The Marine followed the orb of light through the featureless landscape, the haunted terrain had left a mark on his psyche. He had lost track of the passage of time, his mind had been wandering into a dark place but he was still firmly in control. He continued seeing fractured visions of alien mortals suffering somewhere in Hell, but couldn't guess where they might be. He finally arrives at the base of a tall mountain. A structure held up by thick columns once built by Mortick aliens leads below the surface, evil spirits gradually morphed demonic faces and symbols into the stone supports. A pair of torches burning with green flames flanked a stone staircase leading below.
As he approached, another flash of portal energy blazes before the entrance, releasing a pair of freshly conceived demon from Deimos. The abominations had a skeletal appearance, having only a thin layer of flesh covering their bodies. A pair of surgically installed micro-RPG launchers were implanted into each of their shoulders, along with an armoured chest and back plate that protects the miniaturized munitions from detonation.
The two demon screech unpleasant chords as the Marine levels his rifle, they fire two pairs of spinning rockets that quickly closed in. The plasma sprayed in a wide arc, snuffing three of the rockets, the fourth narrowly zips by him. Unknown to the Marine, the rocket curves around and closes in again. He continued firing on more volleys of rockets when he noticed the orb of light drawing his attention by shaking beside his visor, he then hears the rocket closing in from behind. He quickly swings around and fires, striking the stray rocket, it explodes barely out of range.
A Revenant approaches the Marine while the other continued to shoot rockets, he fired back in short bursts and bowls a grenade, fizzling out their projectiles and striking the approaching demon. The Revenant closes in and the Marine releases a plasma burst, searing energy roasts the demon into burning scrap and bone. He then targets the next volley of approaching rockets which burn up into dust. He fires on the remaining Revenant, the demon paces out of the weapon's path and fires again. The rockets spiral around the stream of plasma, forcing the Marine to dodge out of the way, he then angrily approached the Revenant, unloading the rifle. The demon winds up to throw a punch, the Marine rips the arm clean off then smashed the demon's screaming skull into the boulder buried under his feet. The corpse convulses as sweat dripped from the Marine's brow, his breath huffing. He steps toward the entrance to the underground passage.
The Marine enters a massive cave, it takes his vision some time to adjust to the darkness. The path before him was an uneven outcropping along the stone wall, the sound of demonic activity echoes through the chasm. Looking over the edge of the path, his mind spins at the sight of the long drop beside him. The shifting of his boot causes some pebbles to fall from the ledge, sailing to the bottom and rippling some fluid below. He walks along the rocky trail, coming to a bulge in the bedrock that obscured the path bending around it. He moves around the rock and finds many columns of Mancubi were approaching on the other side. The great numbers of demon had a range of unique facial features and bodily shapes.
The Marine decides it's time to test the rocket launcher. With the exception of the BFG, the weapon was larger than most in his arsenal, it was because the nano-techechnology for this model was used for compacting the firing controllers and the munitions cradle instead of collapsing the entire weapon for easier carrying, as is the case with the other guns in his arsenal. He carefully aims the weapon on the hoards of Mancubus and fires. The launcher fired fast enough to launch two more times before the first missile impacted, the preceding strikes crater the column, revealing many more Mancubus behind. After adjusting his aim, the barrage strikes another wave of demon. A Mancubus belches a startled tone as a patch of ground erodes under their weight, a pair of the demon lose their footing and fall into the abyss.
The mass of Mancubi he could see approaching was staggering, he reaches for the BFG 9000 and quickly fires a low-charged shot. The quivering round sailed above the path for several meters before exploding against the hoard. The Mancubi are torn apart grotesquely, limbs and chunks splatter against the stone wall and arc over the chasm, as a few other demon fall from the ledge in the turmoil. More demon were approaching, but after another round there were only few of the demon remaining. He continued, dodging the remaining Mancubi's fireballs as he targeted each with the rocket launcher.
A portal from the demon-controlled Deimos base opened, a giant bucket tips over through the gate and dumps green industrial waste water into the gaping chasm. Further along, the chasm held tall slithering mounds of demonic growth, along the path an alien's skeletal remains clung to the edge of the cliff. A giant tentacle slithers up to the height of the path and quickly whips the Marine. He had to jump a big step backward to keep from being swiped over the edge. A few cacodemon float up from below and spit blobs of energy. His RPG targets each of the floating demon and takes them all out with a single volley of several rockets. The giant tentacle took several consecutive strikes to take it down.
The path takes him to an narrow catacomb whose halls bend off in different directions, luckily the orb of light was able to navigate him. As they passed the stone bricked walls, he steps around the mortal remains of Mortick warriors. The orb leads him to the base of a staircase leading up to the surface, light from the exit flickers upon the stone steps. Walking up the staircase, he comes to a finely carved archway leading to the exit flanked by pillars topped by statues of gargoyle. The passage led to a canyon of black mountains, a narrow wood and stone bridge stretches across a river of moving lava that leads to the raised walls of the Castle of Krata in the distance.
He walks out onto the bridge gripping his rifle, senses on edge. The area was silent save for the sound of steaming lava and shifting of rocks. He reaches the other side and a swarm of hideous winged demon swoop in from the castle's outer courtyard and flies toward the Marine, screeching. They evade his rifle's fire and the Marine soon found himself surrounded by the demon, they scratch his armour and breath streams of fire. The Marine is blinded by their fiery breath as one of the demon manages to grip his rifle with its claws and promptly flies back to the castle with it. He immediately reaches for his shotgun and deals with the demon flying back alongside the others, then hones in on the farthest one he could target with the RPG. The demon explodes, but the one with his plasma rifle had gotten away. With renewed anger, the Marine approaches the outer gatehouse of the castle.
The Marine stood before the imposing double doors of the gatehouse, a pair of demon statues stood on each side. The doors were made of wide beams of wood held together with strips and bolts of iron, there was an oddly shaped keyhole, he feels the key clipped from his waist vibrating. He unclips the key and pushes it into the hole. The vibrations from the key increases and it turns on its own, an ancient latch moves for the first time in centuries with a crumbling clank. The Marine pushes the door, dirt and dust rain down from the seams.
The parting doors reveal the castle's outer courtyard, the area was mostly barren, a path of flat stones led to the castle walls, sections between the path were littered with skeletal remains. It was evident that hundreds of mortals lost their lives here. In the centre of the area, a cloaked figure stood before a short column topped with a shallow basin filled with flames. Along the far side of the courtyard, a stream of lava stretched before the inner walls of the castle, above the raised drawbridge, a large skull adorned the entrance.
The Marine approached the figure, they were wearing a dark ceremonial robe and had a feminine shape. The Hell Priest stood motionless as the Marine drew closer, their hooded eyes watching the green flames within the dish. The Gatehouse doors loudly close shut behind him.
"We have been watching you, mortal. You think that you have made some progress? Fool. Our realm cannot be tamed. Many ages have passed since our kind has encountered one such as you, but Hell's forces have dealt with quarrelsome mortals before, you will meet your end such as they had soon enough, Slayer" hissing the delivery of the title with deliberate sarcasm.
The Marine could feel the presence of unseen snakes passing around him. She lifts her black eyes from the flames and stares at him. Her facade began to warp into demonic madness, the vision was terrifying.
The Marine draws his pistol with a short spin, levels the barrel on the Hell Priest and fired. Just before the bullet could connect, the Priest disappears into whips of brown smoke.
"I cannot be defeated so easily, Slayer. The Dark Lord of Hell has been preparing this moment especially for you" the Hell Preist's voice echoed from all around him.
A demonic portal began to open in the centre of the area, gradually growing larger, the gate swirls opens and a blast of wind blows through the area. The portal grew taller than the castle walls and the turbulence cleared, revealing an army of Imp and Hell Knight storming the gate. He impulsively reached for his RPG and began wiping out the hoards upon arrival. Above heads of the approaching demon he could see a location elsewhere in Hell. Every inch of the landscape was consumed with demonic growth, mountainous gore-nests stood in the distance. Many more columns of demon were charging the gate from the distant, deformity strewn hills.
More demon arrive from smaller portals opening throughout the area. He fires multiple rockets at a time, the explosions tear apart the hoards as many more spilled through the gaping portal behind them. After catching a glimpse of both cacodemon and pain elemental passing through the gate in numbers, he cleared the last of his magazine and reached for the BFG. He charged the round for as long as it took to fully cook the bio force round, he fires barely before a storm of demonic fire and plasma could connect. The massive plasma round engulfs the approaching projectiles and detonates against the creatures spilling from the portal. The fully charged round explodes and wipes out the demon not only all around it, but the approaching demon on the other side of the portal as well. The bio force causes distortion as ripples of instability move through the portal, the image beyond the gate becomes clouded by turbulence before it rapidly collapses, stray bio force energy is drawn into the narrowing singularity as it closed with a exploding shockwave. He braces against the explosion, his armour's electronic systems glitches wildly, the visor pixels fluctuates. Fortunately, the armour was designed to withstand electromagnetic pulses.
Just when he thought it was over, portals from Deimos open along the far ends of the courtyard delivering a number of cybernetic demons. They looked like adolescent spider-mind, much like the giant Spider Mastermind he had a close brush with. They had a smaller and simpler chassis design, still with four mechanized legs. They turn toward the Marine and fire streams of energized plasma. The Marine was clumsily trying to get his RPG straightened when he was forced to dodge the plasma, another volley chars part of his armour. He was surrounded and the place had nothing to serve as cover, he fired back hastily, evading streams of energy. The RPG landed a few consecutive hits when another stream of plasma struck the Marine, damage alerts flash on his visor.
He feels the guiding force of Mortick warriors moving through him again, he could now see what was going wrong and found the technique and footwork to outpace the plasma. He focused on his targets, he effortlessly moves around the streams. The next few rockets finished off a pair of the demon, then gradually took down each of the rest. The Arachnotron spilled hydraulic fluid and shed shards of armour before the final blasts tears the chassis apart, one of the spider-mind is forcefully ejected some distance and flops onto the ground. It wiggles grotesquely, a strip of implanted wires were severed and frayed. It flopped over and screamed, looking up at the Marine's boot coming down upon it.