Part II: A deal with the devil.
2.1 Once an Engineer, always an Engineer
If you are to make the most out of obtaining eternal life, it would be best not to risk your life too much. Joining the Ahnenerbe as an engineer seems like a good choice, at least you won’t have to worry about Lemurian, Atlantean or native agents catching you. “A wise choice Heracles”, Maximilian tells you, with a certain degree of satisfaction noticeable in his voice, “your formal education in the field of mechanical engineering will no doubt prove useful. I can assure you, your talents won’t be wasted. I think you will find your work most interesting.”
So what exactly are you supposed to do now? “I will now call for a soldier, just follow him to the elevator. He will tell you where you need to go.” Ajax explains. “Once you arrive at your destination, you will undergo training, once the training is complete you will receive further orders and a proper briefing concerning the project. Before you go I must tell you one thing, Atlantis’ existence is a well guarded secret in the Reich, do not discuss it with low rank Ahnenerbe personnel or anyone outside of the Ahnenerbe. This shouldn’t be a problem at the base, since everyone has könig level security clearance there, but once you leave it remain discreet.”
The office door opens and the summoned soldier tells you to follow him. “I hope we will meet again Heracles, do not disappoint me.” - Maximilian tells you as you leave his office. Security looks tight in the Thule AG building, the elevator you just entered required biometric authorization, whatever Ajax is doing here seems to be of strategic importance. The elevator ride downwards is rather long, it the soldier is taking you somewhere deep underground. The elevator door opens, you walk down a long corridor before finally arriving in a large open chamber.
It looks like a cargo depot, in the middle of it you can see a platform with containers on it, there is also a long underground road leading outside. “Step onto the platform, trans-parallel transit will be initiated in a moment. I assume you are familiar with the necessary safety precautions?” – the soldier asks you. Naturally you confirm that you do know them. Soon the rift opens and the platform moves towards it before transit begins. The other side looks similar, it is another underground facility.
An officer walks towards you, he begins to introduce himself. “I am Oberführer Fuchs, as of today I am also your direct superior. You and the others will answer to me. Now come with me, there is much to discuss.”
Two months later…
The high-ranking military personnel stationed in the compound still distrusts you, however it looks like the Oberführer is satisfied with your performance. He has clearly noticed that Ajax was right about sending you here, your expertise on advanced machinery is superior to that of the other “recruits”. Furthermore your combat skills are decent, although you did need to work on your aim a bit. You know little about the base itself, you are not yet allowed to access the surface level, although you had some contact with the “grunts” acting as security.
You have yet to meet engineers other than the “recruits” you were training with. The specifics of the project Ajax was talking about are not yet known to you, however you do know it involves reverse-engineering advanced technology. That is after all the main job of the Ahnenerbe engineer corps, to safely study, recover and reverse-engineer advanced technology from other parallels. Mostly Atlantean technology, but you guess the Reich does study Lemurian devices here. Today your training ends and you will be briefed on the project.
Fuchs is standing in front of a display’s screen, he begins his briefing. “As you know we are working on an important project in this facility. The project is called Die Glocke, while this facility is known as Der Riese.” The Bell and the Giant? You are unsure what the link between them is, although they could be just random codenames.
“You see this parallel”, he continues, “while mostly covered by trees, houses the remains of an about 400 years old outpost of an advanced civilization. Its real name is unknown to us, so we simply refer to it as civilization X. We are unsure whether this civilization was human or not, all we do know is that it most likely was not native to this parallel’s earth. Most of the outpost was destroyed, however we managed to recover some mostly intact devices or parts of them. One of them was the device we based Die Glocke on, it is an experimental anti-gravity device.”
Anti-gravity was discovered by an unknown advanced civilization? You can now understand all the need for secrecy, even Atlantis does not possess that kind of technology. And if other devices like that are around, then having other parties like Atlantis or Lemuria learning of this could prove catastrophic for the Reich.“Tomorrow each one of you will be assigned to one of three groups”, Fuchs explains, “you will help in analyzing and retrieving machinery left by civilization X. Each group will investigate a different site. All expeditions will last at least a week, possibly more if you find something of interest. We will call for more supplies if the expedition will need to be extended, and if a proper camp site will have to be established.”
Site A is located to the west, traveling there should take about 14 hours on foot. Seismic scans indicate there are some artificial subterranean structures there. It is located deep in the forest so getting there will be difficult. Fuchs will lead the team assigned to that site. Fuchs, while strict, seems to respect you and believes that you are competent. Like you he is also a mechanical engineer, he specializes in robotics.
Site B is located to the south, it is about 9 hours away from here when traveling on foot. Scouts reported that they found some artificial structures and remains of infrastructure there. While it is not far, the local wildlife may be a problem. Herr Osterhagen will lead the expedition team. You heard he is a bit of a loose cannon. His field of expertise is theoretical physics. Apparently he helped design “Die Glocke” but is no longer working on it.
Site C is located in what appears to once have been a strip mine to the east, there is even an old road leading there. This allows you to travel there using a proper vehicle, it will only take 6 hours to get there. Herr Wirtz will lead the team sent to site C. Wirtz is the one officer you hate. He yelled at you quite a few times for trivial reasons, reminding you that “your presence in this facility is a mistake, one which I hope Himmler or Ajax will rectify”. He is however the top authority on civilization X’s quantumtronic systems.
After the briefing Fuchs tells you in private that: “You are free to pick which expedition team you want to join. Herr Ajax believes you will know which site will be the best one for a man for your talents. Furthermore I have authorized you to pick up equipment from the armory, it should prove useful with that additional training you received. As far as your RMG is concerned, I am sure it will be returned to you once you prove your worth here. You will need it if you get an assignment to retrieve technology from a different parallel. For the time being however, it will still remain in the armory."
You will join the expedition to site…
A)…A of course, how can you resist crawling in sewer tunnels, bunkers or whatever civilization X built underground there. At least Fuchs will be leading the expedition.
B)…B of course, intact structures on the surface could prove to be promising. Wildlife be damned.
C)…C of course, an old mine should no doubt contain some sort of machinery. And the trip there is short.
During the past two months you received additional training in the field of…
1)…marksmanship. You spent a lot of time at the shooting range significantly improving your accuracy with both regular firearms and laser weapons. You will pick up a Thule laspistol from the storage.
2)…quantum computing. You now know how to hack electronic systems using a quantum decrypter and have a basic understanding of some of the technology behind most quantumtronic systems and even AI. You will pick up a Zuse quantumtronic decryption and computation device from the storage.
3)…medicine. No more will you overdose painkillers by accident, you also know how to deal with radioactive, chemical and biological hazards. You will pick up a medical scanner and a field medic set.
4)…stealth. You know how to quietly infiltrate or break into guarded facilities. You will receive a new stun rod from the armory. Furthermore you will receive a new optical camouflage suit in about two weeks.
Furthermore during your free time in the past two months…
V)…volunteered for cleaning duty to better learn the layout of the base.
X)…you played poker with the soldiers guarding the facility.
Y)…you played chess with the technicians operating the underground cargo terminal and rift generator.
Z)…you learned the basics of two foreign languages, Russian and Latin, using the electronic books in the library.
Vote now.
Heracles’ current inventory: Structural Scanner, Adaptable Tools, Combat Knife.
When Heracles was transferred to New Swabia they took away his stun rod and dumped it in the trash. He still has his structural scanner, the knife and the toolkit. The Gestapo however has “misplaced” the first aid kit, Glock and all the ammo. The neural probe is being studied by Ahnenerbe or Thule AG researchers somewhere.
Heracles will still get slightly improved shooting skills even if you do not pick 1). However 1) is a huge improvement, just FYI.
Oh and again sorry for the long update, all the choices made it longer than planned. Before you ask, the other two “career paths” in the last update meant Heracles would get his RGM back sooner.
