Doom: Hell on Earth - End & Epilogue

[dsm]

End – The Return

-

I felt a mild breeze hit my face. Why am I outside? This doesn’t feel like my bunk!
I could feel that I lay in something sticky. My eyes slowly opened. Above me was a beautiful dark blue sky. Here and there were clouds colored orange and pink by the setting Sun. I quickly sat upright with a sudden surge of agitation and winced as a sharp pain went through my right arm. I looked down at myself. My armor vest was torn and ruined. Cakes of dried blood stuck to my bare arms and gloves, especially on my right arm, which had a nasty wound as if something sharp had gouged it. Dried blood adorned my armor vest as well as a few marks of claws.

I vaguely remembered it now. Demons. Demons from Hell. I could vaguely remember that I knew for certain that these terrible aliens were demons, but I had forgotten how I came upon that knowledge. I vaguely remembered battles fought on Mars’ two moons...and then I went to...Hell? I couldn’t remember my experiences in this ‘Hell’, but I knew that I had been there. Then I had returned to Earth and then...? Something about the demons having taken over our only star port on the ground and then I fought the monsters again, helping liberating the star port and allowing humanity to escape their home world.

I remembered that I volunteered to stay behind because I wanted to stop the demons once and for all and ... I found the gate...
The gate to Hell. What happened then was again lost from my memory, but I somehow knew that I had been to Hell for the second time and now I was back home which meant that I had cheated Hell again. Was it really over now?

Wearily I climbed to my feet and slowly got up with a groan. My entire body felt like it had been through a several hour long hammering and my head felt like it was made of lead. My right arm hurt but was also quite numb. I couldn’t move it.

I stood among the rubble. I could see ruined corpses of demons lying about and I knew that I had been here before. But last I was here, the building was standing.

Rubble was all that was left of the building now. I noticed a brown, clawed arm stick out from the rubble and I could smell the scent of dead demons. I stood for a while and adorned the lowly sunset while bits and pieces of memories returned to my confused mind.

I must have saved the Earth – otherwise this place would have been warped and twisted and I wouldn’t have such a lovely sunset to look at

A series of growls nearby made me spin around. I almost stumbled to the ground but managed to stay upright.

A large horde of horrible creatures stretched before me, slime dripping from their teeth-filled jaws and evil burning from their eyes. I looked around only to see misshapen forms appear from the rubble all around me. I remember the hatred I felt before and it suddenly erupted in me again. But it was of no use.
I was alone, exhausted and my right arm was useless. I pulled out my sidearm with my left hand, pointed it at the nearest imp and opened fire. The demon howled as the projectiles ripped into its flesh and sunk back into the rubble, but this only infuriated the others and with angry roars they rushed forward. I knew that I couldn’t stop them with only my pistol so I closed my eyes and waited for death.

A sudden rain of high-caliber bullets sprayed the large group of demons, ripping several of them apart.

I looked up and saw a hover copter emerge from the skies. Its twin machineguns sprayed bullets all over the demons. I turned toward a confused imp and pumped a couple rounds into it before it died. The empty clip slid out of the pistol handle and clanked off the rubble.
The craft landed not too far away from me and a door soon slid open, revealing a woman figure in the doorway. “Get on board soldier, move it!” a familiar voice called and the figure quickly disappeared again.

I hobbled over the rubble and stumbled inside, landing flat on the metallic floor of the copter. The door slid shut and after a few more seconds later the copter took off, while sound of the rattling machineguns echoed throughout the place.

“You are amazing” A deep bass voice sounded above me. “Simply amazing, I had thought that you would be dead for sure, but you’re still in one piece!”

“More or less...” I mumbled.
I looked up and saw the huge frame of my old friend Goliath tower above me. He grinned. Just the way I would always remember him.
“Seems you managed to shut down the source – our sensors indicate that the alien hordes are no longer reinforced and the disturbance over the planet that prevented us from sending in patrol crafts has vanished, otherwise we wouldn’t be here to pull yer ass outta the mess”

I wearily crawled to my feet. Goliath helped me up to standing position and I staggered into the cockpit where a familiar woman was piloting the craft. She looked over her shoulder. I was looking at a woman that looked incredibly similar to Helen “Crash” Kaminsky, except that she wore a broad smile on her pretty, battle-hardened face.
“Welcome back to Life hero” she giggled. “Seems you hit jackpot huh?”
“Where are we going?” I croaked, my throat swollen and dry.
“To a safe place – and hopefully them “demons” aren’t gonna find us there!”

I looked out the cockpit window and saw that we just flew over the last city ruins before the wastelands stretched on into the horizon before us.

I didn’t reply, just nodded, before I stared out of the cockpit again.

I was relieved that I was safe and sound again and with one last glance at the beautiful sunset, I went back into the rest bay of the craft, lied down on a bunk, after gulping down a bottleful of water that Goliath handed to me and instantly fell asleep.

Asleep without nightmares and howling spirits in my mind for the first time in ages, for my mind had ultimately been cleansed and the curse of madness was broken.

********************

Epilogue

Shortly after the rift to the other world was closed, it was observed by sensors that massive infighting had started among the hordes of the aliens codenamed “demons”. A few of the “demons” gathered under a few overlords, but the overlords constantly strove to gain more supremacy and in general, the scene was surprisingly enough even more chaotic than before.

The evacuation procedures were quickly resumed and it was found that several of the humans which hadn’t had a chance to be evacuated at first had been busy striking the demons whenever there had been a chance to strike and quickly retreat again. After a period of three years of frequently searching for survivors to pull them out of the mess on Earth and constructing as many weapons as possible, the regrouped human forces in space finally initiated a daring military campaign to once and for all wipe the creatures off the face of the Earth.

While in space, humanity had worked like madmen. Unskilled people was taught both to fight and to understand advanced technology and there was a general eagerness to work hard for the liberation of the planet. Many powerful weapons, including “secret weapons” were built.

Powerful military forces soon swept the planet, starting with massive aerial bombardments, followed by deployments of ground troops armed with powerful tanks and newly developed battle mechs. In one final strike termed “Operation: Eradication”, the last demons were destroyed and scattered.

After that last battle, humanity began to return to their home, which was forever changed. Everything lay in ruin and there were still small, tiny groups of demons scattered around on the planet. So any reconstruction work was carried out with heavily armed escorts. The demons had left nothing unscathed and Earth would never be the same again.

It would take several years before the last demons were ultimately wiped out and the spirits of the millions of survivors were broken, yet there was a common resolve to cooperate and rebuild. Earth was about to initiate a new Dark Ages with little or no technological progress.

The hero who had closed the rift alone and thus facilitated the survival of the planet and about whom there were so many tales, was never ever heard from again, yet there were many rumors as to what became of him and he became a legend – possibly the most legendary hero ever heard about in the history of Earth.

For many hundreds of years to come, many tales were told about a terrible, nightmarish, and seemingly unstoppable catastrophe that would always be remembered as:

“Doom”.

[Darkstalker]

Best...story...ever...

[Fletcher`]

Darkstalker said:

Best...story...ever...

Seconded. :)

[Mr. NobodX]

Why am I outside? This doesn’t feel like the my bunk!

the my...?


Awesome work BTW.

[dsm]

Mr. NobodX said:

the my...?

What the...!? (:-P)
Damn useless spell-/grammarchecker.

Fixed.

Best...story...ever...

*Blush* :-P

[Ultraviolet]

Whoa...
The end? I never thought I'd see it.
I was keeping copies of the parts, but I think I lost track along the way. Maybe I should finish. Might make a nice, pretty HTML formatted set for you to post somewhere, unless you do it yourself.

[dsm]

Ultraviolet said:

... unless you do it yourself.

I doubt it.

[Wildman]

Good series. Well done.

[Rotting Corpse]

Sweet

[Epyo]

Almost missed this cause there's no numbers at the end of the thread name :) Coolio

[Job]

DSM's series = wünderbar!

[Insomniak]

Hmmm...

I've been following this story since you put out the first prologue, but I honestly can't say this is the best story i've ever read.

[Job]

Insomniak said:

Hmmm...

I've been following this story since you put out the first prologue, but I honestly can't say this is the best story i've ever read.

Things like that are always up to debate -- but you can't say it's not considerably good or at least above par.

[Linguica]

Insomniak said:

I've been following this story since you put out the first prologue, but I honestly can't say this is the best story i've ever read.

No offense to dsm, but if the best thing you've ever read IS on the Doomworld fanfic forum, you might need to read more :)

[dsm]

Linguica said:

No offense to dsm, but if the best thing you've ever read IS on the Doomworld fanfic forum, you might need to read more :)

I mean, we're just a bunch of fans who feel like writing stories - it's not like we do this professionally (though Wildman is close to being professional if you ask me).
So no, I'm not offended by your comment ling (I would be really pathetic if I was) :-)

I've been following this story since you put out the first prologue, but I honestly can't say this is the best story i've ever read.

Of course not! Every story made by Wildman can bury my best chapters six feet under - and then there's novels in real life done by professional authors that really kick ass.