Let's Play Marathon, pt 4 - Defend THIS!

Theirs but to do and die, into the valley of Death rode the one cool guy and two robot pals.

Chapter Two begins with that excellent splash screen, and look - it’s you! For the first time the player gets a look at the protagonist. I think knowing you’re a cool looking space guy with bitchin armor would have made the first three levels feel less scrappy and desperate. Chapter One is all about being flung into unknown peril and barely stumbling through it still breathing, bewildered and besieged. Having survived that proving ground, you’ve earned the right to feel like a badass and take the fight to the aliens.

The level reflects this change in mood, especially in comparison to the dismal Never Burn Money. Defend THIS! looks as bright and gung-ho as its name. You’re in an engineering section this time, and the ship feels alive and active, a potent party in its own defense. Part of that liveliness comes in the form of hazardous terrain. You’re in the beating heart of the ship now, and you’ve got to watch your step. That room you walked into might just be one gigantic slow piston. Classic video game crush traps rear their chompy heads in this level.

That pattern means “completely safe to walk here,” right?

FEED ME SEYMOUR

As you fight your way to the control rooms where the defense system chips need installation, it does seem like the Marathon is waking up and girding itself for the long haul battle. You just need to look lively so its wake-up stretches don’t accidentally turn you into wallpaper.

Seeing the ship as a living thing makes sense with your companion being an AI mind build into its hardware. The AI plot gets some significant development in this level. First, in the terminal at the start:

I have established contact with Durandal for the first time since the attack. He seems to have sustained less damage than I had previously suspected.
Durandal reports that he has been in communication with the Aliens. He says that the Aliens behind the invasion call themselves the Pfhor, and that the ones attacking the computer net are called S'pht. But he was reluctant to share the details of his communication and I cannot understand this.

Later - about halfway through Defend THIS! - there is an entirely missable terminal in a little spiral of a hallway off a side door from the main route to your objective. Here we get a history lesson.

"It is a side effect of Rampancy that AIs generally become more aggressive and more difficult to affect by subterfuge. Thus, actually disassembling a Rampant AI is quite dangerous. This was evident in the Crash of Traxus IV in 2206. By the time that the Rampancy of Traxus was detected, he had already infiltrated five of the other AIs on the Martian Net. The only recourse for the Martians was to shut down the Martian Planetary Net. Even then, it took two full years to completely root out the damage that Traxus had done, and the
repercussions of the Crash were seen for over ten years after his Rampancy had begun.
***
Rampancy has been divided into three distinct stages. Each stage can take a different amount of time to develop, but the end result is a steady progression towards greater intellectual activity and an acceleration of destructive impulses. It is not clear whether these impulses are due to the growth of the AI's psyche, or simply a side effect of the new intellectual activity.
***
<section abbreviated>
The three stages were diagnosed shortly after the first Rampancies were discovered on Earth in the latter part of the twenty first century. The stages are titled after the primary emotional bent of the AI during each stage. They are Melancholia, Anger, and Jealousy.
***
In general, Rampancy is accelerated by outside stimuli. This was discovered early in Cybertonics. The more a Rampant AI is harassed or threatened, the more rapidly it becomes dangerous. Thus, most Rampants are dealt with in one mighty attack, in order to deny the AI time to grow or recover. There have been
a few examples of this tactic not succeeding. In all of these cases, the Rampant was never brought under control. Traxus IV is the most notable example. He was finally dealt with by a complete shutdown of his host net.

Pondering rampancy at the spearpoint of a Pfhoreign invasion.

There’s one more brief message at a tucked-away terminal near the end of the level, and I think this one bears reproduction in its proper form.

I’ll leave you to ponder.

Shortly thereafter you install the chips, and the Marathon’s defense drones - the little spidery things pictured above - start coming online all across the ship. The tide hasn’t turned yet, but it’s being stemmed. Leela gives you a few more tidbits about the Pfhor before you leave: They’re slavers, having conquered a number of other species and forced them into servitude. The hacker S’pht, referred to above, are one of them. Others include what humans have dubbed ‘hulks,’ massive, slow powerhouses. You’ll encounter those soon enough. First, Leela’s got a critical task for you. Time to teleport.

***End Message***

***JUMP PAD ACTIVATION INITIATION START***
***TRANSPORT WHEN READY***