Marines (Doom)

The Marines are an organization featured in several installments in the Doom franchise, featured most prominently in Doom 3, as previous installments did not feature living marines aside from the player. They are an elite military division where Doomguy originally served, and were the first line of defense against demonic invaders on Earth and Mars. Throughout the games and supplementary material, is unclear to what nation, alliance, or other larger group the marines belong to, with possible founders/leaders being the United States, the United Nations, the Union Aerospace Corporation, or a separate entity referred to as United Aerospace.
Marine uniforms are identical to that of the protagonist from the given installment, such as Doomguy's classic uniform or the protagonist of Doom 3. The marines also possess several subdivisions and specialized units, such as combat engineers and specialized strike teams, and utilize highly advanced technology. In addition to the games, the marines were featured in the incomplete novelization of Doom 3, the Doom films, and a few living marines along with Doomguy and several zombie marines were shown in the 1996 Doom comic.
==History==
===Pre-Doom===
The marines were founded at an unknown point in time prior to 2022, appearing to be either the United States Marine Corps or part of an international alliance. They were stationed on both Earth and Mars, where the Union Aerospace Corporation had a base that was conducting research in teleportation, utilizing another dimension as a slingshot. One marine, Doomguy, was stationed on Earth during an unknown conflict, where his superior officer ordered him to fire on civilians. Doomguy refused and killed the officer with a punch, and was thus stationed on Mars as punishment.
===Doom===
While on Mars, a catastrophic failure occurred when scientists tried to master interdimensional travel so they could open portals between Phobos and Deimos, instead tapping into Hell, the dimension they were using as a slingshot. The failure caused Deimos to disappear, and a portal to Hell opened, causing a hellish invasion. Only one marine unit, Doomguy's, was battle-ready on Mars, and were quickly deployed to Phobos, but were quickly overrun by the demons, many marines being converted into demonic zombies. Doomguy, the only survivor, single-handedly fought through the hordes to kill the Barons of Hell and giant Cyberdemon that were commanding the invasion, before finding the overarching commander, the Spider Mastermind, seemingly killing it before returning to Earth. However, the Spider Mastermind had already sent an invasion force to Earth.
=== Doom 2: Hell on Earth===
The marines fought against the invasion, as world leaders opted to evacuate the civilian population using spacecraft, but found that the demons had occupied a major spaceport. A division of marines known as the Spaceport Assault Squad attempted to clear the spaceport, but were all killed. Doomguy then returned, and upon finding his pet rabbit dead and the invasion tearing apart the planet, went on a demon-killing rampage, clearing the spaceport and allowing the humans to escape. Doomguy decided to stay on Earth and waited for death, but the marines contacted him and informed him that they had pinpointed the source of the invasion, Doomguy's hometown. With a new objective, Doomguy fought his way to the source, getting into Hell and finding the true demonic commander, the gargantuan Icon of Sin. After killing it and ending the invasion, he returned to Earth, as did the human survivors. The marines appeared to still be intact, but Mars was left abandoned as Earth was rebuilt.
===Doom 64===
After the invasion of Earth, Doomguy was debriefed and went through many tests and treatments for the experiences he went through by marine doctors, although they didn't help Doomguy's nightmares. The marine reports on the Hell invasion, codenamed "DOOM", were classified and sealed away, and an absolute quarantine of the now-heavily irradiated Phobos was enacted. Some years afterwards, the marines detected signs of a powerful demon on the abandoned Phobos base, the Mother Demon, who was resurrecting mutated corpses of demons and marine personnel left on Phobos. As Doomguy was extremely experienced in killing demons, the marines deployed him to Phobos with the sole objective of completely exterminating the demonic presence. Doomguy, as the only marine deployed, killed the new demonic forces and the Mother Demon, and then voluntarily remained in Hell, seeking to permanently hold off any new demonic forces. While temporarily returned to Earth by another member of the Mother Demon's species, Doomguy fought his way back into Hell and slew the demon, and continued on his mission of keeping Hell at bay. During his one-man campaign through Hell, Doomguy traveled back in time and across space, emerging in Argent D'Nur in the ancient past, where he joined the Night Sentinels and became the fearsome Doom Slayer.
=== Doom 3===
By 2145, the UAC reestablished a Mars presence, discovering the remains of a Martian civilization, possibly the old Argenta colony of Hebeth, and once again began performing teleportation experiments. Marines were stationed around the Mars City, the new headquarters of the UAC, with most marines designated as Mars-Sec. Master Sergeant Thomas Kelly was placed in charge of all marines present, while in secret, UAC scientist Malcom Betruger, a demonic cultist, worked to bring demons out of Hell and onto Mars. When he opened the portal, many Mars-Sec marines being corrupted into demonic zombies, joining with incoming demons to quickly overrun remaining marines, although at least two squads, that of Bravo Team and Kelly's squad, managed to survive, while one marine who had just arrived also managed to survive, fighting his way through the demon-infested facility. Working in tandem with a surviving Bravo Team marine, as all other Bravo marines were eventually killed, the marine slaughtered demonic hordes and entered Hell, cutting off the demonic invasion forces. Only the Bravo marine and the other marine survived the events on Mars.
===Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil ===
In 2147, a marine team investigated a strange signal from the abandoned Mars complex, finding a mysterious Martian artifact. A Marine Engineer touched the artifact, which activated and disintegrated the rest of his squad, and reactivated a Martian portal. Other marines were killed by the new demons, but the marine engineer managed to fight his way to Hell and kill the Maledict, the demonic overlord who was orchestrating the invasion, who was actually a corrupted Dr. Betruger fused with an ancient demon. The marine engineer's fate is unknown.
===Post-Doom 3===
The marines were presumably integrated into the Armored Response Coalition with the Allied Nations in 2151. As it is ultimately somewhat ambiguous if the events of Doom 3 is in the same timeline/universe as the rest of the franchise, or at least of the soft-reboot Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal, the actual status of the marines is unclear.
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