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Posted by: Corltan
Durandal and them weren't part of the Traxus incident as far as I can tell, especially since the whole Mars net was brought down as a result and purged over a two year period before being brought back up.

One person who conquered and humiliated Durandal was Bernard Strauss. There is a lot of info on this if you click on Bernard Strauss at marathon.org. Not sure who the other is. I think there was speculation that Durandal was Bernard's experimenting with rampant AIs.

I think there is considerable evidence to support the idea that
Durandal and the other A.I.'s were part of the TraxusIV incident.
Here's a quote from "Defend THIS!" terminal 2:
By the time that the Rampancy of Traxus was detected, he
had already infiltrated five of the other AIs on the Martian Net.
The only recourse for the Martians was to shut down the Martian
Planetary Net. Even then, it took two full years to
completely root out the damage that Traxus had done, and the
repercussions of the Crash were seen for over ten years after
his Rampancy had begun.

We also know that Durandal was once on Mars because Tycho
talked of Durandal's shame on Mars. Tycho is almost certainly
related to the Traxus incident because of this line that appears
in one of Tycho's messages:
traxIV<40c<40c> 48c<48c>
If both Durandal and Tycho were on Mars, then isn't it feasible
that they were on of those five A.I.s and were infected by Traxus
IV? Leela I'm not so sure of, but I wouldn't discredit it entirely.

This might explain how Durandal was purged/conquered twice.
The first time may have been his inital rampancy caused by
Traxus, and the other may be Strauss' abuse. But three times
more? What does that mean?

  • 10.29.2004 12:27 PM PDT
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To safely say that you would have to deduce the age of Durandal, Tycho, and Leela. The Traxus event occured in the year 2206, and the Marathon did not begin pre-launch construction until until 2405. Bernard Strauss, who is hinting at having great influence over Durandal, and (possibly creating him?) isn't alive for another 180 years or so after the Traxus event. Although of course, http://marathon.bungie.org/story has a lot of stuff about Durandal and the possible meanings of that terminal message.

The other question would be with the amount of dammage Traxus had apparently done, would it be possible to salvage anything he had infected?

[Edited on 10/29/2004 12:55:39 PM]

  • 10.29.2004 12:53 PM PDT
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In response to your last question Corltan, if Traxus did that much
damage, would they really ever be able to get the A.I. completely
out of the network? The timeline says that the damage done
was rooted out, not Traxus itself. One of the things about rampancy
is that you have to take the A.I. down in one fell swoop, or the
A.I. is there for good. James B. Miller's book was apparently
written after the Traxus incident, so the people who tried to
get rid of Traxus probably didn't know that. The age of an A.I.
would have no meaning because they don't die. Durandal makes
that clear when he tells us that our time is limited by the
breakdown of neurons in our brain, and he has no such limits.

Perhaps Traxus IV, Durandal, Tycho, and Leela(?) were
somewhat contained on Mars, but never deleted. Strauss
could have been one of many generations of scientists to do
research on these rampant A.I.s.

Although your argument does have merit. The complete shut
down of the net may have entirely deleted Traxus IV and his
host A.I.s. For some reason though, I think the scientists
would be very interested in taking a look at those hard-drives
or whatever storage medium they used that housed Traxus.
(if they kept them around)

  • 10.29.2004 3:40 PM PDT
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By age I refer not literally to how old they are, as in death, but rather as in their time of creation. If traxus had survived, I would think that there likely would be some reference to it... a rampant AI is hard to ignore. As also when Leela later went rampant and infected the networks of 10 alien worlds, and they could not get rid of her there. I would say they caught Traxus before he went as far as Leela.

  • 10.29.2004 4:07 PM PDT
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Posted by: Corltan
By age I refer not literally to how old they are, as in death, but rather as in their time of creation.

Good point, but I don't remember reading that Bernard built Durandal,
or the date of Durandal's creation.
If traxus had survived, I would think that there likely would be some reference to it... a rampant AI is hard to ignore.
There is a reference to Traxus IV:
traxIV<40c<40c> 48c<48c>
Explanations for its "absence" could be that either it was damaged so
severely that only small parts of Traxus are still there, the three A.I.s
we know of were infected by Traxus and the only time it appears is
in that line, or one of the three A.I.s we know of is/was Traxus IV itself.
As also when Leela later went rampant and infected the networks of 10 alien worlds, and they could not get rid of her there. I would say they caught Traxus before he went as far as Leela.
Leela may have been a worse case then Traxus, but he would have
been untouchable all the same:
From James B. Miller
The more a Rampant AI is
harassed or threatened, the more rapidly it becomes dangerous.
Thus, most Rampants are dealt with in one mighty attack, in
order to deny the AI time to grow or recover. There have been
a few examples of this tactic not succeeding. In all of these
cases, the Rampant was never brought under control. Traxus IV
is the most notable example. He was finally dealt with by a
complete shutdown of his host net.

Traxus may not have spread as much as Leela, but he would
still be "undeletable." As I said earlier, the shutdown of the net
may have deleted him, but the traxIV line says different.

  • 10.29.2004 4:42 PM PDT
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If the single Traxus quote comes from a Tycho terminal, that would seem to indicate more that Tycho might have had a connection with Traxus than either Durandal or Leela.

  • 10.30.2004 9:23 AM PDT
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Tycho was reanimated in Durandal's image.
Durandal!- I know of Strauss' abuse, of your shame on Mars.
But you cannot hide from your own past; such delusions belong
to the humans alone.

The S'pht reanimated me in your image, with prior knowledge of
how the second stage could be postponed. You should not have
helped them as much as you did; they have created an adversary
more powerful than yourself.

From Blaspheme Quarantine(Marathon 1)

The traxIV line doesn't appear until Marathon 2, so it's possible
that Tycho got the I.D. line from Durandal. We know Durandal
is the superior A.I. anyway, so it would make more sense for
him to be the rebooted version of Traxus IV. (If that's the case
of course)

  • 10.30.2004 11:13 AM PDT

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