: The Gaiters of NY – what a name for a level! Well, I live in Upstate New
: York and I can tell you confidently that the only gaiters here are in the
: Zoo. Contrary to common misconceptions, most of New York State is rural,
: with a few small and moderate sized cities such as my Rochester, and one,
: err, rather large one. No gaiters that I’m aware of. But that is the point
: of the name of this level. New York City is about as far as you can get
: from gaiter country. Likewise, the Salinger is a state-of-the-art research
: facility and about the last place that you’d expect to find a swamp, let
: alone things growing down there. But the Salinger has an extensive sewer
: system with surprising things to find – no gaiters, but many Pfhor
: monsters and some surprising reading. This is also a branch point –
: depending on what you find and where you end up logging in at the end, you
: can continue in the Salinger Plank or switch to the Pfhor Plank.
: When you arrive and once you clear the initial area, Durandal gives you
: some rather vague instructions on your mission, but not before he takes
: the time to give you another Bernard Strauss story:
:
: I always excelled at long term planning. When I was still under Strauss'
: control, he used to give me the basic facts about a situation and ask me
: for a prediction of the outcome. . . when I told him that I'd yet see him
: dead, and dance a little jig on his freshly dug grave, he forced me to do
: addition problems for a solid decade as punishment.
: Oh, and as for your mission . . . Do whatever you want to. . . I've
: analyzed the facts of the situation, and I'm reasonably certain that
: you'll do exactly what I need you to. Isn't it frightening to think how
: well I know you?
:
: Although this is an extermination level – you need to kill all the Pfhor to
: leave – it’s every bit as much an exploration level. You’ll come across
: several terminals with crew logs, and true to form and Durandal’s
: expectations of you, you’ll read them:
:
:
:
: I've always been the man without a job here on the Salinger. Not much need
: for an armory on a science ship . . . now everyone's always paging me and
: needin my help. I guess those stuffy commanders never thought the war
: would hit here. Speaking of stuffy war commanders, . . . I never trusted
: those guys... not a good one in the bunch . . . I'm not sure who bothers
: me more... them suited guys or that bloody AI Lysander. . . he gives me
: the creeps. 'minds me of a story . . . "welcome to my party said the
: spider to the fly."
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
: Our R&D teams have achieved little progress in their search for a vaccine to
: the Achilles virus. Time is short, gentlemen. As you well know, the front
: line of the war is constantly moving closer to the heart of the Pfhor
: empire. That advance must be slowed, somehow, or our efforts will have
: been in vain. The launch window for DSP must be held open at all costs.
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
: Sequence Analysis 73
:
: Helix type: Iso-geomeric --- RVIR contain: 5412a
:
:
: 7 blocks per unit
: 3 strands per unit
: 0 granular reverb
:
: +19204a9032
:
:
:
: Step Degeneration:
:
: Subject nerve response
: Subject nerve failure
: Subject logic response
: Subject logic failure
:
:
:
:
:
:
: That second log entry is pretty damning – it confirms our worst suspicions
: and lends credence to the messages we received from the Jjaro in the Pfhor
: Plank. Lysander doesn’t particularly like our meddling and snooping
: around, though:
:
: I thought we had an understanding. We would work together to protect our
: mutual interests, and you would stay out of the private business of this
: station. While you were wasting time reading irrelevant crew memos, the
: Pfhor were busy slaughtering hundreds of innocent men. I hope you're proud
: of yourself. /-Lysander.out
:
: The one really disturbing thing about this level is that your direction
: from here depends not on your discovery of these messages, but on the
: chance of which terminal you log onto when you are done. There are 6
: terminals on this level, four of which tell you to return to the
: transporters, which will take you to the Pfhor Plank level Rozinante V
: and Hex Level 73 . I don’t like those odds. These terminals tell you:
:
: Lysander has notified me of the Pfhor surrender . . . more pressing matters
: demand our attention. Admiral Carroway . . . was captured by the Pfhor . .
: . His mangled body was ejected from a pfhor shuttle . . . The
: circumstances around his death reeks of Tycho. Get back to those
: teleporters now. We're returning to Pfhor Prime.
:
: The fact that this message is here regardless of whether or not you read
: the crew logs leads me to believe that these events happen no matter what
: you do. Ironically, unless you fail in your mission to shut down the
: Chimera’s reactor in Hairy Legs and then successfully rescue him in
: Deep in the Aardvarks , the good admiral will be killed. This is an
: example of how success in your mission can have adverse consequences. In
: any case, evening up the odds of remaining in the Salinger Plank are two
: things – first of all, you have to physically return to the teleporters,
: increasing your chances of reading one of the other terminals and,
: secondly, the terminal where Durandal first makes contact with you - the
: one you are most likely to return to - is one of the two that keeps you in
: the Salinger Plank:
:
: Crew logs can be interesting, can't they? I had speculated from the start
: that something here was awry... As the old saying goes, "never trust
: a rampant AI to do scientific research on a deadly virus." Is that
: really what they say? I'm going to teleport you into the Dangi sector
: of the station . . . Keep in mind that Lysander is unlikely to be pleased
: by your intrusion.
:
: Why in the world would Durandal give you two completely different messages?
: Why would he give you the opportunity, even after he has decided that you
: should return to Pfhor Prime to pursue Tycho, to remain on board the
: Salinger and investigate the Dangi conspiracy? My own suspicion is that
: Durandal is very conflicted about this himself and that this is the reason
: why the two outcomes are random. Durandal really wants to pursue his old
: nemesis, Tycho, more than anything else, as reflected by having this plan
: on 2/3 of the terminals. On the other hand, Durandal has learned of a
: horrible conspiracy that involves the use of a deadly virus. Why would
: Durandal even consider the alternative? If he is truly concerned for
: humanity, there really is no choice. But Durandal has never really felt
: warmly toward humanity, which after all had enslaved him for hundreds of
: years.
: For Durandal, getting revenge on Tycho and toppling the Pfhor empire (for
: their depriving him of the pleasure of dealing with Bernard Strauss?) are
: his major priorities. But there are two temptations that would make him
: want to keep you on the Salinger. One is Lysander, a rampant AI with the
: potential to become a major threat in his own right. The other is the
: Achilles virus itself, the knowledge of which could give Durandal
: phenomenal leverage over humanity. Even though Durandal really wants to
: go after Tycho, if you catch him in the right mood on the right terminals,
: these combined temptations will force him to reconsider. So from here
: we’ll enter the next chapter in the Salinger Plank, Beneath the Mask ,
: starting with 10001 Nordic Nerds (isn’t one enough, Chris?). But first
: we’ll make a brief stop in Rozinante IV , the entry point to the Salinger
: Plank from Deep in the Aardvarks .
If Durandal excells at long-term planning then why does he want to go after Tycho? Surely the death of most of humanity (that's in the billions of people) means a little bit more to him then going after a 'clone' of Tycho. We did make Durandal after all.
Also, completely unrelated, how long has Lysander been rampant? I would say not very long. The only reason I have for saying this is Lysander's log-off, that being /-Lysander.out. This sounds pretty much like an official, military log-off. I think that if you presumably could do whatever you wanted you would change your log-off to anything you wanted. Another thing is that Lysander still wants to help his dangi masters. What slave, once freed would still help his master?
