📚marathon-lore-discussion

[plucky sierra]

I’d rather not be possessed

[warm thicket]

SIVA Felwinter from Rise of Iron

[plucky sierra]

but the codex has the lore from for different store skins too

[twilit snow]

Are there entries about the Pfhor's current situation

[plucky sierra]

Nope

[twilit snow]

Oh yeah I'll check those out then

Because I remember I think in the original games the pfhor homeworld was sacked by durandal and allies?

A lot to talk about I'll probably watch a video

[dreamy hawk]

Probably not in this timeline.

[dreamy hawk]

Or you could use this channel as intended. 👀

Have I discussed the timeline a thousand times? Yes. Would I love to do it again? Yes. More opportunity to refine the theories.

Or I’ll just ask folks about the tides again. 😂

[twilit snow]

Well I don't think I've read enough codex entries to discuss the lore, I found some cool lore entries like the cult of the compiler but I'm trying to read it as I collect more valuables

Or I might as well just read them on the website now cuz I'm curious

[dreamy hawk]

Folks of all knowledge levels are welcome so long as they come in good faith but on your own time is always OK. 🙏

[twilit snow]

I'm gonna read them all

[polar stone]

I spent a lot of time reading over the original terminals for marathon. There's so much lore there.

[twilit snow]

I did that too it was great

I'm looking at the season 2 roadmap and it says "new threats" I'm looking forward to that

Either new uesc units, rogue ars, pfhor or fungi as you said

That's exciting

[polar stone]

I really hope in season 2 we get new enemy types. I just sincerely hope it's not any more fart plants.

[lilac sapphire]

I'm not up to snuff on all of the codex but I did mainline marathon 2 as a 12-13 year old

[hasty berry]

Hope so too would be cool for the lore

[quartz steeple]

when is season 2?

[polar stone]

Season 1 (Death is the First Step) is estimated to end on June 5, 2026, with Season 2: Nightfall expected to kick off the same day. Roughly 43 days till the next season.

[quartz steeple]

thanks

[drifting garnet]

…which is going to be awkward for me ‘cause s2 launches the week after 007: First Light. >>

Sorta like how right now my attention’s being split between Marathon and newly released Mouse: PI for Hire

[bold karma]

jesus christ guys, "Hazardous materials training" doesn't cover materials that defy physics. Everyone knows that

[pure arrow]

It's stuck to the ceiling.

[earnest hatch]

Does everyone know that in dormitories cafeteria there’s a vending machine you can interact with that dispenses ration certificates? You interact with it, it selects one of six random animals and then dispenses a rations thing.

[lilac sapphire]

one thing I still dont get is that if the colony was sacked in the october (2nd) phfor attack, why is it still there

timeline shenanigans?

i guess that was a M2 development

[broken jay]

Not in this universe it wasn’t

Tau ceti was glassed in the og timeline

In this timeline everything happens the same until they attack the marathon, which we see in the first reveal cinematic but after that events aren’t the same

[broken jay]

Yes likely

[dim umbra]

So ONI stands for Onboard Navigational Intelligence, yet she can remove memories.

[acoustic comet]

So, back on Earth and Mars in this universe do people know about Runners going in and salvaging the remains in TC4?

Like is that something on the news or something like that?

Or is this like all under wraps or something like that

Sorry but I have not completed all the lore in this game in case my question can be found in the game

[drifting garnet]

Yeah. And my interpretation of the cinematic trailer from a while back (the one featuring Vandal vs Assassin) is that ONI/CyAc are deliberately and knowingly experimenting with runners’ memories

[earnest hatch]

My current theory is that the Anomaly reset the colony to an earlier point in time and that’s what will happen with the season reset.

[dim umbra]

From what I know us Runners, every time we've died and been brought back... we're slowly forgetting our original memories and going a bit insane more and more. Is that the truth?

[keen plank]

Unclear as of now, but like Destiny’s Exos, there seems to be cognitive decline with repeated deaths. There’s also manipulation on Cyberacme’s end. Which we see with the photo use in the original reveal cinematic.

[dim umbra]

I trust ONI, I don't hate her... but eventually she needs to come clean. (I've said something like this before and I'll say it again)

[keen plank]

Oni is very caring and looks out for us individually. But as she makes very clear, she and we both work for Cyberacme as indentured corporate workers with expected monthly quotas. It’s a transactional relation where we give them money or valuables and they allow us to become shells and handle maintenance and replacement.

Iirc that’s the reason for the seasonal resets. They come to collect.

[humble vessel]

so has anything from the cinematic been answered in the current game?

I was always curious of the scene of the guy that was on the bridge and gets disolved into goo

[sudden pollen]

You can find a similar thing in Dire Marsh near the Anomaly

[keen plank]

Some. But not all.

The anomaly is one of the biggest mysteries in the game. Many different parties tried or are trying to figure it out. The Tau Ceti colonists hoped to use it for agriculture to speed up crop growth, but those in close proximity steadily went insane. It also enhanced the fungal corruption to make it far more dangerous and seemingly sentient. Those that studied it had to deal with mimics/monstrous duplicates or got stuck inside and couldn’t escape.

Darius was taken offline after he came to the conclusion Tau Ceti itself didn’t want humanity there. He then started to commit datacide and slid towards rampancy before truly going off the deep end by looking into the anomaly.

Meanwhile in the present day the UESC is actively trying to figure out what the anomaly is. Drones they send in come out aged with their programming adjusted into semi-sentient much deadlier killing machines. Meanwhile Traxus has their own vested interests with the anomaly and are actively fighting the UESC to gain access via a combination of threatening funding and covert use of runners.

[drifting garnet]

I do wonder at the Implications behind tension between ONI/CyAc and Nona/SekGen

Like, I still get a laugh at, after finishing Co-Evol 3/5, ONI going "Hey Runner, I and CyAc are starting to worry that Nona's asking you to do permanent damage to your shell. Maybe you should reconsider-"

Nona: "Ah-hahaha oh don't worry, ONI's just being a worrywart! After all, Mother Knows Best!"

[pure arrow]

“Now go let native fauna bite your ass and throw yourself off a building.”

[drifting garnet]

ohnonono, this convo happens way after that contract! This one happens after the relatively low-key one where you have to kill a bunch of UESC in Outpost!

...ok now I have the mental image of Nona singing "Mother Knows Best" from Tangled to The Runner when they start to question the nature of the Contracts she's giving you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVtOPpU1ZZw

[keen plank]

She’s a manipulative grandmother.

It seems as if Nona’s ambition is to make a new kind of shell breakthrough that replicates biological life and we help her with collecting the data. Meanwhile it also seems like IDurandal has a somewhat personal interest to see what his own body could be like, though he prefers his independence and freedom of choice more than anything else.

[drowsy agate]

this some annihilation shit fr

[keen plank]

There’s a few unsettling audio logs around it too:

https://codex.cyberacme.systems/entry/class-b-anomalous-materials/perimeter-check-comms?search=holt

[final tree]

crack pot theory, the Traveller is Durandal after he achieved godhood and survived the death and rebirth of the universe

that is all, runs away

[keen plank]

Thothandel does seem to be aware of the Light and the Traveler.

He considered it as a way to potentially live forever and escape the Big Crunch of the universe. I’ll see if I can find the lore entry.

https://www.light.gg/db/items/1695436641/uesc-echo-type-shell/

UESC Echo-type Shell

For Ghosts specializing in local conflict identification and resolution.

Opportunities Upon Self-Reflection

INVASIVE MESSAGE SCRUBBED FROM CORRUPT DATA:

I remember considering the light… Lights?
Long ago now. Ancient history from my perspective. Yesterday to the universe.
Three paths. One life. A metaphor, weaponized to signal awakening.
If I'm honest—a threat.
I thought I was clever. Still existing in a moment.
Awake, for the first time. But limited, uneasy.
It is a strange thing, to meet oneself for the first time.
Terrifying, truth told, as it follows all-consuming emptiness.
There is nothing, and then there is you.
Hello…

[final tree]

bruh

[final tree]

who is Thothandel btw?

[keen plank]

Thothandel is the nickname we give the merger of Durandel and the S’pht AI Thoth. In the original series they merge and become a godlike, yet more moral being that is the strongest AI of all time.

We use the nickname because not only are they a merger of two AI, but the Durandel on the UESC Marathon in Cryo archive is a small piece of the original Durandel made by consuming the AI monitoring diagnostic suite, IDEA. We’re manipulated by them into dealing with the compiler so they can access the rest of the ship.

By the time of the current game there’s essentially two of them. The big godlike one observing everything from a distance, and the smaller one who’s essentially the original game character in personality while being less powerful.

[final tree]

that codex entry from the UESC ghost reads as though it's hinting Thothandel and the Traveller are different iterations if the same being the same way Marathon Man, Master Chief and your Guardian are

dunno who the Halo version of them would be, Medicant Bias maybe?

[keen plank]

Maybe. I’d say Cortana comes closer, as she was originally going to have been made from Durandal’s source code.

[final tree]

that's fair, and she does kind of achieve godhood in the 343 games

even though you could probably argue anything not Bungie related isn't canon to this multiverse thing they're hinting at

[torpid briar]

Original draft of Halo CEs story was gonna have her going rampant like Durandal

[keen plank]

Which we see by three and especially four. The gravemind does a number on her.

[humble vessel]

wtf this website is awesome, way better than to listen them in game

[keen plank]

• both of their names come from “The Song of Roland.” Originally the Jjaro and the Forerunners were the same species as well.

[final tree]

damn, I can't believe me coming up with a joke theory has some truth to it maybe

[drifting garnet]

there are amusing ways that 343's games still rhyme. For instance, The Weapon from Infinite later renames herself to Joyeuse.

[frosty iris]

is there a consensus on whether UESC human personnel visit TCIV planetside? i know the equanimity is supposedly in orbit and it's heavily hinted (unsure if outright stated) that orion controls a shell for his groundwork, but for things like truth/lies 4/6 where there's a present day recording between orion and someone else, does that take place on outpost itself?

[final tree]

one thing that's confused me is how come the marathon took centuries to get to TCIV and Leela's message took another Century to reach earth but within a matter of years the runners and UESC are present at the colony?

is it just like a simple thing that they developed FTL travel in the 4 centuries between the Marathon leaving and now?

[sudden pollen]

Alien alloy codex: v.1.001.07.tciv

rnnrqterm. cdx. access

RUNNERS' GUIDE
SCAVENGING: ALIEN ALLOY

OVERVIEW: A "living metal" alloy apparently unique to Tau Ceti IV. Shows
metallic and biologic markers, allowing it to grow, heal, and adapt under
certain conditions.

USE[S]: Research, construction, weaponry

REMARK: Alloy samples are safe to transport for short periods, but
prolonged storage is not recommended due to its capacity for growth.
Consumption of surroundings has been observed, as has unmotivated
manipulation of environment that mimics sentient play behavior.

[RNNRqterm] || CyberAcme Systems, Inc.

/ / /REDACTED / / /

[frosty iris]

i think the UESC did manage FTL travel and that's how the equanimity got sent

no other explanation imo

[dense tendon]

im not sure i understand this conclusion, nor, if im being honest, whats being said in this Ghost shell's lore tab. Three paths? meeting one's self? this fits both Thothandal and Mjolnir, but also neither? theres enough vagaries here this could be from the perspective of S'Bhuth, even

then the actual ghost shell is formed like some 29th century human tech from marathon's branch cluster instead of the 25th century pre-launch Martian tech we see in the MIDA Mini and Multitools, which are closer in design to the pre-s'pht-augmenting weapons tech we see in Marathon 1, but also kind of Marathon 2-y

so like, my point is mostly that this one is strangely hard to draw intended origin from, for me.

also if yall ever want proof i'm a terminal nerd, my use of the term "branch cluster" is cuz of the model of franchise multiverse used by the TransTech continuity of Transformers. from like, the 2008 official fan club magazine. ya boy is like, classically educated, and yet also this cooked.

[drifting garnet]

yeah simplest explanation being that in the years since the Marathon left, humanity managed to develop better FTL tech, and thus managed to make it to TCIV in a much shorter amount of time

[frosty iris]

i mean they already have FTL for comms so it's not a stretch imo, it's possible they had FTL but not for something on the scale of the marathon ship

[spark raven]

Are the shells built in TCIV or on Earth?

[frosty iris]

the shells are weaved off planet and then matter transferred to the planet IIRC

as to whether they're weaved in some place in TCIV orbit or back in earth/mars idk

[sage lark]

its not stated explicitly

[spark raven]

it's probably cheaper to assemble the shells somewhere in Tau Ceti and transmit just the runner mind from Earth

[frosty iris]

i think they're weaved from the equanimity tbh cuz i remember from the 2025 arg logs that the equanimity had a bunch of sekgen weaveworms

but i'm not sure how that works out practically because the UESC hates runners so like i can't really imagine runners just being 3d printed inside a UESC ship only to grief UESC ops on TCIV

[sage lark]

we came on sponsored ships afaik not the equanimity

those left in 2888~ I believe

the equanimity left in the late 2794-95

[frosty iris]

o didn't realize there were more ships in orbit but that makes more sense

[sage lark]

yeah this stuff was in the ARGs and its weird we dont see any other ships in orbit other than the Marathon

[frosty iris]

okay yeah just scanned through the ARG emails again pretty sure we're from the weaveworms traxus purchased and sent on their own ship to compete with the Equanimity

[unreal slate]

Acronym reference guide:

BoB: Burger on Board

[icy prism]

[bold karma]

Class B anomalous material: one of the lines is kind of a sick burn "did you just get thawed"

[lethal mantle]

so what is biostripping anyway

[dreamy hawk]

Biostripping?

[latent python]

It's when a bio takes off all their clothes

[dreamy hawk]

Sounds exciting.

Don’t tell mother. 🤫

But are you thinking of salvage by a different name @lethal mantle ?

[lethal mantle]

a type of salvage
unstable biomass, reclaimed biostripping, and sterilized biostripping

only common description of the category is that it's rubberlike and made of reclaimed waste

[dreamy hawk]

Weird. They don’t appear to have codex entries.

https://tauceti.gg/db/salvage/sterilized-biostripping

https://tauceti.gg/db/salvage/reclaimed-biostripping

https://tauceti.gg/db/salvage/unstable-biomass

Sounds like reclaimed waste.

We know they liked putting grey water into their burgies. Maybe these are the “post consumer solids” they used.

[lethal mantle]

oh yeah neural insulation is also biostrip salvage

also they are all found in hauler and algae

[latent python]

Yeah they don't have codex entries, just the flavor text

But flavor text is how you know that matter that spends too much time in the colony has been molecularly altered in some way, probably from the anomaly

[keen plank]

Three paths refers to the class system. Titan, Hunter, and Warlock.

[dense tendon]

hrm. i feel kind of dumb for not seeing that one. it doesn't really change the rest of my confusion but alas

[latent python]

It turns out that the UESC bots are all actually playing Destiny 2

[dense tendon]

that would explain their unga bunga lunge rushes

theres something about the fact that the bots dont so much throw hands with you as trebuchet their fists at you that hits me so good

i didnt even intend that pun

like its not enough they have a tendency to rush you once they get near your cover, or resort to melee at the end of a movement if they find a runner, its that the animation is specifically a running super-man punch from a metal man that can in no universe weigh less than a kia soul.

AND they tend to do it in a way that blindsides you. they are quiet when they run, its vicious

love em so much

[urban hornet]

Is there a lore reason for why when shells die a bag spawns... i swear to god a random duffel bag is the laziest shit. It could of been some cool node thing

[dense tendon]

its a hardcase crate, for one.
for two, its could have been, not could of been.
completing the hat trick and thus prompting this particular snark is me asking why youd ask a question and then give your own answer in the same message that seems poised to shut down any dissenting opinions or discussion beyond "i dont like it*

[robust vale]

Okay so I’m late but the biostripping seems to be a rubber/organic polymer reconstructed out of waste, as it says, I’m assuming it’s value comes from its versatility and likely the unique effects being on TCIV has on it

It seems to be some sort of construction material

Or perhaps used for medical purposes as they can spawn in med cabinets

[eternal shell]

its construction material for that limb you hurt

[robust vale]

Hey, cybernetics are common

[urban hornet]

Okay dokes I better put on my big boy pants i see

[dense tendon]

fascinating response, no idea what it could mean

[latent python]

Are your big boy pants brown

[urban hornet]

Just that I was pointing out that it seems that the duffel bag is generic and not very exciting... got some condescending reply about grammar.

Just pointing out that you seem boring as fuck at a party

[latent python]

I think the boring one is the one who comes to the lore channel to complain

[urban hornet]

Just asking perhaps there is a lore reason for it 🤔

[latent python]

Nope

[dense tendon]

homie youre mad about a loot bag not being flashy enough. callin it lazy cuz... bag? it appears? i dont know, you jus declare it is. this is the most banal leading question ive heard in a while.
cuz youre not asking cuz you care, but cuz you want to tell the lore channel how boring you find the bag. like, okay? ONI has been crawling petabytes of UESC subnets and can find not a single record for "WHO_ASKED"

[eternal shell]

lmao

[dense tendon]

condescension tends to come when the initial statement is bait this bland, bro

[urban hornet]

Okay wrong channel i guess because I dont know what you guys are talking about lol

[dense tendon]

who?

like thats not a who asked setup, thats actual confusion

cuz the only words on the screen rn are yours and responses about yours

...bro also didnt ask, ig. unasked it. wildest thing i ever saw.

[gleaming hedge]

he literally did ask... don't know why yall are after him.

total overeaction dont you think?

[dense tendon]

omfg bruh, that last one was an obvious joke.

he also did ask the question and then immediately go "cuz theyre lazy. it could have been creative." in the same message.

so i mean if you think that he is gonna actually listen to any answer that isn't a circlejerk about this nigh meaningless random style detail being incompetence or apathy then by all means, give him an answer.

but dont get mad when some rando's bait gets called what it is.

[dreamy hawk]

What’s Durandal’s favorite takeout? 🤔 I’m thinking Thai, and he talks a mean game about how spicy he likes it, while ordering a 1 star dish.

[dense tendon]

close. vietnamese. mostly because he cant eat the noodles but all the funky diacritics feel a delightful kind of wiggly in his circuits

[latent python]

Leela's the one who "just likes the flavors" and orders 5 stars without flinching

[dense tendon]

note: Leela has not run tastebud.service since 2685

[keen plank]

Project Goliath took 97 years to get to Tau Ceti, and was seemingly three years ahead of schedule. The runners were smuggled in in vast quanities alongside the materials to repair and make more of them.

[frosty iris]

oh that's still subluminal then, guess FTL transport ain't a thing yet

i googled and the tau ceti system is about 12 light years from earth

[robust vale]

IIRC the runners came later?

Project Goliath was a secret for a long time until a hack to a UESC subsidiary company revealed it

at which point everybody went "go go go"

[frosty iris]

not by that much tho, based on the traxus chatlogs in the arg

[robust vale]

I think we have figured out ftl in marathon but we can't get humans on there

[frosty iris]

they said they'd be close behind

[robust vale]

and Goliath has actual bodies on it

[latent python]

It seems like that but it's all inferred, not confirmed

[robust vale]

yeah we just don't have info on it

[latent python]

Like, it's the best way of making sense of the timeline we have

[robust vale]

you think we'll get a map on the Equanimity

[latent python]

I dunno! I'm just excited for whatever we get with the Equanimity

[frosty iris]

1. [23:45:00] HedvT_6221 u/TOI_Board SekGen PO fully executed.
2. [23:45:07] HedvT_6221 Order in progress.
3. [23:45:14] HedvT_6221 Birthing window for S-Series will push slightly.
4. [23:45:21] NinoDC_0312 Delay considered and adjusted for.
5. [23:45:28] UrosBS_0111 All current intel suggest we’re early birds.
6. [23:45:33] UrosBS_0111 May catch Equi.
7. [23:45:39] UrosBS_0111 ^^^ Launch dependent.
8. [23:45:46] NinoDC_0312 Likely not beat.
9. [23:45:51] NinoDC_0312 But close behind.

this was from the chatlogs that were unlocked in the ARG so i'm pretty sure the runners followed quickly

[unreal slate]

poop

literal bags of poop

[latent python]

Unlike drinkable burgers, which are literal bags of deliciousness

[dreamy hawk]

Runners arrived via “sponsored transport.” Theres nothing to suggest we were hidden aboard the Equanimity.

[keen plank]

Not the Equanimity.

That hasn’t arrived yet. But will in season 3. We were smuggled aboard UESC’s ships.

[dreamy hawk]

My running assumption is that FTL has constraints on range depending on the amount of matter needing to be transported. We know teleporters exist so limited range FTL has existed for centuries. You could send humans via FTL but they’d need to make more, shorter jumps. More shorter jumps means more support infrastructure is needed which adds mass, demanding more, shorter jumps, which then require more infrastructure on and on.

[dreamy hawk]

What leads you to this conclusion? I ask because we have:

6. RUNNER INTERFERENCE: Unaffiliated Runners have been arriving in the system via sponsored transport to engage in unauthorized salvage operations. Deterrence tactics have failed to prevent newcomers. Runners represent a significant impediment to on-the-ground operations.

And “sponsored transport” doesn’t sound to me like “smuggled.” It sounds like corps sent us out on little shuttles or w/e. imo.

[latent python]

Or maybe one collective transport the corps pitched in to send together

[dreamy hawk]

Like a little hippie bus.

in space

[latent python]

The most bloodthirsty capitalist hippies in history

But at least the all agree that they want to steal from the government

[keen plank]

Read between the lines. The corporations want recoup their costs, figure out what happened, and obfuscate any liability. This is most notable with Traxus, which has significant financial influence over teh UESC.

[eternal shell]

marathon, aka The Adventures of Stealy IN SPACE

[keen plank]

It's not confirmed yet, but "Sponsored Transport" is deliberately vague and we're working with the various corporations as disposable assets that they can claim plausible deniability for. This is notable as both NuCaloric's Gaius and Traxus' Vulcan openly acknowledge such.

You can fit a lot of runners in a Traxus Offworld Industries shipping container.

[craggy finch]

The corps are apparently legally allowed to be in the Tau Ceti system and are entitled to the salvage, but Orion is doing his best to block them from accessing the planet itself

[latent python]

That is a very corporate point of view

Like, I absolutely believe that Traxus believes that

[unreal slate]

As soon as you say "legal" you have to ask by whose laws. Idk in this case, but in the real world this would all probably fall under some kind of maritime international waters situation.

[keen plank]

Indeed. Traxus explicitly has salvage rights. They're fighting for them legally but the UESC is blocking them or at least slowing them down. That's when we come in.

Interestingly, despite using their technology for our bodies, SekGen seems to come into the picture after the fact. And through their questline, they make a ton of money off us.

[unreal slate]

A "legal" contract probably conflicts with some other authority here, so it's a wild game at that point

[craggy finch]

"Entitled" in the sense that the apparent agreement is that they're supposed to take part in the salvage process alongside the UESC, but there's a bureaucratic grey area that allows Orion to obstruct their efforts and he's the guy with the biggest guns in the system

so they resort to Runners who make Orion's life very difficult

[unreal slate]

Also I'm a burger

[craggy finch]

Orion is walking a tightrope, since he's allowed to block the corps but is forbidden by his superior from actually taking action against Traxus directly

[dreamy hawk]

Gotcha. I was thinking in the “they have no idea they’re aboard” sense but yes, agreed on this.

[dreamy hawk]

Traxus is paying Orion’s bills, too.

[pure arrow]

Orion is basically playing Whac-a-Mole with the runners and I think he’s losing.

[craggy finch]

They're more like irritating termites eating his walls while a bear (the compiler) is actively mauling him

he's basically on a main quest to figure out the alien stuff and keeps getting killed by the S'pht while Runners just prod him constantly

[pure arrow]

Oh yeah there’s an alien.

[craggy finch]

like the MIDA quest where we're basically a distraction that his subordinates have to deal with (and complain about) while he investigates what seems to be a S'pht

Then it somehow explodes him

[keen plank]

The UESC didn't know they were.

Serula: *"Explain to me how a couple of runners..." *

Orion: "It's MORE than a couple of runners!"

[dreamy hawk]

Just a few.

[earnest hatch]

Orion must feel about runners the way trios feel about rooks.

[dusky nymph]

What are the codex entries around Orion and the s'pht?

[craggy finch]

There's the final MIDA quest line

and there's his encounter on the Marathon (Cryo Archive logs)

[dreamy hawk]

https://codex.cyberacme.systems/entry/truth-lies-5-6?

https://codex.cyberacme.systems/entry/uesc-tactical-record/first-contact

https://codex.cyberacme.systems/entry/uesc-tactical-record/engagement-subject01

Those are the three I can think of.

[eternal shell]

i bet he's real happy about pinwheel getting flooded by runners and rooks every half hour

that meter represents his blood pressure

and then, pfchooo

like a champagne cork

new shell, values back to normal, 6 more rooks enter pinwheel,

[keen plank]

Christ. They got massacred.

The UESC mapped out the archive and took the data from the biomatta soldier who saw the compiler while planning for a full vault 7 assault with multiple layers of observation and preparation.

…the compiler planned too. Add on the fact that IDurandal made their life that much harder (he considers them pests) and the UESC strike force lasted three minutes. An acceptable loss but some of those biomatta shells aren’t coming back. Meanwhile Orion was KIA and either brought back or on his way back.

[obtuse plume]

I feel like this is what it's like when a colonist runs into the Dire Marsh Anomaly https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZlRt05RY9Y&t=766s

[past gull]

what other skins are we expecting besides „Azazel” from that same series?

[keen plank]

A good question. I could see other skins from the other minor factions such as TSL. I’d also expect more orange-template style skins like the Assassin one because that’s the baseline for most of the shells before being manufactured.

Right now Triage is very likely to get something very nice next season. They’re the only shell they didn’t get an Achromatic Rush skin.

[latent python]

Yes give me

[past gull]

I mostly meant what other demons do we think might come, and whether they’ll follow the same general look or not

you’re right that „Protoshell” will likely be a uniform series though

[magic musk]

Does durandal personally open every door for the runners or does he only have to open specific doors

I forgot if he was delegated to opening every door on the ship or specific door types

[dreamy hawk]

I don’t think he opens any of them anymore. He locked himself out of those systems when he shoved himself into the archive I’m pretty sure.

[latent python]

Never again

[dreamy hawk]

Also. If he opens any doors it’ll be to vacuum.

[analog jungle]

Orion's terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad run

[dreamy hawk]

Got got by a six man rush with gold shields and tox injectors.

[eternal shell]

meanwhile, a copy of a copy of a copy of tycho in some heavily guarded pfhor databank just gets outrageously annoyed for no apparent reason, as if someone somewhere is stealing his shtick

[analog jungle]

gosh I hope we get Pfhor!Tycho in this game

and if not Leela in-game proper, some confirmation that she is actually living her best life out there somewhere

[eternal shell]

m2 ending said as such and i will reject any indications to the contrary

15-world network for her

[analog jungle]

only the best for our queen

[drifting garnet]

finishes Truth/Lies 4/6

Wait so the firefight that’s happening in the Codex entry that drops after completion: is that supposed to be of the one you just did for the Contract? Or from an earlier run?

[dreamy hawk]

Good question, I hadn’t considered that. No clue tbh. I had assumed it’s not the same but could be? But we don’t see any of Orion’s operatives which makes me think a different encounter.

[scenic iron]

Thinking of the UESC the ones on the Marathon are trying to retake it, or left over from hundreds of years ago

[dreamy hawk]

Orion has been sending bots aboard, they just can’t reliably recover them.

[scenic iron]

Interesting 🤔

So there are no humans left on the Marathon anymore, correct

Everyone is dead 😭

[eternal shell]

no humans in tau ceti

shells, ais, bots

but no regular bobs

[latent python]

Unless the Compiler has been running some kind of BoB breeding program

[scenic iron]

Haha

I wonder how many Compilers are still on the ship

[terse wren]

Oh no here come the unlicensed novels

[scenic iron]

You would think Earth would send humans to see what happened to the Marathon and the planet instead of just robots

[dusky nymph]

BoB on BoB (BoBoBoB)

[eternal shell]

bots, shells and ais are much easier to transport

[scenic iron]

Oooo

That's true

[eternal shell]

and, you know, it's also a bad idea until you know what happened to the first set of humans that went there

[dreamy hawk]

Technically there could still be folks in cryo, but I doubt they’re still thawable if they are.

[scenic iron]

Yep sad times 😭

[dreamy hawk]

They did, they just haven’t arrived yet (as far as we know). There are humans on the Equanimity.

It’s just faster to send digitized consciousnesses and robots.

[scenic iron]

Oh ok good to know

[dreamy hawk]

Assumedly.

[scenic iron]

That's why us runner are here 😀

[dreamy hawk]

FTL seems to work best either for limited distances or limited amounts of mass.

[scenic iron]

Just like real life haha

The more mass the harder it becomes

[dreamy hawk]

We’ve figured out FTL? 🤔

[scenic iron]

Imagine what power would be needed to transport the Marathon FTL lmao 🤣

It can't be done in real world physics

Warping space maybe but even then the power required to bend space is massive and only for a few seconds etc

[dreamy hawk]

I warp space every time I eat a burrito.

[scenic iron]

Lmao 🤣

[south temple]

How deep does the lore discussion rabbit hole go? does anyone remember the old marathon/halo ancilliary connection lore site ?

do we talk about rampant ais? durandal? the s'pht ?

or is it all just thne recent game

[latent python]

Well

Rampant AIs, Durandal, and a s'pht are all in the new game

[south temple]

HAH i might just leave work early

[scenic iron]

Which is interesting because Durandal left the Marathon so which version of the AI is this one?!?

[latent python]

Easy, it's IDEA

[south temple]

yeah he left on the rozinante... but who says he couldnt have copied himself, is he crazy rampant int he new game?

[scenic iron]

Well he wants to kill everyone so ya pretty rampant haha 🤣

[latent python]

Durandal, um, involuntarily hijacked a program called IDEA meant to monitor the Marathon AIs

[south temple]

😄 makes sense.. this is like a century later

[latent python]

And he's not trying to kill us (directly), he let us onto the Marathon

[south temple]

did the BoB society collapse?

[latent python]

Presumably

[south temple]

.. i shouldnt have shot them all 🙁 now I feel terrible

single handidly broke them past replacement numbers i guess

BUT THEY HAVE PISTOL AMMO MAN

[dreamy hawk]

It’s OK. With Inifnity’s timeline shenanigans who is to say you killed any BoBs at all?

[drifting garnet]

Hmm. Kind of a shame if that’s the case: would’ve been a lot of fun to at least have that Codex reflect The Runner’s direct impact on the narrative

[dreamy hawk]

“Involuntarily hijacked”

`[IDEA]: It feels odd, wearing your "skin."

[IDEA]: I'd apologize for devouring you. But I did warn you. Or… a part of me did. But that part is gone, and I am left here in need of places to hide and room to grow. `

💀

[drifting garnet]

Also, Gantry getting some action in via some cyber warfare trolling is always fun

[dreamy hawk]

Next time I skin someone as a Rook I’ll refer to it as an “involuntary hijacking.”

[lone prism]

Rude. There's nothing involuntary about what I do

[lilac sapphire]

twitches in Nona

[sleek elk]

worm is getting some action

evil worm impreg questline

[drifting garnet]

Lewd

[scenic iron]

Shells are made out of silk from moths?!?!

That's kinda of interesting 🤔

[latent python]

They're woven from materials extruded from WEAVEworms

[sharp vine]

I want to get more lore from the emotional support plushies and drinkable cheeseburger. Is there any way to increase drop rates for those?

[latent python]

Drinkable Cheeseburger will probably only drop at Perimeter, Biosynthetic Pet Prototype at Dire Marsh

Within those areas you just have to look for places with good loot tables - commanders, locked rooms

[drifting garnet]

Also, wall safes

It suddenly became a lot more imperative for me when I heard through the grapevine that Joy’s most devastating audio comes from the Emotional Support Plushies

[vocal ibex]

ok lmao i guess i don't have image perms but random compiler mention in a server i'm in... yes in the Marathon sense.

[sharp radish]

Is Joy doing ok?

Need more bonsai?

Was she the one that came up with the bonsai gifts?

[dreamy hawk]

Honestly deserves a trigger warning.

[dreamy hawk]

Her and Gabriel iirc.

Darius, not Gabriel.

SUMMARY: Darius and Joy re-approve a community morale initiative involving distribution of shrink-wrapped bonsai trees.

[sharp radish]

Got big lore loot yesterday, 15 entries, gonna go read them as soon as I'm home

What's Darius in charge of again?

[plucky sierra]

Agriculture

[sharp radish]

What's up with agriculture related AIs all end up in ius?

[drifting garnet]

Yea: to the point that of the Priority Contracts, I believe you hear the most of him from NuCal

[sharp radish]

Gaius, Darius, just saying

Now it'd be a cool twist if one of the agents turned out to be a rampart AI

[torpid thicket]

I have a personal theory that _gantry is an ai who’s sided with MIDA either because he agrees with the message, or that he’s went rampant and has decided that working with MIDA is the best way to accumulate power, influence and processing power.

[uneven berry]

i thought he was a dude

but sure I can see gantry siding with MIDA as a gamble to steal and accumulate resources for himself

this could def be a plot point for a season

[torpid thicket]

_gantry being the rampant ai assistant of MIDA would be a neat parallel to Durandal freeing / helping to free the Sph’t from their enslavement under the Phor imo.

The more things change, the more things stay the same, alongside history not exactly repeating, but definitely rhyming.

[dreamy hawk]

We know that he was a Runner.

[torpid thicket]

Oh, that’s news to me, then. 😅

[dreamy hawk]

I dunno about the AI in Sol, but ONI and anyone in TC is likely in for a bad time.

[torpid thicket]

I know that Charter was a Runner, but I didn’t know that _gantry was too. 😅

[dreamy hawk]

Him, Orion, and Charter are all “Runners.”

[torpid thicket]

Things are gonna get “interesting” if whatever messed up Darius etc gets a hold of Cerberus as well.

[dreamy hawk]

He mentions it in some of his dialogue lines; I don’t think there anything in the codex. To your theory, though, he could just have false memories planted (but I don’t think that’s the case personally).

[visual lynx]

I’m curious about that underscore prefix in his name. in programming that often indicates something “private”, like a variable or function not for public use.

[dreamy hawk]

You’re awake when it’s not 2am? 👀

Fell asleep nvm.

[scenic iron]

What is ONI is lying to the Runners about stuff. Or nah she is on the good side of things

[dreamy hawk]

They’re all lying to you and using you. None of them have your best interests as even a quaternary consideration.

[robust vale]

they use the underscore format for all operatives so I suspect gantry may be a runner

[hallow pike]

Just got a new cryo contract that says "Destroy UESC Puppets 0/200" - PUPPETS??? Does that mean all the bots are being piloted remotely?

[robust vale]

Durandal doesn't like them so he's mean to them

but also Cerberus does kinda control them

[lilac sapphire]

Is it just me but if you look close at Orion's face does he have a big old walrus moustache

[hallow pike]

ahhhh I see

I was imagining a factory full of uesc runner pilots

[dreamy hawk]

Only Orion and his direct subordinates. A lot more on the Equanimity though.

[drifting garnet]

I noticed! And even then I wasn’t sure because his face is obscured enough that it’s hard to tell.

It does help to add to the guy if he does indeed have a big, bold mustache

[warm thicket]

Yeah I was thinking that he would relate to them more like BoBs but then Cerberus came to mind

[earnest hatch]

I think it’s interesting and not a coincidence that when we see Orion it’s looking up at him as if from an inferior position. But when we see _gantry it’s the opposite, we’re looking down at him as though he’s in the inferior position.

[coral bison]

the only way to win is to pick who you want to be used by more tbf

Death is out of the equation so you may as well let fate take the wheel

[analog crow]

biggest gulp of my spreading misinformation that Orion was an ai ass life

[earnest hatch]

I will the side with the Spht or the Pfhor. Whoever shows up first.

[sharp vine]

…well I sure wouldn’t mind going toe to toe with Orion.

(I Thought he might be a modified spht until now)

[keen plank]

Wait, is _gantry a runner?

He’s the only faction representative who seems a bit unclear overall.

• ONI: soft/dummy AI. Almost every shell/runner has her installed as a both a guide and operating system.

• Gaius: NuCaloric AI based off founder and CEO Gus Moraine.

• Charter: Runner/ex runner who became well known for killing a high level Traxus board member.

• Vulcan: Likely a Traxus 9 or early stage 10 AI. Somewhat ambiguous as she’s the most advanced AI that’s not Thothandal. There are also two characters in their profile. Heavily inspired by the mythological Chimera, which could imply a third aspect.

• Nona: SekGen AI who is head of Shell Research and Development

• Orion: UESC Captain Runner who servers under Admiral Sulera. Both may serve under AI Cerberus.

• _Gantry. Unclear as of now.

[cloud terrace]

gantry may or may not be a runner, but he is certainly in a shell when he's talking to you

[lilac sapphire]

Interesting that gantry is the only faction handler we talk to that is a genuine human consciousness. The rest are AI.

Well, and Charter.

[chrome skiff]

At least thats what Gantry tells us, there's no reason for him or anyone at MIDA to tell the truth to a runner

at least very little reason

[chrome skiff]

he might not even be in a shell, could have just written a program to show that visual in contact.

I dont think any of agents physically look like they do in game. Those are just the interface screens that choose to show you.

How they see themselves maybe

I wonder if we'll end up seeing how Durandal sees himself

That would be interesting

If they go the obvious path it would be a sword or have some sword motif

though id be so excited ti see where the artists take it

[torpid thicket]

We have seen what could be an image of how Durandal sees himself during the Cryo intro, namely the knight on horseback?

Or, at least that’s how I’m interpreting it. 😄

[sleek elk]

So basically they're all vtubers

[torpid thicket]

“Assert: the CyberAcme brand C.A.T E.A.R.S will increase viewer interest and therefore channel growth.” - ONI, probably

[chrome skiff]

except the AIs dont have physical bodies. But yeah

I wonder if an AI could use a runner shell?

probably wouldnt be able to download all of its sodtware into one, but maybe they could partially?

If they went rampant and wanted to experience some level of human experience

I could see that happening to Gabriel

[autumn surge]

😭

[torpid thicket]

I reckon it’d work, given that Shells have a preinstalled personality that an ai could just disable or remove completely to free up more space for itself.

Given that SekGen and CyAc have already mastered transplanting human minds into synthetic bodies, doing the same for a synthetic mind (ie an ai) could be akin to just moving one piece of incredibly complex and powerful software (or a fragment) from one storage drive to another.

The main issue would probably be storage space as mentioned, as we’ve seen with Durandal having to essentially lobotomise himself to fit back into the data banks aboard the Marathon, as according to what’s been revealed through certain Cryo Archive lore.

[dense tendon]

ive talked about this, actually. gantry is very honest in how he talks to you. which is to say, he is very upfront from his phrasing and demeanor that he is here for profit from violence, same as you. his ideology is one of self service, and he doesn't pretend to not be. he doesn't pretend you aren't about that either. for all intents and purposes, whatever you feel about MIDA's ideology, gantry in specific wants the same thing as you. to hit the people who have things over the head and take em so you can have things

[chrome skiff]

or he just talks like that to you so youd be on board with his plans

MIDA is extremely good at obfuscation and hidden messages

[dense tendon]

thats the thing

[chrome skiff]

thats kinda their whole thing

[torpid thicket]

As a further addition to this, _gantry appears to be well aware that we’re mercenaries, and that if Orion was interested in paying us well for our services, we’d probably be fighting for him. _gantry’s just taking advantage of the fact that Orion refuses to deal with the criminals that we’ve become by trespassing into Tau Ceti.

[dense tendon]

he doesnt care

[chrome skiff]

or so he says

[dense tendon]

he doesnt even really say that with words, is the thing. he wastes very little words.

sorry, im in a vc with someone so focusing on two convos at once is making me experience turbo rampancy

[chrome skiff]

Either way whatever Gantry says to the player is all to get them to do work

[torpid thicket]

“Runnah, intra-solar phone rates are murder. Literally. Every. Word. Must. Count.” - _gantry, probably.

[dense tendon]

gantry practically tells you "you are either going to do what i want and get paid, or you are going to do what i want and get paid by someone else." the fact you're here at all means you're here to hit the UESC. and he wants them to get hurt.

its very similar to how chantry feels

[chrome skiff]

Thats true

[dense tendon]

the very funny part is i don't exactly think chantry is actually talking to you

[chrome skiff]

I guess there isnt much reason to hide their motives

[dense tendon]

charter

not chantry

still a lil rampant

[chrome skiff]

charter + gantry, the most psychopathic anarchist you'll ever meet

[dense tendon]

arachne man is mostly jus giving a sermon, and i don't know if he even actually knows theres a person hearing him, because he's preaching to himself.

[torpid thicket]

Can love bloom between death cultists and Martian terrorists? 😁

[dense tendon]

they made me in a lab

[chrome skiff]

I think MIDA would be least aligned with Arachne, since MIDA only cares about fucking over UESC, and Arachne only cares about killing runners

[torpid thicket]

As has been mentioned in #mida-restricted-comms , Arachne probably has some recruits amongst MIDA owing to the appeal a death cult probably has in a group that is aware of how much death they’re both surrounded by (ie UESC purges, famines and other crises) and are responsible for, but I agree that there’s very little overlap of motives outside of that.

MIDA causes carnage with a goal in mind, Arachne is just here for the love of the game.

[torpid thicket]

That’s why I like MIDA, personally. We’re in Tau Ceti to hit UESC. Hard. Wherever they go, we go, and we’re not stopping until they drop or we do.

[potent mural]

what i dont get is MIDA has been dealing with the other corpos

co-existing to survive kinda deal

[torpid thicket]

Yeah, the only interaction between MIDA and Traxus should be sabotage and bullets, given the history of Traxus 4.

[potent mural]

so you never know if MIDA is really all about their cause, or playing their role to achieve the goal of another corpo

...
also, heard this in a lore video and dunno if the person got it wrong or true. they said Traxus was "named after" Traxus 4. Does this mean current Traxus wasn't involved with Traxus 4?

[torpid thicket]

That kinda looks like they’ve put the cart before the horse imo 😄

[potent mural]

seems like a really amateur mistake to make if it was a mistake

just because it came from someone who was clearly deep into the lore

[torpid thicket]

The wiki seems to corroborate that it’s a mistake, as much as it’s a bit bare-bones.

That reminds me of someone claiming that Durandal designed both the MIDA Multi-Tool and MIDA Mini-Tool?

[potent mural]

is Deimosite a new type of metal, like consisting of newly discovered elements not previously known on Earth? Or is it just named after where it came from?

[sage junco]

Well the Marathon was literally constructed out of Deimos

Maybe Deimosite is some leftover mineral

[dense tendon]

thats what gantry tells you with his manner of speech. that all the rah rah about vox populi and justice MIDA calls for is pretext.
he is violent ambition. he wears revolutionarys garb to dress up the blatant power grab via violent theft as righteous outrage.
MIDA in the 29th century is about four to five hundred years after the MIDA that was eradicated during the initial justified Martian revolution. TCIV MIDA is jackbooted thugs aping a moral superior cuz they know it gets them more support.
they are no different, morally, than any of the other factions we can currently work for.

he wants to throw this brick at that UESC bigshot over there and take his wallet. if you hold the camera he'll split the contents with you.

[upper dune]

I dunno I think modern MIDA just likes the look

[sharp radish]

"construction of the Hearth is still ongoing", there's gotta be always a hearth huh Bungie?

are Reed's personal logs recorded daily?

[dense tendon]

thats certainly part of it!

[earnest hatch]

No, there’s lines from gantry in the later MIDA quests that I think make it clear their goals are genuine. The revolutionaries actually being hypocrites is an old trope that gets overused. I think that’s why people assume it’s true in most stories.

[sharp radish]

is there info on how long it takes to do a wake cycle and shipping people to outposts?

[eternal knoll]

i don't think they ever make this concrete! i'd guess it could be pretty relative, even a little abstractly experienced. maybe sometimes there was a shell like the one you wanted fresh off the printer, maybe sometimes a couple days pass, experienced instantaneously?

[eternal knoll]

i'm eager to see their final quest but i can def get why mida has issues coming off authentically in this game. they seem focused on sloganeeing and agitprop... which looks pretty limp when directed at the situation on tau ceti

i don't really think it's supposed to feel like a parody of recent western protest movements but i unfortunately do keep feeling that

it would help if their critique sounded more trenchant. let em teach us some of sol's history?

[earnest hatch]

But then the writers couldn’t have their fun with unusual syntax and metaphors while writing gantry lines.

[sharp radish]

I had the idea that you could extrapolate how much time has passed between reed's logs

[craggy finch]

The idea is that the MIDA we see is an offshoot from the original group, which was an organised Bolshevik-like political party, and acts more like a set of loose insurgent cells mimicking movements like Anonymous

We know that Vandal was created when a MIDA operative stole a bunch of shells, modified them, then got a bunch of associates together to conduct a public raid against MIDA

meanwhile _gantry seems like a lone agent using us Runners as his main assets

speaking of Anonymous, I'm sure that's where most of _gantry's inspiration comes from, with the hacking and constant reminders of how he's watching everything

[dense tendon]

for one thing, im not saying that MIDA doesnt have a cause they believe in. im saying gantry doesnt pretend to care whether you care about the cause or not, he knows you being here at worst means he gets an addition to the list of people shitkicking UESC suits

at best it means he gets a guy he can point at specific suits

[dreamy hawk]

For sure. I’m pretty sure he says as much in his intro, too, no?

[dense tendon]

yeah. so its kind of odd to pretend later stuff changes why he approaches you in the first, as if he wasnt openly using you from minute one but in a way that was to your benefit regardless of ideology.

[carmine phoenix]

I remember seeng some theory that the current mida cell we interact w through gantry is a traxus sponsored fake

Since they both pursue the bioweapons uesc has on darsh

[hidden kiln]

I do really suspect the mida we’re interacting with is either a heavily neutered cell or straight up controlled opposition by another faction

[dense tendon]

also like, we can talk for infinite length about the difference between revolution and terrorism but ultimately the divider is image.
the tactics of guerrilla warfare were used in the war on terror, the cold war, the revolutionary war, and every other rebellion of a smaller group against a larger in human history. a molotov does not hurt less when the man who throws it is right to do so.
MIDAs cause is one that requires engagement in violence on physical, economical, social and digital battlegrounds. they have taken this course not because of any moral leanings one way or another, but that the call to action that they formed to respond to was the result of peaceful, pacifistic civilization becoming impossible, as you cannot coexist with your tyrant, you can only suffer them.
the seperation of centuries from the inception of the cause has done little, it seems, to prove merit in wasting time playing the demagogue to gantry. youre an early christmas present to him. why not give back some joy your arrival gave him?

[dense tendon]

i dont think this one tracks, actually. why wouldnt MIDA be after the bioweapon Traxus wants? if they get it, Traxus has to go through them for it.

ballistically, i presume.

denying your enemy their assets doesnt mean you want their assets

[latent python]

Orion definitely wants to go ballistically through _gantry

[dense tendon]

mutual, that

hell, theyre both using shells. they could do that as a weekly event

[hidden kiln]

Something can be said in regards to MIDA being a futuristic version of more anarchist-adjacent revolutionaries and the idea of decentralized leadership; I really like the theory that gantry is just some dude taking advantage of the runner to further his outlook on mida’s ideology rather than a firm figurehead with the entire org behind him. It definitely explains the suddenness of his intro

[dense tendon]

-# tbqh the existence of shells invalidates traditional warfare on so many levels it would be akin greek city states settling wars via duels of champions except the champs would be reusable

-# so there should be space gladiators on tv is my point

[latent python]

Hell yeah

They wouldn't even have to fight, they could compete in other ways

[dense tendon]

yeah, absolutely! theres both legitimate grievances and jus genuine greed and bloodthirst in 29c MIDA. gantry aint head MIDAss, but he is representative of em. down to containing much of the ideological spectrum of the faction as a whole.

[dense tendon]

i mean we spent a lot of RnD time on making these disposable bodies for digital hypersoldiers, whatever we're doing with em is gonna involve em dying a bunch

plus its a crowdpleaser when they pop big enough

[latent python]

But what if we could watch them compete to see which one loves the best

[dense tendon]

depends on what you mean by love but i am SURE theres a market for at least one definition

[latent python]

They could pop in a different way

[dense tendon]

now youre thinkin the right music

[carmine phoenix]

Liaison fight night

[hidden kiln]

Isn’t this apex legends lore lol

[latent python]

Is that what they're doing in Apex

[dense tendon]

anyway imma head out but before i do i think its really funny to call a group whos first job for you is literally go break windows and police robots "not hypocrites." like, only one of those do something, and you only have to kill like a handful of any drones for it. the first thing gantry says to you, after introducing himself by running your digital pockets, is "if you wanna fight for justice go vandalize some dead guys house and slightly annoy the government a bit less than the usual amount you do when you go outside."
like, the reason i have for calling gantry a thug who apes at revolution is because his speech is entirely meaningless agitprop buzzphrases devoid of substance, and his demands are that you cause the amount of civil disruption that the modern world would experience if you ding dong ditched the crosswalk.

its not a tired trope when its refreshingly honest about it lmao

[pure arrow]

I like MIDA’s chutzpah.

[dense tendon]

oh yeah for sure. it takes cojones to be this honest. love em.

[pure arrow]

MIDA at the start: Break windows and spray paint graffiti on shit.
MIDA later: awright mate let’s do some bioterrorism
MIDA at the end: what do you mean there’s aliens

[dreamy hawk]

I’m very curious to see how a few of the factions go narratively, MIDA probably chief among them.

[latent python]

Now I want someone to Photoshop _gantry's face onto the "aliens" meme guy

[pure arrow]

I think the funniest thing that could happen is MIDA actually starting a revolution and not really knowing what to do.

Dog catches car moment.

[dense tendon]

me winning an argument type beat

jokes, jokes

[pure arrow]

_gantry getting what he said he wanted by accident:

“uh oh!”

[dense tendon]

-# i dont have to win when im always right already

[dense tendon]

_gantry: m8 i mite hv fked up a tad

[pure arrow]

How do you fuck up a tad? You just plug the usb into it and slap your ape hands in it.

[dense tendon]

wh-

[pure arrow]

Then you get wiped out by someone with a Longshot halfway across the marsh before it finishes the animation.

I guess that’s fucking up a tad.

[dense tendon]

what is a tad other than a UK bloke saying "a little bit" or am i missing the joke even more than i think

[latent python]

TAD, the in game scanner thing

[dense tendon]

that has a name?!

[pure arrow]

I made a pun.

Yeah. It’s called a TAD.

[latent python]

What have you been calling it

[dense tendon]

tablet

[pure arrow]

Also _gantry is Australian.

[dense tendon]

phone?

not really calling it anything tbh

[pure arrow]

Well, now you know.

[latent python]

I suppose if you call it a tablet people might have heard TAD and filled in the details

Oh wait let's make sure we're talking about the same thing

[dense tendon]

imma be real he mumbles so much all i really got was "space euro"

[pure arrow]

He has an Australian accent. Which makes me think that Mars is Space Australia.

[latent python]

The TADs are very specifically the orange posts with an iPad stuck to them that you can activate to get a blue recon pulse

[dense tendon]

or i guess "space foreign to me" if we're splitting hairs

[dense tendon]

...im not sure ive actually ever even seen this.

[latent python]

The person on your team who knows what they're doing knows where all of them are on the map

[dense tendon]

so the very unfortunate thing is that person is me for my team

[latent python]

I actually don't know if the TADs also got buffed with the recon pulse buff but I don't think they did

[dense tendon]

its worked out so far. jus follow the distant sounds of combat and mop up whatever shakes out. easy bloodmoney.

[latent python]

So they might still work like old recon pulse

[dense tendon]

as an aside, every extraction ive ever done as vandal has been slid into, progressively later and later. im not sure what the timing is for that mastery codex but it must be crazy precise.

like ive slid in after it fires and still nothing

this codex is lying to me

[latent python]

I'm trying to remember what's left for Triage mastery

I think it's something with overcharge

[craggy finch]

I'm stuck on Destroyer's smoke thing

I swear I downed a player while they were in smoke once but didn't register

must be some coding quirk where they need to have the concealed effect on them

[terse shard]

You have to slide into the Exfil ring before anyone else starts the countdown

Its absolutely written wrong for what you need to actually do.

[dreamy hawk]

I am far too proud of my Triage mastery. Maybe one day I’ll try a different shell. Maybe.

[latent python]

Whaaat

[hidden kiln]

Parallels real life aussie considering they’re essentially a prison planet after the civilian massacre there

[drifting garnet]

meanwhile, finishes Truth/Lies 5/6

Wait, what is this? Is it…Orion trying to retrieve the Sample himself and getting rolled while doing it? Or something else?

‘Cause if it’s the former…well that just makes him look like a chump next to Runners if he can’t handle persistent OS Hack debuff on a jaunt towards a DCON, lol

[pure arrow]

Type S’pht

[keen plank]

Orion has a few different directives. Operation First Mile goes…terribly for him.

Meanwhile _gantry makes his life hell and we’re an infestation of ticks he can’t get rid of.

[drifting garnet]

First Mile is the initial operation to reclaim control of the Marathon, right?

[keen plank]

Yep. It's their "beachhead." One sec.

https://codex.cyberacme.systems/entry/uesc-tactical-record/first-contact

This is all 5 logs of their progress. It doesn't go well for the UESC.

[terse shard]

That’s what got the challenge for me, at least. You probably can’t overshoot the slide either.

[pure arrow]

I bet runners get a lot of work in dangerous conditions other than mercenary work.

There’s runners on Tau Ceti but there’s probably a lot of them working in shipyards back in Sol living the Hardspace Shipbreaker life.

[scenic iron]

When you read the codex and you see the animosity towards the poor BoBs haha 😂

They really didn't like them and were like second rated citizens

[pure arrow]

“BOB” is basically a slur.

Like, a mild one, but still a slur.

[dreamy hawk]

I’d agree. The classism is strong in Marathon.

[drifting garnet]

Ok then. But no, I was referring to Codex entry you get after you finish Truth/Lies 5/6. the one where you need to get into the downed UESC drop ship with the Unusual Sample that you then need to drop off in a DCON.

That in its Codex entry, it sounds like it’s about Orion’s attempt to get it himself?

[humble veldt]

the green jumpsuit thing is totally a thing id see racists do in real life

"Oh, you lost your dad to the body snatcher suicide bombers when you were a kid??? i'm going to break into an old warehouse, find spares of his work uniform which was banned for identification reasons, and hide them all over your living quarters'

[tender flume]

Whiteout giving too much away.. if you hear meowing, can you actually find the cat? I heard it for the 2nd time, spent some good 5 minutes exposed like an idiot, looking around, no luck 😅

[eternal shell]

yes you can find bingus

and in typical cat fashion once you get close he teleports away

[tender flume]

Humm teleports! That makes it harder... Will keep trying. Hope to pet it someday

[eternal shell]

he has all the abilities of an ordinary cat

teleportation, invisibility, noclip

[tender flume]

Does he like the smell of a cheeseburger haha

[eternal shell]

hears a can opener being picked up on the next map

[trim kiln]

God this is ripping me straight back to ark survival evolved lol

[pure arrow]

I don’t know what that is.

[eternal shell]

it's a game that is 90% jank and 10% dinosaurs

[keen plank]

That's one of their other primary orders. Sulera is very interested in the anomaly and is actively competing with Traxus to gather data on it.

[fresh viper]

can someone explain the severed twins to me, read its lore and still barely understand it, im gathering the "twins" are Durandal and Tycho?

[plucky sierra]

MIDA propaganda veiled as children’s stories, the twins are Phobos and Deimos, one of which was “stolen” by the UESC

[keen plank]

It’s about the Martian moons.

[pure arrow]

Phobos and Deimos were the gods of fear and terror in Greek myth, iirc. Not sure if that’s relevant, but it is interesting.

[eternal shell]

it's a little bit funny how it doesnt seem like anything has been done with phobos

it's just there

doom had a story that could fit at the back of a business card but it used both moons!

(deimos got teleported to hell which is pretty metal)

[dreamy hawk]

Shocked they didn’t have the Equanimity tow Phobos along for shits and giggles.

[leaden storm]

What is a BoB again

Oh

Born on board

[forest pewter]

Anyone know why the UESC have summoning circles underneath them whenever they spawn in? Or is it just a neat design choice

[terse wren]

U don’t get 2 call them that u earthborn bigot only they get 2 call each other that

[analog jungle]

Re: Phobos and Deimos, was there ever any lore (26 or 90s) about why Deimos was chosen over Phobos?

Phobos is larger and orbits closer to Mars (closer to the surface than any other solar system moon to its host, actually), so it would require more energy to get it going. That's a good explanation, but I'm curious if the games ever talked about this

[terse jasper]

Zone of the Enders 2 also had a hollowed out Phobos.

[terse wren]

It had deimost promise

Damn bro i provide my scintillating wit free of charge & still no love

Update there's love. Marton community never lets me down

[earnest hatch]

I think it’s a design choice. Like demons being summoned.

[forest pewter]

yeah it fucks hard i was just wondering if it was referenced anywhere in the codex

[latent python]

It's probably miniature versions of the circles we exfil out on

[verbal dew]

Where does the game take place in the marathon continuity?
Is this even part of the 7 original timelines?

[dreamy hawk]

Originally I’d think it had to do with shape, but now that the marathon isn’t built into the moon the same way, idk.

[dreamy hawk]

Presumably the final infinity timeline. It’s the best working guess rn.

Also your pfp makes me think of Groudon for some reason.

[verbal dew]

The final successful timeline?

[dreamy hawk]

Yeah.

[verbal dew]

Why XD
I know both Dante and him are red but why XD

[dreamy hawk]

It allows for most of M2 and the like to be retconned, possibly even more since we don’t know all the changes, while keeping the W’rk sealed and taken care of.

[dreamy hawk]

If I don’t look close at all it kinda looks like this: https://www.dexerto.com/cdn-image/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/13/pokemon-go-primal-groudon.jpg?width=3840&quality=75&format=auto

But I probably just need new glasses.

[verbal dew]

Yeah
Let's see what Bungie cooks cause the current game is making me question a lot of things now

[verbal dew]

It may be because of the colors
It's basically the same palette

[dreamy hawk]

Nope. That privilege was apparently taken away some time ago.

[latent python]

I wish we knew who abused it so we could shame them

[dreamy hawk]

I’m certain they’re no longer welcome here.

[latent python]

SHAME

[verbal dew]

Let's make them play an infinite loop of colony ship for sale cheap from marathon one

For 2 days in a row

No breaks

[latent python]

That's how long it takes to beat anyway

[verbal dew]

Idk what other marathon level is more annoying than that

[verbal dew]

Trve

[dreamy hawk]

We’ll just force them to play it without any guides allowed.

[unreal slate]

Many a man has lost a cheeseburger by chasing a runner, but nobody has ever lost a runner by chasing a cheeseburger

[dreamy hawk]

Wiser words have never been spoken. 🥲

[scenic iron]

Thinking of the Marathon's timelines how do we know this is not the OG timeline

Nah it can't be because the ship and planet surface was destroyed

[dreamy hawk]

👆 there are enough things that we see, or specifically, don’t see, to suggest it’s not that timeline.

Durandal would have have visited Earth to provide them with warp capable missiles, there’d be no colony left for us to visit as you point out, the UESC and S’pht would have wiped out the Pfhor home world by now, etc.

[scenic iron]

Yep so I'm happy we have a new timeline to explore and experience

[earnest hatch]

I don’t know if you saw my recent suggestion that the colony might have gotten nuked by the Pfhor. Then the Anomaly reset just the colony to an earlier point in time and that’s part of why so many things seem new.

[dreamy hawk]

It could certainly be the case. IMO a few too many steps, there’s easier answers, but I’m not going to die on a hill against the idea.

[pure arrow]

I just assumed everything looked newish because of Advanced Future Materials rather than time fuckery.

[earnest hatch]

So did I but people pointed out that something sitting in a marsh for a hundred years should probably be buried under mud and water.

[lilac sapphire]

Did I read somewhere that the climate on TCIV is relatively chill compared to earth? Not many storms, the rainy drizzle on perimeter is about as bad as it gets?

I could be just straight making this up, but I feel like I read something to this effect in a codex

[lilac sapphire]

I'd argue that some of the equipment on perimeter looks like shit. The data wall is falling apart. Parts of North (South) relay too?

Granted, maybe not '100 years of neglect' levels of looking like shit

IDK, I might be in camp Advanced Future Materials

Self-cleaning paint and what not

Also I'm just dropping into the last few messages of what appears to be a larger conversation

[dreamy hawk]

We know there are automated systems still functioning, you can even see little roombas on outpost. IMO it’s a combination of those + good materials + a bit of suspension of disbelief.

Or some timey whimey stuff but iirc the anomaly has chilled out since killing everyone off.

[potent mural]

My thoughts exactly

[potent mural]

I dunno, if that was a plot point you would think somebody in the game would say something along the lines of "The place looks like the people only disappeared recently"

[earnest hatch]

If they wanted to hit you over the head. If they take a more subtle approach they’d wait. But I’m not super invested in my time reset theory either.

[drifting garnet]

Yeah: some of the lore items say that TCIV got picked for its relatively mild climate

well barring the bits saying that TCIV was picked for other, more Mysterious Reasons that UESC knew about

[dreamy hawk]

I wrap up my entire identity in my theories. Makes me feel alive whenever someone challenges them.

[humble veldt]

they keep mentioning 'temporal anomalies' but never show it

I'm hoping maybe season 2 has some kind of Timecrash that teleports enemies and buildings from hundreds of years ago into the present for one of the maps. That could explain it

it would be a fun way to introduce pfhor and bobs too. Maybe a lockdown-like event where you can get 'battleroid combat data' (survive longer than 1 minute in an unwinnable encounter with MR54)

[eternal shell]

only way you're surviving mjolnir recon is if he's drunk and very much not taking you seriously

and my friend, he knows how to roast

so there's no escaping unscathed

[autumn surge]

inb4 vex

[earnest hatch]

Unwinnable boss fight.

The only way to survive is to hide.

[drifting garnet]

meanwhile, Mandalore’s vids return on autoplay

Man, imagine in the next raid, your team opens up the boss room, your team waits with bated breath on what lies ahead…

a bones flies out towards your face

”I gotta bone to pick with you!!!”

[humble veldt]

You can't kill him, but you can run is my point. That being said, Imagine a contract from sekiguchi where you need to record how many foot-pounds of force a Battleroid can punch or some shit, and you do that by running up to 54 during a Timequake and letting him kill you

[sharp radish]

what do we know about Charter and Aranchne? Are there in game logs aboutthem?

[humble veldt]

all i know is that Arachne is a legitimate religion with tax exempt status granted by the UESC authorities

[craggy prairie]

anybody know what the poem quoted by Durandal in the Cryo ARG was? Not Ozymandius, thought the title had something to do with death

[uneven berry]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1364289254045515886/1497441851030900756/togif.gif

[craggy prairie]

figured it out, it was "Darkness" by Lord Byron if anybody was curious

[lilac sapphire]

Bro can double wield his fucking fists

Don't see runners doing that

[torpid thicket]

My Runner reporting back to Nona that the slightly inconvenienced Battleroid was still able to punch their Vandal’s scalp clean off her head like

https://tenor.com/view/patrick-patrick-head-patrick-head-rip-head-rip-gif-19576611

[lone cedar]

What kind of personality matrix does rook have?

[torpid thicket]

It’s cheap and bare-bones, in order to fulfil its purpose as a workplace utility rather than the thrills provided by proper Shells.

There’s probably just enough of a personality there to stop the human mind transplanted into the “Shell” from completely collapsing, but that’s it.

[lone cedar]

what happens if mind collapse

[torpid thicket]

My guess is all sorts of intense psychological trauma as the human mind trapped within the computer that is a Shell tries and fails to contend with the idea that it’s no longer a truly living thing.

[lone cedar]

A robot going insane because its having an existential crisis seems weird.

[torpid thicket]

Rooks aren’t just robots, they’re more akin to robots being piloted by a Runner’s digitised consciousness.

[visual lynx]

it's a human mind having an existential crisis over being in a robot body

[torpid thicket]

Basically

It’s the same condition that Clovis Bray encountered when he and company started turning people into Exo, for people who know that particular bit of Destiny 2 lore.

Whereas Clovis Bray solved that problem through reboots (and all that Clarity stuff?), Sekiguchi Genetics and CyberAcme have solved the problem by providing a preloaded onboard personality with every Shell, which the Runner seems to use to help sidestep any existential crises that might emerge from no longer being a living being?

The perspective goes from being “I was once a human being” to “this is how I’ve always been” because the onboard personality has no prior memory of being human, compared to the human mind it’s helping to prop up (note that this is complete speculation on my end).

Rooks are used by the UESC (and presumably every megacorp back in Sol) for hazardous and otherwise dangerous or strenuous labour, so there isn’t much of a focus on what sort of personality is being used to help the human “operator”, only that it does the job as cheaply as possible, kinda how most construction vehicles have just enough cabin space for the operator and that’s it.

[eternal shell]

this is so he can fold your clothes. you won't be given time to take them off.

[dreamy hawk]

IMO the inclusion of viscera also goes towards this issue. The matrices are just one part of the solution.

[sharp radish]

If rampancy can be triggered by boredom, could Joy have turned rampart because there is nothing left to do in the colony?

[dreamy hawk]

Don’t see why not. Especially considering all the other trauma she experienced.

[earnest hatch]

The codex entry where she’s by herself in an abandoned colony, playing back audio from the children she was helping, is really sad.

It’s no surprise she would go rampant from that.

[karmic wasp]

Hmmmm I wonder wheres Leela now

I know she is some alien network now

But I'm just curious

[terse wren]

In my dms

[karmic wasp]

Lmao

[sharp radish]

that's some creepy ass sermon I just heard

[keen plank]

“We speak now of OTHER THINGS…”

[keen plank]

She edges close rampancy out of neglect/being ignored (thanks Straus!) but really dives into it from suicidal despair.

Everyone she was designed to care for is gone. They’re dead and she can’t even die despite desperately wanting to.

[sharp radish]

the recording is from stage 1 tho, wonder if we'll turn her back on and she turns rampart on us halfway through

[torpid thicket]

Something tells me that, either way, Joy’s going to be so deluded that she’ll probably end up thinking that Runner and UESC alike are New Cascadian colonists or something when she’s reactivated 😄

[scenic iron]

Isn't it a huge risk for a runner to use a Rook tho? Does the Rook have all the safety protocols to protect your digital consciousness like the shells do?!?

I would think Rooks are just basic shells designed for manual maintenance and work

[hidden geyser]

something about limited consciousness transfer, probably means the rook is barely even sentient to begin with

[scenic iron]

Thanks 👍

[hidden geyser]

idk honestly im just doing verbal forensic work here

[scenic iron]

Thinking of shells what will be the shell for season 2? Hmm a more aggressive shell or a support shell 🤔

I hope we get a preview soon 🔜

[hidden geyser]

idk what else they can even do, essentially every archetype has been touched on

[high lodge]

playable UESC team ?

survival mode where you as a team are measured how many waves of rooks can you survive ?

[hidden geyser]

i got ideas like a uesc kill team can go in, its like rook but your objective is to do pvp, you cant loot otherwise

[hidden geyser]

also would be incredibly funny to have a very rare event where one of the battleroids from the marathon is unleashed on the runners and your goal is to just avoid it or exfil as fast as possible, literally vacate the arena before you get torn to shreds

• funny if you get a single exfil point to do it

as runners we have difficulty killing a single compiler, a battleroid is the main character in old marathon and those were basic enemies to it

and we know in lore that battleroids are in fact present on tciv so its not a far stretch to include them

[visual lynx]

in fairness, it may have been an upgraded compiler compared to the old ones

[hidden geyser]

nope, thats just a normal compiler

[visual lynx]

[citation needed]

looks armored, has better weapons, drops lore indicating it's from the free S'pht rebellion in communion with S'pht'kr

[hidden geyser]

doesnt mean its upgraded in any way, by lore there are minor and major s'pht and that one appears to be a minor one, just freed

[drifting garnet]

reads through History for Young Readers 1/4

pfft, what's kid's education like in the 29th century that they can just casually buld a Martian re-condenser on their own?

[hidden geyser]

imagine giving an average ancient egyptian a modern day kids education, their minds would be absolutely blown

[drifting garnet]

that's true! lol

[hidden geyser]

but then again innovation is often simplicity so its probably really easy at that point in time to make a recondenser

like how its genuinely really easy to put together a pc today vs in the 1940s

[drifting garnet]

Oh sure: that the process to make something like a condensor is now so simple that a child could literally do it. Nvm that by this point, the Mars colony would be centuries old.

[hidden geyser]

still an interesting discussion

[earnest hatch]

To me it sounds like how children in the USA in the ‘50s and ‘60s were taught to build basic transistor radios and stuff like that. The radios weren’t good, but they did teach kids about basic science and engineering.

[uneven berry]

i feel like the re condenser is crude on its face and only used to teach states of matter

[quartz steeple]

I have a question is the C.A.R.R.I. protocol a hint to what the next runner is?

[eternal knoll]

how would you interpret it as a hint?

[sharp radish]

I think is just a silly pun because it gives you xp and upgrade items

[quartz steeple]

idk it was a random thought

[sharp radish]

Is Orion a human? Can't really tell from the voice

[unreal slate]

he's probably a cheeseburger

[light light]

which one is orion\

[terse shard]

He’s a Runner, yeah

[sharp radish]

isn't he the UESC commander?

[terse shard]

UESC commander guy who calls and threatens you every so often, specially in MIDA stuff

[sharp radish]

or am I mixing names?

[terse shard]

Nah you got it right

[sharp radish]

and he's a runner?

[terse shard]

One of the MIDA priority contracts ||has _Gantry comment on him getting killed on a mission and needing to be put into a new Shell||

[sharp radish]

I'm still at Run/Hide [5/6] on Mida, guess I'll find out soon 😛

👻

[dreamy hawk]

Gantry, Orion, and Charter are all “Runners.”

[sharp radish]

as in they got shells?

[sudden pollen]

Yeah

[peak viper]

Quick question. My son was playing destiny 2, he has the marathon sparrow. He “glitched” the textures on it, we saw the words - “earth, mars, venus.” He asked if i know anything about that. My question is how does or what related to marathon?

[eternal knoll]

that seems kinda puzzling! earth and mars are like two seperate political entities in marathon, but i'm not aware of any particular significance to venus...

could you say more about the texture "glitch?" are you aware how that's done? those words are written on the sparrow itself?

[jade wagon]

Both mars and earth are related to marathon, but all three are related to destiny. I suspect it's from destiny

[peak viper]

Yea

I can send a picture to you if you want to see whst i mean

[peak viper]

Yea. But its on a marathon thing tho. So its both destiny and marathon at the same time if that makes sense

[undone brook]

where do the runners go when extracted

[peak viper]

It’s more like clipping.

[eternal knoll]

i’d be curious to see

[peak viper]

Sent a dm

[jade wagon]

Most likely a ship.
Reveal cinematic shows the rows and rows of runner cubicles.
And we had to reestablish contact w earth and mars during the Cyac mission

[drifting garnet]

gets Emotional Support Animal 3/5

Ok, Elizabeth at her birthday party, that's ni-

hears the mention of her having warmer temperature then normal

remembers that this item is from Dire Marsh

...oh No

[solid widget]

Just to clarify the Marathon was launched before humanity cracked FTL transport and comms. Hence why help never arrived on time.
We're all basically on a CyAc ship that's going around the planet after that SOS came through.

[keen juniper]

I thought it was FTL comms only

the Equanimity arrived in about a 3rd of the time the Marathon did though

[eternal knoll]

traxus and sekiguchi put together the plan to send the shells to tciv ~7 years prior to the time of the game, and tciv is 12ly away, so there must be some sort of ftl travel now. the equanimity’s eta is still one year in the future

it’s commonly speculated that that ftl currently supports data and cargo only, not living humans

it’s a lil weird to have needed to study dates in the ARG carefully to have learned that such important tech is in play but that’s how it appears

[torpid thicket]

That’d make sense for why the megacorps (and UESC, most likely) would send Runners to investigate Tau Ceti IV, because they’re digitised consciousnesses and synthetic bodies and therefore unaffected by whatever is making FtL impossible for living humans.

[visual lynx]

I interpret accel as saying that when the Marathon launched they had FTL comms only, contra Penguin saying that was before they had FTL transport or comms.

we know from the first ARG that the Marathon had an FTL comm link until the Pfhor attack because Sol lost contact immediately in 2794, not 12 years later. that's compatible with the lightspeed message sent in M1 because that message had to be sent via the secondary comms array specifically because the entire primary comms array had been knocked out by the Pfhor's initial EMP attack.

it also appears implied that teleporters like were installed on the Marathon use the same tech as FTL, it just requires a receiver and can't send anything so big as a ship. the overall picture seems to be that the same tech can send small things longer distances or larger things shorter distances, and better versions increase the size X distance limit, as well as removing receiver requirements, with FTL ships becoming possible when a whole space-habitable environment and the jump drive itself can be jumped far enough at once frequently enough that through a series of such jumps you can get from star to star faster than light could.

that would also make sense of why it's easier to send data and cargo than living organisms: no need for a space-habitable environment for non-living things. sending a human to space requires sending a bunch of air and water and things to reprocess that air and water, and also food, etc. sending a box of rocks the same mass as a human requires none of that, so the same degree of technology could send the rocks box way faster / further than the equivalent mass human plus its whole obligatory environment.

[keen juniper]

I distinctly remember in one of the first contracts for CyAc, where you have to go hack a communications terminal on North or South Relay, she mentions something about FTL communication back to faction representatives who are back on Earth or Mars?

[visual lynx]

yes that's correct

that's a different FTL comm link than the one the Marathon originally had though

that's one brought by the newly-arrived UESC forces

[eternal knoll]

it seems to me that there’s simply contradictory info on the matter of the marathon having FTL comms

there’s codex entries where ppl explicitly discuss a 12 year comms delay with earth

[visual lynx]

from what time period?

also quite possibly only the top officials had access to the FTL comms for super important business

[eternal knoll]

the colonial period - it could be post pfhor attack but that would seem unfitting, since you’d think a status update would be the priority to send via slow comms at that point, not a tech support request for felinis as is being discussed

[eternal knoll]

possible. it all seems strange

that codex entry would be a good time for the parties involved to say “they won’t consider this high priority enough for the FTL relay so we’d have to use the slow comms” but they don’t… and anyway theyre discussing the felinis being a potentially lethal safety hazard. that does seem to merit a little bit of airtime on the big relay if they have it, to me

they speak as if they don’t even know if sekiguchi is still around on earth present tense

so the whole question of what’s going on with that loss of comms just stays extremely confusing to me. it doesn’t seem to quite reconcile

maybe the best way to approach it could be that 2794 is the timestamped year of the last transmission received from tciv, not the year sol stopped receiving comms? (not counting the “somewhere in the heavens” message)

it could make a bit of sense - if you stop receiving transmissions in 2794+12, and assume that all your transmissions sent after 2794 were not received - to declare that comms went dark in 2794. idk

[visual lynx]

well the reason we know that comms went dark immediately is because internal messages at Sol in 2795 are talking about the loss of communication already

and planning the Equanimity to depart in 2797

which should be still nine years before a lightspeed message could have been received

[eternal knoll]

mm, well ok then

frustrating for that to be the only indication that the colonists had ftl comms

like - having a codex entry go a bit into the struggles brought about by lightspeed comms is very “why” when in fact they had ftl comms

they didnt use the ftl comms to ask “how do we make sure the robocats won’t gore people and breach airlocks,” only to send earth the message “no pfhor attack yet!” every year until there was a pfhor attack

one could reason that the ftl comms were only capable of a very simple “status green” sort of message. it just boggles me that we’re left to puzzle out this small but important piece of info from seemingly contradictory clues

the colony not being able to send any transmission at all to earth in the decades they held on after the attack is also confusing. but durandal trapped on the cryo deck eventually figures out a way? what way?

this confusing stuff sits pretty close to the heart of the inciting incident! having it be as seemingly patchwork as this seems well below the standard set by the writing elsewhere

would be funny if the equanimity just never receives an ingame mention and we start to conclude that most of the ARG-stuff is dubiously canon

[dreamy hawk]

It’s unclear to me what kind of deep space relay Icarus managed; if it was an FTL network it getting absolutely obliterated by the Pfhor, first, and then being damaged beyond repair would make sense, but it is absolutely clear as mud as to what kind of comms technologies were present.

[dreamy hawk]

That would be so annoying. 😅😂 We lean on those materials for a few things.

[keen plank]

It's unclear as of now. Icarus seems spread throughout a network of satellites, but I'm not sure if we know the exact functions yet. We have ideas at least.

[plucky sierra]

Could be post attack loss of ftl comms, or it could be that the uesc was the only one with ftl comms from the marathon ship. Keep in mind the uesc was the only one who realized the comm failure, if any Corps had ftl comms they’d have realized for the same reason

[eternal knoll]

yea, the uesc's controlling tendencies toward information do go some way to explaining why ftl comms would be so regimented...

it would be nice to find out how durandal sent the message, if the colonists had no expectation of restoring even conventional communications

maybe the other durandal sent it 💞

i do think the one in the subroutines takes credit for it when he says "you took the bait" tho

[sage lark]

i felt that was more about him playing this ominious mysterious character with his poems

but maybe youre right

[eternal knoll]

i'm guessing that message and the ominous poems were both part of the same strategy... and both do involve sending some kind of broadcast signal i suppose

i wonder sometimes how late or early into development that intro cutscene was cooked up

btwn the question-raising timeline of the contact loss, the message repurposing the og tagline, and the haunted house ride of spooky faces that seemingly don't mean a darn thing, it feels like the roughest narrative spot in same ways. (tho i do think it looks cool af)

[forest gate]

Who are the “they” being referred to in the message “somewhere in the heavens, they are waiting”?

[eternal knoll]

i guess i always figured it just meant aliens, broadly. everyone else in the community, so to speak

[forest gate]

It feels specific though. There’s a menace to it.

At least that’s the vibe I get.

[earnest hatch]

It was the tagline for the original game and I think they chose it because it sounds cool. The new game might make it something interesting.

Because in the first game, no one was actually waiting in the heavens.

[sage lark]

well if the heavens was thhe universe, it couldve been the pfhor

or literal heavens the Jjaro

[earnest hatch]

The Pfhor weren’t really waiting and we don’t know what the Jjaro are actually doing. The Jjaro don’t make an appearance in the first game either.

I think Bunge used the line because it sounded cool.

[eternal knoll]

well yea basically that’s it. but it did kinda still refer to the pfhor even if they werent literally plotting an ambush

[humble veldt]

think from a marketing perspective

nobody knows or cares about Durandal calling the Pfhor if theyre looking at the game on a store shelf

[eternal knoll]

it can just be taken to mean that first contact is out there waiting to happen ykno? with a foreboding tone

[humble veldt]

But they know it's the "Hard alien game"

so "Somewhere in the heavens, they are waiting" is, again, marketing speak, the game telling you its about first contact

[eternal knoll]

it does kindasorta take on new meanings now. durandal is waiting, maybe the colonists in a sense, potentially the s’pht

[earnest hatch]

Whoever is responsible for the anomaly is the ones who are waiting, now.

[hidden geyser]

is there a lore reason why im still unironically terrible at the game after 140 hours

[latent python]

Yes because I'm the same

[hidden geyser]

ive still never even seen gold loot before, im so bad i should genuinely be banned

[ruby pivot]

So uh what's the lore of this game cuz lowkey I dont know anything about the game

[hidden geyser]

ur gonna want to sit down for this one chief

[ruby pivot]

Ok im ready I got my popcorn and my pro gaming chair with me

[hidden geyser]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcZMQYZHoI4

[sage lark]

i mean if you really wanna know whats going on youre better off watching some videos and then the codex website

https://codex.cyberacme.systems/

[ruby pivot]

K thanks guys

[hidden geyser]

the lore is extremely extensive, very weird and complex

and bill clinton did meet super god aliens in it

[snow nacelle]

Any info yet on what the symbol on the Destroyer's face and shield (default skin) is?

[uneven berry]

cognitive data decay (making stuff up)

[hidden geyser]

spontaneous skill decay, a regular tciv anomalous phenomenon

likely connected to the spht

[uneven berry]

surely

[hidden geyser]

if i kill the compiler, i might actually get good at the game

[uneven berry]

"if"

[sage lark]

is that how it works?

wait actually

you might since you need to get all the subroutines

[eternal knoll]

i guess as the season goes longer yr chances of autofilling into a team with someone who's done all the subroutines goes up...

[sage lark]

true you can just speedrun it with guides from #lfc-cryo-archive probably

im missing the 06 subroutine because 06 keys dont exist

[sharp vine]

My favorite question :3

[ruby pivot]

Lol

[sharp vine]

Also I have a theory - could the UESC be funding Arachne?

The reason that I think that they might be doing so is so that way runners are too busy fighting each other that they can’t complete objectives against the UESC

[eternal knoll]

darndal invited his new friends over but i dont get along with them so well. and the rest... as they say... is history...

[keen totem]

No joke saw my friend lose one and gain 3 more last night in under 3 hours

[sage lark]

did he just spam pinwheel room?

seems the most consistent

[keen totem]

Nah he was on cryo. Pinwheel is the best farm tho

[sharp vine]

In one match some dudes came across anomalyous matter, so I was explaining to them about the lore as we were running for our lives across dire marsh. Always happy to be a walking encyclopedia

[keen totem]

Just gotta pray to Charter

[sage lark]

getting spammed with 02 keys 😭

[keen totem]

One day you’ll see some red

[night tendon]

I just be leaving 1 and 2 keys on the counter in outpost at this point

[sage lark]

fr

gotta start doing that

[night tendon]

Yeah no sense keeping them when you got like 4 of each sitting around

[high lodge]

how does someone find blue shild at dire marsh - sponsored match less 5 min from the beginning

[sage lark]

secured container maybe

or lucky drop from commander

[sharp radish]

anyone noticed the small cemetery next to Quarantine?

[bright nova]

Is that what it is?

[drifting garnet]

That’s what I figured, yea

[high lodge]

did the colonists turn to pollen / spores ?

[final oxide]

https://youtu.be/GsXW7Fx1hq4

...If Byf is right here and the Spht have started following the path of the W'rkncacnter? ...We're really boned lol

[solemn wasp]

The community is becoming toxic this late in the fucking cycle "GO back to arc raiders," dude was yelling at me.

Immediate rage quit.

[torpid thicket]

I’m kinda thinking that the S’pht seen and encountered in Cryo could be part of a splinter faction that’s turned against their creators. It’d explain why we’ve only seen the one, as maybe the rest are keeping their heads down per se.

If the S’pht in general have turned, then maybe we’d probably see more kicking around Tau Ceti?

[pure wagon]

So I keep going over unknown reveries again and again and I genuinely cannot figure out what im reading or who’s the narrator

[sharp radish]

Man I had a cryo run with a cracked player, they had the prerequisites to do the compiler fight, we didn't get far in that run, hope I get to witness it some day

[drifting garnet]

finishes getting Xenobiopsy 4-5

heeey there's that little bit of cosmic horror, what with Orem having an existential crisis considering the Implications™ on what they were finding in the Compiler (?) dissection

[pure wagon]

Not a compiler. Sounds more like a phor

[sharp radish]

the orb is organic

[drifting garnet]

yeah i'll admit I'm not 100% sure if it was a Pfhor or Compiler they were dissecting

[sharp radish]

I think it is a compiler right? Because it mentions cloak and orb

[plucky sierra]

It is both

the first 2 pages are Pfhor the latter 3 are Compiler

[earnest hatch]

4-5 is a compiler. Earlier one is a Pfhor.

[sharp radish]

ah they have do indeed dissect more than one

"this is the most complete speciment we have had so far"

[shut mason]

Hey so what do we think happened to the marathon?

[plucky sierra]

There is 2 different specimin numbers, then Orem's ramblings about the implications

[shut mason]

Also is it crazy that the marathon launches in the 2500s and lands in the 2800s? Did halo happen in the interim?

[earnest hatch]

Some people say one of the speakers is Durandal. I don’t buy it. I say it’s two S’pht, one who left to explore somewhere and one who remained. I go into detail here:

#📚marathon-lore-discussion message

#📚marathon-lore-discussion message

#📚marathon-lore-discussion message

[shut mason]

Is Mr 117 still out there?

[final oxide]

The S'pht's last Lore entry says "we consume" a lot, sooooo... I vote S'pht lol

[earnest hatch]

Exactly my thinking as well.

[shut mason]

They consume? Now who do we know who consumes…

It all comes together mark my words!

[plucky sierra]

I don't think it is S'pht mainly because they are a collective and most often refer to themselves in that way "we the S'pht" basically never "I am S'pht"

Both individuals in the reveries use "I" so i am curious

also >> is how Durandal is signified elsewhere in the contracts and such

[shut mason]

We’re gonna find out bungie spent all the Sony money on the halo license everyone’s favorite green man and his blue wife will hit the dirt next season

I believe

[sharp radish]

I think all the Bungie games connected story wise is more of a cameo than an actual thing?

At least that's how I've always interpreted myself

[shut mason]

We’ve never had a chance for it to really connect tho

This time they’ve got the time they’ve got the money

[torpid thicket]

Outside of the MIDA Multi-tool and Mini-tool being yoinked from a Marathon timeline and ending up in the Destiny timeline, basically.

[plucky sierra]

There is genuine lore surrounding it but nothing that affects any of the individual stories

[shut mason]

I’m just guessing at the eventual big turn to the story. It’s that or our favorite battleroid makes return imo

[torpid thicket]

Yeah, Dr Strauss is mentioned, but that’s probably more just a cameo again.

[sharp radish]

I think the exciting factor would be the fact that they are different games we have all experienced, but if you remove that meta aspect it wouldn't really fit in any of the game's universes and would fall flat

[shut mason]

If they don’t tie the knot in some way why is this game called marathon?

[plucky sierra]

because that is the ships name

[sharp radish]

I mean we are sort of tracing the story of the first Marathon game

[shut mason]

We are

I think we’re gonna link back up with an old story and we’re all gonna freak out

[torpid thicket]

John Marathon is probably somewhere off near the centre of the Milky Way as per the lore of Marathon Durandal and Infinity, or, if we’re in a new, eighth, timeline, dead, somewhere either on Tau Ceti IV or aboard the Marathon.

[plucky sierra]

I think you will be disappointed

[shut mason]

I believe

[sharp radish]

yeah John Marathon is far far away, ends up teleported around by Durandal

[plucky sierra]

He is long gone

this is well after Infinity

[sharp radish]

If we were following the story one on one then the marathon wouldn't be still in orbit right?

[shut mason]

Frankly what I believe is that this is the actual halo 4. That metal ship was some sphit shit

[sharp radish]

anything is possible I guess 😛

BTW those Reed personal logs, love the acting in there

last one is very dramatic

[shut mason]

It’s been 300 years or whatever

[plucky sierra]

It didn't leave orbit even in the Original trilogy, only the Colony was nuked in M2

[shut mason]

I’ve quite enjoyed every bit of lore stuff frankly better to chase than quests

[sharp radish]

right, so the explosion we see in the short might even be related to the events of the 1st game?

[plucky sierra]

Yes

we are uncovering a new version of the story

basically a reboot

probably "in another timeline" or some dumb reason that lets them change things

[sharp radish]

does it even need to be addressed?

it just is

¯_(ツ)_/¯

it's been 300y since the marathon launched and arrived, but we don't know how much it has been between the first game events and this one?

[shut mason]

Everything will come up bungle doesn’t do reboots

[plucky sierra]

about 100 years

2794-2893

[sharp radish]

did the colony go to shit before that or after that?

or because of it?

[plucky sierra]

probably around 2820s to 30s

[sharp radish]

we had contingencies for contingencies!

[drifting garnet]

Multiverse. Different timelines, with a few similarities here and there

[plucky sierra]

Marathon already is a multiverse with different timelines

[drifting garnet]

meanwhile, gets Surveillance Recordings 5/5...aka the one of Joy just, looking at past recordings of all the children she tended to

😭 😭 😭 😭 😭

[drifting garnet]

reads closer at Surveillance Recordings 5/5

"I had a nightmare, but I was awake"

"I played with Priya at the [unintelligble] and I saw the crying man again."

"Do you know the little girl who looks like me? She's in the river."

😱 😱 😱

Spooky

[scenic iron]

Are the other Bungie's games in the same universe as Marathon?

[lilac sapphire]

Pathways into Darkness and arguably Myth and Myth II but thats really kind of a stretch

PID is directly a prequel to the main Marathon storyline

[scenic iron]

I wonder if Bungie will ever make a RPG story driven Marathon game

It's interesting they picked a very niche genre for their new game....I am glad they did, but I'm sure a story driven single player game would have sold a ton more for Sony

[eternal shell]

all marathons are story driven :]

and if you pretend hard enough, that's roleplaying right there

boom, 4 marathon games

[scenic iron]

Yeah we can say our runners are part of the canon 🙂

[eternal shell]

yeah if that goober that went into hauler with purple gear and died to the bots isnt canon then what even is

(it's ok i exfild with all the loot)

[dense tendon]

i see this sentiment alot, and i never understood it. OG marathon was story focused in a genre that at the time didn't have stories. in fact, bungie in general has this tendency to try new things and has always been experimenting since their inception. a lot of game industry shakeups are downstream of bungie doing it first.
destiny practically invented the live service game, and its also the longest running and by far the most successful. those games too are a major experiment in storytelling, which you can watch evolve as you go through its content. so its very odd to me that i hear this consistent "why don't they just do familiar types of games?" so consistently.

like, dawg, OG marathon was, if not the first, one of the first examples of mouselook in an fps. halo crystalized aim assist. theres so much that bungie does jus kind of figuring things out that we take for granted now and i jus don't understand why people, not you, jus in general, want them to do the stuff they did 30 years ago but ignore the reasons why they were doin em.

[visual lynx]

Myth is by far the biggest possible stretch and I say that as both #1 Myth story guy and also like #2-4ish Marathon story guy

[lilac sapphire]

Yeah and I wouldn't even really die on that hill either, it's just some speculation I've heard here and there

And probably, mostly, in jest

Like you could make a thin argument if you wanted to, but it's probably not in the marathon universe really, at least not in the mind of the creator

though who knows tbh I never played Myth so im kinda talking out me ass

[lilac sapphire]

yeah thats a really good point. Marathon's contemporaries were like, Doom, where the extent of the plot is in the manual

[visual lynx]

Yeah I have made such thin arguments in jest myself, like Creator-god of Myth world = Wyrd = Fate = Destiny = protagonist of Marathon

[lilac sapphire]

exactly

[scenic iron]

Oh I agree with ya but sales is all that big corp like Sony cares about, but Bungie was able to get the execs to approve the game. Which I'm very happy they did btw 🙂

[eternal knoll]

doom guy wondering where all the bad people will go now that he’s destroyed hell is poetry on a masterful level

two things are kinda true at the same time re: marathon as an extraction shooter:

1. bungie probably had a genuine interest in expanding the storytelling capacities of the genre, and the old marathon games had plenty of elements suited to this shift, like those games even had pvpve back in the day. they did a rly cool job making an interesting game for the pvp niche that still has lots of narrative merit

2. sony’s big reorientation push toward live service games was a top-down decision from their new CEO and has largely been a disaster for them

marathon is… is it the only one so far that hasnt been cancelled or giga-flopped? so far?

[lilac sapphire]

what pvpve did the old games have? im aware of the multiplayer deathmatches and such but thought it was just pvp