Whitefall, Iridar - update 3 is now up. 16-12-09; p20.

[emilin]

Edit 1: Welcome to page 8.

Edit 2: Yay! It looks like I just made "governor" here.

Very cool looking downtown! But the archipelago is what really blows me away. Those islands are very near perfect! Great job!

[Shadow Assassin]

Update 15: Islands of Ensenada - Part 2

It had been three weeks since I arrived in Dom Perivor, hoping to find some information about the issues that plagued the Hazaria archipelago. I had found, in the Perivor library, a lot of information relating to the history of the region. One thing can be said about the people of Dom Perivor - they hoarded their records, careful to keep them in order. Which worked well from a historical perspective. But unfortunately, if I needed to go over to one of the uninhabited islands of the archipelago, I had to go to Dom Salidar, to the south. In my notes regarding the research of the information, one place kept on cropping up from time to time...

Later that day, I caught a boat from Dom Perivor to Dom Salidar's northern ferry terminal. The town itself was quite large and divided into two sections. The North Town and the South Town were located at opposite sides of the island. But first, I had to track down some important things. I wasn't planning on renting in Dom Salidar, having a house up in Dom Perivor, which I had to pay rent for. 200 pounds wasn't that much, anyway. It was a clear day, but it was cold, something like 10 degrees. Probably snowing in Avarinheim.

My mobile phone rang.
"Yeah?" I said.
"I hear you're looking for something. Come on up to the Weather Observation station up the top of the hill."
"Alright, see you in a few minutes."
The other person hung up.

From where I was standing, I could see the weather observation station on the hill. A large satellite dish, it was the weather observation station for the Archipelago region. Every region in Ensenada had one. I had to hire a car first. It'd be too far to walk, especially considering how windy and hilly the Salidar Road was. Before long, I had a small green car, which would do me nicely for a couple of days.

Before long, I drove up the dirt track to the station. Luckily, it was relatively dry, or the trail would be one long mudbath. In these island towns, there wasn't much funding available to keep the roads in excellent condition - though, they were in good condition in Dom Salidar. The Salidar road was of excellent quality. I pulled into the parking lot, and knocked at the door of the weather observation station.

I waited a few minutes until someone came to the door.

"You called me?" I asked of him.
"Yes, I have something inside for you. It was mailed to me not long ago, with explicit instructions that it be addressed to you" he said.
"Oh, really? Interesting... Can I take a look?"
"Sure, come on in."

I entered the weather observation station, walked down the hall, following him, until we entered an office. On one wall, there were numerous screens, showing graphs and the like.

"So, what is this place?" I asked him.
"It's basically the control centre for the whole complex. All you saw outside is only a small part of this particular station. We play another role, other than weather monitoring, and that is, we act as a relay station in the entire satellite network for Savannah's military services. It's a closely guarded secret, and strictly speaking, I shouldn't be telling you this."
"Hm, true, but if they don't know that you told me, it'll never hurt them."
"Maybe. But shall we continue?"

We entered another room, a tall room with catwalks criss-crossing the void in front of us. I looked down into the void, and could not see the bottom.
"Just how deep is this, and what is it?" I asked.
"It's about 100m, and this place's real purpose... well... nobody knows. After all, it's been here for a long time."
"Maybe we should look around a bit more."
"I'd prefer not going down there. I don't know what's down there."
"Hm, fair enough."

We left the room, headed back to the weather monitoring station.
"Wait here," he said, "I have to pick up some files for you." He left the room.
While I was waiting for him, I looked carefully at a small screen hidden in the mess of various screens. At first glance, it looked like it was part of the entire mess of screens on that wall. But on second glance...

He re-entered the room. "Here's the information that was sent to you." He then handed me the folder, which had been sealed with a branding that I was not familiar with.

With folder in hand, I left the building.

He picked up the phone, and dialed a number.
"Hello? He's picked up the folder."
"Excellent." The voice on the other end of the line said, then hung up.

Before long, I was travelling on the Salidar Road, to the south. It was a meandering road, but of excellent quality. I revved up the small car, travelling at about 80km/h on the road. Dom Salidar did not enforce speed limits, so I would not be pulled over. I shifted down a couple of gears, went through the S-bend, and then sped back up. Before long, I'd be in Dom Salidar South Town. It was reasonably late in the afternoon, with the sun low over the horizon. From here, I could not see Mordicar and Ensenada - just the bay.

In a few minutes, I had arrived in the outlying areas of Dom Salidar South Town. This particular neighbourhood was quite small, nestled in a small gully. I turned down the side street, parked at the top of the hill. I opened the folder, slicing the seal in half, and took out the various sheets. Leafing through them, I could quickly see they were what I needed.

Not too far from where I was parked, there was an old farmhouse. I looked quickly inside the farmhouse. Everything, like back in Dom Perivor, was covered in a particularly thick layer of dust. I quickly left the farmhouse. It wasn't important.

Later that evening, I had booked myself a room in a small hotel in the South Town. Much smaller than the North Town, it was only a few streets. In my hotel room, I leafed through the information once again. I recalled that little oddity on one of the screens matched a line of text in the file. It also matched my other information I had gleaned from the library at Dom Perivor.

Early the next morning, I headed over to the Lighthouse. Charmingly designed in a different style, the lighthouse was located on one of the islands of Dom Salidar. There weren't many people about when I took the skimmer (a small boat that 'skips' over water at high speeds) over to the lighthouse. Perhaps the cloudy day had something to do with it, too. It was still quite cold here, but regardless.

In the Lighthouse, a small machine hummed and whirred. It was a satellite signal interceptor, one most often used by the SIS to obtain information. This time, the intended victim was a weather satellite passing over...

The first of a number of pictures came through the data link. This one, of Dom Salidar, wasn't important. I needed ones of Lucifer Bay, and the satellite was heading that way. Lucifer Bay was a small bay located in the caldera of a large volcano, long since extinct, and long suspected of being an excellent hiding place for many government projects...

The second image, which, oddly enough, was taken from the east side, showed something unusual. Something was in the water, something extremely reflective - water should not do that. I would need to return to Lucifer Bay before long, but I had things to do over in Hazaria, first.

Even though this picture was taken before the Bay image, this one came through after the second image, for some reason. Nothing unusual in this shot.

The final image, an image that I enlarged, showed something slightly suspicious. The trees looked a little odder than usual... almost as if they were projections...

TO BE CONTINUED...

Replies:
Glenni: It's just a random pic, that's all.
bat: Thanks!
toxicpiano: There's a link somewhere in the last couple of pages for those seawalls.
Thundercrack: (x3!) That ain't a road. It's a rail-road! I don't use the NAM curves myself, (with exception of the rail curves) because they don't match the Euro Road Mod.
John (Darmok): Thanks! Never even seen Hitchcock either. (by the way, I still do update at ST, it just disappears almost straight away)
football_fever: Thanks!
Pat (x2): Thanks!
Air6: Thanks!
nova: Thanks! I'll admit, I borrowed a couple of ideas from your CJ - it's an excellent example of Photoshopping.
flame1396: Thanks! The area's hand-terraformed. But I could always release that area of the region as a SC4 Terraformer file (the rest of the region's a very heavily modified greyscale file I picked up from the STEX)
emilin: And you welcome another page. If you make it a hat-trick, I'll have to name something after you. Thanks!

Anyways, that's update 15. Have fun!

[Pat]

SA your welcome and man hooooooooly cow what a wonderful update i loved the sun glare in the lake
will see you next update - pat

[Snaper]

OMG 

Amazing, these images are splendid and especially very realistic ...

... Frankly there is nothing to repeat, and in more with your talent on PhotoShop, that makes it still more beautiful than it is it already

Bravo l'ami 

[sebes]

OMG - Lucifer Bay is absolutely a dream, fantastic ! 

Here you have a big guy dancing for that:

[Asimov]

Nice littel town you have there, perhaps a small Fishing Harbour or something similar couldn't hurt, but anyway, a very lovely place.

[NikNik]

Hey Daniel,

I used to follow the CJ back at ST but you are also here as an MD so i am picking up the story here I guess.
Great updates you've given us. Shame that RL is rearing it's ugly head and giving you a hard time to update. Well that's just live I guess.
Love the island pics of Dom Perivor and the other islands.

Nik-Nik

[flame1396]

Hand terraformed Islands! wow that's ahrd to do...

If its no trouble I'd love if you released them!

[thundercrack83]

WOW.

I'm speechless!

WOW.

An amazing update, SA. I simply cannot believe how beautiful these pictures are! Lucifer Bay is fantastic! Great job, my friend. Great job!

[jayo]

 
Great CJ shadow.I just love it  Very realistic aswell 

[kimcar]

  Wow great effect you have done. Very nice 

[toxicpiano]

 

[StegSC]

I love this CJ, I've been admiring it since it's creation but I figured I should say so.

Anyway, what rock texture is that that you're using for all those craggy mountains on the islands? It'd look perfect for what I'm working on.

[zzsim]

Great update S.A.    The island looks terrific albiet a little suspicious , an image of Mr. Berns from the Simpsons flashed across my mind when that anonomous guy said "Excellent."  This is defenitively an interesting story you got going on, I've only been able to read this last update, but I can tell that you have some great writing talent, and I can't wait to see what to find out what's going on in that bay.

[rooker1]

Geat update.  I really like the last few pics.  It looks like a meteor fell.  Great work.


Robin   

[emilin]

Uh? What did you just do in picture "ensenadads1503by9.jpg" with the weather station? I distinctly recall that it's impossible to place a lot next to Trolca's dirtroads without them turning to asphalt.

If you did crack that problem you have to tell us how you did it. It would be so very, very, very usefull not to have to work around that all the time.

And if it is only an optical illusion, it still looks mighty cool.

[bat]

A lot of fantastic pictures, SA! Great update! Like the last four pictures!

[Strechnitz]

WOW! 

What have I been doing these last months? I like MD that intertwine with a good story. but this is magnificent. I have only read the last post. I have to catch up reading the rest before I give you an in depth comment

I like stories but you really have a talent for it. this will give me great reading pleasure.  And the pictures look very good too. a very clever use of trees and terrain mods. which do you use if I might ask?

Thank you.

Strechnitz.

p.s. where did you get that delightful lighthouse if I may be so bold?

[dedgren]

Shadow- You're pegging the superlatives meter just about nonstop here these days.  The caldera's a great feature, and the islands are to get lost in.  The story is also first class.

Just the usual stuff, eh, my friend?

Ensenada's always at the top of my "let's take a look" list.


David

[Yoder7652]

wow...great story you got there. can't wait to see the next installment....as always, your pictures are wonderful...particularly your nature-scapes...great work.