You find yourself in E1M1

[metchsteekle]

>consider why water is always off

[foq]

>dismantle slipgates, fix water, enable shit

[Shadowswift]

[[Continued]]

>consider why water is always off

More than likely, it's because the Shadows hate you and want to make your life as difficult and as fucking miserable as they possibly can. Think so? The DKC nods in agreement.

>dismantle slipgates, fix water, enable shit

You switch on what can be switched on at the mainframe. Everything turns on except the network connection, and water. Water has to be opened from the source, likely by way of a large turnable valve. The network connection would appear to be suffering the same fate as the one at Slipgate Complex did...which can only mean one thing. You're gonn have to fix it. Shit. You think you know where the water valve is. The DKC volunteers to go there and take care of it himself. However, thanks to everyone's favorite evil presence, the Encroaching Darkness, it might not be where you last left it. You search the skuttle of broken and half-disintegrated Shadow bodies. You load up on Shadow Plasma Cells and use what viable armor you can find to repair your Cloak...which is currently in absolute shreads.

You are now maxed out at 100 Shadow Plasma Cells
You now have 150 Soul Armor

The DKC rummages through, also looking for armor. He finds one of the Shadowcasters without a head. Shortly after....he finds the head. Ew. He looks at the robe it's wearing.
"Lord Captain, look." You look. "The casters' robes. They are fairly similar to you cloak." Oh yeah? Hm...you pick up one of their Shadowpulse Rifles and use it to fire a round at one of the Shadowcasters' corpses. The shot bounces off the robe, leaving very little damage. Nice. You discard the rifle and tell the DKC to try one on. He complies. Granted, he looks a little silly at first, but after you look at him a while, the robe really begins to compliment his Black Armor nicely.

The Death Knight Commander finds some pristine Void Armor.
The Death Knight Commander now has 200 Black Armor and 100 Soul Armor

You look around for some for Darkscythe and Phoenix. All you can find for them is some that has already been damaged. For Phoenix, it wouldn't help, but since Darkscythe has no armor at all, it'll have to do for now.

Darkscythe got some slightly damaged Void Armor.
Darkscythe now has 75 Soul Armor

A Fiend wearing a robe....now THAT looks silly. You borrow the DKC's sword and help trim it down a bit to where it fits him comfortably. Before this turns into a Quake monstor fashion runway show, you search around the wreckage a bit more, scouring every soldier and caster. Finally! Here it is.

You got the Gold Keycard!

You lead your team to the Gold Door and pass through it. The Keycard vanishes...odd how they do that. Beyond is a narrow hallway that leads to a small room with some computer boxes. There is a terminal here. On the wall adjacent to the terminal is the water valve. Tada! You order the DKC to turn it. The wall next to the valve leads into another hallway. You follow that, hoping it'll lead you to the exit slipgate. As you follow the hallway, you hear your headset buzz.
"Sir, it's Phoenix. You there?" You ask him what he wants. "I was looking at SFX, and found a datafile on his computer you may want to look at. Apparently, military personelle at The Sewage System were using this Flyer and several others for sentry duty. Days before Quake's invasion, this unit was boxed up and shipped to Termination Central as a test unit for sentry duty there. When Quake invaded the four bases, all of the Flyers at E4M1 were wiped out, along with the military personelle stationed there." ...aaaand this means what to us? "Well, the Sewage System was rumored amongst the enlisted soldiers as a training facility where standard grunts go and get turned into super-human fighting machines." Well, if that rumor was true, then those 'super-human fighting machines' wouldn't have been so easily wiped out by Quake, would they? "Hang on, sir, it may not all have been gobbledigook. According to SFX's datafiles, it was partnered with a grunt named Pham upon its...um..'enlistment' into our military. It tells how it worked with Pham for two weeks, then Pham was transfered to 'covert ops'. It was then partnered with a grunt named Valdez for another two weeks. Valdez was also transfered to 'covert ops'." You order your subordinant to get to the point. "SFX was partnered with five different grunts over the course of ten weeks. Each of its partners were transfered to spec ops. Why the hell would they send grunts to spec ops and covert ops? That's ranger and recon work, not grunt work. And why so many? I bet the spec ops they were doing was turning those grunts into something else. Maybe not super-human fighting machines, but something....I bet if you go to E4M1, you'd find out a lot more about this, especially now that you have officer's clearance in the terminals." Whatever...

Side mission accepted: investigate Phoenix's crazy allegations.

You order him to get back to work and find out more useful stuff about that thing. Back on track, you follow the hallway you find yourself in until you find yourself in front of the Slipgate. You hastily dismantle the thing and hand the parts to the DKC.

The Death Knight Commander recieves 1 Bunch of Slipgate Parts

There. You look around....hummmm....now what?

>

[metchsteekle]

> fix and explore base; possibly retrieve some quake minions to run base like in e1m1 if there aren't some here already

[Shadowswift]

> fix and explore base; possibly retrieve some quake minions to run base like in e1m1 if there aren't some here already

As far as you and the DKC know, this base is empty except for the three of you. You contemplate Scything over to E2M1 to get some Quake minions, but....

You call HQ and have them send over some Enforcers to guard this base instead.

You're losing control...

You call Phoenix and order him to stand by with the new sentries. You Scythe back to E1M1 and switch out the DKC and Darkscythe for Phoenix and SFX

The Death Knight Commander has left your party.
Darkscythe has left your party.
Phoenix has joined your party!
SFX has joined your party!

You take your followers and your sentries back to E3M1. The sentries set to work patrolling the base. You lead Phoenix to the mainframe and tell him to get the network connection back online.
"Aye aye, sir." He sets to work while you head back to the Security Depot. There was a terminal here you want to look at. You open it up and log on.

"Welcome, Ray.
>Check Email
>Run diagnostic
>Security Logs
>Unlock Vault
>Log Off

You opt to start from the top and check your email first. There is one here from someone named Protos.

"Greetings Ray.
I trust you found the gift I left for you? I know you did...and I know you liked it. Don't worry. There will be others. Just remember, the more you find, the closer we will be to reaching an...understanding. See you soon.

Ever admiring,
Protos."

Hm. Spam. You skip the diagnostic and check the security logs.

"05/10/12 15:32:19
Received new sentries today. One is a Recon, PFC named Long. The other is an Enforcer, lance corporal rank. Her name is Lara. Long seems to think that this base will be the staging of something pretty big. Wonder why? I guess all those recon boys are paranoid. Nothing further to report

05/13/12 09:07:46
Long was transfered off the base today for spreading rumors and antagonizing the personelle. Good riddance. We're all awaiting the coming science project that R&D has coming for us. Some crack called "Project Slipgate". No details about it yet.

05/15/12 11:13:31
R&D's scribes and scientists came in this morning with their slipgate stuff with them. Ten rangers also showed up; five Privates, two Privates First-Class, one Corporal and a Lieutenant. Oh, and a Master Sergeant, who seems like he's really in command of the platoon rather than the Lt. As if having recon here wasn't bad enough, these rangers look like serious hard-asses. The sergeant creeps me the hell out. They estimate the project will be complete and operational within 48 hours. In the meantime, their rangers are assuming full command of the base's security detail. Nothing further to report.

05/16/12 19:56:01
A shipment came in today from one of the other bases. Each crate passed inspection. I looked into a few of them personally. Each one was marked with the emblem of the Space Marines. Awesomesauce...first Recon, then Rangers, now Space Marines? Anyway, most of the crates were filled with their standard-issue; armor, blaster pistols...one of them had a weird machine in it. The last one I checked had some kind of huge space-age rifle in it. Looked like it had a tesla coil on it. Label only had "Prototype" written on it. They ordered me to lock that one in the vault. Now we're just waiting for the Science Department to finish their slipgates...Nothing further to report.

05/17/12 04:02:36
They called us in extra early, telling us they were ready to flip on their slipgates. Every hand is on deck, awaiting. Wait, where is their seargeant? Is he still asleep?? They're flipping it on now. All good so fa=42f2.,s;lxz.45gn24958f2iu2ernvg82345098hnsdks;a .dgl,kn
[connection interrupted]"

Coool......

>

[metchsteekle]

>unlock vault; find vault

[Shadowswift]

>unlock vault; find vault

You select the unlock option. You hear an electronic click in the distance. You estimate that it came from somewhere beyond the Gold Door. You head in that direction and stop in the area with the water valve. You check around. Nothing here but the valve and a terminal. You check the terminal and try to turn it on. Nothing happens. You try again...nothing. You punch the terminal...nothing. Your patience is wearing thin...you pull out your shotgun and blast the fuckin thing. Blood sprays from the terminal and the wall next to it opens up like a sliding door. Cooooool....

You found a secret area!

You look around inside. A single crate is here, labeled "prototype". You crack it open and look inside. There it is....finally....

You got the Thunderbolt Prototype!

You inspect the gun, and are dissapointed to find it completely uncharged. What's worse is that you have no cells to charge it. You have no way of finding out what this gun is capable of at the moment. Oh well. You radio HQ.
"Command, I've found it. The Thunderbolt Prototype is right here in my hands."
"Excellent work, Captain. Send it over and we'll fix it up good as new." says the good lieutenant Hastings. You leave Phoenix and SFX here and Scythe back to your base's slipgate. You place the gun on the slipgate and send it along its merry way. "Ah, yes. Thunderbolt Mark I prototype. If R&D wasn't so determined to get this idea of theirs working right, they would have scrapped the whole Thunderbolt series after this puppy. It didn't work out so great...but no worries. In a few hours, we'll have it working just like the one you know and love. That should help you in cutting through any resistance you meet out there." Great news. You ask if you can get some cells to go with it. "We'll send what we can. Remember, budget cuts are kicking our asses, so we had to send back most of our unused ordnance. We still have some, but not a lot." Damn it. You thank the lieutenant and break contact. You then scythe back to E3M1 and ask Phoenix how it's coming along.
"Still running the traceroute. The Mainframe is lagging for some reason." So...the network connection is still offline? "Yeah. This one may take me a while to repair." Wait, if the internet in this place is still offline....then how the hell did you get into your email earlier...? You go back to that terminal and check it. When you open your email, you find your inbox empty. You try and refresh it...

Trying...
Still trying...
Still trying...
No response. Check your network connections.

What...the fuck? Was that a halucination? You start to wonder if that really WAS just some spam...


>

[foq]

>I thought the only operational slipgate was supposed to be the one at the heavily-guarded E1M1? With that in mind, to hell with fixing the base, it's probably not important. Send the slipgate parts you currently have back to E1M1, make sure there's no more slipgates laying around, and then head out to E4M1.

[Shadowswift]

>I thought the only operational slipgate was supposed to be the one at the heavily-guarded E1M1? With that in mind, to hell with fixing the base, it's probably not important. Send the slipgate parts you currently have back to E1M1, make sure there's no more slipgates laying around, and then head out to E4M1.

You leave Phoenix and SFX here and Scythe back to your base's slipgate.

E1M1 is your base at the moment. The others are just bases your fixing up for the military. You head back to the Mainframe and tell Phoenix to give up.
"Alright then...if you say so." You take a brief respite to count known slipgates. 2 in each base thus far, plus that one at the Crypt of Decay. You missed that one. You mark it on your To Do list. Hm...

Oh shit...you forgot about Start! There are four fully functional slipgates at the Start hub! You try and calm yourself and remember that when you went there for the runes, it was untouched by the Shadows. Alright. You raise your scythe and slash open a portal to start...but nothing happened. You try again, but no portal is created. This...does not bode well.
"You can't make a portal?" You shake your head. "That's not good...if you can't warp to a location, that can only mean that said location...is no longer there." That's what you were afraid of. Hm...there must be a way to get there. What about...the pit? It's worth a try. You slash open a portal to Shub-Niggurath's Pit and hop through.

Immediately, you are plunged into the familiar stink of sewage that awaits below the entrance portal to the pit. You look above you and raise your grappling hook high. Just as you are about to fire it, your nerves are shaken with a bone-quivering quake. Something is here....you can feel it. Something far more powerful than anything you've felt or faced before, mortal, monster, Shadow, Elder God...even the Reaper...you've never felt such a thing. You are stricken with paralysing fear.

...but you know you have to face it.
...but you know you have to destroy it!

The fate of the world lies in your hands.
There can be none more powerful than you!

It's waiting for you...
It's summoning you...

Are you prepared?
Are you prepared?

>

[foq]

>I don't know, are you prepared? It took some beefy Quad Damage, and all the strength of all your party members by way of the DKC's sword to take down the Reaper... run away!

[metchsteekle]

>don't drown in sewage

[Shadowswift]

>don't drown in sewage

Easy enough. The area seems untouched by the Encroaching Darkness. There is plenty of room to swim around and surface for air.

>I don't know, are you prepared? It took some beefy Quad Damage, and all the strength of all your party members by way of the DKC's sword to take down the Reaper... run away!

Though you are considerably stronger now than you were then, retreat is probably the best option here....right?
Wrong...
You...have to fight this thing. You have to stand up to it. You can't retreat.
You're losing control...
You swim toward the portal and pass through. You follow the familiar path to Shub-Niggurath's platform.
"Look! It's that thing we saw in the security tapes at E2M1!" The beast is monsterous...massive. You approach it the edge of the path. Lava divides your path from the platform. Rather than go in guns blazing as you might expect of yourself, you attempt to talk to the beast.
"Tell me what you want. Who are you? What are you?" The beast chuckles in a horrifyingly deep voice, then responds in kind.
"I am what you see...what you perceive...'The Beast'? Yes, that is fitting enough..." You can barely understand him through his gutteral voice. "What do I want? Doesn't matter. What Master wants, on the other hand..." It chuckles again. "All of us, those you are fighting against, we're pawns. Nothing more. What Master wants, we do. The Reaper, the Shadows, even myself...pawns."
"Why have you summoned me here?" Phoenix looks at you, confused.
"It summoned you?? What the..." You hush him.
"I did not summon YOU, little human. I summoned your desire. I drew upon what you want."
"What the hell does that mean?" The Beast chuckles, then arches its back and raises its large arms into a fighting stance.
"Destroy me if you can. Then you will know."
You raise your Lightspark and begin your assault. The Beast is massive, and on a tiny platform. It is unable to dodge your shots...but seems unphased by them. It raises its hands. To its left and right, columns of lava rise and swirl with shadow energy. It sends them crashing toward you. You raise your Scythe and perform the Reaper's tornadic attack, deflecting most of the attack...however....OUCH!!!

You suffer 42 damage.

What the hell? That really hurt!! Your armor didn't oooohhhhhh yyyeeeeeaaaahhhh.....lava is physical damage. Your cloak won't protect you from that. Shit. Phoenix and SFX open up on The Beast, blasting it with Lightspark and Laser as hard as they can. The Beast eats the damage like a tank. You're sure it's hurting it, you're just not sure how much it can actually take. As it stands, it is hurting you faster than you are hurting it. You'll run out of health if you stand and fight it directly. There's gotta be a faster way to kill this thing....

>

[foq]

>Use the Reaper's scythe to brutally transport large chunks of the beast to the deepest, darkest, hottest, most painful pits of hell you can remember...

[Shadowswift]

>Use the Reaper's scythe to brutally transport large chunks of the beast to the deepest, darkest, hottest, most painful pits of hell you can remember...

You grapple-dash headlong into The Beast, Scythe flailing, hungry for flesh. Just as you think you're about to carve it like a thanksgiving turkey, it swats you away like a fly with its gigantic hands. You sail toward the wall and land with a painful *WHUMP*, then topple down to the stone ground below. Ugh...pain.

You suffer 34 damage.

Well, that sucks. The Beast may not be able to dodge any ranged attacks, but that doesn't mean it isn't fast. Any attempts of getting close to it are liable to be met with a swift ass-kicking. You resume shooting The Beast until you think of something better.


>

[foq]

>Perhaps scythe yourself behind the beast, rather than doing a conventional charge attack?