 2020/01/22
Interviewed: SCP-4894-A
Interviewer: Isapoinhkyaki Inukhuk, Foundation Arctic Survey Director

Photo of SCP-4894-A taken prior to MMC's dissolution in 1917.

Video Start
Isa: Hello Dash-A, is there anything you need?
SCP-4894-A: Well, it seems you've forgotten to feed me, again.
Isa: I'm aware.
15 seconds of silence ensues.
Isa: You weren't exactly honest in your initial interviews.
SCP-4894-A: I don't enjoy talkin' to folk when they're holdin' another man's gun.
Isa: Our cafeteria's braised morels and moose is rather good, if you'd rather talk to someone holding another person's plate.
SCP-4894-A: I might.
Director Isa sends a request for dinner on her interview terminal.
Isa: Can you tell me when you first learned of or encountered SCP-4894?
SCP-4894-A: I worked for the company that bought them.
Isa: That would make you over 130 years old.
SCP-4894-A: It would.
Isa: Do you know who gave them to Midas?
SCP-4894-A: I was there when the deal was made. The whole crew had to be there.
Isa: All of MMC?
SCP-4894-A: Just the best teams of our company, by the seller's request. MMC said it was an employment exchange. People for some pickaxes.
Isa: And your company leadership thought this was a profitable exchange?
SCP-4894-A: When the owner himself rides over 4000 kilometers from Toronto to make the purchase in person, they think it's worth it.
Isa: Alphonse Pétry?
SCP-4894-A: Yes ma'am.
Director Isa's console flashes and she presses a key on it in response without breaking eye-contact with SCP-4894-A. The interrogation room opens, a guard wheels in the previously requested rations and is then dismissed by the director.
Isa: You still haven't told me who gave you the pickaxes.
SCP-4894-A: I'm aware.
Director Isa places the filled dinner tray on the intake slot to SCP-4894-A's plexiglass cell.
Isa: So you worked for the seller of 4894 in exchange for MMC's acquisition of it?
SCP-4894-A: Never said that. Guess bossman wanted to bring change, marched up enough men to dig our own graves in one day. Did it in the dead of winter too, makin' that mighty considerate of management. But creep with the axes looked me long in the eye along with Big Joe's group and a few them teams from Alaska and passed us up. Said Alphonse needed some workers fit to use 'em.
Isa: Can you describe the seller's appearance?
SCP-4894-A: Can you push that meal through?
Director Isa complies and presses a button on her terminal's touchscreen. The meal is transported through the interrogation room divider into SCP-4894-A's containment area.
SCP-4894-A: I can't tell you much there. It was hard to look him back in the face when he was probing me like a salmon tail. Said he worked fer some factory. I do remember he was overdressed for the occasion, Yanks always do. Riding hood and leathers, wool coated, face covered I don't know how many times over. Didn't stop you from knowin' when his eyes were set on you, though.
Isa: Thank you, Dash-A -
SCP-4894-A: (interrupting) Percy. Dash-A is talkin' like that creep was lookin'.
Isa: Ok, Percy. You have rather good memory for events so long ago.
SCP-4894-A: The only lie that creep didn't say is what's writtin' on them pickaxes. They can make you somethin' useful.
Isa: For mining?
SCP-4894-A: A pickaxe is for more than mining. It can till for planting 'taters, stir up compost, dig a latrine, and a grave for matter. Why, I once killed a pig running wild out in them forests with one of them. Took just one swing and I ain't one to brag on my own account. Made us mighty useful.
Isa: Thank you, Percy. We appreciate your cooperation. With more of it, we can afford you certain luxuries. Maybe even containment at your cabin. Just you, our regional monitoring station 50km away, and a sub-dermal tracker.
SCP-4894-A: How generous of you to leave a man the hell alone.
Isa: If it will make you believe me, it is every bit as much a financial decision for us. Keeping you here is practically bleeding money. There's all the guards, monthly full-body scans, the cavity searches, and… well, I'm sure I don't have to tell you about everything we're already doing to you. Just suffice it to say our money is where our mouth is when I offer you this. Any questions?
SCP-4894-A: Where do you get the money that yer wastin' here?
End Video

Addendum 4894.2: Midas Quarterly Report - Spring 1891

Date: April 8th, 1898 A.D.
From: Alphonse Pétry, Founder & CEO of Midas Mining Corporation
To: Midas Stockholder

Alphonse Pétry in 1880, the year he founded the Midas Mining Corporation.

Salutations and profitable tidings, good sir.
With 27 sites across the Yukon and Alaska, Midas Mining Corporation became the top producer of gold, iron, saltpeter, and coal in the northern territories by 1889. Following the opening of the Gold Hill site in central Yukon in partnership with our new client from the United States, our revenue stream has doubled. Subtract a marginal increase in recruitment expenses due to worker weakness and error, and you get record profits for this spring quarter.
Here at MMC, every tool, be it our innovative equipment or employees, meets their full potential to maximize your gain. With the investment of your generous capital in our recent public offering to hire our necessary bargaining assets, you are entitled to a portion of MMC's windfalls. Enclosed is a signed check valid at the Royal Canadian Bank of Toronto for $10,257.25.
Your generosity will always be well appreciated and well compensated at Midas.

Sincerely,
Alphonse Pétry

Addendum 4894.3: Gold Hill Exploration Log Part 1 of 3

Date: 2021/12/24
Dispatched MTF: Lambda-16 "Sixteen Tons"
Mission Parameters: To search the Gold Hill ruins for information concerning GoI-006 "The Factory".
Special Equipment Requirements: AWANS1, 20kg of plastic explosives, and SCP-4894-A attached by carbon fiber tether to two Lambda-16 members.
Note: Due to its continued cooperation with Foundation study into SCP-4894 and familiarity with the Gold Hill site interior, SCP-4894-A was permitted to act as a guide for Lamda-16.

Photo taken inside Gold Hill during its initial operation (hover to zoom).

Video Start
Lambda-16 approaches the closest point accessible by armored personnel carrier before disembarking. SCP-4894-A attached to L16-Cap and L16-Com.
L16-Cap: Werner, scout ahead to the target site and set a perimeter. Sixty second check-ins.
L16-Sct: On it.
L16-Sct runs ahead while L16-Com deploys the APC's communication's antennae.
L16-Dem: Getting the plastique warmed up. What possessed site command to send us out here in December?
L16-Com: Too much Die Hard?
L16-Dem: Never seen it. At least the aurora's pretty tonight, though.
SCP-4894-A: Always was. You can see it some in mine. Joe said it was somethin' to do with the iron, called it earth's gift to those with the gumption to lay with it. Showin' off that college degree of his.
L16-Com: Why was a college grad in the 1890s working in a mine in the Yukon? Wouldn't that be considered beneath him? No offense.
SCP-4894-A: Big Joe always said that if takin' a shit wasn't beneath anyone, then dealin' with shit ain't either. Quite the heart and noggin in that one. We always said there was three things big about Joe and we done never seen his dick. You might get to meet 'im in there.
L16-Dem: Would you - uh - care to clarify that?
SCP-4894-A: Cave-ins can happen when you're blasting with dynamite two tunnels over. Him and a bunch of his posse were in a tight chamber when one hit. The whole damn ceilin' dropped a foot lower and Big Joe, well, was big.
L16-Dem: They didn't clear the mine before blasting?!
SCP-4894-A: Deadlines had to be met.
L16-Cap: Cut the chatter. Werner, how's it looking up there?
L16-Sct: Eyes are on the mine entrance now. Two structures nearby are still standing, barely, and one has collapsed and been reclaimed by nature. Looked to have been the latrine. Nothing around on thermal or NVG2 for five clicks besides mooses. Meese?
L16-Cap: Moose, and roger that. We'll proceed towards the site. See if you can get a look inside those buildings.
L16 and SCP-4894-A move in single file towards the mining site. Six minutes and 37 seconds silence and irrelevant chatter omitted. L16 arrive to find L16-Sct shining a flashlight through the broken window of the farther derelict structure.
L16-Sct: Ma'am, you need to look at this.
L16-Cap lengthens her tether to SCP-4894-A and joins L16-Sct at the window side. Helmet-mounted camera shows several hundred wooden pickaxe handles stacked around the interior surrounding a dust-occluded notice board.
L16-Cap: I'll check this one, go get the other structure then help Rishi with AWANS.
L16-Cap opens the door to the building and checks the corners by flashlight before proceeding inside. Feed proceeds towards the board where L16-Cap clears the debris and focuses the camera on the most legible document remaining.3
L16-Cap: Werner, keep an eye on Dash-A. Rishi, prioritize getting the network online. Command's gonna want to know this.
L16-Dem: That ain't the only thing worth telling them, Cap. Destroyed structure ain't a latrine. I'm seeing human remains. HUD is counting no fewer than 120 by the number of skulls.
L16-Cap approaches SCP-4894-A and points her flashlight in the direction of the mass grave.
L16-Cap: Anything you want to tell us about that?
SCP-4894-A: Only that them weren't miners, and that there was still our latrine.
Video End

Addendum 4894.4: Factory Document 1 of 2

GOLD HILL PACIFICATION CAMPAIGN ORDER SUMMARY:

FACTORY
(EST. 1835)

UNION OPERATIVE JOSEPH TINSWORTH

PACIFICATION OF LABOR UPRISING, TERMINATION OF UNION OPERATIVE, AND RECOVERY OF MANUFACTURING ASSETS FOR PRODUCT T-00119 "TOOL FOR EVERY USE" IN COOPERATION WITH CLIENT:
MIDAS MINING CORPORATION
ORDER COPY REPRINTED FOR MIDAS-00002 PERSONNEL

REPRINT DATE:

February 3rd, 1915

ORDER ID:

MIDAS-00001

IMPORTANCE:

Medium

LOCATION:

Joint-Venture Northwestern Yukon Ore Acquisition Site At Gold Hill. Location ID: OA-1135792-NWY

ORDER EXECUTION DATE:

November 3rd, 1914

PRIMARY TARGET(S):

Midas Mining Corporation Workforce At Gold Hill Site
Canadian Labor Union Agent Joseph "Big Joe" Tinsworth
Factory Product T-00119 Manufacturing Assets

PRIMARY FACTORY FORCE:

Labor Enforcement Platoon, ID: LEP00449122 (Provided Personnel: 82)
Factory Arsenal Product B-00098 "BRIMSTONE FOUNTAIN"
Northern Territories Factory Head Foreman Atticus Van Horn, ID FOR10376117

PARTICIPATING CLIENT FORCE:

Pinkerton Detective Agency Unit 55 (Provided Personnel: 48)
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Unit 152 (Provided Personnel: 27)
Midas Mining Corporation Chief Executive Officer Alphonse Pétry

RELEVANT PRIOR INFORMATION:

Client reported increased insubordinate fraternization among Gold Hill location labor force following the establishment of Factory assets and personnel. Despite increased security and moral correction measures taken, 28 Factory & Client Labor Enforcement Officers were murdered in an ambush by MMC laborers on June 19th, 1914.
Labor forces have since declared ownership of the mine, maintaining themselves by the trade of ore with the nearby Nacho Nyak Dun, Aishihik, and Little Salmon Inuit tribes. The continued operation of the Gold Hill mining operation is paramount as the only large-scale manufacturing center for Product T-00119.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Pacify labor uprising with minimal collateral damage to Gold Hill assets
Termination of CLU Operative Joseph Tinsworth
Resume production of Product T-00119

ORDER RESULTS:

0420 HOURS: Combined attacking force suffer 48 deaths on approach to ambush and traps set by labor forces
2040 HOURS: Miners forced back into the mine interior via area control provided by Factory Product B-00098 "BRIMSTONE FOUNTAIN"
2250 HOURS: First team of 20 equipped with two B-00098 fountains dispatched into mine interior through the south entrance
2340 HOURS: Only three of the dispatched personnel escape alive
0250 HOURS: Death of 21 personnel following the destruction of B-00098's fuel supply by improvised explosives
1010 HOURS: Second attempt to breach the mine interior with two teams of 25 taking the south and west entrances simultaneously
1750 HOURS: All members of second team presumed lost following the detonation and collapse of the southern mine entrance
1820 HOURS: Retreat order declared

FOLLOW UP

Mobilization of Labor Enforcement Battalion (LEB-000012) and Factory Arsenal Product S-00022 "SULFIDE CANARIES" for eradication campaign.
Slated arrival date: February 15th, 1915.
SEE ERADICATION ORDER MIDAS-00002.

Addendum 4894.5: Gold Hill Exploration Log Part 2 of 3

Pinkerton and RCMP personnel posing with Factory Head Foreman, Atticus van Horn (center). Dated 1914-11-02. (Hover to zoom)

Video Start
Feed opens to Lambda-16 waiting in front of the mine's west facing entrance. L16-Com is crouched in front of the AWANS router, its eliptical speaker and microphone array is directed at the mine opening.
L16-Cap: Change of objective, command wants us to locate the Factory's manufacturing assets down there. Rishi, how's the AWANS?
L16-Com: Finishing its mapping now. Sending to your HUD's.
L16-Cap: Great, set relays every 200 meters. Showtime, grandpa.
L16-Sct takes the lead into the mine interior followed by SCP-4894-A, L16-Cap, L16-Com, and L16-Dem taking the rear. Team proceeds 350 meters inside past multiple forks according to SCP-4894-A's guidance before encountering an obstruction.
L16-Sct: Looks like a cave in happened here. Been partially cleared already. Looks recent by the lack of oxidation on this ore. We'll have to widen it some to get our gear through.
L16-Dem: Got ya sorted.
L16-Dem deploys a drill implement and begins to shave at the sides of the passage. L16-Com deactivates his light and turns back towards the entrance.
L16-Com: You weren't lying. Three turns and the aurora still looks like it's flowing across the mine-shaft walls.
Camera turns towards their rear. No light from the aurora borealis is visible in the recording.
SCP-4894-A: It goes all the way down, too. Where the foreman put whatever that machine of theirs is.
L16-Sct: You mean to tell me that you were down here with complete control over the mine for months and never saw it?
SCP-4894-A: Had other things to be doin'. Traps to dig and the like. Pinkertons weren't going to blow their own kneecaps off.
L16-Dem: Alright, that should be good.
L16-Dem powers off her drill and moves through the passage. The feed shows complete darkness while the members of L16 guide the passage without need for NVG or additional illumination. Passage narrows over 110 meters until the exploration team is forced to crawl for 20 meters until the passage opens into an 4 meter long, 2 meter wide, and 2 meter tall chamber with multiple offshoots.
L16-Sct: You made this trip every day you went down here?
SCP-4894-A: Two or three times depending on the foreman's deadlines, and there was always a deadline.
L16-Com: If no one objects, let's give my knees a break. I'm sitting my ass down and setting up a AWANS spike.
L16-Dem: Yo, Cap, we got an obstruction up ahead. Not big, but I think we'll need to break out the plastique.
L16-Cap: Get it set. Do we need to vacate?
L16-Dem: Nah, I can control the yield of plastique a hell of a lot better than they could with dynamite. Besides, this area we're in looks reinforced.
SCP-4894-A: We dug out and fortified rooms like this 'bout every 500 meters, wherever we could find good cover topside to hide an air shaft. Had 'em rigged to seal them up with quarter stick in each shaft after the Factory started droppin' their gas cans down them.
L16-Sct: Why didn't they just fill the whole mine with gas if that was an option?
SCP-4894-A: Big Joe said them was usin' somethin' called "sulfides". Said the gas could blow up real nice. One spark and there wouldn't be no mine fer them to take.
L16-Dem: Alright, we're set.
L16 moves back through the narrow aperture and back up the mine shaft before detonating planted explosives. Team returns to find the opening clear with piles of human remains just past it. At the front of the remains and taking up the majority of the passage's width is a collection of miner's garments and a crushed in iron helmet. SCP-4894-A approaches the items and takes a knee.
SCP-4894-A: Hey, Joe. Been awhile. Thought you would want to know that a good few of us made it on out. Finished your work for the union. It's been a good life I didn't think I would get, thank you for that.
L16-Com: Sorry to barge onto your mourning and all but does anyone else smell that?
L16-Sct: Scanner's picking up sulfur, methane. Looks like human remains, fresh ones. Five months tops given the temperature here.
L16-Cap: Let's do a search.
L16-Cap turns to SCP-4894-A and places a hand on its shoulder.
L16-Cap: I'm sorry, but you will need to mourn your friend some other time.
SCP-4894-A: Oh I ain't mournin'. Buried them feelings with the rest of my folk down here. Just thought I would let him know that we did good by him. Took a bullet to make sure we did. And you might want to look 'bout halfway up that shaft on yonder if you're looking fer some bodies.
L16-Cap stops and pulls SCP-4894-A up to face her by the collar of its shirt.
L16-Cap: Alright, enough stumbling into intel. I respect you and I understand we look a lot like those Factory and Pinkerton thugs to you, but we need this information to gain something against the Factory. You should at least respect that enough to cut out the lies.
SCP-4894-A: Well I ain't one for lyin' ma'am. Just like I told your director lady, them pickaxes are mighty good at killin' pigs.
End Video

Addendum 4894.5: Factory Document 2 of 2

GOLD HILL PACIFICATION CAMPAIGN ORDER SUMMARY:

FACTORY
(EST. 1835)

EXTERMINATION OF LABOR UPRISING AND UNION OPERATIVE,
RECOVERY OF MANUFACTURING ASSETS FOR PRODUCT T-00119
"TOOL FOR EVERY USE" IN COOPERATION WITH CLIENT:
MIDAS MINING CORPORATION
ORDER COPY REPRINTED FOR LEGACY PRODUCT RECOVERY PERSONNEL

REPRINT DATE:

October 3rd, 2020

ORDER ID:

MIDAS-00002

IMPORTANCE:

High

LOCATION:

Joint-Venture Northwestern Yukon Ore Acquisition Site At Gold Hill. Location ID: OA-1135792-NWY

ORDER EXECUTION DATE:

February 16th, 1915

PRIMARY TARGET(S):

Midas Mining Corporation Workforce At Gold Hill Site
Canadian Labor Union Agent Joseph "Big Joe" Tinsworth
Factory Product T-00119 Manufacturing Assets

PRIMARY FACTORY FORCE:

Labor Enforcement Battalion LEB-000012 (Provided Personnel: 580)
Factory Arsenal Product S-00022 "SULFIDE CANARIES"
Northern Territories Factory Head Foreman Atticus Van Horn, ID FOR10376117

PARTICIPATING CLIENT FORCE:

Midas Mining Corporation Chief Executive Officer Alphonse Pétry

RELEVANT PRIOR INFORMATION:

See document MIDAS-00001

INSTRUCTIONS:

Eradication of Joseph Tinsworth and the MMC labor force at Gold Hill
Recovery of T-00119 manufacturing assets
Collateral damage to T-00119 manufacturing assets is to be avoided at all costs

ORDER RESULTS:

1250 HOURS: Heavy Factory losses on Gold Hill approach, 85 killed in traps set by labor forces
1610 HOURS: Successful capture of Gold Hill grounds surrounding mine entrance
1720 HOURS: Deployment of S-00022 "SULFIDE CANARIES" at mine entrance
1950 HOURS: Advance of S-00022 blocked by labor-provoked cave-in
2120 HOURS: Discovery of three air shaft openings hidden around Gold Hill grounds
2200 HOURS: First set of teams sent though all three air shafts simultaneously
2215 HOURS: Discovery of traps made from re-purposed B-00098 fountains set inside air shafts, 47 killed
0215 HOURS: Foothold inside Gold Hill mine gained by introduction of S-00022 through western air shafts
0455 HOURS: 97 Factory personnel lost in cave in caused by Joseph Tinsworth, termination of Joseph Tinsworth confirmed
0635 HOURS: Excavation efforts started to access T-00119 assets
0810 HOURS: Destruction of S-00022 stockpile resulting in the deaths of 45, including the four labor force saboteurs
1025 HOURS: Discovery and hidden mine entrance 1.4 km south of Gold Hill main site
1240 HOURS: Factory forces enter the mines through the new southern entrance and existing western entrance
2250 HOURS: Multiple explosions detected followed by collapse of remaining mine entrances
2340 HOURS: All Midas laborers presumed deceased, T-00119 manufacturing assets declared destroyed
0100 HOURS: Several gunshots heard near southern entrance
0120 HOURS: Client leader and his guard detail discovered deceased by heavy trauma to the chest and neck, a single Product T-00119 discovered lodged in Alphonse Pétry's torso
0150 HOURS: Two Gold Hill laborers discovered dead from bullet wound related blood loss 1.2 km away, each holding a T-00119 pickaxe
0400 HOURS: Search for additional personnel responsible for the death of Alphonse Pétry recalled, deemed immaterial to Factory profit margin
0520 HOURS: Foreman Atticus van Horn performs communication ritual using his personal guard detail as sacrificial payment to alert Factory Board of Directors of Alphonse Pétry's demise
1000 HOURS: FFF4 entity becomes majority shareholder of Midas Mining Corporation

FOLLOW UP

Manufacturing investment for T-00119 declared lost. Remaining MMC sites undergoing armed rebellion from newly unionized workforce following Factory acquisition of property. Factory Eradication Army mobilized under Arch-Foreman Atticus van Horn.5
Eradication and suppression of information concerning Labor Rights Organization "THE UNION" raised to Paramount importance.

Addendum 4894.6: Gold Hill Exploration Log Part 3 of 3

Video Start
L16-Cap: Alright, bind his hands. We'll haul him around anywhere he needs them.
L16-Dem secures SCP-4894-A's hands behind its back. L16-Com sets up a AWANS spike while L16-Sct explores further down the passage way.
L16-Sct: More skeletons down here, old ones.
L16-Cap: Any of them have pickaxes?
L16-Sct: Not a one. Once more, I don't think these remains are from the miners. Factory uniforms on the bones. Whole 'lotta miner's clothes and hats just laying about, though.
L16-Com: Alright, ready here.
L16-Cap: Let's go.
L16 moves another 700 meters through narrow crevices, requiring regular widening by L16-Dem's drill. One hour and 37 minutes of irrelevant chatter omitted.
L16-Sct: (interrupting on radio) Cap, I found a pickaxe.
L16-Cap: Copy that, Werner. Is it a 4894?
L16-Sct: It has the inscription. Not the only one now that I'm looking. HUD's counting around… well damn. 320? Still no miner remains. The walls look older here from the oxidation. Deep rust color. Think we are the first ones down here in a long while.
L16-Cap: Hold on, Werner. (L16-Cap turns to SCP-4894-A) Anything we should know going forward? We shouldn't still be seeing the aurora down here, and we did some test on the iron ore here. It's not very magnetic.
SCP-4894-A: You're askin' me things beyond my depth and pay, ma'am. All I know is that the metal in them axes is every bit from our blood and sweat as it is from the earth's. Somethin' painful and joyful dumped into each other. Maybe the mine is just gettin' all nostalgic fer me.
L16-Sct: Cap! I found a door! Spans the whole passage, looks like steel. Got a big 'ole Factory logo on it. No handles that I can see. Should I give it a push?
L16-Cap: Go ahead but don't enter if it opens.
L16-Sct: (seven seconds of grunting) Nope, gonna need Menendez.
L16-Cap: ETA 15 minutes, Werener. Sit tight and enjoy the light show.
L16-Sct: No problem, but the aurora is… well, you ever see how smoke gets sucked through the crack under a door, captain? Or how that bit of water circling the drain closest goes fastest?
Remainder of L16 catches up to L16-Sct at the door obstructing further progression.
L16-Com: Well, that is indeed a door.
L16-Dem: Taking a look.
L16-Dem deploys her drill on its finest setting and proceeds to drill through. Sparks from the drill illuminate walls lined with SCP-4894 instances.
L16-Dem: Steel alloying is inlaid with 1.2% desecrated silver standard for early 1900s Factory Thaumasmelting. Door depth looks to be 20 cm. Easy peasy.
L16-Cap: Rishi, take Dash-A and get some cover set up about 30 meters back. Menedez, get the charge ready. Werner, help me collect some specimens.
L16 proceed on task for 10 minutes 14 seconds before L16-Cap leaps backwards while cataloguing a pickaxe followed by a fluttering sound.
L16-Cap: What the?
L16-Cap focuses her helmet camera on a 10 cm long bronze mechanism in the shape of a canary continuously flapping its wings while lodged in the rock wall.
SCP-4894-A: Well I'll be damned. Done thought whatever cruel windin' they put in that thing would be done spun out by now.
L16-Sct: I got it.
L16-Sct grabs hold of the machine and places it in an hermetically sealed container.
L16-Cap: Would you mind elaborating on the clockwork fucking finch?
SCP-4894-A: Canary ma'am. Tragic things, I don't know what critter's heart they put in there but there sure are plenty of 'em. Factory sent 'em flying down the tunnels. Blind things but good of hearin'. They released a gas that could kill you breathin' in it as fast as smokin' in it. Don't matter if it hit a tunnel with folk in it or not, gas built up and flowed into nearby tunnels. A few of the Alaska crew fellas could make it through, them McKenly brothers could chew rust into air. Only reason I made it out was because the three spent a week spittin' fresh air out into some nooks they made.
L16-Dem: Captain, ready here.
L16-Cap: Right, let's get back to cover.
SCP-4894-A makes a deep, rolling chirp noise followed by the sound echoed from an indeterminate number of mechanical canaries. The sound of wings fluttering enters the feed and the video fills with bronze canaries.
L16-Sct: Scanner's picking up sulfides!
SCP-4894-A: Funny thing about them Factory folk. Always treated us and the earth here like we were a pair of tools. If we acted up then that was just a matter of not usin' us right. Not applyin' enough dynamite on the right vein. Not bendin' the worker's fingers back far enough when they protest. They were so busy learnin' us that it never crossed 'em to think we might be learnin' them down here.
Camera turns towards SCP-4894-A holding a pickaxe behind its back with its bound hands. SCP-4894-A rears its body back and strikes it against the wall, creating a shower of sparks and igniting the released gasses. Feed is flung back and lands pointed towards the now blown-open door.
Inside is a rust covered stalactite dripping a dark red liquid down into the mold for a pickaxe. One pickaxe made out of one solid piece of dark-colored iron sits in the mold. Video shakes as SCP-4894-A's feet come into view followed by the back of its left hand bearing SCP-4894's mark. SCP-4894-A pulls the blade of a pickaxe up to his bindings and cuts them. Feed turns to see L16-Com L16-Dem and L16-Sct unconscious on the mine shaft floor.
SCP-4894-A frees its hands off camera and turns towards L16-Cap.
SCP-4894-A: I take y'all for good folk, but I got some work to do and I reckon you won't be lettin' me about my way to do it.
SCP-4894-A swings the pickaxe its holding down in front of the camera and severs its tether connections before turning towards the room beyond the door.
SCP-4894-A: I really must thank you all. If it weren't fer all you folk pokin' around, I wouldn't have pegged them fellers back there for Factory. To think I was sittin' about waitin' to meet Joe and them without the job done right?
SCP-4894-A enters the chamber and stares up at the stalactite above the mold.
SCP-4894-A: And 'ere I thought Joe was just being poetic. Miner blood, earthen rust, all in one mold. Fer one intent and in one union. Bled out holdin' our lover, did ya Joe? It's ok, I know y'all been lonely, I'm here for you now.
SCP-4894-A retrieves the pickaxe and swings it at the stalactite overhead where it shatters in one strike. SCP-4894-A spends 5.6 seconds staring up at where the stalactite was before turning back towards L16-Cap. SCP-4894-A walks towards and past L16-Cap while she struggles to come to a stand. Camera feed records one frame of the side of a pickaxe handle striking L16-Cap from above before cutting out to audio where a soft thud is heard.
SCP-4894-A: A mighty tool we humans are, but I'm figurin' there's some folk still under the Factory needin' to know that. Every laborer deserves to know their union.
Video feed reopens in front of the Gold Hill mine entrance Three hours and 47 minutes later. The members of L16 lay on the ground approximately 30 meters away from the opening. SCP-4894-A emerges from the entrance and approaches L16-Cap.
SCP-4894-A: You look like someone I should hate. You talk like someone I should hate. You hold a gun like someone I should hate. But I don't. When I look at y'all I can't help but think of Joe. Blood on his hands from doin' his best at right in a downright wrong world. Maybe I'm just too tired for any more hate besides the malice the Factory put in me. Maybe that makes me a tool more than the Factory's brand on me. All I know about the world and myself right now is that the Factory still stands and I'm feelin' mighty useful.
A flash comes from the mine entrance followed by a low rumble and the opening collapsing on itself. A wave of dust passes over the feed and SCP-4894-A is gone when it clears.
Video End
Note: PoI-44198 "Percy McDonald" is to be apprehend and brought back into Foundation custody as soon as possible.

Footnotes
1. Acoustic Wireless Area Network System.
2. Night-vision goggles.
3. See Addendum 4894.4.
4. Factory Funded Fiduciary
5.  

See Arch-Foreman van Horn's approved arsenal manifest for Product rations.

« SCP-4893 | SCP-4894 | SCP-4895 »