Doom 3™: Worlds on Fire

22

ABOARD THE DARKSTAR—NEAR MARS ORBIT

JACK CAMPBELL TAPPED THE PORTHOLE WINDOW.“It’s looking on schedule, Swann. The place is nearly done.”

“Yeah—not without more money than budgeted, more people, more of the UAC’s resources. Not that that concerns you.”

Campbell nodded. “Right. It doesn’t.” He turned and looked at Swann. “You sure you’re ready for what we have to do?”

Swann shook his head. “You know, I may not have had your training, I don’t know ten different ways to kill someone with my thumb and index finger or any of that crap…but yeah, bring it on.”

Campbell laughed. “I actually know more ways than that. But good to hear. Because if things don’t work out, the next few days aren’t going to be pretty.”

“I just think that Kelliher should have given Hayden a heads-up about what this trip was really about.”

“He doesn’t trust him. You know he thinks that Hayden is in Betruger’s pocket.” Campbell turned back to the outside. Mars swung into full view now, filling the port window, the sun making it glow a brilliant, burnished red. “First we square away Hayden, then Betruger. We’ll earn our money over the next few days.”

“Right.”

For a moment they sat there in silence. The interior of the VIP compartment filled with the reflected reddish glow.

“I just wish—I mean, I don’t think this is going to be too easy. If we have to terminate Delta Lab…”

“Pulling the plug is never easy, Swann.”

A soothing voice filled their cabin. “Mars orbit stabilized. Landing in five minutes. Safety harnesses will now lock into place.”

Campbell heard the click, the criss-crossed straps again holding him tight to the seat.

“Cabin realignment sequence initiated.”

Almost imperceptibly, the chairs in the cabin began gliding back as theDarkstar prepared to enter the Martian atmosphere.

Campbell looked at Swann again. “Just don’t worry, Swann. It’s all going to be fine.”

And then the transport’s thrusters fired, guiding the ship carefully into the Martian atmosphere and down to the main landing area of Mars City.

The ship touched down with the gentlest of bumps.

Pretty amazing,Kane thought. Something this large, and he barely felt anything. He heard a click; the harnesses released.

“Welcome to Mars City,” the computer voice said.

“Cool,” Smitty said. “This is something, hmm?”

Something?Kane had to wonder. He had just done a trip that humankind had dreamed about for centuries, so how come he felt no excitement, no anticipation, just…caution?

Some of the other space marines had started standing up, recovering their packs from the compartments above and below the seats.

Then Kane flashed on the possible source of his unease. From the beginning he had found this posting, this whole deal, odd. The UAC Mars City project was well known to be a dumping ground, at least if you were in the military.But they wanted me up here for a reason. And nobody bothered to tell me what it was, Kane thought.

He pulled himself out of the contoured seat, reached up, and grabbed his bag out of the now-open compartment. He started down the aisle to the exit, and at the same time noticed Smitty hurrying to stay up with him.Guess I got myself a new friend, Kane thought.

The exit ramp led to an enclosed area of the hangar. The landing system allowed for the hangar to open directly to the Martian atmosphere while pressure systems kept both temperature and air at livable levels.

As soon as a series of suspended lights at the top of the hangar showed green—meaning the hangar was sealed—crews came running out to begin unloading the transport. Kane looked over to the metal crates being quickly offloaded, recognizing the shape and size from his own supply runs.

Weapons. Quite a lot for a research facility.

Then he watched one of the robot off-loaders open another freight compartment in the ship’s underbelly. And then it pulled out a really massive crate.

Now that’s…a big gun.

Two guys in suits walked over to the pile of crates, like kids inspecting what Santa left under the tree. Heavy weapons, heavy UAC suits…What’s going on up here?

One of the UAC men—stocky, looking like he could handle himself—crouched down and inspected the big metal case. Kane watched him slide his hand along the metal.Must be nice to be in love.

“Hey, you. Get over here with the others. Now!”

Kane whirled around to see a sergeant staring at him.

“Sure, Sergeant,” he said. The sergeant kept eyeballing Kane as he walked back to the rest of the new arrivals.

“All right, new marines, fall in, two lines. You goof-offs have a busy Martian day ahead.”

Marines…interesting. Kane wondered whether this guy had been recruited from the real marines and still couldn’t get his tongue around that word,space.

The new arrivals fell into two lines, Kane near the middle. Some of them, like Smitty, so damn young. Just kids.

The sergeant said, “My name is Master Sergeant Kelly. My voice will be—for you—the voice of Mars. When I say ‘move’ up here, you damn well better move fast. The same rule applies to jumping, running and every other damn bodily function that you newbies can think of. Now you grunts—follow me.”

The two lines of space marines walked behind Kelly past large doors and into an open room, which, Kane thought, looked surprisingly like the reception area of a sleek hotel.

“Welcome to Mars City,” a woman sitting behind the reception desk said. Guess no one told her that you didn’t have to actuallytalk to the jarheads.

Kane watched Kelly move fast, hurrying past the reception, into another large room, people moving quickly back and forth.Certainly busy here.

Then down a corridor to the left.

All resemblance to a hotel vanished as the corridor turned industrial, all massive tubes.Obviously we’re heading to the marine area.

Kelly held up a small device—probably his PDA—and doors swung open, and then into a room where other marines stood waiting. Like an ambush, Kane thought. Big grins on their faces.

“All right. Hold it up here. These marines here, they’re going to babysit you. You’ll each have your own personal tour guide to show you the Mars City layout, get your gear sorted, weapons assigned, where you eat, sleep—and do the rest of your stuff. You got that?”

Kane looked over the group, all making comments to each other. Looking at the new meat.This is gonna be fun, he thought.