The Colony (Solution)
THE COLONY SOLUTION
- The Nightmare Is Young (The Ship and Level 1)
- "Living" Quarters (Levels 2 and 3)
- The Labs (Level 4)
- The Reactor (Level 5)
- The Prime Queen, Epilogue Afterword
THE COLONY - Part 1
PROLOGUE: THE SHIP
When you come to, you find yourself in the control room of your DAS cruiser. You've crash-landed. Get up and approach the console. Hit the left button to turn on the lights. (Note: "Approach" in this walkthru means to move toward the object in question until its bit-mapped (two-dimensional) image appears.) Avoid the right button: It's instant death. You'll find out why later. Try the throttle: zip. By checking the console's readout, and the power indicator on the right side, you realize the ship's pretty much useless as is. So, in addition to your original assignment (finding out what happened to the inhabitants of 5-Delta-5; still a little groggy from the crash, are we?), you also need to repair your cruiser before you can get off this Godforsaken little planet.
Maybe you should have taken that desk job back at the Space Academy, huh?
Exploring the cruiser will help you get your sea legs back and acquaint you with some principles that'll come in handy once you've found the colony itself. (You may want to consult the deck plan in your briefing manual.) You'll notice, for instance, that except for some humorous sound effects, the bathroom here is pretty much useless. However, the johns in the colony itself, though they contain nothing more useful in the way of hardware, can be sources of energy (see "Level 1" below). Check them out, even if Nature isn't calling.
In every room, investigate all the drawers, desk tops, and monitors. (The one exception is the cigarette in the lounge across from the john here; avoid it, or at least save the game before you pick it up: David Alan Smith, the creator of THE COLONY, is obviously not a smoker.) You'll discover it's worth sifting through the shirts in the bureaus (jot down the model number on that reactor manual); doff your space cap in the direction of George Lucas as you polish your marshall's badge. In the desk in your living quarters, the four squares in the third drawer on your right are the clearance code for the ship's reactor. Click on the squares and translate the resulting symbols with your decoder. Write the number down. (Note: This number is randomly generated, so if you start a new game, be sure to stop by here and do this again.)
At the far end of the upper level, go through the door, turn on the polygon fill (if it isn't already; see your installation instructions), and make a mental note of the way that flashing column -- the top of the reactor -- looks. Then step into any of the four square pits on either side of the reactor top (the black squares on your deck plan), and you'll be shunted directly to the reactor core on the lower level. Be advised, you can only do this once; try the pits again and it's bad death.
But you've always got the stairs.
(Note: As a rule, I found the no-fill mode better for traveling from place to place and taking those all-important first glances around new environments -- it's not only faster, but you can actually see through objects this way -- and the fill mode more satisfying for detailed exploration of a given space. But this may vary with your configuration.)
You now face the ship's reactor core. Approach the console, enter that clearance code you found in your desk, and watch the core descend. Send it up and down a couple of times: This will be a crucial operation later on. Check out -- on your map or by exploration -- the two bays on either side of the core room. Leave the core in its lowered position and move out into the hall.
The first door on the right is a holding cell. There's a deadly radioactive security shield just inside the door, a phenomenon you're going to encounter in the colony as well. Learn to deal with it now. First, save the game. Then approach the door, click on the switch, click the entryway after the door has opened, and _immediately_ position your cursor near the top center of the screen. As you enter the room, you'll be catapulted toward the far wall, which is just what you want to happen: if you loiter near the threshold -- note the grid marks on your map -- you'll hear an ominous buzz and get the life force sucked out of you like a fifty-cent Slurpy on a hot afternoon. Leaving is the same deal: _Rush_ for the exit. You're only safe when the bit-mapped door kicks in. Load your saved game and do it again until you get the hang of it.
Proceed down the hall and check out the cargo rooms -- one with boxes, one large and empty -- and the hydroponics garden. Bypass the airlock console for now and approach the suit installer. It doesn't matter which power level you specify, you'll still get the same amount: an effect of the power-down state of your reactor. Then go upstairs and check yourself out in the bedroom mirror. At least your alter ego's got a unisex look now, which should please the women players of the game. It was, after all, Sigourney Weaver who first blazed this trail. (And while we're on the subject, watching "Aliens" is a great way to psych yourself up for THE COLONY.)
Time to get over to the settlement and see what all the fuss is about. Approach the airlock console and decode the symbols it gives you. Then go through the airlock door itself. Close the door behind you (it's an airlock, remember?), save the game, take a deep breath, and proceed outside.
You've exited the cruiser on the port side. You're in danger immediately: The place is crawling -- literally -- with missile-shooting larvae (Latin for "malevolent spirits," by the way). Don't try to fight these bustards: You haven't got the fire power. Turn right and hustle around the nose of the ship so you can make a north-by-northeast charge (compass needle at one or two o'clock) toward the mountains, dodging bugs, missiles, and pyramids, as needed. If you've kept your wits about you, you should see a bunker on the horizon before long: The entrance to the colony. Go for it.
LEVEL 1
Once inside, don't forget to close the airlock door. Pause for a moment to lick your wounds and congratulate yourself on making it this far. Rest assured, though, this is only the beginning. From this point on, alien encounters are possible at any time, and the times -- and places -- are entirely unpredictable (there might even be something in the airlock now). If you see inert geometric shapes lying around, they're eggs -- energy capsules. Run over them and you'll absorb their strength. If you see a hovering alien, shoot it, but shoot conservatively until you've built up more power. If the alien looks like a bee, it'll vaporize when you nail it. But if it's a diamond-, pyramid-, inverted pyramid- or eyeball-shaped beast, a direct hit will usually reduce it to egg form, allowing you to absorb and neutralize it. And the more of these little SOBs you absorb, I'm here to tell ya, the better you're gonna feel.
(Note: Study automatic tracking vs. manual targeting in your briefing manual, and be sure you understand both. As you might suspect, your effectiveness in combat is directly related to your ability to handle your laser.)
You're ready now to begin exploring the first level. As in the ship, examine _all_ desks and bureaus and any paraphernalia you find near them: PCs, TVs, diaries, notes, etc. In order to survive, you're going to have to get to know this place like the back of your hand. I strongly advise using graph paper to make scaled maps as you go along.
Let's go to work. Keep your head down, your eyes open, one hand on your laser and the other on your butt...and follow me.
The first room beyond the airlock is the reception area. Terminate aliens and scoop up eggs as they're available. Check the computer and the desk drawers. On the basis of what you find there, it's probably safe to assume that all the adults on 5-Delta-5...are dead.
But there may be some children, suspended by their desperate parents in a cryogenic limbo.
And it may be possible to save them.
Try to pass through the recessed doorway on the east wall. You'll get a "something's blocking your passage" notice. Any other time you see this message, it means there's a moving alien on the other side either trying to get through or just killing time: You'll have to wait for it to make a move before you can pass. But in this case, you can keep trying that door until the next Big Bang and you won't move a millimeter. For now, just make a note of it. And head for the stairs.
You're in a long hallway. Scour for bugs, hug the west wall, and move north. There's a john on your right as the corridor narrows; check it for eggs. The first door you come to as you continue north is Randall Radmer's office. Decode the number in his desk and make a note of it. (This number too is unique to the current game, so if you start again, you gotta come back.) From Radmer's monitor and papers you discover that the _entire planet_ must be destroyed if the plague is to be contained (are we having fun yet?). You also learn how to implode the reactor if this ends up being a suicide mission.
We'll try to avoid that, won't we?
As you emerge from Radmer's office, continue north, then east. The double doors on your left lead to the cafeteria, and it's thick with creatures (probably cruising for tuna melts). Clean the place out. Then hit the accountant's office across the hall and spend a moment contemplating Nostradamus. East as you emerge, then south to the slide room. The tutorial here on the aliens is invaluable (click on the speaker to get the text for each slide). Just let me add that there's only one way to avoid the energy-depleting attacks of the Snoopers, and that's to do just that: Avoid them. Run around pillars, duck through doors, _whatever_, but try to keep them from nipping you. Also, pay close attention to what the tutorial says about aliens over eggs.
And remember, the theory about the death of the Prime Queen being the death of the rest of the horde is just that: a theory.
Turn right as you leave the slide room, and right again (south) through the door. You're in a hallway with a door at either end: Both lead to the conference room. Not much here, but you might want to try the double doors in the southwest corner. They take you back to that first long corridor -- the one with the exit sign -- and hence to the reception room and the airlock. Now, go back through either of the conference room's north doors, and continue north to the lobby (big Level 1 sign). The center columns are elevators through which you can access the lower levels, and every level has a lobby more or less like this one, with its number clearly marked.
The elevators will be one of your most valuable tools. But for now, continue getting the lay of things on this floor. Assuming you're near the "Level 1" wall and facing south, pass between the first and second columns and move south as far as you can, then east and north past the sofa. Turn west as soon as possible after the sofa and you'll see, on your left, the office of the adjutant commander Captain Nett: the hammerhead we've apparently got to thank for this mess. Emerging from his office, curse him softly while moving west again into the cul-de-sac. The door on your left leads to Security headquarters, but there's an entryway on the other side that's a security shield deathtrap. Check your bearings so you can find this place again, and move on. I can almost guarantee that if you try to crack it now, you'll bounce off the walls 'til you drop...
...like a bluebottle in a killing jar.
Coming out of the cul-de-sac, head north as far as you can and then east. You'll find stairs that can take you to the other levels in case you've got a morbid fear of elevators (or if there should be, say, a blackout). The door next to the stairs leads to a funny little T-shaped room with a central pillar. Check it for eggs, then exit via the south or west door and zigzag southeast 'til you start to see another sofa. In the office on your immediate right, you'll learn that the colony's reactor code is linked to Radmer's decoder. Remember that number you found in his office? Still got it? Good work.
The next office contains your first solid lead to the whereabouts of one of the children. He's apparently in Edwards's apartment. Wherever that is.
Moving south, you'll find the library. The computers here aren't real helpful, but there are a lot of bugs, and you need to increase both your energy level and your combat prowess. You're probably thinking the aliens so far have been somewhat less than formidable, and you're right. But don't get too cocky: The nightmare is young.
After you've completed your research, exit the library and head east, then south again. Turn to your right (west): There's a corridor and, just south of it, a door. Go down the corridor and roast some more bug carcass, and then come back to the door. Move west through the two studies and you'll find the stock room. Work your way over to the computer, then south and east to that little alcove. You won't be able to get in for now because of the boxes. But remember this place.
And now, on your own, find your way back to the elevators.
Watch out for Snoopers.
THE COLONY - Part 2
LEVEL 2
Take either elevator in the Level 1 lobby down to Level 2. (The sequence is: Click on the call button; click on the opening; click on the floor you want; and click on the opening again when the elevator has stopped.) Level 2 consists of five sets of living quarters and a school. When you leave the elevator, turn around and move south between the third and fourth columns. Pass through the double doors on the west wall and you'll be in the school. Move south and east to the playroom and scorch the place. Backtrack and check the teachers' lounge on the north wall; then continue west and north up the corridor (the classrooms should be on your left). By the time you hit the first apartment (number 21), you'll be in the northwest corner of this level. You're going to check each apartment in turn, moving clockwise around the complex; Apartment 25, the last, is in the southwest corner of the floor.
Just when you're starting to think these apartment searches are a waste of time, you hit Radmer's quarters (number 23). You learn he has twin daughters, both of whom have been frozen; that there are, in addition, two boys named Eric and Asher; that Radmer's girls have been hidden, or so he believes, in Laboratory 5 on Level 4, and in "one of the 3x3 rooms" on Level 5; that the rooms have been "modified" by the creatures (sounds ominous); and that, perhaps most importantly, the cryogenics chambers were moved with a forklift that's kept in the storage area. Later, in Apartment 24, you hear for the first time about the existence of teleporters in the colony. A little sun peeping through the clouds, perhaps?
Back to the elevators. You don't have to go all the way around. From the door to Apartment 24, head north and take the first left. You can't miss it.
LEVEL 3
Level 3's layout is similar to the one above it. The apartments -- there are six -- start in the northwest corner again and move clockwise to the southwest corner. In place of the school, you have the hospital, and instead of the playroom, there's a dormitory. That's about it. So turn and face the elevators and move south from between the third and fourth columns. The double doors on your right lead to the hospital, but for now go straight, into the dorm. Check the bureaus and the computer room, mopping up as you go. You'll discover that the reactor on 5-Delta-5 is the same model that's on your ship (the 11-AXC from Scapem Industries), and there's mention of a child on Level 5 (Radmer's daughter, or another one?).
Before you leave the dorm, save the game and step into that last walk-in closet (the rightmost one as you stand facing the bureaus in the south dorm area). When you try to walk out, you find a door where there was only a threshold. Open it. You've been transported to the conference room on Level 1. It's only a one-way ride, but I still found it useful once while being pursued by a particularly relentless Snooper. Now, reload your saved game or, better still, boost your confidence in your topographical expertise by finding your way back to the elevators and Level 3.
Back to the dorm entrance and into the hospital, where there's usually an abundance of eggs. Be sure to examine Doctor Lee's office: The PC reveals the name and possible location of his son on Level 4. A prescription for sleeping pills. You could probably use a couple yourself.
At the north end of the hospital, you hit the living quarters. Work your way through them just like you did on Level 2. ESCAPE FROM ALPHA CENTAURI seems to be the book of the month here. In Apartment 32, you'll find notes on a phenomenon you've no doubt witnessed: the aliens' ability to warp space. The PC in Apartment 33 -- Captain Edwards's apartment -- informs you that each teleporter has but one destination; a note in the desk reveals the name of another child -- Rachel -- who was taken to Level 5; and a diary in the bedroom indicates that the reactor core can be moved with the forklift. Leaving the bedroom, pass through the door on the opposite (north) wall and follow the corridor. You'll find your first cryo chamber, which holds little Eric Wisznia. Approach it and his ID will appear. Tell him everything's going to be all right, and that you'll be back for him soon.
In Apartment 34 you get your first clue as to the origin of this whole tragedy: The teleporter experiments themselves. Ironic, because the teleporters may well prove to be your -- and the children's -- salvation.
The Alexanders occupied Apartment 36. More info here on the ability of the creatures to warp space; something ominous about the teleporters' being less than perfect (great); and the news that the Alexanders' little boy was placed in Security. Update your notes and head for the elevators (from the door to Apartment 34, north, the first left, and north again).
Congratulations. You now know where two of the children are; you're fairly well powered-up; and you're becoming a formidable marksman.
Just in time for things to start getting hairy.
THE COLONY - Part 3
LEVEL 4: THE TELEPORTERS
Step out of the elevator on Level 4 and just stand there for a minute (assuming the aliens give you the opportunity). Look around. Feels different, doesn't it? You're getting closer to the marrow of the nightmare. And the creatures are getting stronger.
And smarter.
Check the office between the first and second columns. The door on the west wall leads to the mazerium; stay away from it. Exit the office the way you came in (the right door; the other one is an elevator shaft). Now hug the west wall of the lobby and move south, then turn right. The door marked with the arrow is another entrance to the mazerium; avoid it too for now. Avoid permanently the door on your right -- or at least save before you try it. It leads to the IFRDs -- Infinite Tunnels of Radiation Death -- and they'll cause you nothing but grief. So, turn right again and head north to Lab 6. Nothing here but a couple of PCs, but there's info about the teleportation of that first creature, and details on alien reproductive activities (not as exciting as it sounds). Also some mention of a Security Lab A.
Exit, turn left, and stop. The doorway a few meters ahead of you, the dogleg to the left just in front of that door, and the corridor on your immediate left: All lead to Lab 5. Do a little exploration and pick up as many eggs as you can, but ultimately you want to be at the door to Lab 5 in the northeast corner of this floor (Lab 6 -- the one you just left -- is in the north_west_ corner). Entering Lab 5, you behold your first teleporter. Beautiful isn't it? Don't go near it: It's a deathtrap. (Remember that reference in the Alexanders' apartment to some bugs -- no pun intended -- in the TP mechanisms?) Check the computer. Now you know why there wasn't much happening in Lab 6. And K. Allen was apparently the "accident" Captain Nett was referring to back on Level 1. I hope old Nett died slowly, don't you?
Professor Sherry thinks the creature the teleporter brought here -- originally, I urge you to remember, the _only_ creature -- may have gone to the reactor.
(Okay, before you leave, save the game and go ahead and use the teleporter. Everyone should experience fourth-dimensional death at least once in his or her lifetime.)
Now move south to Lab 4. This teleporter's no better than the last one, so don't be tempted. On the desk, another reference to the mysterious Lab A, and a tunnel. Lab 3: ditto the teleporter, ditto the ref. to Lab A. Square roots of negative numbers: How did these bozos ever get a grant? Lab 2's teleporter, in spite of the optimistic note over the desk, is just as lethal as its predecessors. Maybe you should've checked the closets....
Oh, well, too late now; we're going down to Level 5.
That's right, Level 5. What? What about Lab 1 you say? Well, go there if you want, but save the game first. And don't say I didn't warn you. I'll wait for you here.
Back already? Okay, head north and take the first left to the elevators.
And save. You're not gonna hang out on Level 5 any longer than you have to, discretion definitely being the better part of valor at this point. But there are a couple of things you've got to do there if you're ever going to get those kids out alive. So go on, get in the elevator and push the button. And stay close, for Pete's sake.
As soon as you step out onto Level 5, turn around and hustle between the first and second columns. The aliens are meaner here, and if you run into any -- and you will -- you're just going to have to hack your way through. Remember, the silver lining in all this is that where there are bugs, there are eggs; and like the guy in the old joke whose wife thought she was a chicken, you need the eggs. Go through the door in front of you and check the PC and the desk. The forklift's due for maintenance in two weeks. Great. Let's just hope it doesn't break down while you're trying to get out of here.
When you exit this room, turn left (west) and go through the next door you come to on your left. This is the office of David Alan Smith, so you might want to take a moment to tip your helmet or torch the place, depending on how you're feeling at this point. Do _not_ go through the door on the west wall. Exit the way you came in and turn left (west) once more.
By the way, you'll be pleased to know you just scanned your last monitor and ransacked your last desk drawer. From now on, it's guts and glory all the way.
Head west, south (dogleg), and west again. South of here are the fabled 3x3 rooms, which you're not equipped to deal with yet. On your right is a door marked "1"; check it out. There are nine such rooms on this floor, most of them used for storage. For you, now, they're important because they're a potential source of eggs. Pick up what you can in Room 1, and then move west to 2. From there, west again (ignore the door on the south wall), and north and east to Room 3. East again to 4. (Rooms 1 and 4 are actually connected, but you can't take advantage of the fact because those damn boxes are in the way.) And east once more to 5.
Yes, it's the forklift. And this thing _is_ beautiful. Approach it and wait for the bit-mapped image. Then click on the rear hatch, give it a second to open, and click on the opening. You're inside now, and your field of vision has altered slightly since you're looking out through the windshield (note the readout to help you remember what you're carrying). All you want to do now is steer this baby to the elevators, going back the way you came. The catch is -- are you sitting down? (No, I'm in the forklift, ya damn fool) -- you can't fire your laser when you're in the forklift. So if you run into any bugs on the way back, try to evade them; because if you can't, you're gonna have to climb out of the lift (make sure you've got enough room around you to park it), fry the bustards, get back in, and continue on your way. C'mon Tiger, let's go.
Out the door, west as far as you can, south (four doglegs), east when you come to that door I warned you about, and north to the lobby. Good work. Back to Level 4.
Now with the forklift, go back to Lab 2. As you've probably noticed, you can't absorb eggs in the lift either; but your power levels should be high enough so this won't be a problem for a while. Once in the lab, pop through that doorway in the southeast corner, find the door in the closet, and move north. Proceed to the mouth of the tunnel. You're on your way to Security Lab A.
As soon as the robo-tunnel deposits you in the lab, get out of the forklift and work your way east, to the slide room. I don't know what's so secure about Security Lab A, because there are few places on 5-D-5 that are so heavily infested. Cauterize the place with your laser, then operate the projector for a tutorial on teleporters. The thing to remember is that each TP only has one destination, which is determined by its sequence number. In other words, TP-1 will take you to TP-2, 2 to 3, and so on. Since there are only four TPs in the lab, 3 will take you to 4, but 4 will take you straight to hell, because it's the last one in the series. Conversely, the only way to get to 1 is to climb into it, because it's the first in the series.
Is it just me, or is it getting warm in here?
Get back into the forklift and move west to the teleporters. Bypass TP-1 and continue west to TP-2, abandoning the forklift to chop bugs as necessity dictates. Then grab TP-2 and head for the tunnel. If aliens get in your way, torching them with something in the lift is a multi-stage, many-splendored process. First you have to unload the cargo; then wriggle out of the lift; shoot; grab some eggs (optional); slip back into the lift; hoist your cargo; and haul butt. The punch line is, you can't do any of this if there isn't enough room in the immediate vicinity for you, the lift, and the cargo to coexist side by side.
Yeah, my head hurts, too.
Jet through the tunnel and go to the lobby. Take the elevator up to Level 1 and find your way back to the stock room. Dump the teleporter in the northeast corner near the table. Now, cruise over to that little alcove room you discovered earlier and grab the first box that gets in your way. Take it to the north side of the computer desk and ditch it. Return to the alcove and turn south; there's a threshold there you couldn't see before. Hoist the box that's in your way now and pass through the threshold. You're back in...
...the reception area! Now you know why you couldn't get through here when you first arrived. And before you ask, the reason you didn't just bring the forklift around the other way is because it can go down stairs but not up them, so that little flight of steps by the 5-Delta-5 sign would've stopped you dead in your tracks. So, dump the box you're carrying near the reception desk, go get the teleporter, and meet me back here. We're going back to the ship.
LEVEL 4: ERIC AND ASHER
You're in the forklift, and you've got the second teleporter, check? Check. Save the game and move into the airlock. Close the door behind you (I'm starting to sound like your mother). Pass through the outer door, turn south by southwest (compass needle at seven o'clock), and make a beeline for the ship. You'll be approaching it starboard, remember, so you'll have to overshoot slightly and then turn and hit the entrance portside. Welcome back. Don't forget to close the -- okay, you're way ahead of me. Go to the reactor room and deposit the teleporter in that empty bay on your left. Remember: This is TP-2.
You're about to experience teleportation for the first time. Save the game. What you've got to understand here is that if you approach a teleporter with the forklift empty, the forklift and the TP are both going to think you want to pick it -- the TP -- up. So, go to the cargo room with the boxes and grab one (single or double, it doesn't matter). Approach the teleporter. Click to open the door, click to enter, click to close the door. Closing the door automatically activates the teleportation mechanism. A flash of 4-D vapors, and when you open the door again you're...
...back in Lab A, scrambling out of Teleporter 3, surrounded by aliens. Drop the box, grab your socks, and head for TP-4. Pick it up and dive into TP-1. Before you can say "Eat laser, Bug Breath!" you're back on the ship. Ain't technology grand?
(Note: It, uh, may not work quite this neatly. Bugs can block passageways between TPs, or just plain gang up on you. Holding down the Option key (on the Macintosh) or Control key (IBM) will disable activation of the bit-mapped graphics and give you a little more freedom when you're jammin' tight like this. If worse comes to worse, strip down to your F-21s and give 'em hell; then pick up where you left off.)
When you're back on the ship, deposit TP-4 in the empty reactor bay and grab another box. Teleport -- in TP-2 remember -- back to Lab A. Lose the box and grab TP-1, and take the tunnel to the Level 4 lobby. Unload TP-1 here, but stay in the forklift. Save the game.
Now, let's save some kids.
Take the elevator to Level 3 and drive back to Eric in Apartment 33. Move his cryo chamber to the ship (via TP-1 on Level 4) and set him down -- gently -- in that empty cargo room. Feels good, doesn't it? Get another box, and TP back to Lab A. Pick up TP-3 -- the one you just got out of -- and put it on Level 4 next to TP-1 (position them so you'll remember which is which). Stay in the forklift and elevator up to Level 1.
It should be pretty quiet here now, which, I'd be willing to bet, is a welcome change about this time. Roll over to that door to the Security section (see "Level 1") and save the game. Are you relaxed? Feeling fit? Okay now, listen up. You're gonna go through this door here like I showed you back on the cruiser, right? There's a short corridor on the other side that goes straight and then right, like a backwards 7. Then there's another door. You're in serious danger from the radiation shield until you hit that second door. Beyond that is another shield, but smaller: just like the one you practiced with on the ship. So, through the first door and forward, then right, then forward to the second door; catch your breath after the bit-mapped door appears; then heave yourself through _that_ door to the center of the room, ditch the forklift, and hose out any bugs.
You may not make it the first time. Load your saved game and try again. If you get a "something's blocking you" message, get away from here for a while and do some hunting, and then come back. But stay on this level (see the stuff about the queens in "Level 5: The 3x3s" below). When you do get in, check the computer: It'll tell you that the creatures get weaker the farther they stray from the Prime Queen. The corollary, then, would be that the closer you get to the Prime Queen, the more...the SOBs are....
Think about it.
On the north wall of Security, there are five holding cells. Asher Alexander is in the one on the far right. Get into the forklift, pick him up, and save. Then take him back to the ship.
LEVEL 4: TAMMY AND JES
You've just left Asher sleeping peacefully next to his buddy. Now, teleport yourself, with the lift, back to Level 4 and head for Lab 1. Remember that note of Radmer's about how one of his daughters was in Lab 5? Well, he was wrong. Remember those diary entries about how the aliens can warp space? Well, they were abso-foggin'-lutely right on.
Remember, you're on Level 4 now. And there's some serious sheet goin' down.
We'll never know what Lab 1 looked like before the infestation, but now it's a series of eleven consecutive corridors, each with a radiation shield in the middle. You've got to take the forklift, but in any of these corridors you may encounter aliens, in which case you've got to ditch the lift away from the radiation zone, snuff the bug(s), then get back in the lift and carry on. Make sure you scour the place thoroughly on the way _in_; if you're forced into combat on the way out, with a cryo chamber in tow, it's well-nigh impossible.
Save before you begin.
Once you've got Tammy safely on board, it's time to go after Jes Lee. The computer in his father's office said he was in the mazerium. There's just one problem: You're out of boxes, and boxes are your passport to the TPs. You know what this means, don't you? That's right, you're back on the street again. Observing all the precautions outlined earlier, exit through the airlock with the forklift and drive -- quickly -- to the colony for that box you left in the reception room. Bring it back -- overland; do _not_ use the TPs -- and drop it off near the airlock console. Drive to the colony again and bring back another box. Drive to the colony one more time -- the last, you'll be thrilled to hear -- and elevator down to Level 4. It's mazerium time.
(The reason you can't use the teleporters for your return trips will become obvious, if it isn't already, once you consider the fact that there's no way to operate the doors to either the cruiser or the colony once you're outside.)
In the lobby on Level 4, hug the west wall and move south. Turn right and go through the door with the arrow. As soon as you cross the threshold, turn around. The door's gone. I hope you know what you're doing.
Move south and take the first left. _Save_. The door in front of you leads to the monolith room, which isn't a cocktail lounge at the MGM Grand but something far more insidious (if that's possible). Go inside, and you're in a sitting room. Move around. Notice the entrance has disappeared. Make sure the polygon fill is on and go into the next room. Approach the monolith. Nice, huh? Not a bad way to go, as going goes. But while you're here wallowing in the bliss of eternity, there's a bunch of kids out there whose fate is in your hands.
Not to mention the eventual contamination of the entire universe.
So, load your saved game and continue south; then east; then north, dogleg, north as far as you can (ignore the right turn). Turn left when you have to, and left again at the T; then follow the corridor until you reach Jes. Approach him and check his ID. His cryo chamber is number 6. The three on the ship were numbered 1, 2, and 3.
How many kids are there? How will you know when you've got them all?
Pick Jes up and head back. When you come to the T again -- the way you came was from the right -- go straight. Follow your nose until you come to a threshold. Move through it, then immediately hang a U and come back out. You'll find yourself near the entrance of Lab 2.
Yes, the aliens can warp space. But sometimes you can work it in your favor.
Find the teleporters and take the little guy back to the ship.
(Note: There's one other entrance to the mazerium -- it's through the door between the first two columns in the lobby -- and _many_ other parts to it: more monolith rooms, endless corridors, space warp stuff. Explore if you must. But you got what you came for. The rest only leads to death and frustration. Not necessarily in that order.)
THE COLONY - Part 4
LEVEL 5: SEARCH AND DESTROY
Teleport back to the colony and haul TP-1 down to Level 5. For now, leave both teleporter and forklift in the lobby and take some time to explore what you haven't seen of this level. You're looking to do two things here. First, you want to pump your power levels up as much as possible in preparation for the Final Battle (twenty-one bars each for weapons, life force, and armor is as high as I ever got, but eighteen or more can be enough to do the job). And second, you're looking for a queen.
From the pictures in that first batch of slides, you should be able to distinguish the queens from the drones and soldiers. Remember that theory about how the death of a queen is supposed to reduce all the aliens on her floor to eggs? Well, it's true. And you've probably even seen it in action, though you may not have connected the cause with the effect. If Level 1 was real quiet when you went back for Asher, it's because at some point you liquidated the queen there. Anyway, the death of a queen on the upper levels is a convenience; on Level 5 it's almost a necessity. When you find the room where Teri is hidden, you won't even be able to get in, the place is so infested.
Unless all those hovering freaks have been turned into eggs.
All right. Follow the trail you blazed earlier (in "Level 4: The Teleporters") south and west to the first two storage rooms, then north and east to Rooms 3, 4, and 5. Recheck them for eggs, and be sure to eliminate anything with wings.
As you continue east, you'll hit Rooms 6 and 7. Ignore for now the corridor south of Room 7 and continue east. Room 8 is a small dormitory, and 9 a conferencYrea. Beyond them is a bathroom (next service, forty million light-years), and the last of the stairwells.
Check _everything_ for the fifth-level queen.
Double back, take that corridor off number 7, and move south. Try the first door on your left. Those things that look like pits? They're pits. They're bad death. The area beyond them looks enticing, but it's unknowable; you'll never know it, forget about it (if you don't believe me, read the "Afterword" at the end of this walkthru). Return to the corridor and continue south. The first right takes you back to the elevators, but don't go there yet. Weave around the pillars in front of you and waste bugs. Move south as far as you can and go through the door you find there. More pillars. (The reference in the next section to the room with the fat columns is to this room.) This is Search and Destroy time. When you've gone all the way south again, hit the doorway in the east wall. Scour this new area, going up and down the aisles. Follow the corridor in the northeast corner and you'll end up...in that bathroom off Room 9.
Only _you_ know whether you got the queen or not. If not, you may want to prolong the S&D for a while. When you're ready to give the 3x3 rooms a shot, read on.
LEVEL 5: THE 3X3 ROOMS
Go back to the elevators and get the forklift. Pick up TP-1. There are two entrances to the 3x3 rooms. The first is on the west wall of David Smith's office (the door you avoided before), and the second is just west of Room 2 on the south wall (the other door you avoided). Think of the 3x3 rooms as a checkerboard of twenty-five squares that sort of curves in on itself. Each square is a room, and each room has a doorway in the center of each of its four walls. If you start in the room in the upper left-hand corner and move "east," you'll pass through five different rooms, and then hit the first room again (and you can keep traveling "east" this way for all eternity: hence the quotation marks). Move horizontally or vertically, through any of the ranks or files, and the same phenomenon occurs, _except_ in the lowest ("southernmost") rank: When you move east here, you eventually come out in the room with the fat columns mentioned earlier.
(Note: This is, in fact, the only way to physically -- or metaphysically -- leave the 3x3 rooms, because as soon as you've entered them, if you turn and try to exit, you'll find yourself, not back in the corridor or office you started from, but in the room at the other "end" of that file: The curving has already occurred.)
But to exit via the room with the fat columns is as good as admitting defeat, at least temporarily, because you're going into the 3x3s for Teri, and you won't be able to get her out that way.
Because as soon as you find the room that Teri's in, all the doors will disappear.
Got that teleporter handy?
Work your way past Room 2 and position yourself in front of the door on the south wall. Save the game. When you step through here, you'll be in the "northernmost," "westernmost" 3x3 room. Teri could be in any of them. Move "south." It is imperative that you keep an accurate count of the rooms as you pass through them! When you get to the fifth room, turn left ("east"), go through the door, and turn left again to head "north," starting your count again at 1. When you get to the _new_ fifth room, turn right, go through the door, right again, and count 1. You're now at the beginning of the third file, with two more to go. Think of that checkerboard, but keep it flat or your head's gonna start hurting again.
If the Level 5 queen is still alive, you'll also have to contend with periodically unloading your baggage to deal with the aliens in your path.
Continue until you've covered all twenty-five rooms. But you won't, because one of two things will happen first.
One: There'll be a room that you're consistently unable to enter, no matter how many times you approach it and how many directions you approach it from. The room is so clotted with bugs there's no room for you (let alone you, the TP, and the forklift). This means the queen is still alive, and you need to exit the 3x3s (see above) and deal with her. (Note: If you get hopelessly lost, follow each rank "east" for six to ten rooms until you hit the one that allows you to exit.)
Two: You'll pop through a door and see Teri's cryo. That's the ticket. Proceed.
Ditch your paraphernalia and approach the chamber to confirm it's Ms. Radmer. Nail any bees loitering about, and help yourself to some eggs. Notice there isn't any way out? Doesn't bother you though, does it? Get Teri and hop into the teleporter, you sly dog.
LEVEL 5: THE LOWER DEPTHS
Place Teri in the cargo hold and then teleport back to the colony with that last box. Drop down to Level 5. Go east, then south, then east again the first chance you get. These are the pillars you weaved around in the "Search and Destroy" section. In front of you there's a door. The door to the reactor.
Leave the forklift out front for now, and go inside. The pits are in four groups of three, surrounding a central staircase. Walk the perimeter, gathering eggs and getting used to maneuvering near the holes. Step between the pits and walk around the stairwell. Then get the forklift and drive it straight down the stairs. It's a bumpy ride, but you'll survive.
Wait! You know the forklift can't be driven back _up_ the stairs, don't you?! Whaddaya mean you can't hear me?! I said...
...oh, never mind.
The second level of the reactor complex -- we'll call it 5.1 -- is three times the size of the first. Leave the forklift near the base of the stairs and work your way east. There's a veritable plethora of creatures. Try to move in a straight line, although the central columns in the second and third areas will force you to detour occasionally. In the middle of the second area, flip on the polygon fill and you'll see the top of the reactor (it looks like the one on your ship); and in the middle of the third area there's another set of stairs. Patrol the perimeter of these areas, working your way back west and gathering as much energy as possible. Get into the forklift and take it as far west as possible. And head south.
Follow the long corridor south and east. Since there isn't much action here, get out of the lift and gather eggs. Then, still on foot, continue east through the first threshold. Go straight at the crossroads and through the second threshold, clearing the area as you advance. Turn north at the second crossroads, through another threshold, and west at the third cross. One more threshold and you'll see a welcome sight at the end of the corridor.
When there's heavy infestation, it's very difficult to maneuver in these narrow hallways. By torching the area first, you've avoided a lot of stop-and-start, load-and-unload headaches.
Go back and get the lift and carry Rachel to the second crossroads (the one where you turned north). Use the south and west arms of the cross to store the cryo chamber and the forklift, and then head east and north, clearing the halls all the way to the tunnel entrance. Go back and get Rachel and take her on through. You'll find yourself back in Security Lab A (thank God for that tunnel). You might want to lay your burden down a minute and grab a snack (what, more eggs?). Then hit the tunnel again and it'll take you to Lab 2. Go to the lobby and escort your precious cargo to the ship.
THE COLONY - Part 5
LEVEL 5: THE PRIME QUEEN
As you stare at the six cryo chambers in your cargo bay, you can't help feeling warm inside. At least these poor kids aren't over there with those...things crawling all over them.
But then the gloom comes down again. How many more children are there? How do you find them? And what happens to them if you don't?
Hell, what good's it doing them anyway? The aliens are multiplying so fast it would take an army to wipe them out. And without a new source of energy, this ship's about as airworthy as a Ford Pinto.
You've been stumbling around in a nightmare. For...how long? You know you haven't slept for days, and your head's about to file for a Mexican divorce. If you only had some of those pills Doctor Weisman used to give you. Oh, what you wouldn't give right now for one of his prescriptions for....
Wait a minute. Prescriptions. Doctor Lee's office. What did that thing say? Something about...sleeping pills. Half units. Six half-units of sleeping pills, that was it! A rush of energy. Six! Six kids! You've got 'em! You got 'em all!
You've got a chance.
Steer the forklift into the ship's reactor room and approach the core. When the core is removed the ship is dead: no doors, no lights -- nothing. But you've got the kids. And the teleporters are in place. And you're a bad-butt motherfinger with that laser, right? _Right_?
Let's do it.
Remove the core. Then, in the darkness, find your way to TP-2. After you've teleported, toss the core aside (luckily it's one of those Scapem Safe-T-Cores that disintegrates the minute it's exposed to air). Pick up TP-3 and take it down to Level 5. Go straight to the reactor complex and shoot down the stairs. On 5.1, work your way east to the second stairwell. Avoid the bugs if you can; otherwise, unload and shoot it out. When you reach the stairs, take 'er down. Save.
You're on 5.2 now. Work your way west, steering clear of the pits. (You can "jump" across the smaller ones, but move fast and be careful.) There are three sections again, but they're not as large as up above.
Monitor your power levels. If you fall to half on anything, get out of the lift and hunt.
At the beginning of the third section is a pit you _have_ to jump across. Build your momentum in the corridor. Beyond it you'll find the last remaining stairwell. The mouth faces west. Turn into it and jam down. _Save_.
Level 5.3. You're in a tiny, cross-shaped room, and it smells like a bad dream. Put the TP and the lift as close to the wall as possible and kick some major bug butt. The Prime Queen could be in the next room, or she could be here. Don't mess with h er: She cannot be killed (if you don't believe me, read the "Afterword"). Work on the Eye Spies, the Pyramids, and the rest of those freaks. But don't fire at them if they're standing over eggs: You'll waste precious ammunition. Wait until they move away.
What you're aiming to do here is get to the next (east) room with both the forklift and the TP. The corridor connecting the two areas is one solid radiation shield, so don't even think about it if there's anything there, you'll die. Bide your time, and stay away from the Queen. When you finally crack the east room, save. You'll see the reactor core and console. Drop the TP, get out of the lift, and clear a path. Grab some eggs if you're getting weak. Approach the console and feed it the access code from Radmer's decoder. Make sure you're entering the right numbers. Get back in the lift while the core's descending and then fight your way over to it. Once you have the core, there's no turning back: You can't set it down or it'll disintegrate. Ready? All right, bag the core. You lose the lights and the Queen goes berserk. Hit the teleporter and slam the door behind you. God love ya, you're back on....
It's dark. You stumble around a few seconds, completely disoriented. But then you recognize the corridor. Yes, _yes_...it's the ship! Install the new core, claw your way out of the forklift, and close the reactor with the code from your desk. Now stagger upstairs and approach the control console. Check the readout and the power indicator: excellent. Slam that throttle lever up and kiss 5-Delta-5 goodbye.
You're headed for Cygnus 7 to revive the kids.
EPILOGUE: PSAMDD
But she's still down there, isn't she?
Breeding.
And over and over, a phrase repeating in your head, like a nursery rhyme. "The eventual contamination of the entire universe; the eventual contamination of the entire uni...."
Grab that briefing manual. Where's the list of equipment for this crate?! Here. "Meta-Plastoid Hull." No. "Linear Output Enclosed Reactor." No, damn it! "150*i Giga HP...."
You stop. And smile. There it is, four lines down.
Like a love song.
"Planet Smasher Anti-Matter Detonation Device."
Approach the console again.
Hit that right button.
Now get some sleep.
AFTERWORD
Okay, I lied about two little things. On Level 5, you _can_ get across the pits in that room just north of the reactor room. And the Prime Queen _can_ be killed.
There isn't much to be gained by making it across those pits, but you can have fun trying. Go into the room and put your back against the west wall, standing just north of the door. Position yourself so you're looking straight down that line that runs between the left two pits and the right two; I'm talking _absolutely_ straight down. Save. Now race across. (Space marshalls with some tightrope-walking experience have a decided advantage here.) Those cool doors you couldn't wait to explore are one-way jobs that lead to the corridor (on the north side) and the reactor room (on the south). Either location can be accessed a lot more easily simply by walking there.
As for the Prime Queen, the fact that she can be done in is academic, really, because: 1) You have to be very powered-up (and somewhat lucky) in order to pull it off; 2) you don't _need_ to kill her (just avoid her until you've grabbed the reactor core and teleported back to the ship); and 3) you still have to blow up the planet, whether she's dead or not. In other words, there are no Brownie points for x'ing the P.Q.
But...suspecting there may be one or two vindictive types like myself out there who are just _up to here_ with Her Highness, I pass along the following:
I got into this because, after completing the game the first time, I started wondering if it were possible to achieve full, maxxed-out power levels on the spacesuit; and if so, how it would affect the encounter with the Prime Queen. So, with all the kids safely on board ship, and TP-3 and the forklift ready to go in the Level 5 lobby, I wandered around the colony -- wandered around longer than a grown man should be willing to admit, I might add -- gathering eggs and bumping up my little power bars. I spent most of my time where the action was: on Levels 5.1, 5.2, and 5.3, and in the Security Lab. As mentioned earlier, I got up to twenty-one bars each for weapons, armor, and life force, but it was mighty slow going, and I finally got bored and headed for the reactor. I was standing in the southwest corner of the core room (the _lower_ corner), picking off Eye Spies, when I noticed the Prime Queen next to me with her head in the _upper_ southwest corner of the room and her butt sticking in my face. In other words, she couldn't see to zap me, but I had a clear shot at her and her big bee-hind.
I started blasting for all I was worth, and a curious thing happened. We stood/hovered there together in a kind of timeless space where I just kept plugging away and she didn't -- or couldn't -- move; but my weapons level didn't drop like it always had when I'd tried to off her before. This went on for some time, until I started thinking part of the game was locked up or something and I wasn't accomplishing anything, so I moved over to the center of the room and turned and faced her. She immediately whipped around and charged, and I started slamming her again, using both the mouse button _and_ the space bar to get some rapid fire going. She froze and just sort of hung there, staring at me like she was dazed (maybe she'd lost the will to live). After about a minute of this, all of a sudden there was that familiar screeching sound like a cat stuck in a Cuisinart, and she vaporized. And true to form, all the other creatures on that level -- and on Levels 5.1, 5.2, and in the Security Lab -- instantly egg-ified.
I finally had the colony to myself!
(In the course of a third game, I went back to 5.3 with my power levels at eighteen and managed to vanquish the Queen in a head-on battle: no hiding behind corners. But it was pretty hairy.)
Now one can argue, I suppose, that having wiped the P.Q., you could go around scooping up every egg in the place and thus make 5-Delta-5 a swell place to raise the kids again. But I don't think it's really possible. There always seems to be an egg or two left floating in the center of one of those corner pits, and there just ain't no way you can get to them. And even if you could, what about Level 2? Did you really check all the stalls in the bathrooms? What about those endless corridors on 5.1? What about the mazerium? You get the point. As long as there's even _one_ egg on 5-D-5, the possibility of recontamination continues to exist. You still gotta take the reactor back to the ship, get airborne, and nuke the joint.
But we're glad the bitch is dead, aren't we?
THE COLONY is published and distributed by Mindscape.
This walkthru is copyright (c) 1990 by David Muir. All rights reserved.
