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	Message: : Chapter 3: Rage(2) : (The battle between Tycho and Durandal.) : We are shown events that seem like a direct continuation of Chapter 1: : Despair which ended with Confound Delivery. However, in that timeline : K’lia had been summoned, but here there is no mention of K’lia, the : S’pht’kr, or an activated Thoth. : Naw Man He’s Close: : During the space battle, Tycho causes Durandal’s S’pht to go rampant and his : ship goes offline. : Tycho sends his Troopers and the main character to board Durandal’s ship. The : main character proceeds through the ship, killing any humans and S’pht : that get in his way, and opens airlocks to allow more of Tycho’s forces to : board. : Cooperation between humans and S’pht dissolves as the infected S’pht become : aggressive and attack anyone going near computer terminals. : The humans, led by Robert Blake, recognize that their ship is offline because : the attacking ship (Tycho’s) must have a “device that is pinning down [the : ship’s] engines”. They begin powering up jump pads to teleport onto : Tycho’s ships and destroy the device. (Presumably this is a futile task : since the “device” is Tycho himself?) : Tycho tells the main character that once he’s done with his mission, Tycho : will send him deeper into the ship to “join my hunters searching for : Durandal's core”. : However, when the main character finds the humans’ jump pad he follows the : humans onto Tycho’s ship rather than going deeper into Durandal’s core. : There is no explicit reason given for why he does this. : Location: : Durandal’s ship : Success status: : Tycho has disabled Durandal’s ship and is attempting to destroy him. Status : of Thoth and S’pht’kr is unknown. Tfear is approaching. : Comments: : This Chapter is the only “timeline shift” that isn’t accompanied by it’s own : chapter screen (Rage, Despair, Envy). This is also where things start to : get really confusing. : Some information, like how the player’s goal is to open airlocks and how : Tycho has made Durandal’s S’pht go rampant, are confirmed in terminal text : that is not accessible during gameplay. (Thank you Marathon Story Page, : couldn’t have done this without you. You’re a treasure.) : Part of why this timeline begins to get confusing is the transition from : level to level. Usually this has been explained by some other character : giving the main character a mission to follow. However here, the main : character does something that isn’t based on any orders he received. Based : on speculation I’ve read online, I think the most likely explanation is : that the main character is exerting free will, although why he makes the : specific decisions he does is unclear and will remain so for the rest of : the game. : Foe Hammer: : The main character apparently ignores Tycho’s orders and follows the humans : teleporting onto Tycho’s ship. : Once the main character arrives, the humans immediately treat him as an ally, : despite there being no indication as to why, considering he was their : enemy moments earlier. : Tycho immediately assumes the main character has betrayed him, although I am : not totally clear as to why. It seems like an overreaction for some minor : disobedience? Tycho transports the main character into the vacuum of : space, as a warning not to disobey him. And then presumably transports him : back onto his own ship again. : Durandal, like Tycho, reacts to the main character as though he has defected : from Tycho’s side. Durandal greets the main character as a friend “or, : friend of a friend, as the case may be.” : Durandal expresses concern for his humans and states that he wants to give : them a chance to escape to the surface of Lh’owon. However, Tycho’s : compilers have a hold on Durandal’s ship and he can’t do much until their : hold is weakened. : The main character and the humans kill Tycho’s cybernetic forces including : Tycho’s S’pht. This allows Durandal to transport Robert Blake and the : humans to the surface of Lh’owon. : The Pfhor, presumably Battle Group Seven, arrive with a “special unit of : compilers designed by Tycho for [Durandal’s] capture and confinement.” In : regards to this, Durandal tells the main character, “Don’t let him win.” : Location: : Tycho’s ship : Success status: : Tycho has disabled Durandal’s ship and is attempting to destroy him. Status : of Thoth and S’pht’kr is unknown. Tfear’s arrival is imminent. : Comments: : Something to note is that in this Chapter, Tycho does have S’pht Compilers : aboard his ship and uses them in his battle against Durandal. : This seems to conflict with the previous Chapter 1: Despair, where Tycho : explicitly states in Rise Robot Rise that he does not allow S’pht : Compilers on board his ship. Is this a contradiction, or proof that this : is actually a different timeline than Despair, despite their apparent : similarities? : Or is this a sort of Craig Mullins style of playing with what’s canon? A way : of telling a more abstract story that isn’t concerned with sticking to a : hard canonical character arc that is uniform across timelines? : We get a mention of the S'pht designed by Tycho for Durandal's capture. In : the next chapter we'll learn of a special unit of S'pht trained to capture : Tycho. Are these the same S'pht manifesting in different ways in two : different timelines, or are these two distinct groups of S'pht that exist : in both timelines? : The humans immediately treating the main character as an ally is probably : non-diegetic, and is probably more of a limitation of the engine. Marathon : can’t really have characters start as enemies and then switch to allies : once you’ve proven you’re on their side. : Hang Brain: : The main character transports back to Durandal’s ship. Both Tycho and : Durandal separately believe that the main character is helping each of : them. The humans on board Durandal’s ship (where the main character was : killing humans just two levels ago) treat the main character as an ally. : Admiral Tfear arrives and has boarded Durandal’s ship with his “elite assault : troops”. They begin invading Durandal’s core to capture him. Tfear’s : troops immediately treat the main character as an enemy. : Tycho restates his belief that capturing Durandal would just give Durandal : the opportunity to make the S’pht rebel. : The main character fights through Tfear’s forces and begins destroying : Durandal’s core, section by section, to keep him from being captured by : Tfear. : Right before completely destroying Durandal, the player is given an uplink : chip, which presumably is the in-world representation of Durandal : downloading a copy of his primal neural pattern into the main character : for safe keeping (as is suggested in a later level). : The last terminal is white text, like dream level text. I believe this text : is non-diegetic, either representing a third-person narrator or : representing some intuition granted to the main character by his Jjaro : implants. : Location: : Durandal’s ship/ in Durandal’s core : Success status: : Tycho has disabled Durandal’s ship. Status of Thoth and S’pht’kr is unknown. : Tfear has arrived and is attempting to capture Durandal. Both Tycho and : Durandal are attempting to destroy Durandal before he can be captured. : Comments: : Not much to say here. It’s not entirely clear why both Tycho and Durandal : assume the main character is on their side, considering the main : character’s actions for the last two levels. : Tfear’s Pfhor in this level are immediately hostile to the player and this is : probably non-diegetic and a product of the limitations of the engine. : Marathon can’t really start them as allies and then have some Pfhor : Trooper go, “Hey, you’re not authorized to be here” and then turn hostile. : A note on Chapter 3: Rage 2: : This is one of the most confusing parts of the story, and I think this is : where people start to really get lost. : The main character switches sides multiple times without switching : timelines/chapters. Different characters react to these switches in : unclear ways. This timeline also seems like a continuation of the Despair : Timeline, but there is no mention of Thoth, K’lia, or the S’pht’kr which : did appear at the end of that timeline. : If we need a diegetic explanation, then the most logical would be that at : this point the main character begins exerting his freewill in the story. : Perhaps the first time where that’s true in the entire series. : As for why the main character makes the decisions he does, then there’s a few : possibilities if we want a canon explanation. : If there is no Thoth: If this is a different timeline from Despair and Thoth : has not been activated, then the main character may be stalling Tycho : until Admiral Tfear can arrive to takeover. As has been implied earlier, : Tycho is over-eager to use the tri xeem if he thinks it’s the only way to : kill Durandal. But as we’ll see in the next Chapter, if Tfear is in : control, he allows Durandal to survive. So, the main character may be : switching sides specifically to stall until Tfear arrives to take control : and give time for Durandal to create a copy of his primal pattern. Then he : has to switch sides again to destroy Durandal before he can be captured. : If this is the same timeline as Despair and Thoth is Activated: Then why : isn’t Thoth joining the conflict? It’s possible that since Thoth is True : Neutral he doesn’t know which side to join, and that the main character is : switching sides to keep Thoth from joining either. As long as it’s unclear : who is winning, Thoth may stay neutral and possibly keep the S’pht’kr from : attacking anyone? This would also buy some time for Durandal and Tfear to : get into their respective positions for the final success timeline. : Those are just some thoughts for if you want to try to interpret this : timeline literally and canonically. Other than that, not entirely sure why : the main character is switching sides so frequently. : A lot of uncertainty and doubt here, which may be the point : in-and-of-itself.. There may be no definitive, canonical explanation for : what is happening and why. : THE EXPERIENCE OF THE PLAYER AND MAIN CHARACTER SPLIT: : The main character presumably continues living out this timeline until the : W’rkncacnter is unleashed since that’s what seems to motivate the timeline : shifts. There is nothing about the end of Hang Brain that would obviously : motivate the main character (or anyone else) to change timelines at this : point. : In fact, Hang Brain may or may not directly lead into the next chapter with : no timeline shifts. : We, the players, however skip those intervening events and are shown the : stories in the dream levels (“Electric Sheep Three” and “Eat the Path”), : with the option of seeing the end of a failed timeline. : Where Some Rarely Go: : You’re Wormfood Dude: (failure) : The humans have occupied the Aye Mak Sicur station. A “nova event” has : occurred in the system and there is a hull breach in the station. Many of : the humans are not equipped to survive in vacuum. : Chief Petty Officer Arthur Frain sends out a distress call from the station : to any “USEC controlled ship in vicinity”. (USEC is a typo?) : An intruder has been seen by human patrols, although it’s unclear who/what : the intruder is. : This failure level also doesn’t seem connected narratively to the preceding : three levels. Unclear what this has to do with preceding Chapter. : Location: : Aye Mak Sicur station : Success status: : Tri xeem has been unleashed and has detonated the sun. The status of all : other actors is unclear. : Comments: : This is the only failure level that has Pfhor Troopers. : Despite the terminal implying that humans are on board Aye Mak Sicur, we : don’t see any humans and we see S’pht’kr instead. (Unless we’re meant to : interpret the terminal message as being sent from a different station from : the one we are on.) : This is another failure level that feels like it’s not connected to the : preceding timeline/chapter at all. : The preceding timeline may not even end in failure and may just continue into : the next Chapter (Envy), making this failure level a sort of “what if” : scenario from another reality where the BoBs managed to board Aye Mak : Sicur station. However, an interview with Double Aught (where they state : failure levels are the conclusions of their timelines) suggests otherwise.
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