Half-Life 2: Last Stand

[Pikachu]

WARNING: This is a story based on the emediate period of aftermath after Half-Life Two ends. There may be *possible spoilers for those who have not yet completed the game. Continue at your own discression.

Like the GAME itself, this story is rated M-17 for ocassional adult situations, violence, and minor language. This is a fan-fiction based off of a science fiction medium and written by a professional writer. Content may not be suitable for 17 and under (just like the video game HALF-LIFE 2), please read at your own discression.

HALF-LIFE ²​

FINAL CONFLICT​

CHAPTER 1

Alyx Vance slipped on the white leather boots which ran up her sleek thighs as if they had been hand crafted for her. One thing was for certain…the combine had a very distinct sense of style but Alyx didn’t care for their socialistic uniform code. If she could find the designer of the Combine outfits she’d pay him the same respect she paid any Combine soldier – a bullet between the eyes. She brushed back her dark brunette hair and even though it was short she had to secure if with a headband; it was still long enough to fall into her eyes after all. The boots were the last touch to the female assassin outfit of the Combine; a full form fitting white get up which made her glad for her better fashion sense. She held her helmet, a white skull fitted contraption with one red glowing Cyclops censor for an eye, and she tucked it snuggly under arm resting it between her elbow and hip. It was the same type of helmet that the Combine Elite used. The white bullet proof vest wrapped around her feminine torso like it was molded for her, and as she snapped the vest into place Alyx turned around to give Gordon Freeman the thumbs up. With a confident smile Alyx confirmed herself affirmative for action. “Ready when you are, Gordon.”

Gordon Freeman nodded in return as he rubbed an itch out of his goatee and punched in the coordinates into the teleport. Already geared up to go himself, Gordon was sure that their plan would work… after all he designed it after months of pain-stakingly having the freedom forces infiltrate the Combine HIVE. So many losses of good lives happened to get to this point, and he wasn’t willing to take any chances with Alyx’s life at stake. It wasn’t just that though, this was the final mission; it had to succeed. It was imperative that they made this the last stand and time was of the essence. Time was running out and Alyx had volunteered for the mission, and although she was the best suited for the job, Gordon objected at first. Upon a small spat between the two, Gordon didn’t know of anybody else who could fill her shoes. Alyx was the right person for the job. She was the best of the best and something beyond her new shared love with Gordon drove her to such heroism and beyond. A computer panel lit up blue, and Gordon pulled back a lever which tricked a mechanism that enabled the portal cage’s gates to swivel open. The gate had interlocking teeth which looked like the bristles of a hair comb. Alyx lifted up the Elite combine helmet and was ready to place it back down on her head, but she stopped. Gazing straight into Gordon’s eyes with her delicate brown ones, she said, “I love you Gordon. I just need you to know that.”
With that said and off her chest, she stepped up into the portal gate and the metal arms clamped closed into place. With a muffled electronic voice from the mask Alyx forced passed the butterflies in her stomach and said, “Ready when you are.”
Gordon slammed his gloved fist down onto a button which illuminated green, and with a buzz and a swirl of turquoise and blue energy swirl, the transport system activated. The console sparked a few times, but Gordon calmed it with a well place kick to its lower paneling. The particle accelerator hummed as loose papers in the lab scattered with the disruption of the portal opening. Then with a flash everything was silent. Gordon pushed up his glasses with his fore-finger and shut down the system.

Alyx Vance could remember her father’s words. They resonated in her mind from the week before when he warned her not to do the mission. The mission she laughed to her self. The mission was insane. Failing so many times before meant that Alyx and Freeman were going to do a double attack of the Combine simultaneously. She would penetrate the HIVE on their home world. The HIVE was the mechanical core of the Combine’s main power source. What powered it was unknown, because nobody had lived to make it to the center and back out again. This mission was a suicide mission and she knew it. Gordon even tried to talk her out of it; however she managed to talk him out of going because quite frankly, his urban commando routine lacked the feminine touch needed for such a stealth mission. She remembered waking up naked in bed next to him –the man she had fallen deeply in love within only a matter of months. She had opened her eyes to see Gordon silently watching her sleep. He had been studying the smooth texture of her soft mocha colored skin, which surprisingly never seemed to be rough or scarred. One wouldn’t think by her smooth complexion that she would be the battle word freedom fighter that she was. Alyx had a pristine physique and a feminine quality about her, and her body reflected her years of fighting with an answer to how fit she was. Sometimes, when one was in a pinch stamina became the key factor in survival, and the stressful few years of fighting toned her body into that of a goddess. She was particularly proud of her tight ass. Most girls would die for her tight streamlined features. She smiled her little crooked smile at Gordon as they shared that quite contemplative moment. After all he was the one he loved. Her thin lips pulled to the corner of her mouth, and her eyes would narrow. She seemed to stare into peoples souls, and she loved to use it on Gordon. He could never read her next move when she looked at him like that and it made him nervous. She used it to her advantage a number of times, and this time was no different.
“What?”
“What do you mean what?” She replied.
“It’s just… I mean, I haven’t thought about anything but rectifying my mistakes at Black Mesa. After that Incident, I had given up hope for myself entirely, on my carrier, on everything. The only thing that drove me to each consecutive day was trying to fix it. To fix the grievous error I had unleashed. But now I find myself wanting to live for a new purpose.”
Alyx didn’t need him to finish, she was breathless and out of impulse grabbed him and held him close. She hadn’t heard Gordon talk about his feelings or his past until this moment. She understood his constant silence to be part of the resentment of his past failures and anger inside him, yet she never mentioned it. Then again, that morning was the last time they would share themselves with each other before her departure. She made it her duty to make him remember her forever, and she rocked his world. Besides, she liked the really good sex and Gordon was great at it. The war had hardened his body into the physique of a Greek god and Alyx hadn’t had the time for relationships during the occupation of the Combine and the networking of City 17. She was even a little embarrassed to admit it to him at the time, but Gordon Freeman was her first. Now that the war was over, she definitely made up for lost time.
She laughed at herself again, and her father’s words popped back into her head. “Do you love him?” Eli enquired of his daughter.
“I think so,” Alyx replied. She couldn’t confirm what she had never had before, but she knew that she betrayed her heart by denying her feelings out of shear fear of losing the one thing she loved most, Gordon Freeman. She looked down at her feet and caught herself short. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t deny how deeply in love with Freeman she was.
“I think so too,” Eli said in a warm fatherly tone, “and I know that if you listen to your heart you will experience both great pain and great joy, but as a father I’m so glad to see you in love.” He smiled and placed his hand around her neck and pulled her in giving her the biggest and warmest hug she had ever received.
“Dad?”
“Yes Dear?” Eli replied still holding his daughter tight. Alyx’s head pressed against his shoulder, she started sobbing. She reprimanded herself afterwards, but a torrent of tears followed the momentary comfort which released of three hard years of fighting, suffering, and loss.
“I don’t want to die.”
Alyx clutched her father tight as her whole body shook with deep sobs, and he held her and gently stroked her hair until she stopped crying. When she finally regained herself, she dried her cheek and looked up at her dad. Eli didn’t need to say it, because she knew that he was the purest and noblest man she had ever known, but he said it none-the-less.
“I love you Alyx. I love you so much.” Then with nothing else but the feeling of being the proudest father alive, Eli watched his daughter exit the lab and prepare for her mission.

Her mission was vital. Alyx was infiltrating the highest echelon within the Combine HIVE. The HIVE was a complex labyrinth deep within the Combine home world. The planet had no name as far as Alyx knew, but its designation was IDX-4. After Gordon Freeman had returned from the task set by his recruiter, a mysterious person known as G-MAN, Gordon came back from his mission which everyone referred to as the JOB. Whatever had happened on that mission between Black Mesa and the present, Gordon never talked about. His fights were more with his own personal demons than with the battles he waged every day. The fight was to be taken to the Combine home world. Gordon had barely survived the last outing, when he took down the Combine Citadel tower which linked Earth to the planet and stopped Wallace Breen’s plan of recreating his twisted version of a brave new world, one of complete subjugation. It is no wonder why the Vortigaunt allied themselves with the humans but for the sheer purpose of survival. The Combine had begun a massive occupation of not only Earth but many planets throughout the various realms which such an intergalactic portal device had enabled them. The mad scientist Wallace Breen had almost succeeded in single handedly handing humanity over to the Combine Overlord. What the Overlord was, was still a mystery, but from what was known of the Combine, the Overlord was the entity behind the tyranny of the Combine occupation. With the rebellion led by Alyx and her father, Barney Calhoun and a few others infiltrated the Combine task force as undercover agents to try and cripple the system from within. However, they weren’t prepared for the complexity of the Combine security and technology. Combine technology itself was organic and either had the most intricate A.I. system Alyx had ever seen or they were real live entities mutilated and enslaved by the Combine. Needless to say three years of fierce fighting hadn’t enabled Alyx to penetrate the Citadel, until he came along. Gordon Freeman with a rage she had never seen in a man had appeared out of thin air and tore his way through entire cavalries of Combine soldiers, Antlions, and what’s more Freeman managed to take down three Striders single handedly! The legend her father told her growing up of this scientist turned loan gunman from the original Black Mesa Incident over seven years ago was true. Alyx couldn’t believe her eyes when she had run into Gordon Freeman for the first time. The man walked into town like he was nobodies business and much like a silent cowboy from those old western films left an impression on the mind of something larger than life. He had a calmness about him, a cold and contemplative gaze, and behind the intensity of his eyes there was a deep compassion suppressed by fury. Fury was something Gordon Freeman knew well, and the fury followed him like a stalker. Fury was his torment of his past mistake of opening an inter-dimensional portal to an alternate reality, and now for having let humanity become enslaved by the Combine. Alyx immediately felt compassion for Gordon, and after several months of fighting by his side she fell haplessly in love with him.

Synching her strap tight, she fastened the sniper-riffle securely to her back. Just as she stepped around the corner of a building which reeked of Combine architecture, a scanner flew up and flashed her. Those things pissed her off more than anything. Every time one of those damn contraptions flasher her her heart would jump out of her chest with anxiety and her nerves would go into shock. The adrenaline alone was enough to send her into overdrive as a warrior, but as a freedom fighter those things meant trouble. It took all of Alyx’s concentration to suppress her urge to blast that thing out of the sky. Instead, she held back her instinct to run and hide and strolled out into the open street as a Combine Sniper Elite. What she saw made her gasp. It was impossible.

Striders everywhere; hundreds of them! She looked out across an expansive network of dense city structures of phallic towers cutting the smog ridden sky. She wasn’t on ground level, but several hundred meters up looking out over a vast precipice and valley of more technological organic architecture. Down below were hundreds of striders, some Crab Tanks, a flurry of Gunships, and some machines she had never seen before. Just then a gun ship sprung up from blackened steel cliff edge and the force of its jets made Alyx lose her footing causing her stager back. It hovered menacingly for a few seconds then scanned her with a blue beam of light, and then turned and flew off. Alyx looked back toward her insertion point and realized there was going to be no turning back. With that thought, she pressed a point on her fore-arm glove and her body cloaked under and invisible light refracting energy shield. Light refracting technology was unique to Combine Sniper units only, and something which came in handy, especially in pinches like these. Alyx stepped back a few more feet and then with full force she darted forward. At a dead sprint which would only be a shimmer to the naked eye, Alyx dashed forward toward the facing cliff edge. Then with a sudden shift in weight she catapulted herself out into the air. Within a moment of leaping forth, Alyx was in full free fall, invisible to any sensory eye –electronic or otherwise, and plummeting down into the heart of the Combine home world.

 

[Pikachu]

CHAPTER 2

Gordon had drawn the maps of the HIVE based on the schematics he got from their spies inside the Jump Gate. The Jump gate was a portal station which the Combine had mined directly into the surface of Earth’s moon. It kept an open portal so that the Citadel which linked Earth to planet IDX-4 could have continuous access. For the past several months Gordon had been studying the information brought back by those on the inside assisting the insurgence and found grave evidence which supported the notion that the combine had been assimilating thousands of worlds, and the more they conquered the more their technology grew. If it wasn’t for the Combine, the Vortigaunt would have never allied themselves with the humans, but as they too knew the impending threat of the Combine their logic dictated that an alliance was the only plausible explanation in winning the fight. Even though the odds were against them the alternative was worse than death. Every man woman and child would fight until the death, or until the day of liberation. Recently Gordon had become a legend, and the Vortigaunt considered him the “chosen one” which in his opinion was bothersome. Gordon didn’t have the desire to be idolized nor did he have the urge to be “the one.” He wasn’t a religious figure, he was a scientist. All he wanted was to fix a series of horrifying events which seemed to branch off and expand into a greater multitude of hopeless situations at every given turn. This continuous battle he waged within himself of those actions he actuated at Black Mesa and what he had unleashed upon the world was something he swore he would rectify. Yet for all of his genius as a scientist of Experimental Physics he couldn’t think of how he ever got into such a mess. What enraged him even more was that his ingenuity turned into strategy the moment he was forced to pick up a gun. And there hadn’t been time to reflect or formulate a counter-strike, because he was too busy blasting away to save his own life. Despair inevitably followed and Gordon Freeman fell into an endless cycle of kill or be killed. His only hope was that with TIME he may be able to set right his past mistakes, or at least put an end to the Combine or any other threat the Earth may face.

Meeting Alyx Vance was an entirely different matter. Something within him turned on the moment he met her. Her beauty, her strength, and the stamina of a will forged of iron and cobalt, she was both fragile and invulnerable at the same time. It was this paradox that first attracted him to her. As their relationship grew, he found that she gave him a new meaning to life. She also happened to give him a new reason to fight for, and whether or not the Combine new it, she was their deadliest weapon. Alyx Vance reinvigorated an otherwise run down Gordon Freeman, and she amped him up with an uncontrolled energy driven by a torturous fury… a fury that had been unleashed upon the Combine over the past several months. Now with the aid of Barney Calhoun, Freeman new exactly what must be done. They were headed to the moon. There was a little matter to attend to, namely the destruction of the inter-dimensional portal allowing the Combine unchecked access to this galaxy. Gordon checked his watch, and pressed a button. It chirped and with a bleep and its digital face glowed a soft green as it read [T-14]. At that same moment Barney entered the lab and tossed Gordon a beer, “Hey catch!”
Gordon caught the beer and gave Barney a confused look.
“I owed you one, and besides, I thought it was high time that you take two seconds to relax. You’ll have to be refreshed for this mission, and I don’t know of anything more refreshing than a nice cold beer.”
Gordon cracked open the can and started to guzzle the beer. Without saying a word he downed the entire thing without taking a breather and crushed the can in his hand. Dropping it to the floor the aluminum rattled and Gordon turned towards the transport system.
“You’re worried about Alyx aren’t’ you?” Barney enquired, although he already was sure of the answer. Barney wasn’t one to let an awkward silence linger. “Well, in that case why don’t we get this show on the road.”

Eli and Dr. Kleiner entered the room to send Barney and Gordon Freeman off. Upon materializing on the moon, Barney and Gordon Freeman wearing special space suits designed after Gordon’s own bio-hazard energy suit, set up a tracking beckon so Eli would know they had arrived. The only problem is that Combine would be sure to pick up on it the moment they activated it. Cocking his Heckler & Kock MP-7 PDW, Barney rattled off another of his famous comments, “Ready or not, here they come.”

Gordon Freeman hadn’t taken to smiling, but lately something inside him warmed his spirit. Of course he knew the cause of it was Alyx. She had somehow penetrated his leather hide of emotions and got to his core. In turn for the first time in a long time Gordon let his lips tense and with what most would call a sneer he let the corners of his mouth pull a crooked grin. Perhaps it was more out of cynicism, but regardless of the outcome of his smiling his partner Barney had already begun to open fire on a Combine patrol unit. Gordon pulled out his twin USP Match’s and took one giant gravity defying leap above the fray coming down onto the battle with a floaty weightlessness and double fisted guns’ a’ blazing; the Combine didn’t stand a chance of Gordon Freeman’s fiery onslaught and the fury which followed him.
[T-13]

 

[Pikachu]

CHAPTER 3

Alyx gripped the back of a Gunship’s lobster like tail. As the ship had inadvertently cut her off and broke her dissension, she suddenly rolled off to the side. She slid off its lobster like shell plated armor and plummeted onward. She reached terminal velocity and then with superhuman force slammed into the steel valley bellow. A small energy ring forced a circle of air to explode around her like pond ripples in the wake of a plunked stone. Some steel plating distorting to the pressure of her impact. She kidded herself that she meant to do that. The suit itself had an energy field which allowed the wearer to be shielded from shrapnel or enemy fire. It also could be manipulated to reinforce her frames integrity. It’s something her Dad and Gordon had worked on in redesigning Gordon’s hazard suit. Now they could rectify small energy fields, however only momentarily. The shielding ran down the suits batteries fast, and using both the cloak and the shield sucked the life out of her suit entirely. What it did to was manage to keep her hidden long enough to land at the BASIN and infiltrate the sublevel of the HIVE. It also allowed her to keep her limbs intact and not let her get squashed like a bug. Yet the irony was that the suit’s energy shield was very much like the exoskeleton of an insect, not so dissimilar from an Antlion.

Alyx found a coolant system, a large drain pipe big enough for a Jeep to fit into, and she climbed inside a steam vent. The suit insulated her from the extreme heat and she clamored up the inner wall until she came upon a ventilation system. After crawling on all fours for several yards she began to fret about the efficiency of the suit. It started to ride and pinch. Not to mention that, although it was formfitting and sexy, it didn’t do much good without batteries. She weighed the value the suit afforded with the hindered mobility and decided that it would be better to discard it. Stealth would play the main factor from here on and the suit –although technically advance in stealthiness; it lacked her more practical needs. Popping open a gate, she gently lowered herself into what appeared to be a control room. To her relief, no guards were on duty. She ran up to the computer console and checked the security cameras. After briefly studying the security layout she felt it safe enough to change into something a little more comfortable. Unsnapping the helmet she pulled is off. With a hiss of compressed air the helmet came loose, and Alyx let out a sweaty sigh. Then she unzipped the vest and took off the Combine armor. Underneath she wore a torn white tank top with extenuated her physique even more. The shirt stopped just short of her midriff, and her abs were accentuated by the glowing light of the control monitor. The abrupt temperature change from the overly warm suit to the cold inner metal cell she was now in caused her breasts to perk up and nip out. She kept the bottom half of the suit on, as she wasn’t wearing much underneath the skin hugging leggings of the sniper outfit other than a thong, and as she glanced at the map of the facility she shoved a Desert Eagle into the back of her pants. Next she picked up the sniper rifle, swung it over her back, and snatched up an Overwatch Rifle off of a nearby table. Alyx cocked the rifle and with the soft steps of a feline she made her way out into the hall.

“Son of a Bitch!” Cried Barney. He drug a Combine soldier by the collar as he back stepped himself into a safe inlet on the outer perimeter wall. He was pinned in, safe from gunfire, but entirely trapped with nowhere to go as more Combine soldiers advanced upon his position. Gordon wasn’t in site. They had been split up several minutes ago, and Barney didn’t know where he was. To top it off they had agreed to keep radio silence because anything broadcast out here would be detected immediately. There was no interference of radio, television waves, or cellular activity which made any communication difficult. Encoded channels were a last resort, and Barney tapped into his com system. “Where are you man? I’m just asking, because your mom called and wanted me to let you know it’s time for dinner. You better get your ass up here, because I’m pretty much toast at this point.”

To his dissatisfaction there was no reply. Barney would have tried to leap over the cement barrier which walled in the main facility and the power-plant which generated the space rift, but energy fields extended higher up than he could reach. Even if he could get up past them, he didn’t want to get so far away that he would float off into the black void of space. Suddenly three Combine soldier’s appeared, entrapping him, and demanded his surrender.
“Disarm! Disarm now!”
“Okay, okay! Just don’t assimilate me!” Barney chuckled under a bit of stress.
“In the name of the Overlord you will submit to the cleansing and alteration of your individual in the hands of the Combine Empire.”
“Yeah, whatever you say pal.”
Suddenly, a shot rang out. There was a hollow sinking sound, and starting with the Combine soldier on the right the noise pierced the middle and the final soldier instantaneously. They wobbled and then all collapsed, dead. Barney poked his head out to glance at the direction of the shot and saw Freeman holding a new type of weapon. It looked a lot like a crossbow thought Barney, but it had a more slim line design and looked a hell of a lot meaner. “What took you so long?”
“It looked like you had everything under control. However, talking the Combine to death seems like a much timelier means to and ends than we have luxury for.”
“Ha-ha. Very funny; and I thought I was the comedian here,” Barney chuckled. With that the two found their way to a door and entered into an ammunitions depot. They restocked their ammunition and picked up some extra weapons.
“Where to next?” Inquired Barney, as he loaded a new clip into his gun. Gordon walked over to a control panel and punched on some keys. On a flat panel monitor a blueprint of the base popped up in 3-D and he pointed to a glowing orange dot within the complex. “There. The reactor core.”

[T-10]

Alyx pressed herself up against a wall until she seemed to become part of it. Years of hiding from Combine scouts taught her to blend into a shadow like it was her second nature. She stopped breathing and two guards walked past. Combine Synth were unnerving, because they seemed to be mindless drones on automatic pilot. They weren’t so far off from Zombie’s with a bad case of crabs. As soon as they past her position she slid down into even darker shadows and vanished like a ghost. The shadows were here preferred choice of abode. Alyx was making good time, and she was glad that she hadn’t had a major confrontation yet. As fart as she knew, nobody was onto her. At least, that’s what she thought.

Mr. Alan Caso watched a series of five monitors. On the middle monitor was a gorgeous woman lurking around the Combine labyrinth of the HIVE. Caso was a human soldier turned Combine, much like Barney, he had infiltrated the organization. However freedom fighting wasn’t one of his pastimes. Caso was in it for personal reasons, mainly a vendetta against Wallace Breen who had taken Caso’s sister from him. Caso’s sister, Erin Caso, was dying of a new disease which Breen promised a cure for. In turn Caso handed Erin over to Dr. Breen, but instead of Breen fulfilling his promise he betrayed Alan Caso and took Erin into the Citadel. Alan had managed to become a Combine, and make his way into the upper level of security on the human’s side. He had only recently made his way through the portal and onto the Combine home world, but he had began to think that the Combine here were different. They didn’t talk, they didn’t take bathroom breaks. They had sleeping capsules, a pod assigned to each individual, everything made for an oddly uncomfortable situation but Alan was hell bent on retrieving Erin –whom he believed to be deep inside the HIVE. Up until now his search had been futile. Now he had someone in his sights that might be of use to him. Alyx Vance, a well known freedom fighter for humanity was slinking around inside the HIVE and she, perhaps, would have the fortitude to break into where Alan didn’t have clearance to. At that moment he got on the com-link and called a priority level 3 security breach. Four Combine soldiers marched up to his station, and he led them off toward his prey.
Alyx jetted across a catwalk which spanned a bottomless pit. She was crossing into an inner interior of the HIVE, well within the outer shell. She stopped for a moment looking over her surroundings and continued on her way. Something didn’t feel right she thought. It had been too easy. With that thought a dozen scanners swarmed her and a bombardment of flashes ignited around her. An alarm went off, and before her eyes could adjust from the white-out and the ringing in her ears stopped she was surrounded by a dozen Combine with their laser sights aimed on her.
“Put down your weapons and disarm,” a Combine trooper systematically recited.
“Shit,” retorted Alyx.

“You are now the property of the Combine Empire. Your energies will assist the Overlord in the cleansing of your kind. Desist and you will not be harmed.”
Alyx dropped her gun as one Combine disarmed her; another continued to frisk her down. An Elite Combine walked up to her and spoke, “Take her to prison block AA23.”
“Yes sir.” A Combine drone replied, and with that two guards took a hold of Alyx’s two reluctant arms and dragged her away.

 

[Pikachu]

CHAPTER 4

Eli sat down on a tattered red leather sofa. He was worried about the mission, but he was more worried about his daughter. It was the biggest organized plan that the world had ever been a part of. This plan would, if successful, would offset the Combine Empire just enough for human and Vortigaunt allied forces to get the upper hand. This rebellion was necessary for the very survival of humanity and everything it stood for. Eli Vance believed whole heartedly in the capabilities of Gordon Freeman, and he had known him longer than anybody else. Yet the forcefulness of the Combines caused a rapid socialization of urban human’s and those who lived outside of city limits had to face greater fears of Antlions, Zombies, and Head crabs. The outside world was one of animal instinct run amuck and the inside world was a growing cancer; and a fatal one at that. Yet the Combine didn’t have a clear motive for their world conquering. They seemed to act more like a parasite and infect the host then gradually feed off of it until it is consumed. What the Combine digest however is worse than anything Eli had ever seen. The Combine are soul eaters, and they are condemning the very existence of life, free will, and most importantly humanity. They are a cold race which lack such basic elements of love and compassion thought Eli, and that couldn’t be good in any scenario. Slavery by gradual assimilation was a virus which needed a cure, and Eli believed that Gordon Freeman was the antithesis to such an apocalyptic future. Eli sat up and rubbed his eyes. There was nothing more he could do here. He might as well get some shut eye.

Between the gate and the main complex was a long stretch of soft moon turf. The footprints of Combine uniform boots were left imprinted in tactical fashion. Gordon judged the distance as three kilometers. But that’s not was bothered him. What bothered him was that at the end was a Crab Tank. Something he had seen only in the upper echelon of the Citadel. It, like many of the other Combine equipment, was organic and heavily plated. Yet he hadn’t actually faced one in combat, and there was no telling how to disarm it or what kind of fire power it had. He turned back to Barney who whistled with an air of amazement at the situation. “Got any bright ideas pal?” Barney asked.
“Just one,” replied an all too serious Freeman.
“Good, because I’ve got nothing.”
Just as Eli laid down to go to sleep his personal panel started to ring. He immediately sat up and flicked his bedside monitor on. A small screen flipped up from his bedside shelf and he was relieved to see Gordon Freeman.
“Well I’ll be... you’re alive! I’ve been worried about you. Have you heard from Alyx?”
“I’m sorry, but I haven’t. If she contacts me, you’ll be the first to know. However, right now we have a pressing situation.”
“Yes, what is it son?”
“Well, I’m going to ask you for a strange favor,” said Freeman.
“Anything! Anything at all. You name it, and I’ll see what I can do.”

Alyx kicked the wall with her foot. She was stuck in a cement cell with one cement slab which acted as her cot, and a force-field rounded off her encasement. She steamed at her inability to see the trap coming. Why didn’t she react faster? Why didn’t she keep that damn suit on? No, that wouldn’t have been any good she thought to herself. Continuing to wear that suit would have made her stick out like a soar thumb. Now because of her, the mission was jeopardized. She had to find a way out of here and she had to find a way out fast. To make things worse they had confiscated her pants too, because the sniper suit had a hidden “peg” device which acted like a key. If she would have known that she would have used it long ago. Now in nothing but a thong and a cotton tank top she felt like a naked mole-rat. No, worse than that, she felt like a trapped naked mole-rat. As she lay staring at the ceiling an Elite guard entered the room and stood outside her cell. He dismissed the Combine soldier on watch and came up to the force-field.

“Alyx Vance? Please, I need your help.”
Alyx sat up, not expecting this turn of events, and slowly stood up reading herself for anything.
“Who are you?” She squinted at the Elite. He unlatched his mask and with a decompressing fizz he pulled off the helmet. What was reveled was a good looking dark haired man with Italian features. He put the helmet under his arm and hit a yellow button on the wall which made a deep bloop-bleep sound. At the same time the energy shield to the cell flickered and went out like a candle, dissipating into thin air. Caso was staring at Alyx as she stepped back, still not trusting him. “How do you know my name?”
“I’m Alan Caso. I’ve come here to rescue you.”
“How cliché does that sound?” Alyx snapped back. “First you send me here, and then you come rescue me? It sounds like a Combine trap to me, or worse, a womanizer who has to seduce his women to get a date like computer nerd with no social skills.”
“No trap here Alyx. But we better hurry, time is running out.”
He tossed Alyx an Overwatch rifle and she checked its cartridge and cocked it by reflex. As Caso turned away to head out, Alyx placed the rifle on her hip and stubbornly stood her ground. Alan turned around to see her inactive and in confusion enquired, “What’s the matter?”
“Well you’re quite the gentleman aren’t you? I’ve got no ****ing pants on yet you expect me to take on the entire HIVE of Combine?”
“Oh, yeah. Sorry about that,” replied Caso as he tossed Alyx her pants. “Although, I must admit I preferred you half naked.”
“Most men do. But you know what I tell them? I tell them to keep dreaming. By the way, I don’t trust you one iota. You cross me, and I won’t hesitate in blowing your ****ing head off.”
Caso looked at her with big shocked eyes and then winked. Alyx could already tell she was in for extra torture. This guy was a misogynist pig, a sarcastic prick, and he had some how managed to already get on her bad side within mere minutes. Not only have that, but the fact that he had her arrested just so he could look all heroic in rescuing her, made her blood boil. She didn’t even get an apology from him. Caso briefed her on the situation of the search for his sister and how it led him to the HIVE. Alyx agreed to keep her eyes open for Erin as long as Caso watched her back, but even with his utter assurance that he would cover her tracks and help her keep a low profile, she still had the feeling that he couldn’t be trusted. However, for the time being she had no other choice. She had to find the center of the HIVE. The very fate of humanity depended on her mission’s success.

Freeman checked his watch again. Barney had been sitting on a crate for the past ten minutes without having said a word. Finally he couldn’t take it any longer.
“Freeman! What on the dark side of the moon are we doing here?! Waiting doesn’t exactly seem like the best option now. What’s the next move? And why do you keep checking your watch?”
“I keep checking so I know when it’s time.”
“Time for what?” Barney wondered.
“It’s time,” Freeman replied in a nonchalant tone.
Just then a small whirlwind picked up and blue energy sparkled. A portal was being opened, but Barney hadn’t ever seen a portal this size. Whatever was coming through must be massive he speculated. Just then he did a double take as he blinked, and his jaw dropped. Sixty some Antlions materialized out in the stretch of dune between the main complex and the outpost where Barney and Gordon stood.
“What in Sam-hill are you going to do with them?!”

“I’m going to go pick a fight,” replied Freeman. And with that he stepped out into the field with nothing but some “bug bait” in his hand. This bait was also known as the pheromone gland from an Antlion Guard, a creature which resembled the aggressive traits seen in a near sighted bull and rammed like a rhinoceros. Squeezing the pheromone ball Gordon sent the herd of Antlions into a buzzing frenzy. Then he sent them after the Crab Tank.
“Genius! Freeman, you’re an utter genius! Did I ever tell you that?” Laughed Barney. But Gordon Freeman didn’t respond. He just watched as the bugs as they engaged the tank.

 

[Pikachu]

CHAPTER 5

The Combine Overlord was attached to the HIVE core. The vile stench of rotting flesh hovered in the air, and the humid dampness was one of a mix matched mesh of metal and organic flesh. It breathed a respiratory gurgle through twisted black tubing, intertwined forming a complex strand of life support systems, which pulsated with the living organism it supported. The Overlord had plotted for years to take down the Vortigaunt race, but then an anomaly happened. A rift tore open the space time continuum and a single man changed Overlord’s terms of conquest. For this the sin was unforgivable, and a hatred for the human race soon overwhelmed him with but one desire –total irradiation of the human race. Annihilation on the massive level of genocide never seen before, but in his conquest of mass murder he found something better. The soft organic tissue of the human’s was easily malleable. They proved to be a perfect breeding ground for Stalker slaves. Mindless drones that can be used for dark purposes. Yet to get the full effect, Overlord had fun in the mutilation of these delicate fleshy beings. Unlike the other races, these human’s minds were just as weak as the rest of them. Overlord’s plan of genocide took back seat to the new value these laborers represented. And total assimilation was only a matter of time.

Alyx ducked behind a metal desk. She was increasingly aware of how Alien the architecture and technology got the further into the HIVE she went. She had to keep on her toes, because now, no thanks to that asshole Caso alerting the entire HIVE of her presence, an entire fleet of probes and scanners had been sent out after her. Yet what she was afraid of was the several hundred “buzz saws” which were hovering around. A dozen of those were a handful for even the most die hard battalion of freedom fighters, but for one Alyx Vance, they were a menace much more bothersome. If anything, she would need her dad’s ZERO point gravity gun. Yet Eli hadn’t wanted to send it into battle, not before he analyzed the effect which dark energy had altered the gun and how. Eli had deemed it to unstable as a weapon and only by chance had it not blown up in the hands of Freeman. Alyx was headed down a corridor when she heard the foot steps of Combine boots. She looked around and there were only two walls which stretch up –way up, into an open arena of some kind. The walls had a perforated design and hundreds of ridges big enough for a human to fit into aligned the wall of this chamber. She squeezed inside one of these ridges and began to scale up the wall. She stopped and held herself just a couple feet above the Combine’s heads. Her back was pressed against one corned while her legs pushed against the other edged. She was wedged in secure, and every muscle rippled in her legs, arms, abs, and neck as she held her body weight completely still. As the guards passed by she continued her ascent. Upon reaching the top of the wall she found her way down the wall which turned out to be a catwalk into a big amphitheater of coliseum magnitude. There were three other catwalks with stopped short of converging around a central energy bubble. It was a similar shielded bubble to the one that Breen had used, but this one was acting as a prison. Inside the bubbled was a beautiful blond haired woman. She had mid-length blonde hair which ran down her back, cropped so that it caught the sharp jaw-line and rounded out her facial features. Her soft white skin glowed yellow inside the energy field, as she sat clutching her knees. She was completely naked, and she looked like an Angel to Alyx. With her forehead rest on her knees, she didn’t see Alyx approach.

“Hey in there…you okay?” Alyx said leaning forward and tapping the butt of her gun on the metal clamp which held the sphere. The girl inside looked up with her stunning crystal blue eyes. Alyx almost gasped at this girl’s beauty, something of the girl was magnetic.
“Go away,” the girl started, “He’ll find you here! It’s not safe. You have to leave.”
“I’m not going anywhere without you. We’ve got to get you out of there.”
“He won’t let me go,” said the girl with a sad empty voice. “He’ll never let me leave here, you know?”
It was more of a statement than a question really, but Alyx had other ideas. She raised her rifle and aimed at the top of the cage where the generator was. Set it to charge the energy indicator hummed as she warned the girl, “You may want to position yourself.”
With that said Alyx let the plasma bolt discharge from the gun with a loud electrical noise…fwa-zap! Sparks flew everywhere and the yellow energy fields flickered, then it slowly dissolved. Alyx put out her hand and helped the girl to her feet,
“You’re Erin Caso if I’m not mistaken?”
“H-how do you know my name?” Erin stammered with a perplexed look.
“I bumped into your brother Alan back there and…”
“Alan’s here? He’s alive?!” Erin interrupted. Her face seemed to change from one of apathetic remorse waiting out one’s fate to that of one with hope.
“Yes, your brother sent me to find you, but we don’t have time for a family reunion just yet. There’s something else I have to do first,” replied Alyx as she helped Erin over to her side of the platform. Erin took her hand, and Alyx looked her up and down realizing this would never do.
“We have to see about getting you some clothes; I would lend you some of mine, but as you can clearly see things are rather skimpy at the moment.”
Erin grinned and blushed, turning her eyes down. Then her expression became solemn. “He likes me like this. I’m his trophy.”
Alyx squinted with a puzzled look and replied, “Who likes you like this?”
“The Overlord.”
“Well, I’ll have some words with that ****er in a bit then. Where can I find this Overlord person, so I can teach him a lesson in respect?” Alyx cocked the rifle with reassuring finality as the period of her sentence. She meant business and Erin looked at her with an awe of terror and pity. However, Erin kept it to herself. What the Overlord was was too horrible to describe. What he had done was… just then she broke into tears.
“What’s the matter, Erin?” Alyx warmly enquired. Erin didn’t look up again, but just stood silent. Alyx felt like she had intruded upon Erin’s situation and feared she may have reopened a fresh wound. Instead Alyx requested Erin to wait here.
Erin grabbed her elbows and started to shiver. “Where are you going?” She asked.

“I’m going shopping,” replied Alyx with a twinkle in her eye. She winked playfully and sprinted off. As she neared the wall she shouted over her shoulder, “Wait for me. I’ll be back in five minutes!”

Meanwhile, back on the lunar surface, Barney was floating aimlessly away out into the star lit abyss. He thought to himself that this, in simplest terms, sucked. He clicked on his intercom.
“Gordon, how you doing down there man?”
Gordon was gripping one of the legs of the Crab Tank, desperately hanging on. He had dug his boot heels into the tank’s leg and the tank was searching frantically for the small creature which had attached itself just out of sight. Most of the Antlions had been blasted into a green sticky paste, and the few half-dozen that were left were so beat up that they chirped and growled to one another signaling retreat. The tank no longer considered them a threat, and focused its aggression towards Gordon Freeman, who had just discharged a grenade atop of the tank and leapt to take cover. The Crab tank being cognitive lurched back and knocked into Barney who was flanking in from the rear; Barney was hurled into space and Freeman was pinned between the ground and the beast with still no solvable way in defeating it.

“Gordon? You there man? Because if you are, I’d like you to hurry up and use your scientist like intellect to figure out how to retrieve Barney Calhoun, the guy floating out into nowhere.”
“I’m a little busy at the moment Barn, but if you just hang out for a while I’ll see what I can do.”
“Oh, you’re just full of wise-come-backs today, aren’t you Freeman? Well, if you need me, I’ll be hanging out here in no-where’s-ville,” Barney facetiously answered. Gordon was desperate at the moment. Even if he had a missile launcher it wouldn’t be able to penetrate the density of the tank’s armor. Not even ten thousand missiles would dent the thing. At this point he was all out of ideas. That’s when Eli buzzed into the helmet inter-com.

“Freeman, this is Eli. I’ve got something ready for you. I think you’ll like it.”
Without a reply from Gordon Freeman, Eli clicked off. Gordon dangled ridiculously onto the tank waiting in that awkward moment of not knowing what to expect next. Then with a sudden gale of blue energy and a flash, a portal opened and vanished almost as quickly. Out yonder, in the center of the field was sitting the ZERO point gravity gun, still equipped with Dark energy capabilities. Obviously, Eli had figured out how to contain the Dark energy without the possible threat of the gun exploding or tearing its user to shreds. The only problem now was going to be the mad dash to reach the device without getting blasted by the tank, which apparently had the firepower equivalent to three Striders. Just when Freeman thought he could make a break for it, something exploded on the back of the Crab tank. Then another and another explosion broke out. Gordon jumped to the ground and cart wheeled weightlessly to the side. He dug his boots into the ground, skidded twice, and kicked up enough moon dirt to conceal himself momentarily. The tank took a few more hits and was side-stepping to adjust its targeting. It looked upward, and Freeman followed its line of site. Barney Calhoun had managed to grab a relay tower’s antenna and pulled himself down to a look-out perch in which he had come across a sniper-rifle. He was now using his distance to pound high velocity plasma charges into the back-side of the tank. The tank opened a barrage of rapid fire; similar to a Striders gunning system, but with about twice the output. Barney continue to return fire and Freeman galloped towards the ZERO point energy gun. The gravity gun gave Freeman a plan, and as soon as he had picked it up in his hand the tank redirected its attention towards him. It was a show-down like any other –high noon on the dark side of the moon.

“Well, punk? Do you feel lucky?” Freeman spoke in his best Clint Eastwood imitation. Of course the Crab tank didn’t respond, but it was the thought that counted. These intense situations called for a little Dirty Hairy. The tank scuttled a few steps to the side and a laser guide flickered onto freeman’s chest plate. A torrent of gun fire blasted out of the tank as Freeman pulled the trigger. What happened next was unexpected, for the gun itself, although a manipulator of gravitational fields had never been tested in a zero gravity environment. Shockingly, the plasma bursts shot from the tank gelled together and were plaster against a barrier put out by the ZERO point gravity gun. Basically, the plasma had plastered itself against the wall of energy like pancake batter adhering to a frying pan. Freeman was intrigued and increased the power output of the gun to see what it would do. The loose plasma started to look over-cooked and started to crackle, then in a blink of an eye it dissipated being absorbed by Freeman’s weapon of choice. The tank didn’t know how to respond. Its weaponry was ineffective and there was no way to guard the entrance to the base. It took two menacing steps forward and growled a sound which resembled a Lion’s roar. Freeman stood his ground and flicked a switch on the gun which stopped the energy from triangulating out of the three prongs of the gun simultaneously. Rather, he thought by his calculations, the gun works differently in zero-g’s by not creating an empty pocket of zero gravity. Instead he channeled the energy directly out of the deflector panel in the front of the gun. This was risky, and in a different environment, potentially hazardous, but here it worked like a charm. With a focused energy blast the gun emitted a purple energy beam. It was so intense that its center was a brilliant white. The gun smashed into the tank with dazzling effects, and then…nothing. Nothing happened. Freeman looked at the gun wondering if he had made an error in his calculation, and the tank bracing itself, paused, looked around, and then raised its stooped shoulder. Freeman shook the gun a little, but before he had a chance to curse at the damned contraption the tank began to elevate off of the surface. Barney was climbing down the tower when he saw all this, and shouted out to Freeman.

“Gordon! What did you do? Is it dead?”
Gordon Freeman didn’t reply, but just shrugged his shoulders and watched the tank hover slowly upward. The tank swung its head back and forth and wriggled its dangling legs. With a pitch the tanks started to tilt, and then it let loose a couple shots. This sent the tank into a deep spiral and it spun violently in dizzy circles. Barney calmly came up next to his partner and they both stood and watched the poor mechanical machine get whipped around like a toy. Instantaneously a large energy ball of purple and dark energy formed around the tank and then imploded. The tank was instantly crumpled into nothingness.

“Whoa! That was a cool fireworks display. So what exactly happened?” Asked Barney giving his friend a nudge with his elbow, and then without waiting entered into the facility’s main entrance. Freemen could only speculate, but he believed the gun had opened an anti-matter pocket instead of a gravitational one and some how built up a polar resistance to the matter which absorbed it, thus collapsing in on itself. This was the effect of the ZERO point gravity gun in a zero gravity situation, but Freeman didn’t know how stable this it was. If the gun was tearing holes between matter and anti-matter the potential outcome of using it was unknown and plausibly dangerous. It possibly could cause a temporal rift, or worse, create a black hole.

[T-9 and counting…]

 

[Pikachu]

Chapters 6-10 comming soon!

 

[InstInct1085]

*Gasp* :O
Absolutely amazing.

 

[Sloth]

Your first six posts were your story.
Either you have guts, or a very good story!
Will read when i have the glorious time!

 

[Jintor]

I love it, but it be hard on my eyes.

Make everything the text size of the first post!

 

[Pikachu]

Originally posted by Jintor: I love it, but it be hard on my eyes.

Make everything the text size of the first post!

Wish granted. Enjoy!

Pika!

 

[knut]

Jesus Christ. Thats a hell'va lot o' writing. Will read tonight!

 

[Agent G-Man]

What!!!!?!??!?! GORDON NEVER SPEAKS!!!!!!!!!!! I still need to read the whole fic.

 

[Jerry_111]

gordon speaaaaks!

Really liking it so far -- detailed!

 

[Pikachu]

Originally posted by Agent-G man: What!!!!?!??!?! GORDON NEVER SPEAKS!!!!!!!!!!! I still need to read the whole fic.

G-man, you make me laugh. I don't mean that disrespectfully, but the conventions of story telling demand that the main character talk. At least in any good story which requires "character development."

The dilema was this: telling a 1st person story in first person narrative meant that... you'd have no story if Freeman never talked. No story! So I opted to tell it using a third-person voice, that way I could make him a "quite" type. Yet, in order to react or have other's react to him... he needed to speak. Giving "looks" just wouldn't cut it in story telling medium. Also, the game has an awkward passive reponse to Freeman in the story-telling. Aparently he is eluded to having social skills, and we only see the "reaction" of the other characters. This is the game designer's plan to have US players become the character. It is left up to the imagination of what is said.

I admire your loyalty to the character, but I hope you can see that my artistic liberties were taken in only the hopes of developing Freeman further as a character, and telling you one heckuva story!

Pika! :afro:

 

[D.L]

as a famous tiger once said it's grrr8

 

[Joe Nomalos]

I must say you're story is beautiful. I plan on writing a story of my own soona nd yours was just inspirational. especially considering the stories I've been reading on this forum. Thank you. good man.

 

[Pikachu]

I'm glad I could inspire! I hope to finish the next few chapters up by this weekend.

Pika! :imu: <----- What is this?

 

[Th30N3Cr0wbar]

nice story, it's very in depth, i must say... keep on going!

 

[Asknoone]

Good, good

 

[Pikachu]

I finished up my Thesis papers and have to be back in Japan for the next several months. The business never ends! If I have time I will finish up the story for everyone, up to page 10, before I go!

Pika!

 

[Salad22]

wow! I must say that was a great story..must be tough writing this much and have a business at the same time..hehe

I couln't read it all once so it took me 2 days (I think)
But anyway it was a very good story

Not that I wish to complain but this story is confusing me a little bit, becuase u see the story has no opinion, I mean like why is this all happening? For what reason? and it stands that this story is based on HL2: Aftermath and so you mean like this will happen in aftermath? lol sorry if I angered u but it was a damn good show.

 

[Pikachu]

For what it's worth, this is the long forgotten 6th chapter. I had lots of people PM me and write me saying they wanted more of the story. Truth be told, I have been busy with work, and as a writer, fan stories just get pushed asside. Whether or not I'll ever finish is another matter, but those who have waited the year just to read the next chapter, I hope you enjoy.

CHAPTER 6​

Five minutes was all it took. Alyx was true to her word and came back with a Combine bullet proof vest and a pair of skin tight rubber pants. She handed the gear over to Erin with a half apologetic look.

“The pants are uncomfortable at first, but you get used to them. As for the top, I’m afraid the vest was the only thing not drenched in Combine blood and guts.”

Erin gratefully reached out to receive the clothes. Alyx stood guard as Erin dressed. Looking back at Erin, Alyx couldn’t help but feel a strange attraction towards her. Erin fastened the bullet-proof vest, yet with no undershirt, her cleavage bulged and showed surprisingly ample amounts of soft skin. Alyx guessed that Erin’s chest size was a few cups bigger, about a double D, which gave her a full figured look. The tight pants matched Alyx’s, and both women eyed each other up and down and smiled as they became aware of the horrible fashion sense of the Combine.

“I know it’s not much, but it will have to do for now.”

“I’m not complaining,” Erin replied cheerfully. “It’s better than being stark naked.”

Alyx reached around and pulled a standard issue Overwatch hand gun and handed it to Erin.

“Do you know how to use one of these?”

Erin nervously grasped the weapon and then cocked it and flicked off the safety. “Yeah, my brother taught me, but I’ve never actually shot anyone.”

Alyx grinned at Erin and winked.

“Well, don’t worry about pulling that trigger. The Combine are soulless blood suckers, think of them as Vampires, and be as trigger happy as you want.”

“Thanks for the advice.”

With that Alyx motioned for Erin to follow her and she moved out.

Meanwhile, Caso had seen Erin’s escape on the security monitors and was getting ready to meet both women at a rendezvous point. However, upon arriving at the armory in which Caso had told Alyx to bring Erin, there was no contact. Caso cursed under his breather and stocked up on ammunition. He could only imagine what was going on through Alyx’s mind.


After a while Erin became confused as she noticed them going deeper into the HIVE, and decided to ask Alyx about it.

“I don’t mean to pry, but shouldn’t we be going the other way?”

“No. My mission… our mission will decide the entire fait of humanity.”

“But my brother will be…”

“If your brother has any sense, he’ll get his ass down her and aid us.”

At the end of a long corridor, Alyx raised her hand and motioned for them to be quite. Slowly, Alyx crawled along the wall and peered around the corner. She abruptly pulled her head back and dry heaved. A second time she choked back vomiting, and finally she puke right in front of a horrified Erin Caso.

“What is it? What’s wrong?,” Erin enquired; unsure as to whether she wanted the answer to that question.

Alyx wiped her mouth and replied, “See for yourself, but brace yourself. What you’re going to see isn’t pretty.”

Erin stepped slowly past Alyx who watched her with distraught eyes. Erin’s focus was on the smooth features of Alyx’s face, as she tried not to act scared. As she peaked around the corner she screamed a shrill which echoed into a large room blanketed in a blue haze which seemed to linger. Within the blue haze were hundreds of human bodies hanging from what appeared to be hooks piercing their backs. Every body was of men and women, all mutilated, tortured, manipulated to the sinister design of the Overlord. They were being turned into drones. Hoses and wires clung to their flesh as they were becoming something horrible. A musky stench of rotting flesh lingered in the air and Erin took two steps back and slammed into Alyx. Alyx put her hand around Erin’s mouth, muffling her continuous cries of horror.

“Shut up! You’ll alert the horde of Combine to our presence!”
Alyx held tight to Erin until she broke down into sobs. Erin turned to Alyx with tear filled eyes and blindly latched onto her in an embrace. Alyx held onto Erin comforting her as they both coped with the nightmare which lay before them.

Barny and Freeman had blasted there way down corridor after corridor of the high tech moon facility. Combine soldiers popped out of every nook and cranny, and to each and every Combine was a bullet waiting to say hello.

Ducking down behind a few canisters Barny checked his ammo.

“I hate to be the barer of bad news, but we’re running a little low on bullets.”

Gordon Freeman looked at Barny with a half wry grin which spoke louder than words.

“Right, right,” replied Barny. “Plenty more where they came from.”

Just then a silence fell upon the two men as the last moans ceased. Freeman poked his head up over the crate he was hiding behind and ducked back down. He motioned to Barny to cover his back, and then without hesitation Freeman darted across the room and slammed into the concrete wall just out of sight. There was no stir. Barny motioned to Freeman, who received his signals and motioned back. Freeman took out a grenade and pulled the pin and tossed it down a hallway. The grenade bounce off the back wall and reflected down the conjoining hallway. There was a large explosion and a few screams as several Combine units were taken out by the blast.

Freeman walked casually out into the room. Barny stood up aiming his gun as he double checked their surroundings.

“Well, I guess this room is secure.”

Moments later Barny and Freeman came upon the lunar stations core reactor room. Behind two heavy glass doors, there was a giant generator. If only they could take it out, Freeman thought. It would cut the power to the portal, but there was no evidence which suggested the portal was a circuit. Basic physics would suggest that it would take two power sources to link a portal, but Combine technology wasn’t always scientifically accurate. In fact, Freeman surmised, that if the generator was shut down the portal wouldn’t collapse at all if there was a power source on the other side. Instead, Freeman had but one choice. He knew what he must do.

“What are you thinking, pal?”

“We need to overload the system. A surge could feasibly wipe out a second power source by overloading both systems resulting in total system failure.”

“Okay, so how about saying that in English.”

“Basically, we blow up the portal, not the generators.”

“I get you now,” Barny replied with a nod. “We use the generators to over load the portal and zap it into oblivion.”

“Yeah, something like that,” Freeman grinned. Taking a few steps Freeman smashed the glass over the emergency control panel and manually released the door lock by pumping the hydraulic lever. Slowly the large glass doors slid apart. Both men squeezed through the crack and into the large room. Surprisingly, no Combine soldiers were in sight. Freeman guessed that the Combine had underestimated their chances. Perhaps he was right.​

:thumbs:​

 

[marco900]

:thumbs: :thumbs: :thumbs: :thumbs: the story is AWSOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:thumbs: :thumbs: :thumbs:

 

[Crowbar-at-hand]

horny kids these days, lol but good story.

 

[marco900]

pikachu when are u going to write more