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	Message: : : Last time on Tour of Duty , we kind of betrayed Tycho as we apparently : headed to his ship to try to release Durandal’s from its hold. We got : teleported into space by Tycho and saved by Durandal; we killed compilers, : opened doors, switched switches, looked at terminals above lava from a : safe distance, and were ultimately told by Durandal that Tycho’s Pfhor : were at his core, and we were going to fight them off. : Now we begin looking at a pattern buffer, with a compiler reading a terminal : just opposite, a terminal starring Tycho: : : He’s still pissed off, but seemingly expects us to do his bidding again; a : bit confusing, that. We are indeed where we expected to be, and Tycho has : a fun turn of phrase. Now it is Tfear sending Pfhor to take out Durandal’s : core while Tycho knows better. Okay, so Durandal said Tycho had a special : unit of compilers for his capture and confinement – I guess that is : slightly different from what Tfear wants. We’re still not clear on : Durandal’s progress in this timeline, as in how far he got with Thoth : before his ship got disabled, but the idea of one thousand thousand slimy : things, or worms, wriggling through the S’pht consciousness, makes one : wonder about what information he might have had. At the very least I’m : guessing it might have brought all of the compilers back on side, and it : may even have helped to summon the S’pht’Kr. Durandal thought it was : enough to cause humiliation for the Pfhor, after all. : Tycho mentions explosions, and from time to time we see big white flashes : with explosions much like those associated with Juggernaught death. : There’s clearly something going on out there! : We head out along the corridor and find it cut off. There are large : inaccessible shapes off to the left, and a bright room to the right, : wherein a switch. This actually drops away itself, and brings in some : tumblers much like those switches on Thing What Kicks…. They then slide : back into the ceiling, to reveal through a window a tall smashable circuit : panel that we recognise from Begging For Mercy…. In fact a look at the : automap suggests that that area is rather like the central area of that : level … and of course we have something like the same goal. We can see : that area on the overall map that I put together: : Hitting the switch also drops the platform that was stopping us going further : down the corridor, so we don’t have to smash that panel right now, handy : for the scratchstarter, as while we get quite a bit of AR ammo in that : switch room – in fact this is the first time in ages that we have been so : directed towards using the AR – we don’t get a weapon for smashing things : from a distance. While that should suit Blackstar just fine, it does make : the next area all the more painful for the scratchstarter, as there are : plenty of Hunters and one or two Troopers just around the corner! The : SPNKR from Foe Hammer comes in very handy here, and indeed in several : areas of this level … it is a very dark one *sigh* and sometimes just : missiling into the void is worthwhile. : After this initial onslaught, we head up some stairs and enter the ring above : the ring with the core circuits. It too has a lot of Hunters and Troopers, : and as PS mentioned in one of the recent discussions, the Troopers are : especially nasty here, often favouring lengthy barrages from the AR’s main : trigger over grenades, and despite the inaccuracy thereof, it can be a : real pain when we’re often not sure where they are shooting from in the : darkness. The radar is less useful than we’d like here, with rogue : signals, signals lacking where they ought to be, and general frustration. : To the right as we enter the ring, from the east, we find a dead-end. There : is one room off to the side, but nothing much in there. The ring is just : dark, with yellow strips on the ceiling and green lights, but little else : of inspiration. Carrying on around the ring to the west, we find another : blockade, but not before we get to a pillar with a 1x recharger, yum, and : a set of stairs to a higher level that we just can’t quite get to. There’s : another little inside room here, but this one has windows through to the : central core area, and views to a couple of the outer ring circuits, which : open up as we take out the inner ring ones. Just opposite on the outer : wall of the ring is a path around and down some stairs to another switch. : This time we do get an AR as well as ammo, but less of that than in the : first switch room. And just like before, we get to go further around the : ring after hitting the switch. Based on the map, that is a massive : platform that gets moved! : Next on the agenda we have another inside room with windows, another side : room with stairs to a switch, and this time a pattern buffer, but no ammo. : There is another set of stairs from here, but first let’s go around the : last bit of the ring area, to another pillar with unreachable stairs but : no recharger, and one last inner room with windows … and of course more : annoying Troopers and Hunters; they go without saying. There’s also an : opening nearby that allows us to get down to the core ring, via some : stairs with an odd little alcove above. The door to the core area is one : of the ones we went through back on Begging For Mercy, but it is the only : one that opens this time around, and clear, where we have come from is : quite different from how that level looked – people have suggested there : might be many such areas making up Durandal, but it also just might be : because playing the same level again would be less interesting. There is : plenty of ammo around the ring, and a 3x recharge canister, but also : plenty of Troopers to strip us of that again. There is a terminal on the : north side, just like before, but it is just a duplicate of the one from : the start of the level. : Now, for that last set of stairs we overlooked earlier. The staircases on : this level tend to be very steep, and watching on the map as we go up them : sometimes shows this off as a jittery rather than smooth movement. This : one is borderline. It takes us to a ring above the ring above the ring. : This time full of compilers both visible and invisible, and confusing to : navigate due to the overlapping areas on the map. Two staircases lead down : from parts of this area – the unreachable ones from earlier, handy if we : happen to need to recharge. There are yellow walls that make it hard to : get around this area, but we can use grenades if we choose to, of course. : The other way is to climb a set of stairs not far from where we enter. : This gets us to a higher series of platforms, but they’re not so much use : to us right now, as we need to get to the even higher ones. Still, we can : use these ones to get across this area, and then fall back down to look : for another set of stairs. It really is confusing, but I’ve got my head : around using the map thanks to preparation for this writeup :). : What we find if we have smashed the 7 panels so far, is a door open on the : west side of the inner core tower, only higher up, and leading to an 8th : panel. On smashing it we hear a door opening. This is on the east side, : accessible via the lower higher platforms (got that?). The opening reveals : that that inner tower is in fact hollow – all the way to the bottom! : Falling in, we find a pattern buffer, a terminal, and one last smashable : panel, and we pick up an uplink chip. Before we smash the panel, we have a : look at the terminal. : : The log on is that one we thought might mean “fake” back in M2 days, hmmm. It : seems to contain Durandal’s last will and testament in this timeline, and : rather a set of memories flashing before the eyes – our eyes, Durandal : even makes reference to that concept. We’ve got Mr S(trauss), and a few : bits and pieces we think might be related to D’s time with him, and much : of the rest is Durandal thinking about how he can save at least part of : himself … with our help. What to keep and throw away? I guess it would : be a good time to make things more efficient ;). And then there’s all the : odd instructions of caution – of how to handle an image of Durandal, we : figure … while the uplink chip, which serves no other purpose given that : it disappears when we hit By Committee, provides an interface with our own : cyborg mind … somehow. Tuck this little kitty into the impenetrable : brainpan? Perhaps this, coming straight after the reference to Mr S, : refers to something that was actually done before, in his time, that : Durandal actually knows this will work in the first place. As usual, a bit : of mystery :). : Signing out of this terminal teleports us back to the start of the level, an : oddity that caused some to go hunting for somewhere else to put that : uplink chip! Is there some way we can get down to that last room with more : left to do than just smashing the last panel? I was wondering what could : be done if we SPNKRed up to those inaccessible stairs earlier on, but : still we would need to smash all the panels to get down to the end! Anyway : … when we smash said last panel, the final terminal changes. : : Another Thoth-like poetic view of another world ending? Didn’t we have : burning air in M2 S’pht terminals, or something like it? Is this : descriptive of the role of Thoth? The idea of balance has in the past come : down to just wiping out both sides, or at least having the potential to – : mutually assured destruction, only from an outside perspective. Taken as : us destroying our father (Durandal?), even with the apostrophe that : shouldn’t be there, well, you could say that as we just smashed all those : panels…. But now destroying itself? We do indeed still fail in this : timeline, perhaps unable to comprehend what needs to be done, perhaps : still at the bidding of an AI that doesn’t quite get it. But this right : now is a crucial element of our ultimate success, the transference of : Durandal, another thing we can carry across timelines, impenetrable : indeed, even when we get our weapons nicked! Find the new way? This is : surely the hardest one to figure given that we seem to start up again in a : situation that follows on from here, but we’re still not in control – the : decision to leave this timeline to its own devices is still not our own; : the ability to see that even with our help there would be no happy ending, : is still not ours; this is perhaps where that all gets signed over to us. : The guide has taken us as far as it knows how; now it’s up to us? I’ll : have to follow things very closely from here, as there are still many : things I do not understand :). : One thing that I do understand, however, is that it is time for another : handover. That’s right, Billy is back to take us through our final dream : sequence, although that will require my sending more terminal pics to PS : and his doing up more maps. Now sleep .
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