You think being unstuck in time is bad? Let's play Marathon ∞

[I_Got_This_Name]

Back to the station?

Thoth says:
Typo in your [?link].
[Image is broken]

(fixed here)

[chiasaur11]

Thoth says:
Typo in your [?link].
[Image is broken]

(fixed here)

Thanks. Fixed it.

[Johnny Blade]

After all that's happened so far, I wonder if this is the actual end game now.
(Don't tell me, of course.)

[chiasaur11]

The station. Always the station, a desperate fight for my life, and then the end of everything.

Supposedly, though, Durandal'd set up a plan to avoid the last step. And previous experiences seemed to be indicating that the convenient option to try again wasn't open this time.


The station's sewage systems made getting to an uplink point a little easier, but they also meant wading through a lot of slime of indeterminate orgin. Not the worst thing I've had to do (or anywhere close), but it's still unpleasant. But then, it isn't wading through human entrails.




So, we've got a plan. Sort of. The Pfhor have been trying to gut this station for a while, it looks like, which means that simply letting this thing click on isn't an option. I'm going to need to recover some vital system components from rapidly cooling Pfhor corpses. Joy.


Well, it looks like I'm not the only one bleeding all over the station. Some of Durandal's buddies from the lost 11th clan were providing support. Which gave me a better chance of not dying before the job gets done.


Scratch that. The guys more or less on my side were dealing with the hunters...

But I still had an angry Juggernaut to deal with. Still, it's only a heavily armed Pfhor construct. I guess the damage I dealt to the chaos back in the arena slowed it down enough that it isn't destroying the sun (and the rest of the universe) yet.


And, of course, now that I could use some back up, all I'm getting on the monitor is ancient gibberish. Great.

Well, it seems like I slowed down a being that's fairly close to a god with nothing but guts and a KKV-7 10mm Flechette SMG SMG. I figure I might have a chance against a flying tank.


Luck was on my side, for a change. I managed to get the chip and hit the first power up site. Well begun...




Ain't anywhere near done. The "combined Durandal S'pht entity" was sounding more like Durandal by now, which probably means I'm back to where I started even if we win. Still, winning isn't exactly certain yet, and I'm pretty sure working for Durandal marginally beats out oblivion as a fate.


I managed to find the last uplink chip, but...

something was looking odd about the sun. I figured I didn't have much time.


I managed to kick the station to life before anything too nasty showed...

And then...

The sun went weird in a whole new way. Never exactly been a big fan of science classes, but I think that I saw the first stages of a sun turning into a black hole. Which would probably deal with the current problem. And given that it seems to be moving in slow motion, I guess there should be enough time to evacuate. I guess...

I guess this is over, hard as it is to believe.

Back to working for Durandal, I suppose. Great.

Should have known nothing as minor as the destruction of everything would end that deal.




Wait. Release whatever hold...

I'm free?

Well. Huh. What the hell do I do now? I've been killing Pfhor (and humans, and S'pht...) for...

probably centuries now. Pretty much all I've been doing is killing and trying not to die. And now?

I have no idea. I'm on an alien space station, Leela and everyone else I might have considered a friend is either dead or gone, I still have no idea what just happened, I'm light years away from anyone who can contact Earth, with a whole empire of alien slavers hating and fearing me...

But I'm free. And I guess that's good enough for now.


And...

Well, that's it. Marathon LPs from me?

Over. Finished. I mean, the epilogue should be up tomorrow, but, other than that, I'm done. Hope you all enjoyed, no idea what I'm going to do next.

[chiasaur11]

Huh. Normally the finale of the main stuff gets a response.

Did this entry suck? Should I redo it?

I really don't want to end three months of work on a whimper.

[SilentDragoon]

It was very interesting to see the main character's degradation from the original vaguely hopeful cyborg with Leela for an ally to a psychopath that just hopes for help from Durandal. I'd never heard of this series before, and only now can I actually appreciate why Durandal is spoken so well of in the versus threads and elsewhere.

This last portion (infinity) however was best described earlier as a mind screw. My only response to the game itself is reminiscent of the principal's response to Adam Sandler's attempt at answering a question in Billy Madison, substituting randomness and weirdness for stupidity. I'll be blunt... now that I've seen the entirety of the LP of the game I have even less idea of what happens than before I'd ever heard of it. The fact that there were meandering and degrading loops in time with an oncoming BBEG were about all I vaguely understood of it, and my brain hurt the first time I tried to make sense of the Durandal's words as he was being deleted as well as the white text descriptions of a previous normal? life (the ones with the switchblade and fractal pictures).

All that said, an excellent series of LPs that I've been following as you posted them. Thank you for taking the time to walk us through the series.

[Artanis]

Huh. Normally the finale of the main stuff gets a response.

Did this entry suck? Should I redo it?

I really don't want to end three months of work on a whimper.

Nah, it didn't suck. It was good, it just took me a while to get around to reading it

So, any plans for more LPs?

[chiasaur11]

Nah, it didn't suck. It was good, it just took me a while to get around to reading it

So, any plans for more LPs?

Eventually, yeah.

I might be taking a short break though. Still, I have some...

ideas. Not that I wouldn't accept suggestions.

[Terraoblivion]

And having seen these last bits i have to ask...what happened? I mean it seemed less mindscrewy than i had expected, but still quite confusing throughout it.

[chiasaur11]

And having seen these last bits i have to ask...what happened? I mean it seemed less mindscrewy than i had expected, but still quite confusing throughout it.

In a nutshell?

Well, when the Pfhor fired the Trih Xeem at the end of Marathon 2, they released space Cthulhu on accident, who proceeded to eat everything and everyone in the universe...

Except our favorite Mjolnir Mark 4, Security Chief Victor Jones of the UESC Marathon. Seems Battleroids were built with tech no-one fully understood in them. Which means our hero, when the universe starts crumbling, falls right out...

And into some kind of weird dreamworld between realities, where the W'rkncacnter attempts to finish the job while Jone's subconscious manifests weirdness and guilt in odd terminals.

When he finally gets back to reality, of course, he tries his hardest to prevent the Trih Xeem from being fired. And fails. Then the whole cycle repeats.

This happens a lot. And every time, subtle to major details change. There are a few constants though, and two guys who seem to have a vague idea what's going on. Thoth, and Durandal. Since Thoth tends to be incomprehensible, Jones seizes at the first real opportunity to meet with Durandal in a while, even if it means murdering a few Bobs. (They were shooting at him.)

The good news is, Durandal has some vague idea what's going on, and might even have a plan. The bad news is that all that's irrelevant since Tycho's going to win. Fortunately, Durandal had an out even for that. Unfortunately, that landed him right in Jones's cybernetic consciousness.

And more unfortunately: To pull off Durandal's plan, the security officer is going to need to work for Tycho. Which fails.

And reality gets eaten. And it seems like that's going to happen everywhere. Durandal has a plan, of course, and our mildly heroic (and somewhat sociopathic) cyborg does his best to defy fate and save the day.

Managing to get back to a reality, it seems like the chaos from the heart of the sun got there first. In a last ditch effort, Durandal merges with the ancient S'pht AI Thoth to try to fire an ancient Jjaro super weapon with the help of the lost 11th clan of the S'pht (The guys from the end of Marathon 2).

Unfortunately, Tycho's got an idea of what's going on too...

And he's even more fatalistic than Vic, hard as that may be to believe. Which means Chief Jones gets hijacked into an arena duel with gigantic, possibly W'rkncacnter possessed Pfhor super soldiers.

Winning there seemed to delay the whole W'rkncacnter getting loose bit, which buys enough time to activate the ancient station, trap the W'rkncacnter in the heart of a black hole, and save the universe.

And then the combined Durandal S'pht entity frees Jones of the previous obligations to Durandal vis a vis slavery.

Wow. Look at all the words for the summary. I should have gone with my earlier plan to just play Rubicon.

Epilogue soonish.

[chiasaur11]

Spoiler

Show

Spoiler

Show

And we're done. 3 months of writing wrapped up.

It's been fun. Thanks for reading.

[Johnny Blade]

Well, thanks for writing.

While I'm at it, nice epilogue.
But, to be honest, the finale was lacking some tension, though I don't think you're actually to blame for this. I mean, there wasn't even a big explosion or something.

[Artanis]

Alas, all good things must come to an end...and as such, this, too, must come to its end

I enjoyed the entire series quite a bit, and hope to see more in the future

[chiasaur11]

Thanks.

Anyone have suggestions for a potential future project?

Just wondering. I mean, current system leans toward old or turn based, but...

[Johnny Blade]

I guess you don't have a working Baldur's Gate copy by now?

[chiasaur11]

Nope. And until I get a new computer, my shiny copy of Mass Effect?

Right out.

[Johnny Blade]

I'm somewhat torn between suggesting a second X-Com style Let's Play and a game that would allow deeper character writing.

Do you have any of the Icewind Dale games? Could combine both that way by making willing forum members your character's companions. And if you set the difficulty high enough, there will be some opportunities for personnel turnover. Especially in IWD2.

[chiasaur11]

I'm somewhat torn between suggesting a second X-Com style Let's Play and a game that would allow for somewhat deeper character writing.

Do you have any of the Icewind Dale games? Could combine both that way by making willing forum members your character's companions. And if you set the difficulty high enough, there will be some opportunities for personnel turnover. Especially in IWD2.

Nope, unfortunately.

And what I was planning on doing next, indexing the LPs?

Not enough not me posts in the marathon ones to bother. I probably will sort out the X-Com one, though. You know, old times sake.

I'll check Good Old Games. Might be something worth a look.

Also: Got Mechwarrior 3 today. So, got Gal Civ 2 (core), all the X-Coms, Deus EX, STALKER, Half Lifes, Fallout 1 & 2, Star Control II: The Ur Quan Masters...

[Artanis]

Get the MechCommander games as well. They're free now (and legally so, at that).

I'm about to start a MC2 LP though, so keep that in mind

[Rama]

Very well done Chiasaur. Highly entertaining, although this game was tough to follow.

For the next, I'd suggest another X-Com. The original X-Com LP you did was the best of them all, imo. Although a Deus Ex LP could be interesting...

[chiasaur11]

Very well done Chiasaur. Highly entertaining, although this game was tough to follow.

For the next, I'd suggest another X-Com. The original X-Com LP you did was the best of them all, imo. Although a Deus Ex LP could be interesting...

Best of which set?

My LPs, X-Com LPs in general, LPs ever, best anything ever even better than bacon?

Because the first one, well, I've only done two basically, so it's not saying much, and the later ones, well, thanks a lot, but I do feel it's overestimating.

And Deus Ex might be tricky. I'll think about it, though.

[chiasaur11]

Okay, I got my choices down to three.

Either Fallout 1 as a minor Doctor Who antagonist, Fallout 2 as Bertram Wilberforce Wooster of Number 6A, Crichton Mansions, Berkeley Street, or "Your Tax Dollars at Work: The Denton Disaster."

So, vote if you care. Or even if you don't. It's a free country.

[Terraoblivion]

I am voting for Fallout 1. Should be fun to see how someone else goes through that game.

[Johnny Blade]

Bertie!

White text!

[Raroy]

I think you should start off with Fallout one. Not that I'm saying you should do Fallout Two afterwords. Which, you probally will.

[Malek]

Another vote for Fallout - mostly because I've still have to sit down and install the first part :P

Also the Marathon LP's were great. They made me play the game (just finished the first part - it was frustrating at times but fun nonthenless).

[The Dark Fiddler]

Either Fallout 1 as a minor Doctor Who antagonist

This, except as The Master.

[chiasaur11]

This, except as The Master.

I'm sticking with my initial antagonist choice. Yes?

[The Dark Fiddler]

I'm sticking with my initial antagonist choice. Yes?

I can live with that.