TAKEN
Foreword
I don't own the characters, events, and places in these games. They're all owned by their respective companies(developers).
Games Involved: Halo, Half life.
Chapter 1 THE FINAL FLASH
Gordon Freeman stood at platform waiting for the final blast. The rings spun around him causing the wind the glow blue. Barney stood watch as the final step was at hand.
"Bon Voyage! And best of luck to your future endeavors." Doctor Kleiner said as a parting shot. All of a sudden, the headcrab got out of the vent knocking off electrical connections, causing the device to go haywire.
"What's going on?"
"Your pet! It's your pet!" Barney shouted.
"Hedy, stop it! The scientist ordered.
The headcrab ignored everybody else except Freeman and leapt at his face. Gordon tried to pry it off and as soon as the creature yielded, he was teleported to a desert. He watched the creature leapt into a flock of crows and snatched one before it had the chance to fly away. Then a bright light blinded him, a sign that he was teleported again. "He's back!" Barney spotted Gordon back in the platform. Gordon recognized the lab.
"Get me out!" Gordon shouted, feeling uneasy now.
"I'm going in!"
"Don't go there! You'll be ripped apart!" Kleiner shouted.
"Do something, Kleiner!" Gordon shouted. "There must be an override somewhere!" Barney added as he ran around looking for one.
A bright flash struck again and this time, he saw Alyx, Eli, Judith, and a vortigaunt watching him. Alyx wore a worried frown. "What the hell is going on, Judith?" Eli asked in a hurry.
"There must be some kind of interference. He's getting pulled again!" Judith shouted and of all the three flashes, this was the brightest and longest of them. Gordon felt all his strength drained but felt light. He felt time stray away as his surroundings changed into a dark tunnel. A bright light at the end made him know he was not yet in complete darkness. The brightness grew gradually as he neared it until a final flash struck him then he remembered no more.
Gordon woke up all dizzy and weak, he felt hungry and thirsty as well. It took quite some time before his eyesight was able to adjust to his condition. As stale smell tinted the air as he took his time to get his bearings. He tried to sit up and studied his surroundings.
Dead bodies littered the floor, wounded and scorched. "Something hot went through them." He thought and tried to stand up. It was difficult but he managed it. A low guttural moan came from nowhere. His reflexes instantly kicked in and grabbed the nearest weapon he can find. A laser rifle lay nearby under an elite's body. He studied it, figuring out how to control it. He gave up after a few moments and started to look for a different weapon and didn't fail. An assault rifle laid a few steps away. He went for it, it was comfortable to hold.
He began to examine the dead bodies closely. He didn't recognize them but was debating whether they were enemies or foes in his mind. But still, in an unknown environment in an unknown time like this, he decided to take caution.
"There, that should unlock that blast door over there." Cortana returned. "Get in, Chief. I'm detecting multiple contacts coming for us. I don't relish the idea of getting baked by laser beams with you."
"At least you don't feel anything." Master Chief replied and it made him think over it. He didn't usually retaliate. "Wait, Chief! I'm detecting movement from one of the rooms we visited earlier. But it's not covenant. It's human!"
"Can you establish contact?"
"Let me try." Cortana tried to establish contact. "Hmm. That's weird?"
"What is it?" the Chief got curious.
"I can't establish contact. Something is blocking the signal. I guess we have to meet him or her in person."
"Which floor?"
"Second. The one where you encountered that elite."
The Chief retraced his steps back to the hallway. "Chief, an elite!" Cortana screamed inside the circuitry of the MJOLNIR. The Chief felt his adrenaline spike as a blue orb darted through the air from an unseen entity at end of the hallway. It gave, however, that familiar grunt. The Chief aimed his needler and fired. The pink needles arced and darted toward the creature. Almost a full clip ejected but only a few found their target.
The Chief switched his weapon to a sniper rifle, turned the night vision mode on and fired. The creature gave a cry of pain and it faded gradually along with its life.
Tapping sounds echoed in the large room, behind pillars. And more came from above where walkways embedded on the walls seemed empty were not. Grunts scuttled noisily above-so much for stealth in an ambush tactic. The heavy gasping gave them away too.
"This way!" one of the grunts whispered hoarsely. More followed and the indiscriminate gasping and tapping made it easy for the Chief to estimate their location. And a squad just positioned themselves at the blast door Cortana had unlocked. Of course, this wasn't the first ambush he got plugged into in his entire career and probably won't be the last.
A series of pink strips tore through the air waves and came from every direction. The Chief ducked behind a parked Wraith Tank and open fired at a grunt whom was about to throw a plasma grenade. The grenade dropped beside the creature instead detonating, sending his companions, including him, flying in the air.
A grunt ran past behind a pillar. He peeped to make sure he was hidden. The Chief stayed in his position trapped between two parked Wraith tanks. The grunt fished out a plasma grenade and threw it. It stuck in the Chief's back and exploded.
"Chief, we need to retreat!"
"But where?" the Chief tried to stand after that blow. He ducked back between the two wraiths and waited for his shield to recharge. While waiting, Cortana had been searching the rooms and hallways. "If only we could contact that human I've detected moments ago."
"Are you even sure you detected one?"
"I'm sure of it, Chief. Definitely human. But I can't find him anywhere." Cortana searched again while the Chief made plans of his own.
"Wait!" Cortana interrupted, "I have detected Echo 4-19. They are being chased around this mothership. I'll give them a signal to come pick us up but I won't count on it.
"I don't think we can count on this person's aid for now, either." The Chief said but was patient, wondering if the grunts will ever ran out off needles and battery for their laser pistols. The Chief made up his mind and entered one of the wraith tanks.
Somehow, a grunt was smart enough to organize his buddies. "Grenades!" he shouted and everyone knew instantly what to do. Everyone grabbed a plasma grenade and threw it in unison.
"Hurry, Chief!"Cortana cried. The tank shook from a recoil. A buish-white orb of plasma ejected from its cannon. It traveled in an arc and landed on a blast door. It exploded into molten metal but also, the plasma grenades exploded and the Chief has barely enough strength left to go on. The scent of burnt circuitry staled the cockpit's air. The screen went dead, leaving the Chief no choice but to get out and face the needles from squads of grunts.
"You've got to hold, on Chief." Cortana was worried. The Chief landed on all fours, ready to collapse.
"Hold on!" Cortana screamed. The Chief dropped and as soon as he was down, one of the Wraith Tanks rose high up in the air and hovered towards a group of grunts that ran for their lives. It was enough to scare and confuse most. Zuwee, a proud grunt clad in silver armor who just popped out from a door as soon as the Chief was down, carrying a fuel rod canon, aimed and fired at the Wraith Tank. The tank exploded but it wasn't down yet.
"What?" he gave out in what sounded as a scared squeal. He fired again. The green plasma landed but still the tank did not yield. But Zuwee was proud, thinking of himself like a rambo kind of grunt. He had luck-sometimes. But this was an exception as the Wraith Tank was thrown with force toward his direction. This made Zuwee squeal and leaped toward the door from where he popped out. The tank landed right at the door frame, stuck. The grunt got back to his feet and gave the tank a push to see if it would move. But what was he thinking, with his size?
Alyx rushed down a line of ladders. She was just in time to watch the tank explode and the Chief fall. With the gravity gun, she picked up the Wraith tank and scared the hell out of those grunts except for that Silver armored one which she considered exceptional among the others but thoughts were more on this green-armored soldier lying on the floor. She bent down to take a closer look.
Barney followed her down. "Let me check this out." Barney volunteered holding Alyx back as soon as they were on ground level. Barney approached the green-armored soldier. "Careful." Alyx warned. Barney knelt down and faced the semi-transparent visor of the Chief. "Hey buddy, are you okay?" he queried still wondering if the Chief was even breathing. "There's definitely no way to tell." He thought.
Alyx came up to get a closer look at the fallen warrior. She held the gravity gun up close.
"Chief! Chief!" Cortana had been busy getting the Chief conscious for the past few moments. John groaned a bit and woke up. His eyes set quickly at the couple positioned in front of him. For a moment he was alarmed but calmed down. He raised his head, "I need your assistance."
"Sure. Will be happy if you can tell us where we are first." Barney figured getting things cleared in the first place would be best for all. John knew Barney's intentions so he took the time to gather his thoughts. After all, he was too weak to stand for now but he will be up in a moment anyway. "Ok. You two are inside a Covenant Ship called Staff of the Reclaimer." John paused and studied their attires. "You don't seem like Marines?
"That's because we aren't. I'm Barney, a security guard from Black Mesa-well I used to be. How about you? What's your story?"
"Black Mesa?" Cortana paused at it for a moment. The Chief had heard of that particular place from somewhere and now all the details just flowed in memory. "How's that possible, that whole Black Mesa issue was almost half a millennium ago?
"What do you mean?" Alyx was confused but not Barney, "Look around you, Alyx." He said and Alyx did. Through the large plasma on the wall she saw the millions of stars light-years away and the closer galaxies that seemed so close to each other but still their distances were too great to measure even for one man's lifetime. Then the couple surveyed the mess around the room. The wrecked Wraith Tank was still puffing smoke and sparks stills clicked on several spots.
"I know you warrant for an explanation," the Chief interrupted, "But there are some things that must be done first. "I shall inform you ahead of time that you just landed in the middle of a war."
"Don't worry," Barney assured, "We just came from one."
"Chief, maybe we could get their assistance." Cortana suggested blankly because her thoughts were more focused on Alyx's weapon. The Chief was puzzled at Cortana's suggestion but before he could comment, Cortana spoke. "Ask them about that weapon of theirs." The Chief noticed the weapon and squelched whatever it was he was to say.
"That weapon of yours, what is it?" Alyx stared at the Chief's curiosity. She looked at him then at her weapon. "It's a zero-point energy manipulator or gravity gun for short."
"I suppose you're the one who lifted that Wraith Tank with that?" the Chief queried.
"Right! Say, you didn't happen to see another human around. He's just like Barney's height here, dark-brown hair, green eyes, and wearing an orange armor?"
"No. But we did detect the presence of another human on this ship unless that was you, Barney." the Chief answered plainly.
"Now what do we do? Just when you need a messiah he just goes poof!" Barney was edgy right now. The Master Chief got up fully recovered. Now the couple wanted an explanation but the Chief waved them off.
"Like what I said, we'll talk later. And since your with us, you might as well come with us." The Chief needed assistance for now. Even with modifications that allowed him to surpass normal human abilities, he still can't be at two places at once. Barney and Alyx stared at each other. "Do we have any choice?" Barney queried.
"I guess not." Alyx replied. "But we need to find Gordon." She insisted. "If you traced him here and you are certain, he should be somewhere around this ship by now.
"Cortana, can you still detect that presence?"
"One moment…nothing, the ship is clear."
Ok. So this is what I can write for Chapter 1 so far and my apologies for the very short chapter- kinda got excited to post something.
Well I hope you enjoy this one. Please Read and REVIEW.