I think I recognize this.

[JackTrysGames]

Spoiler

While redoing the Signal Void questline, within Bunker Alpha, I noticed the writing on the wall for the first time while reading the Medical Officer's Report.

These look like schematics for a CERN-grade particle accelerator- the arrows give it away. What the everloving hell was Rudiger doing with this kind of equipment?

(To be fair, though, it fits the timeframe. The Tevatron, the world's second highest energy particle accelerator, was operational through roughly the timeframe of this game- and when it wasn't, the Large Hadron Collider, its successor, was... but why would he need a particle accelerator in the middle of nowhere?)

 

[Fuarian]

The machine you find is very clearly not a particle accelerator but it does have to do with electromagnetism or whatever the glimmer fog is. 

[ThePancakeLady]

Doing a little bit of a necro here, since I just found this thread.

I wonder if Rudiger's Machine was an attempt to create or recreate The Golden Sphere or something similar, and things went horribly wrong.

Just knowing how much Raph likes Roadside Picnic and the STALKER movie(s) it feels like there might be some tie-in, with maybe a bit of The Thing mixed in?