Billy Blaze's 9th birthday has come and gone, and after all of Mortimer McMire's plans and threats, the Universe is still in one piece. The threat of its destruction, however, still remains. For seven months, Billy Blaze, also know as intergalactic hero Commander Keen, has undergone rigorous training to prepare for what he knows will be his most difficult task. In these seven months, he has learned how to handle a variety of new weapons, such as an underwater Harpoon, and the powerful and deadly Plutezarp. Healthy bowls of Sugar Stoopies chased by delicious chocolate milk have increased Keen's constitution considerably; no longer can a single hit from a small foe incapacitate him completely. Even his wristwatch has changed, newly upgraded to Windows95 (unfortunately, Pong was in Win3.1, and kept crashing his watch, so Billy had to remove it). All in all it's been a year of changes for our hero. And he's about to go on a journey which will change his life forever...

THE FATEFUL DAY

After a fun day at the firing range with his Dad, Keen came home and decided to tune up the Bean-with-Bacon Megarocket, since it was time for its 100,000,000-light-years check-up. While working, he cranked up the Photacyhon Transceiver, the faster-than-light radio which had helped him locate the Shikadi, looking for some cool tunes. After getting a lot of static and bad public-access stations, Keen stumbled on a station speaking Omnispeak, the language he learned a long time ago on Vorticon VI.

"Soon will come a great day for the leaders of Isis II," Keen hears a loud, patriotic voice say. "Today we shall lead our forces to victory!" Billy hears loud cheering on the radio, and begins to wonder if a war is about to break out. "This will be a glorious war, my comrades!" shouts the mysterious voice, and Keen realizes that there is about to be serious unrest. Always a defender of peace and freedom, Billy dons his brother's football helmet and transforms into Commander Keen, the greatest space hero in the universe.

Keen begins searching his interstellar database for Isis II. Just as he locates it, the radio crackles, "In one week our elite squadrons, the finest fighters in the galaxy, shall fly to the outer rim of the Milky Way -- to the Sol System, just beyond the Dead Star -- and precipitate an assualt on the third planet from the system's sun." Keen looks up in horror as he realizes where the attack is headed. The Dead Star is the galaxy's name for Alpha Centauri - one star away from Earth! "Nothing can stop us now! Soon we shall triumph and enslave the pathetic Terrans of the Sol system forever - and with labor that cheap, we'll build new ships, and conquer new worlds! We shall be the supreme rulers of the Milky Way!"

Wasting no time, Keen fires up the Bean-with-Bacon and prepares to head for Isis II. The radio falls silent for a moment, and then these chilling words are spoken: "There is one threat we will not tolerate. That is the boy who has humiliated the Vorticons, Shikadi, and Bloogs all within the span of one year. My soldiers, you have one additional order besides the capture of Sol III. You are to hunt down and kill the hero known as Commander Keen if he tries to stop us." More cheers erupt on the radio, and Keen is paralyzed as he can't believe what he is hearing. "For glory! For power! For empire! For the greatest race in the galaxy, the ----" just then, the Transceiver's battery dies.

THE MISSION

Keen sits frozen for a moment. "They're coming to attack Earth," he thinks, "and they know who I am and they'll be looking for me." Keen feels his stomach sink as he realizes the gravity of the situation. "And worst of all," he whispers, "this time I don't even know what I'm up against." Silence fills the Bean-with-Bacon Megarocket. Finally, the silence is broken by the quiet sigh of an 9-year-old boy activating his ship's cloaking device and jumping into hyperspace, headed for his most dangerous and difficult mission yet....