X
Xonze
Guest
Well, this is my first try at a Halflife fanfic, so please tell me what you think. I will be continuing this in the coming days, so see you then.
Later,
PS: May be spoilers, I don't entirely consider them to be, but just giving a fair warning.
A Fighting Chance
"If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew to serve your turn long after they are gone, and so hold on when there is nothing in you except the will which says to them: 'Hold on!'”
-Anonymous
The sky was a tortured black, spinning on an axis that seemed to be erratic in nature. It swirled around creating a tornado of sorts with grey wisps fanning out from its center; grasping onto the outer edges of the clouds. The sky hadn’t changed in almost five years. Though the angst that the sky was could not be compared to the horrors that reached far to the ground. The earth was barren, mostly just squalidly weeds and other hardy grasses that had adapted to the lack of sunlight. A light snow had fallen the night before, coating the ground in a white sheet that seemed to glow of it own accord. It always snowed in the winter months, but now the snow wasn’t as endearing as it had been so many years before. No one dreamed for a white Christmas, as the old records use to sing, anymore.
A gust of wind came with a chill of ice, even for the time of the month it was considered cold. It was December, for all intents and purposes. The human calendar had long since passed away along with the other objects of human consumerism, being left to the winds of time to do with as it would. The days spend by ever faster, and everyday felt the same. It was a monotone existence for those that still fought for life.
For those few who were left life was set on a balancing scale. Each day was a weight added to the other end, while the person fought to bring more weight to his side. The most likely way was to group up in packs. Those who dared to live outside the walls of the City 17 and its fallout were greeted with a vast, seemingly endless waste land. Groups began to compose, taking the best of what skills and materials that were around and creating outposts. These groups slowly grew, but never large enough to offer any kind of resistance to those who felt they were in charge. Taking refugee in the towns that were littered along the landscape, the began to flourish in the winter months, without threat from the beasts.
The Combine was sporadic, with only pockets of them still around and in City 17. Now without their large citadel their armaments fell into disrepair, striders say crumpled in a pile along with the rest of the rubble in the streets. Their gun ships and transports ran to the last bit of fuel, and were left for the earth to take.. They called for reenforcements from the other cities that were nearby, but after the One Free Man’s one man war against those who were in City 17, the resistance was newly inspired and fought back with a vigor that was all bout stamped out before.
And the Human species has lived on, with the destruction of the City 17 citadel the suppression field had fallen with it. Allowing every able bodied person to mate, and reproduce. And in turn bringing the young into a hell that was beyond imagination. For the Combine, though defeated, had left behind many surprises in the assortment of alien beasts that ran rampant along the prairies of land. Most of them nowwhid in cracks and crevices along the mountain ranges when the snow fell, for the chill of cold seemed to freeze and eat away at their innards.
And so with this backdrop a new story begins. One that follows in the footsteps of the One Free Man. The savor and destroyer of the human race.
Chapter One: A delicacy
A boy was running along the snow covered ground, followed closely in toe was his younger sister. Little more then thirteen years old she was already consider a mature woman by the standards that had come about. Her brother, sixteen years old, was already wed and living among a small village on the outskirts of the Antlion’s mating grounds.
She has been living with them for almost four years, their parents having been caught by a nesting ground of head-crabs when the floor of a small cabin collapsed. She had listened to their screams as they were taken control of, and then her brother in the confusion that came next fell both with two bullets to the head. They wept that night holding each other. They were alone in a world that was anything but nice, but her brother took care of her, and somehow they survived to reach the town that their family was heading too.
The two crossed the snow covered sands, leaping rock to rock, using acrobatic skills that came only from years of doing it. They both cared large mesh stacks, tied off around their shoulders. In them sat objects that look almost like large grey and black stone. But there were so much more precious then that. For while rocks were plentiful, the eggs of antlions were the medical treatment for the human race. Boiled down the egg’s yoke becomes a powdery substance that helped heal most wounds, and fight most diseases known to man. The embryo, if far enough along became an object used for research, and if not that, it was drained off the oils that the embryo was saturated with, and made into a type of burning liquid for lights and combustible engines.
Their uses were almost limitless, and if you were brave enough, and stupid enough, a good living could be made out of it. But it was a dangerous job, for even those who have spent their lives working in the field. And the siblings were about find out just how bad it could be.
“Ah, damn it!” Janos stopped in his footsteps and turned around. The sound of sand pillowing up from her impact stopped his heart. He turned on his heal and ran back to were she was. His sister, Triana, was already clawing her way up the side of the rock. Janos held his hand out and she grasped and he pulled her up. A moment after catching his breath he looked down to where she had landed, two eggs sat silently on the sand, almost mocking him with their escape. He swore to himself, he had risked his neck way to much to get those eggs, and he wasn’t going to let them mock him like that.
“Here, Triana, take my bag.” He took it off his back and handed it slowly to her.
“And just what are you going to do?” She asked him with a hint of nerviness in her voice. She watched as he brother looked over the edge for a moment. Her held her breath for a moment when she realized what he was doing.
He then zipped up his coat and prepared himself to drop down onto the sands. During this time of year the Antlions stayed underground, keeping huddled together in their dirt nests, which is what made hunting for eggs so much more dangerous doing the cold months. But even though they stayed mostly away from the surface, their were a few who still hunted, and a person in the sands were perfect prey.
Janos dropped as slowly as he could be grabbing onto the rock on his way down. He landed softly among the sands, only feet away from where the eggs had rolled. He walked slowly, each step a chance to call a deadly insect, one who was most likely already pissed at him. His boots crunched the snow and iced sand as he walked, he cringed as he stopped before the eggs. He bent at his knees and scooped them up into his arms, like one would hold a baby he began to move back towards the rock. But the ground beneath him began to fall away. He knew what was coming and darted off, the sands falling into the hole that was forming behind him.
Janos reached the rock just as the Antlion popped it’s head out from under the snow and sand ridden ground. Its long claws grasped onto the icy ground, digging in to provide the leverage for it to leave the hole. It stood up just as Janos threw the eggs to his sister yelling at her to get going. He looked back as he heard her footsteps begin to leave. There he could see the antlion, it shook it body from head to back, shaking the freezing sand and snow from it back. It was breathing heavily, large steams of air came from it gaping mouth as it shook it’s head back and forth.
Janos jumped and grasped against the rock, his fingers were beginning to become shredded on the rough surface of the rock, his finger nails now almost gone. He worked through the pain, the blood dripping down on his face as he began to climb. The sound of the antlion moving shot fear into his heart. That noise they made, that horrible noise. It was coming close, like a train whistle it echoed in Janos’s head.
He felt the pain, but not the hit. His damaged nerves were screaming in raw pain as the Antlion clamped down on his leg, and began to pull him from the rocks face. He held on with everything he had, but knew he was a goner. He took his other foot and began to kick the animal in the head with his boots. Each hit provide a satisfying crunch, but in turn it applied more pressure to his injured leg. He kicked it one more time, and this time the crunch was much louder, almost like thunder it crackled along his neck making the small hair stand on end. When the beast let go of his leg and fell to the ground with a gapping hole in its head, Janos realized that he wasn’t the cause.
He felt a hand on his, and he looked up with pain filled eyes. There standing on the rock was his sister, holding her hand out. Next to her was his wife, Yoko, holding a twelve gauge. She smiled to him as she reloaded fresh cartridges into the barrels. With his sister’s help he regain his place on the rock. He fell trying to stand up.
“You just to push it Janos, didn’t you? Couldn’t let a few eggs go huh?” Her tone was harsh, but her face was kind, and her touch gentle on his pain stricken body.
“Heh, you know me.” Janos said with a smile as his wife and sister picked him up.
“Well, I just hope it was worth it, now lets get you to Turner.”
to be continued.
Later,
PS: May be spoilers, I don't entirely consider them to be, but just giving a fair warning.
A Fighting Chance
"If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew to serve your turn long after they are gone, and so hold on when there is nothing in you except the will which says to them: 'Hold on!'”
-Anonymous
The sky was a tortured black, spinning on an axis that seemed to be erratic in nature. It swirled around creating a tornado of sorts with grey wisps fanning out from its center; grasping onto the outer edges of the clouds. The sky hadn’t changed in almost five years. Though the angst that the sky was could not be compared to the horrors that reached far to the ground. The earth was barren, mostly just squalidly weeds and other hardy grasses that had adapted to the lack of sunlight. A light snow had fallen the night before, coating the ground in a white sheet that seemed to glow of it own accord. It always snowed in the winter months, but now the snow wasn’t as endearing as it had been so many years before. No one dreamed for a white Christmas, as the old records use to sing, anymore.
A gust of wind came with a chill of ice, even for the time of the month it was considered cold. It was December, for all intents and purposes. The human calendar had long since passed away along with the other objects of human consumerism, being left to the winds of time to do with as it would. The days spend by ever faster, and everyday felt the same. It was a monotone existence for those that still fought for life.
For those few who were left life was set on a balancing scale. Each day was a weight added to the other end, while the person fought to bring more weight to his side. The most likely way was to group up in packs. Those who dared to live outside the walls of the City 17 and its fallout were greeted with a vast, seemingly endless waste land. Groups began to compose, taking the best of what skills and materials that were around and creating outposts. These groups slowly grew, but never large enough to offer any kind of resistance to those who felt they were in charge. Taking refugee in the towns that were littered along the landscape, the began to flourish in the winter months, without threat from the beasts.
The Combine was sporadic, with only pockets of them still around and in City 17. Now without their large citadel their armaments fell into disrepair, striders say crumpled in a pile along with the rest of the rubble in the streets. Their gun ships and transports ran to the last bit of fuel, and were left for the earth to take.. They called for reenforcements from the other cities that were nearby, but after the One Free Man’s one man war against those who were in City 17, the resistance was newly inspired and fought back with a vigor that was all bout stamped out before.
And the Human species has lived on, with the destruction of the City 17 citadel the suppression field had fallen with it. Allowing every able bodied person to mate, and reproduce. And in turn bringing the young into a hell that was beyond imagination. For the Combine, though defeated, had left behind many surprises in the assortment of alien beasts that ran rampant along the prairies of land. Most of them nowwhid in cracks and crevices along the mountain ranges when the snow fell, for the chill of cold seemed to freeze and eat away at their innards.
And so with this backdrop a new story begins. One that follows in the footsteps of the One Free Man. The savor and destroyer of the human race.
Chapter One: A delicacy
A boy was running along the snow covered ground, followed closely in toe was his younger sister. Little more then thirteen years old she was already consider a mature woman by the standards that had come about. Her brother, sixteen years old, was already wed and living among a small village on the outskirts of the Antlion’s mating grounds.
She has been living with them for almost four years, their parents having been caught by a nesting ground of head-crabs when the floor of a small cabin collapsed. She had listened to their screams as they were taken control of, and then her brother in the confusion that came next fell both with two bullets to the head. They wept that night holding each other. They were alone in a world that was anything but nice, but her brother took care of her, and somehow they survived to reach the town that their family was heading too.
The two crossed the snow covered sands, leaping rock to rock, using acrobatic skills that came only from years of doing it. They both cared large mesh stacks, tied off around their shoulders. In them sat objects that look almost like large grey and black stone. But there were so much more precious then that. For while rocks were plentiful, the eggs of antlions were the medical treatment for the human race. Boiled down the egg’s yoke becomes a powdery substance that helped heal most wounds, and fight most diseases known to man. The embryo, if far enough along became an object used for research, and if not that, it was drained off the oils that the embryo was saturated with, and made into a type of burning liquid for lights and combustible engines.
Their uses were almost limitless, and if you were brave enough, and stupid enough, a good living could be made out of it. But it was a dangerous job, for even those who have spent their lives working in the field. And the siblings were about find out just how bad it could be.
“Ah, damn it!” Janos stopped in his footsteps and turned around. The sound of sand pillowing up from her impact stopped his heart. He turned on his heal and ran back to were she was. His sister, Triana, was already clawing her way up the side of the rock. Janos held his hand out and she grasped and he pulled her up. A moment after catching his breath he looked down to where she had landed, two eggs sat silently on the sand, almost mocking him with their escape. He swore to himself, he had risked his neck way to much to get those eggs, and he wasn’t going to let them mock him like that.
“Here, Triana, take my bag.” He took it off his back and handed it slowly to her.
“And just what are you going to do?” She asked him with a hint of nerviness in her voice. She watched as he brother looked over the edge for a moment. Her held her breath for a moment when she realized what he was doing.
He then zipped up his coat and prepared himself to drop down onto the sands. During this time of year the Antlions stayed underground, keeping huddled together in their dirt nests, which is what made hunting for eggs so much more dangerous doing the cold months. But even though they stayed mostly away from the surface, their were a few who still hunted, and a person in the sands were perfect prey.
Janos dropped as slowly as he could be grabbing onto the rock on his way down. He landed softly among the sands, only feet away from where the eggs had rolled. He walked slowly, each step a chance to call a deadly insect, one who was most likely already pissed at him. His boots crunched the snow and iced sand as he walked, he cringed as he stopped before the eggs. He bent at his knees and scooped them up into his arms, like one would hold a baby he began to move back towards the rock. But the ground beneath him began to fall away. He knew what was coming and darted off, the sands falling into the hole that was forming behind him.
Janos reached the rock just as the Antlion popped it’s head out from under the snow and sand ridden ground. Its long claws grasped onto the icy ground, digging in to provide the leverage for it to leave the hole. It stood up just as Janos threw the eggs to his sister yelling at her to get going. He looked back as he heard her footsteps begin to leave. There he could see the antlion, it shook it body from head to back, shaking the freezing sand and snow from it back. It was breathing heavily, large steams of air came from it gaping mouth as it shook it’s head back and forth.
Janos jumped and grasped against the rock, his fingers were beginning to become shredded on the rough surface of the rock, his finger nails now almost gone. He worked through the pain, the blood dripping down on his face as he began to climb. The sound of the antlion moving shot fear into his heart. That noise they made, that horrible noise. It was coming close, like a train whistle it echoed in Janos’s head.
He felt the pain, but not the hit. His damaged nerves were screaming in raw pain as the Antlion clamped down on his leg, and began to pull him from the rocks face. He held on with everything he had, but knew he was a goner. He took his other foot and began to kick the animal in the head with his boots. Each hit provide a satisfying crunch, but in turn it applied more pressure to his injured leg. He kicked it one more time, and this time the crunch was much louder, almost like thunder it crackled along his neck making the small hair stand on end. When the beast let go of his leg and fell to the ground with a gapping hole in its head, Janos realized that he wasn’t the cause.
He felt a hand on his, and he looked up with pain filled eyes. There standing on the rock was his sister, holding her hand out. Next to her was his wife, Yoko, holding a twelve gauge. She smiled to him as she reloaded fresh cartridges into the barrels. With his sister’s help he regain his place on the rock. He fell trying to stand up.
“You just to push it Janos, didn’t you? Couldn’t let a few eggs go huh?” Her tone was harsh, but her face was kind, and her touch gentle on his pain stricken body.
“Heh, you know me.” Janos said with a smile as his wife and sister picked him up.
“Well, I just hope it was worth it, now lets get you to Turner.”
to be continued.
