Quake II Story

 

The Story

Long shadows claw desperately away from your dusty combat boots, fuelled by the relentless sun of a late Texas afternoon. Shading your eyes against the glare, you squint for the thousandth time at the line of soldiers ahead of you. It stretches on endlessly across the rubble, disappearing at last into the cool shadows of a troop carrier. Soon you’ll walk up the ramp into the ship, climb into your one-man cocoon, tear through the interplanetary gateway, and smash down light-years away from the blowing sand and blasted ruins that surround the Dallas-Metro crater.

"What the hell is taking so long?!" you snarl, slamming the battered barrel of your side arm, the blaster, against your scarred palm. "I’ve waited long enough. Time to kick some Strogg ass..."

Slightly rocking back and forth under the sweltering August sun, you spit out of the side of your mouth, rub your eyes, and think back to the day when the wretched creatures first attacked. Like flaming meteors, their crafts pounded into the Earth and unbelievably, these bio-mechanical aliens... these hideous cyborgs... swarmed out while their ships still sizzled with reentry heat. They killed or captured anything that lived. We figured that the Strogg were after our planet’s resources: minerals, metals, and water: things like that. But their onboard storage facilities did little to disguise what they considered to be resources: fleshy limbs and organs for new cyborgs, and of course, food.

The line moves. And moves again. Into the cool shadows at last. The assembled armies branch off into new lines divided by corps and unit.

"I can’t deal with this shit – what’s the friggin’ hold-up?"

"Cool your jets, marine," Tokay mutters and smiles over his shoulder. "We’ll all get a few Strogg heads to take home as souvenirs. I promise you that."

"Yo, soldier, 3585." The medtech’s voice startles you. "You in or out?" Competent hands guide you into the coffin-like opening of your Mark 9A drop pod: sleek, dark, and invisible to the Stroggos defense systems. One of the techs begins to drop the reinforced pod door. "Sleep tight, soldier. You’ll see sunlight in less than six and a half hours. Not our sun, mind you…" <SLAM>

Pitch black except for the mild glow of your video readout system in front of you. You’ve done this a dozen times in the sim classes. No sweat. Just a few short hours to sleep, recharge, and then… the moment of glory. But this time it’s for real.

It’s also time to think. You recall your first official day of training, your unit commander discussing how these damn parasites made it to Earth and other nearby colonies in the first place. By employing our best satellites and long-range scanners, we learned how they travelled light years so quickly – the Strogg used these black hole-like gateways as their highway to heaven. We still don’t know if they created these rips in the fabric of space and time, or if they simply discovered them by accident. Either way… it’s just like opening the door to an all-you-can-eat restaurant for these bastards. In about two hours, we’ll be entering the same interstellar portals, to hit ‘em where it hurts… on their own turf.

You close your eyes and relish this thought. Eventually, you nod off to the low hypnotic hum of the troop carrier.

Crackle ... fzzzz ... "Greetings to the people of the Coalition. This is Flag Admiral Crockett, speaking to you from the bridge deck of Phobos. We are entering the outer orbits of Stroggos, the alien’s home system. As we had postulated, Stroggos’ atmosphere is harsh but breathable. We expect to make planetfall soon. Now is the time to switch on your debriefing panel if ya need it."

"Boomer?" the voice crackles through every soldier’s headset. "Drop X-ray squad in 30 on my mark. You copy?"

"Roger that!" In another pod, your sergeant snaps back. "OK boys and girls, you see the clock on your heads-up. Two demerits for anyone who up-chucks during bounce and roll!"

Shthunk!! Your drop pod is shot from the side of the carrier and hurtles downward. Wheee-oooooo! Incendiary atmosphere howls past the pod’s rapidly heating shell. Ka-WHUMP! The pod wall suddenly buckles to your right, but stays intact. Another pod must have clipped yours on its way in. ECM didn't indicate enemy fire. Shit. Thrusters and stabilizing gyros are fading. Based on the pings, the other pods are pulling away. Below you, the large alien city roars into focus on the screen. But where are the other pods? They were there a minute ago.

Suddenly, distorted radio chatter lights up, "Mayday! Mayday! Lost all power... shielding failed... missed dz... some kind of EMP is... kzzzt... us out. We're dropping like fli... zzzzkkkzzzt". Silence. Damn! If the Strogg have electromagnetic pulse defenses and we failed to detect them... all of us are in the shitter.

That HUGE blip has to be the Big Gun. You do a slow dogleg left as your navcomp finds a place to land when all of a sudden retros kick in and propel you south.

"What the...?" Before you know it you skip across the lip of a crater and slam into a structure, a good distance away from your target. Dazed and bleeding from a head cut, you toggle open the labelled arsenal bins and reach for where your gear ought to be stowed. Damn. Nothing but your sidearm. Damn again.

You leap out the crushed pod door, alone, with blaster in hand, and tear off into the room with the bittersweet stench of vengeance coursing through your veins...

Intel Brief: Classified

TCM INTEL BRIEF: CLASSIFIED

INCOMING MESSAGE FROM TCM MARINE COMMANDANT JAMES:

We have cleared the interplanetary gateway between Earth and Stroggos. In exactly three hours operation Alien Overlord will commence.

As I speak to you, your pods are being fuelled and all systems brought online. Activate your field computers. The following intel brief will provide you with your military objectives, terrain information, arsenal and equipment details, and enemy analysis.

Never before has there been a greater challenge to life, liberty, and civilization. This is a crusade in which we will accept nothing less than victory. No matter how long it may take us to overcome the Strogg’s barbaric assault, the people of Earth in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory. Today we will make very certain that this form of barbaric treachery shall never endanger us again. With confidence in you, and with the unbending determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph -- so help us God.

So go forth and kick ass, soldiers!

Operation Alien Overlord

[Geography]

The core of the Stroggos civilization is the capital city of Cerberon. The highly defended complex is built into the base of an enormous crater named Crater Majoris. Between the northern plains and the southern sea of Stroggos, Cerberon contains the major defense, communication, and political controls for the Strogg civilization. At the southern tip of Majoris is a second crater called Crater Minor. Crater Minor contains the defense base complex for the city of Cerberon.

[Political Structure]

The Strogg civilization is governed through a system of Warlords. Each is given strategic locations to command and control. A single leader, called the Makron, is chosen from the Warlords. He commands Stroggos from within the palace city located at the northern end of Cerberon. Losing him would leave the Strogg confused and in turmoil as the Warlords battle internally to determine a successor. This would remove any chance Stroggos has for creating a well-organized strike or defensive position.

[Defense Systems]

Guarding Stroggos is a defense system we refer to as the Big Gun. This defense system detects and destroys any ship over a few meters in length. Also, to protect against ground assaults, a deadly laser security grid surrounds the entire capital city.

[Energy Resources]

Bluish crystals called Steedium are the source for most of the energy that powers Stroggos. The energy gained from processing these crystals provides them with the power run their entire civilization as well as their planetary defense weapons systems (a.k.a. the Big Gun).

Military Objectives

Your primary objectives are to establish a communications uplink, destroy the planetary defense systems, disable the interplanetary gateway, and assassinate the Makron commander. Once the communication link is made, subsequent communications will guide troops to their primary targets, destroy targets of opportunity, and provide necessary ground support for the follow-up air strike.

[Communications Uplink]

Your first objective is to establish an uplink between command and the Strogg communication computers. These are in the exterior military base south of the main capital of Cerberon. This will enable continued communications, location information, and combat analysis beyond the base complex. Failure to establish this uplink is not an option. Once on the planet, the combat situation may change quickly. It is imperative that you regularly check your computer systems for updated orders.

[Destroy the Big Gun]

From the base make your way past the security systems and move north to destroy the Big Gun located on the southern outskirts of the city. Further intel will provide information to achieve this objective.

[Disable the Gateway]

Disable the interplanetary gateway between Earth and Stroggos. Shutting down the gateway will prohibit the Strogg from launching further attacks against Earth. It may be a long sleep back.

[Assassinate the Makron]

Finally, locate the Strogg commander somewhere within the capital palace.

Bitterman's Journal

5.19.47 14:35 ALIEN SCUM CAN KISS THE BUTT OF MY RAILGUN. Orders come in from the brass this morning. Tonight, I’ll be on the C-30K Marine Carrier with the rest of 101st Spaceborne. A little hypersleep, a couple thousand gallons of rationed I.V. nourishment, a few hundred light years, and we’ll be knee-deep in Strogg blood.

17:05 It’s either us or them this time. We lose, and we all end up bratwurst on the grill of some ungodly mechanized carnivore. We win, and the Terran Coalition of Man can start rebuilding the cities on Mars, Olympus, even Earth. Who knows – they might even get the old interplanetary football league going again. God, I miss Monday night football.

18:03 Grotesque images of Stroggs have been filling my sleep at night. Their metallic spines jutting awkwardly through muscle, skin and connective tissue, masks of human facial skin smeared and bonded to their cyber-alloy heads, crude but powerful weapons jammed into oozing, gaping sockets. Thank God the endless sleep ahead is dreamless.

19:11 THE LINE BETWEEN MAN AND MACHINE SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN ERASED.

19:43 You learn the hard way in the outer sector... Like never get into a drinking match with a three-headed Bukan. Never assume a Strogg is dead even when he’s nothing but bloody scraps of shrapnel. And never go to bed with a Rabaul no matter how many breasts she has.

20:16 I'm now on the carrier and next in line for my goodnight kiss. When I awake from the icy hypersleep, there will be only hell. And there will be hell to pay. My rail gun and BFG will make sure of that. The Stroggs killed my parents and my only sister. NEEDLESS TO SAY, I AM NOT A PACIFIST.

Introduction

Quake II Intro - Watch In HD

 

First reporter: The head of SETI will give a full press conference today in the wake of the verified and authentic non-terrestrial transmission coming from just beyond the asteroid belt in our solar system.

Second reporter: Contact with the colony on Mars will be re-established and has nothing to do with the impending arrival of the mysterious aliens.

Third reporter: The McCulloch space station has just been destroyed!

Reporters overlapping: (First reporter) A cast of casualties from the [unintelligible]
(Third reporter)[unintelligible] defense from the alien armada [unintelligible] gravitational​ flux in the asteroid belt [unintellgible]
(Second reporter)[unintelligible] Terran Coalition soldiers [unintellgible]

First reporter: Paris, Peking, [unintelligible, Parasite overlap], Reykjavik, and Tokyo added to the list of recently devastated cities.

Fourth reporter: After the recall from what was once known as Europe [unintelligible. Gladiator overlap]

Fifth reporter: [unintelligible] uplifting farewell speech as these brave soldiers took the fight to the Strogg's home planet. We and the rest of humanity wish them luck and Godspeed as well.

[Explosion]

Red Leader: Mother Goose, Mother Goose, this is Red Leader Alpha Charlie Four One Seven.

Mother Goose: Gotcha' on the scope, Red Leader. See that big bad dust ball up ahead?

Red Leader: Copy that, Mother Goose.

Red Leader: Target is acquired. Heading towards nav point X-Ray Lima Seven.

Command: Deployment is green for Alpha, Bravo, and Tango

First crew: There's no activity on the surface, DZ still looks clean, and ECM [unintelligible]

Command: [unintelligible] transport straight to target [unintelligible]

Second crew: The pitch check confirmed.

Sergeant: [Unintelligible] shit, marines are dangerous!

First launch crew: Let the sky divide!

Second launch crew: Negative! His shit's wire. Wake his ass up!

Third launch crew: Alright Bitterman, you are in the green and ready to go.

Cowboy marine: YEEEHAAAH!!!

Bitterman: Shit! What was that? Command, I got a problem here. Some cowboy clipped me on the way in and thrusters are at fifty percent and dropping.

Command: Copy Bitterman. Your stats aren’t nominal but proceed to designated target LZ. We'll see what we can... holy shit! Bitterman!

Male marine: They're all over me! I need some help over here!

Command: Bitterman! What in the hell's going on? We just lost a-- a third of the platoon just as they crossed sector Niner X-Ray! You got a visual on any AA discharge?

Bitterman: Negative, Command. I'm approaching Niner X-ray right now and there's no heat from the ground.

Female marine: They're coming at me from all angles!

Bitterman: I just crossed the board around ten seconds ago.

Command: Damn it! They've got a low-freq EMP down there. Getting clipped just saved your ass, marine. I just lost all readings from the rest of the platoon. Try and get to the primary LZ and rendezvous with any other squad leaders you can find.

Bitterman: Shit! Just overshot LZ, Command! Command, you copy? Christ, this thing's a brick! I have no flight control, repeat, no flight control! I'm south of LZ, nearing a southern structure. Ready for crash landing! Command! [signal breaking]

Bitterman (breaking up): Copy? Command, come in! I have no flight control--AAAHHH!

Unit 1: Base

Computer: Initiate scan. Acquiring... Acquired. Personnel Located.

Computer: Now existing... Base Area. Proceed to Bunker Area. Destroy Strogg Logistical Train.

Unit 2: Bunker

Computer: Initiate scan. Acquiring... Acquired. Personnel Located.

Computer: Exiting Warehouse area... Entering Jail area. Destroy Security Grid protecting industrial region.

Unit 3: Jail

Computer: Initiate scan. Acquiring... Acquired. Personnel Located.

Computer: Exiting Security Grid Control Area. Entering Mines. Navigate the Mines and gain entrance to the Factory.

Unit 4: Mines

Computer: Initiate scan. Acquiring... Acquired. Personnel Located.

Computer: Exiting Mines. Entering Factory. Shutdown Strogg Processing Plant.

Unit 5: Factory

Computer: Initiate scan. Acquiring... Acquired. Personnel Located.

Computer: Factory rendered inoperable. Proceed north to Big Gun Area. Infiltrate and destroy Strogg Main Reactor.

Unit 6: Reactor

Computer: Initiate scan. Acquiring... Personnel Located.

Computer: Reactor shutdown successful. Infiltrate main Planetary Defense Facility and destroy Big Gun. Airstrike standing by...

Unit 7: Big Gun

Computer: Initiate scan. Acquiring... Acquired.

Computer: Planetary defense system rendered inoperable. Big Gun has been destroyed. Commencing airstrike. Proceed north into City. Close main Hanger Door and destroy Black Hole Generator.

Unit 8: Hanger

Computer: Initiate scan. Acquiring... Acquired. Personnel Located.

Computer: Stroggos air threat neutralized. Black Hole Generator destroyed. Proceed to Palace Area. Locate Strogg leader, codename MAKRON... Terminate with extreme prejudice.

See also

• Quake Story
• Quake II Mission Pack: The Reckoning Story
• Quake II Mission Pack: Ground Zero Story
• Quake 4 Story