Headscratchers / Quake II

• Anyone know why the Iron Maidens say "traitor" when attacking?
  • To me it sounds like "Freeze". Maybe that's what they're saying.
  • Considering they used to be human, they've probably been mentally warped and twisted to the point where becoming a Strogg is seen as a gift, something that should be celebrated. And you, a fellow human who refuses to go through the process, is a traitor to your own kind, too ignorant to realize how "great" becoming one of them truly is.
• Why are there only three species of wildlife on the entire planet of Stroggos (barracuda-sharks, mutants, and Gekks?) Did the Strogg hunt everything else to extinction to make more Stroylent/Strogg parts?
  • Judging by the extent of the Strogg's industrialization, it's likely they polluted their planet to such an extent very few forms of wildlife still exist.
• Why humans launched two waves of marine invasion on Stroggos instead of just nuking the planet into molten glass with the same mass of nuclear warheads? Okay, the first "manned" invasion could be explained by a lack of data about the enemy and the assumption that there may be human prisoners to rescue - or some kind of civilian stroggs. But the second invasion?
  • No plan survives contact with the enemy. The original mission plan was for the TCM fleet to bombard Stroggos from low orbit once the Big Gun was destroyed, but the Strogg had layers upon layers of countermeasures. The first invasion wasn't expecting an EMP capable of wiping out entire waves of small craft, nor were the second invasion expecting the Strogg air force to be advanced enough to intercept and destroy drop pods. Both cases would have destroyed a swarm of nuclear missiles just as easily. Finally, the TCM fleet threw everything they had at the Gravity Well when it came online to no effect, meaning the war on Stroggos was only ever going to be won by boots on the ground.
    • But enough pods penetrated defenses to launch said invasion. So it's logical to assume that at least the same amount of warheads would penetrate (actually most likely much more, since warheads are smaller and did not need to care about human inside the pod).
• Why is closing the hangar doors in the Hangar Unit such a big deal? I get its to prevent any ships from taking off (or landing) but compared to blowing up the Black Hole Generator it seems rather pointless. Couldn't the Strogg just open it again?
• In the first unit your main objective is to establish communication with the fleet. Except they are already able to send you objectives on your F1 computer thing, and you can hear them talking on the radio, so don't you already have some kind of communication link?
• Why does the railgun have a blue spiral trail? Is it just to make it obvious if someone is shooting at you with one?