Item #: SCP-186
Object Class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures: The site of SCP-186, comprising an approximately 300 km2 area, is to be closed to the public under the auspices of a habitat restoration initiative for the European bison. An automated security perimeter is to be established, monitored by staff at Remote Site-355. Security personnel must patrol SCP-186 every two weeks; any anomalous phenomena observed within the security perimeter must be documented and reported to the Research Director.
All known primary sources documenting the events of SCP-186 have been secured by the Foundation. These materials are to be stored in the Site-23 Archives. Due to the age of the materials and the potential for deterioration, all access to these documents must be approved by the Site-23 Archivist and handled per their instructions.
All instances of SCP-186-1 are to be secured in the munitions wing of Site-23.
Description: SCP-186 is the site of an unrecorded military engagement occurring from 7/24/1917 to 8/13/1917 between elements of the Imperial German Army and forces of the Russian provisional government as part of the larger conflict of World War I, and the continuing effects resulting from its aftermath. This conflict came to be known to its participants as the Battle of Husiatyn Woods in surviving accounts.
In July of 1917, an armed engagement between a detachment of approximately 500 German soldiers and the remnants of a Russian division scattered during the German counterattack to the Kerensky Offensive took place at the location of SCP-186. The forces met in heavily forested terrain outside the town of Husiatyn in what is currently Ternopil Oblast, Ukraine. On both sides of the conflict, combatants deployed anomalous weaponry utilizing technology that has yet to be duplicated or understood at present. This battle eventually resulted in the deaths or permanent incapacitation of all forces involved, and approximately 300 civilians in its general vicinity.
SCP-186-1 consists of recovered weaponry dating from the initial containment of SCP-186 in 1917, and includes the following:
A highly modified weapon resembling the Skoda M1909 machine gun, capable of causing extremely rapid tumor-like growths to appear within the body of any organism larger than a common lab rat
Mortar shells specially designed to be fired from a Mortier de 58mm type 2, containing a gas that causes animal cells to become unable to cease life function
Concertina wire coated with an unknown hallucinogenic compound that permanently affects human test subjects upon entering the bloodstream
Remnants of an unknown incendiary device believed to have been detonated at the close of the conflict, accounting for what is estimated to be 34% of total casualties
British Empire-issue No. 27 type grenades, containing a gas capable of passing through all tested gas-mask filtration systems, and causing humans to constantly experience the sensation of being on fire
8x50mmR French rifle cartridges containing powdered human bone instead of gunpowder; purpose unknown
Historical records indicate that the German detachment involved in the Battle of Husiatyn Woods, at the behest of a Hungarian military advisor named Mátyás Nemeş, specifically pursued the group of Russian forces in retreat, which at the time included French scientist Dr. Jean Durand. Based on documents of the era since suppressed by the Foundation, it is believed that these two individuals are responsible for the development and limited manufacture of SCP-186-1, and had attached themselves to opposing sides of the Eastern Front for the express purpose of deployment of these weapons in a combat setting.
