Chapter 10
Kronos resurfaces from unconsciousness, finding himself being held upside down from the ceiling by a demonic growth in the Engineering Bay. He sees former Martinez and the Spider Mastermind moving through the work floor, the demon's chassis had newly installed tools it used to hasten the pace of cybernetic augmentation. The hulking mechanized creature and the demonized Marine exchanged some words before having a Carcass operate a robotic arm, it reaches up and pulls Victor from the ceiling. The growth is torn away as fluid drips from above, the Spidermind grips him in the grabber beam and places him in front of the main computer console. Victor looks away from the throbbing, slime dripping brain and at the holo-monitor, through his vivid hallucinations the interface appeared to be melting. The Spidermind screeches incomprehensibly, Victor was paralyzed, shaking with fear. Again the demon screams, pointing to the prompt displayed in the center of the monitor. He looks at the window, the familiar UAC font and layout soothes his raving nerves.
'Submit authorization to disable security control measures' it reads.
Pieces began falling in place in his mind, Kronos looks around the lab in confusion.
"No, I can't do that. Where am I?" Victor mutters.
Martinez roughly smacks Victor from behind and throws him to the floor, then accessed the terminal himself using his host's knowledge of computer systems to submit authorization in a different way. A compartment opens next to the console, revealing the shining domed lens of the retina scanner. Martinez grabs Kronos and shoves his face into the sensor, watching the scanner's feed on the monitor as he adjusts Victor's eye onto the lens, a tiny ray of light traces the unique detail of his retina.
'Authorization accepted' reads a prompt on the computer, Martinez, the Spidermind and Carcass grunt and screech in triumph. Control of the station was finally theirs.
Kronos climbs to his feet and quietly steps away from the hideous creatures crowding the computer console, the Spidermind was quickly accessing multiple systems at once from several windows. Raising power levels and reviewing engineering and bio-medical systems, looking for ways to repurpose existing technologies. Victor wanders through the sliding doors and into the growth covered hall, his sanity steadily descending as the evil spirit tapping his energy grew stronger. He wanders into a section of the complex that was free of growth, gradually recognizing the alloy walls around him. He continued limping through the complex when he found a strikingly familiar room. He walks into his former office and slumps into the chair, the reports he'd been filing were still resting on the desk. His mind absent, he resumes his work as if nothing had happened before passing out from exhaustion in his chair.
After a few hours Victor suddenly wakes from a terrible dream. His heart was racing, he was soaked in a cold sweat, he looks around his office. The evil spirit was still manipulating his thoughts, the accustomed setting puts him at ease, allowing the spirit to pass his mental defences. Kronos rises from the seat, his memory was fuzzy, he'd confused his previous experience as being part of his nightmare. He steps into the hall, absently holding his throbbing temples as he strode unsteadily, the distant zombies and demons paid him little notice as the evil spirit drew his focus from the state of the station. Victor wanders deeper into the complex unhindered when suddenly bumping into something.
He emerged from his daze, looking up to see a space marine standing before him with their back turned. Their green armour was stained with blood splatter and blast residue, he reels in shock upon seeing the freshly maimed corpses littering the floor around them. The marine turns to face Victor, speaking in a stuttering unintelligible babble. Victor's' eyes widen with fear when he sees the Marine was carrying a chainsaw, blade dripping with blood, he runs screaming in the other direction.
Among the streets of Oslo, the demonic infestation sweeps through the city. The Icon of Sin's path of destruction continued South of the industrial zone, through a forest and crashing its way through a neighbourhood, residents ran scrambling in all directions with no chance of escape.
A car pulls up to a street blocked by abandoned vehicles, frightened civilians chased by demons and zombies were close behind. They abandon the vehicle and run for their lives, narrowly escaping a group of zombies closing from the left. A Cacodemon descends from the rooftop of a building, releasing a jet of flatulent gas to gain speed. The demon closed from behind while parting its sharp fangs, the gaping jaws closing around the woman. The surviving civilian hears the muffled scream, looking back to briefly see her body writhing within the Caco's jaws, saturating with the pungent caustic saliva. Sizable welts broke out all over her body, the skin's tone immediately muddied with smears of polluted hues within the jaws. The Caco's mouth fills with foamy bile, the remains melting into a sizzling soup of dissolved parts and digestive acid which the demon swallows down. The surviving civilian had continued running and dodging the zombies in his path as the demon belches a pile of dripping bones on the corner of a sidewalk
They ran as fast and as far as their muscles would allow before coming to a stop, heaving in exhaustion. The roars and screams were now heard only distantly, he looks around for somewhere safe when he sees streams of blood flowing from the windows of nearby buildings all around him. He stared in disbelief, frozen with fear. A Hell Knight in the distance drew closer as they crush the hoods of abandoned vehicles under their hooves, startling the man as it rushed toward him. They attempt to flee, their throbbing muscles only taking them a short distance. The Hell Knight slams them into the ground, bones snapping loudly. The demon then drags the wounded man back into the center of the infestation.
The man screams in fear and pain, he hears the rattling of machine guns and bursting of grenades as the Hell Knight drags them past a raging office fire that had spread to adjoining buildings, then across a wide intersection teeming with demons, zombies and possessed soldiers. He sees military vehicles and troops meters away, operating further down the passing street, he desperately screams to them for help.
"We can't help them, he's already injured" he overhears them exchange, barely glancing in his direction as they carried on with their assault.
He curses and shrieks in horror. After more painful moments of being dragged behind the hulking demon, he noticed that the chorus of combat, roars and screams was now accompanied by monotonous incomprehensible chanting. The Hell Knight arrives at the Oslo central train station, the wide concrete steps leading inside were covered with blood, a sizable mound of killed humans were piled at the top of the steps. The demon drags the helpless man up the station's stairs, repeatedly striking their head against the steps. A gathering of former UAC paranormal division devotees stood around a blood soaked altar wearing dark hooded robes. Their droning chants hasten as the crippled man is dropped onto the makeshift altar, writhing in pain.
The chanting of the Hell Priests intensify as they paint bloody demonic symbols all over his body before one of them reveals a sharp dagger, quickly plunging it into their sacrifice victim. The chanting grew louder as the man cries in agony, the symbols on their body glow with demonic energy. A sizable portal opens above the altar, revealing a view of another unexplored realm, two hulking Hell Hunters jump through the gate, cracking the concrete surface under their hoofs, another floating demon followed behind. The Hunters descend the stairs and stray into the city streets, the floating demon was able to capture many humans that would have escaped by altering the flow of time.
The other two Hunters charged into military positions, one smashing through defensive lines, the other demon grips their armoured vehicle as electricity discharged around it. Power levels within fail as the demon grew stronger, it then flips the vehicle onto its side. Soldiers are dragged away by the Hunters, screaming for help. The floating Hell Hunter joins the fray as it appears and disappears along the military's fortified line in blurs of movement, viciously slashing with sharp claws and igniting supplies with streams of fire.
The other Hunters drag the soldiers to the stairs leading to the sacrificial altar, the sizable group of humans they had amassed were kept in place by the snapping jaws of surrounding demon. As another sacrifice is carried out atop the steps, it summons a swarm of evil spirits that streak through the city in search of the remaining humans in the area. A Hell Hunter stomps over to the captive humans, the glowing of the creature's heart could be seen behind its rib-cage. Strength is drained from the group of humans, unable to support their own weight, they collapse to the ground. Their muscles shrink, faces became skeletal, hair falls to the ground and the colour in their skin fades. The Hunters, along with other demon feed upon the strength tapped from the group of mortals, healing their wounds and driving them into a frenzy.
Within the genetics research lab of the Leipzig UAC facility, Diane, Kasper and Henrick watch live drone footage of the invasion in Oslo, seeing for themselves the spreading of darkness, waves of zombies, and terrifying creatures. The other scientists watched silently, Dr. Stone was horrified, struggling to comprehend how the demons could have made their way here. The doors to the connecting hall part and Administrator Horn enters the lab with a troubled expression.
"I have some bad news, the military is here to begin operations, they know about the alien genetic sample, they're taking over the study" he explains.
"What? How?" Diane snaps.
"Someone obviously leaked our findings, I have no idea who it might have been" he adds.
Within minutes, soldiers marched into the lab, ordering everyone to leave as they took control of the studies.
The Icon of Sin continued destroying everything in its path, crushing a strip mall and smashing the facing side of an apartment building after being fired upon from within. The giant demon swats a surveillance drone from the air that had strayed too closely, the officials monitoring notice that the demon was still moving in the general direction of the Leipzig Portal Lab. The massive creature then stomps through a deserted amusement park, destroying many high-tech attractions.
Back in the demon-controlled streets of Oslo, another military operation was taking place as they bombard the center of the infestation with artillery mounted to heavy vehicles. A pair of Hell Knights appear from demonic portals around them, the troops fought with all their skill but could only take down one of the demon after they appeared only a few meters away. The military vehicles were retreating back to headquarters when a Hell Hunter latches on and taps power from their systems, feeding the demons strength. Elsewhere, troops still struggle to land hits on the floating Hunter as it appears and disappears with the warping of time.
Atop the steps of Oslo central station, the gruesome screams of human sacrifices continues to ring through the streets. The large writhing mound of killed and suffering humans were suddenly engulfed by crimson Hell energy, gradually transforming into a single grotesque mass, tissue reforming into swaying slimy tentacles. The growth continues forming into a small gore nest, its surface rigid with protruding human bones, a grotesque demonic heart forms on its surface before flowing with a vile yellow fluid that forms a pustule around it. A Hell portal then opens above the crescent of flesh, the former humans around it throw themselves to the ground, bowing and chanting.
Aircraft strafe the city from above at high-speed, dropping bombs on roadways swarming with demons and disabled armoured vehicles. Mancubus and arachnotron explode, sending charred flesh and shattered alloy flying.
Martinez watched the invasion unfolding from the swirling portal of the Deimos colony in the alien dimension, seeing the columns of their cybernetic demon being destroyed from above. The demonized marine rages, he marches into the Engineering Bay yelling angrily. The Spider Mastermind looks over from an augmentation procedure, its surgical tools dripping with demonic blood. The Spidermind and Martinez bicker back and forth in a demonic language. A Carcass interrupts, pointing at the surveillance feed on the monitor, the Spidermind approaches. Its face warped in anger upon seeing the Marine killing everything in their path in the adjoining halls of the complex. The demon screeches, pointing to the figure on the monitor getting closer to the portal lab. The demon shout back and forth again before they walk away in different directions.
The Spidermind steps into an engineering suite and programs the construction arms to remove the bio-medical module from the front compartment, the blood soaked set of robotically controlled tools clatter to the floor. Another construction arm then moves a chaingun joined to a fitted module over to the suite and drops it into place, cylindrical magazines of belt-fed ammunition are lowered alongside the weapon, the robotic arms then secured everything in place.
The demonized marine walked back to the portal lab, runs up the ramp and jumps through the flesh-covered gate, sails through the passage and appearing from the newly formed gore-nest on Earth, landing at the steps of the train station. Martinez moves to the road full of splattered demonic remains and disabled vehicles, his feet slipping along the spilled fluids as he moved into the center of the destruction and chants loudly. With the amount of Hell energy already coursing through the area, Martinez was soon glowing brightly. Remains from demons along with military equipment began to move on its own, gradually circling around him. The mass of supplies and flesh moves faster as it also began to surge with energy, the grotesque mass engulfs the demon and a hideous transformation begins.