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Rubicon Volunteers - People Under Stairs - Numb
Posted By: Steve LevinsonDate: 7/23/02 5:07 p.m.

The Salinger Plank offers an unprecedented triple dream level following 10001 Nordic Nerds. At the end of that level, the player is taken prisoner by Lysander and handed over to the Pfhor. Before we wake up in a Pfhor prison in my favorite level of all Exit Door Leads In, the Jjaro intercede in our dreams to give us a hint of the bigger picture. The trouble is, what in the world does this hint really mean?

After a standard Things May Happen level, we find our selves in a rather explosive situation in People under the Stairs. I guess the title refers to the danger of those who lurk in places unseen, which is very apt for this level, as it is played in the dark with simulacrums everywhere. You only have a 1X shield recharger on this level, so hit a few of them and you’re dead. The real purpose of this dream is to read a terminal that is the mirror of one we already encountered in Science Stands Alone in the Pfhor Plank:

After the blast killed four of my coworkers, the Wheeling Hubcap Factory brought in another one like me. Paid top dollar, from what I heard. Someone who could work just as hard, just as feverishly. Someone just as insane as I was. Meet Kate.

Hmm . . . The terminal text is exactly the same as what appeared in Science, but the terminal pict is different. The image at the left is of a printing press – early 20th century if I’m not mistaken. No real connection to the plot, but then the whole Kate story is a bit of an analogy. My best guess is that the Rubicon team was striving for something in continuous motion – something akin to the running discussed on the second screen, and nature of man and machine, discussed on the third.

Well, in any case, your objective is find your way to an open area, to the portal to the next dream level, Comfortably Numb. This is one of the weirdest levels in any Marathon scenario and, yet, it’s definitely the most dream-like. Everything happens in slow motion. For the technically inclined, the Rubicon team accomplished this by placing invisible extravision power-ups everywhere. You start the level on top of a couple of them and as soon as one wears off, you’re bound to encounter another to return you to double extravision, maintaining the illusion. It is possible to wait until the effect wears off, giving the player a more normal perception of the level, but sooner rather than later, they’ll encounter more power-ups and return to the dream state. There are some Kate terminals here, too, these finish off the rest of the Kate story from Science Stands Alone in the Pfhor Plank, and then continue with the start of the Kate story from the Ascension Factor:


They say that the most frequent psychological disorder of amputees is 'phantom pains,' times in which the subject experiences sensation in parts of them which are no longer attached. Kate became the surreal warmth in the heart they had removed from my body long ago. I was an amputee. She was my phantom.

I won’t belabor the point of this here, as we already discussed it at length in The Ascension Factor, but take a look at the associated picture. We have a rather distinguished looking gentleman in a suit and tie – but look at the eyes. Look at the right eye. The image is very unclear and this is largely conjecture on my part, but haven’t we seen this before? Could this be Arthur Frane, Petty Officer on the UESC Marathon, who was abducted by the Pfhor, reclaimed by Durandal, served under Robert Blake on Lh’owon and returned to Earth with Blake in a captured Pfhor refuling ship? Could this Arthur Frane have gone on to become the genius behind the Achilles virus? This line of thought brings up an entirely new line of possibilities. We know that Frane was on the Pfhor ship that Durandal later renamed Boomer. We know that he served under Robert Blake. What we don’t know is how his existence may have differed in the final time line in Infinity from that in M2. It’s quite possible that he came under the influence of Tycho, just as you did, in which case Tycho may have had a lot to do with the development of the Achilles virus. This is pure speculation, but an interesting possibility in any case. Perhaps Chris or Scott can enlighten us here.

There are also some other interesting picture-only terminals in this dream level:

These faces in their surgical masks looking down at you look rather cheery, wouldn’t you say? Are you “comfortably numb?” Yes, yes, blind leaders of the blind, tumbling down the spiral. yes, yes, you are a casualty. And with that, you are transported away to the reality of waking up in a Pfhor prison. It’s time for The Pfhor. It’s time for the Exit Door Leads In.

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Replies:

Rubicon Volunteers - People Under Stairs - NumbSteve Levinson 7/23/02 5:07 p.m.
     Re: Rubicon Volunteers - People Under Stairs - NumAgent Shem 7/23/02 7:14 p.m.
           Re: Rubicon Volunteers - People Under Stairs - NumSteve Levinson 7/24/02 9:20 p.m.
     Re: Rubicon Volunteers - People Under Stairs - NumYossarian 7/23/02 8:01 p.m.
           oh, and...Yossarian 7/23/02 8:27 p.m.
                 Re: oh, and...scott 7/23/02 9:08 p.m.
                       Re: oh, and...Steve Levinson 7/23/02 9:22 p.m.
                             Re: oh, and...Steve Levinson 7/24/02 11:00 p.m.
                 Re: oh, and...Steve Levinson 7/23/02 9:16 p.m.
                 Re: oh, and...Sean 9/20/02 7:10 p.m.
           Re: Rubicon Volunteers - People Under Stairs - NumSteve Levinson 7/23/02 9:05 p.m.
     Re: Rubicon Volunteers - People Under Stairs - NumScifiteki 7/23/02 11:19 p.m.
           Re: Rubicon Volunteers - People Under Stairs - NumInverted Sock Puppet 7/24/02 12:33 a.m.
                 Re: Rubicon Volunteers - People Under Stairs - NumAgent Shem 7/24/02 6:34 a.m.



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