D6
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- Canon
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- Military Base
1. Summary
D6 — Extraterrestrial Technology, Consciousness and Memetic Engineering.
1.1 Narrative Themes
D6 is fundamentally concerned with the limits of human understanding.
The spacecraft challenges humanity's assumptions about technology, intelligence, and the structure of the universe. The Skull Helmet challenges the conditions under which consciousness can safely experience reality. Memetic Engineering challenges the independence of personal beliefs, and Amanda raises the possibility that even apparently voluntary decisions may be influenced by an intelligence whose motives remain unknown.
The level progressively undermines the protagonist's confidence in observation, reason, memory, and personal autonomy.
Its central philosophical paradox is that knowledge, ordinarily regarded as a source of human progress and liberation, may under certain circumstances become the very mechanism of humanity's destruction.
The D6 catastrophe is not the result of simple scientific incompetence. It is the consequence of researchers successfully understanding something that the human mind cannot survive understanding.
2. History
Construction of Level D6 began on January 15, 1982, and the facility became operational on September 27, 1986. Its origins can be traced to a classified Brazilian-American investigation associated with Operation Prato, conducted in the Brazilian Amazon in 1977. The discovery of the spacecraft and its secret transfer to the complex are described with the artifact. D6 was subsequently constructed to accommodate the object and conduct advanced reverse-engineering research.
2.1 The Skull Helmet — Origin and Recovery
After its recovery the Skull Helmet was transferred to D6. Its origin and recovery are described with the artifact.
See: Artifacts and Technology › Skull Helmet
See: Factions › Indigenous Community
The Skull Helmet, at Schwarzwald since 1979, fundamentally transformed D6. Scientists drew upon the biological and neurological research conducted in D5 to investigate its effects on human consciousness. These investigations eventually led to the establishment of specialized departments dedicated to anomalous subjective experience, memetic phenomena, information hazards, and cognitive containment.
See: Places › D5
2.2 The D7 Project — A City of Containment
The apparent inadequacy of D6's containment systems inspired the creation of the D7 Project, initiated on April 5, 1989.
D7 was conceived as the largest and most isolated portion of the underground installation: a level exclusively for the Skull Helmet, conceived as a self-sustaining subterranean scientific city dedicated to containing and studying it. Its projected population would consist of artificially produced biological humans, modified from their earliest development to withstand anomalous informational exposure.
These individuals were intended to be born, live, work, and die inside the facility, without ever entering the outside world. Their research findings would be transmitted through exceptionally restrictive informational protocols designed to prevent dangerous understanding from escaping the containment environment.
Excavation began, but the project was still at a very early stage, with only its first tunnels dug, when the catastrophe of 1999 interrupted construction. The envisioned scientific city was never completed.
See: Places › D7
2.3 The 1999 Memetic Breach
The breach that spread the information hazard through D6 in 1999 is described in the timeline and with the phenomenon.
2.4 Amanda's Intervention and the Final Quarantine
Amanda's recognition of the contamination, her projection and her recommendation of the final quarantine are described on her page.
See: Characters › Amanda
3. Function and Contents
The spacecraft is relatively small, with an interior compartment apparently capable of accommodating approximately five occupants. Scientists adopted a preservation-first policy, attempting to examine and reproduce its technological principles without dismantling or damaging the original craft. Researchers eventually identified a remarkable self-regenerating material technology and partially reproduced its properties. This breakthrough was incorporated into the construction and modernization of D6, explaining its extraordinarily advanced appearance and exceptional preservation.
Over time, D6 became the installation's principal center for extraterrestrial technology, gravitational research, spacetime manipulation, experimental temporal phenomena, unconventional propulsion, advanced materials, consciousness research, and the study of anomalous information. Scientific interpretations remained divided: some researchers believed the craft originated from another planet, others considered it an interdimensional vehicle, while another hypothesis suggested that such objects were unmanned drones controlled by unknown intelligences. These theories remained unresolved.
What the protagonist finds inside the spacecraft is described with the artifact and with the researchers' notes. Through an optional investigative sequence involving archived research and activation procedures, the player can access an extraordinary navigational display. This system reveals a complex spatial map encompassing the Milky Way and regions far beyond it, containing numerous unidentified checkpoints.
See: In-World Documents › Researchers' Notes In The Spacecraft
A biological specimen associated with the alleged Varginha incident is also kept in D6.
3.1 Memetic Engineering — Scientific Foundations
The Memetic Engineering Department is described with the phenomenon: its origins, its categories of cultural transmission and influence, and the dispute between its methodological schools. Its academic references include Claude Shannon's information theory, Richard Dawkins's concept of the meme introduced in The Selfish Gene in 1976, Immanuel Kant's epistemology, and later philosophical investigations of subjective experience, particularly Frank Jackson's 1982 knowledge argument involving Mary, the color scientist.
The department also contained two competing methodological schools.
See: Phenomena › Memetics
3.2 Government Applications and Geopolitical Research
Classified records reveal that the Memetic Engineering Department was not exclusively concerned with containment or academic research. Its government applications to civilian populations, the network and the alleged Soviet operations are described with the phenomenon.
See: Phenomena › Memetics
3.3 The Nietzsche Project — Memetic Resistance
The Nietzsche Project, D6's research program on memetic resistance, is described with the phenomenon.
See: Phenomena › Memetics
3.4 Amanda — Cross-Departmental Research and Suspicion
The findings D6 received from D4 concerning Amanda, and the D6 researchers' classified investigations of her, are described on her page.
See: Characters › Amanda
See: Places › D4
3.5 The Skull Helmet — Qualia and Anomalous Information
D6's theory of phenomenological and qualitative information, how the hazard passes through understanding, and the anomalous qualitative state to which the Skull Helmet exposes its wearer are described with the phenomenon and the artifact.
See: Phenomena › Qualia And Anomalous Information
What the helmet does to its wearers over time, and how the protagonists' father survived long enough to preserve himself in stasis, are described with the artifact and the father.
See: Artifacts and Technology › Skull Helmet
3.6 Quarantine Research and Clinical Observations
D6's quarantine research on exposed subjects and its clinical observations are described with the phenomenon.
3.7 Discoverable Scientific Letters and Classified Documents
The documents may be distributed among personal quarters, scientific offices, restricted archives, computer terminals, and the deeper containment installations.
- See: In-World Documents › Document A — The Nature Of Belief
- See: In-World Documents › Document B — The Instrumental Nature Of Ideology
- See: In-World Documents › Document C — The Purist Controversy
- See: In-World Documents › Document D — The Nietzsche Project
- See: In-World Documents › Document E — Amanda's Influence
- See: In-World Documents › Document F — The Illusion Of Independent Choice
- See: In-World Documents › Document G — The Network
- See: In-World Documents › Document H — The Soviet Memetic Threat
- See: In-World Documents › Document I — The Limits Of Understanding
- See: In-World Documents › Document J — Neurological Examinations
- See: In-World Documents › Document K — Personnel Transit Protocol
- See: In-World Documents › Document L — Final Risk Assessment
- See: In-World Documents › Document M — Amanda's Quarantine Recommendation
- See: In-World Documents › D6 Research Division Internal Discussion Transcript
- See: In-World Documents › Radio Recordings Of The Confiscation
3.8 The D6 Researcher's Secured Room
A researcher who understood the danger of the information hazard locked himself inside a secured room in D6 during the 1999 catastrophe. His recorded transmission, recovered in D2, identifies the room and provides its access code.
3.9 Portal-Research Documents
A particular body of portal-research documents is stored on D6. A surviving scientist in D4 urgently needs them but could not retrieve them, because lethal supersoldier robots in D5 obstructed the passage.
4. Architecture and Style
D6 represents the most striking architectural departure from the earlier underground levels. Unlike D1 through D5, whose construction reflects successive periods of conventional military and scientific engineering, D6 incorporates materials and technologies partially reverse-engineered from the recovered spacecraft.
Its architecture emphasizes extraordinarily clean white and pale-gray synthetic surfaces, seamless structural panels, geometric corridors, integrated lighting, sophisticated security doors, concealed technical infrastructure, and advanced environmental controls. The visual impression resembles a futuristic aerospace research facility rather than a conventional underground military installation.
Many surfaces incorporate self-regenerative materials derived from the spacecraft's technology.
The level contains spacious advanced research laboratories, experimental physics chambers, gravitational and spacetime research facilities, technical observation rooms, highly secured biological specimen repositories, classified archives, computer laboratories, and enormous containment structures dedicated to the original spacecraft.
The spacecraft itself occupies a dedicated, heavily protected research chamber designed to preserve its structural integrity while allowing scientific examination. Nearby laboratories contain experimental equipment developed through decades of attempted reverse engineering.
The Memetic Engineering Department introduces a contrasting architectural language within D6. Its ordinary research areas retain the clean, sophisticated appearance of the level, but the deeper containment installations feature increasingly severe sensory restrictions, layered security barriers, isolated passages, and specialized observation systems.
Approaching the Skull Helmet's chamber becomes progressively more difficult. The security architecture reflects years of escalating containment protocols, with the most sensitive areas positioned beneath and away from the primary research corridors.
Despite the 1999 catastrophe, most of D6 remains astonishingly well preserved. Once the reactor runs again its lights operate and its computers come back, while its robots and automated security never stopped; corridors are clean, and automated systems continue functioning. Certain locations retain evidence of the disaster, including damaged rooms, abandoned equipment, security incidents, and the remains of personnel who never escaped.
The intended atmosphere is profoundly liminal: immaculate futuristic spaces built for large scientific teams, yet almost entirely devoid of human life. It should feel as though the researchers left only moments earlier, even though more than two decades have passed.
The contrast between architectural perfection and the catastrophic history revealed by the documents forms the central visual identity of D6.
See: Artifacts and Technology › Self-Regenerating Material
5. Security and Access
…
5.1 The Escalation of Containment Protocols
The Skull Helmet's successive containment locations are described with the artifact.
The final Skull Helmet sector was established deeper beneath the main D6 research areas, physically separated from ordinary laboratories and accessible only through multiple security checkpoints, controlled transit passages, isolation systems, and specialized authorization procedures.
Personnel approaching the sector were instructed to avoid observing unexplained markings or exposed surfaces. Some protocols required researchers to direct their gaze toward the floor, keep their eyes closed while traversing designated passages, wear hearing protection, and refrain from unnecessary communication.
Successive revisions became increasingly restrictive and, to an outside observer, almost absurd. However, the escalating severity of these rules reflected the researchers' growing understanding that ordinary sensory exposure and informational interpretation could present genuine risks.
The protagonist must overcome substantial security and environmental obstacles to reach the sector.
See: Artifacts and Technology › Skull Helmet
See: In-World Documents › Document K — Personnel Transit Protocol
6. Connections
The approach from D5 toward D6 is guarded by lethal supersoldier robots, the heavily armored robotic soldiers developed in D4.
See: Places › D5
There is no elevator to D7.
See: Places › D7
7. Concept Image
D6 — Extraterrestrial Technology, Consciousness and Memetic Engineering concept, kept in the game repository at environments/military_base/children/d6/concept.png
8. Open Questions
- The precise room number and combination of the D6 researcher's secured room remain to be defined during the detailed development of D6.
- The room's contents and the researcher's ultimate fate remain intentionally undefined at this stage of campaign development.