Dates
"WARNING: CORE OS (AF44+2DEB) MOD DATE LATER THAN CURRENT
DATE/TIME"
Dates in the Marathon story are confusing. Here is an example. When was the
Marathon launched? The log of Bernard Strauss provides us with a time fix.
November 15, 2209. <2209.11.15.19.34>
Thank heaven, the ceremony is over. The UESC president came
aboard Marathon and gave a speech.
<Beware of Low-Flying Defense Drones... (Terminal 2)>
This is the eve of the Marathon's launch. The date format <2209.11.15.19.34>
can be interpretated as <year.month.day.hour.minute>. This allows us to
determined that the Engineering Document on doors in Bigger Guns Nearby:
Marathon Internal Engineering Documents
Section 1-c appendix H
Subject: Doors
By: Estasia Orestes, Dominick I. Plackar, and Ursa Simbalzi
Date:<2402.03.23.16.42>
<Bigger Guns Nearby (Terminal 2)>
was written on March 23, 2402. 193 years after the Marathon's launch.
But what of the date in the first terminal?:
At 0830 hours, alien forces boarded the Marathon. The current
situation is dire. All personnel are required to arm
themselves and fight for their lives.
<Posted 2794.7.3.14.08.39>
<Arrival (Terminal 1)>
Was the Marathon attacked in the year 2794? The exact month and day cannot
be determined but the message was apparently posted at 0839 hours, 9 minutes
after the Marathon was boarded. The year 2794 corresponds with the manual
text:
Aaahhh, life in the glorious 28th century. Walking into a jump pad will instantly
transport you to a new location.(Page 14)
Yet there are a number of references to the fact that the Marathon's trip
from Mars to Tau Ceti took over 300 years. For example, in the manual we
have the following text just prior to the Marathon being attacked
...three hundred and twenty-two years earlier... on the eve of the
launching of the Marathon.(Manual page 2)
As the colony had been established for seven years this means that the
Marathon's voyage took 315 years. The duration of the Marathon's
journey is also estimated by Leela to be around 300 years:
UHL^U_3kg
he Pfhor are sla``vers. Their trading empire``````~ rose to
prominence soon afterwe!!~eft Earth over three hundred years
ago.
<Try Again (Terminal 1)>
Though understandably Leela is confused.... we left Mars!
But she does get it right at the end:
I am disturbed by how easily the cyborgs were secretly
assimilated into our midst, and believe that this event
predates the Marathon's launch from Mars three hundred years ago.
<Ingue Ferroque (Terminal 3)>
If the Marathon's voyage took 315 years then it would have left Mars
in the year 2479 and not the year 2209 as Bernard Strauss'log
indicates.
Therefore Marathon's Internal Engineering Document on doors dated 2402 was
written before the Marathon left. But as the Marathon took 64 years
to build the document was written some 13 years before building began.
Confused? Well it gets worse! In the last terminal Leela remarks:
Although the results were unquestionably for the best,
their presence on the Marathon could only have been to further
wicked ends. I'm certain the real answer lies somewhere in
the tumultuous, back-stabbing politics of Sol during the early
twenty-fourth century.
<Ingue Ferroque (Terminal 3)>
This time period corresponds with the Third Martian War documented
to have occurred between 2345-48 Earth A.D. Two decades earlier we have the
failed MIDA coup on Mars dated as 2321. In the terminal describing this coup
we read that MIDA:
...never attempted to take over the Marathon, which was nearing completion...
<The Rose (Terminal 2)>
Now we have the Marathon identified at a date of 2321 Earth A.D. and the
events on Mars would tie in with Durandal's remark in Blaspheme Quarantine:
If you're looking for a hidden stash of ammunition that was left
here by the Martian insurgents three hundred and fifteen years ago...
<Blaspheme Quarantine (Terminal 2: 2nd message)>
Of course when Durandal communicates this to us it is actually 322 years
since the Marathon left Mars so the Martian insurgents hid their
ammunition seven years after the Marathon was launched... hhmmmnn?
The outcome of this rather long tirade is that we have three launch
dates for the Marathon: 2209, circa 2321 Earth A.D., or 2479.
What is not clear from text is whether or not the dates 2209 and 2479
are also based on an Earth A.D. time reference. If they are then we
have a problem. Much of this confusion might be explained by the following
text which appears in the fourth terminal on Never Burn Money
"WARNING: CORE OS (AF44+2DEB) MOD DATE LATER THAN CURRENT DATE/TIME"
<Never Burn Money (Terminal 4)>
Has someone been messing with the Marathon's Computer Net internal clock?
A rampant computer perhaps? Or more intriguingly did Bernard Strauss delay
the onset of Durandal's Rampancy by reseting the internal clock thus
postponing Durandal's eventual entry into the second stage?
Or did Bungie just get their dates mixed up?
Hamish Sinclair
Hamish.Sinclair@tcd.ie
Last updated Sept 19, 1995