How did Muller know so much about the pyramid and its contents? Who told him to bring the "musical instrument" from Germany? Who gave the Germans the "musical instrument" in the first place? What was Muller really searching for? These are just some of the mysteries surrounding Muller's mission. This section will explore these and raise further discussion about his true mission and that of the Jjaro.

First let's look at the facts as they are presented in the game. The Manual offers us our first insight:

You will meet many people that have entered the pyramid before you, unfortunately most of them are dead. You can search the bodies by clicking the Search Button while standing on top of them. The CIA has provided intelligence of a German expedition in the late 1930's. Apparently the Nazis were looking for a "secret weapon", but none of them ever returned from the pyramid. If only there were a way to talk to them...

If only indeed... of course they might not tell you the tru7h!

The late 1930's and the reference to Nazis would place the German expedition around the start of World War II. It is interesting to note that there is documentory evidenced around this time which reveals that the Nazis did send achaeological expeditions around the world in search of religious and mythical artifacts. This in fact formed the inspiration for the first and third Indiana Jones movies (Raiders of the Lost Ark/The Last Crusade), along with countless other films, books and indeed games.

It's worth remembering at this point our own mission to the pyramid. The manual states:

Though the god can never be killed, the projection of the Jjaro dignitary told us here on Earth that if we acted quickly we could prevent it from awakening. To do this, however, someone was going to have to carry a low-yield nuclear device down to the god's body and detonate it there. This would not only stun the dreaming god, but further bury it under millions of tons of rock.

The Jjaro claim to have made an extensive survey of the Earth's technology, and maintain that this is the only way. More permanent measures will by taken by the aliens themselves (who are already on their way) when they arrive in two and a half Earth years.

The aliens have provided us with a great deal of intelligence on the strange pyramid in the Yucatan, and the catacombs below it. This information has been compiled into this briefing, and has been presented to you and every other member of the assault team. Good luck.

The odd thing about this is that YOU don't appear to have been provided with "a geat deal of intelligence" about the pyramid and more importantly about the catacombs below. Did you miss the briefing or did the Jjaro diplomat leave the important stuff out?

A further objective is given on page 18 of the manual:

A sub-directive of your mission is to collect any artifacts or treasure you may come across. These items will be studied by top archaeologists and may provide answers to the origins of the Universe.

Origins of the Universe eh? Now that's a good one. I wonder what artifacts they could be referring to?

Ok... on with Muller's Mission.

On the first level, "Ground Floor", you find a dead German soldier with an original copy of Adolph Hitler's "Mein Kampf". So this is one of the Nazis the manual referred to. At this stage in the game you can't talk to him since you don't have the Yellow Crytsal. So go find it!

When you return to this level (with the Yellow Crystal) we learn that the Germans were lead by a man called... Muller.

Muller was our captain. An ugly, short little
man. Totally devoted to our country. A real
bastard. He shot me twice in the back.

Apparently Muller's men didn't know why they came to the pyramid.

Muller, that bastard, never told us what our
mission here was- just that we would be in
the jungle for a few months. This jungle is
a humid, sticky hell. I remember Cologne...

However, Muller appears to have come to the pyramid prepared.

Muller had some strange musical instrument
he brought from Germany. When he played it
on that rune in the middle of the floor, those
two locked doors opened.

If you enquire further about the "musical instrument" the dead German soldier will tell you:

I didn't see it for long, but it was bizarre
brass device covered with a green cloth.

Since the doors are locked and you don't have a "musical instrument" then you are just going to have to find one.

Let's move on and see if we can learn more...

On "Lock&Load" we meet our first named German, "Gunther". However he doesn't know much about Muller's mission either.

Nobody liked Muller. I was no exception. He
didn't even tell us why we were here. I
hardly even know where I am.

By the time we reach Hans on "They May Be Slow..." we are getting that old familiar story.

Muller never told us why we were here. I
died for nothing, I'm sure.

We do learn that Hans was a new recruit (Gunther told us he couldn't shoot straight) so it doesn't look like Muller wasn't leading an elite team of seasoned vetrans.

Also on this level we encounter another anonymous German. According the Chuck Gray's Dead Scripts (Part 1/2) there is a Conversation associated with this Dead person that doesn't appear to be triggerable. The text is as follows:

to train Mexican troops for an invasion of Texas and California, but
they were wrong, obviously.

Was this seemingly 'unused' conversation a reference to the German mission, at least the mission understood by some of Muller's men? It would have been a red herring of course. Back in May 14, 1999 Omer Shenker <oshenker@iname.com> noted that this was actually based on a historical event. On February 26, 1917, US President Woodrow Wilson received the decoded text of a secret message sent by German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann to the German Minister in Mexico proposing a German military alliance with Mexico and Japan against the United States. Zimmermann held out to the Mexican Government the possibility of German assistance to regain New Mexico, Arizona, and California. American Congressional and public shock to the Zimmermann telegram was a major turning point in the attitude about intervening with the Allies against Germany, and the first of a series of rapid steps culminating in the American entry into the war in April 1917. Of course this all relates to World War I but perhaps Bungie tried to rework it for their World War II backstory.

On the uppermost level of the pyramid we meet Joachim who reveals the following:

Muller only brought the expedition this far,
and then turned back. It took him almost a
day, with seven deaths, to realize we were
going the wrong way.

So Muller went the wrong way even though he had the "musical instrument" to open the doors on the ground floor. Obviously like us he wasn't in possession of all the "intelligence" about this place.

Joachim does reveal a little about Muller's mission which is consistent with the manual.

Muller was looking for something to help
Germany in the war, I don't know what it
was- he never told us anything.

We also learn that Muller's had a second in command, Friedrich. Perhaps if we find him we will learn more.

At the very end of this level we find this odd item. Examining it reveals that they are "Alien Pipes" but the description fits the "musical instrument" that Muller brought from Germany and which allowed him to open the locked doors on the ground floor.

This bizarre musical instrument reminds you vaguely of a book you once read while you were a child. You can't quite place it.

At this point in the game you might be asking yourself "What is going on here?" Is this the same "musical instrument" that Muller had? The dead German on the ground floor told us that Muller never returned from below so how did it end up here? Did someone else leave it here? Alternatively maybe there is more than one musical instrument. The one Muller had and the one you now have. So where did Muller get his instrument? And if it is of alien origin who gave it to him?

When you return to the "Ground Floor" the alien pipes do open two of the locked doors.

On "Wrong Way!" we find Behrens and learn that there were 18 Germans in the expedition.

There were eighteen of us, I think, and I
doubt anyone left alive. I never saw anyone
come back this way.

Behren's is the ninth dead German we have met so far.

On "We Can See In The Dark... Can You?" we met a dead German soldier who gives us a similar story to the seemingly 'unused' conversation discovered by Chuck Gray (see above).

We never even knew why we were here. I
thought we were sent to plan an invasion of
the southern United States from Mexico, but
then we ended up in the damn jungle ...

and

There was a lot of speculation about what
we would do in Mexico, but we were all
wrong- and still don't know the real answer.

This sounds like a cover story some of the Germans were fed.

On "Happy Happy, Carnage Carnage" we meet Friedrich, Muller's second in command, and begin to uncover the truth about Muller's mission

I was Muller's first officer on this
expedition. He revealed few of his plans to
me, however.

However Friedrich does appear to know quite a bit.

We were searching the pyramid and it's
dungeons for what Muller described to me as
"a small glass vial of immense power."

and

He wouldn't want me to tell you this, but he
was convinced that it contained the essence
of an imprisoned demon.

An "imprisoned demon"?

If it was ever released, it would cause
destruction on a massive scale. Muller
wanted to use it for the war, of course. It
was all nonsense.

Does this "imprisoned demon" have anything to do with our mission to stun an awakening alien creature and bury it under millions of tons of rock? And who told the Germans about the demon in the first place?

Friedrich also reveals the following interesting piece of information.

Germany, of course. Sometimes I wonder
what happened after the war was started. It
was 1938 when we came to Mexico.

So the Germans arrived in Mexico in 1938 yet Friedrich talks about the start of the war. Officially World War II didn't begin until 3 Sept 1939 when Britain and France declared war on Germany following Germany's invasion of Poland two days earlier. So either the Germans took their time getting to the pyramid or Friedrich is interpreting events such as the occupation of Austria in March 1938 as the start of the War.

Friedrich also tells us about a large amount of gold and a strange wooden box that Muller needed.

Muller gave Walter a gold key and sent him
to recover a large amount of gold and a
strange wooden box.

and

Muller maintained that there was some
reason we needed the gold- other than his
greed- but I never quite believed him.

and

The box was made of cedar. Muller didn't
tell me what it was supposed to do, or what
it had to do with the gold.

Gold, a gold key and a wooden box? Muller certainly knew quite a bit about the pyramid so it would seem.

Muller's body lies next to Friedrich. On his body you will find the Alien Pipes he brought from Germany. So there are TWO of these.

Talking to Muller won't get you very far. He quite an evasive and dangerous man even after death. If you ask him about his mission he relates:

We were sent by a university in Munich on an
archaeological expedition.

and...

We were looking for several lost Mayan
artifacts.

and...

There is a fortune in ancient relics behind
these doors. We almost retrieved them, but
died after we had killed all the monsters
guarding it.

and...

That rune painted on the floor will open the
three doors in front of you and open the
treasure room. We killed all the monsters
inside, there's no danger.

Yeah right!

If you enquire about the glass vial he gets quite upset.

No one should have told you about the vial!
Who said that? Friedrich? I'll kill him...

He's rather evasive about the wooden box and the gold too:

I sent Walter to retrieve something, but it
is a worthless archaeological artifact.
You'd have no interest in it.

and...

People have told you about the cedar box? It
is an art object of great value, but is
otherwise useless.

and...

I gave Walter a gold key, and told him he
was looking for a fortune in gold, but I was
only appealing to his sense of greed. There
is no gold.

When you meet Walter on "Feel The Power" he reveals that Muller considered the gold and the wooden box to be 'extremely important'.

Muller sent us to get one gold ingot and a wooden
box, he said they were extremely important.
I was leaving though, there was no way I
was going back down to try to find him.

We find out why.

Muller said we needed all twelve ingots, but
that the box would duplicate things which
were placed inside it so we should only get
one. We found the box.

Yet...

The box worked like he said, but the ingots
wouldn't fit inside it. I dropped it when I
was attacked by the invisible demons, it
was useless. But I kept the ingot.

Muller's story doesn't end here. It's taken up by Juan, one of the Cubans, on "Warning: Earthquake Zone".

I was part of a six-man group looking for
some sort of enchanted bottle- I never
really believed it. But we were ambushed
here, and all died.

Enchanted bottle?

It was all Javier's idea. He said the bottle
held great power, and that we would find
much gold on the way.

So this is the glass vial that Muller was looking for. But how did Javier know about the glass vial and its contents? We don't find out why until we meet Javier on "Where Only Fools Dare Tread".

Uncorking that vial was the biggest mistake
I ever made in my life.

Javier reveals the following.

The old man said it contained the trapped
spirit of some powerful being. I didn't know
how right he was.

Old man?

He was a friend's grandfather. When he was
young, a group of Germans camped near his
village and he spied on them ..

and...

They were looking for this vial that killed
me. He stole their maps and copied them.
He gave them to us forty years later.

So the Germans had maps of the pyramid. Who gave them these?

The maps I had have rotted by now. They
were mostly useless, anyway, but they told
us the only way to escape this place.

Escape?

The German's notes said that the only way
to open the exit at the base of the pyramid
was with an alien gemstone.

Woah! Alien gemstone!? First alien pipes and now an alien gemstone... and Muller knew about it? But he never mentioned an 'alien gemstone' when we spoke to him. Then again... we didn't ask him about a gemstone? Only thing for it... go back up and ask him...

To be continued... and don't go posting on the Story forum about what you find... afterall folks have a right to their sanity. ;-)