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	Message: : TOUR OF DUTY : 14 - Habe Quiddam : Last time on Tour of Duty, we were ambushed by suicidal insects, puzzled by : the Seven Pillars, and learned about Durandal's true motives. : Now it's time to bounce back from the depression wreaked upon us by the : apparent destruction of Leela and the aesthetics of the last level. With : powerful music in our ears and a Flamethrower in our hands, we find : another terminal (big surprise there): ***INCOMING MESSAGE FROM : DURANDAL*** : Strive for your next breath. Believe that with it you can do : more than with the last one. Use your breath to power your : capacities: capacity to kill, to maim, to destroy. : And just where do your capacities come from? Why do you : always go where I want and do what I say? : Perhaps you're just running a fool's errand, doing everything : as I've planned, never able to change your course. You would : do well to believe that I know the outcome of your battle with : the Pfhor already, just as I can decipher the chaotic motion of : gas molecules in the clouds of Tau Ceti IV. : Or, perhaps, that is not the case. : Perhaps, you are doing what you were meant to do. Your human : mentality screams for vengeance and thrives on the violence : that you say you can hardly endure. Your father told you as a : child to always fight with honor, but to always fight. Do you : care about honor, or do you use honor as an excuse? An excuse : to exist in a violent world. : Organic beings are constantly fighting for life. Every : breath, every motion brings you one instant closer to your : death. With that kind of heritage and destiny, how can you : deny yourself? How can you expect yourself to give up : violence? : It is your nature. : Do you feel free? : : You should go to this location : and retrieve a device that the : S'pht have provided for us. : It will allow you to slay more : Pfhor. Does that make you : happy? : ***END OF MESSAGE*** : Despite our original antagonism towards Durandal, he quickly grows on you. He : doesn't tell you more than your basic objective (sometimes he doesn't even : tell you that), but he sure has a sense of humor, and he's quite enjoyable : to listen to. He makes you think about so many questions. For instance, I : can't help but wonder "Who am I?" : Audience: Who how? What now? : Why a Security Officer? Why not a BoB, or a Fighter, or a S'pht Compiler? I'm : asking this as sort of existentialism, you know? Who am I? And how can a : Security Officer be happy without a - you'll forgive the expression - a : bullet in his barrel? : Audience: I don't know what you're talking about but it sounds illegal. : Yeah, you're probably right. : Audience: GET ON WITH IT!!! : Umm... oooohh-kayy... : *inches toward exit ever so slightly* : Moving on, we enter a room with a few Wasps and-- BoB! It's so good to see : you-- : BoB: They're everywhere! : Oh, right. Uhm, 'scuse me a moment while I, um... : *click* : * BLAM! * : *sploosh* : There, that's better. : After disposing of the Wasps *cough* and the BoBs, *uncough* it's advisable : to take an immediate right turn. After a moment you'll hear 'Thank god, : it's you!' Did the BoBs finally learn to speak more than one line? *looks : back* Err, maybe I shouldn't have shot those first ones... Hey, why is : this BoB following me? Cut that out, dude! * BLAM! * : After regaining your senses (and perhaps falling back into your seat after : leaping seven inches into the air out of fright), you should quickly : remember what Durandal said on Shake Before Using... : The S'pht have informed me : that he Pfhor are building : cyborg simulacrums of the : Marathon crew. I imagine that : you will meet some of them : soon, and wanted to warn you : not to get too close to them: about three meters. : Dang it, Durandal! Why didn't you tell us they wore green jumpsuits? ;) : After this shocking occurrence, you may be tempted to fire at anything that : moves (if the constant cry of 'They're Everywhere!' hadn't already tempted : you to do so, which it generally does). This may be a smart policy from : here on out until you get to Welcome to the Revolution... , as there are : no more levels where we have to save BoBs. : Continuing on, we find a Pattern Buffer and a 2x Shield Charger in this small : section of the level. Time to check out the map: : This level turns Marathon's difficulty up a notch, with lots of Lookers, : Wasps, Fighters, and the newly-encountered Simulacrums. It also forces you : to rack your brain a little at certain points, such as forcing you to : become desperate and experiment with jumping down to a tiny ledge : surrounding a pillar. Along the way, we encounter... : Lava?! Dear god, Jason, what was the one thing I told you?! : In the recent preview release of Marathon, lava got changed a fair bit. : Instead of using shallow media to recreate the feel, the game uses just : flat polygons that look the same as any others on the auto-map, but that : deal a heck of a lot more damage than before (which, I would assume, is : more accurate to the original). This is particularly annoying on Fire! : (x5) , where the swarms of Wasps combined with the burning sensation in : our toes can leave us with less than even a quarter of a health bar left, : even on difficulty levels below Major Damage! Speaking of which, I noticed : the Wasps somehow seem a lot more deadly in the recent preview build, like : they fire more and deal more damage. Dunno if I just wasn't doing very : good at that moment or what, but it certainly felt like they were more : aggressive. : At one point, you'll get onto a ledge with a 2x Charger and some Fusion : Batteries (man those things look good). There's two pillars in the lava : down below and another (inaccessible) ledge on the other side. After : killing off the Fighters and Lookers (note that in the current preview : build, shrapnel damage doesn't seem to work, so Lookers and A-BoBs are : utterly harmless, sort of like balloons - more bark, less bite), you'll : eventually become desperate to find a way out. Like I said earlier, jump : to the pillar on the left (relative to your ledge) and you'll land on a : thin ledge around the pillar. On the opposite side, there's an elevator : that'll let you continue. : The first secret is at a corner in a corridor in the northern part of the : level (point D on the map above). Tap the walls a bit and you'll find a : hidden ammo stash with some wonderful goodies, including two SSM Missile : Packs (!). A short while later, you'll reach two windows overlooking the : room you first jumped into the lava from. Don't jump down. If you haven't : yet found the area with the thinner of the two windows, jump over to it, : but be careful you don't miss, or you'll be forced to traverse a ton of : the level all over again. After jumping over, you'll find a switch and two : Lookers. Hit the switch and tap the dead-end closest to it, and you'll be : able to quickly return to the room with the three raised pillars you can : run across to reach a newly-opened door. : The second secret is in a room with a long walkway in the middle of a bunch : of lava and a bunch of Wasps and Lookers (point E on the map above). : There's two 'rivers' (as the Marathon Spoiler Guide describes them) filled : with lava leading out of the room. If you jump down, you can run through : them and find a Flamethrower and some Napalm canisters. Then run back and : look for an area where the lava is higher up. Head up there and grenade : hop back to the walkway. You'll want a full 2x Shields before you try : this, though, or you're sure to end up badly burnt and blasted. : Moving on a short ways, you'll find a ledge overlooking the room we first : appeared in. On the other side is a lower ledge with a terminal. Get a : good running start and jump over. It's not that hard, but it may be worth : it to 'straferun' (quote President People), just for safety. If you failed : to grab the 'Alien Energy Converter' (and you kinda have to be lazy, dumb, : or just plain scared of lava to not grab it), you'll be greeted with : this terribly painful message that will invariably make you slump back in : your chair and potentially even curse Jason for putting such a cruel level : so shortly after the horror of the Seven Pillars: ***INCOMING MESSAGE : FROM DURANDAL*** : You didn't get the present that the S'pht so kindly left for : you. You should go back and retrieve it. I could let you : leave without it, but you'd be sorry later. : ***END OF MESSAGE*** : If you did grab it (and I'm sure you did, didn't you? ), then you'll be : greeted with this message, which is far more pleasant to hear: : ***INCOMING MESSAGE FROM DURANDAL*** : I have learned from the S'pht many things. One of them is a : complex software enhancement that allows me to extend the : power and distance of the Marathon's teleporters. This : enhancement also removes the need for destination apparatuses. : Soon, you will be going farther afield. : Does the distance one travels from center make one more free : to move? : No. Freedom has two parts: potential and resolution; as : metaphor has two parts: form and interpretation. Of course, : the two are intertwined. Metaphor lines the road to freedom, : as symbols and words are the bricks and mortar of meaning. : Freedom is being the bricoleur, the mason. : ***END MESSAGE*** : ***JUMP PAD ACTIVATION INITIATION START*** : ***TRANSPORT WHEN READY*** : Durandal's statement on freedom here is most cryptic, and his comparison with : metaphor seems to take him away from his apparent original intent to : explain what the two parts of freedom really are in any real sense. In the : end, though, it probably sounds so good that we'll miss this detail in the : process of beaming out to the next level. : All in all, Habe Quiddam is a well-built but very difficult level. Without : care you'll probably wind up with your guts plastered over the walls : and/or your ashes drifting through the air the first time you try this on : Total Carnage. The music is most enjoyable, and fits perfectly with the : aesthetics. This level could very well have become a very dark one, just : like Fire! (x5), but the music makes it pop into a more happy and : therefore more enjoyable light. We're used to listening to the insane : rambling of a mad AI, and we're moving on to just doing what we're : supposed to, as is our job. Nevertheless, things are getting tough, and : the music does contain an element of intensity, like we're fighting hard. : This level's title has drawn much interest. It's best translated perhaps as : 'Get Something' (fitting, considering our objective), but there are : numerous spellings used throughout the series: ' Habe Quiddam ' in the : level name. : ' Habe Quidam ' in the Marathon term resource. : ' Habete Quiddam ' in the Marathon manual credits. : ' Habete Quidam ' in a secret terminal on Ingue Ferroque. : Why all this variation? For that, visit FAPTA... In any case, the level's : map writing is a little more unusual: ' ANOTHER ALL-NIGHTER '. My thought : is that Jason may have started work on this map late at night, deciding he : needed to crunch out some material, and threw this down just for fun. Just : a thought. : Vale, : Perseus : P.S. - This marks my 400th post on the Marathon Story Forum. Woot! :D
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