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Mukaikubo
Mar 14, 2006

"You treat her like a lady... and she'll always bring you home."
Sgt. Willis

After a somewhat harrowing descent, he wrinkles his nose but otherwise doesn't comment about the smell. He'd smelled worse. Instead, and in lieu of a greeting, he goes over to the tools and begins inspecting them while letting his ears characterize the ambient conditions. Finally, he whispers, "Generators are active and have fuel. Too many things are pulling power. Or some of the generators went down but nobody powered down equipment. It's like brownouts," he finishes, grabbing the cutting gear. Might be able to use that. He also liberates a few of the more mobile tools that look useful but had unaccountably not made it into the standard toolkit. After that break, "Have you found where the generators are? If I get power up, I can get the air intakes and blast doors working," still whispering.

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Redeye Flight
Mar 26, 2010

God, I'm so tired. What the hell did I post last night?
Starshiy Leytenant Irakliy Kuznetsov

Irakliy claps Ronnie on the shoulder as the group emerges from the vents, speaking low. "So far, so good--aha! Cutter." He nods as Willis commandeers the gear. "Now we have more options if we want to save explosives. Or not risk cave-in."

He does, however, screw up his nose. "Ach. Any idea what is causing stench?"

Ambivalent
Oct 14, 2006

Yulia

She's dutifully counting her paces until they arrive at the door, tapping dashes into the margin of her journal until they come around to the door - trusting the soldiers in front of her to make some terrible bark if they encounter something. Then finally, she looks up from the page, taking in the sight of the workshops and the tracks. Machine shop, for the facility for sure but... The Evenk wrinkles her nose, then looks to Kuznetsov, "Aммиак?" Again, for the Americans, "The smell. Like ammonia?"

Razeam
Jul 13, 2004

Nya~
Grace

"I think you're right, Mr. Hewitt." A pause. "If they abandoned the base, I doubt that cigarette butt would exist." Grace frowns during a moment of introspection. "This is so strange; nothing seems to fit." Another pause. "But yes, you're right… we could find some answers soon."

Fraction Jackson
Oct 27, 2007

Able to harness the awesome power of fractions
Ronnie

He takes up position next to the group, eyes open and keeping a close eye on everything - just because he had thought it was clear before didn't mean he is going to fall asleep on the job now. "No idea where they are," Ronnie whispers. "Just wanted to clear this area and find a door. Have to take a look around." To the Russians, he shakes his head. "No idea either. The mess, maybe? Power's out, no one's home, maybe they left some food."

GaistHeidegger
May 20, 2001

"Can you see?"
Saxemberg Island - ??? Base - Interior
Ambience

Emboldened by numbers now--and more than one source of light, Ronnie and the others begin to make their way along from the workshop space, seeking signs of the facility's power. When treading for the corridor where Ronnie had rendezvoused at the blast doors, Yulia notices markings indicating the hall to handle Operations, Medical, and Officer's Space--as well as what is now identified as apparently the main entrance, where the others still await. Presently, a lowered blast door prevents further passage down this corridor, leading the group to double back.

Around the northern side of the docks, Yulia identifies markings next to a bulkhead door as Stores--while two more blast doors, far heavier than those spied previously, are marked as a Vault and Magazine Depot. Moving among the derricks, cranes and gantries over massive docking bays, the flashlights of the four pass over a colossal dark shape in the northernmost bay: a huge hull, perhaps more than two hundred feet long, lies on its starboard side beneath the collapsed frame of a loading derrick. It's difficult to make out further details with the lights still out of operation.

Together by process of elimination the four double back southward around the docks, stepping around destroyed shipping containers, smashed crates, oil streaks and other detritus and debris. It's difficult to discern terribly much in the dark--but it is clear there was a considerable commotion among the base's underground docks at some point. Along the southern wall of the massive chamber, following more than sixty feet of concrete, the four arrive at two final spaces: one of the heavier blast doors spotted to the north, indicated as an Armoury, Radio and Command Centre--and a heavy bulkhead door labeled, at last, as the Power Station.

Opening the barrier with some efforrt, a narrower hall leads another thirty feet, lights flickering on briefly before dying once more. Around a corner at the end, another bulkhead door is discovered and opened after a cursory check--and once it is, a rush of stale air, oily aromas, and the stink of rotted meat reach the nostrils of the four. Swiftly enough, the source is spied--nearly enough to send breakfasts surging back from knotted stomachs.

Dark brown smears and streaks have spattered and splattered about the vicinity at one corner of the room as flashlights fall to the source of the stink; a rotted, pulpy smattering of unidentifiable meat clings underneath a set of heavy pipes running from the wall before elbow joints lead them to the floor with safety valves. A finger has landed underneath an instrument panel, while tattered remnants of a gray uniform cling here and there in the room with dried brown smears.

Up on the ceiling, several more globules of the decaying matter can be seen along with fragments of what appears to be bone--while chunks of metal shrapnel are embedded sporadically in the concrete throughout the room along with scorch marks, suggesting an explosive detonation of some sort. Half a boot has tumbled into a drain trough set along the edge of the floor, the stink of rot emmanating from it.

At the rear of the room sits the lion's share of instrumentation and machinery. A ventilation grate is set in the rear corner of the ceiling. Upon a cursory closer inspection, Sgt. Willis is able to deduce that the base's power supply is a rather efficient--if rather sizable diesel generator which appears to be fed by twin lines, likely leading to large fuel tanks buried beneath the facility. Once Ted has an opportunity to more closely review the machinery for the power facilities, the engineer is able to deduce with greater clarity the situation.

Currently the generator is running at partial capacity--partly due to instrument damage it appears to have suffered as collateral from an explosive device in the room. Additionally, it seems that it was left running even after sustaining the damages--unattended for an indeterminate stretch of time--during which an utter lack of maintenance has led some degradation.

Fortunately, it seems that German engineering was not lacklustre otherwise: a failover shut down half of the generator's capacity automatically, so it's likely a good deal of fuel might remain in one of the tanks--and it does appear that Sgt. Willis could affect repairs to bring the system operational again. Even repaired, it would be unlikely to operate at full capacity without restoration efforts which could take days and a larger share of replacement parts; as a result, he's able to assess that he'd at least be able to bring the lights, air filtration and door power back online if nothing else.

The stench of rotted vegetable matter is strong on the air.


Ronnie, Irakliy, Ted and Yulia each essentially tour everywhere currently accessible in the facility, ultimately discovering the power station. It is repairable, at least to partial functionality, to make maneuvering around the rest of the base more manageable. There's a rather grisly, peculiar sight in the room though--which provoked a Nausea test, which Ronnie, Ted and Irakliy passed.

Ted's Smarts test for Common Knowledge with his engineering expertise gave him a solid assessment of the situation with the power.

GaistHeidegger fucked around with this message at 05:08 on Oct 1, 2016

Mukaikubo
Mar 14, 2006

"You treat her like a lady... and she'll always bring you home."
Sgt. Willis

After a long search, they finally find what he's been looking for, and his reaction to the charnel house in the power station is thinned lips and an unhappy grunt. "There. You see there-" he points. "Explosion went off. Grenade would have done it." He walks a little closer, but fastidiously doesn't get so close as to step in anything. While he feels the unpleasant lurch in his stomach, he's seen just as bad a few times- a line soldier saw some unhealthy things, and while this was really bad, there were many really bad things in the world. "Someone blew up a grenade while they were mostly curled around it. Quick way to commit suicide. Something went wrong here. Mutiny?" He guesses, but soon Tim loses interest and heads over to the machinery. After a few minutes inspection, he adds, "I can fix some of this. Not all. Would get lights and doors and ventilation going again. Should I, or should we try to clear more of the facility in case there are stragglers?"

23:47 Mukaikubo !wild d6+2
23:47 AchtungBot rolled a (1d6+2) with wild die for Mukaikubo and got ( 6 3 ) Results: 6
(to determine size/type of Boom)

Redeye Flight
Mar 26, 2010

God, I'm so tired. What the hell did I post last night?
Starshiy Leytenant Irakliy Kuznetsov

Irakly's eye involuntarily twitches as they open the blast door. "Ullch." He shakes his head. "A bad one." He pulls out a cigarette, not lighting it yet--though he'd really rather for the sake of his nose--simply flipping it between fingers as he steps just inside the door and slumps into a lean against the wall next to it.

He muses on the question. "I think... for sake of everyone it would be best if we could get power running. If there are stragglers we will face them better with all of us instead of just four of us, and we have to do something about this damnable smell." A pause. "Well. Smells, now." He puts the unlit cigarette in his mouth and squats down, staring emptily at the grotesque scene in the corner. "Kakova vasha istoriya, vy Bednyaga..."

Fraction Jackson
Oct 27, 2007

Able to harness the awesome power of fractions
Ronnie

Arriving at the generator room, S/Sgt. Thomas says the only thing that he can: "...what the gently caress?" Still only a whisper, but the surprise is evident. "Sure explains the smell..." He eyes Sgt. Willis during his explanation, then nods once. "Could be. You'd think there'd be more signs the rest of the way, though." To Irakily he says, "Agreed. Once we get everyone in it'll be easier to sweep. Once the lights are on, too."

Redeye Flight
Mar 26, 2010

God, I'm so tired. What the hell did I post last night?
Starshiy Leytenant Irakliy Kuznetsov

"That is problem, though." Irakliy gestures with his cigarette at the scene in the corner. "Is different smell. Meat. We have been smelling ammoniy, like Pripyat, marsh. Something else is causing greater stink."

Ambivalent
Oct 14, 2006

Yulia

There's a long moment where nothing is said and she simply stands at the entrance, eyes piecing together the scene before them. Her movement slows until she freezes, as the realization of what she's looking at sets in, she still can't help but look away. Her nose crinkles again and finally she reaches up and rubs at her eyes, as they begin to itch. She turns away, closes her eyes and looks at the ground, taking a few steps back and away. Rubbing at her eye again, she murmurs, "Mersi." A boon of Leningrad, she supposes, was that frozen bodies did not have the same... fragrance.

She goes quiet, pacing for a moment, before taking a deep breath and going quiet. She does not know machines especially well, and allows the others to talk over the situation - they did not need her expertise. With her back turned to the others, she busies herself with taking her journal back out and working on mapping the facility.

Mukaikubo
Mar 14, 2006

"You treat her like a lady... and she'll always bring you home."
Sgt. Willis

He regards the others for a few uncomfortable seconds. "If they did not take their ship, where did they go?" He asks. That would be their problem very soon. But not yet. Looking back at the parts of the machinery that are not destroyed, he considers his options for a minute before taking out some of his tools with the air of a samurai about to go to battle. "Ma'am, you're translating. If I ask about what a gauge reads or something, tell me, and if I call out a term in English, try to find something like it on the panel. Sir- you were a tanker, yes? You can help me. And talk with Yulia if she is uncertain. Sergeant, if you do not know about heavy machinery, keep watch and be sure nobody else is behind us with another grenade." That qualifies as the longest speech he's given for a while- maybe months- and afterwards he goes in and starts working while softly humming to himself.

Rolls were a net of a 6 to repair and bring stuff online.

Redeye Flight
Mar 26, 2010

God, I'm so tired. What the hell did I post last night?
Starshiy Leytenant Irakliy Kuznetsov

Irakliy nods, rising to his feet and walking over to the machinery. "Understood."

Contributed to that roll. Lights, on!

Fraction Jackson
Oct 27, 2007

Able to harness the awesome power of fractions
Ronnie

"That is a problem," S/Sgt. Thomas agrees. "Well, whatever it is, and why their boat's still there, we will have to find out." With that, he leaves the others to their work, covering the doorway leading to the generators for safety's sake.

Ambivalent
Oct 14, 2006

Yulia

She looks up from her journal upon being addressed directly and nods wordlessly. The doctor folds up her journal and ties it tight before steeling herself and moving to generator, gingerly avoiding stepping near anything... unpleasant. Moistening her lips, she leans over and raises her flashlight, brushing hair from her eyes, "This... um, diesel. First line. Second line. This one... rear top... The word used, it means like 'safety.'" She stands back up and scans over the other labels, running through the meaning in her head.

doctor yulia 'babelfish' khulanova

GaistHeidegger
May 20, 2001

"Can you see?"
Saxemberg Island - ??? Base - Power Station
Ambience

Working at the gauges and instrumentation, Sgt. Willis commences what makeshift repairs he can manage of the system. With assistance for translation and an extra pair of hands from Irakliy, the trio work with impressive speed considering the progress they're able to achieve. Outside in their postings and down below beneath the hatch, the remainder of the strike team and auxiliary group are left to wait and wonder while the storm continues unabated.

Then, remarkably, some fifteen minutes later there is a sudden surge of sound and activity as the great diesel generator begins whirring back to operation. Up on the rise by the ventilation exchange, Harry and Izolda notice the sudden flow of air beginning to move from the vent as air filtration turbines reactivate. Within the power station itself, lights flicker back on--and remain on--doing the same at the entrance chamber and along the ladder up to the hatch.

As Bradley's team awaits, Grace and the others can see lights illuminate the corridor beyond the blast door--before a great deal of additional activity can be heard as mechanisms spring into action: raising the heavy blast door barring the progress of the auxiliary academic team and others from utilizing the entrance by the hatch. Deeper in the base, other electrically-driven security doors are all heard operating in concert as their driving mechanisms activate in unison, the movement of so much metal resonating and echoing within the base.

Shortly thereafter, the sound repeats again as systems reset and doors begin to close themselves once more--before a grinding sound accompanied a metallic clamor from somewhere among the docks.

The stench of rotted meat and vegetable matter is circulating on the air.


With some impressive collaboration, the power station for the base has been brought back online--at least, for the most part. Lights, air filtration and powered doors are once more operational--which means that everyone is now able to enter the base through the entrance.

We'll cover the broader particulars of what can all be seen once everyone's inside--but the main immediate takeaway is the absolutely massive blast doors that shield the submarine docks themselves are beyond the scope of the power station's operating level--so those are definitely not going to budge short of extreme firepower.

Razeam
Jul 13, 2004

Nya~
Grace

The redhead takes a tentative step into the now illuminated corridor. She utilises her handkerchief as an impromptu mask to ward off the ventilated stink. "Why didn't they fix this before us? The Jerries, I mean… something very odd about all of this," she vocalises her thoughts to the academic party.

A Velociraptor!
Aug 20, 2007

Richard 'Dicky' Barton-Morewood

He takes what cover he can from the storm and simply awaits any sign or call of success from those who have ventured into the vent. Dark thoughts pass through his mind as he waits, not helped any by the miserable conditions he finds himself in. The chance of Nazis surrounding or capturing those who went inside is a great one indeed and he'd be damned if he was going to lose anyone barely a few hours into this mission. A flash of lightning streaks across the sky and he finds himself longing for the protection from the elements his grand old Hawker Hurricane gave him. As the storm continues unabated he is just about to suggest they move to join with the academics in waiting when the flow of air begins pumping out of the vent, much to his delight.

"Jammy buggers must have gotten the power back on," he says to Manahi and Rostov. "Grand job! Right, if that's the case what do you reckon that our stubborn steel doors might be working now? Let's get back to the hatch and out of this bloody rain."

Fathis Munk
Feb 23, 2013

??? ?
Victoire Doucet, Maquisarde Medic

Victoire sighs with the relief as the heavy door opens. No need to crawl in tight vent shafts today ! She makes her way down the corridor wondering where the smell might be coming from. Before long she picks up the sound of the generator and figures that's where she'd find her comrades.

She pauses in the door watching the corpse.

"Et bah putain!" She whistles appreciatively. "Zat is one hell of a dead Nazi." Her eyes shine with an off putting fascination as she pulls some one use gloves out of her satchel. She squats next to the amorphous mass of tissue and cloth and starts prodding at it.

"Hmm, not much to glean. Zis is too messy and rotten, guess zat door was closed before you got here?"

Victoire picks up a handful of gore and uniform and pulls the cloth out, dropping the meat back to the floor with a wet thud.

"Bah, just a grunt apparently. Too bad."

Nausea : ((17:20:04) FathisMunk: !wild d8
(17:20:05) ***AchtungBot rolled a (1d8) with wild die for FathisMunk and got ( 11 3 ) Results: 11
Autopsy : (17:20:30) FathisMunk: !wild d8
(17:20:30) ***AchtungBot rolled a (1d8) with wild die for FathisMunk and got ( 2 2 ) Results: 2
Notice : (17:22:17) FathisMunk: !wild d8
(17:22:18) ***AchtungBot rolled a (1d8) with wild die for FathisMunk and got ( 6 4 ) Results: 6

Redeye Flight
Mar 26, 2010

God, I'm so tired. What the hell did I post last night?
Starshiy Leytenant Irakliy Kuznetsov

When the smell finally doesn't go away, Irakliy decides "to hell with it", and lights the drat cigarette. After taking a good, long drag, he walks out of the power room, heading back towards the entrance--and spots Barton-Moorewood, coming down and looking properly soaked. "Ah, commander. Apologies for delay." He gestures around with one hand. "Welcome to Smell Zone. Still not sure what is causing stink." He fills him in on the expedition to the power room and the discoveries there.

Redeye Flight fucked around with this message at 04:34 on Oct 2, 2016

A Velociraptor!
Aug 20, 2007

Richard 'Dicky' Barton-Morewood

The walk back to the hatch is thankfully a quiet one, if still a wet and miserable one. He rejoins the others huddled by the now open door that once barred their way, greeting them with a small grin now that the power has been successfully restored. His mustache has sadly drooped slightly, given the amount of rainfall he has been caught in.

He nods to Kuznetsov, noticing the man has given up waiting for his smoke. No matter now, the lights and activity will alert anyone more than a drat cigarette. "Good job, chap. Smell zone, eh? Can tell why." He covers his nose with a free hand as the stench wafts his way. He listens attentively as the man brings him and the others up to date with what they've found.

"I see. No Jerries at all? Apart from the, uh, exploded one? What the bloody hell happened here then... We should get to the others and conduct a proper sweep."

GaistHeidegger
May 20, 2001

"Can you see?"
Saxemberg Island - Hoffmann Station - Docks
Ambience

Now that the lights have been restored, vantage within the underground base has been substantially improved--to arguably, not for the better. As the men and women of the remainder of the team make their way indoors past newly powered blast barriers, invariably congregation and passage find the docks--dominating the vast open space of the base's center.

Lit, the docks pose a huge chamber as the central hub of the base--and those whom can read German can at last note an indication over the bay that this location is Hoffmann Station. Massive concrete docks span in the reinforced cavern, sizable enough to accommodate three behemoth transport class submarines.

Derricks and gantries are arrayed to criss-cross the three docks in order to facilitate loading and repair operations. Across the jetties themselves, each span sits littered with broken crates and debris--all showing signs of a sudden and precipitous evacuation effort now that they are more readily observable.

While two of the docks are empty, the third is dominated by the huge derelict hull of a transport submarine, UX-824; the vessel lies on its starboard side beneath the collapsed frame of a loading derrick. Soot and scorch marks are among evidence along the northern span of the dock leading up to the vessel, suggesting a serious fire surrounding the conning toward and forward hatch of the submarine while it was docked.

Even from a distance, it is clear that the forward cargo doors show signs of explosive damage--and the docks themselves bare a number of discarded Panzerfaust 60s strewn among the debris near the bulkhead labeled for the facility's Stores. A great gaping hole has been blasted in the side of the submarine--though it appears that with some careful maneuvering, it would be possible to board the vessel and explore its interior.

From the main bay of the docks, those present can see that once power was restored, all of the electrically powered doors in the facility reset--opening and then closing again. All of the doors save one.

Presently, the enormous blast door next to the chamber indicated as the Vault sits jammed open, where it had been closed during the earlier sweep by S/Sgt. Thomas and the others. The closing mechanism has seemingly been damaged, leaving the space into the Vault now open.

The stench of rotted meat and vegetable matter is circulating on the air, but seems most prevalent from the western corridor leading off from the entrance--which had been labeled for the facility's Mess Hall, Command and Officer's Quarters.


All of the Panzerfaust 60s were fired, so they are presently not usable. The submarine suffered a great deal of damage and even from afar is clearly scuttled--but it is sitting above the water line enough that you can likely explore the interior.

From a cursory look, there are three types of doors in Hoffmann Station: powered blast doors, which can be operated with panel controls; they take several rounds to open or close. Bulkhead doors, as one might find on a submarine, require two rounds to open or close. Wooden doors are in some places and can be opened or closed easily with simple latch mechanisms.

I'm only mentioning this for casual curiosity because there's no reason it might come up later.

Fraction Jackson
Oct 27, 2007

Able to harness the awesome power of fractions
Ronnie

With the others inside and the generators and lights on, S/Sgt. Thomas does start to relax just a bit. "Very dead," he notes to Victoire. "I should update our commander as well. Don't spend too long picking over Nazi parts."

He steps out from the generator room, taking a moment to study the submarine and its surroundings in the light. The whole place looked beaten to hell. It doesn't make Ronnie more or less concerned...but it does make him a bit more interested in the mystery. "Sir," he says to Barton-Morewood. "Sgt. Willis thinks it was suicide. Suggested there may have been a mutiny here." He points at the submarine, floating there like a giant corpse. "That certainly fits with that idea, too. They blew the hell out of their own sub. Can't say for sure, but we should keep an eye out. If it's true, the prize our friends were looking for might not still be here." A pause, then looking at both Dicky and Irakliy, he simply asks, "What's the next move?"

A Velociraptor!
Aug 20, 2007

Richard 'Dicky' Barton-Morewood

The grounded pilot steps into the bunker proper, getting a good view of the wrecked submarine. A nod to S.Sgt Tomas is given when the man approaches. "A mutiny... Lucky for us." He thinks in silence for a moment, looking back to the submarine. Never had he seen one quite that size. The Nazis still have plenty of secrets up their sleeves even now, it seems. "Good to see you're alright, chap," he says to Ronnie with a wry smile. "Wasn't looking forward to having your death on my conscience."

He passes the radio back to Kuznetsov, having taken it off the man when he entered the vent. "What's next is we search this place good and proper for any left over Jerry bugger and whatever documents they were dumb enough to leave behind in their evacuation." From what he can see and has heard from the others, this place is rather sizable indeed. A proper search could potentially take them a large amount of hours... "I'd like to keep us all together, but with our numbers I think we can afford at least two groups to search independently to speed things up."

Another moment's pause in thought is taken before he speaks. "S.Sgt Thomas, I want you and LCpl Manahi to take our noncombatant lads and ladies here to the Vault and give it a proper look over. The rest of us will move to the Command Center and see what's left. We'll regroup here once we're done and move on to search the rest of the base." As out of his depth as he may be, it sounds like a decent enough plan to him.

Redeye Flight
Mar 26, 2010

God, I'm so tired. What the hell did I post last night?
Starshiy Leytenant Irakliy Kuznetsov

Kuznetsov nods, taking the radio back over and leading the commander in the direction of what Dr. Khulanova had indicated was the command wing. He takes his cigarette out in two fingers, gesturing at the docks with it as they walk through them. "Never have I seen the like of this. To build space this size, yes, but sixty feet underground? In middle of nowhere ocean?" He takes another drag. "Ah, it would even stump my old fabrikant. I cannot say Nazis lack ambition. Or skilled architects."

Redeye Flight fucked around with this message at 21:41 on Oct 1, 2016

Fraction Jackson
Oct 27, 2007

Able to harness the awesome power of fractions
Ronnie

He smiles at that. "Well sir, I'd hate to have worried you, but the worst that happened was almost bashing my face off one of those turbines." Or getting lost in the dark, but he leaves that part out. Wouldn't do to admit to the Brit that he'd been at least vaguely worried. "Anyway, I'll round everyone up and go clear the vault." He starts to turn to some of the others before an idea seems to strike him, after overhearing Lt. Kuznetsov. "...actually, hold that thought for a second."

With quick and quiet strides he catches up to the Russian. "Hold on. What you just said." He gestures to the cavern and docks beyond. "Isn't that something we need to figure out too? How'd they get enough people and supplies this far south through three navies? Even with subs?"

A Velociraptor!
Aug 20, 2007

Richard 'Dicky' Barton-Morewood

"Can't say much to that," he says to Kuznetsov, taking their surroundings in once more. "Usually I'm blowing these place to kingdom come from up above. But this place does seem a cut above most from what I can tell, despite being out in the middle of nowhere. And that submarine... I've never seen one quite like it before." He scoffs at Kuznetsov. "One thing you can say about Jerry is he sure knows how to build to match his ambition."

To Ronnie, he says. "With any luck, some documents have been left about that explain just that or I've got no clue how to explain it."

A Velociraptor! fucked around with this message at 21:34 on Oct 1, 2016

Fraction Jackson
Oct 27, 2007

Able to harness the awesome power of fractions
Ronnie

He nods, considering that for a moment. "I don't have a clue either. Why I asked. Might be that's another big part of why they assigned so many...specialists, too. Instead of just one or two. Maybe they can puzzle it out aside from whatever else they have on tap."

Fathis Munk
Feb 23, 2013

??? ?
Victoire Doucet, Maquisarde Medic

Victoire walks up still wearing blood smeared gloves. She seems to have forgotten she's still wearing them, so used to having a second skin of rubber.

"You know what I am wondering about boys?" she says, looking over the docks. "Zis war is not going well for zem and yet zey 'ad people and 'uge U-boots in zis remote island until very recently." She points a red index finger at Dicky demonstratively. "Whatever zey had here must have been incredibly important to zem. And in zat case, why use unreliable troops that might mutiny. And mutiny in favor of who? Clearly zey did not defect unless your command is 'aving fun at our expense." She puts her hands on her hips and pensively looks at the wreckage of the sub.

A Velociraptor!
Aug 20, 2007

Richard 'Dicky' Barton-Morewood

He nods to Ronnie. "If anyone can make heads or tails of it, they can. Like you said, must be why so many were roped into this. Should save us trying to bang our heads against it." He can only hope.

When their resident medic comes strolling up, he cocks an eyebrow at her bloody finger pointing at him. "All good questions, madam. Perhaps they all saw us coming and legged it. We could speculate for days on what happened here, but with any luck some information to explain all this has been left around and is just waiting for us to find it." When she jests that his command is having fun with them, he simply smiles a toothy grin. "I wouldn't put it past them."

Fathis Munk
Feb 23, 2013

??? ?
Victoire Doucet, Maquisarde Medic

She frowns at the suggestion command is playing a joke on them.

"We arrived here less zan 24 'ours after shipping out. Could a base of zis size be evacuated zat quickly? With time to spare for a mutiny en plus. I don't know, I'm not exactly a soldier but zat seems very efficient, even for ze Germans. If we get ze chance to pass by ze medical wing I would love to see if zey left some folders behind, something just feels off here."

Shogeton
Apr 26, 2007

"Little by little the old world crumbled, and not once did the king imagine that some of the pieces might fall on him"

Izoldah

"Perhaps they were keeping some stolen riches here. And fascist soldiers think they should be rich instead of generals?"

quick phonepost

DocBubonic
Mar 11, 2003

Tempora mutantur, et nos mutamur in illis
Bradley Hewitt

"Ugh," Bradley mutters. He waits a moment to adjust to the terrible odor and then begins to head down the passage. "The smell is quite odd. Rotting plants? Very peculiar."

He goes down and joins the group down in the main part of the base.

"Quite an operation they had here." He started walking around in a circle to get a sense of the place.

Docbubonic_away !wild d6 notice
AchtungBot rolled a (1d6) with wild die for Docbubonic_away and got ( 4 5 ) Results: 5

animedragonfly
Sep 12, 2016
Sebastian

He followed Bradley into base pulling a handkerchief from his pocket and placed it over his mouth and nose.. "That is a rather unpleasant smell.. " He tried his best not to breath through his nose. He kept quiet listening to the soldiers talk back and forth. The vault did sound interesting perhaps there would be something more interesting in there than an exploded Nazi.

Ambivalent
Oct 14, 2006

Yulia

She shoots the Sergeant Willis a rueful grin when the generators come to life - the product of job well done. Allowing a few moments of celebration, she pats the American on the back and heads back out to rendezvous with the remainder of their force.

Emerging back into the workshops that have become the de facto commons area, the doctor crosses her arms, listening to the Sgt. Barton-Morewood, patiently waiting for her turn to speak. "Sir - I do not have theories yet, I do propose we make this our... base camp. Papers, maps, written things should be brought here to examine. Equipment that is..." She hesitates on the translation, "...not the standard should also be returned. In light of the base's apparent state, it is like a dig, yes?" She does her best to hide any enthusiasm in that comment

GaistHeidegger
May 20, 2001

"Can you see?"
Saxemberg Island - Hoffmann Station - Command Centre
Ambience

Beside the bulkhead door to the power station, not more than a few feet westward German indicates the 'Command Centre'--a heavy blast door set shut. With some manipulation of the access panel beside it, the blast door slowly begins to lurch aside, the steady rumble of its mechanism whirring away out of sight. After more than twenty seconds, the barrier has shifted enough that the group can move past it, making their way down a short hall some twenty feet before rounding a corner.

Here, another blast door can be seen at the end of a corridor forty feet ahead--stark paint indicating that the Armoury lies beyond the heavier barrier between such. To either side of the hall in the meantime, ordinary wooden doors with simple latches lead into what is indicated to be the Map Room to the north--and the Command Centre proper to the south.

Within the Command Centre, the walls are blackened nearly from floor to ceiling--with the charred remains of filing cabinets strewn about and very purposefully destroyed. Burnt fragments and debris litter the entire room, ankle-deep ashes surrounding battered, burned and broken apart furniture and workstations. A caved-in, shattered Enigma machine lies among the ruinous wreckage.

At the far wall is set another wooden door to the Radio room.

Saxemberg Island - Hoffmann Station - The Vault

On the north end of the docks, the heavy blast door to the vault sits jammed open following the electrical system reset throughout the facility. Approaching the chamber, all present can smell the aroma of burnt out mechanisms where the barrier has seized along its tracks. Beyond the door into the vault itself, the space is huge--approximately sixty feet wide and forty feet deep, filled with the materials of dozens of rows of shelving, hardened containers and other articles.

Everything within the vault has been thrown into utter chaos, however. The wreckage and disarray is considerable, from smashed and shattered crates, shredded papers, splintered wood and unidentifiable fragments of scattered stone debris and metal shards. The vault itself seems to be lined with steel plating more than six inches thick--yet despite this, the inner walls are buckled in several places, scarred--and portions have even been melted.

A number of racks and shelves have been crushed together as if shoved roughly aside with heavy machinery. Innumerable documents have been crumpled, torn, trampled or burned. While there is evidence that at one time the contents of the vault were meticulously cataloged, whatever organization once reigned within has been thoroughly dismantled and scattered about with little regard to accessibility.

On the back of the blast door are bizarre gouges and sections where the heavy steel has been battered. The air in the vault smells fetid and sour.


Looks like someone went out of their way to destroy evidence in the Command Centre. In the meantime, the vault has been completely trashed inside; from the most cursory of examination, it does appear that some measure of effort was made to remove articles from the space--but for the most part, it has been left a terrible mess. Sorting through what's left could take some time, searching for the proverbial hay-stack needles which may be present.

Redeye Flight
Mar 26, 2010

God, I'm so tired. What the hell did I post last night?
Starshiy Leytenant Irakliy Kuznetsov

Irakliy frowns as they open the door into the Command Center, boots brushing through the ashes as he walks inside. "Well. So much for sudden evacuation theory. This is about as destroyed as you can get without caving in ceiling." He eyeballs the Enigma machine for a moment, before proceeding towards the radio room. "Hopefully whole base is not in such state. We could certainly use radio right now."

Almost unconsciously, one hand swings his Sten around to readiness on his strap as the other reaches for the doorknob...

Proceeding to the radio room.

GaistHeidegger
May 20, 2001

"Can you see?"
Saxemberg Island - Hoffmann Station - Radio Room
Ambience

Pushing past the detritus and ashes, Irakliy opens the door into the radio room and treads inside as his fellows sort through the debris of the Command Centre. Spanning most of the space is a sizable communications array to service the island station--a radio array quite impressive to Lt. Kuznetsov. Much of the equipment present is markedly high-end, well engineered and doubtless very expensive--and even a cursory look suggests to the man that it is a very sophisticated operation.

Regrettably, a large section of equipment connected to the powerful transmitter and receiver has been utterly, thoroughly destroyed--with the use of thermite no less, from the looks of it. Strangely, it seems that the majority of the radio equipment was left untouched, as only a particular set of control interfaces and hardware were destroyed. Melted dials can still be discerned partly among the panels.

More worrying is the apparent potency of the equipment still present: it's puzzling the Germans were able to operate on such a level under the well-equipped British listening post of the HMS Atlantic Isle.

As Irakliy examines the instrument panels while the others yet explore the Command Centre next door, something catches the man's eye from the periphery of his vision--drawing his attention to the steel ventilation grate set in the wall a few feet to his left.

A pair of eyes flickers, watching Irakliy through the vent.


Irakliy succeeded at a Smarts test with his knowledge of Communications equipment to realize that, although inoperable, he could still attempt to determine communication frequencies used by the Germans from the destroyed consoles.

Irakliy notices subtle movement and finds eyes watching him from the vent.

Ambivalent
Oct 14, 2006

Yulia

She holds her flashlight and pans around the interior of the vault, taking in the dimensions of the room, and the destruction of the contents. Steppinig out into the room, the Soviet turns in a circle, until the beam of her torch rests on the doors they've come through. Her eyes narrow. A notion occurs to her but... that would be absurd.

To the rest of the force that had accompanied her to the vault, "We should stay close. I have..." She feels about for the proper word, "...concerns." Still eyeing the marring of the blast door with intense scrutiny, she has to tear herself away from it to even begin considering other things. Yulia leans over and begins to collect salvageable pages of documents. The grisly scene of the generator room, the state of the vault, the configuration of the doors.

The doctor shakes her head, speculating aloud for the benefit of the others, "When you discover a site, you are piecing together a picture of a place in time. There are clues and facts that...give weight to your notions. Here, I have the beginnings of a notion - I do not know what it will be, but the silhouette is... переподвыподверт." She looks around. The word has no good translation, and without the other Russian native speakers. "What is... complex and ominous, but more so." She finally nods to the blast doors for the others.

"As I said, we should stay close - there could be traps." With that said, she returns to sifting through the debris, with her hand closer to her holstered revolver.

Ambivalent fucked around with this message at 08:22 on Oct 2, 2016

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Redeye Flight
Mar 26, 2010

God, I'm so tired. What the hell did I post last night?
Starshiy Leytenant Irakliy Kuznetsov

There's a brief moment of panic and dismay in Irakliy's mind as the door swings open, revealing the ruined console--and it is quickly replaced with relief when he finds the rest of the room intact. Peculiar... even for a situation as peculiar as the one he was in.

The tanker starts inspecting the machinery--how in God's name did they keep something like this hidden from a listening post that could hear South America? The inspection turns into a slow realization of thrill as he realizes that while the Germans have powered the machines down and destroyed their logs, the preset bands are still present. He can figure out what bands this Nazi station was using--

quote:

MOVEMENT

He freezes. Slowly his eyes slide over, to the vent, and do their best not to meet the eyes peering out from the darkness. Slowly, smoothly, he takes the cigarette out of his mouth, stubs it out in an ashtray perched on the radioman's desk, and straightens up, swinging around to face the vent, one hand bringing up the unfamiliar Sten. The flashlight strapped to his chest comes around, shining partly into the opening in the wall.

Irakliy never took proper German, but there are a few phrases that every Russian armyman knows these days. And one, at least, that he's memorized. He raises his voice to make sure they can hear him in the other room--as calm and level as he can make it.

"Ergeben Sie und Sie werden nicht geschädigt werden."

Surrender, and you will not be harmed.

Redeye Flight fucked around with this message at 08:42 on Oct 2, 2016

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