Doom: Hell on Earth 0.4

[dsm]

The Nightmare – Part 4

-

“You’re tellin’ me that this freak has visited Hell AND returned!?”
Captain Rowley bellowed and stared at Kaminsky in disbelief.
“That was what he told us, Sir” she replied. She was slightly unnerved by the cold stare of a tall, dark-haired man with steel-blue eyes and thick eyebrows standing next to Rowley. She had no idea who he was, but he looked very athletic and strong.
“That’s bullshit!” Rowley growled. “We’re up against extra-terrestrial creatures here, THAT I believe, but no-one’s gonna tell me that they’re biblical demons from Hell!”

“Soldier TX056 is a dangerous and unstable man, we had best get rid of him, because he’s unable to function well in a group. He probably went AWOL on Mars. I know him” The dark-haired man suddenly said. His voice was cold as ice and almost a whisper.

Rowley narrowed his eyes and gave the man a long stare. “So” he said. “He WAS one of your men then?”
“Only during that specific mission. He is a living fighting machine Rowley, but he has no sense of honor or loyalty”
“What do you suggest we do to him Lieutenant Stevenson?”
“Make sure that he dies in combat!” The man called Stevenson answered with a sudden fervor in his voice and eyes.
Kaminsky didn’t like that guy at all. His behavior was unpleasant and he went from being cold and distanced from suddenly reacting in such an emotional fashion.

Rowley raised an eyebrow. “Now that we’re in this situation where we need every man we can get, I don’t like to have a supposedly skilled soldier killed that quickly if we can avoid it”
“Goddammit man, I’m telling you he’s more dangerous to us than to the enemy!” Stevenson growled highly agitated.
Rowley thought out loud.
“We could use him” he declared.

“These freaks are continuing to pour at us with un-diminished force, we are slowly losing precious personnel and equipment. General Cullen has ordered a new course of action: it’s time to make use of Evacuation plan Z99 – the last resort” Rowley continued gravely. Nobody said a word.

“Unfortunately, these alien bastards have blocked our exodus, so we need to wipe out this obstacle” the Captain said, not taking his eyes of Stevenson.

“We can send him to join the frontline assault on the Star port”

Stevenson opened his mouth to speak, but Rowley spoke first.
“There’s little chance that this guy will survive, so he’ll probably get killed in the attempt”
Stevenson gave him a scrutinizing look. “Not a bad idea” he mumbled and nodded.

****

I looked at the hand computer’s monitor. Crash had given me the computer telling me that it contained the latest recon data on the known and identified “alien forces”. Crash had only peeped in to give me that device. She told me that the updated info was the naming of the aliens and that they had been named with my “demons-of-Hell” story in mind.

I recognized most of the creatures.

They had named the brown, spiky humanoid creature the “imp”, funnily enough, that was exactly what I had done myself while I, half insane, had blasted my way through Hell.
The pink, gorilla demon was classified as the “Bull demon”, the ghostly creatures were called “specters” like I had called them and the red, floating one-eyed terror had been given the name “Cacodemon”. The floating skulls where called “Lost souls” and the description revealed that these “skull shells” seemed to contain a spiritual essence which was the reason for calling them ‘souls’ – the term ‘lost’ referred to the fact that this “essence” was obviously the same which possessed humans, so it was speculated that the warped skulls were a lousy excuse for a body to these “souls” that hadn’t been lucky enough to possess a human.

I continued reading through the material. The pink-reddish goatmen were called “Barons of Hell” because of their seemingly high placement in the monsters’ hierarchy. There was no mention of neither the cyberdemon that I had fought on Deimos, nor the Spideresque Mastermind that I killed before my return to Earth, but there were other monsters that I had never seen before.

The Pain Elemental was a rare cousin to the one-eyed cacodemon. It was brown, had a larger eye, had bending obsidian horns and spewed lost souls instead of lightning balls. The Hell Knight was the “little brother” to the fearsome Barons – they were slightly smaller, didn’t walk with the same “noble” attitude, but rather more clumsily, and their skin didn’t seem as much as if it was made out of a rocky material like with the Barons. They were also not as tough as their cousin species, the barons.

And the next line of demons seemed even more bizarre. The Arachnotron was a “small” version of the enormous Spiderdemon I fought in Hell, yet it was still frighteningly large. It had a less effective version of the plasma rifle incorporated into its mechanical body. The revenant was seemingly the skeletal remains of fallen demons that had been warped and turned into a giant version of a humanoid skeleton. It was fitted with a sort of torso armor and small missile launchers. One of the launchers could fire homing bombs that could follow their targets if they tried to evade. The disgusting mancubus was a fat monstrosity. It was apparently born with huge flamethrowers instead of underarms.

And then the device warned me of unconfirmed rumors about a thin, almost skeletal creature that was said to be able to resurrect fallen demons and wield strange, unseen powers. My previous adventures had hardened me beyond comprehension, yet still I felt a chill down my spine from reading about this terror.

-

The door opened with a rusty whine, which made unpleasant memories return to my tortured mind.
Crash came in and placed herself in front of me. I had the feeling that she was a very tough woman since she was never accompanied by guards with mean attitudes like one would expect for a prisoner which was as dangerous as they seemingly thought I was. It had also suddenly occurred to me that there was something strangely familiar about this woman. Her behavior, her looks and her clearly evident courage. Hadn’t I seen her before?

“You are going back into action, TX056” She said with a straightforward demeanor.

That statement caught me completely off guard. I had expected to get that message sooner or later, but not as early as now, since the people here had been incredibly suspicious towards me.

“I am to tell you what I know about the assignment, because this will probably be the most important military operation in all of human history”.

I didn’t say a word, just listened carefully. I was happy to have something else to focus my thoughts on than on those screaming souls in my head.

“Our forces are slowly, but steadily being defeated” She began with a hint of a depressed mood. “Our supplies, while still substantial, are running lower day for day and the enemy keeps pressing the bulk of its hordes against us, making it difficult to salvage what resources we could gain from the remains of the slain enemies. Command has finally realized that our only chance for survival is to leave...” She paused briefly, swallowing. “..The Earth!”

I stared blankly into the air. I felt like I had only just arrived back to my home after years of absence and now I was about to leave again. Leave to the stars. I hated the thought of leaving Earth in her hour of need, but I knew that Command was right. Humanity could not stand against the demons, unless the flow of demons was stopped somehow. A sense of determination rapidly grew in my mind. I was making up my mind.

“Scientists from around the world have long been aware of the possible risk of a natural disaster of huge dimensions and the rich countries of the world have contributed to construct five enormous Super starships, constructed to evacuate mankind should the dire need arise…” She paused briefly, but her attitude was not changed.

“…And that “dire need” is now”

I didn’t even look at her, but I nodded slowly.

“However, we have realized this far too late. Earth has only one, intact ground star port codenamed Omega – it’s a military star port. The original five construction yards for the super ships orbiting Earth have later been expanded into enormous star ports, “hangars” in space – I trust that you are aware of those”. She looked at me. I saw a glimpse of panic in her otherwise emotionless face.

“These “demons” as you call them are occupying the Omega star port and through it, have blocked any entry into the other five bases orbiting Earth, preventing any attempt at evacuating Earth.”

“These bastards know that we can’t leave if we don’t have Omega”

...

________________

Side note: I threw in the bit about the computer displaying data about the enemies, because it would only make sense that the military would collect intel on 'em. If they didn't, something wouldn't be right. I have done what I can not to describe them in too much detail in this part, saving it for when good ol' Doomguy encounters them in person.

[Spike]

See, THIS is how those 'official' novels should have been. I really liked the idea of the 'classified' demons on the computer, not to mention how DoomGuy get's treated when he returns to Earth.

Excellent work dudey, keep it rollin.

[MRB_Doom]

Once again, good work!

[DOOM Anomaly]

Jezum Crow once again, like Spike said; these Shudda been the DoomBooks, cause they sure as hell are better than the books imo.

Keep up the flawless great work Dsm!!

[VileSlay]

keep em rollin, man. the storyline is flowing well. the part with the hand comp does make sense. I mean if they have been seen on earth, then the military has to have data on them. what would have been screwed up though is if they sent him out without preparing him for the new demons, thinking that the sight of, say, a revenant might freak him out enough to make a mistake and die like stevenson wants.

[DOOM Anomaly]

[off topic] /me looks at VileSlay's avatar.....
..It Moves!! its aliiive![/off topic]

VileSlay said:

keep em rollin, man. the storyline is flowing well. the part with the hand comp does make sense. I mean if they have been seen on earth, then the military has to have data on them. what would have been screwed up though is if they sent him out without preparing him for the new demons, thinking that the sight of, say, a revenant might freak him out enough to make a mistake and die like stevenson wants.

Yes, I agree very much..

....me sleep now...

/me falls into a coma.