:
: This is a pair of secret levels that, together, serve as an extremely
: important thread element in the Rubicon Story. These are undoubtedly part
: of a dream, with the Jjaro firmly in control of your thoughts. The levels
: are on the Salinger – a place you may have never visited nor even been
: aware of. In part A of the dream, which takes place in vacuum (don’t even
: enter this level if you spent too much time under water in the Frog levels
: – there are only a couple of O2 power-ups here), involves reading a series
: of terminals that display log entries from a Dangi scientist on the
: Salinger. I’ve reproduced these in here in full, as I suspect that few of
: us take the time to read them in detail when our air supply is running
: out:
:
: #begin entry 1 of 7
: three years i have worked on this station in the same position, doing the
: same labor, following the same rules. until only a few days ago, i had
: been complacent in my role: to win the war the UESC needs soldiers. some
: soldiers fight with their steady hands or quick reflexes, others fight
: with their minds. i have fought the war against the pfhor with every
: neuron that my brain could spare; immaculately following each instruction
: my superiors gave me, working to produce a weapon i did not understand.
: i finally know the true depth of my folly, and to humanity i owe an apology i
: can't possibly make. it is my hope that whoever reads this will act upon
: it, and their action will be my penance.
: i have spread the vile secrets of this place over six other terminals. find
: them and you will know the truth.
: /end entry
:
: Sounds rather intriguing, wouldn’t you say?
: #begin entry 2 of 7
: according to documents i extracted from a damaged terminal within the archive
: node, the salinger's development dates back to pre-war days. while the
: documents were unclear as to the exact date, they did specify the list of
: involved men and corporations. the classified files in the uesc wing will
: tell you that the salinger was built by the dangi corporation. what you
: won't learn there is that /there is no/ dangi corporation. the company is
: a hollow shell, a holding structure for the combined wealth of the ten
: most powerful men in the pre-war economy.
: i can only assume that these ten men took for granted their success in the
: business world and decided to raise the bar of their influence. the very
: existence of powerful industrialists in our society necessitates the fear
: that one day there will be no more foreign markets for them to conquer,
: that one day ten trillion credits and fifteen trillion credits will look
: no different in their eyes.
: it should have been obvious to those who could stand against them that their
: final horizon is complete and utter control. by now it may be too late.
: /end entry
: So the all-powerful Dangi corporation isn’t real . This is nothing more
: than a power grab.
: #begin entry 3 of 7
: no uesc or dangi employee has ever been allowed to view the project the
: salinger is dedicated to producing as a whole, nor is any employee
: permitted to view the command structure that this station operates under.
: i accepted this as a necessary evil when i first joined the ranks... we
: are at war, and secrecy is a powerful ally.
: only through careful examinations of communication logs have i been able to
: gain any information about the operational details of the salinger. what
: follows is the best description of the chain of command that i can
: provide.
: under the watchful eye of 'the committee,' tasks and workers are assigned and
: reassigned. everyone is kept moving from task to task and position to
: position, even the sacred few who know the truth. at times, all work on a
: task is deserted only to be resumed in mid stride by a patchwork team
: transferred from any number of sectors away.
: this sweeping of the staff... a "disinformation shift" as 'the
: committee' calls it, is designed to keep everyone from having lasting
: friendships that may undermine loyalty to dangi or foster discussions that
: question its motives.
: everyone i pass in the halls has the same glassy look to their eyes. they all
: learn and forget names in the blink of an eye, stepping to the beat of
: each disinformation shift. it is in this way that the directors have
: prevented anyone from discovering the true purpose of this station.
: /end entry
:
: The plot thickens.
: #begin entry 4 of 7
: only a handful of people know the second dirtiest secret of this station, a
: secret many men have given their lives to protect.
: while it may not outwardly seem true, all work on the salinger is geared
: towards the development of a cure for a manmade virus named
: "achilles." i don't know when the achilles virus was developed
: or by whom, but i've seen first hand what it does to test patients.
: a high level scientist working on the virus once described to me its probable
: post-release impact on humanity as an 'extinction level event.' i believe
: him.
: the ten men in control of dangi intend to use the virus and the cure as a
: form of massive blackmail. they want absolute control of uesc government,
: something the achilles virus would grant them with ease.
: /end entry
:
: Oh my God!
: #begin entry 5 of 7
: to provide a continual supply of 'volunteers' for achilles test vaccines and
: to delay the inevitable uesc victory in the war, certain dangi controllers
: participate in a covert trafficking ring with the pfhor. in exchange for
: uesc weapons and secrets, the pfhor offload human pows by the shipload
: into the salinger's upper decks.
: to avoid any risk of discovery, all men are kept in stasis during the
: exchange and offloading process. at a later time, the controllers arrange
: for the removal of each man's vocal chords. as speechless inmates of the
: salinger, these ex uesc pows await their day to be exposed to the virus.
: the men are kept in corridors of single cells that stretch the length of
: the ship like a beehive. i have walked these halls and heard ten thousand
: teeth chattering from fear. i assure you, it is the most disturbing noise
: a human can experience.
: No, I didn’t forget to include, “ /end entry ”, it didn’t appear, here.
: Now let’s go read the remaining 2 terminals:
: #begin entry 6 of 7
: [seaching contents...]
: [revising search...]
: [deleting sensitive data...]
: ?authorization_lysander
: the requested document contains no data. if you believe that you arrived at
: this screen in error, please contact the administrator.
:
: Hmmm . . . Who is Lysander? Oh, we’ll learn plenty about him in the
: Salinger Plank . Now I’m sure that many of you think that this whole idea
: is absolutely absurd. Why would anyone even dream of developing such an
: ultimate weapon of mass destruction and using it for blackmail? How could
: these men even think of collaborating with the Pfhor, putting us at risk
: of losing the war? The sad fact is that this isn’t all that far fetched.
: In fact, elements of this basic plot have their precedents in history –
: just not all at the same time. There were a number of individuals and
: corporations throughout WWII who actively collaborated with the Nazis.
: They weren’t interested in supporting the Nazis per se , but they were
: trying to play both sides of the fence – insuring a place for themselves
: no matter who one the war, and making a tidy profit in return. The Nazis
: themselves used human experimentation in order to develop more effective
: weapons, including biological weapons. And I bet that most of you didn’t
: know that there was a real concern that the detonation of the first
: experimental atom bomb would start a chain reaction that wouldn’t stop
: with the fissile material in the bomb. Theoretically , this shouldn’t
: have happened, but even Einstein was concerned that an error in the theory
: might not predict the possibility of starting a chain reaction with the
: atmosphere. Put all of these things together, and you have the Dangi
: corporation.
: Now I wonder what was on the remaining two terminals that Lysander deleted?
: Oh, there is one additional terminal message in the shapes file:
:
: No DTB no see this
: Nyah nyah nyah
: Can't see this either.
:
:
: The Rubicon Team really doesn’t like people who use Durandal Terminal
: Browser. Anyway, after reading Lysander’s message, we’re transported to
: part B of the dream, Canned Air , where we can take a deep breath, refill
: our oxygen tanks and stock up on a mortar and mortar ammo. This level has
: several blank terminal messages aimed at DTB users that don’t need to be
: repeated here. There is one terminal here that is pure Jjaro. Log on
: before collecting your ammo and you’ll read:
:
:
: a father's words personal gain
: syndrome of the lost universe
: find resume
: your purpose
: And after collecting your ammo:
: the choices are
: unfortunate
: your dark mind cutting through
: the deeping sky
: hungry fallicy lurks behind orbits
: of a rogue star
: bought and sold
: your own path, a loss for their fate
: return.
:
:
:
:
: And so you must proceed, knowing that an evil much greater than anything
: you could have known is being perpetrated “behind the orbits of a rogue
: star”, where power and lives can be bought and sold. You, however, are not
: on the right path and you must return to the Pfhor Plank, mindlessly
: following Durandal in his seemingly trivial folly with Tycho. Return.
: Return, but keep your eyes open for the one last opportunity that the
: Jjaro will open for you – your one last chance to save humankind. But that
: won’t be for quite a while. For now, it’s off to complete our mission of
: freeing Tycho – off to Sodding the Logs .
:
:
Hey Steve,
Just wanted you to know you're doing a great job with the Volunteer series on Rubicon. I only wish I had time to help out. Keep up the good work.
Cheers,
Ben
