Doom Squared Chapter 12 (end of Part One)

[Insomniak]

Doom Squared chapter 12

AFTER-ACTION REPORT

…The water was ice cold, leaking into my boots. Alex had gone up into the second lift to find out whatever was up there. In front of me, the loathsome arachnotron waited in silence, separated from me by the thick iron slabs. It stood there; its mechanical legs hissing from the hydraulics. Its eyes were glassy, blue, evil and staring straight at me. I stared right back, my face hidden by my helmet. I heard a loud clicking sound, and the iron planks lowered. The beast reared up, charged its plasma gun, and let out a hideous battle cry.

It was dead before it had a chance to fire.

It had probably expected me to fire with my shotgun, like I had used on the cacodemons above, but while Alex had gone down into the control room to hit the first switch, I had gone around the right side and found a BFG-9000. Now it was in my hands, cooling down from a single shot aimed directly at the monster’s swollen head. Alex came down the elevator, and we clambered over the corpse.

The walls were made of pipes and human torsos, somehow intertwined. Electrical wires went into torn ribcages and emerged from the mouth. It was the most disgusting thing I had seen since the horrors of Mount Erebus. In the center was a giant skull, set amid the pipes and bodies. It was bigger than a Spider Mastermind or a cyberdemon, and had monitors behind its eyes. Set in the middle of its forehead was a large power switch. This had to be what was keeping the force field up over the entire spaceport. Taking both hands, I slammed the switch down. There was the sound of a short circuit, and then the bodies started to fall off the pipes. Alex and me used the teleporter nearby marked “balcony.”

The sky above was crackling and flashing blue static, and the circle of destruction below us was draining the acid away. The ring and square platform were some kind of emitter dish, keeping the force field on or off. Just as soon as it had begun, it stopped. In the distance, about a kilometer away according to my rangefinder, was the evacuation ship, finally safe to leave. We watched it go until it was out of sight, then came the briefing.

Alex was carrying a portable computer map. It started beeping and lighting up. The map disappeared, and a message came through.

“TEXT TRANSMISSION
TO: U.A.C EARTH STARBASE, CHICAGO, US
FROM: U.A.C.S. Stoughton. I.D 186087001
Gen. Blake Stewart

Congratulations, men. You have just saved humanity. On behalf of the ship’s captain, crew, the survivors, and myself we give our infinite thanks. We have downloaded your ID and rank into our computers, and when we return with reinforcements, you will be awarded the highest awards from each country you have saved.

However, if you are willing, there is a mission we would like you to volunteer for. Sensors have located the source of the alien invasion. If you go there, you may be able to block the entry. The source is a massive portal located, oddly enough, in Detroit. We are downloading the coordinates to your helmet computers. Good luck men!

END OF TRANSMISSION”

“Well” Alex piped up after reading the text. “Do we stay here, happy in the knowledge that we saved our race, or do we keep going?”

“Keep going, of course,” a different voice said.

We looked behind us. There was another marine behind us who we hadn’t seen. I noticed three things about the newcomer.

1. It was a girl
2. She had a chainsaw
3. She wasn’t wearing a helmet

“Lieutenant Jessica Milano, UAC marine corp. reporting for duty”

“At ease lieutenant. How did you sneak up on us?”

“I used the teleporter. You guys mustn’t have heard me over the ship’s rockets.”

“Well”, I remarked, “we could always use another hand. How do we get out of here?”

She led us back over to the circle and north to the building where the blue key was. We climbed the stairs and stopped at the top.

“Did you see that thing when it was alive?” I asked her, pointing at the crumpled remains of one of the monsters. “Possibly the worst thing yet. It could light us on fire and revive dead monsters”

“Yeah, I was posted here when the invasion happened. The imps and zombies just kept coming over the rim of this base, and that thing was leading them. It was just awful and vile…”

Alex interrupted her. “Not just vile, arch-vile.” A good name for it.

Jessica pulled a hidden switch somewhere, and the wall on the left opened up. There was a landing pad with a small ship waiting, about the size of a bus. We got on and activated it. Jess took the pilot seat, Alex the navigation, and I took tactical.

“Next stop, Detroit” Alex declared.

END OF PART ONE

[DooMBoy]

Not bad, Insomniac. Continue!

[dsm]

I'll be perfectly honest with you: I've been giving this a lot of thought and I don't think that it is a good idea to have the heroes come up with names for the creatures as they encounter them. It wouldn't make sense, since the marines are too busy fighting for their lives to think up names for the critters.

I know, I did something similar in Doom: Evil Unleashed, but I wont do that mistake again.

Just describe the monster and the reader will know which one it is.

Again, this chapter is good enough to make me curious as to what happens next. Keep it up.