You find yourself in E1M1

[foq]

>unpause the game

[Shadowswift]

depression = gone
writer's block...remains :'(

poor Ray. He's just gonna have to remain evil for a little while longer.

[[^this]]

[foq]

unwriter'sblocke/

[Shadowswift]

"Lord Stockton, we have been idle long enough. Are you chasecamming someone? What's going on?" The DKC pokes your shoulder, wondering what's taking you so long to come to a decision. You snap back to attention, and remind yourself where you are. "Before we progress, I have been meaning to bring something to your attention in the form of a request. Is it possible for you to access security network cameras on your console?" You flip through your console and type in some simple commands. You nod. "Can you access The Installation's cameras? I...have a bad feeling about something and wish to check on my subordinates." You type in a few more commands and, sure enough, a picture of E2M1 comes up on your console's screen. You cycle through cameras until you find a Quake minion. Much to your dismay, you don't find any. They have all abandoned their posts. "That is what I was afraid of." You ask him if the base has been taken over. "No, the base is fine, but my warriors are no longer there. They have been recruited by a stronger force than myself." What?! "I...have been hearing whispers in the back of my head for a while now. Something familiar, yet undeniably Shadow in nature. I fear it has also affected my warriors. Darkscythe, no doubt, hears the whispers, as well." You turn your attention to Darkscythe. He seems focused as he stares strait ahead. Not at anything in particular that you can see, more like through the nether at something beyond your mortal vision. You ask what's going on. "It feels as though our Master is calling us to His side." Ray? "No, our true Master. Yogg-Shargoth." What the hell?? The Elder Gods are all dead! Ray saw Yogg's head cut off himself! "I know, and I don't doubt Ray's story of the Master's death, either. We all saw a vision of it in our minds when He died. Yet..." You watch him, wary of his motives. "I fear when He fell to the Reaper, His purpose was not yet realized to our enemies. They took Him, just as they take all their fallen foes, and reawakened His soul as a Shadow. Yogg-Shargoth now threatens you and your world once again...only this time, He is not the Master...only another pawn in the Shadow's army." So what happens now? "You must face and destroy Him. Only..." Yes? "I cannot help you in such an endeavor. I will not fight for Him ever again. I have sworn my allegiance to you and Captain Ray...but I cannot raise arms against my Creator. Something in my creation forbids it. Darkscythe will not be able to help you either. We will aid you in getting to Him, but when it comes time for you to face off against Yogg-Shargoth, you must do it without us." Wonderful. Great. Awesome. Grand. Glorious. Now, not only do you have to face a grand standing army of unyielding darkness, your own commanding officer who has gained godly powers and an evil soul, and whatever even godlier-powered being that corrupted him, you have to fight and kill the same Elder Gods that an elite Ranger with 50 times your skill struggled to bring down. Things seem to be getting darker by the second. You get to your senses and try to remember what they always say about it being darkest before dawn.

Well cawk-a-doodle-doo, mother fuckers! It's time to bring a little daylight into this wretched place! And you have just the Thunderbolt to do it with! You loose a hearty roar and charge into the unknown, ready to face challenges that a hundred Rays would shy away from! Bring it on, bitches! You and your followers gain strength from your impressive fortitude.

You gain the buff "Bravado of the Risen Phoenix".
You and your followers take half as much damage as normal, even without armor

[[I'm back, baby!]]

[foq]

I forgot what I was doing, what are my choices?

[Shadowswift]

>party was onto lift, then search for gold key... even if it means going to that tunnel...

Hey, you gots no probs with underwater tunnels, so long as you have a rebreather or biosuit or something to breathe with. You're not Ray, remember? So off we go to the lift in search of the gold keyca

>interrupt foq's command,and protest foq stole the grapes.

That bastard!! We will make him SUFFER!!!

...wait, who is foq?

>not me... couldn't be!

DIE FETCHER!!! Wait, what's going on? Where the hell am I? And who are you? Are you talking to me on a cellular phone? Who is this? I don't know you! I'm hanging up the phone now! PRANK CALLER! PRANK CALLER!

>inspect floodgate

It's closed off. You can't get through or around without raising it...or maybe some plastic explosives, but I wouldn't recommend the latter.

Now what were we doing? Gold Keycard? Oh, right. So, to the lift we go. At the top, you notice laser turrets along the walls. One of them has been destroyed by a laser blast. Did they malfunction? Maybe an Enforcer blasted it during the war, or maybe the Captain did this...but he didn't have a Blaster Rifle, you still have it. Weird. Oh well. There's a terminal at the end of the hallway. You notice that Ray is logged onto it. So he has been here. Hm. You flip through the files on it. There are some entries on it that point to your suspicions about this place being a breeding ground of sorts for super soldiers and/or mutants, but none of it really interests you. You follow the hallway to another lift that takes you up to a storage attic. There are a bunch of opened lockers here. There is a silver door, but it's also been opened. You look around inside. This must be the power room. There are circuit breakers along the walls, and generators under the chainlink floor. Everything appears to be working. You notice that the switch for the drainage pump has been switched off. You flip it. Power to the main drain has been restored. Now you just have to turn it on. There should be a switch in the main atrium. If you can lower the water level in this place, you should be able to get through that tunnel without needing a biosuit. Before you leave for the atrium, you study the room.

There are opened lockers all around. Nothing is in them.
There are gunracks lining the left wall.
There is a bed off to the right with a safe underneath it.
There is a table in the center of the room with a terminal on it.

You contemplate taking a quick nap. You are flippin exausted...

>

[foq]

>Check out the terminal, and see if you can crack the safe, one way or another... maybe take a look at the gunracks, but that stuff probably sucks anyway.

[ImperiusDamian]

>take a nap and have the DKC stand guard

[metchsteekle]

>zomg the safe i must open it aggh!

[Shadowswift]

>Check out the terminal, and see if you can crack the safe, one way or another... maybe take a look at the gunracks, but that stuff probably sucks anyway.

>zomg the safe i must open it aggh!

The terminal appears to belong to a PFC Keith Long. You look through his files. You notice a post about a Silver Keycard in the light fixture above, but when you reach up there to get it, you don't find anything. Someone must've already taken it. Hm. There's another post about PFC Long stockpiling something in the complex's purifier room. Nothing else about the terminal interests you. Next to the terminal, you find a hastily-scrawled incomplete map of the complex and a pencil. You turn your attention to the safe. It appears to be a simple lock and key safe. You do have a pretty high lockpicking skill, so you attempt to crack it open. Using some of the tools in your toolbox, you successfully pick the lock. You take the contents of the safe.

You got the Ring of Shadows, a stimpak, a USB flashdrive, and a brass key.

You stow the stuff and turn your attention to the gunracks. There's nothing here but some 20ga. shotguns and handaxes...nothing you need.

>take a nap and have the DKC stand guard

Not a typical site in a military base. This is no bunk, but an actual bed. You lay down on it. It's so comfortable!! You fall right to sleep.

You are refreshed

When you awaken, you find your followers faithfully guarding you. Now that you are awake, they await your orders.

>

[metchsteekle]

> plug in flashdrive, inquiry computer for brass key doors

[Shadowswift]

> plug in flashdrive, inquiry computer for brass key doors

You plug the flashdrive into the terminal and open it. It contains a file called UPGRADE.CSL. The terminal cannot read it, but you're pretty sure CSL files are ones made specifically for the ranger console's OS. You take the drive out and plug it into your console's usb port and open it. You install the file, and open the README.

"About upgrade #3:
This software-only upgrade contains advanced command recognization features, allowing the user to enter more and simpler commands that the system will recognize. Connecting the console via USB cable and entering the command "hack", for example, will decode and unlock most terminals and computerized deviced for use by our military. A complete file registry will show on the console's screen. Any hidden or protected files are also shown. User is cautioned about using this feature, as some known enemy forces have developed viruses for the specific purpose of damaging and destroying our consoles. For a complete list of new commands accepted by the console's OS, visit us.marinecorps.gov/rangerelite/console_upgrade_3.htm, or see your commanding officer.

The most exciting feature about the upgrade, however, is the new short-wave radar application. By entering the command "radar" into your prompt, the rough birds-eye view map of your current surroundings will be displayed on screen. The ping only displays maps of approximately a 30 yard radius from your location. Enemy and friendly units will also be displayed on the map, though the console will be unable to differenciate between the two by default. If another console is detected on the unit by the ping, the unit will be displayed in a green tint. If no console is detected, the unit will be displayed in a white tint.

For further inquiries, email Research and Development at [email protected]"

Cool, a radar. You give it a test...the map pings back a sketchy image of the complex in a 30 yard radius from you. The DKC is shown in green. Darkscythe and SFX are shown in white.

You don't detect any hostiles nearby.

Well, that's certainly cool. You get back on the terminal and run an inquiry about brass keys. The inquiry comes up negative. A substation like this probably doesn't have any major information about the base. The mainframe might know something, though. So, where to now?

>

[Shadowswift]

[[bump]]

[foq]

>wander around aimlessly, as you have no idea what to do next

[ImperiusDamian]

> look for the mainframe