Dukes Sandbox

Commander Suarez sat uncomfortably in the stiff chair, reading SCP-3008's article.

He set it down, looking at the man in front of him, a representative of the 05 council by the name of Scott Dare

"Seems like a dismal place to be in," Suarez said. "You're telling me that I have to take a team and go in there?"

Scott nodded "yes, this mission is of vital importance. Last night a group of Chaos Insurgency fighters attempted to take over the area where SCP-3008 is. The guards we had stationed there managed to finish most of them off, and while investigating how the Insurgents found out about the location of SCP-3008, and enter unnoticed, it was revealed a scientist on-site, Dr. Keith, authorized them in and presumably revealed SCP-3008's location. Dr. Keith was caught on security footage entering SCP-3008 with several Chaos Insurgency members before the guards could terminate or apprehend them. Your mission is to take a team into SCP-3008 and eliminate Dr. Keith and any Chaos Insurgency members.

Suarez pondered this "So the Foundation is risking losing an MTF over some scientist that may never escape? Not only that, how do you propose we find him?"

Scott smiled "There is so much you do not know, Commander Suarez. To answer the first question, there is a possibility he will give information to the Chaos Insurgency, and that would be no good. This scientist holds plenty of classified knowledge in that little head of his, and that would be no good for us… As for how you will find him, we have specialized tracking devices placed inside of our most valuable scientists that will emit frequencies that can be picked up from 10 kilometers away, with the right tracker, of course."

Suarez snorted "I didn't know we bugged scientists"

Scott smiled "As I said, there is so much you don't know. Anyways, let us move on. Your Task Force name is MTF Epsilon 4 'Angry Shoppers', and it will consist of, including you, 6 members, 4 of which you have worked with before. Your team will carry standard assault rifles, with about 20 magazines of bullets, a sniper rifle with 5 magazines of bullets, enough food and water to survive a week, and of course the tracker you will use to find Dr. Keith, as well as 5 more tracking devices you can use to place at areas deemed necessary, such as an entrance. I highly recommend that you take all of the food from a restaurant if you find one, seeing as you have no clue how long you may be in there."

Suarez nodded "Okay, hopefully, this is a cakewalk"

"Hope so, too" Scott agreed. "Would not be good at all if we lost an MTF in that hellhole.

Scott looked at his watch. "There should be a helicopter waiting outside, the pilot will take you to the area where SCP-3008 is contained, there you should meet the rest of your team"

Suarez got up and walked to the exit when Scott spoke "And another thing, don't believe anything Dr. Keith tells you. He is quite exceptional at lying and manipulating individuals."

Suarez over his shoulder at Scott "I will keep that in mind"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The helicopter landed in a small town, within a gated area on the outskirts of it was the Infinite Ikea. Standing near the helicopter landing area stood 10 people, 5 of which Suarez guessed was his team.

"Greetings, you must be Commander Suarez, my name is Cory Sullivan, the site director here," said one of the men as Suarez exited the helicopter.

Suarez shook hands with Sullivan, a small man looking about the age of 30 "Well met, Director Sullivan, I'm guessing these are my men?"

He nodded "yes indeed, they have been briefed on the incident and what the mission is"

Sullivan went on to introduce the team. Marcus Rittenhouse, second in command, natural leader, expert tracker, field medic. Liam Spencer, an expert sniper, and melee fighter. Josef Ivanov, one of the Foundations strongest men, can speak multiple languages, muscle of the group, who was also carrying the majority of the supplies. Those first four Suarez was familiar with. The last two, Stewart Brecht and Johann Forsyth, both novices.

Suarez frowned

"I don't get it, why is the Foundation sending in a group of highly experienced soldiers in to kill one scientist? Something doesn't ring right here."

Sullivan shrugged "I asked them myself, but I was told it wasn't in my place to question the motives of the O5 council. Besides, this is Private Forsyth's first mission.

Suarez gave a loud, hollow, laugh. "That's a little funny, sending in a group of senior MTF operatives accompanied by someone who hasn't had a lick of experience in the field"

Forsyth raised an eyebrow but remained silent

That's good though. Suarez thought At least the kids got enough respect to stay silent

Sullivan coughed "Anyways, most of the supplies are together, carried by our friend Ivanov, here"
He patted Ivanov's big shoulder "Make sure you conserve bullets, because the SCP-3008-2 are pretty vicious, and it would not end well if you run out while being pursued. Food and water also must be preserved, because of the inconsistencies of where the restaurants are located."

The team nodded grimly. Starving to death in a home accessories and appliances store wasn't very appealing

"Well, if you're all ready, then I'll show you to the entrance," Sullivan said, trying to sound positive
Suarez did a quick look over at his heavily armed team. "I guess"

Sullivan gestured for everyone to follow him, and he walked around the corner of the store with Sullivan and the rest of the team following.

"Well, here you are, boys." Scott Dare said, gesturing to the Infinite Ikeas entrance "Happy hunting."

Suarez looked at the door, not quite believing that this led to an extradimensional and infinite retail store, but when you have this job, you learn to see something normal that turns out to be not normal

Reluctantly, the team descended into the unknown

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
To Suarez and the rest of the team, it looked like a normal Ikea, unless you really paid attention

The roof does look like it goes on forever Suarez thought to himself

Liam noticed it too "Holy shit, I wonder if there is any roof up there"

"I mean, the light has to come from somewhere" Johann muttered

newbie Suarez thought. "If you survive this little field trip, you'll learn that everything doesn't apply to natural law. I thought they covered that in training"

"They did, it's just-" But Suarez turned his attention to Marcus, who had what looked like a bug, electronic tuning fork in his hand.

"Good to see you again Marcus. When was the last time we worked together?"

Marcus stroked his chin "Epsilon 6 I believe. Didn't it have something to do with that notebook?"

"I believe so. Is that overly glorified piece of silverware in your hand our tracker?"

"It is" Marcus nodded "I've never used it before, but it's very simple, yet effective. It has two knobs" he gestured to them "this one changes the range at which it picks up the signal emitted from the tracker, and the other one is a setting that allows us to switch between different trackers, so we can place some of them at places that we think should be placed at, or even on ourselves if we decide to split up, we can easily find each other"

"That could become helpful."

"Very"

Feeling that the conversation had ended, Suarez walked up to Liam

Eyeing the sniper slung over Liam's shoulder, Suarez said to him "I'm guessing you plan to use that on our target?"

"Pretty much, if he has taken refuge in one of the settlements located within this god forbidden place, then it would be easier to shoot him from a distance without any idiot civies1 getting in our way."

Suarez nodded "Well I trust you to do your job if it comes to that. You're the most experienced sniper I know"

Suarez didn't try to talk to Ivanov. He almost never talked, and when he did it was to civilians or when saying something extremely important.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For three days they journeyed, following the faint blips of Marcus's tracker, which only ever so gradually increased

It was on the third day that they came across their first staff member

Only it wasn't like the ones described in the article, this one looked like a janitor, who was mopping up something

When the team edged closer to the janitor, they saw, to their horror, it was mopping up the pool of blood that came from a mutilated body of a man, his face contorted in horror.

"I have seen many disturbing things, and this is definitely something that is really high up on that list," Liam muttered. Suarez couldn't agree more

They studied the janitor, who paid no attention to them. It had extremely long arms and average sized legs and a featureless face. Suarez shivered.

"Come on, let's get a move on" the sooner we get out of this place, the better Suarez said to himself.

They walked for another five minutes and suddenly came across a settlement.

"Oh hi there!" yelled a man standing on top of a massive wall made of chairs "Do you want to come in?"

The team looked at each other, and Liam at his watch. "It's almost dark time. We might as well take the protection and rest.

"Err, I guess," Suarez said to the man on the wall

Suddenly a section of the wall pivoted open, pulled by 8 men

Suarez shrugged, and his team walked.

"Welcome to Furnishings," The man on the wall said, descending on a sloppy set of stairs "you can stay as long as you like, my name is Gabriel."

"Greetings Gabriel, my name is Jamie" he deliberately gave a fake name "and my men are just passing through, although we are wondering if we can stay the night here"

"Yes! we always help a fellow human in need. That is if you're not a member of those terrorists that call themselves the Shades."

"The Shades?"

"Yes, after the area their settlement is located."

"What have the Shades done to make you angry?"

"Our two settlements had existed in peace, that is until we found out that they had blocked off a source off food from us, and not telling us about it. Now their population has grown to the point where the restaurant they get their food from isn't enough to feed them, and now they come and beg for rations. Hah!" Gabriel spat at that last part. Anyways, how'd a bunch of heavily armed men like you come to find yourselves in this little purgatory?"

"We can't tell you?"

"Aww, why not. It's not like any of us will get out anyway. Some of us have been in here for years. Besides, who do you work for? I don't recognize that getup your wearing"

"Not wanting to strain hospitalities, Suarez tried to come up with a good lie. "All we can say is that we work for the UN"

"Hm." then Gabriel's eyes lit up "do you happen to be missing any members of whatever team your part of?"

"No… why?"

"Well, there was another group of people. Only two of 'em, one of them wearing similar clothing, but something about it was different."

Suarez's flag went up "Did one of the men call the other Keith, or maybe a doctor?"

"No, I don't believe so. One of the men called the other 6, though."

Suarez frowned and looked at his team members. Kind of weird to call someone else a number.

Well, I'll show you to an area you men can rest in for tonight before you're on your way out to do whatever you people are doing.

Gabriel led them to an outer area of the settlement, and Suarez noticed a crowd had drawn around them. After all, it wasn't every day that you saw a bunch of heavily armed guys in the Ikea

They sat in silence until the lights went out and people had stopped staring at them.

"Something doesn't feel right" Suarez whispered to his men

Liam started tapping on his leg. At first, Suarez thought it was random, then he started to realize…

Morse Code Suarez realized

Suarez tapped in acknowledgment to Liam I understand

I don't trust the two novices Liam tapped

Why not? Suarez tapped back

They seem too interested in the tracker, and out of the corner of my eye the Brecht guy jumped a little bit when the number 6 was mentioned
Suarez thought a little bit. Rittenhouse, you listening
Yes
Do you have any sedatives?
I do
How about we get these two guys a glass of water

Ten minutes later, Brecht and Forsyth were asleep, and Suarez went to find Gabriel

"One of the men, did he have a logo on his shoulder, like mine?"

Gabriel nodded "He did, but it was dif.."

"Different" Suarez finished, and he thrust a notepad and pen in his hands. "Could you draw it?"

Gabriel took it and drew on it for a few seconds "It looked… something like this"

Suarez took the notepad, and even in the dark, he could see almost a perfect resemblance of the Red Right-Hand logo

"Holy shit"

Suarez ran to his half-asleep (with the exception of the two novices, who were full asleep) team and said "We need to leave… now"

"Wha-" Marcus said, bleary-eyed

But Liam and Ivanov understood, they got up and packed up their supplies

And to everyone's surprise, Ivanov spoke: "Do we kill these two"

Suarez, shocked, stuttered "uhh, n-no. Let's just leave them, they're a bunch of kids

Liam grunted "Since when did you develop a conscious

Suarez didn't say anything

They grabbed everything and left the settlement of furnishings, in the direction of which the persistent blips of the tracker increased

As they left, a calm voice said "the store is now closed, please exit now"

Suarez turned and saw a Staff member running at them from the rear. Suarez pulled up his gun and fired several shots at it. The others stopped.

"KEEP GOING" Suarez yelled. They kept running and fired at the occasional Staff Member that appeared out of the darkness.

When they had made a good distance from the settlement, and when it seemed there were no Staff members around, they stopped and caught their breaths.

Liam looked at his tracker. "We're getting close," He said after his heart rate went back to normal.

"How far do you think?" Suarez said.

Liam jabbed his thumb to the left "quarter mile in that direction. But, what I'm confused about, is why was there a member of the Red Right Hand with this doctor

"Probably because he isn't a doctor," Ivanov said

They all were silent

For one of the first times since he joined the Foundation, Suarez didn't know what to do. "If he truly is what he might be… what do we do?"

"Well, we don't kill him, for one" Marcus muttered

"Well then, if he is who we think he is, then we might have ΔM-Class Scenario2 here."

"Shit"

"And the bad thing is, we don't know what to do with that sort of situation. It was originally speculation, something nobody took seriously."

They, once again, were silent

"Well, let's go find our guy and we'll figure it out from there"

They all got up and started walking in the direction, until they came across another settlement, and judging from the frantic beating of the tracker, the target was located in there.

"Okay, so Marcus, Ivanov, and I will go inside of the settlement, while you, Liam, climb up the shelves with your sniper."

"No shoot?" Liam inquiried

"Unless I say so, which if we are right, is extremely unlikely

"Roger that"

As Liam climbed his way up the shelves, Suarez grabbed the tracker, and they walked to the settlement.

It was built similarly to that of Furnishings, except it had more light. Probably due to the large amounts of lamps located around and in it.

The door opened when the trio walked up to it, and they were welcomed by a group of slightly underfed looking individuals. "Hello, welcome to Shades," a woman at the front said pleasantly.

Suarez spoke. "Yes, hello, my name is Blake, I was just wondering if you've seen two men who may have just arrived recently, one wearing a military uniform with a patch that looks like this." He showed her Gabriels sketch of the Red Right-Hand logo"

The woman looked a bit surprised at the unexpected question. She opened her mouth to answer but was interrupted by someone saying "It is me you are looking for" and a middle-aged man with an
Irish accent stepped forward. "Commander Suarez, I assume? I've never met you, but I've seen pictures before. A pleasure to meet you." The man held out his hand, smiling. Suarez shook it.

"I'd like to talk to Suarez in private, then the rest of your team." The man said, nodding to the other two with him. "Also, if I were a sniper, I'd be hiding right…. there" he pointed towards the direction Liam was.

Suarez sat in a makeshift room made of chairs and bed sheets, alone except for the man and another one wearing the Red Right Hand, who looked quite formidable.

"Are you a member of the O5?" Suarez asked

The man laughed "Did Tracy, the last surviving member of the Red Right Hand, give it away?"

The Red Right-Hand man was named Tracy? "I gue-"

"Yes, to answer your question, I am a member of the O5 Council. Probably the last surviving member, O5-6."

"What happened?"

"The Chaos Insurgency infiltrated us, found out the location of every single one of our hideouts. I got lucky and was warned by someone who suspected that we had been infiltrated. But we were ambushed on the way to another hideout, all thirteen of the men with me died, except for Tracy, who was severely injured by a bullet shot. We went to the nearest Foundation site, the location where SCP-3008 is located, and managed to restore him to a mostly healthy state before we were again ambushed. We were cornered and fled into SCP-3008"

Suarez sat there, slightly shocked at the fact that the Foundation had been infiltrated.

"That tracker you have, it's tied to my security clearance card, in case you were wondering. I didn't even know about it until I fled. I should've dropped it, but I was hoping they would be dumb enough to send someone like you in here to kill me."

When Suarez thought about it, it was stupid of them to do that.

O5-6 said to Tracy "bring the rest in"

The rest of the team walked in. "Before we start, I'd like to inform you that the Foundation has been
infiltrated, and I am the last surviving member of the O5 council. Now, I have spent a considerable amount of time studying this living hell, and I have learned there is a mathematical pattern to it, one that I have figured out. I cannot possibly explain it in a short amount of time, but I have a good idea of how to find an exit."

He then explained how they were going to break out of SCP-3008 and head to a secure area where they can send a signal to all Foundation personnel that a ΔM-Class Scenario has occurred. After that, I don't know what'll happen.

Suarez couldn't help but feel shaky.

"Until then," O5-6 said "go rest"

The next morning, they departed. Nobody talked at all, because they didn't know what to say. They were told it was just an assassination, but it was much… much more complicated than that.
They didn't encounter anyone or anything for a solid 38 hours, then disaster struck.

It was night time when suddenly a bullet went right through Ivanovs shoulder

"Take cover!" He yelled, and they scattered, hiding behind office desks and chairs.

"Who's there!" Suarez yelled

No one answered. Marcus poked his head out and was answered by a bullet in the head.

"Shit!" Suarez yelled and fired in the direction the bullet came from. He heard a scream and saw a body fall from a shelf, who was most definitely Forsyth.

"Brecht, we won't kill you, if you leave us alone, we will go away"

"I doubt that!" Brecht yelled

Idiot Suarez thought, and he and Tracy sprayed a round of bullets in the direction that he heard the voice, which then cried out in pain.

Suarez and Tracy got up, followed by Liam and O5-6

"I think their dead" Tracy said

"I think your right"

Suarez bent over to cover Marcus's eyes when he heard voices.

"Do you hear that?" Liam whispered

The voices got louder

"Shit!" Suarez said, spotting a large cluster of Staff members sprinting towards them politely asking for them to leave

They ran, firing bullets, but that only slowed them a little. Soon they were extremely low on ammunition with a decent amount of Staff still on their tail, and Ivanov bleeding out of his shoulder

"How far do you think we are!" Suarez yelled breathlessly to O5-6

"Not too far!" he yelled back "Turn left here!"

Suarez took a hard left and ran right into a staff member.
"Please exit the store," it said calmly, and raised his elongated arm, about to smash Suarez's skull in when he saw Ivanov tackle it

"Go!" he yelled. "I'll hold them off!"

Liam helped Suarez up, and ran, trying their best to ignore the screams of Ivanov as his limbs were ripped apart

And suddenly Suarez saw the exit out of the corner of his eye

"There!" He pointed wildly to it, and they ran to it.

Bursting into the sunlight, actual sunlight, Suarez couldn't help yelling in delight.

He heard a commanding voice yell "Halt!" and felt a prick in his neck.

Slapping his hand on his neck, Suarez looked at the man who had tranquilized him. HIs last thought before slipping out of consciousness was that he wore a GOC uniform and not a Foundation one

Suarez woke up handcuffed to a desk, in what he assumed was an interrogation room. Sitting in front of him was a man with piercing eyes.

"Greetings," he said with an accent that sounded slightly French. I am Dr. Jacques, you may call me Jack

Suarez fought between being rude and being compliant. He chose compliantly. "Hello Jack"

Jacques nodded "Do I have to ask for your name?

"It's Hugh"

Jacques grinned "Well hello Hugh, are you familiar with the Global Occult Coalition?"

"Possibly"

"Hmm. So, I don't recognize that military uniform you and your colleague were wearing when you exited that Ikea structure. Could you please inform me on what group you are from?"

"I'm pretty sure you know, Doc."

"I don't think so. Please, enlighten me."

Suarez raised an eyebrow. "I'm with the Foundation. What I want to know is why how the hell you got control of that accursed place, and what you did to the people already here…"

But suddenly, like getting hit by a truck, Suarez already knew. He remembered something he had read in the article, something that he hadn't really thought of until now

Jacques appeared confused "Foundation? What Foundation?"

Footnotes