Your Name:
	Your E-Mail Address:
	Subject:
	Message: : Chapter 2: Enemy Stage 1: Spring Surprise : : : : Act 1: Hysterical Womb : Last time on Tour of Duty, we sided with Tycho like we were supposed to but : failed to stop Hathor as she fled through time to a major battle against : the Pfhor post Marathon 2.(I think) While following her, I dreamt of a : rocky plateau in/above Kingdom Valley with the sea crashing and swirling : in the sky. Forrest noted in the last part that the view of the bay at the : end of the valley and Refraction Canyon in the skybox is actually a : photograph of New Zealand. That’s really cool. I love to know where it was : taken. : Not to bring up Doom again prematurely (as I have a better place for that in : this part), but it makes me think of how Phobos skybox in Doom 1 was made : using a heavily pixilated picture of Yangshuo County in China, presumably : as John Romero hated Tom Hall’s idea of using a realistic black space sky : like Phobos actually has. : Now I find myself on an observation deck of a Pfhor ship not too far away : from a Pfhor military outpost. : : : : The major enforcers seem to use the sprites of that of Marathon 2/Infinity : and they use the other kind of Sun Gun: the Plasma Flamethrower, referred : to in this game as the Napalm Cannon. It seems to fire miniature suns at : people, literal “throwing stars." : I will have to split up the chapters into three stages instead of two, due to : the post length limit I encountered in Chapter 1 Stage 1: Stage 1 will be : up to the split and the other two will be the planks, failure first. : : : : The Pfhor ships look an awful lot like the Covenant carriers from Halo 2, but : with the Marathon 1/Halo 1 Classic design of black with little red lights. : They have a sort of fish-like shape to them: Exhibit A : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk8BDlpnxHo : (Couldn’t find a still. It’s at 2:02. This was replaced with the durian bomb : and Earth not being on fire in the final game) : Exhibit B : : : : Exhibit B2 : : : : The Plasma Flamethrower I am holding is using a brand spanking new HD sprite : unlike the main trilogy’s one. You can see the plasma inside a glass tube : and what looks like a little fan on the end. Not to make another lewd : comparison like I did the SD Havok Rifle, but it looks like some kind of : exotic vibrator. : : : : Goran is the one who made the HD textures for the trilogy (Marathon 1 and : Infinity specifically) I think. He did a good job and this map is quite : nice too, if a little tricky in the tall cyborg rooms based on my : experience with 1.0 & 1.1. : : : : : : : Oh hell no. Tycho has just found his corrupt pfhor clones. One of them may : well have intergrated itself into him. I hope he is able to stop it from : overwriting his main code; I like the original Tycho! I don’t want him to : be tainted again! : Hathor was here, but she left for the Pfhor military colony below. She locked : us out of the command network as she must have known we were coming. And : that there is a major reason she was even able to get here; Tycho says : that his new subroutines would have to be from an AI using the exact same : unique encryption that his software uses. Based on what we’ve just seen : and realised you can probably guess, but I ain’t spoiling till we get : there. : : : : This isn’t the first time we fight the Pfhor controller cyborgs. I always : hated it in Marathon 1 as it was building up to a climactic boss fight and : the boss ended up dying to a single rocket. And you still had to kill his : guards. It was a massive anti-climax and set the stage for the other two : games having copy-pasted juggernaut tanks for bosses and shit endings, : especially Infinity. The other two game’s endings are less shit when you : remember they are part of a trilogy, but they still don’t have any bosses, : just like Pathways into Darkness with its awful cop-out I covered in the : PID Tour of Duty. : As before, it wouldn’t be until Halo when we got the Warthog Run to make up : for it and proper boss fights in Halo 2, which I praise to high heaven, : poor or weird implementation or not. : Marathon Redux by Liacrow intends to fix the controller boss as I saw in the : alpha: so far rockets no longer work and he moves around on his throne a : bit to dodge your shots. It’s 98% better and all it needs is an attack or : two, less monsters to fight and perhaps to jump off his throne and fight : on solid ground. Then it will be perfect. That isn’t for me to decide : though as it’s not my mod. : Eternal uses the original pushovers from Marathon 1 Classic and M1A1, which : only take slightly longer to kill as we have no RPG. There’s nothing wrong : with that as it’s making the most of what it has. : Behind me is a chip we need to power the elevator off this deck. There’s also : a handy, dandy save terminal and 2x shield station right next to it. The : textures and chip slot look cool too: : : : It’s animated so you can’t see the effects exactly, but it looks like a wall : made of scales and the floppy disk is 3D. The Pfhor do have more reptilian : species in their hierarchy, like Hunters and maybe enforcers. The avian : higher ups likely aren’t seen, not even in Rubicon X where we see the : killer egg cells who are their full leaders; It’s mostly bugs and lizards : for us. The fighters also have a sort of lizard look to them, so maybe : they start out as bugs and mutate into lizards and onward through those : pupae we saw in the nursery on Ain’t Got Time Pfhor This. : They still reproduce using eggs but we just never see the actual eggs; just : the pupae that the Pfhor appeared to model on them. At the bottom of the : lift are two Stalker Cyborgs, so named as they are in the story basically : the same idea as Stalkers from Half Life 2; i.e. they are made from : captured human slaves who resisted one too many times and are now stripped : of almost all their humanity, bodily functions and run on saline solution. : They use scatter rifles now instead of their exploding bowling balls from the : original trilogy. They still have the bowling balls but they use them : less. I die to them a couple of times. : : : : Through the south door is a liquid thundrillium pool with a pair of round : lifts on it. I’ll just refrain from this particular comparison unless : anyone asks as it will get old quickly. : DRONE BASEBALL! : At the top are a pair of hunters, a pair of major enforcers and the first : cyborg. They take out my shields but I jump with my knees around to the : second enforcer and take pot shots on the way down to recharge. The cyborg : is now animated unlike the original game and when he dies, lightning arcs : from his electronics up to his head and pop it off like a Pez container. : Sadly I didn’t get this on film. (as opposed to tape) : : : : The doors behind the enforcers contain teleporters to similarly shaped halls : and junctions connecting to small thundrillum pools and two tall towers : with the other cyborgs at the top. These towers typically contain : enforcers of either one or both flavours, hunters, troopers and stalkers. : The west teleporter leads to a cosy little room with a shield station, Save : Point and new red/brown carpet. : : : : There’s a stalker right outside the door who launches a bowling bomb in my : face. I live. I head southwest to the first thundrillium room where I find : a small group of pfhor, including a trooper. So far, shield stations on : this map have been 2X (purple) but there is a 1X shield station on the : back of a pillar on the first landing. : The door at the top is locked, but there’s a way into the small green : guardroom by an adjacent hall. I kill the hunters in there through a side : window with the staff first. : : : : Besides that message is a teleporter to another, locked guardroom elsewhere. : This has a switch which I think opens the way into one of the towers or : something. I can also save in here. The way in is up a one–way step but a : simple jump fixes that. This proves to be a bad idea as there are fighters : and a trooper back there who take my shields down and shock me to half : health. I hit the switch I missed in the other guardroom on my way back : for health. : There’s a bit of a party in the first tower near the intial guardroom: : stalkers, and hunters and enforcers. (oh my!) Troopers too, most of them : on high platforms that are hard to see. I back into a teleporter while : fighting them and reappear next to the fountain below the observation : deck. : Making my way back, I go across the pond after dealing with the most : problematic pfhor in the tower and enter the northeast thundrillium room. : This one appears a bit bigger and has more troopers. They are all a bit : deaf. : Past a stalker nearby, I come to the first main thundrillium pool room east : of the fountain, which I missed earlier. This has a pattern buffer in it : down the steps. : Returning to the tower, I use the scatter rifle to deal with the remaining : aliens and the lift in the thundrillium pool to reach the cyborg, guarded : by a pair of hunters. Low gravity jumping makes it less annoying to reach : the ledges the troopers and enforcers were on to steal their ammo. Don’t : rely on it though, as you can sometimes bump your head on the ceiling or : fail to reach a ledge due to the jump taking you above the doorway, such : as the two entrances to the towers. And as you float gracefully through : the air like a falcon, you are a big, slow target for the pfhor if they : are around. : You also can’t jump high enough to reach the higher ledges again except maybe : the cyborg one from the upper two, I tested for anti-cheat purposes. Not : that it matters if vidding as jump can’t be used then either way. : Back at the nipple lifts, I take the east teleporter to another carpet room : in the west of the map. I think one of the two rooms had a 1x shield : charger in the original Eternal X and the other a 2X but they are both the : latter in both X Omega versions. : There’s a junction with a pumping platform in a sunken well in the middle : with two stalkers. This part along with the three towers, pools and : observation deck is the most recognisable part of the map. : : : : The east door returns to a previously explored area but it’s locked. The : north one has angry troopers and more winding corridors. I lose my shields : again here and run back for more. The first thundrillium room I come : across here has the south entrance to the last tower and a S’pht ambush. : It’s right outside the small step jump to the second guardroom where the : troopers ambushed me earlier, which I make full use of to escape, again : with downed shields. : I come across a reddish brown room with ledges I glimpsed through windows : while trying to find a shield terminal. There’s stalker cyborgs in here : and an enforcer with a plasma flamethrower. Thankfully he deals with the : cyborg. I also stumble across some monster closets west of the fountain. : I take this opportunity to burn some fighters, but it proves fruitless as I : get toasted by an enforcer in the room with ledges and doors ahead. I get : payback: : : : It may be solar powered but you know what they say: All TOZTs toast toast! : They can also barbecue meat (the Aussie kind of Barbie, like we have here : in the UK) fry circuitry (I think) and function as a jetpack in low : gravity ideally. Oh, and they burn monsters too. Yes, that’s the : flamethrower description intended for my hypothetical Path of KAP, if a : little edited. : Using the mystical power of bending knees and pushing, I check the ledges, : one of which has a couple of empty rooms with S’pht in them, another is : locked and the other has more empty rooms with fighters and a hunter in : them. : I finally manage to get back to the other tower. This one has only two ledges : and is a bit bigger. The controller cyborg ledge is longer and curved. : Again, low grav jumping and sprint of faith both can net you the goods the : enforcers drop. I actually stumbled onto the other thundrillium room : across from the second guardroom by accident on the journey here. : Despite Tycho saying to use any terminal, I return to the observation deck : for easiness sake and a chance to save. : However, not all monsters are dead; namely a single puny one behind the : locked door in the ledge room behind the pair of green overi…oh I see what : you did there! I guess I now know the map’s namesake. Turns out I missed : the westernmost hallway, which curves around to a room with that last : enemy: a cyborg tank. : : : : LEELA FINALLY RETURNS! : https://youtu.be/Tt-o2qOh3JA?t=1169 : And what’s more (spoiler!), SHE STAYS WITH YOU UNTIL THE END OF THE GAME! : https://youtu.be/9INYHHvQMTo?t=6895 : : : : This military colony world is not actually the Pfhor homeworld of Plun Darr : AKA Pfhor Prime like I first thought when I first played the original : Eternal X: we will have to wait until Rubicon for that. Though I think : Rubicon was already covered. If not, someone else can do it as I know less : about it than Eternal and I’ve only beaten one plank: the Pfhor one. And : that’s with skipping back and forth between the two as you need a : flowchart just to find out how to proceed in a single plank or cross over. : Tycho is going to lend Leela a helping hand while I go down there and assist : her planetside. Hathor was trying to get Leela killed so she must be : important here. : Act 2: A Friend in Need : When the road looks rough ahead and you’re miles & miles from your nice, : warm bed, just remember what your old pal said I said you got a…Oops, : slightly wrong words. : : : : Goran did the original map and Aaron did this version, presumably helping Lia : with something very important that debuts on this map… : Some Bobs get picked off by a triad of fighters rising from the rubble ahead : and coming down the hall. A windowed room has some much needed fusion ammo : for the next chapter’s failure plank. This map in general has some good : fusion ammo including a rifle further on. : : : : Now being massively rampant as the ending of Marathon 2 foretold, Leela now : has her own sense of snarky humour that doesn’t cease to be funny, just : like Durandal. Either way, cue the champagne! : : : : : : : Likewise Leela, we all missed you so much. : A 1x shield station is around the corner next to a hole in the wall. This : portion of the ship smashed into a corridor by the gates. Just as well, as : the rubble makes a handy stepladder to climb back up if I need health : & shields or to save. : Outside is a battle in the first example of why I chose this particular pWAD : over the default one: : : : After all this time, Aleph One finally has rain and snow effects! And there’s : more particles too, going by the description on Simplici7y. Shining Raven : did an excellent job, as did W’rkncacnter, who first conceived the code : for ember particles in another mod, borrowed from Gregory. : http://simplici7y.com/items/precipitation-for-eternal-1-2-0 : The slaves and tank cyborgs are our allies, but be cautious around the : Drinniol as they seem to be more neutral thanks to AI quirks: they usually : leave you alone but they are just as happy to attack you instead if they : get bored, at least in 1.0 & 1.1. I’m not sure if that was just their : berserk mode being triggered or not. : To the west are stairs that lead to a locked door and a lift to the : guardhouse. 2 hunters greet me but there’s a shield station. I open the : main gate and descend the other guardhouse lift to a room with strange : stairs that lift up to reach the top when you can’t go further. Nothing up : here but some pfhor and a window with more new glass. : : : : Woah, alien party! Thankfully the hulks get massacred so at least I don’t : have to worry about friendly fire. There’s a juggernaut however and I am : in no fit shape to deal with those tanks. The weapon I use for them isn’t : for a few chapters yet. : Ahead I take a lift in the rightmost alcove upstairs to a teleporter platform : where some Pfhor teleport in. VacBobs on the ledge around the “arena” help : snipe them. There are little halls with thundrillium in them between the : teleporter platforms. The first one has a save terminal and a bunch of : fighters. An enforcer, hunter and pair of troopers teleport in at the next : jump pad, aided by blue fighters on the ledge whose shots are a little too : accurate for my taste. : Unfortunately, there’s still the world’s angriest pillow in the courtyard and : two new troopers outside the gate. I end up having to reload thanks to the : Jug’s rocket. This time I use the plasma flamethrower to snipe the : fighters from the doorway first. : The next pad has VacBobs, allied S’pht and allied cyborg tanks. The jump pad : spawns a Fusion Rifle, which is the first time you get it in 1.0. After : that, troopers are on the next pad’s ledge, time to run back for shields. : The stalker lays waste to a fair number of them before it’s destroyed and the : Bob’s take one too many grenades to the body and live half the life they : used to. The S’pht deals with a couple more before it falls as I polish : off the surviving troopers with the scatter rifle. : The downstairs troopers get me again when I try to go for shields. The second : time the cyborg survives. Two commander hunters and major enforcers await : me in the last jump pad, which I accidentally stumble into trying to go : and save. I survive. : I finally managed to kill those awful troopers with the scatter rifle and : friendly fire before healing and getting more shields. Apparently the : fusion induced explosion of the first hunter is wide enough to kill the : second one but I survive with no shield or health loss. Next is a room : with a deep sea blue ledge where S’pht and Pfhor duke it out. : At the north end of the deep sea blue ledge is a door that goes to a small : area with a save terminal and from there is a ledge around the periphery : of the previous jump pads. Next is a blue square branching off into : passages above the pads. I start to wonder of the flashes and explosions : are actually lightning. I know that’s a part of this map file. The east : stairs lead to a thundrillium puddle and a higher ledge to a locked door. : The south bridge leads to the place I install the chip, guarded by two : hunters. There’s two switches here that raise catwalks above the : courtyard. They aren’t cantilevered ledges like I first thought in 1.0 : though. God I’d love that feature to return to Aleph One. Maybe it can via : MML, but Weland options are nice too. : In my screenshot run of 1.1, I got lucky and my allies had destroyed the jug. : Normally it survives and you have to either play hide and seek in the : switch rooms at the end of the spokes or destroy it with grenades and : scatter pellets. The jug actually sinks down through two of the catwalk : spokes when it crashes. : Each spoke has a switch you activate once to trigger the pads. The first room : is empty but the rest are full of hunters. I bottleneck them at the : northwest spoke room. The west room loops back through the previously : locked door by the west guardhouse lift. With the jump pads now working, I : patch myself up, charge up, save and teleport deeper into the city. : Act 3: Unlucky Pfhor Some : : : : When preparing the map snipshots, I realised the pun: as the maps are : labelled in numerical order with failure coming first, that makes this one : Map 13. : Right away I teleport into the midst of a war. There’s jugs, Bob’s galore who : constantly respawn, most Pfhor types and S’pht. I race up the stairs to : the south and go up some steps into a shelter with a terminal and shield : station. : : : : : : : This map is one of my two absolute favourites of Chapter 2: we are laying : siege to a Pfhor city, there’s a constant battle in its streets and we : leap from building to building as we go. : This is where my intended Doom comparison comes in as it feels like a better : implemented extension of the Crisis City levels in Doom II, namely two of : my three favourites there; Downtown & Industrial Zone, but without the : latter’s lava fissure and real jumping is not required to enjoy them : properly, as Marathon’s sprint of faith mechanic is far better implemented : than Doom’s one. : : : : It even has an underused improvised obstacle in Marathon scenarios, which : I’ll get to. The song Rushing plays here too, which is where I really : started to love Craig’s remix of it, as it makes your dashing fight all : the more heart-pumping and badass. Or it used to because 1.2 changed it to : the significantly less good or appropriate “Freedom” song from Shake : Before Using. WHY? That was a #%*@!ng stupid idea. : Sure it may be named after what we are fighting for but the song just doesn’t : sound right for a full scale war. It’s more suited to guerrilla tactics : like Ex Cathedra, Requiem for a Cyborg, (if Marathon 2 had music) or even : more appropriately, prison break maps. : Maybe for Eternal it would fit either May the Pfhorce Be With You or the two : Corporation maps better. : Anyway, the teleporter behind the terminal is where we and the Bobs : teleported in from in the original Eternal X, but it was changed for X : Omega 1.1, not exactly sure why. You’d think Leela would want the Bobs to : enter in relative safety. I get in the Bob’s case it was to prevent them : cluttering up the room as they could easily do, but no reason why we and : one or two Bobs only couldn’t spawn there. : Fusion batteries are plentiful on the main streets, so nab them if you find : ‘em. Directly west is the first building accessed by a lift. The foyer has : a balcony up some steps and a short staircase to an odd room with : platforms around a small kiosk. I greet the kiosk’s enforcers as well as : the commander & major hunters Kiosk Keith and Kev with a hail of : grenades. The east and west sides of the kiosk have switches that open the : way ahead and there’s a shield station on the wall. : I know there will be plain health stations again at some point but the : question is when. There’s the odd explosion now and then from Bob’s and : hulks smashing Juggernaut tanks outside. : : : : You won’t know what that is at first glance or why it’s here, but by : switching it one with the buttons framing the photo, you see there is no : way to cross the gap. It’s too far to jump with either method. This is the : best and underused obstacle that makes this map even more fun: you know : the man cannon gravity lifts in Halo 2 and 3 onward? This is one of them, : recreated in Aleph One with liquid thundrillium and a massive current you : can’t see that slingshots you to the other side. Any damage from the goo : is negligible. : You do get plastered against the wall like in Tom & Jerry when you use it : though as the gravity takes a second or two to wear off. Typically the man : cannons have safe rooms on the other side so the waiting pfhor can’t get : you at first. : Ahead is the parkour lifts room, given a makeover with green and blue next to : the purple floor. The west exit has a switch and the other one has a ring : of platforms with a lift in the middle. In 1.0, these were the only way to : get up and you had to jump around in sequence, I think after they rose. I : don’t know if I am remembering that right as it’s been years since I : played 1.0. : Both Eternal X Omega versions now have the ring in the middle function as a : lift to get up and save the hassle. There’s a small room with purple : fighters and a 2x shield station in there but I have no idea how to get : in. This was in 1.1 at least too. : The ring above the switch room leading to the parkour lifts has an ambush by : drones coming out of hidden vents in the corners. The parkour lifts are : so-called as you sprint of faith to each one, riding up to reach the : others on the first. : At the top is a glass elevator looking down on the centre streets but the : glass is smashed. : : : : There’s a shield station and a long awaited pattern buffer up here. It should : now be relatively safe to backtrack for extra fusion ammo. I cannot stress : enough how much you need it, even though I’ve never been that far in 1.2 : yet, Chapter 5 a little less so than the other failure planks. I knock a : drone out of the sky by crashing into it when using the grav lift, but I : sadly couldn’t screenshot it. Just ahead is a second man cannon with major : enforcer snipers. After getting some flame cells and switching on the grav : lifts, I return to street level to get some more solar konpeito containers : for my Pez guns. : : : : In 1.0, I swear the left east lift let you access the passage to reach the : right one and that raised you up high enough to reach the west lift. That : one would take you to the next platform in the attic. In 1.1 onward, both : east elevators lead up to the passage and the west lift is now at ground : level. I think that change also sucks as I liked the “switchback : elevators” puzzle. Changing it makes the east ones completely useless. : However, it’s not all bad as 1.2 adds a shield charger in the passage, : though there isn’t any reason not to bring back the switchback lifts : puzzle too. : It also looks really good now in blue with that purple snake pattern : decorating the lift panels. I can say I don’t miss the doorway ledges just : high enough to require jumping or grenade jumping in 1.0 though. As of : 1.1, you can get in no problem. I think anyway, it could be false memories : again. : There’s another square lift ring in the attic, also fixed. The way out is by : some switches that lower blocks plugging trapdoors. Only the rightmost one : works right now. Some pfhor guard a switch that activates one of the other : trapdoor buttons, this one the leftmost. Enforcers join the hunters and : fighters down here and there’s more of them. Thank god that shield station : is downstairs as orignally you had to backtrack. : Down the middle trapdoor is a narrow shaft to a lower floor of this : skyscraper with pfhor in it but also a shield charger, oxygen charger and : pattern buffer. Up another nearby elevator I finally reach the roof. : There’s a walkway back to the small foyer with Leela’s terminal via the : elevator we couldn’t use down below. In the middle is a man cannon to the : big spire in the middle. It’s the shield generator protecting the city. : Hmm…a spire, grav lifts, shields and city ledge hopping. Sound familiar? : Then again, I think Eternal predates that game by 2 years, as 1.0.3 came out : in 2008. I got Eternal in 2013, a year after I first played the main : trilogy, so that build would have been the default as 1.1 was still in : beta. : : : : https://youtu.be/v3wnGd9cLEM?list=PLbIN7v5nv4aNEpa7YCLyOHL1A85ECjfR9&t=1130 : I’m sorry. Couldn’t resist; Junichi’s work and talent as both a voice actor : and English teacher is just pure awesome. This may well not be the last : Junichi Kanemaru’s signature role shout out either. I’ll try and think of : something different for the next video shout out. : Anyway, this is the best grav lift of them all, as it flings me straight : through the wall and I smash through layers of pfhor metal and organic : substance until I somehow end up several stories down in a sealed room, : the squishy parts acting like some kind of jelly and resealing. I also : somehow managed not to break the lights I crashed through either. : Touching them makes a wobbly suction noise (liquid diving sound) so maybe : they are bioluminescent? And that panel is on a column I would have seen : coming had that one grav lift not been set for Saturn. : There’s a purple shield charger and a lift leading back to the roof of the : spire. I jump around the roof a bit and then jump down to street level, : partly because I was blinded by a tank explosion but mostly because I : wanted to grab even more fusion ammo. And then a Juggernaut explodes right : next to my face, wiping out all my shields and shattering most of my : health. : OH SHIT! OH FUCK! OH SHIT! OH FUCK! OH FIT! OH SHUCK! I am relieved to make : it back to Leela to heal. Some fun platforming later, back at the spire : there’s a freight lift around the corner from the shield station. It leads : to the main power core. There’s a full scale war down here between the : pfhor themselves! They somehow are all infighting and out of their rooms : as soon as I enter. I thought I had to release them first, what’s going : on? : The power core blast casing lowers and I can smash the circuits inside, but : only after using my scatter rifle to kill all the bickering pfhor : including not one, but four commander hunters. I barely manage to keep my : shields up with the charger down here. : : : : Smashing the circuits closes their housing. Leela contacts me at the same : terminal as above after the spire’s shield is disabled. : : : : : : : Act 4: Unpfhorseen : : : : : : : This already looks a lot cosier, despite being outside. This map will give : you hell as it’s infested with buggers: there’s a hive not far from here : and they like to explore the facility I need to go to next as well. : Unfortunately, there’s only one way to get there: right through the hive. : That shadow chip AKA active camouflage will come in handy, but it’s : largely useless: enemies can still see you but it takes them longer to do : so. Unlike the red artifact the UESC’s contractor for building the : Marathon reverse engineered this armour ability from, it doesn’t seem to : make monsters any less accurate in their shots, which almost make it a : waste of time. : What little respite you get before they do notice you is well appreciated : though. There’s more shadow chips and some purple shield canisters along : with the fusion rifle and ammo. Juggernauts are here too as well as : drones, Bobs and a lot of pfhor. Hopefully the non-cybernetic humans will : distract them so I can follow the winding stairs to the hive’s entrance. : It doesn’t last: I bump into some blue fighters who block the second set : of stairs and they see me. : The hive is now green instead of the grey rock it used to be, which is : fitting. There’s purple shields on the way down which you will need. : Nobody knows I am down here yet but god it’s dark. I find a pfhor skeleton : in the blackness as I follow the stairs to the other way into the hive. : There’s trooper supervisors watching over their pen in here. : No sooner am I past the skeleton when a sodding single wasp’s spidey sense : tingles and all hell breaks loose. The active camo seriously need to be : fixed as the only use is ever has is not getting spotted straight away by : the Controller Cyborg’s guards in Pfhoraphobia and the first two waves of : aliens in Ingue Ferroque. : There’s also drones and explodie bugs in here as well. This whole map, : especially the hive cemented my hatred of Eternal’s wasps. I’ll spare you : the grisly details but let’s just say after a single reload, where I found : out the other chip was a very handy VISR and I did a better job at : remaining undetected, Bernard Black’s cold pizza is going to have more : side orders. : The owner’s entrance to the hive is locked and to open it you need to flip an : easily missed switch by the bugger entrance tube and press a few more : buttons inside the small cylinder in the middle. (Sleeping quarters?) : The master’s entrance to the hive leads to the rooptops again, only now a : small clearing has opened. This clearing has a button that raises a set of : spiral stairs to the next ledge for a fraction of a second. Run up them as : they rise. : : : : The S’pht Kr kick the Pfhor’s ass while I raise a bridge to the building : Hathor is hiding in. There’s a Thundrillium stream through the window and : some floppy drives. I switch on the power and check in with Leela for the : first time this map. : : : : You aided us from the Vylae planet to stop S’bhuth’s rampage but died in the : process. Maybe it was just another fragment of you but I don’t know. : : : : : : : In the thundrillium stream just outside, there’s an enforcers gun just by the : inflow pool I didn’t see if it was a rifle or flamethrower. Don’t bother : following it downstream as it gets narrow and dead ends quickly. There’s : 2x shields here and 1x shields in a room with a trooper, which may be : redundant except for the overshield chip right beside it. Don’t waste : that, as unlike their own hive, the blast doors ahead are bugger central. : I pass a mangled puddle of yellow goo, possibly a popped enforcer on the way : downstairs. The fight down here isn’t pleasant but I only die once. The : passages are now dark red/brown when they were also stone in older : versions. To the north is a major enforcer and fighters, ahead is a : brightly lit room with more pfhor and a swarm of buggers. : Past the thundrillium pool to the north is a small locked room with the first : floppy disk (chip) and a basic health station…right by a window with a lot : of angry pfhor on the other side. : I find another 2x shield station and a pattern buffer by a switch in a room : up some stairs near the buggers. It opens a little room with pfhor in it : right besides the bugger room and within their venom shooting range. It : contains another switch that opens the first blast door. The second is : partially open and the second, much larger bugger swarm can shoot and fly : over it. : The door in the blue alcove past the first wasp room has two switches. One : opens a door next to it that leads back outside. The other doesn’t seem to : do anything on its own. The other path here has at least a couple more : switches, one by a save terminal and now it’s clear that they must open : little stairways in the wasp room with pfhor hiding at the top. The switch : by the first pattern buffer must have controlled one. : There’s switches in them that open the second blast door into the second : bugger room. Thankfully the buggers have already been dealt with by : infighting. At the end are switches for more blast doors, the first chip : and the success plank exit terminal. It’s Hathor, and she is not pleased. : : : : Just as I thought; she’s referring to Tycho’s clone here. How she was able to : communicate to him I don’t know. Maybe Tycho’s revived clone was already : made or something? The original Tycho isn’t actually to blame. : : : : : : : I can’t side with her now, knowing what will happen if I do. I just may have : to find the First Earth original or her Third Earth Kaminari copy instead, : preferably both. : The switches open the other two blast doors. The left door when facing back : the way I came loops around to the back of the health terminal. The switch : must have been hit by stray fire as I was circle strafing as it doesn’t : work and the chip closet is now open. The right blast door has a commander : hunter and another swarm of buggers. Behind them is the switch that opens : the other chip closet up the long curving steps near the first room. I : take the first floppy disk by the health charger and place it in its : drive. Since I can’t carry three disks at once this time for some reason, : I go back for the other one. Tycho contacts me from the terminal once I’m : done. : : : : Thank god for that. He was able to fight off his evil clone after all. : Hathor’s threats won’t come to pass. His text is still red though but I : think that’s due to his clone still actually being present, but supressed. : I guess when the S’pht rebuilt him for the Pfhor, not only did they use : Durandal’s sourcecode as a template, but what they could recover from : Tycho was fragmented and likely corrupt after I smashed his databank. So : his clones may have ended up worse in that timeline than he could have. : Oops. : : : : : : : Sounds like a plan. Let’s go old chum. I will be writing the next stage but I : will not be posting it: Viking Boy Billy has requested a share of the : failure planks as he hasn’t had a chance to play the original failure ones : in 1.0 so he will be covering the failure levels from now on. I intend to : cover the Inti Station dreams only of Chapter 3-5's failure planks : however: There’s some plot relevant parts to the “meta story” I’ve been : telling in those. : My versions of the 2 & 3 failure planks will only be word documents and : exist solely to record my own playthrough and see what I can find, giving : my own thoughts on these areas as replies using my unpublished writeup as : cue cards. They may go on my log with the main Tour entries I’ve done once : Eternal is finished, but not here. I explain what I mean a little better : here: http://forums.bungie.org/story/?noframes;read=72127 : Stay tuned for the first of the writeups covered by Viking Boy Billy this : Tour: Chapter 2 Stage 2: Honesty and Forgiveness. : Besides any replies to the next part, I will return in Chapter 2 Stage 3: : Radical Starship. Don’t miss them!
	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: