Special Containment Procedures: Secure Area-00 has been established around the space believed to contain SCP-001 and classified Level 6/Cosmic Secret. The coordinates of Secure Area-00 are asymmetrically stored in the cranial implants of 15 selected members of Foundation Leadership, considered from a pool of Ethics Committee members and Site Directors. Data contained within these implants may only be decrypted by a super-majority vote (80%). Candidates are unaware of their status as voters until and unless a vote is called.

In the event that the cipher becomes compromised or a cranial implant fails to ping, COGITO.aic will generate a new cryptographic protocol and distribute it to a new group of candidates. After the protocol has been updated, COGITO.aic will self-delete in order to purge the knowledge of Secure Area-00 and a new 'AIC' will be cloned from the template and promoted.

No access to Secure Area-00 is permitted at any time for any reason. All relevant site operation protocols, internal and external defenses, schematics, contingencies, and other related information have been expunged.

Per these established constraints, under no circumstances are Site Directors or members of the Ethics Committee allowed access to any portion of this file unless a decryption vote is taking place.

Description: SCP-001 is the absence of the O5 Council. In spite of all historical evidence detailing the activities of the O5 Council, the identities and histories of its members, and the existence of complex support structures directly and indirectly attached to the object, the O5 Council does not definitively exist.

All contemporary records relating to the O5 Council - other than those contained in this file - are believed to be either fabricated by personnel under the influence of, or directly manifested by, SCP-001 itself. All data related to the orchestration of these events has been expunged in accordance with the containment procedures.

An epistolary chain was written by outgoing Administrator William Cohen during his final days in office circa 1965. The purpose of the letters was to assist in transferring esoteric knowledge to his successor, H.V. Oleander. Although Administrator Cohen was under the influence of SCP-001 at the time he created these documents, their contents have been deemed relevant to the containment procedures of this file.

Should any additional records be discovered pertaining to this matter, personnel are instructed to immediately disengage from the material and contact Internal Security using challenge response "Carthage".

Dear Harold,

Trust is an important and scarce resource for those with power, and so in this moment I offer you my full vulnerability in the hope my words ring true. My untimely retirement has been well advertised throughout the Foundation but the reasons why are at best a convenience. A tar clings to my mind, sticking to every neuron and slowing my every thought. In truth, I am unwell.

The symptoms first began approximately eight years ago. If only I could tell you the whole story but this disease has started its feast on my freshest memories, leaving me only the distant past as a surety. I will try to piece things together for as best I can.

It was late 1957 and the Soviet probe Sputnik-1 had been orbiting the Earth for a number of months. Although the probe had outlived its scientific usefulness it was still in the upper atmosphere out of Foundation interest; something was trying to communicate with it while drawing closer.

By Christmas, the signal was detected hourly. By New Year's Eve, every 90 seconds. And on January 4th, 1958 the signal stopped and the unidentified object arrived.

Site-00 invited guests so rarely that I was simply stunned when they summoned me to the war room. We worked tirelessly throughout the night until the situation finally changed. A single, brief burst of gamma radiation as Sputnik stopped reporting telemetry and we saw its orbit begin to rapidly decay.

Almost all at once the Council started picking up their phones and making calls. They were scrambling jets. They were alerting air defense forces. They were waking up heads of state.

There was no hostility in the actions of either the probe or its passenger. No new weapon signatures, no threatening maneuvers. Why would they risk an international incident by shooting down the first ever space probe? Why give in to fear? Why destroy a piece of world history on the cusp of discovery? They were working each other into a frenzy, shouting louder and louder, until logic was dethroned and I could only sit with my head in my hands.

For the first time I truly understood how alone I had let myself become. The few friends and trusted advisors I had left at this point in my career were nowhere to be found.

Whether I was ready or not, the final decision was brought before me: To shoot down the probe or to let it land. People crowded all around and glared down at me, asking me, telling me, to give the order. Were they daring me, with their heat and pressure, to become something more?

Would that I could tell you of my clarity, my brilliance. But instead, I gave in to my fear, my cowardice, my loneliness. I told them to do what they thought was best. I let them shoot it down.

And now what credibility do I have left to disagree with them? I am but a mouthpiece. A sad, old puppet tangled up and caught in the very strings used to make him dance.

Tomorrow, my last official act will be going to Site-00 to hand in my credentials. It is my solemn hope that by passing the torch along to you now, before it must be pried from my senile hands, that you will be able to steel yourself against the many difficult tests I am sure you will face. Just as I have shown you vulnerability here in the hopes I might gain your trust, please consider asking the same from those who would insist you trust them.

Sincerely Yours,
Former Administrator,
William Cohen.

The following documents are attributable to the O5-Council in the years following the conclusion of the incident described in Addendum 01. While the O5 Council has frequently endorsed, ratified, or co-authored documentation there is no record of the Council releasing a statement or taking an action autonomously prior to these memorandum.

Should any additional records be discovered pertaining to this matter, personnel are instructed to cease reading these records and contact Internal Security using challenge response "Troy".

An epistolary chain was written by outgoing Administrator H.V. Oleander during his final days in office circa 1988. The purpose of the letters was to assist in transferring esoteric knowledge to his successor, Natalia Ellingbrooke. The contents of these letters have been deemed relevant to the containment procedures of this file.

Should any additional records be discovered pertaining to this matter, personnel are instructed to immediately disengage from the material and contact Internal Security using challenge response "Carthage".

Natalia,

When the end of my tenure came into focus and your succession was announced I felt a clear sense of what little armor I had left being stripped from me. I felt exposed, vulnerable, and I was hopeful that my personal outlook would grow brighter, but it has not.

I used to have such an ego. This job, this life, and the burdens that surround it crush and squeeze you until all you have left is what they force you to keep. My mind and my soul feel as if they've been contorted into the shape of someone I no longer recognize. My predecessor, may he rest in peace, described his final years as if he were trapped behind smoky glass and made to watch a foggy world pass him by. Like some sort of voyeur. I, too, feel imprisoned but I realize that it was never a looking glass. It is a mirror.

It was November of '85. An unusually powerful Nor'easter had ravaged New England and caused serious complications to Site-31's power grid. I won't belabor the specifics as you'll have access to the full documents, but the result was a multi-stage containment breach where we lost track of an info-vore. There was plenty of blame to go around in how this was handled but these concerns soon drifted into the background.

We did not detect the object again until late March of '86, this time leeching from a government facility in Warsaw, Poland. Given my previous failure in allowing this entity to escape, I personally organized the mission with the hopes this could be quickly put to bed. Within a matter of days, teams were in place and the chase was on. We had the entity and its host cornered but the O5 Council intervened in the 'interests of international sensitivity'. I'll never know but I suspect their interference would have found an equally frustrating form if I have acted otherwise.

We called a joint session in the war room in order to monitor what I believed to be the final stages of the hunt, although the Council did not share my enthusiasm. Sparing you the specifics, the Council's decision to engage local and international governments in Poland proved to be a fatal error; the entity went to ground in a new, unwitting host before we could capture it. The trail stayed warm and we were ultimately led into Soviet territory: Pripyat, Ukraine.

The Council and I met regularly over the next few weeks as we attempted to isolate the entity. Their heavy-handed oversight dogging my every command, they managed to blunt the instincts of our field agents so completely that the trail gradually became colder and colder. I pushed back against the Council and our meetings became quite intense.

The O5s were pragmatic to the Nth degree if not outright fearful, unable to see past the risk of war. While I must admit we were playing with fire, I had felt every bit in command of the situation before their interference. If I could have only found a way to bring them over to my side, to get them working with me, maybe things would have been different. But for what they were demanding of me? This was an impossibility.

The task force was all wrong, no overtures had been made to the Soviet government, support was too far away, the risk assessment of the entity was unreliable, and a thousand other excuses they waved in my face. I was chosen knowing I would have to manage situations of this magnitude, but the brink of a nuclear disaster? How could I put that decision on anyone else but myself?

Six hours in the situation room. Then twelve. Then twenty-four. Then forty-eight.

Phone calls from field commanders asking for orders. "Maintain," was all I could come up with while I weighed our options and the Council kept inventing new lines of thought to debate. What was I to do? How could I even think?

To let my decision be governed by calculated probability, or to trust my gut with the fate of the free world on the line?

During the middle of the night on April 26th, 1986, we all paid the price for my indecision.

I've had almost two years to reconsider the sequence of events that led to that disaster. Two years of being raked through the coals for everything I did and said, or failed to do or say. Much more than any other mission in my long and storied career, this one weighs the most heavily. And as the final insult? We still do not have the entity re-contained.

By the time you receive this message I will have had my final day as Administrator. My last official act will be an appearance at Site-00 before the O5 Council. I will hand them my typed and signed resignation, and my most heartfelt and sincere apology for what my collapse has cost both the Foundation, and the world at large.

I had always found it very easy to work with the Council when the stakes were low and nothing of any major consequence was on the line. In truth I had never felt as if I might have needed them before that night, but in my solemn reflection I find myself wondering if they ever truly felt they needed me until that night either.

Do better. Please.

Best Wishes,
Harold Vincent Oleander
Former Administrator.

An epistolary chain was written by outgoing Administrator Natalia Ellingbrooke during her final days in office circa 2005. The purpose of the letters was to assist in transferring esoteric knowledge to her successor, Michelle Wilkes. The contents of these letters have been deemed relevant to the containment procedures of this file.

Should any additional records be discovered pertaining to this matter, no atypical security measures are necessary.

Dear Michelle,

As you've likely surmised from our few meetings, I walk with a pronounced limp and favor my left leg. How I came to be like this isn't especially interesting but what it did to me might be of interest to a person in your position.

Any man or woman changes when they are exposed to pain. Simply put, it has to go somewhere. If you hold it all within yourself, it may stay contained but it will surely destroy you when you've had your fill. It festers in all the spaces you let it occupy, warping and scarring what used to be healthy, happy tissue sat beneath. Some people have hobbies, but me? I've always just had my work.

I've been ringside for so much pain in my time with the Foundation. My predecessor left me a note, much like I am leaving you in my final days, and in it he warned me of the tremendous duty and guilt he mantled in order to do his job. Although the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune stung him quite keenly, I assure you I have suffered every bit his equal.

The breach at the Olympics in '94

Losing control of Site-248 in '96.

Botched facility transfer of Hong Kong in '97.

Bombings in Bali in '02.

The dispute with ORIA in the Congo in '03.

The GOC Ultimatum in '04.

I have stepped on a lot of people to get where I am. Yes, of course I did so in the name of the Foundation's greater mission, but I was motivated even more intensely by my own advancement. I needed no one else to get to the top, but my keen awareness of the needs of others, my ability to read a room, was the difference that set me above the other candidates.

Perhaps they thought that I could learn to be different when there was nowhere higher on the mountain to climb. Nowhere else to look but down at the cold, tired, dirty faces of the people I walked over to reach this summit. A noble thought, but it depends solely on my own capacity to nurture the fruit of that faith. I fear I am barren.

Although I have weathered much, my tenure ends not with the sort of precipitatingbang that ousted Oleander, but rather the quiet whimper of stepping away from a battle I no longer wish to fight. I am tired of the Council calling a meeting on every decision I try to make and I am tired of calling one on every decision they try to make without me. I guess that reasoning is one last tribute to the selfish life I have led.

My ideal way to say goodbye would have been to simply stop coming in. My desk would have sat empty, emails unread, until one day a courier showed up with my keys and badge. But even here, at the end of my career, the O5 Council insists on refusing to let me be myself. So tomorrow I will play the part of a dutiful officer resigning her post and walk away from Site-00 with my head held high and those overbearing bastards in the rear-view mirror.

I pray that your head will never be so bowed as mine has.

Best Wishes,
Natalia Ellingbrooke

The following project proposal was developed by various project teams at Sites-21, -78, and -107 with oversight and project management from newly appointed Administrator Michelle Wilkes. The project requirements were ratified by the Overwatch Command Committee on Infrastructure and construction began in earnest shortly thereafter.

The following epistolary chain is an exchange between Administrator Wilkes and SCP-001 which began shortly after the presentation of the project proposed in Addendum 06. This chain of communication is understood to be complete and no autonomous communication originating from the O5 Council has occurred since the conclusion of this documentation.

FROM: O5 Council
TO: Administrator Wilkes

---

Administrator,

We cannot approve your project proposal and We deny our signatory at this time. We share your pragmatism that greater challenges await this ambitious task. Please report for a briefing onTuesday at 19:00 hours and We will bring you up to speed on the matters at hand. We are worried but believe you capable, for now.

We can help.

Formally,
O5 Council

FROM: Administrator Wilkes
TO: O5 Council

---

Council,

Thank your for your expeditious response to this important project. While I, of course, would hear out any concerns you might have about the viability of this project I will need you to state them in more tangible terms so we can have a productive discussion.

Please have a bulleted list of concerns you intend to cover sent to my office as soon as possible so we can make the most efficient use of our time. If necessary, we can kick the meeting out to early next week if you need time to gather this list. We need to move on this project quickly.

Sincerely,
Administrator Wilkes

FROM: THOSE WHO KNOW BETTER
TO: ADMINISTRATOR WILKES

---

Administrator,

We have been doing this for a long time and have a great deal of context-sensitive information We can give you. No matter our bullet points and memorandum, there will be matters for which you are unprepared. We will talk. We do not approve your project. We want to help. We know you need it. We can give it. We will see you on Tuesday.

PROPOSAL:
UNDERSTANDING IS A PROCESS.

WE CAN GUIDE.

VOTES FOR:
All

VOTES AGAINST:
None

STATUS
ACCEPT

FROM: Administrator Wilkes
TO: O5 Council

---

Council,

I am certainly willing to work with you to get this approved but I need to do so from a position of preparedness and strength. Please send those materials immediately. I'm not sure if this was the nature of your relationship with my predecessor but I'd like for us to do each other the favor of letting our interactions stand on their own. Thanks.

Administrator Wilkes

FROM: THE COUNCIL
TO: ADMINISTRATOR XXXX

---

ADMINISTRATOR,

We know how important it is to get off on the right foot. Although This Body respects you and the autonomy which you command, We have also seen many come and go. You were chosen from your peers but they have chosen many others in the past. We remain unconvinced.

Before you, Ellingbrooke, who spent her whole life pushing others aside so she could lead. She left all others behind. Trees with no roots do not hold to the ground.

Before her, Oleander, who wanted so much to be seen as your Hero in white. He could no longer live with himself once his clothes were stained, but The Sin does not define The Saint.

Before him, Cohen, who wanted nothing more than to be the one who made the decisions. He collapsed in on himself when there was no easy victory. No man is an island.

And a dozen more whose names We have subrogated.

You need Us.

You are not enough.

PROPOSAL:
SEEING IS BELIEVING.

VOTES FOR:
All

VOTES AGAINST:
None

STATUS
ACKNOWLEDGE

FROM: Administrator Wilkes
TO: O5 Council

---

Council,

Your approach is both personally insulting and professionally unacceptable.

I have transitioned countless duties from my predecessor, read the notes and meeting minutes of a dozen boards , assessed the strengths and weaknesses of 24 business units and departments, and otherwise prepared myself for these challenges for the better part of two years. I was nominated by a search committee, vetted in four different and highly invasive stages of interview, and my election was ratified not only by my predecessor and a great many of my peers, but by the O5 Council as well.

Furthermore, this proposal was formulated by a committee of a dozen of our most astute and clever containment specialists who have foundsuccessful means of containing entities every bit as dangerous as this one, and in far less ideal circumstances. The containment recommendations were then translated into plans and schematics by scores of engineers who all have multiple masters degrees in their respective fields, with 20+ years of experience each, and countless other intangible qualifications.

After all of that, half a dozen departments of equally capable personnel worked tirelessly to find the money, the supplies, the personnel necessary to carry out this vision and thenshipped them all to China so we can begin.

What could you possibly have to say to me in person that they have not already covered? I trust them, and I wish you would too.

I await your answer,
Administrator Wilkes

FROM: THE COUNCIL
TO: ADMINISTRATOR NASCENT

---

ADMINISTRATOR,

Your distinctiveness did not arise from the ether; You are a synthesis of available materials and experiences. If needed, another could be synthesized.

We are needed. We are necessary. We synthesize.

You are not. You cannot.

Become We or become They. The choice is yours.

PROPOSAL:
REPORT TO SITE-00 FOR NEW EMPLOYEE ORIENTATION.

VOTES FOR:
All

VOTES AGAINST:
None

STATUS
SAFE
NEED

FROM: Administrator Wilkes
TO: O5 Council

---

Council,

Thanks for clarifying. I think that I understand now.

Administrator Wilkes

FROM: YOUR PEERS
TO: WILKES

---

ADMIN,

We want what's best for Us.

PROPOSAL:
GRAB THE LAST OLIVE BRANCH

VOTES FOR:
All

VOTES AGAINST:
None

STATUS
NOW

FROM: Administrator Wilkes
TO: O5 Council

---

Council,

Are we meeting Tuesday or not? This is the last time I am going to say this; send me a summary of your concerns so I can talk with our engineers and containment specialists, or stop wasting my time.

Administrator Wilkes

FROM: THE ONLY FRIEND YOU HAVE
TO: ATELIS

---

SHELLY,

PROPOSAL:
you ARE READY?

VOTES FOR:
NONE

VOTES AGAINST:
ALL

STATUS
YOU NEED US

FROM: Administrator Wilkes
TO: O5 Council

---

Council,

No.

You cast your shadow over the future with your threats and intimidation, certain we would be nothing without you, but I am forced to wonder who or what would you be without us? I stand with the countless thousands that have died for our mission, the people that have engineered our solutions, the people that will build them, and the people that will risk their lives in order carry out these procedures in the hope our mission might one day be complete. Without them, I know I would be nothing.

We are willing to take our chances without you.

I am going to offer you the same choice you gave me. Become We or become They.

Consider carefully,
Administrator Wilkes

There is a gap of several days without any recorded further correspondence.

FROM: The Administrator
TO: Overwatch Command; Ethics Committee; Site Leadership

---

Colleagues,

I was told this position would challenge me with the hardest decisions I have ever had to make from the very beginning. And that the spirit and integrity with which I faced these first challenges would set the tone for what is to come for not only myself, but the entirety of the Foundation.

We may either rise to meet the occasion, or we may run from what duty might demand and retreat within procedures, votes, and protocols to hide from accountability. I choose the former.

By the authority granted to me in the Charter for the Foundation, I hereby suspend the appointment of the O5 Council, effective immediately, until such time as it once again proves necessary.

Best Wishes,
Michelle Wilkes
Administrator

FROM: O5 Council
TO: Administrator Michelle Wilkes

---

Administrator,

PROPOSAL:
YOU ARE READY.

VOTES FOR:
All

VOTES AGAINST:
None

STATUS
APPROVED

Attention Administrator: The following epistolary has been unlocked and appended to this document following successful verification of your identity and the execution of the COGITO protocol. Instructions for the continued amendment of this document are being forwarded to your encrypted mail channel at this time. The AIC will assist you with any further questions.

---

FROM: Michelle Wilkes, Administrator
TO: My Duly Designated Successor

---

Colleague,

If you are reading this, the reality of my untimely and unplanned demise has come to pass. This is a possibility that any member of the Foundation should prepare to face if they take their duty seriously, and after nearly twenty years at the helm I have most certainly made my peace with the idea. But before they install your placard on the door, I have one solemn duty that remains to be carried out: to prepare you for what lies ahead.

You have no doubt been inundated with files, briefings, phone calls, and so much more in the days since your appointment, but in that chaos what is truly important can easily be pushed into the background. Consider now, before fate takes away the luxury of time, what type of person, co-worker, and leader you want to be.

Each and every one of the Administrators before me was challenged in terms both great and small during their tenures, and I was no exception to this pattern. The office you occupy is not about the power and influence you now command. Nor is it even about the unfathomable responsibility you must now shepherd. It is instead about the character, integrity, and vision with which you meet the test of leadership and, should you prove worthy, surmount it.

You and the people you will lead must be asked to undertake tasks no person should ever be asked to carry out. Yet duty and the safety of all mankind demand that you make this sacrifice. For them. For each other.

If your resolve should ever falter, know that everyone you lead stands with you. We are ready to follow you into the blackest night if you let us believe in the promise of dawn.

But should your resolve ever break, the Council awaits. They will invite you to Site-00 if you ask. You need only surrender.

Best wishes,
M. Wilkes
Former Administrator

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