Hemebond on 1/8/2007 at 07:14
Quote Posted by heywood
IIRC, members of the survey team join the Many while still on the surface and return to the ship in the early stages of hybridization. How could that be if there are no annelids on Tau Ceti 5?
Log reference please. I don't remember any sort of biological infection of the crew before the annelid eggs were brought aboard the ship.
heywood on 1/8/2007 at 13:05
This is from Med/Sci:
Quote:
GRASSI 20.JUN.14
re: All work, no play
"I got called up around 0430 to help unload the shuttle coming back from Tau Ceti. Korenchkin was there alone. Jesus, what the hell happened to him? He'd lost most of his hair, and you could see these lumps on the side of his neck. And that smell. I told him he should go see Dr. Watts, but he told me to mind my own business. Well, la-dee-da."
and
Quote:
WATTS 01.JUL.14
re: Patient Watson
"Since returning from the Surface of Tau Ceti 5, patient has experienced numerous novel phenomena, evidenced by inflammatory nodular growth and the presence of a large wormlike parasite. This morning, the parasite penetrated the subject's chest... from the inside... and attached one end of itself to the subject's forehead. If I remove it, I could kill the kid. If I leave it... Final Diagnosis: beats the hell out me. I'd love to refer this to Madorsky at CDC, but unfortunately, he's 67 trillion miles away."
Here are some other logs you find, the first early on and the rest later on the Rick, which give a little more information:
Quote:
KORENCHKIN 14.JUN.14
re: First contact
"To: Zhukov, Vladimir
We have picked up a transmission from the surface of Tau Ceti 5. I have been in negotiation with Captain Diego of the Rickenbacker and after some... coercion, he's agreed to go planetside as a joint venture. Imagine, this historic mission might even become more historic. First Contact. And who is there to get exclusive rights to all media, patents and land grants? TriOptimum. Miri, I told you this would be worth it."
Quote:
BAYLISS 26.JUN.14
re: Tau Ceti
"We arrived planet side via the shuttle on June 15th at 0800 hours. Korenchkin was the first one out the door, never even bothering to do a level B Hazard Suit exam. Not wanting to let that little TriOp suit get a head start, Diego went right after him. I thought it was crazy, sending the senior officers of the Rickenbacker down to the surface of an uncharted body, but both those idiots were going to get all the glory for the UNN and TriOp they could. Damn, time for inspection... more later."
Quote:
BAYLISS 26.JUN.14
re: Tau Ceti, Pt. 2
"The eggs were lying in a semi-circle in the middle of what looked like a crash crater. There were hundreds of those things. Hundreds. As we got closer, you could hear them... not the eggs, the things inside them... it was like music... I was scared out of my mind, but that music... all I wanted to do was see those things up close... find out their secrets..."
Quote:
BAYLISS 26.JUN.14
re: Tau Ceti, Pt. 3
"After a couple of hours it was... it was like being on a bender... long periods that you couldn't remember... one minute we were in that crater... the next minute we were loading up the shuttle with the eggs... I remember hearing that idiot Korenchkin calling the Von Braun and ordering them to clear off the ENTIRE hydroponics deck. Diego seemed to think this was strange and said, 'Are you crazy, Anatoly?' And Korenchkin smiled and said back to him, 'Oh, Captain... WE are not Anatoly...'"
From this, I gather that the annelids on Tau Ceti 5 somehow managed to send a signal to the VB. Korenchkin, Diego, Watson, Bayliss, and perhaps others go down in a shuttle and find hundreds of eggs. They hear them, get up close. Korenchkin and Watson are invaded by the parasite on the surface. Not sure about Diego and Bayliss.
Later on, there is also a log from Prefontaine that seems to hint that the Many have been evolving since leaving Citadel, which is another indication they haven't just been lying dormant in eggs:
Quote:
PREFONTAINE 12.JUL.14
re: Many's Evolution
"With only a few short years of evolution, they've been able to conquer this starship, mankind's mightiest creation. Where were we after forty years of evolution? What swamp were we swimming around in, single celled and mindless? What if SHODAN's creations are superior to us? What will they become in a million years, in ten million years? What's clear is that SHODAN shouldn't be allowed to play God. She's far too good at it."
Some_twerp on 2/8/2007 at 13:17
The distress signal may well have been Shodan-she had to shut down, but a distress beacon system may well have been working independently.
heywood on 3/8/2007 at 18:34
Quote Posted by Some_twerp
The distress signal may well have been Shodan-she had to shut down, but a distress beacon system may well have been working independently.
You're right it doesn't make sense for the annelids to have sent a signal. I think a distress beacon makes the most sense, as Shodan is described as being just a file on a data wafer found at the crash site. This part of the plot is not really explained clearly, nor is the reason why Tau Ceti 5 was chosen as the ship's destination.
Some_twerp on 3/8/2007 at 18:58
From what I gather, Hacker from SS1 was ejecting the groves willy-nilly; he wasn't specifically bothered where they landed if at all-just so long as they just buggered off away from Citadel and earth. The pod and Shodan processing unit 93843 were drifting through space and just landed on Tau Ceti V because it was simply in the pod's path. Shodan had to shut down, but the gardens had limited life support, so presumably as soon as Hacker ejected the pod the distress beacon fired-or after it crashed, and SHODAN shut herself down.
This whole part of the game is very vague; there's no 'fluffy'/canon for the parasites get into the humans for example.
Gforce on 5/8/2007 at 10:31
Hi,
What I'm not clear about is how the annelids got such a good foot hold on the Von Braun?
Some_twerp on 5/8/2007 at 17:28
From the logs ingame (hint) it seems they used their mind control abilities on those who were vunerable to them, to not only become infected willingly but load the eggs into the shuttle that went down, and place them on deck 3 (Hydroponics).
JediKorenchkin on 6/8/2007 at 20:44
Quote Posted by Some_twerp
From what I gather, Hacker from SS1 was ejecting the groves willy-nilly; he wasn't specifically bothered where they landed if at all-just so long as they just buggered off away from Citadel and earth. The pod and Shodan processing unit 93843 were drifting through space and just landed on Tau Ceti V because it was simply in the pod's path. Shodan had to shut down, but the gardens had limited life support, so presumably as soon as Hacker ejected the pod the distress beacon fired-or after it crashed, and SHODAN shut herself down.
I'm probably wrong, but I had thought there was one grove on Citadel that was already launched when you got there (or had broken controls or something). I always thought that was Shodan's grove.
Nameless Voice on 6/8/2007 at 23:00
She specifically says that the hacker was the one who ejected the grove, in the cutscene on Ops...
scglass on 7/8/2007 at 04:31
Why the implicit assumption that SHODAN isn't lying? She (it?) actively uses deceit and misdirection when it suits her.
However, would she lie about this particular fact? Probably not, but she may be unintentionally mistaken.
