Half-life 2: Resilient Force

[AJ Rimmer]

Okay, so I played Half-life 2 and was re-inspired to write something, and so, here it is. My new fan-fic, I decided to start a new one out of two reasons:
1: get inspiration to write on my old one
2: My old one turned out to have some horrible plot inconsistencies I don't feel like tackling right now.



Chapter 1: A new format.

”Ready in three… two… one… initiating receivers, target-lock confirmed. Alyx, I’m ready!”
Dr Kleiner pushed all relays to max and made sure the target-lockers were dead on alignment, they were. He didn’t receive a confirmation from Alyx, but she was probably just too busy.
“Alyx, I’m getting a steady stream now, CY base looking good, massless field flux stable. All checks out, see you in a few…” The ensuing explosion shook the room. The stabilization field generator shook in its hinges and Dr Kleiner was knocked out by a lamp swinging down from the roof.

Something was hurting him. Something was quite badly hurting him. Something small. A bug? No, not in his lab. He moved his head and Lamarr drifted into sight, she had dug her dull claws into his leg to wake him up. The venom had created an infection. Easily treatable, but it did give a rather nasty rash on his wound. Lamarr jumped onto his head and for a moment, Isaac lost balance and slammed down on the metal floor again. The headcrab let go and ran around in circles around Dr Kleiner, showing how proud she was of having awoken her master.
“Lamarr? Oh good, you’re alright. Now let’s see here…”
Kleiner started reading the monitors when he remembered.
“Oh my god. Alyx! Gordon!” He threw himself on the comm.
“Alyx! Do you read me? Alyx! Gordon! Come in! Please answer me! Are you there?!” But no-one answered his calls. He looked around. The lab was a mess, small pieces of burning and twisted metal was scattered near the teleport pad. The big stabilization field generator was lying in the middle of the room, damaged beyond repair. Isaac sank together in the corner.
“Oh my god… First Eli… and now this!” He pulled off his glasses and was left alone with his dark feelings of guilt. Well almost alone, Lamarr was still tugging at his trouser leg.
He sat there for a full ten minutes before he flung up, desperately jabbing the controls.
“Where could they have gone to? If they didn’t end up here, where might they be? In the city?” Dr Kleiner looked down on the little headcrab as if she could somehow answer him.
“No, no of course not, had they been in the city, they would have come here, or to Black Mesa East. But where then?” Kleiner felt a chill go down his back.
“Oh no…” He stared at the little creature so gently trying to get him to play with her and merely whispered the three-letter word;
“…Xen…”

“Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.” The small console bulb lit up and Barney pulled his chair close and checked it. The baton he was fiddling with hit the floor hard and loud.
“What is it?” The other CP asked him.
“Uhmm… 214 on the plaza, but they got units already on the way.
“Good.” Barney nodded slowly, while his mind was already in fifth gear.
“But some of the suspects escaped running down the tracks, better get someone and go after them, I would, but my knee you know.” The CP looked on Barney’s left knee and nodded as he slowly got out of chair.
“You’re lucky to have gotten away with that. I heard that Freeman guy killed about one hundred of our men.”
“Yeah… I heard that too…” The other combine closed the door and Barney hooked up the link to Dr Kleiner’s lab. Kleiner had never called him during his eight months undercover, never. He had called him a few times, but Kleiner never made a call directly to the station, so naturally Barney was a bit worried.
“What’s up doc?” Barney grinned.
“Barney! Thank god! Gordon and Alyx, they never came through! You have to find them! Have they been arrested?” Barney nodded and rushed to a console.
“I’m checking the combine Network now. No arrests coming up. I’m checking for news with the CPs at Nova Prospekt.” Barney read off the screen then turned to Kleiner.
“Report says they both escaped using classified transportation. No further details, they must have ended up somewhere else doc!”
“But where?” The doctor was almost in tears.
“I’ll start combing through the resistance network, they must be somewhere!” He fixed his glasses and was about to close the link when Barney stopped him.
“Wait doc, wait! What if…they ended up in… Xen?”
“No. Impossible.”
“Why?” Barney saw that the scientist grew angry.
“Because.”
“Because… what?”
“No! I can’t have sent my best friend’s daughter and the resistance’s last hope of victory to die on a lonely rock in the borderworld! I won’t accept that answer! I won’t!” Dr Kleiner close his fist and calmed down. He took a deep breath and turned to Barney again.
“I’m… I’m sorry… How soon can you get off your shift? We need to meet with the vortigaunt leaders.”
“I get off in about one hour.”
“Good. I’ll start looking around for Gordon and Alyx and call the leader of the Vortessence resistance. Come directly to my lab won’t you?”
“Sure thing doc!” Barney closed the link.

A ray of sun fell on the tiled floor and caught the snoozing headcrab on the small loft above the crowd. Dr Kleiner, Barney, Gallam-gahach, the leader of the Vortigaunts and his assitant and a Colonel Mavez were standing in the chill room. The morning sun was already casting its weak non-warming rays on them.
“Thankyou for coming.” Dr Kleiner spoke towards the two Xen creatures and the tall woman in full combat gear.
“As you know, there has been no word from Dr Freeman or Miss Vance. I have been checking around all morning, I’ve checked with what’s left of the underground railroad, the remains of Black Mesa East, Black Mesa North, Little New Odessa, New St. Petersburg, the surveillance room at Innsbrückstrasse, I’ve even called the last outpost in Ravenholm, no answer of course. The last anyone saw of them was at the Vortigaunt-base as Gordon left for Nova Prospekt. Since then… nothing.” Isaac lowered his head. Gallam-gahach spoke out;
“We no longer sense the Freeman in our space. He is beyond our reckoning… Beyond the thick veils of the void we see him… A greater challenge is his to solve now and a longer path we must tread instead for him…” Barney snapped at them both.
“What the hell does that mean? Do you know where he is? Do you even know if he’s alive?”
“We see him no longer, he is but a shadow to us. Whether he or the Alyx Vance lives, is a mystery as deep as the void itself.” Kleiner spoke again.
“Which leads us to our next priority. Dr Vance.” The vortigaunts nodded.
“The Vortessence has declared a day of sorrow for The Eli Vance. He has been taken into the Citadel… we see him suffer.” Kleiner shook his head and turned away. He stared into the glaring sun slipping through the boards of the window.
“Without Dr Vance, Dr Mossman or Dr Freeman we stand without a leader. Our entire HQ was annihilated yesterday in the strike against Black Mesa East. The underground railroad is knocked out, there is no way we can move in and out of the city any longer, without the teleporter, Black Mesa East or Dr Freeman, the only trump card we have left is you Barney.” Colonel Mavez finished her speech. Barney looked uncomfortable, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.
“Unless they already suspect me for letting Gordon escape.”
“No no, had they done that, you would have been sent to Nova Prospekt already.” Barney decided not to pursue that topic.
“We need to form a strategy. The Eli Vance is imperative to this struggle, he must be recovered before the combine can get to him. This is all that matters… The shattering of combine power must be achieved or all will be lost to that of what once was… The Free Man will never be forgotten nor forgiven, but his legacy can die and if we can we must prevent it! This is what lies ahead for us…” The vortigaunt went back into silence again, Barney looked at the colonel.
“I agree… We have to get Eli and Mossman back.” Mavez nodded.
“Yes, but how could we enter the citadel? That’s impossible, most Overwatch troops aren’t even allowed in, much less the Civil Protection!”
“I know, I know. Maybe we can fix the teleporter?”
“It’s no use, it’s fried, even if Dr Kleiner could fix it there is still a blocking field around the citadel.”
Dr Kleiner heard the voices drift off, he was still looking out the window. He watched Lamarr chase something in his sleep. A dropship went by, flying low and emitting its loud base-sound. He whispered something. Barney was the only one in the room who caught it.
“What was that doc?” Dr Kleiner turned to the group.
“We have to fight.” He looked down at the floor but raised his head to meet all the eyes staring at him.
“What are you talking about Dr Kleiner?” Isaac’s eyes looked eager, he was getting steamed up.
“Dr Breen has captured Eli and Dr Mossman, he has destroyed the underground railroad and he has presumably captured or… killed Alyx and Gordon. In theory, he has declared his biggest offensive in his war upon the resistance, and as a result, I suggest we strike back!”
“That’s insane!” Colonel Mavez looked at him in disbelief.
“That is an unrealistic proposition…” Gallam-gahach spoke something in his own language to his assistant.
“Rock on, Doc!” Barney grinned at the bald scientist.
“Yes, thankyou Barney! I propose that we, at long last, strike back at the combine! A surprise attack!” Colonel Mavez stepped up.
“Kleiner, that is simply not possible. Our supply lines our cut, we can no longer move in or out of the city easily, we have no supplies to lead an attack, we have poor communication capabilities at best and we’ve lost one tenth of our forces today only! We are in no shape to stage an attack!” Mavez looked upset. She was very irritated by this scientist acting as an amateur tactician! The scientist still looked eager but he was put down by the colonel’s list of restrictions. Barney came to his rescue.
“But it makes sense, Breen thinks he has crippled us…”
“That’s because he has!” Mavez interrupted.
“Yes! But, we can use his belief in his own superiority!” Kleiner was winding up again.
“With Barney working undercover, we can still prepare a covert operation and initiate a surprise attack! If we act quickly!” Kleiner looked to Barney for further backup.
“Yes! Now is not the time to mourn fallen soldiers, it is the time to rise up! And to avenge them!” The colonel looked between the both of them and nodded slowly.
“Alright, but any kind of attack requires considerable supplies, supplies we don’t have!”
“Ahhh, but that’s where Dr Freeman and Alyx left us with a little gift!” Dr Kleiner walked over to a crate and dug around. He fished up a big map which he pinned up on the wall.
“Blueprints of the complex at Nova Prospekt, very very sketchy of course, old information. But, just before she left the combine security monitoring station, she sent me detailed lists of command codes. With them, gaining entrance to any part of the complex should not be hard.”
Kleiner pointed to a part in the lower right corner.
“Here, in the west wing, according to a vortigaunt prisoner, there should be a large ammunition depot.” He smiled at the small crowd who awaited the next part in his show and tell.
“With these security codes, blueprints and the crippling state the complex must be in after Gordon and Alyx’s blow there, taking Nova Prospekt should be easy for a larger dedicated squad.” Mavez shook her head and Barney looked disappointed.
“Bud Doc, we’re gonna need all the soldiers here if this is going to work! We can’t spare enough men!” Kleiner didn’t let this stop him, he had already thought of that.
“I know, it doesn’t matter because our supply lines into City 17 have all been cut. All but one.” He turned to the two Xenomorphs in the room.
“The Vortessence’s supply route is still intact, is it not?” Gallam-gahach stood quiet for a short while before he exclaimed;
“It is.”
“And the Vortigaunt’s base near Nova Prospekt is still there, is it not? How many soldiers do you have there?”
“We have one hundred Vortessence soldiers there and a hundred more to help us!” Gallam-gahach’s assistant answered Kleiner’s question. The men all stared at the vortigaunts.
“This task is ours, and ours alone, we shall complete it and never more shall we look at our own effort in this struggle in shame… Nova Prospekt will be taken in the name of the communion of the Vortessence and the supplies delivered to The City 17 whenever you need!” Gallam-gahach proclaimed ceremonially.
“Wonderful!” Kleiner smiled. Barney turned to him.
“So what’s the plan Doc?”
“I’m not sure. But I have an idea. Barney, when does the 12:35 from City 6 arrive tomorrow?”
“Uhhh let’s see… erm… 10:15.”
“Gallam-gahach, you have until 9:15 to deliver the supplies, can you do it?”
The creature nodded and brought his hands together.
“So be it. We shall fulfil your request, and our destiny… We shall leave at once, to prepare for the push!” They both left the room.
“Yes, please, leave me alone, I need to think now. No, Barney you stay. I need your help. I think I have an idea…”

 

[Combine]

keep up the good work

 

[DarkGhost86]

GOOD STORY! I think you should make MOD TOO!

 

[jonesey2k]

Sounds promising. Keep it up, I've wondered what went on in that week.

 

[AJ Rimmer]

GOOD STORY! I think you should make MOD TOO!

Uhhh, sure... how?

 

[AJ Rimmer]

Chapter 2: West Side Story

Somewhere in the distance a flock of crows took off. They flapped their wings heading for the skies. They sailed down a street, constantly climbing, soared around a corner and then rose above the rooftops. The dark silhouettes broke against the bright sun. The sky was clear, not a cloud in sight. Colonel Mavez looked out over the square on the city, the rooftops bathing in sunlight, windows throwing reflections at the ground. She leaned back on the bench and dared to enjoy the good weather for a moment. Even though she knew that whenever you tried and enjoy yourself, a CP would come and hassle you. No-one came. She smiled. Her mind had been working fulltime for 24 hours, she needed to relax. She sat there in the warmth and rested for almost five minutes until a familiar voice kicked in behind her. She didn’t turn around, she had seen him on the monitors all too often. But this was one message she was actually interested in.
“Good morning citizens. I wish I could speak those words with more joy and truth in them, for it has certainly not been a good morning for me.” Mavez dared a faint smile but quickly washed it away as a CP looked at her.
“I’m sure most of you are aware by now, of the attack upon Nova Prospekt last night. I had hoped that the failure and termination of Dr Freeman would have made those with more heart than brains, to think rationally. Sadly, it appears clear, that this was not the case. This… lack in reasoning on the behalf of the resistance will sadly result in more deaths. I have taken it up with our benefactors, and so a group of elite overwatch troops will soon be sent in to re-take Nova Prospekt. The penalty for a crime of this magnitude can of course be none other than death. Without exceptions. It is a waste, I agree, and down-right shameful, but as your administrator I have no choice but to meet this disregard for life and law with the outmost resoluteness. I hope that in time, we can grow beyond these basic biological urges of rebellion, and finally become truly civilized and live together with our benefactors in peace. This is what I hope, this is what I dream of. Be safe. Be smart. Be aware.”
Lucy got up and moved towards her house. She opened the door and walked into the hallway.
The doors on her sides were open and the people in side were hiding their weapons in the dark, behind walls or tables. They all greeted her as she walked by.
“Where is captain Mundolini?” A thin man in the last doorway answered her.
“He’s on the top floor sir.”
“Thanks.” She walked up the seven floors, in nine cases out of ten the elevators don’t work.
The door to her apartment was guarded by two men with shotguns. The supplies from Nova Prospekt had been delivered surprisingly fast, they now had three times the weapons and ammo they needed, they were still short on clothes and of course food, but they would not go short on weapons any time soon. The hallways were stocked with crates, which is why no-one was allowed to go outside more than one at a time, if the combine found any reason to shake down their building, it would all go to hell. They had already begun going through the houses a bit down the street, this was bad. Any minute they could choose to shake down their block.
She walked into the one big apartment in the whole building. Six rooms, all stocked with surveillance equipment, supply crates and people. Two rooms were literally stacked to the roof with boxes with weapons, ammo, medical supply, water bottles, explosives and various combat gears. She passed the kitchen where two armed men were talking amongst themselves. She raised her hand at them.
“Hey, get those guns away from the window, one nosy scanner and we’re all dead!”
The two men hid their weapons as the colonel continued down the short hallway until she reached the living room. Three men were standing by two windows; one facing the Western square below and the other had an un obscured view of the main part of the west side of City 17 up until the combine citadel walls to the west and north. Black Mesa North was up ahead right in front of the two windows, and the main plaza was three blocks up north.
“What’s the status?” A short man with a pair of binoculars turned around.
“The combine are sending more Civil Protection our way, looks like they are gonna shake down the whole block soon. Hopefully this could work to our advantage if they don’t come to us before we strike, we should get a big group of juicy targets for our RPG-teams.”
“Good. Any word from Black Mesa North?”
“Yes, they report several dropships heading to Nova Prospekt, but they don’t seem to be interested in the city. Looks like we still have the element of surprise. They can guard the ways down to the train station for hopefully long enough to evacuate those parts of the city.”
“Good. Very good. What about the train station extraction teams?”
“Sniper team Alpha is standing ready in supply depot Main Plaza. They are prepared to cover extraction team Alpha, they have clear view of the plaza and can most likely take out the CPs there and drop supplies to the extraction teams in about one minute thirty. Team Bravo can get in and out through the train station in three minutes.”
“And Innsbrückstrasse?” Mavez turned to the right window, trying to look above the rooftops to the street where the resistance’s main defence line would be built.
“They got the whole area between Dr Kleiner’s lab and the Western square within their soldier’s range. Captain Jeanno reports another 150 soldiers have joined them within the last six hours, he also sends us his regards and best of luck.”
“Any word from Black Mesa East yet?”
“No.” Mavez nodded.
“Alright, well, twenty minutes to go. Are our troops fully briefed?”
“Yes sir, our team leaders have been assigned their sections of the tenement buildings, this building has had a 90% recruitment success and we expect similar result in the other houses around the square.”
“Very good. Send a report that the West Square watch house is ready.” She checked her watch.
“Nineteen minutes. Here’s hoping.”

 

[Elderflower]

keep it up dude!! i wanna know whats gonna happen


nice story telling, good buildup, nice environmental descriptions, good detailing

I LOVE IT

 

[AJ Rimmer]

Chapter 3: The East shall rise again!

Dr Kleiner turned around to the workshop floor to see who had just entered and accidentally smashed the back of his head into the hard steel pipe.
“You okay doctor?” Isaac turned around to the thin, short woman in the jumpsuit down on the floor.
“Yes, thankyou.” The woman nodded and put down the wooden box she was carrying. She pulled off the top and looked down on all the C4 inside. Getting into Black Mesa East had been relatively easy, the back entrance had caved in but was cleared out pretty soon, hauling all the explosives into the teleportation chamber had been harder but it had been done in time none the less. Somehow the Vortigaunts had even gotten most spare parts down there that Kleiner needed to fix up the busted teleporter. The most troublesome was to get anyone to willingly carry Lamarr's cage down, but Kleiner had insisted that she be brought with him, or something might happen to her. She looked up and called Kleiner,
“Hey Doc!” Kleiner turned around again.
“Do you think this will work?” He turned around and closed the hatch and made his way down the ladder.
“Absolutely, the combine attack has slightly damaged the equipment, but there is no reason it shouldn’t work once the power grid is back up. If my repairs hold that is.” The woman leaned against the wall.
“Actually, I was talking about the uprising…” Kleiner stopped checking the different console. He put his hands against the console and drew a heavy sigh.
“Oh… that…” He paused.
“I don’t know. But with Barney Calhoun and Colonel Mavez leading us, we certainly stand a good chance. Now, if you don’t mind I have to concentrate on these settings.”
“Sure thing Doc.” The woman jumped up and sat on one of the crates. She watched Kleiner fiddle about with the teleporter’s many pipes, circuits and various other intricate parts.
“Can you explain one thing to me though Doc?” Kleiner kept on checking for disturbances but replied.
“I will try my best.”
“Alright, how come you failed at teleporting humans twice, but you think you can teleport these cases filled with explosives?” Kleiner turned around.
“Well, that is a valid question, but it’s a bit too complex to answer to someone who isn’t familiar with teleportation technology.”
“You know, I was a nuclear technician before all this.” Kleiner looked at the small woman behind him.
“Really?”
“Uh-huh.” She smiled. Kleiner nodded at her.
“Well then, let me give you a quick summarize of teleportation development in the last ten years. During the first teleportation tests in Black Mesa by Dr Rosenberg, we discovered that although we could move supplies, tools and survey equipment to and back from Xen, we found that bringing humans there was the hard part.”
Kleiner turned back to the big pipe again but kept on talking.
“Now, it soon became apparent to us that setting up a teleportation platform in the borderworld would be a daunting task to say the least using nothing but survey robots and collection probes. But this was needed to transfer humans there. You see my dear, a human being is, to state the obvious a lot more complex than say a crate or a screwdriver. Speaking of which, could you hand me one please?” She left her seat and fetched a screwdriver from an open toolkit. She handed the scientist it and then returned to her seat.
“Where was I? Oh yes, so the teleportation labs began experimenting with beacons, one on earth that transmitted the image and wavelength of the person being transported, and another on Xen that received the image and brought the person over, both being able to reverse the process of course. In simpler terms the beacon was a targeting system. A focal point.”
She watched the man change position and instead started working on a different section of the pipe. She had listened very carefully and waited for more.
“Well, although this method certainly did the job, it was imperfect. In fact there were some rather nasty accidents, the worst one included a friend of mine called Dr Newhert…” Kleiner’s voice died down for a while but he was soon at it again.
“Now, the teleportation division was unable to solve this new arising problem, and based on the extreme strides the labs had taken in such short time, and an increasingly worrying margin of error, funds were given to construct the Lambda Complex. Their first task was to find a better way of transporting organic material.” He paused again. He reached for a switch and a faint humming arose. His face was lit up by an orange glow for a few seconds before he shut it off again.
“Excellent. Oh, where was I now? Ahh yes, Lambda Complex. The researchers in the Lambda Complex, together with theories devised by the personnel in the biodome complex came up with a way of using the self-teleportation ability of certain Xenobiological lifeforms. They utilized the self-wavelength image created by these creatures and in the process they found a way of setting up a field between the two emitting points that ripped through space, binding the two points between universes. This field was dubbed the massless field. Eventually this was supposed to lead to a direct way to teleport from point A to point B, which finally became the basis for Dr Vance’s “Spacial Borderworld Slingshot Effect” which is what we use today. The research was interrupted by the resonance cascade and thus never completed in Black Mesa. Had it been they would have understood that in order to avoid the borderworld, such a field must never be interrupted but must be a constant flow rather than a series of impulses sent in real-time, what we today call the massless field “flux”.” The woman jumped down from the box and approached Kleiner.
“So what did cause the accident?”
“Incompatibility I think. The combine teleport is too different to my own or Eli’s, there was some kind of interference and the massless field lost it’s cohesion.” Kleiner sighed and kept quiet. Eventually she had to ask;
“So… you think today will go well?” Dr Kleiner looked over his shoulder at her and did yet another 360 in emotion.
“Oh yes, teleporting dead organic material is much, much easier than live organic material. And today we will worry of not compatibility problems for there will be no receiving target platform.”
“Only targets…” The woman filled in and Kleiner nodded.
“I’m Jenny.” Kleiner rose up to meet her hand but hit the back of his head on the open maintenance hatch.
“Oh dammit, that’s three times in as many days!” He scratched his head and shook Jenny’s head.
“I’m Isaac Kleiner.” She smiled back at the poor clumsy man and tried not to giggle. All of a sudden the monitor station buzzed. Kleiner walked over and answered. A face covered with a civil protection mask appeared.
“Hello Barney.” Kleiner spoke calmly.
“Dammit Doc, how do you do that?”
“Do what?” Kleiner asked innocently.
“How do you always know it’s me?”
“Who else could it be?” Barney shook his head and let out a frustrated sigh.
“What’s the status?”
“We’re almost ready here, just a few last checks and it should run fine. Once the people upstairs get the generators up and running again that is.”
“Good. Now when do I use the program?” Kleiner raised his finger.
“Not until I tell you to! The timing is crucial. We have received all clear from all units in the city. Now it’s just a matter of time.”
“If you say so Doc. Are the extraction teams ready?”
“Yes Barney, they are waiting in the plaza, you’ll be in good hands.”
“Speaking of witch, Jenny, you know what to do?” Jenny stepped forward and Kleiner spun around to her.
“Don’t worry sir, I’ll keep my eye on him.” Kleiner turned to Barney again.
“Barney! I am a grown man, in fact I’m close to twenty years older than you, I have lived in this place for just as long as you have, I do not need someone to look after me!” Barney smiled.
“Oh yeah. Where’s your headhumper?”
“Barney, I have asked you not to call her that!” Kleiner pointed to his right at the cage at the opposite end of the room.
“And for your information, she is in her…” He looked at the point he was pointing and stood silent for a moment.
“Oh fiddlesticks… Where did she get to?” Barney smiled as the scientist started chasing around the room for his pet.
“Don’t worry sir, I’ll make sure he gets out OK.”
“Good, just try not to bring up his headhumper or he’ll go on forever.”
“SHE HAS A NAME!!!” Kleiner cried out from the far end wall. Jenny tried not to giggle as Barney closed the line.

Ten minutes later, Kleiner had resumed his work by the teleporter and Jenny was on Lamarr-finding duty. The time was a ten minutes to ten when a thin man slid down the ladder in the elevator shaft.
“Hey Dr Kleiner, the Vortigaunts say they think the generators are juiced up now.”
“Ahhh, excellent. Would you mind helping me load the first crates into the teleporter then?”
“Sure thing Doc.” The man helped push some crates into the small platform, all marked Target Alpha explosives, handle with care.
“There, now let’s try this then.” Kleiner walked up to a large console, he tapped some buttons and the main power switched on, the teleportation equipment powered up and the whole room lit up and was covered in machinery buzzing.
“Let’s see… massless field stable, CY base looks fine… omni-parameters… good… stabilization field… good… main spatial parameters are good and the anti-mass limiter is online. Everything checks out. What’s the time?” The resistance man checked his watch.
“10:00.”
“Great. Send out a radio message that we will start sending over the first package now.”
“Yes sir!” The man climbed up the ladder and disappeared out of Kleiner’s view. He stood by the consoles doing the very last minutes checks when he heard a loud thud and the sound of a body hitting a metal fence.
“Ahhhh!!! Get it off me, get it off me, get it off me, get it off me, get it off me, get it off me, get it off me!!!” Jenny came crashing through the doors into the lab with Lamarr stubbornly gripping around her face. She eventually pulled it off her head and forced it into the cage. She slammed the door shut and put on the lock.
“How does it get out of there?” She was out of breath and wiped off some sweat.
“I don’t really know… If you would be so kind to help me now, I just got the all clear from up stairs, so if you could just stand over by that panel over there and wait for my word.” Jenny did as she was told. She was an army brat and a soldier at heart, which is why she joined the resistance as a soldier. She felt honoured by the assignment to protect Dr Kleiner.
“Residual feedback levels dropping, echo return confirmed and locked. Ready to initiate in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… Pull the switch Jenny.” Jenny saw the big red switch by her side light up and she grabbed it. After an extra nod from Kleiner she pulled it. There was a big flash and she was blinded for a second, but when her eyesight returned, the big crate was gone.
“Did it work Doc?” Kleiner was reading off the monitors.
“A moment please.” A small piece of text appeared on the screen and he smiled.
“Yes. It worked.”

Barney led the man into the room and told him to sit down.
“Sit down and shut up!” He walked up to his console and was about to turn off the cameras when another text message from Dr Kleiner showed up.
“Packages Alpha and Bravo distributed, three minutes and counting, start the program and barricade now!” Barney retracted the cameras and pulled off his mask. He held up a finger to the poor man in the jumpsuit he had just fished up from anyone of the guys in the waiting lounge. He checked the back door was unlocked then fished out a shotgun from the back of it. He threw it to the man.
“My name is Barney Calhoun, I’m with the local resistance, in three minutes time all hell is gonna break loose, are you with me?” The man gave a slight nod.
“You just guard that door, if it opens, shoot, ask question later.” He nodded and put the gun on his shoulder aimed at the main door. Barney put a small storage unit into the computer by the wall and chose to execute the program. He felt a sting somewhere in him. The progress bar filled up quickly. As it did, he realized what had just happened. It had begun. It had all been so still, no gunshots, not shouting, no step by step radio link, no co-ordinated attack, no nothing.
Of course, all that was coming up, maybe no more than a few minutes away but still, he could not escape the fact that he had just started it all. With whatever consequences it would have.
Dr Kleiner appeared on the screen and asked if Barney had done it. He nodded and Kleiner fixed his glasses and cleared his throat. He told Barney to run the program, and then he simply said;
“Showtime.”

 

[AJ Rimmer]

Chapter 4: Ain't no buisness like it!

The train slowed down and jolted to a stop. The graffiti-covered windows slid out underneath the metal walls and the over full train started bleeding out passengers. Five or six scanners immediately surrounded the group and the flashes rained down on them.
A few of them, mostly first time relocaters looked up at the big TV screen to the big friendly bearded face. Most of them didn’t pay it any attention, they had all heard it before.
“Welcome. Welcome to City 17. You have chosen, or been cho- cho- cho- cho- cho-“
All eyes in the whole train station looked up in amazement as the screen kept sending out the same repeated corrupted word. The image of Dr Breen flickered and died. For almost a full two seconds the screen was dead, until it came back online. The small, nervous bald man corrected his glasses and let his voice carry out to all screens, every TV and every combine loudspeaker in all of City 17;
“Attention citizens of City 17! My name is Dr Isaac Kleiner, I am with the resistance. Dr Breen have betrayed the human race, he has sold us to the combine, he has oppressed those of his own kind, he has disobeyed every morale barrier you can have! He does not deserve our loyalty, and he shall not have it! Already a major blow has been struck at Nova Prospekt, at the expense of our own. Let us not allow those who fight for us to have died in vain, let us rise up in their honour! The resistance calls for all of you to join our ranks! Join us, and we will fight them together! Let the uprising begin!” Dr Kleiner produced a small remote in front of the screen.
“The first blow!” He pushed it.
The passengers who had all been frozen on the spot were thrown on to the floor as an explosion echoed, they all fell down in a big pile, the scanners rocketed through the air as cannon balls and smashed without mercy into anything in it’s path, the train car next to them lifted out of it’s hinges and was thrown off the rail, slowly glided towards the group of people before it came to a stop a few feet from them. There was a loud crash as large pieces of glass came hurling down from the roof, the men and women were covered in sharp glass and metal, cutting some of them badly. There was screams and loud noises everywhere until another explosion, bigger than the first one rocked the station again, the wall to the other arriving hall was blown open and the large TV screen collapsed down on the floor.

Barney was already climbing out trough the window after the man whom he had learned was named Dan when the bomb went off. He lost all balance and fell the full eight feet and crashed onto Dan heavily. He got up and pulled Dan to his feet, he found his mask on the ground, put it on and grabbed the shotgun. Dan massaged his head and turned to Barney. He was pointing the weapon at him.
“Wha… what are you doing? I thought you were with the resistance.”
“I am, we have to get out of here, but if they see you carrying a shotgun, they’re gonna get suspicious, so from now on, you’re my prisoner, just try and duck quick enough when the party starts.” Dan nodded and walked first out through the door as the 10:15 train from Nova Prospekt’s locomotive finally exploded and Barney felt the ground shake, his interrogation room was bound to have been demolished and most the Civil Protection killed.

The CP ran up to the APC and grabbed the mike, his voice echoed out over the square.
“Any citizens caught collaborating with the resistance will be severely…” He stopped as the door on the other side was kicked open a tall woman rushed out with a pistol drawn, the bullet caught him straight in the head, Colonel Mavez cried out:
“ATTAAACK!!!” All the windows on the first and second floor burst open, shotguns and machineguns let out their song and the line of CPs fell down to the ground. The fire fight only lasted a few seconds, Mavez ran out and grabbed the microphone, she turned up the volume and let her voice ring out with the full tone of her military background and commanding skill in what she said.
“This is colonel Mavez of the resistance! Do not listen to them, we will defend you from them, we will fight them off, but we need your help! Join with us, and we will fight them off side by side! Come down here to the square, and we’ll give you a gun, clothes and food! Look around you, look at the sealed off streets, look at the poverty! Think of all your loved ones they have murdered in cold blood! Do not fight for us, but for them!” She paused and heard gunshots in the distant, above her the balconies and windows had filled with citizens listening to her every word, she picked up the mike again but dropped it as there was a shout from the top floor of her house.
“Incoming APC!” There was shouting and a CP APC crashed through the barricades to the adjacent street, it skidded across the square and cops followed through the hole.
They were all caught in the crossfire, most of them didn’t have time to even shoot their weapons. An RPG round soared through the air and the APC was lifted off the ground and caught fire.
“Check the street! Secure the buildings!” She pointed at six men standing by her.
“You, start going door to door, get these people out of here and get as many as possible to join with us down here! Move it!” They ran off into the closest building, Mavez shouted across the court yard like square. “Mundolini! Get on the phone with Innsbrückstrasse and give me a debrief of the situation! NOW!” The small second in command ran off back into the flat building.
Lucy wiped off some sweat from her forehead and leaned against a the APC. Far off in the distant, a few faint gunshots were heard. They would grow stronger in the coming days, they would become the background music of her life.

Barney rushed into the lobby with Dan in front of him, two CPs turned to him.
“Who is that?”
“I found him getting out of the train station, he might be the one that planted the bomb.”
“Then shoot him.”
“Okay.” Barney pushed Dan aside and blew the first CP’s head backwards, the other one didn’t have time to react before Barney shot him in the stomach. Dan grabbed the CP’s pistol and rushed to the large doors. He pulled them open and a set of gun barrels were aimed at him.
They were followed by guns, and then nine resistance members. Dan stopped them from shooting the masked Barney. He pulled it off and lowered the shotgun.
“Mr Calhoun, we’re the extraction team!” Barney smiled at the black man who was in the lead.
“What’s the status on the plaza?”
“We got the place covered, we’re already doing recruiting rounds on the apartments surrounding the plaza, no casualties removing the CPs but they’re bound to come at us soon, Extraction team Alpha are dropping supplies and setting up barricades while the rest of our men are gathering the citizens in the block. We need to evacuate this block quickly. Come, we need you Mr Calhoun.”
Barney nodded and followed the men out into the street, where he finally came face to face with what had been in his dreams for a decade.

 

[AJ Rimmer]

Chapter 5: Good Morning City 17

“Let’s go let’s go let’s go! Move it! Now now now now!” Another burst of sporadic gunfire echoed between the walls not far from the square. Lucy kept stressing the last groups of civilians, most of them carrying guns out the newly broken up barricade, some of them stopped right after going out into the street and firing at out of view targets to the left, while the rest kept going to the right, down the street, back towards their own lines.
“Martin! Have you been counting?” The young, nervous sergeant nodded.
“Yes ma’am, roughly one hundred jumpsuits! Minus six KIA and nine WIA!”
“Good work Martin, now let’s get out of here, is the building ready?”
“Yes ma’am! Ready to go!” Mavez ran past the ex army-engineer Martin as he pulled up the detonator and both covered their heads as the ten stories high building, stocked to the gills with gasoline and C4 was blown to bits. The entire house started falling apart from the bottom down and the cloud of dust and smoke flushed over the street. Mavez checked back on the soldiers behind her firing at the occasional small group of CPs then hurried along the rest of the group. A woman came running up with a radio pack on her back.
“We just got word from Captain Mundolini’s squad, they’ve blew up the bridge spanning the south canal and blocked the two other main roads leading to Black Mesa North and Innsbrückstrasse, and with the square blocked we should have a clear road down to Innsbrückstrasse!”
“Good, inform Captain Jenno we’re inbound, and tell Mundolini to evacuate as many flats he can on the way back, I’d give us a maximum of 12 hours before they start shelling every piece of ground between the citadel and City 19… whichever way that is…”


There was a rustle of locks turning and the water machine swung open. Kleiner stepped on through and noted with disapproval the state of his lab. He walked in and was hit by the realization that the room looked so much darker now that the power had been cut. It was evening so the spaces between the boards in the windows didn’t even give any light.
He walked up to the rows of video banks and searched behind them for something. Jenny came after him, carrying a bunch of papers and her shotgun under her left arm, a big box of papers and notes with her hand and hauling Lamarr’s cage in her right hand, she was quite out of breath. She finally dropped the cage on the floor in the middle of the floor.
“Careful Jenny!” Kleiner crouched down and brought out the animal. He held it in his arms and the let it out on the floor, where it quickly scuttled out of sight into some dark corner.
Kleiner grabbed the box of notes and put them on top of the bank of computers. Jenny dropped the papers and her shotgun to the floor, ran across the room, dived down and skid forward with arms out, catching the falling cardboard box in the last second. Kleiner was humming on some obscure song, unaware of what was going on behind him. Jenny carefully placed the box on the computer bank again.
“I swear to God, if I see Barney I’ll…” Kleiner turned.
“What was that?” Jenny shrugged him off with her hand.
“Oh nothing. Can you get power back on?” Kleiner turned, again heading for the bank of videos, he nestled up a small bundle of power cords. He re-attached some of them then flicked a switch hidden behind the table. Without a word he wandered back into underneath the loft and flicked a power switch. The lights hanging from the ceiling illuminated the room, the bank of computer whizzed back into life and the videos began displaying static.

Five minutes later Dr Kleiner was resurrecting the carefully planned and executed surveillance system of the resistance underground.
“Let’s see here… train station… all gone… Main Plaza… intact, transmitting, excellent… let’s see…Checkpoint Charlie… gone… Innsbrückstrasse… gone… West square… intact… transmission bad.” He kept mumbling, Jenny looked over his shoulder, the monitors showed scenes from all over the city, she saw buildings she knew in chaos, gunfire erupting from the windows, she saw streets she had walked, now being defended to death by the combine, fighting to desperately maintain control of the eastern half of City 17. Suddenly one a radio panel somewhere buzzed into life, and Barney’s voice came from it.
“…em Tango, over. Checkpoint Zulu, do you ream Team Tango? Over? Tell them to set up — over.” Kleiner grabbed the mike.
“Barney, do you read me? It’s doctor Kleiner! Over.” There was a brief pause.
“Hey Doc, I’m glad to hear from you, listen, gotta make this quick, I’m sending over some guys to you from where I am, we’re maintaining positions here at the main plaza for now til the guys behind us finish setting up barricades. Checkpoint Michael is being set up just a couple of blocks from your location, we’re drawing a line in the sand all across town and we’re not gonna let the combine cross it. Your lab is gonna have to serve as our forward operation centre for now. Do you read?”
“Yes Barney.”
“How’s the surveillance system, did you get it up yet?”
“Yes Barney, but I’ve lost at least a quarter of the cameras.”
“Well do your best at getting it up and running, and as soon as my guys get over there, I wanna start channelling all radio calls through your lab.”
“Understood, how long until the barricades are up and manned?”
“Should be in an hour or two, I… Aww shit, combine, coming from the north, fire at will! Gotta go Doc, see ya! Out!” Barney’s voice trailed off and faded into gunfire. Kleiner sat and pondered the situation for a while then got up and addressed Jenny.
“Jenny.”
“Yes Doc?” Jenny stood up, like a rookie, eager to get his first assignment.
“I have a very important job for you.”
“You want me to check on the barricades?” Kleiner looked surprised.
“Uh, no… I need you to find some watermelons for Lamarr. There should be no problem, most of these apartments are probably abandoned by now.” Jenny stared at him for quite a while with death in her stare. Kleiner missed this completely and started unpacking radio equipment from a shipping crate.

 

[Agent G-Man]

Pretty good, update as soon as you can.

 

[AJ Rimmer]

Chapter 6: Ready, steady...

Jenny rounded the street corner and saw the barricade. Twenty or so large desks had been nailed, welded or simply jammed together to form the basis of the wall that ran from house to house, effectively sealing the street off completely. On the top of this pile of tables was a narrow walkway of sheet metal, behind larger pieces of sheet metal welded in layers, sticking up from the bottom of the tables, providing a crude, but still close enough replica of a combine barricade. On the other side were three or four people pushing the wreckage of a car towards the wall to reinforce it. Jenny jogged up to the short man standing on the top of the barricade with a shotgun.
“Hey, how do I get past this?” The man called for one of the men by the car. He climbed up and the two lifted off a section of metal from some crude hinges they had welded to the sides of the adjacent metal sheet. She jumped down and watched them re-seal the barricade. The man returned to the car. They did not have time to chat. Jenny kept heading to a large apartment building across the street from the barricade. There were seven stories, maybe she could find some watermelon in there.

The sun rose again over the myriad of rooftops, occasionally being covered by one of the many pillars of smoke. A bird or two was brave enough to stay, despite the constant echoes of gunfire that one could not escape in any street. The city, which the day before had been under total occupation was now split in two, the east side controlled by the resistance, and the west side controlled by the combine. True, the west side was more than three times bigger than the resistance territories, the combine had better equipment in every aspect and was already mobilizing heavy defence teams to keep every part of the city until proper assault teams could be organized to re-capture City 17, but the resistance out-numbered them 1 to 2 already, and at least thirty men joined their cause every hour, fighting with terminal intensity. The huge combine citadel loomed, high and proud, a stone cold fortress, constantly imposing its massive stature on the resistance. Few of them could have honestly said they thought they really had a chance of reaching, much less taking it, but they would charge for it, like a prized trophy none the less.

Barney stared at it with content as he walked down the street. On both sides was rubble used as shelter for soldiers, ammo crates, wounded and dead, big piles of boxes filled with as much food and clothes that could be taken from the abandoned houses from Western Square and Checkpoint Tango, now referred to only as the front. He climbed up the hill created by debris and rubble from collapsed houses, topped by a large arrangement of tables, chairs, cars, boxes and various other materials. On the rim of the defensive wall stood a small, pretty fat man named Tom Barney had several times used as a bait during his undercover as a CP. Whenever Barney was running dangerously low on his beating quota, they would arrange so that Tom would be walking by Barney, who would make sure to be at the plaza or on some other of his patrol routes at that precise moment. Tom would pick a fight with Barney once they were relatively alone but still watched by a scanner, Barney would fight back, and they would make it look realistic. In fact, it was realistic, the scanner had a sophisticated enough equipment to easily detect a fake fight, so Barney would actually kick the crap out of Tom, only holding back enough to make sure Tom could get away from the CPs with a bleeding nose and a bruised eye. This was one of the reasons the rotated whoever was the bait, to give Tom or whoever the chance to recuperate and also to not raise any suspicion. The first time Barney had almost called it off but Tom just kept hitting him so Barney had to go along. His fears were soon dispersed however, Tom could run amazingly fast considering his body size.

“Tom, what’s up?” The fat man rushed away the man who he was talking with and pointed to a map on a upside down box depicting City 17.
“Sir we’ve been getting radio calls all morning from Colonel Mavez, she’s coming in with her men, at least 140 of them sir, but she’s being heavily pursued by Overwatch troops, every third street her groups run into enemy concentrations, last night she had almost 200 people. She’s split up in two groups, herself took one half and is heading here, the other group is going to checkpoint Michael.”
“Have you prepared for her arrival?”
“Yes sir, I’ve got two RPG teams on either side of the streets up in the buildings sir, snipers to cover them and four fire teams up near where the street bends sir, Colonel Mavez should have no problems getting here.” There was a sharp echo of gunfire, not more than five blocks away.
“That should be her now I think.” Barney smiled and called for support teams to the barricade. Thirty or so people ran up to the walls and took defensive positions. Barney ran into the house door opening by the side of the barricade and emerged from in front of the barricade. As he jogged down the street to join up with the fire team a bullet whistled by. The next moment he heard sniper rifles firing, he saw an RPG team go off and then gunfire made him deaf for several seconds. Bullets came from in front of him, from his sides and from behind him. He dived to the side and fired his smg, he saw the large group of people, slowly falling back towards the home lines. Barney could see a few overwatch troops round the corner, most of them falling down the moment they turned the corner but after a while the main force emerged. Ten troops took place on both sides of the streets and started firing at the buildings or the fire teams. The retreating resistance forces fired away at their disposal while they rushed into the safety of the barricade, soon the overwatch were in full retreat. Barney ordered the fire teams and the RPG teams to pull back as well. He climbed through the whole in the barricade and stood face to face with Colonel Mavez.
“Colonel, good to have you back.”
“Good to be back Calhoun. How’s the line?” She peeked over the wall and watched with pleasure the last fire team mop up the few overwatch soldiers still trying to fall back.
“Yes, Captain Mundolini just reported in, he’s safe at Checkpoint Michael.”
“Excellent. Has the troops from Innsbrückstrasse arrived?”
“Yes, we are ready for a full scale attack all along the front, but it has to be now before the combine settle in too much, I’m ready to send the signal if you are.” Mavez halted him with her hand.
“Just let me attend to my men and call Mundolini, I want to prep my troops.” Barney nodded.
“Yeah sure, I’ll be preparing my troops as well.” They separated and went their ways. In one hour tops they would advance through the front and keep moving forward, they had to seize as much area as possible if they were gonna be able to maintain the upper hand.

 

[AJ Rimmer]

Chapter 7: Heads up!

Jenny clambered up the last staircase and let out a heavy sigh. There had been no food what so ever in the thirteen floors before and there was probably not going to be any on the fourteenth floor.
While going door to door she made a passable impression of Barney;
“I have a special mission for you Jenny, where you’ll get to use your full potential! Yeah that’s what he said, and here I am, looking for watermelons for that nut job’s freaking headhumper!” She kept muttering as she walked from apartment to apartment. She had been looking all night but there was no food to be found. Some of the soldiers she’d run into had potatoes and some bread but no watermelons. She was gonna finish this building and then she was going back. She checked the final apartment. Empty. Annoyed, embarrassed and exhausted she slumped down in a chair aimed at the TV. Dr Breen was on as always, spewing out pleads to the resistance to stop this madness. She got up and forced one of the windows open. She gazed out over the rooftops, this house was the tallest one in the area so she had a great view. She fished out a cigarette and lit it while looking at the giant citadel standing tall, crushing her fighting spirit and firing it at the same time. She drew another sigh and rested her head in her hands. A couple of hundred yards, maybe even half a mile away from the citadel it’s dark walls were advancing a feet at a time. Slowly but constantly it was engulfing more and more territory irrevocably into combine control. In the distant Jenny could hear gunfire, shouts and a loud but hollow explosion. Then another. And another, what was that? It was distinctly different than any of the other combat rattle. Four, now five booms. Something caught her in the corner of the eye, something small was flying through the air, closing fast. Before she could realise what it was it blasted through the adjacent room. Jenny was thrown to the side by the debris of splintered wood from the wall and slid down the now sloping floor until a bookcase blocked her way. She was lying there, groggy and confused when another shell struck the house, Jenny guessed two floors down. The room shook and she got rubble and pieces of the roof on her. She slowly tried to crawl up but the floor creaked and cracked as if to say; “What are you and idiot? Stay down!” She collapsed back on account of her badly bruised elbow and her head hit the floor just in time for the third shell to come ramming through the room directly below her. She felt the floor let go and she fell helplessly down through down to the next floor. The weight of her, the floor, a bookcase and a stove made the badly damaged floor in the apartment underneath give in and they collapsed down yet another floor.

When she woke up all she felt was an intense heat coming from her feet, and a thrashing pain from her hand. She pulled her feet closer and for some reason something close by hissed loudly in response. She opened her eyes and the black pulsating mouth of a poison headcrab slid into focus. She yelled out and saw the little creature leap at her. But nothing happened. She blinked repeatedly and her eyesight returned to normal. The crab was reaching for her face with its small black claws but couldn’t reach. It had become trapped in a bookcase which was resting only inches from Jenny’s face. No matter how much the little parasite struggled it could not get to her. She slowly let her hand reach for her gun then blasted the pathetic little thing. Warm, yellow gooey blood splattered onto her face and hair. She carefully slid out from underneath the bookcase and onto the still intact floor. Around her she could hear the hissing of headcrabs all around her. She quickly dashed for the door and stumbled out into the corridor. She almost fell over the edge but managed to grab the door frame. Half the corridor was missing. One of the shells must have hit a baring structure because by now the other side of the house had collapsed. The stairwell she had gotten there via was intact though. She very gently balanced across the big gap and then rushed down stair after stair. When she got to the second floor she could hear the growing high pitched scream and the impact of more shells all over the city. She made a run for the door out when her foot hit something and she tumbled out through the building. She turned around and saw the headcrab she had tripped over crawl closer. Her leg was hurt and her gun had flew out of her hand when she fell. She tried getting up but she just fell down. The headcrab leapt through the air and was caught midair by a shotgun round. She turned and saw the whole street full of people. They were all running for shelter. Two men came by and helped her to her feet.
“We gotta get outta here! They’re shelling the whole city! Go!” When Jenny fell back down again the two men noticed she was hurt.
“Oh shit she’s hurt!” They helped her up again and let her hang on to their shoulders.
“Medic! Where’s PJ?” Someone far off shouted she was dead.
“Oh shit, we gotta get her inside.” They carried her off, following the stream of resistance members running for cover.

 

[MarcoPollo]

wow they are awesome keep them coming pleez....I could draw some stuff for a web comic possibly.