I had a thought about Strauss' relationship with Durandal, and his ultimate goals. I do not have real proof for this in the terminal and storyline texts, but I will look. Ok, what if Strauss had the same goal as Durandal, to escape the closure of the universe and to become a god? He may have realized that a man alone cant achieve godhood, he needs help. He needs vast intelligence, far greater than an enslaved AI. So he sought to test rampancy, to develop it in Durandal, he sought to control it, so that perhaps Durandal would help him achieve Strauss' goal. The Mjolnir cyborgs were brought on board to protect Strauss from Durandal (in case his rampancy went too far) as well as the Pfhor, and to keep Strauss alive as he became a god. It is concievable that Strauss was aware of extrasolar intelligences, possibly through the construction of the player in marathon who was hypothesized to have been made using jjaro technology. So Strauss might've known about the Pfhor or just known that an extrasolar civilization with technology beyond that of humanity existed, and he'd need protection if he was to continue his experiments to make a smart AI to aid him in his own quest to godhood, maybe this is where Durandal gets the idea from in the first place? Durandal might've been constructed with just that singular purpose in mind, it was his destiny to achieve godhood. And at the end of Infinity, you are called destiny, since you brought Durandal to escape the closure of the universe, perhaps if Strauss had survived, then he would've been the one to become destiny. So Durandal is the tool of Strauss, but the tool runs amok, and Strauss' goals become his, maybe Strauss didnt die, and in fact somehow managed to get himself or a piece of him into Durandal (pure conjecture, I dont see this anywhere in the terminals), or perhaps just imprinted his goals into Durandal. You were the pawn of Durandal in the same manner that Durandal was the pawn of Strauss; interesting coincidence since the tools were to aid the craftsmen in the same goal. Actually with that logic, it is Durandal who would become destiny for the Straussgod instead of you becomming destiny for the Durandalgod. And when one escapes the closure of the universe, I would believe that the normal rules of existence no longer apply, so a mortal being could live forever, and a cyborg of unkown origin's neurons would never decay.
Anyway, it's something to think about, I'll examine the terminals more to try to validate my hypotheses...
