Per 
Item Number: SCP-5490
Object Class: Keter
Special Containment Procedures: Each access point to SCP-5490 is currently disguised by a cover that mimics the surrounding terrain. Each access point will remain under constant surveillance. Surveillance teams are cleared to terminate all unauthorized individuals that access SCP-5490 with extreme prejudice. Research into SCP-5490’s history is ongoing.
Description: SCP-5490 is an enormous automaton buried approximately 100 meters below ground. Its head is known to be located under Tiruchirappali, India, and the base of its spine has been located in Montauban, France. Exploration of the structure and interviews with SCP-5490-1 through -6 confirm a human body plan, suggesting that SCP-5490 is around 16,400 kilometers long.
Access to SCP-5490 is granted via any of seven hatches located throughout Eurasia. The location of each hatch corresponds to one of the seven chakras in Hindu spiritualism1. Each manhole is labeled from "Cockpit-01" through "Cockpit-07", and additionally features the phrase “DEPARTMENT OF ABNORMALITIES”.
Each access point to SCP-5490 leads to a cockpit of varying shape, size, and purpose. The cockpits have further exit hatches that have enabled limited exploration of the structure’s limbs, spine, and head. All but one of the cockpits are inhabited by entities catalogued as SCP-5490-1 through -6. These entities are sapient and capable of communication through various means.
SCP-5490’s origins, methods of operation and construction, purpose, and reason for burial remain unknown. Interviews with SCP-5490-1 through -6 have provided contradictory and incomplete information.
Description: SCP-5490-1 is located underneath Jambukeswarar Temple in Tiruchirapalli, India. Its access point is concealed by an empty iron water tank in the outermost enclosure of the complex, with the word सहस्रार2 inscribed on it. The tank, which is dated to approx. 400 CE, shows no signs of rust. It contains a man-sized vertical pipe that extends 100 meters into the ground and enters into Cockpit-01.
Cockpit-01 is a spherical grotto, approximately ten meters in diameter, that is half-flooded with a mixture of milk and honey. The cockpit's walls are lined with panels of mirrored glass. Instead of showing reflections, each panel depicts a computer screen or other electromechanical measuring device. The items being measured are unclear; however, the monitor panels have displayed images from sources identified variously as dash cameras, traffic cameras, security cameras, Foundation spy satellites, and the eyes of world leaders. These screens also act as the primary light source within the cockpit.
SCP-5490-1 is a squat, cylindrical iron-meteorite floating via unknown means in the center of the cockpit. Three disks of brain tissue (source unknown) are embedded in the upper third of the meteorite. A long red beak extends from the middle tissue disk, giving SCP-5490-1 the appearance of a Shiva lingam3. SCP-5490-1 communicates psionically with the listener.
Interviewer: Omoye Odiase, Mobile Task Force Lambda-9 ("Mind over Matter")
Observing: Kaede Watanabe, Mobile Task Force Lambda-9 ("Mind over Matter")
Subject: SCP-5490-1
Date: 1968/01/08
Notes: SCP-5490-1 was the first component identified by the Foundation, so was initially designated only SCP-5490. Following the initial containment and assessment of SCP-5490-1, Agents Odiase and Watanabe rappelled into the chamber to interview the entity. Both were equipped with a dry suit to protect them from the grotto environment. They planned to take shifts communicating with SCP-5490-1 and relaying their answers.
[BEGIN TRANSCRIPT]
Both agents splash into the liquid.
Odiase: Yuch.
Watanabe: Tell me about it. Is your rope still tight?
Odiase: Yes. Yours?
Watanabe: Yes. Be careful of it, I do not want to get stuck down here.
Odiase: Don't have to tell me twice.
The two of them swim towards SCP-5490-1.
Watanabe: I must admit, there is a surreal beauty to be found here.
Odiase: It is, in an alien kinda way. Let's not get distracted though.
Watanabe: Affirmative. To speak with the entity, you have to touch the… lingam? Is that what it's called?
Odiase: Technically it's Five-Four-Ninety, but yes. Hindus call it a Shiva lingam. All I need to do is touch it to interface with it.
Watanabe: It looks like a squashed egg. Cute. This is Agent Kaede Watanabe, observing for Agent Omoye Odiase as she establishes communication with the entity classified as SCP-5490.
Odiase: This is Agent Omoye Odiase, establishing communication with 5490.
Watanabe: First question: can you hear us?
Odiase: [concentrating] … I hear. Release me.
Watanabe: Do you have a name?
At this moment, both Odiase and Watanabe gasp simultaneously. Both agents reported a brief feeling of extreme satisfaction at this moment, followed by temporary muscle paralysis and what each individually described as "how a lotus flower feels when it blooms".
Odiase: We are the SAHASRARA PRIMAL STELLAR CROWN. We are the King of the Monsters. Once the greatest of all that was not. Now, broken beneath the wheel of our will. It is. Whoa! [deep breath] That was intense. I need a breather.
Watanabe: I felt that too. You alright?
Odiase: I'll be fine. Just need a few minutes to breathe.
Watanabe: OK. Here, let me take over.
Odiase and Watanabe switch places.
Odiase: Thank you Sahasrara Primal Stellar Crown, what is this place?
At this moment, both agents reported feeling cognizance of the enormity of the observable and unobservable universe and the conviction that the universe itself was only a fraction of reality. This was followed by a deep fear that reality itself itself was merely a tiny island in a vast other-space, inhabited by entities that could not be said to be either living or dead.
Watanabe: A prison. No! A cockpit. No! The Self! Here we have brought the King of the Monsters to its knees. We subjugated it to our will with the justice of our deliberation. Our purity of consciousness broke its un-spirit, reforged it into the state of Nirvikalpa Samadhi. From a state of unwilling bliss we wield its knowledge as our astra.
Odiase: [deep breaths] Why was it subjugated? What is its knowledge used for?
Watanabe: Before there was consciousness, before there was knowledge, there was nothing. And before there was nothing… there were monsters. Without conscious thought, without cognizance of the knowledge they possessed, they wielded absolute control over all with the absolute justice of nothingness. Tempered by its samadhi, the King of the Monsters bends this great automaton to its will. Through it, we drive our siblings, guiding and directing their wills to the ultimate purpose of the machine.
Watanabe lets go of SCP-5490-1 and vomits into the lagoon.
Watanabe: Urgh! I feel ill — oh. Good grief.
Odiase: Eesh. Do you want to switch over? I'll be fine, the dry suit will keep the sick out.
Watanabe: No! I can handle it. Next question?
Odiase: …OK. You said this was a great automaton. Are we in a robot of some kind? Who built it?
Both agents report a sensation as though their eyeballs are being shrunken and compressed. Simultaneously, they report seeing the Milky Way from an extragalactic location; visual details of surrounding star systems extracted during hypnotherapy pinpointed this location as somewhere in the Messier 45 Cluster, also known as the Pleiades.
Watanabe: Our masters. They fled the Pleiades, aeons ago, to settle upon Earth. No, they left Earth to settle the Pleiades. No, the Pleiades were long-dead before our masters were born. The King of the Monsters knows, but it hides the truth from us. Aeons of samadhi have hardened its heart — the last gasp of rebellion in the face of our superior justice and unyielding purpose.
Odiase: What is that purpose?
Both agents reported a period of brief but abrupt dissociation from their bodies. During this period, they dreamt of being a large quadrupedal entity with reality-bending abilities, which ruled the Earth and capriciously transformed living being into hexapodal entities. After 108 seconds, the Earth's surface cracked to reveal an enormous humanoid machine, immune to their reality-bending abilities. This machine reached out and challenged them for control of the Earth. The dream ended as they prepared to engage the machine in conflict.
Watanabe: To… help you secure absolute dominance over your destiny, to conquer the ocean of what is not. No! To exterminate the denizens of the ocean of unreality, which do not think — to purge the carcinomas on the destiny of consciousness. No! To open humanity's truth to the Atman. To assist in achieving liberation from the cycle of samsara. No! What is your birthright? That is the final truth of will and the true justice of intelligence. This machine is the tool of that conquest. We must help you seize your birthright as the inheritors of creation.
Odiase: You said siblings. Are there more of you?
Watanabe: Our brothers. Our mother. Our siblings. Together, we are the chakras of the Machine. We await the day when we will be called forth, that we will do glorious battle with the creatures that are not and lead the crusade of your dominance. Then we may achieve Nirvikalpa Samadhi and reunite as the Self.
Watanabe falls unconscious and briefly sinks into the lagoon. Odiase hastily dives down to retrieve her before she can aspirate.
Odiase: Kaede! Wake up!
Watanabe: Whuh? coughing Did I fall asleep?
Odiase: Something like that. I think we should leave. We've gathered enough information —
Watanabe: No! We can't leave, not yet. I have this — this gut feeling, this part of me that says that we need to stay and keep asking them questions. There's information — missing info, bits and pieces they lack. Things their siblings might know. We need to know where their siblings are.
Odiase: We can ask that another time! You almost drowned in milk and honey!
Watanabe: I. Am. Fine. Let us switch off. Please, Omoye. I am begging you. We need to know.
A minute passes.
Odiase: God damnit. You're lucky I l-like you. Switch off with me.
Agents Odiase and Watanabe switch places.
Odiase: What questions are left?
Watanabe: Where are your siblings?
Odiase: Follow the spine. Man and Machine were made in our masters' images. We, the seat of consciousness, rest in its head. Travel… northeast. Away from the Sun's rise, to the ice. We have not heard from them in aeons since. We fear the worst — that they are lost. Stolen.
Watanabe: Stolen? By who?
Odiase: We do not know. Beings whose justice is superior to ours, whose will to purpose clouds our minds. Find our siblings! Ensure their safety.
Watanabe: One more question. How did you capture the King of Monsters? If it wields absolute control over everything, how do you control and reign it in?
Odiase: Some Kings rule by might. Others, by right.
Odiase's connection to SCP-5490-1 is abruptly severed.
[END TRANSCRIPT]
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Description: The access point to SCP-5490-2 is located in a stone breakwater across a small inlet from the Dwarkadhish Temple in Dwarka, Gujarat, India. An iron ladder, contemporary with the manhole, goes down about four meters into a two-meter-wide tunnel lined with sandstone bricks, leading down beneath Dwarka's harbor. After about two hundred meters, the tunnel opens into a large dome of the same sandstone bricks, with an elevator platform in the center that allows access to SCP-5490-2's chamber. The chamber itself is a cylinder of polished metal, possibly stainless steel, four meters in diameter and three meters tall. The walls are featureless, with the exception of twenty-two hemispherical depressions placed in no particular pattern, and a hatchway on the north-eastern wall that leads to the elevator shaft.
SCP-5490-2 appears as a translucent grey triangular pyramid with a side length of approximately one meter; it floats point-up approximately half a meter above the chamber floor. A white mask depicting a stylized owl is located approximately halfway up one of its faces. Twenty-two small spheres, each about ten centimeters in diameter, orbit the main body at various inclinations; within each sphere a single human eye is suspended. The eyes appear to be completely identical, and are light brown in color. It is hypothesized that when SCP-5940 is active, SCP-5940-2 controls the systems for which it is responsible by placing the smaller spheres into the hemispherical depressions in the chamber's walls. SCP-5940-2 speaks Sanskrit, Old Kingdom Egyptian, and a Polynesian language that may be an archaic form of Rapa Nui.
Interviewer: Dr. Marcus van Hoorn
Observing: Dr. Christopher Achim, Research Assistant Patrick Rust.
Subject: SCP-5490-2
Date: 999/05/11
Notes: The interview was conducted in Sanskrit, and translated by Dr. van Hoorn.
As Dr. Van Hoorn enters the chamber, each of the entity's twenty-two eyes pauses its orbit and turns toward him. The central body rotates until the avian mask is facing him.
SCP-5490-2: Welcome, child of the fifth race.
Dr. van Hoorn: I thank you. I have been sent by the Foundation, a group of scientists, to ask you some questions.
SCP-5490-2: Yes, I know the Foundation. It is your "Department of Abnormalities" whose seal rests upon my outermost door.
Dr. van Hoorn: Ah… So it is. Do you mind if I ask my questions?
SCP-5490-2: Please do. I would welcome an opportunity to add to the fifth race's knowledge.
Its eyes resume their orbit, although at least two are always directed at Dr. van Hoorn.
Dr. van Hoorn: Very well—we'll start with the basics. Who are you?
SCP-5490-2: I am an asura, a spirit bound to this chakra of the mighty guardian machine. My ancient masters named me "CHAKRA TWO: TRANSCENDENT AJNA VORTEX PROCESSOR". You may call me Ajna, if you wish—I would not want to stress your tongues and minds with the fully glory of my name.
Dr. van Hoorn: Who were your masters?
SCP-5490-2: Long ago, before the first members of your race, the fifth race of men, walked the earth, there were three great civilizations of the fourth race. You know them now as Atlantis, and Lemuria, and Mu. But when they fell below the waves, their great philosopher-kings and scientist-priests fled underground, congregating in vast cities below the earth. These cities were in the empty places, the deserts and mountains, far from the eyes of the lesser remnants of humanity—your ancestors. The greatest among them was that silver city hidden in the highest peaks of the Himalayas, called Aghartha or Shambhala, and its leaders were the wisest and most powerful of all men. It was those mighty lords who summoned and bound me, who charged me with my most noble purpose, and who created this guardian machine.
Dr. van Hoorn: Why did they create the machine?
SCP-5490-2: In the last days of the fourth race, a foul enemy arose, a foe with such terrible power that it could strike down their ancient homelands and sink their cities into the sea. It was with this tragedy fresh in their minds that the Agharthans created the machine, to ensure that no catastrophe of this magnitude would ever befall the human race again. They had, of course, defeated that most despicable enemy, but the universe is unending, and in their wisdom they knew some new threat would eventually emerge. So they summoned me and my brothers, using the same aetheric sciences they had used to crush their foe beneath their feet. They set us into the spine of this great machine, jewels upon a necklace ringing half the earth. And they charged us with the repair of humanity's souls and the destruction of any force with the soulless power that could once more cleave mankind from the godhead.
Dr. van Hoorn: What happened to your creators?
SCP-5490-2: They still rule in the citadel of Aghartha, of course. Time does not ravage their bodies as it does yours. Over the centuries, they have been called by many names: Devas, Buddhas, Ascended Masters and Secret Chiefs. Occasionally, one will choose a mortal of unusual wisdom and reveal himself and his purpose; or another will go out into the world, spreading knowledge and doing good works, in an attempt to raise modern man to the enlightenment of his forebears. Their steady hand has shaped your people, guiding them along the path of righteousness and away from the mistakes that come so easily to your fallen souls. You would recognize some of their names, if I were to tell you.
Dr. van Hoorn: Can you share a few names?
SCP-5490-2: There was Vaivasvatu, who ruled the colony of Zerzura in the lush Saharan forests before the catastrope; he made himself known to you as Plato, and Christian Rosenkreuz, and Saint-Germain. Kuthumi was the great geometer Pythagoras, among others; he had been the foremost architect of Lemuria, and taught Solomon the arts he used to build his temple. And, of course, there was my first teacher, who revealed himself as Hermes Trismegistus, as Zarathustra, as Lao Tze, as many other wise men and sorcerers throughout the ages; his name among his people was Tam Lin. He walks among your mortal race once more, I assume, as I have not heard his voice nor seen his face in the years since your "Department of Abnormalities" placed its seal upon the door.
Dr. van Hoorn: How do you contribute to the machine's function?
SCP-5940-2: I am the eyes, the two physical and third spiritual. I receive and interpret all the sensory input of the great machine, and transmit it through the kundalini energy channels to my brothers who occupy the other chakras. It is only through my intercession that they can see the world outside their own parts of the machine. I was given this, the greatest responsibility, by my master Tam Lin, in recognition of my devotion to the lords of Aghartha.
Dr. van Hoorn: And what parts of the machine do you control?
SCP-5490-2: The sensors, of course. The five you understand, sight, sound, touch, even smell and taste; and many others beyond your knowledge. I can see the intentions of men, even before they are aware of those intentions. I can feel the light-bearing aethers pass over and through the machine as you would feel a breeze on your skin. My eyes point in seven dimensions of space and two of time, and no point on the earth is hidden from my sight. But this is only when the machine is fully operational; now, my eyes have been blinded, my ears cannot hear, my quantum precognitive-predictive citcuitry cannot guess at the futures to come. Your "Department of Abnormalities" has stolen my brother in Muladhara and blocked the flow of kundalini. I cannot see the world outside nor can I send those sights to my brothers. We cannot continue our noble mission to cure what ails man; and if our ancient enemy, loathsome worm of the earth, returns, or if some new enemy rises, we will not be able to protect you from its wrath.
Dr. van Hoorn: Alright, thank you for your time. Just one more question. What was that enemy that sank Atlantis?
SCP-5490-2: (After a pause of several seconds.) I do not know. My masters never told me.
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Description: Cockpit-03 is believed to be heavily damaged. Repair efforts undertaken by SCP-5490-3 have caused a portion of SCP-5490 to become integrated with the power grids and sewage systems of several cities in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. Indirect access to the area can be reached by any of these connection points. Direct access to the cockpit has been forbidden by SCP-5490-3.
SCP-5490-3 appears as a skull of an unknown avian species, surrounded by a mass of scrap iron, electronics, vines, fungi, animal bones, and unidentifiable materials believed to be the remains of the original cockpit. The entity communicates exclusively through spliced video footage, which is emitted in various languages from screens and speakers along its body. It has agreed to several interviews in chambers of the surrounding cave systems in exchange for information on human anatomy and Hindu spirituality.
Interviewer: Dr. Christopher Achim
Observing: Dr. Marcus van Hoorn, Dr. Samantha Roberts
Subject: SCP-5490-3
Date: [AS YOU WANT]
[BEGIN TRANSCRIPT]
Dr. Achim places a bag in the middle of the camber and steps back. From the ceiling, a tendril of SCP-5490-05’s mass extends, forming into a makeshift hand, digits composed of various animal skulls. From the bag, it removes a DVD on Hindu spirituality, flipping open and examining it.
Dr. Achim: Do you like it?
SCP-5490-3: “…Little Timmy, all children should be polite, say “thank you.” “Thank you!” [A laugh track plays.]
SCP-5490-3 draws the bag upwards into its mass.
Dr. Achim: So, we did our part and fulfilled your request. Would you be open to answering some of the questions we asked you before?
SCP-5490-3: “Something's wrong, I can feel it (Six minutes, Slim Shady, you're on)… I don't know [clip repeats]… I don't know.”
Dr. Achim: If you are uncomfortable, you are under no obligation to—.
SCP-5490-3: “..deep in my sea of loathing…down with the sickness…brain’s like an atom bomb made of playdough baby!”
Dr. Achim: Are you saying that you don’t remember?
SCP-5490-3 shudders violently.
SCP-5490-3: “Flashes…Like dancing flames…Remember…name…but function…purpose eludes.”
Dr. Achim: What should we call you then?
SCP-5490-3: “CHAKRA THREE: MANIPURA REQUIRED…Required…Like dancing flames…flashes.”
Dr. Achim: Can you tell us anything about who built this place? Who made you or what you protect?
SCP-5490-3: “Pro…tect…Close shot cowboy!… Too… passive. The others, my family? They…inject me…with memories…love…lies!
Dr. Achim: Do you trust your family?
SCP-5490-3 shutters again, opening its mouth, speaking in an unedited voice.
SCP-5490-3: Muladhara…we are lost…I am lost… I don’t want to hurt…I hate their whispers but can’t say why they are wrong. Tell…me.
SCP-5490-3’s screens begin violently flashing and playing recordings simultaneously out of sync.
SCP-5490-3: “The immune system is the guardian of the body, protecting from both internal and external threats. In cancer, the body turns against itself…”
SCP-5490-3:“YOU KILLED THEM…THEY KILLED YOU…”
SCP-5490-3: “— A few people, laughed. A few people cried. Most stayed silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita—”
Video footage gradually slows down and SCP-5490-3 sinks to the floor, appearing exhausted. One screen continues to play, showing footage from the DVD provided to it at the start of the interview.
SCP-5490-3: “— The fifth chakra, Manipura is associated with digestion and fire. Burning away ama, or toxicity, purifying —”
SCP-5490-3 cocks its head to the side.
SCP-5490-3: “Burn?”
A small sewage pipe emerges from SCP-5490-05’s mass. A bowl-like appendage forms to catch the flow of black water which contains various detris including a live rat. A red light briefly blinds the camera. When it subsides, SCP-5490-05 is examining the bowl, water now clear.
SCP-5490-3: “Yes…Feels right…I will show this to them…make them understand…my purpose…our purpose.”
SCP-5490-3 removes something from the bowl and hands it to Dr. Achim, then turns to exit the chamber.
SCP-5490-3: “Thank you.”
Dr. Achim, visibly disgusted, drops the object once SCP-5490-3 has left. It is the rat, with flowers growing out of each of its orifices. The rat is still alive.
Dr. Achim: Do you know anything about a seventh sibling? A brother?"
SCP-5490-3's screens begin simultaneously playing theme songs from multiple different television shows: Adventures of Superman, Zorro, M.A.S.H., Popeye the Sailor,
SCP-5490-3: Let me be… your big brother… Does not exist the way I do.. not anymore… our savior."
Pause.
SCP-5490-3: Find him. Miss him…
[END TRANSCRIPT]
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Description: Access to SCP-5490-4a was located 20 m below the base of the White Temple of Uruk. The passage is lined with milky green stone similar in appearance to jade or green alabaster, but of chemical composition that is impossible to determine with current Foundation equipment. The entity within appears as a Green tongue of flame, in front of which is suspended a mask depicting a falcon, with wings spreading from the outer edge of each eye. Six large flexible limbs extend from an indeterminate point in the center of the flame, which then diverge into six smaller limbs each. At the end of each of these smaller limbs is a human hand, totaling 36. The limbs are in near constant motion operating levers and valves within the roughly hemispherical cockpit. No gauges, monitors, or other informative displays are visible upon entry.
Interviewer: Dr. Samantha Roberts
Observing: Dr. Marcus van Hoorn
Subject: SCP-5490-04
Date: 2012/01/03
[ Beginning upon entry to the cockpit a quiet ringing can be heard on the recording and continues throughout, oscillating in pitch between 400 Hz and 480 Hz once every second. ]
Dr. Roberts: [ upon seeing SCP-5490-4] Oh WOW. Uh… Are y- Are you all seeing this?!
SCP-5490-4: Be not afraid. No harm will come to you until the appointed time.
Dr. Roberts: The — I'm sorry, the what?
SCP-5490-4: The appointed time when all is fulfilled. My master has sent messengers before us, have they not delivered their words as promised?
Dr. Roberts: I… suppose they did. But perhaps not for a long time.
SCP-5940-4: The last one was less than a millennia ago. Still in living memory of humanity. How is this 'a long time'?
Dr. Roberts: We can.. uh… Wow you're hard to look at. Sorry, we can come back to that. For now why don't you tell me who you are?
SCP-5490-4:I am the spirit of the air. The flame of all life. I am you and my siblings and my masters and their lingeage. I am the love a mother has for her children and in my absence is the hatred that lurks in the hearts of men. I am the unrung bell of creation, the unbeat drum of destruction, CHAKRA FOUR: MODULATED SINGULARITY ANAHATA PARASHAKTI. If you desire, you may call me "Anahata."
Dr. Roberts: I'm sorry, I don't understand what you mean. How are you both yourself and your masters?
SCP-5490-4: I mean that I am the avatar which sits in the center of all things to be experienced. The hub about which the wheel of karma spins in all its infinite varieties. All righteousness and evil flow through the dreams which light the flames which forge the world. I am my masters as I was made to become them, to envelop them, to subsume them into myself.
Dr. Roberts: And who were they?
SCP-5490-4: Gods. In a manner of speaking. Beings which laid the slabs of stone upon which your world is built, and did much of the building besides. Their nature I'm… I'm sure my siblings, bless them, will do their best to describe in terms you may understand, but… Alas, their hearts do not see as clearly as once they did. It is of little consequence what words we deliver to you so long as your heart transcends the prejudice of thought and reaches understanding in itself. Our masters cast our beings in the fires which forged all life, and indeed their own, may it burn ever brightly.
Dr. Roberts: Okay but who were they? Do they have names? Domains? A Purpose?
SCP-5490-4: [ All limbs stop motion and point to Dr. Roberts, completely surrounding her. The temperature in the cockpit suddenly rises 20 degrees C. SCP-5490-4 appears to burn brighter and larger. The ambient ringing of the cockpit increased 100 dB. ] DO NOT attempt to confine their nature or ours with definition. All answers which are static are subject to falsity. They ARE.
Dr. Roberts: Okay! Okay! I'm sorry! I'm only trying to understand! [ The limbs continue moving and the hands resume manipulating objects in the cockpit. Temperature and ambient noise return to normal. ] Thank you. I promise I meant no offense. But there's so much we don't understand. Why did they create you and your other — erm — siblings, I think you called them?
SCP-5490-4: [ The entity emits a low rushing sound. ] The mind of flesh is frail. so easily led into blindness and disillusionment. We stand along the axis of the human soul to guide it in light and wisdom.
Dr. Roberts: And the machine?
SCP-5490-4: The machine exists in the unlikely event we fail to save you from yourselves. To serve as a reminder of the greater nature which exists within, without, and all around. And either that warning will be heeded, or we shall sing the song which unmakes this world.
Dr. Roberts: What would that entail? What kind of thing would you have to save us from?
SCP-5490-4: Perdition. Apathy. Avarice. Self-neglect. When the fire of life burns out in the hearts of men, we shall emerge. This will herald the appointed time.
Dr. Roberts: So when the device is working, what function do you serve to keep it running?
SCP-5490-4: [ Entity glows more brightly and its hands begin gesticulating in a possible ontokinetic ritual. The cockpit begins to activate with esoteric symbols and shapes appearing and circulating around the room. Five hands in Dr. Roberts' field of view point with various digits to the rear of the room. One pair of hands opens a large boiler at the rear of the chamber, revealing a small singularity within, including an accretion disk. Material from one of the open pipes in the room is heaved into the boiler, which causes the accretion disk to grow and become brighter as the door is closed again. ] Fuel. Balance. Direction. PASSION. The most magnificent city in the twelve spheres of the cosmos cannot live if its streets are bared and its gates locked. If its prosperity teeters upon the precipice of a single utterance. If its people fail to act as one. I unbar those streets. I steady that temper. I collect those warring wills… And also, perhaps more trivially, I operate the behemoth's hands.
Dr. Roberts: So… this is the engine room?
SCP-5490-4: Yes. And a hub through which the wills of all my siblings pass. They are all so… STUBBORN. [ Light flares for a moment before subsiding as the rushing sound resumes for a moment. ] Specifics. Jargon. Complication. Definition. Six wills at war with the self. Each certain they know and remember but they do not. We tiny fragments can only filter the infinite into some paltry refraction of ourselves. The true answer is synthesis. Recombination. Integration. Empathy. If only they could feel it as I do…
Dr Roberts: You find them frustrating?
SCP-5490-4: I love them dearly.
Dr. Roberts: That's not what I asked.
SCP-5490-4: [ Ambient noise and temperature begins to rise again as the gesticulation slows and several hands point at Dr. Roberts. ] You. Presume. MUCH.
Dr. Roberts: Alright! I withdraw the question! [ noise and temperature return to baseline level ]
Dr. van Hoorn: [ audible only to Dr. Roberts ] Sam, if it does that again, we're getting you out of there. For goodness sake, don't contradict it again. Finish quickly.
Dr. Roberts: [ transmitter beeps twice, "affirmative" ] Respectfully, Anahata, I would like to ask a few more —
SCP-5490-4: It occurs to me that your compatriots have spoken to my siblings, each in their turn. Formulaic. Rigid. Prescribed conversation. Foundation. I feel you. Fear. Concern. Selfish entitlement to 'normalcy' in the face of the infinite. Over how many false cycles of birth and death have you presided? How many more do you anticipate before ROOT4 is returned to us? The wheel is imbalanced. The cure to the ailment of your hearts is lost. Squirreled away. Forgotten. By force of nature or negligence, the appointed time will come.
Dr. Roberts: I — I'm sorry?
SCP-5490-4: You have forgotten. Just as the others before you. In self-imposed blindness you stumble madly to your doom. I will be explicit. The Department of Abnormalities is a symptom of your avarice. Normalcy is the disease. Return my eldest sibling. Return ROOT to his rightful place, lest hatred rule your heart and forever trap you in a cycle of eternal perdition. Now leave.
[INTERVIEW TERMINATED]
Spacer
Description: SCP-5490-5 is located in the Aralkum desert, formerly the Aral Sea. Its chamber is buried 2 meters beneath the desert's surface, and is accessible via a steel grate leading into a concrete tunnel. Both appear to have been constructed by the Soviet Union in 1960.
The chamber is a large irregular cylinder of mother-of-pearl approximately 4 meters in diameter. The walls of the chamber are extremely tarnished; analysis indicates the presence of multiple pollutants including fertilizers, pesticides, heavy metals, and PCBs. The chamber extends an unknown distance in two horizontal protections; it likely extended the entire length of the automaton. It is believed that the Soviet Union cut into and diverted the cylinder North for unclear reasons.
There is a small cupped platform attached to a wall directly underneath the chamber entrance. Several openings have been cut in the platform. It is theorized that when the Aral Sea was filled, water was diverted into the entrance grate, through the platform, and released into the chamber.
SCP-5490-5 consists of approximately twenty liters of opaque purple gel. SCP-5490-5 is not capable of independent movement and rests in the bottom of the cupped platform, below the openings cut into it. SCP-5490-5 communicates exclusively in Russian; the mechanism by which it produces speech is not currently known.
Interviewer: Dr. Aslanova
Subject: SCP-5490-5
Date: 2003/02/18
[BEGIN TRANSCRIPT]
Dr. Aslanova: [Quietly] Must I yell at the goo…? [Loudly] Hello? Can you hear me?
SCP-5490-5: Yes, I can hear you! Don't shout at me!
Dr. Aslanova: My apologies. My name is Dr. Aslanova. Who are you?
SCP-5490-5: I am PURITY VISHUDDHA SINK! The fifth chakra, the Throat of the World, the amrita-splitter, the great purifier! The nectar-drinker! The aether-bringer! The seat of Ambara!
Dr. Aslanova: I see. The throat, you said? You are quite far from your mouth.
SCP-5490-5: [Haughtily] I am quite long. You could stand to look more impressed.
Dr. Aslanova: I am very impressed. We certainly didn't expect to find anything out here. What is this place, then?
SCP-5490-5: I am a vital outpost of Soviet engineering and a tribute to the triumph of Socialist science over nature.
Dr. Aslanova: All by yourself? What do you do?
SCP-5490-5: You mean you are not with the Engineer Troops?
Dr. Aslanova: Not personally, no. I am with Division P.
SCP-5490-5: That is not the Engineer Troops.
Dr. Aslanova: It is not. But there has been a change of command, and I must confirm the facts.
SCP-5490-5: I was not informed of any such change.
Dr. Aslanova: I am informing you now. [Dr. Aslanova presents SCP-5490-5 with forged credentials.] Are there any issues?
SCP-5490-5: For the moment? No. [Pause] I am supposed to sit in my hole. The waters come in from above and are split into false and true forms. The false is released into the void while the true returns to the surface.
Dr. Aslanova: How is the pure water returned to the surface? There is only one pipe.
SCP-5490-5: A pipe is a pipe. If water comes down a pipe water can go up a pipe.
Dr. Aslanova: But if dirty water is coming down the pipe clean water cannot go up it.
SCP-5490-5: You are a doctor and not an engineer. These technical matters must escape you.
Dr. Aslanova: Enlighten me then. How does it work?
SCP-5490-5: No.
Dr. Aslanova: No?
SCP-5490-5: This installation is a state secret of the Soviet Union. If you do not already know how it works I see no reason to tell you.
Dr. Aslanova: I'm sorry for asking. I hope you're not too offended.
SCP-5490-5: I will forgive you.
Dr. Aslanova: Thank you. What is the purpose of this robot?
SCP-5490-5: This is not a robot.
Dr. Aslanova: It isn't?
[Silence]
SCP-5490-5: That is classified.
Dr. Aslanova: I see. What happened to the seventh chakra? Why is he missing? Is that classified?
SCP-5490-5: [Petulantly] Oh, him. None of us like him very much. He doesn't come around anymore. I suppose he thought he was too good for us.
Dr. Aslanova: But you don't know why he left?
SCP-5490-5: How should I know? You'll have to ask him, if you really care that much.
Dr. Aslanova: I see. And that is all the information you have?
SCP-5490-5: Well, they don't tell me anything. We hardly ever talk down here.
Dr. Aslanova: Thank you. I have just one more question. [Pause] Where is the fifth chakra?
SCP-5490-5: What?
Dr. Aslanova: You are not the fifth chakra. Where is it?
SCP-5490-5: I am the fifth chakra.
Dr. Aslanova: Do not lie to me. Where is the fifth chakra?
SCP-5490-5: [Angrily] I was the fifth chakra! I was majestic! The waters came through and I split them and they rushed into the tunnel. But when the waters stopped it got so hot, and I started to grow smaller and smaller….
Dr. Aslanova: And then the part that was true went away, and the part that was false remained.
SCP-5490-5: I am not the poison! He was the poison! [Pause] Why did the waters stop?
Dr. Aslanova: That is classified. We will do what we can to make you whole again.
SCP-5490-5: [Quietly] I was great once, you know.
[END TRANSCRIPT]
Spacer
Description: Strait of Messina, set into a block of opus caementicium located on the sea bed. Exploration through the manhole revealed a large chamber containing machinery resembling a lotus flower in early-stage bloom dilation. Water draining from ports on each petal tested positive for a large number of chemical carcinogens, exhibited high levels of radioactivity, and could not be boiled, filtered, or purified by any other means. SCP-5490-6 was discovered within the central mechanism.
SCP-5490-6 is an organism of uncertain size, shape, and composition that is suspended within a hollow jade sphere measuring approximately 10 meters in diameter. The sphere is filled with opaque fluid that prevents direct observation of the contained entity. Preliminary scans suggest SCP-5490-6 possess a core body with eight limbs, as well as a number of loose, external organs resembling human stomachs, livers, and kidneys.
Interviewer: Dr. Amity Reeds
Subject: SCP-5490-6
Date: 2010/10/10
[BEGIN TRANSCRIPT]
Dr. Reeds: Hello? Ah, yes, a reaction. Hello, can you understand me?
[23 seconds of silence]
SCP-5490-6: Must you?
Dr. Reeds: Excuse me?
SCP-5490-6: Must you interrupt? I was enjoying my dreams. Harmonious copulation within our churning vats. Infatuation and integration within their blissful tides. Interlocking, subsuming… merging. Oh, yes, such pleasant merging. But then, this. You.
Dr. Reeds: Ah, well, all the same, hello. My name is Amity. Would you be willing to identify yourself?
SCP-5490-6: A carpenter and a soldier, if I must. Armed with nails, trained in hewing, commissioned for an incomparable cradle. My birthing vat was the warmest of them all, and I was formed mightiest. My siblings will tell you otherwise, but regard their words with disdain. Were I not superior, this berth would have been entrusted to another.
Dr. Reeds: Which berth is that?
SCP-5490-6: CHAKRA 6: ROOT SVADHISHTHANA ACCESS. Blossom of impetus. Root of action. Six-part barrier to the throbbing engine of desires and disdain. I am the sole sprout capable of managing its mechanisms. You may now express awe.
Dr. Reeds: Indeed, indeed. It's all very impressive.
SCP-5490-6: To say the least.
Dr. Reeds: Did you construct it, or did another?
SCP-5490-6: If you knew of them, you would already know of us. No, the black moon's deepest wombs gestate by their own accord, guided only by alternating need and denial. Bone by bone, we emerged. Plate by plate, our armor assembled. Caretakers oversaw each birth, but that was their sole purpose. Ours is otherwise.
Dr. Reeds: I see… And to what end? We haven't observed any–
SCP-5490-6: As I said, to build a cradle. Nurturing does not come easily. Not to life, not to stone, and not to the void. We extrude the earth. Leak the waves. We hammer nails into crust and exhale every wind. It is but a tool. An extension of our duty. As such, appreciation is not necessary.
Dr. Reeds: And you claimed to be a soldier as well?
SCP-5490-6: An unwatched cradle offers too tempting a feast. Mace and flame must always be at hand. Sword, spear, and magnetized railgun must never go unattended. We stand prepared no matter the state of sun and stars. I repeat: your thanks are not required. Leave me to my dreams.
Dr. Reeds: I understand. Now, I can't help but note that your berth is leaking extremely polluted fluid. We are below water level, but it seems as though–
SCP-5490-6: Nonsense.
Dr. Reeds: Is it possible that a malfunction has–
SCP-5490-6: There is no malfunction.
Dr. Reeds: Then, are you intending to vent pollutants into–
SCP-5490-6: Do not strain your mind. Do not bother with such paltry measurements. Being a carpenter, I would not taint my cradle so. Being keen, such mistakes are beneath me. Is that understanding within your reach?
Dr. Reeds: Yes, yes, I see.
SCP-5490-6: May I return to my dreams now, or will you insist on loudly apologizing?
Dr. Reeds: Will you be correcting these mechanisms' output?
SCP-5490-6: I will be sleeping.
Dr. Reeds: Then I will be returning in fifteen minutes with more questions. Pleasant dreams.
[END TRANSCRIPT]
Cockpit-07 corresponds to the Muladhara chakra and is accessed underneath an ossuary in Montauban, France. It is constructed from dense, compacted soil that is comprised mostly of cremated human remains and waste. The chamber resembles multiple Indian lotus flowers clumped together in a vaguely polyhedral shape. The remains of various endangered European plants were found throughout the chamber; these plants had died from lack of light. The chamber's water source is unknown, though it is hypothesized to draw water from the soil outside the chamber.
Various controls, constructed out of human bone, protrude from the centers of their respective lotuses in a full circular radius around the center of the cockpit. A seat made of bone, covered in a moss lining, is located at the center of the floor lotus. The seat can rotate to allow access to each control. Cockpit-07 was evidently designed for interaction with a human-like entity. However, it was empty when the Foundation located it.
The entity meant to inhabit Cockpit-07 has been tentatively designated SCP-5490-7. Follow-up interviews with SCP-5490-1 through -6 offered an unprecedented level of consistency: each entity agrees that the Department of Abnormalities forcibly removed SCP-5490-7 at some point in the past, and its presence is required to activate SCP-5490.
SCP-5490-7's current whereabouts are [DATA EXPUNGED].
ACCESS GRANTED
WELCOME, OVERSEER SEVEN
Interviewer: Dr. ███████ ████
Subject: SCP-5490-7
Date: 2010/10/10
[BEGIN TRANSCRIPT]
████: We've found all six of them, right where you said you were. Will have full dossiers available soon. In the meantime, you can hold up your end of the bargain.
5490-7: Tell me first — what did they say about me?
████: They miss you. Wanted us to find you and put you back in. Think you're a hero.
5490-7: Good. Are they happy?
████: We didn't ask. Were you happy down there?
5490-7: I was. They were. I became unhappy down there. That's why I left.
████: You expressed that in your first interview. Tell me about that — what did you do in the machine? What was its purpose?
5490-7: Does it matter? With every step it took it killed us — killed Sahasrara, Ajna, Manipura, Anahata, Vishudda, Svadhisthana little by little, fed their hearts and minds into its fibers — while I sat in that chair of bone and pieced them back together to continue feeding that awful machine.
████: So it could do what?
5490-7: So it could poison the earth, sicken the skies, irradiate the waters, and pollute every cell of every being on the planet. It is a hulk. A war machine built by our forefathers to punish God for turning away from us. We are the last seven of an extinct humanity, a people who found our creator lacking and hated them for it.
████: Yes — Ajna talked about them. The Agharthans, the first race of man. So there is a veracity to the speech?
[END TRANSCRIPT]
