Ch. 1: Captain Crush's Slumber
Captain Craul hated GLaDOS from the start. It was unnatural, uploading a human into a system. He abhorred it, even spoke to Mr. Johnson about it multiple times with his doubts. But Mr. Johnson never listened to his chief security advisor. Nobody did, it seemed.
Corbin Craul was a simple man. Born in 1947, to a WWII veteran and his wife, Corbin inherited his father's genetics, those of a football star. His father started him young, playing ball with him soon after he was able to hold things. His father, though, was an alcoholic, and a violent wife-beater. In a few short years, Corbin learned to hate his father, and distanced himself from his family.
In 1963, when he entered high school, Corbin tried out for the football team. And earned a spot on the school's starting line as a freshman. While some of his fellow players bullied him, many of them vehemently protected him from all other forms of punishment. They became his new family, his brothers on the line. They gave him a nickname, 'Crush', due to his ability to crush defensive ends like tin cans underfoot. But as the Vietnam War raged on half a world away, Crush's father berated him for not fighting for his country. Just to prove the old man wrong, Crush enlisted before his senior year of high school and went to Vietnam.
Crush served 6 years with the Marine Corps, the baddest branch there was. While in Basic, he learned how to fight and wrestle, something that had come to him easily. It was, after all, just like pushing against a defensive linebacker, only with a few extra steps thrown in. He was a Lance Corporal by the time he left, a few years before the war ended. He was just 24. Finding himself in the civillian world, he went looking for jobs that dealt with security, something he had done day after day for 6 whole years. He found and accepted a position within an upstart science company in Michigan; Aperture Science.
It wasn't the nicest place, but the pay was good, and he got free lodging inside their facility. He knew what he was doing, more so than the other 'hires' he met. Within a few short years, the Marine had been named 'Chief of Security' by Mr. Johnson, although the nickname 'Captain' stuck among the other guards. He disliked the name, feeling he hadn't earned Captain, but he slowly accepted it when they refused to stop.
Life was fine, here in the bowels of Aperture Science Enrichment Center. Shifts were rotated, people followed orders. Homeless bums were brought in off the street and tested. Captain Crush couldn't say he liked that last part, feeling it a violation of human rights, but the last time the near-30-year-old had brought it up to his supervisor, Mr. Johnson had just asked if he would like to be one of those homeless bums being tested. Crush didn't dare confront the issue again. It was only when GLaDOS was suggested that he found the strength to stand up to his boss again.
"Sir, you can't possibly-" The Captain's gruff voice asked of Cave Johnson, onwer and operator of Aperture Science Inc.
"I can, and I will," The boss's voice retorted, cutting off whatever sentence Captain Craul had begun. "I told you, Captain, do not question me. I only want what's best for humanity, and if that means uploading myself into a computer, then by golly I'll do it!" The sounds of fists on wood were heard.
"Mr. Johnson, it's a machine! You can't be plugged into a machine, it would kill you!" The Captain yelled, as more fists could be heard thumping the desk. "As your Chief of Security, I-"
"You are paid by Mr. Johnson," a much softer voice rang. Calming, yet condoning at the same time. Caroline, Cave's assistant, had stepped in between the men.
The raised voices subsided, but Captain Craul still had one more thing to say. "Then I quit. If you won't listen to me, Cave, I'm going to quit. I'm going to stop this machine, because it's wrong! It's unethical! This whole company is unethical!"
The door slammed, and Captain Crush left the office. He was walking down the corridor, still in a mood, when two of the guards he had previously been the leader of grabbed him and pulled him down the other way. "What are... Simmons! Wolpaw! I demand that you let me go right now!"
The guards shook their heads somberly. "We liked you, captain," Simmons, who was on his left arm, said, "but you're not the cap'n anymore."
Wolpaw, holding his right hand, spoke next. "Mr. Johnson said that the first guard to bring you to one of the relaxation vaults gets your spot. That'd be mighty nice."
Captain Crush's eyes widened. He was being sent to the relaxation chambers. He was going to be tested upon. Face certain death. He began wiggling, trying to escape the guard's holds, but only earned a slap on the cheek for his efforts. A rather hard slap that was more of a punch. Whatever it was, it worked.
Crush lay still, waiting, until they reached the chambers. Then he made his move, a quick twist and a standing shoulder check brought Wolpaw down, but Simmons gave him another 'slap', sending Crush to the floor, eyes not quite working like they're supposed to. He was lifted into a cryo chamber, the lid slowly closed shut over top him. He barely had the strength to punch the glass, and soon the world went dark.
"Ugh..." Crush moaned, putting a hand to his head. Another hand was put behind his back as he leaned forward. Or, would have, had there not been glass in the way. His head bounced back onto the pillow with another groan of pain. This time, the glass was lifted before Crush leaned forward. He was in a relaxation vault. Why?
Crush twisted his body around, sitting up as his memories came rushing back to him in a blur. Mr. Johnson, GLaDOS, Simmons and Wolpaw, their betrayal. "Yarghle," he moaned, moving his jaw. It still had pain, interestingly, but it seemed to have healed. He finally looked at the walls, his eyes widening to see in the pale light. "What the... just how long have I been out?"
"Hmmm, 'bout a couple hundred years, boss," a familiar voice informed him. Crush looked to his left, seeing the two faces that threw him in there, much older than he now. Crush guessed they were well into their 50's. Simmons and Wolpaw.
Wolpaw smiled, tossing a gun at the former chief of security. "Or should we call you 'Captain'?" He asked with a chuckle.
Crush wasn't as amused. The gun was simple, like him. A Beretta 92, 9mm. He recognized it from his own personal stash. "What? A few hundred years pass, and all of a sudden you two are 'buddy-buddy' with me?" He asked skeptically, standing and checking the gun for ammo. Full. "You have 10 seconds to give me one good reason why I shouldn't just shoot you two. Go."
The two security guards defensively reacted, putting their hands in the air. Simmons spoke up, "'Cause, boss, we just woke you up. If we weren't here, you'd still be asleep. Or worse, one of them."
And before Crush could ask who 'them' was, Simmons and Wolpaw turned around, brandishing their own firearms, and filled the hall behind them with lead. They stepped aside, to let Crush see what they were shooting at.
A Cyborg. Human, obviously, but it was barely recognizable now, what with the wires and machinery sticking out of it. It was sickening, and even the stoic captain nearly hurled when he saw it. "What the..."
"They were test subjects," Wolpaw explained, popping a few more rounds into the head. Crush unexpectedly followed the two, down the hallway and into the back rooms. "GLaDOS turned them into these... abominations."
"How did you two survive, then? It's been a few centuries, right?" Crush asked, holding his pistol close. It felt familiar, powerful. A damn good thing to feel right now, in a strange place and time. The walls, previously white, where either stained red from the blood or a worn shade of cream. The laboratories had such a different mood form what he remembered.
Simmons turned back to Crush, continuing to explain. "When Caroline was... downloaded into GLaDOS, she released the neurotoxin we kept for the unstable subjects. Wolpaw and I were lucky enough to make it to a Relaxation Vault, and we slept, like you, boss."
His partner nodded, looking forward for threats but still speaking. "GLaDOS tried to make us into these things, and we escaped, found the guns, started looking for someone else who hadn't been turned. Lo and behold, who do we find?" He said the last part with a grin. "Although there's probably more humans out there, in the relaxation chambers. I don't think she got everyone, 'specially since that Wheatley Core oversaw them. That moron couldn't find a needle in a needlestack."
Captain Crush wondered just how stupid someone had to be to do that, but a few cyborgs appeared in their way, distracting his mind from that train of thought. After clearing the hallway and returning to the Security Locker Room for more weapons and ammo, Crush finally asked the question on his mind. "What about Mr. Johnson? What happened to him?"
Simmons shook his head, after a long, shared look with Wolpaw. "He died, boss. Long before GLaDOS was activated with his assistant's mind. Sometime in the 80's."
The Captain huffed. Cave was dead, huh? He would have liked to put a bullet into that guy's head. Cave Johnson was strange, and maybe even a genius, but he was crazy. To say the captain harbored a grudge was an understatement. "Alright. We're heading for the Relaxation Chambers. If there are people here who haven't been... Cy'ed, that's where we'll find them. We're going to need people, if we are going to fight GLaDOS."