This will be a game in the vein of a Suggestion Game/Choose Your Own Adventure. A majority of updates will end in an open-ended decision to make, however there will be times where options are provided. You will be in control of a single character as they make their way through the world. A world detailed below!
In the year 2020 a small group of fringe scientists and engineers discovered a series of anomalies in their research that led to the discovery of a cloud of interstellar gas that Earth would pass through within a couple decades, and that the results would be disastrous. Unfortunately their discovery and prediction was founded on some loose "science" and speculative theories, and therefore the larger scientific community was unable to duplicate and verify their findings.
Fortunately a few of these scientists had fantastic connections and were able to purchase property in a small up-and-coming American city, where they developed it's first skyscrapers. The five buildings served a number of functions, though they were primarily known as education and research facilities. While anyone was allowed to attend classes or work in the buildings, priority was obviously given to those who shared the beliefs of the founding members in the approaching disaster. While there was some negative press at first, namely in that this was some sort of doomsday suicide cult, ultimately the quality of work and education within the towers (and the connections of the founders) were good enough to draw people from all over the world. The success of the facilities led to an expansion resulting in the construction of an airfield nearby to provide quick and easy transport of goods.
Those who opted in to the full services provided by the were opted in to a suite of information about the facilities:
All five towers use the first twenty floors for office space and document storage. There is also a subbasement infrastructure connecting the towers which can only be reached by taking an express elevator from the top floor. The airfield is also connected to the network, and is surrounded by a wall topped with barbed wire - to prevent theft, of course. Each building can be completely sealed off from the outside world, and those who opt in know to expect to live and exist solely in the towers indefinitely.
Reed Tower was the largest of them all, standing at 341 meters with 60 floors. The upper floors were designated for education, research, and development laboratories for the fields of Physics, Engineering, Chemistry, and Biology. There were also floors meant to provide free housing for the students and employees of Reed Tower. A pair of rooftop satellites helped provide data to the upper floors, where the majority of the anomaly tracking was done. After The Event Reed Tower would serve as the primary facility for study of the effects of the anomaly on Earth and it's inhabitants.
The R.C.P. Building, named for Reginald C. Punnett, comes up to 300 meters and 50 floors. The building was, similarly to Reed Tower, built to accommodate the full set services required to educate, house, and provide essential work materials to it's inhabitants. However as the name may imply the R.C.P. Building was created with botanical and pharmacological purposes in mind. The upper ten floors are a series of climate-controlled environments for the growth and study of plant life. This building would serve as the primary source of nutrition for the towers post-Event.
Roberts Hall stands at 288 meters and 50 floors. Roberts Hall's upper floors are designed as a series of small factories, using groundbreaking 3D printing technology developed in-house to create manufactured components out of deconstructed scrap materials. Housing is provided for any human laborers. The purpose of Roberts Hall would remain the same after The Event.
The Clay Medical Center is 258 meters tall with 58 floors. This building prioritizes the education and development of the medical field. The lower floors act as a standard hospital. However the upper floors house facilities for researching human physiology, genetics, advancements in prosthetic limbs, and whatever else the researchers get an urge to look into. Post-Event the Clay Medical Center will continue it's work as a hospital and research facility.
The Friedman General Education Facility is 245 meters tall and contains 54 floors. This building was designed to provide general education at the collegiate level to those who had yet to advance further into a field of their choice. After The Event the Friedman General Education Facility would be the primary housing building.It would also be the center of civil services and government.
In 2039 a (mostly) unprepared world passed through the Marius Cloud. While the contact was brief, life outside or in an unprotected environment at the moment of passage was afflicted with terrible sickness and mutation. While basic housing did manage to protect those inside from the worst of the cloud's effects, most went outside and exposed themselves to the afterglow when investigating or trying to aid those screaming in agony. The Five Towers were able to adequately prepare prior to contact, and so they were already sealed and protected from the going-ons outside.
Most people didn't die immediately, or even at all initially. Instead their bodies were wracked with tumors, or covered in boils, or their bones decayed to dust, or any number of other terrible mutations. Prolonged secondhand contact to whatever clung to the planet resulted in lesser primary effects. Most governments tried to hold themselves together, but as a majority of nations had suddenly found themselves without leadership, or even a healthy population, control was rapidly lost. The world had descended into chaos.
The TechnoRepublic of the Five Towers, a fun, accurate nickname that wound up sticking and becoming official, maintained itself as a beacon of hope in the preservation of the future of mankind. The first twenty floors of each tower served as a heavily-defended buffer-zone between them and the chaos reigning outside. It was discovered that while second-hand exposure led to slight effects in comparison to the primary afflicted, their offspring bore mutations aplenty. During the first decades the inhabitants of the towers were largely stuck performing probing and scouting missions in the wastes. They survived, and for a time were able to thrive off of the scraps they supplemented their supplies with.
It was a cold winter when word of a unified tribe of mutated were planning on taking the Five Towers. Calling themselves Marius' Reformed, this growing tribe of mutated humans crashed onto the towers not unlike a wave. For fifteen violent years the Five Towers remained under heavy siege. As breaches were made security forces withdrew from the lower floors, creating a hard defensive barrier on the few floors between the people and the mutant hordes. Fighting was brutal and bloody, often close and personal. TechnoRepublic Security Forces were being wounded at an alarming rate, but the work of the Clay Medical Center paid off greatly, allowing men and women to be sent back to the front as soon as they were fitted and rehabilitated. The Five Towers were holding, but their supplies had begun to dwindle immensely, even with the severe cut-backs they'd been making. Then one day Marius' Reformed withdrew. Their leader had died, and the united tribes had begun to collapse on one another.
But the damage was done. A decade and a half of brutal fighting had changed the TechnoRepublic into a military state. While the rights of the people were preserved and all needs provided for, service in the TRSF was expected and viewed as necessary by many. The TRSF restructured itself upon the withdrawal of the Reformed and they took over scavenging duties, with secondary objectives of striking at the nearby Tribes. Their aircraft, a cargo plane, a handful of transport helicopters, and after an extremely fortunate raid on a military airbase, a pair of functional F-16s, began to see usage in more than just the rare scouting mission. Each tower's defensive line was hardened, and the lower floors were left to their own devices, providing a natural barrier as both human and mutated criminal elements had begun to take root in the war-torn floors.
The World Now
It is the year 80 A.P. (After Passing) Word of a reunited Marius' Reformed has reached the TechnoRepublic of the Five Towers and the TRSF is preparing for another season of unending war. You are...
A. An officer in the TRSF 2nd Company currently leading 'Cerberus' Squad on a mission to a nearby junkyard for any materials the 3D printers could disassemble.
B. An Infantryman in the TRSF Reed Garrison working as part of a group tasked with removing suspected criminal elements in the lower tower.
C. An F-16 pilot flying routine drills with their wingmate.
D. A member of the TRSF 'Specter' Division, which technically does not exist, infiltrating a subversive element in Roberts Hall.
And how did you get there? Tell me more of the person you are, including...
Gender - Male or Female to keep it simple.
Appearance - Some description of your physical appearance and your average outfit.
Traits - Any outstanding qualities you may have - things like artificial limbs.
Home Tower - Which tower you come from will have an impact throughout the story.
Anything else you wish to include to flesh out the character is welcome.
Feel free to ask questions if you need more information prior to making your first few decisions to get a feel for the world, the game, and your wonderful GuideMan.
Author
Topic: Into The Fire - A Post-Apocalyptic/Sci-Fi CYOA/SG (Read 3161 times)