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The multiverse beckons you riftwalker. How will you answer its call?

Hellraiser

Arcane
Joined
Apr 22, 2007
Messages
11,300
Location
Danzig, Potato-Hitman Commonwealth
2.2 That is not my kind of cougar

Well site B is close, at least you won’t have to carry parts back to the base for gods know how long. Not to mention avoiding crawling around in sewers or whatever they built underground at site A. “A valid point, we will assign you to site B then. If site B does contain intact structures, the team will no doubt need your expertise if they will want to open one.”- says Fuchs. “Just remember not to anger Osterhagen, he can be a bit extreme at times. I wish you luck Herr Kiriazis, my team will leave an hour before yours. So it will be quite some time before we meet again.”

You have no duties until tomorrow, therefore you decide to pick up your new laspistol and see if the technicians are on a break. After all, you need to climb up on the “Riese Schachmeister” chess ladder ranking. It is a most prestigious chess ranking, even if there are only 23 people on it.

“Just a moment,” the soldier managing the armory’s stockpile says, “yes I see the Oberführer’s authorization in the system. One Thule AG Phoenix 3 laspistol.” After a moment the soldier hands you your new weapon. “It is a fine weapon just a bit heavy, the fusion reactor triad powering it allows for some sustained fire. Not as good as a proper lasrifle, but I have seen people using it to cut thin steel. You can easily destroy unarmored cars with it let alone kill people.” – he adds.

Eventually you arrive at the technician’s quarters. Konrad and Gustav barely noticed you entered the room, and they have already started boasting about their recent victories. “I told him exactly how I would win in 3 moves and he still couldn’t stop me!” – says Gustav, obviously proud of his skillful victory. “You won one match, but lost the previous five. At this rate you’ll fall out of the top ten.” – Konrad replies with a smug grin on his face. You decide to play a match with Gustav and chat a bit.
“ So you are part of Osterhagen’s team? I’ll tell you one thing, that man is driven.” – says Konrad.

“Driven? More like obsessed, ever since he got kicked off the project he is desperately trying to prove he can still be useful.” – Gustav cuts in. What did he do wrong? “Nobody knows exactly.” - Gustav explains. “Don’t tell it to anyone, but shortly before he got reassigned, we had to transit a few suspicious containers back to the Thule AG HQ in the homeparallel. I took a closer look at one of them when nobody was looking, it was filled with coffins. He screwed up bad and got some of the best minds in the Reich killed if you ask me. If he wasn’t as good of a physicist and Himmler’s protégé.” Gustav pauses for a brief moment. “They would have no doubt just reassigned him to penguin research in New Swabia.”

It is morning, the expedition team gathers near the main gate of the complex. It is the first time you were allowed to see the surface. The base is carefully hidden under a giant camouflage net, no doubt to prevent orbital or aerial recon from discovering it. You see nothing but trees outside of the base, this has to be εα-3, no other similar parallel is as close to the Reich’s homeparallel. If it was an inhabited parallel, then the natives would have no doubt looted the ruins of anything valuable. Or they would at least try to prevent the Ahnenerbe from doing so. Unless they were very primitive.

It appears that the others have already gathered in place. “Good I see that everyone is here, even the Atlantean.”- Osterhagen says, with a small amount of suspicion noticeable in his voice. “In case somebody has forgotten, I am Sturmbannführer Osterhagen. I will say this only once, as the leader of this expedition I expect absolute obedience. Anything less equals treason.” – he adds, in a serious somewhat threatening tone. Maybe going with Fuchs wasn’t a bad idea? It is too late to worry about “what ifs” now. When Osterhagen gave the order you head out into the forest with the rest of the team.

The trek is long, in the late afternoon you arrive at the site. Structures covered by vegetation appear before your eyes, some bear signs of degradation or damage. Some however are still intact, their metal doors no doubt sealed for centuries. “I wonder if the first Egyptologists felt the same way when they discovered long lost ancient tombs.” – says Gunther, the quantumtronics specialist in your team. ”You better find something more useful than mummies inside of those structures. Or our fearless leader will execute you on the spot!” – jokes Jürgen, the other mechanical engineer on your team. Fortunately for him, Osterhagen did not hear that joke.

Just when you finish setting up your tent you hear somebody yelling. “Scheisse! Ein Puma!” Sounds like Gunther encountered some of the famous local wildlife you heard so much about. You rush in to help him. The large feline pounces on Gunther biting him in the neck. Blood starts gushing out of the wound and Gunther falls unconscious to the ground. Jürgen also rushed in to help him, it appears he caught the cougar’s attention. You doubt the young Ahnenerbe engineer will be able to handle the predator by himself. Luckily for him, you are the only person other than Osterhagen that brought a gun with himself. And the Sturmbannführer isn’t around to help it seems.

The overgrown cat charges towards Jürgen. You fire a well-aimed pulse at the creature, the powerful beam rapidly heats up the air in its path creating a familiar firing sound. The beast growls from the pain as its flesh starts burning, at least it stopped charging. You finish it off with another pulse, this time fired at its head. Osterhagen arrives at the scene. “What is going on here?” - he asks clearly infuriated. Jürgen tries to help the still bleeding Gunther while you explain what happened.
Osterhagen gazes upon the severely injured Gunther. “Clearly he was unworthy of joining our prestigious organization. Completely helpless against an overgrown cat! A true Aryan would just kill the beast with his knife. At least you Atlantean,” Osterhagen looks in your direction, “can handle yourself.”

“We need to help him!” – Jürgen shouts, clearly angered by his comrade bleeding to death. “Only somebody with at least basic knowledge of surgery could help him, not to mention the proper medical tools. We lack both.” - Osterhagen coldly explains. “He is dead, even if he is still breathing. Go dig him a grave, he will need it in a minute or two.” – he adds. Jürgen stands in shock above the dying comrade. “I said go, that is an order!” – Osterhagen yells. Jürgen obeys his command.

During the next day your team manages to find a few interesting thing, despite lacking a team member. One is a still intact machine, Osterhagen claims, that according to a structural scan, it is similar to what they need for the project. The device is most likely controlled by what appears to be a computer terminal, unfortunately your quantumtronic expert has recently died so nobody knows exactly how the terminal may work. It was found inside one of the hermetically sealed buildings. You had to use the laser cutter to open its door, it nearly drained half of the fusion fuel your expedition had

There are two large structures around that also look promising, opening just one of them will use nearly all of the fusion fuel you have left. One appears to be an administration building of some kind judging by its size, and what the rooms layout scans show you. It also still has visible markings on its walls, indicating some sort of importance of the structure. The other could have been something akin to a police department, scans show it had a few reinforced and shielded chambers, prison cells most likely.

However Osterhagen seems to have another idea. “This device takes priority, you will use the cutter’s reactor to power and activate it.” – he says. “Sir it is doable, but wasn’t our primary objective to retrieve any devices we find? The device needs to be delivered to a proper lab, where our experts will study it in detail first. On-site activation sounds unwise, especially when we do not know how the terminal controls it. ” – Jürgen tells him. “We will improvise if necessary. The machine cannot be retrieved without taking it apart, we risk damaging critical components. Connect the machine and terminal to the reactor. That is an order!” – Osterhagen shouts at Jürgen , he is clearly annoyed by his proposal.

You find this lack of respect for proper procedures troubling. However Osterhagen may have a point. Furthermore Jürgen is acting a bit clumsy, he is no doubt still in shock from yesterday’s cougar encounter. Perhaps substituting him may be a good idea. Although you were supposed to scan other buildings in the area in search of easily accessible chambers. Also you need to decide which building is most likely to hold valuable tech. While another team may finish the job later during another expedition, it would be best if you discovered something valuable yourself. That would no doubt please your superiors and Ajax.

Concerning the device Osterhagen is interested in. You will…
A)…connect the device to the reactor yourself. You are more experienced than Jürgen and thus a lot more qualified for the job.
B)…let Jürgen do it while you will search the area for structures that won’t require a laser cutter to open.
C)…try to convince Osterhagen that it would be unwise to activate the device.
D)…stop Osterhagen from activating the device. Using extreme measures if necessary.

Which of the two buildings will you try to open with the laser cutter and explore?
1) The “administration” building. Perhaps there are data terminals or documents inside.
2) The “security” building. Maybe there will be weapons inside.

Vote now.

Crap, yet again another update longer than planned. I cannot into shorter updates.
 

Kz3r0

Arcane
Joined
May 28, 2008
Messages
27,012
B)…let Jürgen do it while you will search the area for structures that won’t require a laser cutter to open.
1) The “administration” building. Perhaps there are data terminals or documents inside.
 

Hellraiser

Arcane
Joined
Apr 22, 2007
Messages
11,300
Location
Danzig, Potato-Hitman Commonwealth
2.3 An isocahedron of possibilities

Jürgen is competent enough to handle this by himself. However if something does go horribly wrong, he and Osterhagen will get blamed. Win-win you think, as long as they didn’t find some kind of weapon of mass destruction, like a singularity bomb or other hypothetical and deadly device utilizing gravity manipulation. You could use that reactor though, without it you cannot use the laser cutter to open the sealed “administration” building doors. Hopefully, after they kill themselves while activating an unknown device, there will be enough fuel left to use the laser cutter. Maybe there is a an easily accessible building around here that you missed? You decide to search the area once again.

The buildings or rather ruins seem fascinating. Judging by the size and placement of the craters the settlement was the size of a small town. Most of it got destroyed in some kind of bombardment, one that must have been quite accurate. Still some of the buildings did survive intact, you find it surprising that despite not being completely destroyed the settlement was abandoned. Did they drive away their enemy? Or did their enemy spare them?

The construction materials used to build the structures are not that different from those used in Atlantis, the Reich or even most industrialized parallels. Granted, they are a bit more resilient to your tools, which is why you could use that laser cutter. You are impressed by the crystal-like form of the structures, whoever built them did value aesthetics. After quite some time you locate one small intact building, a house you guess, with a door that can be opened using your adaptable drill. Like all the structures nearby it is covered with vegetation.

Osterhagen and Jürgen are too busy with their “doomsday device” to be interested in what you found. The others are busy with their assigned tasks. At least Osterhagen gave you permission to open and explore the building alone, which is what you decide to do. The door opens and the beam of light from your flashlight illuminates the interior of the main room of the house. Inside you see furniture, some sort of display and a terminal - possibly a computer - along with what you assume are data storage devices.

You venture deeper into the house, the bedroom is filled with trinkets and gadgets. However you also find bones on and near what appears to be a bed. The ones on the bed appear human, including a skull. The others do not, it could have been a pet. A big pet, one with large insect like mandibles at that. Definitely not a species you recognize, a lemurian genetically engineered pet maybe? Or it could have been an alien invader. But if it was, then why did the inhabitant of the house let it in and then sealed the door? You return to report to Osterhagen what you found.

“Yes yes, that could be useful.” - Osterhagen comments after you report what you found, he seems uninterested in your discovery to say the least. “We are almost ready to activate the device. Come, you will witness the dawn of a new era.” You have a bad feeling about this.

The device sits in the middle of a building, that most likely was designed for the sole purpose of housing it. Its ceiling has an unusual dome like shape, it looks like a half of an isocahedron. The inner side of the dome is made of some kind of metamaterial, maybe it works akin to a mirror focusing gravitational waves, electromagnetic waves or something. “It is done sir!” – Jürgen reports enthusiastically. “Good, power up the device and terminal.” – Osterhagen orders, you notice a bit of excitement hidden behind the serious tone of his voice.

The display of the control terminal comes to life. Symbols, letters or icons possibly, appear on it. Jürgen touches one of them as ordered by Osterhagen, the Sturmbannführer keeps closely monitoring the readings on his Zuse-Komp tablet. “It responded after I picked a symbol, but now it seems the system has locked up a moment later?” – Jürgen reports uncertain of what exactly has transpired.

The machine hidden beneath the dome starts making an awful noise. Electrical discharges arc from the spire at the top of the device, to the dome-like ceiling above it. In the central point of the dome, the one where it focuses whatever it is meant to focus, you notice a familiar shape forming. Actually about twenty of them and forming very rapidly at that

“Rifts! Cut the power quickly!” - Osterhagen shouts. But it is already too late. The device formed a nearly perfect isocahedron formed of small rifts, too small for travel but big enough to be used to send out a transmission. This is no doubt some sort of communications terminal, possibly even a trans-parallel network hub. Smoke starts coming out of the device, it starts burning right in front of your eyes. It looks like Jürgen, in his incompetence or due to shock from burying a comrade, fed a bit too much power to the device and caused a fire. Well Osterhagen, or anyone else for that matter, won’t be able to study that device further now.

“At least that turned it off. Pack up the camp, this location is possibly compromised.” - Osterhagen tells you. “I detected some sort of transmission, that was being sent out via the many rifts the device simultaneously opened.” Everybody scurries to their tents, you don’t want to know who or what might have picked up that transmission.

It has been an hour since your team packed up and left for the base. You have no idea how they will react to Osterhagen’s obvious breach of protocol. At least you weren’t directly involved. Suddenly the Sturmbannführer orders the team to halt and tells all of you to look upwards.

In the sole portion of sky not covered by the treetops you see a sight most troubling. It is a rift, a relatively big one at high altitude. Mere five seconds later the source of the rift appears hovering in the sky. A large cigar-like shape is floating high above the clouds. “A Vimana.” – Osterhagen mutters. The rest of the team is baffled by his words, but you know what this means. You attracted the attention of Lemurians.

Three smaller aircrafts, probably scouts you guess, launch out of the Vimana. The cruiser-sized ship itself initiates transit shortly afterwards and most likely goes back to where it came from. One of the scouts heads northwest, fortunately it won’t find anything there. Another heads east towards the strip mine, hopefully either Wirtz kills them all or they kill him. It will be a victory either way. The last scout flies in the direction of the ruined settlement. Both it and the one heading in Wirtz’s direction, have already landed after mere minutes since the Vimana appeared.

“I am open to suggestions if any of you have any idea on what should we do now.” - proclaims the Sturmbannführer. “We could head back to the base, but we risk revealing its location. We can also try to join one of the other teams. Herr Wirtz could no doubt could use some help. He also has an RGM with him, which is the only way out of here other than the base’s transit terminal.”

“We should join up with Fuchs,” Jürgen suggests, “he is no doubt in a better situation.” Osterhagen isn’t fully convinced of that idea. “Unfortunately site A is far away. Also he does not possess a means to get out of here.” We could go back and spy on the Lemurians. The team has two laspistols and you already killed a Lemurian in the past. Their aircrafts didn’t look like they could transport more than 3 or maybe 4 men, odds are a good ambush would kill them all. Still, with Osterhagen leading the team, you are unsure if such a bold plan would succeed. Too bad you need to maintain radio silence, maybe somebody at the base would have given you new orders or a new team leader.

Your team will…
A)…help Wirtz deal with the Lemurians at the strip mine. Hopefully you will arrive at the strip mine before he gets killed. Or they will leave his RGM undamaged on his corpse.
B)…join up with Fuchs and his team at site A. There are no Lemurian scouts near his location as far as you know.
C)…get back to the base at all cost. The forest is definitely not safe.
D)…go back to site B and see what the Lemurians are up to. If you kill them, you can always loot their technology. Assuming you kill them.


Vote now.
 

skuphundaku

Economic devastator, Mk. 11
Patron
Joined
Jul 27, 2008
Messages
2,248
Location
Rouge Angles of Satin
Codex 2012 Codex 2013 MCA Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Divinity: Original Sin 2 My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit.
A) If Wirtz's team lost, they may, at least, have severely crippled the Lemurian team so that we can finish them off. If they won or we get there in the middle of the fight, they'll need all the help they can get. Also, saving Wirtz's ass may improve our standing with him.
 

Monty

Arcane
Joined
Mar 24, 2012
Messages
1,582
Location
Grognardia
No RGM in (B), while (D) would only provide one if the Lemurians brought one... seems unlikely as they came in a larger ship.

You could possibly get your own RGM back in (C) but this would mean no further alien tech or revelations. (A) offers alien tech, Lemurian tech and possibly the RGM belonging to Wirtz.

So I vote (A).
 

oscar

Arcane
Joined
Aug 30, 2008
Messages
8,036
Location
NZ
A. Probably for the best we didn't get caught up in tampering with the "Doomsday Device". Wonder what it was to summon a Lemurian strike force.
 

Hellraiser

Arcane
Joined
Apr 22, 2007
Messages
11,300
Location
Danzig, Potato-Hitman Commonwealth
As Heracles hypothesized it was a trans-parallel communications device capable of sending a transmission to at least twenty parallels simultaneously. More advanced than similar devices used by either Atlantis and the Reich. Those can only transmit to one parallel at a time, they lack the precision to open multiple rifts and so close to each other.

It is safe to assume the Lemurians picked up the transmission and sent in a cruiser to investigate. Now why they decided not to ignore it and sent a crusier+aerial scouts instead of just a ground-based scout team it is a whole other reason.

C&C trivia below:

BTW some of you most likely guessed it, but if you picked medicine training you would be able to save Gunther and he would figure out what most likely the device is. He would also discover that the touch screen display uses biometric authentication. Likewise if Heracles got that Quantum Computing training he would also be able to figure that out. However because Jürgen would also be dead (the laspistol you got saved him, Osterhagen would arrive too late) Osterhagen would make Heracles work on the device.

Still with quantumtronics skills Heracles would be able to persuade Osterhagen not to activate the device on site and follow protocol. Without knowing *why* the device is potentially dangerous you would be unable to convince him. D) which was relieving him of command EXTREME renegade style would have worked, you had a laspistol after all, but it would have consequences. If you would have picked stealth you would be fucked, basically you would be able to subdue him but you would get wounded badly.

If you would have picked a different site they would have sent another quantumtronics specialist to site B, so this whole mess would not happen but Jürgen and Gunther would have still been dead (although not necessarily named).

Oh and remember the first encounter with the Lemurian? Bro skuphundaku pretty much nailed what and why is the best option in the first vote post. I was surprised you didn't jump on the "lets slash him with our new knife" bandwagon. Still I was very impressed that he figured out my train of thought behind that choice. I think I'll go brofist that post.

EDIT: Another minor thing, medicine would have made it painfully obvious that using the knife would have been the best choice in that encounter. But obviously if you picked a background with medicine you wouldn't necessarily end up in that parallel or face to face with the Lemurian. Still maybe you would find one elsewhere...
 

skuphundaku

Economic devastator, Mk. 11
Patron
Joined
Jul 27, 2008
Messages
2,248
Location
Rouge Angles of Satin
Codex 2012 Codex 2013 MCA Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Divinity: Original Sin 2 My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit.
You're right. I did think that getting the medical training would have saved Gunther but I wasn't sure whether or not the second victim of the puma would have been Heracles. All the rest of the reasoning after saving Gunther just flows naturally. The same goes for the Quantum Computing training. I'm quite curious about what the consequences of EXTREMEly relieving Osterhagen of comand would have been because, as it is, his idiocy put us in one of the worst situation possible (the stealth choice and us going EXTREME thus getting Heracles severely injured being the only worse one I can think of), so those consequences may have been worth it.
 

Hellraiser

Arcane
Joined
Apr 22, 2007
Messages
11,300
Location
Danzig, Potato-Hitman Commonwealth
You will get an answer to that question in two or three updates, either as part of the update or as a separate post. It might spoil some future events so I won't say what they would have been for now.
 

Hellraiser

Arcane
Joined
Apr 22, 2007
Messages
11,300
Location
Danzig, Potato-Hitman Commonwealth
2.4 A bold plan

It took your team almost 2 days to find the road leading to site C. Even after finding it, you had to walk for 5 hours straight before you arrived near the strip mine. Needles to say you are quite sick of forests and trees. "We will need to scout the perimeter," Osterhagen coldly announces, "Heracles you know how to sneak around don't you? Put your talents to use and take a look." He gives you his pair of binoculars.

You crawl through the dense vegetation while trying to make as little noise as possible. From the very edge of the former strip mine you see the camp site below you. The Lemurian aircraft landed almost in the middle of it. Its scale-like metallic surface reflects the few rays of morning sunlight that have reached the bottom of the mine. No more than four maybe five Lemurians could travel in it you guess.

The craft's owners however are not near it, eventually you notice a Lemurian on patrol. He is guarding the truck which Wirtz's team used to get here. Another Lemurian was behind the truck, he is dragging one of your Ahnenerbe comrades behind hm. You think he is alive, the Lemurian is taking his prisoner to the biggest tent. As he enters the tent another Lemurian exists it. Maybe it is his turn at guard duty? Did they just catch one of Wirtz's team members or were they interrogating him?

While taking another look around the main camp you notice a few bodies lying around. Only three of them, none of them wore an officer's uniform so Wirtz is either alive or hiding you guess. There were seven people on Wirtz's team including Wirtz himself. At least one of them is still alive.

Another thing you notice is a wrecked machine on the other upper side of the mine. For a brief moment you think you saw light reflecting off something there. There is also a corpse lying behind a tent on the northern side of the mine, it is far from the other corpses near the main campsite. You can barely see it, so you are unsure if that is Wirtz or somebody else. The uniform the person was wearing is too dirty from all the mud to be sure.

You report what you saw to Osterhagen. "Most if not all of them are at the camp site? Perhaps we could attack them and try to rescue our comrades. Too bad we do not have more weapons." - he says. This has given you an idea. You can use the laser cutter as a weapon, you would just need to use the binoculars as a scope since the device lacks a proper targeting system. Sure the gods damned thing is heavy and wasn't made to kill people, but if you move it and the portable reactor to a vantage point you could use it as a support weapon. It will still be a bit hard to use but it is the closest thing to a decent lasrifle that you have. "A brilliant idea Herr Kyriazis." - Osterhagen applauds.

"The other problem is where do we strike from, and how do we get there. Maybe doing some more scouting could prove prudent, just so we know what we may face there." - the Sturmbannführer thinks aloud.

"There is also the question of who will operate our new wunderwaffe. I rather let Jürgen do that, your marksmanship and CQC skills will be useful when storming the place Heracles. Still you do know how to use that machine better than most of us. The plan will be simple, I will try to go in and rescue our comrades from the main tent while another team will try to distract the Lemurians." - Osterhagen explains, he seems convinced that this may work.

stripmine.jpg


Key locations around the strip mine have be marked on the image taken using Osterhagen's binoculars. The proposed routes you may use to sneak around to the camp are also marked.
The corpse is the one body you could not identify. The vantage point is the one from which you spied on the mine. You have not been at the southern vantage point yet.

Your assault team will...
A)...take route RED, deploy the ad hoc lascannon at the southern vantage point.
B)...take route GREEN, deploy ad hoc lascannon at the vantage point from which you spied on the camp.
C)...take route BLUE, deploy the ad hoc lascannon at the machine wreck.

Before the assault you will also...
1)...check out the corpse and the machine wreck. Perhaps you will find something useful there.
2)...observe the camp site from the southern vantage point. Maybe you will see something new.
3)...take another look at the mine from the same vantage point as before. You could have missed something.
4)...give Jürgen hints on how should he use the laser cutter as a support weapon.

You will take part in the attack by...
X)...storming the main tent with Osterhagen. He could use your expertise in CQC.
Y)...leading the "bait" team. Laspistol fire will no doubt make the Lemurians more eager to chase you.
Z)...operating the laser cutter turned into a support weapon. Time to pay the superhuman bastards back for that broken leg of yours.


Vote now.

Oh and as for the image of the strip mine IMMERSE yourself and imagine it is covered in more grass and some trees. Oh and that it is a bit deeper so the RED and BLUE paths take you along the edge of the pit. Finding images of 400 year old strip mines matching that description is kind of hard.M:
 

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