DOOM 3
We Just Write
Blatantly Plural
- Location
- New England
- Pronouns
- Plural
(POV: Clockwork Knight Adamant)
It had taken around six hours to get approval to visit ARC's headquarters, and the flight over to their mobile command center took another three hours as well. Still, after that getting a meeting with Dr. Samuel Hayden was surprisingly quick. It wasn't a private meeting by any means, as several security personnel were present along with various technicians. This was perfectly acceptable, as we wouldn't be discussing anything for which secrecy was absolutely critical at this meeting.
Either way, as we sat down in the meeting room surrounded by various displays, readouts, and other such things, I asked "Should I go first with explaining how we got here, or do you want to go first?"
To this, Doctor Hayden replied "I would like to hear your story first, personally."
Simulating a nod, I began "The first thing you need to know is that the multiverse is larger than you accounted for, and there are multiple realms that could reasonably be described as Hell dimensions. I was originally created on Terra Magnus, a world indirectly ruled by one of these alternate Hell dimensions for nearly a thousand years. Their modus operandi was quite different; instead of outright invading, they enforced oppression, evil, and general misery across the planet's surface in order to sustainably farm soul fragments to make into more Daemons. The agents of this oppression were Grand Dragons, nuclear-powered dragons hundreds of meters in scale and mentally engineered to behave as a belligerent psychotic dictator."
Everyone in the room seemed shocked by this, but I didn't let that slow me down as I continued "That said, there were some places free from the rule of the Grand Dragons. The subterranean races were generally free since Grand Dragons couldn't physically fit down the entrance tunnels to their cities miles below ground. On the surface however, free zones were incredibly scarce, and only emerged when a powerful Titan made it their personal mission to create one."
At this, Doctor Hayden asked "Could you please explain what you mean by a Titan? There is some unfortunately conflicting terminology there."
Another simulated nod, before I answered "Right. All signs point to Terra Magnus being terraformed and life-seeded about twenty thousand years ago by a species of von neumann probe that tend to build themselves into a massive labyrinth subterranean structure. We generally call them Dungeons, however those that build their structures into a mobile form and acquire the truly massive amount of Mana required to animate it receive the title of Titan. Prior to about three years ago, this was an extremely rare phenomenon, as all available Mana sources lacked the sheer portability and scalability of nuclear power. That's when the Titan of Steel created Protonium, and changed the world forever."
Looking somewhat askance, Doctor Hayden asked "You mean that your world has only had nuclear power for three years?"
Simulating another nod, I noted "I think that the Daemons were actively suppressing it while letting most other fields advance relatively unhindered. Aside from that, the Titan and the Republic they founded have a distinct tendency to throw basically unlimited resources at any competent scientist they can find or make, which tends to lead to extremely rapid progress. It's probably the only reason we stood the slightest chance at the Battle Of The Hellrift."
A raised mechanical eyebrow from Hayden was all it took to prompt me to continue. "Basically, the Daemons were getting desperate thanks to us locking down their access using Dimensional Jammers, so they ripped open a multi-kilometer self expanding Hellrift to try and swallow the entire planet. We aren't entirely clear what happened at the end of that, but some variety of unexpected interaction during our attempt to force the rift shut resulted in me being catapulted directly into the Hell dimension you're currently having problems with. After that it was a matter of slaughtering several thousand Demons in a desperate struggle until a man wearing green power armor bought me enough time to self-replicate, and the story is fairly predictable from there."
Briefly, Hayden seemed slightly perturbed at the mention of the man in green. Still, he recovered fairly quickly as he commented "That certainly explains quite a few of the oddities regarding your sudden appearance, at the very least. Presumably you would like to know any relevant information regarding ARC and the Hellish invasion?"
I answered "An overview of the relevant timeline leading up to it would be appreciated. Strategic intelligence can happen through other channels."
After a moment, Hayden nodded and began "Thirty years ago, humanity was suffering a severe energy crisis. We found a solution in the form of an extra-dimensional portal on the surface of Mars leading to what you so eloquently described as a Hell Dimension. We began siphoning off and processing the energy for our own use, which worked excellently as a solution until three years ago. That's when Demons overran the Mars facility and killed almost everyone there, with their advance only being stopped by the violent man in green you mentioned, a being that has been variously referred to as the Doom Slayer, Hell Walker, and various other epithets. In the interim I pulled together the beginnings of what would become ARC when the Demons invaded Earth."
Immediately, the implications clicked and I found myself wanting to violently shake Hayden up and down while yelling at him. Still, I kept my composure and asked "Why didn't you just use the sun? You've got a massive fusion reactor right there that produces orders of magnitude more energy than your civilization consumes, and will keep doing so for billions of years to come. The distribution infrastructure might be a pain to engineer, but it certainly beats leaving open an active portal to an inherently hostile extradimensional power. I am now seriously doubting your decision-making capabilities. You had better be lying about your motives and have a better explanation, or else the sensible option would be to handle matters without the individual basically responsible for throwing open the gates to Hell in the first place."
As Samuel Hayden tried to come up with a response, I surreptitiously activated Words of Truth. After a minute or so, Samuel admitted "The extraction of Argent Energy was a cover story for what was actually being done on Mars. Though there were energy deficits at the time, they were minor, and would have shortly been solved by the deployment of additional solar collection as you indicate. However, humanity was completely unprepared for the Demonic invasion that I knew would be coming the instant I heard of the portal on Mars."
Samuel sighed, then continued "By building the facility there, I bought time for humanity to study the Demons' biology, powers, and methods of operation, thus making it much easier to learn how to fight them. When something inevitably went wrong due to personnel suffering Demonic corruption, the Mars facility was a contained environment from which the invasion could not readily escape before the Doom Slayer killed them all. This gave humanity a preview to the invasion that could not be readily ignored, giving me the sway I needed to form the precursors to ARC and give Earth a fighting chance. Still, I miscalculated how much time we would have; if the full invasion had taken two more years to start than it did, things would be going much better than they are."
The various human personnel looked completely stunned at this revelation, but I just felt vindicated that the person I was talking to actually had a brain. As he finished, I noted "That's a lot more sensible than what you were originally claiming. We in the Clockwork Legion will gladly support your defense efforts."
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(POV: The DOOM Slayer)
I'd just finished getting VEGA installed into the Fortress of Doom, and I was getting ready to deploy onto Earth. That's when Vega spoke over the intercom "You have a visitor. One of the constructs you assisted in Hell has arrived, and they have a package for you."
Quickly, I spun around inside the blue and grey control room, and came face-to-face with one of those three eyed robots. Immediately, they held out a long, narrow box, noting "Slayer, as thanks for rescuing our progenitor we have produced a modified omni-rifle for your use."
Huh, it's been a long time since someone outright gave me more weaponry. After a brief shrug, I picked up the box containing the omni-rifle and started examining the weapon, seeing how it shouldered, and... wait, where is the ammo supposed to go in? Seriously, there isn't a magazine well or anything. It's all just seamless metal aside from the barrel, selector switches, readout, and trigger.
Perhaps sensing my confusion, the robot noted "The weapon is self-powered, and conjures munitions directly in the barrel as needed. Do you want a tutorial on its use, or do you want to figure it out as you go?"
I shook my head no, I'd handled thousands of different varieties of firearm over my long career, and one more wouldn't be hard to pick up. Getting the hint, the robot said "Understood. In that case, there are only two warnings I absolutely must share. First, using either particle beam mode near allies is a bad idea unless they are shielded against radiation, though the Holy-charged one is significantly safer in that regard. Second, the missile mode fires variable yield nuclear ordnance. Please exercise caution when learning to gauge the minimum safe distance."
With that, the robot turned to leave as soon as they saw me nod in response. That done, I walked back over to the area where VEGA was preparing the portal. I had an appointment with a certain Hell Priest. Come to think of it, I wonder if the Holy-charged mode that robot mentioned could help me get around the normal requirements for nullifying their protections? If it did, it would certainly save me a lot of time and effort.
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(POV: Third Person nearDeag Nilox the Doom Slayer)
Aboard the Hell Barge carried by his personal Thrall Titan, Deag Nilox was planning what part of humanity's pitiful resistance he would demolish next, when suddenly the door to his massive round scheming room was bashed open. The Hell Priest didn't get much of an opportunity to see who just arrived before a stream of extremely intense energy blasts knocked him across the room, reacting violently with the protections he'd placed on himself to wreak even more destruction upon his form. The blasts cut out after a second or so, the withered vile sorcerer feeling his life leaving him even as he rolled himself onto his back to see what was happening.
All he got for his trouble was a green-armored boot pressing down on his chest as he got a full-frontal view of the Doom Slayer bringing the barrel of a somewhat strange-looking rifle to bear. Then the Doom Slayer blew his head off and continued on his way, jumping off the Hell Barge and starting to fight his way through the wreckage of New York City. He had a meeting to crash. Idly, he noted VEGA saying that the demonic consumption of Earth had slowed by about a third.
Passing through the ruins of several skyscrapers, a shopping mall, and a subway, the Slayer made short work of every Demon in his way. Idly, the Slayer noted that they were gaining more and more appreciation for the Omni-Rifle. Seriously, this gun did everything; buckshot mode, a couple different takes on being a machine gun, two different particle beam modes that made a normal plasma rifle look like a super soaker by comparison, and on minimum yield the missiles were on par with a BFG shot for clearing a room as long as there was enough room to fire safely.
Really, the only complaint he had about the gun was that in some ways it was too effective. He couldn't very well absorb a Demon's life force to heal himself if he'd already reduced said Demon to a splattered paste on the wall, which every firing mode aside from the buckshot did with extreme rapidity. Musings aside, the Slayer had finally arrived at the lift that would take him to the Deagic Council meeting. A push of the skull-shaped button started the platform rising, even as the Slayer switched the omni-rifle to Nuclear Smite mode.
The instant that the Slayer arrived in the cavernous council chamber, he opened fire, alternating his shots between Deag Ranak and Deag Grav with such rapidity that it looked like an indistinguishable blur of motion. Mere seconds later, both remaining Hell Priests were grievously injured on the floor, even as the Slayer stomped over and finished them off.
This is when the Khan Maykr's avatar arrived, took one look at the blasted remains of the Hell Priests, and screamed "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?" immediately before eating a Nuclear Smite to the face. As the sparking wreckage of the puppet collapsed, the Slayer simply turned and walked away as VEGA opened the portal, noting "As all three Hell Priests have been killed, the blood ritual has been stopped. That said, there remain large numbers of Demons on Earth, along with several significant hell portals. In addition, the Khan Maykr is still alive, and is likely to attempt something drastic."
It had taken around six hours to get approval to visit ARC's headquarters, and the flight over to their mobile command center took another three hours as well. Still, after that getting a meeting with Dr. Samuel Hayden was surprisingly quick. It wasn't a private meeting by any means, as several security personnel were present along with various technicians. This was perfectly acceptable, as we wouldn't be discussing anything for which secrecy was absolutely critical at this meeting.
Either way, as we sat down in the meeting room surrounded by various displays, readouts, and other such things, I asked "Should I go first with explaining how we got here, or do you want to go first?"
To this, Doctor Hayden replied "I would like to hear your story first, personally."
Simulating a nod, I began "The first thing you need to know is that the multiverse is larger than you accounted for, and there are multiple realms that could reasonably be described as Hell dimensions. I was originally created on Terra Magnus, a world indirectly ruled by one of these alternate Hell dimensions for nearly a thousand years. Their modus operandi was quite different; instead of outright invading, they enforced oppression, evil, and general misery across the planet's surface in order to sustainably farm soul fragments to make into more Daemons. The agents of this oppression were Grand Dragons, nuclear-powered dragons hundreds of meters in scale and mentally engineered to behave as a belligerent psychotic dictator."
Everyone in the room seemed shocked by this, but I didn't let that slow me down as I continued "That said, there were some places free from the rule of the Grand Dragons. The subterranean races were generally free since Grand Dragons couldn't physically fit down the entrance tunnels to their cities miles below ground. On the surface however, free zones were incredibly scarce, and only emerged when a powerful Titan made it their personal mission to create one."
At this, Doctor Hayden asked "Could you please explain what you mean by a Titan? There is some unfortunately conflicting terminology there."
Another simulated nod, before I answered "Right. All signs point to Terra Magnus being terraformed and life-seeded about twenty thousand years ago by a species of von neumann probe that tend to build themselves into a massive labyrinth subterranean structure. We generally call them Dungeons, however those that build their structures into a mobile form and acquire the truly massive amount of Mana required to animate it receive the title of Titan. Prior to about three years ago, this was an extremely rare phenomenon, as all available Mana sources lacked the sheer portability and scalability of nuclear power. That's when the Titan of Steel created Protonium, and changed the world forever."
Looking somewhat askance, Doctor Hayden asked "You mean that your world has only had nuclear power for three years?"
Simulating another nod, I noted "I think that the Daemons were actively suppressing it while letting most other fields advance relatively unhindered. Aside from that, the Titan and the Republic they founded have a distinct tendency to throw basically unlimited resources at any competent scientist they can find or make, which tends to lead to extremely rapid progress. It's probably the only reason we stood the slightest chance at the Battle Of The Hellrift."
A raised mechanical eyebrow from Hayden was all it took to prompt me to continue. "Basically, the Daemons were getting desperate thanks to us locking down their access using Dimensional Jammers, so they ripped open a multi-kilometer self expanding Hellrift to try and swallow the entire planet. We aren't entirely clear what happened at the end of that, but some variety of unexpected interaction during our attempt to force the rift shut resulted in me being catapulted directly into the Hell dimension you're currently having problems with. After that it was a matter of slaughtering several thousand Demons in a desperate struggle until a man wearing green power armor bought me enough time to self-replicate, and the story is fairly predictable from there."
Briefly, Hayden seemed slightly perturbed at the mention of the man in green. Still, he recovered fairly quickly as he commented "That certainly explains quite a few of the oddities regarding your sudden appearance, at the very least. Presumably you would like to know any relevant information regarding ARC and the Hellish invasion?"
I answered "An overview of the relevant timeline leading up to it would be appreciated. Strategic intelligence can happen through other channels."
After a moment, Hayden nodded and began "Thirty years ago, humanity was suffering a severe energy crisis. We found a solution in the form of an extra-dimensional portal on the surface of Mars leading to what you so eloquently described as a Hell Dimension. We began siphoning off and processing the energy for our own use, which worked excellently as a solution until three years ago. That's when Demons overran the Mars facility and killed almost everyone there, with their advance only being stopped by the violent man in green you mentioned, a being that has been variously referred to as the Doom Slayer, Hell Walker, and various other epithets. In the interim I pulled together the beginnings of what would become ARC when the Demons invaded Earth."
Immediately, the implications clicked and I found myself wanting to violently shake Hayden up and down while yelling at him. Still, I kept my composure and asked "Why didn't you just use the sun? You've got a massive fusion reactor right there that produces orders of magnitude more energy than your civilization consumes, and will keep doing so for billions of years to come. The distribution infrastructure might be a pain to engineer, but it certainly beats leaving open an active portal to an inherently hostile extradimensional power. I am now seriously doubting your decision-making capabilities. You had better be lying about your motives and have a better explanation, or else the sensible option would be to handle matters without the individual basically responsible for throwing open the gates to Hell in the first place."
As Samuel Hayden tried to come up with a response, I surreptitiously activated Words of Truth. After a minute or so, Samuel admitted "The extraction of Argent Energy was a cover story for what was actually being done on Mars. Though there were energy deficits at the time, they were minor, and would have shortly been solved by the deployment of additional solar collection as you indicate. However, humanity was completely unprepared for the Demonic invasion that I knew would be coming the instant I heard of the portal on Mars."
Samuel sighed, then continued "By building the facility there, I bought time for humanity to study the Demons' biology, powers, and methods of operation, thus making it much easier to learn how to fight them. When something inevitably went wrong due to personnel suffering Demonic corruption, the Mars facility was a contained environment from which the invasion could not readily escape before the Doom Slayer killed them all. This gave humanity a preview to the invasion that could not be readily ignored, giving me the sway I needed to form the precursors to ARC and give Earth a fighting chance. Still, I miscalculated how much time we would have; if the full invasion had taken two more years to start than it did, things would be going much better than they are."
The various human personnel looked completely stunned at this revelation, but I just felt vindicated that the person I was talking to actually had a brain. As he finished, I noted "That's a lot more sensible than what you were originally claiming. We in the Clockwork Legion will gladly support your defense efforts."
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(POV: The DOOM Slayer)
I'd just finished getting VEGA installed into the Fortress of Doom, and I was getting ready to deploy onto Earth. That's when Vega spoke over the intercom "You have a visitor. One of the constructs you assisted in Hell has arrived, and they have a package for you."
Quickly, I spun around inside the blue and grey control room, and came face-to-face with one of those three eyed robots. Immediately, they held out a long, narrow box, noting "Slayer, as thanks for rescuing our progenitor we have produced a modified omni-rifle for your use."
Huh, it's been a long time since someone outright gave me more weaponry. After a brief shrug, I picked up the box containing the omni-rifle and started examining the weapon, seeing how it shouldered, and... wait, where is the ammo supposed to go in? Seriously, there isn't a magazine well or anything. It's all just seamless metal aside from the barrel, selector switches, readout, and trigger.
Perhaps sensing my confusion, the robot noted "The weapon is self-powered, and conjures munitions directly in the barrel as needed. Do you want a tutorial on its use, or do you want to figure it out as you go?"
I shook my head no, I'd handled thousands of different varieties of firearm over my long career, and one more wouldn't be hard to pick up. Getting the hint, the robot said "Understood. In that case, there are only two warnings I absolutely must share. First, using either particle beam mode near allies is a bad idea unless they are shielded against radiation, though the Holy-charged one is significantly safer in that regard. Second, the missile mode fires variable yield nuclear ordnance. Please exercise caution when learning to gauge the minimum safe distance."
With that, the robot turned to leave as soon as they saw me nod in response. That done, I walked back over to the area where VEGA was preparing the portal. I had an appointment with a certain Hell Priest. Come to think of it, I wonder if the Holy-charged mode that robot mentioned could help me get around the normal requirements for nullifying their protections? If it did, it would certainly save me a lot of time and effort.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(POV: Third Person near
Aboard the Hell Barge carried by his personal Thrall Titan, Deag Nilox was planning what part of humanity's pitiful resistance he would demolish next, when suddenly the door to his massive round scheming room was bashed open. The Hell Priest didn't get much of an opportunity to see who just arrived before a stream of extremely intense energy blasts knocked him across the room, reacting violently with the protections he'd placed on himself to wreak even more destruction upon his form. The blasts cut out after a second or so, the withered vile sorcerer feeling his life leaving him even as he rolled himself onto his back to see what was happening.
All he got for his trouble was a green-armored boot pressing down on his chest as he got a full-frontal view of the Doom Slayer bringing the barrel of a somewhat strange-looking rifle to bear. Then the Doom Slayer blew his head off and continued on his way, jumping off the Hell Barge and starting to fight his way through the wreckage of New York City. He had a meeting to crash. Idly, he noted VEGA saying that the demonic consumption of Earth had slowed by about a third.
Passing through the ruins of several skyscrapers, a shopping mall, and a subway, the Slayer made short work of every Demon in his way. Idly, the Slayer noted that they were gaining more and more appreciation for the Omni-Rifle. Seriously, this gun did everything; buckshot mode, a couple different takes on being a machine gun, two different particle beam modes that made a normal plasma rifle look like a super soaker by comparison, and on minimum yield the missiles were on par with a BFG shot for clearing a room as long as there was enough room to fire safely.
Really, the only complaint he had about the gun was that in some ways it was too effective. He couldn't very well absorb a Demon's life force to heal himself if he'd already reduced said Demon to a splattered paste on the wall, which every firing mode aside from the buckshot did with extreme rapidity. Musings aside, the Slayer had finally arrived at the lift that would take him to the Deagic Council meeting. A push of the skull-shaped button started the platform rising, even as the Slayer switched the omni-rifle to Nuclear Smite mode.
The instant that the Slayer arrived in the cavernous council chamber, he opened fire, alternating his shots between Deag Ranak and Deag Grav with such rapidity that it looked like an indistinguishable blur of motion. Mere seconds later, both remaining Hell Priests were grievously injured on the floor, even as the Slayer stomped over and finished them off.
This is when the Khan Maykr's avatar arrived, took one look at the blasted remains of the Hell Priests, and screamed "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?" immediately before eating a Nuclear Smite to the face. As the sparking wreckage of the puppet collapsed, the Slayer simply turned and walked away as VEGA opened the portal, noting "As all three Hell Priests have been killed, the blood ritual has been stopped. That said, there remain large numbers of Demons on Earth, along with several significant hell portals. In addition, the Khan Maykr is still alive, and is likely to attempt something drastic."
