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Generations
Five Generations - One Eternal Combat
— by Lee'Mon
The
following is the opening chapter from the story "Generations"
by our own Lee'Mon. The story, unveiled in parts, attempts
to expand on Quake III Arena's story by explaining the origins
of many of the characters, as well as how they found their
way into the Arena Eternal.
The story will be unveiled here at PlanetQuake, one chapter
per week. The end of the story presents a special epilogue
that takes the story beyond Quake III Arena, and into Generations
Arena, a project by WireHead Studios.
Regardless, the story presents an excellent glimpse into the
Q3A universe. So sit back, and enjoy the tale!
Previous
chapters:
-
Chapter 1
- Chapter
2
-
Chapter 3
- Chapter 4
Five
Generations - One Eternal Combat
Part II: The Doom Warriors
Chapter
5
Epoch: Three Months Later
Location: Mars Military Outpost
Submitted
for the approval of the UAC psychoanalysts: One Flynn "Doom"
Taggart, diagnosed with an acute case of cabin fever.
As far as Doom was concerned, being a space marine wasn't
all it was cracked up to be. Once they made it back from the
suicide mission, they met a welcoming party consisting of
very serious soldiers in black suits. Before you could say
"Where's my goddamn medal," he, Crash, and Arlene had been
shipped off to Mars to join the private military force of
the UAC.
The Union Aerospace Corporation is a huge multiplanetary congolmerate,
with radioactive waste facilities on Mars as well its two
moons, Phobos and Deimos. For Doom, being enlisted in the
UAC Marines was glorified guard duty. He was watching something
no one would think of stealing, sabotaging, or attacking even
if it wasn't for the fact that there was nowhere to attack
from or escape to for fifty million miles.
And so, for the past few months, Doom and the others stood
around, sucking space dust. Crash had maintained a workout
regimen to stay in fighting form, and Arlene had occupied
herself with the UAC security systems. Aside from the occasional
anger venting at the nearest available punching bag or catching
a restricted flick in the break room, however, Doom found
little to do.
That Arlene... Doom was amazed by her spunk. She and he had
entered the regular Corps at the same time. Crash lost no
time whipping the new recruits into shape, but she soon found
Doom and Sanders needed no extra whipping. Doom understood
why he handled the Corps so well - after all, he had been
in Sarge's unit for some time - but he was amazed at how well
Arlene took to the military. It was like a fish to water.
She handled the ogling of the men and the cat calls with due
measure (of course, with Crash around, she had an excellent
teacher). Moreover, she more than proved her worth whenever
it was called into question. Of all the soldiers in their
Corps outfit, she was the only one who could hold a candle
to him in hand-to-hand combat. He smiled, remembering her
solid uppercut that sent more than one hotshot private flying...
Doom shook his head. Of course, that's where it had to end.
It was God, country, and the Corps... personal relationships
had no place in the military. They both knew that; nobody
had to say it out loud. Still, Crash would give the two an
odd look when she thought they weren't watching... a look
that (maybe?) carried a twinge of playful jealousy. All in
all, it made Doom upset that he had gotten the three of them
all but kicked out of the Corps, even if he did possibly save
their lives in the process.
However, despite the degrading to UAC soldier, Doom still
felt the military's presence. In fact, the Earth military
was the UAC's biggest supplier. For the past four years, the
military had used the Phobos and Deimos facilities for research
on a variety of secret experiments, including research on
inter-stellar travel. So far, they had managed to open up
a few interdimensional gates between the two moons, and like
little kids, the scientists would throw stuff in one portal
and watch it come back out the other.
The rumors, though, hinted that the Gates were a bit unstable.
The military recruited "volunteers" to go through the Gates,
and the results typically weren't pleasant. The best-case
scenario was that they simply disappeared. At worst, they
came back with some peculiar form of insanity. The returnees
would blabber either monosyllabic grunts or strings of obscenities,
and typically tried to physically destroy anything that came
within range. The more interesting ones would undergo spontaneous
full-body explosion.
Military reports back to Earth stated that the project had
undergone a "slight setback," but that everything was "under
control."
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