“It’s clear that the Argenta settlements discovered in Hell were off-world colonies lost early in their civilization’s history, but some data is certain. All citizens were arduously trained from childhood in the arts of combat and sorcery, essential for defense against the constant danger of demonic assaults that plagued them since their earliest days. The best fighters were conscripted to the armies of Night Sentinels while the best sorcerers became Warpers, both vital not only to the Argenta military but their society as well. Records indicate the Argenta worshipped three beings known as the Wraiths, primal beasts native to their homeworld of Argent D’Nur, extremely powerful and extremely dangerous. The Wraiths were infused with a great elemental energy which was harnessed by the Argenta to fuel their technology and magic. Through blade and ritual, the Argenta fended off the Wraiths’ attacks and pacified their rage while wielding their energy to vanquish all demonic threats. They even used this energy to power giant piloted mechs called Atlans. The Argenta credit the Wraiths with the origin of their homeworld’s biosphere, including the mighty dragon-like Ancestrals and even themselves, but it’s difficult to distinguish fact from myth in this regard. Argent D’Nur was a theological stratocracy where only the strongest warrior was fit to rule as sovereign king or queen, but the wisest Warpers served as spiritual leaders in the Order of the Deag, comprised of three Priests who tended to the Wraiths. The current location and fate of Argent D’Nur remains unknown.”

- UAC Report File ‘Argent D’Nur” 2/2; dated 2104

E1M5: Perdition

I vaguely remembered what it was like to travel through a teleporter. A flash of blue light, a woosh, and I’d instantly appear on the other side. No fuss, no hassle, easier than taking the elevator.

Traveling through a rift in Hell’s reality was nothing like using a teleporter.

It felt as if my whole body – limbs, innards, brain – was being pulled and stretched simultaneously in a dozen different directions. Up, down, back, forth, in, out, and other directions I couldn’t even imagine, all shifting and twisting at the same time. It wasn’t painful, at least I didn’t associate it with traumatic agony, but I was filled with an endless and just as excruciating sensation of vertigo. As if some…higher thing had attached a bungee cord (a cosmic string?) to my guts and was pulling all of me along through higher dimensions. I couldn’t understand it, much less describe it.

I soared past grand and terrible vistas that seemed as near as they were far. Twisted towers hanging from the fangs of a colossal skull. Great and horrifying shapes fighting each other on gnarled landscapes, crumbling the very mountains in their wake. An oscillating sky of fiery fractals that I too late realized was a single giant eye staring at me. I felt unbelievably tiny and helpless in its gaze, but to my immense disbelief, I safely flew past the eye and put it behind me.

Was it too far away? Or was I not worth the trouble? I would have shuddered had I not been screaming in terror, but I could hardly hear my voice over the deafening sounds of chaos.

“AAAAAAHHHHHH!!”

And just like that it was over. It probably hadn’t lasted so long but to me it felt like forever. I’d landed on some hard surface and squirmed on the ground as I gathered my bearings, focusing on keep my innards inside and trying to stop the world from spinning. I was half-convinced my brain would start dripping out my ears at any moment.

Did I still have innards? …And a brain?

Groaning, I heavily picked myself up as I tried to clear my head. My ears were ringing and my eyes still ached after the sensory assault they’d been subjected to.

Now I understood why the UAC used those creepy robots to explore Hell. My upgrades must be something similar. No human could ever survive this cursed realm, let alone come back.

One did.

Really? Who was it? I…can’t remember.

Wait, robots? Explore…Hell…they sent people here? How did I know that? And who had-

I saw a single eye, a long vertical strip of light at the center of a smooth metallic face, flash into my memory. The face was pitch-black, and the eye was a bright glaring red. My blood instantly turned to ice.

“John, you still operational?”

I gasped. I’d completely forgotten about Colonel Johnson after that experience.

“C-Colonel! Yes! Reporting!”

“Keep your voice down, you idiot! Your systems are scrambled eggs and I’m still trying to get a lock on you! Where in Hell are you?”

Where- WHERE THE DEVIL AM I?!

I anxiously spun around to scan my surroundings for any possible threats but stopped moments later when I spotted the shape in the distance.

It was a Tree. A colossal and emaciated Tree that towered high above the horizon. It was tall, and pale. The palest thing I could have ever imagined. It cast no light, but its sheer paleness seemed blinding in the darkness of Hell. My eyes were glued to it, unable to move away from its terrible splendor. It was simultaneously the most beautiful and most horrifying sight I’d ever laid my eyes upon.

And I could hear it speaking to me.

“-dier! Soldier, report! What’s your status?!”

“…u-uh, status!”

With great effort I tore my eyes off the Tree to survey my environment. It was too dark to see clearly – and being in Hell I guessed I would have to get used to that – but besides the Tree could spot nothing else on that unbroken rocky landscape. The sky was a dim turquoise color, almost like a thick haze that diffused what little sickly light shone through. I caught a brief glimpse of majestic forms in the sky behind the Tree, like dark pyramids that cast the landscape in their shadow. It seemed to me like they circled around the Tree, almost as if in adoration. Their mere countenance filled my heart with overwhelming dread. I forced my gaze away from them and stared at the barren ground. This was a place I was not supposed to witness. A place I was not supposed to be in.

Standing in this cursed world, I still had that feeling of corruption – like I was inside a nuclear reactor, being bombarded with radiation that turned by body to ash – but unlike the dark ship and forest of spines I’d escaped from, this new location was eerily empty.

And quiet. I could hear absolutely nothing, not even the faintest whisper of a breeze upon those rocks. The paleness of the Tree came into focus.

This was a place of death.

“Soldier!”

“I’m…I’m on flat terrain! No enemies or landmarks in sight! Only thing I see is a tall white Tree!”

“…My God.”

“Colonel?”

Johnson sighed. “Looks like you have no choice.”

“…This Tree isn’t going to eat me, is it?”

“Not everything in Hell has teeth and claws, soldier. Some things are dangerous in much more subtle ways.”

“Sir?”

“Look, head towards the Tree and start climbing. If you can reach the branchtips, you might be able to make use of the situation. If not…let’s hope you don’t lose yourself.”

* * *

The Marine blazed across the Martian surface at tremendous speed, raising a thick trail of dust in his wake, racing towards the slender Argent Tower that loomed ahead like a knife against the dark blue of the evening Martian sky.

The atmosphere remained hazy but with the energy vortex above the Tower gone, the sandstorm was blowing away. He rushed down a dilapidated highway on which dozens of wrecked transport vehicles lay motionlessly, their passengers still and silent in their seats. The highway leading up to the Tower and its surrounding infrastructure was clear of enemies and the Marine could see why.

The Tower’s whole exterior and base was teeming with the claws and teeth of thousands of demons from all over the planet. The Marine could see Hell Knights and zombies of every kind patrolling the outer platforms while imps and Lost Souls guarded the vertical surfaces. It seemed there was hardly a spot on the twelve-hundred-meter-tall Tower that was not occupied by a demon.

They had planned this. It wouldn’t be long before Pierce reached the Tower peak, and the horde was too thick to make the shorter route of climbing the exterior a viable option. The Marine would have to enter the Tower.

He frowned as he entered a stretch of highway that crossed a deep chasm in the surface, a portion of the bridge crumbled to the canyon below.

Why was the Base built on top of this wretched canyon system?! Better question: why did the Fracture appear here of all places?! WHO CREATED THE DAMN FRACTURE?!

The Marine would have yelled in frustration as he soared over the gap in the bridge, but he didn’t. He couldn’t. He merely leapt over the collapsed portion of the bridge and equipped his rocket launcher as he approached the outermost of the demons’ forces.

But his rage was building; the fire escalated within his blood and the waveforms generated by his Resonators became more intense. If need be, he might be able to go Berserk for the final confrontation.

Three hundred meters to the Tower.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! He cleared a path through the horde and rushed through before the flying gibs even landed on the concrete. He dodged and strafed out of the way of a hundred projectiles, fireballs, rail bolts, and rockets. A Hell Knight leapt over the crowd with fire in its claws and fury in its eyes. The Marine threw a stun bomb at the monster and launched two rockets as he charged at it before brandishing his chainsaw and cutting the demon in two. The Hell Knight’s blood and tissues trailed behind him as the Praetor Suit siphoned them to restore munitions.

Two hundred meters to the Tower.

“AAAAAAHHHHHH…”

The Marine switched to his EMG and charged a power shot before releasing it at the ground in front of the headless kamikaze. The charging demon was thrown back by the force of the blast and into a squad of possessed soldiers, exploding and killing them all.

The demons on the lower exterior of the Tower crawled down from its steeled surface and charged at the Marine in a thick black wave of claws and teeth.

One hundred meters.

The Marine put the gun away and held his right hand back as he began focusing power into it. He sped up and Rampaged across the mob, effortlessly breaking through shell and bone as his fist crackled with scarlet energy.

Zero meters.

POWW!

* * *

ARGENT EXTRACTION SITE 32

WARNING: VOLATILE ARGENT PLASMA PRESENT

ENTRY IS RESTRICTED TO ALL PERSONNEL BELOW LEVEL 2

Ruby warily glanced at the danger signs as the team walked across the extraction site. It was an exterior sector located next to the mine they’d just exited, albeit less spacious with the industrial facilities needed to siphon and transport the effervescent Argent plasma.

Ruby took the lead along with Harrison, confident he would lead the group along a safe route through the hazardous sector, and even though the elderly scientist hadn’t stated it, it was clear he was on edge. And so was she. She knew this part of the Base was clear of demons, but she had never entered an extraction site before, and she was wary of the unfamiliar equipment and machineries. A thin red fog swirled lazily at their feet.

PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW!

In a split second Ruby had spun around and raised her pulse rifle. The engineer was shooting her HAR at a support pillar, the rounds glancing off the thick metal.

“CONTACT!” Rogers shouted in alarm.

The entire group aimed their weapons in alert, except for Harrison who crouched behind the trained personnel, but it was apparent that Reeves was shooting at nothing.

“Reeves!” Rogers yelled. “REEVES! STOP!”

The lieutenant grabbed the engineer’s hand and pried it off the trigger.

“Just what in Hell’s name do you think you’re doing?!”

“Something moved! It hid behind the pillar!”

“We’re in a damn automated sector! Of course something is going to be moving!”

“I know what I saw! It was one of those things, snarling at me!”

“Damn it, Reeves! You said it yourself, this part of the Base is clear of enemies! Get a hold of yourse-!”

“CONTACT!”

Romero dropped to his knees and aimed his vortex rifle, peering through the X-Glass scope. He panned the rifle left and right, but suddenly raised his gaze in a posture suggesting puzzlement.

The lieutenant’s contempt was clear in his voice.

“Are you losing your marbles too, mercenary?”

“Something’s scrambling my X-Glass. The feed’s all distorted.”

Ruby, who’d been silently observing the group’s exchanges, spoke up.

“Let me see your rifle, Hiro.”

The gunslinger passed his weapon to Ruby, who synced her visor to the rifle’s scope. Sure enough, what appeared in her visor was not the transparent monochromatic landscape particular to an X-Glass, but a chaotic field of hectic runes. She forced herself to keep her composure as her blood ran cold.

“Christopher,” she nonchalantly said as she returned the vortex rifle to its owner, “what’s happening here?”

The scientist said nothing.

“Christopher?”

“…I…I…I don’t know.”

The scientist was lying, but Ruby could tell that it was out of fear rather than malice.

Well, whatever it is, it hasn’t attacked yet. There’s no reason why there should still be any demons in this sector, and if we start panicking for no reason, we’ll all die anyway.

“Well,” she said to the group, “I’m thoroughly convinced extraction sites are spooky. But let’s not lose our heads here, all right? We still have a ways to go till Helix, so let’s stay focused and keep moving forward.”

“Agent?” Harrison fearfully spoke up. “Perhaps it might be best if we turned around. Attempt to find another route to the Labs. I’m sure it wouldn’t take so long.”

“This site offers the shortest route to the Labs, Christopher. We continue as planned.”

The scientist said nothing after that but Ruby could tell he was unconvinced. But that didn’t matter. They had to get off the planet as soon as possible.

“And, Amanda? Next time you see something that might be a threat, yell ‘contact’ before you start shooting.”

* * *

I had reached the base of the pale Tree and had started climbing it. Only once against it could I begin to fathom its size. It was huge, almost like a skyscraper.

How am I ever going to reach the top?

The trunk was not a smooth vertical surface but rather riddled with rough outcrops and deep recesses, which through my jump pack I used to gradually scale the towering Tree.

The Tree.

The Tree.

…could he be demon-kin, spawned from the loin of a grotesque infidel?...

Ugh. These whispers that filled my head, these thoughts, they were not my own. But they wouldn’t stop.

The Tree was somehow forcing itself into my mind. I knew it. Its presence filled my eyes, its power induced the pervading silence. I needed to get my mind off of it or I would lose it.

As Colonel Johnson said I would.

…yet, the seal of the heretic binds him. His origin is as dark as his coming-

I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHO HE IS!

“Colonel, you copy?”

“Loud and clear, soldier. What’s the matter?”

“That warship, that red hourglass one back there, what was that?”

“Not a clue in the world.”

“…What about the original ship I escaped from? There were others like me hanging from racks, you guided me out of there. And those figures and monsters I fought off, what were they? Were they UAC? Or something else?”

“They were hostiles, soldier. Unfriendlies. I did what I had to do: get you out.”

I climbed into a particularly deep hollow in the Tree’s trunk and prepared to jet over to the next one when I heard a soft chittering behind me. I quickly spun around and only briefly saw something pale and spindly leap at me before I reflexively fired my flak cannon and blew it to pieces. I cautiously leaned over to peer at the thing, a white spider-like creature oozing pale green fluid and its thin legs still twitching. It was larger than any spider I’d ever seen, the size of both my hands put together.

“John, you alright?”

“I’m fine. Just a local, by the looks of it. I’m guessing there’s gonna be more of these as I climb the Tree, but they don’t seem too dangerous. Not yet, anyway.

That red ship,” I said as I jetted to the next recess, “there’s no way it could have been man-made. Was that ship built by demons? Are there…civilizations here?”

Johnson sighed. “There are more things in Hell and Earth, John, than are dreamt of in our philosophy.”

A simple yes or no would suffice, I cynically thought as I prepared myself for the oncoming sermon.

“We know that Hell is a realm of eternal consumption. What it doesn’t destroy, it assimilates and corrupts. Makes demonic. I remember that some Hell beasts were actually once mortal creatures native to our universe, which were assimilated into Hell one way or another. Ironic, first extraterrestrial life from our universe we ever meet is in another dimension, and covered in pentagrams, at that. Shit, I think the science quacks’ latest theory is that Pinkies are actually Hellified Earth boars! Demon pigs! Can you believe it?!”

I fired my jump pack and leapt for next recess.

“But those are just savage beasts. Pretty much zombies. They don’t think or act on their own, just take orders from their higher-ups and bite at anything living they find.

But there are higher powers here. The Hell Knights, and Summoners. Those are pretty strong, they’re native to Hell, and I doubt they’re the top of the demons’ food chain. Is there anything here that can build a ship? That would build a ship? Either Hellified aliens or…something else?”

“…The company believes that intelligent Infernal agencies DO exist, but we’ve yet to discover any.”

I spotted a faint red glow on the lowest on the Tree’s branches, not too far from my position. In absence of any other visual cue, I climbed in that direction, switching my guns back to missile launchers as I spotted more spiders emerge from hollows in the Tree’s trunk.

“I just…didn’t expect there to be civilizations here. I thought Hell was just a barren wasteland inhabited by powerful but savage monsters. But if there was a ship here, who built it? Who was flying it? Where do they come from? And what do they want with me?”

The Colonel did not respond, and the silence was punctuated only by my missiles blasting the spiders into oozing pieces of shell that fell to the distant ground below. I decided to drop the subject.

“We’ve discovered abandoned fortresses within Hell, clearly not built by mortals but some native Infernal agency. We know that because their architecture incorporates Hell’s metaphysics rather than our universe’s. And we have no idea who built them. It may have been a sapient race of demons that has since gone extinct, or perhaps they were driven out by some event. Fled to some dark unexplored pit of Hell. Now those fortresses are only inhabited by wild demonic beasts. Perhaps they are the descendants of that former civilization. Who knows? Maybe they’re the ones that destroyed it.”

Colonel Johnson’s revelation stunned me, and I shuddered as the implications flooded my mind.

“They did exist. They must still.”

I had climbed to right underneath the Tree branch, a thick white log as wide as a house. I ran to the edge of the trunk hollow in which I stood and fired my jump pack to the most of its capacity. I just barely managed to grab the branch by one hand, struggling to pick myself up. As I hoisted myself onto the edge, I looked up to find a multitude of pale spiders crawling towards me. I had opened fire before I even stood up.

“Maybe. But if they still exist, we haven’t recovered any evidence of such. The majority of Scout Bots we send never come back. And apart from Dr. Hayden, no human has returned either.”

Hayden. That name…the chairman of the UAC?

He’s the one that came to Hell and returned?

I spotted the red glow further out on the branch. I shot my way through a growing multitude of pale spiders as I ran in that direction. From a distance away I noticed the glow originated from within the scorched skeleton of some great beast, some horned creature with a huge many-jawed maw and two stumpy arms but no legs. Something small and flaming rose from the skeleton as I approached – is that a…horned skull? – before flying into my outstretched hand. I grit my teeth as the totem’s power surged into my system before turning around to unleash my new spell, ready to cast the burning skull in my hand.

“If he returned, then so will I.”

* * *

The Marine blasted through several meters of steel and concrete, carving a path through the Tower exterior.

He broke into a large central chamber that spanned throughout the Tower’s whole base, the space completely taken up with facilities and huge machineries centered on the red beam of skyward Argent energy that crackled in the Tower’s core.

The Marine spotted high-speed elevators and even teleporter pods all around the chamber’s structure but these had been deactivated, no doubt by Pierce to slow his advance. He’d have to find some other way to reach the peak.

Something screeched above him, and the Marine looked up to see a pack of imps crawling on the suspended machinery towards him. The crowd outside the Tower hadn’t followed him but clearly there were already demons inside.

He switched to his assault rifle as he rushed towards the elevated circular platform surrounding the Argent beam, headed towards an observation deck directly behind it. The imps swarmed across the walls, baring their teeth and throwing fireballs at him, but he had already opened fire. PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW! The pack of imps crashed to the floor in bloody heaps.

Taking note of the possessed soldiers between him and the deck, the Marine switched to his combat shotgun and loaded a shrapnel shot as he jumped onto the elevated platform. BANG! BANG! BANG! Bits of flesh and guts splattered across the gleaming steel chamber. One surviving dark imp dared to pounce at the Marine; he snatched it out of the air and threw it directly into the crackling beam. A screech, a sizzle, and a fine red mist were all that remained.

The Marine prepared to leap onto the top of the observation deck before noticing the map station and firearm inside. The tell-tale roar of a Hell Knight echoed behind him. The map would be useful to quickly reach the top of the Tower.

With pounding footsteps behind him, the Marine crashed through the thick glass of the observation deck, tapped the map station’s download prompt and with the same fluid move picked up the gleaming black weapon from a guard’s corpse.

AUTO-SHOTGUN ACQUIRED

MUNITION TYPE – SHELLS

PRIMARY F-

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

The Marine turned around and unloaded fully automatic buckshot directly at the Hell Knight’s chest, practically melting the demon’s torso in a matter of seconds and stopping the monster in its tracks with the force of the blasts alone. The ravaged demon’s body hadn’t even hit the ground before the Marine crashed through the deck’s roof and dug his hands and feet into the Tower wall, taking strong leaps to rapidly ascend the sheer vertical surface.

Something howled nearby. Out of the corner of his eye, the Marine spotted a pack of Lost Souls charging at him. But these were larger than normal Lost Souls, their flames a deep red, their horns dark and gnarled. Terrors. These Lost Soul variants didn’t maul their prey, they exploded. Continuing to climb upwards, the Marine leapt across the vertical surfaces and walls while raining fire on the Terrors, shooting down the closest ones while dodging the rest’s suicidal charges.

After quickly glancing at his automap the Marine leapt onto a large service platform that bridged the Tower base to its main processing center, on the other side of a thick ceiling. The platform was covered in zombies and imps which had already set their sights on him. His rage surging, the Marine equipped his phase rifle and opened fire on the nearest demons as he Rampaged through the mob. There was no time to waste; Pierce was seven minutes away from reaching the Tower peak and he still had another eight hundred meters to climb, no doubt past stronger demons still.

ZAP ZAP ZAP ZAP ZAP ZAP POW! Several zombies popped in electric surges while a dark imp was functionally vaporized with a heat blast. The Marine blazed towards the small service hatch on the ceiling which led to the main Tower core.

He calculated his trajectory, focused a Blood Punch, and jumped.

POWW!

* * *

“Looks like a pool of condensed Argent plasma.”

The group of survivors stood silently before what could only be described as a pond of red, faintly luminous mist collected on the floor of the Extraction Site. The mist lapped and rippled slightly with the light Martian wind, but otherwise lay still between the steel machineries.

Must be some kind of leak nearby.

“Everyone stand back,” Ruby said as she primed her pulse rifle. “I need to test something out. Make sure you’re not stepping in the pool.”

The group warily stepped back as Ruby took aim.

Here goes nothing…I hope.

After briefest hesitation, she pulled the trigger.

The single plasmoid she fired vanished surreptitiously into the mist, which briefly glowed at the point of impact but otherwise disappeared uneventfully.

Ruby let out the breath she was holding in before stepping into the mist.

“Let’s go.”

“Agent!” Harrison suddenly yelled at Ruby. “I strongly object to this path, and urgently insist we find some other way to reach our destination!”

Ruby turned in exasperation towards the scientist.

“What’s the matter, Christopher?”

“That’s raw Argent plasma you’re stepping in! It is most unpredictable! We have no idea how it might react!”

“I just shot it with a pulse rifle, Christopher. Didn’t blow up, did it?”

“Might I be able to convince you that we perhaps circumvent these installations? That rover idea you had sounds most appeali-”

Rogers interrupted. “I’m getting sick of your whining, old man! Shut up and move or I’ll-”

“You know what, soldier?!” Romero decisively spoke up. “I myself am growing tired of YOUR shit! You’re becoming downright insufferable and now you’re pushing this poor old man around?!”

Oh, not this again.

“Back off, you damn-”

“Rogers! Romero! Please! This is not the time! We have to keep moving!”

The gunslinger reproachfully glared at the lieutenant but backed off.

“Christopher, I understand your concern, but we do not have a single moment to spare. We don’t know how long the enemy will stay at the Argent Tower and leaving the relative security of this facility could mean death for all of us. Don’t worry about the radiation, I’ll organize first-class medical treatment for all of you when we get back to Earth.”

The scientist just shook his head.

“You don’t know what you’re walking into.”

Ruby briefly thought back on her past experiences. The Tethering Operations, the vivisections, the containment breaches, the human sacrifices…

She forced herself back to the present and gave up trying to convince Harrison.

“On the double, people.”

She had barely heard a single footstep behind her when the sound of gunfire snapped like thunder.

“CONTACT!” Reeves shouted in terror.

In a flash, Ruby spun around and raised her gun at the attacker. A transparent red shape was charging through the pooled plasma at them, its effervescent outline flowing through the air and the engineer’s bullets passing through-

Wait, what?

The figure arrived at the group and swiped at Reeves. The engineer raised her arm in reflex, and the creature’s limb dissolved upon contact, the entire figure dissipating into swirling mist.

Reeves was unharmed.

Huh?

Rogers turned his phase rifle to a point behind Ruby.

“ANOTHER ONE!”

The lieutenant opened fire on the charging entity. The stream of plasmoids hit their mark and halted the figure’s advance, but these disappeared on impact, and the creature faded into swirling mist.

That means…

Several humanoid shapes roiled into being from the fog at the feet, but Ruby lowered her weapon.

”Everyone stand down!” She shouted. “I don’t think these are demons.”

The others continued desperately firing at the figures appearing around them, but quickly stopped when they realized they were not actually causing any harm. The shapes would close in, attempt to “slash” or “bite” at the survivors, and instantly dissolve when coming into contact, leaving not even the faintest scratch upon their quarry.

“Are…” Reeves cautiously poked at one of the figures, her hand passing clean through. “Are these…”

“Plasma.” Romero agreed. “Argent plasma, taking physical form.”

“…How is it doing this?”

The gunslinger puzzledly looked at the creature closest to him. It did not “attack” but stood docilely in front of him, tilting its head as if staring with curiosity.

“Wait a minute.”

Romero looked down at the weapon he was holding, and within moments the plasma in front of him changed shape to resemble the same exact vortex rifle the gunslinger held in his hands.

“Amazing. The plasma is reacting to us. Somehow it’s…taking the shape of whatever we’re thinking about.”

“That’s why it took the shape of the demons when we first set foot in it.” Rogers finished the train of thought. “Because that’s what was on our minds.”

A soft weeping sound turned the team’s attention to their rear. Harrison was on his knees, sobbing quietly within his helmet.

Romero moved to the elderly scientist’s side, resting a hand on his shoulder.

“I was a leading nuclear scientist on Earth for thirty years, a senior researcher in the Global Science Council. The UAC invited me, said my services would be invaluable to their research on Mars. But…Argent…”

Harrison wept quietly for a moment, and Romero looked up at Ruby in confusion. She puzzledly shrugged her shoulders.

The scientist then yelled as he shook his head.

“No one knows what Argent really is! Where it comes from! They say it’s from another dimension that operates under different principles, but it can’t be just that! It’s something more basic than universal vacuum energy, more fundamental! More primeval! It’s almost like…raw psychic energy! Information taken form!”

“Taylor,” Romero pressed Ruby. “He’s having a nervous breakdown. What should we do?”

“Rogers, did you pack any more sedatives into our bags?”

“I just found one syringe, Agent. It should be in your bag. We only have med packs after that.”

Ruby browsed in her bag as Harrison continued to ramble.

“My colleagues became obsessed with it! They were younger, thirstier, more ambitious! They kept babbling about spiritual energy field theory, how spirit exists in a higher realm than our material bodies! An abstract world of pure psychic potential, where minds are waves on the psychic sea! The Aether! They call it the Aether! Everything and nothing, all in one and all in none!”

Ruby found the syringe in a side pouch and quickly approached Harrison. She grabbed his arm, stuck the needle in a dedicated injection port on the wrist, and clicked the plunger.

“Reality is an illusion! Our universe is an illusion! Matter doesn’t exist! Energy doesn’t exist! There is only nothing, and weightless thoughts floating through the Aether! Empty space and vagrant thoughts! Empty space and vagrant thoughts. Empty space, and…vagrant…”

Harrison’s elevated pulse quickly coursed the sedative through his system, and within moments he was tranquil again.

“Hiro, can you help me carry him?”

“Of course.”

Romero put the languid scientist’s arm around his shoulder and hoisted him up.

“We’re running out of time,” Ruby reminded the group. “We need to get to Helix.”

* * *

I used the last of my spellcasting energy to cast one final burning skull at the dwindling spider horde. The skull hit its mark and exploded in a swell of flame, sending the charred survivors scuttling away into the Tree.

“I think that’s the last of them.”

“Right-o. Let’s keep moving.”

“Keep walking along this branch. You have to get to the ends.”

“Copy that.”

This energy, it’s almost like mana, no? I think that’s what the resource used to cast spells is called. At least mine regenerates on its own.

I set off to reach the tip of the branch on which I stood. I wondered what I would find there. Leaves? Empty twigs? Or something else?

Leaves? Stop being an idiot, John. If you’re climbing a big white Tree in Hell, you’re not gonna be there for the damn leaves.

“Hey, look at that.”

I spotted a clear red orb some distance away, growing out of the branch’s pale swirling surface like a bloody pustule.

“What is this, Colonel?” I asked as I walked up to the translucent sac.

“The geeks call it blood sap. Apparently it’s a natural secretion from the Tree’s metabolic cycle.”

“Can I use it?”

“Well, records show it boosts normal humans’ vitality and cognitive functions, at least for a time, but the side effects-”

I brought my foot down on the pustule and felt instant relief as the thick salve was absorbed by my chassis, mending the lesions I carried from the forest of spines.

“So, how do I use it? Is there a chemistry thesis I need to read? Maybe a cookbook? I don’t imagine they make this in Hell’s Kitchen?” I sneered, feeling better than ever.

“Aren’t you funny.”

“Heh. Wait a minute, you said this sap is produced by the Tree’s metabolism,” I remarked as I continued forward. “What do you mean, metabo…”

“…That.”

I stopped in awe – and horror – of the sight before me.

The Tree branch had begun to split into countless smaller limbs and dendrites, and upon these I could see countless creatures impaled upon the tips. Creatures of every shape and size, pierced by pale white tendrils that snaked throughout their bodies.

“Of…course,” I lowly groaned as I realized what I had just taken into my body.

As I looked closer, it almost seemed that these beings weren’t demons, although I imagined their grotesque shapes had been corrupted by Hell’s reality, but perhaps they were…aliens? Aliens from my universe? They didn’t seem as monstrous or horrendous as the other Hell beasts I had encountered, and I could see hints of green, gold, blue, vivid colors besides just black and red on their bodies and…tools. Some of them carried tools.

Maybe even weapons.

“Gonna look for guns, right?”

“Affirmative.”

I meandered around the corpses, looking for any one that carried what might be firearms. The bodies were fascinating in their own way. I saw snake-like beings with thick armored shells, crystalline insectoids the size of people, figures which appeared like gleaming metallic sculptures, like steel shards fused to form a single creature. I took care to keep my distance, because I didn’t recognize the tools strewn around them, and figured they might just as well be bombs or traps.

I stopped in front of one creature which I thought could help me. It was a beige, somewhat humanoid entity with two legs, four arms, and a mass of tentacles trailing from its back. Four deep eye sockets stared from what I assumed was its mouthless head. However, what interested me was the object held in its…hands? Claws? Whatever. Long, sleek, and black, with a barrel and grip. I knew a gun when I saw one.

“Colonel, this here looks like a gun to me. But, there’s only one, and my chassis has two weapon rigs.”

“Don’t worry about that, I’ll take care of it. Pick that up.”

I carefully stepped around the being’s trailing tentacles to approach it. I leaned over its gaunt frame and pried the weapon from its…screw it, I’m calling them hands, cringing as it dribbled thick slime from the creature’s body.

“Ugh. You got this, Colonel?”

“Yeah. Just place it up to your gun platforms.”

I did just that and my chassis grabbed the gun out of my hands.

“Hmm…all right. Just give me a minute here…So, you were right. This in fact IS a gun, and a decently strong one at that. Looks like a plasma autocannon that fired explosive armor-piercing rounds. However, because of the way your chassis is rigged, I have to split this gun into two separate components, which can fire either AP or explosive rounds but not both. Is that okay?”

Before I could even answer, Colonel Johnson cut me off.

“That was a rhetorical question, by the way. That’s the way they’re going on, like it or not.”

I sighed in resignation, when suddenly I felt myself grow weak and my knees quiver. I landed hard on my hands and gaped as the world spun around me. The pale surface of the Tree took up my entire field of view, forcing itself into my mind…

THE POWER HELD WITHIN THE CRUCIBLE WILL PUNISH MAN-BORN AND DEMON-KIN ALIKE. IT WILL CRUSH THE DIVIDE. IT WILL CORRUPT ALL REALMS. IT WILL CREATE THE MONSTER. IT MUST NEVER BE FOUND.

“AAAAHHHH!!!!”

“John, I’m losing you! Your signature’s fading!”

“I’m okay, I’m okay,” I assured the Colonel as I gathered my bearings. “Ugggh. Just…had a lapse in composure.

I need to get out of here, Colonel. The Tree’s influence is getting stronger. Like it’s rooting inside my head. How much further till the branch tip?”

“It’s not too far but hurry. Once the psychoactive symptoms appear, there’s no telling what the Tree might do to you.”

My mana was restored, but a niggle at the back of my mind urged me to grab my bronze spear. I pulled the knife from my side and flicked the switch, feeling satisfaction with the heft of the weapon in my hands.

“I’ve made it this far. I’m not going down just yet.”

* * *

The Marine crashed through the hatch leading to the main Tower center and landed solidly on the floor.

“Remember, faithful advocates,” chirped a projection of the Spokeswoman. “The Argent Tower is our Triumphal Arch. It is the center of our universe. You must care for the Altar to our Faith with utmost reverence and devo-”

WHAT THE-

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!

The small holographic projector was no match for the sustained salvo of buckshot from the Marine’s autoshotgun, who kept firing long after the device was charred dust smeared on the facility floor.

What the hell had THAT been? That wasn’t vapid corporate drivel, that was something else. Altar? Faith? What exactly was the UAC up to?

The Marine continued upwards as he leapt across the great steel structures towards a focus in the Argent beam, a pitch-black sphere suspended at the center of the Tower surrounded by a scarlet halo. He noted more teleporters positioned throughout the chamber at regular intervals.

“HAAARRRGGGHHH!”

The Marine instantly froze on a narrow walkway leading up to the black sphere. He switched to his HAR and searched for the source of the sound.

“HAAARRRGGGHHH!”

That howl. He’d never actually heard it with his own ears. Only in visions. In nightmares. Vivid fever dreams within a padded white cell from a time long past.

Before he became what he was now.

“HAAARRRGGGHHH!”

The Marine could sense a presence within the chamber, but he could not track it.

…It was right on top of him.

The Marine rolled out of way before the imposing figure landing on him, and he whipped his HAR back around to retaliate against his attacker but stopped when he finally caught sight of it.

A skeletal human drawn to grotesque proportions, pale skin and bloody flesh torn free from its distended bones, the abdominal organs completely exposed and dripping down its legs. It stood head-and-shoulders above the Marine, bearing a UAC-branded jetpack with two shoulder-mounted rocket launchers, and two cloudy lidless eyeballs staring blindly deep within its bald skull. At its heart, the Marine sensed not the soul of a human, but a demon.

What had they done?

Most disturbingly, the creature was twitching. Shivering as if from cold, its gaunt limbs flailing from muscle spasms. As the Marine looked on, the creature grabbed the skin on its temples and tore it clean off its skull, violently shaking its head and releasing a blood-curdling screech as blood poured onto its harness.

“HEEEAAARRRGGGHHH!”

The Marine would burn the entire UAC to the ground.

His HEALTH remained at 26 from the intense battle at the Argent Facility, so acting quickly he brought up his Suit’s Dossier, dodging the burst of homing rockets from the demon’s shoulder launchers as he signaled the Power Engine to fabricate a Mega Charge.

Clang! Both the Marine’s HEALTH and ARMOR instantly rocketed to 200, and his available Calibration Cycles dropped to five.

With restored HEALTH and ARMOR, he equipped his rocket launcher and fired a shot. The demon flared its jet thrusters and easily dodged the rocket.

The Marine swiftly backtracked and switched to the super shotgun. BANG! BANG! BANG! The explosive slugs faltered their mark and the Marine moved in for a close-range blast. The creature regained its composure and threw a swift fist at the Marine, who caught it in his left hand with a vicious grip. The demon threw the other fist, and he caught that one too. Firing up his jump pack, the Marine forced the creature down and delivered a forceful kick directly at the demon’s head, feeling a satisfying crack beneath his foot.

He kickflipped off of it and brought back his rocket launcher, tracking the stunned demon before pulling the trigger. The rocket hit its mark and blasted a chunk of the demon’s jetpack off.

Furious, the creature released an echoing roar into the air. The ring of deactivated teleporters whirred into operation and a horde of demons flooded the chamber. Imps, Hell Knights, and possessed soldiers with jump packs of their own. Unhindered, the Marine threw several grenades and proximity mines as he switched back to the HAR. The explosions rocked throughout the Tower and splattered the walls with demon blood, which the jetpack demon evaded by leaping into the air and hovering using its thrusters. He noted the surviving crowd managed to land several hits on him, but with such greatly elevated vitality the Marine was not concerned. A pair of laser sights shone from the creature’s launchers and fired a devastating barrage of rockets, which struck him and reduced his ARMOR to 156. He fired at the jetpack demon while charging a Blood Punch and releasing it unto a squad of possessed soldiers, eviscerating them and bringing his ARMOR up to 173.

Putting his HAR away, the Marine rushed beneath the creature and leapt up to it, firing his own jump pack and latching on to the demon. Once on it, he savagely tore at the creature’s jetpack, which in its confusion flew haphazardly to try and throw the Marine off, crashing into the Tower walls and machineries but the Marine’s grip was like iron and he would not be fazed by mere walls. With a single punch, one of the demon’s shoulder launchers was blown clean off.

He noted the creature’s trajectory would take it directly towards the black sphere at the center of the chamber, and unwilling to find out the effects of close proximity, the Marine jumped off the demon and swiftly switched to his rocket launcher before firing at a Hell Knight below, landing on the wounded monster and crushing its head with contemptuous disgust.

The jetpack demon indeed flew close to the black sphere in its aimless path and was electrocuted by its sinister aura of Argent energy, falling to the ground in a burning heap as its jetpack sparked and smoked.

Crashing hard on the ground, the creature picked itself up and stared with malignant hatred at the Marine.

“HAAARRRGGGHHH!”

With the last of its strength, the demon rose into the air and directed hellish energy into its hands, forming two large rifts on either side of itself. The Marine fired a rocket but it was too late. The ritual was complete, and two large floating demons appeared in the chamber. They were round and brick-red with spikes throughout their bodies, a gaping multi-jawed maw full of vicious fangs, short shriveled limbs that hung limply at their sides, and a single glaring green eye. The chamber became filled with the sharp and pungent smell of ozone. Cacodemons.

Great.

Firing a rocket into their midst and remotely detonating it, the Marine Rampaged towards the moribund jetpack demon. He switched to his super shotgun and destroyed its remaining launcher with a well-aimed explosive slug. The incapacitated creature rushed towards the Marine and tried to throw one last punch, but he blocked it with his Bracer and staggered the demon with the power surge. With the creature dropping to its knees, the Marine forced his hand into the demon’s jetpack and crushed its core. The malfunctioning device began to spin and flew the creature into a pack of imps, exploding and killing them all.

Furious at the present setback, the Marine set his sights on the two Cacodemons. He could have reached the Tower peak with the other demons alone, but Cacos were tough. Brute but savage scavengers of the Sloughlands, they’d never let him reach the peak if he didn’t kill them now.

Moving back to gain some space, he equipped his HAR and shot one Caco in its eye with a precision bolt. The monster faltered in brief blindness, and keeping one eye on the other Caco with its crackling maw, the Marine charged at a dark imp with chainsaw in hand. He stopped the creature with a stun bomb and drove the saw into its heart before slicing its head in two, collecting its gushing fluids to restock munitions.

A buzzing sound whirred behind the Marine and a flurry of lightning bolts, each as strong as that from a thunderstorm, pelted his back and reduced his ARMOR to 121. He whipped around and fired a rocket at the assailing Caco. He continued his attack with a barrage of plasmoids from his phase rifle and threw one final grenade directly into the demon’s open maw. The creature stood still for the briefest moment before exploding in spectacular fashion, drenching the floor below with thick blue blood.

The other Cacodemon floated lazily after the Marine but spit ball after ball of crackling blue lightning at him, which exploded on impact and blasted away at the walls of the Tower, eviscerating any lesser demons in their wake and chipping at his ARMOR. He equipped his combat shotgun and shot the monster with several shrapnel shots, faltering it and moving in with the auto shotgun. Cacodemons had a devastating bite which could slice through even Hell Knights with frightening ease, but that was a necessary risk as time was of the essence.

The Marine took aim and held the trigger down on the auto shotgun, blowing off great chunks of the Cacodemon’s hard hide to reveal the bloodstained bone beneath, and with a strong leap he jumped towards it. Through a barrage of buckshot the monster spotted him and opened its mouth to deliver a horrendous bite, but the Marine struck the creature with his Bracer and staggered it, forcing his fist through its eye and crushing the brain behind.

With the Cacodemons gone the Marine prepared to continue to the peak when he noticed a telltale arcane signature from below, where the corpse of the jetpack demon lay. A floating silvery object with an electrified surface. A runestone.

Moving quickly, he fell to the site of the corpse while dodging demon projectiles and passed his hand on the stone to absorb its power.

RUNE ACQUIRED – LETHAL FORCE

ALL DEMONS WILL PRODUCE SMALL EXPLOSION ON DEATH

EXPLOSION WILL NOT HARM SELF

With his rune-bearing capacity full, the Marine fired up his jump pack and climbed towards his destination.

commented the talking computer,

Revenants. That’s what the UAC called them.

The origin of the name was all too obvious.

He already knew that the UAC was experimenting on demons to augment their power, but now they were intentionally enabling human demonization? Fabricating inhuman abominations for the purpose of combat? On whom did they plan to unleash these creations on? The outer colonies? Other species throughout the universe? Earth?

Pierce was three minutes from reaching the Tower peak. The Marine blazed like a rocket across every available wall and surface as he soared upwards.

Olivia Pierce would die.

The UAC would pay for what they’d done.

Far beneath the Marine, a holographic projection of the Spokeswoman cheerfully preached into a bloodstained chamber.

“The road to Hell is paved – by Argent energy.

And remember: from within flows the power. The power must always flow. You have been warned.”

* * *

“We’re almost there, team. Just a bit further.”

The group of survivors was almost to the Helix Labs. The extraction site had suffered some damage from the initial attack and there were a number of Argent plasma leaks throughout the station, but so far the team had yet to come across other hazards or enemies.

But Ruby was anxious to leave the station as soon as possible. She did not trust the strange plasma at her feet and Harrison’s rambling had left her unnerved.

Empty space and vagrant thoughts. Aether. Spiritual energy field theory. Guess the old man has really lost it. Wonder how much longer the others will last.

She looked back at the sedated scientist. His shotgun hung limply at his side and Romero still carried him on his shoulder. Ruby was just grateful that the gunslinger was as cooperative as he was.

“How about we take a minute, Taylor? Christopher’s getting a bit heavy.”

“…All right. But just one minute. We can make a proper stop at Helix.”

“Copy,” Romero groaned as he set Harrison down.

The others gathered round to sit and stretch their legs, but Ruby moved ahead to take a moment for herself and her thoughts. She didn’t notice the red pool of plasma in the clearing beyond the team’s position.

I wonder if we can pass through Helix and the Spaceport. How are we getting off the planet? VEGA said Command was still active but that was more than an hour ago. Are both Hayden and Pierce still alive? What are they doing now?

…What is the Marine doing now?

She’d read the report. He’d been a United States Space Marine in the early twenty-first century, sentenced to life imprisonment on Mars for killing his commander. He would have been sentenced to death but a high-ranking colonel pleaded for his life.

A family member, I think it was.

He spent eleven years in a maximum-security military prison in the UAC’s first Martian colony. When Mars lost contact with its moons in the Phobos Event, he and a squad of other incarcerated soldiers were sent to investigate. None returned and no one was ever found, except him. In a prison tomb in Hell a century later. Chained inside an enchanted stone sarcophagus. The expedition even brought back Hellish artifacts warning other demons to never let him escape.

Just what the hell did the man do? What happened to him? And what will he do now?

A movement out of the corner of her eye brought her gaze up.

It was the Marine. At least an impression of him in the plasma, gliding across the pool leaving ethereal vapor in his wake.

That armor. Almost man-made, but it’s not from Earth or even Argent D’Nur. Where did he get it from? Hell? Or somewhere else?

Gnarled figures in the shape of demons appeared in the plasma, which the Marine’s impression charged at and crushed beneath his fists.

Where does his power come from? He does not fear the demons, the demons fear him. What drives him? What is the source of his strength? His motivation?

Duty? Faith? Glory? Justice?

Or perhaps revenge?

Can he survive?

Can he win?

“Who is that?”

Oh shit.

The entire team had snuck up behind Ruby as she stood deep in thought, and they all arrived to the scene of the plasma Marine vanquishing a legion of plasma demons.

A scene that none of them had the clearance to witness.

Well, if I’m not the most stupid…

“That.” Ruby stated at a loss for words. “That is…”

“That’s the Marineguy, isn’t it?” Reeves spoke up.

Oh, I love you, Amanda.

“Marineguy?” Romero asked.

“It’s a company mascot that Marketing came up with,” Ruby enthusiastically finished. “An exemplary soldier of sorts, circulated as collectible figurines among the workers.”

“Yeah, the other guys in my unit liked to print their own designs,” Reeves commented. “I even made one myself, modeled after a mining engineer.”

“But, why is he killing the demons?” Rogers asked puzzledly.

Ruby thought carefully on her answer before responding.

“Because…he’s a good soldier. The very best.”

It wasn’t a lie.

“Eh,” Romero acknowledged half-heartedly. “Weird armor.”

“You should see your own.”

“Hey! Function over form, sister!” But the gunslinger was chuckling.

“Let’s go. The entrance to Helix is just a few minutes out.”

“Right behind you, Agent.”

Ruby took one last look at the Marine’s shape and set off towards the Labs, the others following in her steps.

Behind them, the impressions of the demons and Marine dwindled a few more moments before fading into nothing.

* * *

I was approaching the end of the Tree branch. The smaller limbs forking off it grew narrower, and I could see faint white lights through the turquoise haze.

“There! Those are the branchtips! Step on it!”

I picked up the pace and ran towards my destination. My journey here was almost done; I could finally leave this abominable Tree behind.

“HSSSSSS!”

I skidded to a halt as a bone-chilling hiss pierced the silence like a knife, and stared in terror as a giant pale spider emerged from its hiding spot on the Tree’s surface. I backed away in fear.

This one was huge, its legs alone as long as I was tall, dripping slime from its bulbous body and staring at me with a multitude of clear red eyes.

“HSSSSSS!”

“HSSSSSS!”

I spun around to witness a dozen other spiders closing in around me, and before long I was surrounded.

“Okay,” I muttered while spinning my new machine guns and raising my spear. “I suppose you fellas aren’t in the mood to talk this out?”

“HISSSSSS!” One of the spiders screeched as it swiped at me with a spiked leg.

“Neither am I.”

POW POW POW POW POW POW!

A fury of crimson bolts erupted from my guns and ripped their way through the horde, piercing through the mass of shells and filling the air with green goo and severed limbs.

I fired my jump pack to dash between the spiders and stabbed at them with my spear. I thrust it into the soft underside of one and pulled it out through its head, cut down the legs of another and sunk it into its eyes, all the while firing my guns in every direction I heard a spider coming from.

The surviving spiders retreated further away but I knew they’d be back before long.

“Hurry! Get to one of those branchtips and get off the Tree!”

I turned and rushed away to the nearest end of the branch, which as I approached was revealed to be a mass of thin swaying dendrites with glowing bulbs on the ends.

Well, it’s not leaves.

“What do I do now?”

“This is the tricky part. Grab one of those tendrils and place it onto your forehead.”

“I’m sorry, come again?”

“Your head, soldier!”

“There is no way in Hell I am placing that thing on my head!”

“You need to plug in to the Tree’s psychic network to open an exit portal! It’s the only way!”

“So I can end up like all those other types that the Tree was feeding on?!”

“Do it! Do it now!”

“That’s a negative, Colonel!”

“They’re coming back!”

Colonel Johnson was right. I could see a swarm of spiders – well, that’s certainly more than a dozen – crawling towards me from beyond the curve of the Tree branch.

There was no way I’d be able to kill all of them.

“Uggghhh…GOD DAMN IT!” I yelled as I grabbed the nearest tendril in hand.

“Visualize an exit portal! Make it the one thought in your head and let it fill your mind! If you don’t, you could get lost in the collective mindscape of all the beings assimilated by the Tree!”

“Assimi…? Wait, you mean those creatures are still alive?!”

“Do it now!”

I did as the Colonel commanded and forced the tendril onto my head, feeling it branch out into countless smaller dendrites that swarmed around me before everything went black.

…a portal, a portal. I need to get off this Tree…

Black. Pure black, I floated in the empty nothingness.

…a portal, a portal. Anywhere. Take me anywhere. But I need to get out of here…

I felt the presence of others nearby. Travelers like me. They yelled. Cried. Implored.

…portal, portal, portal. I am imagining a portal. I. Me. I need to leave. I need to leave this place…

They’d been prisoners of the Tree for too long. They got lost, fell captive to its roots. Became trapped within their own bodies.

…get out of here. I need to get out of here. Anywhere. Anywhere. Give me a portal…

They had homes. They had hopes and dreams. They had families.

…families?...

Families. Families like nothing I’d ever seen before. Offspring, communities, nests, colonies, unity on a scale I could never imagine.

Golden locks, warm smile. Brown hair and a wide grin.

My family.

“John, where are you?”

My family.

“Daddy, when are you coming home?”

My family.

“John, please. I’m so alone…”

No.

“Daddy, I’m scared!”

No.

“They’re coming in through the windows!”

No.

“Daddy, they’re in our house!”

No.

“John!”

“Daddy!”

“Help!”

“NOOOOOO!!!”

I opened my eyes with burning fury and tore the cursed tendrils from my head. They split into more dendrites that swarmed over my body but I slashed at them with my spear.

“YOU WILL NOT HAVE MY FAMILY!!”

I poured all of my anger, all of my fear, all of my energy and mana into one last thrust. Without realizing it, the spear erupted in flame and sank into the Tree with a cold shing, sending a chill down my back.

At once the mass of tendrils shriveled away into ash as the Tree’s pale surface turned brown and bloodshot, as if it were rotting. The decay spread from the site of the spear’s laceration and out along the rest of the branch. The horde of spiders, which I’d completely forgotten about, stopped in their tracks and swarmed away into the shadows with terrifying speed. The hazy sky turned from turquoise to a sinister shade of red. I knew deep down that I had hopelessly and irreparably screwed up.

DEMON.

“John! A portal is forming!”

Sure enough, a whirlpool of energy began to form out towards the end of the branch, and a rift appeared in the center of the chaos. Not another one, I thought as I remembered the unpleasant passage I’d previously taken.

“Look out!”

I heard a horrendous snapping sound from above, and I looked up to see a dreadful shape descending from the top of the Tree towards me, its colossal legs reaching across the Tree’s upper branches and casting it in their shadow.

A giant hand?

No…a GIANT spider.

On second thought, the rift isn’t really such a bad idea.

“Time to go!”

“Agreed!”

I collapsed my spear and ran as fast as I could towards the portal, firing my jump pack to its full power as I raced to escape the terror above that drew nearer by the second.

Why can’t I ever just make a normal exit?

The sky exploded with an ear-splitting roar as something crashed behind me and I leapt into the portal.

* * *

“If she ruptures that accumulator near the Argent beam, she could open a portal to their world that we will NEVER be able to close!”

Pierce was moments away from reaching the Tower peak, from where the refined Argent energy was beamed to the orbiting Martian Starport. The Marine raced across the last floor of the facility, Rampaging through every wall, every gate and demon in his path, when he heard Pierce’s indignant voice echo over the PA system.

“You cannot stop me from claiming what I am owed! What I was promised!”

The Marine’s blood blazed with scorching fury, the frequencies emanating from his Resonators warbling and trilling as the Praetor Suit struggled to keep him cognizant, his rage reaching critical mass and threatening to overtake his every rational thought.

He breached the control deck which opened unto the Argent beam beyond.

“This is not the end!” Yelled Pierce from behind the locked gate. “It is only…”

The Marine crashed through the thick metal and aimed his combat shotgun. Pierce had already primed the Argent accumulator, which crackled with scarlet lightning, and weakly limped backwards towards the beam.

“…the beginning!”

He pulled the trigger.

CLANG!

CRASH!

Something large landed heavily on the walkway between Pierce and the Marine, who winced as the slug he just fired was reflected back at him. 93 ARMOR.

The figure on the walkway rose to its feet. It was a Hell Knight, at least what appeared to be a variant of the Hell Knight species, but unlike any the Marine had ever seen before. Unlike normal Hell Knights or even the cyberknight he’d encountered at the Argent Facility, this one was entirely cybernetic. Its thick robotic legs ended with gnarled metal claws, its torso was shielded with broad plates of armor, its head a sinister robotic skull whose eyes shone red with infernal hatred. There was a missile launcher at the end of its right arm, and in its left arm the monster carried a shield bearing a glaring crimson eye in the center of a green triangular sigil. The Sigil of the Blasphemous One.

This monster was a Hell Paladin, one of a legion of elite Hell Knights that guarded important relics and locations in the nether world, which instantly raised the Marine’s alarms. He had never encountered a Paladin outside of Hell, and most worryingly, that meant that this one was not from the UAC. He had noticed immediately that its augmentations were forged from fellsteel, a powerful metal native to the Infernal Realm that the UAC would never be able to engineer. But Hell Paladins were empowered and commanded by high-ranking demon lords, and would never dare take an order from a human.

Someone from Hell had sent this Cyber Paladin here.

To protect Olivia Pierce as she forced open the Argent Fracture.

All this flashed through the Marine’s mind in the brief moment that he beheld the cybernetic demon as Olivia Pierce stepped into the Argent beam, raising the accumulator above her as an offering before vanishing in a thunderous explosion.

The Marine was thrown back with the force of the blast and he lost sight of the Cyber Paladin.

“Category Three interdimensional event detected,” spoke the automated facility voice as a writhing wave of demons swarmed into the arena from over the walls while even more began pouring through the rift forming around the beam.

“The Fracture has been breached! You must leave the Tower at once!”

The Marine equipped his rocket launcher as he fell back from the horde. If he died now, the expanding rift would undoubtedly suck him directly into Hell.

He fired rocket after rocket while tossing grenades and proximity mines in every direction but to no avail. Zombies, imps, Hell Knights, and Revenants crawled over the walls while Cacodemons and other nightmarish monstrosities flowed from the central portal which widened by the second.

Damn it, damn it, DAMN IT!

“Welcome to the UAC,” the Spokeswoman gleefully exclaimed nearby, “opening the gates of Hell with the key to the future.”

DAMN IT ALL!!!

In a flash of lightning the Marine gave in to his rage and became ablaze with scarlet flames. He’d gone Berserk.

“Category Four interdimensional event in ten, nine…”

He grabbed a Hell Knight’s head and ripped it clean off its shoulders, made a Revenant explode with a single blow, grabbed the side jaws of a Cacodemon and split the monster in two. Through repeated Blood Punches and the crowd of demons exploding on death through his Lethal Force rune, the Marine cleared a path to the Tower wall.

The ground shook at his feet and the world became tilted as the top of the Tower crumbled over its foundations, weakened by the explosion. The Marine fired his jump pack to avoid the Argent beam as it sliced across the sliding floor and rushed away to avoid being trapped within the collapsing Tower.

The corridor spun and threw endless demons against the walls, floor, and ceiling as appliances were thrown into the air. The Marine, still Berserk, Rampaged across these and every surface that crossed his path, breaking through and sliding across walls as he raced to reach the ground and put as much distance between himself and the Tower as quickly as possible.

Thinking fast, the Marine recoiled in excruciating fury and instantly released his remaining Berserk energy in a tremendous explosion that vaporized the shattered remains of the Tower’s peak around him, and he was back in open air.

CRASH!

Something large struck the Marine as he fell down the Tower’s exterior. It was the Cyber Paladin which had clutched the Marine in a vice-like grip, bent on dragging him to Hell with it.

The Marine freed himself from the demon’s clutch and grabbed his assault rifle. PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW! The monster raised its shield and deflected the rounds back at the Marine, increasingly furious as they ticked away at his ARMOR.

He switched to the rocket launcher. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The rockets exploded against the shield but did no harm to it or the Paladin behind.

Clever thing. It had waited until after the he’d gone Berserk because it knew that neither it nor its worthless shield could survive the full power of the Marine’s unleashed rage.

He raised the launcher over the edge of the shield and pulled the trigger, detonating the rocket as it passed over the demon. BOOM! The Cyber Paladin was caught in the blast and faltered, lowering its shield.

The Marine fired his jump pack and closed the distance to the monster, latching onto it as the two remained in free-fall.

He struck left and right at the monster’s face, feeling the infernal metal dent with every successful blow. The demon fired at him with its missile launcher, the projectiles exploding against the Marine’s armor and beginning to eat into his HEALTH, but their splash damage and his Boiling Blood rune reciprocated that harm back unto the Paladin. The Marine noticed the armor over the creature’s heart begin to crack.

The creature raised its shield to the Marine’s next blow, blocking the strike and sending a burning wave of arcane energy back towards the Marine, who felt an unmistakable crack beneath his fist.

54 HEALTH.

The Marine focused power into a Blood Punch and brought it down onto the damned shield, shattering it in a flash of embers and breaking the Paladin’s arm off into a bloody spike.

22 HEALTH.

The demon roared in agony and thrust the spike into the Marine’s side.

0 HEALTH.

In his last moment of consciousness, the Marine thrust his hand through the Cyber Paladin’s armor and tore its heart out as the world erupted in red.

* * *

“Whew! Everyone okay?” Ruby exclaimed as the airlock sealed behind the team and she refreshed her atmosphere supply, taking a deep breath of fresh air.

“I am a-okay,” replied Romero as he took his helmet off and lowered himself to the floor, bringing his backpack around and opening it.

“Copy that, Agent.”

“Amanda, you okay?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Christopher? Christopher?”

The dazed scientist was coming out of his sedated stupor.

“Uggh…my head…”

“Take it easy, you had a small episode back there,” assured Ruby as she lowered Harrison to a bench.

“My mouth is dry. I feel…ugh, what happened?”

“Well, what happened was we all made a stupid decision coming to Mars, but you most of all,” joked Ruby as she offered the elderly scientist a water bottle before standing up. “I hear the Global Science Council pays very well. And death-by-demons isn’t an occupational hazard there.

All right. Listen up, everyone. We’ve made it to Helix. Great job. The first thing we’re gonna do is rest and reload. Stretch your legs, drink plenty of water, grab a bite, but restock your guns and make sure your air tanks are full! Lieutenant, run an inventory check of all our supplies, and keep an eye on the civvies. Romero and I will-”

“Agent,” muttered the gunslinger as he gaped at a point above and behind her.

Ruby turned to where Romero and the rest of the team were staring at. On a ceiling-mounted display above them, Ruby could see live video feed of the Argent Tower from the adjacent Facility.

Or of what had once been the Argent Tower.

The entire structure blazed with infernal energy, scorching the surrounding region and even the atmosphere with crimson hellfire. A writhing black mass of claws and teeth – endless legions of demons as far as the eye could see – spread out through the ground and air to every direction of Mars’ surface. Radiating with a hellish halo, the image of the Tower was like a great evil eye, staring directly at the group of survivors.

ARGENT FRACTURE BREACHED

CATEGORY FOUR INTERDIMENSIONAL EVENT DETECTED

EVACUATE THE PLANET IMMEDIATELY

That could only mean one thing: the Marine had failed.

He was gone.

“What do we do now, Agent?”

Ruby looked over her shoulder towards her team, but she had no idea how to respond. She had no idea what to do.

God help us all.

* * *

KILLS - 21%

SECRETS - 3

TIME - 10:00