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Carry On My Wayward Son (Vasty Deep Void Gate Quest) - Doomguy - 01-03-2016
Quote:Continued from Into Dante's Inferno
It's hard to think about what I've been through since I had first arrive in the Omniverse, in the grand scheme of things. I had started with a singular purpose: Get out. How that was to happen I hadn't cared, any obstacles in my way I would go through with as much enthusiasm and blatant disregard to collateral damage as normal. What was one Hell compared to the one I tore to piece not hours before then? That's what I saw the Omniverse. Just another inter dimensional realm of madness. Maybe it lacked the fire and brimstone, the walls of flesh, and scream of lost souls, but the egotistical and mad primes given untold power for the amusement of a smiling god made me almost miss the bloodthirsty demons of Hell.
That's what I thought at first. Surprise, when you get to know the people and places better then they stop looking like road blocks and more like people. They didn't want to get in my way, and some even helped. I probably wouldn't have gotten this far without them. Omni was still the prize, but after the months I had been here I couldn't help but think that maybe his intentions weren't as maleficent as I though, in stark contrast to my sky aimed rant I had when I first appeared at the Nexus fountain. Maybe I would have learned that a bit earlier if I took a bit more time to be sociable, but it was a bit late for that.
And perhaps if I did, it would have better prepared me for when I stood in front of the white silhouetted nimrod and learned the truth about everything.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Choprot's prediction of a few more day's travel wasn't quite on the spot. The captain had decided to make a few stop along away for "business reasons", which I should have to explain why I didn't trust his words on that. Not much I could do about it anyway, since was still bedridden most of the time, and when I got enough fine motor control back that I could trust myself with a med-pack I was largely still restricted to my room. At least it didn't hurt enough that I could get back to my morning routine, and by the time I heard the first cry of "land ho!" I was already up and walking the deck. That might not sound that impressive, but consider than back in my universe what would have been years of physical therapy took two weeks.
Blue Flame Island was a much more impressive sight that I expected. I thought it was going to be some squat hovels tied together on a swamp, but once it came into view it was a crowning city studded into the side of a volcano, and all across the beach a mighty trade port. The more apparent landmark of a white skull seemingly painted into a cliff face gave the right first impression: this was a pirate den, no bones about it.
I turned over to Laronzo who had been staring off from the bow of the ship like I was. Despite his flamboyant nature, I could see right through the act. This had been his first time outside Impel Down since he arrive in the Omniverse. He might have some feeling of lost, but he bounced back pretty well. His is a hardened criminal, I would be slightly worried if he didn't.
"So now that you're free, what are you and your goons going to do?" I asked, and he gave a glance with a big smile.
"Rebuild, of course! Neo Newkama Land will be just a big a hit as the first! Feel free to visit at anytime, darling, but you do have the follow the dress code"
"Not a fucking chance" I said with a lighthearted laugh. Nothing against the man, really. And considering he laughed back, he didn't take it seriously either "I already got a plan, and it's to the hell out of Dodge once I'm done here. See that ship?" I pointed out the massive cruise liner that was anchored at one of the docks. Even from the back end I could immediately tell its royal gaudiness as the Goldwater Resort "I have business with them"
"Well, I hope you get out. I'll be a good story to tell of the day I met the man who escaped Impel Down AND the Omniverse. Keep the wind to your back, Doomguy" He offered his hand, and I took it with a strong shake. It's strange people that I manage to find comradely in. "Now if you excuse me" he made an about face and walked over to the two of his thugs I had met before in the bowels of the prison "Nerra, Hudson, lets get down into the mess hall. We got recruiting to do~"
I just shook my helmeted head and gave a big, lazy smile. Weirdo.
As I walked over to the poop deck (yeah, get your laughs out now, you dolts), where Choprot and his officers supervised the maneuvering of the rustbucket into a pier and the green ork himself was at the helm. Which considering the lack of screams and panic meant that he wasn't as terrible as his manic style of everything he did implied. Before I could get his attention I finally noticed something that perhaps I didn't question at first: Three more ships waving Choprot's flag trailed behind us in formation, each with the same "slap to" aesthetics as the hulker.
"Friends of yours, Choprot?" I asked as I looked him over. Still as mechanical as the last time I saw him. The only difference is that he now had the ring I had stolen for him from the abandoned military base on a necklace"
"Nevah you mind, Doomy. You'ze ain't the only one with fings to do in port" He shrugged me off, and I did the same in response. I wouldn't force the issue unless it some how came to bite me in the ass, and since I would probably be gone in a few days there was a poor chance of that happening. Although there is a difference between unlikely and impossible for a reason.
"Fine. What are you going to do with the passengers once we've landed?"
"Dey're primes, can't force'm to stay if they don't want to. Why?"
"I'll probably need some crew of my own when I've learned how to get to Omni. I don't exactly want to summon more people into the universe if I can avoid it."
"Dere's always some mad gits who'll take da job. Some might stay, just depends on 'ow long ya take. I can point ya the right way if you need a few scurvy dog to work with"
"Right. Thanks, Choprot" The captain only nodded his ahead before he finally took the last final swing into a pier and parked it, anchors thrown overboard and crew jumped off to tie it down. Then the hulking ork stompped down from his spot and started shouting orders.
"Alright, ya rat grots, get the gang plank down. I got some gits to get off me ship and I want them off yesterday!" I just shook my head and walked over to the starboard side where my charge was left to wait for me.
I looked at Jen'lak for a moment, as her sight was centered dead onto the floating Vegas strip. Whatever history she had with the place wasn't my concern, but hopefully she and her sister's meeting wouldn't have any more complications before I could get my answers. They could sort it out on their own time.
"Ready to go?" I at least offered some courtesy, and she managed to pull away from the sight long enough to look me eye to visor. I remember out last conversation and removed my helmet, which netted us both a weak smile. It took her a while before she nodded, despite the lack of any worldly possessions at that point, and she followed me as we both walked onto the pier and into the street proper.
This was the beginning of the end for me, I thought. And I could see the fuzzy memories of the green fields of Earth a little clearer.
Re: Carry On My Wayward Son (Vasty Deep Void Gate Quest) - Doomguy - 01-16-2016
Despite the fact that inside the floating whore house was my ticket to escape, I was not excited to be in front of the Goldwater Pier Resort again. The flickering lights and overdone decorations may have fitted a bit more into the seedy docks of the pirate alcove, compared to the banal port of the civilian side of Costa del Sol and the more prunish people who lived there, but Blue Flame island added something to the cruiseliner of debauchery even more annoying that my first visit:
There was a line.
And when you're stuck behind other people who did want to be there, their eyes rolled slightly up and smiles wide in half thought fantasies and bodily needs, it was very reminiscent of bring the designated driver during R&R. The drunken antics of your squadmates may have been enduring or even reasonable when you were under the same inebriated logic, but when sober that filter was gone and you were stuck taking the idiocy at full blast. And there I was, grim faced and my arms across only a few feet behind them. Jen'lak wasn't any more happy to be there as I was, in the few seconds we were there someone had already tried to grope her.
"Alright, fuck this. Keep right behind me" I didn't even look back to get confirmation from the lizard women before I took a straight shot for the front door, pass the grumbles of the people we were cutting in front of. The large beetle like bouncers in front of us noticed pretty quickly and those that weren't assigned to gate duty moved to intercept me. They were nasty looking creatures too, hardened carapaces and a pair of scything talons along with their normal pair of hands, I probably couldn't take them in a fist fight and shooting them was actually the last thing I wanted to do. But I needed to get through and I didn't want to wait. When one got close I stopped moving and it did the same, a stand off between the bug and the heavily armed soldier. I hoped this worked out.
"I'd like to talk to your boss" If the the bug man had any human features, I might have noticed it get thrown off its mood "He owes me a shitton of money and I'm not going anywhere until I get it" Yes, it was a lie, but I just needed to get past the front door and then I could head straight for Sheila. The head man tilted it head to one that stood beside it, and if they were talking to each other it wasn't in a way I could reach. Either they trying to figure out the situation, or they were planning on how to kick my ass to the curb. But one of them reached down to a pager at his side and waved me. That meant at least someone was on the look out for me. Right?
The place still looked like inside of a pinball machine, only now it was packed with people and as a consequence the air conditioning was on full blast and there was that indistinguishable smell of a dive bar, human sweat and spilt booze poorly camouflaged by an over use of air freshener. As a self proclaimed dive bar expert, it's a smell I've been grown resistance to but unfortunately never immune. The head desk was crowded, between those still trying to get in and whoever blocked the entry ways so they could ogle the mechanical duo that manned the post. The two didn't mind, they were made for that after all, and they were busy between processing tickets and flirting with idiots before I walked straight up to them and forcefully knocked on the desk top.
"Doomguy!" The one who could actually speak unfortunately used that ability to effectively squeal my name and caught the attention of everyone there. I found myself under the eyes of the nearby patrons, either amazed to be in the presence of THE Doomguy, or more likely wondering what kind of name was 'Doomguy'. "We've wondered when you'd come back. Here to see Sheila again, or is this a pleasure visit?~" The male population around me sagged a little bit as the robogals leaned in close to me.
"I'm on duty" as I shot them down for the second time "This is Jen'lak" I thumbed behind me, and this time I actually looked back to see that she was, in fact, still there. "She's Sheila's sister, and I'm escorting her. Try again next time" Which meant never "Where is Sheila anyway?"
"She's in her dressing room, I'll send her a message and you can meet her there. Try not to break any more girls' heart, Doomguy" The mechanical secretary waved me in into the casino proper and Jen'lek and I walked across passed the many gamblers and boozers towards the "employees only" area.
"Do you two have a history?" I could practically here the raised eyebrow from my charge behind me. Even though she didn't have hair, let alone eyebrows
"It's nowhere near as interesting as you think" It wasn't exactly a history if we've only met once. "Come on, we have a sister to reunite you with"
Quote:----
I wasn't exactly sure how this meetup was going to end. Were these two going to ran to each other arms open, lovingly embrace each other and dissolve into a pile of emotion? Or was I about to learn that I had to go through the Empire's super max prison in order to square a bet? Yes, I was told that I had to save her from the Empire's clutch, but it wouldn't be the first time I've been lied to with orders. Either way, I had upheld my side of the bargain, and as long as they didn't try to kill each other I would have considered that good enough.
When the two of us walked into the dressing room it was most empty, cleared out by Sheila herself most likely as to make less of a scene. She was at the long table set against the wall under an equally long lit mirror, the only other person was "the hunter" who was seated nearby with a comforting hand on her shoulder. They immediately looked to the door as I walked in, and I quickly slipped to the side to let Jen'lak take the fore. The two sister locked eyes, Sheila bolted upright from her chair, and the two moved closer. They didn't exactly say anything, but there was the subtle exchange of look at spoke volumes, and eventually they wrap their arms around each other.
I felt like the outsider there and just left as the two just let it out.
"Thank you, Doomguy." I heard Sheila almost whisper as she saw me go "Thank you for everything"
"Just doing my job" And yet, I could the massive smile that pulled itself from ear to ear "Keep safe, you hear?"
And with that I walked through the hallway toward the room they kept the Oracle.
Now I would take back my future.
Re: Carry On My Wayward Son (Vasty Deep Void Gate Quest) - Doomguy - 02-11-2016
The barren hallway was right where I remembered it from the last time I had been there, that it was so out of the way from the main area made it stand out from the blinding aesthetics. A nice change of pace, really. What the purpose of the other doors along the wall was beyond me, I was focused on the one with the nameplate labeled "Oracle". I could only imagine how someone else might have felt in this situation, that question of fate and purpose weighted heavily in their mind. Would their destiny be revealed, and would it be glory or doom? I was just very tired and wanted to go home. I've already asked that question too much when I was younger. It felt a long journey at that point, and this was to be the last stop before the end. I walked in and nearly tripped over myself in the dark.
"Where's the fuck is the lightswitch?" I announced myself, not in the mood for the mystical, mysterious, misty bullshit. I could hear the clanks and whirl of unseen machinery in the background, the unearthly green light lit the room with the mood of theater lights going out on a murder. The humanoid body rose up from its mechanical throne with a cape of cables and wires, an almost zombie like rise as it took its place at its pedestal once more. The "head' of the soothsayer turned to me, a lipless smile its greating.
"You have finally returned, Fly-"
"Doomguy" I cut the Oracle off. Our relationship might have been warmer than most of the people I knew in this universe, but I had other reasons to keep the name down low "The only people who I know that know that name is you and Sheila, and let's keep it that way"
"Your paranoia is as encompassing as always, marine of Earth. All the same, you have proven yourself. I have seen your battle against the oppression of the Empire. It is..." He paused in thought, the magical machine thought what word to use. If he was trying to diplomatic, he was wasting it on the wrong person "Inspiring. Your actions will have unforeseen consequences throughout the Omniverse. But know that your mind is elsewhere" At least he understood that.
"Yeah, I have places to be. Nothing against you, but I'm not in a bullshitting mood" Maybe I felt a little bad to make this quick, the Oracle didn't have many visitors and he seemed ecstatic (in his own way) when he did have one, but the Omniverse was a place I wanted to see in the metaphorical rear view mirror. For the reason I've stated plenty of times before, and now because the Empire probably had a bounty on my head by now "But let me just ask: why the Impel Down mission. If what you're saying is true, you knew I would succeed. Hell was tougher. None in there compared to what I've fought at capital Dis. Doesn't the "price" seem a bit low?"
"It was not your capabilities as a soldier that needed to be proven, Doomguy. It was you capacity as a human being." I raised an eyebrow, but the Oracle didn't offer any explanation "Do you still wish to know of how to reach Omni?" I noded my head, and watched as the room itself started to shift. Arrays of crystals shunted out from shelves built into the walls, and the green electricity that the mechanical soothsayer had surge through was directed into these glass prisms, the light aligned until a disembodied orb hung neatly in the middle of the room. It had the other effect that it revealed the room some more, including the machine that the Oracle was hooked too. Gears and pulleys that seemed positioned ritually that meant for efficiency, runes etched into every inch with green light threw shadows into the deep recesses.
"At the edge of this world is where you will find the gate to the void" he started, the white circle changed to a crystal clear image of an island, barely big enough to play catch on. Little vegetation, a lonely palm tree close to the shore. Although a fog obscured any close detail, the obvious look of a Omniverse gate stood defiantly on its surface. "The lands of the Omniverse may follow your world's natural laws, it does not copy its form. They are not planets, but planes. If you go far enough, you will reach it."
"How far?" I asked. I figured I already needed a ship, but a good idea of distance would help determine how much supply and men I would need.
"Past the point when you no longer see any island on the horizon. Past the point when the depth of the ocean could never be reached by man or beast. Past the point when the sun no longer rises or sets, left imprisoned under the edge of the world. Where the storms rage and the wave seek to swallow you whole." That didn't help.
"Great." I couldn't stop myself from making a sarcastic barb. I wasn't expect an easy way out, but I still wasn't happy to hear the apocalyptic fortune "The only thing missing is the threat of explosive decompression. Anything else I need to know?"
"You know full well that the Vastly Deeps are full of dangers, and you will face most of them. But the Void itself is not to be taken lightly. It will test you, and you must steel yourself when the time comes. Only then will you find what you are looking for"
I gave a nod as the information soaked in. It worried me, this sounded to be a difficult mission I had faced. Not on par with the assault against the demons ran wild on Earth. After all I can't die so long as Omni didn't get bored with me. But this wasn't just clearing out some moon base with shotgun and BFG, this would be everything I've worked up towards, and I could not afford to fail. Who knows how long it would take to get back here?
But I had never backed down from a challenge. After all, my cause is just, my will is strong, and my gun is very, very large.
"Thank you, Oracle. For everything. Sorry to say I can't help you any more from now on"
"You have done more than enough, marine of Earth" I bowed my head and headed towards the door. The lights turned down and everything started to move back into place as I reached the door "Good bye, Doom Guy" I walked outside, and let the door swing close behind me "Until we meet again"
I spun to look as Oracle as he said that, but the door closed in that instant. I felt shaken, alone in that hallway, but I breezed it off as I walked back into the casino/
Re: Carry On My Wayward Son (Vasty Deep Void Gate Quest) - Doomguy - 02-18-2016
As I mulled over the information given to me by the Oracle in my mind, I cut across the massive room of the Goldwater Resort to get back to the entrance. I could've maybe appreciated the place, obnoxiousness and all if I wasn't so desperate to escape the Omniverse to go back home and I didn't want to waste any more time with distractions. By that point, the advances to sell me overpriced beers and a night with questionable women of different shapes and races only annoyed me. The farther I got away from the clunking of slot machines and the smell of cigar smoke and closer to that gate the better.
But a glance over to one of the floors above me saw a familiar face that I didn't think I would see again: The scrawny look of one Roger Mills, one of Lt. Jones' warbuddies and last I remembered an agent of the Empire. Him being here raised my eyebrows as far as they could, and I could only ask why. I jolted up the nearest flight of stairs, and when I made it to the floor I saw him duck into a room. When I got to the same door I already expected some other aspect of hedonism sold at full price to sad men and women. So it didn't surprise me when I walked into the equally dark and overly bright setting of a strip club.
Much like the rest of the floating casino, there was a lot of effort given to please every taste. Each "stage" was separated with mirrored walls, with no overlap allowing every audience member to stick to their own particular fetish. My target seemed to have something for short and stacked, as he took a seat next to where a curvy goblin shook her badonkadonk. Roger was completely distracted, not that I could blame him; so much so that he didn't notice me even when I took the seat next to him and sat not even a foot away from him. It wasn't until I tapped him on the shoulder that one of his brain cells managed to rub against another to make him turn his head towards me.
When we saw each other face to helmet, his eyes grew like that of a deer's in the headlight of a tank.
He tried to jump straight up, but my arm was already over his shoulder before he could even get further than an inch off his seat, forcing him back down. He tried to say something, but I firmly wrapped my elbow around his neck, the only thing coming out being a few gurgles and squeaks. I gave a sadistic smile behind my helmet, and while he couldn't see it we both knew how "happy" I was to see him.
"For a supposed spy, you are horrible at staying hidden," I said as I flexed my arm, choking a little more air out of him. He couldn't even breathe in oxygen, let alone speak words. "Didn't I say I was going to kill you the last time we met? Now, I'm a man of my word, and I have a mind to off you right now."
I squeezed him a little closer, his shoulder crushed into the side of my armor. "If you tell me what you're doing here, then maybe I'll let you go." He tried to say something, but it wasn't until I finally loosened my grip that he managed to answer me.
"I'm not doing anything," he managed to squeak out after he inhaled as much air as he could.
"Bullshit."
"It's true! We left the Empire after you broke Impel Down. There was no way they wouldn't trace it back to us!" I did actually expect that, but it didn't answer my question. Even if he wasn't working for the Empire anymore, I wasn't about to let him go without knowing a few things.
"Then why are you here?" I asked, and applied a bit more pressure to his shoulders.
"We left with the ship when it headed to Bilgewater. We figured it would be safer leaving before waiting to see if you would succeed"
"We? Then Jones is here?"
At that point, he clammed up, but I already knew enough "You're also really bad at keeping secrets"
The makeshift interrogation was abruptly halted with I heard a throat cleared above the both of us, and I looked away from the possibly ex-Empire agent to see that the goblin stripper stood over me. She was fairly annoyed, her eyes aimed squared at my visor and with a pout that might have been cute to anyone else at the table. It was an odd look to get from someone who was half naked and what was left nothing to the imagination anyway. She was brave, i'll give her that, since I would have still towered over her even with her on the stage. The others stared me from their chairs, although they weren't quite as courageous.
"Could you pah-lease not harass my customers" She demanded, and with little complaint I let go of the spy and got up from the chair before security go involved. Rogers let in a huge, painful gulp of air and a coughing fit followed after. The entertainer went back to her job and the audience went back to watching.
"Tell Jones I wanna talk to him"
"He doesn't want to talk to you"
"That's too bad. He knows my number" And with that I left the strip club and got out of the resort. I had one more thing I needed to take care of.
----
I had taken a walk around the docks that Choprot had dropped me off at to find a unoccupied spot on one of the long piers. When I considered the logistics of the journey to the gate, not to mention that no captain here would risk their ship and crew for my crazed plan. I was going to have to get my own. Even if I could afford one, and I admit I had no idea how much OM I had, I doubted there was any at the island's shipyard (if they had one) that would fit what I needed. Something that could travel for a long time, something sturdy and packing with big guns. This verse's tendency for the pirate age style ship didn't give me a lot of hope that I would find what I needed outside of stealing one of the steel hulled battleships of the Empire.
I needed to make one.
It wasn't something I had ever thought about. I knew I could summon with OM, I had done it a few times before. But it had been mostly in experimentation and restocking my ammo, never anything bigger than a room. Let alone a ship. It seemed like something way beyond my scope.
And yet, I felt like I could do it. There was a certainty to it. I had become strong since I was pulled into the Omniverse. Apart of me just KNEW I could do it. Maybe that part of me was full of shit, but there wasn't anyway to know until I tired.
It had been a while since I arrived at Bilgewater, the sun was near setting when I stood at the end of a long and largely decrepit pier. The tide was coming in as the moon started to rise in the blackened sky and I felt the salty sea breeze over my scarred skin. I focused on the senses around me, the lap of waves and sound of the people behind, and tunes them into a beat and rhythm. I held my hands out, imagined the ship in my mind, and felt the omnilium roll out of my body.
More and more Omnilium appeared, it sapped away from me in a massive swarm that congregated into the iconic orb. I keep on my feet, but it was strenuous to my body and my mind as I tried to force my will on the malleable substance. I thought of what I wanted. I wanted a ship that was as tough as I was. It would never stop until it reached Omni. I imagined the rolling green hills of earth again, the feel of the grass as I laid in it and watched the clouds roll by. To hear kids ride past on their bikes, and the laughs of my fellow soldiers after another bender at the bar. I remembered the soft fur of Daisy around my fingers and the time I spend fighting for humanity.
But as the memories passed on, I also thought of what had happen on phobos. The yells of terror and pain, eyes of an unearthly fire burned onto me as the monsters that rose from the corpses of my old comrades level their guns at me. Hellfire and razor claws that tore into me as I fought my way through the sea of imps and pinkies. I felt anger as mancubus and arch-viles light the world aflame in their quest to destroy all that was good, the frustration as arachnotron and lost souls chased me through ruined streets and the fear that clutched my heart as the Cyberdemon towered over me and let loose a beastral roar. And I remembered the sorrow as I found the familiar head of my pet rabbit affixed to a spike as I walked out from hellgate.
It was painful to remember what had happened, but it was the demons that gave me this purpose. I wanted to see that that one man war that I waged against Hell was not for nought. And nothing, not the sea or Omni would stop it.
I fell down to one knee as it finished. How long did that take? Minutes? Hours? I didn't notice, I had been so focused into the task. I felt a few hands grab me by the shoulder to pick me back up, and when I glance back I saw that I had drawn a crowd of gawkers. I turned back forwards and saw why: the massive carrier that was now stationed outside the port, guns gleamed in the moonlight.
"The OVS Hell's Bane" I read the identification printed across the bow in white block letters "It's got a ring to it"
I then felt my pocket vibrate. I fished the PDA out of the pocket it was hidden in and pulled up my email.
"That was fast" I thought that Jones responded to my demand, but when I looked at the new message I saw that it was from someone I never heard of before "Who the fuck is Sylvia Black?" as if any of the people nearby would have know. But my heart jumped up my throat as I read the contents. Guu was under attack the Nexus.
My mind told me that it would have taken forever to get to the gate form here, that I didn't owe Guu anything and saving her butt wasn't worth my time. But my body was way ahead of it as I sprinted up the ramp into the ship towards what I knew was in there and what I needed.
Re: Carry On My Wayward Son (Vasty Deep Void Gate Quest) - Doomguy - 02-25-2016
The inside of the ship was much like the ones that I had traveled in back in my home dimensions, complete with the UNSMC personnel inside left completely confused to find themselves somewhere else. The ships had originally been designed for space, but it seemed that "Omniphysics" had struck again. The same "rules" that made my shotgun just as powerful as some primitive screwhead's mace thought that something designed to fly shouldn't fly. I would deal with the accidentally pulled crew when I wasn't in the middle of saving someone's ass. I kept the run up until I ran into some people who actually looked like they knew what they were doing.
A set of troops stationed at their post looked on, guarded outside an important looking door. Three of them, in the iconic red armor of a space marine commando and their chainguns held tightly in their fists, along with a number of other weapons strapped to their bodies. They turned to me as I made a straight path towards the door behind with a slight hesitation in their step, perhaps unsure of who was that green armored man was.
"Hold it," I didn't stop, "non-authorized personnel aren't allowed past this point. Who are you, anyway?" I finally did stop, when I was barely ten feet away from the on at the front who took charge. They all gripped their chainguns tight, but I just gave a big smile.
"I'm First Sergeant Flynn Taggart of the USSMC" I reported and the three troopers balked in surprised, although it was a bit harder to tell with their helmets. Despite the fact that I had my rank stripped after my court martial, the name could still throw weight around with the marines.
And yes, I fully realize the irony about the helmets.
"You're Doomguy!" one of the guys in the back said, as if two puzzle pieces finally clicked together.
"Yep, that's me. Can I barrow that?" I pointed at the heavy assault rifle he had slung over his back. He tilted his head, but did hand it over and I put it across my own, where it mostly laid on the backpack. "What's behind the door, by the way?" I knew what was there, but I wanted to see if he would tell me the truth and snag a few things off his belt as he turned around to wordlessly confer with his colleagues.
"We can't tell you that" he said, a slight tone of apology in his voice and a shrug that said "this is above my pay grade"
"I get it, it's your job" I sympathized. Lord knows, three years working guard duty on Mars gave a me an appreciation for the lowly ground pounder. Although that did stop me from as I yanked a grapple gun from the second soldier's side. He gave a "hey!" and his fist gripped my shoulder in protest, but I shrugged him off "You don't need that.Either way, I need to get through
"Then we'll have to stop you"
"But can you?" Despite their appearance and weaponry, there was hesitation. They didn't seem to want to go toe to toe with me. In face, as the first two tried to think how they would get out of this situation, the third one who had remained silent at this point just simply pulled the keycard from his packet and slipped it through the reader without comment. The first two stared at the other soldier, and I just let out a quiet sigh that had sat in my lungs moments ago.
"See you on the other side then" I said aloud and walked into the teleporter room that had been hidden behind the blast doors.
It stood ominously in the room, seemly more ritualistic that scientific, bad experiences poked the back of my head. The central chamber was big enough to hold a single person comfortable and supported by the machinery around it, it looked like two monstrous hands wrapped around a cage. If you squinted. I couldn't help but think how much trouble this creation of the UAC had caused me back on Phobos, and now I was about to throw myself into one again. I gave a grunt as I punched the Nexus into the destination, that poke grew stronger as it told me I didn't have to do this. But I knew I would be just as unhappy if I let go, and I walked into the chamber.
I braced myself as I felt the unfortunately familiar experience as I was blinded by a flash of green light and I was hurled through the universe.
Quote:A brief detour to Waiting For Pirate Man
RE: Carry On My Wayward Son (Vasty Deep Void Gate Quest) - Doomguy - 03-29-2016
The ride back was just as unpleasant as as the one out, a split second misstep across the universe did horrible things to your balance and stomach content. But when I stepped off the teleporter pad and away from the smell of ozone I found myself in one piece and back on the ship. I felt at least some reassurance, although I had no intention to get back into the deathtrap. Not that any other time that I've promised myself to not step into one of those portals has been kept, something I was well aware off and sure that I would do it again, but that I would deal with later. As I walked out of the room I found myself alone, the three guards seemed to have fucked off when I had laid down the law back at the Nexus. In all likelihood, the crew of the ship had found out they weren't in Kansas anymore. I gave out a long sigh as I decided that they should hear it from me, and I walked down the gunmetal grey hall to where I was sure they would be.
A short walk over to the mess hall put me exactly where I need to be, a large group of people gathered around the tables and centered towards the sharp dressed officers who tried to answer questions that didn't know anything about. There was the growing grumble that announced the smoldering anger that they knew was no one's fault but still wanted to vent on some sap. I thought back to when was first dumped into the white expanse of the Nexus, when I spat sound and fury at the one who brought me here. I just took a long a long breath in with the hope that this wouldn't end how I wanted to end my entrapment when I first came to the Omniverse and shuffled in.
At first no one noticed me, since I wore the same armor as them and their immediate concerns were else where. Once the slow realization that I was there crept in, the looked to me expectedly. That they waited with open ears meant at least I wasn't about to get shot, but then they haven't heard the bad news yet.
"I'm sure you all have questions" No shit, me "The reason that you're here is because I brought you here. It was selfish of me, I know, but I need your help" When I thought about it, I really only wanted the ship, but where would that have left the crew. It was morbid to think that I may have left these men stranded in orbit of a planet. I told myself it may well have been better to pull them in, even it just to relieve my guilt a a bit.
"I know some of you know who I am" I scanned across the faces of the group and saw the three that had been guarding the teleport in their stare back at me in disbelief. I though of some sci-fi movie where the familiar person turned out to be an omnipotent alien or something, and I wanted to dispel that notion before "And I am who you think I am. I was pulled here by someone else, same as I did to you. The difference is that I want out, and if I can to him I can take everyone else home as well. You have every right to be angry at me about it, but you're the best fighters I know, and I wouldn't trust anyone else with this mission"
Still no thrown bottles or 22 millimeter rounds through my chest. The rough talk stayed, but while they seemed unhappy with the idea they didn't speak out against it. I took that as a good sign and hoped I could keep it that was for the journey.
"I'll want to talk to the captain, but I have a few things I need to do before we set sail." I told the officer in the back who I had interrupted when I walked in, some XO assigned to making the grunt work run smoothly when the upper command had other things to deal with "Assure them that I can get them anything they need, and when I get back I'll explain everything" I left the room, the news would spread out to the rest of the ship and hopefully that's calmed the situation down enough that I wouldn't get thrown into the ocean.
Conveniently, a ring from my PDA told me that I finally had a call that I wanted. I pressed the button and a familiar voice growled at me through the otherside.
"You just refuse to not make my life miserable, don't you Doomguy" Lt. Jones said, and I gave a big sadistic grin
"It's a hobby of mine. We need to talk"
RE: Carry On My Wayward Son (Vasty Deep Void Gate Quest) - Doomguy - 04-11-2016
I confiscated a meeting room for myself as the call went on, a little quiet time so that I could get this little step out of the way as quickly as possible. Whatever crew that was brought here was unlikely to have been stocked for battle, presuming I had brought it from a point during or shortly after Hell invaded Earth. A minimal crew meant for peace time. While I didn't doubt their capacity, if the journey to the gate was a treacherous as the Oracle said then I needed everything I could get. And since I didn't want to summon anyone else, I would have to pick through what was already trapped inside the Omniverse. And that's where the ex-Imperial Officer came in.
"Did you really harass one of my men and threaten my cover just so you could small talk?" The ever smoldering Lt. Jones stared at me from the video feed, his imperial uniform now replaced by some kind of combat armor not unlike my own. A shield like emblem was etched into the front of the chest plate, an axe set across the front and the phrase "Vigilo Confidio" written at the top. I'm sure it was some hint to what universe he orginated from, but it didn't mean anything to me.
"No, I harassed your good friend Roger because he put a hole in my chest when I saved his ass. he should consider himself lucky he got to run back and bitch to you in one piece," the bearded officer grimaced from behind the screen, but that didn't stop me, "and if you were worried about blowing your cover, you wouldn't have called me"
A deep, defeated sigh rang out from my PDA, Jones already decided it wasn't worth arguing with me.
"Just get to the point"
"Now you're the one saying that" I chuckled, which did nothing to help his mood "I need some crew-"
"No" He shot me down immediately
"I don't mean any of your people, I'm not that much of an asshole" I took the lead back, although I heard "debatable" uttered under his breath "Considering your, uh, previous employment with the Empire to my understanding, you would still know who's on their shitlist"
"You released most of them" Jones answered, before he looked to something off screen and called someone over. I felt "The Navy is still imploding over your attack and trying to hunt them down, so any information is not guaranteed. Why would want these scumbags working for you, anyway?" The lack of confusion on his part meant that had his own suspicions to confirm.
"If there's other people like me, then there may be at least a few ex-military who'd take a chance for a ride home. Maybe a few psychos in the bunch, but as long as they're not those PLF shit heads I'm willing to take anything"
"I'll have Eagle Eye send you the information" Even as he said that, I saw an email pop up in my inventory with a large file attached to it "I hope you succeed, Doomguy, if only so I don't have to deal with you"
"Oh trust me, if I fail, I'll happily take you out to dinner on me." I turned cut the chat short and started to read through the dossiers and headed to the bridge. I had one last thing to do, one last person to conivince before I could set sail on the USS Fuckthisshit
Quote:----
The bridge changed little from how I remembered them being like back in my own dimension. Although that might have been due to the haziness of my memories, it certainly looked more like something made for the blackness of space rather than the sea. Consoles lined across the outer rim of the room, a centralized station where the captain would likely spend more time keeping their crew in line than watch space itself. There were "windows" that showed the outside around from the hull, but there were in reality monitors and the illusion disappeared when you looked behind them to only find grey walls. Crew were at their stations, but they were more inclined to gab than work, and even when I walked in they only gave me a few glance before they went back to shoot the breeze.
I had a more directed reason to be here. I stared down the guy who seemed to be in charge, a man in a larger seat who had more medals on his chest than hair on his head, which was mostly replaced by scars stripped across his head anyway. he lacked the stripes of the captain, but I ould easily guess that he worked directly under them.
"Where's the captain?" I bluntly asked, which the officer just looked me over with a steely look.
"She's in her quarters. She's been waiting for you" He answered, and turned his head to talk into some of comms in the side of his head. While I was grateful for his bluntness his stance was not unlikely a bouncer: always squared towards me, arms crossed, and never without at least one eye on me. In fact, I felt like he was looking down on me despite the fact that we were the same height. I took a mental note to not fuck with him and waited for when a sliding door opened for the person I had to convince.
"Captain on deck!" Was yelled by one of the orderlies, and everyone went ramrod straight on their feet to salute the woman in question. I, on the other hand, was more interested at who this person was beyond their authority.
She was short. Not just compared to me, she barely came up to my chest. She was as primmed and spotless as the military great coat that she wore, and her sharp green eyes held the kind of fight in it I would normally associate with a berzerk packing marine. Each step held weight, she owed every bit of floor she stepped. I guess she did, since that was her ship and I'm sure she would have happily fought over it. She had a chip the size of of the ship she commanded and it was likely made by having to fight uphill for everything she had.
I already knew this was going to be a hard argument to make when the relationship between the space navy and space marines (there is no space army, if you're wondering) could be described as hostile without exaggeration. That I had pulled in a battleaxe of a woman made this into challenge.
Good, if this wasn't difficult I would have been suspicious it went too well.
We stared each other down, two stubborn wills clashed without even a word a said, and before I even said something she's turned back to adress her crew.
"Get the engines ready, we are leaving"
"Oh, good I don't have to argue then" I let out the slight brew of worry out in a 'whew' "Good, because we need to-"
"And someone throw this hooligan in the brig"
Oh boy.
Some wiseass actually took that order serious, and when I heard the light tap of boots behind me I swung my elbow out and back, their nose obliterated as it made contact with hardened bone and armor plate.
"Hold up, I didn't come here just so you can ignore me. I doubt you have been sitting on your thumbs, because it's imposible to notice that you're not in fucking space anymore"
"I have noticed, marine. While you were busy, I took the liberty of finding out more about this place myself. I know what you've said is true, and I believe that you are who you claim you are." She turned back to me, with a intensity laid on me. It wasn't anger, but she wasn't happy to see me "But if you think you have any control of my ship, my crew, then you are insane.
"I'm not insane" I blurted out a little too quickly. I could have mocked her for obviously rehearsing that speech to regain the upper hand, but I need this person on my side, not under my boot. "I don't need command, just your help. I am your best chance out of here"
"And that is the only reason I don't want you thrown off the ship entirely. My trust is not given, marine, it is earned. And until then: you will either take my orders, or you will spend the entire voyage int he brig" He laid down the law. But if you've kept since now, you'd know that I wasn't too happy to take orders from anyone. However, I have a way when it comes to interpreting orders. There wasn't any problems here couldn't fix.
I gave a big grin from behind my helmet and nodded.
"I can work with that. Now, there's a few places we need to stop first..."
RE: Carry On My Wayward Son (Vasty Deep Void Gate Quest) - Doomguy - 04-23-2016
I looked across the room that I had taken to, the square bunk I sat on and grey walls fitted perfectly with the vertical bars across from me. The captain was not kidding when she said she'd throw me in a cell if I tried to upend her and I didn't think that even a suggestion would count. Next thing I knew she snapped her fingers and I found myself immediately under ten guys. Sure, I could have fought them off, but I wanted to be on their good side and I doubted they would have done any real damage. The choke slam was unnecessary, though. Soon enough they threw me in here and I had a bit of time to mull over how exactly I was going to gain "trust" with the captain.
I didn't even know her name. And yes, I understand the irony of that.
The fact that they didn't take my weapons meant they at least didn't expect me to escape. A few shots from the plasmagun and I could have tap-danced my way out the cell. Either a test, or they were sure that I wouldn't shoot up my own side. If they really knew me they would have known I made exceptions, although I could only wonder if my old CO would have told anyone or kept it secret that I had beaten him to an inch of his life. Not exactly a point of pride, that.
Eventually my wait paid off, as I heard a set of foot steps shuffle down the barren hallway. Their quick pace meant this was not some casual visit or food trolley. Good thing too, I'd already cleaned my guns twice and lost the baseball I summoned a few moments ago. I swaggered up to the front of the cell and leaned on the cell bars; where I found two junior officers with a keycard in one of their hands and large frowns on their faces. The card holder nearly fumbled the card as he slot it into the reader, and that feeling of superiority fell through as I realized that something bad had either happened or was about to happen.
"What's going on?" I asked, the list of mocking comments pushed to the side for a moment.
"We are being followed by another ship. The captain wants you on the bridge"
Quote:----
The bridge was much more tense as I was led into it, the casual atmosphere that had been there during my first visit had vanished. Men and women hunched over their post, information flying from station to station with all of it pooled into the chair in the middle where the captain read through the many holographic monitors in front of her. I walked close enough that she knew my presence, but not close enough to make it seem like I was looking over her back (even though I was). Not that I needed to eavesdrop, as the view screen showed the threat itself: a metal hull ship just barely on the horizon which a portion of the screen had zoomed in on.
"How long have they been following us?" I threw a guess to the wind that the ship was the problem, and the lack of funny looks my way meant that I guessed right. The captain's look of surprise was a nice counter to the hard line grimace she had earlier, and I was again very grateful for my helmet as it block the smirk I had.
"Since we left port" she bounced back to stoic immediately, her attention turned to the screens in front of her. "They haven't responded to any attempts to hail, but they've kept themselves out of range of weapons. We're going to fire warning shots if they don't leave in a few minutes" I squinted at the view screen of the other ship as I wondered who it was. BUt I could make a good guess.
"Zoom in," I ordered a helmsman, which got me a very cross look from the captain. I rolled my eyes, since she already proven she had the authority here, but then she wasn't happy until also played the part, "please" And sure enough as the image was magnified closer, I saw the iconic symbol of the Empire on the flag.
"What do you know of the Empire?" I asked, the captain respond by tracing her hand on the holograms, which brought up another window and a long list of information.
"Local main government, totalitarian if their attempts at censorship is any indication, major faction of the universe" And then she look at me with a small frown and scrunched eyebrows "Who also have a bounty on your head"
"Things happen" I chuckled "I wouldn't shoot at them yet. They're probably looking for their own reason to attack, so don't give them one. Anything else on radar?"
"Nothing," Was reported from one of the crew members, "no other ships in sight"
"What if it's not ships?" I asked, and THAT's what got me strange looks. Even without my knowledge into the odd powers and technology the Omniverse liked to throw at me, my mind drifted back to the twin moon of mars, where once I though found a secured room lead to chunks of my body torn as only a transparent pink shape and hungry red eyes revealed my attacker "The enemy rarely reveals it's hand so early. They're probably supporting something. Keep an eye out for anything suspicious and keep in better contact with your patrols" and I gave a sideways glance to the officer in charge "and that's my advise, not an order"
Either her nod meant she agreed with me or she approved that I reeled in my assertiveness. Or both, you can't really tell if someone is intentionally trying to be coy about something.
"Switch sonar to wide band and I want reports from our men ever fifteen minutes. Call off the artillery, but keep them loaded for now" She ordered, and like ants to a queen the crewmen immediately got to work "So now what, marine?" I wasn't sure if that was permission or not, but if she was going to throw me back in the brig for answering a question then I wouldn't care anyway.
"Sunset Isle" I answered as I held up a my PDA which was opened to a file on a merc called the "War Pigs". I didn't exactly like mercs, but it was a lead. I handed the PDA over to her and she was already inputting the coordinates as she looked it over.
"So what's your name?" I asked about as nonchalantly as I could muster. Despite my reputation as a bit of a brick, I can still be social. But it wasn't enough to fly over her head.
"What's yours?" She countered
"Doomguy" I answered instantly by reflex
"Then you can call me Captain. If you're trying this trust thing, 'Doomguy", then you're failing miserably"
RE: Carry On My Wayward Son (Vasty Deep Void Gate Quest) - Doomguy - 05-13-2016
There’s always something to names that makes me wonder about their history. It’s not much more than an idle curiosity, since I’ve also never looked further than the surface explanation and left the history to the nerds. If I wasn’t so busy with everything else, though, I could maybe take that up as a hobby. But when I saw the island from my new quarters I saw the large dome shaped orange stone that left that that mystery with little to the imagination. It almost took up the entire island itself, long vents that poked out against it’s otherwise round surface gave it that cartoonish sun look. I could guess that it might have been a volcano, but how it got that particular shape and color was beyond me. I was far more interest in who was there rather than what.
The War Pigs. A mercenary group who have been on the Empire’s blacklist for a few years, something about an assassination. There was a lot of black bars. I couldn’t even tell if whoever was assassinated was or was not working the with the Empire when they were killed. Whatever happened before, they’re on the run now. Last seen on Sunset Isle, they numbered at several squads and a few support vehicles. Well, “support” vehicle as defined by the Empire; I wouldn’t have called a gunship that turned into a bipedal walker and a mobile artillery “support” vehicles.
If they were anything like me then they were aggressive, well armed, and fighting to survive. Even if I did find them, they might have just decided to put a few extra holes in me.
Sounds like fun.
“What do you mean, ‘you’re going in alone’?” The captain asked as I told her my plan. Her crossed arms told me enough, but it wasn’t as if she could have stopped me.
“I’d rather not put anyone at risk. You guys can do combat drills, or something”
“‘Combat drills or something’? You summon us here and now you’re going to keep us on the sideline?”
“Since when did you care about that?!”
“I don’t want you to waste my time!”
“I’M NOT-! You know what? Fine” I ripped a pen out of the desk of a nearby officer and wrote down my comm number “I’m going to keep this here, and IF I NEED TO I will call, and THEN you can help.” I’m sure she wasn’t amused by my lone wolf bullshit, but if she had any complaints she didn’t make them verbally (although the scowl said enough). I had started to walk away before heard her yell out to me again.
“Wait, how are you going to call us if you don’t know our number?!”
“I already stole it out of your computers. Come’on, keep up”
Quote:----
One speed boat later and I landed at the beach with a soft glide into the sand. I immediately jumped out to anchor the boat down, as if I was ready to assault an enemy position, but I was halfway through spiking it into the sand when I realised that there wasn’t anyone even here. Not that it stopped me, since the last time I landed on a beach that had no one one it I came back with the boat smashed to pieces and trying to outrun an eldritch abomination on a jet ski.
I gave the thumbs up to the carrier off in the distance and jogged into the forest that lined the inside of the island. It immediately came apparent that there was some kind of civilization, as a wooden pathway lead through the thick rooted mangroves and the Spanish moss that hung from its . It was kept clean by someone, so it wasn’t a deserted island. That wasn’t actually good news, but if the locals didn’t try to kill me on the spot then at least I could get some information out of them.
The calm of the sea breeze didn’t help me as I watched through the branches for movement. What if the Empire was here first, I thought. I could have walked into an ambush, or maybe I’d find another angry cult. Or perhaps I would find myself face to face with my enemy, a demon crashes through the growth, its pink skin and vicious teeth married to a complete disregard to life and reason, followed by its own army of undead and- I shook my head. I shouldn’t think about stuff like that while I was still on a mission.
Whatever paranoid delusions I had dropped away when the path eventually lead into the center of a village and I could let out that breath. Well, civilization isn’t a safe place in of itself, war taught me that the hard way, but the fact that there were frolicking kids and regular business rather than heads on spikes was good sign.
But just because they weren’t hostile didn’t mean they were happy to see me.
“What th’ bloody ‘ell are you doin’ ‘ere?” I rolled my head around to spot the voice that was clearly shouting at me. A few mothers grabbed their children as they pulled away from the scene that was about to unfold, and that was a good enough evidence that this wasn’t mister brightside . The angry, nearly indecipherable Scottish voice belonged to senior with a gray bush of a beard on his face, hair in a fohawk, and a very large combat shotgun in his hand. Oddly enough, this time it wasn’t the gun that held my attention but his orange, Hawaiian print shirt and the wife beater he wore under it (and I didn’t even notice the aviator glasses until he was up in my face). I’m not sure what the style would be called, other than “no shits”
“Who the hell are you?” I threw back. I wasn’t about to be intimidated by some old man, even if he did have a big gun. I walked into that village with more weapons than most squads would have, and here was this guy with only a shotgun and harsh words. Doomguy doesn’t get shown up. But he wanted none of that
“Yee weebrained cockbite can shove it ya think i tell a bounty hunter anything. I ain’t no rat. Not yee, nor the other bastard” Thankfully I’ve dealt with enough drunken idiots to parse out what he was saying, and more importantly something that made sense. Much as I wanted to break his stupid glasses with a left hook, I held that back.
“”First off, fuck you” And he casually flipped me off in response, as I expected “Second, what ‘other bastard’?”
“Think yee can get one over me? Pah! I’ll be keepin me eyes on you, you green, mingin’ pollock” And just as quick ah he arrived he was gone, which left me alone in the tiny fishing village without a clue at what just happened.
I walked across the path and thankfully found someone who wasn’t a few bullets short of a full magazine. Someone more local, judging by the fact that he actively kept out of the sun.
“So yeah, what’s his deal?” I questioned as I thumbed over my shoulder to where I assume the coot disappeared into.
“You met Old Man Henderson. Don’t worry about, he’s only dangerous if you cause trouble” I was about to ask my next question when he stood up, tipped his hat up, and stared me in the eyes “Which I that trouble is why you’re here”
“Don’t worry, I won’t stay here for long-”
“Let me give you advice” he placed his hand on my shoulder, which I responded by immediately knocked off. He didn’t seem too phased by that, although that seemed more because he wasn’t too fond of me anyway “You get back on your big boat of your and leave. We don’t want people like you here”
“And what if I choose to stick around anyway?” I stood my ground
“Things happen” The man responded, a clear threat given in a velvet package, and he went back to his shade.
So three potentially hostile forces on one small island while I hacked my way through unknown space in search of someone who will probably hate my guts?
Just the way I like it.
RE: Carry On My Wayward Son (Vasty Deep Void Gate Quest) - Doomguy - 06-09-2016
Once you got deeper into the island, small clumps of mangroves and salt water ponds made way to the rocky badlands where the slopes of the orange mountain started. Since it made the vast majority of the island, I had wondered how a small army could hide itself here, but that came abundantly clear when I saw the first set of cave mouths ahead of me. I thought about all the tunnels there crisscrossed through the entire mountain. You could get lost for weeks in there, assuming you made it out at all.
Luckily for me, the “amazing” scientist of the USSMC thought to give every marine a self filling map since a soldier is not generally in the mindset to be drawing maps when they’re getting shot at.
Not that it will help when I’d find myself getting shot at.
I glanced back to the town that was half a click behind me. The inhabitants didn’t stop me from leaving, but that didn’t mean much. If the threat was real, it seemed unlikely that it would be void the second I was outside of the of their little hovel space. It would be nice if I was wrong on that, but I was very rarely wrong. And that was ignoring that there was possibly a bounty hunter who would know about the recent asskicking I gave the Empire and the bounty that came soon after.
Well, I wouldn’t have been a space marine if it was an easy job.
Going into tunnels was not fun. In general but for me in particular. It’s not because I’m claustrophobic. If I was I wouldn’t have been able to get into a spaceship, let alone any of the close quarters combats I’ve had to go through. But hallways were ambush central, even with the best gear or men there was always the possibility you would run face first into the enemy without any clue they were there. It kept me on nerve, it’s happened way to often to me at too many places. It was worse underground, as there was no natural light after the first turn. You were plunged into darkness, and you were now stuck either using a flashlight to announce your position to everyone in a mile or grope the walls in the hope that your hand doesn’t grab a booby trap or the open maw of a demon.
Or use the universe’s most worthless night vision goggles which have a battery life of twenty seconds. Fucking UAC assclowns.
But luck was on my side this time. Not too far in someone had set up strands of light across the ceiling of the cavern, which provided both enough light so that I didn’t kneecap myself on a stalagmite and a guide to where I might find my target. I followed them further into the the earth, in the hope that it’ll lead to something. Something that won’t kill me.
Unfortunately, I literally ran face into the trouble I first expected. A man wall of flesh and metal if the fact that he wasn’t knocked over when I collided into him meant anything, and the that his face was more biotics that it was skin. Not that there was much skin to see, as almost his entire body was covered in some sort of bodysuit made of kevlar and metal plates. He looked like someone took a military kit and uniform and turned it into a second skin.
Both of us wonder who this other fucker was, then in an instant knew it didn’t matter. He reached down for two SMGs at his side, but my fists were already up. Knuckles collided with his stupid looking helmet as I drove my fist into his face and knocked him down onto the dirt.
Both of us scrambled for cover and bullets flew.
“So you’re the fucking bounty hunter I heard of! Funny, I thought bounty hunters wore long coats and fatigues, not gimp suits!” I yelled alongside the screaming of my heavy assault rifle as it showered the stone the bastard hid behind with lead. He lifted his small machine guns over his cover and blind fired across the cavern space with about as much effectiveness as you would expect blind fire to be. If he wanted to keep himself unaware of his surroundings, then I was happy to oblige as I tossed a grenade where he stood while I ran straight for him.
He fled from the explosive and right into my line of sight. I held down the trigger of my weapon as I hosed him down, but he seemed quicker than any human had a right to be as he not so much rolled as he cartwheeled away from me and through the hail of bullets unscratched. He kept both SMGs unloading as he flop-flopped like a jackass, but the bullets at only the effect of smashing into my armor and only giving me a few more bruises. For once, omniphysics worked out in my favor.
But when he landed back on his feet, he dropped his two peashooters and ripped a long katana from the sheathe on his belt. I was stunned, I was too busy trying to hold my laughter in.
“Did anyone ever tell you not to bring a knife to a gunfight?” I held down the secondary trigger of the of the heavy rifle as racks of micro rockets slid into firing position and I let them fly. Rather than dodge the hyper-technological enemy held his sword out in front of him, and in a blink that sword was swung through each rocket, only a trail of blue energy as any evidence of where it was, and those those rockets were then several half rockets that exploded after they split past him, the explosions only singed his back.
And I stood there like a slack-jawed fool.
“...Alright then” Was the only thing I could say, but rather than come up with something witty I decided to let super shotty say something for me. I pulled the double barreled wall painter out and leveled it at the punk. He rushed forward, closed the gap, and when I squeezed both triggers he managed to get away from the cone of death enough that the pellets only scraped sparks across his helm and oddly sturdy suit.
Now it was a brawl.
Furious swipes from the bounty hunter narrowly missed my vital organs as I I kept out of range, large rends in my armor revealed where he landed the blows but shallows cuts across my skin was the worse he could do safely. He kept the handle close to his body which kept me from being able to rip it from his hands, but if there was some sort of cooldown on that super speed attack then I was on a timer before he turned me into Doomguy tartare. I kept him away with a few shots from the pistol, which he blocked with the blade of his weapon, and when he overextended I rushed into the inside of his swing and wrapped his head in a headlock.
The two of us wrestled for control, I held his sword away from me while he tried to free himself. Neither one of us could keep control for long before we swung it back or just swung the other into terrain. My pistol was was close but never quite able to put a bullet through his head while he kept trying to skewer me or escape out of my headlock.
This went on until I heard another set of footsteps come in. I gave a glance over to the entrance of the cave I entered in through and found a massive suit of power stare down at the two of us with cannons for hands. Which he had pointed at us. I shoved the other guy away as a massive concussive shell sailed between the two of us and I stumbled into cover. A short relief before I heard more metalic boot run towards us.
“Fuck my my life” I shouted as I wheeled the rocket launcher out.
And yet I couldn’t help but laugh. A three way fight in a close quarters combat in small cramp corridors was exactly what I needed!
RE: Carry On My Wayward Son (Vasty Deep Void Gate Quest) - Doomguy - 08-30-2016
There was no time to breath before I there myself back into the fight. The triangle headed shit stain had decided to got back and hide in cover while the brickhouse of a man continued to turn the turn the inside of the cave into rubble with his arm mounted howitzers, thousands of years old limestone pillars obliterated as high caliber rounds smashed through them and reduced to powder. A completely spectacular display of raw power, to be sure, but with each explosion he threw out the air became thicker with dust and the cave rumbled as the supports that held it up for so long were now being thrown out in an instant. Mister shiny pants did the expected thing and hugged cover whenever it wasn’t dusted, but I knew the power armored artillery’s plan: he didn’t need to hit us, just have the ceiling drop on our heads and have a big rock pop our skulls open like a rotten pumpkin. If he blew a hole through us before then then that was gravy.
But I wasn’t the type to hold still.
I bolted away from the boulder I was next to and charged at the large attacker, both his attention and his fuck off huge weapon divided between his two targets and he was slow to realize that I was about to get in his face. I held my chaingun ahead as I strafed to his outside angle and let the many barrels spin. With the limited angle of his shots he could not keep both of us under his sights and keep us both pinned.
Unfortunately, he decided I was the greater threat and leveled both of his arms towards me. In the corner of my eye I saw the more-tech-than-brains bounty hunter make a break for one of the many tunnels that crisscrossed through this cavern and left us to fight lone. Pussy.
The rhythmic thumping as the cannon alternated at each arm dominated everything, but his slow turn let me get to his side and with a sharp turn I was behind him. Where a very expensive looking set of hydraulic pumps went at its job
Until I unleashed two super shotgun shells into it.
Sparks and fluid flew across the wall behind us, gears ground down to a halt as shrapnel wedged in the mechanical workings. I grinned widely as I saw my enemy flail inside his slowly failing suit and popped the spent shells out to load a fresh set.
But failing was not the same as dead. With a sudden burst of strength the heavy swung his body toward me and clocked me in the face with the frame of his cannon and with the uneven terrain I was knocked on my ass. He towered over me with a cannon aimed to obliterate my skull with a roar of thunder. But the power of the suit had leaked out already and with a kick upwards I knocked his weapon away and spoiled his aim. A shell whizzed past my head and showed me in dirt as I forced two shotgun shells into the super shotty.
The super shotgun roared as pellets scattered across the chest piece of the soldier and he was forced back. I jumped up from the ground and with a practiced motion I had the weapon loaded again. The click as the barrels slotted back into place was almost a note from the heavens, and the boom as I pulled the trigger was the overwhelming percussion. The enemy teetered over and with a homemade knuckle sandwich to his helmet he toppled over, powerless as I planted my boot on his dented armor.
His friends turned to corner soon after, but I had them and their friend at gunpoint. Their own massive rifles were pointed back, but we were in a standoff where I had the better hand.
“Ice this fucka” The heavy yelled. Or they could do that.The bluff relied on the other marines caring for their buddy or that the hostage cared about himself. I needed to turn this around quick before I found out if these power armored soldier used armor piercing rounds.
“Okay, hear me out” I raised the gun up away from the pinned heavy’s face and up into the ceiling and shimmer the situation down. They didn’t lower their weapons as well, but at least they hadn’t shot me. That made them smarter than a few people I’ve had to deal with. “I’m here to hire you”
There was a long, drawn out, and completely left in silence pause as the three troopers stared at me in dumbfounded surprise.
“What?” One of them finally managed. They hadn’t shot me yet, that’s something that needs to be stated again.
“I have a job to offer, but tubby here shot me on sight” I shifted blame to the marauder, who immediately tried to jump up inside his unpowered armor to hit me and struggled in vain. “Can’t blame him. I was in a firefight with some BDSM wearing cyborg”
“Fine then” The two lowed their guns, a noticed slouch in their movement. Reading body language in power armor is HARD but something I’ve picked up through the years. “Commander is going to want know what happened anyway, better it come from you.” With one last wave closer I was brought deeper in the cave lead by one of the soldiers as the other dragged his friend along. I glanced around the cave as we moved into darkness, away from the lights set into the wall.
“Did you guys put those lights up?”
“No. Why?”
“Oh, idle wonderin’…”
RE: Carry On My Wayward Son (Vasty Deep Void Gate Quest) - Doomguy - 09-18-2016
When I had read the reports that the War Pigs had “a small army”, I had left the papers with a laugh under my breath. My own previous experiences with mercs with “a small army” were of a few dudes with guns, pumping up their threat (and advertising themselves by proxy) with the idea of them as a supported company of badasses with all the nice armored vehicles that came along with the phrase “army” which in truth was maybe a few APCs and maybe a flyer on a good day. The only guys that had that kind of firepower were people supported by a government, official or otherwise. So as I was guided down into the opening of a cavern which I assumed was the entrance to their hidden hidey-hole I expected a few guys in lawn chairs throwing back beers together while the one FNG sprayed down their only vehicle which was more gum and well wishes than it was working parts.
So it was to my genuine surprise that the first thing I saw as I walked into the cave was a mech, guns glistening in the sunlight from a pit above us, as it walked between several parked tanks and transports, while several power armored men loitered around.
I was still right about the beer, the lawn chairs, and the FNG.
I was pushed over to the obvious leader of the group, if the fact that his clothes were the less dirty of the bunch was any indication. One Joel Aritza. He wore a patrol cap over his short, light brown hair, probably to help hide the massive scar that ran down from the top of his head, through his left eye, and down to his chin. His features were hard, with almost a permanent scowl with a few wrinkles on his almost leather like skin caused from a lifetime of frowning. He seemed unphased that a man with an entire arsenal on his back was just put before him. I wasn’t sure if his choice to not wear an eyepatch was out of image or because he still had some sight in that eye, but I wasn’t going to ask while I needed something from him.
I threw out the offer. Escape from this hellhole, he and his men just had to help me get to the portal. I sold it as best I could, some of that natural charm might have actually gotten through. But through all of it he kept a steady eye on me, which he only interrupted to take another swing from his rotgut. By the end he looked unimpressed. But I don’t think he could look anyway even if he tried.
He put his drink down, never left his gaze and with no uncertainty told me:
“No”
I stared back through the polarized lens of my helmet, thoughts ticking away as I tried to figure out where I went wrong.
“And you’d rather be stuck here, being hunted by the Empire?” I tried my best to not sound mad. I did want to know, but that’s the drawback of the gravelly voice.
“I can understand why you’d think why I would want such an offer” He started before he got up from his seat “But this universe is better to us that our own universe and as such none of us have a desire to return to it. Perhaps yours is much more fortunate, but for all intents and purposes this is our home”.
That was an idea that I didn’t quite understand then, and would be wrestling with for sometime.
“I am a prime” I pointed out, which did get a raised eyebrow from him. “I could summon something you need.
“What I want is not something some any prime can just make.” That raised my own concerns and eyebrows, but he just kept on going. ”But you are right that we can’t stay here. Not long until the bounty hunter comes back. And he’ll bring friends. We will go with you, but only until we get to the next island.
I let out a sigh as I thought over the offer. I wanted to tell him to go fuck himself, but what point was there for that? Not that I needed a point, but I still had a chance to convince him. I just needed something to offer, and the one thing I did have to offer wasn’t mine. I would have to take it up with the captain, but for now I nodded my head in agreeance.
“Alright, guess that’s worth something.” I said as I looked over to the exit “Now let's get out of here before-”
And that’s when the sound of a combat shotgun getting cocked echoed across the cavern. Everyone turned to see a small collection of poorly armed civies, the islander and the old man with them along with three non-important people with hunting rifles. All of them pointed at us.
“...before there’s trouble” I stared in complete exasperation at the bravado. I hoped they knew they would have been vaporized if they were an actual threat, and I could only tell my well worded opinion about their action “Are you fucking stupid? Did the village all drop their balls at the same time or do you really think some peashooters are going to do anything?”
“We are defending our island, we’re not tolerating strangers here anymore” Joel and I looked at each other, completely unconvinced. But despite the fact they were literally pointing their guns at us neither of us wanted to kill these two. And we were leaving anyway, it was convenient if anything.
But to Hell if I was going to get pushed around like that.
“Actually,” I said, holding up a gloved finger as my sight traced across the lights that were installed into the wall until it ended on a bit of discolored wall. Or, if my guess was right, a fake wall, “I think that you’re here because you’re hiding something down here.” I moved over slightly toward the wall in question, and I didn’t need to touch it to prove my suspicion as the lead villiger sucked air in, with the others in different points of tense while the old coot just raised an eyebrow behind his aviators. “If you wanted to kick these bozos out you could have.”
I pushed a finger into the wall, and rather than solid stone it bent to my touch. The villager’s hunting rifle raised up towards me but threw my head back in loud guffaw that bounced across the cavern.
“Don’t embarrass yourself. We’re leaving, you’re not going bug us while we do it, and if the Empire comes by you saw no one” I let go of the wall and started my way out “And for you your own fucking sake, whatever you’re hiding I better not have to come back here to deal with.
“Hold on you blighter!” Fohawk said as he brought his combat shotgun back to bear “ya fink you can just go around like-” but he stopped as I just kept on walking away.
“And that’s what happened” I explained to Captain through my PDA, sat on a brilliant jutt out of the mountain as transports flew over head.
“Seems unfortunate you couldn’t convince them to stay til the end”
“Yeah. I need to find something that’ll want. We might have some time to find something but I’m not sure.”
“What about the ship?”
I looked at the PDA as if it had suddenly turned hot pink and shot rainbows out of its monitor. That has been an idea I tossed around, but I thought it would be an agonizing tooth pull of convincing and her she was giving it to me on a platter. I stared in silent for a few seconds, waiting for the laughter to start, and when it didn’t come I actually did think she was serious. Half chance, at least.
“Is this a trick? Is this one of those hidden tests of character?” I asked and tried to poke the truth out.
“I want to get as many people home as possible. If that means giving up the ship, that will happen. I’m sure the pencil pusher would be unhappy, but since we do people like us give shit about them?” She answered, and I laughed. Partly because of the joke and partly out of relief. One problem solved. Another step in the right direction and out of this 12 year old’s fanfic.
As I jumped down from the small cliff, Old Man Henderson was waiting at the bottom. There was a short stand off between the both of us, before I continued on my way.
“I’m comin’ with ya” He said, and I couldn’t help but look up into the sky in the hope that a meteor would fall 5 feet behind.
“I don’t remember saying you could” I tried to shoot his thought down, but he kept following.
“Don’t care”
“Fair enough. But next time you point a gun at me, I’m shoving those glasses where the sun don't shine” and that was a start of a terrifying partnership.
RE: Carry On My Wayward Son (Vasty Deep Void Gate Quest) - Doomguy - 10-18-2016
We cast off from the blasted island back into the deep waters of the Vasty Deep, the new soldiers now stationed and quartered inside the carrier’s hull. I had expected there to be at least some fighting between the two platoons of men, as even rival militarizes from the same counties had a tendency to turn to school yard rock throwing. But it was silent on that front, which made the life in the steel box of a ship less intolerable that it could have been. You might think that the peace was do to some sort of professionalism, but I’ve been in the military long enough to know that being “professional” was only in front of the camera. It was more likely that the offer to give the carrier to Joel and his War Pigs was more than enough to pay his price for compliance. And the fact that any mess his men made on it would be his to fix. Either way, it meant less of a headache for me.
I focused on our next objective at the Isle of Marlow, where hopefully the people are nicer than the last island I was on. The path looked clear, and had I took the free time to pilfer the armory for some upgrades. But what I thought was going to be a relaxing trip playing with my man toys was going to be interrupted by guests whose eyes were too big for their brain. It started with a call while I had half my arsenal in about a hundred different pieces scattered across the room. A panel in the wall light up and started to beep at me expectedly, which only shut up when I smashed my elbow into it and receiving the call without having to put down the half of a shotgun and screwdriver in my hands.
“Yuuh?” I asked through a brush handle that was wedged in my teeth, before I spat it out onto the floor “What is it?”
“H-helmsman Rando here, s-s-sir” The quivering and unsure voice of some greenhorn “Captain wants you on deck”
“Tell her I’m busy” I yelled a little louder than I needed to and looked for that module I took from the armory. How they fit an entire grenade launcher into that thing is a miracle of science.
“What… what are you doing?” he asked.
“If she wanted to know, she should have asked BEFORE she interrupted me” I told him off and started to assemble the shotgun back into a single piece. The barrel snapped beautifully into place with a ‘click', like a piece of art that’s finally come together into something for others to be in awe of (if for the wrong reason). I gave the improved weapon a quick kiss on its frame before I reached over for the polish “If the Captain insist on bugging me, then you can tell her to go fuck herself with the whiskey bottle I know is in her desk.”
“This is not a private call, Doomguy” Came in the voice of the Captain, slightly farther away from the mic. I glared at the panel in silence at the machine, although I was far more annoyed at myself for running into that gag than embarrassed about what I said to a room full of people. I considered telling her off anyway, but I didn’t need to dig that grave any deeper.
“Alright, give me a sec”
Quote:----
“...you called me up. For a whirlpool” I stared out into the view screen as I saw the nautical anomaly whirl in the great ocean like an angry sand pit in the world’s flattest golf course. It was impressive, by my count, as it was like the mythical ship swallower that you heard in old myths and cheesy movies about said myths. But there it was, a few miles out from the bow of the ship. But it still boggled the mind that I needed to be called up for something that could be solved by literally not running into it.
“I was under the assumption than you wanted to be informed about any course changes” The Captain answered, but I could hear that verbal rib poke hidden in her words. I just shook it off, my concentration more on one of the Wa Pig mercs examining the room with an amount of attention to detail no merc would ever care about. Either Joel was so impatient to get his ship that he couldn’t wait for us to get off it to find out about it, or he planned to mutiny it and just take it without even waiting to uphold his side of the bargain. I would have loved to see him try, would have made the trip more exciting if I got to carpet the floors with mercenary gibs.
“Besides, I want to talk to you about something else in private.” She added, and she moved over to her office. That got something out of me, my curiosity got the better of me and followed after. The two of us didn’t exactly know each other, so if there was something we needed to talk about she would have done it when we first talked. Before she threw me in a cell
The room was filled with that you would expect: A lot of nautical memorabilia, which had actually become less out of place now that the ship was didn’t travel through the black void of space. A few rewards and badges around that didn’t go in her chest, and a model of the ship on a pedestal off to the side. Or at least, before I pulled it in.
“So what’s this about? Don’t tell me you’re getting feeling for me” That got a laugh
“I’d rather take the whiskey bottle” The captain answered between chuckles as she took her seat. I threw a few laughs in as well, even if the joke was on me “No, this is about what’s going to happen after we make it to the end of the journey.”
“We get to the island, I walk through the gate, get the Omni and tell him to take us home”
“And what happens between that? How do you get to Omni?” The two questions punched right to the heart. It had not been something I had considered a whole lot in my mad rush to the goal. Why did I need to plan for something I knew nothing about? I had always gotten by on the seat of my pants, and this wouldn’t be any different.
“I have it on a few sources that these gates DO go somewhere. It is possible” I answered, which was really just to avoid saying ‘I’ll figure it out somehow’, which was what I was planning. That still wasn’t what the captain wanted to hear, the corners of her mouth drooped down in silent suffering.
“This is not one of your lone wolf stunts, Doomguy.” the Captain urged, just a little more stern in a voice that was already void of any whimsy. “A lot relies on you knowing how to get us home”
“...I’ll figure it out somehow” Was all I could fall back on. It seemed to do the trick, although it failed to make the military woman any less dour.
“See to it that you do” She she sighed, I’m sure at least in part from disappointment. She got up to head back to the bridge, but after a quick thought I got between her and the door. I needed something that would make this partnership less hostile and for her to trust me. I knew I was going to have put myself out on a limb to get it, but otherwise I would have to hope this voyage would give me a chance I knew was never going to come.
“You want to know my name?” I asked her, and her stare went from annoyed to extremely intense in a moment. She nodded her head, and I groaned in reluctance “It’s John Grimm”
Yes, I did lie to her. But I could apologize when we got home.
A smile smile crept onto her face, that kind that said ‘I’ve finally beat you down’. I knew the truth, but let her keep that happy thought and hid any give away under my helmet.
“Hey now. I told you mine, now you tell me yours; that was the deal” I pointed out, more to sell the lie than anything, and she relented with a small chuckle.
“Elizabeth Hayden” She answered. I gave a nod as I took the time to remember that. There was a whisper of recognition in my mind, something about that last name. But if there was anything to it then I was drawing blanks. Elizabeth herself seemed to have expected something, her eyes on me as if she was watching for something to explode. I think that awkward pause would have went on for an hour if it wasn’t interrupted by a message from the bridge.
“Captain, we have three ships on approach vector with us”
We looked each other eyes to visor with curiosity and a slight hint of anticipation as we moved back into the room and watched as three wooden junkers moved towards out position.
RE: Carry On My Wayward Son (Vasty Deep Void Gate Quest) - Doomguy - 12-22-2016
“Unknown vessels, this is the Hell’s Bane, you’re currently on a crossing course with us, please correct your course” was the constant phrase I heard on loop as the three ships in our sight continued to sail toward the swirling vortex to our port. It couldn’t be anything other than an attack in my mind, but the rest of the crew seemed hesitant. Good on them for not being a bunch of gung-ho psychopaths, but an obvious trap was not something I was going to let slide and I made sure to explain to the captain in my usual methods.
“Yes, I’m sure you expect them to attack” Elizabeth answered, uncovering her ears after I was done talking at her. “But this is- was one of the largest carriers in the UNSMC, and those look more like fishing boats then warships.” She was not wrong. Close examination of the boats had them as civilian with large cranes with attached nets hung out across the back. But something about it troubled me, the feeling like a tickle down my neck. I’m sure my short hairs would be on end if they hadn’t been burned off repeatedly. My instincts tend to be smarter than I am, but I couldn’t force the issue beyond a side glance towards the captain and watched the ships carefully.
“I don’t like it” Was all I could come up with.
“You don’t have to” she shot back before a light blinked on the comm station.
“We are getting a response, Captain. Voice only” the comms officer finally reported, which gained an eye roll from me. Nonetheless, a little smirk appeared on the captain’s face as with a quick nod the message was patched through.
“This is the Lock Keep,” A fuzzy voice spoke over the radio, like someone trying to talk to you while going through a tunnel, “we are changing course now. Sorry for the inconvenience, Hell’s Bane” As the voice stopped, the three ships start to turn
“See, John?” I didn’t remember being on first name basis, even with the “reveal” of the name. The captain gave me a sly smirk as it seemed that the problem was solved. My eyes were still glued to the screen, a slight restlessness in my fingers as I flexed them in anticipation “Not everything is out to kill yo-:”
“They dropped something” I interrupted. Out the back of the decks, a bundle of something plopped into the water and sunk underneath the torrents of the whirlpool. And with us heading up stream, it would smash into us. “Steer us towards the edge” the words were past my lips before I realized I just gave out an order in the moment. But despite Elizabeth's stern glare, I wasn’t about to back down and apologize for that when shit was about to hit the fan. We faced each other for a second, before she shouted the order herself and the massive metal leviathan began shift.
It wasn’t a few seconds later as the side of our vision was suddenly engulfed in an underwater explosion, salt water sprayed as far as the command tower and anything not bolted down was thrown to the side as the ship buckled and swayed under the sudden displacement from the explosion. I heard the ship ready to break apart under it’s own weight, but with the near miss we avoided that watery fate. But the attackers did not see to remain flat footed and and sped towards us, massive harpoons fired into the hull as the jolly roger flew over their masts.
Without a word I ran out into the hall, yells of orders behind my back, and I was out the first hatch I could find with a weapon in my hands and molten metal in my veins.
The salty wing whipped across my neck as I busted onto a balcony that overlooked the top deck, The roar of the whirlpool was a constant drone under a stream of combat across the ship. My eyes looked to the edge where boarders charged across the surface with a hodgepodge of weapons in their hands. I stared down on them, their fate sealed as I held down the alt fire for the heavy assault rifle in my hand, and I jumped off towards the ground below. The impact boots did what they were supposed to, and the only pain was when the rifle’s mini-rockets fired and impacted into man meat right before they tore bloody chunks out of their bodies.
Before the corpses could hit the deck I rushed closer, the heavy barks of high caliber fire overtook the scream of fear from my targets. One unfortunate fucker had the bright idea to level his musket towards me, but before he could fire his chest cavity was filled with a storm of lead. His blood splattered from the exit wound on his back and sprayed across the corpse’s comrades, one of which at least had the bravery to fire a flintlock pistol at me as the other shook in their boots. The round slammed into my shoulder, my aim flew wild as as I felt the lead ball dig to my shoulder blade. But whatever victory the man thought he would take died as he swung his sword to finish me off and I gripped his fist in mine. With a thrust I snapped his arm at the elbow, a loud pop and a pained scream cut off short as I ran his own sword through his skull. The others ran, only to be cut down as I shotgun them in the back.
One group down. A lot more to go. Moving on.
Over the side I found the source of the problem, thick metal cords hooked the pirate ships to the carrier and hundred of small ropes allowed the borders to climb on. Their focus was on not falling into the whirlpool below, so they were flat footed when I hurled myself across the gab and landed on the deck of the stolen fishing boat with chainsaw revving. As I crushed some son of a bitch underfoot, I held down the trigger and let the tool roar to the heavens and brought it down on the cord connected to the harpoon launcher. Sparks and metal flakes rained on the deck before the cord violently snapped, and the ground underneath me lurched as opposing forces split the ships apart. The many ropes went taunt, forcing the invaders to hold tightly to their lifeline above the ocean, and I was already running towards the second harpoon.
There was resistance. Little, but it was there. A man with a spear threw himself at me, the spear head punched through my side and it tasted flesh and blood. But momentum kept me going. The chainsaw gouged out parts of his gut as I swung it across him, and as he recoiled I followed through with a grab to his neck and threw him overboard.
A shot rang out as another bullet hit me, my attention on two shooters hammering away with pistols. The deck around me was peppered as I weaved around the lead shots, barely an inch away from me as I neared them with the howling blade of teeth in my hands. One held up one of his guns to block, but sparks and sawdust flew briefly before it gave way and led to the chainsaw digging into shoulder, through his chest, then out the side to let his head fall somewhere else from the rest of his body. The other guy shakily tried to get another pistol out of his bandoleer, but I was already on top of him. I pressed the chainsaw across his body as it ate into him, lifted up on the blade of the industrial tool, and then slammed him onto the harpoon launcher he was defending. His screams of pain were silenced when he was cut completely in twain, and soon after the steel cord followed suit.
The force of two large objects moving in separate direction had the effect that you would expect. The ropes that the pirates were shimmering on pulled taut and then quickly snapped in a cascade across the side. Seamen were sent down the whirlpool, and I just flew across the gap with a little help of a hanger on.
He didn’t complain much after I kicked off his head, but he didn’t have much to say anyway as he joined his comrades into Davy Jones’ locker.
The inner hallways of the ship held little resistance, the small pockets looked back thinking there would be reinforcements only to turn to find me and the remains of their reinforcement splattered across my armor. Before they joined them under a rain of heavy weaponry. I left behind hole filled walls and hole filled corpses as I found my way to where the fighting was the thickest. When I turned the last corner I did find the epicenter of the battle between the marines and the invaders.
And it seems this was some smarter and sterner stuff, as I was immediately beat back behind the corner by a hail of bullets.
A wall of heavy plates had been set up between me and the other side entrenched in a crossroad, along with a party of pirates armed with everything including a pipe from a kitchen sink throwing lead and axes my way. I let lose my own fire power in response, but blind fire only kept their heads down and eventually one of them was going to get enough balls to walk up and shank me.
While wading through their firing line had a certain appeal to it, but I already had a few sore ribs crying for no more and these bastards seemed much better if they had held out for so long. Time to see if those upgrades were worth the omnilium I spent on them. The module clicked smoothly into the long barrel of the rocket launcher like two deadly puzzle pieces, now a much more deadly whole. I ran out of the scorched corner, bullets flew pass by head I I neared, and launched rockets one after the other aimed over the head of the buccaneers.
Jeers and a few more shots were thrown at me, but the only one laughing was me when I pressed the detonation. The rockets exploded in midair, air burst shrapnel turned the sailors into sailor soup, and those that were left screaming didn’t last very long as I plowed through them with shotty in hand. On the other side I came out with blood stuck to my boots and the men who held the line now stared horrified at my gore covered armor.
Which was convenient when I grabbed one of their heads as I slammed it into the table they were using for cover, which crushed it and the front of their skull.
The others didn’t last much longer, a whirlwind of death in their midsts as I unloaded on them and those who fled did not make it far. I walked from the barricades to find that the marines and mercs that had held this position just as scared and worried at the sight of the violence I had just given.
:”Where’s the other hot spots?” asked them, their shock started to thaw but I still didn’t get an answer until I stomped my boot onto the ground.
“Transit and hanger two, sir” one finally got their since back after the little help. I flicked a bit of what I think was brains off my chest piece and viewed the map of the ship on my HUD. The laps from bow to stern paid off.
“Alright, if they take transit they’re going to overrun the whole thing. You guys reinforce there, I’ll head to the hanger” And before a word or even a confirmation was said, I rushed down the hallway with my teeth bared in a unsettling smile.
RE: Carry On My Wayward Son (Vasty Deep Void Gate Quest) - Doomguy - 01-28-2017
The hanger didn’t take very long, nor did the pirates in my way. Grey halls and corner lights passed by me as I raced across the length of the carrier, gunfire like distant thunder throughout. My own target laid ahead of me, and after a few more broken bodies left in my wake I found the inside of the cavernous parking lot. I was perched a top the catwalks and had the perfect look underneath.
Below a mob of leatherneck murderers encircled their tyrannical captain. He stood a foot above everyone, although in you included the fin that split his back he could have been easily another foot. Grey with accents of blue on his topside, he was a splitting image of a great white shark if they had legs, arms, and had a tendency to dress in pirate garb. A hungry look pierced through his bulging eyes, and I would have pegged him as his cannibal even without the crimson blood splashed across his serrated teeth.
His crew was no better, although more metaphorically shark-like, their weapons slick with visceral and their minds with greed. They stood around taking orders from their commander like a close knit army, unaware of what would spread them to the winds.
I thought about the military equipment that was thick inside the hanger, what I needed to avoid damaging the inside of the ship and hardware inside.
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Then I thumbed the safety on my plasma gun and threw myself down to the ground floor.
In a drawn out moment, the scoundrels turned. They heard armored boot punch the ground beside them, but what they heard was soon the scream of plasma boiled air as I unleashed the blue bolts of death. One struck a head, the face a blackened husk in a second, another was raked across their body and their insides boiled inside their own body. Another’s took one to the chest, their chandelier went off as the ammo strapped there exploded, lead shot into their skull and brains splattered in a fountain.
Men were reaped as I swept the advance ordnance across them, blackened and cracked skin and the smell of burned flesh filled the room as they dropped and screamed in pain. The rapid fire drilled a hole through those I focus fired on, their torso black and their bones exposed through broken bodies.
They came to me to die, desperate men threw themselves at me in the hope they could surround me. And in a flick of the secondary fire trigger a wave of pure heat fired through the vents, a ripple of air spread away from me and where there was once pirate was instead flailing and thrashing limbs. They were buckled in agony, the skin red like a boiled lobster but it boiled and peeled as they wiped their fingers across it.
I advanced, and they fell back. I rushed towards them and they ran.
My blood boiled, my mind and heart ached as adrenaline rushed through them and they pounded as one. It felt good to see them flee before me, a shocked enemy lost their will to fight. I peeled the layer of goons to reveal the gooey center as the more hardened veterans lost their protective barrier of meatshields. They were braver than their underlings, but they took a plasma bolt to the face just as well. That beard looked ridiculous on him anyway.
Their counter attack was uncoordinated, but made up with enthusiasm. Muskets, pistols, buckshot, and harpoons were hurled towards me as I strafed into the panicked mob, half of which hit their own men as they did get close to me. My armor bucked and impacted as lead shot glanced off my armor, but it took the most of the energy as I rolled my body away and cut deep toward the captain.
Another heat blast cleared the way, but spent the plasma gun’s supply. At this close I didn’t need it. I pulled my twin hammered super shotty and rushed in to erase the scum from this ship.
Men parted away from me and their captain, and made a straight lane for me. But as the barrel of the infantry shredder rose above mt bottom of my sight, I noticed the growing Cheshire grin across the shark man’s face. He reached back for the anchor, at those close I could see the unnatural sheen across the edge of the arms. They weren’t getting out of the way of me, they were getting away from him.
If there was some magic attached to his weapon, I was too close to dodge it. My only way out was through. Lucky me.
I pulled the trigger on the shotgun, only a slight shift from one shield wielding bodyguard kept a direct hit away from my target. I held the trigger down slam loaded another round, the buckshot turned the bodyguard’s insides turned to outsides. The anchor reached the apex above the captain, ready to reduce me to a smear, but as he brought it down I moved forward with a burst of speed and got inside his swing.
But the sharkman wasn’t defenseless this close. His eye rolled back until his pupil disappeared behind his skull and his jaw seemed to dislocated forward as his great rows of teeth overtook my vision. The monster closed into a bite, and I was lucky to get my off hand free before it crunched down on my arm. He started to thrash to pull it from my shoulder, serrated deep in my skin ripped gaping wounds.
But I had him where I wanted him. I still had my shotgun in my hand, and that meant I wasn’t dead yet.
As he pulled, I pulled back. In a stalemate, i fired my shotgun off, turning some poor schmuck beside us into a smear. I pumped the still hot shell down his throat. The captain opened his mouth to scream in pain, I moved my torn arm away, and he lashed out with a heavy swing. I ducked away, and some behind be broken in two. Another swing, another miss and another dead pirate. I kept to the defensive, letting him kill his own crew as hot brass burned a hole down his gullet.
Soon there was no one else but us two, the mook dead or fled in terror. The berserk sharkman did not seem to be slowing down, and his endless endurance made up for his inability to hit me. But he would only need to do it once.
I backed away, my shotgun thrown to the side as I ripped my pistol from its holster. I lined up a shot as the shark charged me. I stitched up his front with small fire and he flinched as he took a hit right at the nose. In that moment I exploited the opening to finish this walking surf and turf.
I let loose a fury of blows, my knuckles impacting the rough shark hide as I brought the hammer down at this bloodthirsty scallywag. He would try to bring his anchor up, but my boot on it kept him from pulling from the flood and with a swing to his elbow a snap echoed across the hanger as I splinted his arm. He tried to retreat, crawl out of the hole he came from, but he didn’t get very far as kicked in his teeth and stomped the corner of his mouth. He tried to fight, but my hands were already wrapped around his upper jaw.
With a yank I felt his teeth dig into my skin, but adrenaline had long past washed pain from my body. With another I heard his jaw snap, and with one last pull it ripped away cleanly from his face, the sound of flesh tearing overcome by screams of pain until shock finally did the captain in.
The fishman was dead on the floor, blood pooled from where his mouth used to be. I sat on one of the few still standing ammo crates, and looked over the wreckage that was hanger two. Scrap metal and broken electronics strewed across the floor, and I realized I was the tallest thing here still in once piece.
I sighed. There would be a lot of yelling, and bad moods, and disciplinary actions. Tired as I was, I couldn’t even get mad at them if they did blame me for it. I slipped down to the viscera covered floor and hoped things would get better.
But I've never been so lucky
RE: Carry On My Wayward Son (Vasty Deep Void Gate Quest) - Doomguy - 02-13-2017
Morale had rose since the pirate attack, as slowly building grudges popped and ceased to exist once the chaos of battle ended. Fighting a common adversity usually erodes animosity like that. Now that everyone was more willing to gel together, talks started to pass around. With the growing choppy waters and darkening skies, this could only be a good thing.
The problem is that they were talking about me.
Word had gotten around about what I did to the pirates, although anyone who seen the mile long trail of bloody boot prints would have gotten the idea of what happened. A recording of what happened in Hangar 2 made the rounds, despite an attempt to retrieve it the damage was gone. It didn’t help that the wanton destruction of equipment lead to a shortage that I was still paying back days later.
I watched the sky from the flat top of the carrier. Like the Oracle had predicted, the waves had grown worse and the sun had rose over the horizon less and less as we moved further out towards the edge of the Vasty Deeps.
Things could only get worse.
I looked towards the horizon in the look for our penultimate destination, the Isle of Marlow. Simple colony, stock and hardy people. I didn’t expect reinforcements, but supplies and a chance to be able to shave on a stable platform again would be a welcome moment of peace before we made the suicide run to the void gate. It would be our last stop, destination second star to the right and straight on into the pit of Hell. or something like that.
To my side I noticed a floral print shirt and foehawk stand in the rage of the storm. I probably would have smelled Henderson first if it weren’t for the rain. Despite his constant skunk smell and just as foul personality, he had been the most stable thing on this ship. He was crude, but so was I, and despite our constant spats he was more than willing to stick around. I could respect someone who could take abuse, even if he did talk to a stuffed parrot.
“How does it look?” I asked, my sight still out towards the horizon. I didn’t need to see him, his silence of an answer was good enough. Things weren’t looking good for me, and if I had a mutiny on my hands then I doubted my allies would back me up if the mob decided to throw me overboard.
“Have any idea how I can fix this?
“What, ‘m I spose’ to fix yu’r problems, ya lime colored popsicle? Maybae ya didn’t run inta them ya won’t have’m , ya right wee scunner”
I was halfway to coming up with more creative than calling him an Irishman’s whore when he suddenly went silent. I stared at his sagging face, and I saw him remove his aviator to squint at something in the horizon/
“That’s smoke” he quickly answered, and before he could turn back I was already pelting back into the ship and demanding a transport.
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When the dropship landed and we bailed out onto the blackened sand of Isles of Marlow, we found ourselves to be the only thing standing. From shore to shore nothing blocked our sight, the island flatted by craters and rubble scattered in the waves. We swept our weapons across the ruins, but there was no need. Nothing was left. Our searched found no survivors.
Nor bodies.
“Think it was a PLF attack?” One mercenary offered as we rallied in the ruins of a town hall when our investigation turned up nothing by questions. My own attention was somewhere off in the distance, focused to stifled a scream of pure ferocity and keep my hands down to my side. It felt like a lump trying to escape from my throat so it could strangle the nearest person.
“No bodies” retorted another. It was true. Not there was any lack of bloodshed, but it seemed subdued. Restrained. What happened here was not some butcher job.
My mind went to the possible scenarios, and my heart pumped as visions of pain flickered across my brain. I could feel control slip away, any moment I could have unleashed that anger that pushed on the inside of my skull. Only a redirection saved me from some misguided accident, but that wall probably didn’t deserve the hole I pushed through it either.
The other marines jumped and I soon had every other weapon there pointed at me. I pulled in as much air as my lung could hold. I let it out in a continuous sigh, which probably did better to calm everyone else than it did me. Didn’t need my own blood added to this mess.
As we waited for the carrier to pass by the island to save on fuel, I stared at the remains of the town hall. It was here that the fighting and blood was thickest, a last stand against the unknown invaders.
I could only look down as the previous adrenaline cooled. Could I have saved them? I had more important things to do, I wanted to get out of crazy town rather than get involved in its problems. So why did I care?
That’s when I saw it. A chip. Well, it looked more like a SD card. I had accidentally crushed it under my boot, but there was enough left to see what it was. It used to have some design printed on the front, and it was black and purple. Unnaturally black. Even just the broken piece left me uncomfortable. This had SOMETHING to do with the fight, I was sure of it.
But that was beyond my scope. I washed my hand of the Omniverse, and I would leave this be. As we arrived back on the ship, I had only one thing on my mind. Although we left with nothing, our mission was not change. The coming storms would not move me, nor any monsters stop me. Not even Omni himself would bar me from my return to Earth.
Last stop: Edge of the world.
RE: Carry On My Wayward Son (Vasty Deep Void Gate Quest) - Doomguy - 02-20-2017
Time stopped being a relevant factor as we penetrated further into the unknown territory of the vasty deep. It could have been days, weeks, or months after the day and night stopped following any rules we knew and we soon found ourselves in a perpetual twilight. Not that the sun could be seen through the thick and endless blanket of clouds the obscured the sky in a dark grey that blurred the horizon and hurled rain in sheets that whipped across the flat top. The storm made traveling outside a suicide mission, which forced everyone to hide deeper in the ship’s confines. Waves battered the massive carrier like it was a toy, the motion made even a walk through the halls an effort. Misery followed everyone, and the more superstitious of the crew started to crow that we were doomed.
After a few restless nights, I started to think the same.
Stuck on the inside of a metal box, limited supplies, so close to the end and yet every moment could be when they decided to turn the boat around. I was in paranoia, I started to spend more time on the bridge and watched for any sign of leaving. We all grew to hate each other, and it was only a willingness to not start a firefight kept it sane.
The plip that was our tag along finally decided to fuck off sometime after we left Marlow. But it was a false relief, since it just meant they weren’t crazy enough to follow us. We changed the sonar to widespread as possible to see if there was anything, anything, out in those black waters. Our hopes were for nothing, as even the bottom had ceased to exist.
By the end sleep was a luxury, I was a permanent fixture on the bridge switching between looking behind shoulders and spawning in for whatever supplies I was still paying off for, and three people a day were getting charged with contempt for an officer but no one but me was throw in the bridge.
So it was to no surprise when the heavy, powered boot fall of Joel came in to yell at me.
“I want out” Was the coward’s first words to me. I hoped to ignore him, since this was the fifth time this week he told me that, but then he slapped the orb of Omnilum I was trying to summon through out of my hand. He had my attention, as well as my boot in his face.
After the two of us were finally torn apart and while I was tossing four letter words at him, he growled at let out a few choice words:
“A ship is not worth anything if I’m dead! We turn around or I’ll force it around.” he threatened. Elizabeth was naturally unhappy to hear that, and soon Joel had the barrel of a pistol aimed between his ears. I laughed at that little victory, until I realized I hadn’t been released yet. It seemed that Elizabeth was just as wary of my mission to Omni, and I wish I could say I wouldn’t have been on their side if it was someone else with the insane suicide mission.
“No one is stealing my ship.” The captain put down the law as she stared both of us down. But she stopped when she moved in front of me, and leaned in close to my helmet. There was an air of desperation around that look of anger, and she wanted to direct both at me. “But we are not going any farther until you give me a plan more concrete than ‘I’ll figure it out somehow’.”
I struggled in the grip of the crewmen, and to come up with an idea. I had nothing. Nothing to offer as a further payment, and no more information to give. Getting either required going back, and fuck that.
I needed to outmaneuver them, if just for a moment. Enough time to find that gate. If you can’t give them what they wanted, I could at least give them a goal.
“One hour” I gave my ultimatum.“Just give me one more hour. If there’s nothing left, we’ll leave”
“One hour won’t change anything” Joel shot back.
“Then you won’t lose anything from accepting it.” now that I had verbally outsmarted him, the rest agreed to it and we were let go. We watched the view screens of the mighty ship, my eyes in a constant scan as I looked for anything. A shape, a sound, a glow. I hoped Omni had a thing for theatrics, because I needed a fucking beam of light.
What I got was a beep.
Everyone’s eyes immediately glued to the sonar station, my jaw would have slammed into the bottom of the floor if it could. No more of this rat race, I could finally see home and laugh about this child’s fantasy like a drunken hallucination. My immediate celebration was to dance around and flip everyone who doubted me off with both hands. Which meant everyone. I might have been the loudest about my joy, but there was a general sigh of relief that there was something out there.
Except the man manning the station.
“Ma’am. Sir. I think you’re going to want to see this.”
We leaned in closer to the image as the bar swept across the sonar screen. We saw it: two little squiggles pointed towards the ship. My mind blanked as I tried to rub some brain cells together, but it was revealed once the bar swept over again. And i felt the cold slap of terror hit me and everyone else in the room.
Tentacles. Large, writhing, spread to search for prey. Us. With each ping sent out more their numbers appeared until they were uncountable, their size immense. And soon, we saw the origin. A long and alien head, it dwarfed our ship as if we were toys in a child’s bathtub. Before us was a fear born from time before history, we who had at one point dismissed such a thing as an impossibility of science now before the myth all sailor feared. We were silent as a single word we all knew was left silent.
Kraken.
I glanced around the bridge, the expressions on the men and women around me dropped like sack of hammers. I imagine it’s what I looked like when I first laid eyes on the edge of Deimos to see the pit of Hell for the first time. I counted my blessing there were soldiers through and through, because when it looked we were going to fight for our lives they steeled rather than break to fear.
Elizabeth took her seat in the center of the bridge, and looked to everyone as the storm raged outside.
“All men, to battle stations” her order was clear and with the weight of lead balls, and the crew rushed to their places. She looked straight to me. That air of desperation was still there, but now it was tempered for battle. “It’s time for you to get to work, Doom Marine.”
“With pleasure” I answered.
RE: Carry On My Wayward Son (Vasty Deep Void Gate Quest) - Doomguy - 03-07-2017
The thundering boom of 300mm artillery and the roar of rocket fuel overwhelmed the howling winds around us, the entire ship lit up as anything bigger calibered than rifle slammed into the crashing waves towards the tentacled behemoth. It had not yet surfaced, but we unleashed this bombardment in a desperate move in the hopes we could kill it before it could get us into its reach. I was leading the infantry branch of the defense, those of us who could sling a gun or wear power armor were on top of the carrier and my more iconic green armor switched to the more powerful blue Mega armor. Mag boots kept us from being flung off into the stormy depths by the thirty feet tall waves or skin tearing winds. Our weapons were at the ready, the heaviest thing we could carry pointed to the horizon and our fire lanes ready to paint anything that showed itself with fire and lead.
But as lightning struck in the distance from behind a wave, we saw its silhouetted in the brief light, thin limbs slithered at the front of a bulbous thing, the faint yellow glow of it eyes shimmered before it plunged back into darkness. And soon the long, sucker covered tentacles rose up along the side of the ship.
I screamed out the order that everyone was itching to hear, words they hoped to hear from the start:
“Open fire!” And I was surrounded by the symphony of destruction.
An buzz of automatic fire sounded as chunks of rancid flesh were rent from their limbs, and under the force of heavy artillery blew them apart to wriggle on the deck before both were swept away by wind and wave. I unleashed a stream of plasma into whatever was a friendly, steam rose as rain hit the heated weapon, and I left only cooked seafood in my wake. A deep and terrible bellow from beneath the waves sounded, and the form sunk back into the depths.
“Don’t let it near the back!” I yelled as I loaded a fresh cell into the plasma gun “If we lose the engines we're fucked! Try to move it to the front and-”
I was rudely interrupted as something slammed the bottom of the ship. More tentacles, no longer content to just probe the air and quickly slammed themselves across the top of the carrier. Marines scrambled away from the behemoth arms, but not everyone was quick enough to make it nor did the slick surface offer any cover as smaller tentacles were swept back and forth. I don’t want to think about what happened to those that got dragged off the side.
I shot forwards, a trail of smoke behind me as I ran the teeth of my chainsaw across the creature’s flesh, flaying the suckers from the deck. Ichor splattered across my armor, a welcome feeling as a manic frenzy took me closer to my enemy. At the edge, I threw the lumber tool back to its rung and pulled the heavy demolisher that sung the death of all things under a star of plasma. The Big Fucking Gun was weighty in my hand, and I was about to drop its full strength onto this slimy bastard’s face. The last beast i had to be creative to kill, and now I get to show one of the Omniverse’s apex predators why Hell feared me.
But whatever brain in that mountainous skull saw it coming, and it a slight twitch the kraken constricted around the ship and tilted towards it, turning the tarmac into a death slide into its yawning beak.
I nearly went myself, my aim lost as I lost traction and my balance. I would have lost my weapon too if the bracing arm wasn’t clamped to my armor, but I feared that journey would in as I saw the gaping maw rush towards me.
But I felt a gauntleted hand grab my shoulder and I was hoisted back up. I turned back for a second to see a familiar marauder held on to me. He gave me the thumbs and with a nod I turned back to the unaware leviathan to unleash my own lightning strike.
The chamber filled with energy, a glow of green death shined as it reached capacity, and with a triumphant shout the BFG fired into the face of the Kraken. The explosion sheared limp from limp and blacked its face, and with a scream that pierced the sky it released its prey and fled back into the depths again.
“Get the rescue crews out there, we got people in the wa-”
But like a bad dream it returned. It threw its tentacles back on onto deck, these longer than the ship itself and wrapped itself around the carrier in it’s entirety, crushing the gun turrets and command tower like cheap plastic toys in its grasp. But it did not attempt to carry us down into the ocean and instead pull itself from the water to face us in it’s entirety.
As the storm battered us, I saw the creature’s features now that it has been hauled above the surface. Its eyes burned like the morning rays, and it smelled like the inside of a salted rotten pig. Harpoons decorated the black, leathery skin like macabre piercings and their previous owners still hung from them. It’s beak was actually beaks, overlapping each other in a row in teeth like formation that crushed down onto the hull. They broke through like can openers after their favorite targets, and the armor plates were peeled back with easy under its might.
It hated us. A raging inferno of hunger and spite. That ‘s what I saw in it’s eyes. That was good. When it was the thing in the way of freedom, then I hated it far more than it could comprehend.
Nothing was going to stop me, and it would know that when I snapped it in two.
“Get everyone back” Was the first order I could get out uninterrupted as I was put down by the other marine. A nice change, but I had bigger literal fish to fry “I’ll handle this” I let the BFG roll behind my back again as I raised my rocket launcher. Mechanical clicks as a high power explosive settled into place, and all felt right.
I assaulted the giant seafood dinner with everything I had, while it returned in kind. Rockets soared across the sky and slammed into its skin, red and orange blooms lit the sky as it was broken down more and more with each rocket, large craters in its skin opened up to the meat inside. Tentacles encircled me, their thin frame made it hard to hit them but I kept a steady beat on its face. The eventually struck, spearing forward with uncanny speed as they rammed into my armor. I was sent back to the ground and they attempt to ensnare me. A rocket took one, but one eventually had me around the torso. I felt the armor plates crack and my organs about to be squeezed out like toothpaste. If I wasn’t wearing something stronger I probably would have died in an instant
But one open hand i ripped super shotty from its place and reduced the appendage into parts. Dropping the rocket launcher I loaded two more shells and turned another set of gibbles to mush. Like a well oiled machine I pumped buckshot into anything that wasn’t me as I dashed away from the chasing limbs. Out from the corners of its jaw and the fold of it skin little creatures fell in front of me, minuscule parasites that lived on and in the Kraken’s crumbs were 4 long insects living in ribcage and bundles of arm thick worms puppeteering corpses hurling themselves towards me. The filth washed away as I floored them with a tide of chain gun ammo, but scrapes and bites built on top of each other with each near miss or wave of monsters.
All the while I got closer. The beak reared back and pierced through the ship, it ate chunks of the ship and threatened to snap it in half. I needed to kill it quickly, and drilling through it’s skill from the outside would take to long before it reduced the Hell’s Bane to scrap metal.
I needed a more sudden and brutal solution.
I aimed grapple gun up to to the gill of the giant creature and let loose. So massive it was impossible to miss, and I fired the second spike into a nearby corpse monster. Grabbed it and we zipped away up the face of the terror-squid. As we reached the gill I reached for my chainsaw and gave a long, toothy grin as I cut a hole inside, feeling a steady pump under the skin.
I needed to get to the heart of the problem.
RE: Carry On My Wayward Son (Vasty Deep Void Gate Quest) - Doomguy - 03-11-2017
Chainsaw flashed as I prove it into flesh, blue blood sprayed across me as I dug further into the Kraken’s body. My mind reeled as I thought back to the horrors of capital Dis, the fleshy walls and the smell of death around me. But there were to demonic defenders, merely slithering and pathetic parasites. I felt the pulse growing stronger the more I carved through, until at least broke into the chamber where it laid: massive, a great biological machine old as time. The heart of a creature pumping blood cold as ice and from beyond a thought of what lived within.
And I was about to reduce it to cinders in an instant.
I held the BFG 9000 in my arms, nothing a threat to me as I leveled it at my target. Fire pumped through my own heart, as victory was mine. The creature struggled in vain, for I was its death! The whirl of the weapon sounded as I held the trigger down, and once the green glow of plasma illuminated the room I unleashed the green ball of destruction. It zoomed across the ancient and vast body cavity before it slammed into my target, and the explosion sent a death knell across the monster’s body, the heart now a blackened husk.
A scream echoed from beyond the walls as the Kraken died, blood hemorrhaged from every pore as blood rushed back into where the heart used to be. I muscled through the way I came in, blood and seawater flooding the passage. It was a slog, the fluids pushed me back as the body around me start to collapse. I groped in the darkness, the fleshy maze perhaps to be my doom. Until I felt a sudden air bubble push out behind me, sweeping me along with it and I was ejected into the ocean as the beast sunk back to where it came from.
I was tired. My muscles ached, each swing of my arms in an attempt to swim back to the surface burned. I was being pulled down by own equipment. I had gotten so far. I grit my teeth as I felt an intense anger and determination fill me as I flailed and kicked upwards, keeping myself close but never quite reaching.
Then, from the churning ocean above, a hand reached downwards, groping for me. With my last strength I reached for it, both of us grabbing the other’s elbow. More hands reached with them, I was hoisted back to air.
I was thrown to the deck of a small boat, one of the rescue crews had risked the sinking Kraken to save my ass. I ripped my helmet from my head and breathed in deeply, getting plenty of rain in the mix. I looked up into the storm as I rested and the ship went back to port.
I watched as it cleared away suddenly, the clouds breaking and the wind dying. All of us looked across the horizon, seeing the sun once more. The ship was a wreck, gun turrets crumbled and the command tower barely standing. But that’s not what we were looking at.
An island. Barely bigger than the carrier, a ring of shallow water with a few tropical trees breaking up the otherwise flat sand bar.
And smack dab in the middle, standing above everything else, was the gate.
Quote:---
“I demand a refund.”
“You didn’t pay for anything, Joel.” I pointed out as I slapped a medi-patch over one of my wounds
“I still feel like you owe me something.”
“Well you can suck my cock, then. I’m sure that’s worth something”
The sounds of power tools took up most of the noise on the small island as the crew did their best to repair the damage to the carrier. Several holes had been put in the ship when the Kraken took bites out of it. It barely kept floating, which was why Joel was so angry at me. Not that I could have done anything to solve that, so I was just as pissed at him.
“Are you two still bickering?” I heard Elizabeth's voice over the comms. She decided to stay on the ship to personally oversee the repairs. That mostly just left me, since everyone else were unsure if the island wasn’t going to end up being a turtle or something.
I screwed a few new armor plates into places, and happily slid my armor back on. I rasped my knuckles on the armor, found it to my liking at got up from the fallen tree I used as a bench.
“I’m done. I’ll see you all in a bit. Don’t kill yourselves while I’m gone” I answers as I neared the shimmering wall of the gate.
“Us?” Joel chortled from the radio “Don’t get yourself killed you suicidal maniac”
“We’re all counting on you to get us home, Marine” Hayden added.
“I know. See you soon” And I walked into the gate and the Void beyond.
Quote:The story continues in "Though I Walk..."