E1M1: The Black Gate

Mars - Cydonia Labyrinthus 1040hrs(Zulu)



Queue Ambient Theme Music

The dust cleared on the Cydonian crater, though far slower than one used to Earth may expect. At just over 1/3 the gravity of Earth the plumes from the explosion cleared a kilometer in height. The explosion itself had thrown the crew 10m from ground zero, relative to the positions they had been standing. As you all came too, hazard indicators from the weather monitoring satellite were blaring. Your equipment had been far flung by the blast. Several groans on the squad channel indicated there were wounded.

"Saber, sensors indicate a large biomass converging on your position. Be advised, the terraforming insects morphology isn't like anything we have back on Earth. There's a chance they may be able to penetrate your suits. Saber? Saber? Do you read? Respond!"

The Identify Friend Foe(IFF) of your situation indicator marked the location of each other member of the team. Including the Commander, who did not appear to have moved at all, still floating 3m above the surface - bathed in a halo of light that even through the thick red dust glowed enough to show the Commander's silhouette at any direction. His arm was clearly broken, it being the closest to the blast. Jack Knifed in a compound fracture. The seals on his suit the only thing that had kept him from having his arm torn completely off. Sign of Life indicator read out Unconscious, Concussed, Bleeding Internally, Crippled Limbs.

The Halo began to attenuate. The HUD marked the light, as a radiation hazard. The rad count jumped 200mSv, a small exposure to ionizing radiations. Though unconscious, the Commander somehow set the limb due to muscular action. SOLI, changed its prognosis. Unconscious, Bleeding Internally, Severe Muscle Strain, Dehydrated, it gave an indication of his Neural Output, Alpha was minimal denoting he was unconscious, delta and theta waves registered an output an order of magnitude above human baseline. The activity was, almost synchronously with The Halo deteriorating - though at its current rate would take hours to normalize.

HUD threat indicator reregistered as The Halo shifted phase once more, it had attenuated from a brilliant indiscernible color - that radiance your brain found so pleasant. Staring at the Halo, with its VITAL PINK aura created instant Narcosis indicators on anyone who could see the Radiance. The HUD upgraded its assessment of radioactivity to Moderate.

Unharmed, you are able to gain your feet easily in the mild gravity in the Martian crater.

McLeod upon checking the status of his squaddies sees a faint signal of Sq. Mellencamp reading 5m below him. A cursory inspection reveals the rubble of a collapse he had nearly been swallowed by. Mellencamp's SOLI signal must have been occluded by the rock above him as it was giving no feedback.

PFC Barnes HUD registers Sq. Nakamura concealed by a cloud of dust. Her SOLI read a single grey readout "Flatline." Cursory inspection showed the cause of death, a chunk of the monolith had penetrated her suit and caused massive damage to her torso. The only mercy is that such a wound would have caused very little suffering.

Pvt. Tseng was buried in rubble not far away from Barnes. Her sign of life indicator read "Unconscious, Suffocating".

While the Martian regolith isn't heavy it soon becomes apparent to McLeod that he will either need tools or assistance to excavate Squaddie Mellencamp. As the loose rubble and scree collapsed back on itself fighting his best effort.

Likewise PFC Barnes finds, even in the reduced gravity the mass of the regolith is too much to move quickly. Insufficient leverage against its mass, and a slip could outright kill Pvt. Tseng.

"Doc! Stop looking at the light. Jesus christ youre strong!" Sgt. Rochenko, the combat medic, was trying to hold Alryn Zand back as the doctor approached the light. "Shit! Shit! Shit! Someone give me a hand over here, Doctor Zand is in some sorta trance. Ah shit!"

Over the comms the squad could hear Rochenko'a radiation alarm blare. "Wake the fuck up Doc! We are getting cooked alive!"

Zand was floating in the blackest sea, on a precipice. Naked as the day he was born. The Commander stood opposite, pointing down. Where his finger pointed 936hz vibrations pulsed, as Zand saw the event horizon of a black hole. The Commander pointed again as if commanding Zand to fall into it.

"Uuw"

The commander looked at Zand, there was no face. A yawning void, with the exact dimensions of the void beneath them. It pulsed in perfect synchronicity. The void itself was taking in Zand, it was like the stare of some dispassionate deity. Seeing in, around, and through Zand.

"Ayk"

No time passes, Zand, deprived of the sense of time searched the blackness, he saw void. The only light was the heat he and the commander emanated. It was stifling being in The Commander's presence. An aura of his magnitude, the palpable presence, the void was not crushing Zand - being in The Commander's presence was.

"Uhh."

He pointed again down into the gaping abyss which was darker still than the space around it. The pulsing of that yawning void could afford to wait. Every instinct Zand had told him he was on the precipice of certain death. The heat radiating from The Commander set Zand's guts to boiling. An irrepressable soundless scream of anguish built from the searing pain.

Adrenaline spiked, cortisol matched it. It hit Zand's brain like a fusion bomb. B Vitamins firing in synaptic tissues, nuclear reactions in the grey and white matter. The effect of time dilation in Zand's trance amplified, as the darkness around him imploded upon itself. Nuclear fire cascaded all around him, its ultraviolet glow so immensely powerful. Stopped as it reached the event horizon. Now bathed in this nimbus of light The Magnificence of the Commander multiplied.

~~~~~

The Halo of Light surrounding the Commander changed. It swallowed light in a band of Ultramarine. Then, there were two of him. At least, a shadowy apparition emerged from the band of darkness. Some event transpired, faster than the eye could register. The Apparition of The Commander was adjacent to McLeod, shovel in hand, clearing backfill as McLeod excavated.

The Rad count leapt to 600mSv.

~~~~~

The Quantum encoding was no easy thing to crack. Interfacing with the Machine, with an old hand, Badger's body slumped into a posture reminescent of the old religions worship and prayer. Fully surrendering his consciousness to the machine he found himself drifting in the vastly more simple aether. ICE attempted to seize him, but the defense protocols on the PGC were immature - Badger was not. Overriding the autohypo injector shot a heavy dose of adrenaline and adrenochrome into Zand's veins. Integrity of the link, detected by antimalware in the device, was expunged instantly. Badger felt the ice cold wash through his central nervous system. He had very nearly met the bandwidth limit of his brain.

SOLI update: "Dehydrated"

~~~~~

Zand found himself reincorporated. He had been disintegrated, three times now, trapped in the time loop. As before everything was black, there was yet the deeper darkness. The Commander pointed insistently into it. The light exploded. The searing pain in his intestines. The silent scream that followed it. The atomization as competing forces simultaneously tore him to pieces and incinerated him for the fourth time.

By the fifth cycle, Zand managed to process all of it. His brain was overclocked, but finally clarity. No time passed. There was no commander. Zand was staring face to face with himself. His shadow glared at him. Holding a spear in his hand. The construct changed. The Zands stood face to face. Wading waist deep in blood, in an arena made of shit and blood stained stone. Surrounded by utter darkness, with a solar eclipse at totality providing dim illumination. Zand was armed as the Other Zand. But the pain in his guts - he was already mortally wounded.

"Wwwaaakkkeee uuuppp Dddoooccc!"

Time dilation had started, The Other Zand lunged, behind him - no through him - a blood stained black gate. The only possible exit. Zand was looking down - he saw his father lying dead in his reflection. His grandfather. A series of men who had the same face, thousands of bodies deep. Each set of dead eyes focused upon Zand. Compelling him to surrender to death. Each of them suffering with him. He knew this because they showed him the beautiful world of fungus, bacteria, and insects that would be his festering corpse.

"But there is nothing in death. And everything in the struggle to live." Something the Commander once said when he was drunk and feeling philosophical.

The tug of death pulled at Zand, equal to the desire to Kill the other Zand. It wasn't fair. The choice to give up and die or to kill yourself. But time, it had stopped, but Zand had not.

Cydonia Labyrinthus 1041hrs(Zulu)

Extreme Weather event:

Haboob



The Gravity pulse had triggered an atmospheric event. While Martian winds are not strong compared to what one may experience on Earth, 60mph winds were nothing to trifle with. Especially when the micronic dust was made of discharging aqueous hematite. The flashes of purple dwarf lightning in the Haboob, crackled and struck the ridges around the site. The dust screeched into the squad, and silence followed. You could see the effect of the wind, you see the raging sand, but the dust swallowed all ambient sound.

Zand struck himself true. Though, paradoxically - or perhaps predictably, he felt the spear pierce his own chest. The cold embrace of death stung him. He saw a beam of light pierce through the black gate, and everything went black.

When he awoke he saw the greenery of a planet, plants and enormous mushrooms he had never seen before. He could smell the bounty of the pollen and spore. Feel the rich oxygen suffusing his blood.

Zand bore witness to something spiritually intimate. An enormous serpent coiled about The Commander. It was staring down at The Commander, and though it could have swallowed him with no effort, the embracing coils of the snake seemed somehow more intimate. Zand had a sense he was observing something private, deeply personal communion. The snake, in a voice like splitting stone intoned and rumbled what sounded like a particularly curious interrogative. The Commander responded in a similar manner, sounding sure, but the articulation of fear in his voice in his position was evident. The answer seemed to satisfy the Serpent, who's tone became chiding as if correcting a child's incorrect response. It noticed Zand, turning its massive head to Zand, saying something.

Zand found himself once more floating in darkness, the only light a glowing silver thread that snaked into deeper darkness. Pulsing with and connected to his heart. Something at the other end of the thread was pulling it.

Mellencamp SOLI readout: "Unconscious, crippled torso, internal bleeding, punctured lung"

The apparition made no noise, save where the tool hit the backfill. It did wave before disappearing. Maybe an attempt to communicate?

Mellencamp's feet came into view first. Relatively easy to extract. The trauma plate of his torso was face up, punctured, the emergency seals fired, keeping the hermetic seal intact. He was in bad shape and would almost certainly die if not taken to surgery quickly. Frothy pink blood covered his visor obscuring his face.

Badger and Rochenko, in spite of outmassing Zand by more than 90kg, were unable to move him. In fact, as soon as they seized Zand crushing force knocked Badger to his knees, violently, overcoming the motivators in the legs of his suit. An alert informed him that a servo had sustained minor damage as a result. The magnitude of force, without any inertia, was an impossibility to all known physics. Zand was transfixed staring directly at The Commander arms raised in defense as if shielding himself in the exact same position he had been in when the monolith exploded.

Seizing him once more Rochenko appeared to slip off of Zand. "Hey Badger" he said interrupted as the slip triggered a fall. "Doesn't this resemble some kind of Defense Matrix?" He continued after a suppressed grunt. Rochenko's SOLI read out "Irradiated" but the count wasn't high enough to be life threatening, he was likely burnt, as his disposition and voice indicated he was in some discomfort.

Cydonia - 1042hrs Zulu



Titanus Giganteus Mauritius

Terraforming Beetle "Terrorbug"

This 60cm insect was bioengineered by WU Corps in 2055 in tandem with its food source. Its exact properties were a closely guarded secret. However, a beetle of that size posed a substatial threat to any ecology.

Rochenko began digging backfill from the hole Mellencamp was in. "Contact 300m, lots of contacts." Piling regolith and sand to form a barrier. Then another, and yet again another. He was consuming oxygen rapidly. Mantling out of the hole he immediately began to shore up the trench. Hunkering down he marks a thick part of the swarm on his HUD.

He was breathing hard, recovering his breath. He hunkered down and aimed the array of his pulse rifle. A four by four array of 6.5mm caseless. The sustained barrage of fire, even through the dust storm, lambent orange blood erupted in clouds of flourescent mist.

It must have been a design oversight, as soon as they were deployed the turrets indicator light flashed orange. They were recalibrating their targetting sensors. Unable to establish a clear firing solution due to the dust and density of the storm, the microcannons tracked the swarm. The firmware would not allow the turrets to fire.

Zand was a dervish in the Haboob, using it to conceal himself and suppress the sound of his pulse carbine spitting a four by four array of 6.5mm caseless into the swarm. A more perfect weapon for the task could not be imagined.

The terrorbugs did not appear to see the laser emitted from his carbine. Grouped as they were dozens of them wrre reduced to a lambent green pulp. Zand noticed that the bugs nearest the dead were induced into a feeding frenzy and evermore of them began to tear another apart. That part of the swarm soon consumed itself.

Still, hundreds remained...

The swarm was thinning, but still dozens remained. There was a sickening crack over the squad band as one of the bugs managed to make it to Mellencamp. It stabbed into the suit with gleaming metallic mandibles. Mellencamp, defenseless and unconscious didn't react much, but flailed in pain as his SOLI added "Lacerated Limb, Bleeding" to the readout. The terrorbug skipped back from Mellencamp's flailing prepared to strike a mortal blow.

Mellencamp, roused by the pain woke with a labored wet cough, and a wheezey scream. Brought to crystal focus he shot the terrorbug and began crawling to cover. "Agh fuck!" He gurgled out coughing even more foamy blood in the process. "I feel real cold." He whimpered and the sound of his teeth chattering could be heard - with the wheezy rattle in his chest Mellencamp was likely already dead.

Thematic Music

The dust still swirled, the impotent rage of the red planet, utterly inneffective against the powered armor suit encapsulating the marines. While it obscured well enough, it wasn't enough to limit vision at close ranges. In the aftermath of the firefight there was that cold silence as the dust muffled all sound.

Mellencamp still struggled crawling out of the hole he had sheltered in. His teeth were loudly chattering, and he was mumbling something quietly. "I'm sorry mom think I won't be home for dinner." Delirious from bloodloss and pain Mellencamp sagged, he made one desperate attempt to sit up but fell, silent and still. His sign of life indicator hadn't yet flatlined. It updated itself again, Massive Bloodloss, Internal Bleeding.

Tseng limped to his body and opening her satchel retrieved hypodermics filled with medigel, a bloodplasma, analgesic, and antiinflammatory cocktail. As well as a syringe of combipan. The suit was already inducing clotting factor into Mellencamp. Tseng waved the others over. "I can keep him alive for a few hours, but he needs surgery. I hate to say this..." She trailed off unwilling to finish the sentence, instead drawing her sidearm. "He's suffering." She looked to Badger then Zand. The drugs were powerful, most every member of the squad had been saved by them before, but it came at a price. And there was no way to determine how many hours it would take to return to the dropship.

Technically Rochenko had command, but he was occupied trying to retrieve the commander from the field of pink radiation. McCleod was helping trying to lasso the commander. The rope stopped dead, defying gravity, hanging in the air.

Tseng wasted no time, pulling the velcro over Mellencamp's armor, tearing off the trauma plate. "That's the problem Badger. This will definitely wake him." Under a zipper holding the outer shell of the armor, Tseng revealed the underarmor. She placed the combipan autohypo into a designated port. She also opened a panel in the underarmor. "Oh fuck." She whispered under her breath as blood began to leak from the exposed seal. She pressed a folding catheter into Mellencamp's lung. Frothy pink blood immediately squirted out and Mellencamp began to breath again. She applied flexseal to the inserted catheter.

"Hold him down, he's gonna feel this." She gripped the pistol grip on the autofire, thumbed the safety off, and waited for someone to restrain Mellencamp.

Mellencamp awoke with a ragged screech of pain. Gasping hard as he cleared his lungs of yet more foamy pink blood. "Oh, um! Ah fuck it hurts." His diaphragm tried to hyperventilate but the pressure in his lungs made it impossible. "Sucking-chest-wound, Doc!" The combipan was obviously working as he grabbed her pulling Tseng to his helmet. Training took over as he began to diagnose his pain. "Shrapnel in chest. Its in my liver!" Mellencamp whimpered as he realized exactly how slim his chances of living were. "Don't lemme die like this!" His face through the visor and blood was barely recognizable, twisted as it was in agony.

"He moved! Uh shit, you guys the commander moved! Hes stuck in that pink field but we got him to move. Give us a hand!"

McCleod had managed to tie off the Commander's legs and was pulling down against the pink field. Pulling hard, making onlg centimeters of progress.

Theme Music

Cydonia - 1045hrs

"Saber, we are assuming comms are down, we have read nine KIAs. The dust storm makes an orbital insertion extremely hazardous. You must rally at the dropship automated extraction protocols will bring you home. Bring the commander home at all costs."

Though static garbled the sound quality, Captain Diego's voice was unmistakable. A ping on your HUD indicated the location of the dropship.

"Be advised, there are more of the terraforming bugs in thr area. Proceed with extreme caution."

McCleod thrust a line into Zand's hands. "Get me the right angle. Like ice fishing but completely banjaxed."

Rochenko was attempting a breach. He had given himself to the machine his body slumped over. Something must have happened with an unseen computer system. A holographic interface and field of soft blue light localized around Rochenko. It took form...

It was Rochenko, and he was just just as shocked to see you.

"Oh no wha-" The look of pain and horror an instant of regret and Rochenko was gone. His sign of life indicator read flatline, the electronics in his suit fried.

The blue halo Rochenko was derrezed into flashed and and from it came:



"Welcome Reclaimer. The Monitor is active." It droned on a monotone. It had a Welsh accent.

It stares transfixed upon the commander. Subtle movemebts in the lenses of the Oculus gave it the appearance of thought.

Mellencamp relaxes under a massive dose of opiates and begins to code. He enters Bradychardia, his pulse stopped, for a few moments. But it began again at 30bpm.

"That's about all we can do for him until we can get him to surgery." Tseng reassured Badger.

"It is malfunctioning. The process has been interrupted. What a calamity." A lance of yellow light emitted from The Oculus of "The Monitor."

A blue fac similie of it floated about Badger's head. "Curious. Primitive. With crude implements of war. Your species is Ill equipped to survive what is coming "Interloper." Badger had the distinct feeling he was naked before this automaton. "Feeble for a heavy gravity world specimen and yet..." A yellow light flashed a beam onto McCleod.

McLeod stumbled in surprised involuntarily sighing in relief. Even indirect exposure ellicited a moderate euphoria. McCleod didn't say anything but tilted his head. "I think it just scanned me."

"That is correct Interloper." The address came from the Oculus that was busy orbiting the commander. "This is unfortunate. Your physiology may not possess the robustness or intellect to interface successfully. Though this emanation, like a chitin in your species ancient literature, Ancient Sumer to be precise."

The oculus recalled its holographic counter part and fixed Zand in its stare. "Oh my! That is quite fortunate. Greetings Reclaimer. I am the Monitor of Installation Alpha, you may refer to me as Zero Zero One - Pious Mendicant. With the destruction of the Autodidact, I will lose function within the next few hours. I am The Monitor, Reclaimer, I must teach you. But this anomaly, it is consuming power rapidly, we must find some way to disrupt it." Turning its focus to the Commander and the pink aura he was seemingly trapped in.

It turned to McLeod. "You body is withing acceptable parameters to survive contact with the event Interloper. You may be able to extract the commander by sheer force."

"That thing is Radioactive as hell McCleod, lets get you some iodine before you do anything stupid." Tseng acknowledged but had reservations of the plan. "Radiation isn't that dangerous but it pays to be cautious."

Several lenses within the Oculus contracted, dilated, there was series of clicks within the Automaton. It regarded Zand, and Zand had the feeling that it was vivisecting him.

"Your genetic profile contains a particular gene. You may activate and interact with technologies your forebears left for your education. Hence you are a Reclaimer. It is my purpose to observe and educate, the very definition of "Monitor."

Rochenko had made a comment about how the field resembled a defensive matrix, how he died was not at all dissimilar to how burnout in a firewall would have occurred, though faster and far more violently.

"It was unfortunate, upon my activation my security protocol was also activated. The loss of the interloper was beyond my control. Regrettably this caused a surge within my housing. I too am, for lack of a better word dying." Pious Mendicant responded to Badger who had surmised the interface was specifically designed to reject the interloper.

Zand angled the rope, it was incredibly difficult, like ice fishing only upside down and backwards. Still after steadily easing it into place, Zand and McCleod managed to find a second point of purchase. Together they heaved and with immense effort managed to pull the commander free of the field.

As he exited the field, it collapsed and the Commander fell to the martian surface. As it collapsed, the dust storm began to abate. The AO clearing, radio transmission restored as the Tx Indicator on the HUD showed 3 out of 5 bars.

The Monitor considered deep in thought. "We caculate that the storm is a byproduct of the immense electromagnetic distortion that emanated when the Autodidact detonated. This Unit was not programmed with redundancies, regrettably I see no alternatives to my deactivation. A sufficient power source could not be found with your people's level of energy density. You are primitives compared to your Forebears. Though, their legacy it seems is available to you. This Autodidact, a library, meant to imprint upon your Forebear's mind. We have yet to identify the cause of the malfunction. Perhaps your Commander's brain lacked the processing capability for the volume of knowledge it attempted to grant him. This is problematic. The Coming War must be won in humanities favor."

"The Reclaimer Zand was indeed within the construct, this is however unexpected. The machine was not built for multiple users. Interface is possible, necesary, but your physiological differences will make the coupling hazardous. It might kill you. Given the malfunction it is ill advised to risk more than one."

The Oculus focused on Zand indicating its choice.

"Your commander has already made this journey. This one took the first steps. But the way is open to all."

Tseng was busily checking vitals but kept shaking her head, gasping, it was like she couldn't believe what she was seeing. "This is impossible! He is completely fine. But he's in some sort of trance. Like psychedelics, or nootropics. Both maybe? Its lucky, he could do some serious damage to himself, or any of us if he was conscious."

She ran a CT scan. "Alpha and Beta waves are null, Thetas off, like he is in a deep dream. Delta patterns are several thousand magnitudes greater than baseline as well. It looks like a Grand Mal seizure. But he's perfectly still, like paralysis, maybe he got hit with the defense matrix?"

The Monitor emitted several rapid clicks and whirrs as it processed the command. "Regrettably I cannot wake your Commander. The trauma may break his mind. He is too important to your continued survival. However, your Commander shows signs of recovery, he is within the standard recovery curve in spite of the malfunction." Turning it faced Zand and began to orbit the sphere of evaporating pink energy. "The path is perilous, little remains in the datas integrity. Though what remains should be enough to find the remaining Autodidact on the Jovian moon, Titan moreover this should grant you access to an index that will make your future query of the Creator's machines less hostile."

There was a shift in the Monitor, the lights inside it began to wane. "Regrettably, it seems my original calculations were incorrect, the severity of damage was beyond my initial scope. Allow me to give my last remaining power to shield your interface." The monitor shifted its gaze back and forth between Zand and Badger expectantly.

Zand found himself back within that garden world he had been pulled from. That tranquil paradise. The lair of the world serpent. There was no sign of the commander. And where he had held congress with the snake a pillar of marble. Carved into a seat, it was a likeness of that serpent which had whispered to the commander in his previous trip into construct. The perfect tranquility, punctuated by a breeze, that was slowly building in intensity. It gave a sense of urgency, of criticality to the experience, as if time was of the essence, and delay was danger.

Zand remembered, in this moment, that he had forgotten his awareness. That feelings, thoughts, dreams, fantasies, all tools of the deeper self - but not self. He was none of those things, simply aware. And his awareness could sense the importance of the Serpent's Seat.