On the ridge outside of the facility, a flash of fire signaled Lilith phasing back into existence with her little passenger.
"Whoa...cool." Tina said in awe after experiencing the Siren's abilities first hand.
The older woman smiled as she set her down, "You better believe it, kiddo." she turned her attention back to the facility, looking for any signs of Mason. The little girl following her example with a little worry in her eyes.
"He'll be okay, right?" asked Tina.
Lilith went to speak when an explosion shook the ground they stood on. A pillar of smoke and flames reaching into the sky as a section of the structure collapsed in on itself.
"I think he'll be just fine." said the Siren.
X
["Flesh and Metal (W/Build up)" - Doom 2016 OST]
"KILL HIM! KILL HIM BEFORE HE-GHAAA!"
"FUCK! HE'S FUCKING BULLETPROOF!"
"PLEASE I SURRENDER!"
"RETREAT! RETREAT BEFORE IT'S TOO-NO!"
A Hyperion tried to reload his shotgun, hands shaking as he dropped the clip he was feeding into it before a large hand grabbed the back of his head and slammed his face against the wall. He was then dragged downward leaving a red smear in his wake.
Mason spun around, leveling his super shotgun and firing both barrels. The spread blowing a combat engineer's chest open and throwing him back in the room he had come out of.
Throughout the corridor, and several others before that, the remains of dozens of Hyperion personnel and loaders laid scattered. Some of them in pieces from the unstoppable force that was the Doom Slayer. Their regrouped forces doing nothing to hinder his progress.
Breaking the double barrel open, sending the spent shells clattering to the floor, he loaded in two fresh ones and snapped it closed again. His heavy footfalls echoing ominously through the corridor as he got closer to his objective.
Most of the personnel that hadn't been slaughtered were in the process of fleeing once they realized what they were up against. It didn't matter in the end, however. Mason was on the warpath.
Though, if he were honest, he almost missed killing demons.
His rebirth had changed him in many ways. Throughout his exodus through Mars and Hell he quickly figured out it wasn't just physically. Mentally he had changed in a multitude of ways as well.
He could think quicker, retain more information. His instincts were heightened to super-human levels and acquired a mastery of any weapon he got his hands on. But the two most prominent changes were his never ending bloodlust when enraged, and the memories.
Memories of places and people that he knew nothing of. Coming at random moments leaving a slight headache behind, almost like two different minds were conflicting with one another.
Whatever was happening to him, it all came back to waking up from that sarcophagus. And he had yet to find any answers. Even the ominous message he got when he first put on the Praetor suit had yet to yield anything. All he could do was adapt and try to make sense of things as he went along.
Continuing his intended path. Mason lifted his large boot up and kicked a door open. The metal warping inward and giving away instantly, flying into the next corridor and crushing an unsuspecting guard that had been unlucky enough to be on the other side.
Other guards and loaders opened fire on the intruder as he charged into their ranks. His super shotgun registering twice resulting in the deaths of two more soldiers before his fist was driven through the center of th combat-loader.
Throwing the bot aside, Mason swung his double barrel like a club and sent another soldier flying into the window of a closed cell and cracking the reinforced glass. He then sent the super shotgun back to storage, grabbing another guard and viciously snapping his neck to the point of his head facing the opposite direction.
A pair of combat engineers tried to double-team the slayer, only to find both their heads grabbed in Mason's large hands. Their skulls smashed together in a burst of blood and brain matter a second later.
"FUCK THIS! I'M OUTTA HERE!" one of the remaining soldiers shouted as he turned tail and fled, several others following his example. But the slayer wasn't in the mood, his chaingun appearing in his hands and spooling up before unleashing a hellstorm of slugs that tore them down before they had a chance to escape.
After only a few seconds, Mason released the trigger. The revolving barrel slowing to a stop with smoke emitting from the end, the hallway beyond it swathed with blood, body parts, chunks of armor and bullet holes.
"The Eridium storage is just beyond the door ahead." said VEGA. Not commenting on the carnage the slayer had been dishing out for the last few minutes. "I am also detecting Hyperion IFF signals matching those similar with WAR-class combat loaders."
"Well then," Mason said as his rocket launcher appeared in his hands, "Let's go in and say hi."
BOOM!
The sealed door to the storage room was blown wide open as the Doom Slayer stalked in through the smoke. Entering a large storage room filled with various crates and barrels baring either the Hyperion logo, or an array of warning signs.
And as VEGA had informed, six WAR-loaders that all unfolded and locked their weapons on Mason.
"Surrender. Or we open fire." demanded the loader in the front. Its response being a trio of rockets that blew it to pieces.
The remaining loaders opened fire, the slayer charging ahead and avoiding their incendiary rounds thanks to his supernatural speed. His rocket launcher was traded for his HAR, using the precision scope to shoot out the optic of another robot, blinding it before sliding between its legs and coming up the otherside where he shot it in the back with a cluster of pod rockets.
Another WAR-loader attempted to stomp on Mason, but the armored Human proved to be too quick as he jumped into the air. Kicking on his boosters to gain extra height and landing on the machine's head where he drove his fist through it and tearing out a cluster of wires.
The loader shutdown instantly and collapsed to the floor. The Slayer jumped off, but not before tearing one of its gun-arms off and throwing it at one of the remaining bots and knocking it back against a stack of crates.
Pulling out his gauss cannon, Mason activated the weapon's siege mode. Arcs of blue energy crackled around the cannon's barrel as it charged before unleashing a powerful blast that nearly vaporized one of the still standing WAR-loaders, plus critically damaging the one that had been behind it as well.
Attention now on the last loader as it managed to get back to its feet, the slayer drew his recently acquired Torgue revolver. Firing all six shots, two blowing off an arm each and the last blowing out the machine's optic, he slowly reloaded as the bot fell backwards onto he floor dead.
"There are no more Hyperion personnel or loaders nearby. The rest have more than likely fled." reported VEGA.
"Shame." Mason muttered as he sent his revolver back to storage and began looking through the room. Finding most of the crates filled with Eridium, the powerful alien element refined into footlong bricks that cast a bright purple glow from within the confines.
"VEGA, can the Praetor suit store any of this?" asked the Slayer.
"One moment...The suit's 'quantum backpack' should be able to store the Eridium. However, considering that it is an alien element and there is no known data to work with, it is hard to calculate whether or not the Praetor suit will be affected by prolonged exposure to the unknown radiation it gives off."
Thinking over the AI's words, Mason figured that if people could store it in their digi-inventory via Echo, then his suit should be able to handle it without trouble.
Though he would have VEGA keep a sharp eye on the suit's systems. Just incase.
Stashing a crate's worth of Eridium into the Praetor suit's storage, 40 bars total, the slayer turned his attention to the rest of the room. Finding dozens of barrels containing slag or other deadly chemicals stacked together that wouldn't be around much longer when he was done.
Toward the back of the room, however. He found a heavily sealed storage locker tucked away in the corner that required high-level clearance to open. But a heavily armored fist smashing into the locking mechanism worked just as well.
Ripping the locker open, Mason found a large, belt-fed assault rifle resting on hooks like a divine offering. The body painted Hyperion yellow and baring the company logo on the stock, it had a holographic sight on the top rail with a hexagon shaped barre that emitted a soft, magenta glow.
Taking the weapon out of the locker, the Doomslayer looked it over with sharp eyes. Pulling back on the bolt handle before shouldering it and aiming down the sights at the far wall.
When he pulled the trigger, instead of regular bullets a series of glowing purple rounds left the barrel and punched into the steel down range and burned deeply into it.
It was an E-Tech weapon. Designed to fire Eridium laced rounds that were devastating to anyone or anything unlucky enough to be in the sights.
Nodding in approval of the new find, Mason stashed it with his other weapons and gave the storage room another once over before he got to work. Grabbing a canister of flammable chemicals, he ripped a small hole in it and began pouring it all over. Taking another, he made his way back out into the corridor while pouring a trail in his wake. Doing so for several meters until the canister was empty and tossing it aside.
"I estimate we will have roughly 30 seconds to escape before the chemicals within the storage room become volatile." said VEGA as the slayer drew his energy pistol.
"That's more than enough time." he said before shooting the end of the trail he had made. Igniting the chemical and causing flames to flow down the corridor and toward the storage room.
Mason, meanwhile, spun on his heel and ran. His armored frame thundering down the halls at breakneck speeds, intending on getting out of the facility before it became a crater.
X
Back on the ridge, Lilith and Tina kept their eyes peeled for any sign of Mason. They'd heard several more explosions and gunfire from inside the facility, but it had been quiet now for several minutes which had them wondering where he was and what was keeping him.
"Com'mon, Mase. Where are you?" the Siren muttered out loud.
"Lilith!"
The red head spun around, powers flaring until she saw Roland jogging up the path along with Mordecai, Brick and a large squad of Crimson Raiders following him.
"Roland, little late for the party." replied Lilith as her friends soon joined her.
The CR commander looked from her to the facility, seeing smoke coming from the main building and bodies of both loaders and Hyperion soldiers scattered everywhere. "What happened here?"
"Nice to see you again too." the Siren said with an eye roll. Causing Roland to look sheepish.
"Good to see you still in one piece, Lils." said Mordecai, Bloodwing trilling from his shoulder in agreement.
Brick looked down to see the little girl who was standing beside the Siren. "Whose the little one? You adopting now?" he asked her playfully.
"This is Tina. Mason saved her from this place." said Lilith.
"The guy you've been traveling with?" asked Roland, looking around for any sign of said individual. "Where is he?"
Before she could reply, the whole area was rocked by a massive explosion. Everyone looked toward the facility, or more precisely, what was left of it as black and purple smoke rose up where over half the place was now nothing more than flaming wreckage.
"What the hell?!" Mordecai shouted. Everyone else thinking roughly the same until they saw someone stepping out of the remains completely unscathed.
Standing almost as tall as Brick in dark-green power armor that had large blood splatters all over it, a type of shotgun resting on his shoulder as he walked out into the open without a care in the world.
"He's back!" Tina exclaimed happily.
Lilith smiled, a small sense of relief seeing Mason in one piece as Roland came up beside her.
"Is that...?"
"That's him." replied the Siren.
X
On the Helios station, Handsome Jack had been watching the events of what had happened at the slag experiment facility in real time. Looking on as his employees and loaders were torn apart in seemingly no time at all. The sheer amount of bloodshed and carnage was beyond simple overkill.
The armored intruder completely slaughtered them without a single ounce of remorse.
Not even a squad of WAR-loaders could stop him and were dismantled as quickly as everything that came before them.
Gritting his teeth in fury, the CEO of Hyperion watched as the bastard looted his Eridium stash and took one of the prototype E-Tech weapons they had been testing on site. Only to then light the place on fire. An explosion a few seconds later cutting all security footage telling him what became of the facility.
"...Angel?" he hissed through gritted teeth.
"Yes, Jack?"
"Launch orbital drop pods K-7 through K-12. I want him dead and I want him dead NOW!"
Taken aback, knowing the exact contents of said pods, Angel did as instructed and sent the designated payloads to where the experiment site had once been. Hoping that this unknown man could survive what was coming his way.
X
Mason had made it halfway back to the ridge when he heard it. A series of thunderous booms in the sky that drew his gaze upward to see a half dozen fireballs being launched from Helios station and heading straight toward him.
"VEGA?" asked the slayer.
"It is not an ordinance barrage. I'm detecting multiple loader IFFs coming from each projectile. I recommend preparing weapons."
Wracking his combat shotgun, Mason watched the orbital drops hit the ground. WAR and Badass loaders unfolding from the craters and began to advance on him. One final drop, this one bigger than the rest, struck the ground with more force, the loader that rose up from the impact point was the largest one seen thus far.
Towering over the other loaders at over 30 feet with six large gun-arms that all locked onto the Doomslayer the moment it came online.
"BY ORDER OF HANDSOME JACK. YOU ARE SLATED FOR TERMINATION." the super-badass loader boomed. All of the other machines trained their weapons on him as well.
X
"Oh fuck..." one of the Crimson Raiders muttered, weapon shaking in his hands as they all looked upon the small battalion of powerful loaders Jack had just shot down from Helios. All of them lead by the only rarely seen SB-Loader.
"He's gonna need some serious backup." said Roland, preparing his own weapon while the rest of the former Vault Hunters got ready to jump in.
"I would highly advise against that." a voice suddenly spoke from their echos at the same time.
Roland snatched up his, "Who the hell is this?" he demanded.
"Apologies, I did not mean to alarm you. I am VEGA, an artificial intelligence currently residing in Mason's armor."
"An AI?" said Lilith in disbelief, not even realizing that Mason had such a thing with him this whole time.
"And why exactly do you not want us to help him then?" asked Mordecai.
"Mason has endured far worse odds than what he faces currently, and achieved victory. Further more, you would only be in harms way." said VEGA. Down on the ground, the slayer's shotgun disappeared and was replaced with a massive weapon that looked more like a futuristic cannon. Arcs of green energy sparked along the weapons frame with a high-pitched whine as it began to power up.
"I believe you should all brace yourselves."
"Why would we-" Brick was cut off when the weapon in Mason's hands fired. A massive ball of green energy launched from the barrel with bolts of electricity shooting out in all directions. Any loaders that were in its path were instantly vaporized as it shot through the air toward the SB-Loader.
When the energy blast struck its intended target, a bright flash of green light was swiftly followed by an explosion not unlike the one that destroyed the facility shoot the ground. Debris flying through the air as a mushroom cloud rose up into the air.
The Crimson Raiders had fought to stay upright from the explosion, a couple of the resistance fighters having been knocked to the ground were getting back to their feet. All of them baring witness to the complete destruction of the loaders.
"...He...He fired one shot..." Brick said in utter disbelieve as the smoke cleared to reveal to melted, smoldering frames of the Hyperion robots. The Super Badass loader was nothing more than a blackened scorch mark on the ground, an almost glassy sheen left in its wake with chunks of its frame scattered around.
Mason hefted the massive weapon, resting the barrel of it on his shoulder before he made his way toward the ridge.
"Lilith...who the hell is this guy?" asked Roland, unable to believe what they had just witnessed.
The Siren, however, was speechless. Little Tina at her side with stars in her eyes at the explosion she had just seen.
Who the hell was Mason Riley?
A/N: You will all learn soon enough.
This chapter wasn't as long as I originally hoped, but the next one will include Mason finally arriving to Sanctuary...and the revelations of who he is and where he had come from.
Hyperion and Jack were just sent one hell of a message. And things will only get worse for them the longer things go on. Things are gonna change on Pandora...and Jack has no idea what's coming his way.
Till next time folks