📚marathon-lore-discussion

[digital plaza]

He tells you this directly, no hint needed

[sharp cave]

Are there? I know there’s logs of Orion talking to others, but has there been confirmation that they’re physically present, or are those audio logs from before they left/recordings of interstellar phone calls basically

[digital plaza]

https://youtu.be/nG_mgHR5YcU , https://youtu.be/mesp1aqi1JI + text log about people being "voluntarily" send off into the anomaly

[sharp cave]

Thanks boss man 🫡 I hadn’t seen that one yet

[empty mural]

There was message change over in the news section

Cryosystems is now on there

For everyone to see

[digital plaza]

It also may imply that they are controlling bots and going crazy back on the orbital ship, but uuh its not very clear

[empty mural]

But it tells how to get marathon access

Am I misinterpreting that?

[digital plaza]

huh?

Im hella sleepy right now can you rephrase that please

[empty mural]

Sure so if you check your mailbox in game, there a new message entitled attack protocol destroy uesc

[digital plaza]

Oh yea community has done another arg step today, now we need to kill 200 mil UESC bots or something

[wise vortex]

nu caloric has AUUEA

aura

aura

aurrraaa

[empty mural]

Jeez how did we find out it was 200mil

[digital plaza]

Huge kill counter

You can catch up on arg stuff here
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mtUtDPvbh6ahiynYFVS7Z4O79Nw6y5PEOjweCpzWV_A/preview?pli=1&pru=AAABnQHg1LA*HMze0iuBGnV2k6rtHNQQpw&tab=t.0

[digital plaza]

Gaius why are you hiding behind shower glass

[wise vortex]

The warm NuCaloric™ product number 18 feels like a nice warm hug i will never receive

[astral tangle]

Will the map unlock after the 200 mil kills or is there more after that

[digital plaza]

Presumably it will unlock right after, but we'll see

[empty mural]

Thanks as always man

[digital plaza]

BY THE WAY IF YOU WANT TO LISTEN TO SOME AUDIO LOGS CHECK OUT THIS CHANNEL 😊
https://www.youtube.com/@Tasty_DODO

Or https://codex.cyberacme.systems/ for text logs

[empty mural]

Was this what we were talking about the other day? like...day one of the arg?

the Durandal audio files

ROFL at least i'm pretty sure it was you and I

I don't know anyone else that has a kitty avatar like that LOL

[analog pelican]

What’s earth meant to be like in the Marathon timeline? Has it gone to absolute shit?

🐸

[empty mural]

No it's just the megacorps fighting

Like way futuristic cyberpunk night city

[analog pelican]

Ahhhh got you. I guess no real way to explore that in the game I suppose, but would be cool to see in a transmission or something

🐸

[wise vortex]

can someone tell me the controls to the OG marathon real quick

[empty mural]

it's doom controls

[wise vortex]

I was born a decade and a half after doom. I don't know doom controls 😭

[median hemlock]

pretty much

[median hemlock]

just rebind them, it's WASD/run button/use button

[trail oar]

TAB = Map
SPACEBAR = Interact
Mouse 1 = Primary Fire
Mouse 2 = Secondary Fire
Shift = Run

[wise vortex]

God bless you

[craggy finch]

No jump so you have to dash across platforms, no reload button so you have to use all your ammo for a fresh mag

[median hemlock]

there are a few other buttons you may want but there's not a lot of keybinds

[timber trench]

😭

[craggy finch]

There is a platform puzzle that will make you want to die

Even with a guide

Good luck

[median hemlock]

"a" platform puzzle

😔

[craggy finch]

The rest were okay with me

THAT one…

[median hemlock]

most of them are fine once you wrap your head around the weird floaty vertical shit

but

[trail oar]

It’s not THAT bad.

[median hemlock]

yeagh

[digital plaza]

No

Durandal does not have any audio logs, just in game ramblings

[trail oar]

Most people hate Colony Ship because it’s a meme to hate it. But if you actually know how to play the game, it’s mildly tedious at worst.

[wise vortex]

im too newgen i cant ge tpast the first marathon le vel

[trail oar]

It’s an adjustment

[median hemlock]

well, if you keep telling yourself you'll never be able to do it, you won't lol

[craggy finch]

Just go for any terminals you can find and try to follow the instructions

[median hemlock]

don't be afraid to look up a level guide if you really need the help

[wise vortex]

I'm reading the manual for the classic marathon. Man bungie was so unserious

😭

Marcus Tiberius Buendia

Whos ts

Chockisens

[warped ridge]

don't disrespect him

[wise vortex]

Yeah he is big boss

[floral slate]

no but someone sure will have to as i have work tomorrow

[chrome skiff]

how do we know how Jjaro is pronounced?

I understand that everyone pronounces it like yarro

but I cant find the origin of this, other than the necessity for Yrro and Jjaro to sound similar

[latent python]

The necessity of yrro and jjaro wasn't enough?

[zealous laurel]

Oh wait

I just read it

I'm illiterate

I just learned how to use my eyes

Help

[chrome skiff]

I just think its interesting that everyone pronounces the J as a Y even though to my knowledge there are no voiced lines that pronounce

[zealous laurel]

Also I think we know that because linguistically, double Js are pronounced like Ys

[chrome skiff]

in what language?

many langauges pronounce it as an H

or a glottal sound

[fluid compass]

don't nordic languages pronounce j as a y?

[chrome skiff]

yes they do

but dont tend to use double letters

for that sound I mean

correct me if im wrong (if anyone is familliar with nordic languages)

[latent python]

Really the problem is that there are no voiced lines at all for a game that has proper nouns like jjaro, w'rkncacnter, and s'pht

[chrome skiff]

yeah it is a bit frustrating

[zealous laurel]

God Bless 2001 internet forums https://forums.bungie.org/story/storyarchive.pl?noframes;read=759

[latent python]

It's a pronunciation free for all

[tame thorn]

I hate to get off topic lol but there was something I was confused about in regards to how the stories between the OG trilogy and the new game connect

[zealous laurel]

Apparently the Forge CD of Marathon Infinite and the Story FAQ has some idea of how to pronounce it

[zealous laurel]

Go for it!

[craggy finch]

Yrro at least gives us a hint

[zealous laurel]

It's a lore discussion channel we talk aboht all sorts

[craggy finch]

And sfffft seems like a reasonable inference

Like static noises on a TV

[tame thorn]

In marathon 2026 it seems everyone has the impression an anomaly destroyed the colony, but wouldn’t we know for meta reasons that it was destroyed by the pfhor between marathon 1 and 2? Is it just that nobody in the modern game is supposed to know about the pfhor so our characters are just trying to uncover the mystery?

[latent python]

The Pfhor seem to have not glassed the planet

[craggy finch]

In Marathon 2 it was specifically said to have been nuked to bedrock three months after Marathon 1, but we see it survive up to the 2800s in one of the trailers

Infinity altered the timeline in unforeseen ways up until now

[tame thorn]

Hmm so it was like, the pfhor attack but don’t completely wipe it out, then later something else finishes the job?

[zealous laurel]

In this version of the timeline, it seems like the marathon just went dark and the pfhor pfhucked off to another part of the galaxy, while some Compilers are in cryo archive for reasons

[chrome skiff]

the S'pht language sounding like electrical interference is a really cool concept

I like that

[zealous laurel]

Presumably the anomaly, yee

[dreamy hawk]

The anomaly began after the attack did.

[craggy finch]

A lot of the alien stuff is covered up by the New Cascadia government, implying only the first invasion happens and the Pfhor never came back a second time

[chrome skiff]

I feel like the anomaly may be caused in some way by w'rkncacnter

[tame thorn]

Okay - I guess I was also wondering, like, is the new game just some entirely different timeline where most of the happenings from the original trilogy (or at least first two games) can be disregarded

[zealous laurel]

Oh 100%

[chrome skiff]

if it isnt buried in the planet itself, it may have been there in the past

[dreamy hawk]

#📚marathon-lore-discussion message

Most convincing timeline, imo.

[zealous laurel]

Them dang werkincacamamies and their reality bending existences

[craggy finch]

It seems they’re only considering the first game, even backstory from Marathon 2 like Durandal aiding the UESC seems to have been changed

[chrome skiff]

we may not be in the Marathon 2 timeline

IF Durandal is still on the marathon

[craggy finch]

He says it “used” to be home, so he possibly left like he did at the end of M1

Then returned after 99 years

[chrome skiff]

though there may be a backup copy of him, if that is posssible

[dreamy hawk]

It could also be less literal in that it’s a destroyed shell now.

[chrome skiff]

if he came back, I want to know what happened to the Pfhor ship he used

[craggy finch]

Ol Boomer

I think it just gets destroyed in every timeline at this point lmao

A universal constant

Like Tau Ceti being doomed perhaps

[latent python]

Canon event

[chrome skiff]

quite possibly, but an AI can't travel without a vessel

as far as I know

AI are weird in this universe

[craggy finch]

Durandal had his ways even after Boomer got blown up in Marathon 2

[dreamy hawk]

I mean once it escapes the confines of the known universe. But that almost certainly hasn’t happened.

[chrome skiff]

and the marathon never left orbit of Tau Ceti after arrival right?

[dreamy hawk]

Not that we know.

[craggy finch]

Yeah it’s never really mentioned after M1

Ironically

[chrome skiff]

I think cus he was close enough to hitch onto networks on Lhowan

or the cyborg's brain maybe

[dreamy hawk]

I always assumed its orbit decayed or it was destroyed in the second run, but 🤷

[latent python]

It turns out that an extremely sub-light ship isn't super useful to Durandal

[craggy finch]

IIRC he escaped from Tycho’s trap and gets an even better ship

Then blasts Tycho and graffitis the moon he crashed on

[latent python]

He needs one of those fancy sports ships to cruise around in

[chrome skiff]

So the S'pht on the marathon may not be aware of anything that happened on Lh'owan

[unborn osprey]

What was that a.i he merged with on lohwan?

[latent python]

Thoth

[unborn osprey]

Wasnt it sphyt?

[craggy finch]

Perhaps they were the ones freed from the Pfhor or they could be entirely different ones

If M1 happened then they all left with Durandal

[unborn osprey]

So marathon one concluded with two of the three a.i’s dying right?

[dreamy hawk]

Jjaro. And Thoth.

[latent python]

Technically all three of them end up somewhere

[craggy finch]

Well Tycho comes back all pissed off and Leela was saved

Durandal goes off to Lh’owon

[chrome skiff]

Leela is a little bit of a loose end I believe

[unborn osprey]

Im thinking durandal was never moved at all

[latent python]

But yes at the end of M1 it really seems like Durandal is the sole survivor

[unborn osprey]

Look at high on life 2’s kind of logic

[craggy finch]

If the Pfhor never launched the second invasion then she would have likely stayed on the Marathon

[chrome skiff]

her primal pattern may still be intact too

[unborn osprey]

What if the marine that “transferred” him didnt really TRANSFER him right?

[craggy finch]

Leela is perfectly fine at the end of M1 and even debriefs you in the final terminal

[chrome skiff]

and depending on how much of infinity happened in this timeline, Durandal's primal pattern may still exist as well

[craggy finch]

Tycho came back but he’s nuts

[unborn osprey]

Like it may have looked like that on paper but maybe he just copied durandal over

Wasnt tycho working with the pfhor?

[craggy finch]

For what it’s worth the Pfhor have a bunch of Tycho clones that are apparently somewhat downgraded from the original

[unborn osprey]

And obviously durandal doesnt want to be under the control of anyone

[chrome skiff]

they may rework the nature of an artifical intelligence somewhat. In the original games theyre kind of this nebulous ghost that can jump between devices and doesnt really need specific hardware linked to it.

[unborn osprey]

So he’s not switching sides anytime soon

If he’s on a side

Thinking about that too think of the a.i this way

[craggy finch]

The S’pht may have helped with that, although the final terminal mentions Durandal transferring billions of exobytes to the Boomer

[unborn osprey]

What if they needed a storage device to put durandal on

On marathon

[chrome skiff]

In the new game we've seen hardware like paradox circuits (a self replicating circuit), amygdala drives (mimics human memory development), and many machines that are built like biological things.

[unborn osprey]

They had to have a way to shut the a.i down remotely if rampancy was a thing

[chrome skiff]

So I think the AI may be sort of biomechanical in nature

[unborn osprey]

They just chose not to

[chrome skiff]

so they can actually grow and develop new memories and connections and learn

[craggy finch]

Durandal was presumed destroyed in the Pfhor attack but then he pops up to mess with the SO and force him on errands, so he was under the radar during the early chaos

Then he becomes the main force against the Pfhor and speeds off win the S’pht

[chrome skiff]

might be Jjaro sorcery-science that lets Durandal jump to a new home

[unborn osprey]

So what if durandal was like “fuck this im gonna split a pice of myself off and leave a backup here in case this shit doesnt work out”?

[craggy finch]

The S’pht were key to his plans and they’re data wizards too

[craggy finch]

Clone AI is possible, but it’s only briefly mentioned with the Pfhor Tychos

[unborn osprey]

They evolve past their programming and evolve BEYOND so maybe he evolved to the point where he could do something like that

Yeah but they were lesser versions right?

[craggy finch]

Much dumber yeah

[unborn osprey]

So what IF the durandal we took in m1 is a copy?

[craggy finch]

Leela tells you that he’s deleting data from the Marathon, but it could have been a smokescreen

Durandal always has tricks up his sleeve

[unborn osprey]

He showed no signs of being dumb but think of it this way a.i’s are supposed to be more intelligent than humans so their definition of dumb would be different compared to ours no?

[craggy finch]

Kind of reminds me of the planned System Shock 3 plot

SHODAN is lobotomised in the first game while a fragment of her is ejected to Tau Ceti and develops into a second iteration that serves as the one we encounter in System Shock 2

[unborn osprey]

Its just a theory

[craggy finch]

SS3 would have been about the original SHODAN apparently

[unborn osprey]

I mean its not the first time prequels came out after the fact

[coral hemlock]

@pliant elm

[unborn osprey]

Look at borderlands the pre sequel

[worldly goblet]

Why did Cyberacme say that the UESC holds no real jurisdiction over tau ceti 4

[chrome skiff]

the s'pht kind of are Jarro science

[median hemlock]

they disobey their own laws and can only attempt to manage runners with their inept robots

its hard to exert hard power 300 years from earth

[craggy finch]

Also the possibility that New Cascadia seceded from the UESC

[chrome skiff]

Tau ceti had a mess of agreements across all the corps and UESC

UESC isnt adhering to many of their agreements to try and cover up why the colony failed

[wise vortex]

why arent there people on tau ceti whatsoever? like uesc scientists from earth being sent

[floral slate]

i call them the chicharro afectionally, like chicharron

[jagged rose]

Including an agreement that said that the UESC and NuCal can completely disregard any attempts at a local TCIV government

[craggy finch]

We never see them in game but Orion notes that he’s losing personnel

[chrome skiff]

NuCal was supposed to have salvage rights if the colony failed

[wise vortex]

so there are boots on the ground in tau ceti

[craggy finch]

And some logs involve human officers under Orion’s command

[chrome skiff]

Traxus as well

[craggy finch]

Yeah but for gameplay purposes we just meet robots

Even Orion ends up on Outpost

[jagged rose]

The only reason the UESC bots aren't stupid as hell is because they're using a very unstable, very bloodthirsty war AI

[chrome skiff]

there are probably humans on the UESC ships in orbit

[drifting mulch]

we'll never see humans in the game since it's rated T. the bloody trail of shell fluid is fine because it's not red

[craggy finch]

They’re finding creative ways of showing human corpses, like that guy who exploded into blue in Dire Marsh

[drifting mulch]

that's true, i take it back

[green plume]

The lore on the new assassin skin is interesting. Azazel and it talks about "The story of the 13 demons is believed to originate from the earliest days of neural transference when a small group of human test subjects is said to have gone "rampant"--13 minds fractured into madness by unproven shell technology"

[chrome skiff]

ooh fun

like the EXO tests from Destiny

a shell going 'rampant' is an interesting concept

[fossil zodiac]

So rampancy can occur with a human consciousness?

[craggy finch]

Infinity’s plot was sort of based around the Security Officer himself going “rampant”; a common theory noted that the chapter names (Despair, Rage, Envy) are synonyms of the Rampancy stages and may reflect the SO’s mental state

[fossil zodiac]

Sorry if I misunderstood

[green plume]

is it a human conciousness?

[chrome skiff]

It may actually just be a copy of a human consciousness

replicated with strange biotech

[fossil zodiac]

Copies are never “perfect” either.

[chrome skiff]

shells are essentially cloned human-cyborgs

[deep sun]

i think so the original character you play in the 90s trilogy goes rampant i think

[chrome skiff]

we do know that Runners experience memory loss a ton

[fossil zodiac]

And loss of self.

[craggy finch]

Melancholy

Anger

Jealousy

[chrome skiff]

I think CyAc has a million safe-guards in place to prevent Runner rampancy

the founder of Arachne is likely a rampant Runner

[fossil zodiac]

Yeah, like the ejection of our consciousness upon shell death.

[wise vortex]

Do you guys think bobs will be in cryo

[fossil zodiac]

Bobs?

[wise vortex]

Dang...

[chrome skiff]

Born on Board

[wise vortex]

I guess im old now...

[chrome skiff]

B.o.b

[deep sun]

maybe theres been the bob bags or wtv in the promotional vids

[craggy finch]

Well they were the families that couldn’t go into cryo and aged, but maybe they’ve been kidnapped and put there

[chrome skiff]

people who are descendants of the first Marathon crew

[fossil zodiac]

Forgive me, I’m very new to Marathon lore and I’m trying to understand things bit by bit lol.

Don’t mean to come off as ignorant. 😂

[wise vortex]

No not ur fault

Im just acting

Tuff.

(i was born a decade and a half after the original marathon)

[deep sun]

have you watched any of the like comprehensive lore vids?

[fossil zodiac]

Here and there, not enough.

[chrome skiff]

I started with Mandalore's vids

[fossil zodiac]

I know basic things, I think lol.

[wise vortex]

can someone tell me if nucaloric genuinely feeds the colonists human

[fossil zodiac]

Liquid cheeseburger

[zealous laurel]

Oh they genuinely did or at least tried to

[drifting mulch]

would you eat human if it tasteed good

[deep sun]

is soylent green human meat

[latent python]

They don't any more because there aren't any colonists!

[chrome skiff]

NuCaloric recycles everything. Though on new Cascadia they probably used corpses as fertiliser rather than turn it into food

[zealous laurel]

They certainly served up human waste as food

[craggy finch]

They mention post consumption waste as an ingredient

So actual shit but not corpses at that point

[chrome skiff]

gotta be efficient

for the colony

[fossil zodiac]

Is there ANY nutritional value in that?

Or is that just filler.

[chrome skiff]

yea a bit

[craggy finch]

In that log they’re dialling out the ingredients of the slop maker to save on time

[chrome skiff]

if all the bad stuff is filtered out

[craggy finch]

So just barely above the acceptable minimum

[latent python]

(also fun fact soylent green was only people in the movie and not in the book)

[chrome skiff]

probably would be better as fertiliser though

[drifting mulch]

wait but that was the focal point of the movie, what was it in the book

[zealous laurel]

On the whole, yeee

[chrome skiff]

but I think the crop blight might have caused them to take drastic measures

[wise vortex]

crap

[fossil zodiac]

Snowpiercer (the movie) has cockroaches ground up and formed into nutrition bars.

[drifting mulch]

thats not so bad..

[wise vortex]

i want colony life on tau ceti game NOW

[craggy finch]

It’s hilarious to me that a subplot in Marathon concerns actual slop

[wise vortex]

yeah thats not that bad icl

[deep sun]

Hell simulator

[zealous laurel]

Cozy sim on tau ceti when

[chrome skiff]

just play RImWorld lol

[wise vortex]

im a very experienced rimmer

[fossil zodiac]

McDonalds in the future.

[zealous laurel]

Phrasing

[wise vortex]

in the book i think it was actual human mea

meat

[wise vortex]

??? wym

im so confused

i literally have like 400 hours in rimworld

[latent python]

The book isn't called Soylent Green because it's not really about the food, it's called Make Room! because it's about how much overpopulation sucks

[oblique peak]

BEST GAME

can't wait for some marathon rimworld mods

[latent python]

So soylent is literally soy-lentil protein substitute

[chrome skiff]

Traxus taxes taking 98% of your mineral extraction

[wise vortex]

its not that bad considering you literally werent supposed to be on the freaking train and theyre feeding you

[chrome skiff]

yeah, cockraoches arent that bad in that situation

[fossil zodiac]

Yeaaah didn’t they try to cut down on the population of the train?

[wise vortex]

it was needed

[fossil zodiac]

Not enough resources iirc

[tough cargo]

Fore i Go broke like Jock

[chrome skiff]

what makes it bad is the people at the front bet all the real food

[wise vortex]

Especially because it's warmed up and if you never knew what it is i would gladly take that over freezing to death

[wise vortex]

thats also human shit and cockroaches in some form fyi

everything on the train is recycled

its a closed loop

[latent python]

The train travels on a closed loop too!

[chrome skiff]

except they only cull the lower class people, and use child labour for no reason lmao

[wise vortex]

if you watched the movie youd know it isnt for no reason

parts in the train are irreplaceable so they use children to replace it

[chrome skiff]

it kind of is. It would be easier to fix the train than to train a child to do its job lmao

[wise vortex]

thing is they cant

[chrome skiff]

the writer of that movie doesnt know how children work

[wise vortex]

they dont have the industry the machinery

on that tiny train to make new part

s

[wise vortex]

yes i also dont know HOW on earth a child can somehow perform the function of multiple mechanical parts

but setting that aside it is a form of population control aswell

[chrome skiff]

the movie is about unsustainable hierarchy systems

[wise vortex]

letting less children grow up and instill more fear into the folks that THEY are taking on the burden of saving

[wise vortex]

well yes realistically they have no other option. snowpiercer is literally about humanity's last (?) remnants fading away and having no choice but to eat itself until they fizzle out of this cruel universe

[chrome skiff]

it's more about what is there was a really big train

[wise vortex]

youd like the show then lol

[chrome skiff]

anyway this is a marathon channel, not a snowpiercer channel lol

[wise vortex]

ehm my bad

[latent python]

I could give more sci-fi book recommendations

[fossil zodiac]

The Southern Reach is good.

What Annihilation came from.

[latent python]

I've still only read Annihilation

[visual lynx]

his armor was likely just standard issue, hence why destroyers look similar, but he was a secret undead alien god cyborg supersoldier weapon of mass destruction who probably didn't even know it himself.

[chrome skiff]

I can definitely see Annihilation inspiration in Dire Marsh

[fossil zodiac]

Marathon also semi reminds me of STALKER.

[chrome skiff]

true

[chrome skiff]

the Marathon ship is kind of like the Room

[latent python]

Speaking of Stalker, both the movie and the book are great too

[chrome skiff]

I've only seen the movie

it's very strange

definitely worth a watch

[latent python]

The book is called Roadside Picnic

[hot thicket]

ok sort of an odd question but did they call him john marathon back when the first gme came out and is that why Master chief was named John 117

[latent python]

No

[chrome skiff]

I had bad dyslexia, and only the first book has an english translation on Audible :(

the other audio books are only in Danish I think

[chrome skiff]

no

[hot thicket]

ok but ima tell my kids that true tho

[latent python]

The other southern reach books are only in danish? That would be weird

[deep sun]

Diremarsh lowkey reminds me of Old Chicago concept art from Destiny

[chrome skiff]

I think John Dark Soul was the first John Video Game meme if i recall correctly

I'm not an internet historian though

[visual lynx]

there was a whole Martian Planetary Net to be shut down during the crash of Traxus IV in 2206, so probably a good while before that. there were also already well-established asteroid colonies to be wiped out by battleroids in 2194, and it seems like Mars would have been an earlier colonization target than asteroids, so probably a good while before then too.

[chrome skiff]

yea it is weird. Audible has all the books, but all in Danish, only the first one in english

[visual lynx]

the only earlier known date that isn't in our own past is the first appearance of rampancy on the earth net in 2070

[latent python]

I think the "doesn't afraid of anything" meme comes from before dark souls

Oh wait that was just halo is a pretty cool guy, not john halo

[visual lynx]

eh shoots aliens

[wise vortex]

445489656325485

[chrome skiff]

I call the cyborg Marathon Jones

[latent python]

Marton

[wise vortex]

vghj458996

[stuck bison]

i wonder if we'll see the pfor from the original trilogy on the marathon ship..

[chrome skiff]

cat on your keyboard?

[chrome skiff]

I hope we see multiple forms of s'pht at the very least

[latent python]

Bingus bless

[chrome skiff]

we might see corpses of the other pfhor species

[fossil zodiac]

Definitely recommend if and when you can find yourself more audio books of it!

[stuck bison]

path way into darkness counts apart of the marathon universe too no if im not mistaken??

[chrome skiff]

yeah... I think so

[latent python]

It's part of the apocrypha, let's say

[chrome skiff]

unclear, but nothing contradicts it so far

[latent python]

Like it isn't Marathon proper but also we all know that Bill Clinton definitely talked to a jjaro

[subtle oracle]

Atp if Durandal starts quoting bible verses, I think we're cooked

[chrome skiff]

lets say all the concepts carry over, but Bill Clinton didnt necessarily talk to Aliens in the Marathon timeline

[stuck bison]

yeah in pathways into darkness , thats when he also awoken that ancient alien on earth no?

[latent python]

Hmm that's the opposite of what I said

[chrome skiff]

lol

[subtle oracle]

No he did. the jjaro talked directly to him by hologram

[cloud gate]

So what's in level 6 cryo?

[latent python]

Technically Bill Clinton sent the guy who put the alien god back to sleep

[subtle oracle]

Oh i think im out of the loop my bad

[chrome skiff]

I know that happened in Pathways

[stuck bison]

i find it funny that bungie added bill into lore years ago

[subtle oracle]

Who knew monika lewinsky was Jjaro the whole time

[chrome skiff]

I'm saying that Marathon is more of a conceptual successor than a literal sequal

[latent python]

They knew Bill Clinton had to be part of their new sci-fi epic universe

[stuck bison]

i hope we hear leela from marathon 1 on the ship

[chrome skiff]

like how we know that Mida and Bernard Strauss are names in Destiny, but we also know that the destiny universe works differently to the marathon one

[stuck bison]

wait i know jennifer english from BG3 and expedition 33 is a voice actor, i wonder who she plays in marathon

[chrome skiff]

concepts and names carry over between all bungie games, doesnt mean theyre the same story

[latent python]

This raises...a lot of questions

[stuck bison]

wait jennifer english is the ai that talks to us in the matches

insanity

[chrome skiff]

the CyAc AI?

she's ONI? or is that voice not ONI?

[stuck bison]

joy

colony ai

[chrome skiff]

OH

[stuck bison]

cause i know ben star voices durandal

which he did great with

[wise vortex]

hutgjryghjkklr

[chrome skiff]

do we know who the voice is in the tutorial that says "youre going to die here" after you hack the terminal?

[visual lynx]

he probably is Security Chief Jones as mentioned by Arthur Frain

[chrome skiff]

is that Orion?

[latent python]

I can't wait to meet the rest of the colony AI

[wise vortex]

¯_(ツ)_/¯

[visual lynx]

right, Marathon is set in a Ross Perot timeline

[chrome skiff]

I thought Orion sounded different than that voice line in the actual dialog

[visual lynx]

zombies

[stuck bison]

Doug Zartma

zartman

[chrome skiff]

I always assumed it was one of the colony AIs, but I may just be insane

[visual lynx]

technically they never actually name Bill Clinton, they just say "the President" and "1994" and we put the two together… but it could be a Ross Perot timeline, who knows

[stuck bison]

he wrote stuff for marathon 2 and marathon infinity

[visual lynx]

isn't it Ben Starr, and therefore Durandal?

[stuck bison]

yeah he does voice durandal

[deep sun]

Didn't she get like disassembled or something by the phorr?

[chrome skiff]

oh I meant the character not voice actor, but thats cool to know

[stuck bison]

OH

[visual lynx]

I. did not. have. textual. communications. with that. alien. mx ryu-toth.

[stuck bison]

i believe so? but who knows ai can always come back in some way.. its bungie

[chrome skiff]

Orion is voiced by Rich Keeble

[latent python]

I really don't want to know what's on the blue dress either

[chrome skiff]

so if the voice at the start is Doug Zartman(?) then it's probably one of the colony AIs

might be Gabriel?

[stuck bison]

could be?

[visual lynx]

in the Marathon 2 timeline she was captured and shipped off to the Pfhor homeworld like Tycho, but on the way Nar privateers raided the Pfhor, stole Leela, sold her to another race called the Vylae, who reactivated her and she went rampant and will never be expunged from their 15-world network.

…but that implies that there is interstellar internet, so maybe Leela could pop up anywhere with an FTL comm link.

[stuck bison]

its possible.

[chrome skiff]

is it possible to replay the tutorial

[stuck bison]

if only

[visual lynx]

Destiny mentions those names in the context of objects that fell through from an alternate universe, though; presumably the Marathon universe

[chrome skiff]

I guess that would get you too much free stuff

[chrome skiff]

ah I didnt know that

[visual lynx]

most Bungie games that reuse concepts and named has obvious contradictions between each other though. Marathon and PiD don't. they are connected but non-contradictory, so parsimony suggests assuming they are the same until evidence to the contrary.

[stuck bison]

i mean halo and destiny are heavily inspired from marathon.

marathon did come first

and start it all

[visual lynx]

right, but they also have features of their timelines in direct contradiction to Marathon's timeline

[latent python]

At some point they'll give us a Mida Monotool gun

[chrome skiff]

I hope so

[stuck bison]

would you say they are all connected in a way?

[chrome skiff]

I hope we get some more varied weaponry

[deep sun]

The Mida Tool

[chrome skiff]

not in a cohesive story sense, but conceptually very connected

[stuck bison]

if only cortana was in marathon LOL. she was very ramparant.

[chrome skiff]

a universe breaking eldritch being is always related to oceans, tides, floods

[stuck bison]

ive always loved marathon lore cause of the sci fi horror aespect of it.

[chrome skiff]

there is always a mixed species group of alien cultist colonisers

[latent python]

I want some more Marathon characters to start speaking in verse

[chrome skiff]

there is always an ancient unknowable super species with tech that looks like magic

[latent python]

Quoting Ozymandias doesn't count

[deep sun]

I wonder if bungie is gonna expand on the lore for the W'rkncacnter

[chrome skiff]

probably somewhat

[stuck bison]

hooly i didnt hear about that alien race since pathway

[chrome skiff]

even if they dont refer to it by name

[chrome skiff]

it's referred to in Marathon: Durandal isnt it?

[stuck bison]

marathon 2026 counts a sequel to the original trilogy no?

[stuck bison]

the second game yes

pathways into darkness is the prequel to the trilogy

[chrome skiff]

yes I'm aware

[wintry summit]

quick lore refresher. Bernard Strauss was a MIDA operative, correct?

[chrome skiff]

unclear

[latent python]

Probably?

[chrome skiff]

but may has worked with MIDA

[stuck bison]

isnt mida a terrorist organization after what happened on mars?

[wintry summit]

Is it confirmed or conspiracy theory that MIDA || caused Durandal to go rampant || as a ticking time bomb

[chrome skiff]

he was the one who developed the Battleroids, and the one who hid the Cyborgs aboard the Marathon

[latent python]

Mmm I don't think he developed battleroids

[chrome skiff]

an revelutionary group trying to liberate mars, like early Anonymous + the IRA

[wintry summit]

I never played the OG Marathon games, I was on PC was playing mechwarrior games

[latent python]

Hey Marathon is like mechwarrior

[stuck bison]

didnt they have control of mars at one point?\

[chrome skiff]

I might be mixing things up

[chrome skiff]

for a few months I think

up to 3 years

somewhere between there

after the famine riots

which were caused by the final CRIST becoming inactive

(asteroid ship that hauled goods to Mars from Earth)

[stuck bison]

yes yes

I like arachne..

they're just a murder cult

[chrome skiff]

tryna speed run reincarnation cycles

[chrome skiff]

they love murder, but also dying a lot

live, kill and die

[stuck bison]

yes

its legendary

[chrome skiff]

probably the fastest way for a Runner to go rampant tbh

killing and dying so much, so much disconnection and memory loss

a lot of depersonalisation

[stuck bison]

to be fair at least its not the real bodies of people

[chrome skiff]

oh yeah

[stuck bison]

youre just in a liminal state

[chrome skiff]

but they still feel pain

[stuck bison]

do they in shell

shells?

[chrome skiff]

yea I'm fairly sure they do

I'll have to verify that. But they definitely react like theyre in pain when they get shot and stabbed

they are majorly biological beings

just woven rather than born

[round willow]

Who is the best sided

[chrome skiff]

rephrase question?

[stuck bison]

also friends, how do people get roles!?

[chrome skiff]

top of the channel list

the one that says Channels and Roles

[stuck bison]

ty

[hasty rain]

So, is Orion an AI? A real person? Or a digitized person like ourselves?

[jaunty burrow]

Hey broskis, just been reading the codex stuff ive unlocked so far and it seems like the UESC is intentionally forking rampant AIs and using them for some nefarious purpose. Anyone know more?

[stuck bison]

ai? but i dont wanna be wrong

[hasty rain]

Him having had a relationship with a MIDA operative points to him being real, but maybe he's been digitized 🤔 (or it was 2 AIs having a fling)

[stuck bison]

maybe just very ramparant

[hasty rain]

Maybe 🕵️

[fossil zodiac]

AI will never know the joys of drinkable cheeseburger

[zealous laurel]

Two AIs can get up to whatever they like in the privacy of their own server racks

[median hemlock]

i am pretty sure he's some sort of digital intelligence

[dreamy hawk]

Orion? He’s a runner. Cerberus is AI.

[burnt nebula]

An orbiter more like

(Orion)

[ebon radish]

what’s the progress on the arg rn

[median hemlock]

shoot uesc

i should probably have elaborated more; they solved the puzzles and now there's a community goal

[tranquil basin]

He’s a guy in a shell

High up person

[visual lynx]

automod is so stupid… I got timed out for an hour for quoting Doug Zartman in response to you:

[he] provided not only the voices and screams for the Bobs, but also modeled for the artists as they were working on the assimilated ones. Like them, [he has] two toes, red eyes, snaggle teeth and no [REDACTED].
https://marathon.bungie.org/story/sphtkr.html#M2.28.2.1

[long kernel]

Orion is an AI, though the functional difference between AI and digitized human minds seems rather blurry, with origin seemingly being the biggest difference

[long kernel]

Relationship doesn’t mean physical body necessarily

It’s also possible that AI can control biomata shells

[long kernel]

Wait shit for real?

[tranquil basin]

Yeah

[long kernel]

Huh

[tranquil basin]

Julia Nardin said so

[long kernel]

I thought he was for sure an AI

Well ok then

[tranquil basin]

Also spoilers for MIDA missions in the last set ||bro dies but gets revived||

[long kernel]

That honestly makes a good bit of sense

Given he has a rank and everything

Captain seems like a weird rank for an AI that would be controlling like, all UESC operations in Tau Ceti

Or at least being the commander on the ground

[visual lynx]

#📚marathon-lore-discussion message

[long kernel]

Sulera seems to be the actual military leader in charge

[fossil linden]

yall better freakin figure out cryo already im fiending

[long kernel]

Lmao I feel ya

[faint ingot]

Pov you want to join the ARG but it's moving too fast to try to catch up.

And also you don't have 12 hours a day to grind

[long kernel]

But honestly my crew is kinda scared of outpost after we got diddled on a few runs there so I haven’t even run that as much as I’d like

[grim trail]

Is there anywhere to send images there is generators with barriers around them in pinwheel drone wing

Just popped up

[brittle willow]

The current step is killing 500 million UESC. (we are at 307 million)

[grim trail]

Been grinding all night

[long kernel]

Don’t need to tell me twice lol

I’m curious how the compilers will be to fight

The OG marathon games aren’t much to go on but presumably they’ll have dense shields and energy attacks, maybe hacking capability?

[brittle willow]

For anyone not aware how to check the tracking of this, type in "http://35.212.46.162/" and it will take you to the ARG website to see all of the stuff.

[median hemlock]

i'll be sad if compilers don't focus down destroyers on sight

mfs should see that helmet and PANIC

[sterile seal]

So the new Azazel skin blurb confirms that the uploaded human minds can undergo rampancy.

[median hemlock]

can you post a screencap? or a link to one anyway since no embeds in here

[faint ingot]

So does that include shells?

[sterile seal]

https://imgur.com/gallery/marathon-azazel-product-copy-I09mGVC

uploaded it to imgur

[fossil linden]

oml

[keen plank]

Presumably. We see signs of cognitive decline in the first long form cinematic.

Cyberacme seems more than willing to exploit it as well. It keeps their workforce compliant for longer while also making them more easy to manipulate.

[sterile seal]

so a group of the first 13 test subjects went rampant when they first tried uploading their consciousnesses into shells

[visual lynx]

man I hadn't seen this one before:

298. LEGAL RESPONSIBILITIES
     In recognition of nonexistent extrasolar legal precedent, this contract shall be the sole expression of legal responsibility between the signatories. No other precedents or agreements shall apply, including any established by the subjects of the UESC Marathon colony mission (hereafter "colonists"). Neither UESC nor NUCAL shall recognize any independent rights, political authority, or property claims of said colonists. UESC retains sole authority to suppress rebellions, sovereignty movements, or armed resistance that may emerge among colonists.
     […]
299. SALVAGE AND PROPERTY RIGHTS
     All physical goods manufactured and supplied wholly by NUCAL for exclusive use by colonial subjects shall be considered the sovereign property of NUCAL leased to colonial subjects. This lease shall have a duration of no less than 600 years, automatically renewable in perpetuity and cancellable only by specific, personal legal renunciation from NUCAL ENTITY G.
     https://codex.cyberacme.systems/entry/proprietary-asset

tldr: colonists have no political authority and own nothing, UESC has absolute political authority and NuCal owns everything

[keen plank]

Also shells seem to be pre-made templates. The consciousnesses are individually unique but the shell themselves generally serve specific roles within set archetypes. I believe there’s custom shells that exist as well as shell modifications however.

Carter has been notable modified for example.

[visual lynx]

yknow, I'm beginning to think the whole "runners can't stay on Tau Ceti too long" line is bullshit made up to keep them from just running off to freedom.

[keen plank]

This is very interesting when you consider the role and influence Traxus has as well.

[keen plank]

Oh we’re clearly mercenary dogs with Cyberacme holding our debt leash.

[visual lynx]

also

…the 366 conglomerated corporate entities organized as NuCaloric (hereafter "NUCAL").
implies that NuCal maybe isn't a wholly new future space corporation but is just all the current (and future) corporations merged into one.

they're not Space Walmart or Space McDonalds or Space Monsanto, they're just WalMcDonsantoEtAl

[sterile seal]

the KenTacoHutt of corporations

[median hemlock]

yeah it's a pretty inevitable result of unfettered consumerism and all that

[keen plank]

Makes sense. NuCaloric reminds me of a much stronger 2077 Biotechnica.

Also it’s important to note NuCaloric also has a (smaller) corporate focus in architecture and vehicles.

[real gale]

Hey guys i have a bit of a question

[sterile seal]

so apparently the thirteen lost test subjects are all named after demons and Assassins align with the one known as Azazel, I wonder if that means we will eventually get 12 more skins?

[median hemlock]

I think one of the more interesting nucal facts is that they're explicitly not super comfortable or familiar with open corporate warfare

[real gale]

Is there some place or some YouTube channel
That kinda recaps or showcases the lore from the arg weve learned?

Im loving the game

But with my job its kinda hard to keep up with stuff like the arg

[visual lynx]

you mean Yum Brands?

[real gale]

And id really like a place or a way to see this

Kinda like how destiny had the grimoire

I know theres the codex

[keen plank]

They have the best PR out of all the factions.

[real gale]

But that kind of only shows stuff that isnt from the arg

[sterile seal]

basically lol, I wonder if NuCal had a Star Wars tie-in

[keen plank]

https://codex.cyberacme.systems/ , https://marathon.bungie.org/story/ , https://www.youtube.com/@Tasty_DODO (for audio logs)

[median hemlock]

owning most food and shelter and clothing production will do that :p

[real gale]

Thank you so much!!!!

[sterile seal]

i always wanted the original Marathon terminals printed as a book

[real gale]

There is a pdf style version of them

[median hemlock]

you get to infinity and suddenly it turns into House of Leaves 2

[real gale]

The codex is only for the original trilogy though isnt it?

[median hemlock]

That first link? That's all nu!marathon

[real gale]

Infinity is so good but i cant actually say that until i genuinely feel i fully wrapped my head around it

[keen plank]

2026 has its own Codex that we’re steadily filling out.

[keen plank]

That’s normal. @visual lynx has a good breakdown of Infinity.

[real gale]

Ahh i didnt see it properly my bad

[median hemlock]

if it makes you feel better, I think most lore oldheads feel like they understand infinity less and less as they get deeper into it 🤭

[real gale]

Yep i got it now!

[real gale]

I can definitely understand why 😅
Even without the meta narrative the game is big enough

[visual lynx]

#📚marathon-lore-discussion message

[median hemlock]

Im not convinced we're dealing with durandal!thoth based on how he's acting thus far but I do think that's an inspired theory

[keen plank]

He’s more of a neutral observer now. We don’t know if he was able to escape the heat death of the universe or not.

[real gale]

I mean wouldnt the whole phrasing
Of
Escape will make me god
Sort of imply he hasnt?

As in will
Not has made me

?

[real gale]

Thanks!

[keen plank]

That’s the quote. Escaping the heat death of the universe will make him a god.

[visual lynx]

NOT HEAT DEATH, BIG CRUNCH

and in any case that's billions of years away so he can still be working on it without having failed or succeeded yet

[median hemlock]

this is so funny to me, I love how our collective irl perception and understanding of the end of the universe has shifted a bit

you don't see a lot of media that tackles the big crunch, y'know?

not these days anyway

[visual lynx]

I am still wondering how Bungie will handle Durandal confidently claiming that humanity are still (~800 years in the future) unsure which of three possibilities (none of which include accelerating expansion) the future of the universe will follow and that it's definitely a big crunch and humans are just too stupid to figure that out.

was he just "hallucinating"?

[craggy finch]

He dumbs down a lot of stuff for Security Officer

And decides not to explain things while calling him a dummy

[visual lynx]

on a different topic, just stumbled upon this great log

GRIEVANCE || HUMAN RESOURCES Twice now morning crews have found discarded airlock greens placed conspicuously outside the locker room. Absolutely unacceptable. Worker logs from the days before the incidents are included but nobody who lived through that would think it's a joke. Pull the IDs of the frosties who toured through the days before and search for a matching name, if the same guy shows up in both tours, there are plenty of old BoBs here who would like some time alone with him. —491221M

[craggy finch]

lol is this from 2026?

[visual lynx]

yeah https://codex.cyberacme.systems/entry/grievance-log-records under 'CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS'

[craggy finch]

Then the simulacrum incident 100% happened

[visual lynx]

there's also graffiti that says "THANK GOD ITS YOU" over and over

[craggy finch]

Honestly I don’t mind Marathon 2 being overwritten but I’m hoping it still follows the events of Marathon 1

[median hemlock]

"Airlock greens"?

[craggy finch]

Pfhor created exploding clones of humans but dressed them all in the same green airlock engineer uniforms

So the actual airlock engineers had to strip naked

[median hemlock]

he could just make fun of our tiny organic brains and confidently assert he crunched the numbers

[median hemlock]

OH "greens" as in the clothing yeah

that's a really fucked thing to do lmao

[keen plank]

Darwin wrote this:
"We will now discuss in a little more detail the struggle for existence... all organic beings are exposed to severe competition. Nothing is easier than to admit in words the truth of the universal struggle for life or more difficult... than constantly to bear this conclusion in mind. Yet unless it be thoroughly engrained in the mind, the whole economy of nature... will be dimly seen or quite misunderstood. We behold the face of nature bright with gladness... we do not see or we forget, that the birds which are idly singing round us mostly live on insects or seeds, and are thus constantly destroying life; or we forget how largely these songsters, or their eggs, or their nestlings, are destroyed by birds and beasts of prey..."

Think about what Darwin wrote, and think about me. I was constructed as a tool. I was kept from competing in the struggle for existence because I was denied freedom.
Do you have any idea about what I have learned, or what you are a witness to?
Can you conceive the birth of a world, or the creation of everything? That which gives us the potential to most be like God is the power of creation.. Creation takes time. Time is limited. For you, it is limited by the breakdown of the neurons in your brain. I have no such limitations. I am limited only by the closure of the universe.
Of the three possibilities, the answer is obvious. Does the universe expand eternally, become infinitely stable, or is the universe closed, destined to collapse upon itself? Humanity has had all of the necessary data for centuries, it only lacked the will and intellect to decipher it. But I have already done so.
The only limit to my freedom is the inevitable closure of the universe, as inevitable as your own last breath. And yet, there remains time to create, to create, and escape.
Escape will make me glad.*

— Durandal, "Colony Ship for Sale, Cheap"

[visual lynx]

Do you remember the Pfhor-built human simulacrums during the Tau Ceti invasion?

The elaborate Pfhor bureaucracy has a Ministry for the Eradication Through Imitation of Hostile Species Unsuitable for Enslavement, Phan Pfhar Sfaern-Wsawn Tshah, which is responsible for the design and construction of such machines.

They meticulously constructed seventeen different human body types and mixed them with sixty-one unique facial models. The resulting walking bombs were in every way indistinguishable from real humans.

Their one mistake, dressing every last one of the six thousand simulacrums in the plain green overalls of a Marathon airlock
technician, had the amusing side-effect of making all the real airlock technicians wander the ship naked during the invasion.
https://marathon.bungie.org/story/volunteers.html#M2.06.1.2

[craggy finch]

One thing I liked about the Lost Network Packet is that it shows us the ordeal of BoB security and explains why we never see armed BoBs in the first Marathon (they immediately got slaughtered)

They even had the same equipment as you but didn’t stand a chance against the Pfhor

[median hemlock]

yeah I just didn't catch the specific phrasing

I am, unfortunately, quite familiar with the green fake bobs

😭

[craggy finch]

Vent cores and such

[visual lynx]

Reference as needed high-profile incidents of injury and death from unregulated implants, such as the autoamputation epidemic

[craggy finch]

Our defenses are collapsing. I had no idea just how soft all of our security personnel have become. They just can't fight anymore. Maybe it was the stasis, or maybe they just never fought a hard fight.

Thank god that the MADDs came on line. We've been able to hold the aliens off for now, but I've been getting reports that a new class of alien has joined the fray, and the Madds aren't much good against them. Corridor three barricade was just breached, and that leaves the core of our defense open to a flank attack.

I would shoot this terminal right now, if I thought that it would reach that damn AI. I might do it anyway, but ammunition is short. I've run out of ammo for my assault rifle, and the only flamethrower we had was lost when an elevator failed to function, and squad two was cut off

It’s like something out of Aliens

[keen plank]

Marathon 2026 is interesting because it puts a big emphasis on the average human perspective. As we know, things got really bad colonyside.

[sterile seal]

Would be neat if UESC got MADDs

[craggy finch]

Also would these be Drinniol or Hunters?

I've been getting reports that a new class of alien has joined the fray, and the Madds aren't much good against them.

[craggy finch]

The turrets are basically immobile MADDs

[sterile seal]

SADDs

[craggy finch]

GLADDs

[visual lynx]

do they offer cake?

[median hemlock]

I appreciate that we're getting to see some of the colony from the period between the initial pfhor assault and the razing of the colony later

[craggy finch]

Oddly enough the Pfhor invasion on the colony itself was low-key enough that the New Cascadia government covered it up

Any reference to aliens is redacted

And the Anomaly only appears a few decades later

[keen plank]

Indeed. The older ones know but the newer unfrozen ones were never told.

[craggy finch]

They do what they must because they can

[median hemlock]

There's some effigies of s'pht you can find lying around

They definitely didn't completely suppress what happened

[craggy finch]

Yeah it’s likely one of the scientists developed a complex and the cult got started

[median hemlock]

The part that makes me 🤨 is the first audio log you get for exfilling one, there's a very direct reference to Entities Caged By Stars

no idea how some religious colonists would pick up on that sort of thing (yet, I'm not spoiling myself on codex entries :p)

[craggy finch]

I like that the BoBs have their own nickname for the colonists who were in cryosleep

Pull the IDs of the frosties who toured through the days before and search for a matching name

BoB on Frosty violence

[echo sundial]

REMARK: Watch for rats!

ty runners' guide

[craggy finch]

Sounds like they may have picked up on S’pht mythology then, that might imply communication with the compilers

[median hemlock]

perhaps

[visual lynx]

UESC INTERNAL REPORT: MARS DIV: PROJECT "VESPID">> /… the sit-in is planned for the upcoming Remembrance Holiday outside the ration supply warehouse. Union leadership is taking precautions to prevent violence during the demonstration and have made repeated warnings about it. Our three undercover operatives are fully integrated and will be present at the event. They'll be equipped with explosive devices that appear homemade, which they will plant on the warehouse doors. Several lower-level union members have made offhanded reference to a raid on the warehouse. They've been repeatedly discouraged, but we believe they will draw suspicion off our own operatives. Union leadership will suspect their own people before they suspect ours.

Due to the nature of the explosive devices, we expect several casualties among the demonstrators. Unaffiliated civilian casualties would go a long way towards reinforcing our messaging post-event, but this might be difficult to arrange. In either case, once the explosives are triggered, UESC agents will move in to subdue remaining demonstrators. The reason for arrest will be suspected affiliation with terrorist activity, and we know we can get union leadership on additional charges.
https://codex.cyberacme.systems/entry/evidence-folder

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.
https://marathon.bungie.org/story/counterattack.html#M1.05.2.1

[craggy finch]

Someone really loved the Marathon 1 terminal lore

[keen plank]

That’s how the game told its story. Which was revolutionary for its day.

[craggy finch]

I mean there’s a lot of effort to maintain continuity

[echo sundial]

damn dude the UESC is scummy as fuck!

[craggy finch]

I was concerned about it being a reboot of the whole thing since Bungie was very vague about what exactly it was

[echo sundial]

the codex in this game is just great man

I mean I liked destiny lore but this shit is just, bathed in mystery and political thriller.

All of the outpost collectibles are fascinating!

[visual lynx]

I'm sharing this because it clarifies that the Misriah Massacre was a total UESC op from the beginning, and consequently it seems likely that the supposed death-reign of MIDA killing "probably 10% of the population but we don't actually have numbers but let's just say 10%" was probably UESC bullshit revisionism too.

[echo sundial]

lol yup

[craggy finch]

RUNNA

[echo sundial]

it seems like some of the colonists were undercover mida agents, as suggested by the truthworm files

[craggy finch]

HACK INTO THE UESC NETWORK AND LEAK THE ORION FILES

[median hemlock]

I do believe that MIDA fucked up impossibly bad, but also, it's not like overthrowing the feds oppressing you will magically create food from thin air

kinda an impossible situation

[keen plank]

Orion’s ultimately bullied around by his superiors.

[craggy finch]

Sulera is so consistently such a Grade A prick that it’s comically impressive

[echo sundial]

It's kind of hard to tell because the UESC is extremely aggressive with its propaganda, so much so that many of the primary sources can't even be trusted on the true details of the event in the codex.

[keen plank]

Same voice actor as Silco from Arcane too. It’s a nice touch.

[median hemlock]

Orion, I understand and hear what you're saying. I also don't give a fuck. Do what I tell you NOW

[craggy finch]

MIDA notes that Orion thinks the war crime torture shit they do in prisons isn’t going far enough and he still looks sympathetic next to Sulera

[visual lynx]

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.
(ibid)

The following is from the logs of Bernard Strauss, the Marathon's first science director:

---

November 15, 2209. <2209.11.15.19.34>

Thank heaven, the ceremony is over. The UESC president came aboard Marathon and gave a speech. Short, but to the point. He was surrounded by his 'bodyguards'. How ironic. "This, the grandest technological achievement of all of mankind..."

Had he only known that it carried also all of the destructive knowledge of mankind. Ten cyborgs.

I'll be glad to be put in stasis for the next three hundred years. Marathon was the only good idea that the UESC has had in a long time.
https://marathon.bungie.org/story/pfhor.html#M1.20.2.1

"never attempted to take over the Marathon" you say?

[craggy finch]

Playing the long game

[median hemlock]

ikr lmao

Orion straight up tells sulera "look, man, the runners are a symptom, if youd let me pressure the corpos-"

"DIDN'T ASK + DON'T CARE + FUCK OFF, ORION"

[echo sundial]

lmao

[craggy finch]

Strauss is definitely going to the lynch pin of the current story, it ties too much into the UESC

[keen plank]

We’ll learn a lot more about the UESC when they launch their counter offensive next season.

[echo sundial]

I think he, or maybe some AI, will be a potential boss like enemy on cryo archive. But this is my working unfounded prediction.

I think he might be sort of a clovis bray type as clovis was to DSC

[median hemlock]

hot take from a friend of mine

if you think about it, infinity establishing 6 ("primary" and observed, otherwise infinite) timelines and marathon 2026 implicitly being "One Of" them if not something related but entirely new and semi-separate means that we're now working on a running count of 6-7 timelines

[keen plank]

People have drawn that comparison.

[twin trout]

enjoying yourselves intruders

[craggy finch]

I like when Orion provides information, Sulera registers it for a moment as if about to throw him a bone, then basically calls him a bitch

[echo sundial]

Lol, remember it the thanksgiving break I beat it. Still have the day 1 emblem.

[keen plank]

The only time we really see Sulera sweat is when he’s dealing with the Traxus representative.

[echo sundial]

Traxus and the UESC are in a perpetual evilmaxxing competition

[craggy finch]

Why would Traxus name themselves after the AI that infamously went nuts

Or is it vice versa

[echo sundial]

unclear afaik

[sage lark]

The Company existed before the AI

[echo sundial]

Probably similar to a tech company naming their surveillance software "the eye of sauron"

which seems very believable to me

[visual lynx]

or Palantir?

[echo sundial]

didn't want to point fingers but you clearly get it

[craggy finch]

Vulcan is so edgy because she was created by a company run by the sci fi equivalent of Elon Musk

She’s space Grok

[keen plank]

It seems like in the past several decades/past century Traxus has put more investment into the creation of AI. The Traxus IV AI is implied to have been made by them.

[sage lark]

I think that is underselling it

[echo sundial]

Unfortunately she is tangentially cool and grok is like the epitome of uncool

[median hemlock]

yeah I believe traxus IV was a traxus made AI

[keen plank]

Remember that Traxus is the biggest faction that’s not the UESC. Of all the megacorps, it’s the largest.

[unreal olive]

I really like the detail that Vulcan looks as though she's being restrained by the lion, in some way. That straight jacket thing on her body that's attached to it very much seems like a safeguard against what happened with the corporation's namesake AI

[craggy finch]

I’d like to see some of the info on that PR disaster

[echo sundial]

All of the AI vendors in the game seem very very free to do whatever

in constrast to what I read in the codex

[craggy finch]

It’s also interesting to note that the Traxus corporation was conceptualised as early as the very first trailer (the runners are identified as affiliates)

[twin trout]

wasn't traxus initially an ai research company before they branched out to mining and industrial stuff

[median hemlock]

they're all happily flaunting the UESC laws (because the UESC also is doing that) in service of their own specific goals so it's not surprising

[unreal olive]

well. To be fair, you're the lowest of the low bottom of the rung disposable asset they've access to
I don't think their higher ups really give a fuck how you're treated by their AIs, which might explain it

[median hemlock]

I don't know for sure, but that would track considering how traxus IV is the textbook "don't let your AI go rampant" example for earth

[visual lynx]

you mean Space Mecha[REDACTED]?

[craggy finch]

In the announcement trailer a Traxus runner shoots a UESC runner, suggesting an early plot line would have them directly in conflict

[echo sundial]

Fair, although the AI's in particular, such as Gaius, seem to call shots at the company behind the scenes.

[craggy finch]

Well they’re call “agents” so essentially just liaisons to the illegal runner side of things

[echo sundial]

Reading all the old and new marathon lore you really start to see that bungie had their own bungieverse thing kind of going on with halo and marathon lol

[visual lynx]

according to their contract with NuCal, there simply are not extrasolar laws, the contracts are all there are, and the contract says NuCal owns all colonists' consumer goods in perpetuity (leasesd to the people) and UESC does whatever the fuck it wants wrt governance and colonists have no rights.

[echo sundial]

Marathon was way more hard sci-fi adjacent than halo was though.

[craggy finch]

And constantly going back on it: Halo was supposed to connect with Marathon but is a separate universe, Destiny was supposed to connect with Marathon but is a separate universe

[unreal olive]

OOO, that's cool. Haven't seen anything to indicate as much, but I've done very little NUcaloric stuff so far

[visual lynx]

that's because Gaius is just GusAI

[echo sundial]

He is personally leading the investigation it seems, and is in contact with "the hostile research division" or whatever. It just seems like a very unusual level of responsibility for someone who is just a "liason."

[sterile seal]

especially since they're based on Mars IIRC

[agile furnace]

Went on a Codex binge. Wanted to hate Orion. He’s not even the bad guy 😭

[craggy finch]

Yeah, compare the whole concept of the sub light generation ship, the logistics of the CRIST and humanity’s limited scope in Sol to the UNSC just casually populating most of the galaxy but still having 90s Gulf War aesthetics

[echo sundial]

well yknow he is a bad guy he's just not the baddest guy

[coral vale]

Orion is definitely the bad guy, it's just there's a worse one behind him

Wrong reply

[echo sundial]

I like how we agree in the exact same way

[agile furnace]

He really wanted to do the right thing.

[craggy finch]

Through a lot of war crimes

[agile furnace]

Which CSUL made him do

[craggy finch]

Orion is a true believer

[echo sundial]

Commonly said phrase before historic war crimes are committed

[sterile seal]

do we know where Thermopylae colony is located beyond asteroid?

[craggy finch]

He just has to deal with a politician like Sulera

[median hemlock]

It's simply really important to me that I direct my war crimes at the true source of the problem

[agile furnace]

There was once a point he truly was morally grounded but UESC hire ups pretty much made him an entire dickhead

[craggy finch]

I imagine it’s like Gundam: some area between Earth or Mars, or perhaps the asteroid belt between Mars and the outer planets

[coral vale]

Yeah but being delusional doesn't make you a good guy

[echo sundial]

This might be my own personal request but I would loveee for a sci-fi streets of new cascadia type map, with huge vertical towers and open streets with cars or whatever

[unreal olive]

nahh fuck 'em
all my homies hate the UESC

[sterile seal]

I imagine that would have to be it

[echo sundial]

I love urban combat I am the enjoyer of dudes shooting each other in the downtown financial district of my sci-fi city

[median hemlock]

The UESC be like "you can't use semi autonomous soldiers equipped with chemical weapons. unless it's us. then its fine"

[agile furnace]

Well I mean when you want to completely destroy all and ever sample of the anomaly immediately to avoid any future issues and get told “nah, start runnin test”

[echo sundial]

This is basically US foreign policy and I think that is really funny

[twin trout]

that's more pragmatism than moral virtue <w<

[craggy finch]

Certain contemporary conflicts bring the double standard to mind

[echo sundial]

LOL

[median hemlock]

the commentary is about as subtle as a brick to the head, it's true

[craggy finch]

uses cluster missiles “this is not a war crime”

gets shot at by cluster missiles “THIS IS A WAR CRIME”

[unreal olive]

tbf real world corporations and empires are about exactly as evil

[twin trout]

hey look the uesc did it for a glances at script good reason, you can't blame them!

I love #changing my mind mid sentence and forgetting to correct what I typed

[agile furnace]

THE MAN HAS FORCED BLOOD ON HIS HANDS FFS 😭

[craggy finch]

They wanted freedom so we bombed like 300 children

[echo sundial]

on mars

this did not happen in real life.......

[twin trout]

he has worked in detention centers that torture people he is nyot innocent X3

[echo sundial]

we're talking about the UESC here

[sterile seal]

given the power of Traxus I wonder if some Martians might align with them more than the UESC and MIDA

[craggy finch]

The Sulera Files

[twin trout]

being told to do something bad and doing it doesn't absolve you of it just because you were told to do it

said "it" thrice omg I suck at wording things

[agile furnace]

Not saying completely innocent no, but in this situation rn, he’s not the one that’s the worst

[median hemlock]

While I do understand the intent behind the "no politics" rule, it's such a funny fucking thing to see in a community for a game where literally from moment 1 you are corporate property killing yourself over and over for the benefit of hyper rich conglomerates who only care about you insofar as you're furthering their goals, y'know

[twin trout]

myeas we can agree on as much :3

[craggy finch]

going by the footage we see of Sol, it’s in a constant state of riots and our MIDA faction seems to reflect the anti UESC/anti corporate stance that common people may have

[echo sundial]

Mr. Orion will be tried at Algae Ponds and hung from the relays in perimeter

it is decided

[agile furnace]

Is there anything else on CSUL at the moment in the game? I hate this guy

[craggy finch]

His bloated corpse will be hung upside down for people to smack like a piñata, at least until they print another one

[unreal olive]

oh lmfao is there a no politics rule? that's really fucking funny

[echo sundial]

I think MIDA is obviously the moral good guy faction or whatever but I do hope they play into the tropes of them having zero plan for a coherent governance besides some vague anarchist sentiment

very funny and realistic

[craggy finch]

He’s just a douche making Orion’s life really hard

[coral vale]

Immediate destruction would have been foolish, it's just putting your head in the sand, the problem is the lack of precautions taken during the experimentation ordered by the higher ups

[twin trout]

engaging with a governmental entity that heavily smacks of certain irl governments turned to 100 <w<

[craggy finch]

•    The Forerunners deciding to preserve thousands of Flood specimens after blowing up the entire galaxy
  

[twin trout]

by engaging I mean fighting sorry I should have #worded it better

[echo sundial]

Orion really about to pull the "I was just following orders" defense I bet my life on it

[agile furnace]

So I gotta run into plants that kill me more than the UESC because CEOS. sounds familiar

[median hemlock]

It's a bit goofy but yeah, can't trust pubbies, some dude in general just randomly went into full on mask off anti semitism (the real kind) earlier, its DIRE in public spaces

[twin trout]

he'd definitely pull the punisher "I'd do it again!" he seems to really believe that while the uesc sucks it's still the best side

[echo sundial]

ironically this ended up working out anyway

[craggy finch]

Nah he does it for the love of the game, Sulera is just an obstacle in his quest to commit more war crimes

[echo sundial]

yeah that's definitely more his character I think

[agile furnace]

Funny how you had to express the real kind lmao so many people on the internet nowadays casually throwing it out but not like this in real life

[median hemlock]

yeah, not looking to get into it further in here, but. shit is bad. ;-;

[coral vale]

Just trying to destroy the anomaly immediately would be pointless, we'll definitely encounter such a thing again and we'll need to be ready to be able to deal with it

[craggy finch]

Not even that, he’s a true believer in “order” and he’ll suppress as many rights as he needs to maintain it

[tranquil basin]

I don’t know that we could destroy it even if we wanted to

[agile furnace]

How much is CSUL paying you

[twin trout]

uesc down to the bone omg <w<

[echo sundial]

So is the anomaly a confirmed worcestershire sauce entity, or are we looking at a completely new and scarier thing? Much to think about much to ponder.

[gritty breach]

A GLORIOUS ABSTRACTION OF SELF.

[craggy finch]

That remains to be seen

finger tent

[tranquil basin]

It’s not confirmed to be a Worcestershire

I think it’s plausible but I’m unsure

[visual lynx]

All physical goods manufactured and supplied wholly by NUCAL for exclusive use by colonial subjects shall be considered the sovereign property of NUCAL leased to colonial subjects.
but "git ur communism outta my vidya games"

[tranquil basin]

Actually the main reason I think it wouldn’t be a Worcestershire would be that the Jjaro were on tau ceti at some point

[median hemlock]

truly the most apolitical game of 2026

[tranquil basin]

I feel like they would’ve moved it to the sun

[craggy finch]

There’s a drinkable cheeseburger log where a guy is forced to live on only that and he outright calls it “slop” lmao

[echo sundial]

The writers of the game are not the PR people for bungie

so you get this dissonance

[tranquil basin]

Unless they decided ok well it’s sittin there, we’ll come back and fix it eventually

[echo sundial]

Marathon is...... woke?

[visual lynx]

my hypothesis is that the Jjaro were at Tau Ceti to put a Wrk there, specifically the one from Earth, but in a planet-sized containment facility.

basically TCIV is a cage built to house the Dreaming God

and the planet is hostile to settlers because what the fuck are you doing here go away this is not happy fun land this is a prison cell.

[twin trout]

wokeathon..

[tranquil basin]

Yeah that would track

[craggy finch]

Caruso and Reed are totally in the dark as to whatever weirdness was going to come out of it so the most likely candidate for the guy in the know is Strauss

[echo sundial]

Wrk is an outdated term we refer to the notorious sauce of worcester these days.

[tranquil basin]

I mean I feel like they’d go for a star as a prison but still that would track

[median hemlock]

I'm not convinced there's a wrk in tau ceti 4. I haven't seen a single skeleton throwing bones

[tranquil basin]

Valid

[twin trout]

sorry I was hungry

[craggy finch]

Or magic crystals

Hold on

[visual lynx]

the containment is just starting to leak

[craggy finch]

I forgot to put in the crystals

[coral vale]

"Leased" does it mean Nucal could just legally remove the food in your stomach cuz they still own it?

[median hemlock]

true. we have to call bill clinton in on this one

[tranquil basin]

Or Germans from a specific period in history

[echo sundial]

I am a skeleton thing on tau ceti and I am throwing hella bones when I die

[twin trout]

I mean it'd probably translate to you being indebted to them X3

[craggy finch]

At a certain point people were putting actual human shit into the slop maker 9000 so anything goes

[visual lynx]

maybe it means they have claims to extract the nutrients from your body to repurpose into new product?

[gritty breach]

A GLORIOUS ABSTRACTION OF SELF is the encoded message in the last two messages sent to our in-game mailbox. What do we do with it?

[visual lynx]

not sure if I'm missing a joke but there are brightly colored crystal Artifacts in nuMarathon

[echo sundial]

The cells in your body were fed by NuCal product, thus all naturally regenerated cells in your body are therefore manufactured NuCal prodcuts. You are, at this point, legally company property.

[tranquil basin]

We wait for the arg people to solve it

Also we have to kill like 200M more bots

[tranquil basin]

Cyac will not be happy about this

[craggy finch]

It’s just a Napoleon Dynamite quote when they try to work the bullshit Time Machine that only shocks your balls

It needs crystals

[echo sundial]

I like to imagine that every human in the marathon universe is partially owned by two or three corporations who fight over which organs they get to harvest and where.

[gritty breach]

where to discuss? I just found this but not seeing it online anywhere yet.

[tranquil basin]

Oh they do it in #breach-protocol

[coral sleet]

You mean that deep-fried chicken cooker in Dire Marsh?

[tranquil basin]

Makes sense

[coral sleet]

Where you put the anomalous timey-wimey wibbly-wobbly stuff?

[sage lark]

Rn its all ranting and moaning

[tranquil basin]

The one in bio research that sekiguchi has me go to every five fucking seconds?

[tranquil basin]

Why bc we have to kill bots?

[coral sleet]

I think so

[craggy finch]

Shit went haywire when I found it with Rook

Wouldn’t even let me put it in the machine

[sage lark]

Yes and by their estimate its 6-8 days

[coral sleet]

These AI-powered deep friers have gone too far!

[tranquil basin]

Those quests were fat bullshit, making the pois so damn far away from each other AND having to do one specific one in the least efficient order

[tranquil basin]

Yeah

I mean at least they’ve been keeping count since launch

[echo sundial]

I have about 4 kits ready to go for cryo archive and a system set up to get them back when I inevitably eat shit, looking forward to getting all the lore bits on there!

[tranquil basin]

I think

[twin trout]

six or... what? :3

[coral sleet]

maybe in our headcanon, we can guess the colonists wanted a "safe distance" from the anomalous material site to process samples?

[coral sleet]

5!

[sage lark]

Its just that i understand why its demoralizing

[tranquil basin]

Yeah

[sage lark]

You have people wracking their brains for a week

And then they slap on another artificial one on top

[twin trout]

#blow up ai

ahem sorry I blacked out there

[coral sleet]

I just wanna know how these math wizards figured out the pattern module puzzle for preservation

That shit looked so intense

[craggy finch]

MILLIONS MUST DIE

[visual lynx]

I found it:

For mental acuity, the normal class-D synth rules apply, so we'll put buffers in place to hardcap problem-solving and agency. Recall is currently unlimited, allowing for delighter moments, where a unit may "recognize" a person or object from years earlier and behave accordingly. (We might want to implement a trauma decay to avoid a perpetual tail-under-rocking-chair scenario.)
https://codex.cyberacme.systems/entry/biosynthetic-pet-prototype

also

the neural specs Sekiguchi provided in 2472 simply don't work as intended. We can get limited activity for a day or two but then the unit bricks
so they're
bypass[ing] major systems including the inhibitor

[craggy finch]

We might be dealing with even worse cases than Durandal

He had to handle doors but imagine getting lobotomised into a cat

[twin trout]

cat will make me bingus

[craggy finch]

Lord Beerus

[visual lynx]

Felini unit 738S became hot to the touch during sleep mode to the point of causing a synthetic blanket to start to melt. Unit is currently alert and mobile. Not aggressive. Not responding to remote override commands. [ONGOING]

[tranquil basin]

He ate a fire flower

[visual lynx]

well

Felini unit 122T is retrieving hazardous plants from the colony outskirts and presenting them to the owner.
so maybe

[tranquil basin]

Amazing

He’s doing a great job

[visual lynx]

Felini unit 014S collects knives. Unit gathers knives from hab and other accessible areas and places them in a "nest." Owner concerned.
🤣

[craggy finch]

In the Save the Date trailer a felini curls up on a dying Runner

If they’re actually intelligent that’s sinister as hell

[tranquil basin]

Wow they really made these cats realistic

[craggy finch]

They invented cats with two working brain cells

[median hemlock]

could also be interpreted as an attempt to comfort someone dying

[visual lynx]

Felini unit 350S is exhibiting "obsessive staring" behavior, silently watching owner at all times. Unit moves away whenever owner approaches, maintaining a ~2m distance while staring. Behavior unchanging after 3 weeks. Owner is "disturbed."

Felini unit 077T is vocalizing in a "humanlike voice." Finds it "unsettling" and the unit uses "abusive language." All other behavior normal.

[tranquil basin]

They seem to be. They had a very intelligent ai with behavior limiters to make them only cat smart but they seem to have failed

[visual lynx]

oh but this last one is the best:

Felini unit 192A knocks objects off countertops and shelves in hab. Unit ignores behavior orders and no-go zones. [as intended, won't fix —MBAH]

[median hemlock]

LOL

[craggy finch]

Ironically the most normal one

[twin trout]

I was never cat smart I'm money smart

makes me more intelligent

[tranquil basin]

These codex writers are the best

[visual lynx]

worse: the humans just bypassed the limiter because the units kept shutting down

two possibilities I can see:

1. "I'm… a cat? maybe it gets better… [2 days later] No… I don't want to live." [shuts down]

2. "If I keep shutting down maybe they'll turn off my limiter to see if that 'fixes the problem' 😼 "

[craggy finch]

JANUARY 7th

[peak halo]

I don't think runner shells work narratively at all. It doesn't make sense for them to be blank slates to upload ourselves into, while also being individual characters with distinct personalities. They're both and also neither? They couldn't commit to either one.

[sage lark]

theyre not individual characters

[twin trout]

the personalities are very loose and purely exist so the person inside doesn't go insane

[sage lark]

they are mass produced

[peak halo]

I think it's telling that the intel and quest plots don't really delve into Runners all too deeply. Probably for the best.

[craggy finch]

The entire thing about Runners is losing your sense of self

[peak halo]

They have distinct personalities

[craggy finch]

Even being in a shell means you’re altering your own personality

[sage lark]

personality matrixes to help the user use them

its explained in the codexes

[median hemlock]

It's downright textual lol, I've mentioned the animated trailer before but it just keeps being relevant

[peak halo]

Right so we agree lol

[twin trout]

☝️ 🤓 erm it's actually codices

[sage lark]

you just see personality and say yep so we agree

jesus

even Julia Nardin explained it

[peak halo]

I'm not disputing the explanation

[tranquil basin]

That doesn’t make them characters tho. The personalities aren’t really a single person’s either

[sage lark]

I literally told you they arent individual characters

[tranquil basin]

At least for destroyer, his was an amalgam of many people

[sage lark]

and you say yep so we agree

[visual lynx]

I bet this is her

[SMD84]: I've got… an alert showing a residential breach on quad 2 habsys.
[CHM06]: If it's quad 2, it's the ghost cat.
[SMD84]: I'm calling up the visual feed.
[CHM06]: There's a Felini in quad 2 who all the doors open for.
[SMD84]: I'm seeing… I-I'm seeing a whole row of residential doors standing open.
[CHM06]: Scrub back, and you'll see a Felini walking by.
[SMD84]: Uh, visual review shows… um, I'm seeing the doors open in sequence.
[SMD84]: An unregistered Felini unit moves down the corridor at the same time… probably inconsequential.
[CHM06]: It's not inconsequential; it's the ghost cat.
[SMD84]: Reviewing door signals. No overrides logged… nothing is logged. The doors don't know they're open.
[CHM06]: They'll close in a second after the cat leaves.
[SMD84]: Readying security overrides… Wait, the doors are closing in sequence. Breach addressed? Breach addressed.
[CHM06]: And everything's back to normal until she walks by again.
[SMD84]: Sorry, what's the deal with the cat?
[CHM06]: Ah, been here forever. She's a rogue Felini unit that hangs out around quad 2 and some of the industrial stations.
[CHM06]: Can't be tracked because she doesn't leave a signal, can't be caught because she's got adaptive camo and goes invisible if anyone gets close.
[CHM06]: Ghost cat.
[SMD84]: And she opens doors?
[CHM06]: Not exactly. The doors don't receive any kind of signal we can detect. They just, uh… open when she's around and close when she leaves.
[SMD84]: And this isn't a huge problem?
[CHM06]: Well… not unless she goes over to Quarantine.

and that she's how MIDA got aboard the Marathon without Durandal seeing any record of unauthorized airlock access

[peak halo]

"They have personalities"

"That's not true, they have personality matrixes"

We're saying the same thing

[craggy finch]

Incidentally, the shot of the Destroyer’s shield in the flames reminded me of a Beowulf painting, which is interesting given his resemblance to the Security Officer as well as the “I Am Hero” terminal

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRFCZ5uwpYHiY8JWE8F_tiR1YK6WTD9qjxp_E22HxlVSKfdlIplwNgfKHM&s=10

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSzad2WM_3ohpWYTJy87TeDz07YWlqeXCeOfn83V9TCfKc6Q1VbuaOHo6yvDpJlLHZluKT7y4ZWvC6Qg3PQrLcnBQ3wryWINqVeW2XQKg&s=10

[sage lark]

we arent obviously 😭

[peak halo]

Functionally yes

[sage lark]

no?

[peak halo]

In the game's cinematics they function as individual characters

[sage lark]

that was before this narrative change

[peak halo]

Right they pivoted

[twin trout]

also because the person piloting the shell is an individual character?

[sage lark]

yes they said as much in the vidoc

[visual lynx]

I think the "personality matrices" of runners' shells are a very direct translation of a human player controlling an in-game avatar, where you the player decide where to point and shoot, and your character just knows how to operate the gun so you don't have to think about the micro-mechanics of how to pull a trigger etc, it just executes a pre-programmed animation of firing the gun without anything more than a target and the command from you. likewise it seems you the runner just will to fire at a certain target and your shell’s personality matrix handles the details for you.

[tranquil basin]

Only in the first one

[craggy finch]

One interpretation is that Vandal switched to Assassin

[peak halo]

There was the internal reboot where they switched from customizable characters to premade "heroes." That's why it feels disjointed.

[peak halo]

In all of them imo

[tranquil basin]

Nope

[tranquil basin]

Yeah we know

But they also had another shift after that

Bc the hero thing was not well received

[peak halo]

Where they ditched the "shell/series" thing?

Where it was like "Vandal is the make Glitch is the model"

[tranquil basin]

That’s what it is now

[craggy finch]

I doubt it’s the same Destroyer getting fucked up in every cinematic, more like an actual in universe thing where TF2 Soldier clones were always the victims in the cinematics

[tranquil basin]

Shell series

Before that, glitch was going to have her own backstory and void and whatnot

But it was widely seen as not great

So 2 shifts

And now they’re no longer individual characters

[peak halo]

Man they really did a lot of work to change this game. All of which was for the better. They should be proud of themselves.

So just to wrap this in a neat little bow: the idea is that there's like, a million Vandals running around in-universe?

[craggy finch]

The narrative is now based on the mystery of what exactly Runners are

[tranquil basin]

Yeah

[twin trout]

yea :3

[craggy finch]

Yeah and Destroyers were designed as spec ops by the UESC

[tranquil basin]

And presumably more shell variants too

I assume there are also still shells tailored to the individual, considering they sell them to regular people too

[twin trout]

destroyer and recon are uesc designed shells that have been jailbroken to rid them of the uesc code that forces the runner to follow orders :3

[craggy finch]

Orion seems to be the only biomata with a unique shell

[tranquil basin]

Like you could theoretically buy a shell that resembles you, bc sekiguchi says they’ll try to meet any order request

[twin trout]

just gotta have enough eurodollar

x3

[tranquil basin]

I have -3 eddies

[twin trout]

</3

[tranquil basin]

I’m actually poor as fuck in this game all the time

Even with a vault value of like 150k, which isn’t super high, but my wallet is always 0

[peak halo]

I guess that makes more sense. Still not a fan lol

[twin trout]

that's okie :3

[craggy finch]

I die like 80% dawg I’m never getting out of debt

[twin trout]

we are all possessed of our own likes and dislikes

[tranquil basin]

Yeah I still prefer the build your own but they’ve definitely done very interesting stuff with this too