Hello to all my loyal readers. I, blackphantom247, am back with another chapter of Bane of Sauron. I sure hope you deem it worth the wait. But first, reviews.
Adeptus Astartes: FOR THE EMPEROR!
Alddantrucker: What is tlc?
Th3DoomSlay3r: Gotta let the people of Middle Earth fight back somehow.
Read and Review.
I do not own Doom or LotR. Bethesda and Tolkien are the respective owners.
The scenery that nature provided was beautiful indeed, but the peace was ruined by the small group of Uruk-Hai and a few demons, their cargo being the Hobbits Merry and Pippin. The latter of the two grew concerned as he looked at the still unconscious Merry, a trail of blood across his face originating from a wound on his forehead, courtesy of the Uruk carrying him when they were captured. Pippin had no idea what these creatures wanted nor what would happen to them when it was over, and that terrified him, the feeling prompting him to try and get Merry's attention. "Merry! Merry! Come on, speak to me!"
Despite the Hobbit's efforts, his friend remained unconscious, almost as if he were dead. Meanwhile, the group made their way into a rocky gorge where the Uruk leader Ugluk ordered them to halt. Just then, a group of Mordor Orcs popped out from behind a cluster of boulders. The leader, a runt by the name of Grishnak, began chastising them. "You're late! Our master grows impatient. He wants the Shire rats now!"
Of course, he was not referring to the White Wizard, but Sauron, who didn't care what happened to the Hobbits, just as long as he got the Ring. Too bad for him, Ugluk wasn't having it. "I don't take orders from orc maggots."
The orcs growled at the insult, but did nothing else as the Uruk-Hai finished speaking. "Saruman will have his prize. We will deliver them."
With that he turned his gaze towards his own forces while the orc run sneered and snarled at him when his back was turned. Meanwhile, Pippin grew increasingly worried as Merry's breathing grew more ragged, prompting him to call out in reflex. "My friend is sick! He needs water!"
This only got sneers from the Uruk-Hai – no reaction from the demons – and a remark from the leader. "Sick, is he? Give him some medicine, boys!"
This resulted in series of jeers and cruel laughter from the Uruks as one of them poured a brown liquid down Merry's throat which caused him to hack and gag violently. Even a few demons were chuckling at the poor Hobbit's misery. Pippin, on the other hand, did not find it funny, as evident by his outburst. "Stop that!"
Ugluk then shot a glare towards the upstart halfing and spoke. "Why? You want some?"
After Pippin shook his head in response, an expression of terror on his face, the Uruk leader pointed at him and spoke with emphasis. "Then keep your mouth shut."
With that, he turned back around, leaving the Hobbit alone once more as Merry finally woke up, catching Pippin's attention. "Merry?"
Still groggy from his unconscious period, he dizzily turned his gaze towards his friend and responded. "Hey, Pip."
"B-but I thought you were..."
"Dead?" After finishing the sentence, Merry smiled in amusement before answering. "Fooled you, didn't I?"
Pippin smiled in relief at this statement, knowing that his friend would be alright. But it wasn't long before one of the Uruk-Hai started to sniff the air in suspicion, catching Ugluk's attention. "What is it? What do you smell?"
The Uruk replied with growing nervousness. "Man-flesh. Coming this way."
This caused the entire group to look around in fear, orcs included. Even some of the demon, primarily Imps, began to grow anxious, prompting Merry to comment on it. "You know Pip, there's only one person who can make demons nervous."
Realizing what he meant, Pippin's face lit up with hope. "Doom."
If Ugluk overhead their brief exchange, he didn't show it. He simply gave a brief, but explicit order to the group. "Let's move!"
With that, the Uruk-Hai and their demon allies broke into a sprint, the orcs following close behind. And in their haste, none of them noticed Pippin discard his elven brooch as a means to aid his impending rescuer. But little did the Hobbit know, he kinda got sidetracked.
The dark-green armored figured of the Doomslayer zoomed across the open field he was in as the orange sun set over the horizon. He had volunteered to move on ahead in an effort to catch the Uruk-Hai ahead of time while the rest of the Fellowship caught up. But for most of the journey, it seemed like he wasn't making any progress, until just recently when he began encountering small groups of demons that attacked him in a manner that suggested that they were merely stalling him. But even though this was a sure sign that he was catching up, their efforts were proving futile, at least until a massive red limb sent him flying. Quickly recovering from the blow, he landed on his feet to discover that the perpetrator was a new demon variant. The creature stood on bowed legs that ended at dark red hooves, the rest of its skin being a brighter shade. The demon also sported two massive limbs as thick as trees and ripped with muscle that ended at sets of four menacing claws. On top of its head sat two curved horns and its face was bestial in nature, with soulless eyes and rows of razor teeth. This and other such details helped Doom recognize it instantly. "A Baron of Hell? Nice change of pace."
As if angered by his indifference, the Baron of Hell roared and charged at Doom, swinging its claws in a wide arc. Doom managed to avoid the attack by launching himself over the demon, unloading an entire assault rifle clip while in midair. Upon landing he brought out the rocket launcher and fired once, the shrapnel from the blast forcing it to its knees. But as Doom leapt onto its back to deliver the killing blow, the Baron leapt into the air and slammed him into the ground before turning around and grabbing his legs. But before it could rip them off and kill him, Doom's arm shot up, and with deadly accuracy, brought out the rail gun and fired at its head. This resulted in a shower of gore, blood, and brain matter as he stood back up and spoke. "Strange. The bastard should've stayed down after the rocket."
He found the answer to his question when he brought out on of said rockets to look at, only to sigh in frustration at it. "Low yield explosives?! If I ever find the dumbass who came up with these, I'll be tearing their asshole apart!"
Dr. Alyssa Wilson suddenly stood up inside her office, a relatively bland room with the only decoration being a poster of her secret crush Doomslayer. "What am I suddenly scared and aroused at the same time?
He was muttering about getting better quality rockets as he put it away and resuming the chase, only for the trail to take him to a riverbed in the middle of the forest. A shower of rain was washing away the blood of the multitude of corpses he found there.
There were demons, orcs, and what he guessed were soldiers of Rohan, wearing brown and green armor. Any further was cut when his helmet's scanners picked up a life sign form under a Hell Knight corpse. With this discovery, he made his way towards the survivor's location, removing the dead demon to find a young man possibly in his late teens to early twenties with long black hair and white skin. While the ornate design of the armor would normally suggest a high-ranking officer, the man's age had Doom think he was more royalty or nobility. But it wouldn't matter much longer if the pale skin skin and deep gash in his side were of any indication. Doom did not know he felt like this, but he was not gonna let the kid did, dammit!
He brought up his right arm, which began to crackle with orange Argent energy. Once satisfied with the amount, Doom placed his gauntlet on the wound, the energy quickly repairing the damage. Doom had to admit, this little trick definitely came in handy. And once more, it worked like a charm as evidenced by his HUD indicating that the man's vitals were stabilizing, and just in time since storm clouds began to form above them. "Shelter it is, then."
With that, he picked up the kid and proceeded with his current objective, quickly finding a small cave nearby where Doom deposited him, Just then, he began to pick up what sounded like a horse column coming their way, This discovery made him towards the unconscious form of the man and speak. "Sounds like help is on the way. Farewell, and may you make a speedy recovery."
It was then that Doom departed from the cave to resume his mission. Not long afterwards, the man shoots up with a gasp, panting heavily from recent ordeal as he instinctively reached for the wound. Find that it had healed he let out a sigh of relief that was quickly overcome by confusion. Questions plagued his mind as he struggled to his feet. How was he still alive? How did he get in this cave? With an uncertain stance, he stood and slowly walked to the cave entrance, dreading what he might find. What he found horrified him.
Just down the sloping ridge he found himself on was a small river that ran red with the blood of his men. 500 veteran Rohirrim, dead at the hands of the orcs that ambushed them along with their demonic allies. And yet, he survived. The shock of this realization overwhelmed him as he failed to see the numerous living Rohirrim searching through the carnage overwhelmed by despair and still weak from his wounds, he collapsed at the edge of the ridge, tumbling down and crashing into the field of corpses. Thankfully for him, this caught the attention of a nearby Rohirrim that made his way over to his position before calling, "My Lord Eomer! Over here!"
A few moments later, the one known as Eomer kneeled beside him, sporting an ornate set of armor, shoulder-length blond hair, and a similar colored messy beard and a worried expression. "Theodred? Theodred, can you hear me? Are you alright?"
The one now identified as Theodred merely gave a blank, souless stare as he began muttering. "T-t-they're dead. They're all dead."
Eomer placed a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to comfort him as he responded. "Their death will not be in vain cousin, but you need to focus. You'll be of no help to Rohan in you fall into despair."
Despite Eomer's best efforts, his cousin showed no change in demeanor, until a nearby Rohirrim spoke with a silent fury. "Mordor will pay for this!"
This caused Theodred to shoot up from his position and glance at a nearby orc corpse. Understanding his intentions, the man beside him went over to the corpse and drug it back over. Upon reaching them, he flipped the body onto its back. It was then that Eomer inhaled sharply before commenting. "These orcs are not from Mordor."
Theodred ignored his cousin's comment, instead reaching for the dead orc's helmet, the white hand on the top being recognizable.
"Isengard." he muttered darkly.
They were the ones who ambushed him. They, and their monstrous allies wiped out his Eored. Over one hundred good men, all dead. Wives turned to widows and children made fatherless. All because of the white wizard.
It was this revelation that made Theodred overcome by rage, the transition being subtle as his heavy breathing became mixed with soft growling. Eomer grew concerned from the noise, and slowly crept closer. "Theodred? Is everything al-"
Suddenly sensing the dark, menacing aura emenating from his cousin, he wisely stepped back. At the same time, Theodred heard a deep, resonating voice within his head, amplifying his rage as glared at the orc helmet now in his left hand.
"They are rage. Brutal. Without mercy."
His right arm began to glow red, only to be replaced by a mark a few seconds later, comprised of a two-pronged hook along with four indiscernible symbols surrounding it.
"But you...will be worse."
He then snarled as he tensed up.
"Rip and Tear."
With one fluid motion, he crushed the helmet in his grip.
"Until it is done."
He finally roared into the sky, swearing vengeance on the White Wizard. "SARUMAN!"
The Uruks and their tag-alongs halted at a small clearing just outside of the Forest of Fangorn. A good number of orcs collapsed as a trio of them hunched over, gasping for breath as the middle one voiced their troubles. "We ain't goin' no further! Till we've had a breather!"
Ugluk would never admit it out loud, but the little shit was right. Even his Uruks were getting tired. "Get a fire going!"
With that command, several Uruks went into the forest to gather some wood, the moonlight giving it an eerie glow as Pippin crawled towards a sleeping Merrry, the binds around his wrists proving a bit cumbersome. "Merry, wake up."
Unlike previously, Merry managed to do so with little difficulty, rising up to acknowledge his friend before being interrupted by a loud groaning coming from the forest. This caught Pippin's attention as he inquired about it. "What is that?"
A single matter-of-fact statement was Merry's response. "It's the trees."
"What?"
Merry turned to his clueless companion and explained. "You remember the Old Forest? On the Borders of Buckland? Folk used to say that there was something in the water that made the trees grow tall...and come alive."
Pippin widened his eyes in shock and amazement as Merry recalled further. "Trees that could whisper, talk to each other. Even move."
Their captors, on the other hand, did not care about the trees aside from burning them. They had more immediate concerns, which one Uruk openly brought up. "I'm starvin'. We ain't 'ad nothin' but maggoty bread for three stinkin' days!"
One orc by the name of Snaga agreed with him. "Yeah. Why can't we 'ave some meat?"
His eyes then fell on the Hobbits, who he sent a sickening look towards. "What about them? They're fresh."
Ugluk was quick to shoot that idea down with a glare. "They are not for eating!"
But his words had little effect as Grishnak piped up. "What about their legs? They don't need those. Oh, they look tasty."
The orc tried to get to the Hobbits, but was quickly shoved back by Ugluk. "Get back, scum!"
Tensions began to run high as Grishnak's fellow orcs flocked to his side while some Uruks and a trio of Imps did the same for Ugluk who went to emphasize his point. "They are to be kept alive, and unspoiled."
"Alive? Why alive?"
"They have something. An Elvish weapon. The master wants it for the war."
Hearing every word of the conversation, Pippin quietly spoke to Merry. "They think we have the Ring?"
His companion silenced him. "Shush. As soon as they find out we don't, we're dead."
Unbeknownst to anyone, Snaga managed to sneak up on the two Hobbits, only to blow his cover by trying to compromise. "Just a mouthful. A bit off the flank."
But before Ugluk could behead the insolent Orc, a loud boom echoed across the area and Snaga was suddenly missing his torso, the gaping wound showering the poor Hobbits in black blood and intestines. Amidst the chaos that followed, a Hell Knight managed to find the source of the disturbance in the form of an all-too-familiar green armored being who simply cocked his shotgun once more and uttered one single phrase while grinning like a madman under the helmet. "Let's dance, boys."
Alright I admit, what I did with Theodred is probably not canon, but it was one of those 'EUREKA!' moments that I had to add. Let me know if the mark on him is wrong.
I know you want more Doomguy in each chapter, but a few scenes without him were needed to ensure a smooth flow of the story.
Don't forget to review.
Doom belongs to Bethesda and LotR to Tolkien.
