Location: 486958 Arrokoth
Far from either Mars or Earth, in the outer reaches of the solar system was a rust coloured, misshapen asteroid drifting in space between Neptune and the Kuiper belt. Built upon the asteroid was a UAC colony with a research complex, an ore mining station, a manufacturing facility and a hangar bay, sealed tunnels held walkways for reaching surrounding structures. Thrusters were built away from the colony along both sides of the asteroid to control the velocity and stabilize rotation, thick hoses connected to the engines lead back to a fuel depot. Receiving dishes were built upon the peak of the flat section of the asteroid, connecting with the other orbiting networked communication arrays.
On the decks of the research station, many of the laboratories were buzzing with activity. In the adjoining halls, space marines were patrolling security checkpoints. Beneath the surface of the asteroid was a secretive sub-sector, level zero-B, it held several laboratory suites, computer rooms, and a circular meeting room. A member of the paranormal division, Dr. Myers was taking the elevator down after receiving a notification that the download of data intercepted from Phobos was complete, he heads to the computer lab to analyze the data and study the incident that recently occurred there. He sits at a terminal with a large, spanning holo monitor.
The doctor fills the large screen with many different operational reports and begins to analyze the reactor damage, then moving onto reviewing security reports and surveillance footage. Glowing imagery of demonic violence beams from the holo-monitor. Another paranormal division devotee, Dr. Hensley, enters the computer lab and approaches from behind. They passively watch the footage, the rescue squad of space marines sent from Mars fights against waves of invaders. The devotees take note on the alien's combat effectiveness, their capabilities and made recommendations. The images brought to their minds the same idea: weaponization.Controlling these aliens and unleashing them upon potential enemies could prove a lucrative product for their military clients.
Footage of the rescue squad's final moments unfolded in the holographic light, Myers made note of the manifestation of the fast barrage of portals opening around them and the appearance of the imposing Hell Knights. The surveillance system brought to their attention another instance of notable activity occurring simultaneously. A lone marine was fighting through the halls of the Alpha Labs complex with only a sidearm and his bare hands, leaving a trail of corpses in his path.
"Who is that marine?" Dr. Hensley asks.
"It looks like someone from station security" says Dr. Myers, he pauses the footage and zoomed in on the armour's call number, only to discover an empty patch on the place where it should have been found.
"No call number" Myers exclaims with a confused expression on his face.
"That is a test subject, Hensley clarifies, they're supposed to be in artificial hibernation"
"How did he escaped from stasis?" Myers queries, looking for answers in the station computer logs.
Rows of recorded log entries fills a narrow window on the monitor, he searches for entries time-stamped from previous to the Marine's appearance in the surveillance footage, then reviewing automated commands. The logs reveal that the main station computer released the subject from stasis when emergency power came online as a precaution against him being killed when the hibernation systems eventually shuts down from power-loss.
"Someone on Phobos forgot to disable the automated emergency fail-safes, the station computer received an automated request for access to emergency power so the subject could be pulled out to save him from dying in stasis and the computer authorized the request" Myers observes.
"Which project is he from? Who is he?" Hensley asks.
"As I remember, only one project used a space marine as a test subject" Myers recalls.
He opens a listing from the captured data of the science projects from Alpha Labs and quickly finds a genetic research study he reasoned to be the one using the marine they observed. Upon opening the file, he finds that the project data was missing, completely blank. Myers angrily stared into the empty field.
"Trace back the unauthorized data access from the surveillance footage" Hensley suggests.
Myers rings up the footage from the genetics lab, they see a group of four people in the room, including the unknown marine, a female scientist was using the computer terminal. They scan her face and match her identity from the listing of the Phobos colony personnel records.
"Dr. Diane Stone. Someone is going to have to track her down." Myers deems in a flat, clinical tone.
Back on Earth, unsuspecting UAC engineers were in an aerospace construction hangar, preparing components, laying cables or performing tests. The new teleporter's current state was messy but progress was moving fast. A former human looked down on the mortals as they toiled over their demonically inspired project from behind the window of an elevated supervisor office. Another possessed human enters the darkened workstation and approaches silently.
"We have located core committers and components for building the particle emulsifier at a UAC facility in Germany. We shouldn't have much trouble acquiring them and this will decrease production time by 12%" the former human explains.
"Excellent. We will get some parts and corrupt their best minds for our cause while we are there" the other possessed researcher replies.
Their black eyes watch as the two halves of the teleporter's ring was brought together, with the top half being lowered into place on the other side of the view screen.
The stealth ship, UAAF Vapor sailed steadily through space to reach Mars, its rear engines blazing. On board, Susan and Victor were being escorted to the ship's armoury by a marine, he stops at the caged door and looks into the retina scanner.
"Access granted" announces the ship's computer.
"You can take a look, just don't load the weapons and don't take anything out of the room" the marine instructs.
They walk inside, eager to see the weapons they would be handling on Phobos. Several robotic combat robots were hanging, folded against the back wall below a large weapon case, the left wall held newly designed advanced plasma rifles. Victor opens a case against the left wall, a curtain of mist releases from the case as it opens. A cryogenic repeater was held within, along with many liquid nitrogen rounds and their insulated magazines. Another case was packed with cryogenic grenades.
"They weren't kidding when we spoke over subspace with operations, this is some serious firepower" Victor says.
"So it would seem" replies Susan.
She was standing above the opened case against the back wall, a large energy weapon with lines of dimly glowing green compartments within the sides of a wide barrel. The BFG 9000. It was out of the prototype stage.