Condition Red RP thread

[AlexShrub]

"Hmmm..., Well..., If it is the future, seeing the disrepair this place in is, and the fact that it is basically a bunker, I'd say that topside has pretty much gone to [heck]. Either that or everything is all fine-and-dandy and they just forgot about the facility. But all in all I'd say that it'd probably look alot better than down here."

[Stormkit]

Cosmo was halfway through a box of random clothing* when all of a sudden the lights flickered on. "Yes!" he said, "Our mechanic must be a genius! I wonder how he did it." He then stood up, stretched, and headed over the the information hub which should be open now in order to do a search for important information prioritizing anything that might explain their current situation.

[Digital Vulpine]

The Network Hub has several large mainframes, and some desks with computer terminals on them.  Accessing one of the terminals you are prompted for a password.  Fortunately, your personal password works and you are able to access the network.  Unfortunately, you don't recognize the operating system at all!  Instead of the simple prompt you were expecting, after logging in you were greeted by a logo for "Portals 8", followed by a bunch of icons with a white logo that looks like a trapezoid sitting atop a thick line in the background.  In a circle around that you see the words:

"DARPA White Plateau Facility"

The icons each have labels under them, and you discover a hand-sized device next to the keyboard with two buttons and a wheel on it that seems to be plugged in to the computer.  The labels read as follows:

--The compass-like Icon is labeled "Map"
--The icon that looks like two computers linked together is labeled "Remote Access"
--The folder icon is labeled "Documents"
--The icon that looks like an empty basket is labeled "Recycle Bin"
--The white square with a blue W on it is labeled "Word"
--The blue E is labeled "Internet Exploder"

In the bottom left-hand corner of the screen you can see the Portals logo and the word "Start".

Jake goes to room B304 and falls asleep.  Just as he's starting to drift off he can almost hear a little tune playing...

[Stormkit]

Cosmo looked thoughtfully at the computer. It was rather smaller than he was used to and he didn't really quite know what to do with the white thing. This was clearly more advanced technology than he was used to which supported the whole 'in the future' theory.

Cosmo poked the white thing somewhat suspiciously. It moved. He pushed one of the buttons. It made a clicking sound. The other button also made a clicking noise and the wheel didn't seem to do anything at all. Aside from that nothing seemed to happen.

So shrugging, Cosmo turned his attention to the icons and was rather surprised to see a white box with words in it had popped up. He tried moving the white thing and this time noticed that there was a white arrow on the screen which moved and highlighted the words in the box. After a quick trial and error run he managed to figure out mostly how it worked and moved the arrow to 'Documents' which seemed to be the most promising thing on the screen. Cosmo wondered what he would find as he clicked it to highlight and then hit 'enter'.

[Digital Vulpine]

A white box appears on the screen, with the word "Documents" in a bar at the top.  There are several icons that look like folders, labeled "Spyglass", "Valley Forge", "Express", and "Journal".  You also see the blue W again, labeled "Hello Cosmo".

((note: there are several computers, and since you are using your personal log-ins you'll all have access to different files))

[Stormkit]

Well... that quite possibly made things incredibly easy. Unless of course Cosmo was the one who had actually written this document (and with time travel you never know) in which case he might have made it vague and riddled with obscure hints just to piss himself off. Cosmo wouldn't put it past himself to do that just for laughs sometime in the vague far off future even if it incredibly inconvenienced him in the present. After all, if you live through something it can't be too bad right? "Oh god, please don't let me be that much of an asshole to myself until later," he muttered in what would be a prayer if he were religious as he selected the document and opened it.

[Digital Vulpine]

The file opens in Word.  It is typed in single-spaced twelve point Times New Roman font.  It contains the following text:

Cosmo,

If you’re reading this that means you at least managed to get the backup generator running.  Congratulations, I hope it didn’t cause too much trouble.  In case you haven’t figured it out yet you’re in the future.  Well, a future.  There’s more than one and it’s… complicated.  If you haven’t got the reactor started yet I recommend you take care of that quickly.  With the power on you should be able to do it from the computer.  Oh yeah, there was also a little… accident in the past, so there might be someone else in the facility with you.  If you haven’t met him yet he may be in a different sector.  I hope he’s not dead, I sort of feel sorry for, uh, never mind.  That’s not important.  Just remember the future is not set, and it may have already been changed.

-- Publius

[Stormkit]

Well that was sort of helpful and sort of not. Cosmo found himself staring at the line saying how he could activate the reactor from the computer. Gesturing aimlessly with both hands at the computer screen, he asked in a somewhat bewildered and somewhat annoyed voice, "How?!?!?"

After a minute or two of glum thought he went back to where he started and decided to try the 'remote access' function in hopes that it was related to the reactor.

[Digital Vulpine]

A box opens with four buttons labeled "Sector A" through "Sector D".  The A and D buttons are grayed out.  Text at the top of the box says "Welcome to the DARPA Remote Access Terminal System, please select the sector you would like to access."

[Stormkit]

Hmm... still not very descriptive but Cosmo guessed sectors A and D didn't have power or something else was wrong with them so he tried opening sector C instead. After all C stood for Cosmo right?

[Digital Vulpine]

The four buttons shrink and move into the upper right corner.  The center of the screen now has a vertical bar divided into boxes labeled C1-C12.  The text now reads,

"Which floor would you like to access?"

[Stormkit]

"Oh!" Exclaimed Cosmo as the new screen went up. The sectors must refer to the general areas. If Cosmo remembered right they were currently in section B5 so he went back to the previous screen (by clicking on the minimized squares) and going to section B instead, making sure to choose floor five.

[Digital Vulpine]

Now the list of floors runs along the left side of the screen, with the sectors still being in the upper-right corner.  In the center a double-row of squares lists rooms, labled B501-6.  B501 and B506 (storage and chemical storage) are grayed out.  It looks like the system is starting to make sense now.

[Stormkit]

Hmmmm.... thought Cosmo. First order of business seemed to be figuring out just what the difference between the regular areas and ones that were grayed out. On a hunch he started navigating randomly through various floors to see if anything interesting popped up and if other gray areas also had the word 'storage' in their name. He quickly ascertained that gray had more to do with lack of connection than any sort of storage. On floor six however he found the Reactor 1 Control Room and opened it up saying, "Jackpot!"

[Digital Vulpine]

You see the radiation hazard symbol and the words, "Reactor one status: Offline." 
There are a few options for what you can do, but your security clearance doesn't seem to be high enough to activate the reactor from here.  You can: access the intercom, send a message to the control room's terminal, view the reactor's status, make a video-call to the control room, or open the door.  You suddenly remember that only Reactor Technicians are cleared to make adjustments to the reactors, including turning them on or off.  If you could find a reactor technician's security card, all you'd have to do then was push the "on" button.

It seems that this place was abandoned in a hurry, maybe some reactor tech left his card laying around somewhere?

As a side note, it looks like any room with a mechanical door can be opened remotely using this system, as long as you would have clearance to open it anyway.