The anomaly was first discovered by one of the Codemonkeys while running through a regular update check on the main Virtual Access Portal [V.A.P.] to the Digital Bunker. According to the Codemonkey report -covered in dirt, monkey excrements and a banana peel- the upgrade terminal was insisting on rolling back to a previous version. The reason why it alarmed the Codemonkey so much, is that they only learn to count version numbers upwards. Rollbacks are a rare occasion only handled by highly trained humans. The monkey got so confused it ran off and hid somewhere.

After the report was filed, it wasn’t long before the Engineers and Scientists were set to work on a possible explanation for this anomaly. It quickly became apparent that the problem was not confined to the V.A.P. alone. A few other terminals throughout the bunker were showing weird behaviour. From clocks that moved backwards to monitors displaying gibberish text and images or randomly coloured pixels.

While the Engineers and Scientists were painstakingly trying to figure out what was going on, physical anomalies started to influence reality. A ball rolling upwards a slope, a Toy Soldier marching forwards while it looked they’re moving backwards (or side-to-side for that matter). In some hallways the electronics started to sputter, while in another hallway a cosy camp-fire was happily burning in the middle of a camp-site in the forest. It was quite a large forest, there was no sight of the bunker unless you knew where you entered, is this teleportation or an alternate reality?

Finally the Scientists traced the anomalies to the Quantum Virtual Reality Enabler Server System, this system connects the virtual world with meatspace inside the Digital Bunker. Not much is known about this system, except that its core is in a constant state of quantum-flux. Only a few Engineers and Scientists are allowed to work with the Q.V.R.E.S.S. thus all the staff without top-secret clearance were dismissed. Within minutes a few specially designed uniforms were put on by the elite staff and they began their descend into the Q.V.R.E.S.S.

It was impossible to know how much time passed during the inspection. The suits only shielded the person wearing it from the space-time flux which existed in the core, but not from the outside world. After a relatively short time the team identified the problem to be an overloading time-tube. No one was sure what the problem was, all the connections and loops seemed fine. Suddenly, one of the Scientists pointed at a tiny hamster caught in one of the time-loop chambers that connected to the malfunctioning tube.

The little hamster was in all stages of its short life at once, the team needed to make a choice to either flush the time-stream in the tube, which would mean sending the hamster to oblivion, or to attempt to catch the hamster in the right time. While the Engineers were all for the flush, the Scientists kept arguing for a rescue. Behind their arguing backs one Scientist sneaked to the hamster, tore of a piece of their flux-protective suit and before the rest of the team realised what was happening the hamster was caught in the protective material.

Quickly they rushed back as a part of the brave or foolish Scientist’s arm started to react with the quantum-flux. Being in all states at once, or at least partially proved a very painful experience.

Minutes crept by in the control room. There was no knowing how long they would be gone. Suddenly the hatch opened and the team reappeared. The injured scientist was rushed to quarantine, while the hamster seemed to recover quite quickly, and scurried off.