Howdy bros, I'm back. I wanted to continue RimQuest, but the combination of an artist shafting me, Rimworld 1.6 breaking all of my saves, life events, and depression have fucked that into the dirt. So instead here's something new.These are the dark years of the occupation. Gordon Freeman is still just a story passed between cells, squads, strangers, and couples. In this moment in time there's only you, a lone human working to resist the Combine occupation however you see fit and remain able. There will be an Uprising someday, this you're sure of, but the path there lies on the other side of lakes of blood and considerable effort on the part of unsung warriors like you.It had felt like days since you last saw the sun back outside the outskirts of City 11. The awful stench of the sewers and cisterns which meandered under the streets of what used to be Berlin forced you to find something to plug your nose with almost immediately upon beginning your infiltration. Deep regret at leaving the accommodations, spartan as they were, of the Resistance base north of the city had massaged your mind, but failed to slow your occasionally-soggy step through the barely-lit darkness.All this had a purpose, you reminded yourself. In the newspeak of the Combine you are an Anticitizen, a Malignant, the malformed cell that starts the cancer, the one that sets the spark which will light the torch of humanity's liberation. Or, in more plain terms, the crazy fucker that volunteers to go back into the Cities in order to bring contraband in, people out, and start up new resistance cells along the way. If there were some omniscient statistician in the sky, he could have given you odds of survival that would have seen you sit your ass back down in Finow when they called for somebody to replace Parks's sector after his presumed loss, but all the same, it needed to get done. The whole goddamned species was at stake, with a biological time limit that edged closer to expiration every year and a planet slowly being strangled of its life. If this generation didn't stop them, there would be no other. Never in human history had there been as existential and desperate a struggle as the one you now trudged through obscure German shit-tunnels to wage.It had only been half a day since you entered the sewer system when you reached your target. A junction in the tunnels marked by a chalk marker and a lone, white coffee mug. The route into this part of the city was prepared beforehand by a two-man reconnaissance team, people with equipment and experience too valuable for you to know or to be risked with the next, most dangerous part of City infiltration. You were briefed that they left you a red bag full of necessaries to help you along on your mission from here, hidden in a storeroom near the marker.
>>6332700This old storeroom was to be your only point of contact with the rest of free humanity until your branch of the railroad was up and running to the satisfaction of the officers in command. Here is where you can leave messages with intelligence or supply requests, recieve goods and messages in return, and hopefully start new refugees on the path back to freedom and future revenge.But before we get to all that, Who are you, Malignant?Please write-in the following.>[Full Name]>[Male/Female]>[Basic Details] (Optional)
>>6332702>Charles Frankham>Male
>>6332702>Wolfgang Bauer>MaleSon of a minor Bundestag member who evaded capture during the War, he followed his father into the Resistance as soon as he came of age
>>6332702>Hugo Merlot>Male>Local radio enthusiast, tried to send a message to the ISS once, only answer was some schmuck muttering 'Space' repeatedly
>>6332702>Harrison Freeman. No relation.>Male>Former firefighter. Built like a brick shithouse.
Loving the suggestions so far. I'll be back on this afternoon for the winner. Unlike my last quest, I can update -far- more frequently in order to keep things rolling.
>>6332702>>6332727+1 to radio dork
>Karl Strasser (no relation?)>Male>Berlin Goth Club Patron, Amateur Strongman at Weight-Lifting Competitions, Black Metal Project Bassist
>>6332727+1Sure. Fuck it. Best one so far.
>>6332819I like this one.
>>6332702>John Eggle>Male>Cartoonist who had once hoped that aliens were real, the Seven Hour War had disproven that desire by a lot and the occupation far more-so
Here we go. You are Hugo Merlot, before the 7 Hour War you were a radio hobbyist that worked part-time in a local electronics store. Now years later, your valuable skills will no doubt serve the Resistance well as they work to prepare for the Uprising in City 11.Writing it up.
>>6332949He sounds French. No savage Americans allowed.
[1/3]Casting aside the bag of garbage used to partially-obscure the dead drop, you withdraw the bag containing the goods you needed for the next step. You needed to slip into the general population of the city, get the lay of the land, and settle in. This was where the Reconnaissance team did some of the lifting for you- Citizens in Combine-occupied cities were known and catalogued by number, heavily tracked, and counted at several points in the day. You withdrew and set aside a standard Citizen jumpsuit, a basic all-weather garment issued to every human under Combine rule. It's clean, which you appreciate deeply after wading through the stagnant decades of European sanitation infrastructure. You note the number on the nametag, your new identity. #493357 This number was how you were to be housed, fed, worked, and eventually discarded. Setting aside the folded jumpsuit, you find a few papers on top of the rest of the contained goodies, the first one with "DESTROY AFTER READING" scribbled boldly on top of a few lines of shorthand. You read this first one intently."you are 493357, your apt just upstairs to the right for ez access to drop. 3 neighbor apts vacant as of 4/6. assigned machine shop 7 shift 3. last malign't exposed by loy'st #312212 fn Lucas, avoid or term. courier evr 2 weeks. viel gluckWell, now you know what happened to the last guy. It would've been nice to have more identifying information on this loyalist. The other two papers are radio codes and frequencies for the current two week block until the next courier hopefully comes up the tunnels with the new set. Radio, despite being your passion, was a dangerous technology to rely on in occupied areas. The Combine Metropolitan Police Forces are perfectly capable of using direction-finding equipment and are constantly scanning for rogue broadcasts from the uninformed or unwary. That being said, if there was a time-sensitive message that needed to get out of the city or an urgent order that needed to get in, short radio transmissions were still the best solution. A basic radio set was, naturally, the next set of items to be discovered in the bag. Nothing like what you used to mess with pre-War, but still enough to set up a proper station.The last item was a gun, a worn, open-top revolver that wouldn't have been out of place in an old Western, loaded with five bullets and with its' hammer sitting on an empty chamber. No extra bullets were in the bag. This was a courtesy more than anything, in the case of discovery there was already enough here to condemn you to a fate worse than death. The idea was to put the first bullet into your radio set, use the next three bullets to aid you in an escape, and put the final bullet into your brain if you couldn't.
>>6333006[2/3]This was all too dangerous and heavy to carry around at once, especially into an entirely-unknown area, so you resolve to check out your new home first. You peel off the clothing that saw you through the tunnels and quickly change into the fresh Citizen jumpsuit provided by the drop. Leaving the storeroom with the first paper you read in hand, you crumple it up and drop it into the foul waters as you step wide from one side of the sewer tunnel to the other, making sure before you continue that it disappears into illegibility and obscurity. The stairway leading upward into the residential block that was to be your stomping ground was littered with garbage and rubble from other parts of the building, no doubt used by the occupants as a dumping ground for their trash. Sidestepping upwards, you explore the basement level of the residential block. The soft buzzing of the lights on the walls and the pattering of footsteps echoing from the levels above reinforce your transition from subterranean mole-person to urbanite. You pass through a small utility room into the hallway and immediately spot a wooden door with the numbers "493357" handwritten on a small paper strip tacked onto it.This was your apartment. "Cramped" was the first word that came to mind, the second being "filthy", on top of it likely not having been maintained since the War it looked as if somebody had recently ransacked the place. The bedframe lacked a mattress, blankets, or pillow. The fridge was empty, and busted to boot. The stove was missing all but one of its' burners, the last one thankfully still glowing red when tested. The bathroom fared slightly better, the toilet flushed properly although the accompanying sink was trashed. The shower dutifully sprayed a torrent of water with the turn of its' knobs, but no amount of waiting would yield a temperature beyond cold.With a deep breath, you blew the wadded paper out of your nose that kept you from having to endure the worst of the sewers. The apartment smelled a bit better, but you're sure that you weren't contributing positively after your journey into the city.
>>6333007[3/3]You take a cold but well-needed shower, watching some sort of bug you don't recognize skitter from one side of your bathroom to another as you scrub away the sewers. Your radio set, codes, and gun still lay reasonably hidden in the storeroom drop, waiting to be retrieved. You have yet to explore the rest of the residential block or set foot onto the streets of City 11 and, according to the paper you read, your work assignment will start in about six hours when night falls. There is much to do in order to begin your mission in earnest, but where to start?You are currently:[Clean][Tired][Famished]Choose one of the following:>(Look around the Residential Block.)>(Look around the City Streets.)>(Search for a Ration Distribution Terminal.)>(Try and sleep for a few hours.)>(Withdraw Contraband.)>(Write-in.)
>>6333008>(Try and sleep for a few hours.)
Food is an overwhelming, primal need. Getting any sleep with the emptiness gnawing at my stomach was going to be a nonstarter.I wondered about the logistics of calories. If I could find anything to ferment, like wasted potatoes, I could make alcohol to supplement the rations my number would entitle me to and perhaps use as bribes if the need arose. The refrigerator will make an excellent insulated storage space for fermenting wines. I examine the bed frame. Useless. But sleeping on a slab is good for your back, and there is a perfectly good table that will keep me off the ground and away from rats and bugs. Cold showers are also fine once you get used to them, and I can heat up water on the stove when I need hot water. I just need to have the right attitude about things.Ranked choice:>(Search for a Ration Distribution Terminal.)>(Withdraw Contraband.)>(Try to sleep for a few hours)
>>6333008>>(Search for a Ration Distribution Terminal.)>>(Try and sleep for a few hours.)>>(Withdraw Contraband.)
>>6333008>(Search for a Ration Distribution Terminal.)
>>6333008>>(Search for a Ration Distribution Terminal.)
Alright! We're starting off our journey into the City with a search for an RDT, understandable since working hungry really can suck. Update to follow soon.
Alright, first order of business after we get stabilized is to start working on duplicating Combine-ish radio ciphers. We need to find a way to either hide our transmissions as vaguely Combine in nature or optimally embed our stuff in actual Combine transmissions gear.Another good plan for a guy like us would be to actually crack Combine transmissions but this would require math and crypto, which we probably don’t have access to at the moment
[1/]Sighing deeply, realizing the decision facing you was one between working hungry or working tired, you quickly decided to fill your stomach. Perhaps being bone-tired would only help you blend in among the rest of the normal, subdued Citizenry. In the years since the 7 Hour War that you spent outside the city, you quickly became used to rough fare. During the Portal Storms that swept across Earth in the leadup to the Combine invasion, Xenian life quickly took root across the globe and made life in humanity's rural and agricultural lands a living hell, cratering production of foodstuffs everywhere the militaries of Earth couldn't respond. Foods not in vogue since the turn of the last century saw revival in small portions upon the scavenged plates and bowls of those able to keep free of alien rule. Canned food and dry snacks, slices of rye bread, 'hardtack' crackers, pork and beef salted beyond palatability for storage before being parboiled and mixed with scant vegetables. You were sure you had eaten sawdust more than once, either having been mixed into flour or used to thicken a wanting pea soup.You heard a few stories from some of the refugees about what Citizens ate, and although supplied with regularity, it wasn't supposed to be much better. More concerning was the rumor that said rations are laced with all sorts of chemicals intended to keep the citizenry docile, weak, and interfere with their memory as a method to both control the people and entice them to join Civil Protection. One middle-aged refugee woman that you spoke to just before you set out on the road to Berlin claimed that boiling the Rations in water neutralized the psychoactives which, if done before every meal, would gradually cancel out the effects and bring the memory and fire back to those negatively affected, even if they had been dosed for years.Your stomach growled, signaling that it was time to experience the stories for yourself. The working burner on the stove and the cooking pot would be useful in testing the theory and its' confirmation could be a small but valuable piece of intelligence to pass back to the boys back in Finow. Leaving the apartment, you glance at your front door. The lock is nonfunctional, meaning anybody with a mind to could walk right into your apartment. You didn't have much to steal at the moment, but this was still a problem that would need to be remedied soon. Perhaps you could acquire a lock somewhere. With some anxiety and more than a little excitement, you walked up the stairway onto the ground floor of the apartment building.
>>6333813[2/4]The ground floor was better taken care of than the basement level, although trash could still be seen and the subfloor was occasionally exposed, a fine red carpet was still visible in the hallways leading up towards the entrance. You wondered how it must have looked before the War. It was here that you saw the first examples of your fellow citizens, a pair of older-looking men sat on a bench by the entrance doorway, both wore the same jumpsuit as you, with one wearing a comfortable-looking wool beanie, under which flowed locks of gray hair. This one slowly gazed upon you as you emerged from the stairwell and spoke in a soft, Italian-accented voice as you passed."They put you in one of the basement rooms, eh? Bad draw."The other man nodded, replying in your stead. "Smells like shit down there."You nodded deferentially, continuing on your way. You noted a vending machine beside the bench where the old men sat, lit, and seemingly functional. Inside were colored aluminum cans in rows with subdued, minimalist labeling. All of them were uncarbonated water, but some of them promised a vague flavoring to differentiate them from their peers. The vending machine took Credits, a proprietary currency introduced by the Combine in order to facilitate a semblance of an economy inside their Cities.Opening the door, you were finally greeted with the sight of City 11, or rather, this segregated block of City 11. You didn't know quite what you expected, you weren't naive enough to anticipate a postcard scene of the Unter den Linden, but this part of Berlin seemed particularly run-down and depressing. The apartment block you emerged from was the largest, most defining feature of the block, its' white brick facade cracking in places and with a great hole in the front aside a crater in the road, evidence of some significant explosion that collapsed the wall into two apartments. One of the apartments was seemingly repaired with a hasty wooden wall, while the other was open to the elements with some traces of repair work in progress. Perhaps this explosion happened recently.The sun cast a sinking orange glow from above the dark blue alien walls that snaked across the city, soon it would be Shift Three, the night shift, and you would have to maintain your cover by working your assigned job. A pair of Combine structures lay inside the block, looking as if the ground sprung two bluish tumors in eldritch shapes upon the urban landscape. You have no reckoning of the smaller one's purpose, but the snaking line of chain-link fences and occasional sprinkle of Citizen foot traffic outside the larger one, situated in the parking lot of some office building ruined by the border wall, most likely made it the Ration Distribution Terminal.
>>6333815[3/4]It was here that you first saw aCivil Protection presence. A tall man dressed in a distinctive uniform with a bone-white gas mask punctuated by two glowing blue eyes. A long, black baton jaunted from between his crossed arms. He leaned idly against an alien barrier outside the small Combine structure in the intersection, watching pedestrians pass by. You tried not to look for too long, this was supposed to be a normal sight for you, nothing out of the ordinary. Crossing the street towards the RDT, you caught a chill as you felt the CP's gaze lock on your person, your peripheral vision catching their blue luminescent eyes track you from one side of the street to another. You couldn't help but sweat a little, these are the moments where your cover is to first be tested. If Citizen #493357 was for some reason not supposed to be in this block or flagged as missing, this next hour could be your last.Around the RDT were stationed several more Civil Protection officers, all mixed in stages of professionalism and profound boredom. The officer at the front beckoned you to approach with a motion from his baton. This officer seemed on the shorter side, with a more feminine figure than most of the others. An artificially-garbled voice barked at you from her inhuman mask."<:|| Apply, Citizen. ||:>"You were taken aback for a second, you had no idea what you were supposed to do. You stuttered, glancing around nervously."Sorry, I... wh-"Her baton came upward quickly, pointing menacingly at the nametag on your chest. A shifting net of blue sparks loudly crackled at the baton's tip, inches from your body."<:|| Your number, dumbass. ||:>" she stated impatiently. You recited your identifying numbers quickly. The officer's baton dropped slowly to her side as she stared through you. Your stomach dropped. The color drained out of your face. This was it. The Recon guys gave you a busted cover. You were screwed. Fucked. You swore silently that you would haunt those sons-of-bitches for the rest of their lives. You wondered if anybody would find your body."<:|| Go. ||:>"You blinked, making a conscious effort to unfreeze yourself. Thank fuck. Thank God! You slithered past the female CP into the maze of fences and into the sparse line of Citizens waiting their turn for rations. Behind the first bend in the fence, a Combine Turret swayed from side to side, beeping rhythmically as it swept over all and sundry. Some anxiety came back as your imagination intrusively presented a vision of the short, dark barrel suddenly spitting blue flame as it presented towards you, but it remained docile, sweeping and beeping, as patient as a landmine.
>>6333816[4/4]Your turn finally came, and you walked up towards the blue mechanical device sitting at the terminus of the line. An unseen camera's flash hits you directly in the eyes, making you jump slightly in surprise. A mechanical whirring sound. A few seconds pass, and a small, purple and blue package comes out of a dark slot for your retrieval. Grabbing it gingerly, you walked out of the Ration Distribution Terminal and quickly steered for home.You shook away the remaining nervousness as you re-entered your apartment. On the table you tore open the plastic packaging of the Ration and lay out its' contents.The primary fare was a fist-sized pouch containing some sort of food-paste that smelled like eggs, a bland, paper tube of white crackers, and one of those cans of water you saw before in the vending machine, this one colored blue. Five small, black coins bearing the symbol of the Combine jingled out of the package, Credits, though you had no frame of reference as to what this amount will readily buy.You pocketed the coins and gazed at the food on the table, then towards the cooking pot on your stove. This was an opportunity to test out that rumor you heard about boiling rations, but you were also hesitant. This was the first meal you'd been presented with in at least two days, and if you somehow ruined it with experimentation, you had no idea how long you had to wait to get another from the RDT. How much could eating one ration really muddle your mind? On the other hand, you had memories you wanted to hold onto. Childhood before the Combine. France. Technical knowledge. The clock on the wall ticked mercilessly down, it was time to shit or get off the pot.Choose one of the following:>(Boil the ration.) >(Don't boil the ration.)Flavor VoteAbove all other reasons, why did our boy Hugo decide to give up the life of an Outlands rebel and volunteer to infiltrate City 11?>(A reflexive sense of duty and dedication to the cause.)>(Illusions about the life of a spy. Too many movies or misled by comrades?)>(A desperate search for a family member or loved one.)>(Write-in)
>>6333817>(Boil the ration.)stupid not to try at least.As for the flavour vote>(Write-in)>A mix of things, mainly that with the timer set on humanity's extinction, you heard many rumours of the top brass discussing varying wild ideas to save humanity from the combine, many of whom needed people either brave or stupid enough to tough the gauntlet of scrapping combine tech and bringing it back. You'd heard that some were even planning on using an old nuclear warhead rocket with a teleportation device strapped onto it, and teleporting an entire colony ship outside of Earth's orbit. Either way, it was your job to make any of the eggheads ideas plausible. >...It might also have been that you knew your half sister was within the city. You hadn't really talked to her much before the war, but it is still a loose end you want to tie up since Pa might body slam you in heaven if you die before at least trying your best at helping her out of the city, together with the other civilians.
>>6333817>>6333824 +1
>>6333817>(Boil the ration.) >(A reflexive sense of duty and dedication to the cause.)
>>6333817>(Boil the ration.)Food Paste, Crackers and Canned Water.Presuming the crackers are saltines its hard to add supplements that wouldn't visibly alter them.We can use the paste thinned with the canned water to make a light stew type meal, and have it over crackers
We're unanimous for experimental dystopian cooking so far, so let's have someone give us a 1d100. We want 30+, 0-10 means our first work shift will go especially poorly.
>Boil>Loyalty & Hope for Europe & Humanity as a whole
Rolled 36 (1d100)>>6333975Please dice, show us some love!
>>6333817>Eat the crackers straight, three every hour, to see if you start to experience any psychoactive symptoms>Boil the mush-paste and eat half of it, and attempt to start a fermentation on the other half>Pour the canned water into the toilet cistern>Boil some tap water and drink it -- you'll need to set up a still at some point to make pure distilled water from steam laterFlavor>>6333824+1
>>6333817>>(Boil the ration.)>(Write-in)> A realization if nobody did, then humanity would become extinct, that combined with the lack of any meaningful thing to lose.
>>6334002Good job! Even with a generous roll I was sure I was going to wake up to somebody rolling a flat zero, lmao.
I am quite looking forward to this quest! Havent seen much exploration into the rebel life in the half life fiction side, and with the potential for half life 3 seeming real again, this quest makes it feel like christmas came early :D
>>6334348Plot twist, this quest was started by a Valve employee as part of a viral marketing campaign.
>>6333817>>(Boil the ration.)>>6333824Fine reason as any.
>>6334348
Test post to see if cuckflare is still having it out with me. Writing it up at fuckpiss o'clock, as is tradition.
>>6334836Will you be getting the new GabeCube??
>>6334840Nah, not interested in the Cube or the deck. I'll definitely be grabbing a Frame, though. Been a VRfag for years.
>>6334842Please dont tell me you are a VRchatfag QM.
>>6334843Nah. VTOL and Pavlov are my bag.
>>6334845Based QM, good taste too.
[1/3]You pondered how exactly to go about cooking your ration, but options were sparse. You longed for that kitchen you knew as a boy. Pots and pans hanging jauntily from the ceiling. A spice rack so comprehensive that only your grandmother knew everything contained within. The smells. Oh man, the smells that came from that kitchen. The water can opened with the characteristic pop, and you poured it into the pot. Topped up with some extra water from the shower, and the semi-solid food paste softly splashed into the water. You pounded the crackers into crumbs on the countertop and dropped them in as well to thicken the mixture. The stove's burner hummed as it slowly brought the contents to a low boil. You stirred it absentmindedly, feeling more like you were brewing some unspeakable creation in a lab than a chef. The vaguely 'eggy' smell of the paste was gone, now you didn't smell anything from it. After about five minutes you decide to have a go at your makeshift McOppression meal.Hunger may be a good spice, but tasting anything was preferable to tasting absolutely nothing. Oh, for Salt! Pepper! Garlic! No signals lept from tongue to brain upon contact with the Combine Soup you made, merely the sensation of wet matter passing through on a journey to the stomach. You scarfed it down quickly in order to briefen the unsettling experience, while glancing occasionally at the clock on your apartment wall.On the bright side, you didn't feel any different in the mental department. You could still work yourself up into anger, you threw the empty can through the bathroom door where it bounced off one of the walls and clattered to the floor. You ran a quick mental check. Hugo Merlot, 32, from Blois. Mother, Father, their faces. Emma, your older half-sister from your father's side. Everything seemed alright, but what if it was supposed to work more gradually than that? What if you simply couldn't notice what you've lost yet? You shook your head.You are no longer Famished.You are currently:CleanTiredYou have [5 Credits] on your person.It was time to go to work, if you could find out where work was. You had some time left to figure that out. Machine Shop 7. You shovelled the last of your meal into your mouth. It felt better to have something in your stomach, at least.
>>6334886[2/3]Coming up the stairs from the basement, you saw the old Italian-sounding man still sitting on his bench, this time alone. You approached him earnestly."Hey, do you know where I can find Machine Shop Seven? I got a new work assignment, but I didn't get told how to get there." you asked as he looked you up and down.He exhaled slowly, a soft whistle escaping his lips. "Not a bad draw there, kid. You go up the North checkpoint, it's just in the neighboring block. The little white building with all the stuff piled outside.""I'm Lucas Pellegra, by the way. Who are you?", he adds.Fuck! Is he the Lucas from the briefing note, the one that burned the last Malignant? It couldn't be a coincidence, how many people named Lucas could there possibly be in this block? Did you just fuck up the 'avoid' part of the message with the first person you'd properly spoken to?"Hugo." you absentmindedly blurt as your brain skips. "Pleased to meet you."The Italian nods as you excuse yourself and head out the front door and into the darkening spring evening. As you walked towards the northern block checkpoint, your attention was grabbed by the building just before it. Lit up, with windows through which you could see shelves and displays containing all sorts of sundry items, scavenged goods, and knick-knacks. A proper shop. From the outside you could see that the person manning the store inside was dressed differently, not like a Civil Protection unit and not like a regular Citizen. They looked cleaner, healthier, less beaten-down. They stood as straight as an arrow from behind their counter, watching the scant patrons of their store as they made their selections. You continued on, making a note to check out the shop when you had some time.With slightly more confidence than your first interaction back at the RDT you stated your identity to the CP officer at the head of the checkpoint. After a few seconds of uncomfortable staring, during which you wondered if there was some sort of system you were being checked against, you were waved through a pair of bright blue glowing barriers, another camera flash surprising you as you tensely strode into the neighboring block.
>>6334887[3/3]Quickly you spot what must be Machine Shop 7, a small warehouse built of whitewashed masonry surrounded by a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. From through the open doorway, the sounds of old machine tools hummed and buzzed harmonically. Citizens came and went, most carrying items to and from the outside storage areas. Besides the door leaned another man dressed in the same garb as the shopkeeper, with a clipboard in his hand. Above him a Combine Camera rhythmically swayed and beeped like an alien metronome. You approached the man by the door."Number?" he asked in a dispassionate English accent. "493357." you responded in kind. He looked down at his clipboard and frowned. "Do you know how to run a lathe?" You shook your head. "You're a shop monkey, then. Bring the operators new stock from that pile when they're done, and take the finished parts outside to those pallets over there. You'll get fifty credits at the end of your shift in ten hours, if you earn them."Inside the shop were a handful of machines arranged in rows, each manned by a Citizen turning wheels, tightening thing, untightening things, or otherwise engaged in work you didn't recognize. You watched over it all for a moment. You believe that sabotaging this shop is possible, if the right opportunity presented itself, all of this seemed very intricate and technical, though also old-fashioned. None of the machines seemed to be of Combine make, just old human industrial equipment lending itself to their purposes. Another worker glared at you as you stood idly and, noticing the attention, you began your duties gofering tools, metal stock, and parts around the shop to those wanting, doing your best to blend into the background noise of the shop. The fatigue you still feel from your long journey into the City begins to dog your efforts, but the hours of the night begin to slide by.Do you do anything special during your work shift?Choose one of the following:>(Attempt to get information from another worker.) [Write-in a question.]>(Search for opportunities to sabotage the Machine Shop.)>(Lay low and work your shift earnestly.)
>>6334888>(Lay low and work your shift earnestly.)
>>6334888>(Lay low and work your shift earnestly.)We are still in the infiltration part of this, need to lie low for a bit.Would be interesting to maybe see if we can grab any shiv-like scrap before work is over.
>>6334888>(Lay low and work your shift earnestly.)Like >>6334902 said, keep a low profile for now and get integrated into the local environment. Don't let the Combine have any reason to believe we're anything but what we say we are. They sure as hell won't be going anywhere anytime soon, so we'll have all the time in the world to do things for the Resistance later.
>>6334888>(Lay low and work your shift earnestly.)Try to swipe a pointy piece of metal if possible. Nothing that looks definitively like a weapon, but something that we can turn into one later. We need to be able to say “oops I meant to throw that away” if we’re caught with it.
Btw QM, can we maybe get some information on this city 11 that our character should know? I feel like we should've been informed about potential sites of interest, culture, current happenings and Combine activity before we went into the city.You mentioned that this is where Berlin used to be, how is it different compared to city 17? Just so we get a feel of where we stand (and where our Rebel Cell stands)
>>6334941Sure! I'll put something together for you.
>>6334941>>6334995Would our cell know a lot of the place? A part of our main mission here seems to be to actually get more info on the city.also cool quest
>>6334888>(Lay low and work your shift earnestly.)For now work. We need to camouflage with the rest of the mass. We can still do something like what we have being doing so far, by watching with our eyes. And making a mental list of all we have seen, to write down later when we are sure we can write safely.Get an idea of the building. How many workers, how many machines. How many Civil Protection thugs. And if Combine machinery is used in the process.That special shop we noticed is probably good enough for buy a lock. Seems like a sponsored citizen by the Combine, someone with a better position in life than the masses. I am not sure i want to buy stuff there.
>>6334888>>(Lay low and work your shift earnestly.)
>Lay LowIf we buy a lock from a "sponsored citizen" then the we'll end up having a no-knock Xeno-Stasi raid to see what exactly we're so eager to secure. Need to find one elsewhere, hopefully there are plenty of basements that connect to the sewers so we can scavenge without being observed snooping around.>>6334907Reminds me of Enclave designs from Fallout 2, was this official concept art for the Combine?
What year ise it as well QM? Is it Early or late in the 20 years leading up to the rebellion?
>>6334907nice image
>>6335214Yeah! I pulled this stuff off the wiki years ago, but it was early concept art for Combine overwatch troops. I believe specifically Combine Elites but I could be wrong.
>>6335331Looks dope.I take it that in mainland China, nothing really changed after the Combine takeover.
>>6335499L take.
>>6335507No, no there's a lot that the Combine have in common with the CCP. You aren't a technocommunist, are you Anon?
>>6335517Anti-chinese posting comes from a place of envy. If they were like the combine there would be nothing to envy. While your government is genociding you, whoring out your women, and turning your kids gay with propaganda, China has traction in the world. They research and implement new technology, they ban effeminate and subversive westoid propaganda, and do all the things you wish your government would do. Envy is a feminine emotion and unbecoming of a man. I'm sure it's far from perfect but at least the Han people will exist in 500 years which is more than Westoids can say about their ethnicities.
>>6335519Nah, I'm just a fan of Wang Jingwei. You can go be a 白左 somewhere else.
>>6335519You're autistic, aren't you?
>>6335537Where do you think you are?
>>6335541Not /pol/.
>>6335544Really? Then why did you post this? >>6335517
>>6335547To poke fun at your retarded initial post, to which you responded to with a /pol/esque rant completely off topic from the thread.
>>6335550Our "innocent political jokes"Their "/pol/esque rants"
>>6335552I used the term "technocommunist". Do you really think I was being serious? Besides, China is closer to Fascism, like the DPRK is.
>>6335556Really? DPRK I can see, since they have a de facto hereditary rule; but how is China a synthesis of socialism and monarchy from the 1920s?
>>6335557Readmoar. Genuinely, come to the realization yourself, I'm not shitting up the thread any further with off topic shit after this.
Fun discussion to wake up to. Here's some requested background lore in order to get us back on track.In the days leading up to the 7 Hour War, humanity was already struggling hard. The Portal Storms caused immense damage both in and of themselves and with the Xenian life they scattered all over the surface of the Earth. Governments evacuated areas that their overstretched and unprepared militaries couldn't secure, with entire regions depopulated and moved into refugee camps established in major cities. These cities, with their concentration of the majority of people and pre-existing defensive perimeters, would eventually become the numbered capital-C Cities of the Combine occupation. Not all people were inside these cities at the time of Humanity's surrender, naturally. Some regions were able to be swept of Xenian life and remained as vitally important food-producing regions. Ports, power plants, water treatment facilities, and intercity railroad lines that lay outside urban green zones were often garrisoned and maintained in order to keep what remained of society functioning. Military units small and large were in the field on various operations. Some people just plain didn't want to be evacuated, and stuck by their homes and property, sometimes in groups, sometimes alone. When the surrender was announced at the conclusion of the 7 Hour War, many of these disparate facilities and groups lay down their weapons and assimilated into the Combine's authority as ordered, but many also did not. These groups would become the nucleus of the Resistance during the occupation years ahead.The group that our boy Hugo ended up falling in with before the start of the Quest is referred to as, somewhat optimistically, the Central European Command, a polyglottal mixture of City refugees, rural holdouts, and fragmented military remnants from several nations of continental Europe. While partially decentralized, there is an enigma of a leader, referred to only as the "Old Man" and popularly theorized to be anything from a former officer in the German MAD to the leader of a pre-War commune. The Old Man leads the broad majority of the CEC around by the nose with his vanguard of greying ex-military men and hastily-trained post-War militiamen. Operating mainly in the border regions between what was Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic and keeping a wide but persistent orbit of the three now-Combine cities of Berlin, Dresden, and Prague, the group drifts between regions scavenging food, searching for unpilfered Cold War military stockpiles, and engages in light acts of guerilla warfare; ambushing the occasional intercity razor train or road patrol. Mainly though, the Central European Command, likely numbering no more than 1,500 people in all, abides by the strategy broadly agreed-upon by the wider global Resistance movement, the Uprising Plan.
>>6335775Inspired by guerilla actions during the Second World War and similar plans drafted afterwards by western officers in the case of Soviet invasion, the plan was to preserve and develop existing forces outside the Cities, weaken Combine authority through acts of sabotage, extract as many Citizens from the Cities as possible in order to bolster Resistance forces, and, eventually, to initiate a great Uprising to liberate humanity from alien oppression.In the wake of Combine victory, Berlin became known as City 11. The city once divided by one famous wall became host to dozens, if not hundreds more, as the sprawling city was diced into more easily-manageable blocks by the local Combine Civil Authority. While not sporting a homage to the vast, sky-piercing Citadel of City 17 fame, the local administration of the city is directed from a Nexus somewhere in the center of the city, theorized by some to be the once-famous Fernsehturm, which can be seen from a distance to be heavily-modified with Combine structural elements and occasionally spewing Combine Scanners from its' innards.On a varnished wooden table inside a dimly-lit bunker on a dilapidated Cold War-era airfield, several shadowy people that Hugo will likely never meet gazed upon a pre-War map of Berlin, heavily annotated to illuminate various confirmed, assumed, and possible post-War changes that the aliens made to the city. One of the figures marked out a somewhat-arbitrary selection of segregated housing and industrial blocks. Then he did it again in another part of the City. Then again. Then yet again. In each of these selections, the plan was to use small teams of pre-War military veterans, an incalculably valuable commodity, to develop covert routes to access these sectors, and then assign a far-more-expendable volunteer to infiltrate each sector and develop a Resistance cell within, extracting manpower and intelligence while laying the groundwork for free humanity's eventual reconquest. Enter our hero.Hugo is now somewhere in the northern part of Berlin, while he could probably see the Fernsehturm glowing a sickly Combine blue in the distance if he tried, he's far from the city center and the well-known landmarks of the city, there's no saying what has become of the Victory Column, the Reichstag, the Spree, or the Brandenburg Gate until the day comes when you either gaze upon them with your own eyes or one of the future members of your cell gives you a proper report.>>6335034>A part of our main mission here seems to be to actually get more info on the city.Exactly so. Think of us as a mix between an intelligence officer, saboteur, cell leader, and what the Mexicans call a "coyote". We have a high latitude of freedom in how we serve the cause, and special assignments from the outside Resistance may come along.>>6335309>What year ise it as well QM? Is it Early or late in the 20 years leading up to the rebellion?Late, I'll say.
Quick note on updates for transparency's sake, I don't have a set schedule, I'll try to keep them frequent, but I may take a day or two in order to pace myself. If I need to take an actual hiatus, I'll say so here in the thread. I'm on the /qst/ pisscord if ever you need to reach me.
So what former countries Pacifically have troops within the CEC? I would assume Germany, Poland, & Czechia at least. What about fortress-countries like Switzerland & Albania?
>>6335845There could feasibly be a member of any nation in any sufficiently-large Resistance group, given that the Combine penchant for shuffling populations around. Pre-7 Hour War military personnel are quite rare and only becoming rarer, considering the passing of decades' worth of time and attrition from combat, wounds, disease, and wildlife.
>>6335775While we're at it, I can't remember if HL ever addressed what's popping in the less well developed parts of the world. Are the likes of Kinshasha, Manaus, Mosul andAlmaty now Cities or did a lot of fragile states unable to secure their own territory even in peacetime or with under-resourced state apparatuses or militaries just collapse completely? I wouldn't guess there was much left of sub-Saharan Africa in particular even before the Combine turned up. And for that matter, how much attention does the Combine actually pay to goings-on outside the Cities?
>>6335923>While we're at it, I can't remember if HL ever addressed what's popping in the less well developed parts of the world.Lmao. They hardly addressed what happens outside of City 17. Loads of potential left on the floor.
>>6336101Third World -> Half Life: Third World -> Half Life Three confirmed?
>>6335923We know that all world governments where made to kneel and anyone that didn't got shot. And that would mean the Combine would hold an incredible amount of power, population and resources in that single moment. Useful for establishing dominion. But there is also the matter of how many regions of earth were ruined by the portal storms, the 7hs war damages and xenian life forms damages to the biomes of earth. Which ruins the Combine total victory. Would they bother making something useful of the regions affected, or let them rot in the aftermath after taking everything of use from them ?
I think the Combine would look analytically at what they can use and what is valuable. Region with no development and resources? Deport all population settlements. A region that is a crossroad between continents, free human megastructure, one of the largest rivers instead ? They would keep a presence i Egypt. You can make it an efficient breadbasket, and keep control of a strategical region.
Being a shop gofer is exhausting. Carry these big metal bars here, fetch a heavy tool from there, try your best not to be cut or gouged by any of the ever-present metal shavings and jagged edges all around. When you asked, you were instructed that gloves aren't allowed in the shop, apparently if they catch on the machinery they could pull your entire hand into something nasty before you even realized what was happening. You remained a sorta-productive wallflower for the rest of Shift 3, getting the lay of the social land from the outskirts. The machinists, the ones that actually knew how to use the machines, were mostly silent and taciturn except for a couple cliques of two or three. You were getting slightly jealous, they got to spend the past ten hours sitting on a stool or folding chair while you were hot on your feet, only getting a half-hour's rest at the five hour mark. The next group, other shop gofers, were more communal and energetic than the machinists, and by the end of the shift your weariness and social distance made you stick out slightly. Doubtless there was a little bit of gossip shared about you, the newcomer, but nonesofar that marked you out as a concern or a threat. The final group were the Loyalists. The more things change, the more they seem to stay the same. They wore their dark, double-breasted coats and sometimes an accompanying cap, and were the people in charge of the shop. One slightly irritable example of the species, the Foreman, paced the floor of the shop, the same man with the clipboard that you saw earlier. He glared at you occasionally whenever you slowed down for a breather, but otherwise you made a point not to get drawn into a conversation with him, and so you two never spoke in earnest. He smoked during the mid-shift break, you wondered where the miserable bastard got his cigarettes.The security of the place wasn't in any way serious, you gleaned. Occasionally a pair of Civil Protection officers were seen checking in, but their patrols only stopped inside Machine Shop 7 briefly before continuing to points unknown within the block. The doors stayed open and unlocked throughout the shift, with workers constantly coming in and out with payloads large and small, with the Combine Camera above the doorway their only constant monitor. The Loyalists would keep an intermittent watch on the shop from the inside, but their primary concern was keeping their charges productive, doubtless to keep whatever benefits they get flowing. They didn't carry any sort of weapons that you could see, but during your shift you noted that they all carry some sort of electronic device on their belts that they occasionally play with when they think they're beyond the view of the Foreman. A communication device, maybe?
>>6336941At the end of the shift a buzzer sounded from somewhere high up on the walls, and the spell of productivity was broken. The entire human compliment of the shop rose from their tasks and shuffled silently towards the door, forming a single-file line out of a gaggle. At the head of it was the Loyalist Foreman from earlier, with a box and two lackeys in Citizen attire at his side. At the approach of each worker, the Loyalist would withdraw a number of Credits from the box, count them out, and deposit them in the waiting hands of the worker in question. As your turn at the terminus of the line grew closer, your body involuntarily began to step down in anticipation of some rest. You are well and truly [Exhausted] at this point, and you struggle to keep your eyes open as you ache to lay down, even to the point that the flat bedframe in your apartment seems like a fantasy.The sweating you've done has also made you no longer [Clean, though nowhere near the state you were in when you came out of the sewers.When your turn came at the front of the line, the Foreman dispassionately counted out your Credits for the shift. Thirty chips fall into your waiting hands. You looked up."Uhm, didn't you say I was to get fifty?" you inquired meekly. The Foreman's eyes narrowed in a look of pretension."I said fifty if you earned it. Show a little gratitude next shift, there are far worse jobs you could be assigned." he spat in a gravelly voice, tinted in an accent you couldn't place.You started to reply, but the stares from the line behind you showing a mixture of impatience and astonishment cautioned you that making an issue of this would be a grave mistake. Two Citizens leaning idly behind the Foreman also perked up. His goons. You never saw them either work or leave his side. As you continued out the door, you swore you saw the Foreman slip some Credits in his own pocket. "So that's how it is, you cunt.", you silently mouthed.You walked wearily back to your home block, hardly being phased by the flash of the camera as it dutifully documented your movement through the checkpoint. With difficulty you steered your body from its' homeward course to check out the Loyalist's Shop before returning to your apartment. Your living situation leaves much to be desired, so checking the offerings inside seemed like an inevitable course.Unlike some other buildings you've seen thusfar, the shop seems like it still serves the same purpose it has for decades, perhaps even before the War. You could imagine a harried husband sitting behind the simple counter going over lists and receipts as his homely wife manned the register, perhaps even a couple kids running through and between the small aisles, playing makeshift games while well-known neighborhood regulars browse, shop, and catch up with one another.
>>6336942Instead, there was a dour-looking Loyalist behind the counter, watching you with immediate suspicion upon your entry. The goods stacked in the aisles looked more like an assortment of scavenged junk from this and neighboring blocks, well-used home goods, and a sparse selection of blandly-packaged Combine-marked goods interspersed. You browsed momentarily while struggling to keep your eyes open. You were going to sleep for a -long- time after this, but before that, it might be a good idea to pick up a few things.The prices for everything here were insane. Nine hundred credits for a proper mattress and bedspread. You would have to save up for a year! With only your day's wages currently on you, there was little in the store you could purchase, but you gave it some thought anyway as they could help slightly alleviate your problems.You are currently:[Exhausted]You have [35 Credits] on your person.Choose one of the following:>(Purchase a ratty woolen blanket from the shop.)Slightly improves your very spartan sleeping situation.>(Purchase a small sliding lock from the shop.)You can secure your door while you are home, but it won't help you when away.>(Purchase some unassuming junk.)You can get a little creative, write-in a small improvement or tool for Hugo to improvise.>(Purchase nothing, save your Credits.)There could be other ways to get what you need in City 11, after all...
>>63369434got image lmao send help
>>6336943>(Purchase a ratty woolen blanket from the shop.)Having a blanket will help induce sleep and keep us asleep longer. We can roll our jumpsuit up for a pillow.
>>6336943>(Purchase a ratty woolen blanket from the shop.)I have other ideas in mind with that write-in option but for help us in the moment, this works just fine.
>>6336943>(Purchase a small sliding lock from the shop.)
>>6336943>>(Purchase a ratty woolen blanket from the shop.)for now, although i would like to discuss options with the others. Like, what do you have in mind? >>6337017Personally i was thinking about setting up a basic small scale chemistry lab with thrown together glassware down somewhere in the sewers, and maybe rudimentary water collection system on the roof if it rains.
Vote with our wallet, anyone actually opposed to the Combine should be getting our creds instead.>No Purchase
>>6336943>>(Purchase a small sliding lock from the shop.)
>>6336943>Some Cord and a Carabiner or twoI want to improvise a Sap/Slungshot/Blackjack, works as an easily concealed weapon and is easy to manufacture. We just need a smoothish stone. A Blackjack of Cord and a Rock would be able to bypass metal detectors while being effective enough to brain Lucas by suprise.The Carabiner is just utility/convenience.
>>6337512Technically a sock and a rock work too there's just a fair chance of the sock ripping.We can just slap together a doorjam
>>6337513what the fuck is that man
>>6337512+1, big brain idea.
>>6337512+1
>>6337531Snippet from a DIY videoThats a basic doorjam, the prongs of the fork are bent to hook in next to the deadbolt while the body of the fork is placed across.Attempting to open the door would press against the body of the fork, holding it shut.Basically a low quality DIY slide lock
>>6337104Ruined mundanities made by humans before the regime. Simple everyday objects. A healthy mix of keep up appearances of a Combine "citizen", giving Hugo a semblance of normalcy and also some utility. An alarm clock, a notebook, a cloak. Stuff like that not too high in price and likely damaged in some capacity. Stuff that we can even recycle if needed. After those and similar items are in our home, anything that might be of use for Hugo/the Cell or close to Hugo specializations/rebel needs.>>6337285That's true, but we just arrived. We have to build an image of just another mundane worker under Combine rule that goes about his usual day. Entering and then going out in a collaborationist shop with nothing bought, might be suspicious for theft.
>>6336943>>(Purchase a ratty woolen blanket from the shop.)Mans gotta have a blanket.
Just thinking, sewers got rats, right?Maybe we can supplement our food source.
We could probably take the compressor out of the fridge and use it as a hideyhole for our radio equipment. It wouldn't stop a civil protection sweep but it would stop any nosey loyalists or thieves.
>>6337715Lotta space down there. Just need to fabricate a cover for it.
>>6337708They should. But it depends on how Combine lackeys are dealing with Xenian wild life. If its done poorly earth wildlife usually dies faster.
>>6337725>>6337708i mean.....we could eat the roaches for protien
>>6337731>>6337725Zoomers really will do anything to avoid drinking fermented alcohol baka
>>6337732Watered down shoe leather is better desu
>>6337708If we ever get to meet vortigaunts, maybe we can ask them to teach us how to poach headcrabs.
I was going to write up one more update before I expected to leave, but my travel plans changed last-minute. I'll see you guys a little while after Thanksgiving if I don't get splattered by some shitty California driver.
>>6337732I mean, insect meat without the chitin has been described to taste a lot like crab, so I imagine Antlion stew would be pretty popular among post-portal-storm humanity.…With the assumption their meat isn't poisonous. But hey, at least the vortigaunts can eat them, so they won't ever truly go hungry. Also, I don't care if headcrabs have eaten people, chickens would do the same to a corpse. Headcrabs taste like chicken, and food is food.>>6337842Honestly, it shouldn't be too hard to hunt for headcrabs, since I imagine with a good spear, you could get them to spear themselves when they jump.When we get more members into our small group, it might be worthwhile to have one of them go hunting regularly.
>>6337642sounds reasonable. For now, we are Hugo.For now, how does everyone think of this shopping list?>(Purchase a ratty woolen blanket from the shop.)>(Purchase some unassuming junk.)>a set of cutlery and one or two extra forks to make the doorjam as shown by >>6337513>Some Cord and a Carabiner if possible(>>6337512), a few strong looking socks if not.>some mundanities. An alarm clock, a raincoat, some paper and a pencil.>some of the roughest-looking cardboard boxes the shop has, those it was otherwise going to throw out. (to put on our bed since the bedframe is fucking empty lmao)
>>6337985I mean if we have the dosh for all that sure.
>>6337985that's fine with meWe probably can't buy all of it in one go with the few creds they have given us, but its a list that can be bought through time.
