Editing Quake 4 (section)

==Plot==
[[File:Quake4-Nexus.png|thumb|right|Corporal Matthew Kane prepares to take out the Strogg Nexus with his Rail Gun.]]
The ''Quake 4'' single player mode continues the story of ''[[Quake II]]'' by pitting the player against cyborg alien race known as the [[Strogg]]. The game follows the story of a Marine Corporal named Matthew Kane who is joining the elite Rhino Squad.<ref>[http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/quake4/preview_6130026.html?page=1 Quake 4 Designer Diary No. 1 – The Characters of Quake 4] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220720133053/https://www.gamespot.com/articles/quake-4-designer-diary-1-the-characters-of-quake-4/1100-6130026/ |date=July 20, 2022 }} [[GameSpot]], July 29, 2005</ref> Following the success of the protagonist of ''Quake II'' in destroying the Strogg's leader, the Makron, Rhino Squad is tasked with spearheading the mission to secure the aliens' home planet Stroggos. In the course of the invasion, the squad ship is shot down and crashes in the middle of a battle zone, separating Kane from his companions.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://guides.gamepressure.com/quake4/guide.asp?ID=266 |title=Quake 4 Game Guide:Air Defense Bunker |work=Gamepressure.com |access-date=December 18, 2006 |archive-date=September 27, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001556/http://guides.gamepressure.com/quake4/guide.asp?ID=266 |url-status=live }}</ref> Kane rejoins his scattered team members and partakes in the assault against the Strogg.

After performing a number of tasks, such as destroying and capturing Strogg aircraft hangars and defense systems,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://guides.gamepressure.com/quake4/guide.asp?ID=269 |title=Quake 4 Game Guide:Interior Hangar |work=Gamepressure.com |access-date=December 18, 2006 |archive-date=September 27, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927000623/http://guides.gamepressure.com/quake4/guide.asp?ID=269 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://guides.gamepressure.com/quake4/guide.asp?ID=270 |title=Quake 4 Game Guide:MCC Landing Site |work=Gamepressure.com |access-date=December 18, 2006 |archive-date=September 27, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001851/http://guides.gamepressure.com/quake4/guide.asp?ID=270 |url-status=live }}</ref> Kane and his remaining squad members make it to the ''USS Hannibal''. There they are given their next mission: infiltrating one of the Strogg's central communication hubs, the Tetranode, with an [[electromagnetic pulse]] bomb in the hope that it will put the main Strogg Nexus in disarray. Kane is tasked with defending the mission convoy,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://guides.gamepressure.com/quake4/guide.asp?ID=272 |title=Quake 4 Game Guide:Canyon |work=Gamepressure.com |access-date=December 18, 2006 |archive-date=September 27, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001654/http://guides.gamepressure.com/quake4/guide.asp?ID=272 |url-status=live }}</ref> which takes heavy casualties. After many setbacks, including the destruction of the EMP device by a Strogg ambush, Kane is left to complete the mission, assisted only by Private Johann Strauss ([[Peter Stormare]]) and Lance Corporal Nikolai "Sledge" Slidjonovitch ([[Dimitri Diatchenko]]). Strauss figures out a way to destroy the core by shutting down its coolant systems. As Kane reaches the entrance to the Tetranode, however, he is greeted by two rocket-equipped network guardians, as well as the newly constructed Makron, which easily defeats Kane and knocks him unconscious.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://guides.gamepressure.com/quake4/guide.asp?ID=277 |title=Quake 4 Game Guide:Nexus Hub |work=Gamepressure.com |access-date=December 18, 2006 |archive-date=September 27, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001825/http://guides.gamepressure.com/quake4/guide.asp?ID=277 |url-status=live }}</ref>

When Kane awakens, he finds himself strapped to a conveyor belt in the Strogg "Medical Facilities", a structure used for turning those captured and killed by the aliens either into protein food or additional Strogg units. In a long and gruesome first-person [[cutscene]], Kane is taken through this "stroggification" process which violently replaces much of his anatomy with bio-mechanical parts. Before the final controlling neurochip implanted in his brain can be activated, though, Rhino Squad bursts into the facility and rescues Kane.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://guides.gamepressure.com/quake4/guide.asp?ID=278 |title=Quake 4 Game Guide:Strogg Medical Facilities |work=Gamepressure.com |access-date=December 18, 2006 |archive-date=September 27, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001813/http://guides.gamepressure.com/quake4/guide.asp?ID=278 |url-status=live }}</ref> After escaping through the Strogg medical facility and Waste Disposal plant, fighting off zombie-like half-stroggified humans along the way, Kane is forced to combat his former commander, Lieutenant Voss (Michael Gannon), who has been fully stroggified into a powerful mechanized monster but retains his own consciousness long enough to warn Kane.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://guides.gamepressure.com/quake4/guide.asp?ID=283 |title=Quake 4 Game Guide:Waste Processing Facility |work=Gamepressure.com |access-date=December 18, 2006 |archive-date=September 27, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001819/http://guides.gamepressure.com/quake4/guide.asp?ID=283 |url-status=live }}</ref> After defeating this threat, Kane and the remaining marines finally make it back to the ''Hannibal''.

The commanders realize that Kane's Strogg physiology has opened up new possibilities for defeating the Strogg, as he can be used to infiltrate locations and teleportation areas previously impenetrable and/or fatally harmful to human forces. The new plan is to directly target the Strogg Nexus Core, a huge centralized brain-like structure which controls the alien forces. The Marines are tasked with infiltrating the three data towers adjacent to the Nexus: Data Storage, Processing, and Networking. There, they will deactivate the Nexus' shield and power up the teleporter used to access the Nexus and send Kane in. Once inside, Kane will travel to the center of the Nexus to destroy the Core Brain and its guardian.

After infiltrating the facility and realigning the data nodes powering the teleporter, and destroying its fearsome "Guardian" creature,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://guides.gamepressure.com/quake4/guide.asp?ID=294 |title=Quake 4 Game Guide:Data Networking Security |work=Gamepressure.com |access-date=December 18, 2006 |archive-date=September 27, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001628/http://guides.gamepressure.com/quake4/guide.asp?ID=294 |url-status=live }}</ref> Kane reaches the Nexus core. There he meets the Makron in a final showdown and kills it. This accomplished, he destroys the Core and returns to the ''Hannibal''. Celebrating with Rhino Squad afterward, Kane receives word that he has new orders.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://guides.gamepressure.com/quake4/guide.asp?ID=296 |title=Quake 4 Game Guide:The Nexus |work=Gamepressure.com |access-date=December 18, 2006 |archive-date=September 27, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001753/http://guides.gamepressure.com/quake4/guide.asp?ID=296 |url-status=live }}</ref>