"The Devil is real. I know; I built his cage." The very frightened Dr. Ishii said as he attempted to send his message to the Delta 4 Labs Main Portal. However, it was too late. Over the comm. links voices could be heard:

"Structural integrity at risk."

"I've got unidentified movement on the tracker."

"The portal is failing."

"I'm getting abnormal readings... this is bad... We're losing it!"

"What the hell is...!"?

Chapter 1:

My name is George Jenson. I have been stationed on Mars for about a year now. I was transferred here from my previous assignment: the Sky-ride Space Station. I have had a few scrapes with some of the scientists; they tend to be a little irritable. I was enjoying my job here for a while. Until... the weirdness started when I was about three months into my assignment.

I was helping a scientist in the main Electrical Conduit Bay. We were replacing a large 150v fuse when we heard a loud clang from somewhere in the room. We both jumped but luckily the fuse was already in place. The sound seemed to come from all around which wasn't surprising seeing as the room was fairly large. I walked around one of the humming electrical conduits and found a wrench on the other side of the room from the toolbox. I noticed a scuffmark in the wall from the collision. I figured one of the guys was messing around with us but we hadn't heard anybody climb the ladder or footsteps on the metal floor. The scientist and I got out of there, our mission completed. Though we did leave somewhat faster than normal. I was just a little disturbed so I compared notes and found out that most of the other Security Personnel have had similar experiences.

Over the next few months I experienced several odd occurrences. One night I was standing guard in The Dungeon. Which is a great place to be, seeing as how it's just creepy. I was patrolling in one of the storage areas when I heard a voice whisper, "Help me." Well I went to investigate but there was no one. Another time I heard a woman crying but I couldn't find out where it was coming from. But none of these came close to what happened a few weeks ago. I was accompanying an engineer down to one of the Computer System Relay's. I was walking around for a bit, just "sightseeing" and when I came back, he was gone. His equipment was still there and the panel was still open but he was just gone. I looked around for him, around columns and corners but I couldn't find any sign of him. I was freaked and got out of there fast. As I was closing the hatch I saw something quickly move under the ladder. All I saw was dark skin and almost a blur. I shut the hatch and left quickly.

I have never gone down there since. I was gonna transfer outta here the moment I got the chance.

I didn't get the chance.

Earlier today I was assigned to Monitor Security. I got to sit in front of a bunch of screens, drink coffee, and eat donuts. Great. So I report to the main security office and sit there with donut and coffee in hand, ready for a day of boring crap.

I sat there for a couple of hours. I got to see the new recruit arrive and monitored Dr. Betruger's meeting with Counselor Swann. I hoped for the chance to leave with him when he finished his investigation. I walked over to the counter and got more coffee. The lights flickered and went out. I pulled out my flashlight and sat back at the monitors. They flickered and glowed as the lights fluctuated. And when they came back on, some monitors just showed static while others showed disgruntled scientists and maintenance workers. I completed my objective of more coffee and sat down, putting my feet up on the desk. Other Security Guards filed into the room as their shift ended.

" How ya doin', George?"

" Same shit, you know how it is."

" Yeah, I know."

They all sat down and some put their feet up on the square tables around the room. I looked back at the monitors and saw a Marine walking along the outer catwalks on the surface. He made it to the airlock and disappeared. Must've been looking for that scientist who hadn't reported in for a while now. I flipped a couple switches and called up the Delta Security Cameras. I found one that was monitoring an odd mechanism. The subtitle on the screen said "Delta 4 Labs Teleporter". Wow, they actually had a teleporter.

Just then the lights flickered again, this time they didn't go out but the monitor in front of me went crazy. There were minor explosions and people panicking so I turned on the audio in time to hear,

"... Unidentified movement on the tracker."

"The portal is failing."

"I'm getting abnormal readings... this is bad... We're losing it!"

"What the hell is...!"

He was cut off by a hail of machinegun fire blasting at something coming through the portal. I heard an inhuman growl and a roar. It was big and had green-gray skin. It was followed by what looked like flying fireballs. Something red flew at the screen and it went to static. I sat shocked at what I had seen. The last image I saw was a large flaming skull biting the lens off of the camera.

Suddenly, gunfire erupted all around us. We could hear it coming through the walls, and ceilings, and floors. We all suited up and grabbed our weapons. I counted 8 men, including me. I looked on the security monitors and saw horrific things from all over the base. Another portal camera was still active and I queued it up on the main screen. I heard explosions, people screaming and, under it all, a bizarre, pulsing heartbeat. I looked at a flying skull attacking a Security Guard. I saw as it seemed to merge with his head and looked on in horror as his eyes exploded into the eyeglass of his helmet. He started limping around attacking the scientists around him, biting pieces of their arms and face off. On another monitor a Marine was breaking a man's neck. The Marine suddenly looked at the camera and I saw milky white eyes and an empty soul just before the screen turned to static. The comm. channels were flooded with panicked voices.

"We've got unidentified movement coming from all over the base."

"Watch your back."

"We've got a situation..."

"Everyone out of here. Now, now, now!"

"I can't see anything..."

"Abandoning positions"

"They're breaking through the walls!"

"Massive structural damage (whoosh...) ahhh!"

"No No PLEASE AAH HELP ME!"

"AHHHH"

"WE'RE OVERRUN! AH HELP ME!"

"They're coming through the portal."

The screams of dying men along with the roars and shrieks of God knows what kind of things came over the comm. channels.

"All remaining Marine units. This is Sergeant Kelly... Move to Marine HQ to regroup and receive further orders."

"Marine HQ, this is specialist Wilson. My team is gone; they're all dead. What are my orders?"

"Specialist Wilson, this is Sergeant Kelly. Move to your last known RP and fortify your position. We'll find ya."

We decided it was time to move out. Whatever it was had been able to wipe out a team of Marines in only a few minutes. We exited the Main Security Office and headed on down the hall. We didn't even get to the first fork when a floor panel burst open and a... thing popped out. It was tall, even stooped as it was. It had long claws and what looked to be about eight eyes. It had a mottled, gray-black skin and screamed as it saw us. It drew its claw back and it began to glow. A large ball of what seemed to be fire manifested in its hand. It shrieked again as the creature hurled the fireball at us. It missed the targeted Marine and exploded on the ground. Simultaneously 5 machine-guns erupted, splattering monster blood over the floor. The thing shrieked and fell back on the ground, kicking in its death throes. Then something happened that none of us expected, as it died, it's body burned away like newspaper in a fire. We examined the place of impact the fireball had with the metal floor panels and saw that it had melted part of it so that a smooth dent had appeared in the floor. Daunted, we all moved forward, 4 checking ahead, 4 watching our backs.

We found a person limping toward us slowly. A guard at the front went to help him but, as he came into the light, I saw the same white-eyed, soulless face. The man emitted a soft groan as it moved closer to us. I pulled the guard back and raised my gun. One of the other guards, Johnson, yelled, "He's Human. Don't shoot him!" but I knew better. I allowed the "human" to come closer to me and bashed him in the face, sending him down on the ground. The man got back up slowly and started limping at me again. I backed up, as did the other guards. "He's not human." I told the others. They finally got the picture. One of them mentioned "zombie". All the time this zombie was shambling around trying to get us. At last I took my standard issue pistol and put the thing out of its misery. What the hell was going on here? What could do this to a man?

We moved in formation for several minutes. We were heading for a Security Post to fortify ourselves. As we passed the bathroom, we could hear a mechanical rumbling coming from inside. We got in position and moved into the bathroom. The men at the front froze and as we came up behind we saw why; a biomechanical terror was munching on a dead human. It was a frightening thing. It was on four legs and had a kind of "shell" over the front part of its body with a hole for the mouth. Its mouth held many sharp teeth, all of which appeared to be glistening a little too much. Its teeth were made out of metal. My eyes traveled down the rest of its body and noticed that the large, flesh, rather small mechanical legs followed front part.

We had obviously taken it by surprise but it was regaining its wits. The men at the front started firing at it. The monster let out a mechanical scream and disintegrated into embers like the other creature we had killed. We heard sharp grunts from several stalls as more "zombies" walked out. We started firing all around trying to get them all before they got us. Someone suddenly shot out a few lights so we could only see a few feet in front of us. Once we realized they were all dead we stopped firing and reloaded. I got out my flashlight and looked around the bathroom. Blood was smeared all over the walls and dead zombies littered the floor. We stepped over the bodies as we slowly exited the bathroom. That was the last time curiosity would ever get the better of us.

We found a checkpoint with a mounted sentry gun guarding it. It was equipped with the friend-or-foe Target Recognition System so we were safe. The checkpoint yielded several clips for our guns and some plasma ammo. I grabbed a canister of the latter, hoping to find the gun later. Several people went to the bathroom on a far wall. Invasions don't deter the call of nature. As we sat there we began to discuss the nature of the invasion taking place. We hadn't had much time to talk in the constant action. Occasionally we would hear the booming of distant fire. I hoped our fellow Marines were doing well, for the most part. Our makeshift "Squad" had done well in killing what we'd found.

"Y'know, the way they kind of burn away like that kind of reminds me of a vampire movie." said Private Jackson. "The four-legged thing and the one that crawled out of the floor both burned up when we killed them. What kind of thing burns up when it dies?" he asked the rest of us.

We all sat looking puzzled until one Marine named Phillips answered quietly, "Demons."

We didn't laugh at his answer. In fact it made sense. No organic creature has mechanisms grafted onto it's body in that way. And nothing anybody had ever seen was able to conjure a "fireball" that could melt through metal like that.

"Yeah, Demons does sound right. These things just came out of nowhere and have managed to kill quite a few people in only a little while." another Marine commented.

Suddenly, we heard Chain-gun fire coming from close-by. A monstrous roar punctuated the constant rumble of fire. A man screaming which was abruptly cut off followed it. W waited silently, with bated breath. We could hear heavy footsteps through the wall, pounding.

A few minutes of silence. A tremor shook the room. The wall broke open next to us and a 10-foot-tall hunched monstrosity loomed over us. Its head was hunched over it's shoulders in an odd slouch. It looked like a Demon on steroids. Massive muscles rippled across its body as blood dripped from its powerful jaws. It was the same creature I saw coming through the portal. We all registered trouble in less than a second.

Many things happened at once. We heard the radio crackle, "Command HQ this is Specialist Wilson..." And at the same time, Private Johnson screamed, "What the FUCK is that!?" Just as a Magnum boomed and a round pierced the gray skin of the looming terror. A Chain-gun erupted next to us as several creatures streamed through a door. The turret kicked on and started firing at the new targets as the huge Demon gave a roar and stepped towards us.

Phillips yelled "They're all around us! What do we do?!" as the radio started screaming out things from the other teams.

"Send back-up NOW!!"

"Man down! Man down!"

"The Delta Complex is completely overrun. Those things are everywhere!"

"Get that open window. Shut up! Now!"

The radio kept crackling yells at us through our own gunfire. I yelled, "Lay down a suppressing fire" and looked around, firing at anything that didn't look Human while keeping an eye on the big-ass thing advancing towards us. A Marine closest to the monster was firing at it with his machine-gun. It got advanced closer until it was close enough to raise its gigantic claw and swipe the unfortunate Marine into the wall, where his head cracked and he fell to the floor in a bloody heap. The close proximity of the huge creature caused the Marine group to scatter to different parts of the room. Johnson and I were backed into a corner as a small, mantis-like creature kept disappearing and reappearing closer to us while a fireball-wielding Demon started towards us. I focused on the fireball Demon and trying to shoot it in any vital place. It fell to the ground and burned up. I heard Johnson yell behind me so I turned and saw the mantis-Demon claw his leg, gashing it deeply. He shot it in the face and it flew back and disintegrated.

I tied off his leg with a piece of his pants to keep the bleeding low. He kept shooting at different things in the room. No one was able to bring down the big-ass Demon yet, so I thought of something. I grabbed the Plasma Canister I had been carrying and rolled it towards the mammoth Demon, which was now hurling balls of green fire at people. As the glowing, blue plasma canister neared the creature's feet, I rolled a grenade over to it. The grenade and the canister both exploded, conflagrating the creature with blue plasma. When the haze faded, there was nothing left of the giant Demon. Our Marine force had grown smaller. A total of 4 were dead, so that left 4 to die. Phillips had had his face clawed off and his intestines ripped out. One Marine, Jenkins was alone in a corner firing wildly at an incoming fireball Demon. Private Williams saved him from his demise by taking it out with a shotgun from the side.

The sentry turret was waving back and forth, targeting Demons at random. We helped it by taking out the remaining Demons. Also, although it was painful to do so, we put a bullet through the head of each of our fallen comrades, so as they would not become the living dead and drag us into their eternal hunger. The four remaining, Williams, Jenkins, Johnson and myself, gathered the remaining clips and guns from around the room. The Demon bodies had disappeared but the gore and flesh of our men painted the walls and floor.

The combination of the attack and the fact that the sentry gun was out of commission had us packing up and moving out. We climbed through the hole the creature had bashed out of the wall and found ourselves in a dimly lit room. In the far corner was a dead Marine; his head had been crushed. In his hands was a belt-fed Chain-gun. We took it up gratefully and moved into the next room. A shot rang out as a bullet clipped the doorframe that I had just walked through. We weren't allowed a respite from Hell. The room was a cubicle-based workroom so I took cover in one of them. The others behind me followed suit, taking cover in different placed within sight. We heard a crackling of a radio as it spoke, not English, but an odd language; "Jech jacki flucki flugai." There were several different footsteps so we knew the assailant was not alone. As they started closer to our position I motioned towards Johnson. I pointed to him and to the corner then I pointed to me and my corner of the cubicle. On three we both swept into the aisle way between cubicles, keeping low. I saw what had shot at me. It was a Marine, with a standard-issue pistol and a face-plated security helmet. The faceplate was stained an odd reddish color. I was able to register this much before I began firing at the former Marine. Johnson started firing away with his assault rifle at the other security guard. We both crept down the aisle way after both were dead. We peeked around the corners and saw no further backup. I stood up and called to the guys, "It's clear." The rattle of a Chain-gun belt and footsteps answered as Jenkins and Williams met us on the other side of the room.

Jenkins bent down and examined the fallen guard. He took off his helmet and I saw that his eyes had exploded. His face was disfigured terribly. His skin had become pallid and gaunt and his nose was gone. We stole their ammunition and moved on. We passed a up and opportunity to use a bathroom and pissed on the wall as we had not before. We were currently in the Administrative Center of the Mars Base. We found a security checkpoint from which we had security and surveillance access to all of Mars Base. We took this opportunity to check up on the rest of the base. Johnson sat behind the security monitor and called up some surveillance cameras.