Ian McCormick

Ian McCormick is a character from Doom 3, who reveals the truth behind the demonic invasion on Mars.

He worked at Delta Labs Level 2a. He and his colleagues were part of the Dr. Betruger's research team of martian teleportation. When the team discovered that the portals took a route through another dimension with living creatures, Betruger ordered them to recruit volunteers to go and capture one of the extra-dimensional creatures for study. To achieve this, McCormick did a number of unethical things, including creating false scientific reports to acquire permission to send humans through the portal.

During the demonic invasion, Ian locked himself in his office, armed with only a pistol. When the lone Marine runs across him, Ian helps him get to Delta Labs - Level 2b. He also reveals to the Marine how he and Dr. Betruger opened the portal between Mars and Hell, and gives him a video disc telling about the teleportation experiments and the specimens they were getting behind the portal to be delivered to the UAC Board.

His fate in the game is not revealed, but he is stated to have been killed in the novelized version of the game. Furthermore, the intro to Resurrection of Evil states that the Marine was the only known survivor of the invasion.

Teleportation Experiments Video Disk
Creator: Ian McCormick Date: 11/15/45 Results of the human teleportation experiments

''My name is Ian McCormick and I am a research specialist stationed on Mars, working for the UAC. My primary job is or rather was to assist Dr Malcolm Betruger in a variety of experiments, though for the past year we've been focusing almost exclusively on teleportation. I don't know if I'll make it out of here alive so I'm recording this video log to let someone know what happened and with that knowledge, prevent it from happening again.''

''Initially the teleportation experiments were amazing. We were creating a new science and the prospect of it changing our way of life were, well they were outstanding. I was proud to be associated with such an amazing project and someone as talented as Dr. Betruger.''

''We noticed early on, probably before we had completed maybe a dozen successful tests that there was a variable delay during the teleportation. The objects are broken down at the quantum level, transported and then reassembled. Each stage of the process should have been instantaneous but it wasn't and we didn't know why. We sent a video droid through and were shocked at the images it sent back. Just a few frames of video right before the droid came back through, showed what appeared to be several sets of eyes looking directly at the probe. We had just found a living breathing creature that was not human.''

''Betruger immediately sent out a request for volunteers. He specifically wanted UAC security force members because he wanted to capture one of these creatures. [Sigh] I've made a lot of mistakes but I am most ashamed in my involvement during the next phase. To get medical clearance to send human subjects through the device, I... I doctored up several of our reports to indicate that we had performed living tissue experiments. I did not regret it at the time but a few days later when our third test subject came back... he was chewing off his own fingers. It seemed he was clinically insane.''

''We started sending teams in about once every two days. The teams reported nightmarish experiences and sightings of things that ultimately made us conclude that the other dimension was not just another dimension. It was Hell and the creatures we were bringing back, demons.''

''And then Betruger, he went through the portal himself. I don't know what he was thinking. It was an unscheduled trip and he just went and we couldn't stop him... And when he came back, he had changed. He sounded and looked the same but he just, ..., I don't know, he was just... different. And then he did the unthinkable: He took the Soul Cube, the device that was discovered in the ruins, into the portal. The portal stabilizers just started to fail and then... living hell erupted into the base.''

''Oh, we were stupid for not destroying the portals as soon as we realized what was on the other side. Oh God, forgive me. I blame myself for my part in this. Please someone, never let this happen again. Uh, I'm sorry. Ian McCormick.''

Report on the Soul Cube
This report can be downloaded to your PDA.

Report filed by Ian McCormick:

''I've been working on the Soul Cube for a few weeks now. It is a fascinating artifact and as it turns out, it has some amazing properties. I wrote a new glyph pattern query yesterday and let it run all night. With the new query, the linguistics computer finally cracked the remaining glyphs!''

''The Soul Cube is by every definition a weapon, and it seems to have been built to repel whatever type of creatures invaded this ancient culture. If I am reading them right, during a battle the cube gains power with each life the wielder takes. When it is fully charged it can be used to slay even the strongest of creatures. Even more impressive is that when it kills a creature it transfers that creature's life force back to who is using the cube!''

I know this sounds like magic and I have not been able to activate it to prove the theory but this is what the glyphs illustrate.

''The glyphs specifically point out that you must kill five creatures before it becomes charged and then amazingly it will tell you it is ready. It is almost like a sentient being; this object is a fantastic find.''

Ian McCormick

cc: Research Archive Storage