Doom Squared Part 20 (Gateway to Hell, Part 1)

This is the special middle section of the Doom Squared story. the Gateway to Hell series takes up parts 19, 20, and 21. Part 22 is the beginning of Chapter 2.

Doom Squared Part 20

AFTER - ACTION REPORT:

...I regained conciousness on a metal grid, the sound of rushing water all around me. There was the smell of shit and mould everywhere. I slowly got up and looked around.

I was in a sewer filtration room; a square hall with parallel concrete walkways on the sides. Between them was the large rebar screen going down the length of the hall, with the sewer water flowing underneath it. Above me was a huge pipe aiming straight down at me. It must have been the pipe that carried me here. If I was here, where were Alex and Jess?

A sound from above alerted me, and I grabbed my shotgun by reflex from my back and aimed up. Right of me was a concrete staircase, leading up to a green and red switch. Alex was heading down the stairs, so I assumed he had pressed it to turn off the water flow.

"Where's Jess?" I asked, my voice nasal from the smell.

"I dunno..."

Another downwards pipe at the other end of the room suddenly let out a huge gush of water, and a green-clad figgure landed on the grid. After the water had passed, we rushed over to help her.

She had landed on her arm and twisted it in the grid. Pulling it out, there was a quiet cracking sound.

Damn, she had broken her left arm.

Pulling her over to the concrete, we took off her helmet and very gently took off her armour. Alex grabbed her backpack and pulled out the medikit inside. There wasn't much left from fixing me up after the BFG blast, and most of the bandages were soaked. There was, however, a splint, some cord, and some correcting gel.

I carefully put the splint under her arm and wrist, holding it place with the adheisive and the cord. I opened the small tin of correcting gel and scooped most of it out with my two fingers. Smearing it on and around the protruding bulge on her wrist, I let it go to work. She was now starting to wake up.

"Don't move your arm, you took quite a fall. You'll need to let the gel work for..." I was cut off.

"Huh...What...Where are we?...What gel?...Arm?" She was dizzy and disorented.

"You broke your arm on the screen over there. The gel will need and hour or so to penatrate your arm and fix you up. As for where we are, looks like some sewer underground. Alex, did you see a way out upstairs?"

"Yes sir. There's a long hallway at the top of those stairs, just beyond that switch" Alex quickly replied.

We left Jess alone for awhile, letting her take a short rest. Alex sat at the bottom of the stairs, reloaded his shotgun, and kept watch. Now that I finally had some time alone to relax, I could catch up on envelope two of the mission breifing.

The sheets were laminated, so they had survived the water. I opened and read sheet one:

...Once you reach the energy disturbance, you are to secure the area and call for re-enforcements. If the disturbance turns out to be an interdimentional gateway, you are ordered not to enter it. Failure to obey these orders will result in termination of your command...

Yeah, right, like I hadn't heard those words before...Failure to obey your commanding officer, Failure to stay in Drop Pod...Failure to use teleporters without proper authorization will result in...I'd heard it all before. I started to read sheet two:

Union Aerospace Corporation
Public Press Release:

...The teleporter and gateway technology were developed at our labritories on Deimos, using human volunteers. The teleporters proved sucessfull when used for site-to-site transportation, but only within a 10 kilometer radius. For longer distances, we developed the first two gateways on the two Martian moons. Using a platform entry and a pentagraphic receiving platform, we were able to able to transport humans between the two moons. Unfortunatly, due to a unexpected power surge, a rift was formed, sucking Deimos into the other dimention...

Bullshit, it wasn't any power surge. They were trying to colonize Hell, even try to mine there. They had been beaten.

I looked up, having thought I had heard something.

the rebar was vibrating, and there was a gradual stomping sound getting louder.

I knew that sound all two well.

"Pack up, NOW! We have to get out of here! MOVE IT!"

I left the breifing on the floor and picked up mine & Jess's backpacks. Alex helped her to her feet and helped her up the stairs, with me close behind.

The stomping was even louder, and the hidious battle cry of a Cyberdemon came from down the tunnel. We bolted down the hallway as fast as we could, a rocket blast about 10 metres behind us. We made a right down the narrow hall, and found ourselves in a hall with 10 doors on each side. All of them opened.

All of the rooms behind the doors had two military issue bunk beds, with pillow and sheets, and a cabinent. Furthur down the hall was a large room with cafeteria folding tables, a small kitchen, and an antique vending machine. There was a brass plaque mounted to the wall.

U.S. Defence Department
Detroit Fallout Base
Established 2045 A.D.

The fallout base. I remembered this place now. It was deep underground, a few hundred yards from a missle silo, now turned citadel. I had served guard duty here for a year, but only top brass were allowed into the underground fallout base.

"OK kiddies, I know where we are now; about 600 feet underground. There's an elevator leading up to the surface in the moniter room if I recall correctly. Outside, there's a guard post that'll let us across the bridge and into the citadel. Inside, there's a missle silo kept...well, WAS kept...under constant guard..." Alex looked suddenly quite pale.

"Uh, sir, is the missle armed? What if the demons have learned how to operate it? "

"I had thought the same thing, and I figgure if they wanted to, they would've fired it by now. The firing controls are in a red brick building outside the citadel. Now, We have to go up there and secure the base, and find out where the portal is. You guys ready to go?"

"Yes sir!"

Interesting story ideas, but there's one thing:
Check your spelling, check your spelling, check your spelling....(repeats for an eternity). There are just too many rather stupid spelling errors that any Native English speaker should be able to avoid, an example being 'figgure' which *should* be 'figure' with only one 'g'.

Anyways, your story is getting more interesting again (but you will still face resentment from me and other fan fic readers alike about that "Hell colony" idea).

Um, I just noticed that you already made a part 19 before this one, so that'd make this one part 20.

Thanks DSM, could you change this to Part 20?

Also, thanks for the spelling tips. It was between midnight and 2am when I wrote this.

Insomniak said:

Also, thanks for the spelling tips. It was between midnight and 2am when I wrote this.

That's no excuse - you could wait until the following day, before running a final check and then post it when you're satisfied with it.