Quake II/Security Complex

Level objective
You will visit this level four times, each with a different objective. On the first visit, you will need to find the red key card and take it back to the ../Detention Center/.

The objective for this level is to locate the Red Key and find a way to deactivate the yellow laser barrier.

From this level you can reach the ../Torture Chambers/, ../Guard House/ and ../Grid Control/.

Walkthrough
The door opens to an outdoor courtyard. You immediately see a Gunner with his back to you, obviously harassing a tortured fellow Marine. Fell the Gunner with two blasts from the Super Shotgun, but be ready for a Medic to emerge from the opening up some steps ahead of you. Put the Marine out of his misery if you wish, but he has no parting gift for you.

Preliminary Exploration and the Red Key
Rather than just going straight for the Red Key, we're going to first explore as much of the level as we can reach. This is more interesting and we can clear away some Strogg that we would otherwise have to deal with later. At this point, don't pick up health, ammunition or other items; we will re-stock back in the Detention Center and collect the goodies here on our second visit.

First approach the closed door on left to open it. Kill the assorted Strogg beyond. There is Combat Armor here just sitting in plain sight but resist the urge to take it now. The exit from this area is barred and if you approach it you will receive the message "Yellow lasers still activated further access not granted". Do not disregard this warning. Unless you are really, really good at sniffing out secrets, take a look at the Secrets section before you go back. In this room is what is probably the most unfair secret in the game and even knowing this you may not be able to find it. What is inside will be very useful as we continue, so consider cheating this once even if you normally wouldn't look at the section below.

Returning to the courtyard, go down some steps on the other side and into the cave there. Peek around a corner to the left and you will see a Tank at some distance. Recall that it takes quite a bit of damage to kill these guys, so pick your weapon accordingly. The corner offers excellent cover for right-handed shooters. If you choose Grenades, initiate the throw before you move out and aim, otherwise you will be exposed to return fire for long enough for the Tank to get some hits in. What would be really useful at this point would be the Grenade Launcher! The Tank goes down with 8 Grenade hits. He drops a triangular green box full of Cells, which are ammunition for the HyperBlaster that you don't have yet. Deeper in the cave is a wall button, but access to it is barred. Again, approaching results in the message "Yellow lasers still activated further access not granted". Around a corner to the right the low cave opens out to a high cavern. There is a door on the other side of a deep canyon with lava at the bottom and you can easily figure out what the wall button does. If you stand at the very edge, you can see the dangling feet of an Icarus up there. Shoot him if you want, but there's another higher up that you can't get to so you have to leave that one until later.

Again returning to the courtyard, go up the steps that will now be to your right and through the doorway out of which the Medic came. Go down the steps inside and to the right and peek into the large room through the opening on the left. Your first problem is to deal with the Gladiator. He usually, but not always, comes after you, so withdraw, and use Grenades or the Super Shotgun, backing off to find cover after each attack. If he doesn't give chase, carefully entice him out. What you really need is a powerful, accurate, long-range weapon, like the HyperBlaster, but you don't have it yet. After the Gladiator, consider the two Gunners on the upper walkway. Again, the HyperBlaster would be nice, but with patience and constant retreating up the steps, you can pick them off with your ordinary Blaster or the Machine Gun. However, once the Gunners are dead, a Medic comes from the right and tries to revive them. Keep him under unrelenting Blaster fire and he will be too busy to get this done. Otherwise, you'll have to kill him and then the Gunners a second time. Alternatively, you can leave the Gunners alone for now, but don't forget that they are there. First, explore down the center steps and towards the rear of the room. You will find two Berserkers in a corridor along the back. Go through the door in the middle of the corridor to check out the Control Pyramid in the courtyard outside. If you go up to the button on a post, you will get the message "You need the pyramid key". On your way back inside, look up. The loggia above is where the Red Key is. Here's something interesting --- if you had the Grenade Launcher right now and you stood close to the building, jumped and launched a Grenade at a high angle at the top of your jump, it would just about make it over the parapet. Since there is a Gladiator up there, this would be a good way to kill him without exposing yourself to his attacks. If only you had the Grenade Launcher!

To get to the loggia, you need to go up the side steps to the lower walkway. If you did not deal with the Gunners up above, run and dodge and hope they don't hit you. Through the opening to the left of the map you will meet another Gunner. A short hallway leads to the loggia where a Gladiator stands guard over the Red Key. As before, hit him with something and retreat to cover to reload and avoid his damaging Rail Gun fire. With him out of the way, take the key. Your field computer will change the secondary objective to "Return to the detention center. Deactivate yellow lasers." Before you leave, take a look through the pillars and you will see that you are overlooking the Control Pyramid. When you return to the main courtyard, be ready for three Flyers (and run / dodge past the Guards if you did not kill them). Backtrack and go back through the door by which you arrived to return to the ../Detention Center/.

After Deactivating the Yellow Lasers
On your second visit to the Security Complex, after turning off the yellow lasers in the Detention Center, your field computer will update your secondary objective to "Open control pyarmid [sic] and locate the security pass". It seems that the Strogg can spell better than the Marine Corps computer programmers. We could also wish for greater clarity in our objectives. It is not possible to open the pyramid until we have retrieved the Pyramid Key from the Guard House. The security pass is not in this level; it is in the Torture Chambers. So, what we actually must do now is to find and play through those two levels. Finding the exits that lead to the levels is easy if we remember where yellow lasers blocked our progress during preliminary exploration. It doesn't particularly matter in which order we visit the levels, so here we will somewhat arbitrarily choose to go to the Guard House first.

The Guard House
From the courtyard, go again through the closed door on left to the room where there is (or was) Combat Armor. Now you can leave this room through the doorway out to a second courtyard where you will need to deal with four Enforcers, one on either side of the doorway and two more on either side when you step down into the open area. There is a balcony overhead and the crashed drop-pod of a Marine named Willits next to a door on the opposite side. Resist the urge to grab Willits's Chain Gun and Power Shield and instead turn and back up slowly across the courtyard, looking up until you can see what's on the balcony up above. If you don't like the look of this, you can change your mind and go to the Torture Chambers first. You will return via the opening onto the balcony that you can see to the right of the inactive lift platform. Alternatively, just make for the door by the drop pod, which is the exit to the Guard House, and hope that you are not noticed. The best approach, however, is to use the Grenade Launcher as you did in the courtyard in the Detention Center. The Tank is not sufficiently maneuverable to be able to attack and you can pop eight Grenades up there and take him down like a sitting duck. Now it's off to the Guard house to collect the Pyramid Key.

Second visit
On the second visit to the Security Complex area, the yellow laser barriers should be shut off, giving you more access. You can now reach the Guard House area entrance by entering the door to the east or the Torture Chambers area entrance by descending the stairs into the tunnel to the west.

It is recommended that you now proceed to the ../Torture Chambers/ area. If, however, you choose to explore past the now-inactive yellow laser barrier up to the entrance of the Guard House area, you will encounter another crashed drop-pod with the body of a Marine lying next to it. The pod is inscribed "Willits". Too bad your buddy didn't make it. Collect his Power Shield and Chain Gun and put it to good use. The mezzanine on the north and west sides of this area isn't accessible except by way of the Torture Chambers area.

Third visit
Returning from the Torture Chambers area, proceed to the ../Guard House/ area to retrieve the Pyramid Key.

Fourth visit
Returning from the Guard House area, you should now have the Pyramid Key and the Data CD. Proceed to the Pyramid at ground level on the south side of the central building in the Security Complex area. Open the Pyramid, destroy the Icarus that appears (the final kill for the Security Complex area), and ride the lift platform down the shaft revealed at its center. At the lower level you'll find a HyperBlaster and health items. Go through the door to the south and step onto the lift that takes you to the ../Grid Control/ area.



Secrets
This level has just one (1) secret:
 * Approach the closed door on the left of the courtyard where you enter the level from the Detention Center. It will open; go through and fight the Strogg in the hallways to arrive in a room with equipment racks, computers and Combat Armor.  There is an exit from this room to another courtyard that, until you turn them off, is blocked by yellow lasers.  With your Blaster, shoot the wall to the right of this exit, behind the two packs of Grenades on the floor.  If you get very close to the wall and look at an angle you can see that it is set back very slightly, but from any distance this wall looks featureless and there is no clue that wall drops down when shot.  But, drop down it does and in the alcove so revealed is a Grenade Launcher.  When you enter to take it you receive the message "You have found a secret".