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	Message: : I know it's been a few days since my last post for the volunteers series. : There are 3 very good reasons for this. Firstly, the story starts to get : quite a bit more complicated at this point. Secondly, I've been playing : the game for the volunteers series and just couldn’t stop - indeed, I : finished it a few minutes ago. Finally and perhaps most importantly, I've : started my sabbatical. Hooray! For the next year I will be visiting : colleagues and doing research all over the U.S. and the world. In any : case, I had to move my office yesterday to make room for the person who : will take my place during the coming year, who is moving her stuff in : today. And I've been busy making arrangements for all the places I'll be : visiting. But enough of this - let's talk about Phoenix Falling. : Minnow is the first level in chapter II, Artificial Strife. The first chapter : was titled Static Silence, BTW. Up to now we’ve been dealing with Shaki, a : decidedly rampant AI who has been ostensibly using us to get systems up : and running but who obviously has other plans. Presumably he is one of the : colony’s 2 class V AI’s and according to him, the only surviving AI. On : the last level, however, we received a couple of cryptic messages from : what is likely the colony’s other class V, Mece. Minnow is a Mece level - : it's now time to get to know him better and do his bidding. : The player starts the level in a very large, dark room populated by wasps and : invisible compilers. There are at least a couple of approaches here, but : fighting it out is not one of them. Even after disposing of the wasps and : compilers, there will still be a couple of compilers that are nearly : impossible to kill that will continue to shoot at the player from on high. : There is an introductory terminal as well that can be read, since the M1 : engine puts all activity on hold, or the player can read the same message : on a terminal that they will come to more conveniently in a few minutes. : No point in reposting it here - it's pretty much just a rant from a very : disturbed AI who want’s to make sure you’ve been paying attention to his : messages and to know that you are now working for him. : Minnow is an incredibly interconnected level with a lot of places to explore : and some incredibly cool eye candy. The best way to survive is to head : into the room and immediately locate and pass through a door on the north : (left) wall and to head straight down a long corridor, bypassing all : alcoves and fights until reaching a large room with a pattern buffer that : can be used once the monsters already there and those following you have : been dispensed with. Just a warning - don't go past the room with the : pattern buffer until after saving your game - you'll need to go there : soon enough, but it’s an ambush. : Rather than proceed with a walk-through, I’m going to describe all the areas : the player will want to visit, which can be taken in any order and which : can be found through exploration. First of all, immediately adjacent to : the pattern buffer room is a similarly large room with a compiler reading : a terminal and a few other monsters keeping him company. The compiler, it : seems, was reading about the colony’s AI’s - nothing we haven’t already : read about. Most of the rest of the level is reached through a long : corridor off the pattern buffer room, but there are a lot of troopers and : projectile fighters here. A good strategy is to lay down a bunch of mines : at the entrance and then advance and retreat, letting the mines take out : the initial salvo. Down this corridor is a stairway that leads up to a few : places the player will want to go. First and foremost, the player can jump : off the stairway part way up, head down a ways and then make an immediate : right into the first opening. They will be rewarded with an alcove : containing a 2X shield recharger. There are a number of things that can be : explored from this same general area, including a switch that is visible : through a slot in the pattern buffer room. I have yet to figure out what : that switch does, however. : Jumping off the stairs and heading back across the stairs (your have to go : right and double back to go left), the player can jump across to a blue : room containing three bizarre terminals, each one a soliloquy on the : meaning of the color red. These are a bit reminiscent of the “color of : hate” terminal in Rubicon, only much more cryptic. One of these, however, : ends with an important hint: : Well do you want to talk, no questions however? No? Then leave. Come back : here when you feel more like talking. : : Hmm . . . : If the player goes to the top of the stairs, they will end up in a pair of : circular rooms at the east end of the map, with a lot of friends. The : visuals are pretty cool, and there is a major stash of ammo on a ledge : overlooking the southern room. It is accessed via an underground : passageway and an elevator. Just west of these rooms is a circular room : that can be accessed via a door from the southern room, via the corridor : that leads to the shield recharger or directly off of the initial room. : Other than the compilers that live here, this room is of significance as : there is a maze at the southern end of the room. Within the maze, in : addition to compilers and wasps, are two key terminals. One of these is a : rather lengthy story of a fisherman that ends with a rather interesting : paragraph about the last minnow in the fisherman’s bait pail: : The man grasped the gasping minnow in his hand and held it aloft. Its scales : shimmered in the light of day and its tiny body quivered in a frenzy. The : fisherman contemplated the minnow for a long time, wondering if the little : fish was afraid, or just reacting instinctually. "Not today," : the man said, as he put the minnow back into the pail. For that instant, : the man was Fate-yet the minnow was totally unaware. You , as well as I : , am a minnow. : : Not only does this give us the name of the level, but it says a lot about our : own predicament. The other terminal is quite a lot less cryptic. It is : from Shaki and he tells us that an “alien” AI has infiltrated the network : and that we should ignore it. He implores us to only listen to him. Alien? : Not quite. Do we have a choice of which AI to follow, or not follow as the : case may be? Not in this scenario, which is strictly linear (hint to Matt : if you want to make things more interesting). : There is one final place to explore - a large rectangular room in the center : of the map that is accessed from the same 3-way door as the circular : (maze) room. Within this room is a terminal with a poem that has immense : meaning as will become clear only as the player reads the final screen for : the scenario. But who or what left this poem on this terminal? This is our : first encounter with an entity we will not understand until the very end. : Remember this poem: : The Night always comes : As It came to Us : Before the Shadows : When We were still young : As the Sun descends : Night seeks your body : Will You dream of Life : When You are asleep? : The Night is Cold and : Covers Everything : Conscious Ones will fall : As memory fails : Our World is growing : But getting so thin : The Cold Breath of Night : Expands the Darkness : I am Those that live : A Dream persisting : Borne on Eagle Wings : Our Memories pass : : The player leaves the level via the left terminal in the blue room. For those : playing along with the volunteers series - the next level is best played : by booting up under OS 9 or earlier - not in the Classic environment - if : at all possible.
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