FHD Remix Chapter 12
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Previous FHD Remix Chapter 11: A Healing Touch
Chapter 12: The Problem With Angels
(Doom 3 fourth stage Cyric 1983)
Tatakai beats the uncooperative door with the butt of her shotgun. She's on the upper level of the security office at Mars City administration in her rusty colored Marine armor, her wings deployed through its custom built ports. She's trying to get to the offices of the operational directors. She's doing this in turn, to get the codes for the Alpha Labs, hoping to get ahead of and intercept Jack Campbell and Elliot Swann, and hopefully catch up to a squad of Saviour-spawn Marines called Fire Team Bravo.
She pauses, listening. "Oh, a kitty?" she wonders. She jumps over the railing to the main level, cushioning the landing with a flap of her wings. Then she furls, closes her ports and enters the security office. "Come to mama," she whispers as she commands the computer to unlock all secured doors (some of which lie severed in the middle of the lobby.)
A huge, dog-like creature with a robotic back end emerges from the upper-level door, bends the railing over, jumps down, and roars. "Oh, poop," she sighs, "You're a bit bigger than I thought" seeing it through the full height office windows. It follows her scent to the door. "Blind?" It rams the door, bending it inward. She had her shotgun ready, wonders why the door didn't simply open for the beast.
It rams the door again, and again. Each time it does further damage, and it billows pregnantly inwards. One last bang as the door almost flies open. <Once more,> she thinks. Nope, the beast decides to outflank the door, perhaps because it was getting a bit sore from its attacks. It jumps through the window right at her. "Not so senseless?" she asks as she levels her shotgun at its huge gullet.
BAM!! Instantly it collapses at her feet and starts to burn. Tatakai collapses and vomits the M-ration she had eaten about half an hour earlier in Mars City's so-called Kitchen. "As smelly as it looks," she mutters. Leaving behind her breakfast, she flies back to the upper level, and finally the door opens for her without any objection. The now-unlocked door opens for the Imp in the archive area, but the only trace she can find of Tatakai is a bouncing hand grenade. Nine eyes blink just before it goes off at her feet.
(Resume Doom 3 fourth stage Cyric1983)
Tatakai runs along the catwalk overlooking the "IT Nest" as it appears on her blueprints. She stops, looks through the bulletproof windows at Elliot and Jack below, as they try to hack in to Delta Lab's computers from the main console.
"Jack!" she screams, banging her shotgun into the glass.
"It's no use," Elliot Swann says, "I can't get root access to the system."
"Hear me!!" she cries as she collapses upon the glass. "Jack, look up!" They run back to the nest's entrance oblivious to the presence of Jack's crying girlfriend. She spins around and blasts the window on the other side of the enclosed catwalk, succeeding only in spraying herself with debris as the shot richochets about in the tiny corridor, "Damn!"
After the door closes outside the IT nest, Jack pauses. Elliot turns, "What is it?"
"Just a feeling ... I think Greenborough's still alive," he answers.
"We don't have time for feelings," Elliot says, "Let's move."
"Yes, Counselor," he says, taking point with his BFG as they make the short trip to the Alpha Labs transfer chamber.
<Marine, Bravo Team reports some kind of growth taking over parts of the base, be careful,> she hears Sergeant Kelly report over the radio. She soon finds it, along with three large candles and a pentagram in the office of Dr. Malcolm Betruger. Stooping to look at the dropped PDA, she reads that it is that of Director Banks, the one she needs. Tatakai checks to make sure all her weapons are fully loaded.
After she picks it up and puts it in a pocket on her mandylion, she hears the sound of an incoming demonic teleportation, right into the middle of the pentagram. "This'll be easy," she mutters. The moment the Imp materializes, she goes flying as Tatakai blasts her. Tatakai runs into the hallway in time to do it to the next Imp, and the next, and the one following, one that emerged from a hidden storage compartment, and two more at the other end of the catwalk, two of the big kitties as well.
Malcolm Betruger, watching the chaotic thermal readings and listening to seven of his warriors die in less than a minute, throws a fit, "How does she do that! She's just a normal Marine!!" From a Delta Labs Sector 3 security station, he realizes, "It'll be over two hours before we can bring in Hellknights, and whatever she's packing..." he suddenly realizes, "She can't be just a normal Marine."
The mortally injured Marine who's hand she holds as she waits for the transfer door to Alpha Labs to cycle. His nametag says, "Webb". "Greenborough?" he asks with his dying breath. "No," she shakes her head, "The name's Tatakai ... I'll get 'em for you," and she advances into the Alpha Labs after closing his eyes for him.
(Doom 3 eighth stage Cyric1983; other route. Author has tested Tatakai's actual route with NoClip mode.
Doom 3 eighth stage Cyric1983 part 2; includes ambush referred to in following.)
About forty minutes later, in Alpha Labs Sector 4, she emerges into the bizarre EFR system chamber, coming to a control panel that Sergeant Kelly explains to her one way, the Saviour whispers differently, "Activate the bridge, and you can get a plasma rifle out of the teeth of an ambush, and give access to a whole bunch of other enemies who want your head as a trophy. Using the EFR transfer system is far more dangerous on foot, however if you want to fly..." Tatakai grins, flips open her armor ports and deploys as her real boss continues, "you'll continue to baffle an enemy who refuses to believe you have wings, and most of them will cower in their closets." <Loving Saviour,> she silently prays, <How far until the next plasma rifle?> "It was developed at Enpro, the next sector, where several are lying around for the taking ... if you're quick, you should have one in about ten minutes."
Tatakai hits the option to activate the EFR transfer system, then flies through Alpha Labs Sector 4 like no one else can, eliminating the few demons and zombies who try to witness this.
Sergeant Kelly, from administration in Delta Labs, instructs the Bravo Team.
<This is Corporal Lee,> a man says on the radio, <Seriously, we should just wait for Greenborough before continuing ... if she's really gaining as you say, she should be here within a few minutes, right?>
Sergeant Kelly utters the lie that he hoped was the truth. "Corporal ... Greenborough's dead."
Another of the Bravo Team Marines, Private Sam, bangs his rifle against the wall and utters his favorite cussword for his least favorite of situations.
Sergeant Kelly, on the radio, explains, <She fried herself by activating the EFR systems in Alpha Sector 4 ... God only knows what she expected to accomplish ... you better get moving if you want to get that transmission out in time for it to do some good.>
"Understood," the Corporal says through his tears.
"The Sarge is lying, she can't be dead," Private Grant says, "She got the fastest time on the endurance obstacle course in training."
"We have our orders," the Corporal snorts.
"I'm not talking a few seconds, but ten minutes on the hour," Grant continues, "She should be able to fly through the EFR."
Then Private Sam argues, "You've seen the EFR. We retracted the bridges to stop the enemy from following us, and it worked. If she turned that thing on, the only way she could get through it is if she could fly literally."
"Enough," the Corporal bellows, "We take the Sergeant at his word. If he's lying, it is up to Greenborough to prove that to us. Until then, we follow orders. Is that clear?"
Arriving in the EFR logistics room, rendered unrecognizable by spider activity, Tatakai grenades the transfer chamber's outer door, hoping to get Jack's attention. "It's me, Jack!," she cries.
Then she hears her, tosses a grenade in her direction as the huge spider queen backs out of her alcove. "I knew I could smell something," she snorts. "Scared of a lawyer?" she taunts, pulling out the Chaingun, she smiles at how she acquired it.
Back in Administration, after getting the Alpha Labs clearance codes, she came across a "Martian Buddy: Free Stuff" cabinet. "Ugh, the biggest piece of spam ever," she griped, "And I can't exactly get online right now for its access code."
<Hey,> the Saviour whispers, <They have some handy stuff, believe it or not ... and if you want it, hit zero-five-zero-eight.>
As she pulls open the roller shutter, her fingers slip off and she falls over backwards. Then a broad smile, "Sweeeeeeeet." She picks up the shiny new Mach-2 chain gun and loads it up. Standing with it, she says, "Until I see something bigger than kitty," she stashes it in her pack.
Something bigger than kitty, all rightey! The spider queen must be at least twelve hundred kilos, six metres long and better than two and a half high, not counting her legs. After a moment of wide-eyed mystified awe, Tatakai plants her feet and feeds her lead and scratch from the chain gun.
The big spider waves a claw, and telekinetically sends a spined egg flying at her enemy. Tatakai goes one way, and the chain gun goes the other, the spined egg missing both of them high as Tatakai rolls. Tatakai comes to a stop flat on her stomach, letting the queen think she had done some actual damage.
"Oops," Tatakai mutters ironically at the approaching queen, pulling out her shotgun and pushing it close enough that not a single pellet can miss. BOOM! The queen recoils, then comes back at Tatakai. She stops in mid stride as though caught on something.
Tatakai, now standing, has the creature's head by both of her alula claws. "Pretty wings? Tasty scratch?" she taughts in a lullaby voice as the huge monster looses awareness. Tatakai furls her wings and watches the defeated monster burn at her feet as she picks up and reloads her chain gun.
She hits the control to open the Transfer bay door, then sighs in disappointment as she doesn't see Elliot and Jack inside, "Still playing catch-up, I guess."
Next: FHD Remix Chapter 13: Glie's New Mayor; Spread of the White Wings; Oops!
