SCP-5000 - Why?

Pietro Wilson tossed and turned as the nightmares from the previous day filled his dreams. In his restless sleep he watched the slaughter of his colleagues at Site-22. The unknown men who entered the facility had gunned down everyone who worked there, everyone except Pietro. He remembered running deeper into the facility, only to be cornered in a windowless concrete room.

There he had found SCP-5000, an exclusionary suit, that allowed him to become undetectable to human senses. It was a step beyond invisibility. He successfully made it out of Site-22, but the eyes of the men he killed to get away haunted him. Pietro had never taken a life before.

The only solace was that it felt like the suit he was wearing had taken over, so his actions were not technically his own. But he had to wonder, what would he have done without the suit? Would he still have killed another human to escape? After leaving the facility Pietro had made his way to an SCP safehouse. This was where he now lay. The slaughter of hundreds at Site-22 was bad, but what he found when he turned on the news at the safehouse was worse.

SCPs had been let loose around the world and were killing people by the millions. What was going on? Pietro was startled awake from a nightmare. He was hyperventilating, but his body almost immediately recovered, and his breathing slowed. A heads up display flashed on infront of his eyes. Pietro Wilson was still contained within SCP-5000.

The suit would not let him go. He instinctively went to rub his eyes, but the metal hands of the suit just clanked against the helmet that covered his head. He wanted out of this suit! Pietro stood up and walked over to the television. He reached out to turn it on but paused. He thought: Do I really want to see how bad things have gotten since I fell asleep? But he had to know. He was filled with dread as the TV came on and he saw the first images.

The world looked as if it was ending, and it seemed like the SCP Foundation was responsible. How could this be? They were supposed to protect humanity not destroy it. Pietro needed to uncover the truth behind what was happening. SCP-5000 had a log entry function that he could use to record everything he uncovered. Even if he didn't make it out of this alive, maybe one day someone would find the suit and be able to access what he had learned.

The date of his first journal entry was February 1, 2020. As Pietro watched the carnage unfold on TV, he began to put together the pieces of what he had witnessed himself. He knew a special-ops squad had executed everyone at Site-22 where he worked. He knew that the SCPs had been let loose. He knew the world was ending… but why? As Pietro pondered this, a newscaster appeared.

"What you have just witnessed are reports from around the world of monsters ravaging cities and towns. This all started with a mysterious message from an organization that calls itself the SCP Foundation. Their ruling body, named the O5 Council, released the following statement: 'For those who are not currently aware of our existence, we represent the organization known as the SCP Foundation. Our previous mission centered around the containment and study of anomalous objects, entities, and other assorted phenomena. This mission was the focus of our organization for more than one-hundred years. Due to circumstances outside of our control, this directive has now changed. Our new mission will be the extermination of the human race. There will be no further communication." He couldn't believe what he was seeing.

The SCP Foundation had declared war on the human race. How could this be? What had led to the O5 council changing their entire mission from protecting humanity to ending it? Could it be possible that a powerful SCP had taken control or influenced the council's decision? Pietro turned on the radio, flipped through TV channels, and scoured the internet for information on what had happened over the past 24 hours.

The first image he saw was a human-like creature with arms and legs twice as long as they should have been, with deep black eyes, and a mouth curled up into a silent scream showing teeth as sharp as razor blades. From the files he could access Pietro learned that this was SCP-096, a creature that was docile until someone saw its face, at which point the SCP would start to shriek and cry, before hunting down whoever saw its face and slaughtering them. He quickly changed the channel.

The file said that even if SCP-096 was seen on a screen, it would find the viewer and tear them limb from limb. Surely that couldn't be true. There were potentially millions of people who had just seen it on TV. What would happen to them? What would happen to him? On the next channel was footage of a gigantic animal in the middle of the ocean.

This was SCP-169, a leviathan from the Pre-Cambrian era. The creature was around 5,000 kilometers long and slowly swam just below the surface of the ocean. The feed suddenly changed to footage of devastating tsunamis and destruction caused by earthquakes.

When SCP-169 had been awoken from its slumber by the Foundation detonating nukes on its back, it began trying to escape the danger. The movement of the massive creature caused natural disasters, destroying coastal communities around the world.

On another channel Pietro watched as the chancellor of Germany gave a speech, announcing that the country was declaring war on the SCP Foundation. Off camera the sound of a tinkling bell could be heard.

A man dressed as a Victorian era butler entered and picked up a pen from the Chancellor's desk. He approached the Chancellor and raised the pen in the air as the camera cut away, but the sound of gunshots and yelling could be heard before the feed went dead.

The news reported that similar events involving world leaders by the exact same butler had been occurring since the SCP Foundation changed its mission. Pietro searched through the suit's files to try and figure out what was happening and found that SCP-662 must have been connected. Next was a strange skin disease plaguing New York and Delhi designated SCP-610 that covered its host in rashes and boils before seeking to take over their bodies.

Finally some good news though, as the outbreak looked to be contained by the combined efforts of the Global Occult Coalition and the Church of the Broken God. And then some bad news, as SCP-682 had also been released. A massive crocodilian monster, it's sole mission was to destroy all life. It was fueled by hatred for living things, making it the perfect tool of the O5 Council's new stated mission.

Pietro had heard rumors of SCPs that could instantly end the world, but clearly the Foundation hadn't gone down this route… yet. Did they want to keep the rest of the planet intact, or maybe there were hold outs in the SCP Foundation who were trying to stop the O5 Council from carrying out their mission? All Pietro knew was that right now, there were some real nasty SCPs running around wreaking havoc.

Pietro suddenly heard an explosion in the distance. Far away, but still close enough to make him nervous. Maybe he was better off staying in the safehouse and waiting out the apocalypse. The suit was keeping him healthy, nourished, and undetectable to foes.

Any sane person would have remained there in seclusion and safety, but Pietro needed answers. He felt it was his responsibility to log and try to make sense of everything the SCP Foundation was doing. He brought up a map of SCP sites in the area on his display.

The closest was Site-19. It was time to venture out into the end of the world and find some answers. But he was about to be faced with even more questions. On the way to Site-19, Pietro came across something strange - a squad of Foundation soldiers in a clearing. They were standing at attention as their commander paced back and forth, up and down the line. The soldiers' uniforms had the insignia "MTF Epsilon-6" embroidered on them.

The commander stopped in front of the first soldier in the line, clapped her hands, and informed the soldier she would be beginning the check now. The commander pulled out a long knife and plunged it into the soldier's shoulder. Strangely, the soldier did not move, make a sound, or react in any way. She moved to the next soldier and repeated the same process. This continued down the line until she reached the eighth soldier.

This time when the commander stabbed the shoulder of the soldier, he noticeably winced and cried out in pain. The commander shouted "got a live one!" Pietro watched as the soldiers raised their guns and fired at the one who had cried out. He dropped to the ground.

The commander moved on to the last soldier and put the knife in his shoulder. There was no reaction. "Alright we're clear," yelled the commander. "Let's move out!" Pietro waited until the squad was out of sight and made his way to the corpse lying on the ground. He scavenged weapons and basic medical supplies, then he buried the body and recorded what he had seen in SCP-5000's log.

He had no idea why this soldier was killed, or why the others didn't feel pain. Maybe they weren't human at all? Maybe it was a squad of SCPs that had a human infiltrate their ranks? None of this makes sense, Piertro thought, before continuing on. Upon reaching Site-19, Pietro found it in disarray, and worse, practically all of the SCPs that were held at the site had breached containment. He was able to walk into the compound unnoticed and deep in the facility he found scientists and researchers going about their business as if they had no idea what was happening out in the world.

They must have been following the orders of the O5 Council. Pietro listened in on conversations about how to create the maximum number of human casualties, and which SCP should be released next. He felt a deep hatred for the people in this facility. How could they be so casual about wiping out humanity? As he observed more of the workers at Site-19, he noticed something strange. Everyones' eyes were cold and dead, like there was no humanity left in them, as if something had gotten to these scientists and removed the very souls from their bodies.

Pietro stealthily stole a senior staff member's credentials and found an empty office where he could access logs from the facility, to try and get a better idea of the timeline of events that led to the SCP Foundation's war on humanity. He logged into the mainframe and brought up entries from the end of the previous year. He found that late in 2019 a project called 'PNEUMA' became of great interest to the O5 council. From what Pietro could tell, the project had something to do with the collective human consciousness, also called the psychospace.

Apparently, SCP researchers had a breakthrough in mapping out the psychospace. Unfortunately, many of the files had been redacted, and there was no way for Pietro to access the unredacted version. After 'PNEUMA' had been brought to the attention of the O5 Council, a series of orders were sent to all senior staff and site directors but frustratingly these orders had also been redacted. All he could see was that after the orders were sent out, a wave of resignations were submitted across the Foundation. Suspiciously, a wave of suicides had also occurred at roughly the same time.

What was in these orders?! The 05 council then sent out a number of files to all senior staff and site directors with instructions to disseminate the materials among those serving under them, after which both the resignations and deaths immediately ceased. Pietro searched everywhere for what was in those files, but like so much of the SCP database, this information had been redacted as well.

What was clear was that the SCP Foundation had begun gearing up for the extermination of humanity the following year. The entry log for February 1, 2020 read: "Mobile Task Forces are dispatched to all Exclusionary Sites to execute all personnel. Immediately following the conclusion of these missions, the Foundation declares war on humanity." This was where Pietro Wilson's journey had started. He slammed his hands down on the computer monitor in frustration.

The suit absorbed all of the impact and crushed the monitor in half. Pietro moved to a new, non smashed computer, and logged in again. This time he brought up the most current entries to see what the O5 Council was up to recently to see if there were some answers in the present. The SCP Foundation had been busy while he was making his way to Site-19.

They had released SCP-1048 in Paris, which now led a horde of bears down the Champs Elysées. In the distance Pietro thought he could almost make out a massive red teddy bear walking between the buildings. The SCP Foundation was also launching counterattacks on any organization that tried to oppose them. They used SCP-1290 to hurl projectiles at the Global Occult Coalition's base.

They were also using SCP-1440 to brainwash people and convince them that they needed to riot. This caused widespread destruction as people panicked and were trampled to death. Pietro thought it was sad that such a kind looking old man could cause so much destruction. He recorded as much as he could before deciding that it was time to get out of Site-19.

Although SCP-5000 still made him undetectable, he couldn't shake the feeling that the lifeless eyes of the staff were beginning to look his way more and more often. As Pietro exited Site-19, the sky glowed orange with the fire of countless burning buildings. He needed to find more answers. He needed to uncover the reason the SCP Foundation was trying to wipe out humanity.

He had learned a lot from Site-19, and was sure that if he could just get to the next site, he would finally be able to figure out the Foundation's motive, and maybe even how to stop them. He took a step forward but his heads up display suddenly went completely dark. The suit constricted tighter around his body, slowing the blood flow to his brian.

He couldn't move as his vision got dimmer, and dimmer, and dimmer, until he blacked out. Pietro woke to find himself halfway across the country. It had been three months since he had been at Site-19, and he had no recollection of anything that had happened since. His body had taken a toll in those months.

He had new scars and a bandage wrapped around his head, but the SCP-5000 suit did not seem to have a scratch on it. Strangest of all though, was the briefcase that Pietro had in his hand, and the uncontrollable need to deliver it to the mysterious SCP-579.