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Doom Story Update
🕑 Added 2024-11-08 05:57:25 +0000 UTC2k words
***
After a few more turns, Valeria led them to another bulkhead, the reinforced door sliding open to reveal an expansive courtyard, rays of afternoon sunlight drawing dusty beams in the air.
Rectangles of pristine grass danced in yards of green, spaced by pathwyas of cobbles flanked with tall lampposts. Pockets of wildflowers and even a few trees with wide tops lived in these luscious patches, without a shred of demonic flesh or blood in sight. That park he had come across after fleeing Sharrya the first time had probably looked like this back in its prime.
These pockets of Eden gave way to enormous structures, warehouses with sloping roofs hundreds of meters long and tall, along with other facilities capped with glass domes, their sizes rivalling that of mansions of palaces. The walls of the Rallypoint dominated the backdrop of it all, the fortifications making it seem Andreas was stood in the middle of a supersized prison.
The place they’d emerged from was a structure extruded from the base of the southern wall. Only a sign above the bulkhead gave it away, the ward camouflaged directly into the fortification. Valeria led him out into the middle of the yard, a pair of soldiers walking down the path the other way stopping to salute her.
Looking to his left, Andreas saw a groundskeeper tending to a small garden flanking a shallow pond, a trowel clutched in his gloved hand. For all they knew, that might just be the last natural pond in Spain, or maybe all of Europe.
“Since its inception, the Rallypoint’s purpose was always to be a sanctuary,” Valiera said as they walked. “Underground hydronics bays, state-of-the-art water recyclers, nuclear generators for electricity, all of it hidden behind four walls of concrete lined with automatic aircraft guns. It all culminates as a point of safety for humanity, as its name suggests.”
“And in order to maintain this safety, we were given blueprints to a robotics foundry, so that even our weaponry could be self-sufficient. Guns, vehicles, drones,” she added with a pointed look to Eva. “We could print anything we needed, but without access to an income of raw materials, we could not do so indefinitely. Nor could we defend ourselves indefinitely.”
“So you had ARC bring you a supply run,” Andreas said, nodding in understanding. “I remember seeing one of the dropships getting loaded up with crates of alloys. You want to get this foundry up and running again.”
“More than that, I want to turn this place from a Rallypoint, to a staging point. A dockyard for your fleet, and a beachhead to spear into the heart of Spain and the rest of Europe.”
“That’s a tall order, Commander,” Andreas said, a hint of doubt in his voice. “There are bigger and badder demons out there that make Baron’s look sweet in comparison.”
“
“Fortunately for us, the foundry has allowed as access to ‘bigger’ and ‘badder’ things as well, as you will soon see.”
Valeria was making her way to the warehouses on the far side of the complex, Andreas picking up the whirring of tools and the smell of copper as they drew closer. The one she was bringing him to rivalled the Rallypoint walls in terms of its size, the structure tens of storeys high. The massive door on its front side was yawned open, cargo trucks rolling in and out of the building, sticking the yellow lines painted on the stone before the entrance. The paths turned to stretches of road as they neared the barbed fence forming a perimeter around the warehouse.
Two armed guards stood at the end of the pathway, but they moved aside upon recognising the Commander, Andreas and Eva following her through a gap in the fence. They made a right turn, drawing into the warehouse, the bloom of the sun falling behind its slanted roof.
The interior of the warehouse was as vaulted as its exterior suggested, but the base personnel had made use of every square inch. Shelving units as tall as a house rowed the left and righthand sides, automatic forklifts weaving through the aisles, loaded with reinforced crates. These vehicles dumped their cargo off at the production lines centering the sheer space, where cables and beams drew metal webs over printing beds. Metal arms painted over in bright orange zipped across the beds, each sweep chased by hissing electronics. The way the arms swerved from one bed to the other as they completed their tasks was mesmerising in its fluidity.
Deeper into the complex, the clustered foundry opened up to a vacant floorplan, the space was wide and open as a stadium. There was something standing in the middle of the gallery, something massive, Andreas’ jaw dropping as he beheld a titan.
A giant battlesuit stood in wait beneath a wireframe of gantries. A set of robotic legs upheld a pair of jointed legs, each one measurable to a grain silo. The toes were splayed into four flaps, with nozzles that looked like they’d been ripped straight off a jet plane built between the armour plates. It seemed to grow even larger as Andreas’ eyes trailed upwards. There were two cockpit canopies on its torso, one on the sternum, and one where the head would be, the glass coloured a deep shade of crimson. Radar dishes and camera lenses were mounted behind the main cockpit, and to either side of this equipment were a pair of dual-barrelled turrets set atop the shoulders. Its armaments didn’t end there. Missile silos were built into recesses all along its flat chest, coupled with automatic gun turrets jutting from the belly and oblique areas. Its biggest weapon was the right arm, where the elbow joint gave way to a railgun barrel the size of which he’d only seen on ARC battleships. The left arm was more comparable to a human hand, save for the forearm attachment that looked suspiciously like an underbarrel grenade launcher.
The battlesuit was painted over in a matte grey colours with orange highlights, standing at just under forty meters tall. Meters of room separated it from the ceiling, and this only seemed to add to the behemoth’s size.
“Holy shit…” Andreas muttered, Valeria letting slip a small grin at his bewilderment. “You built a first gen mech?”
“At considerable cost, and at the expense of the last of our alloy reserves,” Valeria affirmed. “We faced considerable delays during the evacuation efforts and the constant sieges, but now that things have somewhat calmed, it’s almost ready, bar a few critical components.”
“I take back what I said, you can do some real damage with one of these on hand.”
Valeria led him closer, he and Eva weaving between the production lines for a closer look. A sense of vertigo dreamed over the mech as he craned his neck to look at it in its entirety. Samuel Hayden, ARC’s founder, had personally designed the blueprints for planetwide distribution some years ago, though where he had gotten the inspiration for such never before seen weaponry had never been disclosed.
“I have been keeping this card close to my chest, so to speak,” Valeria added. “Its existence is only known to a handful of people, and I’ve had this particular part of the foundry as automated as possible to prevent an information leak. We’ve had issues in the past of demonic brainwashing.”
“So why’re you showing me this?” Andreas asked, tuning his attention to the Commander.
“This will be the spearhead of our new offensive, and I want you to be personally involved when it’s time.”
“You… want me to pilot that thing?” Andreas asked.
“You have shown dedication, resilience, and exceptional ability getting here in one piece. You even said yourself you lean more towards offense than defence. I can think of no one more suited to becoming a mech pilot.”
“Commander, you have me sold,” Andreas said, cracking his knuckles. “I’ve always wanted to take a first gen for a twirl.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean would be piloting the gen one, Seargent. That one is yours.”
Andreas searched either side of the mech, but he couldn’t see any more battlesuits. That was, until his gaze lowered, his expression of excitement dwindling as he spotted a second, far smaller mech. This one was coloured in olive green camouflage, its composition almost the same as the gen one, only scaled down to barely a fifth of its size. The top of its cockpit just reached the larger mech’s ankle in terms of height.
“What the-? You show me this monster and then tell me I get the fun-size one?” Andreas sulked, Eva floating over to pat him on the shoulder with a manipulator.
“Seargent, gen ones are crewed by eight individuals, each having to go through six months of training at the minimum. A gen two is far easier to pilot in comparison, being a single-seater.”
“We only had so much material to spare after completing the chassis of the gen one,” Valeria explained. “but if you’re not happy with the mech, Seargent...”
“No no I’ll take it,” Andreas butted in. “Any suit’s better than no suit.”
“Good. Now, Eva has told me you still possess the cargo from your dropship. Do you have it with you?”
Andreas nodded, he’d brought his pack with him after Eva’s breakfast. He produced the two glass spheres, the argent shards suspended in their very centres, wisps of energy flowing from the metal like flames off a campfire.
After days of handling such delicate (and unstable) cargo, it felt good handing them off to the Commander. It threw a weight off his shoulders, knowing that the delivery part of his mission had been a success.
“For such limitless sources of energy, they are such tiny things,” Valeria mused, holding a shard up to the light. “With just one of these, we can power that gen one for fifty years straight. Double that for the gen two. Eva tells me you lost the third one,” Valeria added, her eyes fixing on his. He could swear a hint of suspicion was lying beneath that gaze.
“Ah, that’s right. I only had enough time to grab two,” he lied. “Crash site was getting swarmed by the time I came too.”
That suspicion subsided, replaced with understanding.
“I’d have preferred to power both the gen two’s we’ve fabricated, but you’re not to blame, Seargent. Two mechs will suffice. They have to.”
The Commander motioned for their escort to come over. “Take these,” she said, holding out the shards. “Get the workers installing them asap.”
The guard nodded, holding the shards like two newborns as he walked out into the gallery, towards a cluster of engineers gathered by the gen one’s foot.
“You can start getting a feel for your mech as soon as its powered,” Valeria said. “I plan to move forward with this operation in three days’ time, so there’s no need to rush yourself.”
“Actually, there is a need to rush, three days is too long, Commander.”
Valeria and Eva shared a glance, the Commander gesturing at him. “And what makes you think that, Seargent? Does my schedule not align with yours?”
“From what I’ve heard, you know who Sharrya is, right? The Baron of Hell who leads the demons in the city?”
“I know one or two things about her,” Valeria admitted, folding her arms pointedly. “Though, I wasn’t aware of her name. How do you know that?”
“She’s intercepted me more than once as I made my way over here,” he explained. “We’ve gotten a little familiar with each other since.”
“In more ways that one,” Eva whispered, Andreas shooting her a look.
“What are you getting at, Seargent?” Valeria asked.
“I think I’ve figured her out. Not too much, but enough to know what her gameplan is. She made it her personal mission to see me dead after the nest. She followed right up to the pipe your man Torres led me through. We had a few chats along the way, she’s proud, stubborn, aggressive.”
“You talked with her?” Valeria gawked. “What could a human and a demon have to discuss?”
He didn’t think Valeria would come take too kindly with the truth, of the kinds of advancements Sharrya had made on him, so he paused to make up something she’d believe instead.
“She likes to gloat,” he replied. “She was sure she’d had me cornered a couple times, but it was that arrogance I took advantage of, what we should take advantage of. Shar… the Baroness, has it out for me, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s mustering every demon under her command for another siege. She’ll be back, sooner rather than later. We need to be ready before she is.”
“She has not struck at our walls in months,” Valeria countered. “How can you be sure?”
He made to answer, but Eva spoke up first.
“I’ve been analysing the Baroness also. If looks would kill, Andreas would be dead on the spot. As such, there is a significant chance that the Baron and her demons will retaliate before this three-day time plan you have set. With this knowledge, a pre-emptive strike would increase our chances of catching them off-guard, especially with a pair of mechsuits.”
“Very well, I trust the judgement of a supercomputer, and you as well, Seargent. You know this Baroness more than anyone.”
“Yes, he knows she’s interested in his-” Eva’s voice morphed into a fake ‘oof’ as Andreas nudged her drone with his elbow.
“In any case,” Valeria added. “I must inform the officers about this change of plan. I presume Eva has all the knowledge required, but if you need any help with the mech, just ask the engineers. I’ll send for you shortly.”
Andreas saluted her, one she returned. When she was out of earshot, Andreas turned to Eva, his distorted reflection visible in her lens.
“You didn’t tell her the truth about the third shard,” he noted.
“Seargent, I may be a lot of things, but I’m not a tattle. If you think my reaction to you shooting at an argent shard was bad, the Commander’s would have been far worse. She definitely would not have given you a mech to play with.”
“Thanks, Eva.”
She would have grinned if her drone possessed the will, her tone turning sly as she hovered closer.
“What you said about manipulating Sharrya, was that true? Have you been goading the Baroness into being reckless this entire time, or have you just been flirting with her?”
“A little of both,” he answered. “But back at the pipe, she basically handed me her next move on a silver platter. I played her like a… like a string puppet.”
“Thank goodness you didn’t say hand puppet. I already know you want to put your arm up her behind, Seargent, I don’t need a reminder.”
Andreas retracted away from her as though she’d physically struck him. “Damn, Eva!” he said, his laughter echoing down the noisy foundry. “The fuck did that come from?”
“I could hardly call you out in front of your new boss, could I?” she replied. “And it’s the new body, I’m still getting used to having a metaphysical presence.”
“You’re not the only one with a new look. Come on, let’s go check out the mech.”
Eva floated beside him as they made their way across the gallery, Andreas unable to help but gawk at the far larger first-generation suit. He’d give his arm and a leg for the chance to crush some demons with that thing.
“Why do you think I want to do that to Sharrya’s ass anyway?” he asked.
“From the way you look at it.”
“Eva, that’s not… I’m not into that sorta thing, and I doubt Sharrya is too… is she?”
“Bozo. I’m sure you’ll ask her the next time you see her,” she teased.
“Alright, alright. Evan outside the suit you’re still a pain.”
“Technically not true. A copy of my algorithm resides within this drone. The rest of me is still in your gear.”
“Fantastic.”
