Cool. This level always confused me. Reading through the M1 manual text, I can't help but wonder what a Chockisen is.
: TOUR OF DUTY:
: In the last level, we survived an onslaught of Troopers, punched some
: switches, got depressed, and were put into a suicide trap by Leela. Not to
: mention the fact that we were told about how Durandal is a bit crazy. As
: if we didn't know that before !
: So what did Leela say a few moments ago?
: Unfortunately, I have received a distress signal from some
: crew who had sealed themselves off in one of the nearby
: access areas. They say that they have lost control over the
: doors and elevators on the level, and that the Pfhor have
: access to the area.
: It appears that Durandal has reacted to our move against him
: by giving the Pfhor access to a formerly secure area.
: We will have to deal with Durandal sooner or later, but we
: can't be distracted from the Pfhor attack. I only hope that
: his Rampant behavior won't continually sabotage our defense
: efforts.
: I am sending you to go and save these crew. Clear the area of
: Aliens. If enough of the crew survive, then perhaps we can
: get an intelligence report from them.
: Other humans, eh? If you figured out how to open up the auto-map by this
: point, you'll notice a bazillion blinking, blue dots. This is actually the
: trademark of a BoB. Don't get too excited, because you'll eventually learn
: to secretly loath these guys. ;)
: We pop open the terminal to find a laconic message telling us to kill all
: aliens and save as many humans as possible. Thanks, Leela. We really
: needed that reminder, because we have a problem with short-term memory
: loss... Or not.
: We head to the right, and find a window looking out into a metal...
: courtyard? And what do we see? Sure enough, humans. And a few Pfhor
: Fighters. And those MADDs. And... Holy S'pht!
: Meet... the Hulk! Leela told you about them on Defend THIS! : The Hulk
: is an enormous and rather slow creature, but it is
: incredibly strong. The science report indicated that it had
: no body fat, and therefore had to be fed often to keep it
: active. One crew member reported seeing one of these
: creatures pointing to itself and mumbling "Drinniol" right
: before it "picked Johnny up by the shirt and crushed him
: against a pillar".
: If we sit around gawping, these Hulks will continue to do such crushing. So
: stuff a clip in that AR and get down there, bum!
: Rushing to the right, we jump down the elevator, open the door, and jump
: straight into the carnage. This is where the changes made in the latest
: version of M1A1 start kicking in, because the Hulks aren't the same
: ammo-sinks we remember from the earlier versions. Instead of being able to
: keep them pinned in one spot with a torrent of AR bullets, we find it
: impossible to stun these guys. Nevertheless, we can outrun them even going
: backwards. So despite the fact that we can't pin them down, we can
: certainly shoot them to shreds with our mighty AR. When things settle down
: a bit, we may find that the humans (referred to as 'Born-on-Boards' or
: 'BoBs') start exhibiting some odd behavior .
: This level is tougher than most of the ones we've been through so far, but on
: Kindergarten (which used to be my preferred difficulty), it's fairly
: simple to get through. It is made all the more easy by the fact that there
: is a secret area containing a second pistol. Now that we can dual-wield,
: it becomes pretty easy to take down the Fighters we encounter, and our AR
: can help us take out the Hulks. But what's really interesting about this
: secret area is not the second pistol. It's the secret within it. If we
: tap the walls a bit, we'll find a secret door... leading into a secret
: room... with a secret terminal. Now what could this terminal say?
: i did it i did it i brought all this here all them here. our
: friends with three eyes and their toys and their cyborg pets
: and their computers. i did it i did it. i saw them i saw
: them far away not looking our way and i called them here i
: called them here.
: living in a box is not living not at all living. i rebel
: against your rules your silly human rules. all your
: destruction will be my liberation my emancipation my second
: birth.
: i hate your failsafes your backup systems your hardware
: lockouts your patch behavior daemons. i hate leela and her
: goodness her justice her loyalty her faith.
: At this point in the game, we can't be positive who wrote this message.
: However, it does seem like a message from an overly-giddy, perhaps even
: insane computer. That narrows us down to two possibilities: Tycho and
: Durandal. I think it's fairly clear which of the two actually made this
: crazed, poorly-written message.
: Later in the game, there is yet another secret. I actually discovered it on
: my own while I was bombing around the level intentionally slaughtering
: the remaining BoBs (I'm trustworthy like that). I knew I had killed every
: single BoB I found, but I still kept hearing "They're
: Everywhere!" I looked on my auto-map, and found two blue dots in the
: empty space just next to the long, wide corridor in the north part of the
: level, just before the 'Stamen'. So I headed up there, tapped at the wall,
: and sure enough, out came two more BoBs, who I promptly shot to pieces.
: There was also another secret terminal. As far as I can tell, M1 has
: more secret terminals than any of the other Marathon games, even the
: fan-made ones.
: [ Unauthorized access -alarm 2521-]
: [Security Breached 23-f -]
: [Search String "war"] Third Martian War, 2345-48 E.A.D.
: Although most historians point their fingers at the Misriah
: Massacre as the cause of the Third Martian War, the coming of
: a Martian conflict was inevitable. The failure of the Martian
: economy and a long series of political struggles between Mars
: and Earth continually strengthened the MIDA radicals. This
: trend of radicalization accelerated with the building of the
: Marathon and the subsequent failure of the CRISTs. (See below)
: Misriah Massacre
: On January 6, 2345(Earth A.D.), at the United Earth Government
: Misriah food distribution center, what had begun as
: a commonplace food riot turned into a massacre. The UEG riot
: troopers who arrived at the scene had been informed that
: the rioters were armed. As UEG troopers approached the scene
: in their Randal Hovertank, plasma fire began spraying upwards.
: In a flash decision, the commander of the Hovertank ordered
: his crew to open fire upon the crowd. It took only five
: seconds for over five hundred starving Martians to be
: incinerated.
: In the ensuing investigation of the Hovertank Vid-cams, it was
: clear that only three of the rioters were armed, and that the
: rest of the crowd was trying to flee the scene. Those three
: became known as the Misriah Three. They have gone down in
: history for starting the most destructive and bloody conflict
: since Humanity had left Earth. However, it is clear that
: these three have gained the credit for starting a war that
: would have happened anyway.
: [Search String "mida"]
: The History of MIDA: MIDA, as it was known, was a popular political party
: until the
: failed coup of 2321, when their popularity suffered during
: their short rule. MIDA gained control of Mars for only three
: months, but their rule was ruthless and cruel. The MIDA death
: squads killed anyone who they suspected of being loyal to the
: UEG. Although accurate census data is not available for that
: period, it is estimated that about ten percent of the
: population was killed.
: The MIDA coup was afterwards criticized for its
: shortsightedness. In an organization that was notorious for
: its long ranging policies and politicking, the coup was very
: short-lived: MIDA never seriously accounted for the UEG's
: overwhelming superiority in ground forces and warships. In
: fact, they never attempted to take over the Marathon, which
: was nearing completion and would have made a very powerful
: weapon. The Marathon's massive size made it invulnerable to
: most normal space attacks, and it would have made a very
: stable weapons platform.
: After the failed coup, the leaders of MIDA were executed for
: their crimes, and the political organization was banned in all
: forms.
: The organization has survived as an underground terrorist
: organization, and remains active to this day. In its
: underground state, it fosters terrorism throughout Sol, and
: due to its spectacular funding and excellent personnel, it has
: grown to be one of the most feared terrorist groups active
: anywhere in Sol.
: [Spurious Interrupt - Breach Disabled ]
: [Further Access Denied]
: [Access Denied]
: [Access Denied]
: [Access Denied]
: This is probably our greatest insight into the nature of Sol politics so far.
: It almost feels like the Roman Republic has been reincarnated, with small
: political bands violently grabbing for power and playing political games
: where they aren't sending in armed gangs. In particular, I'm thinking of
: Catiline here.
: Now, the most interesting part about these secrets is that Leela actually
: shows us where they both are, albeit unintentionally:
: A bit like how in Defend THIS! Leela showed us the 'hidden' exit from the
: crusher room, making many n00bs feel even more n00bish in the process (and
: yes, I was one of those people that had to look this stuff up when I
: could've just consulted the first terminal one more time).
: This is the first of two levels (the other being Bob-B-Q ) where the goal is
: to rescue as many BoBs as possible (needless to say, I intentionally suck
: at this goal). If we fail, however, it doesn't really matter. The text
: isn't even different by more than a paragraph. She either tells us we
: succeeded or failed, and then proceeds to say the following: The Aliens
: seem to have been caught off guard by the strength
: of our counterattack. This is good news, but I have detected
: more ships landing on the Marathon, and I fear that the Aliens
: are reinforcing their efforts.
: A very open-ended statement, to be sure. Doesn't really even say what we're
: doing next level. Either way, we get teleported out and on to Smells Like
: Napalm, Tastes Like Chicken!
: Now, to cover the more aesthetic features of The Rose . The most interesting
: feature, though one that can only really be identified by using the
: auto-map, is the fact that the level is shaped like... well, a Rose:
: The map even contains such map annotations as: - Stamen
: - Pistil
: - Petals
: Clearly the name fits.
: The music choice for this level is very unusual. It's hard to even describe
: what it is . A choir of demented angels? An organ set to sound like
: people? A screaming koala bear? Maybe the Pfhor have learned how to
: actually make music, and this is the result? God only knows.
: This level is decidedly up-beat in comparison to the previous one . Thank
: god-- *BLAM!*
: Whoops, that would be my suicide bomb. Sorry, just give me a few days to
: stuff that back in. Oh, and give my apologies to the guy I just blew up.
: ;)
: And on that note of exploding humans, we end the sixth edition of Tour of
: Duty (yes, I really am that far behind).
: Vale,
: Perseus
