The tram rolled smoothly into its station.
Jack and the others had been preparing themselves for heavy resistance. He was imagining an army of Z-Secs, waves of Imps, a shifting, living wall of Demons. But as they played their lights out over the darkened tram receiving station, all the pale shafts of light revealed was dented, bullet-riddled, bloodstained walls. No bodies, though. Jack frowned as he continued hunting for something, anything, checking out the niches and shadows and alcoves and vents for signs of life. He couldn't see anything, then again, he was still inside the tram.
"Cover me," he said, stepping forward.
"Taylor, go with him," Blackmore replied.
Jennifer stepped up and joined him. Jack reached out and hit the doors. They slid open. The sound was terribly loud in the dead silence. The two of them carefully stepped out onto the platform. It creaked ominously beneath them. They spread out slowly, apprehension obvious in their tight movements. Three minutes ticked by with a painful lethargy as they checked the area. But there was nothing. No zombies lurked in the shadows, no Imps hid in the vents. Nothing. They finished their sweep.
"We're clear!" Jack called.
"Where the hell is everyone?" Jennifer muttered. "This should be heavily guarded."
"Maybe we got lucky," Jack replied as the others came out. "Maybe they're busy elsewhere or maybe they're pulling out. Either way, we need to take advantage while we still can, find a way to destroy that gateway."
"Couldn't agree more," Blackmore said as he joined them. "Let's go."
They crossed the platform, making their way over to the single door. It was huge, ominous, creepy as hell. The five of them gathered before it, guns ready, flashlights on. Thompson opened the door on Blackmore's command.
There was nothing living waiting for them.
Only the dead waited.
Jack spent a long moment trying to contemplate what he was seeing. It was like his brain simply wasn't processing it. He remembered a similar situation happening during one his first times seeing combat. He'd been in Peru, guarding a base from an assault by a local mercenary force. One of them had fired a rocket and it had hit somewhere nearby. Jack had been sprayed with blood and he'd turned and that same thing had happened. Something was wrong with the man who had been fighting beside him a moment before.
But he just couldn't tell what.
He remembered that he'd kept blinking, like he had something in his eye, and then finally it had kicked in, his brain had finally caught.
His head was missing.
It had been taken clean off by a flying piece of shrapnel.
Only this was worse. A lot worse.
They were standing at the beginning of a very long corridor that was cast in a broken, flickering light, though this light did not come from malfunctioning bulbs, but from candles. They were attached to the walls in pairs, stretching away from them. And the walls themselves, they were stonework, not metal, and not the kind of stone they'd seen so far, built from lunar regolith. This was the kind of heavy brickwork you might see in a castle.
But, worst of all, were the bodies.
There had to be dozens of them at least. They were crucified to the walls, stripped naked, spidery trails of blood emanating from their wrists and ankles, pooling on the floor. Their heads hung limply towards their chests and their faces were still caught in a rictus, a visage of pain and agony. The hallway seemed to go on for a while.
"How?" he heard himself ask softly.
"Come on," Blackmore said gruffly. "We need to keep pushing."
He took the first step into the hallway, and that seemed to lift some of the haze that had descended over Jack's mind. He shook himself, steeled himself for what lay ahead, and joined Blackmore. They began moving slowly down the corridor, single file, down the dead center. Jack tried not to look at the dead, but it was difficult. There were just so many of them, and he hadn't ever actually seen someone crucified before.
It was horrifying.
As the paroxysm of terror continued to fade, losing its grip, other thoughts began to sneak into his skull. "I just realized something," he said.
"What?" Blackmore replied, sounding alarmed.
"This can't be part of the original design. The stone bricks. The candles. I mean...where did all this come from?"
Blackmore stopped walking and looked around. It must have just occurred to him as well. Finally, he started walking again. "A question for the ages," he replied.
Jack wasn't satisfied, but he supposed it didn't matter. They still had to keep on pushing. Maybe the UAC really was this crazy and built it like this. Or maybe they found it like this? He still wasn't entirely clear on how much had been inherited and how much had been constructed. Finally, slowly, like a bad tooth ache or a migraine, the hallway came to an end. Somehow, getting to the end was worse than walking through it.
"Careful now," Blackmore murmured, his voice heavy with worry.
The door, which was of the same silver design as most of the other doors in the base, looked very out of place among the stonework masonry. The control panel was still there, at least. Blackmore reached out and hit the button.
The door slid up into its niche.
"Wow," Jack heard himself say.
An immense room, almost like a cavern in a cave, awaited them. It was at least well lit, though Jack wasn't entirely sure where the light was coming from. It seemed ambient, like it was coming from everywhere and nowhere. And the fact that it was a reddish-orange light didn't help. The area was totally flat and about three hundred feet across. A dome rose over them, made of some strange stone. The remains of workstations, machinery, all manner of technology and equipment, lay scattered and dead across the floor, which was made of a strange, almost iridescent green brick. And there were a great deal of bodies, too.
Lots of corpses, shredded, chewed, broken, mangled.
In the dead center of it all, almost like an alter, was what must be the gateway. It was a large, metal disc with three huge, upright rings attached to it, all three of them locked together and inside of each other. The metal was midnight black and seemed to almost pulse with raw, dark power. On either side of the gateway were large stone slabs that looked very out of place. Slowly, the group approached the centerpiece.
They came to stand before it. Jack didn't want to get much closer. It was like standing in front of an oven, only if the heat waves were bad vibes. He didn't know how else to describe it. It was a bad, evil thing and it corrupted the very air around it. It seemed to be trembling very, very slightly, as if reality itself couldn't contain it.
"So how are we going to do this?" Jenkins asked. "I mean, how do we deal with this?"
Blackmore stepped closer to it. "Maybe we can-"
There was a bright flash and suddenly, where previously the two stone slabs had been empty, now they were occupied.
A fresh new visage of raw terror stared down at the squad.
They were demons. Genuine demons. Nine feet of solid muscle, with goat legs and big, black horns that grew out of the sides of their elongated skulls. Eyes of burning malignant red energy stared at them with all the hatred in the universe. And there was an intelligence lurking there, an awful intelligence. Their naked flesh was deep pink in color, their legs a strange green, their cloven hooves pitch black and polished.
As one, the twin beasts opened their mouths and roared. The sound froze Jack's marrow. One of the creatures stepped forward, its hoof clacking as it hit the stone, and reached for Blackmore. He stood frozen like a statue, staring up at the massive beast. It grabbed him, raised him over its head and tore him in half, armor, suit, and all.
Blood showered the beasts, showered the team.
"Open fire!" Jack heard himself scream.
All hell broke loose.
The SMG was in his hands, and that's what he opened up with. Taking aim, zeroing the sights straight on the massive chest of the huge creature, he squeezed the trigger and didn't let go until the gun was dry-clicking. The others opened up as well, but the creatures were already moving. One of them raised its hand and then motioned like it was throwing a baseball, but what came out of it was a solid green ball of fire or energy. It hit Thompson squarely in the chest, throwing him backwards right off his feet.
Jack emptied the Raptor and shakily reached for a reload as he was backing away. He let out a startled shout and dropped the magazine he'd been reaching for when the other demonic entity threw a second green energy ball his way. He narrowly avoided it and as he stumbled around, he felt the chaingun bump against his back. Dropping the SMG, he brought the chaingun into play. Jennifer and Jenkins were splitting up, pelting the creatures with shotgun blasts. It didn't seem to be doing very much.
The hell beasts split up. One of them was coming straight for Jack.
He looked around as he warmed the chaingun up. Thompson was still on his back, he couldn't tell if the man was alive or dead. Jenkins and Jennifer were split up, spread apart, and wouldn't be helping him. They were dealing with their own problem. The creature was stomping towards him, murder in its eyes, raising its fist for another deadly throw. Jack spun the chaingun up, ready to release a hail of red hot death.
And nothing happened.
"Oh fuck me!" he screamed, dropping the gun and throwing himself out of the way as he remembered that he'd already used the last of his ammo. He narrowly avoided another green ball of energy that seared past him. He could feel the heat coming off of it. The monster roared and continued stomping for him. He saw a discarded SMG magazine and scrambled over to it, snagging it up and slapping it into the Raptor.
Turning around, he raised the gun once more and emptied it into the huge monster, spraying down its broad chest and face with rounds. Most of them made contact, only some of them drew blood. How strong was this thing?! He grabbed for his last magazine and that's when the creature lunged for him, crossing the distance in a second. It backhanded him and sent him flying. Jack yelled in pain as he flew through the air, then hit the hard stone floor. His SMG went flying from his hand. He could still hear the others shouting, guns firing, the second beast roaring.
As he backed away from the one he was still dealing with, unable to stop staring at its massive, terrible form built of solid muscle that looked like it was carved from granite, its huge black horns, its sneering face, he tripped over something. Crying out as he was sprawled to the floor, he realized he'd tripped over Thompson and his big chaingun. He reached over the man's charred chestplate, still unable to determine if he was alive or dead, and snagged the big silver gun. Yanking it up and around, he spun it up, aimed, and fired.
This time the desired effect was achieved.
In a brilliant burst of strobing muzzle flare, a deadly metal hail slammed into the huge demonic creature. It sent the thing stumbling backwards, huge sprays of dark red gore jetting from its muscular chest. He ended up emptying the gun. By the time the magazine was spent, the beast had collapsed to the floor, unmoving in a widening pool of blood. Seeing as it was spent, he dropped the gun and grabbed his shotgun.
He turned to the other one and saw that it was definitely taking on damage. Jennifer and Jenkins had retreated to a safe distance and were continually blasting the thing with their shotguns. Jack hurried forward to help them. He ended up blasting away with every single shell he had left on him, depleting the shotgun and leaving him only with his pistol. Mercifully, as he pulled it out and prepared to continue fighting, the huge demon thing let out a tremendous roar and then toppled to the floor, crashing as it hit the stone.
An awful silence fell across the room.
Jack heard a groan. He turned and looked, spying Thompson shifting. He holstered his pistol and moved numbly over.
"Anyone get the number of that goddamned truck?" he muttered miserably. "What happened? I remember...goats...that doesn't sound right."
Jack couldn't help but laugh as he offered the big man a hand and pulled him to his feet. "You took a green energy ball to the chest."
"I never thought I'd hear that sentence," Thompson muttered. He winced and touched his chestplate, carefully probing it. "Damn lucky I didn't break a rib, though one or two of them feels kind of cracked."
"Guys, how are we going to deal with this?" Jenkins asked.
He and Jennifer had approached the gateway again. Jack and Thompson walked over, joining them. Jennifer was crouching by Blackmore's remains. Jack stared at them miserably. Their Sergeant was dead, and he'd been a good man, a good ally. He'd gotten them through the worst of this...well, Jack hoped they'd already endured the worst.
"Maybe we can rustle up some explosives," Jack murmured.
"We already searched the Military Base," Jennifer replied.
"There's got to be some mining charges around here somewhere. Or maybe we can scavenge some grenades, or rockets maybe? Or oxygen tanks? I mean-"
Jack was cut off as the gateway suddenly began emitting a low hum. It surged to life, pulsing with a dark, malevolent energy.
"Back off!" Thompson called. "Everyone-"
There was a flash of bright black energy.
And then there was nothing but darkness.