Teleportal Device

Teleportal Device

Information
Faction: ISDF
Type: Portal
Scrap Cost: 8
Scrap Value: 3
Hit Points: 5000
Armor Class: Heavy
Heat Signature: 0.8
Image Signature: 8.0
Radar Signature: 1.0

The ISDF Teleportal Device is a unique, mysterious prototype structure that was constructed on the Dark Planet with the knowledge, and possibly assistance, of the Scion Convergence. It was destroyed by Lieutenant Cooke during a secret deployment under Major Manson.

Description

The Teleportal is a circular structure with a much larger footprint than its size would otherwise suggest, providing a great deal of operating room. It consists of a large ring approximately 40 meters across, with two gimbals suspended within it. A small control room is adjacant to the rings.

Witness reports suggest the structure is used for mining in someway, and indeed analysis of the structure identifies it as a drilling rig as well as a teleportal. How it functions, whether it is related to other portals, and how teleportation is useful to mining is not made clear, and indeed the veracity of all of this information is left in doubt.

Destruction

During Orange Squad's first mission to the Dark Planet, a counter-invasion conducted under the auspices of the ISDF's first deployment to the planet, Cooke was co-opted from biometal-gathering duties under Commander Shabayev by Manson, who recuits him for a special assignment. He claims a "key alien structure" has been discovered nearby and must be destroyed, and has Cooke accompany he and his wingmen, Sergeants Masiker and Zdarko, to an apparent research dig site occupied by both ISDF and Scion forces. When one of the Sergeants comments that the structure looks like one of their own Manson is quick to shoot him down, ordering Cooke to destroy the object by planting a satchel charge on a support column. After his success the Major is quick to remind Cooke that the mission is to be kept top secret. The destruction of the Teleportal led to several smaller squads being overrun by Scion forces.

No formal report was filed on the object, leading ISDF investigators not part of Secret Ops to query its destruction. Samples of the wreckage were taken and witnesses interviewed, one of whom identified the structure as a quarry or mine of some kind but was killed in combat before being able to make a testimony. As a result, the investigation was ultimately only able to determine that the structure was of ISDF origin.

The lack of information surrounding the object—combined with the secret nature of the mission to destroy it, the convenient timing of the eyewitness' death, and the priority of its destruction over the reinforcement of other ISDF positions—suggests the destruction of the object was orchestrated to cover up the ISDF's presence on the Dark Planet prior to the counter-invasion.

Trivia

• Whilst impossible to construct under normal circumstances, the Teleportal's game files declare the Technical Center as a prerequisite.
• Despite the three-disc appearance of the Teleportal, its construction only allows for two useful gimbals; the anchoring points of the outermost narrow ring are parallel with that of the larger one, meaning they would rotate in the same plane. If the larger ring is also a gimbal then its function is thus rendered redundant. While the structure does not allow anything mounted in its centre point three degrees of rotational freedom as a gyroscope might, it does allow the innermost ring to be pointed in any direction.
• The Teleportal uses a unique teleportal classlabel instead of the normal i76Building used for prop structures. The structure was intended to be functional, with the other side even being visible through the portal, but had a tendency to trigger mistakenly and was ultimately removed.

Appearances

• Battlezone II
  • The Dark Planet (First appearance)
  • The Wormhole (Mentioned only)