Extraction Video Log Transcript

Date: ██/██/████

Recovery Team: Mobile Task Force Tau-5 “Samsara”

Exploration Team: Mobile Task Force Apollo-3 “Game Wardens”

Exploration Team: Mobile Task Force Z-9 "Mole Rats"

Subject: SCP-1730

Team Lead: T-5 Irantu / Z-9 Hollis /AP-3 Ross

Team Members: T-5 Munru, T-5 Onru, T-5 Nanku, AP-3 Houston, AP-3 Vigo, AP-3 Ohalo, Z-9 Moros, Z-9 Willow

Notes: The following is an audio/video transcript of an extraction and recovery mission carried out by the members of Mobile Task Force Tau-5 “Samsara” after having made contact with surviving members of MTF Apollo-3 and MTF Zeta-9.

Aside from the members of the mobile task forces, the team was tasked with recovering twenty-seven surviving members of Site-13 staff, including Dr. Mohammad Scott, a Site-13 assistant director of Temporal Studies. Several of these individuals had sustained significant injuries, further increasing the difficulty of extraction efforts.

Members of Mobile Task Force Alpha-20 “Holy Divers” were stationed above ground, and were prepared to move in to aid in extraction efforts once the recovery team had escaped the lower levels of the site.

[BEGIN LOG]

T-5 Irantu: Mics on.

AP-3 Vigo: Are we really worried about recording all of this?

AP-3 Ross: Hey Vigo? Shut the fuck up. Do what he says.

Z-9 Hollis: Your lead, power ranger.

T-5 Irantu: Thank you. Onru has prepared an evacuation plan; I will let her explain it.

T-5 Onru: Our travel paths from this position are compromised, by the entity in the data center and the creature in the atrium. After speaking with Dr. Scott and his team, we have devised a route that leads us as far away from the current major threats as possible. Unfortunately, our information on all threats is incomplete; even Dr. Scott was not privy to information on all contained entities within the site. As such… (pauses) we should still proceed with extreme caution. (Pauses) This is likely already well understood.

AP-3 Houston: Yeah, just a bit.

Z-9 Willow: Alright, so what’s the route we’re taking?

T-5 Onru: (Produces a topographical map) Our entry routes are here and here. The largest obstacles we are experiencing currently are the spatial instabilities within the lower levels of this site. On the suggestion of Dr. Scott, and Captain Hollis, our route will first travel to this section of the facility, where the Thresher device is contained. This device is the cause of the… instabilities, and while it is not possible to completely disable the device without risking our own lives or the lives of above-ground personnel, we should be able to reduce power to the device long enough for us to create a stable path to the surface, following this route, here.

Z-9 Hollis: I got lost once shortly after our insertion and ended up in that room. I was attacked by a number of creatures that were difficult to perceive, likely due to some latent antimemetic effects. I was able to escape them, but they’re no doubt still there. That machine draws a frankly impossible amount of energy from some energy source elsewhere in the site, and those creatures I saw feed off of it. So… there’s that.

AP-3 Vigo: Why don’t we send a team ahead to disable the machine, and then meet up with them before heading up?

T-5 Irantu: We will not have enough time, and the probability of our success drops dramatically if we split up our team. Once the device is powered down, it is likely that we will have less than an hour to make our escape before it trips its failsafes and powers back up again. We will just have to make our push from there, hoping that it buys us enough time.

AP-3 Vigo: Alright, cool.

T-5 Irantu: Your assignments are as follows: Tau-5 will take point, Apollo-3 will take the right and left flanks, and Zeta-9 will take up the rear. The healthiest survivors will stay near the back, and those with more serious injuries will be near the front near Tau-5. In the event that we are flanked or assaulted, follow typical multi-force defensive assignments, while allowing Tau-5 to intercept the higher threats.

T-5 Munru: Maintain clear lines of communication. Tau-5 and the task force captains have channel priority. Keep chatter to a minimum, you will all have plenty of time to speak once we reach the surface.

Z-9 Hollis: Our priority now is extracting these people, and staying alive. Unless you’re in Samsara, in which case I guess you guys are free to do what you want. For the rest of us mortals, it doesn’t help us to let the power rangers get mulched, since we’re likely shit out of luck if they go belly up.

T-5 Irantu: Agreed. Does everyone understand our mission?

All task force members are in agreement.

T-5 Irantu: Acceptable. I will take point. We need to move quickly. Gather your things, prepare the civilians, and we will leave shortly.

Teams break to assemble in their formation. Civilian survivors are briefed on the mission plan, and positioned in the middle of the block.

Z-9 Willow: Captain, at the main door! There are leeches coming under the door.

Z-9 Hollis: Shit. Irantu, we need to roll.

T-5 Irantu: Agreed. Let’s move out. Munru, Nanku, collapse the main door. We will exit expediently out the side.

T-5 Nanku: Gladly.

The block moves out of a side door towards a side hallway. T-5 Nanku and Munru hang back to set explosive charges around the door frame. Leeches are beginning to work their way under the door frame and through cracks in the walls. As they step away from the door, Nanku opens her flamethrower on the leeches.

T-5 Munru: I cannot say that you are making a difference, Nanku. There are likely many more leeches elsewhere.

T-5 Nanku: This is very satisfying to me. (Continues to burn leeches coming through the walls) It is delicious.

Munru and Nanku move quickly to join the rest of the group, which has begun moving down the side hallway. As they pass through the first door there is an explosion, and the building around them shakes. From beneath the group, a loud, uncanny screaming sound is heard.

AP-3 Ross: Think they know we’re moving?

T-5 Irantu: Undoubtedly.

The group continues down a series of hallways towards a stairwell, stopping occasionally to check for hostile entities. After a short time, T-5 Munru calls a halt.

T-5 Munru: My optics are pinging. (Pauses) Strange. Move everyone back, I will scout ahead.

T-5 Munru comes around the corner of the hallway, weapon drawn. His SCRAMBLE optical implant highlights a dangerous meme on the wall. At the far end of the hallway, a vaguely humanoid entity, the same entity as seen during a previous remote drone exploration of SCP-1730, is seen drawing on a wall with a long, curved finger. Munru projects an image of the entity to Nanku, who rounds the corner behind Munru.

T-5 Munru: Hold.

Suddenly, the entity turns towards Munru and Nanku and opens a single white eye, which is immediately processed and blocked by the SCRAMBLE units. The entity begins to move very quickly down the hallway, changing dramatically as it moves; the entity becomes considerably larger, and its long robe flares out to either side, exposing additional hazards that are blocked by the SCRAMBLE units. Munru and Nanku raise their weapons and fire. The creature reels backwards as it is struck by bullets, with large holes opening across its flesh. Munru reloads, loading incendiary rounds, and fires again, setting the creature on fire. As it staggers backwards, the entity begins to scratch madly against the wall to the right, seemingly attempting to dig through the wall away from the gunfire. Nanku takes one more shot, striking the entity in its eye and causing it to collapse onto the ground.

T-5 Irantu: Is everything alright?

T-5 Munru: It appears so. We—

Suddenly, the hallway shakes violently. The floor beneath the collapsed humanoid entity crumbles and falls away, revealing a large hole beneath the floor. Within the hole is a long, slick, black creature covered in blood red eyes with a mouth full of many rows of long, sharp teeth. As it bursts through the floor, a cascade of small leeches are propelled into the hallway. The humanoid entity slips through the destroyed floor and falls into the mouth of the large creature, which lets out a loud scream as it devours the entity. Long, wet appendages snake into the hallway as Nanku and Munru begin to retreat. Nanku opens her flamethrower again, warding off the approaching smaller leeches.

Z-9 Hollis: What’s going on?

T-5 Nanku: We will need to find a different route, quickly.

T-5 Irantu: Follow me.

The group moves past the collapsed hallway as Munru and Nanku provide cover fire. They pass through a custodial dormitory and exit into a maintenance area behind it.

T-5 Onru: Over there. We can take this path towards the machine.

T-5 Munru: We are right behind you, but I am beginning to think this creature is far larger than we anticipated. (Gunfire)

T-5 Irantu: Onru, take the point. We will move now.

Team moves down the long maintenance hallway. The hallway curves to the left, opening out into a large space full of loading equipment and machines. Several large loading docks are visible in the back of the room, though each one is collapsed and destroyed.

Z-9 Hollis: Irantu, the walls in here are seeping. We can’t stay here long.

T-5 Irantu: One moment. Munru, Nanku, how far back are you?

Silence.

T-5 Irantu: Munru, Nanku, please report.

T-5 Munru: Irantu, Nanku is damaged. We are not going to be able to (gunfire) rendezvous with you immediately. Onru, do keep us updated on your position, and I will let you know when we can regroup.

T-5 Irantu: Understood.

The group moves to the far end of the maintenance warehouse, exiting through a pair of doors leading into a staff break room. Black fluid seeps through the walls. The group has to stop briefly to bandage up a survivor whose wound had begun bleeding again. A loud screeching sound is heard nearby, and the group begins moving again.

They enter into another hallway leading in the direction of the Thresher wing. As they move through the hall, Onru hears a distinct sound.

T-5 Onru: Irantu. Wings.

T-5 Irantu: How many?

T-5 Onru: (Pauses) Many. More than I can count. They are… very small, but there is a great multitude of them.

Z-9 Hollis: You got anything else useful, power girl?

T-5 Onru: A tinkling sound. Like crystal on crystal.

AP-3 Ross: Fuck. Crystal butterflies. It has to be that. We’ll get shredded.

T-5 Irantu: Unlikely.

The group moves towards the sound, which continues to grow louder until it becomes a cacophonous sound that seems to be right above them.

AP-3 Houston: God, where’s that coming from?

AP-3 Ross: Steady now, stead—

T-5 Onru: Irantu, the vent.

In front of them, a grate on a ceiling vent falls to the floor, and a cloud of sparkling crystal butterflies begins to fill the hallway. Irantu sees the butterflies, and turns back to the group.

T-5 Irantu: Everybody down, please.

As the group drops to the ground, Irantu runs towards the cloud of butterflies. He disappears briefly. After a short moment, there is a burst of flame that arcs upwards into the vent, and the sound of shattering crystal can be heard above them. As the smoke clears, Irantu becomes visible again. The majority of his flesh has been shredded by the wings of the butterflies, and his entire body is scorched. Significant amounts of flesh hang loose from his body. The skin on his back is blackened and blistered, and a thick metal implement is now visible through the scorched flesh. Onru stands and approaches him.

T-5 Onru: Are you able to continue?

T-5 Irantu: Of course.

AP-3 Houston: Jesus fucking Christ, man, are you alright?

T-5 Irantu: Yes. Why wouldn’t I be?

The group moves through another hall seeping with black fluid, and then another, but the third hallway is clean and relatively untouched. They ascend a short staircase before coming to a stop before a thick, vault door.

Z-9 Hollis: The machine is behind this door. I came out this way, but the door sealed behind me. I don’t know how to unlock it.

T-5 Irantu: Dr. Scott, do you know how to open this door?

Dr. Mohammad Scott: (Audible through Z-9 Hollis’ mic) No, I never had access to this chamber.

T-5 Onru: I was hoping Munru would be here. I do not think I can open this door.

Suddenly, there is a resounding click, and the door in front of them slowly opens. A monitor next to the door illuminates, and a dark room is visible on it. In the back of the room, hidden in shadows, an indistinct humanoid entity waves. A harsh, electronic static sound, vaguely reminiscent of laughter, can be heard through an unseen loudspeaker.

Unidentified Figure: Hee hee. Hee hah. You're welcome. Heehee. Oh, oh, (as if in pain) Tanny, oh Tanny, it's so long down here with us. It's so long and sharp, Tanny. Why did you make me hurt, hee hee. Oh- (voice fades as the screen is covered in static)

The screen powers off.

AP-3 Ross: That’s a pretty fucked up clown.

T-5 Irantu: Come. Hurry.

The group enters the chamber beyond. The room is very dark, with a multitude of dim, green lights visible on the walls of the room. Based on the luminescence of the lights and the apparent distance of them from each other, the room appears to be several hundred meters in diameter. Near the back of the room, a tower of circling green lights is visible.

Z-9 Hollis: Hey, power rangers. Can you see anything in here? You have dark vision or something, yeah? My visor is shot.

T-5 Irantu: Onru and I were forced to eject our implants after they were damaged by a powerful memetic entity.

AP-3 Ross: My visor works. Hang on. (Pauses) Alright. So there’s a… some kind of machine near the back of the room, under those lights. I can’t really make any of it out from here, but it’s there. I don’t see— oh shit, yeah I do. On the ceiling, there are… fuck, there are a lot of those things.

Z-9 Hollis: What are they?

AP-3 Ross: (Whispering) I honestly don’t know, I can’t make them out. They’re definitely fucking with perception. I don’t… I don’t think they’ve seen us. Seriously though, there might be five hundred of these things.

T-5 Irantu: That would be more than Onru and myself can deal with. (Pauses) We need to make a decision; either attempt to disable the machine without attracting their attention, or find a way to dispatch the creatures. (Pauses) I am, of course, willing to accept ideas.

AP-3 Vigo: I mean… we could blow them up. Houston has explosives. (Pauses) That’s a lot of them to try and get all at once, though.

Z9-Moros: Hang on. They’re feeding on the power from this thing, aren’t they? Why don’t we try and get that machine to draw a lot of power to some unnecessary system first, and shock them. Like flexing when a mosquito bites you.

T-5 Onru: Maybe, but it is more likely that—

Suddenly, there is a massive disturbance beneath the chamber. To the left of a group, roughly 100m away, there is an explosion and the wall falls away. From within the wall emerges a long, slick, black appendage, covered in red eyes. The eyes open simultaneously.

AP-3 Houston: Fuck.

There is a screeching sound, and from above them many hundreds of short, imperceptible entities fall from the ceiling. The black entity in the wall begins to lash out at the smaller entities, attempting to pull them in towards a mouth that has appeared on its front. The creatures fly towards the larger creature and begin to tear at it with claws, though many are shoveled into the open mouth of the creature.

T-5 Irantu: Huh. (Pauses) That works as well. Onru, get to the machine. The rest of you, get back to the hallway. We will not have much time.

The group retreats into the hallway outside of the large room. Onru sprints across the chamber as more and more of the smaller entities fall from the ceiling and attack the black creature. Several of them begin to move towards Onru, only to be dispatched by weapon fire from Irantu. As she reaches the manual control panel of the machine, Onru inputs the information provided to her by members of Dr. Scott’s team. Lights around the room illuminate, exposing an enormous, vastly complicated machine that encompasses the entire back wall of the room. More and more of the hostile entities peel off towards Onru, who pauses to open fire on those who come too close.

From beneath the room there is another disturbance, and the floor in the middle of the room falls away. Another long, black entity emerges from the hole in the floor and long tendrils snake out towards Onru. From behind Irantu comes gunfire, and the entire AP-3 team has emerged from the door and begun firing at the entity. The creature recoils, black fluid spilling from gunshot wounds. The tendrils whip around towards them, gripping AP-3 Vigo and tossing him into the air. He strikes the wall and his body falls to the ground, where the first black entity grabs it with a tendril and pulls it into the mouth.

Suddenly, small black leeches begin to pour from the hole in the floor, and move quickly towards Irantu. Houston and Ohalo open fire on the leeches, and Ross moves to pull Irantu away from the hole. As he does, he tosses an incendiary grenade into the hole and pulls Irantu to the ground. There is an explosion, and flame erupts around the black entity, which rears back and flails before collapsing into the hole.

From deep below them, the group can hear a very loud screaming sound, and suddenly the entire room is shaking. The other black entity retracts into its hole, collapsing the wall behind it as it does. The remaining creatures from the ceiling are dispatched by the AP-3 and Z-9 teams. As they do, and as the room begins to shake more violently, several lights affixed to the machine in the back begin to flash and then dim, and the sound of something winding down is heard over the gunfire.

AP-3 Ross: Fuck! Goddammit Vigo. Fuck!

T-5 Onru approaches from across the room.

T-5 Onru: The loss of Vigo is disappointing. I am sorry. We do not have a substantial amount of time to grieve. We must keep moving.

Onru, Ross, Houston, Ohalo, and Irantu leave from the chamber. More rumbling is felt beneath them, and occasional loud screeching sounds punctuate the machine noise from this section of the facility. They reach a stairwell, and Houston throws the door open.

AP-3 Houston: Whoa, fuck! What?

T-5 Irantu: What is the matter?

AP-3 Houston: There’s nothing here. The door just opens up into… nothing. It’s just dark, as far down as I can see.

T-5 Onru: It is likely that disabling the Thresher device has altered our previous escape route. We will need to devise another path to the surface.

T-5 Irantu: Yes. One moment. (Pauses) Munru. Where are you?

T-5 Munru: Difficult to say, unfortunately. Have you powered down the machine?

T-5 Irantu: We just did.

T-5 Munru: Fine timing, then. We were being pursued by a creature and then suddenly there was a wall where the creature had been. The local topography appears to have reset itself.

T-5 Irantu: Stay in one place. We will come to find you. Our escape begins now.

T-5 Munru: Fantastic.

The main group leaves the empty stairwell and turns back down the hallway they came through. Passing by the Thresher access hallway again, they turn and begin to climb another staircase. As they reach the top, Irantu pauses. The hallway in front of them is covered ankle high in water. As they begin to move slowly through the water, one of the researchers behind them screams.

T-5 Irantu: What is it?

Researcher: Bodies. Look.

Just below the surface of the water, pale human corpses are visible, appearing to be floating roughly a half meter down.

T-5 Onru: Do not attempt to look at them. You do not recognize them. Move quickly, come on.

The team hurries from the hallway towards another set of doors at the end, where written on the wall are the words “WHAT HAPPENED TO SITE-13” with the word “WHAT” covered by the word “EMERSON”, and the words “HAVE WE BECOME BLASPHEMOUS” beneath that.

The group proceeds without incident for a short while longer, slowly ascending as safe routes become available. After roughly eight minutes of travel, the group enters a large mechanical garage, where several pieces of large machinery sit in various states of repair. They pause to secure one of the injured survivors, while Onru attempts to devise a new route. Suddenly, a loud banging sound is heard, and a piece of machinery flies across the room, narrowly missing AP-3 Ross, who shouts.

AP-3 Ross: Whoa! Fuck! Where’d that come from?

In the corner of the room, a stack of mechanical parts is seen moving, rising up and self-assembling into a quasi-humanoid entity. Attached to the top of the large mechanical construct is a small, crudely constructed, toy robot. The entity begins to move towards them, and a voice is heard from an unknown source within the entity.

Mechanical Entity: (Deep laughter) I am reborn to breathe devastation upon this fetid Earth. Pitiful humans. You will feel the dark sting of my neverending torment. (The small robot on top of the construct is seen waving its arms wildly)

T-5 Irantu: This is… annoying. Onru, get these people out. Ross, to me.

Mechanical Entity: I am the herald of your destruction. Embrace death.

T-5 Irantu, AP-3 Ross, Houston, and Ohalo open fire on the entity, to little effect. The entity lifts another large piece of equipment and throws it towards the group, missing them wide. Ohalo throws a fragmentary grenade at the entity, which it catches in one of its outstretched hands and grips tightly. The grenade explodes, shattering the creature’s hand and causing it to stagger sideways.

Mechanical Entity: How dare you. I will tread upon you like—

T-5 Onru is seen sprinting towards the entity. As she approaches it, she leaps into the air, sailing over the top of it in a tall arc. As she reaches the top of the arc, she reaches out and grabs the small toy robot on top of the construct, causing it to collapse. As she flips towards the ground, she tosses the robot towards the wall.

Robot: No! I am the harbinger! I am—

The toy robot strikes the wall and is shattered.

T-5 Munru: Irantu, is that you? We just heard something crashing.

T-5 Irantu: You must be near. Stay where you are, we are en route.

The group moves out of the garage, and towards a larger atrium section. From around the corner come T-5 Munru and Nanku. Munru appears to have sustained burns to his lower body, but is otherwise undamaged. Nanku is missing the lower half of her jaw, and black fluid covers the front of her body suit. She waves with her remaining hand as the group approaches.

T-5 Onru: You look well.

T-5 Munru: Admittedly, morale has increased in the group since Nanku found herself unable to talk.

(T-5 Nanku points at Munru with her flamethrower, seemingly forgetting she is missing an arm on that side. Realizing this, she makes an obscene gesture towards Munru with her remaining hand.)

Z-9 Hollis: This is a cute reunion, but let’s get back to this shit. How far are we from the entrance?

T-5 Munru: This is a main atrium. If we follow this hallway here, it will lead towards a processing station, and past that we should find access points to the surface.

Z-9 Hollis: Exceptional. Let’s get the lead out then, and—

From below them, there is a very loud crashing sound and more screaming. The floor beneath the group begins to buckle.

Z-9 Hollis: Fuck! Run!

The group flees towards the hallway Munru had identified, but are stopped when the floor there also collapses. A plume of smoke erupts from the destroyed floor, and one researcher slips on the collapsing ground and slides into it. T-5 Onru leads the group away from the atrium as the floor there completely collapses. Irantu stops to turn and look down inside the hole.

Beneath the hole is an incredibly large chamber, appearing to have been dug through dozens of layers of subterranean floors. Within the chamber are many small lights around the outside, and at the bottom is a massive, black mass, with several other large black masses extending from it. As he is pulled away, Irantu sees red eyes open across the entire mass of the creature, and hears more screaming.

The group flees down a side hallway, but are pursued by long black tendrils snaking out of the hole. AP-3 Ross and Houston open fire on the tendrils, halting them momentarily, but they are quickly replaced by more. Z-9 Moros is seen slipping on a patch of black fluid and falling, before being consumed by the ends of one of the tendrils. There are the sounds of metal crashing and rock and concrete being crushed as the structure around them heaves violently. Black leeches begin to pour out of the walls around them, and Nanku opens her flamethrower at them.

They round a corner to find a dead end, and turning back are confronted with another black tendril that has burst through a hole in the wall.

AP-3 Ohalo: Holy fuck, we’re trapped. This is it. This is it. Holy fuck.

T-5 Irantu: Onru, we need a way out.

T-5 Onru: I… I am having difficulty… (gunfire) I…

Z-9 Hollis: Wait. Wait. I have an idea. I think I know where we are, I have an idea. Come on, you fuckers, we’re not dying here!

The group follows Hollis towards a descending stairwell and move quickly down it. Hollis tosses an incendiary grenade towards the encroaching tendrils, and slams the door shut behind her as it explodes. The screams from below them intensify as they descend, and the stairwell begins to shake. Holes in the stairwell open and more leeches begin to pour out of them. All task force members open fire as long tendrils snake through the holes as well. Upon reaching a landing, Hollis motions the group in the door.

Z-9 Hollis: Here! In here! Go go go!

The group enters a hallway and sprints towards the other end. As they do, they pass a sign on the wall that reads “Stairs to Cryonics”. Munru notices this as they pass.

T-5 Munru: Captain Hollis… what are you doing?

Z-9 Hollis: You’re going to have to trust me here, Blue Ranger. I’ve been doing this a long time.

T-5 Munru: I— (pauses) Hah. OK. I think this will work.

The group exits the hallway into a large observation section, passing many large windows with blast protectors down across them. The team stops in front of one window, overlooking a massive chamber lined with huge steel doors. Overhead are the words “Olympia Class Testing Observation”.

T-5 Irantu: Hollis, what do you have in mind?

Z-9 Hollis: Call it a hunch. We need to get downstairs, come on.

The group runs towards a stairwell at the end of the room and quickly descend to the main level of this wing. As they exit onto the floor of the Olympia Class containment chamber, the wall behind them begins to buckle, and leeches begin to pour out of it.

Z-9 Hollis: Pink ranger, that panel over there. You need to get that door open.

T-5 Onru: Wha— what?

Z-9 Hollis: I said open the goddamn door, hurry! What the fuck are you waiting for? Go!

T-5 Onru runs towards a control panel near one of the tall steel doors. The wall behind them continues to buckle.

Z-9 Hollis: Munru, that one. Get that one open too!

T-5 Munru: Yes, absolutely.

T-5 Munru attempts to access the door controls. Z-9 Hollis turns towards the group.

Z-9 Hollis: Everyone else, listen to me. You civilians need to get to the far end of this room, as far as it goes. Just keep running. There’s an access point to the power station above this part of the facility, you need to just keep climbing until you get there. Once you’re there, you need to blow a wall, that’ll get you out. But you need to hurry, shit is about to pop off in a pretty major way down here. Ross, you and your boys just fire at anything that comes out of that wall. I’ll tell you when we can go. Irantu, you stay with me. This is going to get pretty messy.

T-5 Irantu: Understood.

Z-9 Hollis: Alright. (Pauses) Fucking go! Come on!

The group flees down the main pathway through the chamber, away from the buckling wall. Behind them, the wall finally gives way, and a gargantuan, black, slick entity pours into the chamber. It is as least 200m in height, covered in black tendrils and dark red eyes. When it sees the group, it opens a massive mouth full of rows of long yellow teeth. In the center of the mouth, a naked human woman is visibly conjoined in some way to a sort of prehensile tongue with the creature. As it opens its mouth, it lets out a piercing scream and begins to move towards the group.

Every available task force member opens fire on the creature, emptying their remaining magazines and throwing every possible incendiary weapon towards it. The creature is deterred slightly, but for every place it is pierced by weapons fire, black fluid and more black leeches begin to pour from its body. Several long tendrils begin to snake towards the group of task force members.

T-5 Onru: I have it. I have it, Captain Hollis.

Z-9 Hollis: Come on, then, girl. Throw the fucking thing!

T-5 Onru steps away from the control panel and runs back towards the group in the middle of the chamber, as a loud groaning is heard behind her. The rest of the team sees the huge metal doors begin to slide open. A thick cloud of ice cold fog rolls out of the chamber, obscuring the interior from view.

AP-3 Ross: What’s in there?

Z-9 Hollis: Munru, you got yours?

T-5 Munru: Hang on. (Pauses) Yeah, I think that will do—

Suddenly, the door behind Munru begins to glow bright red, then white, and then the center of it buckles and the door collapses. As Munru hurries away, a colossal, motionless, flaming humanoid entity floats out of the chamber. In its unmoving hands is a huge sword. As it exits the collapsed doorway, enormous, flaming wings unfurl from its back. The black creature screams, and its tendrils begin to lash at this creature.

As the tendrils come close, long streaks of fire erupt from the sword towards them, rupturing them and sending black fluid and scorched leeches flying across the room. The massive black creature screams, and dozens of other tendrils fly towards the flaming humanoid. As the two engage, there is another sound, like a long whining, and then suddenly the room is silent.

From within the cold, foggy room, a towering, vaguely cervine creature steps out into the main chamber. It is composed of a body covered in light green and cream colored hair, a long, thin neck ending in a hairless, somewhat humanoid face, and vast, intertwined white and black antlers that pulse with streaks of blue light. Floating above its head are nine concentric rings of glowing, rotating crystals and metallic spheres.

The creature slowly steps out of the containment cell and turns to look at the team on the ground below. It opens its mouth and a long, droning sound is heard through the room. Around its body, several large, metallic, cylindrical structures appear followed by a distinct cracking sound. It begins to step towards the team of task force members, but is struck from behind by three black tendrils that wrap around its neck. The creature lets out another drone, and suddenly the sound returns to the chamber as long streaks of fire arc across the space. The cylindrical constructs turn lengthwise and speed across the room towards the black creature, striking it in its central mass. From all around the cervine entity, more and more metallic spheres appear and fly towards both the black creature and the flaming humanoid, which in turn begin to attack each other.

Z-9 Hollis: Fucking— yes! Go get em, big guy! (To the team) Time to fucking go, kids. Let’s go!

The team begins to sprint after the group of civilians towards the far wall, as jets of fire strike the ground around them. T-5 Nanku catches the end of a dismembered black tendril in her shoulder, throwing her off balance. She falls to the ground, firing openly with her weapon as she is engulfed in fire. AP-3 Houston pauses briefly to turn towards her, but is grabbed by Irantu.

T-5 Irantu: We do not have time.

As they near the group of survivors, all of whom are huddled near an exit door at the end of the chamber, there is a crashing sound, and they turn to see the cervine entity standing up from where it had been thrown across the room. The black creature whips at it as more metallic spheres appear and arc back towards it. There is an eruption of fire as the flaming humanoid is struck by another several tendrils, which try to pull the humanoid towards the mouth of the black entity. The team reaches the survivors, and quickly exit through the door. The group begins to quickly ascend the staircase within.

Z-9 Hollis: Alright, just like I said. Up! We need to go up! Over—

A long, thin metallic cylinder crashes through the wall of the stairwell, narrowly missing one of the researchers and Dr. Scott. A second cylinder comes through the wall, striking Irantu and obliterating him as it contacts the wall behind him. As the group continues to ascend, fire fills the stairwell below them, and another long, loud, droning sound can be heard, followed by silence, and then followed by a thick bursting sound that shakes the entire facility. The group reaches a landing, and begins to move towards another staircase at the end of the hallway. Z-9 Hollis hangs behind.

T-5 Munru: What are you doing?

Z-9 Hollis: Giving you some more time. And… something else, I think. Get these people out of here, go!

T-5 Munru: I can stay behind, Hollis. Your life is finite.

Z-9 Hollis: Yeah, yeah, I get the spiel, power ranger. But right now, you need to get these people out of here. Let me do my thing, alright? I’ll catch up with you later.

T-5 Munru: I understand. Good looking out, Hollis.

Z-9 Hollis: (Laughs) You almost sounded like a person there for a second, Munru.

Z-9 Hollis runs away from the group. T-5 Munru catches up to the rest of the group, who reach another staircase and begin to ascend.

For the next ten minutes, the group continues to ascend through the facility, several times narrowly avoiding debris and falling rubble as the lower levels of the site begin to collapse. The sounds of the entities below continue to be heard, and several times the creatures become visible through large gaps in the walls or floors. At one point, AP-3 Ross catches sight of the unmoving, flaming humanoid, nearly completely covered in metal, as long streaks of fire burst through open seams in its encasement. Shortly afterwards there is a two-minute break in all video footage, followed by a shot of the head of the cervine creature smashing through a wall in front of the group. As they turn to run away from it, the head turns towards them, and two researchers are instantly transmuted into hexagonal columns of an unknown, yellow-green material.

After a short time longer, AP-3 Ross picks up a signal from SiteCommand.

SiteCommand: Team lead, this is SiteCommand. Do you read us?

AP-3 Ross: Holy fuck, yes, yeah I do. Do you hear me?

SiteCommand: We do. You have appeared on our geolocating systems, Ross, you’re not far from the exit. Where is Captain Hollis and Irantu?

AP-3 Ross: Irantu is dead, Hollis… she ran off a while back. We haven’t seen her since then.

SiteCommand: Understood. What about the rest?

AP-3 Ross: We’ve suffered some casualties, some— (gunfire) Fuck! We lost a few of the civilians, and Vigo and a few others. It’s really bad in here right now, Command, we’re going to need all the help we can get. We— Munru, where’s Onru?

T-5 Munru: She… oh. She was behind us. Where is she?

SiteCommand: Don’t worry about that now. We’re marking an extraction point on your visor. The extraction team is waiting for you there; we’re going to get you all out.

The group hurries towards the extraction point as the site continues to collapse around them. Above ground, aerial surveillance captures footage of large sections of the site sliding into the ground, and smoke beginning to billow from the power station and nearby mechanical facilities. Jets of flame become visible as the earth beneath SCP-1730 begins to give way.

Mobile Task Force Alpha-20 “Holy Divers” enters the site near the crumbling power station. The group of survivors comes into view, and are immediately moved towards the access point, and then away from the site, by members of MTF A-20. As the rest of the task force members are pulled away from the site, a separate transmission reaches SiteCommand originating from T-5 Onru.

T-5 Onru and Z-9 Hollis are standing in front of the Thresher device, which roars with activity behind them. They are firing their weapons at an encroaching black mass in front of them, which is punctured by streaks of fire. In the background, the cervine entity can be seen tearing through black tendrils with its antlers, as long rods of flaming metal streak across the room towards the black entity. Hollis turns towards the camera and is visibly laughing, firing her weapon openly. She has removed her helmet. The hum of the machine behind them grows noticeably louder, eventually overtaking all other sounds in the room. Streaks of electricity arc across the ceiling above them. She smiles and turns towards Onru, who looks down to find her torso has been destroyed by a jet of flame.

As Onru slumps to the side, the last shot is of Z-9 Hollis, laughing hysterically and wildly firing her weapon as the enormous machine behind her begins to glow bright white. There is a flash, and the transmission ends.

Outside, as MTF A-20 continues to move 1730 researchers and personnel to safety, there is a deafening crackling sound, and a loud hum fills the air. The area around the site begins to visibly distort, as if being seen through water, and then suddenly SCP-1730 is gone. In its place is an immense crater, over 1km in diameter. No other transmissions are received from within the site. No other anomalous activity is detected.

[END LOG]