Part 216: Codex

Codex (8:04)


The majority opinion in this thread so far, which I have sarcastically promoted, is basically 'gameplay reasonably good, plot bad'. If you adopt this mindset, you may need a sedative here because it's all plot, no gameplay for the Codex.




The starry background effect from the Prologue is back. I can't let it pass without comment, because there we were headed somewhere specific. Here, we are not. Remember, we jumped without deciding where to go. Why are we going past stars and other galactic bodies if we haven't picked a destination yet and are theoretically just adrift in Rift Space??

Just sayin' ...













The Executive Summary is uh ... lengthy. It'll be necessary to present it in three parts. Here I am surprised to be told that the origin world is not in fact, Earth. At least, if this tale is to be believed more than your average GalCorp company line. The tale is also told of the first two games in the Creeper World series.




The repeated names are interesting. Do they signify a lack of originality on the part of he who once projected a finite existence, or perhaps a guard against identifying the correct individuals if he forgot what he was up to while skipping about through time?

Also, the Seloi were just super-doggone special it seems.




What's this, another mystery piled upon the revelations of would-be answers? Who could have predicted this??


NVM then.

So we now know where to place Particle Fleet in the CW timeline. For most of the game I've thought it was just sort of a themed story completely outside of that timeline, an alternate CW reality if you will. Clearly that's not the case and we are in the vast chasm of time between CW2 & CW3, which begs a great many unanswered questions such as why it takes place in space when all the other conflicts were resolved on land. This is particularly true when you see the Particulate/Creeper as described counterparts.

If the Seloi were so doggone visionary, why did they mark out an area of space, call it Redacted, and focus the Particulate there? Were they unaware that the Creeper needed to map everything in all of space - and time - to reveal the Arc? Clearly the crew of this expedition apparently doesn't yet know that either, because they don't understand why the Seloi plan didn't work. And why would the Seloi give us all of this history, but NOT mention that particular detail if they knew it ... or why they abandoned their plan? If the Seloi knew they were doomed and the plan would fail, why did they ask the Loki for the Arc? Did they wish to accelerate their destruction in order to hasten the end of the timeline and the arrival of the final confrontation between 'Skarsgard' and the Loki?

** Note: It later occurred to me that what with the Redacted Space thing and all, the Seloi's plan probably was instead to keep the Arc from ever being revealed at all (by destroying information it needed). It's not clear to me why this wouldn't have worked, and certainly not why they wouldn't have recorded the reason for abandoning the plan.

This kind of story really twists my brain into a pretzel. Much like Ticon's crew, I have no idea what happens now. After this, it simply states

'End Report
CTO Ana
Director Kami'




I don't think any of us understand, but I'm quite sure Ticon doesn't.




It's worse than I thought. They were doing a search for the Holy Grail thing. We're not here for the greater good of humanity, or to save the galaxy, or any other such noble purpose.

We're here for plain, old-fashioned greed. The self-awareness in this statement is unfortunately equaled if not exceeded by its breathtaking arrogance.







Uh ... how do you know this? Previously we never knew what was in a system until we got there (except for in the Prologue). It appears that by visiting the Origin World, we have triggered a massively worse situation




3











So not only are we basically screwed, but we're going to invite some brave/suicidal soul to join us, in the hopes of getting a message back to GalCorp who of course will assuredly know what to do :sarcasm:. Do I have that right here? Is this really the plan?







I think I'm going to be sick.







Just? Unless you think humanity deserves to be destroyed, how exactly is it just??




HIS NAME ISN'T TICON!!! sigh ...










They're enthusiastic about the situation, gotta give em that.




This is up next for our band of misfit morons. It's worth noting that after this is only the Epilogue, so Duty figures to be the last gameplay mission of the Story.

Personally, I'm torn on whether to be cheering for the Particulate at this point. Is that wrong? Also we seem to have some CW3 reactors making an appearance - perhaps to power Berthas (or as one person put it, FUCannons). This whole reusing-assets thing was kind of cutesy at one point but at this stage it's frankly getting on my nerves.

I still am curious to see how things don't at all wrap up. The CW3 finale half-broke my psyche; am I due for a repeat? We'll find out next time.