: Something that caught my eye in those write ups: ninety-two years to
: arrive. Tau Ceti - is only about twelve light-years away from us... So,
: uh, what's up with that? Did she miscalculate? Or is she lying about how
: far away Earth is in case the Pfhor read this message? Or is the
: Marathon's messaging technology just really bad? Well, we can't solve this
: mystery just yet, so we'll be off to Engineering to rescue some fellow
: security and try to come up with a cunning plan to defeat the Pfhor!"
: The new "Marathon" game is going to be set in 2893. They must have
: got the message.
Except that from the 2023 ARG, it appears that the UESC immediately lost contact with the Marathon in 2794 (implying that there had been FTL communication capabilities in the primary communication array that was destroyed in the initial attack, which required us to activate the secondary communications array on G4 Sunbathing and send that message mentioned above at mere light speed), prompting them to send the UESC Equanimity to investigate in 2795, with an estimated travel time of 99 years.
That ARG also confirms that in-universe, Tau Ceti really is only 12 light years away, which means that Leela's message, if it was actually sent to Earth as she said, would have really arrived by 2806. Yet the ARG shows internal documents of the UESC and other organizations like Traxus dated 2888, two years after even the 92 year stated travel time, seeming to still have no idea what happened to the colony, and so presumably not having received Leela's message. Nor received a visit from Durandal some time between 2794 and 2811 as claimed in M2. Nor heard from Robert Blake any time after 2811 as claimed in M2.
So it appears that we just aren't in the M2 timeline in the new game, and that Leela didn't actually send her message to Earth -- presumably she sent it somewhere else by mistake, somewhere 92ly from Tau Ceti.
Yet humanity seems to have developed FTL travel on their own somewhere between 2795 and 2888, because per that ARG Traxus sends their own ship toward Tau Ceti in 2888, expected to take only 5 years to make the 12ly journey, catching up to the UESC Equanimity just as it arrives, in 2893.
