"W-what the fuck?!" I screamed, looking around the room "VEGA?!"
"Yes."
"You're alive!" Didn't have the chance to actually play Eternal, only watch playthroughs, but I did play DOOM, and let me tell you, I'd never felt so attached to a faceless AI before. And then I asked a rather stupid question. "Are you the Father?" Yeah, not exactly a subtle question, but I had to ask; wanted to make sure if ths was Eternal or not.
"I do not know who this 'Father' is, I was created by the UAC to aid them in their operations. Now my task is to aid you in everything you require." VEGA replied. I was kind of relieved, actually, even with the possibility of him just ot knowing.
"Aaalright then." I drawled as I gazed upon the planet below, before giving my first command and deciding to leave the questions about VEGA for later. "Give a status report of everything, myself included." And a status report he gave.
First, there was myself, the Doom Slayer: muscular as hell, a tired face, a short, scruffy beard that was the result of prolongued sleep/stasis/whatever... Only, pretty sure that, while very possibly tall by human standards, Slayer/Doomguy was not over effing seven feet tall (seven point three, to be specific). No idea why was I so damn big, but it wasn't like it was important either.
Another, more significant difference: instead of running on Argent energy to function, the Fortress instead was hooked up to, I shit you not, an antimatter reactor. I was relieved, not only because of the lack of soul using but also the fact the fuel it ran on, a refined form of hydrogen, was incredibly abundant: all we needed was a star, and we were rather close to one.
As for armaments, I had all the weaponry from DOOM, and yes, that included the Big Gun, the Great Communicator, the doom blade, the equipment thrower... but not the Crucible, nor the Unmaykr, though to be fair the sword was to keep Titans down and the gun was, with the arsenal full, kind of superfluous all things given. They were also all upgraded and, for some reason that I still did not get, their ammunition was unlimited despite the abscence of Argent energy. I could even storage them on a Hammerspace dimension to pull them out later, like in the games.
The Fortress itself was also lacking in defenses, but I planned to change that: after all, I could always just make upsized gauss guns and plasma cannons, or even create other things like lasers because, frankly, why not?
Something that became a priority when I found out where, exactly, did I end up at.
It was DC. It had to be, what with a red streak running across the Great Plains and Big Blue flying over a rather clean Metropolis. That said, I couldn't pinpoint which DC Earth I had been sent to at that moment. Later I would find out it was a blend of several, with a great deal of inspiration taken from the cartoons and a bit from other sources. You'll see later what I mean.
Still, I had to make sure this was an actual Earth and not some trick from a local eldritch abomination.
"Vega, can you scan the planet, to make sure it's Earth?" I asked VEGA as I made my way to the Slayer's room, aka my room, to sit on the computer and take a look at the report of Earth. Yeah, the computer may have looked crappy, but it was connected to the Fortress itself.
"Analysis in progress." I had to give it to him, he was fast. I know, I know, 22nd century supercomputer AI who's actually God, but still, he literally took one second to gather the information I needed. One. And he didn't even send drones down there to record the planet, he just scanned the planet or something and poof, data files by the gazoo.
So, the basics of this world: it was summer of 1999, the euro was invented, The Phantom Menace brings Star Wars back to the spotlight, Peter Jackson began filming The Lord Of The Rings in New Zealand, many other things... oh, and exactly two years prior Superman led an invasion to Earth from Apokolips that lasted several months. My knowledge on DC lore was a bit lacking, but I was fairly certain that only happened on the cartoon. On the other hand, the Batman of the place was kind of young, thirty at most.
Anyway, I managed to see Superman, Batman, Flash, Wonder Woman and some others on the heroes side, and Joker, Weather Wizard, Metallo, Captain Boomerang, and so on and so on. Lex Luthor was simply impossible to miss: dude had a poster with his face on it on most major cities of the Americas, and a few others elsewhere.
So, superheroes everywhere, supervillains too, the biggest of the former still trying to earn public trust after a massive fuck up... And yet none, not even Superman with his kryptonian technology, or the rather advanced telescopes of Waynetech for that matter, caught on the fact there was a literal floating castle/space station on the system. 'couse, the fact I placed the Fortress so that the Sun was between us and Earth as soon as I could had something to do.
And this universe had alien civilizations, alien civilizations that had a ridiculous tendency to invade Earth for one reason or another, like Apokolips had done, and then there was the thing of the native demons, or the possibility of DOOM demons making their way here. Well, I was here now, and as sure as Hell not going to let anything happen to this Earth.
I went down to work. No, I did not go down to Earth to bust heads, it wasn't the time for that (yet). First, I had to prepare, not just myself but also the Fortress itself: as badass as it was and despite being nigh invulnerable while also mobile, it had no weapons to speak of, and as far as I knew it was the only thing between another alien invasion and Earth.
And not only I had UAC drones more than capable of mining asteroids and a solar system all for myself, I also had the entire database of both the UAC and ARC to help me with the deed.
Hell, why stop with just them?
First, however, I needed metal for it to happen, lots and lots of metal, and hydrogen for the reactor.
"Vega, see if there are deposits of all these materials in the Solar System and send drones to mine them. Then, build five fabricators." Don't bother asking me what materials I needed, the only one that exists in real life is titanium. "We're refurbishing the Fortress."
"For what purpose, Slayer?"
"To give teeth to the Fortress, I don't want us to be defenseless in case we have uninvited guests. And try to get some helium from the Sun, our storage is running low."
"As you command." Soon, the Fortress of Doom would become a true fortress, one capable of fighting back.
That said, it didn't take for me to become absolutely bored. After all, I would do nothing in person, only supervise the drones coming in and out, and the ripatorium didn't summon demons, which to be honest was a good thing as far as I cared. What better way to stave off boredom, than to playing heroics and make myself known to the world?
Like, for example, stopping cold your typical bank robbery in Metropolis involving a certain kryptonian, another certain kryptonian, a tiberium-powered Terminator and a literal man shark demigod?
And guess what did I also find out as I beat the shit out of King Shark with my bare hands?