| « | The world reflects on First Contact. Mission Description
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Another Earth is the epilogue of ArmA 3's non-canon First Contact campaign.
Overview[]
Six weeks after humanity's first encounter with alien life - dubbed as "The Visitors", the world continues to struggle with coming to terms with their existence, and the true intent behind their arrival on Earth...
Walkthrough[]
This is not an actual "mission". The only playable content involves switching between the channels on the Spectrum Device's interface to listen in on the dialogue until the credits finish rolling.
Radio dialogue[]
There are six channels available to toggle:
A conspiracy theorist rants about numerous topics related to "The Visitors":
| « | Rise and shine, out there! Truthseekers, believers-now-knowers, fellow CT's, and counterculture revolutionaires! Those Ruskies stole a page straight out of our own playbook, man. Deny everything. It's day 42 of me saying 'I told you so', and what a great summer it is to be alive! So, okay, er, what are we gonna talk about? The summit in Buenos Aires? Well, I didn't get an invite... A bunch of exploiticians, all pretending like they never knew about us never being alone. Hell... I mean - talk about awkward, right? And that business down at Olom, you heard it here first, folks. Yours truly, I been saying it and I been saying it. NNDM. Never No Damn Meteor! Deny the probes growing underneath our feet! And the UN? They'll keep it quiet... Those neutrino messages? Somebody's gotta crack 'em. And y'know, when they do, we ain't gonna hear about it. Maybe, these things are telling the entire universe how weak our planet is? Or, how easy it'd be to invade? Think about it. In Livonia, the army tried to destroy a probe, to stop it sending out more intel! Imagine! Cosmic war parties are probably converging on the Earth as I speak... Preppers, I'm talking to you, don't stop prepping, guys. Voice of conspiracy theorist
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NOTE: This channel is voiced exclusively in Polish.
A Livonian radio channel, named Talk FM, delivers an update regarding the Livonian government's official apology over their botched first encounter with "The Visitors", and ongoing tensions with the Russian Federation:
| « | Good morning, Livonia. You're listening to Talk FM, and I'm Filip Oleski. Here is the news. Prime minister Natasza Palka has again apologized for the army's premature response to The Visitors. Speaking yesterday at the UN's Post Arrival Action Summit in Buenos Aires, she said that an unfortunate breakdown in communications had indirectly led to the tragic events following First Contact. This, she claimed, was further complicated by tensions with the US after Exercise Electron, and Russian infractions across the Kaliningrad border. According to an official investigation, the information that reached the Ministry of Defense initially implied that The Visitors were hostile. This erroneous conclusion was based on the high-powered microwave pulse and the misunderstanding that US and local soldiers were fired on first by one of the alien entities. In response to allegations that future relations with extraterrestrial life had been undermined, Mrs. Palka argued that conditions for a peaceful encounter had been 'less than perfect'. In Andrzejów, ongoing demonstrations against foreign forces turned violent last night as police started to kettle protesters outside the Russian embassy... Voice of Filip Oleski
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A scientist, Dr. Rook, is being interviewed on their opinion regarding the manner in which "The Visitors" were able to reach Earth:
| « | Rook: The big question is, if the Electron Exercises triggered something, how did The Visitors get here so quickly? At the moment, the scientific community is, well - honestly? It's divided. Interviewer: Okay, walk us through it, Dr. Rook. Rook: Famed cosmologist, Moravec, claims they were travelling for hundreds, maybe thousands of years. The buried objects, according to him, only became active once the 11 craft entered our solar system. Interviewer: Alright. That's a lot of air miles! Rook: Yes, it is. His supposition, of course, is in line with what we already know about physics, and it preserves the concept of the speed of light being some unbreakable barrier. However, British astrophysicist Simon Alcroft argues we should not be thinking linearly. It is a known fact that time's relative. Interviewer: And he believes what? That lightspeed isn't a cosmic limit? Rook: He does not suggest The Visitors got here at speeds faster than light, no. But rather, that the neutrino messages sent from Earth arrived even before they were sent. And, I don't need to tell you, those really do open the door to exciting possibilities. Interview transcript
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Dr. Ian Kesson is being interviewed by a radio talkshow host regarding his first hand experience of the events six weeks ago:
| « | Host: In the studio now is Dr. Ian Kesson, a theoretical physicist and eyewitness to the chaotic events in Livonia. Dr. Kesson, welcome to the show. Kesson: Thanks. Good to be here. Host: You've only just come back from Russia, is that correct? Kesson: Yeah, we had a 40 day quarantine in Kaliningrad. But, nah, don't get me wrong. I was glad for it. There was quite a lot to process... Host: I can imagine! And, they gave you the all clear, I hope? Kesson: It's fine - we're all fine, we were lucky out there. A small team of Americans helped us get some biological samples. Host: From the buried probe? Kesson: Ah, we can call it that? Sure, yeah, and the data? It saved lives. Host: Even though there wasn't any danger from alien bacteria? Kesson: Right. But, what you've got to remember is an unknown threat... it can be as dangerous as a known one. Host: And what was your reaction when you learned The Visitors were elsewhere in the world? You didn't know there were 11 ships in total, at the time... Kesson: I was relieved, I guess. I mean, I figured, not everybody could have messed it up quite as bad as we did. I'm just glad they saw us as we are. In our infuriating complexity, y'know? Interview transcript
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A newsreader provides an update regarding Astra's plans to construct two probes aimed at reaching out to "The Visitors":
| « | In other news, Astra, the international space agency, has confirmed reports that they will go ahead with the ambitious 'Acaronar' project. Dubbed the 'journey to end all journeys', Acaronar will see a series of miniscule, waferlike robotic probes sent deep into space at a velocity one quarter the speed of light. The first step, however, involves constructing a huge, 10 kilometer laser array in orbit - employing 70 gigawatts of power. Lead engineer on the project, Katya Rosing, has said components for the laser array will be launched on the anniversary of First Contact in the summer of next year. A parallel project, 'Eter', is also commencing this week. It hopes to trace the trajectory of The Visitors within the Sagittarius constellation - and then, to beam a message at a fixed point using the medium of neutrinos. The message itself will be composed by the UN's 'One Voice' council and marks the first of many attempts to reconnect with alien life. Voice of newsreader
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AAN World News broadcasting their latest update on actions taken by the scientific community concerning "The Visitors", alongside growing tensions in Livonia regarding the Russian military's continued occupation of Nadbór:
| « | Six weeks have passed and still there is no scientific consensus on the mysterious objects collected by The Visitors. One popular theory is that the giant, subterranean, root-like networks were a type of Von Neumann probe which swept across the cosmos billions of years ago, when the Earth was one large supercontinent. It is thought that all 11 of the alien craft were positioned above these artifacts, buried deep beneath the ground at seemingly random locations, around the world. Of these, half were situated at sea and only the big three were located near populated areas... One left behind, following the Hopi Incident in Livonia, has now almost completely withered away, presumably due to measures taken by The Vistors themselves. Stories continue to abound regarding this failed 'extraction', with many claiming authorities made a discovery some weeks before First Contact was established. Reliable information on events, however, is difficult to confirm... Russian military units remain active beyond the Kaliningrad border and biosecurity protocols mean access to the Visitation Site is restricted. Tensions elsewhere in the country remain high, with CSAT member state, Belarus, also intervening to prevent cross-contamination - leading to widespread fears that legitimate concerns are being exploited in a strategic powerplay. Voice of AAN newsreader
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Trivia[]
- The information below details unused, pre-release or removed content.
- On a Twitch livestream event held on March 8th, 2023[1], Bohemia Interactive developer Scott Alsworth stated that the First Contact campaign was originally meant to have a properly playable final mission to conclude the story.
- According to Alsworth, the mission was meant to be set on a smaller island terrain (made specifically for the campaign) whereupon the player would have witnessed the launch of a rocket to re-establish communications with "The Visitors".[2]
- Due to a change in design priorities and the (original) final mission far exceeding the DLC's scope, it was decided that this idea would be scrapped entirely in favour of the current ending (as depicted in Another Earth).[3]
References[]
- ↑ Bohemia Interactive a.s., 2023, Background, History, and Setting | Discussions with Ivan Buchta and Scott Alsworth, Twitch [Online Video], viewed 4 May 2023, <https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1759425550>.
- ↑ Twitch 2023 [Online Video], Alsworth, S, Background, History, and Setting | Discussions with Ivan Buchta and Scott Alsworth, 01:20:22, "Scott Alsworth: At one point, we were seriously considering a small, small terrain to accompany Livonia. And it was going to be a small island terrain. And it was going to feature as part of an epilogue to Contact, where humanity sends a satellite into space to re-establish contact with the extraterrestrials -- I think we called them The Visitors, if I remember correctly, in the campaign. So, we had this really elaborate rocket launch, and the Amsterdam team were all really excited about it, and we even reached out to Ivan and said: 'Ivan, are we crazy? Do you think we can do this?'. And Ivan said, 'We can try'."
- ↑ Twitch 2023 [Online Video], Alsworth, S, Background, History, and Setting | Discussions with Ivan Buchta and Scott Alsworth, 01:21:12, "Scott Alsworth: And then, as development progressed, we realised that it really was just a little too ambitious; as much as we would have loved to have done the rocket launch, we had to be realistic, and we had to de-scope a little bit because the resources that we would have needed to do it would have just broken us, I think. So, we did have this really cool idea that we wanted to do. We didn't get very far with it, which was probably just as well -- it was only at the concept stage. But I still think back now and think: if we had a little bit more time, if we could have done it, it could have been something really epic."