Dune Awakening: Walking Without Rhythm

The first Imperial Testing Station I’d encountered was a fun little romp. These are the Dune Awakening versions of dungeons. These are the old school kind of dungeons; not instanced, everyone shares the same dungeon and if there’s someone a few minutes deeper into the dungeon than you, you’re probably not going to find much. Since these dungeons are open to all, the mob respawn is pretty fast. It’s entirely possible to happen upon a testing station and just keep working through it for experience and loot.

The first testing station sits near the main trading post in the starter zone — Haggis Basin South, or something like that. Each testing station has a plot; in that one, the imperial planetologists long ago devised a plan to bring plants from all over the Imperium to Arrakis to see if any could thrive in the harsh desert environment.

They were successful! Complete success! Except for that one plant that created a psychoactive miasma that drove the researchers insane, and now they want to kill you so they can get back to being sad. It’s a mix of gunners and knifers and only one of them has a Holtzman shield generator. The loot is fairly decent — rare blueprints and components, as well as straight-up money. Gotta pay for all the fun ornithopter rides.

The next testing station I tried, Imperial Testing Station 10 — different story.

I may have not mentioned before that I am playing Dune: Awakening. I am playing Dune: Awakening. My character that I rolled up back when they released the character creator/graphics test is in the live game; she is a Harkonnen mentat and Pietr de Vries is her idol, although they haven’t yet met. When the day comes, she’ll probably be too starstruck to speak. But more likely they’ll be trading elaborate takedowns, as my character is likely to throw her lot in with the Atreides, after all.

There’s a good reason for this. The only multiplayer games I really stick with are those I can play with other people. And through very good fortune, I was able to join Scopique’s private server and bring along friends from Team Spode. So: playing with a lot of really great people? Sign me up, I am there for that. Naturally, they’re fans of the Atreides, and so I am, too. They tan so well. I am envious.

I like that my character looks my age. She’s new to Arrakis, perhaps, but she had a long career to this point. The opening to the game has your character rescued from the wreck of a downed prisoner transport, and you were one of the prisoners. You only get sent to Arrakis when you have really, really, messed up with the Imperium. For lesser crimes, you would have just been shot. For what you did — you’re going to Dune. Have fun going insane in the testing station!

I climbed to a high place and fired off a survey probe. These map out whatever zone you’re in. There are zones, but loading is seamless. If the game hadn’t told you you were zoning, you wouldn’t know. The first map (calling it the “copper” map) has one zone; this second one — the “iron” map — has at least three. I’m calling them that because of the prominent resources for the zone — copper to start, then iron, then carbon, aluminum, cobalt and then who knows? I’m just guessing based on the resources needed for the higher level crafting recipes.

The survey probe revealed the location of the second Fremen trial. You’re given a storyline quest at the start to find the Fremen. The Imperium believes they have killed them all, but the Bene Gesserit who pulled you out of the crowd of prisoners — Lady Jessica! — gave you a special mission to find the Fremen. I am assuming that at the end of the trials, you become a de facto Fremen, and the true Fremen was inside you, all along. How sweet! I would rather find out that the remnants of the Fremen were holed up with their giant reservoirs of water, which seem undiscovered in this alternate telling. In the books, they were sitting on enough water to turn Arrakis green.

The survey probe also marked the location of Imperial Testing Station 10. I danced in, ready for another fun little romp. I got told different, right from the start. These weren’t insane scientists. These were a well trained, well equipped paramilitary force.

In Testing Station 10, a Harkonnen splinter faction invaded and killed all the scientists (who were also working on breeding new hardy plants). Taking their place, they intend to use this as a staging ground to take over Arrakis. I’m not sure at this point if the Hakonnen are secretly sanctioning this while officially acting entirely unaware, or if they are a true rebel faction. In any event, the Atreides are aware of the leader and want her dead, and if I want to convince them that I’m one of the good Harkonnen, I better make sure I have my stillsuit mask off when I twist the knife in her heart, so she knows just how much she messed up.

But, it turns out a lone mentat fresh off a prison ship is maybe not enough to take on an army alone. Mentats come with some cool abilities; an automatic turret, a poison grenade, a temporary shield providing portable cover. These made most fights fun.

The army were ready for such newbie tactics. Their knife fighters and heavy gunners were shielded, making them more or less immune to the turret. Poison worked fine, but it’s slow, and they usually won’t wait around to die. The regular gunners aren’t shielded, but their guns are ridiculously fast. Nonetheless, I was able to make steady, slow progress. Until I got to The Room.

This is an enormous room near the end of the testing station. It’s where they are fixing up the vehicles they are going to use to invade and control the nearby area. It’s filled with an insane number of enemies. And, when you enter, the door locks behind you, and the door on the other side won’t open until every enemy is dead.

I lasted a surprisingly long time until the mobs on the lower level heard about what I was doing on the upper level and came to help. I died soon after.

Hoping to get my stuff back, I ran back from the start of the facility, grabbed my corpse, and then died again because… remember when I said the door on the other side was locked? Well, this is when I found out about that.

With two deaths, and my gear mostly destroyed, and all my money and a fair amount of loot lost, I decided to take this on another day and returned to my sand bike to head back to base, repair my gear, and plot my revenge. Harkonnen are all about the revenge, after all.

My sand bike was destroyed.

Here’s the thing about Dune. Dune has sandstorms. Anything left unsheltered will be destroyed by the frequent storms. I knew this, and thought I had left the bike in a protected spot. Apparently not.

I was two or three kilometers from home, which doesn’t sound like much. Except there’s the sandworms — walk too fast, and you will get swallowed. It’s not a pleasant experience. I know. The heat of the day will parch you. The night will expose you to Sardaukar patrols. I had to hop from cover to cover like the desert mouse they call Muad’dib — which is a good and plentiful source of blood, if you have nothing else to drink.

The testing station is on the right side of the map. I’m not sure whose base that is near it. It was open to me, but didn’t have any water I could use. Testing stations have some water, but I didn’t have a full load.

My sand bike was destroyed, but when I’d visited the local trading post — the Anvil — earlier, I’d noticed there was an unclaimed scrap sand bike in the garage. If I could make it back to the Anvil and if it were still there, I’d be able to make it back.

It was day, inevitably. I needed to minimize my time on the open desert, both because of the heat and the sand worms. I also had to avoid the drum sands which would instantly call a worm (and I had to unequip my shield, as that also attracts worms). It took about half an hour to make it to the Anvil, and I was out of water. It was too late in the day for the dew plants to have any moisture left. I used what money I had to buy a cup of water from a vendor there.

I was in luck at the garage; the sand bike was still there. I got on, checked the systems and… this bike was a wreck. Every component was on its last legs. I had welding wire on me, but I hadn’t thought to bring a welding torch. If I had, I’d have been able to get my original sand bike running enough to get home and this would be a different story. I did have fuel on me, so at least if I didn’t make it, it wouldn’t be for running out of gas.

I headed out of the Anvil. The game helpfully informed me that the locomotion system on the bike was about to die. And that the engine wasn’t looking so hot. Everything was lit up bright red on the display. But. It made it back to my base, where I repaired it enough so that I could use it to find resources for a new, better bike.

Imperial Testing Station 10? Yeah, I’m headed back. But this time, I’m not going alone. There’s advantages to playing on a server with friends.