Deep beneath the surface of Hell, tucked away in a rocky, torch lit cavern was a ritualistic area that once held the last of the Baalgar demon. The ancient titan was one of the first to pass from the realm of darkness and brought some form to the emptiness, it is the place where all demon-kind originates. Eons ago, when the universe was newly formed, the Baalgar demon stole away an instance of existence from the infinite parallel dimensions of realities and made it host to the demonic creatures and influence that resides in the vastly empty demonic realm. The multiverse's earliest civilizations often fought against invasions launched from the stolen dimension, staging campaign after campaign of mortal harvest. Over the course of these wars, many of the Baalgar demon would fall in battle and over time only one would remain. The dark priests would come to refer to it as 'The Harbinger of Doom' and 'Hell's Mightiest Warrior'. The last Baalgar demon faced its defeat during Hell's distantly recent campaign against the Mortick planet, but the dark priests were able to summon enough ritual energy to open a portal and bring it back to Hell. It arrived roaring in agony, its body pierced by hundreds of wooden arrows and spears. Repeated strikes from catapult fire caused irreparable damage to the Baalgar's left arm and right leg. Despite trying and failing to regenerate the demon, the Dark Priests were forced to amputate the crushed limbs.
They cauterised the gushing wounds and suspended Hell's Mightiest Warrior with shackled chains hung from spikes driven high up into the cavern wall. It was here that the dark priests had placed a pillared altar, torches and candles, where they would worship and provide care for the last of the Baalgar demon for many years. Then came the day that a large circular portal opened in the dimly lit cavern, the spider-mastermind emerged, followed by a large hovering cargo-mover drifting through the gate. Impressed by the spider-mind's enhancements, the Dark Priests agree to release the Baalgar into its care, assisting by releasing the chains and helping place it onto the hovering surface. The Spider-Mastermind brought Hell's Mightiest Warrior back to Deimos where it would be operated upon extensively by demonized surgeons and engineering robots. After replacing many internals with superior artificial organs and a spectrum of cybernetic upgrades, the surgeons then fitted the demon with a new reinforced metal prosthetic leg and a neural link with an open socket fitted to its missing arm, they then locked a dangerous prototype weapon into the socket.
The newly enhanced demon now stood outside the gore nest, its roars were ear-splitting. The demon stood eight-feet tall, a pair of long curving horns grew from the sides of its skull, its muscular body still held scars from its many past battles. The cybernetic implants showed signs of having been recently integrated, swelling and streams of blood trimmed the modules. A row of reinforced tube and wire replaced a layer of flesh beneath its rib-cage.
The cyberdemon raises its weaponized arm, the weapon's assembly cycled its configuration and a row of rockets slides into place as it was squared onto the awestruck Marine. He could recognize the prototype weapon, he had test-fired one on the surface of Phobos. He could no longer remember its designation, but clearly remembered how dangerous it is.
The Marine dashes from before the gore nest as a row of rockets explodes along the base of the growth, the blasts blow holes into the nest that oozed with gobs of slime. He bounds along a branch of growth, unloading plasma from a comfortable distance, another fast volley of rockets impacts the growth, the explosions crater the artery and throws chunks of flesh into the crimson sky. Firing back, the Marine partly chars its unmodified arm, enraging the cyberdemon even more. The titan advances swiftly, swiping away streams of plasma with its weapon, it approaches and claws the marine who evades by jumping down between the branches of growth, the foul breath of the large demon briefly fogs his visor. The demon shifts its stance to point his weapon's barrel down on the marine and fires, the Marine's stream of plasma intercepts a rocket from below, setting off a chain reaction of exploding mid-air projectiles. The Cyberdemon roars in fury as explosions tear its flesh and rip away shards of armor. The Marine quickly bounds onto a branch of growth and levels his plasma rifle on the demon. It bears its fangs as its furious eyes burned into the marine's mind.
Plasma smacks the cyberdemon as it defiantly screamed, it again swiped away at the stream to little effect this time and then stomped closer, bringing down its fist on the Marine, narrowly missing and sending out a ripple of momentum through the branch of growth. After another splash of plasma chars its flesh and modules, the demon roars a last chord before slapping a cybernetic module in its chest, opening a portal back to Deimos that closes again in an instant, causing a loud pang that echos as it disappeared with the cyberdemon. The Marine leaves the gore nest behind and the orb of light guided him through the rocky terrain to the Castle of Krata.
"Satan is amongst us, brothers and sisters. For it is by the hand of corporate corruption and greed that has come to reveal him. The UAC has come to bear the mark of wickedness. Repent my brothers and sisters, for the days of Hell's reckoning approaches" proclaims a street preacher holding a demonic UAC advertisement poster in his hand. Other people stood nearby, some wearing alien costumes or playing with toy UFO drones, they were holding signs that read "tell us more about the aliens" and "I want to believe".
Close by a bustling crowd attends a news conference taking place outside in the courtyard of a UAC facility in Leipzig, Germany. Behind the crowd, a stage stood above their heads holding recording and transmitting equipment. A group of Paranormal Division devotees stood on the stage, one spoke to the woman taking questions from the press over an earpiece receiver. Another devotee scans the crowd with a pair of high-tech binoculars.
"Carla, don't take any questions from Press Eleven and Media Fox, just keep talking to Sky Voice News and Aerospace Today" the devotee instructs.
Among the crowd was a group of demonically possessed UAC employees from the corrupted Oslo building. They easily recognize the paranormal division devotees. They watched them carefully, trying not to attract their notice. The devotees to the paranormal division have been deemed most desired as hosts for demonic spirits. Elsewhere, Diane Stone stands among the reporters, she had recently arrived after having her escape pod rescued by a space marine corps vessel.
The woman at the podium was Carla Anders, she was had a rigid posture and a serious expression with short black hair, wearing a slim-fitting business suit.
"Yesterday morning, we finished receiving data from Phobos and have uncovered audio-visual confirmation of the existence of extra-terrestrial creatures, obtained through surveillance records, Carla announces, but until a better understanding of these specimens can be reached, the images will remain classified from the public. As for the disappearance of Deimos colony we are still investigating the cause of the disappearance and the fate of the moon."
Carla points to a reporter and takes their question.
"Can you confirm reports that your company is developing another teleporter, in spite of the clearly present danger they've demonstrated to have in the last weeks?" the reporter asks.
"I can tell you honestly that I am not aware of any other teleportation projects other than the one here in Leipzig, but if there is, it would have to have a classified disclosure status" Carla replies, then pointing to another journalist.
"Many concerned parties want answers about these strange advertisements, they're undermining UAC's image and legacy. This symbology is baffling and it's attracting a lot of unwanted attention to all areas of aerospace interests. What exactly is Union Aerospace promoting and what do these symbols mean?" they ask.
Carla's facade gave no reaction to the weight of the query, she answered calmly,
"The ad campaign has been launched without unanimous union approval by unknown UAC personnel. Tracking the culpable parties is proving to be difficult. The UAC stands as committed as ever to our clients, investors, scientific partners and our commitment to delivering excellence in aerospace technologies" she replies, then swiftly takes another question.
"From where did these aliens originate?" Carla is asked.
"We have yet to determine their origins on any definitive grounds, but there are indications that their origins are that of a plane of dimensional existence parallel to our own." she explains, then taking the next question.
"Some recently laid-off UAC employees have reported that there were a few successful tests of the portal and that the resulting data collected opened at least one new avenue of scientific inquiry, specifically genetics. Are these reports true and is Union Aerospace continuing with this study?" a particularly nosy reporter asks.
The paranormal division devotee shakes his head to Carla.
"I'm afraid that is classified" she replies.
The gathering of former humans were quietly speaking to each other as they planned their moves, some of them leave and enter the UAC facility, leaving a pair of them outside. The former humans pass through the revolving doors after presenting their host's existing corporate-issued authorization. The Paranormal division devotee scanning the crowd notices a person of interest.
"Hey, I think that might be Dr. Stone, that researcher from Phobos" he observes.
The other devotee abandons his signalling to Carla and approaches his colleague.
"Let me see" he says, taking the binoculars and watching for a moment.
"You're right, that's her. I need to arrest her, immediately" he says, giving back the device and walking down the stairs at the back of the stage.
"Follow me, we need to make an arrest" he says to one of the devotees guarding stage access.
They wade through the crowd and close in on Diane.
"You're with the paranormal division aren't you?" a random voice says to the devotee as an icy cold hand fell on their shoulder, he turns around to see a pair of men with sunken greying skin wearing dark sunglasses and dark trench coats, they place a handcuff on each of their wrists, the other link already locked to the former human's wrists, sealing their fate.
"Wha- What are you doing?" the devotee exclaims.
"Just relax, a former human says in a slithering tone and smirking, this will all be over soon"
Diane Stone turns over her shoulder to see the devotee staring at her with an angry expression before they were discretely taken away from the crowd to a place where they will soon become host to a demonic spirit.
"That concludes this press conference. I hope it has been informative" Carla finishes, then leaving the podium. Diane follows Carla, flashing her corporate ID to the security and walks up the steps.
"Carla" Diane shouts over the noise of the crowd, Carla looks over and turns to walk back upon recognizing her friend.
"Hello, Diane. Are you okay?" Carla asks sensing her distress.
"I just got back from Phobos" she reveals, Carla took the news clinically.
"Oh. Oh, you did, didn't you?" her brilliant mind quickly processed the implications.
"Some really shady research was happening there before the invasion, I need to get this project data into the right hands" Diane quickly explains, Carla hesitates in thought for a moment.
"Yes, come this way and I'll see to it" Carla says.
Diane joins Carla and they enter the facility. On the other side of the doors, the elevator closes behind a group of former humans before it descends below.
The former humans are taken into the research complex, sub-level 9. As they stray into the facility, a former human stays behind at a security checkpoint with the aim of securing their exit by making the requisition clerk on duty host to a demonic spirit. The rest proceeded to Sector-D, a restricted storage area holding parts for the portal project being undertaken elsewhere in the facility. They descend a steel staircase into the storage area, one grabs a cart for moving parts and pushes it to a containment unit. Seeing that the designation code matched their records, they open the unit using a pirated security access card. The former humans begin piling on the needed components onto the cart and pushed it to another unit and collected parts from there. Having gathered everything they needed, they moved their loaded cart to a nearby cargo elevator, taking it back through the security checkpoint and to the main elevator. When they were almost half of the way there, a security officer intercepts them.
"Woah, woah! Hold it! You can't just roll out of here with that equipment, you need to get clearance from the requisition officer" he asserts.
"No problem, here" the former requisition officer states, leaning out from the door to his office.
The guard glares at the clerk in confusion.
"Gary, you know that this isn't how inventory transfers are done. What's gotten into you?" The guard insists.
"Show me your requisition forms, now!" he shouts at the former humans, they remain silent and still.
"That's it. You're all going to be detained and that includes you, Gary" the guard threatens.
The former humans respond by violently thrashing the guard as the requisition clerk watched passively. The guard is overwhelmed and drops to the hexagon tiled floor, the former humans continued to beat him into an eventual bloodied coma state, then dragging his unmoving body out of view of surveillance cameras. Another guard strolling by sees the scene and approaches, yelling.
"Hey, stop!"
The former humans quickly push their cart to the elevator with their looted parts . An elevator was still parked on that level, it quickly opens and they file inside the car.
"Dammit! Stop!" the guard shouts in frustration, running toward the elevator as the doors began to close.
The guard was about the jam the door to the elevator when a former human's fist came flying through the closing doors and socked the guard square in the nose, the guard staggered, blood gushing from his face. The former humans move to the ground level and move the cart to a side exit where they begin loading the parts onto a waiting truck which soon disappears into the city traffic.