WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.539 --> 00:00:05.290 A satellite floats in the cold depths of space above our pale blue dot. 00:00:05.290 --> 00:00:09.290 It positions its targeting array down at a point thousands of miles below. 00:00:09.290 --> 00:00:10.610 And fires. 00:00:10.610 --> 00:00:12.590 Clack, clack, clack. 00:00:12.590 --> 00:00:17.610 A tired looking man sitting in a coffee shop types away on his computer, taking advantage 00:00:17.610 --> 00:00:20.470 of the free wifi to send off yet another job application. 00:00:20.470 --> 00:00:26.340 Nearby, a barista is writing down orders while a businessman takes a call between quiet sips 00:00:26.340 --> 00:00:27.340 of his mocha. 00:00:27.340 --> 00:00:31.050 A teenage girl texts her friend, giggling occasionally. 00:00:31.050 --> 00:00:34.770 An old man chews his bagel just a little too loudly for comfort. 00:00:34.770 --> 00:00:36.780 Nothing appears all that out of the ordinary. 00:00:36.780 --> 00:00:39.970 Until, the blast hits. 00:00:39.970 --> 00:00:41.900 Intensity Level: 25. 00:00:41.900 --> 00:00:45.060 The job-seeker notices a faint whisper in his ear. 00:00:45.060 --> 00:00:48.920 It startles him, and he turns to look around the coffee shop, but he can’t spot who was 00:00:48.920 --> 00:00:50.430 whispering to him. 00:00:50.430 --> 00:00:51.980 How odd. 00:00:51.980 --> 00:00:56.140 He turns back to his keyboard and carries on typing, but a strange feeling hangs over 00:00:56.140 --> 00:00:57.140 him. 00:00:57.140 --> 00:01:00.399 This pervasive sense that something is very wrong. 00:01:00.399 --> 00:01:05.960 His eyes turn to the businessman and he notices something: His phone is gone, but he’s still 00:01:05.960 --> 00:01:08.280 loudly talking to someone. 00:01:08.280 --> 00:01:09.950 Someone who isn’t there. 00:01:09.950 --> 00:01:13.390 The barista is smiling as she seems to note down orders. 00:01:13.390 --> 00:01:18.120 But in her notebook, she’s scrawling the words “GETTING CLOSER” again and again 00:01:18.120 --> 00:01:21.450 and again, and she doesn’t have any idea why. 00:01:21.450 --> 00:01:25.950 The teenage girl, with shifty, furtive eyes, texts her friend a message saying, “This 00:01:25.950 --> 00:01:29.760 is gonna sound crazy, but I feel like someone is watching me…” 00:01:29.760 --> 00:01:34.640 As the job-seeker tries in vain to fight the feelings of unease, he keeps hearing the old 00:01:34.640 --> 00:01:35.790 man chewing. 00:01:35.790 --> 00:01:38.310 Loud, incessant, cow-like chewing. 00:01:38.310 --> 00:01:41.010 It’s really beginning to get on his nerves. 00:01:41.010 --> 00:01:45.250 Suddenly, the thought crosses his mind that he’d actually like to kill this man. 00:01:45.250 --> 00:01:50.680 He’s like to squeeze his throat and break his jaw so he could never chew like that again. 00:01:50.680 --> 00:01:53.979 The sudden appearance of this alien thought frightens him. 00:01:53.979 --> 00:01:57.240 And it’s about to get so much worse. 00:01:57.240 --> 00:01:59.190 Intensity Level: 35. 00:01:59.190 --> 00:02:02.210 The job-seeker starts to wonder if there’s any point to this. 00:02:02.210 --> 00:02:06.301 He suspected that he’d been fired from his last job because nobody liked him, did he 00:02:06.301 --> 00:02:08.470 really think he had a chance at getting this one? 00:02:08.470 --> 00:02:09.470 Really? 00:02:09.470 --> 00:02:10.470 What a stupid pipe dream. 00:02:10.470 --> 00:02:15.040 He’s bombarded by thoughts like these that make typing more and more difficult. 00:02:15.040 --> 00:02:17.599 He notices that his hands are shaking. 00:02:17.599 --> 00:02:19.810 The chewing behind him is still so loud. 00:02:19.810 --> 00:02:24.180 He can’t turn around - He knows on some level that if he does, he’ll say something 00:02:24.180 --> 00:02:26.459 to the old man that he can’t take back. 00:02:26.459 --> 00:02:30.400 The barista stares off into the distance, a haunted, contemplative look in her eye. 00:02:30.400 --> 00:02:34.299 The businessman gazes into his mocha like a crystal ball. 00:02:34.299 --> 00:02:36.400 The teenage girl begins to weep. 00:02:36.400 --> 00:02:41.169 The job-seeker looks up when he notices something strange is happening outside: A middle-aged 00:02:41.169 --> 00:02:45.409 woman walking her dog, suddenly clutches her chest like she’s having a heart attack. 00:02:45.409 --> 00:02:46.940 She bends over and breathes deeply. 00:02:46.940 --> 00:02:52.180 Her dog barks at nothing, enraged by some invisible force that’s all around them. 00:02:52.180 --> 00:02:53.890 Intensity Level: 50. 00:02:53.890 --> 00:02:55.150 Something’s wrong. 00:02:55.150 --> 00:02:57.919 The voice in the job seeker’s head is no longer a whisper. 00:02:57.919 --> 00:03:02.409 It’s hissing and barking cruel words at him like: “Useless!”, “Worthless!”, 00:03:02.409 --> 00:03:04.109 “Lazy!”, “Disgusting!” 00:03:04.109 --> 00:03:06.629 Each one boring into his head like a power drill. 00:03:06.629 --> 00:03:11.569 But far more frightening than the voices themselves is the fact that he believes every single 00:03:11.569 --> 00:03:12.769 thing they’re saying. 00:03:12.769 --> 00:03:15.620 He’s lulled into a trance by their venomous rhythm. 00:03:15.620 --> 00:03:19.260 The only thing louder is that unending chewing… 00:03:19.260 --> 00:03:21.480 The waitress calmly walks back to the counter. 00:03:21.480 --> 00:03:25.709 She picks up a jug of blistering hot coffee and begins to swig directly from it. 00:03:25.709 --> 00:03:28.999 She can feel it sizzling in her mouth and she couldn’t care less. 00:03:28.999 --> 00:03:33.279 The businessman begins an intense screaming match with somebody who isn’t there, snarling 00:03:33.279 --> 00:03:35.079 and practically foaming at the mouth. 00:03:35.079 --> 00:03:38.519 The job seeker can’t take that chewing anymore. 00:03:38.519 --> 00:03:43.019 He turns to the old man, ready to unload on him, but when he opens his mouth to speak 00:03:43.019 --> 00:03:44.139 nothing comes out. 00:03:44.139 --> 00:03:48.599 He sees that the bagel is gone, but the old man is still chewing. 00:03:48.599 --> 00:03:51.400 He smiles at him, red liquid streaking his lips and teeth. 00:03:51.400 --> 00:03:56.349 The job seeker looks down at the table and sees the outline of a fingerless hand under 00:03:56.349 --> 00:03:59.450 the old man’s bloodsoaked napkin. 00:03:59.450 --> 00:04:01.540 Intensity Level: 75. 00:04:01.540 --> 00:04:04.129 Inside the coffee shop, pandemonium breaks loose. 00:04:04.129 --> 00:04:06.420 The old man lies catatonic in his booth. 00:04:06.420 --> 00:04:11.260 The businessman fights a nearby wall: Knuckles and toe bones cracking against the bricks. 00:04:11.260 --> 00:04:15.040 The waitress has the teenage girl in a headlock as the girl shrieks in agony and stabs at 00:04:15.040 --> 00:04:17.590 her assailant’s leg with a table fork. 00:04:17.590 --> 00:04:21.600 The job-seeker looks out the window at the violence suddenly unfolding on the street. 00:04:21.600 --> 00:04:24.400 Complete strangers are attacking each other with murderous intent. 00:04:24.400 --> 00:04:27.509 Biting, gouging, punching, clawing, tearing, strangling. 00:04:27.509 --> 00:04:29.700 It all looks like… fun. 00:04:29.700 --> 00:04:34.060 He picks up his laptop and tosses it through the coffee shop window, shattering the glass. 00:04:34.060 --> 00:04:37.400 As if he was ever going to get that stupid job anyway. 00:04:37.400 --> 00:04:41.630 He steps through the broken window, a new man, and picks up a large, jagged shard of 00:04:41.630 --> 00:04:45.820 broken glass, ready to join in on the festivities. 00:04:45.820 --> 00:04:46.820 Intensity Level: Keter. 00:04:46.820 --> 00:04:49.160 Thousands of people are changed. 00:04:49.160 --> 00:04:51.630 They do unimaginable things to each other and themselves. 00:04:51.630 --> 00:04:57.130 There is chaos in homes and out on the streets as everything collapses in a wave of terrible, 00:04:57.130 --> 00:04:59.530 unspeakable violence. 00:04:59.530 --> 00:05:01.510 Nothing will ever be the same… 00:05:01.510 --> 00:05:06.580 Thankfully, the horrors that you just observed were only part of a simulation, one created 00:05:06.580 --> 00:05:12.040 by the SCP Foundation and intended to demonstrate the worst case scenarios of various anomalies 00:05:12.040 --> 00:05:13.760 on their roster. 00:05:13.760 --> 00:05:17.920 These events have not yet come to pass, but they very easily could if there was even a 00:05:17.920 --> 00:05:23.620 minor accident with the rogue, anomalous satellite known as SCP-923. 00:05:23.620 --> 00:05:29.410 The SCP-923 satellite consists of a large, parabolic dish made from unknown alloys, as 00:05:29.410 --> 00:05:34.600 well as a powerful internal reactor that produces massive quantities of energy and radiation, 00:05:34.600 --> 00:05:38.120 all to power the satellite’s mysterious, anomalous firing mechanism. 00:05:38.120 --> 00:05:43.720 923 appears to select specific “targets” that it then fires a blast of energy at. 00:05:43.720 --> 00:05:47.280 Those in the proximity of the target when the beam hits are also affected, with the 00:05:47.280 --> 00:05:51.340 severity of the damage contingent on the intensity of the blast. 00:05:51.340 --> 00:05:54.440 Like many anomalies, its origins are shrouded in mystery. 00:05:54.440 --> 00:06:00.180 SCP-923 displays a degree of artificial intelligence, and posts reports on its own condition and 00:06:00.180 --> 00:06:05.270 operations to the O5 Council Secured Information Relay Network - A classified communication 00:06:05.270 --> 00:06:09.310 network reserved for Foundation employees with Level Five Clearance. 00:06:09.310 --> 00:06:14.690 According to 923’s own data, it was constructed in a Foundation Research and Development Site. 00:06:14.690 --> 00:06:18.370 This is congruent with blueprints for a planned offensive satellite which was to be constructed 00:06:18.370 --> 00:06:23.430 at that very site, but the project had actually been canceled due to logistical concerns. 00:06:23.430 --> 00:06:29.370 The O5 Council deems it extremely important that SCP-923 never be made aware of this fact. 00:06:29.370 --> 00:06:34.070 Currently, since two-way lines of communication have been established, 923 obeys the orders 00:06:34.070 --> 00:06:38.420 of the O5 Council, not firing on a target unless given authorization by them. 00:06:38.420 --> 00:06:42.810 If it ever discovers that it technically isn’t a Foundation construction, it runs the risk 00:06:42.810 --> 00:06:47.870 of going rogue and triggering some extremely dangerous outcomes, to say the least. 00:06:47.870 --> 00:06:52.860 SCP-923 was first discovered after it started a correspondence with the O5 Relay Network, 00:06:52.860 --> 00:06:57.510 posting a message that it had completed another successful termination - Despite no such termination 00:06:57.510 --> 00:06:59.290 actually being ordered. 00:06:59.290 --> 00:07:03.990 Over the next several hours, this process continued, as the 923 satellite sent in termination 00:07:03.990 --> 00:07:10.030 report after termination report, totalling 57 by the time it stopped - 55 of which were 00:07:10.030 --> 00:07:14.340 later confirmed to be actual deaths, with the other two being deemed inconclusive. 00:07:14.340 --> 00:07:19.450 Adjustments have since been made to ensure that SCP-923 can’t access any information 00:07:19.450 --> 00:07:22.880 on the network that hasn’t been directly intended for it. 00:07:22.880 --> 00:07:27.990 SCP-923 is an extremely effective weapon, depending on its operator’s level of tolerance 00:07:27.990 --> 00:07:29.160 for collateral damage. 00:07:29.160 --> 00:07:33.770 It can completely reverse its orbit to detect and fire upon a target anywhere on earth in 00:07:33.770 --> 00:07:38.750 a very short period of time; all it needs are the target’s GPS coordinates, their 00:07:38.750 --> 00:07:42.520 altitude, the intended time of firing, and a selected level of intensity. 00:07:42.520 --> 00:07:46.840 This, incidentally, is where things get interesting with the tests the Foundation conducted. 00:07:46.840 --> 00:07:50.600 Naturally, they wanted to see the kind of firepower that each level of intensity was 00:07:50.600 --> 00:07:55.010 capable of, so D-Classes were requested for live tests. 00:07:55.010 --> 00:07:57.950 The first test performed was at Intensity Level 10. 00:07:57.950 --> 00:08:02.450 However, this resulted in an error message, claiming that the 923 satellite isn’t capable 00:08:02.450 --> 00:08:05.290 of firing at an intensity lower than Level 23. 00:08:05.290 --> 00:08:09.750 In accordance with this new information, the Foundation planned the next test at Intensity 00:08:09.750 --> 00:08:11.710 Level 25. 00:08:11.710 --> 00:08:13.960 This time, the effects immediately took hold. 00:08:13.960 --> 00:08:18.270 The target and those nearby began to experience a degree of paranoid delusion. 00:08:18.270 --> 00:08:23.720 They would report hearing voices and be seen interacting with people who weren’t there. 00:08:23.720 --> 00:08:28.240 They would experience a sense a crushing terror, impending doom, and also report the growing 00:08:28.240 --> 00:08:30.900 desire to cause harm to others. 00:08:30.900 --> 00:08:34.120 Most of all, in debriefing interviews, they would claim that they felt like they were 00:08:34.120 --> 00:08:39.079 being watched - though they refused to elaborate on what exactly they meant by that. 00:08:39.079 --> 00:08:43.110 Recovery time from this condition was measured at being between 15 and 19 days. 00:08:43.110 --> 00:08:46.569 Next came the test at Intensity Level 35. 00:08:46.569 --> 00:08:51.480 Everyone affected experienced symptoms similar to Intensity Level 25, except with powerful 00:08:51.480 --> 00:08:53.839 new self-destructive compulsions. 00:08:53.839 --> 00:08:58.139 The area of effect also grew with the increased power: Researchers who thought they were safe 00:08:58.139 --> 00:09:02.120 over ten meters away collapsed to the ground in intense panic attacks. 00:09:02.120 --> 00:09:06.430 The effects were much longer on this setting too, and recovery from this intensity took 00:09:06.430 --> 00:09:07.940 six to eight months. 00:09:07.940 --> 00:09:12.990 Interestingly, during the test there was severe disruption to the audio-visual equipment. 00:09:12.990 --> 00:09:14.730 Some devices had been displaced. 00:09:14.730 --> 00:09:16.199 Others were fused to the ground. 00:09:16.199 --> 00:09:20.510 The video footage was corrupted beyond use, but the audio retrieved displayed nothing 00:09:20.510 --> 00:09:21.939 out of the ordinary. 00:09:21.939 --> 00:09:26.809 However, when survivors of the test were asked to listen to the recorded audio, they claimed 00:09:26.809 --> 00:09:30.810 to once again hear the voices that were in their head that day, and experienced the terrible 00:09:30.810 --> 00:09:34.149 feelings and compulsions start up again. 00:09:34.149 --> 00:09:37.389 One of the researchers appended a note to the file, which read, “It looks like this 00:09:37.389 --> 00:09:41.830 thing actually has a blast effect to it and is not just a laser of madness. 00:09:41.830 --> 00:09:44.589 The audio and video feed disruptions are particularly interesting. 00:09:44.589 --> 00:09:49.680 From now on, researchers are to observe remotely and D-Class personnel are to be secured so 00:09:49.680 --> 00:09:50.959 they can't harm themselves. 00:09:50.959 --> 00:09:52.540 We need them alive for study.” 00:09:52.540 --> 00:09:57.610 Next, the intensity was brought up to Level 50 and the test was conducted once again. 00:09:57.610 --> 00:10:01.699 The results were once again similar to the previous one, but with far greater intensity 00:10:01.699 --> 00:10:05.040 and more pronounced physical effects on its victims. 00:10:05.040 --> 00:10:09.300 D-Classes who were completely restrained still exhibited cuts and tears in their skin, and 00:10:09.300 --> 00:10:13.959 audio-visual recording equipment was displaced to an even greater degree than before.Victims 00:10:13.959 --> 00:10:18.040 of this intensity have not yet recovered, and Foundation researchers are not confident 00:10:18.040 --> 00:10:19.860 that they ever will. 00:10:19.860 --> 00:10:22.850 But the effects went further than just the people present. 00:10:22.850 --> 00:10:27.069 It appears that the area itself was subject to long-lasting effects. 00:10:27.069 --> 00:10:30.589 Staff who recovered the D-Classes from the testing area reported an extreme sense of 00:10:30.589 --> 00:10:35.670 unease, claiming that the testing area simply “felt wrong”, but were unable to elaborate 00:10:35.670 --> 00:10:36.670 further. 00:10:36.670 --> 00:10:40.769 In spite of this, the tests continued to increase in intensity. 00:10:40.769 --> 00:10:46.959 Next, the level was increased to 75, and this is when things truly began to go off the rails. 00:10:46.959 --> 00:10:51.089 The satellite’s target was rendered completely comatose, and the D-Classes within sixteen 00:10:51.089 --> 00:10:55.459 meters of him broke free from their restraints and began slaughtering each other with their 00:10:55.459 --> 00:10:56.760 bare hands. 00:10:56.760 --> 00:11:01.249 Disturbingly, many of the subjects, both living and dead, who were tested after the fact, 00:11:01.249 --> 00:11:04.470 seemed to bear wounds consistent with attacks by bladed weapons. 00:11:04.470 --> 00:11:08.209 None of the D-Classes were armed, and the wounds seemed impossible to have been caused 00:11:08.209 --> 00:11:10.430 by mere fingers and teeth. 00:11:10.430 --> 00:11:14.160 There was an even greater displacement of recording devices and some were missing after 00:11:14.160 --> 00:11:15.240 the test. 00:11:15.240 --> 00:11:18.579 The retrieved recordings caused even worse states of distress for those affected by the 00:11:18.579 --> 00:11:22.860 blast who were lucky enough to actually survive and could listen to them again. 00:11:22.860 --> 00:11:24.639 But it didn’t end there. 00:11:24.639 --> 00:11:29.000 Anyone within fifty meters experienced intense panic attacks that often lasted longer than 00:11:29.000 --> 00:11:30.430 an hour. 00:11:30.430 --> 00:11:34.470 Observing researchers experienced what could best be described as a slightly more mild 00:11:34.470 --> 00:11:36.869 version of Intensity Level 25 symptoms. 00:11:36.869 --> 00:11:41.889 They reported hallucinations, things moving in the corners of their eyes, hearing voices, 00:11:41.889 --> 00:11:44.980 experiencing heightened paranoia and feelings of dread. 00:11:44.980 --> 00:11:48.759 There was even some “poltergeist activity” recorded, with objects seeming to move of 00:11:48.759 --> 00:11:49.880 their own accord. 00:11:49.880 --> 00:11:53.779 The lasting effects on the physical area are even more pronounced, with laser rangefinders 00:11:53.779 --> 00:11:58.540 indicating a level of permanent spatial distortion at the epicenter of the blast site. 00:11:58.540 --> 00:12:02.529 A researcher appended a note to this section of the file, reading, “This is crossing 00:12:02.529 --> 00:12:04.740 the line from scientific to just barbaric. 00:12:04.740 --> 00:12:10.320 SCP-923 has said that its maximum output is 238, which it promptly converts to "keter" 00:12:10.320 --> 00:12:11.320 intensity. 00:12:11.320 --> 00:12:13.389 Let’s just see what this does and report our findings.” 00:12:13.389 --> 00:12:19.009 However, the Keter Level Intensity proved to be too much to handle - So much so that 00:12:19.009 --> 00:12:22.959 the entry on its test log begins with the sentence “It is strongly advised that this 00:12:22.959 --> 00:12:25.750 intensity never be used again.” 00:12:25.750 --> 00:12:30.740 The blast induced psychosis permanently in every subject within a truly insane two-kilometer 00:12:30.740 --> 00:12:35.120 radius, including a number of unfortunate researchers who severely underestimated the 00:12:35.120 --> 00:12:36.970 Keter-Level Blast Range. 00:12:36.970 --> 00:12:42.740 The site is now under permanent Foundation protection as SCP-923-02, due to the permanent 00:12:42.740 --> 00:12:45.459 effects the blast had on the landscape. 00:12:45.459 --> 00:12:49.589 A sense of panic is still felt from hundreds of meters away, and anyone who gets close 00:12:49.589 --> 00:12:54.249 enough to the center will experience full-blown psychosis just as much as those directly affected 00:12:54.249 --> 00:12:56.050 by the beam. 00:12:56.050 --> 00:13:00.509 Spatial and temporal anomalies abound in the area, and the O5 Council has deemed SCP-923 00:13:00.509 --> 00:13:05.290 a risk in causing an XK-Class End of the World Scenario. 00:13:05.290 --> 00:13:10.459 But the most frightening part of all is yet to come: Every time the SCP-923 weapon is 00:13:10.459 --> 00:13:15.240 used, it causes a degree of internal damage to the satellite itself, raising the threshold 00:13:15.240 --> 00:13:17.949 of intensity that the weapon needs to even activate. 00:13:17.949 --> 00:13:23.230 It used to be that the satellite would fire at Intensity Level 23, but after extensive 00:13:23.230 --> 00:13:26.240 testing, its minimum Intensity Level is now 66. 00:13:26.240 --> 00:13:31.139 If the weapon is ever used again, it’s only going to get worse. 00:13:31.139 --> 00:13:35.179 Despite this danger, SCP-923 has been classified as Safe. 00:13:35.179 --> 00:13:39.639 But how is an object that is both out of Foundation control and able to operate with a dangerous 00:13:39.639 --> 00:13:43.550 degree of autonomy, classified the same as harmless anomalies that require little to 00:13:43.550 --> 00:13:45.160 no containment procedures? 00:13:45.160 --> 00:13:51.440 The answer is buried in the question: The SCP Foundation cannot contain SCP-923, but 00:13:51.440 --> 00:13:57.079 seeing as there are currently over 7,500 active satellites orbiting planet earth, 923 doesn’t 00:13:57.079 --> 00:14:01.060 arouse much suspicion - especially with the Foundation cover story that it’s merely 00:14:01.060 --> 00:14:03.370 a non-anomalous military satellite. 00:14:03.370 --> 00:14:07.389 The only continued containment effort required is making sure that other satellites do not 00:14:07.389 --> 00:14:11.809 enter its path of orbit to ensure that 923’s advanced defense systems don’t activate 00:14:11.809 --> 00:14:16.850 and destroy the interfering satellite, revealing its anomalous nature. 00:14:16.850 --> 00:14:22.899 Now go and watch another entry from the classified files of Dr. Bob, such as “SCP-056 A Beautiful 00:14:22.899 --> 00:14:26.880 Person”, for another SCP that’ll drive you to do terrible things. 00:14:26.880 --> 00:14:30.970 And make sure you subscribe and turn on notifications, so you don’t miss a single anomaly, as we 00:14:30.970 --> 00:14:34.939 delve further and further into the SCP Foundation’s classified archives.