Prologue

"Until we see each other again."

Those were the last words Samuel Hayden had said to him before the Doomslayer was forcefully pulled away from Mars via the tether teleportation system. As always, the teleportation was violent; he was being forcibly pulled through time and space, after all. All around him was blinding blue light.

Then it was done, and he fell to one knee as he came out of the warp the other side. As he crouched there, he was filled with rage. He usually was, but this time it was directed at something other than the ravenous hordes of Hell.

Hayden, he thought venomously, as if the name was the worst word in the universe. Of course the bastard would betray him. He supposed he should have seen it coming; Dr. Hayden was too proud a man to admit defeat. Though on the other hand, Doomslayer supposed he couldn't fault the man entirely; he was, or so he believed, acting in humanity's best interest. Not to mention he thought the portal to Hell was closed for good. But the Slayer knew better. He'd seen this play out on a thousand worlds, a thousand Earths. It was always the UAC dicking around with Hell for one reason or another. In his world it was teleportation; in this one it was an energy crisis. The result was always the same: an invasion of the UAC facility on Mars, a slaughter, he'd push back the demons from Mars and then they'd invade Earth. He'd go there, push them back, close the portal from the other side. Then they'd move on to the next world, rinse, repeat.

But now wasn't the time to reflect; he'd just been dropped into an unknown location. He could be anywhere in the galaxy, the universe. He needed to assess the threat level of his surroundings, and then find a way back to Earth to stop the invasion that was no doubt already started. Unless he was at a different point in time, as well, but one thing at a time.

He got to his feet and looked around. His surroundings were dark, but it didn't take long for his eyes to adjust. He was in the command deck of some sort of ship, with the controls before him. Almost as soon as he saw them, he recognized them: it was Maykr technology. And as he looked around the rest of the room, he realized where he was. A Sentinel Warship. He hadn't seen one of these in years, not since he was trapped in Hell with the other Night Sentinels. He'd assumed they'd all been destroyed, but it looked like this one had survived somehow. That was a stroke of good fortune; he could use this warship to his advantage in fighting the invasion. That is, if he could even turn it on.

He paused for a moment as he wondered how Hayden would know about this place and why he would send him here, but he pushed those thoughts out of his head. Hayden could answer his questions when they met again, and they would meet again; Doomslayer would make sure of it. He walked up to a console and pressed a few buttons. The screen lit up dimly, and a message appeared in the Argenta script:

"Warning: Critical system failure. Insufficient power to maintain warship. All sections except the bridge are offline until the Sentinel Batteries are recharged or an auxiliary power source can be found. Life support and essential computer systems online in bridge only."

Well, that was a problem, considering he had no way to recharge the warship's batteries or get another power source. But he could worry about that later. Right now, he needed to get the rest of the bridge's systems online, as well as the warp drive; otherwise, he wasn't going anywhere. He started running through the system's basic commands, trying to get it to reboot fully, but it wasn't responding; centuries of sitting in space without maintenance or power had left the systems heavily damaged. Then he remembered something. Reaching into the transdimensional pocket that held his weapons, among other things, Doomslayer pulled out a large computer chip. He looked for a slot, and placed it in when he found one on the side of the console. It wasn't a perfect fit, but it seemed good enough, because a moment later a familiar logo appeared on the screen.

"... Initiating reboot… VEGA unit online. Hmm… this is different. Hello, Doomslayer. It seems you created a backup of me. Thank you. I assume you would like me to restore full functionality to this structure?" Doomslayer nodded. "Hmm… there is insufficient power to allow access to the rest of the ship, but I believe I can restore full power to the bridge. Give me a moment."

A moment later, the lights on the bridge flared into life. There was a humming noise as the rest of the bridge's systems came online as well.

"According to the ship's chrono-detectors - it has those, by the way - and comparing their readings to the last ones I have recorded from the UAC facility, which were taken shortly before my core's destruction… thirteen years have passed since the incident on Mars."

Doomslayer was still for a moment. Then he slammed his fist on the console, denting it slightly. Thirteen… years. He'd been gone for thirteen years. In that time, the demons could have taken over all of Earth. There could be nothing left. There could… he stopped himself. Even if there was nothing, he still had to push the demons out of this universe. He typed into the console and pulled up the controls for the warp drive. "Be advised," VEGA said, "using the warp drive will consume 33.6% of the fortress' remaining power reserves." He ignored VEGA's warning; as long as there was still enough power to keep the bridge running, they were fine. They could worry about powering the other sections later. He placed in the coordinates for Earth.

"Activating warp drive…" VEGA said. Doomslayer turned to the window and watched as the entire fortress was engulfed in blue light. As they sailed through hyperspace towards Earth, he clenched his fists. He'd been gone long enough.

It was time to take the fight to Earth.

/

He sat at his workbench, making some modifications to his rifle. He adjusted the flickering desk lamp to give him better lighting as he placed the last metal plate over his recent upgrades. Then he picked up the rifle, hefting it experimentally. It didn't feel much heavier - that was good. He stood up, placing it on his back. He flicked off the lamp and stared for a moment at the corkboard above the workbench, which had pinned to it two maps: a global one, with circles around safe areas, and a local one, which he was constantly updating and replacing as the terrain shifted, which happened more and more often as time went by. The terrain would eventually get so unstable that he'd have to make his way towards the nearest ARC safe zone, something he didn't like to consider; but for now, his position was stable. He grabbed the local map and folded it up, placing it in the pocket of his worn, brown overcoat.

He turned around, passing a wall of tools, his bed, the door to his storage room(which was just a large dirt area he'd dug out), and various posters he'd carried around with him from his apartment for sentimental reasons, now plastered on the walls of the small, partially buried train car that had become his home. He stopped at the "front door", beside which was his weapon and equipment rack. He placed the assault rifle down for a second, picking up his backpack. He checked to make sure it was fully stocked with everything he'd need(unnecessary, since he'd stocked it after he came back last time, but it didn't hurt to check), then put it on his back before placing the assault rifle on his back as well via the shoulder strap. He grabbed his knife and scabbard from the rack and fastened it to his belt on the left side, then grabbed his holstered pistol and fastened it to the right, after checking the clip was full(again, just to make sure). Then he reached for the gas mask. He was already wearing his environmental suit underneath his coat (which he'd cobbled together from pieces of hazmat equipment and military armor), but he didn't like to wear the mask inside. Not since he'd installed the air filters, anyway.

He placed it over his head, hearing the hiss as it sealed itself to the neck of the armor. He looked at the dial in the corner of his HUD to make sure the current filter was full; it was. Finally he turned towards the door. He pressed a button, and it opened into his "airlock", which used to just be the intermediary section between two train cars. The inner door closed behind him, and he pressed another button next to the outer door. With a hiss, it opened. Outside, the sky was yellow and orange, like always. The husks of skyscrapers loomed in the distance, some adorned with pentagrams and other symbols, and massive cracks in the ground revealed snaking rivers of glowing molten lava. Overhead, a swarm of spherical demons flew by, searching for prey. It was Hell on Earth.

But after all, he thought, Sinners belong in Hell. "Right then," the Sinner said out loud as he drew his pistol and pulled back the top, loading a bullet into the chamber.

"Let's get started."

DOOM: Reap the Sinners