 Extraction of Recovery Video Log Transcript Date ██████ Exploration Team Mobile Task Force TAL-5, Sam Sera Subject SCP-1730 Team Lead T-5 Arantu Team Members T-5 Munru T-5 Onru T-5 Nanku Notes The following is an audio-video transcript of an extraction and recovery mission carried out by the members of Mobile Task Force TAL-5, Sam Sera, after contact by MTF-AP-3 game wardens with human survivors within SCP-1730. The AP-3 team had requested assistance in extracting the survivors due to the large number of hostile entities within the site. Each member of MTF-TAL-5 was outfitted with a number of cybernetic enhancements per the specifications of their design, including arm-mounted incendiary cannons, shock-absorbing leg extensions, heat-resistant plating, built-in scramble adaptations within the eyes and others. TAL-5's insertion point was a drainage gate near the secondary entrance that the AP-3 team had inserted through. Begin Log We're plugged in, Site Command, do you read me? We do, sixty seconds to insertion. So how dangerous should this mission be considered? A single person they sent has come out yet considerably. Acknowledged. This should be engaging. Team, check your optics. The last thing we need is somebody succumbing to a memetic hazard. Understood. I'm good. Also good. I'm good. Good. Remember, all we're looking to do here is extract the survivors. We're not attempting to contain anything, so if you see something nasty, put it down. As always, I don't need to be convinced. Team, you are thirty seconds to insertion. Ten seconds to insertion. TAL-5, you are cleared to begin extraction and recovery. Let's go. T-5 team enters SCP-1730 through a drainage gate under the secondary office structure. Each team member activates their shoulder-mounted lamp, illuminating the tunnel. After a short time, the team reaches another gate. Several large drainage pipes are visible behind the gate. Look, up against the gate, bodies. No fewer than twenty charred humanoid forms and varying stages of destruction are pushed up against the bottom of the gate. Several arms are pushed through the grate and are reaching out towards the tunnel. These look very burned. Where do you think they come from? Hard to say, I can't imagine they would have made it far in this condition. There's an incinerator near here, right? Under that body pit we keep hearing about, maybe they came from there. An incinerator. As good a place to start as any, let's get into these pipes there. T-5 team cuts through the gate and scales the wall behind it to the largest of three drainage pipes. Team continues on for a short time. The temperature is rising. I noticed it as well. We must be getting close. We're descending right now, too. This is strange. Shouldn't a drainage pipe run out, not in? Maybe. Maybe it's affected by the topographical abnormalities. Likely. Around, too. The wall is weak here. I can hear echoing on the other side of it. What's over there? Hang on. A hallway, I think. I see. Alright. We'll split up here. Munru, you and Nanku see where this tunnel lets out. Unru and I will go through this wall and see what's on the other side. And if we get killed? Don't get killed. Understood. T-5 Team splits up, with T-5 Nanku and Munru following the drainage pipe towards the source of the heat, and T-5 Arantu and Unru going through the thin wall to the hallway beyond. Arantu and Unru manage to break down the concrete wall between the drainage pipe and the hallway beyond. Within the hallway are several bare offices, barely lit by dim overhead lights. The entire area appears to have been abandoned for some time. Arantu and Unru look for an elevator or stair access, but find nothing. After a short time, Unru finds a door to open it to a control room. A large glass observation window is obscured by some dark material. Many of the controls in this room have been destroyed. This is the control room for the incinerator, see? It says incinerator number one over there, and below it it says, body pit access below. I never heard of a furnace that needed its own control room. It's blocking the window there. Blast shields? No. No. Approaches the window. These are bodies and garbage, refuse, congealed and corrugated. Look, you can see faces. I see it. Our intel said that one of the engineers had blocked up the drainage pipes out of here. Nanku and Munru are probably going to run into that. I wonder if there's another way down from here. I thought we'd be able to go down through the incinerator. Hang on. Munru proceeds to look over the controls on a relatively undamaged controller during the observation window. As she does, Nanku and Munru appear at the door. It's blocked. Something has turned the end of that pipe into slag. We tried to punch through it, but it's pretty thick. I broke my hand on it. Look. Holds up her hand, which is undamaged. It was broken, I mean. Quiet. Munru is looking for something. Got it. Munru throws a large switch and turns several nearby knobs. There is a immense groaning sound, and the mass in front of the window begins to spin slowly. Interesting. There is a jolt, and if something has broken free, and the mass begins to spin rapidly and slowly descend, there is a distinct sound of a turbine spooling up. The team's internal temperature gauges begin to register a steady increase in heat. It's dropping. Look down there, see? The mass has cleared the window, revealing a massive cylindrical chamber on the other side, at least 300 meters in diameter and roughly 400 meters deep. At the center of the chamber is a massive shaft, extending the full height of the chamber, attached to several large turbines. As the turbines spin, the matter within the chamber is turned into a slurry. Near the top of the chamber are several pilot lights. Large holes are present around the outside of the chamber. Alright, and then… Munru throws another switch, and the pilot lights are ignited. Enormous tricks of fire cascade down from the ceiling of the chamber, scorching the mass below. Additional jets of flame begin to emit from the walls of the chamber. Look, down near the bottom, there's a sluice gate that looks like it's leading away from here. Over there, see? Can you get that door open? Yes. Got it. A large circular door opens near the bottom of the pit, above the level of the matter within. Excellent, though I still don't know how you think we're going to get in there. The pipe is blocked. Nanku extends her arm and fires several rounds from a wrist-mounted projectile weapon at the glass window in front of them. The glass cracks and shatters, exposing the room around them to the heat of the chamber. Straightforward, one does what one can. The team enters the incinerator and jumps down to a ledge below, near another drainage pipe. They make their way through the vast chamber, avoiding the spinning blades and ever descending biological slurry around them. Something unpleasant took place here. Oh? Yes, in fact, shoots a glance at Nanku. All this has to be draining somewhere, likely out below us, through one of these fissures. We don't have time to find out. We'll follow this pipe down and see where it goes. The team enters the open door and descends down the drainage pipe a short distance, before it empties into a large cistern. The team enters the cistern, which is lit from above by a large glowing plant-like structure. Interesting. What do you think that is? I… I don't know. At the sound of their voices, the glowing structure begins to shake slowly, and thousands of glowing spinning pods are released from its body. As they fall, they brightly illuminate the entire chamber. Look, the shadows. The glowing pods create vaguely humanoid shadows on the walls of the cistern, which act in an anomalous manner. These shadows appear to reach their hands up or forward, as if towards the team. As the pods reach the slurry below, they extinguish, and the shadows disappear. Alright, which way do we go? This is a drainage pipe leading away from the incinerator. The incinerator is underneath the power station, which is to the east of the compound. So far as we can tell, we need to go northwest from there, so… Hang on. Look over there. At what? At the wall. Something is seeping through it. Was that there before? No. Approaches the wall. It's black and shiny and definitely seeping. Something is pushing through. What does that mean? What is it? Drainage? Unlikely. It's probably runoff from the reactor, or… T-5 Onru approaches the wall. No. It's blood. It's leeches. What? Look. Onru points to the spot on the wall illuminated by their shoulder-mounted lamps. At that spot, a thick flow of black liquid is seeping between a crack in the wall, and something small is wriggling within the crack. The team zooms in on the spot, revealing a small writhing leech pushing its way through the spot. It breaks through and falls to the ground. Huh. It's a leech. What does that mean? Nothing good. The small leech moves towards the biological slurry at their feet and begins to ingest it. As it does, the leech slowly begins to grow in size. More of them in the wall there, pushing through. The team looks back towards the wall, where several spouts of black liquid are beginning to pour through various cracks along its surface. Several more small leeches are squirming through these cracks. Onru, what do you see? There's something below us. It's huge. Covered in other people's blood. Reaching up towards us. These are like fingers. They all communicate back to the host, the… Bring me a leech. What? You're kidding. No, bring me one. They're telepathic. They're communicating that way. I need a leech. Arantu moves across the room before grabbing a leech off the ground. As he pulls it away from the liquid, it struggles and squirms, biting several large chunks out of his hand. Peculiar. Pauses to look at the leech. Here. Alright, one moment. Anru extends her left hand towards the leech, which opens up to reveal a series of long, delicate metallic rods with pointed tips. She maneuvers the rods into the flesh of the creature, near the base of the brain. There, let's see. They heard the incinerator activate. They're hungry. They're coming up here to eat. A lot of them. The host is down below us, but I can't see that far down. If I look at the neural activity of the entire network of entities, I can map out the areas they're in. Let me see if I can do something with that. There we go. You should all have it on your retinas now. Clever. So we're looking at a map? It seems too distorted to be a map. Ongoing to topographical changes means that, despite the changes in the structure of the site, it's all still located within our local reality. It's just unstable. Do we know where this Thresher device is? Probably something to do with this section here. If you follow a logical structural design plan based on the evidence provided in this map, there should be a whole extra wing here, but there aren't any of the leeches down that way. Yes, I can see conduit running to that area. That's where the Thresher machine is. Silence. What about our recovery? This area here, several corridors lead to a large research wing, but most of them have been blocked off. Every now and then one of the ends of the network goes dark here. The survivors are in there. What's the fastest way in from where we're at now? One moment. Three paths to choose from, each with different potential hazards. The first takes us further down this pipeline until we reach a waste treatment facility within the plant. This is the longest route, but from that facility it's a fairly direct shot towards the survivors. The second path drops us into another system below this, which leads directly to this large chamber here. The leech is in there. I can hear it right now. It's wondering why this one hasn't come back. And the third? The third route takes us through this area here, which is queer. I can hear the leeches as they move around the site. They're noisy, uncoordinated, acting on impulse and without much finesse. But in this area, they're all very quiet. They go in and out for something, but they do it very, very quietly. T-5 Nanku motions towards the ground on her feet. Look at this leech. It's the size of a cat already. Are there any other entities in there? I can't tell. The leeches follow a single path in and a single path out. They don't stray from it, and… they don't look around. Which is the fastest path? The last one is the fastest. We follow this tunnel towards the service door and follow a staircase towards the bottom. Once we're there, there's another hallway off to the left that takes us past that area. Or through it, maybe. And on the other side is the back entrance to our research wing. Alright. That's the one we'll take, then. A shame. Here I thought we'd be shooting leeches. You'll have plenty of chances too on our way out, I'm sure. We need to get these people out quickly. Enru, does it feel to you like the leeches are trying to get into the ring where the survivors are? Yes. There is plenty of blood in this site, but not all of it is still warm. They'll be coming for them soon. Team leaves Cistern and follows drainage pipe west. Eventually the team reaches the service door, lit by a single flickering lamp. There's something written on this door. Blood. Here on the wall, too. Look. What's it written in? Wait. Look. Enru amplifies her shoulder-mounted spotlight, illuminating the entire wall of the tunnel. The word blood is repeated over and over, scrawled across the surface of the wall in a thick black substance. Enru turns left, illuminating several desiccated corpses in a corner at the end of the tunnel, all of which are covered in and seeping the same fluid. Unsettling. Come on, don't waste time. The team enters the service door, revealing a partial staircase. The stairs above them are intact, but the stairs below have been destroyed. The walls of the stairwell are coated in cracks, through which seeps the black fluid. Enru lights a flare and drops it, and the team watches it fall. After a short time, the flare lands with a slight splash, revealing the floor below. How large is the site? Site-19 has at least 50 underground floors, and no fewer than 80 individual wings. Consider what we know about Site-13. It's likely there are at least twice as many of each, if not more. The Euclid-class containment cells alone are as large as the entirety of Site-81. Which means there could be worse things down there nobody has seen yet. It's almost a certainty. Errantu leads from the landing and lands near the flare, his implants absorbing the majority of the impact. The rest of the team follow suit. At the bottom of the stairwell is another door into a hallway, and the team enters it. Where to now? About 200 meters down this hallway on the right. There are several security doors, but I think they've all been disabled. Through there is, I think it's a data storage center. It's big and lined with vents that lead to the cooling towers at the surface. Where do the leads just start acting strange? In there. Wonderful. Team moves down the hallway, Nanku at point, flanked by Anru and Monru, and Errantu watching the rear. As they pass, they check each door to see if they are locked. Most doors lead to network maintenance areas, though notably one door leads to the telecommunications room previously visited by the AP-3 team. One screen on the far wall appears to have been busted from the inside out. Look here, this is the door to the server area. What's that door there? It's marked as Stairs to Cryonics. If I had to guess, I'd say it probably goes up to the next levels, and it's seated right on top of this room, acts as insulation for the data center. Can we go through it? Which way is faster, Anru? The only way I can see is through the server room. There weren't any leeches up there. That is very strange. There are certainly plenty of access points to that room. Very strange. Through the server room, then. Come on. Team enters through the door of the server room. They pass through several more security doors, all of which are unlocked. As they do so, the external temperature drops severely, and stays steady at roughly negative 20 degrees Celsius. Errantu motions for the team to activate their internal heating coils, protecting their internal organs from damage due to exposure. As the team proceeds down the hallways into the server room, Team 5 Nanku's scrambled optical implant begins to activate, signaling that an anomalous meme is being filtered out. However, Team 5 Nanku had previously disabled the visual cue for the warning on our optical overlay, instead of relying on the audio cue that accompanied the implant. The audio warning does not trigger at all. It is not until the team enters the primary server room that Team 5 Anru realizes that no sound is audible at all, regardless of the source. Thinking at first that it might be your auditory implant, Anru removes the implant and restarts it, but after establishing that it is functioning properly, she attempts to communicate this with Errantu. Errantu motions for the team to hold and attempt to discern the source of the anomalous influence. As they do, each other team member receives the warning that their scramble filters are being triggered. Anru motions towards the door they entered through, but Errantu motions towards the back of the server area, towards the research wing. It is during this silent discussion that Nanku first notices movement across the large room. Thinking for her teammates to stay still, each team member begins to hear a quiet whining sound, which slowly grows in intensity. As they huddle up, Anru notices writing on one of the server racks, written in black fluid that says, Silence, and then, Don't Look. He motions towards the racks and the team acknowledges it. Errantu motions for the team to move towards the far wall, and they slowly proceed between the server racks towards the black exit. Suddenly, Anru catches a momentary glimpse of a large entity across the room and stops her teammates from advancing. She looks around the corner and sees the entity again as it comes back into view. The entity is a massive multi-limb figure. The primary structure of the entity is a floating, cross-legged, and humanoid construct with six legs, eighteen arms, and thirty-six forearm attached to seventy-two hands. Each limb moves independently, gesturing and posing in constant, sudden, jerking movements. The entity does not have a head, but instead has a large, flat circular structure attached to its upper chest that is covered in a large number of symbols and glyphs, which glow with bright white light against the entity's dark gray-brown skin. On each of the entity's arms are a gold band attached to a chain, which drags the ground when not being pulled around in one of the entity's gestures. The golden bands are etched with glyphs later identified as being powerful, anti-canido hazards, though the chains are broken and the anti-canido hazards are inactive. Most notably, a single, severely emaciated, severely charred human figure is bound to the flat circular structure of the entity's head. This figure twists against its restraints and appears to be screaming, likely the whining sound heard through the entity's muting canido hazard. As the entity performs its gestures, the glyphs on its head illuminate rapidly, often causing burns where the human skin comes into contact with them, creating further distress and increasing the volume of the whining. C-5 Onru also notices that some aspect of the entity is creating a severe malfunction in her optical implants, singeing the circuits responsible for handling the scramble calculations. She looks away, ejecting the implants before they damage her retinas, and motions to the rest of the TAL-5 team to not look at the entity directly. The team acknowledges and they continue to move forward. Suddenly the whining becomes dramatically louder and begins to draw closer to the team. C-5 Onru drops a proximity mine from his pack and in another a short distance away. As they flee away from the entity, streaks of blue electricity begin to arc between the server racks, and the ground beneath them begin to shift as if it were made of sand. As Nanku threatens to fall into the ground, there is a muffled wave of pressure behind him as the first proximity mine detonates and the ground solidifies. The team turns a corner and the back entrance to the room comes into view. From above them they can see a hole in the ceiling exposed to the cryonics laboratory, and briefly a complicated containment cell is visible, though it is thoroughly destroyed. The team moves swiftly towards the door as white hot glyphs appear to appear on the ground beneath them, and in the air around them. The team manages to duck and weave through the symbols, but T-5 Nanku catches her left arm on the glyph in the air, and it bursts into flames. Arantu having seen this from his position behind Nanku fires his weapon at her shoulder, removing the arm. It falls to the ground and explodes in a cinder. Munru reaches the door first and throws it open, and Onru follows immediately afterwards. Nanku stumbles through, collapsing on the other side, and Arantu comes up last. Just before closing the door, Arantu turns to look at the entity closing in behind him, which at this point was a barely visible blur of gestures, fiery glyphs, and an inhuman whine. As the door swings closed, Arantu zooms in on the humanoid figure strapped to the entity's head, enough to see the word Emerson seared into the flesh of the figure, as if from a melted patch of fabric. Arantu slams the door closed and immediately ejects his optical implants. The team rushes down the corridor away from the security door, and slowly the sound of footsteps can be heard around them. They reach a large open space in between several hallways and stop to catch their breath. I… I don't believe I know how to respond to whatever that was. What was that? I have no idea, I've never seen anything like it. There was a human strapped to its head, did you see that? I did. I think it was shouting. Paws then looks at the stump of her arm. I'll likely miss that arm later. You'll be alright, just be careful. Tch, like I needed it anyway, I've got another. Besides, Nanku swings her shoulder-mounted flamethrower to her left shoulder and detaches it so it hangs below where a missing arm should be. What was I really going to use that arm for anyway? Noted. You alright? No words for where. I'm fine. I'm fine too. We're here, look. The team turns to see the hallway to their media east, which have been barricaded and filled with a substantial amount of explosives and incendiary equipment. Good. He approaches the barricade. Hello? This is Tau 5 Arantu. Is anyone there? We're here to get you out. Hello? Silence. Maybe we're too late. We're not too late. Hello? Is anyone there? Can you? We're down, and a large wooden crate has moved slightly. A dark face can be seen in the space between the crate and the wall. T5 Munroo laughs. Captain. New connection to the local transmission network, Zeta-9 Mole Rats, Captain Hollis. Oh boy, the goddamn Power Rangers. They told me about you. Pause to survey the team. You look like you've been hit by a train. Something like that. Z9 Hollis nods. Well, come on then. We don't have much time left. Team moves towards the opening and the crates. As Munroo and Nanku pass through, Anru pauses. Arantu notices this and turns to Look. Arantu, Look, Leeches. Black cracks have begun to form on the walls of the atrium behind them, and wriggling black leeches start to fall out of them, accompanied by a thick black liquid. Ah.