On the 13th of October, 1989, the town of
Danner, Wisconsin, was shaken by a seismic event unlike anything they'd ever experienced. This might have been written off as an earthquake,
were it not for one disturbing factor - the ground shaking event was accompanied by a
huge spike of radioactivity. With the strange phenomenon happening a month
before the Berlin Wall was torn down, during a period of the Cold War that historians call
“The Year of Crisis”, it’s easy to understand why the people of Danner immediately assumed
the worst. But the huge eruption they felt wasn't the
result of a nuclear bomb going off. The SCP Foundation was alerted to the event
in Danner when they picked up a series of radio transmissions coming from just outside
the town. When they arrived, they found something incredible,
like something out of a sci-fi movie. Standing at the quake's epicenter, was a creature
that looked to be from another world. Standing 2 meters tall and weighing almost
300 kilograms, the being was green and brown in color, with a bulky, humanoid body. It’s head was a different story though,
and resembled a gigantic housefly, with a proboscis and huge, stereoscopic eyes. Surprisingly, the strange creature did not
immediately go on a rampage. Instead, the being - designated SCP-2273 - appeared
to be exhausted, injured, and extremely malnourished. It offered no resistance at all to the Foundation
containment team and it was taken to Site-17 without conflict. While the SCP Foundation is no stranger to
visitors from other worlds, there was something especially unusual about this supposed alien
invader. The doctors who examined the creature and
treated its injuries found an appendage that seemed to function as an organic radio transmitter,
and large open wounds on its shoulder blades and forearms where further appendages had
been ripped off. Additionally, while its insect-like exoskeleton
was mostly a uniform green and brown pattern, the creature's upper arms and torso were dotted
with a variety of scars and markings that, on closer inspection, looked like military
badges. Was this some kind of wounded intergalactic
soldier who had been stranded on Earth? If it was, then how were the organic badges
on this alien's exoskeleton a near perfect match to military badges worn by soldiers
in the Soviet Union? Even if they did reference a unit that didn’t
officially exist within the Soviet army. The scientists were sure, this alien wasn't
an alien at all… underneath its exoskeleton was a non-anomalous human being. If that was true, then this was even more
terrifying than an extraterrestrial visitor. The scientists were sure the USSR had developed
a new kind of organic armor, and this anomaly showing up in Wisconsin was the result of
a test on US soil that had gone wrong. If that was the case, then there was no telling
how many more of these exoskeletons were out there and would need to be contained. The Foundation had to act quickly and find
out more. While SCP-2273 was recovering, they called
in Dr. Friedritch, an on-site psychologist who could speak several languages including
Russian. Dr. Friedritch would be tasked with interrogating
the SCP on his origins and the nature of the suit. The interview was conducted via AM radio from
a separate observation chamber, as the biological transmitter seemed to be SCP-2273's only method
of communication. The interview began with Dr. Friedritch speaking
to SCP-2273 in Russian, only for 2273 to respond that Dr. Friedritch’s accent was atrocious
and requesting he use German instead. SCP-2273 who, according to the organic military
patches on his body, was named Major Alexei Belitrov, initially resisted being interviewed. He believed that he was a prisoner of war,
being held by the American military. According to him, he had been in the middle
of battle, and that the Americans had killed his men and left him for dead in the wilderness. Nothing that Dr. Friedritch told him - that
there was no war, or that the Foundation was not affiliated with the US government - could
convince him otherwise and he refused to talk further. Before a second interview was conducted, Belitrov
was given an old copy of the Level 1 Researcher General Debrief, as a way of helping him further
understand the nature of the Foundation and his containment. Belitrov was more co-operative after that,
though the realization that he would most likely be kept in containment for the rest
of his life caused him great distress and he was unwilling to speak to Dr. Friedritch
for another three days. Dr. Friedritch didn’t give up though, and
when Belitrov finally opened up to the doctor, he began to tell him more and more. Belitrov told the doctor that when he was
a child, Russia was hit by an American nuclear warhead, and that the Soviet Union immediately
retaliated. The resulting nuclear conflict, which Belitrov
called The War to End the World, caused massive devastation and left most of the planet dangerously
irradiated. That’s why he had the exoskeleton. It was to shield him from the radiation and
allow him to survive above ground. Unfortunately, Belitrov knew very little about
how the suit was made or how it worked, saying that it was built by “the engineers”,
and that it grew naturally over a period of several years. But Belitrov hadn’t made the decision himself. It was his parents who had volunteered him
as a test subject for the exoskeleton suit program when he was still young, hoping it
would give him a better chance at survival. The process of bonding the exoskeleton to
the human body was extremely painful, but according to Belitrov, its advantages far
outweighed the pain. The suit not only helped him survive in a
nuclear wasteland, but made him a better soldier. The suit allowed him to lift and carry up
to 1200 kilograms, gave him stereoscopic vision, and the organic radio transmitter allowed
him to communicate with other soldiers across long distances, as well as listen in on encrypted
enemy transmissions. The wounds on his shoulders and arms, where
it looked like appendages had been ripped out, were where his weapons and supply packs
had previously been mounted. Belitrov had been stationed with his men in
the area he was discovered when they were attacked by American soldiers. The soldiers had ripped off Belitrov's weapons
and supply pack, and did the same to all of his men as well. They were all shot, with Belitrov being spared
for the moment only because the Americans had identified him as the commanding officer. Suddenly, there was a bright flash of light,
and the American soldiers vanished. Not only that, but the landscape changed - where
there had been a post-nuclear wasteland before, now there were lush green trees. Injured and disoriented, Belitrov began sending
distress signals, only to have those signals intercepted by the SCP Foundation. The most interesting part of Belitrov's story,
as far as the Foundation was concerned, came during his fourth interview, when Dr. Friedritch
asked him about the engineers who had designed the exoskeleton suit. In Belitrov's own words - “They weren't
truly known to Man until the years of the Great War and the Revolution. The French found them, in buried cities where
the Western Allies were digging their trenches. Eventually, they were made to build weapons
for the war, by both sides.” By his description, these engineers didn't
sound human, but they were by no means unknown to the SCP Foundation. Belitrov described the engineers as humanoid,
nocturnal, covered in fur, and possessing technology and intelligence far beyond that
of any human. Those familiar with the Foundation's history
might already know the engineers by their Foundation designation of SCP-1000, or their
more commonly known name - Bigfoot. A quick rundown: SCP-1000 are a species of
intelligent humanoid primates that lived alongside humanity in highly advanced cities until their
own technology was turned against them. Not only were their cities wiped off the face
of the earth, but 70 percent of their population was slaughtered, and the survivors were driven
mad to the point that their mental faculties were no higher than those of a chimpanzee
or gorilla. The SCP Foundation is tasked with keeping
them away from human contact, in fear of what the creatures would be able to do to humanity
if they ever regained their memories and full mental function and rumors have been spread
about them possessing deadly anomalous properties. But evidently, the destruction of the SCP-1000
species never occurred in Belitrov's universe, or if it did, it wasn't nearly as complete. In that timeline, humanity regained contact
with SCP-1000 after discovering their underground cities sometime during World War One. After this discovery, both the Allied and
Axis powers began recruiting them to build weapons, and their weapons played a role in
both the Russian Revolution and the second world war. It was because of these technological advantages
that the Cold War escalated into what would become the war to end all wars. Both sides were armed with not only nuclear
warheads, but highly advanced, radiation-proof exoskeleton armor that allowed the conflict
to continue even after the total destruction of the planet. While the humans fought above ground, life
continued as normal for SCP-1000 in their underground cities. As Belitrov noted, they never wore the armor
themselves, as they had no need to venture above ground. “Only soldiers wear armor, and this is not
their war.” Belitrov continued to adjust to life in containment
and sitting for regular interviews with Dr. Friedritch. He was given the rations provided for humanoid
anomalies, but in much larger quantities, as the suit required him to eat around 8000
calories a day to keep it functioning. Belitrov also began taking advantage of his
ability to access the Foundation's library - he would often read, or listen to classical
music, particularly by the Russian composer Tchaikovsky. He seemed especially fond of reading The Time
Machine by HG Wells, no surprise given he was able to directly relate to the experience
of living through an apocalypse and being transported to a strange timeline with no
way to return home. But with little else to occupy his time, Belitrov
began to display symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder, reporting
in his now regular interviews with Dr. Friedritch that he was constantly reliving memories of
the battles he'd fought and the lives he had taken in combat. The suit was making the problem worse too,
it seemed. It was as if he could never forget, as one
of its features was an ability to store and replay memories. This feature was intended as a strategic aid
that would allow commanding officers to more effectively gather and process information
about their surroundings, but outside of combat, this only served to force Belitrov into reliving
his most painful memories again and again. Every night as he tried to sleep, he would
see the faces of his men, their weapons torn from their exoskeletons, laying in the dirt
after being gunned down by the enemy. Like many veterans, Belitrov was being hit
all at once with the harsh realities of war. Now that his brain wasn't solely focused on
keeping him alive, it had time to process all the horrors he'd experienced. He told Dr. Friedritch- “I trained alongside
these men for years before they put us back on the surface, since we were all young children. We were brothers. And I gave the order to surrender, and…
got them killed. I should have died with them.” While the story of SCP-2273 ends here, the
story of Alexei Belitrov, SCP-2273-1, continues. In 2018, Belitrov was allowed passage to Volgograd,
Russia, as part of an Anomaly Reintegration program. While he was unable to secure employment within
the Russian government as he had hoped, he eventually was taken in by a monastery and
continued to write letters to Dr. Friedritch until Friedritch's eventual death from lymphoma-related
complications. There’s plenty more on the monastery, the
Anomaly Reintegration program, and what happened to Major Belitrov when he returned to Russia,
but that'll have to be a story for another day. But if you’re hungry for more SCP content
right now, go check out our series on SCP - 5000 - The Suit, or the two-part saga of
what happened at Site - 13!
