I do not own this story; it belongs to NewScrapePro-Mincraft SCP Roleplay! nor is Spriggan, Ghost Recon, or Tom Clancy.


New job until meeting SCP-173 "THE SCULPTURE"

February 1st, 2017.

Mid-northwest United States.

Location: [Redacted]

Cory Carter yawned as he leaned deeper into the car seat of his green sedan, heading toward his brand-new job at a pizza lab somewhere in the United States. He had been traveling on this road for close to a week now, and the tedium of road travel So, the yellow-haired young man was thankful to be out and about to enjoy the cool breeze, the crystal blue sky, and the warm afternoon sunshine before he went stir-crazy. He already had to stop a couple of times to relieve himself on the side of the road.

Feeling the papers in his shirt pocket, Cory sighed as he thought back on what his friend had given him when he left the ARCAM Corporation and attended university to study history, which made this trip possible. Uni, his best friend when he was in college, had suggested the job offer to him on the phone since the company needed someone they could trust as they were looking for a reliable employee, and what a stroke of luck!

Thanks to his past training in the First Special Force Group, Delta Company, 1st Battalion, and later on as a SPRIGGAN, he'll fit in perfectly as a security guard at a simple pizza lab. He couldn't help but chuckle as the first time in his entire life he would finally start a normal life for once.

No one was shooting at him.

No killing or getting killed.

No more secret missions.

No power-hungry basterds.

And most of all, no more OOPArts for him to protect, seal away, or destroy. If they don't mind him eating their pizzas all day, that is.

Of course, they couldn't possibly know that someone had conveniently gone on secret missions for the ARCAM Corporation to seal or destroy OOPArt from advanced ancient civilizations (items, machines, ruins, etc.) from all known enemies that may use them for their own benefit and their hidden agendas.

The effort, spearheaded by ARCAM, the United States, and several countries, aims to protect the legacy of the ancient civilizations, as there were others who wanted to use these artifacts to spread their influence while unknowingly causing an apocalyptic scenario, an act that would certainly kill every man, woman, and child on the entire planet, and repeating the mistakes of the distant past.

Fortunately, ARCAM would deal with the problem by sending one of their elite operatives, code-named SPRIGGIN or Strikers, to seal it away before those power-hungry idiots could destroy the whole world.

SPRIGGIN belonged to one of ARCAM's private army divisions, consisting of special agents to be recruited for covert work in hostile areas without compromising the company's position in the field. He was one of those agents. Sadly, however, on one of those missions, he received a certain injury that not only permanently blinded his sight but also gave him a rare disease called congenital tetrachromatic abnormality, making him see the infrared and ultraviolet spectrum, making him see heat in color. As conditions worsen, exposure to light causes full blindness. Forcing him to wear a prototype of single camera-like goggles to act as some kind of replacement for his sight.

It sucked at first, but over time, he was able to adapt his new lifestyle to his blindness and get used to wearing the prototype goggles.

Some of the soldiers at ARCAM started giving him the nickname 'cameraman' because his goggles looked like a single-lens camera.

Luckily, it wasn't attached to his face. There were times when he had to take off his goggles to either take a nice long hot shower or to give them back to R&D when they got seriously damaged on missions. In which the technicians were getting more upset about how many times his goggles got damaged to the point that they had to make brand-new goggles with a reinforced casing made out of solid Orichalcum so he wouldn't permanently damage the thing in a fight. However, there are a few things that need to be cleaned up first before he can rest easily.

And that was where Cory came into the picture.

Extremely friendly and extroverted type of person. The friendly American-German man was everything that one expects an ordinary businessman to behave and look like. Dressed like a typical salaryman with bangs hanging on the right side and ordinary blue eyes, his look was rounded with a teal tie, grey business slacks, and a pair of black Oxford shoes. His form was the only feature that stood out from the man, as Cory possessed an athletic and toned physique that could only come from dedicated effort and long-term exercise.

Aside from the fact that he had a camera eye, he was completely unremarkable in every way.

Until someone with keen intuition really looked at him. The way he talked, the way he behaved, the way he moved To an untrained eye, these facts would easily go over their heads. But, to an exceptionally well-trained eye, they would definitely see it—darting eyes, which most would dismiss as nervousness, would be seen as plotting escape routes and assessing the amount of cover available. Twitching hands, normally perceived as a nervous tick, would be seen as unconscious triggering of a firearm or holding a knife. The way he talks is another matter, as Cory gives nothing away by constantly making a fool out of himself, to quote him, 'Acting like a naive man child' (in which he is funny enough) while only showing the minimum amount or no effort. And the way he walked...

It was like a well-trained predator pretending to be a sheep.

The normal person, Cory Carter, was just an ordinary and simply American-decent young man looking for another job.

But in the highest echelons of the intelligence community, he was an enigmatic and highly decorated US Army veteran. The only information that could be unearthed about him was that he was formerly of the United States Army Rangers before applying for Delta Force, passing through with flying colors, and completing several black ops missions. He got the attention of the 5th Special Forces Group, thus earning the name "Jester" for sprouting jokes as a means to deal with stress, and for a very long time, he was also formerly attached to the ARCAM special division as part of their joint effort to gain back their trust as America's special forces representative.

Other than that, no other information could be found on him, which puzzled and frustrated the world's leading intelligence agencies to no end. For all the world knew, Cory Carter and Jester were two entirely different people. But, to a select few, without a doubt, they were the one and the same.

Having a sinister organization that splintered from the Pentagon, overseen by corrupt members of the US Congress who believe that America should impose political dominance over the entire earth, running around doesn't sit right for him. So he decided to do something about it as "Jester".

Cory had already found damning evidence that would implicate a third of the US Congress in having a hand in corruption and illegal arms dealing in the violation of international law. He also found evidence of bribery of top government officials, money laundering, illegal arms trafficking, and the list went on.

Most of the information uncovered was usually unavailable to Cory Carter, who had just handed in second-grade equipment. But as Jester had the skills and means to hack the Machine Corp mainframe while leaving the bare minimum of digital footprints, the unit's dirty laundry was up for grabs, and they were all none the wiser.

All the incriminating information was stored on a flash drive. The same flash drive that he finished uploading to the internet on a secure link a couple of moments ago That is, until they started to wise up. He had to move several times from their hit squads when they discovered who was hacking their mainframe in one of their bases. Four of those times he had to fight his way out of it, and holy shit buckets, they gave the words "stop holding back" a whole brand new meaning.

Cory has the bruises and wounds to prove it.

But while the information was downloading, he decided to 'ask' one of their intelligence supervisors as 'gently' as possible, discovering a disc on his person in the process. Of course, Cory had already duplicated the data stored in the disk onto another flash drive, which contained—surprise, surprise—detailed schematics of the most lethal hardware that was still in the experimental stages, not only from DARPA but from ATHENA Corp. as well, heat suppression, optical camouflage, and ballistic shields, and they were going to sell to the highest bidder, and that bidder was Trident Corporation.

Cory scoffed at that. As if the Machiner platoon hadn't given him even more reason to completely obliterate the basterds. Being thrown around like a rag doll by mech soldiers and mercs while keeping himself alive, even in public places, had strained even Cory's legendary calmness.

Now that he was far away from those motherfuckers, Cory could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Even if he was driving a stolen sedan cruising deep into the wilderness, that was the Mid-West. Oh well, he thought to himself, at least the sights were magnificent and the breeze relaxing.

He was broken out of his musings by the sound of his earpiece going off, which was connected to his secure 'working' phone. Fishing out his phone to check on the caller, Cory smiled to himself before tapping his earpiece's button to accept the call. "This is Cory; how may I help you?" He asked.

"Hey, Cory, it's Mike from your last job," Cory smirked at the name 'Mike'. He knew, of course, who was on the other end of the line, but couldn't he find a better name than Mike? "Do you have time to talk?"

Cory rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "Yes, of course," he said, casually connecting a scrambler to his phone. "Line secure; go ahead, Scott."

"Line secure on our end as well," Scott Mitchel, leader of Delta Company, 1st battalion, 5th special forces group, replied. "How's your road trip in the Midwest going for you? Relaxing?"

Cory could picture the smirk the other man had on his face as he said that. "Har har, very funny, Colonel," he snarked, causing the other man to chuckle. "I'm going crazy just getting cooped up here in my car, but other than that, just peachy!"

"Glad to hear that you're enjoying yourself," Scott replied dryly. "Did you send the files we need?"

"All accounted for," Cory confirmed grimly. "The Machine Corp. had fingers in more pies than we thought. They've got assets ranging from unauthorized black ops operations to illegal advanced cybernetic technology development, all thanks to corrupt congressmen in the Senate. This is big, Scott. I hope your bosses can see that."

"I'll believe it when I see it, Jester, but I've known you long enough to know that you would never exaggerate a threat." Having worked with the man while they found them, Scott Mitchell was one of the handful of people who knew that he was Jester. Of course, Cory was also part of an even smaller handful of people who knew exactly who and what group Mitchel was leading.

After all, he had been part of their ranks for most of his younger life.

"Just head up, Joker," Cory said, narrowing his eyes. A slight tension was heard in the man's voice. "We've tried to look up any information about this Pizza Lab you're heading to; the website looks legit except for the coding. It looks a few days old, and when we tried looking deeper, our techs hit a firewall. A strong one at that. Adding to the fact that the lab is built on an old college campus Something is not right. I thought you should know."

Carter whistled slightly.

He had known that the hackers at the think tank in the CIA had become a major source of gathering intelligence in recent years, currently helping the campus in some of their operations. But blocking one of the best hackers in the US? That would take some serious cybersecurity; he'll give them that. "SCP Labs sure doesn't want people to learn their pizza recipes."

"From what I can gather from my sources, as well as the sound of your own voice, I'm inclined to agree," Mitchel replied with slight amusement. "Whatever the case, once the intel has been fully uploaded, we'll have everything to bury the machiner platoon for good."

Cory snorted. "Good riddance for that."

"Agreed," Mitchel concurred. "If you can, ask your friend in SCP Labs if he wants a job change once you're done in California. He seems to be a perfect candidate for our R&D."

"Right," Cory said dryly. "And I'll try not to fill him with holes when he gets the drop on me."

A chuckle was heard. "Roger that," Mitchell replied. "And, as agreed, half a million US dollars for your services will be channeled into your bank account upon completion of the intel transaction. It's a shame that you left a full career in Ghost Recon to be a security advisor. We could've used you here with us. Hell, you're one good ambassador between us and ARCAM."

Cory smiled sadly, although he knew the other man couldn't see it. He knew that Mitchell still resented the fact that Cory had gone to security rather than continue in the military, as Mitchell had done his whole life. But he had his own reasons for doing so.

"I miss the ghosts as well; you guys were like family to me when you guys found us." The blond-haired young man could see the perpetual frown on Mitchell's face. "But you know I'll be chafing under all the red tape sooner or later, regardless of the ghosts having what amounts to a literal 'license to kill'. Adding to the amount of corruption and crazy shit I've seen, I'm sorry, boss, but I need some time to think."

There was a pause.

"Understood," Mitchell replied. "You were always too stubborn for your own good, and I have Diaz here to compare it to! That and your bottomless pit of a stomach!"

Cory laughed at that. "You may come to regret that, Colonel,' cuz I might join a mercenary outfit just to piss you off," he replied, earning a loud grunt from the other end that set him off into a laughing fit once more. "But seriously though, that might be what I'll be doing for a while if this security guard gig doesn't work out; rejoining ARCAM's security force seems to be the right option—not the bloodthirsty war junkies."

Mitchell could be heard sighing on the other end, clearly unenthused. "I'll believe it when I see it, Jester." He sounded unamused, as expected of an old soldier like him. "You take care of yourself out there, Jester. Michell out."

Cory smiled as he cut the connection and disconnected the scrambler. It was just another day on the job for him as a highly sought-after private security contractor. Now, all he had to do was sit tight and enjoy the ride.


It took him a few more hours to arrive at the lab, or... fortress, for a better word for it. Thick concert walls over a hundred meters high, watch towers to give good views of fire, fences with sharp barbed wire, and last but not least, the checkpoint itself was strategically placed at the entrance so that it would provide the most amount of cover in a firefight but turn into a chokepoint to bottle up any enemies trying to get in. He can bet his right eye that if someone decided to launch a direct assault on this place, it would result in a lot of bodies dropping.

Driving up to the checkpoint, he stopped the car before turning to face the heavily armed security guard.

"What are you doing here?" the guard asked, his voice rough from years of service.

"It's my first day!" Cory said cheerfully, hoping his mood would calm him as he continued, "I'm here for my training."

"You?" the guard exclaimed in surprise, looking at him with suspicion. "You don't look much of a scientist or a guard, for that matter."

"Well, I'm going to be a guard here. So could you let me in?" Cory said.

The guard raised a single brow behind his visor, a bit suspicious about his camera eyes. "Do you have clearance?" he asked.

"Oh, of course, here's my paperwork." Cory pulled out his company papers and gave them to the security guard, who gave them a long, hard look before giving them back.

"Everything looks in order; however, what's with the camera?" The guard said this, referring to his eyes.

"Oh, you mean these?" Cory taped the special goggles with his finger, to which the security guard nodded his head. "These are goggles given to me by my last job because of a rare disease I contracted on business. It's not contagious, thankfully, but it disrupted my sight. This helps me see if you believe it or not. Is that all?"

"Sure, I guess just... don't mess up in there." The guard warned him.

Cory raised a single eyebrow behind his goggles before shrugging it off. "Yes, sir." And with that, he drove off into the factory compound to the parking lot so he could park his car.

As he looked around for a parking spot, he began to notice that the place looked more like a military base than a lab. Bearing in mind the number of guards around the facility, count about fifty or four guards outside, with one guard in each tower to act as a sniper. Not to mention the military vehicles spread out throughout the place.

The security guards in question were wearing a white, full-body suit with a black tactical vest overlapping the torso, which appeared to have three pouches mounted on for storage reasons( most likely being the magazines for their standard-issue firearm). Their vest also has an armor panel for protecting the pelvis attached to it. They wear black balaclavas and black riot helmets with a yellow visor, obscuring any facial detail. They also wear black gloves, black and gray shoulder pads (which include small, light-gray rectangular pouches with the word "SD" on them, which presumably stands for "Security Department"), black boots, and gray elbow and kneepads (the latter most likely being integrated into the bodysuit).

Their standard-issue firearm is an FN P90 TR submachine gun with a green-lensed ACOG scope attached to the top rail.

A good weapon is an automatic bullpup submachine gun. But not as good as the Heckler & Koch G36C that ARCAM uses as their primary weapon for the private army. Though the all-around M4A1 will always be his favorite weapon, however, the SIG Sauer MCX and the H&K 418 will always have a special place in his heart.

The scene gave him the impression that they were trying to hide something from the public or to keep something in, for that matter.

Why am I feeling that something bad is going to happen? Cory thought to himself. Shrugging the thought off, Cory found a perfect spot to park his car near a line of fuel trucks. Turning off the engine of the vehicle, Cory stepped out of the car, stretching all four limbs from all that time being cooped up in the car. He walked to the front of the facility. It wasn't much to look at, though. The building itself had the look of a mix between a military base and prison, rather than a simple lab to test new pizza.

"WOW!" Cory said out loud," I never thought I'd be here at the Sausage, Cheese, and Pepperoni Lab."

"There you are."

Turning around, Cory's lips turned into a smile as his best friend approached him. The man has blue hair, giving him a strange appearance. He is a few years older, but unlike Cory, he didn't

"And there you are! I've been looking all over for you." He said it sarcastically before quickly adding. "Not really; I just walked in."

Uni raised a single eyebrow, not finding the joke funny. "Right." He spoke slowly as he continued. "Anyway, I'm really excited for you to be working here, Cory."

"Me too brings me back to our college days. Staying up late, sleeping in, never going to classes, and napping for days Good times."

"I think that's mostly just you, Cory."

"Yep, used to call them the dog days, cuz you're a dog, ah!" Cory emphasized.

Uni gave him an embarrassed expression, causing his cheeks to turn red as he didn't know whether his friend was reminding him of how much of a lady's man he was back at college or just plain idiotic. "Wow."

"Either way, I'm really glad you recommended me for this job. I was getting really tired of job searching."

"I didn't recommend you," he replied in confusion. "Someone in management did." Uni pointed it out, but Cory just shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, it's the thought that counts. I'm just glad that I get to be a guard here."

"Yeah, about that." Uni paused for a moment before blurting it out. "You can't really be a guard here," Uni said bluntly.

He could hear the sound of glass shattering against a rock in the background when his friend's happy mood almost instantly turned to an angry frown on his face. "Could you repeat that?" Cory asked

"You can't really be a guard here."

"But I put this uniform on that you sent me in everything!"

"I didn't send you anything."

"Oh."

"Yeah, your job will be in the office... pencil pushing."

"Nooo!" Cory whined out," I thought I was going to be a guard." Sitting at a desk doing paperwork for seven hours a day. That is definitely not what he signed up for.

"Yeah, well, you see, they looked at your test scores, and...well, they think you're better off doing office work," Uni explained to him as gently as possible.

I knew I shouldn't have held back on the tests! Cory thought, mentally hitting his head against the imaginary door.

"That's no fun."

"This place isn't 'fun,' Cory," Uni emphasized as he continued speaking. "Luckily, to help you get used to the facility, I'll be giving you a tour."

"Lucky me," Cory groaned under his breath as he followed the lab coat scientists toward the heavily reinforced steel door facility. Its height looked menacing as they entered the building.


He was still upset that his chance of being a security guard was now gone because of a stupid test. He was a trained former Special Forces operator, goddamn it! not a glorified office worker writing stacks of paper documents for who knows how long. He didn't know what was worse. Working at a mysterious facility in the middle of nowhere or having to do actual work... again!

Groaning in frustration, he was tempted to hit something really hard right about now. But he thought against it because it was useless unless he was wearing an armored muscle suit back at ARCAM. While he was moping around like a child, Cory began to notice that there were more guards walking along the guard railing above their heads.

Watching the two of them for anything suspicious, guns were lowered but at the ready at the moment's notice as they continued their usual rounds across the facility. He could see many of the security guards were on edge. Years of working beside soldiers from both the Ghosts and ARCAM paramilitary wings told him that these guys were afraid that something terrible might happen in the next few seconds.

"So wait. What exactly am I going to be doing?" Cory asked.

"Well, I couldn't really tell you much over the phone. You know, for security reasons." Uni replied.

"Yeah, big brother is always listening," said Cory sarcastically.

Uni restrained the urge to sigh as he spoke. "You signed your contract, right? And the NDA?"

Cory nodded his head. "Yeah, I sign whatever they put in front of me."

The head scientist stopped in his tracks, slowly glanced at his friend, and said, "So you didn't read it."

"Nope."

"Oh dear." Uni muttered as he asked again, "So you really don't know anything?"

"Yeah, like, what does SCP stand for again?"

"Secure, Contain, Protect." Uni recited.

"So there's nothing to do with pizza."

Uni looked at him like he had a second head. "Why would it have anything to do with pizza?"

Cory shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know."

"Moving on."

"So you like my boss?" Cory questioned.

"Correct."

"Cool," he simply said as he nonchalantly began walking to the door at the end of the room, a bit curious as to what was on the other side of the two wooden doors. But just as he was about to touch the door handle, Uni's voice, filled with annoyance, called out to him from across the corridor. "Hey, wait a second. You need to wait for me. I'm in charge here." Uni told him.

Cory turned around with a fake look of shock. "Oh geez, sorry."

"You better be there are some very dangerous SCPs on the other side of that door, and do you need me to escort you?"

"Right on," he said with a smile as he simply pushed open the door, and a familiar noise greeted his ears.

"Hey, what did I just tell you?"

"Secure, contain, and protect," Cory repeated plainly.

"No," Uni sighed, giving his best friend a serious expression. "Cory, you could die if you were not careful in there."

"What! No one told me that."

"Well, that's why you signed the contract," said Uni casually as he walked past him. "You can't see us if you do die."

In a moment of fear, Cory couldn't help but squeal in terror. "What!"

Uni didn't answer him as his friend's gaze continued to follow the lab coat-wearing dog, taking Cory a few seconds to realize that what he was staring at was not an office but a laboratory of some kind. busy one at that. The place was filled with dozens upon dozens of scientists so focused on doing their work that they were oblivious to what was going on around them. The lab equipment itself was nothing to scoff at either. He could see that a couple of the pieces of equipment in the lab were so expensive that they could only cost a miniature fortune. It reminded him of the ones at ARCAM, where they could study data on the ancient artifacts so they could better contain them.

Cory let out a whistle. "There are so many guards in here," he exclaimed.

"Don't go near them. They've got jobs to do, just like at Buckingham Palace." Cory warned.

"What does that mean?"

"That means you shouldn't bother them."

Cory raised his left eyebrow, wondering what he meant by that: "Okay, so what are they doing?"

"Behind those steel doors are very dangerous SCP creatures."

Creatures? SCP? What the hell are they keeping here? Well, whatever they are keeping here, it's definitely not OOPArts. Cory's thoughts and his instincts begin to warn him that something extremely dangerous is underneath his feet. Glancing at the steel-reinforced door again, but with more caution this time, because if this SCP Foundation is keeping something dangerous down there, he would rather keep his distance for now.

"So don't open it."

"I wasn't going to," Cory replied.

"Good. If you open that door, you could potentially cause a major breach that could potentially cause other breaches."

Then, as if the universe were listening to him, the lights suddenly turned red, followed by an alarm that rang out, causing everyone to stop what they were doing. Some of the scientists had expressions of pure terror or fear plastered on their faces as they started running to the nearest exits of the facility abandoning their posts out of sheer terror, desperately looking for anywhere they could hide in order to stay alive. At the same time, the security guards' muscles tensed as heavily armed guards in squads of four in tactical gear were moving in formation and ran past them in the opposite direction to support the security personnel.

Moving out of the way for a few of the research staff, he looked back at me and said, "I swear I didn't touch anything." He told Uni, who looked like he was calm, but in actuality, Cory could see that Uni was scared out of his mind from the inside. His entire body was trembling. Causing Cory to raise a single eyebrow at his best friend.

"Oh dear, I'll be right back," Uni said.

"Don't leave!" Cory almost yelled," I don't know what to do."

"Do you see that paper over on the desk?"

"Yeah."

"Just push it around until I come back."

Cory's mouth was hanging agape at his best friend for a minute before replying, "Are you shitting me?"

Uni didn't respond to the rude response as he shrugged his shoulders before quickly walking down the corridor with a dozen or so guards following right behind him. Cory, on the other hand, gave out a sigh as he leaned against the granite wall. His mind contemplates how he got into this situation in the first place. Cory couldn't help but let out a heavy sigh.

'So what's your name?" Cory asked, hoping to strike up a conversation with a nearby guard to pass the time. However, the guard stayed silent, not moving a single inch.

Cory faked a cough and muttered, "Right," under his breath.

"Cory, could you come here?"

"Why should I? And how the hell are you talking through the sound speakers?"

"Never mind how; just come here. This is literally a matter of life or death."

"Life or death?" Cory whispered quietly to himself, "I'll be right there."

Hearing the edge in his friend's voice, Cory began jogging down the corridor where his friend went down.

Unfortunately, since he had only seen a small part of the facility, it was a bit difficult for him to properly navigate which room Uni was in. All the doors look the same, goddamn it! Whoever built this place should have put some type of direction instead of pure white tile walls. Ah, shut it, Corman. Your friend is in trouble, so pick up the damn pace. And he picked up the pace to the point of being almost superhuman. Being a former Spriggan and all. The training was especially brutal. Cory couldn't help but think about what Uni got himself into this time.

Was it mercenaries from the Trident Corporation? They do have the resources and manpower necessary to launch raids in the past to get OOPArts to turn into weapons. Did the SCP Foundation find an OOPArt? If they did, then the machiner platoon would be here first because they're basically on their turf. But they're more of the explosive entrance type with a higher body count.

ATHENA Corp? Omega Company is highly trained in infiltration, just like the Special Operations Group, but they are more focused on guarding Athena's property than searching for artifacts or ruins. Hell, they mostly steer clear of that type of business. Ugh, there are so many secret organizations or terrorist groups that it started to give him a very bad headache. He should've listened to his gut when he had the chance, or better yet, take a good look at the contract they've given him.

He was brought out of his thoughts when he caught sight of what would be described as a massacre.

Bodies. Bodies everywhere. Littering across the facility corridors, slouching lifelessly against the walls, or sprawled in a fetal position, they died like dolls with no strings attached. However, something was not right with this picture. Walking up to one of the bodies, Cory began carefully examining it.

No entry wounds. So it wasn't weapon fire. There was no laceration or tearing of the skin. Ah, this is interesting. Cory's eyes narrowed upon the dark purple bruising on the skin. Making him conclude that this guy's vertebral basilar arteries were severed by a full flexion. He then went to the second corpse, checking his neck. Same thing. A third body. The same. This means whoever killed all these men did it by snapping their necks without being seen, which was impossible. And by examining the way they died, none of them were able to get out a single shot.

"Could you hurry?"

"Oh right,"

Without a second thought, Cory quickly took the dead security guard's tactical vest and his P90 submachine gun, checking they were fully loaded first. He then moved to the room where Uni was. Cautiously, he moved through the facility, keeping P90's sights clear of any target that decided to come out in the open and checking his corners, as he was trained to do in Ghost Recon. Some years later, the new president decided to transfer him to ARCAM's private army as a way to cool relations between the United States of America and the ARCAM Corporation. Adding to that, he also remembered what his training mentor, Bowmen, at ARCAM, had taught him all those years ago.

Stay aware of your surroundings, act accordingly, keep cool under pressure, and most of all, do what you think is right.

Those are the tenets that were instilled in him back at ARCAM until the day he died.

Turning around the corner, he could see Uni ahead of him with his back turned toward him. Not wanting to be caught in an ambush, Cory raised his weapon at the ready. The smell of smoke filled both his nostrils. Cautiously moving closer to Uni, then stopping just before entering the next room. The fire and smoke obscured his line of sight a bit.

"What happened here? What happened to the guards in the hallway?"

"I would turn around to greet you properly, but I need to keep my eye on this SCP."

"Why?" Cory asked

"If I stop looking at it, he'll move in to kill me and then you."

He raised a single eyebrow, wondering what he meant by that. Curious about what his best friend was staring at, he turned his head and was a bit surprised, to say the least. What Uni was struggling to keep his eyes on was one of the ugliest sculptures he had ever seen. The thing had its hands outstretched like it wanted to give someone a hug, but the concrete art piece was frozen in place for eternity. However, the fire in the lab gave it a menacing appearance. And past experience of retrieving from OOPArts is telling him that this sculpture is no normal art piece because looks can be deceiving.

Pressing on a special feature on his goggles to get a closer inspection, without getting close, he could see tiny splashes of blood invisible to the naked eye on its hands. Confirming his worst fears. His combat instincts had gone through the roof, and fear began to set in. He brought his weapon back up, aiming it at the statue.

"Oh jeez, Uni, what the hell did you get yourself into this time?" Cory muttered.

Ignoring the question, Uni tried to remain calm as he spoke, "This is way beyond your clearance, Cory, but I need your help with this."

"Alright, what can I do?"

"Well, you can start by looking at this SCP and never taking your eyes off it."

"This doesn't sound good."

"Of course, it doesn't sound good!" Uni replied rhetorically.

Cory cringed a bit before asking, "So what is that thing?"

"This is SCP-173 'The Sculpture'," Uni said, and out of nowhere, Cory blocked his sight.

"That doesn't sound dangerous."

"Don't break my line of sight!" He cried out as he shoved him out of the way, only for the sculpture to be nowhere to be seen.

"It's moved," Uni said, now terrified as he desperately tried to find the SCP again before it could strike.

"Holy shit!" Cory exclaimed in shock. He turned his head to where the sculpture was once standing before looking back at the thing, still not believing in what he was seeing. "How did it get over there?"

"Because you stood in front of me," Uni answered as he stumbled backward, hitting a nearby table before continuing. "So stop distracting me."

"So what should I do?" Cory asked, not wanting to die from an ugly sculpture.

"Go to the computer and initiate the lockdown procedure."

Keeping an eye on the SCP Cory hastily went to a nearby computer on the desk. Luckily, it was already turned on. Unfortunately, it needed a security code to get on. "Uni! What's the code?" he called out.

"47865713."

Cory typed the code onto the computer and then pressed enter, allowing him to interact with the computer properly to initiate the lockdown so that things wouldn't escape. When he was about to activate the procedure, the computer suddenly froze as a window appeared in the center of the screen, revealing a man dressed as a scientist wielding a chainsaw cannon and splitting a foundation insignia in a very rude gesture before flipping at him with its middle finger while laughing hysterically at him. Cory was taken back to this display as big, bright letters appeared saying, "The bright family sends their regards!" before freezing the entire screen.

"Ah, Uni I think we have a problem."

"WHAT!"

"It just stopped working!"

"What did you do?"

Cory stared at his friend, shocked that he would blame him for what was happening around them. "I didn't do anything." Cory paused for a second. "Hey, wait a second, aren't you supposed to be looking at that thing?" Cory reminded him.

Uni looked up from the computer upon realizing what he had just done. "Ah, crap," he whispered, his body trembling in terror as he turned around to see the sculpture, which was nowhere to be seen. It was only when the two heard the sound of a scraping concert against the ground that they turned around again in the opposite direction to see the sculpture now standing in the corner, getting too close for comfort. Way too close for comfort. They could see its hideous face mere meters from them.

"This is bad." Uni blurted out, saying his thoughts out loud as he began to back up.

"Okay," Cory whispered, keeping as calm as possible and trying to come up with a plan to get them out of this sticky situation as he glanced at his friend for a short second. "Let`s back away from this SCP, whatever the fuck you called it, carefully. Close this thing from the other side, and then get the guards from the security room I was just in as fast as we could. Does that sound like a solid plan?"

Uni was surprised at how calm his friend was, but nodded. "No argument here," he said.

Not wanting to get killed, the two human beings slowly headed toward the door, all the while keeping their eyes directly on the SCP without blinking or knowing if they did. Then it would be a one-way ticket to the grave. Cory took quick, deep breaths to calm his anxiety and fear, knowing that it would do nothing but make the situation much worse than it was already at the moment. His friend Uni, on the other hand, was doing the opposite because he was literally freaking out and peeing his pants in the process. As for the sculpture, it was just standing there, waiting patiently for any one of them to blink their eyes, except it couldn't. Although Cory didn't know it, the sculpture must be wailing in anger that his prey was escaping from clutches, but that was wishful thinking, and he knows it.

The atmosphere in the room was so tense that he could cut it with a knife.

It was only when they reached outside the room that the two of them decided to act. At the same time, without a second thought, both Uni and Cory quickly closed the doors to the lab. Taking off his belt to tie the two door knobs together Trapping the sculptor in the process. However, without anybody watching SCP 123, the sculpture began to move freely once again. Slamming its concert body into the door frame, only for Cory and Uni to brace against it The younger man gritted his teeth tightly as he braced against the door when the fucker slammed into it again, leaving a sculpture-sized dent. Scaring the ever-living shit out of him. Causing him to take a big step back for a short second.

Out of all the crazy things he has seen throughout his life, this must take the cake. Literally!

This is the exact reason he left ARCAM, so he won't be dealing with anonymous bullshit like this on a daily basis!

He cursed under his breath as again the SCP slammed itself into the door for perhaps the third time as he turned to the terrified scientist, angry and feeling betrayed that his friend told him, "Uni, if we somehow survive this horror bullshit, you got some major explaining to do!" Cory yelled at his friend, who looked pale as a ghost.

"I would take that into consideration!" he replied. Just before the door finally gave way, sending the two of them flying

Landing with a thud, Cory groaned in pain as he rubbed the back of his head before snapping his eyes open, his expression turning to horror as the sculpture was just behind Uni, and he quickly got right up. "Uni!" He cried out.

"Oh no, no, no!"

All of a sudden, all of the lights shut down, covering the entire area in pitch-black darkness. Only for the loud cracks of his P90 that illuminated the surrounding area in seconds. Revealing the sculpture's movements like an old 19th-century photo film. He appeared out of the darkness each time he fired at it. Aiming carefully to not hit his friend by accident. Bullets are chipping away at its concert skin. Doing little more than pissing it off and doing little damage. For the first time in his life, he was beginning to feel afraid, not only for his life but for his friends as well.

Then time began to slow down, with his heart beating hard inside his chest, his breathing becoming labored, his brain sending signals to muscles in his entire body, and his eyes turning crimson red. Memories from the past that he wanted to keep secret came back to him. There was a time when he was just a five-digit number without a name. A weapon whose only reason was to kill or be killed. And just to kill when ordered. Deep in his subconscious, a switch was suddenly flipped. Even though he couldn't see it, he could sense it. And in those short few seconds Twisting his hips, Cory did a spinning kick, hitting the sculpture before it could kill him in what could be its left cheek. His heel digs deep into its concert skin, sending it slamming into the steel wall that resonated throughout the corridors, followed by an elbow embedding it further into the wall. And he kept on hitting it.

Ignoring the pain of skin splitting in his knuckles, he could feel the blood pouring out of his hands. Like a man possessed, Cory kept on throwing punches. Unfortunately, without an armored muscle suit, which he would wear when he was with ARCAM, it became a bit difficult and more painful. Very painful. However, soon, small cracks started to appear all over its body. Bits and pieces fall apart from its main body, and all the while the sculpture just does nothing but keep itself embedded into the facility's wall.

For the first time in SCP-173's existence, the sculpture was now feeling what it was like to be an underdog as a single foreign emotion. Fear.

Just as he was about to deliver another punch to turn the thing into dust, the emergency lights came back on. Hitting nothing but a large dent and pieces of concert. Seeing that the threat had escaped, his crimson eyes quickly subsided as he hastily turned around to see a scared but otherwise unharmed Uni who was standing there as if he were on death row. However, Uni's back was turned toward him again, panicking that the thing that almost killed him had escaped.

"This is bad! This is very bad!" Uni panicked

"What is—wait, where's that ugly guy?" Cory asked

Uni looked directly into Cory's eyes and said, "Cory, did you clo- HOLY MOTHER OF GOD WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR KNUCLES!" Uni screamed out as he noticed Cory's bloodied fists.

Looking down at his knuckles, Cory saw they were bruised, bloody fists swelling around the fractured skin, before looking up at a shocked Uni and simply saying in a shaking voice, "I hit it. Very, very, hard," he answered, trying to hide the pain in his voice. His friend gave him a confounded look. Not believing that it was a group of people who decided to punch SCP-173. To be honest, it was completely unheard of. Idiotic even. Something that only the famous Doctor Bright would do (and fail at).

Shaking out of his stupor Uni quickly tore a piece of his scientist coat to use as an improvised bandage to wrap around the knuckles to stop the bleeding. Once he finished binding the wound Uni looked up at Cory again "Okay, done; know Cory. As I was saying a minute ago, did you close the door to the security room?"

He froze for a second before giving his answer. "Oh shit."


Death.

All the security guards were dead.

Throughout the corridors of the facility, the two encountered more bodies from another security team. Their necks snapped to the point that it was only their skin that was keeping their heads from falling off their shoulders. That's what he saw, but it was when the two of them arrived at the facility's security room that he truly saw the damage it could cause. There were once over a couple of dozen alive security guards who were standing guard and were replaced by lifeless corpses ready for the morgue. And Uni knows the only person he could blame.

"CORY!"

"Hey! How should I know about the neck-snapping killer sculpture that would go past here?" Cory refuted.

That didn't ease the scientist's panic in the slightest, as he turned back to the massacre. "This is the bulk of our security team still gone, which means we're all defenseless."

"I am so going to get sick of this shit." He murmured

"You gonna be sick?! I might lose my job over this!" Uni exclaimed. "I guess I could just blame you," he thought out loud.

"HEY!"

He raised his arms in surrender. "I'm just talking out loud." He pointed it out.

Groaning a bit, he checked how much ammo he had left for his P90 and sighed. Even though he wasted an entire clip on that thing, leaving him with only seven clips. "I need more ammo than what I found on the security guards," Cory muttered to himself before turning to his friend. "Hey Uni, you know where's the flashlight, or better yet, the armory?" And a couple of painkillers while he's at it. He could already feel the pain pulsating from his knuckles as the adrenaline started to subside.

"I'm not giving you a gun; hell, you're not supposed to have one."

Cory gave his friend a look of disbelief, not believing what his friend, his best friend, had just said to him: "Really, Uni! You know I served in the US military and then applied to special forces after leaving college, right?" He asked," Six tours of duty. Three of them are in Afghanistan. I know how to handle a gun."

"Okay, okay, I'll let you keep it, but don't hurt yourself."

"You think I might shoot myself by accident?"

"Yes."

The answer made Cory glare at Uni for not putting much faith in him, then shrug it off since there was a bigger elephant in the room, and when he meant bigger, what he actually meant was the massive life-or-death situation they were in. "Okay, real talk, Uni, there's more of these things in here that aren't there."

He nodded. "Of course there is; it's SCP-173. There's plenty more."

Cory slapped his forehead, letting out a deep, rattling sigh. "Oh geez."

"What did you think this place was?"

He turned away from Uni, not wanting to look at him in a way that was described as embarrassment and a bit of shame. "I thought it was a pizza place." He mumbled through his teeth.

Uni rolled his eyes just like Cory. Thinking on his stomach rather than his brain. "Oh dear, I'm so going to get fired showing all this; you barely have a level zero clearance," Uni groaned out.

"But that doesn't mean I'm not up to the task. I'll get that flashlight, and I'll hunt down that monster. These men didn't die for nothing." Cory knew it wouldn't help the situation they were in, but he put the flashlight part as a joke to lighten the mood a little, but, sad to say, Uni didn't get the joke.

"I'm pretty sure they did." Uni deadpanned.

"Okay, can you at least show me where the flashlights are?"

"Yes, there, through this way. Follow me."

"Okay," Cory muttered under his breath, giving one last look at the carnage the sculpture had brought.

His mind began to wonder what he got himself into this time. Then he remembered the conversation about the offer Mitchel had given him in the car a few hours ago and immediately regretted not taking it when he had the chance. He followed his friend deeper into the facility, unaware of all of the horrors that were yet to come.


This story is inspired by "A Ghost in Roanapur" but this time is more different since I am writing a connected universe however, the hard part is putting them all together in a way that could be described as different. However, I'm kinda doing a couple of changes but this is a first for me, in the SCP universe with SPRIGGAN/ Ghost Recon/Clancy-verse! Take it easy on me okay? I have not abandoned my other stories for this one.

I hope I got Cory's characterization right for this story. I decided to keep his extremely friendly and extroverted personality but it would be used to mask the experienced soldier/ Special Operator/SPRIGGAN/ ex-COSMOS test subject despite being immersed in the blood and mud he still kept some of his morality, thanks to a group of unlikely group soldiers.

Also, remember the other incident with a SCP-4498 well it would seem that the foundation missed one when Bright fixed it.

Anyway's Micelzod ghosting out.