E1M7 Cont

“Colonel, you seeing this?”

The crevice was beginning to break up into many smaller channels as the surface gradually leveled down to meet the ground, but there were strange dark structures occupying the space. Featureless and pitch-black with dull unreflective textures.

“Affirmative. I’m getting some strange readings here. I can’t make sense of them.”

I reached out towards one of the monoliths and hesitantly placed my hand on it. It felt like nothing. No temperature, no hardness, no texture. I could see my hand pressed against the surface but couldn’t feel any physical sensation from it. As if it wasn’t even there.

I shuddered.

“Well, whatever this is, I gotta go through here. The gateway’s that away.”

“Be careful.”

I entered that region with eyes open and guns ready, but I couldn’t see anything. No movement in my visual field or in my radar. And it was silent, quiet of the sounds of crumbling rocks or the hissing of creatures.

No, not quiet. A dreadful almost imperceptible reverb filled the air, resonating in my bones and in my very core. The faint red glow from the smoky sky was replaced with an oppressive ashen gloom, and even the corrosive sensation of Hell had disappeared.

Whatever this place was, I had the clear sensation that I was not supposed to be here.

I stopped.

“Oh, no.”

I had reached a clearing in whose center sat a low black pedestal, atop which floated a gnarled severed hand as black as midnight.

“What the hell?”

The hand was not human, having only three clawed fingers with a hard shell-like exterior, and a strange purple symbol glowing in the palm. There was a distinct murkiness in the air, a thick black fog that rose from concentric patterns on the floor and chilled my body on contact.

“Colonel, what is this?

I feel…cold. Empty.

This power…this isn’t of the demons.”

I took a step back.

“This isn’t from Hell. This is something else.

Something…older.”

Colonel Johnson said nothing.

“Colonel, you copy?”

No response.

“Okay, okay. Comms are down. Must be interference. Stay focused, John.”

I stared at the shadowy hand in front of me.

It scared me. It truly terrified me how despite being so small, that totem made me feel tiny. Like I was the worthless insect scurrying about, ignorant of the colossal ageless powers that loomed above.

If it frightened me, would it frighten the demons too?

This power…it opposed. Negated. Nullified. It opposed Hell, but it opposed life. It opposed Creation. And it would oppose me.

I already wielded terrible curses that razed weaker beings beneath their power. I bent them to my will. Perhaps I could wield this power too.

I’ve made it this far. I haven’t gotten killed or lost myself yet. That must mean something. I must be strong enough.

I just want to see my family again.

I breathed in and reached out towards the totem. It was only a hand, but I could sense it staring at me.

Dark, sinister. Perhaps without malice, but without warmth or compassion either.

Death does not hate. It does not love. It does not feel or think or take sides.

It just is.

“Uhhhh…”

I grabbed the hand which immediately began dissolving into long hissing tendrils that twirled around and settled on my arm, forming a dark liquid exterior that spread to the rest of my chassis. It was cold.

“AhhhhHHHH…”

The monoliths around me ominously rumbled as the shell finally spread over my face and entire body, shrouding my vision in a sea of pure blackness…

…that slowly dissipated.

I was still in the same location, and when I looked down I saw the black covering sinking into my body and be absorbed by my chassis.

Except on my right hand. The white plating around the blur artifact had disappeared behind a glossy black cover.

“Oh…”

My knees felt weak, and my right hand cold, but I was uninjured. I felt…normal.

“…John! John, are you there? What happened?

…There’s a new signal present in your system. I’ve never seen anything like it.

It’s leveling out. Equalizing into your system, stabilized by your Argent circuitry.

What the hell did you do?”

“…I can feel it. It’s like a spell, but one without words. Without thought. Do you know what it does?”

“It seems like-”

“Wait! This place is coming down.”

The monoliths around me were dissolving into dark vapor and dissipating into the wind as the red overtone slowly creeped into the atmosphere.

“That totem was holding this place up.

Colonel, what’s the layout of the rock surface on my location?”

The pillars had diffused enough to reveal the crimson smoky sky, the flat horizon, and a shimmering mirage in the distance.

“Let me check. Uh…”

The mirage disbanded to reveal the stalking Bonecrawler staring right at me.

“You’re on open terrain.”

“RAAARRR!!”

“SHIT!”

“RAAARRR!!”

I bolted in the opposite direction as heavy footsteps thudded behind me.

“Colonel! I need a twenty on a fissure ASAP!”

“You’re past them, John! It’s level ground from there to the gateway station!”

“RAAARRR!!”

“What do I do?!”

“Fucking do something!”

I grabbed one of the waspid egg sacs from my hip and tossed it behind me, but the throw was off and the grenade landed far to the side.

The footsteps were almost behind me. I heard the thing leap off the ground in a snarling pounce, to which I triggered my phase shift and blinked through its closing fangs.

“Ahhh!”

I was still in one piece but my overshield instantly broke. That was a heavy blow even with the shift’s damage reduction, and I didn’t know if I could survive another one even while shifted.

“RAAARRR!!”

“It can’t see me! It can’t see me while shifted, right?!”

“Tail!”

The monster spun around and swung its spiked tail in a wide arc towards me, without a doubt in a blind though intelligent attempt to strike me. With nowhere to go, I dashed forward while pushing on that new button present in my mind, watching my visual field be engulfed in black as the darkness on my right hand burst forth to form a jet-black cover over me.

In a split second I tore my way through spikes, flesh and bone to erupt through the other side. My chassis was completely untouched.

“RAAARRR!!”

And just like that fog dissipated and the darkness over me dissolved, vanished from my right hand as well.

“A shade cloak that protects you from harm and damages demons!

How the hell did you get that?!”

The Bonecrawler roared in agony from its skewered tail and pursued after me.

“Dunno, but it doesn’t last very long!”

I tried to trigger the shadow dash again, but it wouldn’t activate. The ability didn’t consume my mana, but it must have a cool down before it could be used again. Fortunately, I was still in cloaked phase shift and the monster charged blindly after me, occasionally clawing at the ground meters from my position.

“Wait! Head for your two o’clock! I’m reading the surface is weak in that area!”

“What?!”

“It’ll break through the ground and fall into the cavern below!”

“Won’t I fall too?!”

“Not with your jump pack!”

“RAAARRR!!”

My phase shift ended and the Bonecrawler roared upon spotting me.

“All right!”

Just as I saw a giant clawed foot descend from above, the darkness over my right hand reappeared and I somehow felt the darkness return, triggering it to stab through the Bonecrawler’s foot in a wide splash of steaming blood.

“RAAARRR!!”

The injured monster continued its chase but with an audible limp, letting me put some distance between it as I entered a stretch of land with noticeably different terrain: pale flat rock. I ran across it no problem, but with every step the monster took I could hear the ground crack beneath its feet. I turned around and saw sharp smoking cracks spreading out across the surface. One section of ground fell into the abyss.

“It’s working! It’s working!”

With a deep rumbling the ground began to crumble beneath our feet, the Bonecrawler puzzledly grunting as deep fissures spread in front of me. I missed my footing but fired my jump pack to soar up.

“RAAARRR!!”

“John!”

I turned around to find the Bonecrawler take one last leap at me. With my shade cloak on cooldown and no way to dodge its gaping maw or outstretched claws, I triggered my phase shift and dashed to the edge while bracing for-

“ROOOOOOAAAAAARRRRRR!!”

The world erupted in deafening roaring as colossal jaws burst through the crumbling surface and closed on the pouncing Bonecrawler just as I hit solid ground. Even with the phase shift’s noise reduction, I could hear the gruesome sounds of breaking shell and bone.

“RAAARRR!!”

I could barely see the new monster through my shift’s visual distortions, but I saw a rough scaly shell interlaced with glowing blood vessels, as if lava ran through that creature’s veins. There were two pairs of long sharp jaws firmly clenched around the thrashing Bonecrawler’s body – which seemed miniature in comparison – and countless yellow eyes lining each jaw staring dead at me.

“ROOOOOORRRRRR!!”

There was a deep bellowing and the beast sank back into its pit with the Bonecrawler in its maw, vanishing into the swirling smoke as the roars echoed and faded away.

I lay panting on the ground, exhausted and speechless.

“Well…I suppose…”

I tiredly sighed, picking myself up while awaiting the cheesy one-liner.

“There’s always a bigger bug.”

“That’s not how the line goes.”

“No? What happened to ‘tiny bug crawling away from the big critters?’”

“What happened to ‘tiny minnow swimming away from the big sharks?’”

“Hey! I wonder what this red button labeled “shut this smart-ass down” does!”

I nervously chuckled while resting my hands on my knees, feeling a tired and nerve-wracked mess.

“Or maybe I should press the mute switch? See if you can focus some of your mana to your brain instead of your mouth? Heh.”

The massive shadow of the gateway planetoid loomed above me. I was almost to the relay station or whatever lied beneath it.

“Ha ha. I should probably keep moving.”

“Copy.”

I headed for the gateway while keeping a vigilant eye around me. The environment was completely flat and still, but I knew better than to lower my guard.

I took a step forward and saw a dark spike appear high in the fog above me, instantly stopping and raising my guns.

“Easy there, soldier. Easy.”

The spike was not moving and seemed suspended in place. I took a step backwards and watched the object fade and disappear.

“Huh?”

Curious, I cautiously walked forward and watched the spike reappear and grow into a tall sleek tower that rose from the ground, several more appearing on either side.

“Cloaked. It’s a cloaking mechanism. The whole place is hidden.”

I ran towards the barrier, watching as the spikes grew into towering monoliths easily a hundred meters tall, carved out of dark ridged metal.

“Whoa whoa whoa stop!”

I skidded to a halt in front of the pale translucent field spread across the gap between the two nearest towers.

“Some kind of force field, Colonel?”

“Yup. Looks like this place isn’t just cloaked. That field is radiating enough energy to fry that big bony critter you were just running from.”

“How do I get inside?”

“You’d have to carry the dedicated sigil to pass through this gate unharmed, or have a similar enough Argent reading to slip past the defenses.”

“Hmm.” I grabbed the Bronze Knife and switched it into spear mode.

“What are you doing?”

I extended the spear towards the field, wincing in anticipation of an explosion or electric shock, before the speartip effortlessly passed through the surface.

“Uhh…”

The field lightly crackled and phosphoresced at the point of contact, but the spear appeared whole and intact through the other side.

“Well, look at you. Guess you lucked out again.”

“All right, here I go.”

I cautiously stepped forth and pushed myself through the field. It had more resistance than I anticipated, and I shuddered as a peculiar tingling passed through my body, causing my HUD to sputter for a moment before passing.

“I’m through. I made it.”

“That you did. Now keep moving. You’ve still got a long way to go.”

I kept moving forward. The world had fallen eerily silent and was shrouded in a deep red fog that swirled all around.

“I see a light!”

A soft yellow glow beckoned up ahead, the only light in that dim area. I slowly approached the light, spear raised and guns ready as the fog around me dissipated, revealing the source of the light.

I stopped.

“What…what the hell?”

Standing in front of me, in some Godforsaken region of Hell, was a shining manmade lamppost.

* * *

“I’m not with the UAC. I’m a doctor in biogenetics from Earth, sent by the Global Science Council as an ambassador to the UAC’s Mars facility.”

Ruby nodded at the scientist, kneeling beside the shivering woman as she recounted her grim tale.

“They brought me here on invitation, as a guest researcher to help…sequence some samples of human DNA. Screen for rare diseases or bizarre abnormalities.”

Ruby turned to Romero beside her. The two listened patiently to the survivor’s story as Rogers tended to Reeves’ injuries behind them. The woman’s gaze was still unfocused, and she took long vacant pauses in between sentences.

“Then it happened. There was a deep flash of red, coming from everywhere and nowhere at once. It screamed in my head. Yelling at me. Like lightning stabbing into my mind.

The others fell dead.

Some got back up, but different. Changed. Like something was…carved out of them.

Like they weren’t human anymore.”

The woman brought her gaze down in a somber expression that shook Ruby to her core.

Ruby gulped, thinking how to approach the doctor before responding.

“These folks and I, we think we have a chance of getting out. There’s a shuttle here in Helix that’ll take us to the Spaceport, but we need to open up the flight network first. If we can get to the bottom deck of Helix, we might just have a shot.

You think you can take us there?”

A nearby computer terminal beeped, and Romero stood up to investigate. The woman did not look at Ruby as she replied with a helpless voice.

“There’s nothing for us down there.”

“Come on, we can make it! In a few hours, we can all go home-!”

“Go?”

The survivor turned to Ruby, who despite wearing a helmet, felt her heart sink as the woman stared at her with hollow eyes that pierced into her soul.

“There is nowhere to go.”

The woman held the haunting look for a moment longer before returning to stare at the floor, back hunched and arms around herself.

Ruby collected herself before kneeling closer and placing her hand on the doctor’s shoulder.

“What’s your name, miss?”

“…Name?”

“Your name.”

“My…name.”

The scientist’s expression softened, and something resembling contemplation came upon her face.

“My name….My name is E-”

“Taylor!” The gunslinger called out to Ruby. “You have to come see this.”

Ruby softly patted the woman’s shoulder before standing up and heading over to Romero.

“What’s the matter?”

“An automated message just popped up, an update of the network tracking the enemy’s movement.

The demons are moving away from here, but they’re gathering somewhere else. They’re gathering at the Spaceport.”

“What?”

“Have a look.”

Ruby walked towards the terminal. Sure enough, the display showed a digital map of the sector with countless bright red dots scattered throughout the surface and local facilities, all of them moving in the direction of the Spaceport.

“What’s gotten into them?”

She tapped on the glowing SPACEPORT node and selected the INSPECT prompt from the option menu, waiting for any available surveillance cameras to come online.

Then, the footage loaded.

Ruby leaned towards the screen, struggling to process the reality of the images in front of her.

I don’t believe it.

“Doctor Pierce, I don’t believe such a course of action is necessary.”

“It is not only necessary, it is crucial if we wish our present state of affairs to continue.”

“But this is madness! We’ll lose many viable subjects if we accelerate human trials!”

“We’ll lose much more than that if HE ever wakes up!”

Ruby glanced coolly at the resistant scientist seated at the board meeting, a young man with a fresh doctorate and his whole life ahead of him. He clearly wasn’t the type to become disruptive, but Ruby knew that the sight of four armed Elite Guards standing around the room would quiet even the most belligerent of tempers. Not that that would be an issue from the dozen heads of Lazarus research.

“I warned him,” Pierce continued. “I warned Samuel that he should not send an expedition to the tomb, that he must not retrieve the sarcophagus, but he did not listen. The Sentinels imprisoned the Marine for a reason, and now, he will only bring ruin to us.”

Another scientist at the table spoke up.

“We are still analyzing the relics found in the tomb, but it does not appear the Sentinels opposed the Marine. Preliminary studies of the Daeva etching suggest the Marine fought alongside them, perhaps even leading them."

“Until he brought destruction to their world, just as he will to ours.

That is why he was banished to Hell. That is why he was imprisoned in that cursed Pyramid.”

“But the other Argenta scriptures found indicate the demons feared the Marine. Why would the Sentinels banish him to Hell if-”

“Do not be absurd!” Pierce unexpectedly snapped at the researcher, taking everyone by surprise. “Demonkind would never fear a simple mortal man! Do not project your worthless human sentiments upon higher beings!”

“It has been documented, however rare, that certain individuals do survive direct exposure to Hell’s energy without becoming demonized,” another researcher pointed out, a middle aged man with shoulder length white hair. “We know that the Argenta civilization adapted over centuries to survive constant invasion through this mechanism of natural selection. Is it so absurd to believe that the same might have happened to the Marine? Perhaps even empowered him? Gave him unrivaled strength against the demons? Augmented his combat prowess, kept him healthy and unaging at a hundred fifty years old?”

“You do not actually believe that ridiculous notion of the so-called Hercules Complex?” Pierce hissed at the researcher.

“What other explanation is there? The man was a foot soldier, went MIA on Phobos a hundred years ago with the rest of his squad, he should have been dead by rights. But he reappears with the Argenta? Climbs the ranks to become one of the most fearsome warriors of a sorcerous people dedicated entirely to the killing of demons?”

“And you all realize what this means, right?” Interjected another researcher. “The fact that the subject made contact with the Argenta means that the extraterrestrial human civilization of Argent D’Nur still existed sometime within the last hundred years!”

Argent D’Nur existed that recently? Ruby quietly thought to herself. That’s crazy! There could still be survivors!

“This is unprecedented!” The scientist continued. “This changes everything about-!”

“It changes nothing!”

Scowling with indignation, Pierce painfully shuffled to her seat at the head of the table and brought herself down on the special chair designed to fit her medical exoskeleton.

“The subject is not a hundred and fifty years old. The fact that the Helix Stone and its warning of him was discovered in 2095 is no measure of his age either, and neither can we presume Argent D’Nur existed in any recent timeframe. If common relativity alters our understanding of time, Hell shatters it completely. We must not make the mistake of applying human fallacy to higher dimensional thinking.

As for the Sentinels, you all are keen to ignore the likewise recovered relics that detail the downfall of the Argenta civilization, at the very center of which was the Marine.

It was he who brought Doom to the Night Sentinels.”

“But…the tales of his feats and accomplishments…”

“They are just that: tales. Argent D’Nur was the equivalent of a twelfth-century society with twenty-second century technology. Its culture was severely backwards compared to what its advancement would suggest, fond of aggrandizement and mythification.”

Tales? What tales? What did the man do that would stand out in a society of magic knights and warrior mages?

“Perhaps the Marine was an exceptional soldier.” Pierce admitted. “Perhaps he was augmented by the Argenta’s magic. But I do not for a second believe the stories of him being some immortal demon-vanquishing demigod to be more than the fabricated legends of a primitive people.”

Immortal…demigod…huh?

“Then what do you make of the Helix Stone? The Stone is clearly a demonic rather than Sentinel artifact, and even it describes the Marine as a grave threat that must never be released.”

“The demons were warning US.” Pierce snapped back. “He is no threat to them, he threatens us.

It was they who gifted us with Argent Energy. Showed us how to wield its limitless power. And they knew that the Marine would oppose anyone who harnessed it. As he did to the Argenta. As he will do here.”

“If I may, Doctor Pierce.” A younger and prim scientist spoke up. “I have a suggestion that may solve our current dilemma.

Regarding the unidentified hooded entity depicted in the Daeva etching, the one watching over the Marine and Sentinels as they battle the demons. Its robed appearance resembles traditional Argenta Warpers, but the text and scene describe it as some heavenly figure of guidance and illumination.”

Heavenly? As in, old-bearded-God and white-robed-Angels-with-wings-and-halos Heavenly?

“The writing states that this figure bestowed its blessing upon the Marine. What if that refers to his strength? If this entity gave him his power, perhaps it can take it away.

If Argent D’Nur established contact another higher realm, one distinct and opposed to Hell, then perhaps-”

“You are a FOOL.”

Pierce did not yell, but the sudden drop in her voice immediately silenced the researcher and startled the rest of the head scientists. Even Ruby felt an unexplained chill race up her spine. It almost seemed like Pierce had growled at the scientist.

As if something else had spoken through her.

The Director of the Lazarus Project breathed in to collect herself before continuing.

“Mark my words. All of you!

The Marine has no higher power. There is no such thing as the Hercules Complex.

There is no such thing as Heaven.

And there is no such thing as the Seraphim.

We will now put this worthless talk behind and discuss how to prepare for when Samuel inevitably wakes the enemy!”

“You want to accelerate experimentation on the workers by SIX-HUNDRED PERCENT?” The original reluctant scientist exclaimed. “That is absurd! There is no cover that’ll justify to the Allied Nations a mortality rate that high!”

“I don’t care what you tell them, just get it done! I want every department working on this! Demon augmentation, thaumaturgic research, ATLAS production, the Zeroth Protocol! Current, pending, cancelled projects! Every option under the damn sun!

The gate will be opened! The Marine will not stop our work!

Malcolm!”

Pierce turned to a pale and aging scientist at the far end of the table, one with his face down who’d kept quiet thus far.

“Your Blackwatch troops are most satisfactory,” she spoke. “But they won’t be enough. I want your department working on a new line of cyberdemonic operatives first thing in the morning.

Reinstate the Griefer program if you must, volatility and incompliance be damned. We will need every possible edge against this enemy.”

“As you wish.”

“But you, you were working on a new breed of demonic chimera. One capable of intelligent behavior and advanced teleportation.”

“Correct. I utilized a Dark Imp vector along with Blackwatch technology, but the results were disappointing. I require a stronger demonic vector.”

“If I grant you access to the remains of the Hellas Summoner, would that provide what you need?”

The elderly scientist looked up, revealing a deep gray cataract over his right eye. Ruby shuddered.

“It would.”

In the live night-vision feed on the monitor, Ruby saw the bright thermal outline of the Doom Marine as he rushed across the surface of the Spaceport.

He’s alive. He’s alive.

Romero leaned closer to the screen, trying to make out the shape of the small white blur against the deep black backdrop.

“I’m confused. You fellas made the Marineguy into a real thing?”

Ruby chuckled, elated with relief and excitement.

We’re saved. We’re getting out of here

“What’s going on?” Rogers asked as he approached the two, Reeves holding her bandaged arm behind him. “What are you two looking at?”

Ruby hesitated for a moment, but then she magnified the display and stood aside.

“This.”

The other two turned to the screen and likewise approached for a better look, and Ruby noticed the female scientist face the terminal as well.

“We call him the Doom Marine,” Ruby explained. “We discovered him in Hell four years ago, chained within a stone sarcophagus inside a…a powerful containment site.”

“You found him…in Hell?” Reeves fearfully asked.

“He’s not a demon, he’s human. He matches the profile of a United States Space Marine lost on Mars in 2046.”

“2046? You mean…”

“Phobos. The one known survivor of the Phobos demonic invasion.”

“But, if he was on Phobos, how is he still alive?” Romero asked. “How has he not been killed by the demons?

Why was he contained?”

…immortal demon-vanquishing demigod…

Do they really fear him? If so, why are they moving towards him?

“I…don’t know. I really don’t.

But the demons are advancing on his position, away from the other sectors and away from us here in Helix.”

“But towards the Spaceport,” Rogers pointed out.

“I doubt he’ll stay at the Spaceport,” Ruby assured him. “No doubt he’ll keep moving. And by the time we’re done in Lazarus, the coast will be clear.”

“How do you know?”

“Look.”

Everyone turned to the screen. On the display, they saw the Marine rush behind a vehicle with a heavy assault rifle in hand and instantly headshot a zombie a hundred meters away.

“Holy…” Reeves whispered.

He ducked behind cover and tossed a grenade at a squad of possessed soldiers before opening fire at an imp, this time with a phase rifle and not a HAR.

Romero was flabbergasted.

“What the-! Where’d he just get a plasma rifle from?! Did anyone see that?!”

“Did he have it on his back?” Rogers proposed.

“It wasn’t there earlier! And I never saw him bring it forward! One moment it was the assault rifle and the next it was-!”

“A shotgun.”

Flashes of a combat shotgun firing burst on the screen, followed by one demon after another falling over dead in single shots.

Ruby was fascinated. The Marine’s movements were precise, calculated, tactical. He utilized the environment, anticipated the enemy’s attacks, and circumvented them or neutralized them before they could act. He wasted no time, squandered no ammo. One shot, one kill.

He’s a good soldier. The very best.

I knew it. I always knew it. Pierce was wrong. She had to be.

I don’t know if he’s immortal, but he does have strength. He does have the strength to face them, to fight them, to win.

He’s going to save us.

As the group stared at the monitor with fascination and puzzlement, Ruby’s mind raced with a million questions.

The Argenta hadn’t been immortal, but perhaps the Marine was? What magic or technology did he bear from the Night Sentinels? Was he truly blessed by Heaven? Did such a thing really exist?

What mysterious truths hid behind that visor? What unknowable sights had those eyes seen?

What deep unfathomable thoughts passed through that mind?

* * *

WHERE IN THE CUNTFACED LIMP-DICKED PISS-SWILLING FARM FRESH

FUCK

IS THAT COCK-SUCKING RED KEYCARD?

Blinded by rage and burning with bloodlust, the Slayer Rampaged across the Spaceport madly shooting rockets at everything that moved. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! He ran into a mob of demons and switched to the chaingun. RATATATATATAT!! Soon, the surface of the Spaceport was drenched in the bloody messes of zombies, imps, Pinkies, and Cacodemons that had failed to escape the Slayer’s fury.

He thrust his hands into a zombie’s chest and split in half. Shoved his fist down an anguishing imp’s throat and pulled out a slimy mess of purple organs. Revved up his chainsaw and sawed a roaring Hell Knight in half from the shoulder to waist, the monster desperately trying to pry the buzzing blade out only to half both its hands cut off. Blasted a Revenant’s legs off before thrusting his hands into the back of its jetpack and pulling out the control unit to have the dismembered demon fly forward and explode in the middle of a pack of imps. Used his Bracer to catch a soldier’s rocket out of the air and throw it into a Cacodemon’s open mouth, which gulped and widened its eye in shock before exploding in a mangled blue mess.

WHERE’S THE DOUCHEGARGLING BLOODSHITTING LOWLIFE BASTARD THAT STOLE THAT RED KEYCARD?

POW POW POW POW! A sudden salvo of homing rockets fell around the Slayer and brought his HEALTH down to 87.

Spinning around, the Slayer spotted the possessed soldier taking cover behind a wrecked LUV, its head and body moderately armored with a light military exoskeleton, a thin smoke trail leading from its shoulder-mounted missile rack to the blasted ground around the Slayer. The soldier suddenly jerked up as the Slayer set his sights on it, realizing too late its fatal mistake.

FUCKER!

The exo zombie fled from its cover away from a charging Slayer, who Rampaged in a blaze of fury through the vehicle and ran the soldier down, kicking it to the ground and eviscerating it with the point-blank chaingun.

PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW!

A burst of machine gun fire struck his face and chest. A trio of exo zombies advanced towards the Slayer, shooting at him from wrist-mounted SMGs and preparing to bombard him with rocket salvos. He raced towards them while strafing side to side to avoid their SMG fire and missile bombings. The nearest of the exo zombies raised its other arm to fire a sticky rocket directly at the Slayer’s chest. BOOM! 73 HEALTH.

The foolish soldier then charged at the Slayer, using its powered exoskeleton to sprint at great velocity towards him before the Slayer rammed through it in a burst of metal and blood. He grabbed the second exo zombie with both hands and tossed it at the third one before equipping the Gauss Cannon and charging up a siege blast. PSHEWW!!

“ROOAARR!”

A nearby Hell Knight crushed an unfortunate Revenant beneath its feet while roaring at the Slayer, rushing towards him as an incoming missile flight path appeared on his HUD, centered on the demon.

The Slayer quickly rushed back before the guided missile exploded on the Hell Knight’s back, faltering it and blasting half its flesh off before another missile finally killed it. More missile trajectories manifested on the Slayer’s HUD as a pack of swooping attack drones set their sights on the horde, and he swerved around the blasts of Argent-based missile salvos and carpet bombings as the explosions and shockwaves thundered across the surfaces. One drone did a flyby while firing its autocannon, a familiar buzzing BRRRRT hitting the Slayer’s ears moments after the explosive rounds erupted throughout the demonic horde.

Some soldiers and imps vainly fired their attacks into the smoking sky, but the attack drones were too high and fast for the demons, even for the brutish Hell Knights with their rocket-like fireballs. One Cacodemon lazily gathered energy within its maw and unleashed a flurry of lightning bolts into the sky, a single bolt striking a drone and bringing it crashing down in a fiery blaze.

He could sense a nexus of demonic power up ahead, a focal point in the demon’s psychic network which could only emanate from a demon lord. Bringing up his automap, he spotted a freakish bright red structure centered at the nexus. The source of the interference.

KEYCARD!!

He Rampaged at full speed in the direction of the signal, igniting the air and nearby demons with his Godspeed rune while leaving a fiery trail of devastation behind, but he only had sights for nexus.

There was a faint shimmer ahead that vanished as the Slayer approached to reveal a horrific demonic starship in the process on construction – a grotesque structure the size of a cruiser with a skeletal frame of jagged metal ribs and grisly furrowed metal forming its hull. Small metallic critters on its surface chirped and scurried away as the Slayer arrived, and he switched to the rocket launcher while taking aim at the vessel.

RED!! KEYCARD!!!

The Slayer pulled the trigger and fired a rocket, which exploded against an invisible field surrounding the craft. There was a surge of green lightning and a figure rose from within the ship, a tall slim humanoid with a blue-red shell, two large upward horns, and a single yellow eye.

The first of the three minor lords, the one overseeing the construction of the demonic spacecraft and casting the defensive barrier around it.

A Harvester.

“RYAAAHH!!” The demon shrieked.

The Slayer immediately equipped the pulse rifle and fired upon the demon lord. POW POW POW POW! Some of the plasmoids struck the defensive shield around the demon but the Harvester teleported away before its shield could break, vanishing in a wisp of green smoke and reappearing a distance away behind the horde to point an arm towards the Slayer as it took command of the rampant legions and focused them on him.

He frowned and switched to the chaingun. RATATATAT!! He carved a path through the mob while charging at the Harvester, ignoring the fireballs and projectiles ticking away at his HEALTH. 68. 62. Cybersouls shot shrapnel at him from viciously toothed mouths, and several dust devils began manifesting from the Harvester’s presence. The horde could wait, but the demon lord was top priority. The demon lord shot a series of fast green fireballs towards the Slayer, who swerved hard to the left before the orbs violently exploded against the surface to raze the unfortunate mobs caught in their blast. The dust devils drifted towards the nearest injured demons and ate away at their flesh with coarse biting dust, killing them and growing in size with each demon slain. He still had time.

Back to the pulse rifle, charge and line an explosive orb, fire! POWW! Direct hit! The crackling plasma orb exploded against the Harvester and instantly broke its shields, which the Slayer followed suit with a long-range HAR volley. PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW!

Wisping away from the bullet fire, the Harvester warped to a wide runway and held a clawed hand out to siphon life force from the horde, demons howling and expiring as Argent energy was ripped from their bodies in a bright green beam and collected in a churning ring around the demon lord. The Harvester then raised its arms to produce crackling energy rifts throughout the atmosphere, and the Slayer quickly grabbed a zombie by the neck and raised it as a meatshield. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The energy fell to ground in large fireballs that bombarded the surface with green plasma, vaporizing weaker demons and even searing the flesh of Hell Knights. The Slayer held the soldier towards the nearest blasts to block some of the damage, but his meatshield crumbled to ash in his hand and his HEALTH fell to 44.

He wouldn’t be able to hold out much longer. The horde was too coordinated while the Harvester was alive, which he could barely see behind a thick shroud of churning dust. With the abundance of injured demons following the Slayer’s and Harvester’s battle, three dust devils had feasted and grown enough to obscure most of the area with their wide funnels that arced with demonic lightning, likewise depriving him of nearby opportunities to restore his HEALTH.

FUCK IT!

The Slayer turned on his Clearsight and turned his pulse rifle to the revealed Harvester. POW! POW! POW! POW! POW! POW! The demon lord was unable to avoid the speedy projectiles and faltered as its shield quickly melted. The Slayer equipped the Gauss Cannon. PEWW! Miss. PEWW! The Harvester desperately brought its hands forward to project a runic shield, which cracked as the bolt struck.

PEWW!

The shield broke and the demon’s head sharply whipped back, slowly returning to reveal its seared face and shattered right horn.

The Harvester bared its fangs.

“RYAAAAAAHHH!”

The demon lord suddenly released a tremendous blast of green energy that left a vibrant aura and glowing sigils in the air. The Slayer flinched but did not take damage, noticing the myriad of summoning portals opening throughout the area, bringing forth dozens of fully corrupted UAC assault droids and security drones.

As the Slayer fell back from the advancing legion of demonized robots, the livid Harvester rose into the sky and siphoned the energy accumulated by the three dust devils, dissolving the twisters and absorbing their consumed life force to heal its injuries before turning to face the fleet of attack drones that launched a storm of missiles and chaingun fire at it. With the Spaceport’s visibility restored, the Slayer watched the Harvester cast an ethereal barrier to block the incoming projectiles before it extended an arm and reduced half the attack drones to ash. The Harvester made a fist and the remainder of the drones fell to earth, trailing fiery smoke and exploding on impact. One drone did a shallow crash landing and tumbled to a halt after crushing a dozen demons, while the Slayer strafed to avoid the fireball of another’s explosion.

The talking computer interrupted.

The Base is teleporting ATLAS assets to your position!>

ATLAS?

The Slayer noticed multiple bright blue bursts of light above the cloud cover just as an alert flashed on his HUD.

!!WARNING!!

INCOMING ATLAS-FALLS DETECTED

There was a thundering roar as five large burning objects fell to the ground from above the clouds, their outer metallic shells breaking off in the air to reveal five robotic mechs that loudly crash-landed onto the surface within dome-shaped barrier fields, cracking the tarmacs and picking up great clouds of dust.

ATLAS mechs.

* * *

“We’ll take the north staircase into the bottom deck and head for the teleporter array. Once we’re there, I’ll configure the teleporter and beam us over to Lazarus.

Hiro, help me with her.”

“You got it.

Ma’am?” The gunslinger held out his hand towards the scientist, who timidly took it and stood up.

“Amanda, Lieutenant, you two go with them and cover point. I’ll be with you in a moment, I have to make sure we aren’t followed.”

“Whatever you say.” With only one good arm, the engineer wouldn’t be able to wield the HAR, but she could use her plasma cutter. She grabbed the tool and headed out the gate.

“Stay close to me. It’ll all be okay.” Romero assured the scientist before following behind Reeves.

“Lieutenant, what are you doing?” Ruby asked the lingering Rogers as she typed away at the terminal. “They need you to cover them.”

“You’re trying to replace him, aren’t you?”

Ruby stopped and turned at the lieutenant.

“What?”

“You’re trying to replace Harrison.”

“…Why do you say that?”

“You feel his death was your fault, and now you want to bring that woman along so you don’t feel guilty.

If you manage to save another civvie, then you’ll be absolved from his death.”

Out of all the things that passed through Ruby’s head and she could have responded with, she only said three words.

“What’s your point?”

The lieutenant looked down and lowered his voice.

“Look, I feel guilty too. I wasn’t with him. If I’d been there then maybe he’d still be alive. You were looking out for the whole group and I was closer. Maybe it’s my fault.

But Christopher is gone. And we can’t bring along a brain-dead scientist that can’t protect herself and is going to die anyway just so you feel better about yourself.”

…

“I won’t tell you what to do,” he continued. “I won’t stop you. But when the time comes, I hope you’ll be ready.”

With that, the Lieutenant spun around and ran after the others, leaving a stunned Ruby alone in the abandoned lab.

After watching him leave, Ruby changed to a different program and brought up the lab’s surveillance footage.

One, two...three hours ago.

The display settled on prior footage of the laboratory, a brightly lit and shining facility where multiple scientists were conducting their work. Ruby could see the woman there too, holding a clipboard and conversing to a fellow researcher as she pointed to whatever was written on it.

The lights turned red and begun to flash, and the scientists looked around in confusion before the wave hit.

Ruby knew it was the wave, but all that appeared on screen was a bright flash of light that shorted out the cameras, replacing their feed with glitching static displays. Ruby sighed and began to walk away before the footage returned.

About half of the researchers were dead, lying motionlessly on the ground. The rest had become Possessed and violently fought among themselves, slashing at each other’s faces and biting at others’ throats or ripping out their organs.

In the center of it all, the woman stood. Alive and unzombified, staring with wide horrified eyes at the chaos happening around her. She fell to her knees and buried her face in her lap, covering her ears as she attempted to drown out the sounds of madness.

Ruby knew what was going to happen, but she couldn’t help but feel surprised when the zombies finished killing each other off and shambled out of the lab, leaving the scientist alone and completely unharmed. As if they never even realized she was there.

She’s an Omega. She’s a goddamn Type Omega.

Protocol dictated that all Type Omega individuals on Mars be terminated and their remains disposed of, because of the danger they posed to the Mars Base.

It was the Elite Guards’ duty to bring them to the Lazarus Labs. Precisely where they were going.

If they resisted, the Elite Guards had authorization to terminate them on the spot.

All it took was one bullet.

Ruby grimaced. She could still see the despair in the workers’ eyes as she instructed them to follow her. The quiet hopelessness in their walk, the shouts and weeping as they passed a friend or loved one, the tumult that always followed. She hated when they resisted, but it was the better end for them.

The howls and screams that echoed in Lazarus. The vivisection deck, the offering cells, the human experiments.

The Lazarus Refractor.

AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!

No.

I won’t do it.

Too many innocent people have already died because of me.

Pierce was wrong about the Marine. Perhaps she was wrong about the Omegas too.

I’m going to save her.

* * *

The ATLAS mechs were steel-grey, varying humanoid machines about seven meters tall, the UAC logo and a large triangular A blazoned on their hulls. With his Clearsight, the Slayer could see into their cabins and at the individual Possessed Pilots operating each mech.

“DOOM MARINE IDENTIFIED,” the largest mech spoke in a loud robotic voice as all five stood up and equipped the massive handheld firearms carried on their backs while their protective deployment shields disintegrated. “BEGINNING TERMINATION.”

The Slayer immediately brought up his Suit’s Dossier and fabricated a Mega Charge to restore his HEALTH and ARMOR to 200 each just as a hail of attacks rained down on him from the five mechs, several rounds and rocket blasts already ticking away at his ARMOR to indicate they were being augmented by the Harvester’s power, which retreated into its sinister ship.

The largest mech wore heavy armor plating and slowly lumbered under its weight, but in both hands it carried a Delta-12 thirty millimeter chaingun while a smaller shoulder-mounted autocannon picked off nearby hostile demons, more than enough to manage its territory and deny the Slayer’s approach. “Onslaught,” the Slayer could read on its hull. Another two mechs had a medium amount of plating and sprinted at decently fast and maneuverable speeds in Mars’ low gravity, translucent full-body shields absorbing stray demonic attacks while they mindlessly crushed lesser demons beneath their feet. The more mobile of the two fired at him with a heavy plasma cannon while the other stood still to aim a long whirring railgun. “Pulsar” and “Firebolt.” The last two of the mechs were lightly armored but far more mobile and agile, one of which was even equipped with jet thrusters that let it briefly hover above the mob and rain Argent rockets at the Slayer from an elevated position before descending again. “Falcon.” And the last mech was…

WHERE THE HELL IS THE LAST MECH?

With a sharp crack, the last mech teleported ten meters in front of the Slayer and unloaded a fully automatic flak cannon at him, blasting large chunks of his ARMOR away with shotgun-like bursts. 186. 171. 159. He raised the Gauss Cannon and fired but the mech – branded “Stryker” – sidestepped the bolt with a strong flare from lateral jet thrusters and dashed again towards the Slayer while reaching over its shoulder to swing a massive electrified sword the size of a helicopter rotor. Despite his last-second attempt to dodge the slash, the Stryker’s sword hit and the Slayer’s ARMOR fell to 125. Furious, the Slayer equipped the phase rifle and released a stream of plasmoids at the mech to quickly overload and destroy its overshield before switching to his own autoshotgun and opening fire. BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM! The mech held its broadsword in front of it to block the Slayer’s attack, most of the buckshot reflecting off the force field surrounding the blade before dashing forward and vanishing in a swirl of bright streamers.

“Aim for the cockpit nose!” Hayden yelled. “Their armor is weak at that point!”

The Slayer leapt forward and switched to the Gauss Cannon before the Stryker reappeared directly behind him, firing the railgun both to propel himself away from the mech and shoot it directly in its exposed cockpit. The ATLAS faltered with the direct hit and the Slayer followed suit with a grenade between the legs and a rocket to the face, causing the mech to stumble once then twice with both blasts. Its metallic chassis singed and smoking, the heavily damaged Stryker charged towards the fleeing Slayer as it shot an electrified rocket from a shoulder launcher, red lightning arcing out to nearby demons and the Slayer as the rocket passed. 112 ARMOR. He frowned and switched to the super shotgun to shoot explosive slugs at the Stryker, who could block the slugs but not their explosive blasts. BAM! BAM! Slowly but surely the slugs ate away at the mech’s hull as the Slayer Rampaged towards it. He leapt to close the distance as the ATLAS dashed at him and swung its blade, which he keenly parried with his Bracer to falter the mech and then deliver a fatal Blood Punch.

WHIRRRRRRR…!

The Stryker then froze while emitting a blinding incandescent glow from its core. The top of its cabin flew off as the Pilot was ejected at great speed while the mech flooded with radiation. He immediately turned and rushed in the opposite direction before the ATLAS explosively self-destructed in a blinding surge of Argent energy.

BOOOOOOM!!!

The Slayer barely managed to avoid the crimson blast as his shell count suddenly skyrocketed to its full count of fifty, realizing the Praetor Suit had siphoned munitions from the mech’s flak cannon before looking upward at the descending Pilot. In a tight building or complex, the ATLAS Pilots might be able to outmaneuver him with their wallrunning and grapple hooks. But out in the open, the advantage was his. He equipped the pulse rifle and fired upon the Pilot as it flicked a gravity knife towards him, swerving out of the way of the projectile and overloading the operative’s personal shield. Its jump pack automatically firing to break its fall, the stunned Pilot hit the ground and the Slayer finished it off with a quickscope headshot from the HAR.

With the Stryker gone, the Slayer moved on to the other four mechs. He equipped the chaingun and swept the barrel across them, but the first three triggered additional energy shields to block the heavy rounds. Onslaught activated a hexagonal shield from its chaingun, Firebolt deployed a static shield wall and Pulsar projected a swirling particle shield from its hand to catch the rounds and shotgun-blast them at a nearby Hell Knight that pounced at it. Only the rocket-based flight-capable Falcon seemed to have no additional defensive abilities and dashed to sidestep the Slayer’s fire. His next prey, and his upcoming resupply of rocket ammo.

Strafing around to avoid its incoming rockets, the Slayer noticed a Pinky charge at the Falcon’s legs and promptly be crushed by the backstepping mech. A Revenant fired missiles at it, which the Falcon dashed towards and instantly smashed against the ground with a heavy punch from its free arm. A Hell Knight pounced at it, and the ATLAS deployed a serrated wrist-mounted knife whose edge burned with blue plasma and thrust it into the Hell Knight before ejecting the blade and dashing away. The impaled Hell Knight roared in agony and tried to extract the massive knife from its body, until the embedded blade flashed and the demon’s torso exploded in a shower of steaming guts and gore, its dismembered legs buckling and falling to the ground beside the spent knife.

Approaching the ATLAS, the Slayer opened fire with the pulse rifle to destroy its shields. The Falcon sidedashed and fired rockets at the Slayer, but he and his plasmoids were faster and the Falcon’s shields burst. Rocket launcher! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The ATLAS was still too far and mobile to hit directly with the rockets, but the Slayer triggered their remote detonations and managed to hit the Falcon with the blasts, which raised a shoulder launcher from its smoking chassis and fired a mine at the ground in front of the Slayer. He mindfully sidestepped the mine on his approach but this erupted into a tethered harpoon that shot directly at his chest. His ARMOR blocked the hit but fell to 105.

Damn bastard!

The Falcon raised another shoulder launcher and the Slayer shot at it with a precision bolt. The shot landed but the launcher didn’t break, which fired a cluster missile in front of him that exploded into bouncing shrapnel.

“Their armor is nano composite! Their structure cannot be compromised until all their armor plating is spent!”

HE GOT IT! HE GOT IT!

The Slayer leapt over the wall of bouncing cluster bombs towards the Falcon, which pulled back its free arm while deploying its wrist-mounted plasma knife. Anticipating the attack, the Slayer jumped over the searing blade and kicked the mech’s arm into the ground while climbing onto it and slinging over its back. The ATLAS thrashed and ignited its jets to throw the Slayer off, but with a vice-like grip he rodeoed the flailing Falcon and manually triggered its shoulder launchers, firing a tether mine at the flanking Pulsar to trap it and a cluster missile at the lumbering Onslaught. Looking down, he spotted a glowing black-and-green component on the Falcon’s hull labeled “SHIELD BATTERY – DO NOT REMOVE.” He bent down to grab the handle on the battery and pulled it free of the hull, watching the Falcon’s chassis set on fire as its overshield sputtered and died.

Landing on the ground, the Falcon stood still and released a cloud of thick smoke from vents on its back, kneeling into the fog as electricity arced across the smog and hacked away at the Slayer’s ARMOR. 101. 96. 91. He leapt off the ATLAS with battery in hand, but the mech’s hull had turned black and carbonized.

“Its nano composite armor is spent! Now, while its exposed!”

SHUT THE FUCK UP, HAYDEN!

The Falcon raised a shoulder launcher to fire a tether mine at the Slayer, but he equipped the HAR and shattered the thin strut with a precision bolt. It raised the other for a cluster missile. POW! Gone. The Falcon then soared into the air and extended missile racks in preparation to bombard the Slayer, but he slung the green battery at the ATLAS. BOOM! The battery exploded in green flame and electricity, electrocuting the mech and causing it to buckle. The Slayer Rampaged towards it and swept its leg while passing, bringing the mech down on its back before leaping back to charge a siege blast and thrusting the Gauss Cannon into the cockpit’s entry hatch.

POWW!

Pilot and mech down.

Should have ejected, dirtbag.

The remaining three mechs loudly buzzed as they saw the Slayer take down the second ATLAS, releasing grating roars and rushing towards him. Restocking his rocket pool from the remains of the Falcon, he switched to the chaingun and fired at the incoming mechs, but these activated their defensive shields and focused fire on his position. The Pulsar launched a glowing blue missile that erupted into an enormous gravity vortex which pulled at the Slayer and dragged nearby demons into its focus, tearing them to shreds and damaging his ARMOR with its sharp tidal forces while pulling the mech’s heavy plasmoids into its vicinity. 85 ARMOR. 79. 72. Slayer raced away from the whirlpool but not before the gravity bomb exploded with a heavy blast, losing another 14 ARMOR and noticing too late the homing rocket salvo that Firebolt had shot at him. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! 40 ARMOR. The Pulsar suddenly holstered its plasma cannon as the bright blue eye in the center of its chassis began ionizing the air in front of it. The Slayer’s eyes widened and he swerved hard left, but the Pulsar released a roaring particle beam that seared the surface and reduced unfortunate demons to cinders, turning to keep the beam on the Slayer for its duration. 12 ARMOR.

“BZZZZT!”

The Onslaught likewise holstered its chaingun and fired jet thrusters on its back to charge at the Slayer at alarming speeds while ramming through the horde in a cloud of fire and blood.

WHAT THE FUCK!

The Slayer rushed out of the mech’s path as it thundered past him, which shut off its jets and spun around to equip its chaingun and trigger its gun shield while loading a unique drum magazine into the weapon.

!!WARNING!!

INCOMING SMART BURST

The Slayer turned around and raced away from the ATLAS, but it had already triggered the storm of homing rounds that hammered on the Slayer’s back, destroying his ARMOR and hacking away at his HEALTH. 191. 183. 174. He desperately launched an echo drone which projected a holographic image of himself running in the opposite direction, and Onslaught turned its chaingun towards the decoy long enough for the Slayer to dart behind cover of another fallen ATLAS laying on the Spaceport and escape the volley of incoming attacks.

It was no use. The three remaining mechs were too well coordinated and had too strong defensive capacities for the Slayer to take them all at once. They were nowhere near as powerful as the two Barons at the Black Pyramid, but the human Pilots were far more tactical and knew how to counter the human Slayer. He might be able to kill the Harvester and cut off the ATLAS’ source of demonic empowerment, but he’d never get through all three mechs and the horde to reach the demon lord. And his Berserk wasn’t ready yet. He needed something to lighten the pressure on him!

WHIRRRRR…

The machine he leaned on suddenly jerked to life and powered up in a deep buzzing whirr, heavily picking itself off the ground with harsh metallic groaning. The Slayer backed away, realizing it was no ATLAS at all.

Its hull was not smooth steel grey but a dirty orange-brown, a rough and weathered six-meter monstrosity caked with rust and Martian dirt. Four insectoid legs ending with omnidirectional wheels and retracted stability spikes unfolded and stood on the rough terrain as a multitude of mounted cannons, turrets, and missile racks rose from the machine’s arms, shoulders, and back. A single red eye blazing with ardor ignited and gleamed from the center of the chassis, surrounded by spinning metallic maws and staring directly at the Slayer.

The machine was not protected by an overshield but rather thick gnarled armor crudely welded over its components.

Whatever the machine was, it had certainly not been built by the UAC.

Then, it spoke.

“DOOM SLAYER IDENTIFIED.

PROTECT THE SLAYER.”

…What?

The Firebolt ATLAS aimed and fired its railgun at the Slayer, but the barbaric machine dove in front of him to block the shot and aimed its myriad of cannons. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! POWW! POWW! POWW! RATATATATAT! A barrage of howitzer shells, railgun bolts, and rocket volleys thundered from the machine and rained upon the three ATLAS mechs, bombarding their shields and forcing them back while mounted autocannons laid waste to the legion of demons and UAC droids alike. Spent casings clanged at the stunned Slayer’s feet as the mechs, revenants, and cacos rained attacks on his position, but the machine intercepted them with autocannon fire or counter-rockets before they could strike it or the Slayer.

Snapping back to focus, he switched to his pulse rifle but found he was running low on plasma ammo.

“ROAAARRR!”

A Hell Knight leapt at him, but out of nowhere a gigantic metallic arm slammed the demon to the ground and tore at it with a massive rock grinder, the monster roaring and then gurgling as its face and torso were sawed into a crimson pulp that was siphoned by the Praetor Suit and restocked the Slayer’s ammo pools, the demons’ claws tearing at the arm’s plating before falling limp.

Now that was more like it.

The Slayer turned to the machine and met its gaze. Some kind of artillery phalanx, slapdashed together from the scraps of ATLAS mechs and mining vehicles. He didn’t know if it was on his side, but it definitely wasn’t on the demons’. He held the gaze a moment longer before rushing towards the mechs, and the phalanx revved its engines and lowered its posture before charging as well.

POW! POW! POW! POW! POW! The Slayer approached and fired at the mech with his pulse rifle. The ATLAS raised its arm to project a swirling particle shield, but the Slayer’s electroactive plasmoids quickly eroded the vortex and struck at the mech’s overshield before breaking it. The phalanx rained fire on the exposed Pulsar as the ATLAS sprinted to avoid the incoming barrage. Launching a stun bomb to briefly disable the mech, the Slayer flanked the Pulsar and leapt onto its back as the phalanx fired at its exposed cockpit with heavy rail bolts, removing the green battery from the Pulsar’s chassis and disabling its overshield. The mech broke free of the stun and fired at the phalanx with its plasma cannon, the heavy green plasmoids exploding against the machine’s plating. The Slayer equipped the chaingun and focused fire on the mech’s cannon, striking and ultimately destroying the firearm in a bright explosion of green plasma.

The heavily damaged Pulsar launched a gravity bomb at the Slayer as its blue eye focused another particle beam. Unable to throw the battery and struggling to free himself from the gravity vortex – feeling his HEALTH melt away with the tidal forces and the Firebolt’s rockets drawn into the whirlpool – the Slayer watched as the ATLAS unleashed its beam at the phalanx, but this suddenly released an equally blinding ray of vicious red plasma at the ATLAS. The two beams met in the middle and collided in a vivid white maelstrom that lit up the Spaceport before the Slayer freed himself from the gravity bomb and hurled the battery at the Pulsar. The battery hit and stunned the ATLAS, deactivating its beam and letting the phalanx incinerate its hull in a turbulent red blaze.

Charred and defeated, the Pulsar knelt and self-destructed in a controlled manner, not with a devastating blast like the Stryker but the Pilot ejected and soared into the night sky, until the phalanx looked up and incinerated the Pilot in a split second before its beam sputtered and died.

The Slayer raced to the Pulsar’s remains and siphoned fresh plasma munitions as he noticed the pack of Hell Knights swarming over the machine, cracking its armor with Hellfire slams and tearing at its hull with fiery gouging talons while it struggled to throw them off. He immediately equipped the Blazing Spirit and fired at the pack to falter them and break their grips from the phalanx, which shrugged them off and slammed them to the ground to finish them with point-black rocket blasts.

There was a sharp crack of thunder as a dazzling rail bolt exploded against the phalanx’s side and tumbled the machine back, a dreadful hole smoldering on its hull. It was the Firebolt, barely unmoved since its initial drop and close to its still functional anti-gravitic deployment pad. The phalanx had taken a heavy blow from the mech, and the Slayer needed the machine if he was to get past Onslaught and reach the Harvester. The ATLAS charged another shot, and after inwardly groaning the Slayer raised a middle finger at the mech and Rampaged towards it.

The mech roared in aggravation and turned its railgun to the Slayer to blindly fire a series of bolts in rage. POWW! POWW! POWW! Most of the bolts strayed far off, but one caught him in its blast and brought his HEALTH down to 126. He got an idea and deployed an echo drone at a divergent angle while he continued straight, reducing his speed to match the drone’s and equipping the pulse rifle as the hologram depicted him with. The Firebolt buzzed in confusion and turned indecisively between the two Slayers, unable to conclude which one was real. The mech aimed its railgun at him, and he thought his deception was over before the ATLAS turned to the decoy and opened fire. He grinned and strafed towards the mech. POWW! POWW! POWW! The Firebolt’s shots thundered past the hologram which continued running obliviously into the distance, until the ATLAS launched a homing volley of rockets and destroyed the flimsy decoy. The mech roared and spun to the real Slayer, but he had already reached the anti-gravity pad and charged the Gauss Cannon while soaring high above the ATLAS, which was unable to track a moving target across three dimensions. The Firebolt released another missile salvo, but he shot the Gauss Cannon to the side and propelled himself out of the rocket’s path. POWW! The Slayer released a siege blast downwards, thrusting himself up with the recoil and breaking the Firebolt’s overshield. POWW! Another siege blast hit the mech’s nose and buckled the ATLAS with the tremendous blast. Falling back down, the Slayer fired his jump pack to keep himself up a moment longer to aim the final shot. POWW! The bolt hit and destroyed the mech’s remaining armor plating to ignite its chassis.

Holy shit, the Gauss Cannon was strong as hell.

Persistent to the end, the doomed Firebolt stood its ground and loaded a distinct silver warhead on a dedicated shoulder launcher as an arcing missile path appeared in his HUD centering on him.

!!WARNING!!

NUCLEAR BOMBSHELL DETECTED

Shit!

The Slayer considered running to avoid the shell but decided against it at the last moment. Realizing he could use that shell himself, he stayed where he was.

Come on, just a little while longer.

The launcher fired and the warhead flew at great speed into the sky just as the phalanx pounced at the Firebolt, thrusting a massive arm into its compromised cabin and pulling the writhing Pilot out before crushing them and kicking the crumbling mech to the ground, but the Slayer was focused on the falling bombshell.

He had it. He had it.

The warhead sailed past him and the Slayer raced after it.

He had it! He had it! He had it!

The bombshell fell to the ground and the Slayer leapt to catch it with outstretched hands, defusing the trigger mechanism with his Bracer and nestling the warhead between his arms. The warhead might not have gone off but a stray shot from the remaining demons might still detonate it. With the package secure the Slayer raced towards the Harvester, but Onslaught still guarded the demonic spacecraft and aimed its spinning chaingun at him. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The damaged phalanx rained missiles on the last ATLAS, which furiously roared and fired its jets to charge at the machine.

“BZZZT!”

The phalanx assumed a wide-legged stance and dug its foot spikes into the ground while holding its arms out, catching the rushing Onslaught with a booming CRASH and cleaving a furrowed path through the tarmac but bringing the ATLAS to a halt. The Onslaught raised an arm and deployed its plasma knife to thrust it into and break it off in the phalanx’s exposed breach before spinning up its chaingun and firing at point-blank range.

With warhead still in hand, the Slayer rushed to aid his ally who vainly raised its arms to shield itself, these shattering and breaking off in the mech’s assault. The Onslaught ceased firing as its gun went empty but extended the red-hot firearm and discharged a heat blast, destroying half the phalanx’s armor as the remainder of the demonic horde descended upon the machine.

The Slayer prepared to drop the warhead and equipped the Blazing Spirit in his main hand as he rushed to the machine, but the phalanx grabbed a hold of the mech’s chaingun to immobilize it and yelled at him.

“NO!!

DESTROY THE DEMONS!!”

He skidded to a halt with bombshell still in hand, noticing the green glow of the Harvester rising from the demonic spacecraft. The Onslaught turned to him and began to aim but the Phalanx dragged the ATLAS back towards itself.

“DESTROY THE DEMONS!!”

He understood. He switched to the Gauss Cannon and headed for the Harvester as the demon lord shot explosive orbs at him. 105 HEALTH. 87. 61.

FWOOOOOSH!! Behind him, a blazing inferno ignited as the phalanx discharged its remaining cannons and unleashed raging streams of flame from its arms, incinerating the last demons and burning away the Onslaught’s shield.

He charged a siege blast and fired. POWW! The Harvester warped away from the bolt and threw a fireball at the Slayer. He shielded the bombshell with his body and lost 25 HEALTH. POWW! The demon lord dodged the shot which vanished into the distance.

The Onslaught loaded a smart burst drum into its chaingun and unleashed it at the phalanx, who blocked the barrage with a flame shield projected by its hand that seared the mech’s hull.

The Slayer spun around and aimed the charged Gauss Cannon towards the starship just as the Harvester reappeared in his direct line of fire. So predictable.

POWW!

Hit. The bolt shattered the demon’s shield and faltered the Harvester.

Go long.

The Slayer slung the nuclear bombshell into the air and took aim before focusing power into his leg and kicking the rear of the bombshell, a shockwave thundering from the kick as the warhead soared at incredible speed towards the demon lord.

“RYAA-!!”

BOOOOOOOMMM!!

A blinding explosion lit up the night as the bombshell exploded on the Harvester, incinerating the demon lord and its ship in a fraction of a second. The Slayer ducked as the deafening shockwave passed over him, standing up to see the mushroom cloud of smoke and ash rising from the blast.

Touchdown.

Far behind, the Onslaught shuddered and buckled as its source of demonic empowerment ceased and the phalanx ignited both hands afire to punch the ATLAS once, then twice, raising both flaming arms above its head and slamming them on the ground to release a devastating blast that scorched the Onslaught away. The Slayer checked the enemy count on the corner of his HUD. Zero demons left in the Spaceport.

With no more enemies left, the phalanx extinguished its flamethrowers and stumbled onto the surface, legs fractured and charred hull punctured and smoking as its body came apart with every step. The Slayer walked over and quietly gazed at the dying machine, betraying no emotion but relaxing his posture and meeting the phalanx’s eye. The machine held the look before falling to the ground with arm outstretched, powering down as its bright red eye blinked and faded away to black.

Staring at the fallen giant for another moment, the Slayer brought up his automap to search for the red keycard when something popped in front of him. A hatch had opened on the back of the phalanx amid a vivid gust of steam, through which something moved.

So the phalanx had been piloted after all. Unsure of what to expect, the Slayer braced as the smoke cleared to reveal the machine’s operator.

The small green sentry bot that had been following him throughout the Spaceport.

The Slayer stood completely still and silent. Distant thunder echoed from the horizon and debris from the phalanx chinked lightly on the ground as the two stared at one another. Chirping softly, the sentry bot meekly ducked and pulled something from the phalanx cabin with its leg, crawling over the machine’s steaming hull to meet the Slayer at eye level and cautiously hold the item out at him.

It was the red keycard.

Not knowing what else to do, the Slayer reached out and gently took the keycard from the robot, which still hung from its lanyard. It was undamaged and still operational.

The Slayer looked back at the watchful bot, which seemed no worse for the wear after its turbulent ordeal within the phalanx.

Strange little robot.

Scoffing inside his helmet, he entered the keycard into his storage matrix and equipped the combat shotgun while turning to leave, bringing up his automap to look for the tram station that would take him to the Advanced Research Complex. Behind him, the sentry bot sadly whistled and sat on the phalanx’s remains.

Uggghhh.

The Slayer stopped and lowered his shotgun, looking back at the tiny bot and gesturing at it to come.

The sentry bot immediately perked up and hopped over to the Slayer, happily chirping as it leapt onto his shoulder and the Praetor Suit automatically ingressed it into his systems.

SENTRY BOT ACQUIRED

TARGETS NEARBY ENEMIES WITH SEARING LASER

FOLLOWS SIMPLE COMMANDS AND CAN BE INSTRUCTED TO RETRIEVE SUPPLIES OR ITEMS

What the hell was Hayden thinking, the Slayer thought as he puzzledly stared at the bouncing robot on his shoulder. Glancing back at the fallen phalanx, he walked over to it and directed the Praetor Suit to scan its structure.

…SCANNING…

NEW BOOST SCHEMATIC ACQUIRED – SOVEREIGN PHALANX

MANUFACTURES POWERFUL ARTILLERY PLATFORM FROM AVAILABLE RESOURCES; CAN BE EMPLOYED FOR DEFENSE OR OFFENSE

DOES NOT EXPIRE BUT CAN BE DESTROYED

FABRICATION COST – 8 CALIBRATION CYCLES

Crude, makeshift, and slapdash. Shoddy work. But not bad, he admitted.

Not bad at all.

He glanced at the automap to find the shortest route to the tram station when he noticed slight static on the edge of the display. There was still some lingering interference on the Base network from the demon lord’s presence. Perhaps enough to hide him placing a Slayer Idol in the Spaceport from Hayden and his computer.

He sighed as he accessed his dossier and reluctantly withdrew the single Slayer Idol in his Suit’s storage. A small black totem with his glowing green Mark manifested in front of him and he took it in his hand, placing it down on the ground and triggering it to release its psychic energies at a reduced rate.

He studied the small totem which had begun to release a faint green vapor, the condensed fear and terror of a trillion demonic beings. There were still two Barons and another two minor lords on Mars, but with the death of the Harvester, they would have retreated deeper into their lairs to reorganize the invasion now that the Slayer had returned.

Which bought him and any survivors still on the planet some time.

At maximum yield, the Idol could probably ward off even major demon lords for about a minute, but at this rate, it seemed the totem would keep the Spaceport clear of the lesser invading legions for…five hours? Maybe more.

Maybe less.

The sentry bot curiously beeped at the Idol and inquisitively looked at the Slayer. He shrugged.

Whatever. If there was anyone left, they now had a chance to safely navigate the sector and perhaps find a functional shuttle that would take them off-world. But his job there was done. He cocked his shotgun and raced off towards the tram station, the bot whistling as he ran at great speed past the wrecked phalanx, five fallen ATLAS mechs, the remains of a demonic spacecraft and the gigantic smoldering crater from a tactical nuclear explosion. So much for stealth.

Far above on the peak of a service tower, a lone figure watched the Slayer and bot leave in a bright haze of dust across the scorched Martian surface. Wearing a midnight suit of UAC body armor and holding a neural knife in its hand, the figure knelt on the edge of the tower as the holographic skull in its helmet’s display sputtered and glitched.

The figure looked at the demolished machines, the ravaged hordes of demons, and the small green totem at the center of it all before grabbing the burst rifle lying beside it, standing up, and vanishing in the blue stream of a phase shift.

* * *

Gunfire. The sounds of automatic rifle fire echoing through the halls of the Phobos Lab.

It could just be the monsters fighting among themselves again, but the gunfire kept going and did not stop. It could be survivors. He raised the Retribution and set off towards the sound.

There were growls, hisses, shrieks. The roar of something huge followed by the blasts of a shotgun.

“Die, motherfucker! Die!”

The man’s voice echoed to where he was. A survivor. He spotted the muzzle flashes of gunfire up ahead and raced even faster.

“ROAAARRR!!”

BOOM!

A thundering rocket explosion, and everything went silent.

He stopped. Was it over? Was the man dead? Had his chance to find another survivor been stolen from just beyond his fingertips?

No. No…

He ducked behind the smoking gate and leaned over the edge. No movement. Breathing in, he braced himself before rushing into the room.

It was a massacre. Bits of flesh and gore splattered every available surface besides scorch marks and bullet holes. The corpses of those monstrous soldiers and the horrible impish creatures littered the ground, shredded and torn apart with incredible violence. There was even the bloody mess of one of those awful pink creatures, its bony tail ripped off and embedded into its crushed head.

What could have done this?

A silhouette appeared through the smoke, the outline of a man hunched over and breathing deeply.

It was Phillip. Injured and dripping blood not entirely his own, with a shotgun in one hand and an empty rocket launcher in the other, which he dropped to the floor. The mangled body of a musclebound and skull-faced giant lay at his feet, back broken and bloody flesh smoking.

His body armor was damaged to reveal the orange jumpsuit beneath, and his swarthy skin was scratched and covered with slashes and burn marks, but he was alive.

“What TOOK you so long, Marine?” Osborne hissed through gritted teeth before looking up.

His face was full of hatred, rage, and exhaustion.

And his eyes…Osborne’s green eyes seemed more intense than usual. Almost incandescent.

“…rrrooAAarr…”

The monster at his feet weakly growled and reached out with its remaining clawed hand.

Scowling in fury, Phillip holstered his shotgun and grabbed the fire axe slung on his back, raising it high before bringing it down on the creature’s neck.

* * *

KILLS - 100%

SECRETS - 16

TIME - 40:00