Authors' Notes: Well, my first story. I'm only a young kid from Estonia so don't expect much. I needed to do something like this since I'm a "born Half-Life fan". Enjoy!
A small group of men were walking in a corridor in the Anomalous Materials lab of the Black Mesa research facility. Their steps echoed from the walls of the long corridor.
The group consisted of about 10 men, and their objective was to transport a certain crystal from the Anomalous Materials lab D to Sector G's Laser Chamber, where it will be incinerated.
The crystal was not exactly a usual crystal, it was actually a Xenian crystal, brought from the border-world Xen itself. It was the last Xenian crystal in Black Mesa, all the others had been destroyed, because of the events that had occurred in the previous years. "Why had it not been destroyed?", you ask. The answer is simple, in later research it was discovered that the crystal is made of pure diamond.
After discovering that, it was held in the lab for many other researches, for the crystal was worth millions of dollars. Of course, Black Mesa Administration could not allow a single thing from Xen, living or not, to be kept in Black Mesa. For that reason, this group of men had to transport this crystal to an inciniration chamber. The men arrived in the AM lab D, where the crystal was kept, and started to carry it to the chamber.
To get to the chamber, they had to use a tram deep underground in the Anomalous Materials lab. Soon, the men reached the tram station, and they stepped in the tram, while carrying the crystal in an air-tight box between their hands.
The beginning of the ride went well, but later in the ride, they discovered, that the tram is broken, and that it doesn't hatch correctly to the tram lines. Of course, they took their radio to tell that to maintenance, but they discovered, that they were too deep underground for the radio to work.
There was no way to stop the tram, because it was programmed to drive by itself, without any driver. As the tram started to take speed, it started to detach from the tramlines. and after reaching it's maximum speed, it detached and crushed itself against the wall, killing all aboard.
The crystal's box broke, and the crystal flew out. Now, if there would have been a person there at the same time, he or she would have noticed, that the crystal started to let out some sort of gas.
A few days later, the Hazard Team had a free day and spent their time in their dormitories. For one of them, free time meant reading, for one, watching televison, and for two, hanging around in Sector C of Black Mesa. The two, of course, were Johan and Rainer.
Behind them was a month of hard physical training in the desert of Texas county, and they were all glad it was over. A month of hard training wasn't exactly easy to them and after training, their bones and joints ached a lot. Johan and Rainer had recovered a bit, and now used their free time
to see what had happened in Black Mesa during their training. They both had grown, compared to their previous year in Black Mesa, as their puberty had started, and last year's events had made them more serious and grown-up. They went to Dr. Isaac Kleiner, their hirer, trainer, organizer and
one of their now closest friends in Black Mesa, who was also the second most important man in the Anomalous Materials lab (and maybe even in the whole Sector C). The boys had not seen him for a month, for Dr. Kleiner did not oversee their training.
The boys went to the tram-station to drive from their dormitories to the Anomalous Materials lab, which were both in Sector C. When they arrived in the lab, they saw that Barney, their favorite security guard in Black Mesa, was guarding the labs airlock that day.
" Hey boys!" shouted Barney, "your finally back!"
"Hey!" answered the boys. "We had a sandstorm and we had to wait a few days longer in the training camp," said Johan.
"Yeah, I heard of the sandstorm. Man, Doc sure was mad when he heard of the sandstorm. He said there's an urgent mission for you. Of course, nothing like your last mission, hehe."
" Oh really? He hasn't told us anything yet, we thought we'll have a free day. We were just about to go visit him though."
"Maybe he sent his message after we left," thought Rainer.
And indeed, as soon as Rainer had said that, a new tram cart appeared from the entrance of the lab's tram-station, and in it was the rest of the Hazard Team, the girls, Nele and Mia-Leena.
After they had exchanged greetings, Barney opened the airlock to the labs, and the hazard Team stepped in.
"Where did you even get to know that Doc has given us a new mission?" asked Nele as soon as the airlock had closed.
"Actually we wanted to visit Doc to get to know news about what has happened in Black Mesa in the meantime, so when we got here, Barney told us of our new mission," answered Johan.
"Barney didn't know what the mission was about?" asked Mia-Leena.
"Don't know. The only thing Barney said was that it's not gonna be like our previous missions," said Rainer, "and I think I know what missions he was talking about," he added with a small smirk on his face.
The other door of the airlock opened and they stepped in the laboratory. They greeted a few security guards in the security room, and one of them told them that Dr. Kleiner is waiting them in his office. Many scientists greeted them on the way there.
"It couldn't be another mission with aliens, right?" said Mia, " The last Xen crystal, the one made of diamond, was destroyed during our training and Doc assured us that the Xen creatures they are holding for research aren't in any way in contact with the powerful creatures of the Xen planet itself. He also told us that there wasn't anybody left on Earth from Race X too."
"Yes, it should be like that," said Nele.
When they arrived at Dr. Kleiners office, they saw that he wasn't alone, The administator of Black Mesa, Dr. Breen was with him and they were discussing something. The Hazard Team did not want to go in there with the administrator, so they waited behind the door of the office.
Dr. Breen left soon, and the Hazard Team went in the office. Dr. Kleiner was like always, mostly happy, glasses skewed, and very clumsy. During the past years, the Hazard Team had started to like Doctor Kleiner a lot, as he was now both a mentor, but also a helper, who would always try to help the Team if they needed it.
"Oh, hello there, boys and girls! I see you got my message," greeted Kleiner, "How was your training?"
"It was hard, but it was fun to see how much we had improved from our last stamina training," said Rainer and the the other 3 nodded.
"I see. Well, you needed that training, if I remember correctly, your last stamina training was before that incident with the Race X last year, wasn't it? Anyway, we aren't here to discuss of your training. I have a new important mission for you."
But before he could say anything else, Mia asked: " I certainly hope it does not involve any Race X or a certain Xen invasion?"
"No no, of course not, there's no point to be afraid of that. I'll give you a small briefing. You remember that, before you went to training, I told you that the last Xen crystal would be destroyed during the last day of your training? Well, it didn't go as expected, we are not completely sure if it was an accident or not, but the tram the transporters used to carry the crystal formm the Anomalous Materials lab to the Inciniration Chamber in sector G, derailed and the crash killed all aboard."
"But the crystal, you brought it to the Inciniration Chamber with other people, didn't you?" asked Johan this time.
"Well, it didn't go as easy as that. The team we sent there, when they made it to the crash site, they saw that the crystal wasn't there, it was gone."
"Gone? But how could it be?" asked Rainer.
"You do know that the crystal was made of pure diamond, don't you? We suspect that it was stolen by a group of humans, possibly some kind of terrorists or Black ops. The most logical possibility is that it was some kind of former Soldier or Black ops, who knew about Black Mesa, although I have no idea, how anyone could have gotten into Black Mesa and known about the crystal and its composition
But that is your mission. The crystal might still be in Black Mesa, and your mission is to find out what has happened to it and where it is. Of course, small searches have been made of the nearby labs and unused facilities, and the exits of Black mesa are now heavily guarded, but we haven't found anything yet. I suggest you start searching today, I will give you a few hours to get ready and get your Hazard Suits, and then I will send somebody to escort you to the crash site. You will begin your searching there. Barney will bring you your equipment soon. Remember, this is a very, very important mission, this crystal must not get out of Black Mesa nor any of the thieves. Any questions?"
"No!"