Item #: SCP-4576
Object Class: Safe
Special Containment Procedures: Information regarding SCP-4576 is restricted to the high executive structures of Joint Project Nammu associated parties,1 and research personnel participating directly in Project Nammu. Within the Foundation, Project Nammu research is progress at Sites 7, 11, and 17, and at SCP-████. Likewise, information regarding the Nereus landing module and the details of its mission to Europa is to remain off limits to those not involved in Project Nammu.
Point of penetration by Nereus into the surface of Europa.
Description: SCP-4576 is a subaquatic megastructure of alien origin, located at the bottom of the Nerean Ocean on Europa, the second moon of Jupiter.
Discovery: In March of 2007, NASA launched the probe Amphitrite 1 as a follow-up to the Galileo probe's mission to Jupiter and its moons. Amphitrite was equipped with a landing module designated Nereus, intended to land on Europa and penetrate its layers of surface ice using lasers and various chemical agents.
In November of 2012, the mission arrived at the Jupiter system. The Nereus module performed as expected and the excavation attempt was approved. After drilling through approximately 3 kilometers of surface ice, Nereus penetrated to the subsurface ocean, confirming its existence. This ocean was designated the Nerean Ocean.
Within several hours it had conclusively mapped roughly 230 square kilometers of repetitive hexagonal structures on the ocean floor. Due to the lack of possible chemical, geological, gravitational, or other natural physical explanations for this pattern, embedded agents within NASA censored the findings and amnesticized attending scientists. The loss of Nereus was falsified under a cover story of onboard equipment failure.
Due to the possibility of contact with extraterrestrial intelligent life, the Overseer Council convened a conference with representatives of the GOC and the Pentagram in compliance with mutual defense and information sharing agreements regarding non-human intelligent species. Joint Project Nammu was therefore incorporated as a new collaborative effort to explore the Nerean Ocean.
