Sorry about the long delay. I'm going to have to be a bit less detailed in these posts if I'm going to get through the series. I'll try to post the next level tomorrow to make up for my absense. Please let me know if you appreciate these posts - I haven't gotten much feedback and want to know that the effort is worthwhile.
When we left off, Merlin was transporting us to a nearby space station. Unfortunately, the station was under attack by our favorite "pirates", so we weren't sure what to expect. Sure enough, there is a greeting party when we arrive. As we start Bavarians, we have bid Merlin goodby and are about to meet the 2nd of 3 AI's we will serve in DiaBD. Mithrandir reminds me in some ways of Lela, but he is not nearly as friendly. He is rather matter of fact and tells us what we have to do and where to go. His login pict is of a sward, but I see no resemblance to Durandal.
The basic objective is to get to the exit terminal. The level is well layed out and once known, it can be traversed in a few minutes. But exploration is half the fun, and there are so many of our friends to play with. The big secret on this level is a rocket launcher that can be obtained right away. If you come to the passage with sets of stairs at both ends, ther are a couple of ledges on the side that are easily reached with a little jumping. The one to the left contains an obstruction at one end - tabbing on it lowers it and reveals a SPNKR, and a F'lickta. The other ledge, BTW, contains a 2X shield recharger on the back side of one of the columns. There is also a 3X power-up that replenishes itself, effectively giving you the availability of 3X shields throught the level. There is also a small secret room off of one of the other passages with a tiny amount of ammo. In the big rectangular room, you can breach the force field in the center by stepping into the column farthest from the point where you enter the room. This gives access to a PB and a couple of switches. One switch opens a door off one of those 2 ledges, but there really is nothing special to access through it. The other switch raises a platform between those steps, basically forcing you to go around it by jumping onto those ledges. This makes it very hard to miss finding those secrets if you keep your eyes open. Speaking of which, there is a 1X recharger down a passage off the rectangular room - it is revealed by stepping into the passage opposite it.
There is a terminal high up in a large room. You can use the rocket launcher to get up there, but it's also reachable from the upper passageways via a grenade blast. This is an official appology terminal. A more appropirate place would have been on Sensori Overlord, but more on that later. In any case, the terminal will definitely be of interest to Hitchiker and X-Files fans.
To get to the exit terminal, simply head to the highest reaches of the station and drop down to a corridor with a terminal at the end. You'll notice the sound of a door opening as you approach the terminal - this is a window ledge around the corner that is dropping to let you return ot the beginning of the level, if you wish.
