SCP-5661 — SCP-5661 | Cost Breakdown

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SCP-5661 Safe ~ medium confidence

SCP-5661

Expected annual

$29.0M

One-time setup

$149.3M

Annual recurring

$28.4M

Personnel

Estimated one-time capital and contingency deployments total about $149.3M, dominated by a large contingency reserve and equipment/space assets; recurring baseline operations are roughly $28.43M/yr driven by embedded personnel, MTF staffing, covert grants, mission ops and intelligence budgets.

🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $149.3M

Catastrophic Contingency Reserve $125.0M

[#21] Large one‑time reserve stockpile for mass amnestic campaigns / buyouts / emergency operations.

Equipment $15.4M

[#3, #6, #11, #13, #17, #20] Hardened servers/data‑sanitization hardware, MTF helicopter and armored vans, deployable seismometer nodes, one‑off safety/protective gear, and CubeSat/space monitoring hardware.

Initial Research And Lab Setup $6.8M

[#9, #11, #19] Dedicated anomalous research lab buildout and high‑end instrumentation plus modelling/codebase buildout.

Facilities $2.0M

[#8] Vault buildout and other structural construction (climate control, Faraday, blast‑proof storage).

Embed Recruiting Overhead $200K

[#1] Year‑one hiring/recruiting overhead for global seismology/geophysics embeds.

🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $28.4M/yr

Staff Wages $7.1M/yr

[#1, #5, #10] Embedded seismologists/operatives (~12 @ $150k), MTF rapid‑response/amnestic team (~40 @ $90k), and core research scientists (~12 @ $140k).

Mission Procurement And Ops $6.0M/yr

[#24] Small mission procurement, staging, consumables and post‑mission quarantine (plan for 1–3 missions/yr).

Covert Grant Program $3.5M/yr

[#2] Covert grants/research funding to influence publications and buy raw instrument access.

Cover Story And Legal $2.5M/yr

[#14] Legal, diplomatic, covert outreach budgets and contractual suppression efforts.

Intelligence And Counter Group Ops $2.5M/yr

[#22] HUMINT, covert ops, infiltration and counter‑group activities (Serpent's Hand, etc.).

Way Operation Budget $2.2M/yr

[#12] Redundant Way/portal operations, ritual materials, specialized staff and redundancy to manage access.

Research And Monitoring $1.2M/yr

[#9, #19, #16] Dedicated lab staff & ops, HPC/compute/devops, and historical/cultural conservation team.

Logistics And Transport $500K/yr

[#6] Annual fuel/maintenance for MTF vehicles and aircraft support.

Public Emergency Cover $500K/yr

[#15] Pre‑written cover narratives, witness reimbursements, temporary relocation and witness protection.

Per Incident Emergency Fund $500K/yr

[#18] Reserve for per‑incident amnestic operations, MTF mobilization, temporary housing and debriefing.

Facilities Maintenance $400K/yr

[#8, #13, #17] Vault operation, seismometer array maintenance/comm, and safety equipment upkeep.

Personnel Rotation And Healthcare $400K/yr

[#23] Rotation travel, long‑term medical and psychiatric care for project staff.

It Record Retention And Memetic Countermeasures $350K/yr

[#25] Secure archival, memetic filters and internal audit team for sanitization operations.

Mtf Training $300K/yr

[#5] Ongoing MTF training and recertification for amnestic/rapid‑response unit.

Supplies And Consumables $250K/yr

[#7] Consumable amnestic supplies, medical and memetic containment materials.

Data Infrastructure Hosting $200K/yr

[#3, #4] Ongoing hosting/colocation, bandwidth, backup and cybersecurity for data‑sanitization/sanitized telemetry pipeline.

⚡ Cost Scenarios

📊 Baseline (baseline) $28.4M/yr

93.0% probability / year

Normal year with no major public detections or large retrieval campaigns; routine monitoring, embeds and scheduled missions only.

no_publication_or_detection routine_missions_and_ops normal_staffing_and_maintenance

🚨 Minor Incident $29.4M/yr

6.0% probability / year +$1.0M vs baseline

Localized civilian detection or small Way incursion requiring MTF mobilization, amnestics, evidence removal and limited PR/legal actions.

local_detection_of_signature single_way_entry civilian_witnessing

🚨 Catastrophic Revelation $78.4M/yr

1.0% probability / year +$50.0M vs baseline

Wide dissemination/confirmation of SCP‑5661 or multiple Ways opened, triggering large‑scale amnestic campaigns, buyouts and emergency operations.

widespread_publication mass_way_openings international_crisis

👥 Personnel 64 total

Role	Count	Notes
Embedded Seismologist / Geophysicist	12	[#1] Foundation operatives embedded in global seismology/geophysics centers (paid covers).
MTF Rapid-Response / Amnestic Team	40	[#5] Standing MTF team trained in amnestics and rapid infiltration (Eta‑8 equivalent).
Research Scientist	12	[#10] Core research staff (theorists, physicists, archaeologists, xenobiologists) for SCP‑5661 study.

📋 Confidence Notes

Analyst notes provide detailed line items and ranges enabling a budgetary estimate, but several items have wide ranges (contingency reserve, grants, mission frequency) and discretionary policy choices (scale of contingency, frequency of missions) that create moderate uncertainty.

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