"Ah, you've gotta be kidding me!"
The person wearing the labcoat sighed as he held the paper. Just yesterday, They had managed to map out the psychospace by having a breakthrough in the research of the human collective consciousness, which marked the conclusion of "PROJECT:PNEUMA".
But unexpectedly, there was something discovered within this 'map' that wasn't supposed to be there. Something sentient had made its nest within the psychosphere. 'IT's existence has caused quite a stir within the involved foundation members and the O5 Council.
Today, the decision of the Ethics Committee was supposed to come out and here it was.
'Oh boy! I am too old for this.'
The paper contained the committee's decision following the Council's vote. For now, the paper was only handed out to some relatively high level personnel.But in a few days, all the senior foundation members will be given the order.
The paper's contents seemed to foreshadow the arrival of something ominous. There are already people planning to resign and some seemed to have strengthened their resolve about something.
The paper contained the foundation's decision in waging war against humanity to root out the the being residing within the psychospace and also info hinting at the nature of 'IT'. Even though such a cruel decision was made, no one questioned it. Because, those involved knew the significance of the matter.
Hell, even the Ethics committee seems to consider,the extermination of humanity, as the most ethical decision after 'IT's discovery.
'First there was that dumb sword, then there was the arrival of that broken mechanical armor with Pietro's body within site62-C. Now there's this. The past month has been really unforgiving.'
Speaking of which, things have really been strange. The sword that was obtained by the founder long before the foundation's existence suddenly started trembling and giving out 'waves' containing the info on how to map out the human collective consciousness.
Around the same time, a heavily damaged mechanical suit containing the body of a personnel working at site-06 appeared within the containment zone of SCP-579. Further research, indicated that, this armour contained lot of recorded information, of which, only bits and pieces were available due to some reason.
Although this armour contained Pietro's dead body, He was currently well and alive at site-06. What's fascinating was that, the same armour seemed to be contained within site-06, termed as SCP-5000.
Although more research was done, no further information was obtained from the armour. But extracted info seemed to hint at a conflict between humanity and the Foundation. And well, looking back at it, it was probably a kind of prophecy.
'I mean, without the sword, none of this would have been revealed to others either way'. But of course, he was only talking about others, He knew this day was coming a very long time ago.
He was warned of this day by a 'being' he met long before even time existed. He struck a deal with this 'being' in promise of a future in which his lover survived. As a price, now he must relinquish his anomalous abilities with someone else. Since this power was inherently his, the 'other party' receiving it won't be able to control it. Even so, he must do this.
"██████... you must create the future I was promised."
Then suddenly the metal door behind the man opened and two people in heavy armour walked in with weapons.
"Doctor Alexander Sukarna, It's time."
The man let out another long sigh and walked back with them.
'...'
Back to Robert's current dilemma,
By the time Robert opened his eyes, no one was left in sight. Even the brown statue,presumably SCP-173 as written on the wall beside the metal door, was not here. There were a lot of deadbodies lying around with all of their necks twisted.
'What happend here?'
By the time the lights went out, Robert tripped and fell unconscious. And now here he was, greeted by a sight of the aftermath of a carnage and blinking redlights with alarms blaring within the room.
Robert slowly stood up and limped to the stairs to the second level to sit. He rested for some time and then moved on to the second level. There was three bodies there, all wearing labcoats.
Creeped out by the sight of the twisted necks, he proceeded slowly to the table and rummaged for any and all useful stuff. On the table,There lay a level 1 verification Card and some paper regarding SCP-173.
Since he had nothing to do anyway, he sat there reading for some time.
When he was done, he was already sweating, knowing how close he came to death. This particular SCP had the habit of killing things that were not looking at it. To stay safe, one must always keep an eye on it without blinking.
'But ,How did I survive ?'
Robert was unconscious when 173 escaped, but he still remained unharmed.
'Survival first, brainstorming later.'
Robert collected the card and went back down to the first level to take the guns from the deadbodies.
After rummaging for a bit, He took the guns as well as the armour they were wearing, leaving them practically naked.
"Surely, you wouldn't mind?, You're dead either way."
After wearing the armour, Robert slowly walked towards the door to outside. He stood in front of the door looking at the card slot. After thinking for some time he slowly pushed the card inside the slot. Two seconds later, the door opened and the card was ejected.
After picking up the card, Robert walked out brimming with determination to survive.
"There's no way it gets worse from here on out,right?"
Looking at what's waiting for him, Perhaps he shouldn't have said that.