Short tale about a custom location; just another day at the Foundation office turned EOW scenario with a stupid funny twist… also I made sure to type it in sandbox like a good boy
- Setting (also contain back story)
- Area-01
- A very old (Cold War era) Foundation installation, and former location for Site-01 before it was relocated. Area-01 is a heavily fortified bunker, and is in near total isolation from power, communications, and provisional supplies
- In the setting's time, it now acts as an information repository, and contains a vast wealth of documents, records, data, files, and various archival artifacts of the Foundation. This location is a last resort for Foundation information backup; however, unknown to most of its personnel, it secretly contains the majority of the Foundation's highest secrets. So much so, that long ago the Foundation initiated Project Alexandrian to protect the location's wealth of knwoledge
- Project Alexandrian
- Primarily consists of an emergency sequester of the most vital Foundation information into the Oblivion Capsule (code-named, Device-K "Kingdom") akin to a time-capsule, except it is designed to be hardened against reality warping end of world scenarios
- The second part of Project Alexandrian is a milliard-scale, Scalar Warhead fail-safe (code-named, Device-C "Cometh"). This warhead contains the only SCP object housed at Area-01, an anomalous material, which when it reaches critical mass, enters a super-matter state, releasing reality effecting anti-particles. Said particles annihilate most hypothetical forms of sentience within the weapon's range; mockingly referenced by its development team as a 'soul bomb'
- The final part of Project Alexandrian, is base's computerized sentinel; an aged artificial intelligence dubbed AnTHEMIC (Apolar Turing HypEr Mainframe IntelligenCe). Anthem is an incredibly powerful computer, and one of the few things that might survive the detonation of Device-C. It has near complete control of facility operations. However, no personnel at Area-01 are aware of Anthem, or even know its true designation. All that is know about the computer is that it is a buggy, out of date, automated announcement subsystem for the base intercom
- Area-01
- Main Characters
- Researcher Kord MrArthur - obsessive analyst, and perhaps one of the better researchers at the base
- Researcher Corey Milorad - also a top analyst and close friend of Kord; specializes in Foundation history
- Data Specialist Mila Quintus - works with the aged computer systems on the base
- Archives Specialist Amelia Raluca
- Security Officer Royle Ansel - casual work aquantence turned stout ally in the trials ahead
- Director Ruslan - main liability and main antagonist for most of the story
- Area Mainframe Computer (Anthem) - helpful, but only as much as it can, as the facility is in disrepair
- Setup
- Suicide investigation of top scientist
- Dr. Willett Thompson (a head researcher of cognitohazard and mementics) suddenly has a compulsion, and commits a routine suicide; however, carved into his office desk is a cryptic message, that appears to be incomplete - leaving no other discernible clues as to why he died
- Area-01 staff, since they preform intense analysis, are assigned to essentially go back through the deceased doctor's Foundation records in attempts to discover anything that might have lead to his death
- The cryptic messages is objectively identified by first responders and containment personnel as a non-hazard - what is believe to have been a suicide from normal work stress is largely, and quickly dismissed as non-anomalous
- The main character analysis team, Kord, and Corey decode the message; as Mila and Amelia uncover the some important documents pertaining to the doctor's past
- Upon presenting the decoded message to an assembly of area personnel, a massive riot ensues as a vast number of personnel begin to physically assault their co-workers
- The automated announcement system declares a state of emergency, and Area-01 is locked down under quarantine; however it may be too late, as most of the personnel have been overwhelmed by the phenomena. The countdown begins…
- Suicide investigation of top scientist
- Main Plot
- Kord, Amelia, and Royle, and a newly revealed Anthem, must battle against hordes of their indoctrinated co-workers, escape the facility, and alert the Foundation to the crisis as there is reason to believe most every Foundation installation is at risk for what is going on around them
- Making matters worse, the Level Two Quarantine has locked Anthem from deactivating the fail-safe timer countdown, which is slowly ushering them closer to the initialization of Level Three Quarantine, and annihilation of all sentience in Area-01, and the surrounding hemisphere
- Toilet paper, and clogged toilets may be responsible
- Also, Kord has to crap real bad