Part 8: Chapter 2, Stage 4

• Chapter 2, Stage 4 with Blind Sally, nine-gear crow, and Lazyfire
  
• Chapter 2 Outro with Blind Sally, nine-gear crow, and Lazyfire
  
• Chapter 2 Outro without commentary
  

2.4

Inside a complex of tunnels and ladders.

Enter [Templar]

TEMPLAR
Where art thou, General? General Vaughton?

Enter Helghast Soldier. Enter [Luger], who dispatches Helghast Soldier.

LUGER
Well, well, thy bottom tis held in my hands again, Templar. If thou knowest my intent.

TEMPLAR
Luger. I taketh it thou art back on active duty.

LUGER
Clearly? I graduated three fortnights early. It seems I have a talent.

TEMPLAR
Tis one of many. I was meant to meet the General here, but was waylaid by a marksman.

LUGER
Four, actually. Vaughton told me to meet thou here too. He said you would brief me on our mission.

TEMPLAR
Our mission? Trust the General to put practicalities ahead of--well, naught else!

LUGER
Methinks thou dost protest too much. What now?

TEMPLAR
My--our mission is to recover an operations agent named Colonel Hakha. He is trapped thitherward in the slums, but the General needs this key to reactivate the SD Platforms.

LUGER
Let us be on our way, then.

Exeunt

2.5

Elsewhere, aboard the ISA SD Platforms.

Enter [Ari L. Caliban] and General [Adams]

ADAMS
One hour ago, I told thou to report to me when there was the barest whisper of any progress.
One hour, I have been waiting with nary a visit. Thou shalt tell me why.

CALIBAN
Many apologies, General, there is naught we can do without General Vaughton's security key. The central processor--

ADAMS
Doth I need a lesson on the inner machinations of these platforms? Nay, because I run the cursèd things! General Vaughton hath found himself lost, so the key may be missing for some time, perhaps forever. Surely a master tradesman of your proficiency can find a way to revive the weapons system?

CALIBAN
Nay, my lord.

ADAMS
Nay? Dost thou believe in God? Or didst thy replace Him with some all-powerful mechanical golem, hmm? Well, whatever it is thou pray to, I would recommend praying now that Vaughton reappears.

Exeunt



After this level things start to open up a bit more. We have more characters introduced and the game's plot begins to get a little more interesting. For now it's a bit quiet, but there are a few things of note:



Our first in-game shout out to Earth. I don't know who/what "World Systems" are supposed to be in Killzone, but there will never be any other mention of them. Earth will be name dropped in the future, though.



The rest of this section is interesting in that it's very Half Life-esque. Stomping through these office buildings, climbing up metal tunnels and ladders--it's all very reminiscent of Black Mesa. This may or may not be intentional. Most likely, this is just Guerrilla doing the generic sci-fi thing. Which is fitting, considering our heroes are tropes and stereotypes. We won't be spending much time in environments like this, so enjoy it while you can.



We also encounter our first Helghast Elites:



They are far less interesting than Covenant Elites. If Killzone and Halo went head-to-head to find out whether or not Guerrilla had made the Halo-Killer, then the Helghast Elites would lose. Their AI is about as intelligent as the rest of the Helghast and they are little more than bullet sponges. Their one saving grace is that it's somewhat difficult to get head shots on them despite not wearing helmets. Oh, and I suppose they always carry useful weapons, so they're good for that. In later levels their bullet sponge powers somehow become more egregious.



Have a nice day! Courtesy of nine-gear crow.



Oh, and can we just pause a moment and appreciate how this poor ISA comms officer is working in the most toxic of work environments?



I mean, seriously, what the heck!?





We're now catching up with in-game lore. Unfortunately, that means our Killzone history lessons will be winding down quite a bit. On the flip-side, the games themselves are going to get more interesting so there's going to be more subtext to discuss, so at least the history was here for these downtimes.

Here we get to take a look at Scolar Visari's battle plan and begin to understand the Helghast's movements on Vekta:



You'll note that a couple of names have been redacted. Those are to avoid minor spoilers that you may or may not have already guessed, but hey. They will be revealed in time. Anyways, those two names are deep cover agents working within the ISA ranks to aid the Helghast, in particular, to weaken key ISA forces, such as the SD platforms. With Vekta's key defenses down, General Lente's Third Helghast Army is able to blitzkrieg the capitol facing little more than the ISA RRF, which include Jan Templar.

Now, you'll remember that the Helghast fleet is weaker compared to the ISA fleet (ship size-wise) and even tinier when compared to the UCN Navy. With that in mind, the Helghast plan to take over the SD Platforms and turn them to bear on Earth's fleet. Those satellite lasers are powerful enough to cut right through Earth's ships. Earth is dependent on her colonies to keep running, so if the Helghast can cut off supplies and enforce a blockade, they can force a capitulation and take control of the Alpha Centauri frontier for their own gain (and Visari would become emperor). A bold plan.



Anyways, the deep cover agents succeed in their goals and the Helghast fleets launch. Earth is notified of the advance and quickly mobilize. It remains to be seen whether or not reinforcements will arrive in time to stop the Helghast advance.




Voice by Jennifer Taylor Lawrence

If Jan Templar is our generic every-man space marine action hero, then Luger is our super-badass female action hero. She is Sarah Conner. She is Kate Beckinsale Selene. She is Aeon Flux. She is Ellen Ripley. She is Jill Valentine. She is Leeloominaï Lekatariba Lamina-Tchaï Ekbat De Sebat. She is also our video game trope token female character. She is the nimble, quick, more easily damaged character compared to our well-rounded lead action hero, Jan. Whether or not "Luger" is her real name is unknown. Is it a first name? A last name? A nickname? A call-sign? We'll never know. What we do know is that she is a Shadow Marshall. Whether this is some sort of spy operative or assassin type thing is never fully explained in this game, but that doesn't matter. Within moments we know all we need to know about Luger: her job involves killing and she is extremely competent at her job.

That aside, she is also quite literally the Yin to Templar's Yang. Which is perhaps fitting given that the game hints towards the two of them sharing a romantic past--one that Luger broke off in order to pursue her career. Anywho, my knowledge of Eastern Philosophy isn't the strongest, so if anyone wishes to add to the Yin/Yang talk, please do, but here's what I can tell:

The Yang is the masculine force. It represents the sun, light, and the positive. It represents things of the world. Jan Templar is certainly that. A fresh-faced Vektan marine leading the charge against and overwhelming enemy. Jan is very much the hero of his planet. A clear good guy against the forces of evil. He's very obvious, open, and conspicuous. There's nothing hidden about Jan at all. He's like Superman in his goal of fighting the good fight and helping those in need.

Now compare the Yin, which is a feminine force. It represents the moon, dark and the negative. It is a concealed, shaded concept which is fitting of Luger being a Shadow Marshall. Her job is somewhat murky. We don't exactly know what being a Shadow Marshall entails, but it is some sort of special operative. Notice that unlike Jan and--heck all the other ISA characters in the game, she doesn't wear green and orange, but wears black. She needs to be concealed, to hide in the shadows in order to be effective. Sinister and treacherous connotations can also be found within the concept of Yin, and this is certainly suggested by Luger's romantic "betrayal" of Jan.

This is a superficial examination of the idea, at best, but there certainly seems to be some sort of connection here. But I'll speak more of the dichotomy between Jan and Luger as the game goes on and we see the two characters interact.




StA-3 Stova Light Machine Gun

Another Stahl Arms masterpiece. This LMG works great as a close-to-mid range weapon. For some reason, the people on the Killzone wikia talk about how horrible it is an how terribly inaccurate it is. Oh, how wrong they are. Okay, well, sustained fire, sure. But if you're tapping the fire button, it's surprisingly accurate at medium ranges. Also, it has a 100-round barrel drum. Even if you're missing a few shots, you've got enough to keep firing on the enemy so that they die before you have to reload, heavy armour be damned. The barrel drum proves to have a significant advantage over all ISA LMGs in that it's a heckuva lot faster to reload. Simply put, the Helghast LMG can spit out far more bullets faster than ISA LMGs. Love the StA-3 LMG. It is your friend.



Lazyfire mentioned a couple of animated shorts in this last video. They are anti-war shorts made in response to World War I and World War II. The Helghast design prompted his memory and, watching the videos, the description of the forces of men sound quite like the Helghast soldiers. The videos are worth a watch if you fancy. They are linked below along with shots of the relevant scenes:


Peace On Earth (1939)



Good Will To Men (1955)