Previously:
"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 shook the ground. Debris flying through the air as a mushroom cloud rose upward.
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 the 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?
X
With the arrival of Roland and the Crimson Raiders, the trip to Sanctuary had been cut down significantly through the use of various shortcuts that bypassed certain regions that only the Commander and the other former Vault Hunters knew about.
Once they were out of the Highlands, they cut through the Fridge and got their hands on new transportation once they reached Three Horns.
Throughout the remainder of the journey, there hadn't been much talking. More so, the resistance fighters kept their distance from their newest addition who hung close to the back with Tina and Lilith.
The little girl showing no hesitation around the slayer even after the utter devastation he had dealt to Hyperion single handedly. Although she seemed more excited as she asked about the big gun that blew the robot army to dust.
As for the Siren, despite witnessing Mason's prowess up close, she still trusted him a great deal even through her friends and allies were still on the fence. Though she noticed he had gained instant respect from Brick with how he handled Hyperion.
Roland had attempted to question the slayer, which translated to a minor interrogation. But Mason told him the same thing he had told the Siren. That he would tell them everything once they were back at Sanctuary.
Put off by the answer, the CR commander let it go for the time being as he led them all back to their destination.
Once they arrived at Sanctuary, being let through the gates and entering the town built on the old Dahl mining ship, the residents were curious about the rumors about the new arrival. Though when they saw the nearly seven foot tall armored warrior being led to the Crimson Raider's HQ with a nine year old little girl riding on his shoulder they were divided between wanting to know more, or preparing for a possible fight.
Mason looked around Sanctuary with a sense of deja vu. Unlike when he played the Borderlands series, the town was actually a lot bigger and there were a lot more people.
The shield dome that protected everyone shimmered high above as the pylons that powered it fed energy into the air. VEGA had already started collecting data from the things around them as they were led through the streets to the archive building that had been retrofitted to act as the resistance's headquarters.
Tina looked around from her high vantage point. Seeing so many people after being locked away in a Hyperion facility of a while made her more than a little nervous. As if sensing her discomfort, the slayer reached up and patted her knee gently, reminding her that he was there and nothing would happen to her.
Entering the HQ, Mason took a quick glance around the cluttered area that acted as a strange combination barracks/lab/laundry room just before a woman with short brunette hair with goggles on her forehead approached them.
"Roland! It's about time you've returned. I need to have a word with you in regards to the Eridium reports your little group has put together." the woman rambled off, disregarding just about everyone else in the room.
"Later, Tannis. We have a meeting that needs to be conducted upstairs." replied Roland with calm patience at the woman's eccentric nature.
Tannis blinked before looking up at Mason, "Hmm. Another bloody knuckled brute for the raiders I see." she blinked again as she looked over his armor with a calculating gaze. "Strange. This armor bares no sigils of any known manufacturing company." she knocked on the chest plate, "Seems harder than anything Hyperion could construct as well."
She looked higher, past the slayer's visor and focused on the red mark of the Night Sentinels on his helmet.
"Mason, this is Patricia Tannis. She's our leading expert on anything Eridian." Lilith cut in, not wanting the intelligent, yet very unstable, scientist to bother him too much. "She's also probably one of the smartest people on the planet."
"Please, Lilith. I'd have to loose half my IQ to just be considered 'smart'." Tannis replied, not taking her eyes off the sigil on Mason's armor. "Where is it you got this mark?" she asked the slayer, motioning to the catalyst of her attention.
Before Mason could answer, Roland cleared his throat. "Before he answers any of your questions. I need some of mine answered first." he motioned to the stairs and began to head up them.
Mason reached up and took hold of Tina, setting her down to walk beside him given the lower ceilings as they and the others followed the Commander. Tannis bringing up the rear after grabbing a pair of Echos.
Entering the war room, everyone surrounded the holotable in the middle that showed a map of Pandora. The slayer picked up his little charge and sat her down on the edge of the display. "Now that we're all here, I think it's time we had that talk." Roland stated with his arms crossed over his chest.
"Lilith was right, subtly isn't in your wheelhouse." Mason said, causing the Siren to smirk and Mordecai and Brick to chuckle while the Commander frowned at his friends and colleagues. "Regardless, a promise is a promise." he reached out and placed his palm over the holotable. The display flickered a moment before VEGA's avatar appeared hovering over the surface. "You good in there, VEGA?"
"The archives and firewalls of Sanctuary's network have the bare minimum of security. Give me a moment."
Around the room, all of the monitors and radio equipment flickered wildly for a few seconds before coming back online again.
"What did you just do?" Roland demanded, not liking the idea of a foreign program running through their base's systems.
"I have applied stronger firewalls and security measures to Sanctuary's network and scrambled the Crimson Raiders' echo transmissions to not be detected by anyone other than those in this command post. Hyperion won't be able to find a backdoor into your systems now." replied the AI.
"An artificial intelligence?" Tannis breathed with her mind spinning wildly. A catalogue of questions coming to mind.
"Gotta admit, that was impressive." said Mordecai.
Roland cleared his throat again, "Thanks for that, I guess. But we still need answers."
"Of course, Commander." said VEGA as Mason rolled his shoulders.
"First and foremost, I'm going to make it known that I am no threat to the Crimson Raiders. As for who I am...that's going to take a lot longer to explain. So bare with me here." the Slayer reached up and removed his helmet, setting it on the holotable beside VEGA's avatar. "My name, is Mason Riley. And neither I or VEGA are from this dimension."
A long silence filled the war room. Then Brick started laughing.
"That's a good one right there!" he exclaimed while still laughing, Mordecai soon joining him. Though the mirth didn't last long when the slayer's red-glowing eyes locked onto them with a stone-faced expression.
"Wait...you're being serious?" asked the hunter baffled.
"Very." Mason said before turning to VEGA. "I think they're going to need an in depth background before we get into how we got here."
For the next hour, the AI explained the creation of the Union Aerospace Corporation and the advancements it made to humanity and the betterment of Earth. Bringing up dozens of files and video logs of what the company had done which peaked the attention of the former Vault Hunters. This continued into how after many years, an energy crisis threatened to cripple the planet and all those that lived on it.
Desperate for a solution, Doctor Samuel Hayden, CEO of the UAC, and his science team had found a new energy source that could end the crisis indefinitely while at the same time opening an entirely new field of study.
"You...You can't be serious..." Lilith said in disbelief when they were told exactly where this new energy had come from.
Mason nodded to VEGA who brought up a large holoscreen that showed a recon team going through a portal...and finding themselves in a nightmare beyond comprehension.
A world of fire, infinite abysses, rivers of blood, the air filled with the screams of damned souls...and beasts that made any creatures on Pandora look domesticated.
The only sound in the room was the beer bottle in Mordecai's hand shattering on the floor when it fell from his limp grasp as the group watched footage of Imps tearing a scientist to shreds, a Hellknight ripping a soldier in half and a Cacodemon eating another alive.
Mason had covered Tina's eyes to keep her from seeing the carnage that he had become used to long ago while the adults got a full view.
Roland leaned forward on the table, just as much in shock as the others as he watched the footage unblinking. "...Hell...Hell is real..." he muttered, not wanting to believe it.
"I'm afraid things only get worse from here." said VEGA as more information was produced. Files depicting experiments conducted on the new energy designated as Argent given where it was discovered, and the creatures that had been captured from the many jaunts through the dimension from where they came.
As a scientist, Tannis could understand a lot of what was being shown. Taking down a catalogue of notes to review later. But in the back of her borderline madness driven mind, she couldn't help but see what the UAC was doing as a proverbial pandora's box.
"Those sick fucks weaponized those things?!" Lilith shouted, watching the creation of a Revenant through video files taken from the experiments.
"Dr. Hayden and various other members of his inner circle saw the benefits of military applications through use of the demons. Their resilience and strength were seen as a boon to help defend humanity." said VEGA.
"Yeah, cause that always turns out well in the end." Mordecai muttered, watching a separate video of cannon arms being applied to a Mancubus.
"You are correct in that assumption. Dr. Hayden realized too late of Hell's influence. One of his most trusted, Olivia Pierce, had become indoctrinated by the demons with promises of power and knowledge in exchange for her help in releasing them. With the aid of her own staff that had been equally persuaded, they unleashed an enormous wave of energy from within her personal labs which claimed the lives of 61,337 of the personnel that operated within the Mars facility. 64% of which had been turned into undead creatures classified as Possessed." The AI explained while bringing up images of the zombified staff and soldiers.
Roland looked across the table at the slayer. "This...This is a pretty big thing. Not going to sugar coat it. But where do you come in in all of this?"
Mason brought his attention back to his AI partner. "VEGA, bring it up."
"Of course." a new video was revealed, this one showing Samuel Hayden and a team of elite soldiers traversing Hell to a newly discovered location. A journey that claimed the lives of several until they came across a type of temple that had been heavily guarded and covered in demonic runes.
And at the center of this temple was an altar where a stone sarcophagus was set.
The Vault Hunters watched as the discovery was brought back to the UAC facility on Mars and placed in a lab to be examined. Not long after that, the 'Hell Wave' had been unleashed by Pierce which prompted Hayden to act. Footage of the lab came up and showed several robotic arms opening the sarcophagus to reveal a muscular, scarred, and very naked Mason chained to the interior.
Lilith and Tannis blushed, the latter fighting back throwing up as they watched the slayer break his chains and slaughter the possessed in the room before acquiring his suit, which had been stored in the adjacent room in a similar state as he had been.
From that point, the group bore witness to the slayer waging a one man war against Hell's legion on Mars through the visor of the Praetor suit. Creatures that they had seen killing average men falling before him as he literally tore them apart in addition to shooting them with an impressive arsenal that he had been collecting along the way. One of said weapons being a chainsaw which had been used a great deal, much to the amusement of the resident berserker.
Tina watched the footage wide eyed, despite Mason's best attempts to keep her from doing so, and saw man that had saved her killing horrifying monsters left and right. Instead of fear and disgust, the little girl grinned with excitement and even started cheering when she saw Mason take down even larger opponents.
The adults in the room saw this and wondered if she was okay on a mental level after what happened with Hyperion. Or if this was naturally her.
Things progressed from there, meeting Hayden and VEGA for the first time, stopping the meltdown of the foundry which would have leveled most of the facility, encountering Olivia Pierce who was dead-set on opening a portal to Hell to unleash their armies.
The former Vault Hunters watched as the deranged woman actually succeeded in the end through the use of the Argent tower and an accumulator that she set to go critical. The blast that came with the opening of the portal sending Mason to Hell as well.
"Shit man, back to where it started." commented Mordecai.
"Something still isn't making sense." said Lilith as she turned to Mason. "Why you? Why did these things have you sealed in that box?"
The slayer paused the footage before having VEGA explain;
"When the UAC were mapping out the various regions of Hell, they came across a series of strange tombes. Each one possessing a codex that spoke the legend that was said to have struck fear into the hearts of the demons." said the AI.
"What legend?" asked Tannis, on the edge of her non-existent seat.
VEGA brought up the image of an odd looking statue that had an opening with teeth-like protrusions coming out the sides with the Night Sentinels' symbol in the center glowing green. A moment later, a deep, demonic voice began speaking through the speakers around the room;
In the first age, in the first battle, when the shadows first lengthened, one stood. Burned by the embers of Armageddon, his soul blistered by the fires of Hell and tainted beyond ascension, he chose the path of perpetual torment. In his ravenous hatred he found no peace; and with boiling blood he scoured the Umbral Plains seeking vengeance against the dark lords who had wronged him. He wore the crown of the Night Sentinels, and those that tasted the bite of his sword named him... the Doomslayer.
Tempered by the fires of Hell, his iron will remained steadfast through the passage that preys upon the weak. For he alone was the Hell Walker, the Unchained Predator, who sought retribution in all quarters, dark and light, fire and ice, in the beginning and the end, and he hunted the slaves of Doom with barbarous cruelty; for he passed through the divide as none but demon had before.
And in his conquest against the blackened souls of the doomed, his prowess was shown. In his crusade, the Seraphim bestowed upon him terrible power and speed, and with his might he crushed the obsidian pillars of the Blood Temples. He set forth without pity upon the beasts of the nine circles. Unbreakable, incorruptible, unyielding, the Doomslayer sought to end the dominion of the dark realm.
The age of his reckoning was uncounted. The scribes carved his name deep in the tablets of Hell across eons, and each battle etched terror in the hearts of the demons. They knew he would come, as he always had, as he always will, to feast on the blood of the wicked. For he alone could draw strength from his fallen foes, and ever his power grew, swift and unrelenting.
None could stand before the horde but the Doomslayer. Despair spread before him like a plague, striking fear into the shadow-dwellers, driving them to deeper and darker pits. But from the depths of the abyss rose The Great One, a champion mightier than all who had come before. The Titan, of immeasurable power and ferocity. He strode upon the plain and faced the Doomslayer, and a mighty battle was fought on the desolate plains. The Titan fought with the fury of the countless that had fallen at the Doomslayer's hand, but there fell the Titan, and in his defeat the shadow horde were routed.
And in his terrible rancor between worlds and through time, the Hell Walker found the wretch who shall not be named, but in his heresy was loyal to his evil cause. The wretch adorned the Doomslayer in a mighty armor, wrought in the forges of Hell, impenetrable and unyielding. With sword and shield of adamantine strength, the Doomslayer set to banishing all that were left unbroken by his savagery to the void.
Yet as the mighty Titan fell and dread engulfed the armies of Doom, the demon priests of the Blood Temples laid a trap to capture this scourge of Hell. Insatiable, even by the vanquishing of the Great One, the Hell Walker sought prey in the tombs of the Blood Keep. And blinded by his fervor, the lure drew him in. The priests brought down the temple upon the Doomslayer, and in his defeat entombed him in the cursed sarcophagus. The mark of the Doomslayer was burned upon his crypt, a warning to all of Hell that the terror within must never be freed.
There he lies still, and ever more, in silent suffering.
As the last of the words drifted away, not a word was spoken. What could be said? Despite not wanting to believe what they had just heard...it was hard not to given what they had learned thus far.
All eyes were drawn to the slayer who was looking down at his right hand, once again lost in a sea of memories that felt like his own but at the same time not. The testaments bringing them to the forefront of his mind as he recalled each event as they were spoken.
"There are things out there, things beyond your comprehension. Most of which exist only in nightmares." the slayer spoke grimly. "There aren't many explanations for them. They simply are."
Tannis swallowed thickly, "The scriptures said eons...how old are you?"
Mason half-smirked, "I don't know." he said with utter honesty.
"UAC scientists estimated the carbon-date of the sarcophagus as several millennia. In theory, Mason is MUCH older than that. He may well be the oldest being on this planet." said VEGA.
"...How?" Mason looked up at Roland who remained in a state of shock. "How is it possible?"
The slayer shrugged, "Time flows differently in Hell. Infact, it stands still. A never ending world of chaos and torment."
"Shit." Brick said, summing it up perfectly. "The fuckers had to drop a damn mountain on you to take you out? You gotta be one hell of a badass."
Mason chuckled at the accidental pun, "So I've been told."
"Why seal you away though?" asked Lilith. "If you were such a threat, why not try to finish you off?"
"They feared that my soul would continue to roam Hell after death and bring them to extinction in retaliation." the slayer answered, "That's how much they feared me. So they kept me alive and locked me away with the hope I wouldn't be released."
Roland removed his hat and ran a hand over his head several times, "We should save anymore questions until the end. VEGA, can you continue the footage?"
The AI complied and continued where they had left off. This only cemented the legend they had just learned as they watched Mason make several trips from Mars to Hell and back. His enemies getting bigger, fiercer, and more numerous with each conflict he faced. But none survived by the time he was finished.
The fights against the Cyberdemon and the Hell Guardians really had the former Vault Hunters on edge. But they too fell before the slayer in his crusade to end the invasion. Brick grinned from ear to ear when the upgraded Baalgar demon was beheaded with its own severed horn at the end of the conflict.
Every event was laid out before them, including VEGA's sacrifice and shutting down the Well and sealing the portal indefinitely, leading to the final confrontation with Pierce who had been used as a sacrifice to summon the creature VEGA had dubbed the 'Spider-Mastermind'.
Which, in the end, had its head blown almost completely in half with the BFG-9000 before Mason was brought back to Mars via the tether system. Where Hayden showed his true colors;
"You see, I've watched you work, come to understand your motivation. You think the only way is to kill them all, leave nothing behind, and you may be right. But we can't just shut it all down. Without Argent Energy it will be worse."
The man/machine's words shocked him, "Are you fucking serious?! Look around you! Has any of this bullshit been worth it?! All the death, destruction and chaos, and you still want to keep up with it?!"
"I don't expect you to understand, or agree." said the doctor. He snapped out his hand, the Crucible was suddenly yanked from Mason's belt and into his awaiting palm. "But with this, we can continue our work."
"That fucking piece of slag shit!" Lilith shouted, her powers flaring around her in her rage. The others sharing her thoughts at the man's betrayal.
"You sonovabitch!" Mason roared as he lunged for the cyborg. Inches away from grabbing the doctor by the neck when a pair of argent pilons came online and fired energy tethers that ensnared his arms and kept him in place.
Hayden shook his head, "I am not the villain here, Doomslayer. I do what I do because there is no other choice.
"Re-routing tether coordinates...Complete." the facility's voice suddenly chimed.
"Our time is up." said the doctor as he looked at Mason's restrained form. "I can't kill you...but I won't have you standing in our way." he snapped his arm that was holding the Crucible, the artifact's top end opening up and projecting a red energy blade covered in hellion script with a pickaxe-like tip. "Until we see each other again..."
The teleportation unit started firing, energy arcing along his form again. But Mason paid it no mind. He couldn't let this happen, couldn't let Hayden get away with this. The invasion would happen all over again if he didn't do something!
As the argent energy surge got stronger, Hayden turned and prepared to head back where he had come from...that's when Mason struck.
Using every bit of strength gifted by the suit, his own body and the rage coursing through his veins, he kicked on his thrusters and surged forward. The doctor had a moment to register the movement when the armored human grabbed the arm that was holding the artifact. The metal crunching under his grasp as he was pulled back toward the activating portal.
The arm going along with him as it gave way and was ripped from Hayden's body.
"NO!" the Hayden shouted and attempted to grab his severed limb, missing it by inches as Mason was pulled into the portal and disappeared in a flash of light.
"The next thing I know, I'm in some cave at the edge of the Arid Badlands." said Mason when the footage ended.
"Fuck amigo." Mordecai said while shaking his head. "I don't think I'm going to tell anyone to go to Hell anymore...unless it's Jack."
Tannis turned off the echo she had recording the presentation before bringing her full attention to the slayer. "This 'Crucible'. Do you still possess it?"
Mason brought a hand to his side, reaching into his suit's quantum pack and taking out the weapon in question. The eyes of the skull-hilt glowing bright red from all the energy it had absorbed from the Wraiths back in the remnants of Argent D'Nur.
With a flick of the wrist, the argent blade snapped into existence. Bathing the war room in a red glow and causing everyone to step back.
"That," Brick began while pointing at the sword. "Is a creepy-ass weapon...but, it looks so AWESOME!"
Tina reached out to touch it, but Mason quickly deactivated the blade and put it away, causing her to pout. "Can I atleast see the big gun you used to blow up the robots?" she asked with puppy eyes before yawning loudly.
"Maybe another time. I think a certain someone should get a good nights sleep first." said the slayer, looking out the window and seeing the sun had already begun its descent.
The little girl shook her head while rubbing her eyes, "Don' wanna..." she mumbled while trying to fight off the hands of sleep. Mason scooped the girl up and looked back toward Roland.
"Anywhere I can leave this little one?"
"The barracks are across the hall. She should be safe and comfortable there." the Commander replied.
Nodding, the slayer left the war room while Tina had already began to nod off in his arms.
Everyone watched him leave before turning back to one another. "Thoughts?" asked Roland.
"That guy is a badass on a whole nother level." said Mordecai. "He fought in Hell, Rol. HELL! I mean, fuck! They all fear him there amigo! If what we saw is what he does to demons...think about what would happen if he went after Jack and Hyperion?"
Brick chuckled, "Sounds like a pretty good time to me! Wouldn't mind competing to see who kills the most out there." he said while slamming his fists together.
Roland looked across the table at Lilith, who was looking down at Mason's helmet and running her fingers over the tinted visor. "Lil? You were with him the longest. What's your take on this?"
The Siren was quiet for a moment or two, "He saved my life. And so far the only things he's killed are bandits and Hyperion assholes. Despite where he came from and what he faced, I know we can trust him."
"I agree with Lilith." said Tannis. "Mason, or Doomslayer, whatever he wants to be called, is a juggernaut that rips his enemies to shreds. That alone could help the Crimson Raiders. But the knowledge he and his AI companion could be a boon all on its own. Proof of other dimensions, similar to our own but very different. This changes everything!"
"Did you not see what the rest of us did?" asked Mordecai. "Dimension hopping sounds good and all, but not when you go through a place that's filled with monsters and death."
"Yet you and the others survived the Vault." the scientist fired back smugly.
Despite her monologue about all the new science involved, Roland knew Tannis was right about one thing. Mason was a damn powerhouse that had been fighting longer than any of them have been alive combined, against things worse than anything Pandora or Jack could cook up. And with the state of the Crimson Raiders at the moment, they could use something, or in this case someone, to give them the edge they need to strike back.
His mind finally made up, the Commander spoke with the others while they waited for the slayer to return.
X
A/N: Good to be back in the swing of things. And with more videos and information being released about Doom Eternal every week, its starting to look more and more like one of the best games of the year already!
I know Mason revealing his and VEGA's origins so soon is off putting to some, but that and a lot more will be answered next time. I also have a bag full of surprises in store later down the road to keep things even more interesting, so don't go too far.
Keep sending your love and support, and I'll update as soon as possible! Till next time!