SCP-1427
rating: +502+x
Ryugyong_Hotel_._August_27._2011_.Cropped.jpg

SCP-1427 Containment Facility, Pyongyang, DPRK, External View

Item #: SCP-1427

Object Class: Keter

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-1427 is to be contained on-site at the Ryugyong Containment Operations Center ("RCOC"), operated by the Foundation in partnership with the Korean People's Army ("KPA"). Due to the artifact's effects, Foundation personnel are not to enter the DPRK, approach to within 130 km of the SCP-1427 exclusion zone, or attempt to interact directly with the object itself. Foundation personnel are to provide remote support to on-site DPRK personnel. Under no circumstances are Foundation personnel to attempt to dissuade KPA containment staff from incorrect or unusual beliefs concerning the nature of their duties at the RCOC or the nature of their national government.

As authoritarian-submissive personality traits provide conditional immunity to the signal broadcast by the artifact, Foundation personnel assigned to offsite monitoring must meet the following psychological testing criteria:

  • Standardized Milgram Compliance Panel: >71
  • IPIP Openness Panel: <39
  • RWA Authoritarian Submission Panel: >17
  • RWA Conventionality Panel: >31

At present, only three national governments possess citizens with conditioning suitable for containment of SCP-1427: the Republic of Turkmenistan, the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea ("DPRK"). Of the three suitable containment areas, political issues render North Korea the only government suitable for long-term containment. Accordingly, embedded Foundation affiliates in UN Security Council member states shall take no action tending to destabilize the DPRK, promote democratization, or permit the entry of psychologically-unsuitable foreigners into the 600-meter red zone surrounding the Ryugyong complex. In the event of democratization, destabilization, or nuclear war, Foundation intergovernmental liaisons shall attempt to transfer the object to a designated secondary containment site.

In the event that no secondary containment sites are available, the primary containment site and its surrounding environment are to be thermally sterilized, using non-nuclear force, without regard to the risk of civilian casualties. Using presently-available techniques, thermal sterilization of Pyongyang and surrounding environs bears a 91% chance of containment failure. Catastrophic containment failure is predicted to constitute a EK-class event, resulting in the extinguishment of all human consciousness within approximately 215 days.

Description: SCP-1427 is a featureless 14m x 2m x 2m beryllium bronze stele. Though originally recovered in an inactive state, the artifact presently produces a directional electromagnetic pulse every 7ns. Disrupting or jamming the pulse reduces, but does not eliminate, the artifact's primary effects. The device's electromagnetic effects are therefore theorized to be a carrier wave for, or side-effect of, the device's primary function.

Targets are selected randomly from the 20,736 (12^4) nearest human subjects, ignoring those already exhibiting the effects of the pulse, but including those who are immune. The device appears to have no effective maximum range: on several occasions, the device has exhibited the ability to make over-the-horizon broadcasts to otherwise occluded subjects by deflecting its signal off of the Earth's ionosphere. The artifact's means of detecting human consciousness, and the causative mechanism underlying its effects, are presently unknown.

Upon receipt of the signal, subjects permanently experience increased suggestibility, severe abulia, and short-term memory loss. These effects are secondary to the artifact's primary effect, which is substantial reduction in prefrontal SQ2 signal. Due to information recovered from SCP-███, Foundation researchers presently believe that this reduced SQ2 signal corresponds to a significant reduction in, or total destruction of, the subject's subjective consciousness. Moderate authoritarian-submissive personality traits appear to provide conditional immunity to the effects of the broadcast; accordingly, since its activation, containment protocols have required placement in high-population-density areas subject to a totalitarian government.

SCP-1427 was originally recovered from a Cistercian monastery in southeastern Algeria by Italian special forces in January of 1938. Laboratory notes from that period mention a rhodium carbide outer casing, embossed with lettering in a known but poorly-characterized Semitic alphabet. That outer casing is presumed to have been destroyed or lost by Italian researchers before the object's transfer to Leipzig in 1944. Between 1938 and 1944, the governments of Germany and Italy attempted to activate the artifact, both without success. In the immediate aftermath of World War II, the object was kept in East German custody. The East German government took no recorded action with respect to the artifact.

In 1947, the East German government transferred SCP-1427 to Soviet control, who moved it to Kyshtim, Chelyabinsk Oblast, USSR. In September of 1957, Soviet researchers intentionally activated SCP-1427. Though the artifact affected human targets in its immediate surroundings, then-existing features of the Soviet government prevented the EK-class end of human consciousness. After attempted nuclear sterilization of the affected area, the Soviet government contacted the Foundation through intergovernmental liaisons, and the artifact was transferred to Foundation custody at Site 67, southwest of Chernhiv, Ukraine. Since initial containment, the artifact has only been transferred once: in 1986, due to predicted instability in the Soviet government, the artifact was transferred to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Shortly thereafter, the Foundation commenced construction of the Ryugyong Containment Facility, where the object has been stored since its completion in 1988.

Addenda:

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License