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Season 1 of the FAILTECH ARG is mixed bag of content. It's primary story arc follows the advetures of Genus Orein and the Afyg, primarily, and the Jhuku, as a side story arc (both are quite relevant to each other).
-- Refined Season 1 with better formatting and structured layout. Makes it easier to the eye, and to new players.
- will update
| Episode 1 |
A player encounters a mysterious ad on Google and leads him to the rabbit hole, FAILTECH (Future Advancements and Innovations Laboratories TECHnologies) website that is under a lockdown. We find some trails on the site and lead us into a broken admin section of the site. From there, a man named Genus Orein has sent us instructions and help in navigating the broken admin site to help him escape lockdown. We then discover that the AI, named LAINSY (Logical Artificial Intelligence Networked SYstems) has gone crazy and locked down FAILTECH's secret Antractica Facility with Genus Orein and its employees in.
While we busy ourselves in getting through the puzzles, code, and encryption, Daniel Miller and his staff arrive outside the location. Genus alerts us that FAILTECH is evil and that he is trying to escape so that the truth can't be hindered. Despite this, we worked with Daniel Miller and managed to reset LAINSY and take out the lockdown instead of rebooting LAINSY as suggested by the mysterious Scimatar from the emails and Genus has been telling us.| Episode 2 |
Episode 2 starts shortly after Episode 1 when Daniel Millers sends plays an encrypted doc file which happens to be the report they have gathered regarding the incident in Episode 1. Content of report as follows:
After the Antarctica Facility incident of July 9, this year, we have performed a rigorous investigation on what has happened and we have found information that may lead to whoever was responsible for the incident. What we found is as follows:
1. The code that runs the independent facility services, such as the life support, and lighting control, of the Antarctica Facility was initially modified on September 24, 2010 without prior notification to me, or any of my facility supervisors. It was then modified, again, on June 9, 2011 where a system timer was inserted. Also on this modification, the supposedly “independent” facility services were linked onto the main network with a standard network communications protocol. Please note that although the independent facility services work independent from the rest of the network, they can still receive and communicate with the main network through a special restricted protocol so that tampering with is almost not possible, but still possible if you know how to do it.
2. A bug has been exploited in LAINSY and allowed a hacker to tamper with her code and AI systems without her noticing she has been tampered with or to trigger the automated self-defense and automated alarm to inform personnel that LAINSY is being tampered with. The bug has been patched, and we have taken some of LAINSY’s systems offline for upgrades and further patching. LAINSY will be back 100% by next week if all goes well.
3. Five experiments contained in the safe locks of the Antarctica Facility is missing, and is as follows:
a. A prototype of the LMAO Portable Field Generator (LPFG),
b. A prototype of the whispher project,
c. 7 capsules of the Flesh Oxidation Reactant Bacteria (FOxR-B),
d. 5 capsules of the HTR Agent, and
e. A prototype of the Tuncarma project
4. The biohazard that was released on the facility’s levels 50 to 54 was our FOxR-B, which is a highly dangerous bacterium that can kill a person within seconds of contact. We highly thank LAINSY’s immediate response of locking out and containing this highly dangerous biohazard and keeping the safety of everyone in the facility. The biohazard, however, managed to destroy some valuable experiments in level 50.
5. The missing submarine is theorized to have been Genus’s escape route when he managed to get out of the Explosives Testing Bay. If this is true, then it will be hard for us to determine his location as he can’t be tracked by satellite, neither does the sub have any tracking device, since it was rarely used. Please note that it took us a while to gather information because I always had to report back to the rest of the board before proceeding in any actions. We’re a bit slow in our investigations, but hopefully we’ll come up with something that can further the investigations and lead us to Genus and to whoever is responsible for this. I will email you very soon as I might have some use for the Experts Team as my technicians are trying to recover some files and logs that may help in this investigation.
Daniel Miller
Board of Director, FAILTECH
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This timeline attempts to chronicle the complete happenings of the FAILTECH interlude. It was originally sourced from the notes kept by duke9509 and updated by posse and zeighy.
We were sent to join a Medical Research team as Online Volunteers as preparation for corporate espionage against Cliffside Labs, a company that FAILTECH employees leaked info to during the chaos of Season 1. Team headed by Althea Rosso.
First assignment: write a one paragraph report on the effects of protein on muscle tissue. Perhaps a hint at the nature of the research.
Second assignment: Test external access to Intranet File Storage. Access works, but there are permission errors. Task completed in attempt to convince Althea (discretely) to give me L2 access.
Secondary tasks are given by Inno. The first of which is to look into the AWOL of a certain James Barron who was last seen at the Alberta Facility and was working with a Joseph Dillinger on the muscle nanobots project. The second was to investigate a discrepancy in Team Epsilon's logs noted by Team Zeta. Turns out there has been an odd systems error where LAINSY states that the files never even existed. This goes back for years' worth of data.
In response to this situation, Inno adjusted the team's goals.
In addition, Althea provided the name and email address of the department head and raised the login used to test the ext. IFS to L3 clearance.
With this clearance, a file was found in the L1 directory of the mysterious "proto" folder. It appears to be a collection of encryption keys in the form of Latin sentences. May be naught but Lorem Ipsum. Confirmed.
Inno gives us new tasks to figure out what's going on. He wants us to investigate Dillinger and figure out what happened to the files, as well.
It was found that Barron edited the file on the 25th, revealing that he is still somewhere active on base.
James Barron posted strange messages on the Intranet site. Reason to believe they are encrypted.
We have gained L7 clearance.
Althea seems to have been the root of the file problem. She moved all the files to some other location on January 16th. LAINSY has provided additional information which seems to make the proposition that she was framed a more difficult one to prove.
However, Environmental Control reports that CO2 emissions in the room were more consistent with an additional FOUR people being present at the time of the transfer.
Also, another department is reporting a similar problem. No leads on their end.
Ryan Bruno is looking into the possibility of some sort of hidden program being responsible for the post-January data loss. LAINSY also suggests that a ghost network might be possible. Patrice Heinz has been contacted.
Data stolen by a group called Nox Ordo. Main suspects are Joseph Dillinger, James Barron, Billy Chan and Matthew Johnson.
LAINSY was tampered with, so she has been rebooted and our queries and alarms removed.
Ryan Bruno helped us figure out how to use the rcom.lainsymatrix file (in the L1 directory of the proto folder on the IFS) to use the CHECK # based on the ENC of the message – Gronsfeld cipher, and then an extra step (Caesar shift, or reverse the alphabet key, etc.). We were able to read James Barron’s messages. Nothing much to be gleaned here, though. He talks about not forgetting “how to walk” and remembering.
On March 29 2012, a new LAINSY Scarlet module was installed (an electronic brain copy of the real Scarlet).
On our suggestion, Althea began searching James Barron’s office. She found a PDA device that looked like it had been given to him by another FAILTECH employee from another department. We ended up referring her to Patrice Heinz since it looked like her organization has some familiarity with ghost networks and had uncovered Nox Ordo infiltrating FAILTECH. They met up, Althea gave her the PDA, and then Althea ended up getting arrested by FAILTECH for suspicion of espionage – to keep up appearances and not let any Nox Ordo suspects know about the investigation.
After looking at messages between Barron (Bars), Dillinger (Junior), Chan (Bills), and Johnson (Maths), it led to a location at the FAILTECH Alberta Facility: Level 20, Zone 2, Area B. It is a room in the facility where there is no need for personnel to be in. Records show that James Barron had accessed that area with 2 companions who could not be identified by LAINSY (faces were hidden, no ID). Seems to have been a meeting place for Nox Ordo.
Patrice pointed us to two Nox Ordo websites: http://noxordosystems.net (NOS) and http://noxordoarchives.org (NOA). Don’t know what to do with these. Sometimes they change and have hidden messages in the source, but so far no progress.
When LAINSY got tampered with and rebooted, more security features were put in place to detect malicious programs and hopefully ghost networks couldn’t interfere anymore.
Patrice reported the PDA was built using nano technology that prevents scanning of its internals and is virtually indestructible. With specialized scanners they found the internals are high density nano circuitry suspended in some sort of liquid. Very sophisticated. She found out it was some sort of advanced data interfacing device. It has been tapping in and tampering with data in the Alberta Facility, interacting with any kind of technology within its field of effect. This was the last we heard of Netspec, no available info on her current situation!
Matthew Johnson and Joseph Dillinger started responding to texts/emails. Nox Ordo seems to have some weird conversation ritual in order to identify each other. It goes as follows:
As bright as the stars, as many as we could see only one can walk. Who is he?
The future in our past I am the present of the forthcoming. When has it been?
Today or tomorrow the stars shall say. Count, how many. Day by day?
<codename> in <codename> out, days have passed days have gone. Verify?
Infiltrating as Barron did not go far; Dillinger only gave up that the plan was executed and keystone was missing. Despite blowing cover, Johnson decided to talk with us about Nox Ordo and how the organization is set up (knowledge is mainly passed from generation to generation). Johnson is not as involved in the plan as the others are, though.
The pod from S1 was found to be registered--from far in the future--to someone with the name Valesco.
On May 10 2012, LAINSY detected a system intrusion – an external connection linking to an internal subsystem. Several systems went offline and caused an ERROR ZERO. Systems remained either offline, completely dead, or isolated.
Emails aren’t routed through LAINSY so that was the only thing working. Which meant we could contact Ryan Bruno, Genus, and Skyfall.
Skyfall has been sent back to the past (our present) to help. He reports that someone attempted to connect to Oriru Serku in the future but failed. He’s now here to help.
Contacting Inno Ellis’s email address lead to a new character dubbed Rifter. Rifter was called here forcibly and jumped from his void and looks like he took Inno Ellis’s place (Inno is apparently stuck in the void). Not finding the person/people who called him, he tried jumping back but there seems to be a time stream tunnel going through the void which means he won’t jump back to the void, he’ll go to where the tunnel goes through. It appears his arrival triggered an earthquake in the Alberta Facility, causing damage to several sections.
Nox Ordo (at least Joseph Dillinger, Billy Chan & Matthew Johnson) deny having anything to do with the LAINSY outage and calling Rifter and do not know about the time stream tunnel. They deny a lot. They still say their plan is to steal FAILTECH research, but won’t go into any more detail. But at least you can contact them now. Whether or not they will respond to your questions is another matter!
Skyfall identifies the Nox Ordo keystone is a piece of technology that has been passed on from generation to generation which allows them to safely keep their own archives. The leading family of the Nox Ordo is the carrier of the keystone, and their sole duty is to protect and keep the keystone from others.
On May 30, 2012, a system wide hardware replacement was performed and LAINSY was rebooted. LAINSY is currently performing system inspection. Ryan Bruno reports that a HUGE energy burst went through the entire network and fried several of LAINSY’s primary components, however the burst only was isolated to LAINSY and nothing else.
Genus Orein contacted us via email. He’s willing to help out from his space ship (they want to isolate the ship from LAINSY’s servers, so he can’t come back to Earth). He saw a memo from the FAILTECH Intelligence Department about massive radiation spikes around the US. Rumor is a FAILTECH project gone haywire.
Rifter is known for impersonating people, so he’s taken to masquerading as Inno Ellis around FAILTECH. Dan Miller was informed (via Genus Orein) what is up.
New update on IFS: http://intranet.failtechnologies.com/ifs/ID/L7/out/radreport.txt indicates radiation spikes of Alpha, Beta, and Gamma radiation near Indiana and Michigan border, and persistent rhythmical spikes around Colorado. It has reached the level where the government has gotten involved. Radiation Effects specialists have been dispatched to investigate and pinpoint the origin of the radiation spike.
Genus is confused about Nox Ordo since he hasn’t heard about them – could they possibly be related to the Afyg (but we’ve already taken care of those guys?). He’s itching to use the space ship as a time machine (insert TARDIS joke here) to go back and help fix things. Apparently he’s wondering if the time-traveling future Genus we met in previous episodes means he’s meant to use the time machine. Alex & Daniel are sort of wary of this unless we can come up with a good plan. Looks like we’ll need to figure out approximately how old Nox Ordo is so Genus can go investigate their origin. And the ship could even bring the Rifter back where he belongs (assuming the ship can even go there).
Genus has a guess on what is causing the radiation spikes – the inter-facility teleportation system. Though it’s not fully finalized, it has been normally stable, so it’s very odd for it to act up, but could be vulnerable from the recent events.
LAINSY reports that prior to the intrusion, systems logged that James Barron’s ID tracking has moved, but the data of the destination is unavailable due to the system wide surge and the destination was not recorded.
LAINSY also reports that Pablo Jose was detected entering the Alberta Facility, Level 20, Zone 2, Area B moments before the surge. LAINSY’s systems only detected his presence there for 2.46 seconds before instantaneously restoring to its prior location. It seems that the other Nox Ordo suspects have been recorded to have interacted with Pablo Jose several times prior to the surge and even prior to James Barron’s disappearance. At this point, I came to realize that “Pub” is the Nox Ordo codename for Pablo Jose. This was confirmed by Matthew Johnson. Have been attempting to get in contact with Pablo Jose.
Matthew Johnson thinks that Nox Ordo is older than the medieval era, though there hasn’t been much proof of it. His clan/family only has active documentation of as far as the Caroline Era.
The Nox Ordo websites begin lighting up and seem to begin preparing for some large operation.
Cliffside's site changes to hint that the site will be back up soon. A note is found in the source leading to Itallstarted.
Itallstarted holds a vague, corrupted error message and an empty questions page.
Genus reports that he is ready to use his time machine and that the touchstone has been stolen. Rifter reports that it is unusual for him to be in this century as he usually lands between 3310 and 4385 AD.
Daniel Miller discovers Rifter and tries to get him to help. He also reports that Inno would be able to learn to rift when/if he returns from the Void.
Nox Ordo intercepted a transmission from FAILTECH: Cliffside's new site is up (although still a bit incomplete) and advertizing something that seems to be the failed HTR Agent, somehow perfected. It was stolen by Cliffside.
Genus sets out to colonial America to look for the Nox Ordo's roots.
Skyfall seems to have found out that the Nox Ordo is a lost group of Oriru Serku sent back in time for unknown reasons. They have forgotten their mission and drifted into superstition after breaking apart.
Daniel begins doing experiments on Rifter to find out more about rift jumping. Rifter is mostly human, but the Void apparently "changes you from within." They live in a "terrfaromed" (for lack of a better word) section they set up.
Itallstarted (IAS) seems to be a form of advanced distress signal somehow rendering as a webpage. It is being transmitted by Captain Micael Ajax of the Pioneer, who was on the way to colonize a planet 10.43 LY away from the Sun when he somehow got sucked back in time from the year 2142 (though he doesn't exactly believe it). He is trying to contact a Charles Donstand, a future chief director of FAILTECH, whom the ship belongs to. His messages eventually manage to reach our LAINSY. Skyfall isn't too worried. Seems the event that sent the Pioneer back in time was some kind of magnetic storm.
Due to depleted power cores, the Pioneer resorts to shutting down life support, although questions on the IAS Ask page are still being answered by "an electronic copy of Micael Ajax," which contains Micael's knowledge up to the end of the copying process.
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Encrypted communication on the NOS website culminates in the initiation of Phase 3, and Nox Ordo members break into the Space Facility. James Barron is confirmed to have returned from his disappearance. Oriru Serku pulls back from involvement.
A hull breach on the Pioneer locks out the stasis pods of Micael Ajax and the rest of the crew but does not prevent continued communication on IAS.
The Interlude ends with Genus returning from his time travel and setting up base camp outside the Greenland Facility. Meanwhile, the meeting of Nox Ordo for "Phase 3" continues to creep closer.| Season 2 |
An Alexander class ship was stolen from the Failtech space facility and flown into space with Genus in pursuit. Genus followed the ship to the last known location of the Pioneer, where an electromagnetic disturbance (black hole) had appeared.
We were contacted by Cliffside Laboratories CEO, Nathaniel Book, seeking help regarding the theft of their HTR variant, TRA-21. We were able to reach the thief, Joshua Espina, by email and organize his capture with the help of Alex Sword. Espina revealed that a programming module for TRA-21, antidote source for TRA-21, and 22 containers of TRA-21 were stolen, but he was in possession of only 7 containers.
We were also contacted by FAILTECH’s Intelligence Department through Scott Wellesley and Fred Don. They were conducting research on artifacts obtained from the merger with Duo Corp. In an earlier email, Espina expressed interest in a particular artifact called Satus Novus, which was confirmed to be part of the FAILTECH artifact collection.
The website It All Started returned with log entries from future Colony Commander Vrynnandt Shcherbakov of the year 2149 (now 2150 as of our year 2013). He is in charge of FAILTECH’s Alpha Colonization Project, which also included the Pioneer. The disappearance of the Pioneer delayed the progress of the project, but a colony eventually was established on the designated planet, now called Anfang. Later on, an unknown man wearing a FAILTECH uniform was found unconscious in the colony.
Continuing our investigation into Nox Ordo, we gained limited access to the Nox Ordo Archives, of which the automated caretaker Adiu is in charge due to the absence of Matthew Johnson. We also met Gregor Maximus, who is part of the organization’s head family and claimed to have masterminded (along with others) the course of events regarding FAILTECH. Having monitored our access of the archives, he eventually decides to remove our access.