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	Message: : TOUR OF DUTY : 03 - Charon Doesn't Make Change : Last time on Tour of Duty, we were introduced to the Sewage texture set, : got acquainted with the F'lickta (who remind us a lot of the Ghouls of : PiD), and learned that Durandal did indeed lead the Pfhor to Tau Ceti. Oh, : and Tycho may have fallen in with the Pfhor. : We start this level in a room with a ledge leading to the outdoors. Looking : out, we find the sky is yellow now - it's daytime. If we move to another : room nearby, we find another terminal just waiting for us: : Short, sweet, simple, and straight to the point. Not very much like Durandal, : is it? Then again, he's had time to mellow out, or perhaps he actually : became meta-stable - the so-called "Holy Grail of cybertronics". : Before continuing, let's look at a map, shall we? : : As you can see, this level is full of terminals. Furthermore, this level is : semi-linear and yet so open that it becomes impossible to define a : particular course of action for it. I hope you'll forgive me if I'm a : little out of order and/or discombobulated. : The first thing I usually do is jump out the window at the start, without : even reading the terminal. If you continue to the left, eventually you'll : find a bunch of Fighters doing something very unusual (point A on the map : above): : Yes, they are teleporting out. With a little care, you can avoid being seen, : allowing you to witness the spectacle fully. However, if you don't jump : out of the window from the very start, they'll teleport out all without : you - basically, something to do once you've already played the game once : before. What's curious, of course, is that they all teleport out from a : single polygon, but we can't seem to use it to teleport. The explanation : is simple when you think about it. The polygon is set to 'Goal', so any : monsters within its zone will stay on that polygon unless the area is : 'insecure' (in other words, there are enemies nearby). Those Fighters are : set to teleport out when their objectives are complete (in this case, : standing on Goal polygon while area is secure) and are activated by a : Goal. : Interestingly, you'll notice this level has a more rusted, metallic feel than : the last one - the walls are all orange, brown and peach, even indoors. : Heading inside from this area, you'll encounter some F'lickta, along with : a stairwell leading back to the start. There's also numerous passageways : leading to other indoor locations. One of them contains a 1x Shield : Charger, a Pattern Buffer, a terminal, and a passageway filled with : sewage. Before you read the terminal, head through the passageway. This : will take you to an area with a bunch of weirdly-designed pillars you have : to jump between to get to a room above. In this room (point B on the map : above) is an Oxygen Charger and, above all, a 2x Shield Charger. This : early? Seems like Bungie's decided to go cap-in-hand to please us, but all : it does make things too easy! In any case, time to return for that : terminal we saw a little while ago. : : : : If you don't abort, you'll be taken to a large room at point C on the map. : There are lots of F'lickta in there, along with a brand new critter - the : Tick. The Tick is utterly harmless (despite having a 'feeding' animation : that they never seem to use), flying around on little brown wings and : dropping dead if you so much as tap it: it has literally no health, so : anything can kill it with one hit. : Alternatively, the F'lickta here are out in force, and they can take a lot of : damage. Right when you think you've cleared the area, suddenly another one : pops up - they're just that numerous. After a while, you're bound to : notice that the sewage in the center of the room keeps getting deeper... : and deeper... Pretty soon, the whole room might end up underwater, and : there's seemingly no way out. But if you touch the polygon at point D on : the map above, you'll find that it opens a large door to the south, which : leads to a room with three terminals. One is a Pfhor terminal and will : teleport you out of the room, so let's read the other two first: : : Behold the first S'pht terminal of the game. As you can see, S'pht text is : yellow and very blocky, built around a lot of squares, rectangles, and : little dots. It almost seems like the dots are a form of punctuation, : albeit a very weird form. So what about the next terminal? : : Later in the game, you'll start realizing that this terminal is from the : perspective of the S'pht'Kr, the lost clan of S'pht that Durandal is so : interested in. Apparently they evacuated from Lh'owon after inward : fighting amongst the S'pht left them devastated and broken. Also, this is : the first mention of "S'bhuth", a mysterious figure related to : the S'pht'Kr. Not much is ever revealed about him, but it seems he is some : sort of commanding figure for the S'pht'Kr. What's more, he's still alive : by the time of M2 and Infinity. : The Pfhor terminal here just has a bunch of hexadecimal code on it, nothing : special, but it takes you to a small room. The exit is a little gap in the : wall that opens up even more when you approach it, leading to another : similar room full of F'lickta - still just the green ones at this stage. : There's another terminal down here, but it's easily missed: : Interesting. Proceeding from here, you'll find that you're overlooking : another outdoors area, with a large sewage-filled river. There's a few : raised (and therefore dry) spots, one of which has an oxygen tank and some : ammo that teleports in. From here, you can return to the early indoors : areas via a window, which are by now filled with sewage. : There are two secrets in this level. One is only accessible if you're playing : from the previous levels (AFAIK), and another is so hard to find that I : honestly can't remember how I got to it. I'll start with the first: in the : far east of the indoors area, there's a small walkway that you can't quite : get onto. If you have an AR, you can grenade hop up to it, and if you tap : around a little bit, you'll find a second Pistol! However, it's so low : that I think it might be possible to just aim down, fire the Shotguns, and : have the recoil knock you up - I haven't tested this, however. : The other secret is a room with some F'lickta stuck inside a crusher room : that you can activate with a switch, along with a terminal that I believe : says this: : : All very interesting. There are more terminals of this nature in Infinity : (specifically on ' Where Some Rarely Go... '), which provide more in-depth : descriptions of the F'lickta, but we'll have to get there first! As for : how you get into this room with the crusher, I honestly don't remember. I : know I've gotten into there before, but I don't recall how I did it. If : anybody could help me with that, I'd greatly appreciate it. : So you've run around, been attacked by F'lickta (and probably used them to : fight each-other), gotten very wet, and found a second Pistol, but you : can't find an exit? Just return to the start - the first terminal has now : changed to an exit terminal with some more info: : The timeframe thus far is interesting: 2794 - Marathon attacked. Tycho (and : possibly Leela) captured after a second conflict. : 2796 - Pfhor start occupying Lh'owon in preparation for Durandal's arrival, : based on information provided by Tycho. : 2802 - Pfhor start sending their worst officers to Lh'owon as punishment. : 2811 - We arrive on the scene. : So what else happened in that seventeen-year period? I guess we'll have to : find out... : Next time on Tour of Duty, Martin takes on Cyborgs, discovers the power of : lava, and encounters terracotta BoBs for the first time (and possibly : steals their pistols). Oh what fun! : Vale, : Perseus
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