A Mysterious Ruin

Back to Quests.

1.The first step in initiating this quest is to gain the ability to fly. You can do this by either building yourself a jetpack or by heading to Quincy's Airship Emporium.

2.Next, head to the Outskirts of Area 54, and keep patrolling until you come across the Just Deserts adventure.

3.Choose the third option - See how far you can toss the hubcap. You will get the Strange as Fiction adventure. The resulting text will tell you to pay Susan Novak a visit.
The resulting text is as follows:
Frustrated, you wing the hubcap into the crater and watch as it sails through the air, turns on its side, and plummets to the ground with an odd, hollow metallic clonk. Strange. Very strange.

You climb down into the crater to investigate. Brushing away several inches of sand and gravel where the hubcap landed, you're surprised to see metal. It looks like a big horizontal sheet, slightly warped, pitted and corroded by time, but still very solid. What's it doing out here in the desert? You stomp on the metal sheet and hear an echoey thump, as if the ground underneath is hollow. Gradually you clear away more sand, and the metal keeps going. Whatever it is, it's fairly big, like a bunker. Or a septic tank. But why out here?

Eventually you find what looks like a door, slightly bent out of alignment with the metal surrounding it. It takes all your strength to coerce the skewed and rusted hinges to move, but you get the door open. Pulling out a flashlight (every hero always comes prepared, right?) you peer into the gloom.

Whatever it is, it's not a septic tank. It looks like a large room turned on its side, halfway filled with sand and gravel, the bottom strewn with metal shrapnel. Stalactites drip down from the ceiling in places, and stalagmites rise up from the floor. Whatever this stuff is, it's been here for a long time. It doesn't look human, either. Banks of twisted machinery along the walls somewhat resemble recognizable hardware, but the angles are wrong, the buttons are too big, the aesthetic is just ... different. You think about exploring further but quickly decide that jumping into the dim recesses of some ancient machinery isn't the smartest thing to do. You'd rather have a scientist's opinion about this anyway. Maybe you ought to talk to Susan Novak and see what she thinks about this?

The following text will also appear in your Journal:

You've found something strange out in the desert. You ought to talk to your friend Susan Novak--the only real scientist you know--about what it might be.

4.Visit Novak downtown, at University Heights. This will yield the following text:

'You stop in and tell Susan about the mysterious mechanical ruin you found in the desert. She listens thoughtfully, first seeming skeptical but then growing more interested as you fill in the details. When you're done, Susan has you go over everything a couple of times, to make sure she understands. Finally you ask, "So, what do you think?"

Susan pauses to collect her thoughts. "As always, I'm skeptical until I have more data, but this sounds intriguing. There are any number of possible explanations, and in the limited light it makes your observations all the more suspect, but I'll definitely send out a team tomorrow to investigate. I don't know if I mentioned, but I'm not only faculty here at the university, I'm also a founding member of an 'abnormal occurrences' research team."

"You mean something like the S.U.I.T. researchers?"

Susan laughs. "No, those guys are a bunch of quacks. We like to collect stories of all sorts of unusual occurrences--paranormal investigation, U.F.O.s, you name it. We're open-minded skeptics, so we don't have an agenda to prove people wrong, just apply good science. Most of it still involves telling crazy pepole they're delusional, but it's an interesting hobby."

Susan suggests you check back in tomorrow evening and she'd let you know what she's found.'

This also results in the following text appearing in your Journal:

You've found something strange out in the desert and you've told Susan about it. She said she'll investigate tomorrow, so you'll have to check back with her then to see what she thinks.

5.Visit Novak again, after rollover. This begets you the following message:

"[Player]! Come in. I've got exciting news! That crash site you found out in the desert, it's amazing! Whatever it is, it's not of human origin, you're right about that. It was mechanical, but it's not like any kind of machinery I've ever seen, and what little bit of language could be found is no earthly language. Plus it's got to be hundreds or thousands of years old--again, too old for humans."

"Did you find anything significant?" you ask.

"Other than the discovery of non-human life out in the universe? It's too early to say for sure. There's one thing that's particularly interesting, and I'll get to that in a moment. Most of what's in there was badly damaged--it looks like whatever it was crash landed and barely survived complete destruction, and time has not been kind to it since. There's no sign of life, either, which is strange. Either it was an unmanned ship, or the beings inside it escaped before the crash."

Susan continues, "There's all kinds of things we can learn from this technology, given the time to piece it together again. But there's one thing we got out of there, though, that's particularly intriguing. We found a large crate that was damaged on the surface, but the inner contents were exceptionally well padded. Layer after layer of strange materials: foams and harnesses and whatnot. Inside were two large devices, shaped like hollow triangles. We have no idea what they're for, but at least on the surface they appear to be in perfect physical condition. They're our best hope for learning something about this technology. We've brought them back to the lab for investigation. Check back in tomorrow and I'll tell you what we've found."

This also results in the following text appearing in your Journal:

Susan's confirmed that the ruins are non-human in origin. That alone is the scientific breakthrough of the millennium, but she's very excited about a couple of mechanical triangles that seem to be among the few things in good condition. Check back in with her tomorrow for more details.


6. Visit Novak again, after rollover. She has this to say:

"We've got amazing news!" Susan says before you can even say hi. For someone who likes to talk about being calm and rational, she looks like she's about to explode. "Those triangles? They're portals! To each other. You go in one, and you come out the other."

"Wait," you say, "like a tunnel or something?"

"No, like teleporting. Instantaneous matter transmission. You know, 'Beam me up, Scotty.' Or something right out of Stargate. The triangles aren't connected, and it doesn't matter how far apart they are. Here, watch."

Susan turns on a TV in her office and starts playing a DVD. "This is a recording from earlier, when we still had both of them in the lab." The scene is a large garage or warehouse. Two large metal triangles are set up 30 feet apart. The space inside the triangle shimmers oddly. As you watch, a woman approaches one of the triangles, steps inside, and steps outside of the other one. "Wow ..." is all you can think to say.

"Exactly. We've driven one out to the edge of the city, and the results are the same. Instantaneous travel."

"What are you going to do with them?"

"Oh, that's obvious. We send it to space. There's all kinds of potential uses, but the greatest energy challenge we face is getting materials into orbit. If we can essentially get up there for free, it opens up space travel in a way nobody has ever imagined. It's hard not to sound over dramatic, but this could be the most valuable discovery in history." Susan pauses, and grows more serious. "We have to hurry, though. The other implication of this discovery is it's clear there's other life out there. Not only that, but they have the means to reach Earth, because they've already done so. And instantaneous transportation changes everything--they could be here any day. So we've got to move fast. We're trying to get funding for an emergency space launch. We've got to get one of these portals up there as soon as possible, and start building a space station. The problem is, we're also trying to keep somewhat quiet about it. If the government finds out about it, they're likely to shut these things up in a basement somewhere for perpetual study. My colleagues and I believe we have to act quickly, so we're trying to track down private funding for the expedition. We think once we can get the portal into space and get a significant station built, the momentum will carry the project forward. We need millions, though, so if you happen to know any potendial [sic - soleta] donors, please come back and let me know."

The following text appears in your journal:

You've seen the strange teleporting triangles, and Susan has convinced you that getting them up into space quickly is a good idea. Too bad she needs a lot of funding to make that happen.

Head by Susan's again at this point, and you get:

Susan is working on a spreadsheet when you stop by her office. "Oh, hi, [Player], I'm just working on the project budget. We've gotten a little private funding, but it's tough trying to ask about this and also keep it quiet. Have you had any luck finding any potential donors? No?" The scientist eyes your expensive fighting gear, and takes a deep breath before starting slowly. "I really hate to even ask, but I and most of the others on my team are pouring a lot of our personal money into this because it's so important. Do you have any funds to spare? We can't promise that there will be any rewards in return, other than for the good of humanity, which is something you already deal with on a regular basis. We'll give you free access to the space station, of course, but we would have done that anyway."

How much are you willing to donate?

If you head to Susan's after that:

Susan is working on a spreadsheet when you stop by her office. "Oh, hi, [Player], I'm just working on the project budget. We've gotten a little private funding, but it's tough trying to ask about this and also keep it quiet. Have you had any luck finding any potential donors? No?" The scientist eyes your expensive fighting gear, and takes a deep breath before starting slowly. "I really hate to even ask, but I and most of the others on my team are pouring a lot of our personal money into this because it's so important. I know you've already donated some, but do you have any additional funds to spare? We're making some progress, but we still need a lot more to get there. Every day we go without action, there's a chance the news will leak to the public and we'll be stopped before we can even get started."

You have donated X chips to the cause thus far.

How much are you willing to donate?

7. The rest of this quest is available at level 12.