Quake II/Lower Palace

Level objective
The objective for this level is to find the Data Communications Laser CD in the Upper Palace.

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Walkthrough
There are two entrances to this level from the previous level, the Outer Courts. This walkthrough assumes that you are first entering from the water / sewer area and already have the Data Spinner.

Part 1 - Getting to the Upper Palace
You will enter the level at the bottom of a ramp leading up to a low room with exploding barrels in it. In the room are a few Guards and Berserkers. Shooting the barrels is a good start. Some of the enemies are on a balcony over the your head. Both shooting from cover and charging out with guns blazing will work here. (See Secrets, below, for a secret that is accessed from this room.) Leave this room through the only door and follow the only available path, taking care of some Guards and a Brain along the way, until you come to a door on your right that is outlined in yellow lights. Just before it, a section of the floor is outlined in red and grey stripes. Beyond the door is an alcove. As you advance past the alcove, you will be attacked by Guards coming around the corner ahead and to the right. But, at the same time the floor section behind you will explode and one or more Technicians will come up from under it. Take out the Guards quickly and turn to take out the Technicians. The alcove will give you some cover. An effective, if slightly unfair, tactic is to send a grenade around the corner before the Guards even appear and then walk backwards, facing the Technicians as they emerge.

Turn left at the corner where the Guards came from the right. Ahead will be a doorway outlined in red lights and blocked by a force field. The Guards and a Tank behind it cannot hurt you ... yet. You can probably get a little in-fighting going. Deal with the Guards, Brains and Technician in the room to the left of the doorway. In that room you will find a security console emitting sparks. Ignore the sparks and press the button. You will receive the message "Red Force Fields Deactivated". Now take care of whatever is left behind the doorway. (Where have you recently seen another area blocked by a force field and outlined in red lights? Could it be in the Outer Courts?)  As you go through the doorway, look out for Berserkers and retreat if necessary while you destroy them. Follow the hallway and you will meet a Tank, some Guards and a Berserker, all facing away from you, expecting you to be coming from the main entrance. When you arrive at a blue disk on the floor with red carpets leading forward and to the right, the other entrance from the Outer Courts is to the right. Check it out, but remember that there were Tanks on the stairs and they will still be there if you didn't take them out. (See also Secrets, below.)

Continue straight ahead and deal with the Berserkers and Tank. You will come out on a landing in a large, high, very ornate room which houses a computer console on the ground floor below you. Turn left as you enter and follow the stairs and landing of this room to less decorated hallways.

Part 2 - Reprogramming the Data Spinner
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Secrets
This level has six (6) secrets:
 * 1) If you come into the Lower Palace through the "main" entrance from the Outer Courts, you will quickly arrive at a "T" intersection where there is a tall pillar of translucent material with a Quad Damage on top.  To lower the pillar and collect the Quad Damage, and the secret, shoot the face on the wall behind it, then turn 180 degrees and shoot the face high above where you came in.  If you get to the Lower Palace the "back" way, through the water, then you will come to this intersection from the side, so the faces are to the left and right.
 * 2) If you come into the Lower Palace through the "back" entrance from the Outer Courts (through the water) you will come up a ramp into a small room with a balcony above and behind you (from which strogg will attack you).  To the right of the balcony, as you look at it from below, there is a section of wall that can be broken by shooting it.  It may already be broken from the firefight with the strogg as there are exploding barrels there.  Go through the opening to find all manner of good stuff in several locations.  Note that there are strogg in there guarding the stuff.  Keep going until you collect an Invulnerability, then backtrack to come out of a hidden panel in the wall of the main corridors.  Because a) you may want to re-supply after fighting the strogg in this level and b) popping out of the hidden panel doesn't put you in the best position to fight the strogg there, you might consider leaving this secret for later on.
 * 3) On either side of the cathedral-like computer room, there are staircases.  One goes upwards and to a room from which you can take an elevator up to one of the exits to the Upper Palace.  In the elevator room, a staircase winds behind the elevator to the balcony of the computer room.  On the wall by this staircase is a diagram or computer screen.  Shoot it to open a secret passage.
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