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	Message: : : Last time on Tour of Duty , we bore witness to the end of the world … no, : better make that -a- world, because, umm, here we are again. We always get : caught up with the idea that it is the end of the world as a whole – but : is it really? Our knowledge of the world since the end of M1 has really : been restricted to Lh’owon and its surrounds, and all the stories, in : terms of both the S’pht mythologies and the bigger picture, have been : there or thereabouts. How far would this chaos really go – is that one : early nova accident really responsible for the end of the universe? -That- : is after all what Durandal and Tycho have been looking to try to escape : for a while now, and the Infinity final screen has certainly been : interpreted as being viewed at the end of all things, but to be honest, it : all seems a bit anticlimactic. : Anyway, whatever it was the end of, it basically involved us running around a : spooky Jjarro station, trying not to get blown up by that pesky respawning : juggernaut, and collecting what ammo we could in the meantime. As we find : out later, it was something of a practice run for the grand finale, so : that when we get there we remember it, as if…. : Or maybe it was actually last time on Tour of Duty , and there was no end of : the world as such, just a story about a knife that was more like a : broadsword, a subway, chewing gum, and sanitation workers. I just couldn’t : make that up! Of course there was also that nasty business of limbless : corpses suspended in a hangar, but hey, forgive and forget, eh? : We might do well to wonder if we weren’t still dreaming here, except for the : fact that not long after we materialise on this level, we hear the : telltale sounds of cyborgs approaching, and then those of their nasty : exploding balls. A rude awakening! Of course there was also a small hint : in the form of a new chapter screen: : A synonym of another one of those purported stages of rampancy – thanks to : whomever pointed that out recently, I rather missed the point on these : names myself. The SO looks pissed; he’s out for revenge on … something – : the sanitation workers? I don’t think I’ve thought of it this way before, : but this also suggests that the SO, or at least the part of him that is : cybernetic, is well on the way towards rampancy himself – well, I guess : that would happen to anyone if you threw them around madly through time : repeatedly, without so much as a by-your-leave! : There’s also the level name, and the Story page has words on this – acme : represents the highest point of development, perfection … well, their : stuff never worked for Wile E. Coyote, that’s all I’m saying! : We start in a narrow corridor with a narrow hole running the length of the : floor – probably looking towards a terminal, there seem to be a few start : spots here. We probably realise immediately that we are in vacuum, except : that it has been such a long time since we experienced that condition, we : might well suspect instead that someone has simply nicked off with our : shiny weapons, interesting given that we were just discussing the fact : that that does not happen in this timeline jump. : I must have rushed the game in the writeup playthrough save I’m using, as : going straight from Monsters I found I was down to only a magnum, ouch. : Well, at least I set it to kindergarten for the purpose, and my god are : the cyborgs weak. 7-8 magnum shots and they seem reluctant to shoot me : while I reload, preferring to just keep coming towards me, maybe going for : an intimidation strategy. Okay this level is just such a different beast : when it’s not on TC, so I might just write it up relaxedly and comment : where things would be a bit different. : Like right at the start: on TC it is a bad idea to sit and read the terminal, : as that saps a lot of oxygen! But here it is, our welcome to this new : world: : Ahh, Durandal is back! Or actually, we’re back, in a more familiar role at : least, to do his bidding. If this is indeed supposed to be just after : we’ve woken up from stasis, it really is lacking in any explanation of the : situation – this is fine from a “we-played-M2” perspective, but isn’t : ideal. Oh well, it feeds our confusion, and it is that upon which we : thrive in this game, so whatever. The only slight suggestion is in the : scout ship that has been tailing us for the last several years . Lh’owon, : on the other hand, is introduced without preamble. Is everything we’re : going through just part of our dreams in stasis?? : The picture is a nice kind of 3d view of the map of the level. Interesting : that the only other time we’ve had that was in M2’s first level, and that : -that- image is what eventually triggers our checking out of this : timeline, but that’s skipping rather ahead and stealing a bit of thunder…. : Okay so we need to smash three panels, and I guess those are they, marked : with red circles, but really that’s not much use to us. It’s not as if : we’ll have the breathing space to return here and study the map, as was : often handy in the early, more informative days of the likes of Never Burn : Money and Defend THIS – ahh Leela *sigh*. : We have the usual less 3d view of the map, with more informative markings, : courtesy of PS, a much less rampant AI :), of course: : A rather barebones map mainly made up of narrow corridors – another thing : that makes it notoriously so tricky to vid. The most impressive thing : about the map is not obvious from the picture – almost throughout we are : able to look out windows and see other parts of the level, including the : pointy bits around the outside, and sometimes even see Compilers hanging : around out there, unable to get to us – whose side are they actually set : to be on on this level? : As we can see, one of the objective markers is actually rather close to our : location, and turning that way we see a bright dead-end, and suspect a : teleporter. Indeed that is the methodology here, we step in teleport to : the room with the switch – not as conveniently as depicted, no, we arrive : on the equivalent little square in the corner, and as such, if we just : stand still, we enter an infinite teleport process, there and back again. : So move, switch to fists, run around avoiding the cyborgs, admire how far : away we can see other parts of the map, smash the panel, and get out of : there! And we just need to do that three times … yeah right! : Of course on TC I would in no uncertain terms head for the pattern buffer : first, especially if I had done a decent ammo run on Aie Mak Sicur! Also, : getting to that teleporter would have summoned more Fighters and such : nasty things. So let’s find the PB. If we head away from the terminal, we : see something that could be a door, but resembles more a very steep : staircase leading away from us. Behind this indeed-a-door is a handy dandy : 2x health recharger! It’s not marked on PS’s map, just to make it even : secreter, but his link embeds much better than my OneDrive links, so I : didn’t bother to add it. On TC accessing this area or not is a big : question, as 2x health is a major yes, but taking the time is a major no, : and there is -still- no oxygen charger! Yeah sorry, Durandal wasn’t lying : about that. It usually becomes a yes, because the health makes general : exploration and killing stuff in narrow corridors quicker. Anyway, it’s : locked at the moment, so why am I even talking about it?! : Around the corner we do meet more Cyborgs and Fighters, and even on : kindergarten, it gets frustrating having only fists, and so I go for a : kindergarten run in Aie Mak Sicur. Then it’s overkill time with shotguns! : Okay so if we follow the Pfhor we run the risk of getting confused and : taking the wrong turning. The first right is the one we want. It takes us : towards the PB, which is the next left, and on kindergarten there isn’t : even a Cyborg guarding it! It is a perilous one on TC as shooting the : guarding one wakes up one behind us, and we are left trying to dodge : grenades in a single-file corridor! For now, we’re saved comfortably on : kindergarten. On TC it is best to save under a new filename, just in case. : Back from the PB and left towards point C on the map, we find another one of : those doors – this time with a button above it, the pressing of which : opens said door. It’s a bit of a pain to hit it as just pressing tab : usually tries to open the door by force and returns a locked sound – you : have to aim up, just another inconvenience in the sweet little time we : have here! Not as frustrating as Pfhor falling into the narrow holes in : the floor and our shots missing them consequently … it’s a great fun level : really :). Behind this door is a Cyborg *boo* and he hides an SMG and some : ammo, and lo! We can use the SMG in vacuum as well as underwater – flash! : Turning back, we see the door button, and probably think nothing of it, : but hold on, back up a second, something flashes through our heads from : our ToD time on Waterloo Waterpark, and the double-sided switch secret : door mechanic. Indeed, this switch opens that door back near the start. We : can also hit it without opening the door, which can be a quicker option on : TC. : Back up a bit, directly away from the PB, is a long corridor to yet another : staircase door. This leads us to point A on the map, which is where : Durandal teleports in one of those oxygen canisters he promised – a huge : relief on TC; on kindergarten I’ve barely lost enough oxygen to justify : it! That’s the very short version of the story anyway – there are also : Cyborgs to contend with, and they don’t like venturing outside of this : room, so they can be a pain to deal with on TC, especially as one of them : has homing balls! There is also a terminal (unmarked again) for our : troubles: : A Pfhor administration terminal that talks about stamps, like the ones Tycho : was trying to forge last timeline. It’s a complicated business, “station : aggregate units” are supposed to keep on working but are getting demoted : in class? I guess this is Pfhor motivation – you’ll be demoted until you : do your work, as opposed to being promoted for it. Interesting. : This is also a good spot to look at the other interesting scenery outside. I : don’t think I’ve fully appreciated it before: there’s nice pink stuff in : space, and then just in the corner of the image we can see Lh’owon and its : moons! I’m not sure if we’ve seen quite this image before, although I : remember we had something similar on Requiem for a Cyborg. It’s hard to : get a good look at it as it is on an extreme angle, but here it is: : Now we have to backtrack in the maze whatever we do, so we might as well stop : off at that 2x recharger. Some Fighters find their way out of that secret : door, but nothing we can’t handle. From here on things go rather quickly, : and that really is for the best! Heading towards the first terminal and : then following the corridor around the other way from what we did first : up, we come to that second passage that we took care not to take when : heading for the PB earlier. : This takes us to an area with more Cyborgs and Fighters, and some very : annoying protrusions in the already narrow corridors, when we’re on a : tight schedule here! At point B we find the second oxygen canister. : Further down the corridor and around, we find two very narrow entrances to : the rooms we need to get to, each with a teleporter in the corner. These : two panel rooms are much smaller than the first, and are actually empty on : kindergarten, but house a Cyborg each on TC. The panels are easier to find : than in the first larger room, anyway. Finally, at point D on the map, we : find a Fusion Pistol and some ammo! A bit late for anyone that didn’t have : one I feel; I’m not sure I even knew it was there before. : And then we make our way out, and return to that first terminal as Durandal : said to. But for some reason, someone thought we might have the time and : inclination to revisit that other Pfhor terminal, and implemented a second : message for it as well! : : : Sorry we won’t be able to demote you, our bad. Error of type eight means : someone destroyed our security system? And then we’re off on another : adventure. : : So the Pfhor have been following Durandal for years, and they’ve built a ship : faster than his. Mention of its captain makes us think of R’chzne – I : wonder how he’s doing in this timeline. On The Slings & Arrows of : Outrageous Fortune, Durandal expressed surprise that the Pfhor were at : Lh’owon waiting for us and suggested that they must have found Tycho. In : this timeline, he’s had them following him, and has spotted a Pfhor ship : nearby already – no surprises this time, but as he says, we’re going to : give them one.
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