And with save, I mean opening a portal right in front of it that led to a clear spot in a field a kilometer away from Fort Bragg, the largest military base in the U.S mainland, submarine included.
Naturally, the sudden appearance of the world's largest cruise ship and a strange submarine spooked them,
I was going to kill them all. Yeah, that's right, KILL. I would not wear kiddie gloves for those fucks, not after watching them massacre civilians just because some hick decided to use the ocean as a dump. I just brought the ship there so that they would not escape, not if they didn't want to be hounded by an entire division of the National Guard, which I hoped would share my sentiment the moment they saw the dead bodies on the deck.
This time, though, I wouldn't just burn the fuck out of them with the plasma rifle and then leave them screaming on the ground, but alive.
Oh, no, this time, they would end up being torn apart with my entire armoury, starting with the heavy cannon, consequences of using evidence-leaving weapons be damned!
First, though, I wanted to scare the Red Trident, to... 'communicate' that they had pissed off the only man in all of Earth that wouldn't let them live for what they had done, and who was so damn powerful they could do nothing to save themselvess, not even running away (which would have spelled death for them anyway, since we were miles away from the sea and those suits of theirs didn't have enough water to keep them hydrated for long).
Which I did by bombarding the Trident's vehicle with the rocket launcher, firing four or five times at it.
The games make it seem like the rockets are not particularly powerful, but that's only because many of the demons you're firing them at are stupidly tough for their size. In truth, they're actually quite powerful against their original targets, in this case armored vehicles, thank to a souped up HEAT warhead and being a literal semi-automatic missile launcher.
Targets like, for example, a crappy-ass submarine made of steel. Amazingly, some of the crew still inside managed to survive the initial explosions, though only to come out screaming in agony because they had been set aflame. I was tempted to let them burn to death, but instead I decided to be a bit merciful and snipe them with the heavy cannon. Then, when I saw several armored individuals come out to the upper deck and peek over the rails to see that not only they were on land, but also that their vehicle had been destroyed, I pulled out the pistol, took aim, and fired even as they shot at me.
You might be wondering, why use the measly, shitty pistol, instead of the heavy cannon's precision bolt, or even the gauss cannon? First, because the precision bolt was for much longer ranges, while the gauss cannon was simply too damn powerful for the task at hand.
And second, because even the (fully upgraded) pistol, even when not fully charged, could vaporize a steel helmet and the head it covered at any range
It was time to show the world I was willing to stop holding back if someone crossed the line... and rip said someone in half.
.........
Soren Dar, trooper of the Red Trident organization to save the oceans from the predations of the surface dwellers, was busy making sure that their hostages stayed inside their cabins before the whole ship shook, then crashed against something.
They were supossed to attack the ship, kill some surfaced dwellers, hijack it, and then ram the entire thing into a nearby port to sow fear, to show them that the Seven Seas would not suffer the pollution of their home and the surface dwellers who were exploiting the ocean.
While they did get the leisure of killing hundreds of dwellers, their leader, Krios, told them to take the rest hostage, lest the armed forces of the country they would attack decided to destroy the ship before they could leave.
And then they felt the floor quaked before the ship listed to the right. As the Red Trident fighters recovered from the conmotion, wondering if they had already hit the city, an explosion from outside shook the ship even further.
Krios, fearing that the enemy was attacking them, sent Soren and his squadron of nine to see what did just happen:
"By Poseidon!" Marak, the leader of the group, muttered in horror when they found out what happened.
Somehow, and to the utter amazement and horror of the squad, they had ended up in a green field, well away from the sea. Worse, their getaway ship had been destroyed! It would have been useless as a method of transportation, but it was the only source of water in however many miles they were inside land.
And then they saw the burning corpses of their friends, all of them well away from the ship. It seemed they had managed to survive and get away from the wreck, but without water around they burned to death. An horrible way to die.
Soren growled. Words could not explain the sorrow, the anger he felt seeing his fellow saviors of the ocean having been killed by surface dwellers (who else had the firepower to destroy it, as primitive as they were?), which distracted him from the fact the ship was NOT supposed to be on land.
His thoughts were interrupted when Juno, the sole female member of the group, raised her arm and pointed at a point beyond the submarine "Do you guys see that?"
It was quite far, but Soren could see what Juno was pointing at: some kind of armored... man, standing over a hundred yards away from them. A surface soldier? A machine?
"What in the depths is-"
Whatever else Marak was going to say was interrupted when his head was struck by a blue projectile which, instead of knocking him back as that kind of weapons did, blew his helmet and skull off like a balloon. The mush that had formerly been Soren's head spread all over the wall behind him, painting it red, while his headless corpse fell in a heap, water escaping from the newly made aperture in the suit.
Juno was the first one to recover from the shock of seeing their squad leader die.
"Kill the bastard before-" She managed to scream before yet another shot destroyed her head, dying just like Marak had.
However, their hydro-pulse weapons, while powerful, were not accurate beyond a range of a hundred meters; they simply hadn't been designed with long-range combat
Which was the lesser of their problems, because the few shots that DID hit the armored man did nothing at all to him, not him set him back. Worse, they could see in the horizon several aircraft flying towards them; 'helicopters', Krios had called them. Soren was confident that those would not resist even a single shot from their weapons, but he had seen recordings of the firepower some of those helicopters could carry. They were also the first part of an offensive, and if the surface dwellers, not even superior physiology and technology would save them from being overwhelmed.
If they survived the armored soldier, that is.
And then said soldier began running towards them at a speed Soren was fairly certain a surface dweller was not supposed to attain, creating clouds of dust as he went. Had they not been occupied with firing at the man, and in turn being systematically killed by him, the Red Trident discovered that he was bigger than he looked.
"Nothing's working!" Another of his fellow atlanteans cried before again falling. Now the only fighters remaining were him and Das, both frantically firing at the speeding surface dweller as fast as their fingers allowed.
And then, just as the soldier got close enough that he could practically touch the hull of the ship, instead of climbing it under the fire of the Red Trident, he did something that both amazed and terrified them.
He jumped up to the ship, its actual height increased because it was listing on one side, and high enough that he surpassed the deck they were on.
And incidentally, right above Das.
The atlantean managed to scream in horror before several hundred pounds of metal crushed him, sending blood, water and shards of bone everywhere across the deck.
Soren realized with terror that he was the last one standing... and that the surface dweller was well over a foot taller than him.
And by the murderous glare he was giving him through his traslucent helmet, he was also angry.
The Red Trident member, terrified out of his wits, fired at the enemy without abandon, but even being shot at such short range did nothing to the man who, unimpeded by the attacks, began stomping towards him, his steps breaking the deck as he moved towards his prey.
And then, when he got close enough that the barrel of his rifle was touching his waist, the walking tank grabbed the weapon and pulled... alongside Soren's arms, clavicles included. Mixed water and blood spewed out of the newly opened holes as the atlantean's mind realized what just happened.
Soren only had a second to scream in pure agony before the metallic beast from the depts themselves raised his rifle and bashed his head upside down with the weapon, killing him instantly.
Had Soren been provided with a way to see his demise from another perspective, the atlantean militant would have seen that not only his head had been completely caved in into his torso, helmet included, but that it had also been crushed to a pulp due to the sheer strength behind the strike.
The giant soldier, with his prey dead, dropped the weapon and made its way into the ship, to both rescue the hostages... and kill every last Red Trident bastard that were inside, public opinion be damned!
..........
I had killed people for the first time since I arrived here. When I bonked the fuck out of that poor bastard with his own gun, arms still attached to the weapon, I felt... I felt....
Nothing, aside from the latent anger that I had because there were more of them inside, very possibly killing more people, and I was wasting valuable seconds up there.
What, did you expect me to be horrified by taking my first 'human' lives? Please, those bastards were basically eco-terrorists that aimed at the common man, monsters in human skin that only deserved to be put down like the rabid dogs they were, and besides I had LOOONG mentallized myself to the fact I would end up killing actual people. Yes, the public wouldn't take it well me acting like, well, Doom Slayer on a rampage, but at that moment I simply didn't care.
After killing the last terrorist on deck and seeing that Fort Bragg was finally, I made my way to the interior of the ship with a portal. As for why, what better way to scare the enemy than coming from the exact place they didn't expect anything to attack from?
I didn't want to just kill the Red Trident, I wanted them to be scared shitless before being brutalized. Remember, hey had killed hundreds and planned to kill thousands and not even bother to die with them, they deserved nothing less than utter destruction. Only their leaders would survive, and that was only because the big fish would go to Aquaman, and the second biggest for the U.S government.
Incidentally, I also ended in one of the locations where the Red Trident had kept several of their hostages trapped, the plaza of the ship.
The sunlight coming from above allowed me to see them huddled down and fearful of being the Red Trident's next victims, some even having soiled themselves out of fear.
And in the corner, piled like bags of garbage bags, were the corpses of at least thirty people.
Two were children.
You can possibly imagine the feeling of unstoppable wrath that came over me when I saw THAT.
And the utter terror they felt when one of the women saw a giant-ass super soldier standing right there with them, having come out of nowhere... at least until a german tourist saw me too and realized who I.
"Wait, it's the Doom Slayer!" He cried in awe. "We're saved!"
Soon, everyone crowded around me, begging me to get them out of there before the guards returned, and to rescue the others. They didn't seem to notice that I was covered in blood, or did but were too scared to care.
"VEGA, open a portal to Fort Bragg, send them a message of the situation, make me a map of the ship signaling the positions of the hostages and the Red Trident, and tell them to not intervene." I asked VEGA.
"As you wish Slayer." Five seconds later, I had a fully 3D schematic of the liner. Fortunately, most of the hostages were on the same deck, which simplified things for VEGA. However, as the first group escaped to the base, I also made VEGA EMP the entire ship. Why did I ask him to do that? Two reasons. tirst, people wouldn't like the gruesome aftermath of my actions, but they would as hell freak the fuck out if they saw the actions themselves because of some hidden camera in the Voyager. As for why didn't I open portals directly in the hostages' positions, they were more heavily guarded, and I didn't want the Red Trident to kill the fleeing hostages.
No, they wouldn't be able to cross the portals themselves to attack Fort Bragg, they were selective about who could and who could not cross them.
The conmotion of the hostages rushing inside the portal brought the attention of the twenty or so guards stationed outside, who ran in to see what was happening.
They froze in place when they saw the last of this particular group of future victims entering the portal... and me standing there, faceplate polarized so that the last thing they would see would be murder in my eyes. The poor fools didn't have time to react properly before I pulled out the heavy rifle and opened fire.
Atlanteans, as I already told you, are superhumanly tough, but not to the point of being fully bulletproof, which was why the Red Trident mooks wore stolen atlantean army armor, that apparently lets them shrug off rifle rounds AND keeps them hydrated for fifteen minutes. Unfortunately for them, the heavy cannon, while not an actually piece of artillery or an autocannon proper, fires .55 caliber, 75 grams rounds at a velocity of four thousand feet per second. Not many types of personal armor from this Earth could protect from single shots, and NONE could withstand a full burst at close range.
Naturally, theirs was neither.
One of the bastards was outright disintegrated by the two shots I landed on him, while another's head simply ceased to exist.
The others would soon end up wishing they had died like friends: quick and painlessly, instead of, essentially, being glory killed.
And no, no ammunition nor armor points came out of their deaths.
One had the stupid idea of trying to bash me over the head with his rifle, and got his skull ripped off and thrown against another, with helmet included, the impact braining the poor devil. Pretty sure the guy's head was still 'alive' for a couple seconds, since it kept screaming for that long.
Another kept screaming as I ripped her in half like she was made of paper, gore and bones still hanging from both halves. I gave her the mercy of my boot crushing her head, a mercy she very possibly didn't deserve.
Another ran at me screaming at the top of his lungs, firing his gun at me and then lunging when he got close enough. The moment he was closer still, I pulled out the shotgun in full auto mod and, with perfect timing, speared him from the mouth before firing, making him explode and reducing the men behind him to nothing.
Yet another Red Trident, the biggest of the bunch at nearly seven feet, latched onto me and began punching my helmet, his adrenaline-fueled fists doing nothing to me but. For his troubles, I ripped out his guts and garroted him with them. Pretty sure the only reason he wasn't beheaded by that was that intestines aren't particularly good as makeshift nooses, and his armor getting in the way.
One by one, they were ripped apart, decapitated, burned alive, frozen alive, gutted, smashed, chainsawed, turned inside out, dismembered, and many other horrible ways to die. By the time there was only one Red Trident still alive, I was standing on a pool of gore and blood mixed with some saltwater that was slowly creeping right because of the listing.
And when the traumatized survivor's mind rebooted and saw what happened to his friends, and me walking up at him with chainsaw revved, he did something that both surprised me... and made me loathe the little turd.
He dropped his rifle, which was still covered in the blood of however many people he had killed) on the ground and got on his knees with a pleading stance.
"I surrender! Please don't kill me, please!" He begged. "Krios made me do it! He told me I had to go with him or other wouldn't follow! Please!"
That... made no sense whatsoever to my anger-ridden brain. Still, it made me stop myself from cutting him in half vertically, and I still had enough sense to realize that by the manner he was speaking what he was sying that he was the second in command of whoever this 'Krios' was, and therefore the second big fish. He was lying, of course, but his pleading made me realize that some might give up and beg for mercy... and THAT, in turn, made me realize I could do something more productive than just blowing their perfectly unmoving heads.
Which would still involve mutilations galore.
I decided to change the plans a little: I would let whoever surrendered to me live and give them to the authorities to judge and hang... but not before I I had my way with them.
And with 'my way' I mean I carved I carved a trident on his chest with the doomblade, just like in Inglorious Basterds. Starting with him.
"No, no, please, no! NO!" He screamed as he tried to fruitlessly push me (and the blade) away, thinking I was going to kill him.
My non-verbal response was to glare harder and think about the men, women and children that had begged for their lives.
His cry became a shriek of agony when I began cutting his chest, deep enough that the mark would never, ever heal but not so much I would kill him (I wanted it to stay, after all), and slowly enough to prolong his suffering the fullest.
Then, after making sure he wouldn't bleed out from his wounds by cauterizing them with the plasma gun's battery, I opened a portal to Aquaman's current position, so that he would understand what was happening.
I would repeat this with those Red Trident who surrendered, which were few: some went to Fort Bragg after I made VEGA inform them about their new prisoners, others directly to the atlantean king with the first one. That way, I would show that I could be lenient with those who didn't deserve to live, if only because they would end up dead anyway, just under legal terms.
Nonetheless, it was time for me to show to the world that this shit wouldn't stand with me... and to finish the job.
..........
So, my longest chapter yet, and the one where the SI stops fucking around (even though hthat's because they forced his hand)! For those wondering if the original Slayer is there or not, the SI doesn't realize that anger he has... isn't exactly fully his, and I'm leaving it at that.
Why brand them with their own symbol, instead of the Doom rune, ala Snyder's Batman? Because he wants people to know who they are and what they did.
Also, to those who might wonder how can DS jump over 63 meters (that's how tall the Voyager of the Seas is), twofold explanation: A) the Delta V jump-boots boost can be used to boost jumping capacity rather than just giving him the capacity to double-jump, and B) I read in the thread that compiled DS's feats that theorically he could jump to nearly 80 feet... and that was a standing jump, not a running leap.
Another Halo/Mass Effect dumb question: since I've been told that an upgraded Punic would still not be a match for a CAS, what about an upgraded Vindication heavy cruiser? Not pitted against a CAS thought, but a CCS. Would Silaris armor, cyclonic barriers, GARDIAN and the rest make it an even match for its covie counterpart? Maybe even superior to it?