Your Name:
	Your E-Mail Address:
	Subject:
	Message: : TOUR OF DUTY: : In the last level, we survived an onslaught of Troopers, punched some : switches, got depressed, and were put into a suicide trap by Leela. Not to : mention the fact that we were told about how Durandal is a bit crazy. As : if we didn't know that before ! : So what did Leela say a few moments ago? : Unfortunately, I have received a distress signal from some : crew who had sealed themselves off in one of the nearby : access areas. They say that they have lost control over the : doors and elevators on the level, and that the Pfhor have : access to the area. : It appears that Durandal has reacted to our move against him : by giving the Pfhor access to a formerly secure area. : We will have to deal with Durandal sooner or later, but we : can't be distracted from the Pfhor attack. I only hope that : his Rampant behavior won't continually sabotage our defense : efforts. : I am sending you to go and save these crew. Clear the area of : Aliens. If enough of the crew survive, then perhaps we can : get an intelligence report from them. : Other humans, eh? If you figured out how to open up the auto-map by this : point, you'll notice a bazillion blinking, blue dots. This is actually the : trademark of a BoB. Don't get too excited, because you'll eventually learn : to secretly loath these guys. ;) : We pop open the terminal to find a laconic message telling us to kill all : aliens and save as many humans as possible. Thanks, Leela. We really : needed that reminder, because we have a problem with short-term memory : loss... Or not. : We head to the right, and find a window looking out into a metal... : courtyard? And what do we see? Sure enough, humans. And a few Pfhor : Fighters. And those MADDs. And... Holy S'pht! : Meet... the Hulk! Leela told you about them on Defend THIS! : The Hulk : is an enormous and rather slow creature, but it is : incredibly strong. The science report indicated that it had : no body fat, and therefore had to be fed often to keep it : active. One crew member reported seeing one of these : creatures pointing to itself and mumbling "Drinniol" right : before it "picked Johnny up by the shirt and crushed him : against a pillar". : If we sit around gawping, these Hulks will continue to do such crushing. So : stuff a clip in that AR and get down there, bum! : Rushing to the right, we jump down the elevator, open the door, and jump : straight into the carnage. This is where the changes made in the latest : version of M1A1 start kicking in, because the Hulks aren't the same : ammo-sinks we remember from the earlier versions. Instead of being able to : keep them pinned in one spot with a torrent of AR bullets, we find it : impossible to stun these guys. Nevertheless, we can outrun them even going : backwards. So despite the fact that we can't pin them down, we can : certainly shoot them to shreds with our mighty AR. When things settle down : a bit, we may find that the humans (referred to as 'Born-on-Boards' or : 'BoBs') start exhibiting some odd behavior . : This level is tougher than most of the ones we've been through so far, but on : Kindergarten (which used to be my preferred difficulty), it's fairly : simple to get through. It is made all the more easy by the fact that there : is a secret area containing a second pistol. Now that we can dual-wield, : it becomes pretty easy to take down the Fighters we encounter, and our AR : can help us take out the Hulks. But what's really interesting about this : secret area is not the second pistol. It's the secret within it. If we : tap the walls a bit, we'll find a secret door... leading into a secret : room... with a secret terminal. Now what could this terminal say? : 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. : At this point in the game, we can't be positive who wrote this message. : However, it does seem like a message from an overly-giddy, perhaps even : insane computer. That narrows us down to two possibilities: Tycho and : Durandal. I think it's fairly clear which of the two actually made this : crazed, poorly-written message. : Later in the game, there is yet another secret. I actually discovered it on : my own while I was bombing around the level intentionally slaughtering : the remaining BoBs (I'm trustworthy like that). I knew I had killed every : single BoB I found, but I still kept hearing "They're : Everywhere!" I looked on my auto-map, and found two blue dots in the : empty space just next to the long, wide corridor in the north part of the : level, just before the 'Stamen'. So I headed up there, tapped at the wall, : and sure enough, out came two more BoBs, who I promptly shot to pieces. : There was also another secret terminal. As far as I can tell, M1 has : more secret terminals than any of the other Marathon games, even the : fan-made ones. : [ Unauthorized access -alarm 2521-] : [Security Breached 23-f -] : [Search String "war"] Third Martian War, 2345-48 E.A.D. : Although most historians point their fingers at the Misriah : Massacre as the cause of the Third Martian War, the coming of : a Martian conflict was inevitable. The failure of the Martian : economy and a long series of political struggles between Mars : and Earth continually strengthened the MIDA radicals. This : trend of radicalization accelerated with the building of the : Marathon and the subsequent failure of the CRISTs. (See below) : Misriah Massacre : On January 6, 2345(Earth A.D.), at the United Earth Government : Misriah food distribution center, what had begun as : a commonplace food riot turned into a massacre. The UEG riot : troopers who arrived at the scene had been informed that : the rioters were armed. As UEG troopers approached the scene : in their Randal Hovertank, plasma fire began spraying upwards. : In a flash decision, the commander of the Hovertank ordered : his crew to open fire upon the crowd. It took only five : seconds for over five hundred starving Martians to be : incinerated. : In the ensuing investigation of the Hovertank Vid-cams, it was : clear that only three of the rioters were armed, and that the : rest of the crowd was trying to flee the scene. Those three : became known as the Misriah Three. They have gone down in : history for starting the most destructive and bloody conflict : since Humanity had left Earth. However, it is clear that : these three have gained the credit for starting a war that : would have happened anyway. : [Search String "mida"] : The History of MIDA: MIDA, as it was known, was a popular political party : until the : failed coup of 2321, when their popularity suffered during : their short rule. MIDA gained control of Mars for only three : months, but their rule was ruthless and cruel. The MIDA death : squads killed anyone who they suspected of being loyal to the : UEG. Although accurate census data is not available for that : period, it is estimated that about ten percent of the : population was killed. : The MIDA coup was afterwards criticized for its : shortsightedness. In an organization that was notorious for : its long ranging policies and politicking, the coup was very : short-lived: MIDA never seriously accounted for the UEG's : overwhelming superiority in ground forces and warships. In : fact, they never attempted to take over the Marathon, which : was nearing completion and would have made a very powerful : weapon. The Marathon's massive size made it invulnerable to : most normal space attacks, and it would have made a very : stable weapons platform. : After the failed coup, the leaders of MIDA were executed for : their crimes, and the political organization was banned in all : forms. : The organization has survived as an underground terrorist : organization, and remains active to this day. In its : underground state, it fosters terrorism throughout Sol, and : due to its spectacular funding and excellent personnel, it has : grown to be one of the most feared terrorist groups active : anywhere in Sol. : [Spurious Interrupt - Breach Disabled ] : [Further Access Denied] : [Access Denied] : [Access Denied] : [Access Denied] : This is probably our greatest insight into the nature of Sol politics so far. : It almost feels like the Roman Republic has been reincarnated, with small : political bands violently grabbing for power and playing political games : where they aren't sending in armed gangs. In particular, I'm thinking of : Catiline here. : Now, the most interesting part about these secrets is that Leela actually : shows us where they both are, albeit unintentionally: : A bit like how in Defend THIS! Leela showed us the 'hidden' exit from the : crusher room, making many n00bs feel even more n00bish in the process (and : yes, I was one of those people that had to look this stuff up when I : could've just consulted the first terminal one more time). : This is the first of two levels (the other being Bob-B-Q ) where the goal is : to rescue as many BoBs as possible (needless to say, I intentionally suck : at this goal). If we fail, however, it doesn't really matter. The text : isn't even different by more than a paragraph. She either tells us we : succeeded or failed, and then proceeds to say the following: The Aliens : seem to have been caught off guard by the strength : of our counterattack. This is good news, but I have detected : more ships landing on the Marathon, and I fear that the Aliens : are reinforcing their efforts. : A very open-ended statement, to be sure. Doesn't really even say what we're : doing next level. Either way, we get teleported out and on to Smells Like : Napalm, Tastes Like Chicken! : Now, to cover the more aesthetic features of The Rose . The most interesting : feature, though one that can only really be identified by using the : auto-map, is the fact that the level is shaped like... well, a Rose: : The map even contains such map annotations as: - Stamen : - Pistil : - Petals : Clearly the name fits. : The music choice for this level is very unusual. It's hard to even describe : what it is . A choir of demented angels? An organ set to sound like : people? A screaming koala bear? Maybe the Pfhor have learned how to : actually make music, and this is the result? God only knows. : This level is decidedly up-beat in comparison to the previous one . Thank : god-- *BLAM!* : Whoops, that would be my suicide bomb. Sorry, just give me a few days to : stuff that back in. Oh, and give my apologies to the guy I just blew up. : ;) : And on that note of exploding humans, we end the sixth edition of Tour of : Duty (yes, I really am that far behind). : Vale, : Perseus
	If you'd like to include a link to another page with your message, please provide both the URL address and the title of the page:
	Optional Link URL:
	Optional Link Title:
	If necessary, enter your password below:
	Password: