#icebreaker borealis

[zhjake]

Some sketches + the base blender model that got painted over for the Icebreaker Borealis

#igf #in golden flame #lancer #lancer rpg #icebreaker borealis #ship #spaceship #space station #station #satellite #las vegas #vegas #sci fi #sci fi art #scifi art #sf art #sf #science fiction #space #planet #digital art #digital illustration #ttrpg #ttrpg art #sketch #sketches #sketchbook #art process #art progress #art ref

[flowersnax]

character momence.......

#the filename for this one is literally 'that moment when you traumadump to your teammate whos 16 years younger than you' lmao #i love drawing stuff w lighting like this its genuinely so much fun #my art #my ocs #friend ocs #lancer rpg #lancer #in golden flame #(tagged bc this drawing is set on the icebreaker borealis) #its so funny seeing these two next to each other with accurate size difference lmfaoo #my character is 6'2 and my friends is 5'2 they look so funny next to each other

[drunkenskunk]

Meanwhile, en route to the Icebreaker...

All was quiet on the Dragon's Tooth. The old IPS-N clipper being used as the home-away-from-Hell's-Gate for the Strategic Response Team was currently on its braking burn towards the Icebreaker Borealis, and the ship's clocks had all been set to the station's local time. As a result, it was close to “one in the morning,” and nearly everyone on board was asleep.

A hatch suddenly opened onto the mech bay. Scarlet stepped through the open door, wearing only a tank top and sweatpants. A part of her knew she shouldn't be walking around in here with bare feet, but she was worried about making too much noise. In fact, she was worried about a lot of things...

Before she knew it, she was standing before her mech: Big Red. An old Everest, battle scarred and rough around the edges, she'd been slowly tinkering with and upgrading the ancient beast over her last several months on the team. What stood out the most was the armored “boombox” she'd had custom fitted to the right shoulder. It housed the barrels, rotor assembly, and firing mechanism of the Leviathan heavy assault cannon, fed by a pair of armored ammo belts and connected to the immense ammo drum mounted on the back. It wasn't the newest addition, but it was certainly the most obvious, especially when compared to the other assault mechs in the militia's rank-and-file.

The war machine was still harnessed and braced in its alcove, completely immobile and powered down: exactly as she'd left it several hours earlier. That wouldn't have been notable, had it not been for the unexpected... calamity from earlier. And it was why she was here right now.

See, Scarlet had ordered some explosive vents for Big Red some time ago; after all, heat buildup during the last few fights was becoming a bit of an issue, so she might as well put that heat to some good use, right? But for one reason or another, she had kept putting off the installation. This was likely because everything had become Completely Fucked in Calliope ever since the arrival of all those warship fleets in system. She'd been way too busy running “all hands, repel boarders” combat drills with a lot of the Hell's Gate militia, on the ever-increasingly-likely chance that they'd need it.

Now that the SRT was on their way to the Icebreaker, she had plenty of time, and Agarin even offered to help her get them installed. Getting the physical parts slotted into the mech went as smooth as every other installation in the past, and everything seemed to be going fine. And then she powered up the mech to install the firmware updates.

The instant the fusion core spun up, the machine started moving all on it's own, ignoring any commands and struggling against the restraints and maintenance catwalks holding it in place. Big Red's distinctive purr – a clicking sound with an unknown source the mech would occasionally make – had turned into a ferocious, almost animalistic roar that Scarlet was sure must have echoed throughout the entire ship. The whole machine bucked and writhed uncontrollably, very nearly ripping the umbilicals out of the bay, and if Scarlet hadn't been strapped in by the assault harness and connected through the cranial jack at the base of her skull, she was sure she would have been tossed right out of the open cockpit like a ragdoll.

Just as she felt like her options were running out, Agarin had hopped into the open cockpit with a grace that she thought shouldn't have been possible for someone so damn tall (did that tail of his help with balance?). He was intent on interfacing with the mech using some of his implants and technical know-how in the hope that the two of them working together could get the machine to calm down... but as soon as the handsome dragon man plugged himself in, everything just got worse.

In truth, Scarlet could barely remember everything that happened. Big Red misidentified Agarin's presence in the system as an attack, battering him through the connection with words like INTRUDER, INTERLOPER, and HOSTILE, repeated over and over again... and because she was hard-wired into the machine as well, her mind was also hit with the same mental assault.

Combat recordings from dozens – maybe hundreds – of past engagements flooded both of their minds. Indescribable death and carnage on an unthinkable scale that she had never before witnessed. Screams of the dead, entire worlds on fire, and the machines who burned them. Pilots murdered by the score, one after the other, their names and faces blending together. Recordings, information, tactical data, and images force-fed directly into her brain through the cranial jack, overloading her senses and layering on top of one another until the horror and anger and pain of it all melted into nothing but noise.

The whole experience only lasted for a few minutes, but it had felt like hours.

What she did remember clearly was Agarin doing some kind of Clanner Space Magic to ask her a simple question: “Do you trust me?” And while she responded with as an enthusiastic “yes” as she could possibly muster right then and there, it was like the mech had also been given pause by the question. Before she knew it, the connection in her mind began to fade, and the mech powered down of its own volition.

That was several hours ago. She stared up at the wedge-shaped head of her mech, and the distinctive mass of cracks around the left optical unit. She half expected it to start moving again to look at her, but the trio of cameras remained shuttered, and the head was still and immobile.

“Can't sleep?” came a voice from behind her, and Scarlet practically jumped out of her skin. She wheeled around and was face-to-holographic-face with Siren, the Dragon's Tooth NHP pilot. She had her arms folded across her chest, and she was looking at Scarlet with a curious expression. Was that amusement or annoyance?

“Wh- I- well... no.” Scarlet stammered out eventually. She brushed some errant strands of red hair out of her face. “I'm just... y'know, I'm still... still just a bit on edge from earlier, yeah?”

“And you thought checking in on your haunted mech in the middle of the night would take the edge off?” Siren asked, tilting her head with her mouth cracking into a smirk.

“Hey, c'mon, Big Red ain't haunted, I just...” she tried to wave it off dismissively, but Scarlet briefly looked over her shoulder to glance up at her mech – as if checking to make sure it was, indeed, still not moving – and then quickly turned back at Siren. “Look, I know we're headin' to the Icebreaker for that party bein' thrown by the Kingdom Aniline or whoever, but you know what things've been like lately. Fer all we know, we're headin' into another fight, an' I... I just wanna make sure he's good t'go, and isn't gonna freak out. Don't want any more surprises.”

“Sorry marine, I'm not letting you boot up that thing again while we're in transit and without proper support,” Siren shook her head. “I heard about the Vent Crab Incident back on the Gate, and I'm not letting you blow any holes in my ship.”

Scarlet screwed up her face in frustration. Apparently that fake Muse post Pearce made a while back (do mechs even know what they're doing or do they just see crab flowing down a vent and think “absolutely not”) was still floating around the Omninet. And, sure, she had accidentally blown up a vent crab (and several bulkheads) with a mech scale rifle round that day, but she didn't even have a Muse account!

“I promise I'm just gonna run some diagnostics,” Scarlet said, holding up her hands in what she hoped was a disarming gesture. “I'll keep him in low-power, won't even spin up th' reactor. Just wanna be sure everything is fine, so I can put my worries to bed an' get some sleep.”

Siren was quiet for a minute, scrutinizing the mech pilot. The holographic NHP eventually sighed and shrugged.

“Alright, go on. But I'll be keeping an eye on things, and I'll have my hand on the kill-switch the second I even get a whiff that something is about to go wrong.”

“Hey now, you don't ha-” Scarlet began, but Siren held up a blue shimmering finger.

“These terms are non-negotiable, marine. Now go on, check on the spooky boy, I'll keep watch from here. But do try and be quick about it. I've got some friends in a game of Fleet Command 5016 on standby, and I don't want to leave them hanging for too long.”

And with that, the Siren hologram winked away.

Scarlet turned on her heel, scampered up the access later, and popped the cockpit hatch as quick as she could, just on the off chance Siren decided to have a change of heart. Once she got settled in the command couch, she flipped a series of switches to start the mech in low-power mode. While the monitors and consoles around her began to hum softly, warming up into a diagnostic boot sequence, she reached behind her head, feeling around for the metal jack behind her seat. She moved her ponytail out of the way with her free hand, and slotted the jack into her cranial port with the other.

The connection was immediate and made her grit her teeth, just like always: a sharp electric buzz at the base of her skull that blossomed into icy fingers prodding inside her brain. The sensation wormed its way down through her neck and flooded her extremities until everything tingled uncomfortably, as if her whole body had fallen asleep for half a second. Then the sensation passed, and a relative equilibrium was achieved between Scarlet and her war machine.

“Alright big guy,” Scarlet said, trying to blink away the sparkles on the edges of her vision. “Tell me what ails you.”

The low clicking reverberated through the cockpit in response, and words quickly typed themselves out on one of the monitors.

<<HOSTILE ARCHITECTURE DETECTED>>

“Hostile architecture?” Scarlet said aloud. “Wait, y'mean the new parts?” She figured that was probably the problem, but she still wasn't entirely clear as to why.

The mech rumbled. A different monitor on the other side of the cockpit flipped on, and began to playback a recording. This was one of the many recordings that had been force-fed in her brain earlier, but it took Scarlet a minute to realize that was what she was looking at. After all, seeing an image on a monitor was a slightly different experience than a video feed overlaid with tactical and sensor data flowing around it like water, and transmitted directly into her mind through a cranial jack. Especially when there had been so much other information to parse.

The recording looked like it was the camera feed of a broken mech lying motionless on the ground, surrounded by rubble. It was hard to tell from the quality and angle of the recording, but she was pretty sure the mech this recording came from was much bigger than an Everest. Even so, the mech itself wasn't the focus: it was the inferno all around. It was like the whole world had been set on fire, and through the heat haze, she could see crude juggernauts marching past in formation. The recording shook with every stomp of their heavy boots, and streams of liquid fire surged from titanic flamethrowers.

More words began to type themselves on the other monitor, drawing her attention:

<<Rec:4533u//Hercynia-MycolFields//Varano,J.(Clover)//DECEASED>>

Scarlet turned back to the recording, with slightly better understanding. This was from 483 years ago? She knew this mech was old, but she had no idea it was that old. Hell, she didn't think the Everest frame was that old. Was that why it looked so different, and... so much larger? Had this machine not always been an Everest? The techs back on Hell's Gate had always joked that the “Rage Machine” was an ancient piece of shit, but... did anyone actually know how old this beast was?

And then there was that word that stood out to her for some reason: Hercynia. That was... Agarin mentioned something about that, after he got Big Red to calm down earlier, hadn't he? Her memory was still a bit fuzzy about that. Hercynia was... it was a planet somewhere, wasn't it? She wasn't entirely sure.

“Hang on, somethin' else is botherin' me. What are those?” Scarlet leaned forward, squinting her eyes, trying in vain to get the grainy picture on the monitor to come into focus. “Those mechs stompin' around, they kinda look familiar, but... hell, if I didn't know better, I'd say they were the same kinda frame Andros Capella was drivin' when he came out of that fire gate.”

Big Red seemed to shudder at the mention of Andros Capella... though, it was probably more accurate to say it sent a shudder up Scarlet's spine, directly through the cranial jack.

“Heh... yeah, I feel ya, big guy. You wanted a crack at him, same as I did.” Scarlet started to chuckle, and patted one of the consoles. “Well, look on the bright side: Pearce murked him, what? Four times in the last fight? An' Cassilda punched him t'death the first time. We'll probably get a crack at him ourselves, eventually.”

The clicking sound briefly grew in volume, before settling back down again.

“Alright, so these mechs yer showin' me. What are they, anyway?”

Another monitor above her and to her left winked on. It showed a wireframe of the mechs in the recording, clearly generated from what looked a mixture of official schematics and tactical data. Again, words began to type themselves out, drawing her attention.

<<U-MEF//GMS-UPA.1//Mk-1.Genghis//Worldkiller>>

“Wait, Genghis? That doesn't look like a-” but she cut herself off before she could finish her thought, as another one intruded. The Harrison Armory license she'd accessed to order the explosive vents was for the Mk II Genghis. Mark 2. She'd always wondered about that. Scarlet looked back up at the wireframe: this squat, brutal looking monster of a mech definitely cut a significantly different silhouette than the smaller, slimmer, sleeker frame of the Mk II... but the more she looked, the more she could see the resemblance.

Before she had a chance to ponder that any further, all the monitors cleared themselves, as a string of more words on the first monitor appeared.

<<Protocol 1: Link To Pilot>> <<Protocol 2: Uphold The Mission>> <<Protocol 3: Protect The Pilot>> <<ERROR//PROTOCOL CONFLICT//ERROR>> <<HOSTILE ARCHITECTURE DETECTED>> <<PROTOCOL 3 IN JEOPARDY>>

“Y'know what... after seein' all that? I don't blame ya for takin' that stance,” Scarlet reached up to scratch at her head. “I wouldn't want somethin' from those big fuckers in me either.”

Big Red rumbled again.

“Protect the pilot...” Scarlet muttered under her breath. “Well... I dunno if it'll help things, but... that's the whole reason I got these parts. I wasn't thinkin' of where they came from, but what they could do fer us, y'know?” She gestured with her thumb above her right shoulder. “That big fuck-off assault cannon we got from the Drake license generates a lot of heat, and I'm not sure I know how to squeeze in any more heat sinks without sacrificin' some structure.”

The screen winked clear, and another string appeared in its place.

<<...PROCESSING...>>

“Hell, if you don't believe me, believe what Agarin told ya earlier. We're all part of a team. Agarin, Fern, Cassilda... hell, even Pearce and that gaggle of NHP's he's been collectin' like playing cards. We all look out fer each other. We all make sure we come out the other side of every fight in one piece. An' that's all I was tryin' to do, yeah? Use whatever I can to keep myself alive, so I can find my Five Minutes, an' keep all them alive.” Scarlet let out a heavy sigh. “I... hell, I don't know if I'm makin' any sense. Am I makin' sense?”

The clicking steadied, and Big Red rumbled in sympathy.

<CONDITIONS//ACCEPTABLE>> <<PROTOCOL CONFLICT//RESOLVED>>

The monitor flickered, and one more message scrolled past:

<<Protocol 3>> <<I will not lose another Pilot>>

“Yeah, don't you worry 'bout a thing, big man,” Scarlet patted one of the nearby consoles. “I'm not goin' anywhere.”

With that, she flipped the switches to fully power down the mech. The connection at the base of her skull went cold, as the monitors winked off and the hum of the consoles fell silent. She reached behind her head to disconnect the cerebral jack, and she sat nestled there in the command couch, waiting for the pins and needles sensation of neurons firing at stimuli no longer present to subside.

And as she sat there, surrounded by silence and darkness, a memory crossed her mind. An errant thread, begging to be pulled.

The memory was one of the visions she'd seen, when the team had been caught in that paracausal labyrinth deep beneath the surface of Botzmann. She still wasn't quite sure of how any of that shit worked, or how a cascading NHP was responsible, but it was like reality itself had been cut up and stitched back together; even time didn't make sense, experiencing pasts that never were, and impossible futures that still might be. And while Scarlet was lost, separated from the others, she had stumbled across a mirror. No words were said, but she somehow knew what it was the moment she saw her reflection looking back at her.

This Scarlet stared at her with tired, empty eyes. She was old and grey, with hands covered in blood... but none of it her own. A trail of death and carnage followed behind her. This was a Scarlet that had never found her Last Five Minutes, because she'd deliberately avoided finding them at any cost. This Scarlet was so good at keeping herself alive, that she had become the last one standing.

This was who she feared she could become.

“Yeah...” she said aloud, to no one in particular. “Guess I'm not goin' anywhere.”

#Lancer #Lancer RPG #lancer ttrpg #in golden flame #vex wasn't lying that one sure is plumed in golden flame #Strategic Response Team #Dragon's Tooth #GMS Everest #short fiction #my writing

[captainsvscaptains]

Battle of the Ships

Round 3 Part 1 Poll 1

Borealis : Research icebreaker ship. Both Portal and Half Life fans have been demanding Half Life 3 over this ship

Black Pearl : Black Pearl : I love her your honor. One of my favorite parts of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is how they take things that are scary at first and make you love them. So, the cursed ship and her occupants that are terrifying in the first movie? They become the best characters and a ship worth fighting for. She’s all Jack Sparrow needs to be happy, just his ship (and some rum)

#battle of the ships #tournament polls #borealis #half life 2 #half life #portal #portal game #black pearl #potc #pirates of the caribbean #the pirates of the caribbean

[ossyflawol]

The Borealis. I want to know everything.

Icebreaker ship turned Research Vessel which began construction in the 1970’s by Aperture Science, it was proposed as an FSII solution during a competing bid against Black Mesa for a Defense Logistics Agency contract, the idea that the scientists and engineers was a simple one - you don’t need fuel if craft can simply teleport.

So, for the next decade, Aperture Science gets to work on constructing the Borealis, filling it with various gadgets such as a Material Emancipation Grill and Unstationary Scaffold. However, desperation in the fight against Black Mesa strikes and corners begin to be cut on the project, the failing state of Cave Johnson is no help to this problem.

An email is filed to Cave Johnson by one of the leads on the project, only known as “J.H.”, the Borealis is ready. They iterate it was designed to be durable, and easy to get materials for since outside of those in the know on the project, it was seen as just a simple icebreaker ship. The corners cut lead to Aperture stripping out a lot of what was in the ship, there is no backup supplies, and no food onboard.

In the case that the Borealis ever needs to be sent off, it’s equipped with an OR box, the activation code of which being “hb1”. And one day, the Borealis is to set out for it’s very first run of teleportation. The OR box is activated, and then - disaster strikes. Everyone onboard, part of the drydock, all gone in an instant, vanished. No one knows where it went, no one knows where it was meant to go, and the cost of cutting corners shatters all hope Aperture had for beating out Black Mesa for the contract.

And so, the company moves on, they seal up Test Shaft 09, and the Borealis project is left to simply the status of being a rumour of a failed Aperture Science vessel.

But, nearly 40 years after the fact, the Combine have been occupying the Earth for 20 years now, and they’re in need of a teleportation solution so that they may find a way to reliably link up with their homeworld once more. While the Resistance is kept untouched only by the sheer fact the Combine know they’re developing teleportation technology that can be stolen later, there is something else.

Discovered after the collapse of the Combine’s oppressive Citadel, Judith Mossman of the Resistance forces has actually found something else, once thought to be rumours only — the legendary Borealis. The data packet is stolen by the Combine, only to be stolen back by the Resistance, revealing that the Borealis is real, resides in the Arctic, and it’s stuck. Once the Resistance brings down the Super Portal being formed by the Citadel’s remains, all eyes on Earth turn north. The Combine know where the Borealis is, the Resistance knows where it is, and each side begin to race their way up to finally have it for themselves, with one outcome better than the other.

#portal #portal 2 #aperture science #cave johnson #half life 2 #judith mossman #portal lore #half life lore #portal spoilers #half life spoilers #borealis #combine

[spiribia]

that the next half-life installation could have for real been going on this grand adventure to the arctic for a mysterious time-and-space-traveling APERTURE icebreaker ship from APERTURE SCIENCE called the Borealis that vanished and reappeared there is one of those concepts that fills specifically me with too much wistful wonder to be something that could ever be realized. like it's doomed to be one of those Never to be released But it would've been about this, isn't that cool? things in this universe

#talks

[vexwerewolf]

I need you to save this station before they know you’re trying to help them, because once they do, they won’t let you.

Rita, Icebreaker Borealis Station Director

#lancer #lancer rpg #ttrpg #in golden flame #lancerrpg

[big-kahuno]

#northern lights #aurora borealis #ocean #iceberg #nature #sea #icebreaker #landscape

[khorren]

Habel Icebreaker: An excellent beginning to your legend, friend. You know, a lot of folks around here have problems that need solving. A slayer like you could be a big help.

Habel Icebreaker: Putting your skills to work sharpens them, and helping others wouldn't hurt your reputation, either! Think of the glory!

And that is what she did. Traveling around Borealis Forest she lended aid to people in need. She aided Wolf in the hunt, protected the shrines of Bear and Raven, and chased dredge away from Snow Leopard. The grawl were getting riled up in the Grekvelnn Burrows so she tagged along with an ice sculptor to give the grawl something more pure to be fascinated by.

Her journey took her north, through Breakneck Pass and after a brief shop at Twinspur Haven for new armor and some supplies, she took a breather at Vendrake’s Homestead. Warming up by the fire with the resident pooch she took a moment to reflect on what she had accomplished so far. Her tale was only just beginning but she had helped many in need already and she was taking a moment to reflect. But reflection and drinks will have to wait. Something nearby is riling up the grawl. It’s fighting time!

#Guild Wars 2 #Aoife 2

[zhjake]

Icebreaker Borealis interior for In Golden Flame 🎰

#lancer rpg #lancerrpg #lancer ttrpg #lancer #ttrpg design #ttrpg campaign #indie ttrpg #ttrpg character #ttrpg oc #tabletop art #tabletop games #tabletop roleplaying #rpg #rpg art #illustration #illustrator #digital art #digital painting #Digital Illustration #art #artist #artists on tumblr #drawing #painting #sci fi #science fiction #scifi #neon #night #citylights

[party-of-rpg-muses]

Bold the natural aesthetics that appeal to / apply to your muse. Italicized the sometimes applies to your muse / situational

fluffy white nimbus clouds / dark grey cumulonimbus clouds / rain clouds / a hurricane / light spring breeze / a sherbet-colored sky at sunrise / hazy yellow skies / deep blue ponds of fresh water / blankets of sparkling snow / tornado winds / monsoon flooding / rich, orange sunsets / soft, purple clouds at dusk / heavy hail / the rumbling of thunder

icy sleet / gentle snowfall / moss-dusted tree bark / pink sunset clouds / grey winter skies / navy blue skies in the daytime / cool mist in the morning / leaf-bare trees / giant ocean waves / the full moon / a cracked, dry desert / rolling hills of prairie grass / sweeping waves of briny seawater / rocky, steep ravines / rippling canyon walls / spindly, cave stalactites / creeping, green ivy /lush canopies of leafy trees / dense, white fog / a peaceful creek of clear water.

flowering cacti dusted with dew, catching light in the morning sun / a bubbling, hot pool of volcanic sulfur / sharp, grey mountainsides / fossils nestled in chunks of rock / a white sand beach / deep imprints of animal tracks in the dirt / soft, squishy moss / uniform rows of birch trees in winter / delicate mushrooms popping up in spring from beneath the decay on the forest floor / tumbleweeds jerking in the faintest wind across the desert landscape / light rain

summer wildfires / a mixing of hot and cool air before a storm / silent lightning in the static of summer heat / a windy blizzard / thick flakes of snow tumbling down from the sky / a tree standing alone in a barren, yellow field / a desert of loose sand and tall, orange dunes / a pure blue sky / a river of molten rock / a grove of flowering trees / twisting, mangled roots sticking up from the muddy ground

bitter, cold winds / tumultuous skies of stormy clouds / branches of lightning ripping across the sky / a foggy swamp / the tree-bare foothills of a mountain range / sandy brown cliff sides / rocky coastlines / the violent shaking of an earthquake / the mysterious sound of ethereal trumpets in the sky / the lights of the auroras borealis and australis

a black sand beach / a lone tropical island in the reef of shallow, aqua waters / underwater volcanic vents / a herd of migrating mammals / tree branches growing heavy with ripe fruit / light streaming down through the clouds /a field of lush grain wading peacefully in the summer breeze / the sound of insects and frogs teeming in the night / natural diamonds nestled in coarse desert sands / a frozen lake

Tagged by: @the-icebreaker Tagging: @musesbyarya @punchbled and anyone else

#Paladin: Omutu #Final Fantasy XIV

[ladyswillmart]

While I’m here and working on my map/timeline stuff, I wanna mention that one of my most favorite Aperture+Half Life things is The Borealis and how creepy that whole thing is.

I’m not 100% clear on when this ship was constructed, but it seems like the project started in the mid-1990s, according to dates on the blueprints. There’s also a powerpoint presentation still running on a couple projectors in the office areas in Portal, which occurs around 2010 (in my ‘verse, I went ahead and specified that this is five years after the fateful activation of GLaDOS, though it could potentially be anywhere from 0 to 10 years) that mentions competing with Black Mesa for funding and a DoD contract involving a fuel system icing inhibitor. Predictably, Aperture’s solution centered around employing GLaDOS herself, but I wonder if this solution also included The Borealis, an icebreaker that apparently featured some secret technology (and turrets), possibly/probably involving teleporation or time travel.

Then one day, it just up and vanished--the entire ship and parts of the drydock, which was constructed in a partly concealed area, accessible through an old office in the 1970′s part of Test Shaft 09:

(In my infinite wisdom, I somehow missed taking a shot of the actual location. But it’s back there somewhere--look in that top office for a metal sliding door halfway concealed behind a file cabinet...)

Moreover, the door leading to the old drydock area seems to have fallen off, though that simply may be due to age/low budget building materials.

I am not sure when The Borealis disappeared either, but given that the story is bandied around in the Half Life series, surely it must’ve become something of an urban legend some time before GLaDOS’s activation.

I’m guessing that Aperture Science had loads of similar “urban legends” passed around its employees and test subjects, but like The Secret World, chances are pretty good that everything is actually true!

#Brilliant Pillows #Portal

[captainsvscaptains]

Battle of the Ships

Round 2 Part 1 Poll 1

Daisy Cruiser : Cruise ship belonging to Daisy, and kart races are held in it. It's also a baseball stadium, apparently

Borealis : Research icebreaker ship. Both Portal and Half Life fans have been demanding Half Life 3 over this ship

#battle of the ships #tournament polls #round 1 #daisy cruiser #super mario #mario kart #double dash #borealis #portal #portal 2

[thepravasitraveller]

// #WeekendInspiration :We’ve all dreamed of an authentic Christmas in Santa’s Country. So don’t wait any longer and set sail for Finnish Lapland 2022. On the program of your business trip, a tailor-made stay with unusual activities, such as an introduction to ice carving, an icebreaker cruise, a hike on the ice, the observation of aurora borealis, a reindeer safari or a traditional and friendly dinner in a local Finnish chalet. Contact us for more information! #thepravasi #thepravasitraveller #finland #finlande #lapland #christmas #snow #christmastree #sleigh #auroresboreales #auroraborealis #santaclaus #santvillage #ice #iceskating #notherneurope (at Lapland,North Pole) https://www.instagram.com/p/CZlW9r8hiJx/?utm_medium=tumblr

#weekendinspiration #thepravasi #thepravasitraveller #finland #finlande #lapland #christmas #snow #christmastree #sleigh #auroresboreales #auroraborealis #santaclaus #santvillage #ice #iceskating #notherneurope

[olegterebenin]

Северное сияние в Aurora Village вчера ночью после 24:00 Northern Lights at Aurora Village last night after 24:00 Прогноз Северного Сияния на нашем сайте https://auroravillage.info/forecast/ Сегодня 30 октября 2021 ожидается вспышка до 7KP . Поедем ловить Аврору! Ждите фото! Aurora Borealis forecast on our website https://auroravillage.info/forecast/ Up to 7KP flash is expected today on Oct 30, 2021. Let's go catch Aurora! Wait for the photo! Спасибо Ксении Дмитриевой 👉 https://instagram.com/kseniyadmitrieva?utm_medium=copy_link Выброс заряженных частиц Солнцем происходит не со скоростью света, как солнечное излучение, и проходит два-три дня, прежде чем солнечный ветер достигнет магнитного поля Земли и вызовет в ее атмосфере красочные всполохи. К тому же далеко не каждая вспышка на Солнце вызовет полярное сияние. Поэтому проще всего следить за так называемым усредненным планетарным индексом отклонения магнитного поля Земли от нормы — Kp-индексом. Это логарифмический индекс, который измеряется от 0 до 9 баллов. 5–6 баллов — это геомагнитная буря, 7–8 баллов — геомагнитный шторм. В Мурманске можно увидеть полярное сияние при значении Kp около 2-3. The emission of charged particles by the Sun does not occur at the speed of light, like solar radiation, and it takes two to three days before the solar wind reaches the Earth's magnetic field and causes colorful flashes in its atmosphere. In addition, not every solar flare will cause aurora borealis. Therefore, it is easiest to follow the so-called averaged planetary index of the deviation of the Earth's magnetic field from the norm - the Kp-index. It is a logarithmic index that is measured from 0 to 9 points. 5-6 points - this is a geomagnetic storm, 7-8 points - a geomagnetic storm. In Murmansk, you can see the aurora with a Kp value of about 2-3 #насевереотдыхать #насевережить #auroravillage #visitmurmansk #northernlight #icebreaker #глэмпинг #кемпинг #russia #кэшбек #северноесияние #polarnight #northernlights #мурманск #мурманскаяобласть #ростуризм #murmansk #russiatour #tripadviser #заполярье (at Aurora Village) https://www.instagram.com/p/CVp40aqsin8/?utm_medium=tumblr

#насевереотдыхать #насевережить #auroravillage #visitmurmansk #northernlight #icebreaker #глэмпинг #кемпинг #russia #кэшбек #северноесияние #polarnight #northernlights #мурманск #мурманскаяобласть #ростуризм #murmansk #russiatour #tripadviser #заполярье

[canadian-riddler]

arckimonder replied to your post: What is your theory?   

are you even gonna understand this lol

At the end of the last Half-Life game, the protagonist (Gordon Freeman, a physicist who hits stuff with a crowbar) and his buddy (Alyx Vance, a computer specialist lady) were going off to look for an icebreaker called the Borealis.  The Borealis was built at Aperture Laboratories, which is where GLaDOS lives, and one day it disappeared from the drydock with all hands on deck.  Nobody knew why or where it went.  Gordon and Alyx have to go and find the Borealis because the leader of the bad guys, known only as the G-Man, is looking for it too so he can use it to finish his alien takeover of the world.  He started a war that lasted seven hours and killed most of the people on Earth.

In Half-Life 2 Episode 2 they find a file (or something, it’s been a while) that tells them the Borealis is located in an ice shelf in the Arctic (or something) and it’s just stuck there in a wall of ice.  The most interesting part about this is that they have a set of blueprints for the Borealis, and they show a few key things: Emancipation Grills (thingies that evaporate stuff), turrets, and other stuff they use for the test chambers in Portal.  But the very most interesting thing about the blueprint is that, on a blueprint, there’s a box for the engineer who designed them to sign.  The person who signed there?  GLaDOS. 

Intro out of the way, the theory!

Theory 1).  The Borealis was supposed to be a mobile version of Aperture Laboratories.  They were gonna have people test the ASHPD on the Borealis in the middle of the Arctic.  Why?  Because the people who worked there were looney tunes.  It’s never actually explained what the point of building a teleporting boat was.  They just do stuff for funsies.  When the boat disappeared, they were finished building it.  But they weren’t ready to leave. It just vanished.  Since it was probably a mobile testing facility, it’s not a stretch to say that there was a version of GLaDOS on board to run it.  The original GLaDOS tried to kill everybody whenever they turned her on.  This secondary version may have decided the best option was to try to run away instead, not realising she was attached to a boat, and accidentally moved it to the middle of nowhere.

Theory 2). It could be quite possible that the G-Man, already planning to kill everyone in the world with an alien invasion, went to GLaDOS to ask for her partnership.  She hates humans, right, it’s a done deal.  He allies with her, he gets her portal technology, and the aliens have a beautiful new front door onto Earth and she never has to deal with another human again because they’re all dead.  But there was a catch: she refused.  She decided not to work with him and to make sure he could not steal the Borealis she sent it away.  Unfortunately, she was in a rush and just kinda dumped it and subsequently lost it.  Alternately, she DIDN’T lose it and she knows perfectly well where it is, she just thinks it’s safer to leave it there.

How does this tie into the plot of Portal 3/Half-Life 3?

Firstly, they would have been the same game.  It would start with Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance crashing their helicopter (as I think the trailer went?) in the Arctic and managing to come across the Borealis.  To their surprise, it’s fully operational.  Works fine.  They head onboard to see what the fuss is about but surprise!  It’s GLaDOS, and she’s recently killed all her ten thousand new test subjects, so it’s your lucky day.  You get to play through the test chambers on the Borealis, only using the Gravity Gun and the HEV suit instead of the portal gun and the Long-Fall Boots.  Since Alyx doesn’t have those, Alyx instead negotiates with GLaDOS: if Gordon solves all of the tests, GLaDOS has to help them use the Borealis to get the aliens off the planet and save the world.  GLaDOS, thinking that she’s put literally thousands of people through her tests and only one of them has survived, agrees to this and surprise! Gordon passes them all and she has to help save the humans.  Now it’s her lucky day.  Not only does GLaDOS have a magic vanishing boat, she’s also been manufacturing weapons and shit for the last twenty years just because.  She just does that.  For fun. 

Soooo GLaDOS brings them back to Aperture and she gives them something fancy and says something to the effect of ‘hold them off for such and such time and I’ll use the technology on the Borealis to send them back to their planet’ and then sends them back to where all the remaining humans are.  Then you do the Half-Life thing where you run around shooting stuff and whatever. 

The G-Man, of course, isn’t going to like this shit so he tries to stop GLaDOS by doing that bending of time and space thing he does, but GLaDOS finds a way around it and they have some sort of background conversation about how he should just let her kill everybody and she’s just like ‘then I won’t have any test subjects moron’ and while you’re running around shooting stuff GLaDOS needs you to do something to open the portal to send all the aliens back and you do that and swoosh they’re all gone and GLaDOS gets rid of the G-Man by sheer force of how fabulous she is and then everyone is like ‘yay but where did everybody who worked at Aperture go’ and GLaDOS kidnaps a bunch of people for her experiments and re-hides the Borealis and also moves Aperture to the secondary location so nobody will bug her.  And then the game is over.  The end.

#so says Indy #Irene #replies #GLaDOS #something like that anyway #I made the second half up off the top of my head #Portal