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

	Rubicon Volunteers - Tar & Feather Club
	Posted By: Steve Levinson	Date: 8/9/02 1:15 p.m.
	The Tar and Feather Club. All right - it’s time to extract revenge! It’s hard to believe that this was originally to be the final level in the Salinger Plank – not that it isn’t challenging, but it’s not that technically difficult to navigate and it certainly doesn’t set any records for polys. etc. Rather than starting over, the Rubicon Team wisely chose to keep this map and to add Sucking Cherries, integrating the two, much as was done with FUD and Wading in Vitriol, to complete the story of the endgame of the plank. The object is simple here – kill all the bad guys, but this isn’t an extermination level and the only thing that you really have to do is to explore the two locker rooms. Yes, that’s it. Of course, you’ll likely kill everyone in the process of getting there, and there are some nice weapons caches to be retrieved and secrets to be obtained. The one thing that Durandal asks that you not do is to kill the Dangi scientists – i.e. the clean room bobs. Indeed, there is a hard-wired terminal to tell you this under the assumption that you have already killed a few before having a chance to read it: Could you be just a tad more careful about who you're shooting? I want the Salinger scientists alive. Let me put it in simpler terms: don't kill anyone who isn't shooting at you. But why does he want the Salinger scientists alive? Could good old altruistic Durandal be planning to have them continue to work on a cure? Wouldn’t that require more human experiments? Why not just nuke the entire station – destroy every vestige of the Achilles virus and those who developed it? Once again, I think that Durandal has plans for the knowledge of the virus, and he has plans for the Dangi scientists. I can conceive of 3 possible scenarios: Durandal plans to extract revenge on the scientists (but then why not on the Board members as well?) Durandal wants the scientists to resume work on Achilles so that he will have both the virus and the cure to use as leverage in the future – a truly scary thought Durandal recognizes the potential of the scientists abilities and wishes to use them for other purposes in much the way that Strauss used Durandal Much as I would like to think I know how Durandal works, I really cannot decide among these possibilities. Durandal is capable of all of these. Now it is possible that Durandal hopes to use them for the greater good, but I wouldn’t count on it. Throughout the level, you will see Dangi scientists teleporting out, or rather being teleported out by Durandal. From what I can tell, there are no consequences for going ahead and killing the Dangi scientists anyway. You’ll still be able to finish the game and you won’t be punished, but it would have been cool if the Rubicon Team had set a limit on the number you could kill, sending you to the Pfhor Plank or something if you went against Durandal’s wishes. Perhaps in AO, but this probably wasn’t possible with the MI engine. There are a lot of terminals here, most of which sport the message: Lysander cannot be accessed at this time. Pease try again later. Frankly, I don’t think that you’ll have much luck trying back later. There are a couple of classified terminals, however, that tell us about what the Dangi execs are planning: The plan must be aborted. Most of the key research staff is gathered in the gym along with a fairly heavy guard force, waiting for evacuation. Their shuttle should be along shortly. Most of the other directors and execs have already left. We will regroup on the safe outerworld specified in the contingency plan. Hurry, time is short. ~Director Lisa Carroway We’ll learn more about what happens to these execs at the end of the plank. But notice the name of the author of this message. This is interesting for a couple of reasons. First, this director is a woman. Throughout the game we’ve been talking about the Board members as greedy men. Some things may not change in the next several hundred years, but let’s face it – Marathon is incredibly sexist (well, there is the matter of the gender the players tend to be), but I would hope that by the start of the time of the Marathon Trilogy, women play a fairly equal role to men. Hats off to the Marathon Team for including a woman in the upper echelon of the evil Dangi Corporation. Now they just need to eliminate the rest of their male-only references throughout the terminal text. And maybe Charlie should have been a she rather than a he – why should Lela be the only female AI? The other point is that this director is named Carroway, as in a certain admiral we encountered in the Chimera and Pfhor Planks? I wonder if they could be related. Wouldn’t that be the height of irony if they were – perhaps the estranged daughter of the great Admiral is a key player in the plot to control all of humanity. Or an even more chilling possibility – perhaps the great Admiral is not so great after all – maybe he’s even behind the plot for Dangi to take control of the UESC. Isn’t speculation fun! There’s one other terminal of major interest: Of principal interest to the Dangi Corporation during the early half of the Human / Pfhor war was the pfhor-developed "assimilated" human androids. As the Dangi Corporation improved its relations with the pfhor trafficking contacts, we learned much about this useful technology. . . Their logical and speech facilities were very limited compared to what we have been able to achieve in the first prototype line of Autonomous Military Dangi Droids (AMDDs). Indeed, these initial prototypes are virtually indistinguishable from human soldiers in all respects, granted two exceptions. So Dangi’s involvement with the Pfhor has been even tighter than we had believed. Not only did they exchange assistance in helping to stave off defeat in return for human prisoners, but they actually exchanged technology in both directions. Does the evil never stop? The first of these exceptions is obviously the unwavering loyalty of the android's hardcoded programming compared to the ebb and flow of human relations. . . The second notable difference between a standard human soldier and an AMDD is that the AMDD has a gray biochemical fluid instead of blood. . . if an AMDD were to be wounded the human marines in its regimen would possibly mutiny (likelihood: 32%) or report the abnormal circumstances back to the UESC (likelihood: 97%) as well as turn in the AMDD cadaver for study (likelihood: 84%). . . So Dangi has learned how to use Pfhor technology to make a potential army of loyal soldiers. It’s interesting they way that they have calculated probabilities of human behavior. In any case, we’ll have a chance to combat this army soon enough. Durandal doesn’t know it yet, but production of that army is well underway: Lysander contingency #21b status report Status Efficiency Production line 02a: GREEN 93% Production line 09t: GREEN 82% Production line 12e: RED NA Production line 23b: GREEN 95% *** Booting production line 12e --- Boot initiated *** Loading vectors ••••• --- Vectors loaded *** Initiating production line 12e --- Line 12e initiated Production line 12e active Lysander contingency #21b status report Status Efficiency Production line 02a: GREEN 91% Production line 09t: GREEN 84% Production line 12e: GREEN 76% Production line 23b: GREEN 96%% Durandal has his own take on the situation at the end of the level: The Salinger network is wide open to any takers. . . I have some corners to sweep out before the UESC reinforcements arrive, and you are my broom. . . it appears that Lysander started an automatic process . . . I can't identify what exactly he initiated . . . He may well have started large-scale production of the Achilles virus . . . Thank God the situation’s not that dire, but it’s bad enough. Let’s go Suck some Cherries.

[ | Message Index | Read Prev Msg | Read Next Msg ] Pre-2004 Posts

Replies:

	Rubicon Volunteers - Tar & Feather Club	Steve Levinson	8/9/02 1:15 p.m.
	Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Tar & Feather Club	Scifiteki	8/9/02 10:43 p.m.
	Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Tar & Feather Club	Steve Levinson	8/10/02 10:48 a.m.

Problems? Suggestions? Comments? Email maintainer@bungie.org Marathon's Story Forum is maintained with WebBBS 5.12.