Pathways Into Darkness takes place in an ancient pyramid on the Yucatan Peninsula. As a member of a secret special forces team, you have been dropped by parachute near the site of a pre-history asteroid impact. During your parachute drop you are separated from the rest of your team. Unable to locate them, you assume they are lost, or worse, and embark on your mission to save the world, alone.

Introduction

The alien projection appeared in the early Spring of 1994, flickering suddenly into existence deep within the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. The hologram of the Jjaro diplomat interrupted, quite deliberately, an important briefing of the President by his senior military staff. It told them they had eight days to save the world.

No one outside the six men present that day knows exactly what was said in the hours that followed; only that a Special Forces Team, armed to the teeth, was immediately afterwards ordered to paradrop near the site of an ancient asteroid impact in the Yucatan Peninsula.

Background

Sixty-four million years ago, a large extra-terrestrial object struck the Earth in what would later be called the Yucatan Peninsula, in southeastern Mexico. The dust and rock thrown up by the resulting explosion caused enormous climactic changes in the ensuing years, and many of the Earth's species became extinct during the long winter that followed.

The object itself was buried thousands of feet below ground, its nearly two kilometer length remarkably intact. It remained there, motionless, for thousands of years before it finally began to stir - and to dream. It was a member of a race whose history began when the Milky Way was still a formless collection of dust and gas - a powerful race of immortals which had quickly grown bored of their tiny universe and nearly exterminated themselves in war.

This particular being, whose name no human throat will ever learn to pronounce, was part of the cataclysmic battle that formed Magellanic Clouds, billions of years ago. It died there, or it came as close to dying as these things can, and drifted aimlessly for millions of light years before striking the Earth.

The heat of impact liquefied the rock around it, which later cooled and encased the dead god's huge body far below ground. As it began to dream, it wrought unintentional changes in its environment. Locked deep beneath the Earth, strange and unbelievable things faded in and out of reality. Vast caverns and landscapes bubbled to life within the rock, populated by horrible manifestations of the dead god's dream.

Only during the last few centuries has the god begun to effect changes on the surface of the Earth. Grotesque creatures have been sighted deep in the trackless forest of the Yucatan, and strange rumors of an ancient pyramid - which is neither Aztec nor Mayan - in the same area have been circulating in the archaeological community since the early 1930's.

The god is awakening.

Objective

Though the god can never be killed, the projection of the Jjaro dignitary told us here on Earth that if we acted quickly we could prevent it from awakening. To do this, however, someone was going to have to carry a low-yield nuclear device down to the god's body and detonate it there. This would not only stun the dreaming god, but further bury it under millions of tons of rock.

The Jjaro claim to have made an extensive survey of the Earth's technology, and maintain that this is the only way. More permanent measures will by taken by the aliens themselves (who are already on their way) when they arrive in two and a half Earth years.

The aliens have provided us with a great deal of intelligence on the strange pyramid in the Yucatan, and the catacombs below it. This information has been compiled into this briefing, and has been presented to you and every other member of the assault team. Good luck.

Timetable

Ryu'Toth, the Jjaro representative, appeared via hologram in the Pentagon at 1500 hours (3:00PM) on Thursday May 5, 1994. You and the rest of the assault team will be dropped from a C-151 transport over the Yucatan shortly after 0200 (2:00 AM) on Sunday May 8. This leaves five days before the dreaming god awakes, sometime in the afternoon on the following Friday.

In addition to weapons and ammunition, your squad of eight men will carry a small, low-yield nuclear device and three radio beacons. The bomb must be placed at the lowest point you are able to descend into the god's tunnels. Detonation can be delayed as long as forty-eight hours by the bomb's timer, but should under no circumstances occur after 1400 (2:00 PM) on Friday.

Upon returning to the surface, triggering any one of the radio beacons will signal the extraction team to pick you up. Ten minutes are required from the time the extraction signal is given to the time the helicopters arrive at the pyramid. Allow an additional ten minutes for the helicopters to reach minimum safe distance from the explosion of the nuclear device you have been given.

Game Introduction

Unfortunately things don't go quite as planned. During the jump from the C-151 your primary parachute fails, and you are able to pull the reserve only moments before crashing through the forest canopy toward the ground.

Two hours later you awake, unharmed except for a few bruises, to realize that most of your equipment is missing or damaged (fortunately someone else jumped with the nuclear device). The muzzle of your M-16 is bent just enough to render it useless, and the bag holding the spare clips for your Colt .45 is lost in the deep jungle underbrush. About the only things which didn't break were your flashlight and survival knife.

You finally reach the pyramid, by foot, at a little after 0600 (6:00 AM). The rest of your team must have entered nearly four hours ago. Armed only with a knife, and the knowledge contained in this briefing, you follow them ...