SCP: Mission Statement

SCP Explained - Story & Animation

In the far future, the SCP Foundation has become the Federation, ruling over a dystopian Earth. To survive a universe-ending anomaly, they execute their ultimate, desperate plan: The Infinite Border. To secure, contain, and protect humanity, they must sacrifice the rest of the cosmos, trapping Earth in a closed solar system beneath a sky of fake stars.  LIKE & SUBSCRIBE to SCP Explained - Story & Animation  Follow us on Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@scpexplainedofficial  Join our Discord, share your SCP art, submit video feedback, chat with other fans...: https://discord.gg/scpexplained  Please let us know in the comments which SCP's we should cover next   Narrated by https://www.youtube.com/c/hitherehunter  Content relating to the SCP Foundation, including the SCP Foundation logo, is licensed under Creative Commons Sharealike 3.0 and all concepts originate from http://www.scp-wiki.net and its authors.   SCP: Mission Statement is based on "Mission Statement" by Dr Reach: https://scpwiki.com/mission-statement  #scpexplained #scp #animation

Transcript

00:00The Foundation's mission statement has been, from the very beginning, to secure, contain,

00:05and protect. It's right there in the name, SCP, and it's a mission that they've always been

00:11willing to fulfill, no matter the cost. But what happens when the Foundation encounters

00:16something they can't contain? And more importantly, what happens if one day there's nothing left to

00:22protect? If the universe ends, will the Foundation end with it? Originally, that was the plan,

00:30but as the SCP Foundation became more powerful, that plan was overtaken by the mission statement,

00:35protect the people of Earth by any means necessary, even if it meant wiping entire towns off the map,

00:42even if it meant secretly taking over the governments of whole countries. They needed

00:46to do whatever it took to keep themselves hidden and keep the public from ever learning about the

00:51anomalies that threaten their lives every day. The only other option was abject chaos. Over time,

00:58their reach would only increase, and the line between the Foundation and the rest of humanity

01:03blurred. They absorbed every other group, every corporation, every nation. Society restructured,

01:09new classes formed based on the old hierarchies of the Foundation. In the far future, it could be a

01:15hundred years from now, or it could be a thousand. The SCP Foundation is the Federation. Nobody is sure how

01:22long they've been in control. They've all been regularly dosed with amnestics to protect their

01:27minds from the horrible things that might be out there. Humans live in densely packed arcologies,

01:32self-sufficient vertical cities where all activities are closely monitored. But human life continues as

01:39it always has, or at least, how everyone remembers it being. In one of these arcologies, Risa Volanova

01:46shops for a toy for her six-year-old daughter. It's almost Federation Day, a brief respite from the

01:52drudgery of everyday life. A TV screen hangs from the ceiling, cycling between advertisements,

01:58announcements, and news updates. In related news, a series of arcology control alerts have been

02:03announced all over the planet this past afternoon, Universal Time. While the specifics are not clear,

02:09an institutional source reports that Federation task forces may soon be conducting assaults on

02:14suspected sectarian holdouts in Mars and Europa. Her daughter, Karsia, picks out a teddy bear,

02:22emblazoned with the Foundation shield and arrows logo. Risa doesn't have the heart to tell her that

02:27they can't afford it, but before she can say anything, her daughter looks up at the sky through the

02:32building's enormous windows and points. Mom, have the stars always been so far away?

02:38Almost immediately, the sounds of alarms rip through the bustling marketplace.

02:42The Federation has been able to keep the public in the dark up to this point,

02:46but now it's no longer possible. Even the D-class citizens, the closest thing left to a civilian

02:52population, the ones who are regularly fed amnestics to keep them docile, have started to notice that the

02:58stars are disappearing. They noticed this centuries ago, back when they were still the SCP Foundation.

03:04Even though they convinced the world that it was impossible, that they gained access to interstellar

03:09faster-than-light travel in the middle of the 21st century, allowing them to build their first

03:14off-world outposts, there were rumors even back then that something was coming, spreading across the

03:20cosmos like a long shadow, blotting out the light of every star it touched. Whether it was some kind

03:27of universe-ending anomaly, or simply the natural forces of entropy, nobody could say. But there was

03:33no denying its existence. Upon this discovery, a plan was put into motion, one that would take

03:39centuries to execute, and an impossible amount of resources. Thousands of ships were launched into

03:45space, self-replicating, armed with automated machinery and a dedicated workforce. Their course

03:51was far out into the galaxy. They knew how important it would be to preserve our solar system once there

03:57was nothing else left. The workers on the ships were called exiles, or E-class citizens, by the

04:03Federation. They colonized far-off worlds, terraformed asteroids, and mined the resources that would be used

04:10to keep humanity alive. They were a thriving civilization of billions by the time the shadow

04:15reached them. The exiles watched as the infinite border became active. They've waited for generations

04:21for this day. The execution of the greatest machine ever built, constructed from every barren rock in a

04:27dozen light years. Grand Helmsman Roderick watches the border cut through space, and is overcome with fear

04:33and realization. In the small reliquary where he lives, a perfect sphere floats in the air, a symbol

04:40of their one mind, one world, and one purpose. The sphere represents wholeness, but that purpose

04:47is a lie. The heretics were right, and his entire civilization was set up from the start just to die.

04:54The sun vanishes behind the infinite border, becoming just another one of the thousands of stars

04:59that have gone out. Outside the windows, the sky is completely black. Roderick grabs the sphere and

05:04smashes it into his control panel in a blind, furious screaming,

05:08It who is was never whole. The shadow spreads. Roderick composes himself.

05:14Pray for your souls, my brethren, Roderick says to the others. May they reach it and make us all whole

05:19again. On Earth's moon, in an underground chamber carved from rock, Foundation personnel watch through

05:25their nanogel screens as a goddess dies. Under the sun lies a nest, shining with its own light.

05:32It is a mess of thin black filaments tangled in a myriad of hands. At its center, a goddess huddles

05:39against her legs. Her face showing the strain her heart feels. Tiny gold tears flow over her face,

05:46pushed by the breath of the star below. She wonders if it will hurt.

05:50Death. The end. After thousands of years. For good. For real. For the last time.

05:58She shivers. Thousands of arms stretching out over her back. More and more hands popping out of them.

06:04Supernumerary fingers pointing practically everywhere. She no longer cares about them.

06:10For a while, they hurt. But now she doesn't even feel them. They have their own inscrutable

06:15wills that point them everywhere. A tree made of hands whose branches stretch, growing on themselves

06:21and concealing her underneath. It has been covered in a thick cloud of her black hair for years now.

06:27It's never been this bad. She feels how the whole universe closes down on Earth. And still,

06:34decades after accepting their pleas for help, she wonders, was trusting the Foundation the better choice?

06:39Can there be a better choice? For a brief second, when the contraptions grip around her,

06:45she can feel her brother weeping for her. For his kin and for all reality. And then, she is in

06:53agony.

06:53For hours, and days, and weeks, and forever. Even when her body is dissolved and nothing remains of her

07:02but cinders under the sun. Now, she is gone. Not dead, but as close as she can be to it.

07:10And even in

07:11infinite pain, she feels somewhat glad. She is satisfied. Her mission is complete. The anchors tear

07:19her apart. The Sister of the Sun's death has been going on like this for hours now. One of the

07:25observing

07:26scientists, Dr. Reach, excuses himself from the viewing. He ignores the beeping of his auto-manager,

07:31even though he knows it'll give him an electric shock if he avoids his duties for too long.

07:36He doesn't care. It's too heartbreaking. Over the last ten years, as a part of this final scheme to

07:42save humanity, the Federation has destroyed every anomaly in their containment that can't be used to

07:47further the aims of the Infinite Border Project. What used to be the Foundation had entirely new

07:52priorities now. Safety, above all else. Now, Phase Two has started, and in a matter of minutes,

07:59the shadow will reach Earth. Somewhere on Earth, in the dining hall of one of the arcologies,

08:06a party is taking place. Glowing nanogel birds fly in circles around the ceiling, pulsing in different

08:12colors. Chemicals pumped through the vents have lowered everyone's existential dread to a manageable

08:17level. It's fifteen minutes into the recreation hour, and spirits are high. Reyes, a worker, hits the

08:24dance floor, and scopes out potential options. He spots a girl with a faraway look in her eye,

08:30downing a mood pill with her fruity drink. Even though she isn't wearing her identification belt,

08:35they're against regulation. Reyes can tell she's a B-class citizen. She has the look of someone whose

08:40position in society requires her to know things that D-class citizens like Reyes had the privilege of

08:46forgetting. Hey! Reyes calls out over the music. You alright there? The girl starts crying. I can't

08:53hear the stars sing anymore. The music stops abruptly, and an alarm sounds. The windows polarize,

09:00giving the sense that the outside world just got switched off. Every D-class citizen in the room

09:05stops in their tracks, unable to act until given further instructions. Attention, D-class citizens! A

09:12voice booms through the intercom. A minor threat situation has been declared in this arcology.

09:17Do not approach the exterior nor attempt to open any windows. All C- and B-class citizens return to

09:24the previously designated emergency areas. Dr. Reach goes to his terminal, a hemispheric screen that

09:30takes up a full room of his modest lunar home. The screen is capable of reproducing in real time,

09:36and perfect tridimensionally every event in the entirety of the solar system. But recently,

09:41the screen has had little to report on. So many anomalies had already been destroyed,

09:46and whenever new ones were discovered, they were destroyed almost immediately.

09:51The doctor goes to his desk, antique wood, one of the only pieces of furniture he owns that isn't

09:56synthetic. It's a memento from his predecessor, an aquanism filled with memories. Be it out of emotion or

10:03just professional respect, he cannot bring himself to discard it. He opens the drawer and pulls out a

10:09protein-made model of a star-womb. It is a magnificent thing, a massive, gargantuan thing,

10:16but it fits in the palm of his hand. He used to enter the nanogel projector rooms and ask the

10:21computer to model a few of them around Earth. Even though he knows that at such distance their mutual

10:27gravity would disperse them and destroy Earth, he marveled at their incredible size, their infinite,

10:33infinite, inspiring majesty. He checks the screen again. All the stars, everything beyond the solar

10:39system was gone. Dr. Reach almost can't comprehend what's happening. Now is the first time it's really

10:46sunk in. There will be stories from beyond our light that will go forever unexplained. Tales of survivors who

10:53saw other suns over other worlds, and sometimes just hints, clues to a greater universe, lost.

11:00But this is how it must be. The Foundation all agreed that letting go is worth more than the alternative.

11:07Dr. Reach thinks back to the suffering he watched the Sister of the Sun go through.

11:11He needs to believe that it's all worth it. That her suffering was necessary to prevent the suffering of

11:16billions more. Old man's sun fell. His augmented body finally spent. A containment alarm sounded

11:24somewhere, but he had no ears for it. Finally, his brain died out. Then he woke up.

11:30Well, it took you a while, said the old man dream. Old man's sun opened his eyes. Yes, the sky

11:37was there,

11:38but there were no stars. No stars whatsoever. Wait, he started. My eyes. He touched his hands,

11:47his face, his ears. Old man's sun could speak. Old man's sun could hear. Old man's sun could see.

11:55He looked around. The moon still gleamed over his head, untouchable. Under it, the endless cities of

12:01the Federation entered all sensor mode. Arcologies bunkered down, enclosing sheet after sheet of metal

12:07and ceramics over lookouts and cameras. He stood over a mountain higher than any of the immense halls

12:12of humanity. They've come a long way, eh? Said old man dream. Old man's sun looked back at him,

12:19wearing a strange hat and clothes like those of the Federation's highest. Despite our advice.

12:25What happened? Asked old man's sun. The other shook his head. They have noticed a threat they can't

12:32beat, so they're running away from it. We are all dying. But you, you are dreaming. It's normal you

12:41don't recognize me. Much changes from one incarnation to the next. Dreamer?

12:47Son, master. I'm dying. Am I not? Sure. No more ball pushing. The younglings have it covered.

12:56Not that I wanted them to do it this way, but it is too late to stop it. Old man's

13:01sun gasped at the

13:02scene. I am dying. He gasped for an air that did not exist and saw the cities of the Children

13:10of Dust

13:10go silent and dark. Over the horizon the sun rolled on its own, warming the cold concrete and the whole

13:17world. He took it all in, his dream self shaking and beginning to cry. I can move on. Now I

13:25can meet

13:26my children. Old man's dream came to him, placing a hand over his shoulder. Go. They wait for you.

13:33Old man's sun nodded, nervous. What about you? I will probably be joining you too soon. I just have

13:41to check on an old friend. Go then. I shall see you soon. As old man's sun fell, the Federation

13:49agents

13:49left to monitor him quickly mobilized. SCP-49955 is down! One of them barked into a communicator.

13:56I repeat, SCP-49955 is down! Another agent ran a new protocol on the nanogel computer. Dispatching

14:04SCP-49956. God, we're running out of clones. Back on the moon, Dr. Reach checks back in on the progress

14:11of phase two. He pulls up a camera feed from the Earth's surface. The last wave of true starlight

14:17already passed over Earth, and somehow he missed it. He checks another camera array. Now he knows it for

14:24certain. All stars are dead. All stars, except one. The infinite border worked. For the first time in

14:32all of our history, an overseer can look upon our works and say, yes, we are safe. Yes, humanity is

14:41safe. Yes, Earth is safe. The Foundation's mission is complete. Earth will live. Humankind will develop

14:51and wither, and eventually die when our sun dwindles and dies itself. Unless they manage to

14:57trick themselves out of this new conundrum, of course. Because the Foundation will persevere.

15:02At the negligible cost of the rest of the universe, they escaped a threat that is now devouring all

15:07known space. Perhaps all that once was, for lack of a better word, real. Dr. Reach and his colleagues

15:15do not know how long their countermeasures will last. But even that has been taken into account,

15:20of course. There are dozens of temporal sinks beyond the Oort cloud, their size larger than the moon,

15:26continuously bartering time out of a universe that has none left for itself. They siphon what little

15:32eons can be salvaged from it. The Foundation tells Dr. Reach that this will cut its agony short. But

15:37Dr. Reach knows deep down that this is still a sort of murder. Dr. Reach inputs the final activation

15:43sequence authorization. He s one of twelve that must all do this at the same time. As he does,

15:50he wonders if the other eleven have any of his same worries. But he manages to brush the feeling off.

15:55This is what must be done to protect humanity. That has always been the Federation s mission

16:01statement. And it was the Foundation s mission statement before that. All at the expense of the

16:06rest of the known universe, they have protected Earth. But is that so wrong? When the choice is

16:12between life and an inevitable death, it s only natural to choose life, no matter what the cost is.

16:18Alone in her small, dark room, B-Class citizen Tessa Lee, dimensional research specialist, simply whispers to

16:24herself. The stars are dead. The stars are silent. How could I allow it? How could I? The feelings are

16:33gone,

16:34leaving her truly alone for the first time in weeks. The fifth is fractured now. The fifth is over. The

16:40fifth is over. She whimpers, her eyes wide open. It feels obscene, blasphemous, tragic. It feels true.

16:51The administrative emergency state is being revoked in all Arcology jurisdiction, says the distant voice

16:57of our control. Lockdown orders will cease momentarily. Please hold. The only window in her room opens,

17:04showing a lovely midnight sky filled with stars. And they were not stars. The makeshift silent alarm

17:12connected to the floor auto-manager warns her. A Federation sect suppression task force is right outside.

17:17The grey-on-grey uniform surrounded by floats and drone guns. Desperate, she looks for a way out.

17:23Desperate, Tessa reaches for her transcript of star signals, an old sheaf of foxing paper she found lying

17:29around in her esoteric research area. She always thought it wanted to guide her, first to itself,

17:35then to illumination, then to freedom from the Federation. It taught Tessa a life in the cracks of

17:41the grey universe she had to endure every day, promising herself that she would lead humanity to a

17:46better truth, to a better church. Perhaps it can show her a way out. Then she remembers. She remembers

17:54that the border has been closed for hours. There are no signals left. The skies are blank. The SSTF

18:01anti-sectarian specialists break into Tessa's apartment. Their drone guns shoot out her eyes,

18:06her heart, and her hands. The last of the fifthists die along with the universe beyond the infinite border.

18:13Now, it's time for phase three. Mass amnestics. To make sure this all seems like nothing more than a

18:20bad dream by tomorrow. But the overseers will remember. Dr. Reach's colleagues all congratulate

18:26each other as if this was just another job well done. Dr. Reach feels disgusted with himself. He can't

18:33stand to be around them any longer. He goes to the bar and asks the food printer for a cold

18:37wine. The auto

18:39manager denies the request. He's an overseer and is thus forbidden to get drunk. The auto printer

18:44prints him a glass of soy milk instead. Dr. Reach snaps. He kicks the machine, screams at it, throws his

18:51body against it. He needs to make this right somehow. He needs to make sure there is something else for

18:56humanity to discover other than a boxed-in universe of counterfeit stars. Now check out Parasite Planet,

19:03SCP-3003, The End of History, or SCP-XK-Class End of the World Scenarios Explained for more.

Category

Transcript

Comments

Recommended