"Hey, how are you holding up?" Jack asked as he sat down next to Jenkins. They'd been in the tram for a few moments now, Blackmore silently assuming the role of conductor once more and driving them to the Military Base now. It was, hopefully, the last stop before they hit the Phobos Anomaly, wiped it out and got the hell off this moon.

"Stomach hurts like shit and I'm not sure but I might've pissed myself once or twice so far. Other than that, I'm fine," Jenkins replied.

Jack laughed. He remembered first meeting the kid. His assessment seemed to have not been entirely correct. Jenkins had fought well and hard, and hadn't folded under the pressure. Well, not since the beginning at least. And he was still going, even through all this shit and with a gutshot. "What about you?" Jenkins asked.

"I'm good...you know, all things considered," Jack replied. "This wasn't exactly what I was expecting when I got up here."

"Yeah, definitely," Jenkins muttered. "I wonder how much they knew."

"Who?"

"The people who sent us here. I mean, this is like an exile assignment. Did they all send us here just because they didn't want to deal with us anymore...or because they knew something like this was going to happen?"

Jack considered it. He did wonder that. "I can't imagine the UAC let the people back on Earth in on much. Probably the guys who sent us here knew that something was up, something dangerous, and they were hoping that maybe we'd get offed up here one way or the other. I can't imagine anyone was expecting this," he replied.

"I guess so."

"Guys, I think we have a problem," Jennifer said.

Jack turned to face her.

"Yeah...been getting a little worried about that myself," Blackmore replied from the front of the tram.

He immediately saw the problem. Outside the glass tunnel, in a lot of directions, he could see the awful burning sigils of the Lost Souls and the looming dark shapes of the gun-toting zombies in their suits, which were apparently atmospherically sealed. Jack felt his heart begin to pound harder in his chest, straining against his ribcage. There were a lot of them out there. And...they seemed to be taking interest in the tram.

"Oh shit..." he whispered.

Almost as soon as the words left his mouth, a rocket suddenly streaked from its dark metal nest somewhere off from the right and slammed into the glass tunnel about twenty feet ahead of them. The glass cracked, then shattered, and then huge pieces of the framework fell across the tracks. Blackmore snapped out a curse as he hit the emergency brakes. Jack continued watching in horror as he saw the floor of the tunnel open up and collapse below. A dark hole cut off access to the rest of the tunnel. He grunted as he was thrown from his seat.

All of this happened in the span of just a few seconds.

"Suit up! Get ready to fight!" Blackmore called as he left the front compartment. "We're heading back to the surface. We're going to get alongside the exterior tunnel wall and fight our way to the auxiliary airlock. Ready?!"

"Ready!" the three of them shouted back as they regained their feet and readied their weapons.

"Let's do it!"

Blackmore opened the door and leaped out into the atmospherically compromised tunnel. The oxygen inside of the tram was sucked out, making it that much easier to leave the once safe vehicle. Jack was out next, hitting the metal deckplates beyond, pistol in hand. His shotgun was still dry and he didn't want to use up his SMG. Chances were they weren't going to be doing much fighting out here anyway, just running.

The four of them moved quickly up to the collapsed portion of the tunnel. He wished they could make the jump, and maybe if the gravity wasn't working, but it was and it was also too dark to see down into the hole. Anything could be down there. Anything at all. So instead they slipped carefully out of the tunnel as quickly as they could, as the Lost Souls were closing in and the armored zombies were peppering their position with gunfire. Once the four of them hit the surface, Jack's stomach started to roll.

Not much gravity out here.

They began hurrying along the gray rocky ground as quickly as they could. Jack saw a Lost Soul closing in on him, flaming eyes flickering madly as it made a beeline and he aimed and popped off three shots, breaking the thing into so much free-flying, smoking bony bits. No way he was letting one of those fucking things get to him. There were stark flashes as the others fired occasionally, taking a potshot at a zombie or putting down a Lost Soul that was getting too close. There had to be a couple of dozen of the flying terrors out there.

And he had no idea how many zombies were roving around beyond the reach of the light. At least twenty, probably more. Jack's heart pumped madly and he gasped for breath as he hurried along the exterior of the tunnel. The Military Base was getting closer now, looming over them: a great gunmetal gray rectangle punctuated with windows and airlocks. They hit the halfway mark and kept booking it, going as fast as they could.

Jack emptied his pistol and reloaded. Not a great deal of ammo left. He grunted and grit his teeth as he felt a shot take him in the thigh. The armor held but it still hurt like hell. He kept going, kept pushing, kept running. Suddenly, he was there. Blackmore had the airlock open and was turning around to provide cover. Jack, Jennifer, and Jenkins ran in. They provided cover for Blackmore as he slipped inside and the door snapped shut.

"Shit," Jack whispered as the airlock began its cycle. "That was close."

"Stay sharp," Blackmore replied. "We've got no idea what's behind these doors but I'm willing to bet it's awful."

"It would be par for the course at this point," Jennifer muttered grimly.

Jack took a second to get his breath back, then refocused himself. The airlock finished its cycle. Jack raised his pistol as the doors slid open. He let out a startled shout and snapped off a shot as they parted to reveal the flat black glass of an armored zombie's faceplate. The bullet shattered the glass and punched through the skull beyond. The zombie dropped, but in the bay beyond he could see more. Blackmore appeared at his side, shotgun in hand, and blew one's head off. Jack put down another two with quick headshots.

"More incoming!" Blackmore called as the sound of heavy boots could be heard.

The two of them rushed into the bay beyond, securing it as quickly as they could. It was a combination maintenance area locker room with two entrances. One of them open, one closed. "Secure it!" Blackmore snapped.

Jack took his meaning immediately and rushed across the room, which thankfully wasn't all that big. He hit the lock button, then spun around right as he heard the boom of Blackmore's shotgun and the popping of a pistol. A pair of zombies were coming in through the room. They went down under the gunfire. Jack crouched behind a workbench that had been pushed away from the wall, took aim, and squeezed the trigger as another figure appeared. As he prepared for the next zombie to appear, he heard a sound behind him.

The door he'd just locked was opening.

He shouted and spun around right as the door opened up to admit another zombie. He emptied the pistol into it, dropped it, and ripped his second pistol out of its holster. He continued firing, screaming as he did, spent brass flying as the muzzle flare flashed wildly. He put down another three zombies before that gun was empty as well. He dropped the pistol and brought his SMG up, but nothing else came to the door.

"Clear!" Blackmore called. Jack shakily recovered his pistols. "I thought you secured that door, Ward," Blackmore said.

"I did, Sergeant," he replied as he reloaded. "It was locked."

"Shit, that means they can unlock doors," Blackmore muttered. "Come on, let's go. I want to get some heavier firepower. Pat these assholes down first."

Jack quickly went to work on that particular order, as he was really running low on ammo. Just one magazine left for his SMG and no spare magazines left for his pistols after reloading both of them. After searching the pockets and emptying the guns of the dozen or so zombies they'd killed, he managed to snag another pair of mags for his pistol and two more for his SMG. Still nothing for the shotgun. Which sucked, he liked that shotgun.

Once the job was done, they stepped out into the corridor beyond...and promptly ran into trouble. Both exits from the corridor were locked, and the only other doors led to a bathroom, a storage room, and a workroom, and they were all dead ends. Jack activated the first general access terminal they could find and looked the information over.

"Let me guess, this building is in lockdown?" Blackmore asked.

"Yep," Jack replied.

"Goddamnit! All right, screw this. Lemme see that terminal," he said, stepping up to it. Jack stepped aside and waited. A few minutes went by. "Okay, this is what we're going to do," Blackmore began. "There's a network of sewers and maintenance tunnels below us and there's access back in that first room. We go down there, we gut the damned lockout controls and then get to the armory," he explained.

And so they did.

Jack found himself leading the expedition into the underground as they backtracked and hunted down the hatch. He opened it up and looked down the narrow shaft. It extended about fifteen feet and wasn't very well lit. All he could see was a square of metal at the bottom. Sighing quietly, he let his weapons hang and mounted the ladder. Making his way down as quickly as he could, he hit the bottom, jumped off and brought his SMG into play. He didn't like what he saw, but it at least wasn't a living enemy coming for him.

It was a blood-stricken work area that was totally trashed. Machinery bled sparks, tools and parts and debris were strewn across the deckplates. What really disturbed him were the parts of bodies. The limbs, the heads, the half-eaten torsos and severed hands. If he didn't know any better, he'd say it was a feeding pit.

Somewhere nearby, something snorted and let out a deep growl.

"I think we've got Demons nearby," Jack reported as he stepped out of the way.

"Of course we do," Blackmore muttered as he got off the ladder. "Wouldn't want it to be too easy, now would we?"

Jennifer and Jenkins joined them and they gathered at the exit. This time Blackmore took point, as he knew the way there. He opened the door and stepped out. Once he gave the all clear, Jack followed and found himself in a long, tight corridor. Oh great, more of these. At least the lights weren't flashing or strobing or whatever. Unfortunately, he could smell the thick reek of guts and raw meat. It smelled like a fresh slaughterhouse.

Something else growled. It was closer now.

"Get ready," Blackmore whispered.

Jack had his SMG in hand now, eyes wide, adrenaline surging through him. The four of them began making their way down the corridor. They heard stomping footfalls but saw nothing in the shadowed and sometimes flickering alcoves that branched away from the main hall. The noises were getting louder. They reached the end of the corridor, which terminated in a T-junction. Blackmore broke left, taking them into an antechamber with four corridors leading away from it. The good Sergeant headed left again and began walking.

That's when it all went to hell.

A roar sounded and a Demon appeared at the head of the corridor and began stomping towards them, its immense maw open and ready to consume.

"Fall back!" Blackmore roared as he aimed and fired, putting a well-placed shotgun shell directly into the thing's big fat mouth and blowing open the back of its huge misshapen head. Another one appeared to replace the fallen creature.

"On our six!" Jennifer yelled, punctuating the warning with a shotgun blast of her own.

Jack cursed and raised his SMG. Blackmore dropped to one knee and stepped to the right, giving Jack a good avenue of fire over his head.

"Firing!" he shouted, aiming at the Demon that was coming towards them. He squeezed the trigger and stitched a bloody line across its face, bursting one of its great golden eyes and piercing its brain, killing it instantly. The next one didn't go down so easily. Jack emptied the SMG into it, finding it harder to sink a killing shot as these things were built tough. He tossed the spent mag and slapped a new one in. Blackmore finished it off, but there were already two more vying for entryway into the hallway.

"We're in trouble!" Jenkins shouted.

"Ward, get that door open!" Blackmore snapped.

"On it!" Jack replied, letting his SMG hang by its sling and stepping up to the only door in the hallway. Luckily it wasn't locked. He opened it and stepped inside, clearing it with a sweep of his SMG. Finding it empty, he called to the others…

This his eyes fell on something new.

"Fall back!"

He stepped forward, staring at it. It rested on a bloodied workbench beneath a bright work-light hanging overhead shining down on it. It almost looked like an alter, like it had been placed there intentionally.

It was a chainsaw, glistening steel teeth and all.

Jack grabbed it and raised it. He spun around and saw that the others were in the room now. "Step aside!" he shouted, then grabbed the ripcord and yanked it for all he was worth. The chainsaw roared to life, drowning out the inhuman sounds of the Demons. It was spectacular and glorious. Jack drove the spinning teeth of the chainsaw into the face of the first Demon as it stomped in through the door. The thing let out a roar of awful pain and fury as thick sprays of blood coated his suit and faceplate and the metal walls around them.

When the beast stopped moving, he yanked the blade out and it fell. Then he drove it into the big gaping mouth of the next one. Jack wasn't sure how long he spent chopping up the fresh meat and coating the walls with blood, and he was only vaguely aware of the fact that he was screaming, but it felt good. It was like he was fighting back against his terror, his pain, his anger, his hopelessness. He was killing it all, carving up these shrieking, reeking Demons as they came to him. He was jarred out of the killing trace when the chainsaw stopped spinning. Coming back to himself, Jack smelled blood and smoke.

He was out in the hallway and his arms were tired and he could hardly see because there was so much blood on his visor.

"You got them, Ward."

He jerked in surprise and spun around, wiping at his visor. He was gasping for breath. "You okay, Ward? You nearly blew my eardrums out," Blackmore said. He was standing amidst a field of chopped up Demon corpses that ran the entire length of the corridor, which was now utterly coated in fresh blood. Jack nodded, shaking now. The chainsaw had been torn from his hands, he realized, as it had become stuck in the last Demon's face.

"Yeah...uh...I'm okay," he replied.

"Here," Blackmore said, handing him his SMG. "Good job."

"Thanks," he replied, accepting it.

"Come on, we aren't far."

Blackmore moved ahead of him as Jennifer and Jenkins came out into the corridor.

"Man, that was awesome! You went like total berserker fury!"

"Yeah...it was pretty crazy," Jack replied. He was still coming down from the adrenaline spike and he had to admit, the fact that he had kind of blanked out there for a little bit freaked him out. He hadn't lost control like that before. Jennifer cleared her throat and Jenkins glanced at her. She gave him a meaningful look. He became uncomfortable, turned around, and began following after Blackmore. Jack and Jennifer followed after them.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"I'm not sure," he replied. "I kind of blacked out there. I was seeing red." He wiped again at his faceplate, clearing it. "I kind of just snapped."

"It was really intense. You went primal," she said.

"This place is starting to get to me. Like...really get to me," Jack murmured.

Jennifer didn't seem to know what to say, and he didn't blame her. There was nothing to say. They had apparently killed all the awful inhabitants of the underground labyrinth, as they encountered nothing else following Blackmore to wherever it was he was going. He led them to what appeared to be some kind of central power nexus that was covered in all manner of technology and machinery. "Gonna override the damned lockout. My security codes have to count for something," he said as he settled in to work. The three of them stood guard while he worked.

After several minutes, he sighed and stood. "Well...I reached a compromise with the computer. The lockout is raised...but now all the doors are open upstairs and there's not a whole lot we can do about it," he explained.

"Great," Jack muttered.

"Yeah. Let's get back up there."

When they got topside, they heard gunfire.

A lot of it. And shouting.

Jack felt his worry and exhaustion and weariness being shoved aside by the pure, simple joy of finding another survivor. Someone must surely be alive. Only a human could shout that many curse words while blasting away at a horde of monsters. The four of them hurried through the base, following the sounds of conflict. They pounded through a few corridors, cut through a mess hall and an utterly devastated barracks and finally located the source of the battle in a bloodied infirmary. Jack saw a trio of black-armored zombies making for the entrance and gunned them down with the others. As he did so, he realized he recognized that voice.

"Come on, you zombie fucks, I've got enough for all of you!"

"Thompson! Friendlies coming in!" Jack called.

"Oh, shit, who the hell is that?!"

"Jack! We're coming in!"

"Hurry up!"

They finished clearing out the zombies and then got into the infirmary. Thompson stood in the middle of a sea of dead bodies, a huge gun in his hands. His envirosuit was streaked with blood and gore and burn marks.

"Oh my God, I can't tell you how good it is to see you guys," he said, lowering the gun.

"I can honestly say the same thing," Jack replied.

Thompson grinned broadly at them, but then his features fell. "Where's everyone else?" he asked slowly.

"You're looking at the team," Blackmore replied grimly. "Where did you go?"

"When the shit went down, I ended up finding my way down into the sewers. They run all over Phobos Base. I got really damned lost and when I finally figured out where I was, I thought it might be a good idea to hit up the Military Base. I figured if anyone were to survive this crap, it'd be the Marines," he explained.

"A good idea," Blackmore said. "I assume you grabbed that from the armory?"

"Yep," he said, hefting the huge, six-barreled silver gun. "She's a beauty. There was another one in there and more ammo than I could carry...so what's the situation? Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you're here, but why didn't you bug out?"

"Pilot's dead, ship's busted," Jack replied.

"Of course. So what's the plan?"

"Show us to the armory and I'll fill you in," Blackmore said.

As they walked out of the room, Jack frowned at the several black-armored zombies. "I hate these guys," he muttered.

"The Z-Secs? Yeah, they're nasty," Thompson replied.

"What'd you call them?" Jennifer asked.

"Z-Sec. They're supposed to be top dog security up here. I found a few documents talking about them," Thompson explained.

"I guess that explains why they're so dangerous..." Jack murmured.

It looked like Thompson had really cleared the place out. They passed several dead zombies, Z-Secs, Imps, and Demons. And a lot of spent brass. When he showed them to the armory, Jack was sad to see that it was pretty depleted. Although there was another chaingun. "Mine," he said, crossing the room and claiming the big silver gun. He recognized the make and model. It was a DX-56 'Widowmaker' chaingun. It was big, nasty, and powerful as hell. It took boxes of ammo. It was loaded and there was one spare box.

Jack put the spare into his backpack.

"Sure you can handle that?" Blackmore asked.

"You're damn right, Sergeant," he replied. It was heavy, but he could handle it. And he wanted to. He was eager to test it out on some monsters. Blackmore just chuckled, then he looked down at the floor, somewhere behind Jack, and his features fell.

"Ah hell," he muttered.

"What?" Jack asked, turning around. He spied a corpse on the floor, its stomach cut open and one arm ripped off.

"Master Sergeant Willits," Blackmore said, walking past him and crouching by the body for a moment. "I thought if anyone could survive this hell, he would...we served together, back on Earth. In Peru, then again in Australia. He was a legit hardass. Damn," he muttered again, straightening up. After seeming to collect his thoughts, he turned to address them. "All right people, finish gathering up all you can. It's too dangerous to head out onto the surface, so we're going to have to take the underground tunnels to the Phobos Anomaly."