Keen 5 Story

From KeenWiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Commander Keen 5: The Armageddon Machine starts right after Keen 4 ends. Having previously freed the Council Members from their exile in the Shadowlands and having had them activate the Oracle (see Keen 4 Story), Keen learned that the Shikadi are in the Korath system and are planning to destroy the Milky Way with their Armageddon Machine, the Omegamatic.

Keen rapidly heads to Korath III, where the Omegamatic is being constructed in orbit around the planet. Once there, he sneaks aboard the lower floors by docking with a ventilation duct near the main exhaust.

Once onboard, Keen goes nuts, shooting all sorts of robots, defenses, and creatures, including the Shikadi. His aim is first to make it past the lower floors to the main deck, then to destroy each of the four machines protecting the main elevator shaft. (Each of which is protected by a defense tunnel.) This grants access to the second elevator, allowing Keen to use it to travel to the upper deck where he may then attack the core of the Omegamatic, the Quantum Explosion Dynamo.

The official story reads:
Keen Episode Five:

The Armageddon Machine

Last episode, our hero Billy blasted off in search of the mysterious Shikadi, who serve "the Gannalech" and plan to destroy the galaxy! After a short delay, Keen rocketed to Gnosticus IV, only to find the Council Members missing. The Shikadi kidnapped 'em!

Keen flew to the Shadowlands, faced horrible foes, and rescued the kidnapped ancients.

After Keen freed them from their imprisonment, the immortal Council Members activated their source of galactic wisdom, the Oracle. The Oracle informed Keen that the Shikadi had nearly completed a machine to obliterate the galaxy!

This episode finds Keen in stealth mode, sneaking his Bean-with-Bacon Megarocket up to the Omegamatic. Securing his Attach-O-Ray to an exhaust port, Keen enters the Omegamatic and begins his most dangerous adventure yet!
The scrolling story reads:

Episode Five

The Armageddon Machine

After learning the location of the secret Shikadi base, Keen jumped in the trusty Bean-with-Bacon Megarocket and blasted across interstellar space.

Seventy-five furious games of Paddle War later, Keen dropped out of lightspeed near the Korath system.

He flew toward the planet, keeping it between him and the base.

Pulling up underside and docking at the Ion Ventilation system, Keen must destroy the Shikadi Armageddon Machine before it explodes and destroys the Milky Way! He steps into the dark ventilation duct and begins his most dangerous adventure yet...

Ending

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
After successfully destroying the Omegamatic, Keen takes a look around its executive offices, finding nothing but a single letter at what appears to be the chairperson's desk (see the screenshot at the right.) It is written in the Standard Galactic Alphabet, so he takes the note with him to decipher when he gets home, not noticing Mortimer McMire's helmet sitting under the desk. Meanwhile, the Shikadi do one of two different things; if the fuse has been broken on their secret Korath III Base, they are stranded there and get fined for illegally double-parking. If not, then they escape back to their home galaxy.
See The Mortimer Letter.

At the end of this episode, a suggestive announcement about The Universe Is Toast was made, but id Software moved on to bigger projects, such as Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake, and so the promise was never fulfilled.

The official end-story reads:
You have completed "Goodbye, Galaxy!" Commander Keen has saved the day once again!

But things are still in motion . . . .

With their Quantum Explosion Dynamo in ruins, the Shikadi rush to their getaway ship and hightail it back to their own galaxy.

<Alternate Ending>With their Quantum Explosion Dynamo in ruins, the Shikadi rush to their getaway ship to hightail it back to their own galaxy. Due to a freak fuse malfunction, they cannot take off and are arrested by the Korath III Police for double-parking.</Alternate Ending>

Keen rummages through the control room of the QED for clues as to why the Shikadi wanted to blow up the galaxy. He stumbles upon a note written in the Standard Galactic Alphabet.

Keen takes the note with him to decipher on the long space voyage home, not seeing anything else of interest . . . .

Back at home after having saved the galaxy, Billy feeds his rain-soaked parents ice cream and gently shakes them back to consciousness. Hopefully, this won't affect his allowance.

See you Christmas '92 when Commander Keen returns to battle for the universe! It'll be the biggest Keen ever! You won't believe your eyes!

Thanks for playing!
Retrieved from ‘https://keenwiki.shikadi.net/w/index.php?title=Keen_5_Story&oldid=28680’