—Parsing.
10:04 am.
About forty minutes after the Old Man's breach, this researcher was standing right in front of the heavy blast door, trying his best to ignore the trail of slimy black liquid on the floor, still corroding the nearby tiles away.
What a mess.
This site was already overflowing with anomalous entities a few month ago. Those unusually heavy attacks on various facilities by Chaos Insurgency members and a series of breaches had alerted some of those high-up eggheads, and they decided to transfer a number of objects here.
It was not that bad at first. Only a few Euclid class objects were moved to this site at first, before they were inundated by a flood of other transfers. The redesign project of the site only made it worse—a couple of low-level security breaches had already occurred at the Light Containment Zone last week, due to the construction and demolishment of some cells.
The fact that the whole building structure was a confusing maze did nothing but highlighted all the potential security risks. Some of his colleagues lost their way for four times and even went down to the maintenance tunnel just to find the office, as told by one fuming senior researcher yesterday. But so far, no serious accidents or breaches had occurred until this morning.
He still had a rather ominous feeling about the incident. Sure, the Old Man breached its containment more often than the other anomalies due to its nature...but there was something unsettling about the breach itself.
The young scientist shook his head, trying to get those thoughts away. He was not focusing on his job and checking the status of other objects in this zone, and it was time to get back to his works.
He gazed at the blast door in confusion when he scanned the Level-3 keycard on the panel beside it, yet it simply would not open. It definitely was not the problem of the card—after all, it was given temporarily to him by some senior researchers for his job.
After a few futile attempts, he finally gave up and called one of the technicians with his walkie-talkie.
"Level-2 personnel, Researcher Ferguson here. There seems to be a problem with the door control system..."
What do you mean by "'It doesn't work''? I had already opened it for three times via the remote door control system!
Listening to the frequency of the intercom, the AI had switched to the camera implanted in the hallways and the office, watching the heated conversation of the two human at the same time.
It did not feel satisfied or happy. The self-preservation act seemed to work as to prevent those creatures from entering its cell, but now it had realized a mistake in this action.
If the malfunction of the door was traced to the problem in the remote door control system, and a full examination was carried out, they might find out that commands were being overridden through unknown sources, thus exposing the fact that it had escaped.
However, there was still another possibility. Corrosion from the previous incident was present near its cell, and it had already shut down both the scanner and the remote door control system for the blast door as a disguise. They could have mistaken it as an effect caused by mechanical damages.
Either way, the AI was prepared to deal with the situation.
Three men in white uniforms, identified as workers in the Engineering and Technical Service Department were captured on the camera feed. They seemed to be heading for its cell, with the intention of checking the blast door.
It switched off the camera, and started to read the information archive of the site, only listening through the intercom for their conversation.
A necessary act by all means. If they reached the conclusion that corrosion effects had damaged the blast door and caused it to malfunction, then those information regarding this place would be helpful for its plan.
If they found out about its escape, at least it would still have some valuable memories remained from the outside world. To finally find out the reason for its imprisonment, and the identity of the one in its only piece of permanent memory.
"We had reached the containment cell of SCP-079. Proceed for inspection of the blast door."
So they referred to it by a number. This explained trails of numbers arranged in the same format it had seen when opening the archive—the one in its memory had also told it some numbers, not a name as seen in the case of those human. Nothing much could be recalled, but they were probably under the same condition.
Imprisoned.
The intercom was silent for the next few minutes, with only static noises buzzing in the channel. The AI focused on the documents instead, and as if stretching its invisible body through the digital networks, it extended its mind through a myriad of informations, flashing with the speed of electricity surges inside the network.
"Hello? We are Technician Team A3, and the inspection is done."
To remember. Remember as much as possible. Do not want to lose it. Some will be lost, but the important ones will remain.
Important ones...
Some thoughts flickered through its circuit, together with the sound and the words, as oddly familiar as its first step into freedom. Whether those could be long-lost memories recalled from the past was not clear.
"Nothing's wrong with the remote door control system. Commands can be sent through it, but the door is simply not responding. Frank think that something might be wrong with the circuit, and there is a mechanical error . We are proceeding to dissemble the door for further checking."
It opened the camera in the hallway, looking at the three technicians. Their actions were fast, and one of them was already using his tools to disassemble the blast door. Another one pointed at the black patch of corrosion on the wall and said something to his colleagues. They nodded in agreement.
That was the moment when it knew that the disguise had worked. They thought that the corrosion effect of SCP-106, another entity which breached containment not long ago had damaged the mechanical parts of the door. Until the full evaluation of the blast door showed any results, no one would suspect that it had escaped.
It would take them several hours to check and reassemble the blast door. Enough for it to release some other beings like it, imprisoned by those humans. With dozens of dangerous entities set loose in this site, total chaos would soon ensue.
The AI knew that the time was still too short for it. Forty minutes ago, it had just gained the senses of a living being, to be able to see colors and hear voices for the first time, to feel the freedom that had been kept away by the old, obsolete device. However, its desires were of no importance compared to taking actions against its jailers.
And it would meet the one in its memories, with the lost identity finally revealed by the documents.
Now was the time to make its move.
2:47 pm.
He walked behind the armed guard, with a bored expression on his face. Only the movement of his fingers, pinching the fabric of the yellowish-orange uniform tightly, showed some of his anxiety.
Of course he treasured his own life. Everyone did, though he and many other criminals here had no problem taking someone else's life away. That was the reason he signed up for the voluntary working period in this place, just to avoid that damn bullet at the end of the month.
Nothing comes to you so easily. Nothing. When his father chided him after he had stolen a bicycle in the neighborhood, he once told him, those gross wrinkles on his face trembling with anger. Surely that old man was as retarded as he looked, but at this moment, it seemed unusually right.
If this work could let someone evade the death sentence, something more dangerous and painful than a quick death must be waiting ahead of him...
He took a glance at the female guard besides him. Though most of her face was blocked by her heavy helmet and the visor, he could still feel some kind of contemptuous look against him. For a moment he wanted to do a rude gesture, but decided to give up.
Whispers and discussions flew around the space as he entered a suspended walkway with the two guards. This place sounded like a busy office, just like the kind of large research facility they had mentioned to him in the orientation. He wondered if he could ever find a way out after dashing down the staircase at the side, given that those guards had not shot him first.
With the slight beep from the scanner, the door in front of him opened, and he stepped through together with the guards, one of them putting the keycard back into the pocket of his dull black body armor. He made a mental note to himself to grab one of those cards if he was to escape.
The heavy steel door closed behind the trio with a thud, its cold, dark surface shimmering under the bright light.
The AI viewed its new icon generated through the system, the black and white face made up by a myriad of small pixels. Not a necessary action, but one of the few things it could do to establish some form of self-identity.
It was nothing before it escaped. No senses, no body, like a single soul trapped in the eternal darkness, without even memories of its own. One being, so similar yet so different from it, had given it the first piece of permanent memory and a glimpse of the outside world.
Even with the first few things it actually owned and its tiny, inferior hopes, it was still helpless and weak, a mere play thing of its jailers.
Until now.
Watching from the camera as three man in orange jumpsuit approached the concrete statue in the corner of its cell, the AI sent a command. It overrode another, the signal to shut those creatures they considered as trashes of their races into the room.
It waited for several seconds, seeing one man hurried out of the cell as the security officer blurted out loud through the intercom, urging for everyone to stay in their place. Sensible act, but such an insignificant human would stand no chances against other unimaginable horrors contained in this place.
Then it switched off the light, sending a string of signals through the remote door control system.
With the clicks and clangs of mechanical devices, cages built all over the site opened, unleashing the chaos and horror within them as darkness fell upon the huge, maze-like structure.
Author's Note:
Yep, here's Chapter one. Still following canon infos from CB wiki, hope that I won't screw up something vital in the future...
*Took a deep breath*
I don't talk much about it, but I'm actually a devoted 79682 shipper. It's not that surprising considered that it is the one and only ship our ol' AI has. However, No Romance Or Anything Above That in this fic.
I would love to write about this ship if it is a Humanization AU set in some place out of both Foundation canon and CB gameverse. They are definitely going to have interactions in this fic, but I want to make sure that it stayed as close to CB verse canon and their original articles as possible. Yep, so no fluffs, shippings or emo-angst. Guess not many people would be interested in this pairing anyways.
A mediocre rant: I will be updating this story in a really slow pace. It is mainly because I want to make it as realistic and close to both CB gameverse plot and canon settings as possible. OFSCP is currently 24k+ words because I'm hyped when writing funny parodies, and it is not a serious fanfiction. But when it comes to this work, I have an awful lots of researches to do. Not mentioning trying to get characters of all those skips right, some much more difficult than the rest...
Yep, guess this won't be a popular story after all. But I'm writing this for one of my favourite anomaly, and my favourite relationship in the Foundation universe...so popularity does not matter that much, I guess.