Operation: Last Hope was an operation of the Space Marine Corps during the Second Invasion of Stroggos. It is the last part of the Quake IV campaign and consists of 13 levels.
Objectives and Outcome[]
Operation: Last Hope had the goal of permanently disabling the Nexus, a Strogg device that connected all Strogg to the Makron and gave them a huge advantage in coordinating their troops effectively. As a previous attempt to indirectly disable the Nexus by destroying the Tetranode had failed (see Operation: Advantage), the SMC decided to launch a massive and direct attack on the Nexus itself.
As the Strogg had expected this attack, the three core systems essential for entering the Nexus had been shut down. These systems, Data Storage, Data Processing and Data Networking each were located in a separate tower and had to be reactivated individually before the Nexus could be attacked. As these systems could only be reactivated by Strogg, Matthew Kane became the key element of the operation, being the only Marine capable of accessing the Strogg consoles.
In addition to this, the Strogg had sent a powerful unit called the Network Guardian to protect the towers that housed the core systems. Due to its heavy armament, it proved fatal against many Marines and threatened to ruin the whole plan. However, Kane was finally able to fight and kill it at the third tower. After reactivating the last system, Kane then took a teleportation system that directly transported him into the Nexus Core where he had to head deep down into the facility in order to reach the room that housed the Nexus itself. His whole advance was closely watched by the Makron, who eventually emerged to fight Kane a last time. After the Strogg leader had been defeated, the last objective was to destroy the Nexus, a large organic brain in order to shut down the Strogg communication lines once and for all.