So what's the deal with the aliens?

[Darth Wang]

In D1, a computer virus of unknown origin infects mining mechs in the solar system.

In D2, it infects mines beyond the solar system, and the Material Defender tracks it to an alien planetoid and destroys it.

In D2 Vertigo, the virus infects even more mines outside of the solar system, and another Material Defender destroys them.

In D3, the main antagonist is Dravis, who is using the virus for his own goals.

In D3 Mercenary (I haven't played it), the player encounters and destroys another alien planetoid, killing an 'alien queen'.

I always thought that if there was a D4 made, it would reveal everything about the aliens and possibly have you destroy them once and for all. But that never happened.

So there are still so many unresolved questions:

- Who/what are the aliens?
- Where do they come from?
- Why did they create the virus and what was their goal with it?
- What is the deal with the planetoid spaceships?
- What was the deal with the alien queen?
- Are the aliens still active/a threat after the events of D3?

Does anyone have any answers for these?

[Jeff250]

As an aside, I feel that the plot of Descent 3 was fairly weak, and I like to pretend that it never happened. Dravis was initially an interesting character, a cold bureaucrat but someone who also demonstrated genuine concern and remorse for the Material Defender at the end of Descent 2. There was so much potential for the character to develop, but, instead, Descent 3 turned him into a cartoon villain, which I just don't find that interesting.

[vision]

In my opinion, the aliens in Mercenary are not related to the virus at all. My interpretation of the virus is that it's an organism capable of transforming an environment into a hive-like entity that can propagate through space. For instance, the final "alien planetoid" level of D2 was possibly the end product of an infestation which perhaps started as a small outbreak that eventually transformed an entire asteroid into a single-minded creature.

[Alter-Fox]

Mercenary mentions at one point in its briefings that the planetoid at the end of Descent 2 wasn't the source of the virus, and was just infected with it like everything else.
But there were a lot of problems with the way D3 told its story... not least of which is the entire middle third or so of the game:
"The military thinks we're terrorists? Awesome. Then let's hijack one of their crashed ships, blow up an oil refinery on a moon that might have had undiscovered life (well, at least until we did that), break into a shipyard to steal the most heavily-armed vehicle around, and then sneak into one of their own bases to deposit suspicious "evidence" all over all their networks. They'll definitely be convinced we're not terrorists after we wreck all their stuff!"

Mmm... though, on the opposite note, I'd actually recommend giving Mercenary a playthrough if you can, DW. The level designs are a bit better than D3's stock campaign, and the story is at least slightly more coherent... it's certainly more entertaining when you're playing for the cartoon villain's team.

As far as aliens go... well if Descent "2020" never comes out, or doesn't contradict it, I see no reason to think Overload isn't a stealth-prequel to all the Descents after all.

[Darth Wang]

I'd love to but my copy of D3 was lost a long time ago.

[Alter-Fox]

Oh, it's been a while since I got a chance to read the novels but IIRC they had their own ideas about the aliens.
I remember thinking there was a way that they could have fit into the Overload story too, but I don't remember exactly how.
Do remember something about some kinda vengeful god they were trying to run away from as fast as possible...