Item #: SCP-017-DE
Object Class: Euclid
Secure Containment Procedures: SCP-017-DE is contained in an underground bunker in a room 20 × 20 × 6 m in size. The bunker is accessible by a large elevator with which SCP-017-DE can be transported as well as a personnel- and fright-elevator and a staircase. It is equipped with a fresh air supply and exhaust extraction system. The walls, floor, and ceiling are made from four meters thick reinforced concrete. Due to the penetration power of SCP-017-DE's cannon, secondary rooms for personnel were foregone, though there is a storage room. At a height of 3 m from ground level, there is a walkway on all sides of the main room. The elevator shaft and the roof of the bunker are shielded against radio waves. In all elevator and ventilation shafts, strong magnetic fields with a length of at least 10 m are to be kept up at all times, with 4-times redundancy and independent power supply. In the main room is a radio device wired to the surface, with which SCP-017-DE can communicate with Foundation personnel on the surface. Requests regarding lighting, temperature, and humidity are to be fulfilled in agreement with Dr. Griesmann.
On request of SCP-017-DE, one male and one female cleaned and undressed class-D personnel are to be brought into SCP-017-DE through its roof hatches. The remnants of their predecessors are to be removed before the new class-D personnel are lead into the room containing SCP-017-DE. It is an evidence of incompetence that this has to be mentioned at all! — Dr. Griesmann These persons must not have been amnestized ever before, and must not have had access to sensitive data, especially about Raptor Tec. Industries.
Comments of personnel regarding the relation between Raptor Tec. Industries and the Foundation within the containment bunker of SCP-017-DE or via radio are resulting in immediate disciplinary termination. Should SCP-017-DE ask questions regarding this topic, answers are to be denied referring to insufficient security clearance. SCP-017-DE must never be addressed with its item number. Allowed addresses are: The type designation or parts of it as well as “Klara” and the personal number P-DE/449-63446.
SCP-017-DE thinks itself to still be just a prototype for a weapon system for combating extremely dangerous anomalies, and is still waiting for its first real deployment — it regards the circumstance it has not yet been deployed as a good sign. It thinks it is a non-human employee of the Foundation and would bear security clearance level 1 and personal class C. This deception is to be maintained under all circumstances.
Description: SCP-017-DE is the prototype of a battle tank type R.T.I. Grizzly A1, which was designed by Raptor Tec. Industries for the Foundation as a weapons system to fight extremely dangerous and resistant anomalous objects and entities. The prototype is based on a heavily modified Leopard 2A6 main battle tank.
All optics, hatches and other openings to the crew area have been removed and weld shut except for the commander's and loader's hatch, the driver's hatch is not welded shut though is always locked. The engine cover is accessible and conforms to the standard model. Abundant attachment parts have been removed, tools and spare parts which are usually attached to the hull are stored in a storage box on the turret's rear or under the foldable spaced armor on the turret front. The spaced armor is foldable yet not removable.
The remaining optics of the tank are equipped with two cameras which are allowing for a stereoscopic view. In the housing of the gunner's optics are multiple symmetrically arranged lenses, which according to the manual, allows for far precise aiming as usual gunner's optics. On the turret is the rotatable commander's periscope. Instead of the usual driver's optics, there is a low rotatable periscope. The reversing camera is fixed though.
The spaced armor, as well as all external equipment like the cannon and the optics, are made from a titan-alloy with a yet unidentifiable alloying constituent. The whole tank is coated with the same substance as SCP-047-DE and many other SCPs originating from R.T.I., which makes the vehicle resilient against most non-kinetic influences. Atop this, the vehicle is painted in the standard camouflage of the German Armed Forces. The cannon, the optics, all parts of additional armor and some other parts are embossed with the logo of R.T.I. The tactical marking is that of the █./PzBtl ███.
The cannon is a rail-gun with the same length of the normal canon of the Leopard 2A6 tank. It fires steel balls with a diameter of 20 mm with different composition and hardness, depending on the purpose. They are coated with the same substance as the vehicle itself. The exact mechanics, ammunition stock and loading mechanism are unknown, according to the manual projectiles can be fired with a variable muzzle velocity of up to ██.000 m/s. The maximum rate of fire is 12 rounds per minute. The coaxial machine gun has been replaced with a speaker which can be used for communication as well as to emit a sound with a loudness of up to 200 dB for use against infantry. Initially planned tests in the USA hat to be canceled because of beginning tensions with R.T.I, though the calculational maximum energy is with 1██ MJ a multiple of the energy normal tank cannons reach with kinetic energy penetrators.
Little is known about the insides of the turret. The hatches of the commander and loader lead to sections with a seat, several cables, hoses, and medical looking devices but with no displays or controls. According to the manual, one male and one female person are required in these sections for the correct function of SCP-017-DE. It is assumed that the persons are somehow connected to SCP-017-DE-1, which executes processes in their brains that are impossible to run or would only run very slowly on binary computers. If asked about this topic, SCP-017-DE-1 refers to a hardcoded information ban. The fact that SCP-017-DE-1 exhibits traits of the subjects' personalities and knowledge about their memories (even if these were wiped with amnesics) supports this theory. What is known is that remaining in SCP-017-DE results in tissue death. Toes and fingers start necrosing first, a condition that then spreads to the arms and legs, then onto genitalia, the lower and upper body and finally the head. This process leads to mummification of the body, which can usually be removed in one piece. Parts which seem to have fallen off like fingers and toes are unrecoverable, and it is assumed that the sections possess a system for self-cleaning. When the brain is damaged at least 50%, SCP-017-DE-1 signalizes that "the crew'' [sic] has to be replaced. The hatches then are unlocked and can be opened. SCP-017-DE-1 reacted very emotionally to the attempt to smuggle a camera inside with one of the subjects, and it took two weeks of reasoning to get her to cooperate again. In the event that the crew is not replaced within 24 hours, SCP-017-DE starts showing behavior "like a nervous predator'': suddenly starting the engine, driving around the room, hasty rotation of the driver's periscope, flashing the headlights, attempts to persuade personnel to enter by pleading and threatening, and following personnel very closely.
According to the manual, where usually would be the gunner's seat is a computer which runs an artificial intelligence (SCP-017-DE-1), which controls all systems. She calls herself “Klara” and prefers pronouns of the feminine gender. Subtle questioning by Dr. Griesmann has determined that "Klara'' has been a woman whose personality was used as the base for the AI. She avoids questions regarding the whereabouts of her body, which is atypical for her otherwise pragmatic nature. She is loyal to the Foundation but refers to a hard-coded information ban when asked about her or the tank's functionality.
Attachment: Manual #017-DE/A1 [ACCESS DENIED]
Addendum: Since April 2008, unencrypted radio signals consisting of high- and low-pitched sounds have been intercepted at irregular intervals from different positions around the overground part of the bunker in which SCP-017-DE is contained. As no sender has been tracked down so far, and the signals are originating from different positions, it is assumed that they are originating from a mobile transmitter on a vehicle or flying device.