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SCP-4942 Safe ~ medium confidence
SCP-4942
Expected annual
$3.1M
One-time setup
$1.8M
Annual recurring
$3.1M
Personnel
14
Initial capital and development costs are modest (~$1.76M) while recurring annual operations drive the budget (~$3.13M/yr), dominated by staff wages, MTF readiness, and continuous monitoring/takedown operations.
🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $1.8M
Io Sauron Development $600K
[#5] One-time development and deployment of I/O-SAURON web crawler, OCR/NLP model training, dashboard and initial false-positive mitigation.
Equipment $300K
[#1] HVAC dehumidification, UV-filtered lighting, clean-agent fire suppression, secure display cases and other installed hardware for vault/conservation.
Market Denial Reserve $250K
[#10] One-time strategic buyout / emergency fund to deny rare components (wheat, livestock, cash) as a preparedness reserve.
Facilities $200K
[#1] Structural retrofit and vault construction costs for the Site-36 Restricted Zone (vaulting, seismic shelving, structural work).
Initial Research And Lab Setup $200K
[#1, #12] Small conservation lab buildout (from #1) plus initial research/translation project startup (from #12).
Secure Digital Archive $140K
[#13] Encrypted cataloging setup, air-gapped backups, PKI/hardware-token provisioning, redaction overlays and secure viewing stations (one-time setup).
Interagency Agreements $35K
[#16] One-time legal drafting and MOU setup with external custodians and partners.
Training Setup $35K
[#18] Initial training curriculum and drill program setup for library staff, MTF and analysts.
🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $3.1M/yr
Staff Wages $835K/yr
[#2, #3, #6] Salaries/benefits for security guards (6 guards), library conservators/curators/admin and I/O-SAURON analysts (2–4).
Mtf Readiness $500K/yr
[#8] Standing readiness costs for MTF χ-7: training, tactical equipment, travel readiness and operational sustainment (does not include baseline salaries).
Cover Story And Legal $325K/yr
[#7, #17, #20] Annual budget for content takedowns, PR/ misinformation control, retainer/legal insurance and contingency funds for litigation or witness management.
Incident Response Reserve $300K/yr
[#15] Annual reserve for major incident response (temporary quarantine, hazard containment, evidence collection, potential neutralization/capture).
Undercover Operations $200K/yr
[#9] Costs for HUMINT, online personas, cover identities, travel and informant stipends.
Financial Surveillance $200K/yr
[#11] Financial intelligence, cooperation with banking/ATM networks, covert holds, and operational surveillance/interdiction funds.
Facilities Maintenance $125K/yr
[#2, #19] Maintenance of access control/CCTV and HVAC/power/generator testing and utilities for continuous preservation.
Amnestic Medical $125K/yr
[#14] Annual reserve for amnestics, medical/psych treatment, detainee containment and clinical staff time.
Research And Monitoring $115K/yr
[#12] Ongoing translation, forensic analysis, scholarship, simulations and related research staff/contract work.
Market Surveillance Monitoring $110K/yr
[#10] Continuous monitoring and liaison to detect narrow window component availability (wheat timing, livestock activity) and interdiction coordination.
Io Sauron Operation $90K/yr
[#6] Servers/hosting, bandwidth, storage, subscriptions and non-salary operating costs for I/O-SAURON operation (analyst salaries are in staff_wages).
Logistics And Transport $80K/yr
[#4] Standing contract for secure transport, armored couriers, custom crates and per-transfer logistics.
Training And Drills $55K/yr
[#18] Ongoing annual training, drills, hired trainers and overtime for participants.
Interagency Liaison $50K/yr
[#16] Travel, joint exercises, and small compensations/inducements to external custodians and partners.
Secure Digital Archive Maintenance $20K/yr
[#13] Ongoing maintenance for encrypted catalog, backups, PKI tokens and secure viewing stations.
Supplies And Consumables $0/yr
[]
⚡ Cost Scenarios
📊 Baseline (baseline) $3.1M/yr
95.5% probability / year
No major incidents; normal operations with continuous monitoring, maintenance, staffing and standing readiness.
no ritual attempts routine monitoring and maintenance scheduled training
🚨 Minor Incident $3.2M/yr
4.0% probability / year +$75K vs baseline
A localized attempt is detected and interdicted early (online lead/small field deployment); limited medical/amnestic use and PR/takedown costs.
detected ritual attempt single MTF deployment targeted amnestic/medical response
🚨 Major Incident $3.7M/yr
0.5% probability / year +$600K vs baseline
A full-scale attempt proceeds or SCP-4942-2 is manifested/bound, requiring major MTF operations, quarantine, extended legal/PR response and large cleanup efforts.
extended ritual completion manifestation or practitioner-bound entity multi-day MTF/containment operations
👥 Personnel 14 total
Role Count Notes
Security Officer / MTF Agent 6 [#2] 6 guards (2 per shift × 3 shifts) assigned to the Site-36 Restricted Zone; salaries included in staff_wages.
Research Scientist / Conservator 4 [#3] Conservators, restricted-library curator, HMCL director's assistant and part-time specialist coverage (3–5 FTEs; midpoint used).
Data Analyst / I/O-SAURON Analyst 3 [#6] 2–4 analysts to triage I/O-SAURON hits; midpoint used and salaries included in staff_wages.
Administrative Staff 1 [#3, #16] HMCL administrative support and liaison coordination included in recurring staff costs.
📋 Confidence Notes
Line-item ranges were provided for most costs, enabling mid-range estimates; uncertainty remains around incident frequency/severity and how costs are split between salaries vs contractor/reserve funds, so confidence is medium.
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