Rubicon Volunteers - Gaiters of NY

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:

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:

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.

Rubicon Volunteers - Gaiters of NY	Steve Levinson	7/14/02 11:56 a.m.
Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Gaiters of NY	Inverted Sock Puppet	7/14/02 9:36 p.m.
Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Gaiters of NY	Steve Levinson	7/15/02 8:29 a.m.


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