Gordon stepped out of the cargo elevator to find himself in hell.
A large part of the maintenance room walls had been blown apart, and he could see outside where everything was in ruins; most of the ceiling's backpanels had given way to show the multitude of cables they had been hiding - some of which were dangling above the floor and crackling, cut in half, extremely high voltages still running through them.
Most of the walls outside weren't as badly damaged as this one was, although a few did show sign of structural damage.
Most of them instead showed visible signs of firefights, and many presented also still fresh splotches of blood which trailed to the floor to its late owners.
Tables were upturned, to make a crude barrier, as were file cabinets and even a few blackboards.
The only source of light were the emergency lights, and the silent alarm lights.
Everything was like shrouded in a red mist.
Gordon had come out from just behind the barricade. The scene was utterly silent, except for the sound of his boots on the floor, and wood splinters and blood with it.
There were about a dozen people behind the barricade; some were scientists still in their white lab coat, and some were from security, guns still in their hands. Gordon bent to examine one of them, and realized that most hadn't been shot or clawed through, but scorched.
The burns were on the bodies belly and face.
*BEEP* *BEEP* "Warning: unknown biological entity detected within thirty meters. Entity signature not matched. Caution advised."
"GRGZXDIEXZED"
From behind him, came distorted and muttered words. He picked up the guard's still loaded combat shotgun and turned.
He had seen it before - but where? The being lowered his arms, his fingers almost touching the floor as a low crackle became louder when they lifted. A green field of electricity was stirring from each of the beast's fingers to the floor, and before Gordon could react, the being had lifted his arms completely and pointed them to him; he was slammed on the floor by an explosion just in front of his suit's breast.
*BEEP* *BEEP* "Warning: extreme electrical shock received. Gyroscopes malfunction - readjustment in progress." *BOOP* *BOOP* "Reactive shielding at sixty percent, holding." *BEEP* *BEEP* "Entity classification: hostile. Extreme prejudice advised. Gyroscopes readjustment successful. Damage negligible."
The being charged on, then began to lower his arms again. But this time, Gordon turned a switch on the shotgun he was still holding, and squeezed the trigger: several spent shells flew out of the barrel and deposited clinking on the floor as the weapon's automatic mode sprayed the being with lead. The being blooded green blood, and it collapsed, its chest blown open.
Then Gordon reloaded, and found the shotgun back in its pocket.
And that made four times. But this time he was tired.
Tired of his impossible knowledge of weapons and enemies.
Tired of not knowing why he didn't want to know what the being was, nor how he knew that he had fired a Smith & Wesson CAWS 12-gauge combat shotgun. This time, it wasn't just despair; it was anger. He wanted to know why he knew, and why he didn't want to know.
Someone had a lot to answer to him. But who?
He angrily pushed away the crude barricade. He just realized who might be the one to talk to.
*Alpha leader, we got a few secondaries.*
*Good, Alpha three. Make it clean.*
One hour in sector D, and they were already deeply entrenched, with a bridgehead in the warehouse.
That was good, because enemy infestation was going to raise as big N realized what was going on.
He just hoped that D knew what he was doing. He knew they had given almost all they could - but a GRS?
He dismissed the thought - his place was not to question the plan, just to execute it. And for that plan to succeed, sectors D and C were to be cleaned out.
Bodies of other extraterrestrial thunder-shooting beings, as well as of other people, were just outside the barricade.
Gordon ignored them, still angry. He made way to a second corridor, still ignoring the obvious signs of gunfights, and crouching under another severed cable, this one also dancing wildly as if possessed by the extremely high voltage running through it.
He knew who he was looking for - but it was only when he reached his destination that he wondered how he could have survived. Because he did.
Behind the upturned desk, above various papers covered in blood, lay a body, still lamenting. He was a mess, as were the others, but he was still breathing. As soon as Gordon approached, he recognized him.
"Gordon... Oh, Gordon..." he was obviously finding it hard to breathe and to talk.
"What the hell you've done to me, bastard? You'd better talk!" Gordon was still angry, but soon the realization that he might not know what was going on hit him.
"...Gordon... I'm so sorry... So terribly sorry... They shouldn't... I shouldn't..."
"Tell, me Kleiner! Tell me! I need to know what the hell is going on with me! And you know, don't you?"
Gordon was again furious, as John Kleiner, still breathing heavily, touched his chest wound.
"...I do... ...But?... How could... I should be... Ought to be... No... There's no time to explain, Gordon... No time... Sorry..."
The man was obviously confused, and it was only when he turned his head that Gordon saw the scorch on his temple, surely the cause for his mental state.
"Curse myself... Cursed forever... You were the best... You are the best ones... But I... No... I..." The man paused. "Find her... Find her, and tell her I still love her, as I love you Gordon..."
The man put a hand over Gordon's arm "My..."
Kleiner exhaled, and never inhaled again.
Gordon stood, and looked down, his anger gone. A wave of sorrow hit him, suddenly, and he sat down on the floor, again, to reflect.
Jonathan Kleiner was not only his university professor in Theoretical Physics, but also a good friend. He was different from the other professors, all out for the money and uncaring about their students' fate, as he taught and studied physics with a passion Gordon could only admire.
He had been a standing point throughout his universitary life. Many were the good students in his classes; but he never denied the fact that Gordon was one of his favorites.
Gordon remembered how sad he felt when Kleiner was reported dead. His graduation was completely dedicated to him; until a few months ago, with Materas' call and his enlisting in the Black Mesa science personnel. Only then did he know Kleiner's fate in sector C's science team, and he remembered that the first thing he had done was to visit him and to catch up on old times.
How happy he felt, for a friend found again...
On the fogged HUD appeared the phrase `A man enters in a cafe': SPLASH!'
...Darkness. There was only darkness... No. It wasn't true. There was a voice.
"...How long... How long have I been here?"
"Too long. It is time to move."
*BOOP* *BOOP* "HEV sleep mode deactivated. Secondary functions reinitialized successfully. Have a very safe morning."
As the male synthesized timbre spoke, the darkness cleared. There was blood then, but even that cleared, and the walls began moving.
"You already know where. You must find the one person."
"But... Now? Here? And even if I do, what then? What must I do? Tell me, please!"
"Just keep on with me. You'll understand."
The voice faded, as the now-conscious brain began to recognize what was happening. The destination was unclear, as unclear were the motives.
There was only one way to find out.
Almost one hour had came and gone when Gordon left the office. His original mission returning to the top of his to-do list, he summarized his meditations with more questions than answers.
Klenier said he knew what he did to him... and to this woman, whoever she might be.
This fact, strangely, wasn't surprising for him... But recently Gordon had known quite a few things too many, who could say?
What was stranger, is how Kleiner survived. Gordon had examined the body closely, and the scorch on its temple wasn't actually a burn, but instead an haemorrage. Not a cerebral one - just a small superficial injury, expanded from two, small points. The two syringes he had found while searching the office for clues were empty, but used. What the hell had Kleiner been doing all the way through? What did he do to him? And more importantly, what were all these strange creatures roaming around the complex?
This had begun to sound like some old sci-fi movies he saw back when he was younger. He never liked sci-fi; he much preferred real science - although the very suit he was wearing could be considered science fiction by most.
Gordon sighed, and with nothing more to go on, he set out towards the warehouse, his suit still aiding him to find his way around. Because, he had found out, that there was no way to contact the rest of the complex from here; the computers were working and they were showing that the main connection to the rest of the complex had been severed, as sector D had been hit pretty badly too. And the backup connection didn't respond, as if it wasn't there.
Surface was to be his only hope.
The office block was silent again, except for his footsteps and the occasional, malfunctioning, apparatus. The slaughter might had been complete; but Gordon hoped that a few scientists were hiding in fear inside one of the small offices, fearing that he might be another one of the monsters.
Damage had been lighter in that part, but as he got closer to the warehouse area, he noticed that damage got much more extensive. Checking the map, he saw that this section was actually closer to the test lab.
Checking more carefully, he noticed that sections with higher damage were arranged in a semicircle, with the center pointing towards the test lab. It was like the resonance cascade actually engulfed the areas with a spherical pattern, damaging everything heavily; then it sort of died out, leaving minimal structural damage.
He crossed another semi-destroyed and silent room, also shrouded in a yellowish mist as the dust from the fallen concrete shone through the emergency lights, to approach the stairs up; from there he should eventually find a vehicle-only access for the warehouse, although he hoped there was an on-foot access too.
The instant he set foot on the first step, he heard something above.
It was distinctively non-human, a growl he had never heard.
It was feeble, and it increased slightly.
He climbed a few more steps, and looked above again. Up above he could see the landing for the next floor, and a small, podlike yellow thing was being projected to the floor below.
It was too late when Gordon realized the thing had claws, and the entire lower surface was a sharply-teethed mouth.
Gordon ducked as a last ditch effort; but it was useless, as the being bounced millimeters before touching his head, producing a screeching noise, followed by a feeble scream.
*BEEP* *BEEP* "Warning: unknown hostile biological entity detected within thirty meters. Entity signature not matched. Extreme prejudice advised." *BOOP* *BOOP* "Reactive shielding damage: negligible"
The creature's bottom was in view; it was scorched quite badly from the contact with the HEV's heavy shielding, and the little beast was screeching and writhing.
Yet it somehow flipped over, and screaming feebly it returned to the attack - only to be stopped cold with a shot from Gordon's pistol.
Five times... No. This one was different. He approached and picked up the small being, because he was curious about something.
But it was not its origin, but its similarity with the head of the monsters back down in sector C.
Gordon dropped abruptly the small being. No, apart from that, he was again unnaturally uncaring; but he decided to stick to his mission as he climbed the stairs to the first floor landing to hear a bubbling noise coming from his right.
In a corner, within a large pool of blood, lay a scientist. Only his head was yellow, and pulsating as were his arms, slowly and disgustingly, but visibly...
"How is the plan going, D?"
"Fairly good. We are already well underway."
"Good. We especially look forward to this kind of experiment..."
The connection closed, but this time D wasn't alone.
G ran to him; he was visibly preoccupied.
"Sir? Sir! We might have one more problem we never posed ourselvesss."
"What now, G?" Contrary to his normal attitude, D wanted to hear everything everybody wanted to say on this plan.
He wanted everybody's opinion, because he had learned the hard way that ignoring even the slightest detail or the most improbable of problems could very well mean another failure - and his death. G, strangely, had hardly talked until now.
"How can we know exactly if the GRS will be in its standard outfit?"
The realization hit D hard. That was one major problem he didn't think of. He couldn't get a GRS if he couldn't recognize it. And since most of his plan was about what to do after acquiring the GRS...
"...You're right." D thought for a minute. There was one solution... But not a pretty one.
G was almost smiling as he talked "May I suggessst..."
D leaned closer to hear what G had to say...
The garden was so quiet this hour of the day. None of the night creatures could be heard. The figure stepped slowly, looking around blankly.
"I'd say I do. But I don't. And you know why."
There was a pause, then the voice continued.
"I'm sorry. But you know there was no other way. It was this, or death."
"That doesn't make things easier. Two is too many. Always too many."
"Two is the perfect number. Always the perfect number. You'll never be alone, with me."
"And if I want to?"
"You'll never want to. Trust me."
The figure crouched, tears flowing from the still blank-staring eyes.
Gordon felt sick, as purple and yellow goo trickled down the hideous pulsing yellow thing, staining the labcoat over the blood.
Suddenly, its left arm began to pulse faster. At the height of the shoulder the meat exploded in a puddle of blood and goo, to reveal the bone, strangely dark. More small explosions and disgusting noises, until even the hand bone was fully uncovered, showing the finger bones had doubled over, and when extended were disgustingly long and thin.
The other arm began the same fate, but before it could complete, an entire 9mm clip was emptied in the being's head.
There was no cry, but the mutation slowed and then stopped, as the being lay motionless.
Overcoming the sense of disgust, Gordon approached the body. He felt, for the second time that morning, curious about something.
"At last!" he whispered to no one; although his excitement was short lived as he braced himself and tried to remove the zombie's head.
He couldn't do that; whatever had happened must have fused the small creature to a human being completely.
What the hell was going on around here? He took out his crowbar for a crude inspection of the internal organs, as the suit helped him by injecting an antiemetic.
He didn't have a vast knowledge of the human body, but the inside seemed almost normal - if it weren't for the small, yellow worms that were still crawling around.
The sight was too much, and Gordon stood, his disgust almost surpassing the antiemetic's effect. He closed his eyes, trying to cancel the hideous sight from his brain.
He failed; but as he reopened his eyes, he saw a sign with an arrow pointing to his left. The sign said `Sector D Warehouse'.
His mission had to be completed. More lives than his were at stake.
Recomforted, albeit very slightly, by the thought, he set off towards the room the sign was pointing at.
More wreckage was inside; this section was the closest to sector C. He stumbled across a few more bodies, a slight relief setting in when he saw that those were not infested - whatever these yellow head-things were, there weren't many of them.
He just hoped he didn't find more `brothers' to the other beings he had met.
Gordon exited the devastated corridor to yet another flight of stairs; this, the map said, was the last. He climbed to the halfway landing, but as he turned he noticed a man in a whitish, non laboratory suit on the top landing.
Gordon called to the man, but eye contact lasted just a brief moment before the man ran away from the landing. Gordon rushed up the stairs, chasing. He entered the landing door a few precious seconds after the man, only to find the second set of doors locked, the sound of other footsteps dying fast.
In a last ditch effort, he shot the door's lock away and pushed, but the door did not give way. He backed up and rammed the door, which held. He repeated, once, twice, trice but the door was still in place.
A crackling noise, then a short jingle, and a horribly synthesized voice talked:
"Warning: Unauthorized access tentative in sector D office complex. Lethal defensive action activated."
Behind Gordon, a ceiling panel opened; but it was only when the automated turret came down and began to spin up that he turned.
"...I love you."
That was useless, and they knew.
"We tried this for so many times, now... But you know that it will never happen..."
"I am... I am a monster. What can a monster do against perfection?"
"Everything. Just find the One Person, and you'll see."
"I've already seen. No interest. Not even friendship. Nothing. Nothing at all."
"Things have changed, and you know. You have changed. More than once, as everything has."
The figure was then silent as it moved through the ravaged corridor.
"No sign from her?"
The elderly woman scowled. Things were going according to the plan, except for those two wildcards.
He was dead, that was for sure, but the woman... No activity detected from her for over one hour.
Bad sign. She turned to look in another monitor, and pressed the comlink button
"Perfectly, ma'am. Another two hours, and we'll begin preliminary operativeness procedures. We expect full functionality within twelve hours tops."
"Try to make them six. We need it before they get in too far."
"Yes, ma'am!" The communication closed, and the woman returned to her thoughts.
*Enemy activity in this sector is still unknown. Stay alert people.*
Echo squad's was the most difficult job, scouting the outer perimeter for hostiles. A few of them had even pushed quite far into the unknown territory that were the remnants of the office complex, and were installing the first of the anti assault devices that in time will allow them to conquer the entire sector.
For some, it was like chess; sacrifice a pawn to get the king, confuse the opponent and all that crap. But in truth, he knew that it was just a matter of picking the right position to hammer the enemy - a position that wasn't always behind and above it.
*Squad! I've got one! Reporting unknown biological freak on first floor stair access! What the hell is that thing? Briefings never talked of an orange and black gun-toting man-like creature!*
The Alpha leader sighed. He was right; no one in his team had ever seen an HEV, and the color orange was rare between them.
*Alpha leader to Echo Five, report in, over.*
*Echo five here, sir! Rendezvoused with unknown being presumed hostile at...*
*I know, Echo five. I've got ears. What you had was an HEV mark 4, probably with some egghead inside trying to play superhero. What are you waiting for to give him a lesson? Over and out.*
That should keep him occupied.
*What the...? I've got...* An enormous electricity bolt crackled through the radio.
*Echo seven is down! Structural damage! Structural damage!*
Several gunshots followed. He put his head in his hands after he remembered where Echo seven and eight were posted, as the first effects were beginning to show even up here.
Things were going to get tougher now.
The chaingun span down the instant it finished
spinning up. But it didn't retire; it just lay motionless, hanging from above. Suddenly,
Gordon couldn't see anything anymore; probably a power failure of some sort. He thanked
heaven for the help as he turned on the now recharged
breastlight.
He tried again for the door; but unfortunately, nothing changed. He'll have to find an alternate route.
The instant he thought of the alternate route, the suit's HUD presented him with a map of his current surroundings, with his destination blinking in red, his position in orange, and two routes in two different colors. He had got the hang of nearly everything by now, so Gordon wasn't particularly amazed by this, incredible, feature; nevertheless, discarding the red course which he had followed to here, he went for the green one.
The course developed from downstairs, through a few corridors and into the ventilation tunnels.
`Well', he thought, `at least those won't smell...' and he descended the stairs.
The office complex was even more silent than before; the power failure had shut down all the damaged equipment, and his footsteps echoed as he descended the stairs, still aware for any unseen horror.
He carefully avoided lightning up the dead soon-to-be zombie as he reached the landing, and looked around to find the door.
Red and nearly featureless, except for a glass window inset, there it was just in front of another body. He stepped inside, and found the gun in his hand.
He stopped and listened: no sounds, except his breathing. He took a few steps, and listened again.
He relaxed as far as his `evil part' would allow him, and followed, gun still in hand, the HEV's directions as they turned and twisted through the dark corridors. His light swayed left and right, lightning from time to time a devastated wall, a pool of blood - or a body.
He turned the last corner before the route crossed a large room. One of the monsters was there, its back turned.
*BEEP* *BEEP* "Warning: Hostile entity detected within thirty meters. Entity signature matching hostile unknown biological entity. Extreme prejudice advised."
He wasn't the slightest bit surprised, as he was on full alert from the beginning. He fired quickly the entire clip before the beast could even realize who was attacking it - but halfway through, the trigger just produced a `click!'
As the beast turned, obviously quite pissed off, Gordon felt frozen in terror, and was unable to react as the thing crossed the short distance.
Still no reaction from him. Had his `evil part' left?
With its left claw, the beast swiftly scratched Gordon, who stumbled back but did not fall.
*BOOP* *BOOP* "Reactive shielding at fifty five percent, holding."
The being prepared its right claw for the next hit, but was stopped as its only eye, about the middle of its face, was hit with impressive strength.
A shower of green goo was what Gordon got, as he realized that his crowbar was in his hand.
The being cried, a disgustingly distorted cry, as the haemorrage of goo going on and on under Gordon's unnaturally blank stare, until it was on the floor, writhing.
The writhing slowed, then stopped; and the being lay motionless in a pool of green goo.
Still pitiless, Gordon glanced at the body. Again, his `evil part' had done it... He wished he could talk to it, wished he could tell it when to stay put or when and how and if to attack.
But most importantly, he wanted to ask it what the hell it was doing inside his head.
Still somewhat confused, Gordon approached the door. It was strangely large, different from the others in the complex, and with a much larger handle. He turned it, and pulled the door open as the cold breeze from the room beyond made him shiver. The suit's climate system immediately adapted to the low temperature, and Gordon reluctantly entered the storage cell.
*I've lost contact, sir. There's no sign of him, over.*
*Leave it be, Echo five. Finish your mission and return to base. Over and out.*
An HEV. Yes, he had been scared by an HEV. Talk about being nervous...
He crouched, and set down on the wall, ten centimeters from the ground, a small, roughly rectangular object with a large lens in the middle. The object clamped and began to emit a sound. The lens refocused, and the sound pitched up, until a beeping noise confirmed the laser-activated wall mine was in place, just below its twin at about man's height.
If the infrared beam was interrupted by something living, BOOM! It became something dead.
He walked through the corridor, scanning with his MP5's flashlight for hostiles. His hand-held scanner, in his left hand, was clear but with all the things going on lately, who could have known?
His job was scouting ahead for any enemy force, and then reporting back ASAP, leaving traps in key places. He had done his job for now, having just ran out of laser trip mines, so he was returning to base for debriefing and rearming. But, even if he was quite an expert scout, his enemy wasn't a conventional force, so he was still alert for anything that could have escaped him.
He sliced the corner, nothing showing in front of him nor on his...
A small red blip, right in front of him, lasting a mere fraction of second, then nothing again. A malfunction? No, these things were state of the art.
He turned off the flashlight and stood still, listening expertly to any sound and scanning his surroundings thoroughly with his other senses. Except for a low buzz from the tripmines, and his low breath, nothing could be heard. If there was someone or something, it was really good at hiding.
A metallic clanking noise, a few meters ahead, attracted his attention. It was immediately followed by several similar but quieter sounds. He turned on the flashlight and pointed it at the source of the sound, then immediately forwards to spot a blue-something running.
*Squad! We've got hostiles!* He charged forward, tripped over something spherical.