Ian McCormick is a minor character in Doom 3. One of the scientists who was involved with Dr. Betruger's many experiments in the Delta Labs, he survived the initial wave of the demonic invasion and attempts to provide the truth behind the event and assist the player into stopping it.
Background[]
Ian McCormick is a research specialist who was involved in assisting Dr. Malcolm Betruger's development on Martian teleportation. When McCormick and his team discovered that the portals opened a path to another dimension filled 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. Eventually however, he became horrified once he discovered this dimension they opened a portal to was Hell. He then witnesses Betruger going into the portal himself, taking the Soul Cube with him, moments before the invasion happened.
McCormick stayed in the Teleporter Control Lab ever since, struck with extreme guilt and wishing he could undo all the prior events that had happened.
Doom 3[]
The player meets McCormick in the Delta Labs Sector 2A. Initially startled by their sudden appearance, he is grateful to see the player. He then briefly explains everything surrounding the invasion; how it happened, how he was involved in it, and how it can be stopped. To help the player further proceed through the Delta Complex, he asks them for their assistance to make the teleporter functional, by providing him a working plasma inducer.
After finding the plasma inducer, the player returns to McCormick, who immediately powers up the teleporter before telling them that he cannot accompany them. He wishes the player good luck and provides them his own audio journal, further detailing the background of the invasion, in hopes of the player spreading word to prevent another invasion from happening.
His fate in the game is not revealed, but his video log states that he doesn't expect to survive the invasion. In addition, it is stated that he has 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.
Email: Report on the Soul Cube[]
NOTE: This report can be downloaded to your PDA.
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
Video Disk - Teleportation Experiments[]
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 drone through and were shocked at the images it sent back. Just a few frames of video right before the drone 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 of 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. (Sigh) 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 were reporting 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... I don't know what he was thinking. It was an unscheduled trip and he just went and we couldn't stop him. (Sigh) 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... 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.