Dysmey Post > Projects & Stuff > Bioshock 2 > Levels > Atlantic Express
As you emerge from the airlock, you get another message from Brigid Tenenbaum over the radio.
Ah, Herr Delta … you arrive, as the Little Ones said you would. Come upstairs to the ticket booth, and I will offer what I know of you.
The dripping corridors are full of lockers and the parts of diving suits. Ahead, you hear a Toasty madly moaning about his miserable life to music by the Ink Spots. You reach the Repair Platform where, of you are lucky, you get to shoot out that annoying Toasty. Tenenbaum notices, too, and tells you what you have already figured out.
Now, most who survive are like this: Splicers. They are drug addicts, vicious animals.
But the bulkhead is shut and locked. How to get it open? You can sometimes trick the security system into opening the door. But you must have the proper tool,
says Tenenbaum. And that tool is in the booth next to the door. The device is a Hack Tool. There is a diagram near it, explaining how it works. There is also a Remote Hack Dart (a glorified vacuum tube) next to it.
There is a tool dispenser that works like the Eve dispenser in the last level. Once you get the Hack Tool, use the tool dispensor to stock up on hack darts until you reach the maximum of nine. Then make the dispensor spit out an extra so that, when you crack the door control, you can keep your maximum of nine darts.
When you fire your Hack Tool at the control, you start the hacking mini-game. This is in the form of a meter whose face is finely divided into sections. Your task to press the F
key to fix the needle on the right section, as explained in the notes. You may have to do two to four green hits to make the crack succeed. For that door control, it is two hits. Try not to zap yourself with a white hit.
Once you are beyond the bulkhead, crack the security bot on the floor. It will become your pal, helping you fight enemies.
The room has more graffiti: We Will Be Reborn. It is surrounded by lots of butterflies made by handprints. As you enter a short hallway, you see the shadow of a splicer dashing off. Out of the hall, you emerge into the hugh Train Workstation 6A.
There is a First Aid station next to a doorway. Do not approach it; shoot it with a hack dart and crack it to poison any splicer who tries to use it. Then, get ready when the train car falls to the floor with a loud crash. At least two splicers emerge to attack you. Finish them off.
After the splicers are down, Doctor Lamb babbles over the PA system: Andrew Ryan is dead. Yet the tyrant lives on. We reject the self; we reject the gene; we reject the tyrant.
More graffiti emphasizes this: The death of RYAN is the death of the SELF. In the workshop is a tape by a petulant Ryan himself.
I am told that the people grow tense and isolated in the absence of the sun. Now they clamor for a psychiatrist.
Do they miss the state censor, I wonder? Wartime seizure of private assets? Or the Cheka police, vanishing them in the night?
Regardless, this Lamb woman is said to be the foremost practitioner in her
field. Fine. If she can quiet the rattling of the Great Chain's weakest links … I will leave her to it.
Evidently, Ryan thought as little of Lamb, as Lamb thinks of Ryan.
Hand-painted butterflies lead you into the security station. The monitors display the train station and another workstation. The wooden floor is badly warped by moisture. You throw the switch.
Surprise!
Everything goes dark as the monitors come on to reveal the face of Sofia Lamb.
I know you. That symbol on your hand marks you a dead man. Ten years, Subject Delta, since I watched you put a gun to your head — and pull the trigger.
But take heart: Out of your pain, paradise is born.
I don't know how you survived, but your suffering is over now. These men will ease your burden. Please understand that like all I have done, this … is an act of love.
Tenenbaum cries out, It is Sofia Lamb! She has found you!
Sure enough, splicers arrive, shoot out the glass, and throw Molotovs into the security booth. In hindsight, that was stupid of them: The fire weakens the warped flooring so much that it gives way under your feet. Down you go into a flooded hallway.
As you walk and crawl along the hall, picking stuff out of dead office workers, Tenenbaum says
Now you know of the enemy we share: Sofia Lamb. The camera in your helmet allows me to watch through your eyes — and help you to fight her.
You emerge from the water to notice an audio tape behind a giant fan. You cannot reach it for now. You crawl under a jammed door into a storage room. One wall is covered with a giant butterfly made out of human handprints.
You can just see the security camera out the exit. Tenenbaum warns you: Careful! Security cameras belong to Lamb. But, if you are clever, they can be made to serve you.
You are clever by firing a hack dart at the camera and subverting it. The two or three splicers inside the drafting office are then plagued by camera-summoned bots, helped along with your rivets or drill. Loot the drafting officer after they are done. Try not to think of the grovelling that the writing on the wall implies: We are but stones to pave the way.
Beyond the drafting office are the doors to Workshop 6B (with three splicers gathered around a barrel fire) and the Jet Postal office where mail is collected and sorted. In the middle of the room is a red wagon with a plasmid: Telekinesis. And, this time, the vision of the girl with the blue eyes is longer.
Father! It's me, Eleanor! I know you are in there. I can feel it. Mother … she will not be able to … toy with you like that ever again.
This plasmid is for you. If I am right, you can use it right now. Please come and find me. And hurry.
Telekinesis works the same as in Bioshock, but is keyed differently. You press the right mouse button to grab something, release that button to throw it. Or, you press the R
key to let the object fall.
There are stairs going up to a platform over the workshop. When you reach the top, with the She will lead the way graffiti, you can hear the splicers discuss a topic well-known to players of Bioshock:
Not when you're finished with them. Use your TK to throw a gas cannister at them as a bomb, then use objects to shield yourself from their bullets or to throw at them. After the fight you can stay on the platform to clean up the mess for money and ammo.
On one of the drawing boards is a tape entry by Prentice Mill, the owner of the Atlantic Express.
There would be no Rapture with me. No city without the Atlantic Express. Ryan took his first grand tour of Rapture on my flagship coach.
But these days, personal bathyspheres are all the rage. My rails only connect the oldest parts of Rapture now, and the city just … just left me behind.
Plenty of cash in the bank, though. This personal vehicle craze will blow over soon.
Can you see the problem with this? The guy has never thought to expand his service to the newer parts of Rapture, or to improve or add more value to the rails he already had. Later on the game, you will see the consequences of Mill resting on his laurels.
There are two areas for you to visit: The Railway Café and a washroom. They are connected by a common hall with a first-aid station (don't forget to crack it).
The eatery is flooded, the kitchen has vittles for you, and the pantry has a tape of the first of two debates between Ryan and Lamb. (The other debate tape is in Pauper's Drop.)
- Ryan
- White is not black, Doctor Lamb — down is not up, and straw is not gold. Look around you. Rapture is no miracle — it is a product of reason, impossible unless one and one are two, and A equates to A.
- Lamb
- And yet … alone, each man is a prisoner to bias. Dream, delusion, or the pain of a phantom limb — to one man, they are as real as rain. Reality is consensus; and the people are losing faith. Take a walk Andrew. It is raining in Rapture: And you have simply chosen to not notice.
There are two splicers in the eatery when you return. If you are quick enough, you can zap the water to kill them.
The washroom has an Eve dispenser — the only other one in the game, I believe. The back of the washroom is open to a room which houses the motor that opens the giant bulkhead to the back of the workshop. Remember that: You will find that useful.
Across the workshop from the washroom is a corner lighted by strings of candle lamps made out of colored booze bottles. Among the buckets of tentacles is a tape from Mark Meltzer.
These … people are hooked on some kind of genetic wonder drug called Adam. I've read the word
Splicersscribbled on the walls as a warning. One of them cornered me and, Christ, his face! I had a gun, but I choked. And then, out of nowhere, we both heard this … singing … and he took off like Hell on wheels.It sounded like a kid — a little girl! Cindy's alive. I know it in my gut.
The workshop extends further, but before you can move on, the bulkhead slams shut. In the gear room, a splicer runs in with a bar and jams the gears to the door. This is not difficult to fix. Go back into the washroom and use TK to remove the bar. Presto! The bulkhead rises back up.
Tenenbaum is not surprised by the splicers' shenanigans:
Ach, Sofia Lamb is using the splicers against you. Most Big Daddies are like her slaves, guarding the Little Ones. But someone has awakened you.
Then Dr. Lamb chimes in:
I know of your bond with Eleanor. To save yourself, you will come for her. But Eleanor has a destiny, one you cannot share.
There is no place for you in paradise.
To door is open now. Beyond it is access to the gear room, near which is a tape of Sofia Lamb lecturing to her daughter.
In ethical psychiatry, we must account for the role of evolution. Depression, fits of panic, sexual pathos — all responses to ancient selection pressure.
The irony is that this theory is why Ryan's people invited me here. They mistake my study of natural law for the worship of competition. Remember, Eleanor: One must know the beast before it can be slain.
On the opposite side is the first Circus of Values vending machine. Crack it for more items at lower prices. Also there is a door with stairs leading up to the Switching Hub. At the bottom you see some alphabet blocks rolling down the stairs. For Bioshock players, this is reminiscent of the stairs in Tenenbaum's safehouse. Rightfully so, for at the top — a Big Sister, probably the one you fought at the Adonis! Rather than fight you again, it jumps up the beams and girders until, with one warning screetch, it disappears into the ventilation/elevator shaft.
Tenenbaum urges, Quickly! Head for the elevator.
Rather, you should take this calmly. First, use hack darts to crack the camera and first aid station. The camera will summon aid, and the station will finish off the wounded. You will fight two or three groups of splicers before you reach inside the elevator. Fall back to the vendor machine to restock if needed. When you're inside at last, you get to watch as you leave a gang of frustrated splicers behind.
As the elevator ascends, Tenenbaum now relates what the Little Sisters have told her about you.
Here is what the children tell me. You are a very old Big Daddy, bonded for life to a single Little One. If you are away for too long, your body begins to shut down, like a coma. As long as the girl is in Rapture, you are trapped here as well.
The name of your Little One is … Eleanor Lamb, daughter of Sofia. She is being held in Fontaine Futuristics, on the other side of the city. You must go there and save her … before it is too late.
The elevator slows to a stop as a splicer loots a dead one of their kind. The splicer stops, turns around, looks right at you, and flees … right into a net of trap bolts. Trap bolts shoot smaller bolts into any splicer who walks into their field.
The anteroom to the station is ahead. All it has is a Circus of Values vendor. But, before you proceed, visit the back office near the elevator to loot the corpses and cabinets and to acquaint yourself with Dr. Gil Alexander, colleague of Dr. Yi Suchong.
Dr. Suchong's death was a nasty blow to the Protector program, but I'm gradually settling into his role, picking up the slack that his carelessness left behind.
We're gaining steam again, but I'm not satisfied. Yes, the Big Daddy defends the girl … but he is programmed for the fight, like a sheepdog who wanders off unless a wolf is tearing at his flock. When no aggressor is present, he regards his Little Sister as he might a common houseplant. We need something more, something stronger: an unbreakable physiological bond.
Downstairs is the foyer to the ticket office, inside which is Tenenbaum. Shoot the single splicer bothering Tenenbaum. Then prepare the foyer: Deploy trap bolts in strategic places, and crack the camera in front of the train. When you are ready (and not when Tenenbaum is: Here! Press the button so we can speak face to face.
), press the button.
There is Brigid Tenenbaum, haggard and in torn clothes, but still active and with three girls already saved.
You see? This is why I must fight Sofia Lamb. If I do not, more Little Ones will die for my sins, and the Rapture nightmare will continue forever. Now, here is what we must do …
Then Dr. Lamb interrupts with an important announcement.
Citizens of Rapture! This is Subject Delta. Behind that mask lies an enemy of the people, without soul nor sympathy. It is our duty to tear off his jaw and drive it back into the sea.
The alarm sounds as Tenebaum gathers her flock, opens the door and gates, and rushes off, telling you, Sofia Lamb will tear this place apart to look for you. Fend off the splicers while we escape!
You can use the pool of water to electrocute any splicers rushing into the foyer from the station itself. Between you and the security bots the camera summons, it should not be long before the splicers are down.
Tenenbaum has saved the girls, but she must leave you behind.
Thank you. Now, I must leave you, and I am sorry for this. But there are others I must help before the City drowns. This man Sinclair, he is an ally and will guide you to Eleanor.
Goodbye, Herr Delta, and good luck.
This is the last you see or hear from Brigid Tenenbaum, although you will hear plenty about her.
And now, an introduction to Augustus Sinclair.
Well, look at you! A bona fide knight in armor, complete with iron horse.
The name's Augustus Sinclair, sport. Esquire. Ol' Tenenbaum an' I share an interest in the ol' Fontaine buildin' — the very same place you'll find Eleanor Lamb.
I think you an' I can do business. Take the train to Ryan Amusements. I'll see you shortly.
Loot the splicers and the containers. Crack and buy anything you need from the vendor. On a bench is a tape from Tenenbaum on her predicament.
Sofia Lamb has taken Rapture, and is responsible for stealing children from the surface. Her splicers destroyed my submersible and forced me to run.
But the ticket booth is secure. And, though I cannot trust him, Sinclair is a valuable ally. I have already rescued a few of the Little Ones from Lamb. They all want to know how we will get home.
I wish I had the right words for them.
Yeah, you got yourself some ally, right? Now, hop on the train and ride on to Ryan Amusements.
Enemies List: Security (camera, bot); Sofia Lamb.
Weapon/Ammo: Hack Tool/Remote Hack Dart
Eleanor Gift: Telekinesis.
First Use: Vending Machine, First-Aid Station; Trap Rivet
The hack meter comes in four colors: Two are good, one is bad, and one is, um, lemonade.
| Color | Effect |
|---|---|
| White | Hard zap, with some loss of health. |
| Red | Trips alarm, with security bots after you. |
| Green | Crack succeeds. |
| Blue | Crack succeeds, with a bonus. |
I call the red zone lemonade
because, while it is true that security bots (the lemons) are not a good thing if they are charging at you, they can still work for you.
You can crack almost the same devices in Bioshock 2 as in the original game. The only devices you cannot now crack are combo locks.