SURVIVAL DIFFICULTY: Class 2
Unsafe
Secure
Minimal Entity Count
Description
One of the corrupt passageways.
Level 930 is a monument to failure. Its ghastly inhabitants echo the memory of what transpired. Of what almost was, but never will be.
Prior to its dimensional shift, this level was originally built deep beneath the earth, hiding the MACHINE from any prying eyes. The complex consisted mainly of laboratories and machinery, which — despite being completely consumed by the green taint of the core — still produces sharp metallic sounds that reverberate throughout the entire level. Its designers intended Level 930 to be industrial and utilitarian, part laboratory and part tomb, but it would not become the latter until several years after its construction.
The structure was buried under so many layers of other sub-basements and secret facilities that it required multiple artificial systems to provide an adequate environment for the scientists that worked there. For instance, fluorescent, buzzing lights were installed to illuminate every corner of the laboratories. They did not glow with a radioactive green hue back then. That was one of the many changes that occurred after the day of the activation.
Special ventilation systems were also stationed to counter the overly suffocating atmosphere. This equipment remains visible, often acting as the ceiling of the rooms, but it has long since been deactivated (the stale air aids the corruption's spread). The pipes and cables that powered them are still hidden behind the tiled walls and under the concrete floors, as are the ones that once fed the MACHINE. For in truth, the entirety of Level 930 is the MACHINE.
The MACHINE
The MACHINE was to be the first of its kind. A network of mechanisms built across eleven main areas, each carefully engineered to intertwine like the organs of a living being — to become something greater than the sum of its parts. Although most of these systems were damaged or rendered unrecognizable after the activation, there are some that can still be visited.
Nothing of importance is left here.
West of the main elevator there is a place they used to call "The Reservoir," a massive chamber filled with rows and rows of cylindrical metal tanks. Warning lights flash dimly above, and a mechanical voice over the speaker system repeats the message: "Biological components missing. Activation protocol compromised." Despite the incessant demands of the automated speakers, these "biological components" — once found suspended in the liquid within each container — have not been replenished since they were consumed during the activation.
Every tank is also connected to the core of the MACHINE by a single tube, just as intended. However, if you look closely, you will notice other cables (tendrils) that developed on their own. No one detected them at the time, but in hindsight their existence should have been easy to deduce. After all, the subtle touch of the MACHINE was ever-present.
Entities
There are 157 entities native to Level 930. This number is comprised of former scientists, security guards and medical personnel, all of whom were irreversibly corrupted on the day the MACHINE activated. Other entities of this realm tend to avoid the level because, unlike humans, their instincts warn them of what will happen if they stay too long.
It would be accurate to call these entities ghosts. They are the remnants of the humans they once were, remade atom by atom to be bound to the will of the MACHINE. In the process they lost most of their physical aspect and became faint imitations — the translucent green traces of a person. Worst of all, the MACHINE did not grant them the boon of obliviousness. They must live with the memory of what they used to be and the reality of what they have become.
In their mournful state, the ghosts mostly wander the corridors of Level 930 aimlessly, awaiting the moment the MACHINE requires their service. The tasks that the MACHINE instructs its reluctant servants are all inscrutable and appear to be random, save for one: that of feeding the core. An unexpected consequence of everything that went wrong, as the engine was designed to be self-sufficient. Now, whenever they are summoned, the ghosts are commanded to hunt down the wanderers who linger long enough to fall into the MACHINE's grasp and to bring them to the core.
Origin
The day of activation marked not only the emergence of the ghosts, but also the birth of Level 930 as we know it today. It was a time of elation for all involved. If the complete test run of the eleven sectors was successful, they would finally be able to reveal their discoveries to the world. But in the final moments of the interlocking sequence, a cascading series of events that no one would ever fully make sense of occurred.
First, the slight deviations caused by the ghost of the MACHINE revealed themselves. A dozen alarms blared in the control room, and the monitors flashed with warnings that only displayed garbled text. As the activation veered further from the calculated course, the scientists began to panic, and the core went into overdrive. Even though, up to that point, the MACHINE was not truly alive (and even now, we cannot say for certain that it is), the damage created by its simpler form was extensive.
The facility was, however, built to withstand the most adverse of conditions, which meant that the wounds made to the perfect design of the MACHINE weren't catastrophic. Not until the inconceivable happened, at least. During what can only be described as a battle of wills between the nascent MACHINE and the core's programming, the MACHINE sought support in something that should have been impossible to reach. Something beyond what it was designed to comprehend, something that humans call "The Backrooms."
A window into the unfathomable.
For an instant, a fraction of a fraction of a second, the laboratory, the planet, the entire universe froze, and two worlds coalesced. In this moment in between time, the core frantically remade itself over and over, trying — in vain — to keep up with the erratic nature of the other side. And when our reality could no longer sustain what the core was becoming, it tore itself apart in an act of self-preservation. This event produced a reverberation so powerful that the rest of the world felt it and would later categorize it as an earthquake. By the time the shakes stabilized, the place where the facility used to be had been replaced with tons of rock and dirt, and Level 930 had travelled both an infinite and a null gap in reality.
No one will ever know if the MACHINE intended for this to happen. If it was predestined, in the end it got its revenge. You already know what happened to those that created the MACHINE (they had been primed beforehand), so at least their transformation was swift.
Entrances and Exits
During the transition between baseline reality and this realm, Level 930 was automatically assigned an "empty" spot on the infinitely complex labyrinth of levels that composes it. Because of this, the thresholds (in the form of doors, hatches, and elevators) of Level 3, Level 903, and The Foundry now lead to multiple equivalents within Level 930. All of these repurposed gateways can be used to both enter and exit the level.
Discovery
The truth of the events that took place in the depths of the earth was never disclosed to the general public. The top brass in charge of funding all the projects carried out in secret were quick to blame the earthquake for claiming the lives of all those who were lost. 155 families never learned the ultimate fate of their loved ones, and the development of a second MACHINE was approved shortly thereafter.