Discovery Gaming Community
Division V Operations - Printable Version

+- Discovery Gaming Community (https://discoverygc.com/forums)
+-- Forum: Role-Playing (https://discoverygc.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?fid=9)
+--- Forum: Stories and Biographies (https://discoverygc.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?fid=56)
+--- Thread: Division V Operations (/showthread.php?tid=132868)



Division V Operations - ALG Classic - 11-10-2015

DIVISION V
"Waste and Want"


It's a frosty morning, before the crack of dawn in the northerly New Berlin province of Althellerland. A light cover of snow mutes what little sound there is in the quiet, suburban neighborhood. There is nobody awake to see the unmarked black van hovering towards the end of the road, and its gentle hum will rouse no-one from their sleep. The sounds slowly multiply, as half a dozen armed men in black riot gear exit the back of the vehicle, a dozen combat boots crunch softly through the snow, and the men come to a halt in front of number 45.


0543 local time
822-11-08
Erdbergstraße 45, Pucharn, 22480 Althellerland, Planet New Berlin


"In position."

Helmut Weinstein took in the scene outside the van's tinted windows. Two of his men at the front door, one with the breaching cylinder, one with an SMG at the ready. The remaining men were securing the rest of the building, covering possible escape routes.

"Proceed."

The bang of the pressurized cylinder striking the door shattered the early morning tranquility. Heavy thumping followed as the strike team entered the building, and twenty-seven seconds later his intercom came on again.

"Clear. Suspect apprehended, no struggle."
"Understood."

Slowly, Weinstein opened the vehicle's door and lifted himself out of its leather chair. The years had not been unkind to him, but he made a point to ensure such actions, which he had to admit to himself were becoming harder on the hips, would appear in the most dignified manner possible.
He turned back to the van's dark windows, and gave his collar and tie a final straightening pinch before continuing across the lawn and into the building, a briefcase at his side.

The scene he found inside was exactly as expected, much to his approval. The young man they had come for had, as most people would be at this time, been peacefully sleeping, unaware of what was coming for him.
Now though, he was sprawled awkwardly on the bed, gag in mouth, being held down by one of Weinstein's troops, and kicking feebly at the tangled mess of sheets at his feet. Weinstein stepped up to the bed, and set his briefcase down beside him.

"Lift him up."

With a swift pull of the arm, the commando flipped the man over, before pushing him in a sitting position against the head of the bed.

"Good morning, Mr Teller. I imagine you don't know who I am, but I know a lot about you."

Weinstein smiled politely at the terrified, sweaty man.

"Adrian Peter Teller, born on May 17th 795, at the Anastasia-Grün-Hospital right here in Althellerland. Your current employment is as an intern in ALG Waste Disposal's research & development department, which you obtained thanks to your degree in organic chemistry.
You are unmarried, no children. Parents are Gabriele, neé Schwarz, accountant, and Manuel, programmer.

Allergic to shellfish."


His formerly pleasant smile extended slightly into more of a smirk. The captive was looking around frantically.

"Now Mr Teller, unfortunately I've gotten some bad news about you. From what I hear, you attempted to break the copy-protect on a file detailing the manufacturing process of a certain Composite HADW-17 - perhaps even with partial success. Now I'm not a chemical engineer, so I did some research on the material before I came here. I wouldn't want to look like a fool now."

He chuckled lightly as he pulled out his commpad.

"Ah yes. It's a lightweight composite weave used mostly for laboratory protective gear. Apparently, the protection it provides against high energy particles and high frequency radiation had previously been achieved only in materials three times the weight!
Very impressive, I have to say. In fact, I have some right here."


He picked up his briefcase, and opened it up to reveal a bundle of glossy black fabric.

"I can't think of anything that feels quite like this." he mused, gently rubbing the material between his thumb and index finger. He turned back to the man on the bed.
"What do you think, would you like to feel it? You were so interested in it before. I think you should....try it on."

He gave a quick nod to his men, and their captive was dragged unceremoniously to a heavy wardrobe across the room and cuffed to it, hands and feet, in a slouched standing position.
Weinstein walked up to him and unraveled the black bundle, revealing it to be an apron. The captive winced, turning his head away, as Weinstein carefully placed the apron's neckband over his head, and bent down to tie it behind his waist, before stepping back from him again.

"It looks good on you. It's a shame your career in our R&D department is at an end, or you could have perhaps worn something like this under better circumstances."


After he had finished his sentence, a man and a woman dressed unlike the others in plain engineer's suits wheeled in a table-like object covered with a tarp, about the size of a large night stand, before leaving again wordlessly.
The captive was now whimpering softly against the fabric gag, shaking his head in confusion and fear.

"Now this here-"

With a flourish, Weinstein pulled the tarp off the device, revealing an apparatus not unlike a washing machine, with a circular transparent panel at the front. A sticker next to the panel read 'KEEP CLEAR - HIGH ENERGY RADIATION HAZARD".

"...is a 24 GW Pfeil X-8280 particle accelerator. It's nothing fancy, but perfectly suitable if you require such a device that you can still move around somewhat.
This will give us the perfect opportunity to test out the protective capabilities of that remarkable Composite HADW-17. I had better not mess with the settings, it should be set up correctly, I just need to-"


He wheeled the device in front of the bound man, a meter and a half away, the front turned towards his torso, and looked him up and down, taking in the sight. The man was now squealing helplessly against the gag, violently shaking his head.

"I just need to turn it on. The way I understand it, your face should be largely clear of the particle beam. Unfortunately, it seems like your arms are a bit exposed. The apron isn't intended to cover them. We will just run a short test then, which I'm confident you will survive thanks to that incredible material you were trying to steal."

He flipped a switch on the device, and it began to emit a gentle whirring. For a few seconds, nothing else happened, but soon the victim began to scream outright into his gag, as the skin on his arms first turned red, then purple, and began bubbling up and steaming.
After less then thirty seconds, Weinstein flipped the switch back off. The cuffed man crumpled against the wardrobe, still silently screaming into his gags, staring in disbelief at his burned arms.
Weinstein sighed deeply.

"Now this is where it gets complicated. Needless to say, we can't have you trying to copy out information like this again. On the other hand, if we simply dispose of you, I will have wasted all this time and effort, and the rental of this particle accelerator, and that HADW-17 apron....
Ah, well. I think we can work something out. Don't you agree, Mr Teller?"


Adrian Teller's fate after that day is currently unknown, but according to municipal records he "moved elsewhere".


(originally posted 26.08.15)



RE: Division V Operations - ALG Classic - 05-06-2016

DIVISION V
"Waste and Want"


It's a sunny day in most of the northern hemisphere of Planet Saarbrücken. Colonization is a very recent phenomenon here, and the trip to the nearest population center - Planet Stuttgart - takes longer than between any other two planets in Rheinland. There are no lanes out here, and beyond Planetform's main port and terraforming base, very little traffic.
With only a few thousand inhabitants, the planet is a true frontier world. Tiny settlements, often not even aware of each others' existence, and rarely officially registered, dot the endless arid deserts and humid mountain ranges.
Without any sort of planet-wide infrastructure for transportation, water, power, or supplies, colonists often rely on their own generators, subsistence agriculture and primitive localized bartering economy.
There are rumors that many of the settlers come from dubious backgrounds - unsurprising given the remoteness of the location and almost complete lack of planetside law enforcement.



[Image: Lk3mnSH.jpg?1]

1046 local time
823-02-16
Schaumstein Experimental Materials, Schaumstein Massif, Planet Saarbrücken


ALG Waste Disposal was among the first to invest in planetside operations, being the owners of the only major space-side installation in the system. They operate a small supply depot planetside, which sells construction materials and mundane supplies to other colonists, but this is not the location featured in our story.
Rather, it is a small artificial plateau in the mountains, upon the subarctic Schaumstein Massif - so named for its porous geology. While the mountainous regions of Saarbrücken in general enjoy a mild, humid climate and thick vegetation, the air is dry and the flora little more than flowers and shrubs at this latitude.

An XDS-2 Voyager-class freighter glides serenely across the crags and peaks, slowing as it approaches the plateau. There is no landing platform here, simply a large, flat surface cut directly into the rock. A triple-barrel heavy laser turret, one of the few visible signs of human habitation, tracks the landing freighter with unflinching automated precision.
The ship is the Dachstein, owned by ALG Division V, and used mostly as director Helmut Weinstein's personal shuttle.

Two men in dark combat uniforms, wielding stocky machine pistols, are the first to disembark from the craft, standing at the ready as Weinstein himself descends the entry ramp. They remain in position as he approaches the only other sign of human habitation: a tunnel bored directly into the mountain, only a few meters wide. There are no signs; the only people who come here know where they are - Schaumstein Experimental Materials.

[Image: KWSn4aS.jpg]

A steel mesh door blocks passage to the interior of the facility. There is no automated ID scanner here; the entry process is kept deliberately low-tech. Weinstein passes his ID card through the door to the lone security guard on the other side.
The door swings open and the guard wordlessly gestures him inside.

Schaumstein's interior is an austere place in the entry section. The main corridor is completely unadorned; plumbing and electrical lines run exposed along the rock walls. Some fifty meters into the complex, a large area opens up to the side, big enough for the two cargo carts to maneuver and unload. Sheet metal crates line the walls, and the hard-hatted dockmaster is taking inventory as Weinstein enters.

"Director, it's an honor."

Weinstein nods across the loading bay.

"I'm sure you're here to-"

"That I am. Don't trouble yourself."

Weinstein stops at a heavy red door overlooking the loading area and pushes the buzzer.
For a moment after the office is buzzed, nothing much happens. The gentle thuds of crates of sensitive material with no marking save serial numbers being shifted around the loading area punctuate the silence.
Just before a less patient man would have buzzed a second time, a raised voice can be heard from behind the thick metal door.

"Nur 'n Moment!"

A few seconds later, the door opens outward, revealing a small, well-organized office with several security camera feeds displayed on various monitors on the far wall. The office wasn't what Weinstein was interested in, though - rather, that was the messy-haired man who opened the door.

"Weinstein, is it?"

He gave a bit of a dopey grin and ran one hand through his hair. Seeing Weinstein's frown, though, he brought his hand back to his side and stood up a little more straight.

"Eh... right. I'm Alvin Marshall. Recently brought on as head of security for Schaumstein, but I guess you know all that already."

"Of course. Shall we go for a walk?"

Weinstein held the door as they exited the office and then the loading area. They halted briefly, standing against the wall, to let a loaded cargo cart pass, before continuing down the main corridor.

"Now. What is it that was so urgent that it demanded my attention?"

"Well, Wuppertal recently sent us some schematics, and the guys in Lab H3 finished their paper on the, uh... I really don't know the specifics, actually. I didn't really... study... thi- look, you can see it for yourself well enough once we get there."

Weinstein nodded a bit, and the two continued down the hall for a few moments longer, Marshall walking slightly ahead, before crossing to a door at the other side of the corridor. It was heavy and red, much like the door on Marshall's office, but this one bore the distinction of a number printed on it - 0021. Marshall reached forward to push it open, revealing the vaguely blue-tinted sheet-metal hallway, which continued for about three meters before making an abrupt turn to the left; what lay beyond was out of sight.

"We'll have to go through decontamination - wear gloves, doctor masks, all that. No biohazards or anything, but they do do some sensitive tests here, and this facility was set up recently enough we don't have separate chambers for every team, so..."

Marshall paused a second, then remembered who he was talking to.

"You know that too, I'm su-"

Weinstein raised his hand to interrupt, with a light chuckle.

"Now, now, I have read all the previous reports of course, and I have visited when the place was still setting up. But I'm not omniscient. Don't leave out details for my sake."

"Well, anyway, everything related to this project - 'Bruckner', they're calling it - is in the hall beyond decon here."

"I'm pleased to see that the proper precautions are being taken. I would expect nothing less."

"Natch- ...errrrrally." Marshall wasn't used to being so formal. It was obvious that Weinstein made him nervous. The two men walked down the hall and around the corner, Weinstein's soft leather shoes making nary a sound, in sharp contrast to the metallic thuds of Marshall's heavy, steel-studded boots.

Two minutes later, the two emerged from the other side of decontamination, white coats and masks draped over top of them. The room they found themselves in was very wide, though the ceiling was much lower than the main hall's. Large mint-green worktables were arranged in a vaguely grid-like pattern. Most had two to five scientists, all wearing the same coats and masks as Weinstein and Marshall, working around them. All of the tables bore arcane equipment of varying varieties atop them; ranging from spectogram analysis machines to small-scale plasma generators, it all looked distinctly extremely expensive. One woman, with a medical cap covering her hair, broke off from her team to come and greet the new arrivals.

"Guten Tag, Director! We're glad you could make it."

"And I'm glad to be here."

The researcher eagerly guided the two to the nearest workstation, gesturing enthusiastically as she talked. Weinstein listened politely, while Marshall folded his arms across his chest and did his best to follow along with the explanations and the complex German, despite his lack of practice with the language since his recent arrival.

"Here we're working on the insulators, testing which compound will most effectively prevent a premature discharge. BZ-170 has shown great promise, but while we've produced a few kilos of it so far, it doesn't seem to stand up well to..."

She droned on for a few minutes, and while Weinstein seemed to understand most of it, Marshall was rather lost. Regardless, the two followed her from one workstation to the next, until eventually they had visited most of them and received a brief lecture regarding the activities at each one. They had nearly reached the last one, when Weinstein pulled back the sleeve of his coat and glanced briefly at his watch.

"Well, this has been quite the eye-opening tour. I'm not an engineer, so some of your explanations may have been lost on me, but I'll be sure to go through the full report with my team when I find time. And it does seem like all the gear is up to standard, and all the proper procedures being followed.
Safety is top priority here. Poorly maintained reactors experience catastrophic failure all the time."


Weinstein appears to gaze into the distance for a moment, as the scientist and Marshall share a questioning glance at his strange comment.

"I've taken enough of your time, and my own I'm afraid. I need to make another visit planetside before we launch again. Keep up the good work!"

1412 local time
823-02-16
Unknown Location, Wildbusch Basin, Planet Saarbrücken


Early afternoon sunlight fills a shallow gorge snaking through the vast, largely featureless Wildbusch Basin. The tranquil scene of dry grass and shrubs blowing in the breeze and insects humming is broken by the relentless clanking and whirring of a row of heavy drilling mounts attached seemingly at random into the side of the gorge.
Were a safety inspector ever to find their way to this location, they would have a heart attack at the setup: load-bearing struts attached to loose rock, attached to each other, steel cables forming a chaotic spiderweb across the twenty meter span of the gorge.
Rocks of varying size occasionally break loose by the drills' continuous vibration, to tumble down to the bottom of the gorge.
Perilously close to the falling debris, only just out of the way of the drills themselves, the huge generator powering them hums away gently.

The monotonous grinding is interrupted suddenly as the generator suddenly emits a hiss that would be considered ear-splitting, were there anything with ears around.

Some forty kilometers away, a settler in front of his shack strains his eyes against the fireball erupting on the horizon, and watches open-mouthed as a mushroom clowd slowly rises from the distant gorge, before retreating inside.

If our theoretical safety inspector were to arrive on scene later, there would be little left with which to identify the cause of the blast. And accidents are certainly not unknown at such remote, low safety mining operations - after all, poorly maintained reactors experience catastrophic failure all the time.