Key & Compass presents:
The Weapon
by Sean Barrett

• Walkthrough
• Extras
  • Amusing, Artwork, Characters, Credits, Endings, Inventory
• Thank You to my Patreon supporters
• Support me on Ko-Fi
• External links:
  • This game at IFDB, IFWiki, and ifwizz.
  • Transcript by ClubFloyd.
  • Tweet about this walkthrough on Twitter.

Walkthrough

Yi-Lono-Mordel Control Room

First, examine everything without touching anything. During the first few turns, Cheryl orders you to display some Yi text for her to read. She also warns you that her hologram is scanning the room for movement and energies of all kinds. She'll also eventually explain that she wants to use the weapon against the Lono if they ever return.

> x me. x handcuffs.

> x Cheryl. x hologram. x pistol. x key.

> x window. x star.

> x forms. x slab. x notch. x curves.

Touching the notch reveals more things to examine.

> touch notch. (A control surface is displayed.)

> x surface. (Grid of studs and a viewscreen.)

> x viewscreen. x icons.

> x studs. (You recognize five of them at first.)

> x information stud. (It would display Yi text which Cheryl could read but you can't.)

> x powerup stud. (For powering up major systems.)

> x status stud. (It should display a graphical summary, not text.)

> x sequence stud. (It should show a step-by-step list of instructions.)

> x forcefield stud. (It should put up a forcefield around the slab and anyone near it.)

The status stud is the next safest thing to touch. You'll lose if you touch the sequence stud at this time. And you are reluctant to touch the information stud, since that will end the session.

> touch status stud. (A status display is projected.)

> x status display. (Shows this star system, 20 asteroids and 20 stars around it, and 20 asteroids around each star.)

> touch forcefield. (Your handcuffs prevent you from activating it.)

> touch powerup. (Nothing happens, but you locate a generator access stud.)

> touch generator. (A white pillar rises out of the floor.)

> talk.

> x pillar. x panel. open it. (how?)

> push panel. (It opens, revealing a fusion generator bay.)

> talk.

> x bay. (Has plasma generator, plasma containment system, and 12 contact points. You also recall the tool stud.)

> x points.

> touch tool stud. (An electropulse probe appears, which Cheryl immediately grabs.)

> x probe. (Cheryl declares it's just a toy and puts it on the slab.)

> take probe.

> x top sensor. (Triggers the probe to fire immediately.)

> x bottom sensor. (Triggers the probe to fire after a delay.)

> point probe at points. push top sensor.

Unfortunately, the probe's glow is obscuring the results from the probe.

> ask Cheryl for hologram.

She refuses, but remembers some goggles you can use instead. Minutes later, a guard tosses the goggles into the room.

> x goggles. wear them.

Assuming the probe is still pointing at the points:

> push top sensor. (It's the ninth point that isn't working.)

You now recall a recalibration stud. You'll need to use the probe's delay so the points are exposed to the probe's energies while you're touching the recalibration stud at the same time.

> x recalibration stud.

> push bottom sensor. z. touch recalibration.

You're now confident that the generator is fixed.

> take probe. close panel. touch generator stud.

> touch powerup stud. (The slab powers up.)

Next is a carefully-timed sequence to distract Cheryl long enough so you can read the sequence list without Cheryl seeing it or stopping you:

> press bottom.

> give goggles to Cheryl.

> push sequence stud. (Cheryl is distracted by the light show.)

> read viewscreen. (Icons for power-up, transmit go, control rods, then ignition.)

> push sequence stud. (Cheryl starts to remove the goggles.)

> x studs. (New studs: transmit, control, and ignition.)

> x transmit stud.

> x control stud.

> x ignition stud.

Another timed sequence to mask the transmit signal with the probe's operation:

> put probe in slot. push bottom.

> touch tool stud. (The probe sinks into the slab, and the slot closes.)

> touch transmit.

Now for the control rods.

> touch control stud. talk.

> x rods. (They're a meter apart.)

> touch rods. (You can't touch both at the same time.)

> ask Cheryl for key. (She tosses it to the floor near you.)

> take key. unlock handcuffs with key.

> remove handcuffs.

> touch rods. pull rods.

> put handcuffs on rods. (This works!)

Time to end this:

> touch information stud. (Cheryl walks over to the display of text, away from the slab.)

> touch forcefield stud. (Cheryl tells you you're a dead man.)

With the forcefield on, Cheryl can no longer stop you. Feel free to talk and gloat before pushing the ignition stud a second time.

> touch ignition stud.

> talk. g. g. (You tell Cheryl that the Yi-Lono-Mordel is a galaxy smasher.)

> g. g. g. g. g. g. g. ("Say goodbye, 'Milky Way'.")

> laugh.

> touch ignition stud.

The Yi have escaped the Lono forever, but humanity is destroyed.

*** You have won ***

> amusing

Extras

Amusing

This is the reponse to AMUSING after you've won the game:

You saw number of the 107 conversation fragments. Mind you, you can't see them all in one playthrough, anyway.

Besides exploring the conversations further, you might try:

• commanding Cheryl to use her gun
• examining things while wearing the goggles
• pointing at things, including the handcuffs
• turning off the forcefield before revealing your secret
• using the probe's first appearance as a distraction for the sequence stud
• looking under the handcuffs
• REPLYing instead of TALKing (only a few differences)

Authors might be amused at this line of code:

   has lockable openable worn clothing locked pluralname;

Artwork

These are thumbnails of artwork in the game's feelie, The Centuari Star. To see the images at their intended sizes, please download the game and view star.htm in your web browser.

• The M16 nebula.
• Timeline of Lono Conflict.

Characters

• Tolan is the player-character. You consider yourself to be the greatest Mechanist in the galaxy. You are also secretly a Lono in a human body.
• Dig Leader Cheryl Thadafel is your unwanted human overseer.
• Guards bring you into the control room and are dismissed. One returns briefly to throw the goggles into the room.
• A sentry stands outside the control room.
• Someone on a speaker warns about signals sent from the the control room to the asteroids, but they're too late.

Much of the backstory is explained in The Century Star feelie:

• The Yi are a alien race with advanced technology. They arrived in human space via the Anista wormhole, refused to talk to humans, and after a few centuries, left by means unknown soon after the Lono arrived. One of the things they left behind was the Yi-Lono-Mordel, which Cheryl believes to be the Yi's final weapon against the Lono.
• The Lono are a headless alien race who also used the Anista wormhole, following the Yi. The Lono have been in pursuit of the Yi through hundreds, perhaps thousands, of wormholes. Although the Lono were initially friendly, the Lono became humanity's enemy, and the Lono War began. Eventually, humanity declared victory when the last of the Lono ships escaped into the Anista wormhole, but while the wormhole exists, there are serious concerns that the Lono will return.

Besides Cheryl, the feelie also mentions these people by name:

• Terran Alliance Councilor Thia Roboch is the eighth Despot.
• K Zelany was the seventh Despot, and Roboch's Advisor-On-Defense.
• Jah Smolin was the sixth Despot.
• Rala Cornesc is the oldest man currently alive at age 232.
• Xenographer Easal Smithdot speaks about the future of xenography now that both the Yi and Lono are gone.
• Fleet Commander Slen Priex announced the end of hostilities after the wormhole closed.
• Physicist Sallée Të, Oleph Sanjun (Director of PXTA), Do Filpel, and mechanism expert Bill Braalu argue about the wormhole problem.

Credits

The credits are accessed via HINT; they're the last menu item:

The Weapon is copyright 2000, 2001 Sean Barrett, email redacted

• Beta-testers: Kat Feete, Jon Ingold, Georgina
• Gamma-testers: Adam Biltcliffe, Kat Feete, David Glasser
• Alpha-testers: Marie Barrett, David Barrett

The Weapon was written using Graham Nelson's Inform compiler, with a "varying strings" extension written by the author. The hint system uses additional libraries written by L. Ross Raszewski. Source code is available from the author's web site (currently http://world.std.com/~buzzard/games/if/ ) or by email.

The Weapon was written in February-March and October 2000; it received brief alpha testing in November and beta testing in December 2000; further bugfixing occurred in January and May/June 2001. Thanks to Dan Schmidt for encouraging me to finish it and to Emily Short for running two minicomps that kept me writing IF while my enthusiasm for fixing The Weapon's 200+ bugs was flagging.

Endings

• You have lost
• if Cheryl sees the sequence display,
• if Cheryl detects the transmit signal,
• if you activate the forcefield with Cheryl inside it,
• if Cheryl ends the session for any other reason.
• You have won
• if you fully activiate the Yi-Lono-Mordel and destroy the Milky Way galaxy.

Inventory

• a pair of handcuffs. You're wearing them.
• While you wear the handcuffs, you cannot activate the forcefield stud, nor can you touch or pull both control rods at the same time.
• The handcuffs are unlocked with the key that Cheryl is carrying.
• After you unlock and remove the handcuffs, put them on the control rods to pull them towards each other.
• an electropulse probe. It emerges from a slot in the slab when you touch the tool stud.
• Cheryl will grab the probe immediately, but after a turn to examine it, she'll put it on the slab, and you can take it.
• Examine the probe to note it has two controls: a top sensor that fires immediately, and a bottom sensor that fires after a delay (two turns later).
• Point the probe at the contact points inside the generator bay and push the top sensor. Unfortunately, the glow of the probe prevents you from telling which point is faulty.
• While wearing the goggles, try probing the points again. This time, you learn the ninth point is faulty and you recall the recalibration stud.
• In a carefully-timed sequence, you'll want to distract Cheryl with the probe's lightshow, as seen through the googles, so you can view the sequence icons without her noticing or stopping you: press bottom sensor. give goggles to Cheryl. push sequence stud. read viewscreen. push sequence stud.
• In a second timed sequence, mask the transmit signal from the slab by making the probe do its thing while also inside the slab: put probe in slot. push bottom. touch tool stud. touch transmit.
• a pair of electromagnetic goggles. A guard will throw them into the room if you ask Cheryl for her hologram after trying (and failing) to get a clear reading of the points in the generator bay with the probe.
• Wear the goggles to help you see which contact point is faulty when you test the contact points with the probe; see probe.
• Give the googles to Cheryl to wear as part of a carefully-timed distraction; see probe.
• a key. Cheryl is carrying it.
• After trying to pull the control rods, either ask Cheryl for the key or ask Cheryl to pull the rods. She'll then toss the key at your feet.
• The key unlocks your handcuffs.

Thank You to my Patreon supporters

This walkthrough is provided free of charge since the work it's based on has less than fifteen locations. Please consider it a thank you for your support!

I create larger walkthroughs too! Please visit my Patreon account if you're interested in helping me create more interactive fiction walkthroughs. I appreciate all the help I can get! Thanks again.

Ko-Fi is a way to send me small one-time donations. Every little bit helps, and thank you!