The DOOM Chronicles

Chapter 25: Stitching Together A Plan

There was no huge monster, no giant demon waiting on the other side.

There was only a lot of blood and bits of bodies and a carpet of shell casings in an antechamber that led to the CO's office, the control room, and the armory. They quickly secured the area, and found that the armory and control room were also locked down, though the CO's office was open. Kyra checked it out while telling Pace to get the control room open. She wanted in there, wanted to see if there were more puzzle pieces waiting, because at the moment they still hadn't quite finished getting their feet back under them.

The CO's office was expansive, the back wall made entirely of glass, God knew why. The view was just of the constantly blowing snow. Probably it could display other things. The CO himself, a tall man with pale, pale skin and no head, was sprawled across his huge desk. She wondered which one of the ugly things had gotten him in the end. A quick search of the office turned up nothing in particular, and by the time she returned to the antechamber, Pace was in the process of finishing up his job. She joined the others at the door.

"Ready," he said.

"Do it," Kyra replied.

The door opened up. As soon as it did, someone shouted in pure fear.

"Identify yourself!" Kyra snapped.

There was a pause, and she heard shaky breathing. Then, "Oh God, are you human?"

"Yes. United Nations Marine Corps. I'm coming in," Kyra replied.

"O-okay," the voice replied. Whoever he was, he was terrified. Which, Kyra supposed, wasn't an unreasonable reaction to everything happening.

She went into the control room, pistol ready, and took a quick look around. The control room was a rounded room with a glass dome for a ceiling. Workstations studded the walls to either side of her, ultimately leading up to a raised dais at the opposite end of the room. The dais sported a circular desk atop it and that was where a helmeted head tentatively poked up, peering cautiously at her. The control room had been hit, though not terribly hard. Some of the workstations sparked and sputtered, most were dead, and there were a handful of Marine technician corpses scattered around. She slowly walked into the room.

"Who are you?" she asked.

The man swallowed and slowly stood. "Uh...Parnevik."

"Rank?" she asked. Then she looked back over her shoulder. "Pace, get that armory open. North, cover his six."

They both snapped off quick responses and headed off. Linaweaver joined her in the control room, both of them coming to stand in the center of the room.

"Staff Sergeant," the man said.

For just a second, she thought he was addressing her, then she realized he was answering her question.

"You are a Staff Sergeant?" she asked. Everything about the guy screamed terrified Private, maybe PFC. She tried to tell herself that everyone had a breaking point, but it wasn't just fear she was reading on his face. There was guilt there, too. Abruptly, before he could respond, she realized that she was looking at a UAC Marine.

"Yeah," he muttered.

Kyra sighed. "Just...bring me up to speed. What happened here? Is Director Carpenter or Doctor Blair still alive?"

"I...don't know," he admitted. "I don't even know what the fuck is going on. These things...I don't know what they are or where they came from."

"Jesus fucking-okay, move out of there," Kyra said, marching up around to the back of the raised dais. He complied, quickly dismounting the central workstation, and she took his place. It seemed to be largely intact, at least. She began working it. "What have you been doing?" she asked while she tried to see what still functioned.