Doom: Hell on Earth 1.7

[dsm]

Into the Dark – Part 7

*

Crash, Goliath and I briefly looked at our handiwork, then we flipped open our helmet visors to reveal ourselves to the other marines. I noticed the guy who had markings on his armor’s shoulder plates, signifying that he had rank of First Lieutenant. I noticed how he seemed to stand motionless, almost as if he was paralyzed and I got the feeling that his eyes were fixed on me behind his helmet visor.
Lieutenant Kaminsky broke the silence. “We gotta get movin’” she said in a stern voice.
“This area is clear for now, but more of them freaks might show up...” she paused and spat on the floor. Her saliva spattered into a blood puddle forming from the perforated corpse of an imp, splashing tiny drops of the disgusting demon blood into the air.
“..and we don’t have much ammo – we gotta get back on board that ship..” she nodded sideways over her shoulder in the direction of the humongous military hangar spaceship. “Because it’s likely that there is an armory on board”
An icy voice suddenly cut in and made me raise an eyebrow. I had head that voice before long ago.
“A prudent call Lieutenant, but remember, I am in charge now and I expect to be addressed as every other superior – with a ‘Sir’ as first and last words, you got that SECOND Lieutenant?”

If a sudden wave of hatred hadn’t rushed through my mind, I’d have found this situation funny, because a few hours ago, Crash had been demanding the same of me. But the voice I heard here reminded me all to clearly of things that lay far behind me.
As if a response to the sudden surge of hatred, the officer flipped open his visor to reveal the accursed face of Lieutenant Frank Stevenson – the very man I had punched the lights out of more than three years ago, because he ordered me and my fellow troops to open fire upon a group of people where innocent folks were in the way and certain to have been killed had I followed his order.
Stevenson had not changed all these years. His face was still young and handsome, with thick, dark eyebrows and steel-blue eyes. He eyed me with a wicked smile that gave a hint of a hidden disappointment.
“So” He continued coldly and his voice sank almost to a whisper.
“If it isn’t good ol’ Sergeant TX056 and Private First Class BX045!” He paused and mildly slapped his forehead.
“Oh my mistake” He continued sarcastically. “That’s PRIVATE TX056 – I clean forgot that you got demoted, for...striking an officer was that it?”

I once again felt my desire to kill another human being – now stronger than ever before. Ever since I returned to Earth, madness had been gnawing away at my mind and instilled me with an animalistic desire to kill and mutilate any living thing. But I knew that it was the influence left on me by Hell and I refused to give in. Even now, though if any human deserved it, it was probably the bastard that stood in front of me now.
“Sir, Private TX056 reporting for duty, Sir” I hissed at him. “Sir, I suggest that we follow Second Lieutenant Kaminsky’s suggestion and search the craft for ammo, Sir!” I continued without blinking.
“What makes you think that I’d have you with me soldier?” He growled, anger entering his voice.
“Sir, with respect Sir” I replied. “The shit has hit the fan and we can’t afford to let our petty differences separate us – we need each other. Every soldier needs his or her comrades like never before. If we don’t stick together we’ll all end up dead, SIR!”
Stevenson gave me a piercing look as if he wanted to vaporize me with his stare alone. Then he nodded slowly.
“All right assholes...” He snarled and closed his helmet.
“We’re entering that ship, move out!”

-

We were basically all well stocked when we left the ship. We had not only found a weapon locker filled with weapons of all sorts, but lots of ammunition too. Our helmet computers told us that we were in the Refueling Area. There had been little resistance within the ship, but I wasn’t going to let that trick me into letting down my guard.

It was no surprise to me that Stevenson ordered me to be the front pointman, so I was moving ahead all the time, checking if the coast was clear. This would mean that I was the marine that was the most at risk. Also, Stevenson had ordered me to hand him my BFG, which I only reluctantly did.

We encountered little resistance at first. Apart from a few scattered former humans and a few imps there was no real threat, but when we entered a large hall we saw huge piles of bodies. Most of the corpses were those of the twisted creatures, while a few bodies turned out to be human marines.

It was a grisly sight. I was pretty used to it as I had seen lots of this on Phobos and Deimos and because the things I had seen in Hell made this slaughterhouse look pleasant in comparison. Bodies torn to pieces with their internal organs splayed all over the place, empty cartridges of various types littered the area and I saw scorched remains of fuel containers as well as scorched and ruined areas of the floor. Signs that heavy weapons had been used.

My comrades, while also pretty accustomed to ugly sights, didn’t take it quite as well as I did. I could feel the tense emotions of the rest of the squad, but I was more concerned with keeping an eye out for the demons. We all gathered some ammunition from the dead marines. And after that I looked around. I had an eerie feeling that they were waiting for us somewhere in this area so I was all alert.

“What are you waiting for soldier?” Stevenson’s unpleasant voice asked me through the radio.
“Sir, I’m suspicious of the surroundings – they may be prepared to ambush us, Sir” I replied calmly.
He grunted in surprise at my statement. “These freaks aren’t intelligent enough to plan something as advanced as an ambush – they’re nothing but friggin’ animals dumbass”
“Sir, you’re forgetting that these ‘animals’ as you call them have adopted some of our technologies and they use this tech against us – believe me, these things are capable of everything”
I heard an incoherent mumbling in the other end followed by a hesitant “Very good, carry on”.

Cautiously I entered the other room behind the hall, which turned out to be another hall, though smaller than the other. A few bodies lay on the floor here as well and there were also signs of fuel barrels or containers blown apart, but the bodies were fewer here and there were still a few scattered fuel barrels. I noticed a barrel that had been knocked over. It’s contents lay in a puddle next to it and fire leapt from the barrel and the puddle.

I reported the layout of the room to Stevenson who ordered me to ‘move inside like I had a purpose’. I had an unpleasant feeling that this wasn’t such a great idea, but I had to. I had been told that officers were allowed to shoot soldiers who didn’t obey their orders during this war and I felt that Stevenson would rather want me dead than alive so he wouldn’t hesitate to cowardly take me down from behind if he found reason enough to do it.

I went inside. I was heading towards a large fuel-processing engine in the center of the hall. I had barely reached it when two explosions somewhere left and right to me made me turn. I swiftly turned to my right in time to see a ghastly creature approach me from a cloud of dust caused by a collapsed wall. It led out a horrid whining howl.

This creature was absolutely hideous. The first thought that sprung to mind was that it was a mutated cacodemon as it looked very similar. It was the same size as the cacodemon, had two obsidian horns similar to those of the cyberdemon I had fought on Deimos, a large misshapen mouth which seemed to contain a many thousand degree hot oven, and contrary to the cacodemon, it’s slimy, scaly body was a disgusting brown color that made me think of excrements. Like the cacodemon, this horror had a single eye above its mouth, but this eye was at least four times the size of a cacodemon’s eye and this eye looked so ugly that it strangely enough felt painful to just look at it.
I swiftly turned my head in the other direction to see two other such horrors approach me from another hole in a wall. I noticed that the first creature opened its huge mouth and I saw that the interior of the monster was glowing with fiery heat. In the burning glow, I noticed a skull appear.

I knew that I had to get out of the way.
Fast!

...

[Ichor]

Ooooo, the dreaded Pain Elemental, but it wasn't so much those things that got my attention. It was the marine meeting his old commanding officer again. I don't know who he hates more, the demons or Stevenson.

[Naked Snake]

Cool! The addition of an antagonist was a great move and gives even more depth to this story. I love it. MORE!

[VileSlay]

ahhh! pain elementals! I hate those flying turds. great bringing in the hated first lieutenant. I can wait to see him try to backstab our hero, and him get his just desserts.