Homeworld - Endgame Escape (Won!)

By Reiko

We're in the home stretch, having used the TransWarp technology to rendezvous with the Artifact en route to the Assassin homeworld. I need to stop the terrorists and escape before we arrive there.

When I exit the Heechee ship, I find myself back in one of the blue-metal Heechee corridors of the Artifact. A bulkhead door is closed in front of me, but there's a button next to it, which I press, opening the door. Proceeding down the corridor, I quickly find myself back in the familiar cargo bay area from earlier, with Diana waving at me from the storage area ahead.

Diana and I are both happy to see each other.

I climb up the ladder and talk to her. She's so excited but also puzzled to see me.

"I can't believe you came back! Hell, I can't believe you're ALIVE! How did you get here? We're still in Tau space, aren't we? No one's ever pulled off a Tau space intercept before. The terrorists certainly weren't expecting it - they didn't even post a guard in the docking bays."

    

"But never mind all that, my curiosity can wait. We've still got big problems. Let me catch you up on what's happened since you left. The terrorist leader was furious at losing you. He tore apart half the ship before calming down. I escaped into the zoos with the crystal rod. They don't even know I'm on board."

    

"Every once in a while, I broke cover and scouted around. The ship is still headed for the Kugelblitz. The leader wants to make a present of it to his Assassin buddies, so he's been trying to figure out how to get everything working. He's convinced that you had everything up and running before you left, so he decided to gather up all the stuff that you left behind. For days, he's been carrying it all around in a security case, going from room to room, trying to get the machines to work."

    

"Today he's in the aft section. That's why I'm holed up here. He had two guards secure the area while he went into [the] room where the Dead Men used to live. He's been tinkering around with the stuff in there for hours. He posted one guard outside the bulkhead directly to the north of here, and the other is in the corridor just outside the [sic] that room with the couch in it."

    

"Speaking of the couch, I was forced to hide in that room once, while a party of terrorists walked by. When I was squatting behind the couch itself, I must have bumped something, because the thing powered on! It's incredible - it's some kind of telepathic device. I lay down on it, and suddenly I was inside the head of one of the terrorists. With just a flip of a mental switch, I could shift from mind to mind. I saw what they saw, and I could hear what they were thinking. It was amazing! I think I could have talked with them, too, but I was afraid it would give me away."

"I don't know what your plans are, but mine are to stay alive, even though that won't mean much when we reach the Assassins. You seem to work best when you're alone, so I'm going to head back to the zoos and stay out of your way. Good luck."

This is just a plot device to keep her out of the way so that the developers didn't have to program any more conversations with her.

She disappears after this [15], but she's given me some good intelligence. Probably the telepathic couch is the key to dealing with the terrorists. I just have to get there without alerting them to my presence.

Well, first things first. If they were communicating by radio back on Earth, they might still be. It seems that the Heechee ship has arrived in a different dock, but I can return the way I came originally to find that the probeship is still there, apparently untouched. The radio is in the medikit cabinet. When I take it [10] and turn it on, I again start hearing messages from the terrorists about their activities. That should help me avoid them.

I make a save and explore in each direction from the cargo bay, just to be sure of where the terrorists are currently. As Diana said, there's one just through the door to the west, and the leader is in the terminal room to the east. There's also one at the end of the northern corridor. Any terrorist will shoot on sight, so there's no choice but to avoid them.

I find, to my amusement, that the terrorists are exploring the equipment bay where I destroyed the evil spider robot and being puzzled by the big pile of slag it left. I mean, you'd think they would have already done that by now. Haven't they been on the Artifact for quite a few days already? I took a few days to get to the Heechee homeworld, and then a few days to figure out their crazy politics and escape, and then a few days in TransWarp to catch up to the Artifact again.

In any case, the problem is that, according to my notes, the telepathic couch is down the corridor to the west, which is currently being guarded by a terrorist. So maybe I'm going to have to create some kind of diversion so that I can get to it. Whatever I do, I'm going to have to do it fast. It only takes about an hour and a half from the time I land to when the Artifact arrives at the Assassin homeworld.

The couch's arm looks so creepy.

Then I look at what I've got again and remember that I've got an invisibility device now. I should be able to just sneak past the guard. I wear and activate the prototype and, holding my breath, step into the corridor. The guard doesn't notice a thing. I slip past him into the Dream Room with the couch [20].

I turned my radio off so it wouldn't make noise and betray me, but I can apparently hear the guard's radio from inside the room, saying, "Set up guards around the perimeter." The prototype will probably see some more use before this is all over. (Later, I try leaving my radio activated, and even if a message comes through while I'm sneaking past the guard, he just looks at his radio strangely, having heard the echo of mine, but he doesn't see me or suspect anyone's there.)

I lie on the couch and prepare to dive into the terrorists' minds.

Images and feelings wash over you, threatening to drown you in their intensity. You sense Diana's apprehension, the bored wariness of the guard outside the door, and finally, the frustration of the terrorist leader in the Terminal chamber. It is upon him that you focus your thoughts.

He looks younger than I'd expect for a terrorist leader.

You actually see the room that he works in. You see his hands tinkering with the equipment and feel the growing disappointment as he fails to restart the systems. A SecureSafe (tm) filled with various objects lies at his feet. Occasionally, he rummages through them, looking for a likely tool, but never finding one. You sense that you can, indeed, communicate with him, and you decide to.

    

I have several options of what to say to him, from silly to aggressive, but the first contact doesn't much matter. Either way, the leader is startled: "What? Who is that? Did I hear something? I'm alone in here, and the guards wouldn't dare intrude on my experiments. Am I going insane?"

Amusingly, if you tell the terrorist leader that you're his conscience, he says, "Ahh, I AM going insane! I must hide this from my men. Fortunately, they're used to my frequently violent and unprovoked behavior."

Maybe he is insane, but if I want to accomplish anything, I'm going to have to intimidate him so he'll do what I want. I have an idea of where this is going, but I don't actually know what options I'll have available. First I claim to be an Assassin, which completely fools him, given that I'm using completely impenetrable Heechee technology to contact him.

He's overwhelmed: "I am not worthy. Please accept my humble apologies for this ugly fleshy body. I know that you Assassins have evolved into perfect electronic life-forms. I beseech you: Come to my world and remake it in your image. Allow the Phoenix Sect to assist the remolding of Earth into a Utopia." Yeah, he's got some really twisted ideas of what a utopia is if he thinks the Assassins are going to do anything good for Earth.

I have some more options at this point. I could just ask for his cooperation, which might lead to some interesting possibilities. I could insult him, which surely won't help. I could blow my cover and tell him that the Assassins kill life, not rebuild civilizations. Or I could refuse and tell him to turn the ship around and go back to Earth. If I do that last one, he just says, "This, I cannot do. Even if I understood Heechee technology enough to retarget the craft in mid Tau-space jump, I would not. My life has been dedicated to the divine cleansing of Earth. You WILL aid me. And if you don't, then I do not fear death."

Telling him humans can all die doesn't help either; he just says, "But I am giving you this world as an offering. I would have given you a man who once destroyed an Assassin, but he escaped me. Surely he is dead now, anyway. If you cannot let us live, if we offend you so, then kill us. We will join you in the electronic afterlife!" Boy, he really is an insane zealot. Also, he's talking about me, which is rather amusing.

Of course I try the first option, because I need the leader's cooperation. My plan is to reactivate the evil AI and then escape before the ship explodes. If you remember, much earlier in the game, before we returned the Artifact to Earth, the Oldest One had started a self-destruct countdown, which was stalled by pulling its core from the computer system. All I need to do is put the core back in and the countdown will resume. So I need to get the leader away from the terminal room.

The leader agrees, of course: he's so fanatical that he'll do practically anything the Assassins ask, apparently, as long as it doesn't go against his mission of getting the ship to them. I can even ask him to kill all his men, but he won't do it immediately, saying, "I would gladly sacrifice my men to you, but I need them to run the ship. As soon as we emerge from Tau space at your home, I will kill them all, if that is your wish. So I think the right answer is to get him to go to the bridge, which would leave the terminal room unguarded. When I do that:

Through the terrorist leader's eyes, you see his hands pile all of the loose objects into the safe at his feet. Following this, he says, "Safe: close." and the safe locks with a click. The leader leaves the chamber and you break contact.

    

I get up from the dream couch [20] and sneak back to the cargo bay and then over to the terminal room to see if I can carry out my plan. I got points for diverting the leader, so that's further confirmation that I'm on the right track.

Between Diana and me, there are probably quite a few traces of intruders.

Unfortunately, we saw the leader lock his safe with a voice lock, which I am unable to break. But the leader talks over the radio periodically. If I leave the radio by the safe [30] and get him to say the right thing, the safe should open. So I sneak back to the couch again and contact him.

Again, you latch onto the mind of the terrorist leader. He's pacing the bridge, anticipating the meeting with the Assassins. You find it easier than ever to slip your own thoughts into his mind.

Tricking the leader into saying the words to open the safe.

I ask him to give his men some instructions, and he agrees. I just have to give him the correct line that will include the words "safe" and "open" in succession. This turns out to be, "Secure the ship and make it safe. Open all viewports and activate sensors. We wish them to see their future." I withdraw immediately after that.

Invisibly sneaking past the guard while the leader talks over the radio.

As I'm passing by the guard in the corridor, his radio plays the message from the leader, just as I asked [40]. Fortunately, the invisibility prototype lasts long enough to get me past him again. I shouldn't need it again, if everything goes according to plan. Indeed, when I return to the terminal room, the safe is open. I take the hypo and autodoc just in case, although I don't expect to need them again. The important thing is the green crystal cube [20] where the Oldest One is trapped.

The final move of the game: placing the cube in the matrix again.

I take a deep breath and plug the cube back into the matrix [100]. The self-destruct countdown restarts at only 8 minutes! Fortunately, we don't have to manually navigate back to the ship, as another cutscene starts:

You race out of the room, back towards your ship. As you run through the cargo bay, Diana emerges from the northeast corridor. "I heard the alarms. Did you do that?" Not bothering to answer, you grab her arm and drag her along.

    

Confused, Diana stumbles along with you into the Heechee transport. Not far behind, you hear confused voices and loud, barked orders. Footsteps pound the floor down the corridor leading to your ship. You slam the hatch just as a guard runs into sight.

    

Explosions vibrate through the tiny ship as the terrorists attempt to blow the hatch. You leap to the navigation panel and slam your hand down onto the 'GO' button.

    

The transport falls away from the Artifact. Maneuvering jets turn your ship to make the Tau Space jump. Diana runs to the window and points to the slowly disappearing shape of the Artifact as it continues its journey towards the home of the Assassins.

    

The terrorists are destroyed once and for all.

Kaboom!

    

Suddenly, a massive explosion rips through the huge Artifact. For a split second, it separates into its component parts, and then another wave of eruptions shatter even these into little more than cosmic dust. Just as the shock wave is about to hit your ship, the TransWarp Drive kicks in, and space blurs as you begin your journey back to Earth.

    

You spend your days talking with Diana. She tells you of her harrowing experiences while hiding from the terrorists on the ship. You relate your story of the Heechee. When the ship emerges from Tau Space into Earth orbit, you wonder where the time disappeared to.

    

If the fame from your prior adventures had waned, it returns in a flood when the public learns of your adventures. Your schedule of speeches and appearances keeps you busy for months. You lose track of Diana, and hear little from Gateway Corp.

    

Then one day your PV phone rings, and once again your friend from the Corporation asks you to attend an important meeting. Reluctantly, you agree. When you arrive, you immediately see Diana sitting near the door. Her gaze shifts to you and she smiles, but her eyes swing back to the other end of the room. There, flanked by officials of the United Nations, sits a Heechee whose eyes are glued upon you. He smiles and says, "I told you we would meet again, my human friend."

    

"I arrived secretly some weeks ago," Convergence says. "It all came to pass as we hoped. Fogram is dead, and I am the new leader of the Council. I have made this journey so that all may know of our hopes for a true alliance between humans and Heechee. Already, I have explained to your officials how the Heechee solved many of the same problems that humankind now faces. I hope that, together, we may face the terrifying problems that still lie ahead."

    

Our friend Convergence is here!

Speechless, you watch as the Heechee comes towards you. He holds out his four-fingered hand and says, "This is a custom we learned from you, human. It is a good one." He grasps your hand and says, "Together, we will fight the Assassins, human. Is it a deal?" You smile, shake his hand, and say, "Deal."

    

Finally I get a winning screen that says, "Congratulations. You have successfully completed this game, scoring 1615 out of a total of 1600 points. Thank you for playing Gateway II: Homeworld."

My final winning screen.

Wow, how did I score more than the maximum points? I was originally five points short when I played the first Gateway, but here I've managed to get extra credit somehow. Saving Diana is technically optional, and the game gives 15 points for treating the toxin and 15 for the infection. It's possible that treating just one will save her life but both means extra credit. But then I got 15 more points for meeting her again, so I'm inclined to think the extra points are from something else, and saving Diana isn't optional for full points.

If you know where the extra points are from, please tell me. Also, if you found any other deaths I didn't mention, please share.

End of the credits

After the winning screen, credits roll, displaying various scenes from the game with the names of the people who worked on the game. Mike Verdu and Glen Dahlgren appear the most often, as the two main designers.

Deaths:

Shot on the Artifact by terrorist guards with laser rifles (#25)

Shot by the terrorist leader aboard the Artifact (#26)

Killed by Assassins after taking too long to stop the terrorists (#27)

Final Score: 1615

Total Deaths: 27

Session Time: 1 hours

Total Time: 22.5 hours