Per 
Item #: SCP-XXXX
Object Class: Euclid Keter
Special Containment Procedures: All instances of SCP X found outside of containment are to be terminated immediately, unless additional specimens are required for study. Specimens are to be held at Site ██, and no more than 10 5 live specimens are to be contained at any time for study, as the anomalous properties and danger posed by SCP-X increase exponentially when in close proximity to each other. Furthermore, under no circumstances are more than 3 live instances of SCP-X to be allowed to occupy any space within 100 square meters. If such a situation becomes unavoidable due to compromised containment cells or similar emergency circumstances, termination of SCP-X instances exceeding the 3-specimen limit is to be executed immediately. Additionally, as we do not yet know if the presence of deceased specimens of SCP-X contribute to the anomalous powers of living specimens, no more than 20 deceased specimens are to be contained at a facility in cryogenic storage for study, stored at least 200 meters away from any live specimen containment units.
Containment procedures for living instances of SCP-X are as follows.
SCP-X is to be contained within a soundproof, standard size psionic keter class biological containment unit. Monitoring of the unit is to be done exclusively through cameras and drones. The unit is to have two airlocks, one for personnel to enter the containment unit if the need arises, and another leading to a passageway to and from a dedicated SCP-X testing room. These doors are to be controlled remotely through a hardwired connection to minimize the risk of potential hacking, and should be separated from the main power grid with have emergency backup generators built in to ensure that the unit remains secure even in times of crisis. The containment unit is also to be outfitted with incendiary devices that can be remotely triggered to immolate the instance of SCP-X if a breach is imminent.
Under no circumstances should any human personnel attempt to enter the containment unit while a live instance of SCP-X is present. If a situation demands for entry into the containment unit while SCP-X is present, drones should be utilized. In the event of a containment breach of SCP-X, the facility is to go into lockdown and Mobile Task Force Ultima 7 (Firestorm) is to be called in to handle recapture or termination of all escaped instances.
Any personnel killed by SCP-X are to have their bodies incinerated without delay.
Description: SCP-X is a humanoid entity ranging from 200cm to 240cm in height. It has long, seemingly weak arms ending in a 3 fingered clawed hand, with claws ranging between 15-30cm in length, and possessing sharpness and durability comparable to tempered steel blades. Its torso and legs are covered in a thin layer of armor-like plating capable of stopping most small and medium size firearms from damaging the main body, but has been shown to be susceptible to extreme temperatures. SCP-X’s face varies in shape and general appearance, but typically resembles a deformed human skull with skin pulled tightly over the bones. All instances of SCP-X have enlarged jawbones. Study of deceased instances of SCP-X have revealed that the elongated arms consist of densely packed and coiled muscles and cartilage, allowing the arms to “spring” and extend to up to 3 times the specimen’s height to lash out at a target at high speed. The claws and arms also contain mechanisms meant for the gradual and controlled siphoning of blood from a victim when inserted into a major artery and eject a chemical substance to clot and seal the wound when removed from said artery. This chemical demonstrates anomalous properties of its own, described below.
** Anomalous effects **
SCP-X’s primary anomalous property is a mind affecting ability it uses to subdue prey. Those affected by SCP-X become increasingly sluggish and subdued. This effect grows more severe depending on the length of exposure, the number of instances of SCP-X present within a 100 square meter area, and the means of transmission of the effect. The ability emits from SCP-X passively at all times, but its effects are drastically accelerated and intensified when direct visual contact with SCP-X is present, and even more so if the victim of SCP-X is subjected to its “scream”
The scream emitted by SCP-X clocks in at between 120-140 decibels, depending on the specimen. The sound seems unhindered by anything other than complete soundproofing of an area or large distances, and anyone hearing the scream will have the effects of SCP-X’s influence intensify rapidly. Even a previously unaffected individual can be quickly incapacitated by the screams of a pack of 3 or more SCP-X instances.
Unverified reports found in pre-Foundation historical materials claim a pack of 10 screaming in unison can destroy an entire village in an instant. The Foundation views these reports as unreliable, as no solid evidence is provided in any such accounts, and the writers presumably would not have survived a firsthand experience of such an event. As of Incident X-03, it is confirmed that a pack of 7 or more instances of SCP-X are capable of inflicting stage 4 symptoms of its effects on healthy adults instantaneously if screaming in unison.
Early symptoms consist of a general sense of fatigue or sleepiness that no amount of stimulants or rest seems to improve. Subjects will report feeling as if sleep deprived or physically exhausted as if after intensive exercise. This is referred to as a “Stage 1” manifestation of symptoms.
“Stage 2” Symptoms are considerably more pronounced than Stage 1, with subjects struggling to accomplish most physical tasks. Additionally, the symptoms begin more directly affecting the mind of the subject, making them more passive. Subjects become lazy and lethargic, becoming highly irritable if forced to perform tasks, complaining of being “too tired.”
At this stage, if subject is removed from the area of effect of SCP-X, the subject will make a gradual recovery over the span of a few days of rest. Full recovery time can vary from a few days to up to 2 weeks, depending on the subject.
Stage 3 symptoms typically take several days of near constant exposure to SCP-X to develop without the subject seeing the SCP or hearing its scream. However once stage 3 is entered, recovery can take weeks to months without the use of amnestics. Application of amnestics seems to help mitigate the effects of SCP-X temporarily, and accelerate recovery. Stage 3 symptoms show an exacerbated case of stage 2 symptoms, with the subject being physically fatigued to the point of near helplessness. Subjects in this state can only sustain physical activity of any kind for a few minutes at most before collapsing.
The mental effects of this lethargy are more pronounced as well. In particular, the subject’s sense of self-preservation and threat responses are dulled significantly. The subject will often forget to eat or drink for days at a time unless prompted to do so. They also frequently fail to respond to, or in some cases even notice, threatening situations.
Stage 4 is the final stage of SCP-X’s effects. Reaching stage 4 through mere proximity to SCP-X is uncommon, as the subject would typically starve to death before reaching this stage naturally, but stage 3 subjects then exposed to SCP-X’s scream often fall into this state as a result. At this point all higher brain functions slow to an effective stop, leaving the subject conscious but utterly unresponsive to their environment. Subject will not move, speak, or otherwise act in any way beyond moving their eyeballs to lazily observe their surroundings.
No documented cases of an individual recovering from a stage 4 onset of SCP-X’s effects currently exist. Even if removed from SCP-X’s vicinity, individuals typically expire without life support, and the effects do not seem to revert over time as they do in previous stages. Experimentation with more intensive amnestic treatments is ongoing, but has not yielded significant results.
** General behavior **
Typically, SCP-X will remain hidden with its pack near a community until the majority of the people there have reached stage 3 via its passive effects, preferring to remain safely hidden until it is confident no resistance remains. At this time the pack will move in, emitting a loud screaming noise from its enlarged mouth.
SCP-X instances are incredibly intelligent and proficient hunters. If they cannot find a hiding spot within the community itself, they will lurk in nearby forests and other areas near the community. If members of the community venture out into the woods to try and locate SCP-X, the pack will retreat, keeping the search party within range of their influence while remaining safely out of sight, silently stalking their prey.
SCP-X instances have also displayed an understanding of surveillance technology. Cameras set up to try and detect them have been consistently destroyed with seemingly no difficulty. SCP-X moves silently and approaches a blind spot, then lashes out and destroys the camera. In cases where no blind spot was available, SCP-X has displayed the ability to utilize its environment to destroy or disrupt the cameras, often felling trees and making them collide with the camera's location to destroy or block it.
As the targeted community approaches a point where nearly all members within the community are at stage 3, SCP-X will begin showing itself staring at the community from the edge of the woods. This act of revealing themselves and abandoning stealth are a sign that the pack will soon attack. It is unknown whether SCP-X does this for practical reasons, or simply to torment the community with knowledge of their impending doom.
Once confident that it’s prey is helpless, SCP-X moves in to feed on its victims, utilizing its claws to siphon blood from the victim. The process of feeding takes between 5-10 minutes, depending on the size and general health of the subject. After feeding, SCP-X injects a chemical compound that clots the wound and anomalously sustains the subject despite the subject completely ceasing to feed themselves. The method by which the compound does this is currently unknown.
Larger packs sometimes move more aggressively, utilizing synchronized scream attacks to subdue populations immediately without lurking around and waiting. But cases of a pack of SCP-X instances growing this large are rare due to their tendency to feed on communities for a very long time, and new instances of SCP-X only forming after its victims perish. SCP-X instances also seem to share some sort of social structure, and newly created instances of SCP-X are not always welcomed into a pack, particularly when multiple instances from a community are created at once. In these scenarios the converted community members form their own pack and set off on their own.
If resistance is encountered after the SCP-X pack moves in, and the screams do not subdue said resistance, SCP-X will abandon its former tactic of avoidance and patience in favor of aggressive attacks with its claws. They will relentlessly and efficiently strike out at enemy combatants, using their extendable arms to attack from afar while emitting periodic screams. If a combatant is incapacitated by the screams, SCP-X will ignore it and focus attacks on active combatants.
If a combatant successfully injures SCP-X, it will focus attacks on that individual, evidently aware of the danger presented, but not deterred by the pain. However, the use of fire on SCP-X evokes a different response, as all observed cases of SCP-X have an instinctive fear of fire. When confronted with fire-based resistance, SCP-X instances will retreat immediately.
SCP-X will leave victims who reach stage 4 alive, feeding on them for years, or potentially decades at a time before the subject finally expires. The hollow and drained out husk of the victim will then morph into a new instance of SCP-X over the course of 2-3 days. Subjects who perish before reaching stage 4 do not exhibit this transformation, implying that either the mental state or compound used in feeding are related to the metamorphosis.
Addendum:
The following is the journal of Field Agent ███. Agent was investigating reports of strange creature sightings near a small rural town, resulting in the Foundation’s first encounter with SCP-X
Date of Mission Start ██/██/█████
Day 1 – Arrived at █████ today, supposedly some of the locals reported seeing odd-looking creatures in the woods nearby. The report was ignored by local authorities and assumed to be nothing, just people seeing things in the dark and mistaking trees for monsters. But there were multiple reports from different people with consistent descriptions. So here I am in this backwater town in the middle of nowhere. Great.
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Got myself set up at a local tavern for the time being… that’s right… a fucking tavern. Not a hotel, or a motel, a tavern, looks like something pulled right out of a cliché western, food and booze first floor with rooms for rent one the second. The building is so old I’m surprised it actually has modern amenities at all, guess they were installed over time. Bed is just as old too, and clearly this place didn’t bother properly maintaining it since I doubt it’s been used in ages… god I hate it here… I’ll be visiting some of the people who spotted the creatures in the morning, get some more information, then maybe take a look in the woods and see what I find. Hopefully I’ll be out of here before I need to spend another night on this uncomfortable as fuck mattress in this dumb ass nowhere town. The sooner I can get back to proper civilization the better.
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Day 2 – Of course things couldn’t be easy. I went to speak with those that saw the creatures, reports were pretty consistent. Things were freakishly tall, weird faces, long arms. Interestingly, everyone reported being deeply unsettled by the sight as soon as they spotted it, and it was looking in their direction. Everyone looked a bit off too, like they haven’t been sleeping well. Now that I think about it, this whole town looks like that. I know this is a sleepy backwater town and all, but the place seems unusually lifeless. Tavern only had one or two customers all day from what I can tell, and the proprietor looks dead tired all the time.
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I had planned to search the forest today, but I spent longer questioning the locals than I expected, and by the time it was done I wasn’t feeling up to it anymore. It’s getting late now anyway, if something IS out there, I’d rather find it while there’s still enough daylight to see it with.
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Something is off here, I can feel it… I’m gonna put in a request for a proper team to get sent here to help me investigate. I’ve got a bad feeling about all of this.
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Day 3 – Damn, I overslept way too late today, woke up at around 1 in the afternoon, felt like I hadn’t slept a wink. The bed is starting to grow on me too. It’s lumpy and hard in all the wrong places, but when I woke up it was hard to bring myself to leave it. Response came back from the foundation; a team will be here within the week to help with investigations. Been instructed to continue investigating on my own until then.
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Decided to venture out into the woods while I still had daylight. Brought along my sidearm to defend myself in case I run into the creature that’s supposedly out there, or at least deter it enough to get the hell away.
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Day 3-2 - I searched for most of the afternoon, but didn’t find whatever was out here. I’m sure now that something IS out here though, felt like I was being watched the whole time I was there, and there are signs that something has been here recently. Lots of broken branches and footprints that don’t match any local animals. The prints look like an oversized humans foot with talons. Whatever these things are, they’re big too, the depth of the prints shows that, even found traces of prints on harder ground that most animals wouldn’t leave tracks on.
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I’m exhausted now too, way more than I should be after what ended up being only around 4-5 hours of light hiking. Wonder if I’m coming down with something? Wouldn’t be surprised with this moldy old shithole of a building I’m in. Whatever, I’ll try digging around for information while I wait for my backup so we can do a more thorough sweep of the woods.
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Day 7 – Backup finally arrived today, thank god for that. I’ve grown to hate this place with a burning passion. I haven’t slept well all week, and it’s showing now. I’ve stopped venturing into the woods to investigate and instead holed myself up in the records department at the town hall. Going out to physically look for clues is too damn tiring, and as I am now by the time I get there I’m too wiped out to find anything useful. Leader of the backup team said I looked like I hadn’t slept in months… do I look that bad? Where’s the mirror…
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…Yup ok that’s pretty bad… Christ I didn’t know eye-bags could get that big. After this assignment I’m gonna take some vacation days and just sleep this off on a bed that doesn’t seem like a medieval torture device. Yeah… sleeping this off sounds real good.
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Anyway now that the team is here we’re gonna do a thorough sweep of the woods and see what we can find… or rather… they are… I’m starting to find some interesting records buried underneath the inane nonsense of this town’s usual “crisis meetings.” Would you believe this whole town lost their damn minds and were practically at each other’s throats over a debate about what to name a new street? One side wanted Macadamia Drive, the other wanted Chestnut Lane… who the hell cares? This debate stretched out for months and I’ve got no fewer than 13 different town meeting transcripts detailing the debate… Macadamia Drive won out in the end, not that anyone with lives more exciting than watching paint dry would care… Ugh… what was I talking about again…? Oh right, interesting records.
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Seems the settlers of this town were originally from another nearby town that left over some sort of dispute. Oddly enough though, that town they came from doesn’t seem to exist in other official records, its not on any maps, and no documentation of its existence seems to be available either. I’ve got a hunch this other town has some secrets we might want to look into. I’ll see what I can find.
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Day 10 – My team hasn’t had much luck with their search, as far as they can tell there’s maybe 6 of whatever is out there in the woods, give or take one, but no signs of their presence currently. They were definitely here recently though. They think the creatures must be intentionally avoiding us. They set up cameras in hidden locations with the hopes of getting some footage when the creatures think its safe to come out. Maybe we’ll even see where their hiding spot is.
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I’m noticing the team seems to be getting worn out too, all of them are moving more sluggishly than when they arrived, and several have complained of not feeling like they got enough sleep each night despite getting a full 8 hours. My own condition has worsened as well. I’ve been sleeping at the desk in the records department lately, moving back and forth between here and the tavern is becoming too daunting. This isn’t natural, some part of me knows that, and I feel this should alarm me more than it does…
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I’ve made some discoveries on my end though. Seems the dispute was about some mines near the old town that had been recently uncovered after some seismic activity got rid of a rock formation hiding and sealing the entrance. The place was a gold-mine of valuable minerals and ores, but many of the locals questioned where the mines had come from, why they’d been sealed up while so much ore remained, and simply had a bad feeling about the place in general.
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Eventually the braver and greedier townspeople stayed, and those with misgivings left, setting out and starting new towns elsewhere, this being one of them. Nobody ever went back to check on their original home, and no contact from the town ever came… at least officially. This seems promising… I’m going to send scans of these documents back to the foundation and see if they can puzzle out where this old town might’ve been. We’ll go check it out, it may be related to the creatures we’re seeing now.
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Day 12 – God damnit… even writing feels like a burden now. All I want to do is sleep… HQ has instructed me and the team to pull out of the town for the time being in light of all of us experiencing these worsening symptoms. The townsfolk have gotten pretty bad too, the place seemed lifeless before, but I haven’t seen anyone out in the streets for days, and even the tavern staff are all bed-ridden. We’ve got a lead on where the old town might’ve been, so we’re gonna withdraw for about a week to try and recover a bit, then investigate that.
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The cameras we had in the woods were a bust too… literally. Night after they were set up, we went to check on them and they were all destroyed… thoroughly… whatever these things are… they’re smart. Only one of the cameras had any salvageable footage… and it didn’t see anything useful, just the talons and foot of a creature after the camera was knocked from its perch. Bloody thing flawlessly snuck up on its blind spot and took it out, didn’t make a sound either, despite all evidence suggesting that these things are definitely larger than humans.
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I don’t like this… I’ve got a really bad feeling that once we leave, these townspeople are going to be in trouble, we’re setting up hidden cameras in town before we leave. We’ll keep an eye on the video feeds and try and hopefully spot the creatures if they make a move. And a few more heavily equipped foundation personnel will replace us to keep an eye on things. I figure if we lasted this long before getting this bad, some fresh bodies should be fine holding down the fort for us. Still can’t shake this unease though.
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Day 20 – Rested up, once we were away from the town we found ourselves getting better. Any doubt that our worsening condition was anomalous before is gone now. The people who took over watching the town are reporting feeling the same effects we were. So something there is definitely causing it. None of us are back to 100% yet, but we’re setting out to check the old town today, hopefully we’ll get a hint as to what we’re dealing with here.
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Day 20-2 – The ruins of the town were empty, have been for a while it looks like. They were creepy as fuck too, you can just FEEL the wrongness here the moment you set foot in the place. You know that feeling where everything looks completely normal, but you can’t shake the sense that something is seriously off? Yeah, that’s this place in a nutshell. Place wasn’t abandoned, when we entered homes we saw dirty dishes in sinks, rotted food in pantries and trash bins, etc… none of it had been touched in ages, but the homes were either abandoned in a hurry with no effort to retrieve anything for the exodus, or the town was empty for some other reason.
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We didn’t find any signs of a struggle or catastrophe either. Nothing that could’ve forced the residents to flee. Some buildings were worse for wear after so many years of neglect, but no sign of any devastating fires or anything either. And no corpses or skeletons anywhere, if something came in and killed everyone, there ought to be evidence. Even if the creatures ate their prey whole, there ought to have been signs of resistance, spatters of blood, SOMETHING. But no, nothing, just empty homes, like all the residents just up and vanished.
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It was only when we started digging though this town’s records that we started learning what was going on. After the mines opened up and most of the town left, those who remained started working the mines. Seems they had a good few months before anything went wrong. It started with a commotion in the mine when someone swore that they’d seen a monster in the tunnels staring at them. Nobody found any evidence of it, so it was brushed off.
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Wasn’t long after that people started feeling the strange fatigue we’ve been dealing with, starting with those working in the mines, but soon affecting everyone. It kept getting worse, soon the whole town was too weak to work or leave their homes. Wasn’t long after that they started seeing creatures at the edge of the woods, staring at the town. Descriptions match up perfectly with what we’re dealing with now.
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The town’s official records stop there, whatever happened next was never recorded properly, but we did find a journal in one of the homes that confirms the worst. It was written by the town mayor, its contents match up with the town records, but continue for a few days after they stop. Apparently in the last days, he wasn’t able to even leave his bed, writing in the journal was all he could muster the energy to do… I’ll just copy down his last entry verbatim
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“I think this is the end for us… none of us can leave our beds now so far as I can tell. If anyone can, they still aren’t leaving their homes. Nobody is working, nobody cooking… even if there was food ready to eat I doubt many of us could make the trip to retrieve and eat it… I know I couldn’t… just the thought of getting up now is unfathomable. The creatures we saw, staring at the town, they must be the cause of all this… they’ve been watching us… waiting… letting this foul curse of theirs cripple us until we were reduced to laying here, waiting for them to come… As I write this, I realize something terrifying… I don’t even care… it’s not just my body that’s tired… I lay here writing about the certainty of the deaths of me and those I was charged to lead… and I don’t feel… anything… just emptiness… This in itself should terrify me, any rational man would feel compelled to act… to flee… to take some measure of self-preservation… but I don’t… we all don’t…
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Looking back… the ones who left were right… those mines were sealed for a reason. I’m sure that’s where these things came from. Maybe they’re demons who punish the greedy, maybe just monsters from a bygone time, lurking in those mines until we gave them a reason to come out to hunt. It doesn’t matter now. Nothing matters… I’m so tired… I hear noises outside… they must be here… I feel relieved that it’ll be over soon… I”
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The writing stops there… we found the journal lying open on the floor next to an empty bed… which raises the question… where’s the body? What happened to these people after the creatures came? Why did the writing cut off so suddenly? We located a sketch of the creatures in another person’s journal, its crude, but better than the nothing we’ve gotten so far.
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Most concerning is the description of the situation prior to the creatures moving in. The guards and video feeds haven’t reported seeing the creatures yet, but the town’s condition matches this place perfectly… so they’re bound to make their move soon. We’re sending back everything we found and requesting a full containment team be deployed immediately. Meanwhile we’re going to return and rendezvous at the tavern and see if we can establish a workable defense strategy with the resources on hand. None of us are fully recovered, and the guards there have been actively subjected to the fatigue for over a week, but we’re all capable of moving and fighting back… if these things can’t handle direct confrontations, we should be enough to drive them off and hold out till a full team arrives.
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Day 21 – We’ve been told a team will arrive tomorrow morning, not sure if that’ll be soon enough. We’ve taken precautionary measures, went into all the buildings and carried everyone into the tavern, not enough beds for everyone but it’s the only building with enough space to get them all into one defensible location. We’ve set up even more cameras, and made makeshift barricades and cover for ourselves. Gonna have to use amnestics on everyone here when its all over, but if we make a stand here we have a fighting chance.
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There’s 8 of us here, all armed with guns and a couple of grenades. Based on the sketch we recovered, seems these things have some kind of armor plating, but they don’t look that bulky… We’ve loaded armor piercing rounds into all of our clips, and with our defensive setup we’ll be firing at close range… should be enough to damage them… Now we wait… who knows, maybe they won’t even show up…
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Day 21-2 – So much for that, camera feeds show a whole pack of them exiting the woods now. Turns out looking at them intensifies the effects, the 3 guys who were here while we recovered dropped at the sight of them, as helpless as the townsfolk, almost got me too, since I’m in the worst shape apart from them, but I looked away before it was too late… They’re moving slowly, but with purpose, they’re ignoring empty buildings without even searching, so they must be able to sense we’re here. There’s 6 of them like we suspected… and only 5 of us now… 4 really, since I doubt I’ll last long once they come in and we can see them again.
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I’ve set up cameras to record the battle, if we… don’t make it… maybe the containment team will learn something from the footage. Tell my family I love them, and that I went down fighting, fighting to protect them from bastards like these.
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All right… let’s go…
—The following is a transcript of the video footage of Agent ███ and 4 foundation guards and their attempt to battle SCP-X. Due to the hazardous nature of the audio due to the screams of SCP-X, the original footage has not been included
VIDEO LOG
[BEGIN LOG]
22:05 Sounds of SCP-X moving heard on other side of barricade. Agent ███ and guards ready weapons.
22:07 SCP-X uses claws to tear through tavern door, encountering barricade. Agent ███ and guards open fire, with Agent ███ reminding others to keep their eyes closed and not look at SCP-X
22:08 AP rounds strike SCP-X. SCP-X staggers backwards from the impacts, but is not otherwise visibly harmed.
22:09 Guard 1 checks efficacy of firearms on SCP-X by briefly risking visual contact. Upon seeing that SCP-X is not visibly harmed he pulls pin on a hand grenade
22:10 The instance of SCP-X visible in the doorway as well as others outside scream in unison. Agent ███ and all guards collapse. Grenade pulled by Guard 1 is not thrown before collapse and detonates behind his cover, killing himself and Agent ███ in ensuing blast.
22:11 SCP-X begins lashing at the barricade with claws, demonstrating remarkable striking speed and precision.
22:13 SCP-X has completely shredded the barricade. All instances of SCP-X enter tavern.
22:14 One instance of SCP-X notices cameras and lashes out, destroying cameras one by one
22:15 All cameras destroyed, end of footage
[END LOG]
