Fictional Group History
In the DC Comics universe, the Human Defense Corps is a branch of the military established by then President of the United States Lex Luthor to reduce government dependency on superhumans when a major alien crisis breaks out, act as back-up to Earth's superheroes, and specifically counter any alien threat to Earth. Membership of the Corps is open to 'Decorated veterans of alien campaigns only'.
The Corps has bases all over Earth, including below the sea (Human Defense Base Area 53) and in space (Fort Olympus Orbital Defense Station). The sea-base included scientific facilities run by Doctor Zaius, a sentient gorilla from Gorilla City, which experiments on captured extraterrestrials and demons, although its location has recently been moved off-Earth.
Their first mission comes when the 1st Special Armoured Division are sent on a reconnaissance trip to the former Soviet satellite Bulgravia to support Government troops who had had encountered shape-shifting aliens with high firepower weaponry and assumed to be Durlans. They are attacked in the Forest of Galantz by vampiric aliens invisible to special tech weapons but not ordinary eyesight, and all but Sgt Montgomery Kelly of the forward platoons, sixty-six men, are killed in the skirmish, some by blanket bombing of the area with 'holy napalm', a cross between holy water and fire-retardant gel which destroys the vampires. Sgt Kelly and Colonel Reno Rosetti, who designed the weapon and ordered the attack on the drop site, are decorated as a result.
Some time afterwards the Corps are involved in a 'Centaur attack in Turkey', of which nothing is known, and are also pursuing a drawn-out war against a mole-like race of underground people called the A'Corti, specifically in London, England.
Two years later, after dreams of the Galatz Forest incident affect a number of soldiers who were not there, a seance held by HDC Head Chaplain Charlie Graham ascertains that the members of the Corps who were assumed killed in the incident are in Hell but not actually dead, and the 'vampires' they fought were demons. Interrogating Calcabrina, a captive demon from the incident, they discover a Bulgravian mage had made a deal for his village to be spared the ravages of civil war in exchange for sixty-six souls, and the Human Defense Corps team had stumbled in and taken their place. The demon clan took them alive to feed on their energy - which is more powerful than the energy of the dead - as part of a plan to extend their power in Hell. Guided by Calcabrina, the Third Special Armoured Division invade Hell (code-named 'Trans-Dimensional Interactive Zone 4' - 'T-Zone 4' ) to recover the sixty-six Corps members. Sgt Kelly is supposed killed by the demon he killed two years before in Galatz Forest - but discovers he has demon blood in him as a result of the incident and cannot die, and is now blood related to the demon clan. He claims the staff of the clan leader demon Lord Scarmiglione in battle, takes his place, and the Corps rescue the sixty-six men. The five men who are killed in the sortie now also have demon links and unspecified powers, and Sgt Kelly and the five form a diplomatic link between Hell and Earth.
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