About This File
5-level set with a tech-base theme, using Quake2 textures, new sprites, and a cool new sky. While not truly a hub-type of structure, these levels are interconnected. Let's call it a quasi-hub structure, 'kay? (Read Notes, below.)
0417 hours, March 23, 2056: An observer at a listening post in the Jean-Pierre Maisson Observatory in Vichy, France, receives a terse voice-only message from the Deimos Station orbiting Mars -- "Something has activated the anomalies. It wasn't us; it must have been them. We are monitoring the situation, and we believe we are fully prepared." That was the last transmission received from Deimos.
March 25, 2056: Several military and research satellites orbiting Earth disappear from sensors, and mysterious communications and power disruptions are detected on the Einstein Orbiting Platform, the Copernicus Array, and other unmanned space stations.
0142 hours, March 26, 2056: Garbled holo-messages are received from the Erwin Rommel Geo-Stat Military Weapons Post. The only decipherable phrase is "Mein Gott! So viel! Was konnen wir tun? Alles is abgefucked!!", Deutsch for "Jesus! There's too many of them! We're screwed!" Minutes later similar communiques are received from several other GMW orbital posts. By the end of the day military installations on every continent and the Arctic are under full-scale assault from what can only be described as a hellish force.
1030 hours, March 27, 2056: A hastily-scheduled meeting is called between the Chairman of the Organization of Galactic Research & Exploration (OGRE) and the Commanding General of the Inter-Planetary Defense Alliance. The agenda -- a counterstrike using newly- developed plasma weapons. The Chairman urges restraint. "Lets study them first," he argues. "This is a unique opportunity to examine ET life-forms. Your plasma weapons may leave nothing but carbon residue." "Good!" replies the General. "Then all we'll need to do is mop up the floor with water and a bucket!"
1400 hours, March 28, 2056. Rockport Command Center, somewhere in the Canadian Rockies: Brig. General Ed Stone summons four personnel to his bunker. "I'll be brief," he barks. "I don't see any way out of this mess. We've had no time to mobilize armor, so it's been hand-to-hand. Plus they got to our fly-boys too, so we got no air cover. Even with the experimental plasma shooters we've got shit. They outnumber us fifty to one, and now I'm getting reports of some big-ass suckers that are tough as nails and shove rockets where the sun don't shine. I need volunteers for the Sleep Room. Now I know we've never tried putting anyone into stasis before, but the egg-heads in the lab guarantee it'll work. The plan is to bring your metabolism and vital signs so low that it can't be detected by normal means. For practical purposes you'll be dead; and that may be enough for those bastards to leave you alone. We'll set the timers to bring you out of stasis in a year. Then it'll be up to you to do what you can. Volunteers at dozens of installations throughout the world are undergoing the same "procedure". Maybe you can organize some sort of resistance movement. If you make it out.
"Keep in mind that we're going to scramble our security protocols and you'll be reduced to alpha-level clearance only. Clean up the joint if you can, and then your best bet is to try to make it to the Comm. Center to contact the others. Then get to the Shuttle Port and fly the hell out of here. You four are our best. I don't know what you'll face when you wake up, but I don't think I want to be in your boots."
0630 hrs, April 1, 2057. Rockport Command Center: A computer console above the Stasis Chamber comes softly to life. A light blinks, the console beeps, and the glass cover of a stasis module slides noiselessly open .....
Map_01 -- Out of Stasis Entry-level type map, where you figure out a way to gain entry to the installation. Practice your jumping skills.
Map_02 -- The Smell of Death Explore the waste tunnels, sewage treatment, and hazmat processing.
Map_03 -- Daylight Again Exit the Waste Area and run for cover. Blaze through Power Generation on your way to the Supply Station, and finally into the Installation.
Map_04 -- Theater Ops. Basic Training. Armored Assault. Arena Combat. 'Nuff said.
Map_05 -- Flight of the Phoenix Re-enter the installation, wreak havoc in Research, arm yourself in Weapons Systems, find your way back into the Stasis Chamber, phone home in the Comm. Center, and finally rev up those engines in the Shuttle Port.
Notes: All the levels are set in a single military installation. Therefore in some maps you will see inaccessible areas, or doors that cannot be opened. Most of these areas/doors are accessible in later levels. All maps are original. However, in Map_04 I have "adapted" areas from two of my earlier levels. ("Lazy?!! You callin' me lazy? Ah, well, you're probably right.") I take credit/flames for three sprites (in the Stasis Chamber at the beginning of the game), and for most of the signs. The original Q2Tex.wad contained signs for "Warehouse", and "Supply Station". Using these as templates in MS Paint, I edited the letters to create new letters, but mostly I cut and pasted to create 14 new signs.
The demos were created with ZDooM V1.22. Pistol start with 100% secrets & kills. To view them, use ZDLaunch. Otherwise, load Phoenix.wad in ZDooM v1.22, bring up the console (use the ~ key) and type: playdemo demoxx.lmp where xx is the map number (i.e., 01, 02, etc.) If you're playing a demo and try to load another demo, the second demo gets screwed up. Exit the first demo before loading up another.
0417 hours, March 23, 2056: An observer at a listening post in the Jean-Pierre Maisson Observatory in Vichy, France, receives a terse voice-only message from the Deimos Station orbiting Mars -- "Something has activated the anomalies. It wasn't us; it must have been them. We are monitoring the situation, and we believe we are fully prepared." That was the last transmission received from Deimos.
March 25, 2056: Several military and research satellites orbiting Earth disappear from sensors, and mysterious communications and power disruptions are detected on the Einstein Orbiting Platform, the Copernicus Array, and other unmanned space stations.
0142 hours, March 26, 2056: Garbled holo-messages are received from the Erwin Rommel Geo-Stat Military Weapons Post. The only decipherable phrase is "Mein Gott! So viel! Was konnen wir tun? Alles is abgefucked!!", Deutsch for "Jesus! There's too many of them! We're screwed!" Minutes later similar communiques are received from several other GMW orbital posts. By the end of the day military installations on every continent and the Arctic are under full-scale assault from what can only be described as a hellish force.
1030 hours, March 27, 2056: A hastily-scheduled meeting is called between the Chairman of the Organization of Galactic Research & Exploration (OGRE) and the Commanding General of the Inter-Planetary Defense Alliance. The agenda -- a counterstrike using newly- developed plasma weapons. The Chairman urges restraint. "Lets study them first," he argues. "This is a unique opportunity to examine ET life-forms. Your plasma weapons may leave nothing but carbon residue." "Good!" replies the General. "Then all we'll need to do is mop up the floor with water and a bucket!"
1400 hours, March 28, 2056. Rockport Command Center, somewhere in the Canadian Rockies: Brig. General Ed Stone summons four personnel to his bunker. "I'll be brief," he barks. "I don't see any way out of this mess. We've had no time to mobilize armor, so it's been hand-to-hand. Plus they got to our fly-boys too, so we got no air cover. Even with the experimental plasma shooters we've got shit. They outnumber us fifty to one, and now I'm getting reports of some big-ass suckers that are tough as nails and shove rockets where the sun don't shine. I need volunteers for the Sleep Room. Now I know we've never tried putting anyone into stasis before, but the egg-heads in the lab guarantee it'll work. The plan is to bring your metabolism and vital signs so low that it can't be detected by normal means. For practical purposes you'll be dead; and that may be enough for those bastards to leave you alone. We'll set the timers to bring you out of stasis in a year. Then it'll be up to you to do what you can. Volunteers at dozens of installations throughout the world are undergoing the same "procedure". Maybe you can organize some sort of resistance movement. If you make it out.
"Keep in mind that we're going to scramble our security protocols and you'll be reduced to alpha-level clearance only. Clean up the joint if you can, and then your best bet is to try to make it to the Comm. Center to contact the others. Then get to the Shuttle Port and fly the hell out of here. You four are our best. I don't know what you'll face when you wake up, but I don't think I want to be in your boots."
0630 hrs, April 1, 2057. Rockport Command Center: A computer console above the Stasis Chamber comes softly to life. A light blinks, the console beeps, and the glass cover of a stasis module slides noiselessly open .....
Map_01 -- Out of Stasis Entry-level type map, where you figure out a way to gain entry to the installation. Practice your jumping skills.
Map_02 -- The Smell of Death Explore the waste tunnels, sewage treatment, and hazmat processing.
Map_03 -- Daylight Again Exit the Waste Area and run for cover. Blaze through Power Generation on your way to the Supply Station, and finally into the Installation.
Map_04 -- Theater Ops. Basic Training. Armored Assault. Arena Combat. 'Nuff said.
Map_05 -- Flight of the Phoenix Re-enter the installation, wreak havoc in Research, arm yourself in Weapons Systems, find your way back into the Stasis Chamber, phone home in the Comm. Center, and finally rev up those engines in the Shuttle Port.
Notes: All the levels are set in a single military installation. Therefore in some maps you will see inaccessible areas, or doors that cannot be opened. Most of these areas/doors are accessible in later levels. All maps are original. However, in Map_04 I have "adapted" areas from two of my earlier levels. ("Lazy?!! You callin' me lazy? Ah, well, you're probably right.") I take credit/flames for three sprites (in the Stasis Chamber at the beginning of the game), and for most of the signs. The original Q2Tex.wad contained signs for "Warehouse", and "Supply Station". Using these as templates in MS Paint, I edited the letters to create new letters, but mostly I cut and pasted to create 14 new signs.
The demos were created with ZDooM V1.22. Pistol start with 100% secrets & kills. To view them, use ZDLaunch. Otherwise, load Phoenix.wad in ZDooM v1.22, bring up the console (use the ~ key) and type: playdemo demoxx.lmp where xx is the map number (i.e., 01, 02, etc.) If you're playing a demo and try to load another demo, the second demo gets screwed up. Exit the first demo before loading up another.
