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	Message: : : : Tempus Irae 7 Sordidae, Turpes et Faetidae, Beyond The Black & : Repository Five : Last time on Tour of Duty, we ran around the S’pht ship for a change, : drained the central core, moved the goo elsewhere in dubious fashion, : found an obscure lift, raided and recaptured the bridge, raised the S’pht : colours, and checked out via a teasing weapons cache – hopefully : remembering to top up 2x shields again just before leaving! We are now : treated to a brand new chapter screen, which reminds me very much of the : very first Earth level. : That’s right, we -are- now back on Earth looking for a fifth manuscript, on : what is a remarkably short level, but can take a remarkably long time : because of that incredibly subtle staircase! It is even more of a switch : and search level than we’ve seen so far, but we love it, so that’s okay! : We start in a huge courtyard, falling from the sky along with a large number : of Fighters, as a whole heap of ammo appears on the ground. It’s all a bit : OTT right off the bat! There’s one door out, and it leads into a corridor : lined with yet more ammo. Given that we had all that taken off us only two : levels ago, we’re doing remarkably well! Around to the left is an SMG and : then another courtyard with an Enforcer. A door to the right here puts us : in a corridor between this and the courtyard that was to the right from : the first corridor we came to, and within is our first pattern buffer, : along with a 1x shield canister, and our first blatantly locked door. : There are also various door textured walls about the place that never : open, just to throw us off the scent, and did I mention there are a lot of : courtyards? Let’s take a look. : : : I had been messing up the spelling in this level – it was definitely in my : mind as “turpus”, which is odd as the only thing I can think of like that : word is turpentine. This is another one where the 3D render is differently : entitled, “The Streets Of Milan”. The spoiler guide gives a quote from a : book that inspired the level name, but doesn’t actually name the book. : Anyway, as I said, a lot of large courtyards, with no closely-packed : people to be seen. Even a few inaccessible ones to house the Juggernaughts : we were told were coming at the end of last level – even though now that I : think about it, we’ve already seen several in inaccessible courtyards : during our adventure! There are also a few tight corridor areas just for : kicks, and to hold everything together most attractively as always. : Moving on, the third courtyard has a Cyborg and a bunch of statues, and more : Pfhor falling from the sky just to add to the excitement. Around the : corner to the far left, or through a door a little closer, or even a third : passage even closer, is a large door to another courtyard, large enough to : justify three openings I guess, but that did seem odd. This one has a door : off to the left about halfway across, but at the moment it only leads to : disappointment in the form of locked doors. This courtyard also has the : incredibly subtle staircase against the far wall. It shows on the map but : without that it really is very well camouflaged! I know I spent a good : while on this level the first time around. Just when you think they’ve : exhausted their trick book! Up the top is a switch. The first of many. And : a shotgun and a 1x recharge canister. : That switch opens the door in the corridor with the pattern buffer – to : reveal an Enforcer ambush, some ammo, and another switch … or is it bait? : Then we continue to the left, through the second courtyard we hit, and : through a passage to yet another one. This time there are stairs leading : up to a door, and there are Fighters sniping us from raised platforms on : either side. At least it’s not Halo style sniping, but it’s still a pain. : And through the door it gets worse with a serious Trooper sandwich! They : are definitely best coaxed out of their little hidey holes, which, once : the place is clear, are good to check for ammo. : Now we have a room straight ahead with the terminal we’ve been waiting for, : as well as a staircase down to the left, and one up to the right. First : the terminal: : : : : So we’re in and around the Duomo in Milan, which I saw briefly 11 years ago : ... and while Leonardo is taken with the domestic and International : influences on the architecture, he’s not stoked about the way people are : packed in around the place, making it rather a smelly affair as the spread : “pestilential death”, and hence our level name, translated (thanks : Narcogen) as Dirty, Dark and Smelly. Now the higher-ups are onto Leonardo : for his war machine inventions, but he has moved on to working on flying : machines, which he learned about from his shadowy companion! Somewhat : ahead of his time! : Next we back out and head down the stairs to the right. A window high up on : the far wall allows a Hunter, an Enforcer, and a Fighter to fire at us, : albeit not very successfully ... but it's hard for us to return fire as : well with the angles involved. We will encounter them for real later on, : but it can be convenient to get them out of the way now. Further down the : stairs we get a major Drone ambush; retreating back up gets them at a more : comfortable height for dealing with. : When we get down the bottom, there's an odd setup. The way straight ahead is : blocked, but we can get into sewer passages to the left and right, and get : around to behind that blockade anyway. Alternatively, there are switches : up on the walls above the sewage that open up the blockade as two large : doors, and reveal some Troopers and Fighters, and with seemingly : inconsistent spawn triggers, more Fighters and an Enforcer, who doesn't : seem to follow the proper Enforcer behaviour of staying in one place once : she has seen us. Tut tut. It all makes for some tricky stuff, so it is : nice to see a 1x recharge canister in here as well, plus some ammo. And : the sewer passages are good for ammo also. : There are two switches here on the back of the central structure. For the : left one, the guide only says that it has to be activated to reveal the : manuscript, so I'm guessing it might be behind more than one door; I guess : I would have to activate the switches in the other order to be sure, and : I've messed up the save for that now. Anyway, the right switch is easier : to explain; it opens the door at the top of the staircase that goes : further up from where we came down. Progress! And while I'm thinking of : the guide, it also points out that the sewer passages are 5d space - the : only 5d space in the scenario ... surely not? We already spotted some from : the 3d renders, hmmm. : So back up and further up we go, and as usual, we attract some Fighters and a : Trooper. And more Fighters around to the right, along with a couple of : locked or just non-existent doors. A bit further back still to the right : from our entry, we find a stairway down to one of the sniping Fighter : spots we had to overcome earlier on, which nets us a 1x recharge canister, : a shotgun if we need it, and a quick way back to our pattern buffer. Back : up top, we can also go further around to get to the opposite sniping : platform, via a Trooper, and some windows out to inaccessible areas with : some really angry Juggernauts! And there was also a switch on the way, : which is the finishing touch on revealing the manuscript, which is just : through the only doors we haven't been through yet. : They open onto a red and green tiled staircase with plenty of Fighters ... : too much potential for fighting on stairs for my liking, so I run away; I : fight to run away! And when all is said and done, the manuscript is now : happily revealed in a cubby hole at the top of that staircase, along with : an L switch, but actually just picking up the manuscript has an : interesting effect - there is a notable door opening sound, and said door : is just back out where we came from; one of the ones around to the right : ... and it now reveals another pattern buffer, and a bunch of ammo. Handy! : The L switch, meanwhile, opens a door we once sadly found locked, off the : courtyard with the subtle staircase. You see it turns out that down the : bottom of the red and green staircase, stairs down to the right lead to a : dead-end, with a locked door that would open onto one of our earliest : courtyards, but just doesn't, and the other way leads back to the subtle : staircase one! Through a door that opened at some point but I really : couldn't say when. And the newly opened door has the secret exit door just : inside it, but it's not that time yet! Instead we follow a path that takes : us past the rooms we previously experienced as windows with Hunters and : Enforcers, so we see either corpses if we killed them through the windows, : or live Pfhor otherwise. This is a situation we get well used to in a : couple of levels' time! : The path continues to wind its way between areas we've already seen, and we : get some ammo and another 1x recharge canister, and eventually it leads us : to a door with its switch right there on the wall next to it. This one : stays open, but next up we have a series of doors with equally obvious : switches, but on both sides, so they just close after about 10 seconds - : which is annoying because these are narrow corridors, and the Projectile : Fighters are hard to dodge as such, and now also hard to retreat from : because the doors keep closing! Never mind. We end up looking over a new : courtyard. There's one last door just beyond, but this time the switch : does nothing to it. The guide says it explodes a Juggernaut for effect, : nice touch. That door we have to hit from the other side, on the way to : the secret exit :). Oh yes there goes the Jugg, it just takes a while. : This new courtyard is a pretty deadly place, with sniping Enforcers, confused : Drones, and the odd Trooper, and not much in the way of places to hide. I : managed to grenade the Trooper who decided to stand still on the far : landing, and then some of the Drones too, and got a few more caught in the : Enforcer fire :). There is another door with a swich on that far landing, : leading us to very much the last part of the level. A pretty simple : corridor - to the left a pattern buffer, and also seemingly a trigger to : open the space to the right, wherein we find a switch. It starts a : platform descending, eventually even below the sewer level, while a Hunter : to the left and an Enforcer to the right do what they can - they are : through really small windows and are quite annoying because their : firelines cross perfectly! : We descend to find the normal exit teleporter, but as we should have been all : along, we check to see if it is also a door, and for once we are : vindicated! Stairs lead us to the back of that door from earlier, and to a : 2x shield canister. When we get back to the secret exit room, there is : even an invincibility powerup waiting for us ... what fresh hell awaits? : Well, there's a terminal to tell us! : : That's right, we're going Beyond the Black, to a song by Metal Church, : apparently. The line that it is known to few because it's dangerous : reminds me of a recent safety video on Air New Zealand , the bit about : smoking. If you're not familiar, they've done a good half dozen now with : different themes, and they're worth a watch :). : : : And immediately we're pretty glad of that invincibility powerup, beset on all : sides as we are by Enforcers and Hunters. They are confined to little : corridors behind walls with openings just slightly too high for us to get : over, but that doesn't make them any less dangerous. If anything, they're : pissed off at being confined! And there are so many of them. We can clear : up this area before the invincibility wears off, and we have a moment's : peace. But there is more to the level, well, more of the same, around a : corner, and then suddenly there are Fighters sniping at us from high up : ledges as well - it's a real party ... and that's about it. They're nice : enough to give us a SPNKR, but not a lot of ammo for it, and several 2x : recharge canisters are strewn about the place, but that's because they are : necessary. : At some point our exit teleporter is revealed on one side of a central : structure. The map suggests there is an opening on the other side of it as : well, but I see no evidence of such. All stocked up on ammo and health, we : head out to the book depository! : : Yet again there's the fail message, but that's well boring by now. : : : : The success message is also kind of boring. Even the S'pht are a bit sick of : this process - "yet another of these manuscripts"! And they've : been trying to get through the Pfhor bureaucracy we came to know so well : in Infinity, to synthesise a "heavy projectile weapon" - uhh : much like the SPNKR we just got in the secret level? I guess the S'pht : really don't know about those ones. : : : : : : : : : : : So there's much ado about nothing, and I guess we won't be getting that : weapon soon in the main story. But we are heading back to Earth, and I for : one am looking forward to it!
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