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	Message: : I actually took a shot at summarizing Eternal's story in 2016; here's the : original thread, with comments/corrections by Forrest. There's also a : brief explanation of Eternal's Jjaro in the last page of this Pfhorums : thread , and probably other places there. : Below is an attempt at a shorter summary (which, however redundant it may be : with the aboce, I'm keeping because I sank too much time into it to just : scrap the thing. :U): Eternal takes place roughly one century after : Infinity; Marcus Jones, the Security Officer of this scenario, returns to : the UESC to find it on the losing end of the UESC-Pfhor War. Sometime in : the interim S'bhuth went mad, directing the S'pht'Kr to turn against the : humans; the UESC retained K'lia following that battle, but at the cost of : their powerful S'pht allies. The only remaining hope for Earth is Marcus : and Hathor, the latter of whom is a battleroid whose cybernetic junction : was transferred to K'lia's network. Hathor is glad to work with Marcus : again, but something feels a little...off. : The two are sent back in time to the battle of the UESC Marathon for the : purpose to retrieving the other eight battleroids, with explicit orders : not to interact with their past selves. In order to fully ascertain the : other eight's locations on the colony, Hathor will need full access to the : Marathon 's network; she directs Marcus to areas of the ship where he can : help her accomplish this, but halfway through, he's abruptly dumped onto : the nearby Pfhor ship. : Marcus eventually escapes and returns to the Marathon , where it's not : Hathor who explains what just happened, but Tycho. It wasn't an accident : like Marcus assumed: Hathor has ulterior motives for this mission, and : Marcus not getting kicked out for a bit would hinder them. Tycho, who's : aware that there's some temporal shenanigans going on, offers to aid : Marcus in stopping her from punishing humanity. They manage to prevent : Hathor from leaving the Marathon , but her response is to hijack Tycho's : core; the only method by which to defeat her now would be fatal for him. : And for a moment, it seems like Tycho really will perish, until he figures : out how to access Marcus's internal network (specific cybernetic : enhancements that allow a person to ferry AIs in their head). Hathor has : jumped forward in time, so Marcus and Tycho must follow her. : [Chapter 1's bad ending occurs if you decide to follow Hathor rather than : Tycho in "Sakhmet Rising"; she instructs you to wreck Durandal's : core and take his primal pattern. Makes things more convenient for the two : of you, until you realize that Durandal was your best shot at repelling : the Pfhor...] : In between the first of several time jumps, Marcus dreams of a barren : floating island of sorts, where he speaks with the Durandal/Thoth hybrid; : every conversation gives him some further insight into the situation. [If : you hit a bad end, you run through Inti Station instead, where Thothandal : hints at what you should do and sends you back to the point of : path-split.] : Marcus and Tycho arrive on a Pfhor vessel, shortly after the Lh'owon : campaign; as instructed, Marcus gives Tycho access to that ship's : network--for which he inexplicably already has the subroutines to use, : despite having no memory of where he could've gained them. While Tycho : runs a self-diagnostic, he mentions that Hathor may have an accomplice, : and sends Marcus to clean out the ship and take down its Controllers. : After Marcus completes this task, Tycho asks him if he remembers Leela. She's : temporarily left the Vylae network (in a sense; she seems to be using a : sort of cloned proxy, as her true self would never fit on a normal ship) : to partner with Robert Blake, and their combined forces are busy battling : the Pfhor on another planet; Leela appears to be Hathor's primary target, : so Marcus is going to lend the former a hand. : Leela's glad to see Marcus again, thankfully, and she's got a much livelier : personality than last he saw her with. There's a lot that needs to be done : to help Blake's forces deal with the Pfhor and resume their trek home: : namely, lowering the shields around the Pfhor's complex so that the 'Kr : can blast it into slag. : As he's in the process of deactivating all the shields, Leela informs him : that Tycho's newly-recruited cyborgs have helped him capture what ships in : the fleet weren't rendered useless from damage, and he'll join the 'Kr in : their assault. Just one problem: while destroying the complex will also : take out many of the vital facilities housed there, it won't affect the : starports--and Hathor's likely to take refuge in one. Leela says that she : and Tycho will work together to trap and destroy her... : But when Marcus meets Tycho again, he's got his own plan to deal with Hathor. : He's also acting stranger than usual due to that future-clone of his he : unwittingly merged with upon entering the Pfhor network, but he insists : that everything's fine. (Probably not helping Marcus's emotional state: he : encounters Hathor again for the first time in hours, and she, too, sounds : unlike the Hathor he knew...or, perhaps, never truly knew.) Ultimately, : Marcus decides that he should trust Leela on this one; Hathor still : escapes, but Leela's not giving up; using Marcus's cybernetic junction, : the pair will leap after her through time yet again. : [Chapter 2's bad ending: Tycho's plan didn't work, either, but this time : there's no pursuing Hathor. And there's a chance that Tycho allowed it : to fail...] : This time, Marcus touches down in Lh'owon's ancient past, right in the middle : of their civil war. In between dodging angry F'lickta and hostile : S'pht'Mnr, Marcus finds a terminal with which Leela can transfer herself : to the Citadel's network (itself more like a neural net than : "conventional" cyberspace); while she makes absolutely sure that : Hathor didn't arrive before they did, Marcus explores the Citadel. : Eventually, he meets S'bhuth, who believes him to be Messenger of Yrro : that can help K'lia flee the conflict; Marcus ends up doing some : magma-diving and key-hunting in order to find and activate the necessary : mechanisms. At the end of it, he finds the message Yrro left for the : eleven clans, and the revelation that the edifice he stands in was meant : to trap the W'rkncacnter. : S'bhuth lets Marcus know, in a slightly roundabout fashion, that Leela has at : least found and trapped Hathor; the way the Citadel's network functions, : Hathor will gradually fade into virtual nothingness. She and Marcus have : an incredibly painful conversation while he's placing the chips that will : freeze her, during which she claims that she foresaw all of this, and that : the true ending of their battle will be far worse than Marcus could ever : imagine. Despite his inner conflicts, Marcus inserts the last chip-- : And abruptly finds himself tumbling out of a cryo pod. It's a thousand years : later, the Pfhor are tearing Lh'owon many new craters, and the S'pht need : his help. So he helps them, but at some point decides to inspect an : out-of-the-way path rather than get back to mission control right away; it : leads to him to Leela, now merged with S'bhuth. : The short version is: after Hathor fell dormant, Leela finally broke the : encryption standing between her and K'lia, and found in its networks a : badly-weakened S'bhuth. (As it turned out, the source of S'bhuth's madness : was none other than Durandal, or rather his lingering influence on his : S'pht crewmen.) The two's merger restored the 'Kr Older to their former : self; this new human/S'pht entity used their newfound power to escape the : universe and find the Outside, where Durandal/Thoth and the Jjaro reside. : Leela/S'bhuth also got a peek at the future, which has spiraled into chaos; : she and Marcus must prevent this outcome by any means necessary, and the : first step is to convince the present S'bhuth to fold K'lia out of the : system. This will involve reactivating Thoth, which means a trip into his : domain. : Eventually, Thoth's systems hum to life, but it's not him that greets Marcus: : it's Hathor. This is Marcus's last chance to be forgiven, she tells : him--but Marcus knows he can't take it, because that would mean allowing : Hathor to enact her vengeance on millions of innocent people. As he later : learns, Hathor's "rebirth" came about due to Leela rooting about : in her mind; had she not done this, the network would have properly : "forgotten" Hathor. And she's gained access to the future K'lia : and fled once again, forcing Marcus and co. to resume the chase. : [Chapter 3 bad ending: If Marcus sticks around to repel the Pfhor, they hit : the "pfhuck it" button and nuke the sun.] : This time they arrive in the year that the Drinniol rebelled against the : Pfhor, to prevent Hathor from swiping the cyborg Drinniol leading said : rebellion. First order of business is to destroy the station (Leela will : warp the Drinniol off first, presumably); the next, to follow Hathor to : the old Jjaro outpost below and prevent her from escaping with the trih : xeem . Oh yeah, the Pfhor are going to deploy it soon, rather than waste : more time on the Drinniol. : While he's busy shutting off the communication transmitters, Marcus notices : that the pattern buffer in this outpost is visibly configured for humans. : Why is that?.. : He tries to call Leela, but there's heavy interference blocking the : transmission; she seems to get through in the end, though, and guides him : to the one transporter that will safely get him out of this mess... : Except he ends up floating in space. Leela teleports him to a Jjaro station : and inexplicably yells at him for pulling such a stupid stunt--and now : Marcus knows why "Leela" seemed so terse, and why S'bhuth : suddenly clammed up. : Leela calms down and explains that the two (three?) of them have to prevent : the Pfhor from taking this station--which means activating its : self-destruct mechanisms. Once that's taken care of, the trio head for the : nearby Pfhor vessel and engage in a bit of pest control for the benefit of : the Drinniol. It seems as though Hathor's no longer of concern, and the : only task left is to prevent the future S'bhuth from turning on humanity; : to this end, they must head to a Jjaro installation, reawaken their : biological forms, and convince them to use their ultimate weapon to : eliminate the Pfhor Empire. Said reawakening will require a human : genome...because the Jjaro are, themselves, human. : [Chapter 4 band ending: don't explore the Jjaro station thoroughly enough, : and Hathor takes it for a joyride.] : Marcus arrives on the installation and makes contact with one of its AI, : known only by their title of "the Watcher". Said installation is : formally called the Sphere, and it's under attack by an unknown enemy. : Mistaking Marcus for another Jjaro solider, the Watcher recruits him to : beat back these creatures and keep them from destroying any more of the : Sphere than they already have. : While he stocks up on ammo, Marcus hears Hathor's voice once again. They both : foresaw these events, she claims, and that if Marcus can answer one : question she tosses at him, then he can answer the rest. : He hasn't got much time to ponder the answers; next, he has to bring the : Sphere's defenses back online. He acquires the necessary chip from the : dying guardian of the Sphere, but the defense systems turn out to be too : ravaged to function. However, the Watcher has a plan: force Hathor to : relinquish an essential key, and they can fire the Sphere's primary : weapon, eliminating the W'rk-things once and for all... : Along with every other living thing in the galaxy. : Marcus really doesn't want to do this, but if there's an awakening : W'rkncacnter nearby and he can't stop it, then it won't make much : difference, will it? He follows the Watcher's instructions, and : unexpectedly gets one last chance to speak with a badly-damaged Hathor. : She begs him to follow her instead, and find a way to plunge the W'rk back : into the abyss without dooming the galaxy...but Marcus, understanding the : true consequences of her plan, can't side with her, as much as he'd want : to. He carries out the final step that the Watcher outlined. : Unfortunately, while the weapon did fire as intended (for all the good it : really did), the Sphere is as good as lost, Hathor has merged with one of : the operators in a final bid to escape, and all the Watcher can do is get : Marcus to safety. Also, the Sphere's temporal field activated shortly : after the primary weapon; it's now several million years later, and the : Pfhor are bearing down on the Sphere. : With much effort, Marcus floods the Pfhor ship with its own coolant and, once : back on the Sphere, tears across its canyons to reach the last docked : vessel. He knows the way already--this is the same land in the sky he's : been dreaming about. : The vessel isn't there--having already been taken by Hathor--but there's a : message from Leela/S'bhuth; she can't follow him for fear of breaking her : vow not to interfere with the past or succumbing to temptation to abuse : his cynernetic junction, but she implores him to make things right. : Nowhere to go but down into the hole where that ship would've been. : Marcus comes to on an empty K'lia, where Durandal/Thoth awaits. He explains : to the weary battleroid that, in short, the Jjaro and W'rkncacnter have : exacted a vicious cycle that the two (three?) of them are going to break. : The journey will be longer and more difficult than any Marcus has faced : before, but it's the only way the universe will know peace... : [Chapter 5 bad ending: Turns out Marcus should've questioned Hathor's plan a : little harder, regardless of how sincere her intentions were this time.]
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