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Author: halo3rodent
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Scene-08.2
Layout and Effects
Two of the many shipwrecks found throughout Scene-08.2.
Scene-08.2 is an endless ocean containing rocky islands littered with shipwrecks. While the main hazard in Scene-08.2 is the harsh conditions of the oceans, another significant hazard is the countless empty boats which drift around Scene-08.2 until they are inevitably wrecked upon an island or sink. The significant size of some of them can lead to them representing a hazard to wanderers attempting to navigate the level. Even though they represent a hazard to wanderers, these boats can also prove useful. Various supplies and resources can be found aboard them, and some boats remain operable.
Communication between Scene-08.2 and the rest of the DevRooms is currently believed to be impossible. All attempts to establish communications with the wider DevRooms have so far failed. Long-range electronic communication between devices within Scene-08.2 still remains possible.
It is believed that due to the harsh conditions of Scene-08.2, the settlement of Port Sanctuary is the only settlement in Scene-08.2. We have set up a radio beacon at Port Sanctuary so that any other wanderers trapped here can make their way to relative safety.
(UPDATE 1975-11-05) Despite the harsh conditions, several settlements have been established on the largest islands in Scene-08.2. Some of these settlements have existed for several decades, and in a handful of cases, over a century. The largest of these settlements, Port Respite, is home to several thousand people. The residents of the largest settlements in the Scene have built lighthouses on some of the islands surrounding their settlements, and it was the discovery of one of these lighthouses that led to Port Sanctuary making contact with other settlements in Scene-08.2.
The main source of food in Scene-08.2 is fishing, supplemented by plants grown on the larger islands. A variety of fish and aquatic animals can be found in the oceans of Scene-08.2, including several that are extinct in Reality and several seemingly only found within the DevRooms.
Alongside a handful of other scenes, such as Scene-03.0, Scene-08.2 is an entrance point to the DevRooms. Wanderers who enter the DevRooms through Scene-08.2 exclusively entered the DevRooms while at sea. Unlike other entrance points, the transition is often barely noticeable.
Discovery and Initial Exploration
During a routine exploration mission in Scene-05.4 in April 1975, the crew of the LRV Zheng He sailed into a storm. They found themselves in a new scene after emerging from the storm, which was later given the provisional designation of Scene-08.21. The crew of the LRV Zheng He performed a survey of the scene and prepared to leave in order to report their findings. After several days of exploration, they had found no way out of the scene.
The decision was made to establish a temporary outpost on one of the larger islands encountered during the initial survey. Structures were built from a mixture of prefabricated modules carried aboard the LRV Zheng He and salvage recovered from the water. The initial purpose of the outpost was to produce food and salvage supplies while the LRV Zheng He continued to search for an exit.
In June 1975, the crew of the Zheng He detected a radio message from a vessel trapped in Scene-08.2, confirming that other wanderers inhabited the level. The transcript is reproduced below.
RADIO TRANSCRIPT
DATE: 1975-06-12
[BEGIN TRANSCRIPT]
UNKNOWN VESSEL: - is anybody out there? Please, for the love of God, somebody answer. We've eaten nothing but raw fish for days, Jones fell overboard during the last storm, and we don't know how long we can keep going.
LRV ZHENG HE: This is the LRV Zheng He. We weren't expecting to run into anybody else out here. We're willing to help, but we can't see you in this weather. Do you have any flares or anything?
UNKNOWN VESSEL: Thank you, thank you, thank you. Yes, we do have flares. We're firing one now.
LRV ZHENG HE: Alright, we see you and we'll be with you shortly. How did you find yourself here?
UNKNOWN VESSEL: We were fishing in Aquatic 5. What people insist on calling Scene-08.8 now. Then a storm came out of nowhere. Never saw one like it before. There were a few moments we thought we were going to sink. Then we found ourselves here. We've been here for a week or two. Rations ran out after a few days. Then all we had to eat were the fish in the sea, and all we had to drink was the rain. Plenty of both, though. Never thought I'd be glad for so much rain. How did you guys end up here?
LRV ZHENG HE: Similar story to you. We were doing some research in Scene-04.5 and we got caught in a sudden storm. Once it cleared, we found ourselves here. I'm going to have to bring this conversation to a close now- I believe I see your vessel. Two-masted schooner with badly damaged sails?
UNKNOWN VESSEL: That's us. We see you as well. Over and out.
[END TRANSCRIPT]
The three-man crew of the rescued boat was escorted back to the outpost, where they were given medical attention and offered a place to stay. They accepted and offered to help at the outpost in any way they could. In the following months, several more vessels in distress were rescued by the LRV Zheng He. This led to the population of the still-unnamed outpost growing to over 50 residents, and in August 1975, the decision was made to name the outpost. Several suggestions were put forth and voted upon, and the name "Port Sanctuary" was ultimately chosen as the name of the settlement.
During routine exploration in October 1975, the LRV Zheng He encountered a lighthouse. This sort of structure had not been previously encountered in Scene-08.2, leading to the crew of the LRV Zheng He making the decision to investigate. When they arrived at the lighthouse, they found that it was operated by a small group of people. This group identified themselves as being aligned with Port Respite, a previously unknown settlement. The residents of the lighthouse offered to contact Port Respite and arrange for the LRV Zheng He to be escorted there, and the crew agreed.
Shortly after arriving at Port Respite, diplomatic relations were established between the two settlements. Both settlements agreed to assist each other— Port Sanctuary provided technology and knowledge to Port Respite, which had previously been stuck with a late nineteenth-century level of technology, and Port Respite provided information about Scene-08.2 and the other settlements within the Scene. While this meeting led to relief that long-term survival was possible, it did also lead to concern due to Port Respite not finding a single exit to Scene-08.2 in the hundred and twelve years it had existed. Undeterred, the leadership of Port Sanctuary proposed that they pool together their resources in the hope of finding an exit. This led to the formation of the Thalassic League and the beginning of Project Astrolabe.
The Thalassic League
The Thalassic League is an alliance of settlements in Scene-08.2, created with the goal of advancing the exploration of the Scene and supporting collaborative projects. The League is led by a council of delegates from the largest settlements, although all member settlements are entitled to send representatives. The League has helped provide access to modern technology throughout Scene-08.2, assisted in the expansion of Port Respite's network of lighthouses, and constructed a network of radio towers throughout the Scene.
The League Council is currently made up of delegates from Port Sanctuary, Port Respite, Vulcan Rock, and Port de Sauvetage. The Council has a scheduled meeting once every three months, although additional meetings can be called if the need arises.
Project Astrolabe
Project Astrolabe is an ongoing joint project conducted by Port Sanctuary, Port Respite, and several other members of the Thalassic League with the goal of finding an exit to Scene-08.2. The project began in February 1976. Several dozen ships were salvaged and refitted to serve as exploration vessels. While no usable exit has so far been found by Project Astrolabe, a million square miles of ocean have been charted during the project. This led to several important discoveries, and to contact being established with over twenty previously uncontacted and unknown groups. Readings taken during the exploration suggested that stable and usable thresholds in and out of Scene-08.2 had previously existed but had later shrunk to the point of being unusable2.
Project Breakthrough (1989-2002)
In October 1989, the wreck of a cargo vessel used by the Leaders was found four hundred miles away from Port Sanctuary. Various pieces of technology were found aboard, although the majority had been damaged beyond the point of usability or repair by water damage. Among the more intact pieces of technology aboard the vessel was a set of threshold stabilizers. Developed by the Leaders in 1974, threshold stabilizers allow for the stabilization and expansion of inter-scene thresholds.
When word of this discovery reached Port Sanctuary, Dr. Arnold Moss3 and several other researchers urged that the cargo be delivered for further investigation. While threshold stabilizers had never before been used on thresholds as small as those in Scene-08.24, it was believed that the threshold stabilizers could be modified and used to expand one of the micro-thresholds found in Scene-08.2 into a usable route into the wider DevRooms.
Further investigation revealed that while none of the threshold stabilizers were intact, parts could be cannibalized from the more badly damaged units to repair the less damaged ones, and additional parts could be sourced from the other cargo. Between November 1989 and May 1990, four threshold stabilizers were pieced together from the remains of twenty. One was transported to the location of TH-023, the largest known threshold. The other three were kept in storage to be used later.
In October 1994, researchers succeeded in briefly expanding TH-023 from 2 mm to 25 cm. It was successfully held open for three hours. While still unstable and impractical as an exit, a small probe was able to be sent through. The limited exploration that was performed by the probe revealed that TH-023 connected to Scene-05.12, an A-ranked aquatic scene home to multiple colonies aligned with the Leaders.
Several radio transmissions were received by the probe upon its arrival, and the contents of these transmissions gravely concerned the researchers. The transmissions were brought to the attention of the Thalassic League Council. Access to the recordings and transcripts was restricted due to their distressing content, but the public were informed that the recordings suggested that the Leaders were in conflict with a previously unknown hostile group known as "Emstable" and that they had seized control of Scene-07.2. While only the transmissions made by the Leaders were able to be deciphered, several heavily encrypted transmissions were also detected and they were believed to have been made by Emstable.
During an emergency meeting of the Thalassic League Council, concerns were raised about the safety of continuing with the stabilization of Threshold TH-023. The representative for Port Respite proposed abandoning TH-023 and stabilizing another Threshold instead. Dr. Arnold Moss, director of Project Breakthrough, argued that it would be throwing away years of work. He was then questioned by the delegate for Vulcan Rock whether it would be possible to close the threshold in the event that hostile forces used it, and he responded that it would be possible to do so even though it would likely completely destroy the stabilizer. Consequentially, the decision was made to continue work on stabilizing Threshold TH-023 but to also begin work on stabilizing additional thresholds as a backup in case TH-023 needed to be closed.
Thresholds TH-045 and TH-057 were selected to be stabilized, and the one remaining unused threshold stabilizer was kept in storage. After TH-045 was discovered to be non-viable as an exit route due to the hostile entities that inhabited its destination, the stabilizer used was relocated to TH-042 instead.
Threshold TH-057 led to Scene-01.9, an A-ranked scene formerly home to several colonies aligned with the Leaders; and Threshold TH-042 led to Scene-05.22, a B-ranked scene with no permanent residents. While neither threshold was stable or large enough for a person to travel through by 1995, both had been stabilized enough so that probes sent through could remain permanently connected. Between 1995 and mid-1997, radio transmissions were received relating to an ongoing war for control of Scene-05.6 between the Leaders and Emstable. As was the case for the transmissions received from Scene-07.2, access to copies of these broadcasts has been restricted due to their distressing contents. The transmissions showed that the Leaders were losing the war in Scene-05.6. By the start of 1996, almost all surviving civilians in the Scene had fled, but the war for control of the Scene continued for over another year. The final Leaders transmission was broadcast on June 19th, 1997, an automated evacuation order instructing all surviving members of the Leaders to retreat to Scene-01.15. The probe that had been sent through TH-042 periodically received radio transmissions from refugee convoys that were traveling through Scene-03.8, and these transmissions revealed that the conflict between the Leaders and Emstable had engulfed the entirety of the DevRooms.
The transmissions received between 1995 and 1997 prompted some members of the Thalassic League to question whether Project Breakthrough should be continued. In 1996, the delegate for Port Respite proposed that the stabilization of TH-057 and TH-023 be paused in order to reduce the risk of future invasion by Emstable. The delegate also argued that doing this would free up resources to accelerate the stabilization of TH-042, allowing the League to provide support to the refugee convoys traveling through Scene-03.8. In response to this, Dr. Moss confirmed that the stabilization of TH-057 had been paused due to the conflict but also stated that work on TH-023 would continue since probes had detected no sign of Emstable communication in Scene-07.2 since early 1995.
Between 1995 and 1997, the researchers involved with Project Breakthrough regularly addressed concerns raised about the project. By the time the final transmissions were detected in 1997, the majority of settlements remained in favour of Project Breakthrough.
By the end of 1997, it was believed that TH-023 would be expanded to the point where it could be used as an exit by early 2000 and that TH-042 would be usable before the end of 2004. In 1998, after no broadcasts from the Leaders or Emstable had been detected from TH-057 in over six months, work resumed on stabilizing it.
On December 31st, 1999, an unexplained energy surge was detected from all thresholds in Scene-08.2. This caused all thresholds that were being experimented on as part of Project Breakthrough to reduce in size and led to mild damage being done to the threshold stabilizers. The project was paused for several months while the stabilizers were repaired. There was significant debate about the possible causes of the surge, and currently the only possible explanation for the energy surge is the spontaneous collapse of an entire scene.
While the surge did cause a setback, it was not as significant as initially feared. The measurements taken during the surge and subsequent contraction of the thresholds provided information that would allow for thresholds to be expanded and stabilized at sizes not previously thought realistic and at speeds faster than thought possible.
In March 2002, Threshold TH-23 was stabilized at a size of 7 square meters and officially opened following several months of testing. The research outpost surrounding the threshold was dismantled, and the threshold stabilizer used was placed into storage for future redeployment. The following speech was delivered by Dr. Arnold Moss, the director of Project Breakthrough.
SPEECH TRANSCRIPT
DATE: 2002-03-27
ADDENDUM: The speech was transmitted across Scene 08.2.
[BEGIN TRANSCRIPT]
Today, we have achieved what was for us in Port Sanctuary a dream that has been nearly thirty years in the making. For other settlements within this scene, it is a dream that has existed for centuries. United together, we have achieved something we previously could have never imagined possible- we made an exit when after decades of searching we couldn't find one. Together, we will make more exits.
What made all this possible was hope. Hope, and our ability to work together for the greater good. And a bit of the good old stiff upper lip. I know that these things will not only let humankind survive in the DevRooms, but thrive. When I first arrived here with the rest of the crew of the Zheng He, I assumed that there was no way anybody could have built a settlement here. I was glad to be proven wrong.
Today, the first exit was opened. Soon, there will be more. I have full confidence that once we re-establish contact with the Leaders, they will provide us with the technology and resources to rapidly open more entrances and exits. Perhaps this place will even become a hub of seafaring routes across the DevRooms.
For now, let us celebrate this achievement. Tomorrow our work continues, but today we can take pride in what we all worked together to accomplish. A new era for Scene-08.2 begins today.
[END TRANSCRIPT]
Notable Colonies
There are dozens of settlements and outposts established across Scene-08.2, each inhabited by dozens to hundreds of people. The largest settlements have over a thousand residents. For purposes of brevity, this section will only list the members of the Thalassic League Council. A complete list of all known settlements within Scene-08.2 is available from the Thalassic League Department of Records in Port Respite.
Leaders Colony Port Sanctuary
Founded by the crew of the LRV Zheng He in 1975 after they became stranded in the Scene, Port Sanctuary is one of the founding members of the Thalassic League. Despite being comparatively young compared to other colonies, it is still home to over five hundred wanderers. Port Sanctuary is home to the main research faculties of the Thalassic League.
Port Respite
Established in 1863, Port Respite is the largest colony in Scene-08.2 and is home to several thousand residents. To assist lost wanderers, Port Respite constructed a network of lighthouses in the seas surrounding it. After the formation of the Thalassic League, this network was expanded considerably and supplemented with radio technology. It is the administrative center of the Thalassic League.
Vulcan Rock
The residents of Vulcan Rock are secretive and isolationist, and as a consequence, it is not known when Vulcan Rock was founded or how many people live there. Records from Port Respite show that it had already existed for some time by the point Port Respite was founded. While a small settlement exists on the surface, it is primarily used for trading with outsiders and for storing resources for export. The majority of Vulcan Rock's population live within the large caverns inside Vulcan Rock.
The mines within Vulcan Rock are the main source of Firesalt in the scene, as well as a variety of other resources. The residents of Vulcan Rock are experienced with metalworking and working with Firesalt.
Port de Sauvetage
Founded in 1907 by French-speaking wanderers, Port de Sauvetage is currently home to slightly over a thousand residents. A quirk of the currents in the endless ocean of Scene-08.2 has led to considerable amounts of flotsam and derelict vessels washing ashore near Port de Sauvetage, and this has resulted in the extraction of resources from the scrap becoming the main industry of the colony.
Access and Egress
How to Enter
It is believed that Scene-08.2 can be entered through any patch of stormy water in the DevRooms, or alternately, through exiting Reality while at sea.
As of March 2002, Scene-08.2 can alternatively be entered through a threshold in Scene-07.2.
How to Leave
There are no known exits from Scene-08.2 As of March 2002, there is one exit from Scene-08.2. Threshold TH-023 is located fifteen miles north of Port Sanctuary, and leads to Scene-07.2. This threshold is bidirectional, and can be used to return to Scene-08.2.