MITTλGΞISΞN°

"'You need to pay attention when you hear my voice. If you don't do what I say, I can't guarantee your safety.'" "- Merrick Harrington speaking to Kira Maresch."

Overview
Mittageisen (Stylized as MITTλGΞISΞN°) Is a first-person shooter being created by GEλR° as a free modification for Half-Life 2. The games runs on the 2013 Singleplayer branch of the Source Engine with graphic modifications and additions. The files to run the game will be released through the mod distribution/aggregation website ModDB and potentially the DRM service Steam.

Synopsis
Mittageisen is set during the late 1980's and primarily focuses on political espionage and CIA interventionism/counterintelligence at the end of the Cold-War in the alternate-universe setting of HANAMI. The player is put into the shoes of a teenage denizen of the German Democratic Republic, the Soviet-occupied portion of Germany, during the February of 1989. Kira Maresch, the player-character, is a member of a neo-nazi street-gang under state-surveillance by the STASI. The Central Intelligence Agency kidnaps her and erases her memory, fitting her with biomedical augmentations and synthetic organ replacements in an attempt to create an expendable human-asset capable of espionage with the ability to decompose at an accelerated rate and provide plausible political deniability to CIA black operations in the Soviet Block. Upon being reinserted into East Berlin, Maresch is intercepted by a joint-operation of East German forces, including the Diensteiheit IX and Grenztruppen. The US Marine Corps is deployed under the guise of a hostage situation by the Joint-Chief of Staff following this in an attempt to decommission Maresch, who they consider to be United States property. They are also tasked with concealing the extent of United States operations in the Soviet occupation-zone, which includes psychological and psychokinetic equipment being deployed in an attempt to force mutual deterrence between border-forces.

Setting
Mittageisen takes place in the HANAMI continuity during the breaking-point of political strife within the Soviet Union. Taking place in February of 1989, it's historically consistent that the Peaceful Revolution, or Die Wende, and the subsequent German Reunification, are eminent during the events of the game. Also of note is the US Marines, who are designed to be visually congruent with the US Marines deployed during the United States Invasion of Panama during December of that same year.

The game isn't entirely historically accurate. The physical landscape of East Berlin doesn't always adhere to the reality of the historical location, and often displays more advanced signs of urban blight and decay as part of a stylistic choice, and while the events of the story are meant to be somewhat in-line with the historical reality of CIA projects of the time, the events of the plot are entirely fictitious in nature. Elements of the plot such as the STASI surveillance/interference with punk movements in their area of operation, the CIA deploying spies and radio communications to monitor the nature of Soviet activity where official reporting wasn't allowed, and human experimentation from both sides of the conflict, are rooted in reality.

A recurring plot-element in HANAMI occurs chronologically first in Mittageisen, being the Force Electromagnetic Area Regulator, which serves as an area of continual stress for both sides of the conflict. As it's not entirely clear to any one person involved what the reason for the disturbances in the physical world are, gas-masks and Nuclear Biological Chemical gear are a common sight in Mittageisen.

Backstory and Context
Merrick Harrington, a former US Marine who was deployed during the US Invasion of Grenada in 1983, was incorporated into the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology at some point in 1986, and in 1988, began work on a project within Technical Research to create human assets whose memories and identities were made absent entirely for espionage purposes where interrogation would be considered one of the many contingencies when an agent was compromised. Building on this idea, it was proposed that these subjects could be physically modified to better accommodate high-stress circumstances where physical and psychological damage would be likely. These ideas manifested themselves in the form of physical augmentation designs and uplinks that would later serve as the basis for the human modifications seen in conflicts like the 2038 NEOTOKYO Crisis. Around this time, Harrington became acquainted with Robin Kiley and Huey Carswell, the former being a cryptographic and mathematical prodigy who had been recruited from the University of Wisconsin - Madison, and the latter being a United States Navy mechanic who was able to assist in the logistical concerns that Harrington had about transport and communication through the project.



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