I'm trying not to comment too much on these, at least not until there's been a number of other comments first. But here's a few brief bits...
The level was always set just prior to the Pfhor's main attack - remember, it ends with the EMP. I just realized, thought, that I made a very stupid error in having Pfhor on the Marathon before the EMP attack, because in the first terminal of M1, we learn that the EMP attack happened first, unexpectedly, and THEN the Pfhor began boarding.
When I realized that I considered just adjusting the timeframe, but then that destroys the premise of the next level - you got transported to the wrong place because of the EMP. Now that I think about it, I suppose I could just have you transport not into the sewage but just into the room and say that that was the right place.
As far as the Strauss/Blake/garbage terminals - Blake was a colonist, true, but who's to say he wasn't on the Marathon at the time of the attack, or that the people colony-side and Marathon-side never went back and forth? Using his name was just an aside, anyway - I wanted a random name for someone observing evidence of the illegitimate activities in the loading bay, and Blake seemed just appropriate somehow.
Strauss has known that Durandal is rampant for a long while now, and his co-conspirators probably know some of what he knows. Strauss has been controlling Durandal but it's not neccesarily complete control, and he's just being particularly troublesome at this time. As for the coincidental timing of this 'sadly doomed' coup and the Pfhor attack, I didn't mean it to be coincidence at all, and that garbage terminal is not a leftover - note the domain name that it's sent from.
"...i saw them i saw them far away not looking our way and i called them here i called them here...."
