My gosh, that's brilliant gh!!
See, we're already finding out new stuff by running through the games again!
So, in a nutshell:
The Marathon was an experiment to harness the power of controlled rampancy, at least by Bernhard Strauss. He probably didn't let the UESC know about his plans. He created Durandal, made him an AI on the Marathon, then started developing him to become rampant. Durandal, being the clever AI he was, hid his rampancy from Bernhard. He HAD actually taken over the whole Marathon computer net, without Bernhard knowing. (Or maybe he DID know and let Durandal do it, according to plan. That's why he brought along the ten cyborgs, to turn back Durandal in case something went awry.) One thing Bernhard didn't expect was a rampant AI to start utilizing outside forces, so the Pfhor invasion came as a complete suprise. Durandal had found out himself how advanced the Pfhor technology was, and grew dissatisfied with the Marathon network. He lured the Pfhor to the Marathon with the prospect of slaves, and turned the invasion in their face by turning the S'pht to his side. He used the one marine that was on the Marathon as a tool to distract the Pfhor, and cause massive damage to their forces. When the invasion was suitably trounced, Durandal loaded himself onto the advanced Pfhor computers, and took off, laughing.
It is rather funny. Durandal played everybody for fools. Bernhard, the marine, Leela, the colonists, the UESC, and the Pfhor. He used what was supposed to be the biggest measure of protection for Bernhard against him. He lured the Pfhor to the Marathon, mugged them with the marine, then stole their ship and took off. Bernhard was probably lucky, because he died before Durandal got a hold of him. It was stellar highway robbery of the grandest scale.
Hmm... only now do I realize how cool the original M1 story was...
