SCP-5135, also sometimes called “The War
That Never Was”, is an anomalous worldwide military conflict involving at least four
major world superpowers, that did not occur between 2009 and 2017. However, despite the fact that this war objectively
did not happen in our reality, the Foundation has collected a vast cache of evidence for
its occurrence. This evidence exists in a variety of forms,
including documents, radio signals, photographs, and fragments of digital data such as images
and communications, all of which have been received and collected intermittently since
the year 2011. Foundation Researchers have theorized that
all this evidence has somehow been anomalously transferred from a parallel reality, where
this global armed conflict actually did take place. While, initially, the Foundation was able
to glean very little information about this conflict, this changed as more and more evidence
trickled in - we’ll discuss this further later on. However, since the very beginning, the Foundation
was able to gather six key pieces of information about the war. First, was the definitive confirmation that
the war involves four global military superpowers, and that two of these were the United States
Of America and the People’s Republic Of China. Second, the war involved a high level of espionage
and cyber-warfare. Third, this is one of the few conflicts in
the past century to spill over into US Soil, with the conflict starting there in 2010 and
skirmishes continuing as late as 2014. Four, the US and at least one other major
belligerent in the war made use of widespread misinformation campaigns to confuse the enemy
and their own citizens. Five, since at least 2016, the conflict has
involved nuclear engagements. And six, it’s possible that the SCP Foundation
is involved in this war. Another key piece of evidence is SCP-5135-1,
an undetonated but active nuclear weapon resembling a Soviet RDS-202 hydrogen bomb, or “Tsar
Bomba.” Its estimated yield is approximately 97 megatons,
making it a formidable weapon. SCP-5135-1 is locked in a temporal stasis
field - meaning it’s frozen in time - and presently hovers 104.6cm above the ground
in Rancho Corral de Tierra, California. The origin of the stasis field is unknown,
but it’s speculated that the field was created by the Foundation or some Foundation equivalent
in this alternate timeline. While the payload appears still to the naked
eye, testing indicated that SCP-5135-1 retains its momentum and kinetic energy. The Foundation fears that any direct interaction
with the bomb could cause it to detonate. There also appears to be an inscription on
the side, reading: The families lost. Kauai, Hawaii - December 24th, 2012. The next line is unreadable followed by North
Carolina - March 12th, 2016. This one’s for you. From the evidence received over the years,
Foundation researchers have been able to theorize a rough timeline of the events of SCP-5135. The inciting incident came just after the
tragic 2008 Sichuan earthquake. The United States sent emergency relief which,
as it turned out, was contaminated by a biological agent, causing an outbreak and an unknown
number of casualties. Hostilities began in 2009, when Chinese spies
somehow discovered that the emergency relief was intentionally contaminated by the US in
an attempt to weaken China. After a tense series of standoffs throughout
2009, that November a third superpower entered the arena, positioning themselves as an enemy
to China. The US denied any kind of affiliation to this
new combatant but conflict continued to escalate. In 2010, troops from an unknown fourth superpower
landed on the East Coast of the United States. In 2011, the world was beginning to feel the
stress of the rising tensions. Representatives from the European Union expressed
a desire to see the conflict deescalate in a closed-door meeting. But this, sadly, didn’t seem to have any
effect. In the Summer of 2012, military forces attacked
Hawaii, and set up a military installation on Kauai. Naturally, the United States tried to reclaim
the territory immediately by laying siege to the base. However, this didn’t work, so by Christmas
Eve of that year, the US took drastic action. They carpet bombed the Kauai base, causing
an untold number of civilian casualties in the process. The US considered the bombing operation a
success, but the public did not see it the same way. By early 2013, the US government was deep
into a disinformation campaign, downplaying their involvement in the Kauai tragedy to
dampen civil unrest about them bombing US civilians. Records are spotty over the next three years,
but by 2016, there’s a nuclear attack on US soil, turning this new Cold War red hot. Later that same year, an aircraft with a nuclear
payload is shot down over Italy by unknown aggressors, resulting in catastrophic loss
of civilian life. No evidence was found after this point, and
it’s likely that either the war ended… or the world did. Some of the collected evidence of SCP-5135
shows a world sleepwalking into a self-destructive war, one attack or diplomatic fumble at a
time. The first piece of evidence, Inventory Code:
5135-E-1, is a corrupted photograph of a typed document suggesting a planned assault on China
in 2009. The next piece of evidence, an audio file
with the Inventory Code: 5135-E-2, shows an employee of the US Government that same year
talking about the country’s rapidly souring relationship with China. One chilling quote from the transcript reads:
“Well, the secretary of state already said we're disavowing any relationship with them.” A heavily redacted memo with the Inventory
Code: 5135-E-3 shows early US knowledge of the military installation created by the invading
forces in Hawaii. Perhaps the most disturbing piece of physical
evidence of all is another audio file, labeled Inventory Code: 5135-E-5, showing the last
moments before the devastating nuclear incident in Italy. The audio is a correspondence CD. between Italian Air Traffic Control based
in Rome, and the operators of the nuclear-armed American bomber plane traveling through Italian
airspace. The conversation shows the confusion and miscommunication
between the two parties, eventually resulting in Italian defence forces shooting down the
plane. The last words before the recording cuts off
are a panicked exclamation from the Air Traffic Control operator. He says, “Oh Jesus, it's nuclear, oh God,
it's so close, it's—“ The statement then abruptly ends. You can guess what happened next. Considering this war that never happened poses
no real possibility of containment breach, it’s earned the rare but welcome classification
of “Safe.” It also has a relatively low risk classification,
with “Caution”, the second lowest of all classes in this category - meaning, according
to official Foundation guidelines, “The anomaly in question has a moderate risk potential. Individuals nearby will likely experience
the effects of the anomaly, and these effects may cause discomfort or harm.” However, it’s also important to note that
it also has the Level 4 “Secret” classification, meaning information about SCP-5135 can only
be accessed by Foundation staff at a Level 4 Clearance - which is the second highest
level of clearance available. It also has the formidable Level 4 “Ekhi”
Disruption Class, meaning it has a “High potential to disrupt the general population. Disruption is typically widespread, affecting
major metropolitan areas or countries.” The containment priorities of this particular
SCP are twofold. First, Foundation employees are ordered to
capture and suppress any evidence pointing to the idea that the SCP-5135 War actually
did happen. They’re also required to track down anyone
who claims to remember the events of the war, and deliver them amnestic treatment followed
by a psychological exam. Second,are the containment measures needed
to secure the undetonated SCP- 5135-1 nuclear device. The Foundation has secured a 1 km radius around
the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in which the temporally frozen explosive resides. This area is marked off with physical security,
fencing, and security personnel. The bomb itself is encased in a doorless concrete
sarcophagus, measuring 10m x 10m with cement walls more than half a meter thick. But these procedures are merely to protect
SCP-5135-1 from exterior forces and, to quote from the official file, will offer no mitigation
of destructive impact in the event of detonation. Finally, in hopes of making this whole mess
easier to understand, the Foundation brought in Dr. Voight, a theoretical physicist who
specializes in temporal anomalies, to assist lead researcher Dr. Delkirk on the SCP-5135
case. In an anomaly that raises so many questions,
it’s only natural for the Foundation to want some straight answers. Dr. Voight had a wild theory, one that deeply
concerned Dr. Delkirk. Voight asked Delkirk if he truly had hard
evidence that the war hadn’t occurred in our reality. Delkirk said that the mere fact that he hadn’t
heard about this major war proved it hadn’t happened here. In response, Dr. Voight asked him if he would
have known about the war in Iraq if it wasn’t for media coverage of the event. Delkirk said no. Voight wondered if this was a similar situation. Delkirk began to toy with the idea that perhaps
the war itself was an anomaly, an anti-memetic war, impossible to remember and report. Dr. Voight believed the explanation was much
simpler, and it all came down to one sentence in the containment procedures of this very
file: “Physical evidence supporting the existence of the events of SCP-5135 are to
be secured and archived.” In other words, Dr. Voight believed that the
war of 5135 isn’t happening in another timeline, it’s happening right here, right now, and
the Foundation is covering it up. But of course, because the Foundation is very
good at its job, we’ll never know the truth, either way.
