Deep Core 9

Deep Core 9 is a fan fiction story written by Wade Robichaud sometime around December 16, 2001. It was originally written for a single player campaign by the same name, but unfortunately that campaign was never released.

Story

The day started out just like any other day, taking the 15-minuet ride down the lift. I glanced to my left and I noticed the sign showing that my current depth was now 590m below the surface of Mars. "Only a few more minuets" I thought to myself, before I arrive at the Deep Core 9 drilling facility.

Being the head Mechanical Systems Engineer, I was sent down here to fix a busted hydraulic ram, which is used to engage the massive drill bit. As I walked along I saw many of the miners who had been tricked into coming to Mars, chipping away at the rock surface of the cavern, and the guards are everywhere making sure they work their entire 14 hour shift, if they don't, god knows what happens to them. I have heard stories of miners going down and never coming back up. Good thing I work for Ultor. The guards have never harassed me once.

There it is! The biggest drilling operation on mars, Deep Core 9. I specifically designed her to drill through the hard rock near the core of mars. The Machine it's self is 3 stories high and the bit its self is 17 feet in diameter! Right now we are drilling for a magma flow, so we can hook it up to the new Geo-Thermal plant installed in this sector almost 2 months ago.

I climbed up the ladder and through the hatch to the room that housed the 4 hydraulic rams that lower the bit. The room was filled with smoke, and hot steam was shooting out of the hydraulic ram, which to my disbelief was snapped in two! This was not an accident, someone purposely broke it. I radioed to the vehicle operator and let him know that I would be down here for at least 4 hours. When I was done talking, I noticed something across the room. I walked over and through the steam I saw "RED Faction" spray-painted on the wall. "What is red faction?" I thought. There have been rumors going around about a miner revolt, and my only guess is that the Red Faction would be associated with them.

Several Hours later, after installing the new ram, I started it up to see if it was working. "It worked!" I yelled, and at that point the commander walked in on me. "Good Work" he said.

"Thanks."

"Hey, by the way...do you have time to fix my jeep?" said the commander.

"Sure what's wrong with it?"

"It's just the mounted machine gun.... it jam's every few hundred rounds!"

"Ok.I'll see what I can do for ya"

As I walked out of the room I heard a big rumble, and as I turned around molten lava was spilling out of the hole I dug.

"Frank...get the hell outta there!" but it was too late..Frank, my commander slipped and was set on fire from the heat. I sealed off the room...and watched as his skin melted off and his body gets incinerated by the magma.

"Oh my god...This place is going to get swallowed by the lava flow!" as I had forgotten to cap the hole I had drilled. I went over to the wall next to me and smashed the pain of glass that held a red button that activated the evacuation siren. As the siren when on people spilled out of the facility like a bunch of ticked off red ants. I noticed Frank’s jeep about 25 meters away from me and I made a mad dash to it. I hopped in and started it up; good thing Frank always leaves his keys in the ignition. I sped off towards the containment doors and over to the access tunnel...which is used for the smaller drilling machines to get into the mines. I skidded around the corner and floored it up the tunnel to the surface of mars.

When I reached the top 2 guards were waiting for me. I pulled over and they asked me to step away from the jeep. I did as they told, as I did not want to start a fight.

"Sir. You are under arrest,” one of them said.

"What the hell for" I asked.

"For the complete destruction of Deep Core 9"

"Wait a second...I went down there this morning to fix a busted ram"

"I’m sure you did.” another one of them said.

"Hey look fellas. It’s not like I’m part of the Red Faction or something"

"Hey your with the red faction"

"No."

"Kill Him!" they shouted.

I jumped on the back of the jeep and opened fire on the guards. I shot them several times before I noticed a group 15 guards running towards me. I aimed my weapon at them and pulled the trigger..."Click...Click" Nothing. Frank told me this would happen.

I had to improvise...I jumped in the driver's seat and floored it towards the guards. By this time they had started shooting at me. I reached the group of guards and ran them all over. When I was finished, I picked up some of the weapons and stashed them in the jeep.

I was now in harm's way! I needed to get off this rock before i'm caught and killed, and the only way out of here was the STAR transport ship, which brings the ore mined from mars back to earth. The docking bay was on the other side of the Ultor compound. I needed to get through there first before I can even think about the Transport ship.

I pulled up to the door near the repair facility; there are not many guards in this area. I walked slowly over to the door and when I opened it a group of guards were waiting for me. I laid down heavy suppressing fire and took them out. I moved on through the area collecting more ammo and weapons. The next sectors of the facility should be heavily guarded so I need to be careful. Over the intercom I heard a message from Major Paxton, military leader on mars, he said that all miners needed to drop their weapons and report to the nearest security station. I knew then that the revolt had started!

I needed to get to the ship as fast as I can. I ran through the halls of the upper compound and jumped down a vent at the end of the last hall. I fell for about 10 seconds and smashed out the other side. Slamming a guard as I went. The lift in this area should take me down to level N-17 where I can find a new environ suit and some transportation.... maybe a fighter.

I reached the lift with no problem and activated the switch that took it down. I was almost home free. Around level N-14 the lift shuttered, and gave way. It was falling at an accelerated speed and level N-17 would be coming up right away. The only thing I could to was to jump off at the right time and hope for the best. I saw the sign for level N-17 coming up FAST...I prepared myself to jump...almost there...almost there...NOW. I leaped off the lift and hit the ground so hard I winded myself. I sat on the dirt for a few moments composing myself and when I felt better I started off to the bunker to grab a new enviro suit. When I got there I noticed that the bunker door was already open. I leaned around the corner and saw the enviro suit smashed and torn. I did not really need the suit but it would have been nice to get out of this old one.

I grabbed some health packs and 15 explosive charges, and continued to the storage facility, where I hoped to find a fighter or an APC.

The walk was treacherous and long about 2 hours...I reached the bay door and stepped inside...there infront of me was a Green fighter and Major Paxton standing infront of it.

"Well...well..Well...look who we have here" Paxton said.

"What are you going to do to me?" I said.

"Well..I could let you escape but that wouldn't be as much fun as killing you"

"Well...actually I like I like my first option"

"Run!"

"What?"

"RUN!"

"What do you mean?"

"I’m not going to shoot you right here. That would be boring...run around so I can target practice!"

"HEY...Paxton...here's some target practice for ya!" as I tossed an explosive charge at his face. It stuck to his helmet like glue and he started shooting blindly trying to kill me. I dodged all of his bullets except one that hit me in the left upper arm. I fell to the ground and my finger depressed on the trigger and Paxton exploded into many pieces.

I strolled over to his fighter and chuckled to myself. I hopped in and flew off down the tunnels towards the docking bay where the STAR transport ship would be getting ready to leave.

I reached the docking bay door and was startled to see 3 fighters flying full tilt towards me! I opened fire and took one out with a heat-seeking missile. Bullets were flying everywhere. And one of them hit my engine and I had to bail out of the craft. I hit the ground and rolled, I picked myself up and ran dodging bullets left and right. I managed to find a Zeus-Fusion Rocket Launcher in one of the crates near the ship. Its one shell was powerful enough to take both of the fighters out but I needed to get them closer together for it to be effective. I ran around for 5 minutes trying to get them closer and it was not going to happen. So I ran off behind a metal crate and fired the shell. The shell hit the first fighter and detonated. The explosion was so massive it took a chunk of the concrete wall out behind it. The second fighter was heavily damaged from the blast and if I got a clear shot of the fuel compartment I could blow it away. I had 2 shots left with my pistol I picked up, I took aim fired once...missed...fired twice...missed again. There was nothing I could do. I only had Det Packs, a crowbar and a flame-thrower.

The fighter lowered infront of me and I froze. The pilot prepared to fire and that's when I dove under the craft and punctured the fuel tank with my crowbar and made a run for it. Fuel was spilling out on the ground below the fighter. The pilot didn't know what was going on and opened fire all over the place. He stayed in one spot and just did a 360-degree turn trying to kill me. I managed to stay ahead of the machine gun fire and lit my flamethrower. I did a dive roll and lit the fuel on fire. I had only seconds before the fighter exploded and I made a mad dash to the STAR transport ship.

I climbed aboard as the fighter exploded, and panicked to find a place to hide. I saw a hatch on the floor about 5 meters ahead of me and ran towards it. I opened it and jumped down. I fell about 15 feet and crashed down on some large rocks. When I hit, I heard a loud snap and a sharp pain ran through my right leg. I let out a horrid cry in pain and I felt around where it hurt as it was pitch black down here, as I felt around I came to a splintered and jagged bone sticking out a good 3 inches near the lower part of my leg. I pulled myself up to a sitting position and then hopped up to my only good leg. I pulled myself over several large boulders and came to rest on top of one of them. I laid down for a second to rest. When I heard the sound machines revving up. Moments later I heard what sounded like a large Piston engaging.

"Could it get any worse?" I yelled. That's when my helmet light came flickering to life. I looked around for a moment to figure out where I was. Then I heard 3 more noises that sounded just like the first one. In horror I looked around and saw the walls closing in on me. I then realized that I was in a giant rock crusher.