InsaneJournal

The Opening Defense In The Human Game
so, the Human Defence Corps.

Currently the unit General Sam "Wade Eiling 1.1" Lane's in command of, they were created under the Luthor administration to be the one armed gov't group gunning after non-baseline threats that was actually public.



They've got on-the-ball intelligence:



... though one does have to wonder why they'd think Durlans would be interested in anything regarding the political goings-on of a small pastry.

Kinda cool support units!



Cool guns!



And people who can be ready in case, despite all of the above, everything goes south:





meet Specalist Kelly, who'll turn out to be important to the invasion of hell.

but first, he's got some changes to go through:



Like a rank up and a totally boss scar.



nice trick.

and it alerts them to a turn of circumstance that's happened at their underwater testing site:



gah, Starro. Place'll smell of lime for weeks before he's gone.

anyhow, cadets Taylor and Morgan evade the Starro'd, making their way down to the base's labs:



where there're some interesting specimens:



but, alas, the Starro'd interrupt their explorations of Doctor Gorilla's lab.

But then Taylor shoots a Starro'd Kelly, and it turns out that:



haha. Nice. Also, we learn that the HDC has Fort Olympus, an orbital defense fortress; it's Taylor's next posting.

and so the HDC continue operations, dealing with many a weird threat, like the A'Corti:





But eventually, it's time to go to hell once several soldiers realize they've been having dreams about the ones that died on the HDC's first mission...

... well, first, it's time for a seance, courtesy of an HDC chaplain:



during which it is confirmed that, yes, the ' dead ' soldiers are prisoners of Hell.

And then some demons show up, so it's a good thing that one guy from Easy Company was there (it WAS a seance, and one of the 'dead' soldiers was his grandson):



surprisingly, the HDC's prepared for this.. turns out, in addition to 'aliens', they also keep FFIV bosses in the basement:





yeah, see, Cal and Brina's dudes are preparing for a war with Neron, and they need all the juice they can get.

Since the HDC's not too keen on having their fellow soldiers powering up some demons, it's off to hell for a rescue mission!

Oh, and running over Charon in the process:



And so begins a war in hell, with Not Made of Six Dolls demon along for the ride:





Kelly's got " dispose of demon bodies so that they don't rejoin " detail.



meanwhile, Taylor breaks mad:



poor, dumb bastard.

now with his detail gone, Sgt. Kelly's gotta pull something interesting off if he wants to live:





... nice, man.

anyhow, the fight continues; it's a lot of gun shooting, more or less:





in an amusing moment, Corporal Taylor comes back as one of hell's henches, because IT'S FUCKIN' HELL:



heh.

but since things have to wrap up now, Kelly through some amusing circumstances realizes that he's part demon now (turns out, while facing those demons in Galatz? he got demon blood in his open wounds, more or less) and so uses this new part of his nature to seize the plot device powering the spell binding the captured soldiers:



luckily for Kelly, the HDC was prepared for that.



another heh.

and Kelly gets another honor from an incident involving demons:



... I have to chuckle at the fact that, regardless of how this operation panned out, a fact of the DCU American government was planning on setting up a puppet government in a small region of Hell. Just... wow.

Don't really know what else happened to them after this... well, General Lane is now their commander... and based on that Earth/New Krypton war foreshadowing, we might get to see them in action again.

for now, the mini closes out on now ruler-of-tiny-hell-region Kelly, being interviewed by Vicki Vale because apparently a rescue op in hell made the news. Somehow.



bonus: ... and she's definitely a better interviewer than Lana Lang!

(nice segue, huh?)

well, Pre-Crisis Lana at any rate, seen here interviewing Carl Draper, who's designed a supervillain prison:



Lana, most people have the common sense not to yawn when the subject of their interview is right nearby.

Just saying is all; fake mehness at least.

and when Superman swings by to suspend the prison 20,000 feet above ground out of his own good will (supposedly, it makes it more secure, which I can see):



... wait, Lana... another man built this prison... the general public acknowledges it... Superman acknowledges it... but you, more or less, go ahead and prove Man of Steel Lex Luthor right?

Okay, it's really just nickname stupidity that doesn't matter, but jeez woman, don't you know this is the kind of thing that makes supervillains happen?

alas, it's too late; the Master Jailer is born... well, he was born a while ago, but still.

... okay, he's Deathtrap these days, but still.