0: Prison Sex

initializing....cmdstat active Ordovices-Class Brigantine Empty Scabbard mated to the following adapted-orbital and deep-space platforms: 4x Falkirk Class munitions manufcturing standard 2x Falkirk Class munitions manufactuing extended 1x Crystal Pillow Class powerplant standard (recm) Security and communications breaches detected. Please summon external assistance immediately! (recm: this automated message is 49 hours, 31 minutes old. no other messages available.) incoming message (page forward to view)

incm (mref914271-0010) (1/2) It's bad enough being imprisoned. When the inhabitants of the floating prison begin using each other for target practice, though, the situation becomes intolerable. Get the hell out of there. Most of those onboard have already been slaughtered.

incm (mref914271-0010) (2/2) Locate the outerhull corridor. You'll find several doors; at least one should still be functioning. We don't know what's behind those doors, but that shouldn't stop you. This 'vessel' also served as a munitions plant. As we track your movements, we'll try to transfer some of the stores to more useful coordinates. Chin up.

incm (mref914271-0410) (1/3) During the onslaught, many subsystems in this flying scrapyard were destroyed, including most of the munitions plants. Fortunately a few of them are still receiving secondary and tertiary power, and responding to the corresponding control circuits. You must locate the fusion subsystem manufacturing plant -- that's the last location your sister reported in from before we lost contact with her. If our coordinates are correct, she's behind one of the lift mechanisms.

incm (mref914271-0410) (2/3) We lost track of her shortly after we jumped into this system, and I need you to find out if she made it to the relative safety of the brigantine. Good luck, and please hurry. I have to know if she's safe.

incm (mref914271-0410) (3/3) By the way, something has begun a slow, steady invasion of our command mecha. This happened a few minutes ago, and we don't know what exactly is going on... we haven't lost any functionality, but many of the core system processes are automating and organizing themselves, independent of our commands. It's like the system suddenly found a mind of its own. This would be irrelevant, except for the fact that one thread in the mecha seems to have dedicated itself to tracking your movements through the brigantine. Watch yourself.

incm (mref914271-7116) (1/2) I remember my days on this ship fondly... as an officer, of course. It's not a friendly place to be a prisoner. That was before the UESC adopted its new doctrine on prisons: "Throw all prisoners into abandoned or unreclaimable deep-space facilities. Let them eat each other."

incm (mref914271-7116) (2/2) You're cleaning up this jailhouse riot quite nicely, but maybe you should devote more attention to finding your sister. No sign of her yet! You don't have time for this. Get her back to me - I beg you... ......... (message incomplete..ete....

Come. I require you.

incm (mstatus) Terminal failure (protocol mismatch) loading reference 914271-7116. Please contact the system administrator and report this problem.

incm (mref914271-7990) (1/1) What are you lookin' at? Oh - that's Jack. If you're looking for a little subplot - it ain't here...but here's some background information on how "Tempus Irae 2 - The Lost Levels" came about: When the original TI was in the process of taking form, I asked a few close friends to see if they would be interested in helping me out. One of those was Devon Belcher, someone I had come to know through agm. Devon was anxious to make some maps - and what he came up with blew us all away - literally. No one (except our vidmaster testers) was able to comfortably beat the levels he made. After dozens of revisions, he realized his original plans had been skewed to a point of personal dislike. It was no longer what he had hoped to contribute - and it wasn't fitting in with the plans Nardo had already made...so Devon and Nardo parted ways. Throughout the seperation we still kept in touch - but not with the same enthusiasm we once shared. Plans were made to "one day" release Devon's levels as a small solo scenario. He enlisted some of his other friends to help out...sadly, nothing developed. In late April,I wrote Devon to see how things were going...his project had stalled. Nardo was bored silly, Devon had some killer (no pun intended) levels already done - so we decided to add a few more. James Hastings-Trew had an idea he *had* to try out (quite successfully, as you will find out), I had an idea up my sleeve, and Steve Campbell was itchin' to make another map. Some new recruits were added due to their unbridled enthusiasm: Richard Dierkes was sending in TI net maps by the truckload - we were so impressed, we asked him to make a solo level...at last count he had at least 2 of those done, and half a dozen net maps! Then things really got weird... Randy Reddig (ydnar) had a map on the backburner - a net map - that he allowed James to convert to an amazing solo adventure. Another good friend decided to chip in: Gabe Rosenkoetter dove in (at the 11th hour) and whipped up a net map of his own. But the icing on the cake was when Randall Shaw (`Fm) honored us with one of his new maps. Never have I been more thrilled to have worked with such a brilliant group of individuals. My wholehearted THANKS goes out to each and every one of them. *Once again, none of this would've been made possible without the generous services (FTP, and email listserver) of Mr. Spoiler Guide himself (M1, M2, M∞, Evil!, and Tempus Irae) Michael K. Neylon. Have fun. ....Borzz