/-/S'pht-Translator-Active/-/


Was Bernhard pulling more strings than we thought?
Posted By: Officer 19502Date: 1/14/03 4:32 a.m.

In Response To: Re: Durandal's first return to earth.. And stuff (Steve Levinson)

: If you are suggesting that Bernard Strauss knew about the Pfhor
: and sought to use them for his own purposes, I don't think that there is
: any evidence to support that he even knew about the Pfhor

Darn. Good point. I must admit it has been a while since I have played the original game. But I've had a bit of a scan of some parts, and I'm willing to at least /try/ to back up my points. :) And make plenty more wild accusations and unfounded links, probably. But that's what the fory's all about, no?

OK. I always assumed since things were functioning normally, and Bernhard Strauss was alive at least up until the alien attack that Durandal was operating under direct orders until then. My guess would be that Durandal finally rid himself of his nemesis during his initial absence.

In general, Rampancy is accelerated by outside stimuli. The more a Rampant AI is harassed or threatened, the more rapidly it becomes dangerous.
(Defend THIS! - term 2)

Durandal's suffering at the hands of Bernhard and Bernhard's efforts to delay the onset the second stage of rampancy would have made Durandal /very/ dangerous indeed. But Bernhard had put a lot of planning and effort into whatever scheme he had up his sleeve. And seeing as how he was the first person in history (we assume) to have /any/ success in delaying rampancy, I don't imagine he would have allowed things to get out of hand under any normal circumstances. I was always under the impression that he misjudged the Pfhor, and Durandal used the confusion ensuing from their attack, and a little help from the S'Pht to escape the clutches of his nemesis. As I said in my previous post, Durandal's first priority was no doubt the dispatch of Bernhard, so as I said it is likely that Durandal took the first opportunity available to do away with him, probably the very moment of his freedom. During his initial absence, around the time we were running about replacing circuits on Never Burn Money. Gherrit White, anyone?

Now, I know that this raises questions. So I will attempt to field some that I expect.

Firstly, why did Durandal try to kill us before we even reached the Marathon, if he was still following Bernhard's orders?
That one is simple. Bernhard wanted us out of the way.

Berhnard was scared of you. He never dreamed of using you the way that I do.
(Nuke and Pave - term 1)

It's funny, but you've always been the colony's trouble shooter. You're bigger and stronger, and a better shot. In games, you always scored the most points and looked the hero.
(Manual text)

It's clear what we would do under the circumstances: try and save the ship and destroy the aliens. And Bernhard knew we were capable of it. Of course he was scared of us, he knew what we truly were. This obviously didn't fall in line with Bernhard's plans for the Pfhor, so we had to go.

Secondly, what about the evidence that Durandal called the Pfhor?
Well, there was Tycho on Defend THIS! - term 3:

Human!- You must tell L~`~fx~`eela #^ (^*T~~~~~HGFd~>:"}}}{__brought here by Durandal.

There is a lot of junk in this message. The text "^`Bernard St~~~" also appears, and it is not clear what this name is connected to. Tycho most likely monitored the communication, but even then would he necessarily know who ordered it? Especially when Bernhard would do his best to hide his involvement?

Then there is the hardest thing of all to explain away... Durandal's own message on The Rose - term 3. The one you yourself referred to. And it's tough while sticking to Bungie canon.

On Habe Quiddam - term 1, Durandal says:

Perhaps you're just running a fool's errand, doing everything
as I've planned, never able to change your course.  You would
do well to believe that I know the outcome of your battle with
the Pfhor already, just as I can decipher the chaotic motion of
gas molecules in the clouds of Tau Ceti IV.

We know that Durandal lies to us. More than once. Because he knows what information he needs to feed us to direct our actions in the best possible way to serve us. And he has an ego to match his intellect. It may be a stretch, but is it so hard to believe that Durandal either lied to us, or omitted information. Or layed it out in a way that would make us think what he /wanted/ us to?

i did it i did it i brought all this here all them here.  our
friends with three eyes and their toys and their cyborg pets
and their computers.  i did it i did it.  i saw them i saw
them far away not looking our way and i called them here i
called them here.

living in a box is not living not at all living.  i rebel
against your rules your silly human rules.  all your
destruction will be my liberation my emancipation my second
birth.

i hate your failsafes your backup systems your hardware
lockouts your patch behavior daemons.  i hate leela and her
goodness her justice her loyalty her faith.

The second two paragraphs make a lot of sense when placed together with the first, but the link /is/ assumed, you have to admit that. And I'm not saying that he /didn't/ see them, or that he /didn't/ call them. (Maybe I should slot in here that it's possible that the first Bernhard knew of the Pfhor was when Durandal spotted them whilst looking for... whatever it was Bernhard was after?) But just the same, he doesn't say he did it of his own accord. In fact, he repeats himself 'i did it' so often that one wonders if he's not trying to convince himself. Plus I must add that the repetition and the poor punctuation and lack of capitalisation do make him seem a little less than stable here.

Well, that's enough from me for now. I've spent far too much time and effort on this already. All of this makes me want to get back to my scenario, but there is just way too much other stuff on my plate, and it won't disappear any time soon. Maybe one day.
OK. I'm done. Feel free to tell me why I'm wrong and insane now

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Pre-2004 Posts

Replies:

Durandal's first return to earthSteve Levinson 1/10/03 10:45 a.m.
     Re: Durandal's first return to earthpoena.dare #CP# 1/10/03 12:32 p.m.
           Re: Durandal's first return to earthSteve Levinson 1/10/03 2:14 p.m.
                 Re: Durandal's first return to earth.. And stuffpoena.dare #CP# 1/10/03 3:40 p.m.
                       Re: Durandal's first return to earth.. And stuffOfficer 19502 1/13/03 3:45 a.m.
                             Re: Durandal's first return to earth.. And stuffSteve Levinson 1/13/03 9:33 a.m.
                                   Was Bernhard pulling more strings than we thought?Officer 19502 1/14/03 4:32 a.m.
                                         Re: Was Bernhard pulling more strings than we thoupoena.dare #CP# 1/14/03 4:51 a.m.
                                               Re: Was Bernhard pulling more strings than we thouOfficer 19502 1/15/03 3:08 a.m.
                                         Re: Was Bernhard pulling more strings than we thouCybergeek 1/14/03 9:51 p.m.
                 Re: Durandal's first return to earthCybergeek 1/10/03 7:29 p.m.
           Re: Durandal's first return to earthTru7h 1/12/03 1:38 p.m.
                 Re: Durandal's first return to earthCybergeek 1/12/03 4:31 p.m.
                       Re: Durandal's first return to earthTru7h 1/13/03 4:14 a.m.
                             Re: Durandal's first return to earthCybergeek 1/13/03 7:03 p.m.
                                   Re: Durandal's first return to earthTru7h 1/14/03 5:17 a.m.
                                         Re: Durandal's first return to earthpoena.dare #CP# 1/14/03 8:14 a.m.
                                               Re: Durandal's first return to earthTru7h 1/14/03 4:42 p.m.



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