The Story: History of Sidleterra / Outpost 379 of ZEE Corp NA Territories

The only history known of this village was found on a scrap of burnt copy paper with the following words:

ZEE Corp Blog Entry 2034: While doing some repairs around the facility we stumbled upon an old trunk full of strange, grotesque relics. We’ve been trying to figure out exactly what these are. We decided to call in a few experts… and that’s when people started disappearing. Now the trunk has been ransacked, and guests have reported seeing sickly-looking, stumbling figures around. We’re not completely sure what’s happening, but just to be on the safe side, we’re putting out the call for reinforcements.

The world as you know it has changed. Enter the transport portal and join the effort to save humanity.

ZEE Corp:

Below is a recollection of past events by previous Defenders…

Year One

We were recruited when a human survival camp became a zombie survival camp.  We arrived at Outpost 379 of Sidleterra to find it overrun with zombies

After investigation, we discovered that the zombie infestation was the mistake of Zee Corp, the company that summoned us there. They had been experimenting on zombies so much that they couldn’t control them anymore, and they escaped.

We started to encounter different kinds of zombies: Sprinters, water zombies… It was getting worse– the zombies were mutating, and even starting to be able to use tools

Sprinter zombies were zombies that could run incredibly in short, sudden bursts. Water zombies only stayed in or near the lake.

By intercepting communication from Michael McGleen (a 1920s gangster), we gathered information about a “Subject Zero.” This was supposed to be a very powerful, and practically unkillable zombie that was getting far too out of hand for Zee Corp to control.

We went across the lake to look for this McGleen, and saw from across the lake that he was holding meetings with the Chairman– They were working together.

At this point, zombies were able to almost speak, and hold blasters. They weren’t able to fire them, luckily.

Finally, Subject Zero showed itself, and it took a lot of darts to take it down. It was a tough battle, but we succeeded in our mission. It was especially difficult because Subject Zero had a Vulcan, one of the biggest and best blasters.

The real challenge came when we had to face the “clean-up crew” later that day– An army of blaster-using zombies… on motorcycles.

The clean up crew surrounded us, and it took all of our darts and defibs to stop them. Luckily, one of the brave Defenders used the Vulcan that we acquired from Subject Zero, and he was able to take down the head of the clean up crew. Once it was defeated, the others became easier to kill, and we ended up victorious.

At first we thought that Zee Corp had sent the clean-up crew to get rid of us, the Defenders, but after it was all over, we found out that it was actually the work of McGleen. This whole time he was was using Zee Corp to do his own personal experiments on zombies, and test them out on us Defenders. Zee Corp didn’t have a clue they they were being used.

The week ended with a formal apology from the Chairman of Zee Corp for their incompetence.

Year Two

We returned to Outpost 379, and met INGSOC, a new company that was handing out propaganda and free darts! They seemed very helpful, and after what happened last year with Zee Corp, we were considering just working for them instead.

We started to become a little hesitant when we saw them take away Michael McGleen to be “taken care of.” Apparently he was “thinking wrong thoughts.” The team of bandits were also missing.

We wanted to find out what INGSOC was up to, so we broke into their office to see what we could find. We found out that: they were planning on making zombies that they could mind-control, they had the ability to make a zombie-antidote, and they had brainwashed McGleen and the bandits into zombies. The worst part… was that Robbie was next on their list. It was then we knew not to trust them.

R&D decided to start hunting down the ingredients of the antidote, in case it could help us fight the zombies. After breaking into the INGSOC labs and tracking down other pieces in different ways, they managed to put everything together into the antidote

The Vice President of Zee Corp visited, and had a yelling match with Dara Pond, one of the members of the INGSOC thought police. It ended with all of us chanting Zee Corp’s name, and chasing out Dara Pond.

The antidote came in handy when INGSOC finally considered us a threat and send an army of zombies. Dara Pond was actually a zombie in this battle, because she was infected by INGSOC. Leading the horde was a giant, deformed, mutant zombie that was almost unstoppable. We managed to kill this zombie by dipping all of our darts in the antidote, and firing them all at him at the same time. We were then able to take care of the lesser zombies with the zombie leader defeated. We won the battle, and thought everything was over.

Suddenly, INGSOC scientists grabbed Robbie and took them into their labs. We knew they were going to brainwash him, so we had to act fast. We sent in 5 different groups to fight their way through the labs and get each part of the code from Robbie. The code would open all of the cells, and Robbie would be free.

After all the groups had gone in, they opened the door to the labs and yelled the code: “Indigo, Nevada, Gamma, Sierra, Orlando, Charlie!” All of the cells opened and Robbie ran out, chased by INGSOC employees, and a bunch of mutants we’d never seen before. The mutants ran off before we could kill them, but we managed to defeat INGSOC once and for all.  Yeah, this may be a zombie survival camp… but right now, we humans rule!

Year 3

As soon as we returned to Outpost 379, we started to notice an increase in zombie species. So, R&D started to gather information and label the different species they observed. They labeled the following breeds of zombie: Shamblers, Chargers, Screamers, Sprinters, and Hunters.

There was also an unusual, more human-like zombie breed we called Mutants. They were created by INGSOC, but were released when the labs were destroyed. Through careful observation, we realized that these Mutants have social tendencies, and are generally non-hostile.

We also started to notice that Robbie had a particular distaste for the Mutants, because of their connection to the organization that tried to brainwash him. Throughout the week we tried to convince him that they meant no harm, and protect the innocent creatures.

The Hunter Zombies, which are the most dangerous breed, started to show up more and more. We knew they had to do something about it, so we started looking for solutions.

Q, the head of R&D, helped us by designing a new type of blaster that neutralizes zombies. Apparently it used a goo that was lofted off of brainwashed INGSOC employees. However, even though it killed normal zombies, it had no effect on the increased Hunter population. It was only after we received a new type of goo from the Mutants that it started being effective.

Robbie became more and more hostile toward the Mutants as the week went on, and at the end of the session he actually planned a huge battle between the unarmed Mutants and the entire zombie population, hoping that it would take care of both parties at the same time.

We managed to stop his plan just in time, and then finally convince him to give the Mutants a chance. He finally saw our side, and helped up protect the Mutant civilization against the charging zombies.

At the end of the battle, a huge abomination of a zombie came out of nowhere. It looked like it was patched together from other zombies, and it was incredibly difficult to kill. Luckily, we were able to acquire a second goo-blaster from Robbie. Finally, the use of both at once (along with everyone’s darts) was able to take down the monstrosity, and we left the field victorious.

We ended the week by settling the Mutants into their new home, and having a fun day filled with field games.

Year 4

The Defenders arrived to discover agents in sunglasses walking around and taking notes. They called themselves “Fahrenheit 451” and they were there to “re-train” Robbie from his incidents with the mutants last year. They also started noticing changes in zombie behavior, and immediately took to studying these changing zombie habits.

In a few days, this man in a blue Police Call Box shows up and tells them his TARDIS is trapped outside of Sidleterra, trying to get in. This is Doctor Who!

Gradually, Stericks, one of the Defenders’ new ZeeCorp agents, starts acting slightly robotic and gets silver bits under her glove. The Defenders aren’t sure whether this is caused by the new F451 agents, or the appearance of the Doctor…

The Defenders decide to find out more about this new agent organization, by sneaking into F451 agent facilities to eavesdrop on their video messages. These videos were created by Legacy, the agent that the Defenders noticed last year around the site, and the Defenders were able to piece together F451’s motive- to abolish all independent thought.

This motive was further cemented by F451’s actions over the next couple days: They held a book burning, as part of their mission to destroy independent learning, and they even kidnapped a few ZeeCorp agents for a day! The Defenders were able to retrieve them, but they have no recollection of what happened.

Meanwhile, Stericks has become more and more robotic and attracted to the F451 agents. Campers start seeing cyber-zombies and others who have the same affliction as Stericks.

Campers learn that certain words trigger Stericks into entering cyber personality, while shouting her name in unison undoes this. Eventually the effectiveness of that tactic wears off–they need to tell stories and demonstrate creativity to snap her out of it.

After discussing with the Doctor, they realize that all of these people and zombies are slowly turning into Cybermen- a monster the Doctor has dealt with many times before! The Doctor familiarizes the Defenders with them by teaching circuits to the Defenders–they complete an enlarged circuit with props.

Soon the Defenders learn that F451 are the ones who have been turning everyone into Cybermen, with the use of Cybermen technology from the Doctor’s universe! And worse…. they have almost finished creating the Cyber King. They begin to charge it up in their laboratories, so the Zee Corp Defenders sneak in and try to sabatoge the prototype. They also are informed by the Doctor that they can over charge the Cyber King. The heroes decide to use Stericks as a battery per the Doctor’s suggestion. They use the “tuning forks” on the field to generate sonic energy to “charge” Stericks, then lead her to the final battle field and create an opening for Stericks to come into contact with the Cyber King. Before her final attempt to reach the Cyber King, the heroes help remind Stericks of her humanity so that after she releases her energy she might revert to human. Stericks touches the Cyber King shutting him down. Stericks “reboots” and becomes human again!

The Cybermen shut down, the cyber-people reverted back to their normal state, and F451 left the premises, defeated.

Year 5

Another year back at ZeeCorp… But this time, at a different Outpost! This was Outpost 616, and although it was new to us Heroes, it was actually one of ZeeCorp’s first stations as an organization, years ago. Our first task was to clean out this old facility from the zombie infestation that has planted itself here over the years, and deal with any containment breaks.

The next day, we were met with an official welcome from Outpost 616 and its lead scientist, code name “Manos”. We were given team­specific missions to help with his research, and to protect the outpost from a new kind of zombie­ an animal hybrid zombie! Since we had never run into these creatures before, we decided to try adrenalizing one of them, to see what effect it had. In our missions, we also overheard some rumors about a scientist by the name of Dr. Moreau, who supposedly did impressive but morally ambiguous research back in the golden years of Outpost 616.

The next morning, the animal zombie hybrids (we were now calling them “chimeras”) were everywhere, and getting more ferocious… except for the Tiger zombie that we adrenalized the day before. He was actually acting more animal­like, and we had to protect him from the other chimeras. In the afternoon we met Agent Victor, who claimed to be sent by The Ethics Committee. He told us that Manos was actually Dr. Moreau, and that he was sent here to check up on Moreau’s work… classified as the L.A.N.D. project

Later in the week, we finally discovered what Moreau has been doing with his experimentation. His project, full name I.S.L.A.N.D., stood for the Independent Social Laboratory for Anthropomorphic Neuroscience Development… And he was the one creating the chimeras! His laboratory was in a restricted area, however, so if we wanted to check it out we needed to look for a different way in…

In addition, we learned the true identity of the agent sent by the Ethics Committee… his full name was Dr. Victor Frankenstein! So we were dealing with two doctors who both has experience with biological experimentation, but drastically different opinions on it, looking back.

As we tried to learn more about the ISLAND of Dr. Moreau, we discovered that simple animal hybrids were only the start of his research: he was also creating enormous, extremely dangerous beasts called “Shadow Walkers,” and was actually genetically modifying ZeeCorp’s bodyguard with cat genes! This new information was enough for us (and Victor) to know that Moreau was going too far, and must be stopped. However, that was going to be difficult, because all of his creations blindly admired him like a father and protected him ruthlessly.

At this point, it was Thursday morning, and we knew it was our last chance to find a way into Moreau’s lab. We found out that we could actually use the Box (a programmable lab space) as an multi­directional elevator to get to ISLAND by bypassing the restricted area underground. After cracking the code, and riding the elevator over, we discovered evidence of all of his experimentation, and had to fight off his previous experiments. We collected any technology or fur samples we could find, and left before we were found out. Later, when we tested the fur samples, we discovered they were all Ursine… whatever Moreau was working on, it involved bear. We knew we were more than likely going to see it for ourselves soon enough.

It didn’t take long for Moreau to attack. First we took care of the Shadow Walker and Experiments 1­5, where we discovered a piece of tech similar to the ones we found in ISLAND. We then rallied our forces, to figure out what to do with Moreau and his creations. Victor and Robbie led the discussion, and we ended up deciding that imprisonment was the safest course of action, but with hope of reformation.

We met Moreau and all of his chimeras in the training field. All of his chimeras were being controlled by silver collars, connected wirelessly to his fortress in the middle of the field. We fought them as long as we could, but were forced to retreat as Chimera Hunter Prime and Chimera Hunter Beta appeared with their forces of zombies…. Then, all we could do is stand in awe as Moreau’s final creation appeared on the field… It could only be described as an abomination of bear, steer, reptile, and went by the code name “Ursus”. As this enormous, hideous beast lumbered onto the battlefield, we knew we had to adjust our strategy.

We knew that if we disabled the collar technology, we might stand a chance against all of these creatures. So, we used the technology we found earlier that day to issue a transmission that interrupted the connection between the collars and Moreau’s fortress. This allowed most of the chimeras to realize that they had been mind­controlled, and they immediately turned on Moreau. This last phase of the battle was a turning point, as the chimeras drove off the zombie army, and the Hunters fled the field. All that was left was Ursus. As we all cheered her on, the bodyguard used her accentuated abilities to slay the enormous beast. We had won the battle.

The day after the battle was our time to decide what to do with all of these animal hybrids, which (through our adrenaline technology) were now mostly human. We decided to trust these creatures, and let them form their own society (while keeping a close watch, of course). Our day ended with our last encounter with the bodyguard. All morning we had been collecting pieces of her story, and at last we were able to read her story to her, and remind her of who she was.

That is how we left Outpost 616, in hopes that it won’t fall apart again before we come back next year.

Year 6

The Defenders returned to Sidleterra to find that the Chimera had advanced in knowledge and free will.  Soon, a pig Chimera named Napoleon rallied many of them to attack the humans in Sidleterra, with the charisma of his lieutenant Squealer.  Some Chimera did not agree with Napoleon’s methods, such as Snowball who ended up aiding the Defenders.  Napoleon also gained control over many zombies by using nanotechnology, which the Defenders studied in order to use that knowledge against his army.  The week ended with the Defenders sparing their foe to give him a just consequence.

When the Defenders battled Napoleon, they were observed by creatures from another planet.  Sentient apes, capable of speech entered Sidleterra and challenged the Defenders who were looked down upon by these intelligent primates.  The Defenders proved themselves worthy rivals to the apes’ head scientist, Dr. Zaїus.  They set up a debate by obtaining examples of the greatest feats, scientific or otherwise, accomplished by humans and challenged the cruel doctor.  Their efforts were even recognized by the President of the apes who was used by Zaїus as his ultimate weapon against them in the form of a giant, mutant zombie.