The Underworld : Haunted Shores (Part III)

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Feels like i'm churning these out by the bucketload lately, but i'm having an overdrive of literary creativity so i'm going for gold. On another note, i'm aware that there are similarities between this and HS-I, but it's as i intended it to read - it's not due to a lack of ideas. Anyway, on to the story...
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Wilson stumbled backwards in shock, his brain hardly noticing the faecical sands in which he buried his hands to support himself. Slowly, the Colonel's eyelids fluttered open. For a few short moments, he seemed to stare into space, as if composing his thoughts - then he focused on the awe-struck faces around him. A thousand words waited their tongues, yet the shock of recent events seemed to freeze their larynxes.
"Are you ok?" Wilson finally managed through dry lips.
McMillan turned to examine his shoulder, reaching for the gory mound. "Huh", he grunted. "Had to happen sooner or later".
Hendry and Wilson exchanged perplexed glances. Kalliope simply nodded in understanding.
"When did it originally happen?" She queried.
"You were out cold, you daft bitch." Hendry spat. "That thing was trying to tear him to pieces."
McMillan ignored the Corporal's ignorance. "During the invasion. When i fought the Baphomet." He began to wipe blood away, the spasmic pulses beginning to ebb as his veins seemed to miraculously close up. "Even in its death throes, it was spawning too many of them. I managed to wipe out dozens with my BFG but... " He swallowed, averting his gaze. "I was jumped by spineys - twenty, maybe a thirty. I can't be sure. I took out the first few, but there were too many. Just too many."
Kalliope recalled the swarm of demonic creatures they'd just fought - and saw the similarities of the situations. Was that what had distracted him so much for this to happen? Their sheer numbers?
"They tore at me. The pain just wouldn't stop. Then there was a flash... and I was back on Earth. New York, I was told afterwards." He stole brief glances of Wilson and Hendry as they listened intently. "But they came with me. The civilians had been evacuated, but most of the armed forces were still patrolling. They managed to gun the spineys down - just not before they took my arm off."
Wilson clearly still hadn't caught on. "So what happened?"
McMillan's lip curled slightly as he groped around his shoulder, searching for and finding a small, knobbly protuberance beneath the skin. As he thumbed down on it, the blood flow seemed to stop completely. As soon as it had, a series of titanium-mesh panels extended from the shoulder, closing over and completely covering the wound.
Hendry finally got it. "Cybernetics?", he queried.
"Top of the line," The Colonel replied. "The soldiers on patrol managed to get me back to a hospital. Only a few surgeons, so it was mainy auto-docs that did the work. Turns out that someone in Military Intelligence decided I was too valuable to let die, so instead I got a bio-mechanical prosthetic." He grinned. "I didn't complain."
Wilson had prised the slightly scorched arm from the blackened demon corpse and was examining it carefully. "So why'd you scream?" He queried.
"Data feedback loop" Kalliope finished before McMillan could answer. "The brain tries to send information to the arm. Nothing replies, so the control portion of the shoulder implant grabs hold of those first neurons, and shields away the rest".
The Colonel nodded in agreement. "One sharp pain, then none at all. Lost a bit of the pneumatic fluid." he eased himself up cautiously on his remaining arm and looked upon the bloodlike fluid that had pooled beneath him. "That's not a problem though."
"The arm's still in pretty good nick," Hendry commented from Wilson's side. "Kalliope and I could probably re-attach it."
"Good to know" The Colonel commented as he picked up his plasma cannon. "Just not here."
From down the coast, Hendry could hear what his superior was on about. The sound of hooves against the ground. Faint, but audible - and potentially fatal.
"Up" Kalliope said. "Up the rock face - there's nowhere else to go."
The others nodded, heading quickly towards the scarlet cliffs. Perhaps fifty yards down, they found a wide crack that led right up to the summit.
"We'll have to rock-shimmy" McMillan pointed out. "If you haven't done it before, just follow my lead."
"With one arm?" Hendry growled. "No chance. We need another plan."
All thoughts of ascension were interrupted by a thunderous explosion as a heavy rocket impacted on the rock face some ten feet away, showering the marines with chipped rock. Shielding his gaze from the falling stone, Wilson stared down the coast at their attacker.
"What the fuck is that?" He screamed, trained instincts torn apart by sudden terror.
"It's a large one", McMillan commented. "We're not going anywhere with that thing chasing us."
"Incredible" Kalliope seemed to whisper to herself as she watched the approaching beast.
The Cyberdemon stomped sluggishly along the coastline, thrusting five claws into the crimson sky and roaring in a show of primal anger. With a flick of its wrist, it unleashed a second volley of rockets that struck a little closer to the beleaguered marines.
"You three", McMillan roared over the cacophony of destruction. "Stay here. I'll handle this."
"You've gotta be kidding!" Hendry called back. "You've got one arm and not a chance in Hell" Pun intended, came his afterthought.
"And neither would you. I've fought these things before."
"Not like this you haven't." The Corporal felt frustration welling up. "You're not fucking invincible, damnit - we need you to get out of here. You go alone against that thing and i'll shoot you on general principle."
McMillan mulled over that one for a moment before scanning the faces of his companions; his eyes came to rest on Private Peter Wilson.
"You're up, Private" He boomed. "It's about time you earned your keep."
The colour seemed to drain instantly from Wilson's face. "Me?"
"Yeah, you. Kalliope's still in a bad way, and Hendry's got my trust." He gave the blonde marine a nod of respect. "He'll make sure nothing happens to her. So that leaves you. Hendry, give him your BFG."
The Corporal complied, double checking the remaining charge before he did so. "Make 'em count, mate", he added.
Wilson nodded, visibly bracing himself.
"Private - you're gonna sit tight here. When I tell you to fire, you do just that. You two," He motioned towards Hendry and Kalliope, "Keep behind the rocks, and we all might just make it out of this."
With that, McMillan flexed the fingers of his remaining arm around his plasma cannon handle and charged into full view of the Cyberdemon.
"Come and get it, you fucker!" He yelled. His answer came in the form of another booming roar that seemed to be amplified by the echo from the cliffs around him
Another volley of rockets were launched. McMillan hit the deck, rolling to one side and opening up with his plasma cannon. Most of the blue-white bolts hit their target, the beast itself shuddering slightly in response before continuing its march. Back on his feet, the Colonel actually charged towards it, holding his finger against the weapons firing stud and unleashing another blinding stream of plasma. Most impacted on the muscular chest, leaving minute scorchmarks on its bronzed skin. The final few, however, tore into the exposed organs and supporting frames - illuminating its insides like a bizarre light show. The beast buckled slightly, its movements becoming more strained - only to become further enraged, unleashing another series of rockets that blasted apart the sand behind the Colonel as he dived towards the sea of blood.
His back to the ocean, and with nowhere else to go, McMillan called "Wilson, Now!"
With that, the Colonel dived into the blood as another explosive projectile missed him by mere inches. Framed against the scarlet cliffs, Wilson stepped up, hefting the BFG up and checking the guages. "It worked for that uptight bitch - this had better work for me".
He grasped the palm-trigger - and felt the world around him explode in light as the BFG unleashed its remaining cells. The Cyberdemon was halfway through its turn when the bolt impacted, dissolving skin from muscle and cybernetic frame; its rocket-launcher prosthetic was flung wide as the joints of its limbs dissolved under the intense heat and pooled around the steel of its lower leg. Layer upon layer of flesh evaporated from its face as it managed one final, agonising groan of pain - before the skull shattered, scattering brain tissue and bio-organic implants across the beach.

McMillan surfaced from the blood just in time to see the flayed frame of the cybernetic goliath topple to the ground, shattering under the impact.
In the near-distance, Wilson dropped to his knees, victory and shock battling for control over his expression. Victory won.

Hahahaha superb mate!
That idea with the cybernetic arm was great and you managed to kill my suspicion that the doomguy is getting "old and weak", hah.

I can tell that you must've been very busy working on both mapping and on this story as you don't seem to have time to be on irc ;-)

True i've been getting stuck in with the writing. As for the mapping, i lost a lot of work on map15 when my editor crashed, so i've just started on map17 (Burial Crypt) and it's coming along nicely.

I'll be concentrating on mapping for the time being, but i'll be back with more chapters of The Underworld. Thanks for the comments matey :)

Once again, I am impressed, ok, I know, I am bias cuz you're my hubby but i do think this is turning into a great read, once all is finished I am going to print it out, along with your underworld logo and turn into a book of sorts, if you want, i'll throw in a character profile for them aswell, okdo, good work baby, keep it going, your fans await you (me and dsm that is)

'r0x0r'.

AirRaid said:

'r0x0r'.

Why spank you dear sir. Jay wants me to print this story off and create a little 'book' using the Underworld WAD titlepic as a cover so she can sit back and read it in the evenings :).
What do you lot think?

Spike said:

Why spank you dear sir. Jay wants me to print this story off and create a little 'book' using the Underworld WAD titlepic as a cover so she can sit back and read it in the evenings :).
What do you lot think?

You want to submit the story in book form and sell it? Or just for private use?

Private use initially. I doubt that the writing is at professional level - not to mention the trouble aqquiring copyrights - so printing it for sale would generally be a big no-no.

Maybe i'll write some original, non-doom fiction in future and submit that; you never know...