The DOOM Chronicles

Chapter 01: Home Sweet Hovel

She kissed him.

He kissed her back immediately, gripping her hand and squeezing tightly. When they finished kissing, he said, "Jennifer-"

The ship bucked abruptly and violently.

"What the fuck was that?!" Kyra snapped.

"We have a problem!" the pilot reported.

"Yeah?" Pierce asked.

"Remember that maintenance we were supposed to get? Well, it's taking its toll. Engine Three just blew out, and we need all remaining engines to safely make this landing. If we lose one more, we're fucked," the pilot explained flatly.

"Great," Pierce growled. "All right, if-" The ship jerked again, far more violently this time, throwing him from his seat.

"Aaaaaaaaaand there goes Engine One," the pilot reported as he got back into his own seat.

"Godfuck!" Pierce roared as he shot to his feet.

"We are going down," the pilot said in a maddeningly calm tone.

"No shit!" Pierce snapped as he stumbled to a nearby workstation. "Everyone, get to the pods! I'm programming them to land within a mile of each other below us. I've got no fucking clue where we are beyond...somewhere over the American Midwest. Go!"

The ship had begun to rattle much harder, bucking in the turbulence now that it didn't have enough thrust to maintain its course. The ground was approaching much more rapidly. Jack, Jennifer, and Kyra unbuckled and shot to their feet.

"Where are the pods?!" Kyra demanded.

"All the way down the main corridor there, near the engines! Left side, just before the engine room!" Pierce replied.

"Let's go!" Jack said.

"Be along in a minute, gotta finish programming this, everyone else, get the fuck outta here!" Pierce snapped.

Jack didn't need to be told twice. He took the lead with Jennifer and Kyra on his six, the rest of the bridge crew following after them. He was still wearing the green combat armor he'd donned for the spacewalk to the lunar base they'd picked up Kyra from, and he had his pistol on his belt and some ammo, but nothing else. All around him, the ship shook and shuddered as it began to come apart from its uncontrolled descent through the Earth's atmosphere. This was not how he had hoped to return to Earth when he'd been exiled from it.

The way ahead seemed somehow longer than he remembered from his time spent aboard this vessel over the past two days. Of course, none of the times he'd walked this passageway previously had ever been under such dire circumstances. Now it seemed a wildly flashing chromed tunnel that stretched away from him. He almost laughed as he hustled down it, towards the pod bay at the rear of the ship. All the things that could have done this, all the demonic shit he'd faced down over the past several days, and they were crash-landing because the Marines who'd saved his and Jennifer's and Kyra's asses hadn't had time for maintenance and had been forced to push the ship to its limit in order to try and get home and warn everyone.

Turns out, they needn't have bothered.

Everyone already knew that demons were real, Hell was a real place, and they were at risk of global meltdown.

As he reached the halfway mark, the ship suddenly lurched much more violently. He was thrown off his feet, landing painfully on the deckplates, and ahead of him a bright yellow-orange light burst into being as a wall panel exploded. Behind him, he heard someone scream as a similar explosion occurred. Twisting around as he staggered to his feet, he saw that two of the bridge crew were down. Kyra was checking one's pulse.