The main anomaly is the Chaos Insurgency engine. It can make predictions that may or may not happen, but it always tries to get the best possible outcome for the timeline. It goes based on chaos theory rules, which state that within the apparent randomness of chaotic complex systems, there are underlying and interconnecting patterns that suggest some sort of order. The butterfly effect for example describes how one small change in one state of a deterministic system can result in larger differences in a later state, just like how butterfly flapping its wings can cause a hurricane in Florida. The engine looks through all these systems to find the best outcome for humanity and the Foundation, but what the Foundation doesn’t know is that it also looks through other timelines.
Section One
The article begins with Dr. Michael Prescott interviewing Fritz Williams, the former Administrator who hasn’t been seen in decades. He tells him that all isn’t as it seems, and shows him the file of the true 001, the Engine of the Chaos Insurgency. The file explains how Fritz and his crew found it at a small island near the coast of Greece, and an inscription on the wall near where it was found warns those to not peer into its predictions, for it could break their minds and lead them down the wrong path or something like that. Damien O’Connor is the only one who can understand what it says, because he was the first person to find it and it latched onto him. It makes a bunch of predictions that turn out to be true, benefiting everyone in the group and leading them to find more and more anomalies around the world. Fritz gets an idea and then calls for a meeting between all the major normalcy organizations.
What the group doesn’t know is that the Engine searches through complex systems throughout the universe and in other timelines to find the best outcomes for humanity to come out on top. It has its own agenda where it thinks it knows best for humanity and what they should become, and it wishes to make the Foundation the ultimate new world order to keep chaos in check. That reveal comes later though.
For now, we introduce each ambassador for 13 normalcy organizations who become the Overseers of the Foundation. The only ones who matter are O5-5, who acts as a mediator between anomalous groups and the Veiled world, and who sympathizes with the anomalies and tries to treat them more as people, O5-8, a traditional man who wants to stick with the status quo (and whose grandson becomes the current O5-8), and O5-1, who was part of Fritz’s crew and is a longtime friend and collaborator of Fritz and his expeditions. I imagine Fritz here as an accountant working for Austrian aristocrats who is bored with life and wants to see the world for what it really is, and wants to protect humanity from the unknown dangers lurking in the dark.
This section should consist of Fritz and his crew forming the Foundation and negotiating with the other normalcy organizations, while Damien interacts with the Engine and starts to form a bond and kinship with it, seeing its vision and what it wants to achieve. I should also hint at the Engine making certain predictions that encourage the formation of the Foundation, since it believes that the anomalous should be separate from the mundane and Fritz and the other founding members agree with that approach. It ends with Damien escaping with the Engine, leading to the rest of the story which will end up being a mix of prose and an epistolary format.
Section Two
This section and all future sections are interspersed between prose and other types of epistolary letters and documentation. Fritz is starting to struggle as the sole leader of the Foundation, as there are more and more anomalies being discovered and contained, and he realizes that this pipe dream of his is starting to get out of hand. He gets an idea to split the power between thirteen overseers, with himself acting as an Administrator for the Foundation, and he’s the one who formed RAISA. The Overseers get along fine at first, but then some cracks are beginning to form as they can’t agree on certain fundamental principles.
Meanwhile, Damien is on the run, and learns of the Engine’s plan to build humanity’s best future, and how it understands the anomalous ecosystem mathematically with its algorithms that look through the various deterministic systems of the universe. They come up with a plan together to test the Foundation and see if they are the most effective option to protect humanity from the anomalous and anything that goes against the Engine’s plan, and to test them Damien has to sow doubt within the Foundation itself. He turns himself in, and claims that he’s being controlled by the Engine to get the Overseers to have some sympathy from him.
Section Three
The Foundation Civil War starts after a schism in the Overseers occurs revolving around the treatment of anomalies and if they should have human rights or not. Damien manipulates O5-5 to form the pro-anomaly side, and in turn he manipulates O5-8 to form the pro-tradition side. He proceeds to orchestrate an assassination of Overseers 3, 4, and 7, and forges a makeshift story that blames each side of the conflict for the attacks (blaming the pro-anomaly side and giving fake evidence to the other side, and vice versa). The rest of this should include action prose of battles between both parties, and the anomalous people and weapons that are used in the conflict. It ends with the Chaos Insurgency forming, with Damien as the leader, and the Foundation at its lowest point. Fritz attempts to improve things by allowing the Ethics Committee to be formed, but that doesn’t help much and he’s forced to go into hiding.
Section Four
This section details the Cold War between the various CI factions and the Foundation, who are confused that there’s authoritarian sects and guerilla communist sects working under the same goal to destroy the Foundation. Fritz goes back to where he found the Engine, and meets Pythia, an ancient oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient classical world. She explains to him that before the formation of the universe, there was chaos, and with it came the anomalous and natural worlds, and warns him that one day, the Earth may return to its primordial state, slowing losing its “ordered state” and progressing to total incoherency of reality if the balance between order and disorder is disrupted.
Fritz, now spooked by this information, attempts to find Damien. He finds him where they first met each other, on a bridge overlooking a waterfall. Damien explains how he uses the Insurgency to test the Foundation and see if they are worthy to protect and strengthen normalcy, as his Engine knows what is best for humanity, and to prevent the universe from falling into disorder, there must be order to counteract/insurge the chaos. And to do that, the anomalous world must be kept hidden and must be kept in check. This is where his true fascist colors reveal themselves. Fritz tries to stop him, but he’s shot in the chest, causing him to go over the bridge’s edge and fall into the water below. He does not die, however, for the Greek fates tell him his story isn’t over yet, but without a body, he must become Nobody.
Section Five
Damien becomes the Engineer, no longer being shackled by their weaker form. The Engine hurriedly explains to them that time is running short, since the Foundation is slowly being torn apart at the seams, and without the Foundation, the universe will start to collapse and become completely incoherent as the concept of “order” gradually dissolves. It has seen other universes inevitably be destroyed through this fate, and it firmly believes that there is no other way to save baseline reality without the existence of the Foundation. Damien agrees with it, and plans to conduct one final assault through the KISMET Device, which will progressively speed up the randomization of probability and preemptively triggering the dissolution of reality unless the Foundation can become the arbiters of order that Damien and the Engine wish for them to be.
Meanwhile, as Nobody, Fritz explores the Foundation from within, and finally begins to realize just how corrupt and inhumane the Foundation is through seeing how their various sites treat humanoid anomalies, D-Class, and even their own personnel. He now fully understands the true gravity of what he’s done, and he begins his crusade against the Foundation and its interests.
Section Six
Final confrontation, make it like a James Bond action set piece, Damien dies cradling the Engine as his lair explodes, and after everything’s been explained Fritz discusses with Dr. Prescott on what to do next
As Nobody, Fritz tries to assist Foundation sites like 43 and 35 that go against the grain of the Foundation at large while also sabotaging certain operations, making him seem to be completely unpredictable in the eyes of the Foundation. He’s now become a wild card, an outlier that the Engine can’t detect, and this gives him an advantage against the Engineer and their plans. He seeks out Dr. Wettle, who he knows has a certain probability anomaly that would heavily fuck up the Engineer’s plans, and gives him some advice during the SCP-7000 crisis. He also talks to Pythia once more, who informs him of the Engineer’s plans and also tells him that there is a way to bring balance to the universe without the Foundation, and that’s through the maintained order and chaos of communities that act to support and uplift one another, not through oppressive structures like the Foundation.
The final battle then occurs, as Dr. Wettle totally fucks up the Engineer’s plans and causing the KISMET Device to malfunction, which accelerates the 7000 crisis and causes them to ditch their current hideout and head to their Hardened Mobile Array base and go on a last ditch effort to commence a nuclear strike on Site-01. Fritz/Nobody follows them to the base, and reveals himself to them, and they have one final confrontation together where Fritz tries to convince Damien that there is another way to build a new and better future together, and without the tightening grip of fascism, but Damien is so obsessed with the Engine and its propaganda that they refuse to even consider a world without fascism, and they fight, and Fritz bests them, and then leaves them to die as the Array is bombarded by an orbital strike from HECOR, and as they are consumed in flames they cry out to Fritz one last time, that they need him, that they need the Foundation to survive.
We cut back to the interview between Dr. Prescott and Fritz as Nobody, and they discuss these newfound revelations, and what they could do to make the world a better place without the Foundation before the universe collapses. Before they speak on more precise details, Dr. Prescott shuts the camera off, and the file ends with a photo of the smouldering ruins of the Engine.
