D2
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- Place
- Status
- Canon
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- Level
- Parent
- Military Base
1. Summary
D2 — Underground Engineering Level.
Unlike the surface, D2 is a vast subterranean industrial and engineering complex containing workshops, machinery, manufacturing infrastructure, storage facilities, technical archives, and the remnants of decades of secret scientific and military development.
D2 has been largely abandoned since the catastrophic evacuation of 1999. Although numerous systems remain functional, others have been deliberately shut down, isolated, or physically damaged.
2. History
Construction of Level D2 began on July 17, 1948, under joint Brazilian-American administration, following the incorporation of German scientific specialists through Operation Paperclip. Unlike D1, D2 was designed as a fully subterranean research complex, providing greater security, environmental stability, and space for scientific expansion. It became operational on October 17, 1949, initially absorbing the aeronautical, chemical, biological, and materials research programs previously conducted at D1.
Following the beginning of D3's construction on May 22, 1951, the facility underwent another major reorganization. After D3 became operational on December 8, 1954, chemical, biological, and sensitive medical research was progressively relocated to the deeper level. D2 retained its primary focus on military engineering, aerospace technology, propulsion systems, aerodynamics, turbulence, metallurgy, and structural materials. Its discoveries contributed to both military programs and civilian engineering applications.
D2 continued operating as an engineering research center until the 1999 catastrophe, expanding its laboratories and technological capabilities throughout the second half of the twentieth century. Following the facility's collapse, its scientific operations ceased. Although no robotic maintenance systems operate on this level, its underground location protected much of the infrastructure from severe environmental exposure, leaving the complex deteriorated but considerably better preserved than the surface-level D1.
3. Function and Contents
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3.1 D2 Environmental Identity
D2 represents Schwarzwald's industrial and engineering foundation.
Its principal areas may include:
- Industrial production workshops and machine halls.
- Engineering laboratories and technical offices.
- Mechanical maintenance corridors.
- Electrical distribution rooms.
- Storage warehouses and quartermaster facilities.
- Loading bays and historical transportation infrastructure.
- Administrative archives.
- Communications and recording rooms.
- Elevator machinery and maintenance installations.
- Abandoned staff facilities and operational support areas.
How complete this list of locations is: See: Canon › Open Questions.
3.1.1 Environmental Storytelling
D2 contains evidence of the installation's German and Nazi history.
The player may find original insignia, historical equipment, architectural remnants, engineering records, photographs, and documents mentioning Hatzinger.
Players who previously explored the old aerodrome on the surface may already have encountered German military aircraft, making the historical connections more apparent.
The presence of these artifacts should progressively establish that Schwarzwald was originally associated with the Nazi research apparatus and subsequently continued operating through later decades.
However, the facility's deeper scientific secrets remain concealed.
3.1.2 Evidence of the 1999 Catastrophe
D2 also contains remnants of the catastrophic evacuation:
- Human skeletal remains in certain locations.
- Abandoned personal belongings.
- Incomplete emergency reports.
- Damaged equipment.
- Diaries describing panic and confusion.
- Desperate requests for evacuation.
- Testimonies from personnel who escaped the deeper levels.
These discoveries indicate that something terrible occurred within Schwarzwald.
They do not yet explain the precise nature of the Information Hazard.
The player should understand that the catastrophe was real and devastating, while remaining uncertain about what caused it.
An illustrative recovered testimony might read:
3.2 The Forgotten Archives
The D2 Technical Archives hold an abandoned industrial records department.
The department contains historical administrative and engineering documentation concerning Schwarzwald.
Its principal archive is secured.
The archive contains material relating to:
- The early construction of Schwarzwald.
- Historical German engineering operations.
- Nazi-associated research administration.
- Equipment and infrastructure development.
- Hatzinger and his involvement with the installation.
- Selected information concerning the facility's expansion.
The records deepen the historical mystery without explaining the catastrophic Information Hazard.
The side quest The Forgotten Archives takes place here.
3.3 The Quartermaster's Cache
The D2 Military Logistics and Storage Sector holds an old equipment storage facility that remained sealed after the evacuation.
The primary entrance is inaccessible or obstructed.
The cache contains selected equipment preserved in suitable storage conditions.
Possible contents include:
- Firearms and ammunition.
- Batteries for portable lighting equipment.
- Protective equipment.
- Additional survival supplies.
- Useful maintenance tools.
Not every item must be recoverable or functional after more than two decades of abandonment.
Equipment condition should reflect its storage circumstances.
The side quest The Quartermaster's Cache takes place here.
3.4 The Communications and Recording Department
The D2 Communications and Recording Department holds an abandoned communications room containing records from the final days of Schwarzwald's operation.
Numerous distress messages describe an increasingly desperate situation. See: In-World Documents › The Evacuation Recordings
One of the recovered transmissions comes from a researcher in D6 and gives the access code of his secured room there.
The recovered communications may also reveal information about maintenance infrastructure and the emergency passage connecting D2 with D3.
See: In-World Documents › The D6 Researcher's Recording
The side quest The Silent Frequency takes place here.
4. Architecture and Style
D2 reflects American military and industrial architecture of the late 1940s and early Cold War, incorporating engineering practices inherited from German wartime underground facilities. Much of its machinery, workshops and production equipment was designed by the German engineers recruited through Operation Paperclip, so behind its American construction the level keeps a distinctly German industrial character, with German insignia, equipment and records from the facility's earlier years. Its construction emphasizes reinforced concrete, thick structural walls, functional corridors, heavy steel security doors, and integrated mechanical ventilation. Interior surfaces feature aged ivory, pale cream, and muted gray-green paint, contrasting with darker industrial machinery, exposed pipes, electrical conduits, and utilitarian lighting fixtures.
Unlike the heavily ruined D1, D2 retains much of its original structural integrity. Its corridors are relatively intact, although decades of moisture and aging, including more than twenty years of abandonment, have produced peeling paint, water stains, moss, corrosion, damaged doors, and localized structural deterioration. Aging fluorescent and industrial lighting, deteriorated ventilation systems, and abandoned scientific equipment create the atmosphere of a mid-century underground engineering complex frozen in time.
The level contains engineering laboratories, mechanical workshops, testing facilities, technical offices, storage areas, and specialized research chambers. Its architecture reflects continuous technological development from 1949 to 1999, combining original Cold War construction with machinery and infrastructure installed during subsequent decades. The overall visual identity should resemble an abandoned American underground military engineering facility from the early Cold War, rather than a modern futuristic laboratory or a heavily destroyed wartime bunker.
4.1 Arrival at D2
The elevator from D1 arrives at D2. Edmund's first impression of the level opens Chapter Five. See: Campaign › 5. Mystery Base
5. Security and Access
Secured doors and elevators in D2 open with access codes, many of which Friedrich reconstructed from memory in his handwritten access notebook.
5.1 Underground Military Presence
The Brazilian Army maintains a substantial security presence around the surface installation.
How rarely soldiers enter D2, and how a rising Threat Level changes that, is described with the military simulation.
6. Connections
6.1 Historical Explanation of the Inoperative Elevator
Why the D1–D2 elevator still works while the D2–D3 elevator has no power, and the emergency arrangement that can restore it, are explained with the elevator power systems. See: Artifacts and Technology › Elevator Power Arrangements
See: Places › D1
6.2 Elevator Maintenance Access
The D2–D3 elevator is not the only means of reaching D3.
An emergency maintenance access route exists because the installation's technical personnel required a means of accessing elevator machinery and related infrastructure when the ordinary lift was unavailable.
This route is physically separate from the elevator's authorization mechanism.
It therefore remains usable even if the mechanical interlock has been destroyed.
6.2.1 Environmental Design
The maintenance route is substantially more dangerous than the restored elevator.
Potential hazards include:
- Narrow maintenance galleries.
- Vertical ladders and service shafts.
- Damaged industrial platforms.
- Unstable structural sections.
- Poor or absent lighting.
- Abandoned mechanical equipment.
- Difficult navigation and limited retreat options.
This passage provides a genuinely different traversal experience, rather than functioning as a convenient second elevator.
6.3 Routes Down to D3
Two principal routes are established.
See: Places › D3
6.3.1 Route A — Restored Elevator
Route A is the D2–D3 elevator, brought back in Chapter Five through the interlock, the emergency connection and the diesel generator at A2.
The previously inactive control panel then responds to the access code from Friedrich's notebook, and the elevator descends toward D3.
6.3.2 Route B — Emergency Maintenance Passage
The alternative maintenance access may be chosen voluntarily or become necessary after the destruction of the elevator's mechanical interlock.
It traverses the hazardous service infrastructure connecting the levels.
The passage offers a slower, more dangerous descent and may remain the only means of travelling between D2 and D3 throughout the campaign.
6.4 Railway to A1
D2 ↔ A1: logistics and supply railway, the fastest practical route between D2 and A1.
7. Concept Image
D2 — Underground Engineering Level concept, kept in the game repository at environments/military_base/children/d2/concept.png
8. Open Questions
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