The Logic Core Compound had fallen silent, Chief Administrator Alexander Burvochov's mortal remains lay mutilated, drenching the tiled floor alongside spent shotgun cartridges. The inscrutable Marine bent to collect his prize after reloading his weapon. The huge armament was still warm, exhausting heat from vents along the sides and top of the weapon. Targeting settings and power levels were displayed with LED indication lights. The weapon was clearly a prototype, its design barely had any consistency. It was a brick with a wide barrel, covered in baffling technological modules, cables and conduits. He studied the dials and buttons on the control panel, taps a command to turn the firing mode to 'safe'. He walks over to where he left Martinez, he was already gone.
"Alarm" reports the station computer.
"Critical reactor failure; containment fields at eighty percent"
The UAAF Hurricane's engines burned brightly as the ship moved to escape the Red Planet's gravitational field. On board, former humans occupied every level of the vessel, the possessed were dutifully managing the ship consoles. A large demonic growth had been installed among the ship systems, it looked more like a giant splattered tomato than a hardware module, through it a demonic intelligence was now spread through the vessel like a virus. The bridge was veiled in shadows, several terminals displayed corrupted images. Sitting in a throne-sized chair in front of the primary control station was the possessed Pauline Wolf. She studied the navigational and engineering data with black eyes and an emotionless expression, while stroking the leathery skin of a large-jawed demon. The large holo-monitor was partially corrupted, blocks of black squares obscured an image of the Earth, turning slowly. The estimated time until arrival was eighty-four hours.
Major Sergeant Martinez was close-by the Marine, he was marching the main corridor while studying his objectives, being displayed in the holographic light from his Data Disc. He was finding it difficult to keep his mind clear, rage was building and giving way to demonic influence. The thorn in his mind had returned, he couldn't stop the sensation of mental energy being tapped.
I can fight this, he silently repeated to himself, staring at the characters before him.
COVERT CLASSIFICATION: ZULU
TOP PRIORITY OBJECTIVE: A-001
RETRIEVE SAMPLE OF STUDY AGENT
STUDY AGENT CLASSIFICATION: BSK-01
LOCATION: ALPHA, BIO-MEDICAL LABORATORY B-4
Within the Data Storage Vault, Hugo Manning, Louis Osborne and Diane Stone evade attack from the teleporting intruders as Major Ivan Daniels sprays streams of bullets from the chaingun. The Major was drenched in sweat from fighting off unending waves of hell-spawn, the number of intruders had steadily swelled. Fear gnawed Daniels' nerves as his ammo supply dwindled. Time for them had just about run out when, miraculously, the sound of sliding locks came from the vault door, one after the other, the three barriers cracked and withdrew into the walls, they were still covered in demonic blood. The Marine squeezed through the still narrow opening and charged into the vault.
"Fire in the hole! Get behind me!" The Marine shouts.
The survivors run toward him, Major Daniels took effective cover. The Marine's BFG began charging his only energy charge pack. It released a green blob of quivering bio-energy, it narrowly misses a Demon and impacts aliens in the centre of the horde. Instantly, every demon in close range was consumed in the flash of energy, eyeballs popped and blood vessels boiled as they withered into large, small and tiny chunks of charred meat that fell to the ground.
"Did somebody order a rescue?" the Marine asks, shouting.
Major Daniels couldn't believe their luck, he approached and the Marine shoved an assault rifle into his hands. Dr. Stone peers through the bloodstained vault door and sees the bleeding ripped torsos of demon littering the hall, reaching back as far as she could see.
"Can we make it? Is it safe?" Dr. Manning asks, apprehensively. Ominously, the station alarm echoed through the chamber.
"Containment fields at seventy precent" it sounds.
"Where's the rest of the rescue team?" follows Dr. Osborne.
"I never encountered a rescue team. Like it or not, I'm the best chance you have. I can lead you out of here, but it has to be now" the Marine explains.
Diane Stone's facade hardened. "I need to recover my research, we've made a consequential discovery and it cannot be lost" she suddenly demands.
The Marine could see the serious sincerity in her eyes.
"Is it close?" he asks.
"Yes, it's just down this hall" she says pointing down the corridor leading to the vault.
"Okay," he casually blasts a teleporting Imp with his side arm, "but let's not waste any time" he says.
He leaves through the vault and leads them down the hall. Diane, being ever-observant, scrutinizes the call-number on the back of the Marine's helmet and sees the numbers ground away. She gasped in shock. She had forgotten all about their controversial test subject, weighty consequences were racing through her brilliant mind.
They all turned toward her, she was openly aghast.
"What is it?" Louis asks.
"This Marine is our test subject" she reluctantly admits.
The Marine gives her an angry sideways glance.
"I can explain along the way, we need to get out of here!" she pressed.
They continued along, the marines on point blasting the aliens in their way.
"You were the recipient of an unknown genetic strain, it was grafted to your cells quite recently. I shouldn't be telling any of you this, but things are clearly out of hand" she explains.
"Why can't I remember who I am?" The Marine asks with a controlled anger in his voice.
"This is all upper-management's doing, they wiped your memories with technology that I don't even have access to. They know they're committing a felony, so they erased your identity, processed you for testing and claimed you were kicked off the station for insubordination" she recalls.
The Marine was furious.
"How do you know all this?" he asks.
"It's known among members of the research project. Union Aerospace is pretty lousy at keeping secrets" she spills.
"My office is just ahead" Diane says.
The marines entered first and scanned for demons, they wasted a pair of hiding Imps before signalling the all-clear. Diane strode into the spacious research office, an examination gurney was surrounded by three cluttered worktables, another door was on the other side of the room. Diane activates the computer and begins copying the many research documents onto sets of data sheets, they continued spewing from a separate module as she stepped toward the genetics workstation. She retrieves a black, leathery carrying case from under the table and plucks slim test-tubes from their holder and secures them within the carrier.
"This research you're collecting is from the same project, isn't it?"
She puffs her breath, annoyed.
"It is" she admits flatly.
She then walked back to the computer and shoved the documents into the case.
"Alright, let's go" she says, lacing the carrier over a shoulder.
They turned to leave and Major Martinez suddenly appeared, blocking their exit and with his rifle raised at eye-level with the Marine.