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	Message: : : Last time on Tour of Duty we kind of wasted our time, by most accounts. : Apparently not reaching our intended destination, we ran around very : M1-ish corridors and a whole maze with very little to recommend it. We : finished on a random note from maybe a new AI or maybe just from dev : boredom. Who knows? Anyway, it seems we are now back on track: this is Med : Lab. : We arrive to relative tranquility after that last fight on Free Falling, in : long room with a 2x recharge panel and some calming water ambient sound. : There's also a window, through which we see a a square pillar and a : hexagonal one, with light pulsing over their textures, and a raised room : beyond, although it doesn't look reachable. There's only one way out, a : door opposite. This leads out to a nice light room with some Fighters that : start coming towards us, up the stairs that go around the little water : pool we heard earlier. Some F'lickta arrive in there, in no position to : harm us. : That 2x recharger was potentially redundant since I found the secret 3x at : the end of the previous level, but either way, leaving that first room : disables it, aww. We continue through a really wide opening into a : corridor. To the right we are blocked by a quite astonishingly high wall, : but there is definitely more corridor up there. This level goes to town on : the height differential. The other way we also reach a dead-end, but : there's a switch, and it opens up a wall for us, revealing a Hunter and a : Trooper in the next room, somewhat surprisingly. : Through another corridor and another door, we reach what the map refers to as : the Central Hub. What looks like it could be a door to the north is not : budging, but we can go east and west with impunity. From memory, east : first makes more sense. Oh yeah, the map. : : A pretty straightforward affair really, all corridors again, but not to a : stupid mazey extent like the previous level. Through that east door we go : past the entrance to Containment Center 6, but the door is totally hidden : at this point so we don't even know it. At the turn, we again have an : insurmountable climb to the left, so right we go. We get some glimpses of : a nice Infinity Pool outside, and meet a lone Figher, before we come to : our first terminal. : We're back with Mithrandir, who kind of apologises for the last level, saying : we arrived here from the Power Facility, and an error like that shouldn't : happen again. He explains that the Pirates began their rampage with the : Galaxans, which I briefly interpreted as "together with", but : no, it is the Pfhor and the S'pht all over again. There is some fun stuff : in there about the Galaxans not appearing on sensors properly - the : invisible ones - and about their being hard to study because they just : discorporate (nice word) when damaged enough. And they can't tell the : difference between -us- and the Pirates, hence why they attack us, and : we're supposed to try to reason with them! Mithrandir gives instructions : that we need to get into the laboratory room for teleportation, and says : he has coopted (another nice word) some controllers, presumably switches, : including one by the hydrospa just upstairs ... this place really is : relaxing! He doesn't mention the Pattern Buffer just opposite this : terminal, which is just gravy, and quite unlike this scenario in general. : : : : : : : Around the corner we go up a lift to that hydrospa. Yet again we get meet a : wall in the corridor and cannot go further that way, though. The map is : quite interesting as it looks like these areas all connect, but that is : -so- not the case. It is also odd because in some ways the level dictates : a path, but in others less so. The hydrospa is down some stairs, and -of : course- they bring an ambush, with Troopers and a Cyborg. There's nothing : down in the actual spa, and it is a pain to climb out of - how was all : this water represented in M1? And then along a short corridor we find the : first coopted controller, and hit it. : We have to backtrack all the way to the Central Hub, where we find we can now : open the newly revealed actual door to the north. This leads us to a large : dark room, with the telltale lit space of a lift towards the far side. It : is not working, and a pesky Trooper grenades us from the raised area the : lift would access, and even my 3x shields from last level are getting : pretty low! So back we go, and then finally through the door to the west. : Up a lift we are faced with a Hunter, and with another choice. We head to : the right, let's say because it goes closer to where that lift is. The : corridor doesn't go too far, and we open a door to find a Cyborg, and : another switch. : This one does indeed enable the lift to the north, and we go back there on a : hunch. Umm, yeah I feel like what I remember from the last time I did this : level certainly helps with the ordering of things ... and I'm okay with it : :). When we go up the lift and hit the raised area, more Pirates port in : behind us. We run along to hit the next switch before coming back to deal : with them. I just jumped off and ran back down the corridor, and then : found that the Pirates were at the top of the lift - ha! : I headed back to save progress and found that Containment Center 6 was what : had opened. Definitely saved before going in there. Two troopers are : visible inside, along with a switch and a terminal. The switch opens the : ... containment field, revealing stupid many S'pht. Thank goodness I have : the difficulty down and maybe are they on easy mode like they were : supposed to be in M2? Whatever, there definitely isn't any reasoning with : them. The terminal just says we're not done yet. Ha! I guess we never : captured that one the first time around. : So we head back to the west and take the path not yet travelled. There is : another intersection pretty soon, and I hesitate, only to find myself : Huntered in the back and dead. TWICE. Third time I reversed down the : corridor and sorted him out. If we turn at the intersection we find a : terminal, which describes that that first pool we discovered can flood : when its drain is clogged, and then this access tunnel is required for : cleaning purposes, including a suggestion of where to find SCUBA (which : I'm pretty sure I never even knew was an acronym; never seen it in caps : before!) gear - I'm pretty sure it's all just for amusement; this map : doesn't look to go in for secrets like its predecessors did. Our friend at : http://www.hierlaw.com/MarathonDIABD.shtml reckons the inaccessible : parts of the map are to add some noise to the overview as well as general : flavour. Having said that, I just realised there was a little hidden cubby : in Containment Field 6, but it only has a Fusion Pistol and one battery : inside, no SCUBA gear :). : : : : At the end of the access tunnel, where we would drop down to the very first : pool, some Pirates port in as quite a jumpscare after the very quiet : tunnel. Dammit curiousity! There's no point dropping down, so we go back : to that intersection and head left. Left at the next intersection offers a : very similar experience but without the terminal. It winds us up a the : dropoff to the hydrospa, again with a Pirate ambush. It would be much more : useful if there was a shield recharger down there. As it is, I really like : the connectivity of the level, but it is all too short-lived to be of much : value. The benefit is mainly in aesthetics, and it is a completely : different style of map design from the next one I'll be writing up, the : monstrosity of Sensori OverLord. : The last possible way we can go leads to a large room packed with Fighters, : and a couple of Troopers further down the corridor. I went back to make : sure there was nothing up on the raised side areas ... sad. The very last : little link up to our early exploration below comes with a 1x shield : recharger! But the real surprise is the lack of a Pirate ambush! And, umm, : that's all there is to this place. Returning to the terminal at : Containment Field 6 we find we can now get the hell out of Dodge. So it : was just a vanilla extermination level, and all the stuff about reasoning : with Galaxans was a bit of a ruse. I guess playing in a different order : would have made more sense. Never mind; a fun little level. : : :
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