Last-Days

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====== Biomes ======


===== The Wastes =====
{{ :last-days:biomes:the_wastes.png?400 |}}
(forest, plains, extreme hills)
The wastes are what makes up most of the world; bleak, barren zones inhabited by only few mutated animals and hardy shrubs,
but roamed by hordes of Orbital Industries robots, gangs of Bandits and packs of Lost.
Almost all traces of human civilization are gone, only the abandoned H.I.V.E’s and scrap shack villages remain,
silent reminders of the failure of the once great human society.
The H.I.V.E’s were constructed by O.I. before the war as subterranean networks, linking several cocoon bunkers together into a superstructure.
They can be found nearly everywhere and still contain valuable resources and machinery like batteries or gears, for those who dare to explore them.
The scrap shack settlements were created by those unlucky human scavengers who would eventually become the Lost. Denied access to the H.I.V.E’s, they would create makeshift huts on stilts above the ground as a protective measure. However the elevated position couldn’t protect them against the radiation which slowly turned the unlucky survivors into barely human beings, driven only by their instincts.


===== Snow =====
{{ :last-days:biomes:snow.png?400 |}}
(tundra,taiga)
The only regions left mostly unaltered in wake of the Event,
the atomic holocaust and the nuclear winter were those uninviting areas that were extremely cold to begin with e.g. high mountains and tundras.
When the nuclear fallout fell down in form of radiating snowflakes it wouldn’t penetrate the thick layers of snow,
ice and frozen ground, leaving the groundwater and plant seeds, buried underneath the permafrost, unpoisoned.
After the climate had stabilized itself somewhat and nature returned to its usual cycle of snowmelt and snowfall,
The fallout had already lost most of its hazard potential and the flora, foremost spruce trees, recovered.
The fauna wasn’t so lucky however. Most animals suffered severe mutations or died by radiation, malnourishment or cold.
Only the wolf-dog hybrids managed to adapt in large packs, hunting down the last living creatures in the harsh wilderness.


===== Desert =====
{{ :last-days:biomes:desert.png?400 |}}
The Event and the following environmental catastrophes caused lots of already arid areas to dry out completely.
Orbital Industries used these areas as disposal zones for their clean-up operation after the Event,
storing the sometimes radioactive debris of destroyed cities either deep underground or in barrels throughout the deserts.
The irradiated moon dust that fell from the skies in large quantities was dropped on dumps,
increasing the uninhabitable desert character of those areas even more.
All that remains from this enormous effort are the drilled shafts, sometimes buried in the sand,
sometimes flooded and the piles of green barrels scattered around, humming quietly with residual radiation.

===== Antenna facility =====
{{ :last-days:biomes:jungle.png?400 |}}
(jungle)
Before Orbital Industries’ moon landing in 8 BE, fission and fusion materials on earth were starting to dwindle.
In an effort to keep their own growing industries supplied with cheap electricity, O.I. set out to find alternative energies.
They came to the only logical conclusion: Giant lightning absorbing tesla towers!
Humongous Facilities covering whole tracts of land, featuring giant copper coils tipped with lightning rods were erected to attract, harvest, store and process lightning. Each lightning strike would generate a whopping 1,21 GW equaling the total energy output of a small plutonium fission rod, while the frequency of giant thunderstorms near the “Antennas” (as this was their official designation) was abnormally high.
The ozone created by the lightning would also be collected by small, expanding canisters attached to the rods and processed into N2O which in turn could be used in the creation of medicines and stimulants.
The Antennas featured a to date revolutionary system for their construction.
A group of AITBs (Antenna in the box) would be deployed in an open space. Either through natural sources like light and lightings,
or (as it was more often the case) through artificial electricity input those engineering marvels would collect energy.
When the critical energy level was met, they would spontaneously convert the stored electricity into matter and “grow” within a few seconds. If a group of AITBs was put close together they would bond and generate a much bigger antenna. (The “In the box” system would be used after the Event by the Lost for the quick construction of their shacks, before they became the braindead monstrosities that they are today)
Of course the discovery of huge Helium – 3 deposits on the moon rendered the expensive power plants obsolete, a fact that Mr. History was aware of and therefore “forgot” to mention until he had netted contracts for the construction of thousands of Antennas around the world.
Once again he got away with it, by offering to upgrade the Antennas into weather control devices, radar scramblers,
tesla anti-air and anti-ground weapons or all of those options combined…against a fee of course.
After the Event, the upgraded antennas were used to counteract the drastic climate changes, but to no avail. During the war they were used as weapons, with devastating effects, but unable to stop the deployment of nuclear weaponry.
After the period of bloodshed the former power plants began to decay, turning into giant expanses of rubble,
home to a lot of stray cats leading their pitiful lives underneath the still intact antennas.



===== Swamp =====
{{ :last-days:biomes:swamp.png?400 |}}
Lots of areas hit by freak thunderstorms or tsunamis during the Event and the war never recovered. The terrain was eroded by the forces of nature and the deluges of water carrying nuclear fallout were unable to drain off fast enough before the fine mud clogged the ground. Vast expanses of flat, radioactive, stagnant water were the result, void of all life.
Years afterwards when the water masses started to recede pioneer species like fungi and vines had returned to the small islands within the brackish morass but still tons of fish would die, victims to radiation trapped in the water.


===== Mushroom =====
{{ :last-days:biomes:mushroom.png?400 |}}
Only months before the Event,
Orbital Industries started to cover some isolated islands with an experimental plating against nuclear radiation called Funga-plast.
This carefulness was due to the remarkable and slightly uncontrollable properties of the new shielding material: It was self-repairing and replicating.
Somewhat similar to fungal mycelium,it would absorb minerals and moisture from the ground and form a thick, ground covering,
crystalline structure resembling metal sheets. While dense enough to be stepped on and able to absorb incoming radiation of various magnitudes, the Funga-plast was nowhere near as durable as any actual metal.

O.I.’s foresight to limit their initial deployment of Funga-plast payed off, as side effects became known:
Other spore based life forms, mostly mushrooms and fungi, settled within the nutrient rich confines of the Funga-plast, turning the radiation shield into a breeding ground. The massive amount of spores that lingered in the air clogged the respiratory systems of any living being, and the cooling units of all robots, in the area.
Another side effect was that the Funga-plast would fuse with the fruiting bodies of various fungi, using them as a medium to grow into absurd pseudo-metallic platforms resembling the former mushrooms
For those reasons O.I. deemed the radiation shield project a failure and abandoned the almost lifeless islands.
Unbeknownst to them, a strand of stonebacks would manage to withstand the constant spore exposure, albeit even more mutated and as a living host to mold and mushrooms.


===== Moon =====
{{ :last-days:biomes:moon.png?400 |}}
Once the beautiful and sole satellite of earth, the moon is a literal debris field in orbit nowadays.
After Orbital Industries’ mining operations and underground weapon testing started to hollow it out, the moon soon became nicknamed “The Belly”.
During the Event an experimental moon portal sucked a fraction of earth's atmosphere into the Belly and set off a chain reaction of explosions. The moon broke apart.
The atmosphere on the moon allows the transmission of soundwaves but isn’t thick enough to sustain life (expect the Moonshroom).
After the scientists that survived the Event in the Belly were stranded (as O.I. was disbanded and the nuclear war broke out) their sanity and bodies were twisted by their hazardous environment. The lack of maintenance threw mining and security robots into a state of disarray, making the moon one of the most dangerous places to be. Even if you have a space suit on you to prevent suffocation.

===== Moon Wastes =====
{{ :last-days:biomes:moon_wastes.png?400 |}}
Minecraft counterpart: Nether Wastes
If we compare all the other places in the Belly, then these wastes are the safest of all. At least until you provoke one of those mutated moon scientists.
Large Waste Dump
Minecraft counterpart: Basalt Deltas
No one wants to end up in a giant radioactive dump where most of the Moon trash is stored. This is pure poison, so for your safety, don't go there!
This damn dump is constantly teeming with broken P.W.C., which strive to "eat" short-sighted travelers. Don't get caught!
Irradiated Moondust Valley
Minecraft counterpart: Soul Sand Valley
This lifeless desert is the second (after the Great Dump) in radiation pollution. Unattended hydronic batteries, once used by Moon scientists, can be found throughout the valleys.
This place was chosen by bandits, for whom hydronic batteries are the main value. Don't ask why the hell they got here, or you'll get a firearm projectile in the heart.
Medicinal Fungaplast Settlement
Minecraft counterpart: Crimson Forest
On Earth, O.I. scientists once invented a fungaplast, which was tested on isolated islands. But because of its side effects, the project became abandoned. Nevertheless, this material was used on the Moon, which became the basis of future medicinal fungaplast facilities (now known as Fungal Gardens).
All this was started for the sake of special medicinal mushroom spores that neutralize the radiation effects of the Belly. Fortunately, this time the project turned out to be more or less successful.
After the Event, these places was chosen by stonerats for life, and their spores spread all over the Moon, which is why not all scientists and none of the stonerats were exposed to a dangerous dose of radiation.
Warped Fungaplast Settlement
Minecraft counterpart: Warped Forest
An alternate version of the medical fungaplast settlements, also known as the Ghost Garden.
Mycelium spores emitted by fungal structures are designed to affect the Null-Space to open two-way portals between Earth and the Belly.
During the Event, because of HIS actions, these fungal spores began to malfunction and open portals not just to Null-Space, but to the Realm of Madness itself. Soon the place was teeming with Experiments.



===== The End =====

From: █████████
To: ████████████
Subject: Disappearance of ███ ██████ and possible connection to Dr ██████████████████

The theory I introduced in my report 10 hours ago seems to be accurate. Our agent “Creeper” has located the source of the mysterious portal signatures and found evidence of a massive illegal H.I.V.E close to ██████ between ██████ and █████████ on the coordinates ████████. According to his findings it’s financed by Croc.Co.
Furthermore “Creeper” has witnessed the incoming of three armored transport trucks with ventilation slots, which hints towards living cargo.
The number plates were ██████, ██████ and ██████ and turned out to be registered for a letterbox company in █████████.
All this seems to prove that Dr ██████████████████ is experimenting on humans.

The Orbital Industries employee we took in two days ago disclosed that ███ ██████ had initiated a company-internal inquiry against to Dr ██████████████████ because he suspected him off unethical work methods. This led to Dr ██████████████████’s departure.
The entire affair was preceded by a dispute between ███ ██████ and to Dr ██████████████████ because of a denied experimental cyborg procedure to revive the latter's wife.
The employee went on and reported that during his work under to Dr ██████████████████ he has had access to experiment files that described a being similar to the unidentified assailants that destroyed the Orbital Industries office building in ████████, by mysteriously appearing inside and removing its foundation.

The interrogation of to Dr ██████████████████’s cleaning woman was largely inconclusive, except for the fact that to Dr ██████████████████ became reclusive after the death of his wife and developed a strange fixation on penguins.


I know our resources are stretched thin with the ongoing hostilities after that terrible Event, but I request backup in storming that illegal H.I.V.E. We can’t win a possible war with enemies lurking within our own borders, especially if they are setting up portals.

Signed
████████


Ooooone

The madness of the world forces me to write these lines. Everything is gone and no one is here to share my plight. HIS eyes burn in my mind, I haven’t found sleep for days. Is someone coming? One of those monsters?! No they only live down in that Notch-forsaken H.I.V.E! The loneliness makes me hear things, I always hear the scuttling of those abominable roaches who almost ate my face!
They are coming for me! Both of them. All I have is a tattered H.I.V.E shirt and my trousers. They won’t get them!

Too
I ate a lizard. Notch help me! What have I done?! I’m feeling sick, green bubbles everywhere. I hear HIM whispering in my dreams. At least HE’s gone silent while I’m awake. Time to puke!

March 16th 13 AE
I had a lot of time to think and get my thoughts straight while I spent the last 3 days curled up in some kind of elevated shack, sick with food poisoning. I can’t believe I really wrote the last 2 entries, but it’s not surprising that I went mad after all I’ve been through. I still find myself giggling to myself and I have an uneasy sleep, I prefer to stay awake.
I forgot my name but according to a message left to me, I was an agent called “Creeper”.
I don’t recall much of my last mission but I know that it nearly drove me insane.
I faced pure madness.
I ran around a place out of this world, on dead bodies strapped in machines, tall horrific experiments mercilessly staring at me, vanishing into thin air only to reappear behind me.
And HE was there.
HIS name is unpronounceable, HIS white eyes staring into my very soul and HIS laughter haunting my dreams.
I’m sorry, I let it get to me again. The “HE” I wrote about is a terrifying mixture of man, beast and machine that I don’t even want to think about. It chased me around that nightmare for eons.
Aeon, what a strange word. 
I’m getting side tracked again.
I don’t know how, but I woke up next to what I know was the entrance back to this realm of madness. Giant roaches had eaten almost all of my clothes and were about to take a bit out of me!
I ran away, through the confusing installation which I remember to be an illegal H.I.V.E. I replaced my ragged clothes with what clothes I could find. Finally I found the exit, and next to it a table with a note for me. Some superior whom I don’t remember explained to me that a war was happening and that they couldn’t search for me anymore. There was a clock which broke down shortly thereafter which told me the year.
I invented my own time system based on “The Event” when those crazed bunglers at O.I. blew up the moon. The moon … HE was responsible for that, I now know that. HE told me…
I have to concentrate
Like I wrote: I have a new time system and it’s the 16th of March 13 years after the Event. I don’t know how so much time could have passed after I entered that portal or whatever that demonic device was. I’ve ran from the H.I.V.E into the bleak wastes. There definitely had been a nuclear war.
My P.I.M (Personal Inventory Manager), which is the last part of my equipment, informs me that my state of health is pretty good considering the circumstances. No radiation, no traces of remaining poison, no major wounds and after I ate that giant rat (or pig, what do I know what it looked like before it mutated) I also felt sated and strong.
Apart from that my situation is looking grim. I don’t remember where I am or who I am. Perhaps I can regain my identity by returning to that H.I.V.E… Haha just kidding, I’m not that crazy. Or am I?
Whatever, I need to find food, tools and shelter first, before I develop any suicidal plans.
And I need to find more paper, I’m runni-”

I'm sure there was more somewhere but I can't find it…

===== R.o.M. Core =====
{{ :last-days:biomes:end_portal.png?400 |}}
{{ :last-days:biomes:library.png?400 |}}
Minecraft counterpart: End Central Island
R.o.M. Core is the center of this whole damn place. Remote from all other islands for a kilometer in radius, this one is now a prison for a Mad Dragon. All interdimensional portals in illegal H.I.V.E.s lead there, to a special platform made of Hazardous Waste Containers.
Ten pillars made of the same material with Mad Crystals on top were created for one purpose: to support HIS life.
At the very center of this island is the exit portal created from indestructible Null Reinforced Fabric. To open the portal, one must first kill HIM, and nothing else.
Given that HE is not really dead, he can be "resurrected". Four Madness Crystals on the sides of exit portal will do their job: the columns will be restored, HE will be revived, but the portal will be closed. HE will not be able to get out, this is HIS punishment from fate... or did someone lock HIM up that way?
R.o.M. Expanse
Minecraft counterpart: End Highlands / End Midlands / End Barrens / Small End Islands
All these islands are far from R.o.M. Core. Most of the Experiments live there, among the sprawling CH.R.U.-5 which absorb the very fabric of this realm.
Sometimes travelers can find a R.o.M. Gateway linking Core and Expanse. But the most important thing in this world is R.o.M. Research Labs that store valuable resources for the scavenger.



===== Wastelands =====
 {{ :last-days:biomes:mesa.png?400 |}}
(Mesa, Mesa Bryce, Mesa Plateau, Mesa Plateau M)
These areas used to be giant cities with buildings everywhere. But after the event, the buildings were destroyed and various pieces of furniture were scattered. The result is large mountains of junk and debris.


===== Radio Antenna Fields =====
 
(Savanna, Savanna M)
Unlike the large antenna facilities used to generate power, these large fields were used to transmit radio waves to far away areas.Of course, after the event, the satellites were knocked down, making these antennas useless. Now, The Masked has moved into these areas as the large flat areas have made it suitable for small scrap shack villages.


===== Scrap Shack City =====

(Roofed Forest)
These areas were used by The Lost to make huge cities of Scrap Shacks using an upgraded version of the Scrap in the box. But scrap shacks don't really protect people from radiation now, do they? Not only that, huge metallic mushrooms also grow due to the large amount of metal found in the soil.


===== Spruce Forests =====
 
(Mega Taiga, Mega Spruce Taiga)
When the event happened, it started huge forest fires that seem to go on forever. One might assume that this left the area uninhabitable. Instead, the fire made the ground more fertile,not only allowing trees to grow in abundance, but also allowing them to grow extremely tall!

===== Cinderwood Forests =====

(Cherry Tree biome)
Eternally burning cancerous tree, with more flesh than actual plant matter inside. To this day nobody can say if this was a vanity project of someone from OI, or some sort of naturally evolved organism. Fortunately for everyone still alive, the meat inside quickly hardens into actual wood once exposed to open air. Just pray that the smell will never wear off.

Designed or mutated to grow in spite of the harsh environment… mostly. Constantly growing, burning, and cannibalizing on itself to survive. Their bark glows green from the eternal embers that both consume and feed the trees. Cinderwood forests are covered with ash and falling green cinders from the burning leaves above. The only other tree present in the game besides Spruce.


===== 
Solar Energy Collection Fields =====
 
(Sunflower Plains)
When fission and fusion materials became scarce, O.I set out to find alternative energies; this part is actually canon. One of the few alternative energies was solar energy. O.I set up S.E.C (Solar Energy Collector) in certain areas to collect this type of energy. Alas, this type of energy has been proven to be ineffective as the energy collected wasn't enough to power an entire nation. The project was abandoned soon after in favor of the large antenna facilities.


===== Layered Automated Defense System (LADS) =====
 
(clay mesa)
As hostilities began among the remaining, struggling post-Event nations, it seemed obvious that their existing defense mechanisms would have to be upgraded. In light of this, the quarreling states came up with a plan. Their plan was simple, although incredibly expensive in terms of resources: significant cities would be totally covered with colossal arrays of defense systems and various fortifications. The resources were gathered and the plan was carried out more or less successfully, but the engineers responsible for the project failed to note one important weakness: the electronics and fortifications chosen could, if sufficiently weakened, allow critical levels of radiation through at certain points. Once people began inexplicably dying and this weakness became all too clear, the surviving authorities agreed to demolish the subterranean cities in order to expand the H.I.V.E. project, in hopes of a more effective shelter.


===== Military Antenna Shack Settlement =====
 
(Savanna)
In the late stages of the war, desperate military authorities began an ambitious project with the goal of creating a possible haven for soldiers and military forces. Engineers reverse-engineered the lightning conducting antennas of OI's tesla towers more or less successfully. The aim of using antennas was to facilitate long-range communication between divisions by transmitting messages using the stilt. Sadly, these poorly conceived structures were almost as transparent to radiation as their scrap-shack predecessors, slowly killing off the remaining military forces and plunging H.I.V.E.-dwelling postwar survivors into a state of total anarchy.


===== Dense Scrap Shack Town =====
 
(Roofed Forest)
Towns and cities too large to be fully accommodated by a simple scrap shack village, but too small to warrant construction of a Layered Automated Defense System, generally set up a large number of scrap shacks to house their inhabitants. Because these municipalities were more wealthy than their smaller counterparts, they invested in slightly modified fungal radiation shields to help protect their denizens. In at least one way, this plan worked: the inhabitants generally were exposed to less radiation than those in the scrap-shack villages and, as a result, generally either survived to become Bandits or mutated into the Lost rather than dying. These communities also obtained robots for labor and defense, but their circuitry underwent many of the same malfunctions as those in the wastes, meaning they are now just as hostile as their former owners.

===== H.I.V.E. =====

H.I.V.E. Sanctuary Remains
Minecraft counterpart: Lush Caves
Sanctuaries were once the hope of many people for a safe and peaceful life in H.I.V.E.s. Now it's in the past, only the ruins tell us that this place was once inhabited.
After the Event, the Lost started building villages out of Scrap Shacks. However, they didn't have radiation resistance, which is why many of them began to become infected, becoming half-corpses. So, former O.I. quantum engineers have created an makeshift likeness of M.R.G., which is able to create a safe haven right in H.I.V.E. Constructions built on the basis of this substance were called Sanctuaries.
Sanctuary Constructing Goo (S.C.G.), biochemical in nature, was distributed through H.I.V.E. manually (many hydronic batteries were used for this, but it was worth it). The following appeared "out of nowhere": "In-The-Box" shacks made specifically for Sanctuary, water purifiers and luminescent nutritious bacterial proteins.
It's known that the builders of Sanctuaries were actively helped by a certain group of seekers of paradise in H.I.V.E.s. Believing in legends about mythical utopian places underground, they later became what those known as Hiveists, one of the three branches of the cults of The One.
It would seem that life is getting better, but it wasn't there. Radiation, the influx of zombified Lost, bandits, broken Hall Monitors and similar misfortunes determined the fate of these places.
H.I.V.E. Piping Systems
Minecraft counterpart: Dripstone Caves
There is nothing complicated in this: just a pipe system, which, like all O.I. developments in Null-Engineering, is able to "self-replicate". There's nothing more to say, yeah.
S.CH.O.N. Domain
Minecraft counterpart: Deep Dark
If you, walking through the dark corners of the hive, have found some kind of red infection, then avoid these places for your own safety!
However, legends speak of abandoned ancient cities full of treasures. If you dare to go there, then remember one simple thing: do not make a noise, otherwise you risk becoming a delicacy for the monsters there.


===== Trial Chamber (name placeholder) =====

Here's a longshot at Trial Chamber: Giant computers that feed off of/ examine the nature of raw chaos.
Primary function of vanilla Trial Chambers - they contain a bunch of trial spawners and vaults. Trials spawners are marked accordingly for what mobs they spawn so, for example, skeletons have bone blocks surrounding their trial spawner. After the mobs are destroyed the spawners spit out a reward. One of these rewards can be a key that opens a vault for a reward for players.
So, with that kind of knowledge, are these spawners unique types of duplicators that constructs the appropriate mobs accordingly and the action of their defeat creates null particles in its wake. The computer system takes in the null particles and compiles the information, spitting out items accordingly. Perhaps the items that are spat out are a result of transmutation from raw chaos.
Sometimes the information gathered from the null particles may be novel enough that the computer generates a series of punch cards (trial key) indicating that additional analysis is required which can be fed into a card reader (vault) to be deciphered.
Why is there a reward for feeding a series of punch cards into a reader? I dunno. The interpreted code instructs the computer to generate an inventory. More quagic. (edited)
Ominous potions can be some kind of frequency emitter. Perhaps a type of frequency that redemptionists use but is known for causing this computer system to go haywire.