Feels like it's been a while since I started a thread. Basically, some idle thoughts on a major element of the Pfhor Plank and Rubicon's themes of "trust no one".
In the Salinger Plank, where Durandal never learns that Tycho is still alive, things go fine (or at least as fine as they can when you're up against a rampant AI with emotional damage even more severe than Durandal's). In the Pfhor Plank, things don't end so well.
I think the intended theme of the Pfhor Plank was "Revenge: The Most Worthless of Causes". As soon as Durandal realizes that Tycho's alive, he essentially drops everything to go after him; sure, he initially tries to frame it as beneficial to the UESC, but his actions are very clearly personal in nature. Especially once you get to "Frog Blasting/Blasted Frogs" where it's strongly implied that Tycho's reemergence has been a lot harder on Durandal emotionally than he'd ever admit (and in turn implies that he knew it wasn't a clone from the start; this bit becomes clear when, after Tycho out-gambits him, Durandal refers to him as his brother, something he'd never done prior to this, IIRC). While High Command does get taken down at the end of the plank, the Dangi Corp. goes unchecked, to disastrous results.
In the Salinger Plank, Durandal never learns of Tycho's survival, and so remains focused on directly aiding the UESC. You know who does learn? The Security Officer.
I like to imagine that the SO and Durandal communicate normally off-screen (in most scenarios, not just Rubicon), so he must've had the chance to mention running into Tycho on the Chimera. But if the Salinger Plank proceeds as it's supposed to, that subject never comes up--in fact, Tycho only pokes his head in once (in Rubicon X) to try and recruit the SO, and it's still out of Durandal's sight. A bit odd, given how major a development Tycho surviving the Lh'owon campaign would be...
The conclusion I draw is that the SO deliberately withheld this information from Durandal, possibly because he knew what would happen otherwise. If you want to take cues from Infinity, maybe the SO was even aware of the Pfhor Plank (and Tycho Plank) on some level. Even if it's for benign reasons, this would make the SO an active player in the misinformation game as well.
And thus ends this post, because it's late and I can't think of a more natural ending. :U Be really nice if one of the Rubicon devs could be contacted for comment...
