Chapter Two: Communication Error
Julian opened his eyes to the darkened room. To most everything would have been black but to the trained assassin the room might as well have been basking in sunlight. Years of training during his childhood had helped Julian's eyes adjust far quicker than the average human as did his assassin genetics. According to his Father the assassin blood-lines had existed for thousands of years as part of an exceptional sub-class of humanity. At one time the assassins had numbers in the hundreds of thousands and had essentially been their own race. Julian knew his Father's words were truth because of the machine, the Animus, a device which allowed the user to explore history through the body of his ancestors.
The assassin left the room finding the hallway outside buzzing with activity already. A moment of panic washed over the assassin as he considered the prospect that he overslept though it dissipated immediately. Yakamoto had been planning this; the old man wouldn't have let the assassin oversleep. Julian found his way to the armory inspecting the arsenal of weapons Black Mesa Base had to combat the Combine. Most of what he found was standard issue Combine weapons, Pulse Rifles and the Spas-12 shotgun. There were a few non-standard weapons including a rather impressive collection of antique weapons manufactured before the Combine invasion. Among them Julian only recognized the AK-47 and the M4 Carbine assault rifles.
"See anything you like?" A familiar voice asked stirring Julian from his admiration of the weaponry. He looked up to find Yuki with two Vortigaunts standing beside her. She looked absolutely radiant although her stern demeanor was hardly becoming of such a beautiful face.
"I do now," Julian replied walking over toward her.
"Sorry but this is one weapon you cannot wield," Yuki replied with a smirk.
"So why are you here?"
"We have business Mister Miles," she said with a smile, "a certain deal you made."
"Yeah, about this deal, why is it that you lied to me about Jerrod Young?"
"What!"
"I may be young but I assure you I am not stupid," Julian explained, "You can't bullshit me."
"He's a scientist," Yuki admitted throwing her hands up in defeat, "not a soldier."
"Combine scientist or Resistance scientist?"
"Black Mesa scientist," Yuki blurted, her expression told Julian she had said too much.
"So he worked here?" Julian reasoned rubbing at the stubble on his chin.
"I'm not at liberty to discuss," Yuki said, her grim demeanor returning.
"Well this is the only Black Mesa I know of," Julian said wondering if she would catch his lie, "Is his name even really Jerrod Young?"
"That's quite enough Mister Miles," Yuki growled with a stomp of her feet.
"So the turret defenses will be up and running?" Julian hypothesized.
"In all likelihood yes and I doubt turrets will be the only defense," Yuki admitted honestly feeling bad for the lone assassin though her tone and expression hardly showed it.
"Well then, time to suit up," Julian said flashing her a lewd grin, "want to watch me undress?"
"I assure you that even if the Suppression Field were down I wouldn't."
Julian followed the Vortigaunts down a level to the room where his armor was waiting for him. He'd already tried it on the night before so he knew it would fit. Despite this he still felt utterly silly strutting down the tunnels of Black Mesa Base wearing such an absurdly colored over-the-top set of body-armor. The Vorts did another run down of the systems including the weapon storage systems which were what added the extra bulk to the armor. Each leg held room for a rifle or shotgun in the back and two knives inside the shin-guard compartment while the chest cavity compartment was to store grenades. There were loops around the belts to hang weapons from as well and as the assassin made room for several throwing knives and his trusty crowbar.
As Julian made his way down the twisting halls he saw that many Resistance members turned his way to regard him. He'd never seen such gawks and initially he'd assumed they were mocking him or at least taking note of how obvious he was in his orange armor. But further analysis of their reactions clearly showed they were looking at him out of respect or remembrance, as though they recognized him. Julian looked down at the armor suddenly realizing what it was they were recognizing. What was it about this HEV suit that had made even the Lieutenants stare at him as though they were seeing a ghost.
"When you breach the Com-Station you must plant this in the computer terminal," one of the Vorts said handing Julian a computer port drive.
"And here is a map that the Yuki Yakamoto says you will be needing," the other Vort said handing Julian a map that had the location of the com-station marked.
"So she's his daughter," Julian said with a smirk, "well that explains a lot."
"Be safe the Julian Miles, and return to us for your reward."
Julian stepped onto the elevator and hit the key to return to the pathway outside. He padded his armor again searching for a compartment in which to place the small rectangular computer drive the Vorts had given him. He found himself feeling utterly unprepared. He'd only brought one gun with him and that was a silenced USP pistol he'd modded a suppressor for from a standard Combine Civil Protection model. He found himself wishing he hadn't ditched the AR2 with explosive Pulse Rounds he'd stolen off the train though keeping it with him surely would have slowed him down.
The spry assassin raced down the path and back into the wilderness.
Desmond dismissed the scouting team with a wave of his hand and slumped into his chair despondently. It'd been five days since his son, Julian Miles, had left. What was meant to have been a routine train robbery had turned into a fiasco. Situations like this weren't uncommon. Ever since Julian had turned fifteen he'd played an important role in fighting the Combine even earning battle commendations during the Battle of City Twelve but only since his twentieth birthday had the young assassin taken to fighting alone. Desmond knew the true reason for this but he put it from his mind to concentrate on his anger. Anger was the only thing that kept his mind from worrying. Desmond could not, even for a second, allow himself to believe that his son was dead.
The world already lie in ruin, his wife already lie dead at the hand of the Combine. Billions had been killed during the Portal Storms when aliens from the border world had overrun the Earth but when the Combine came some humans assumed it was to save the Earth. Seven Hours managed to change their minds. Within a year of the Black Mesa Incident that had sparked the destruction of humanity almost five billion humans were dead. Desmond could not allow himself to count his son among those who were lost. His son was young and the young, so few and far between in such dark times, were far more valuable for only they could rebuild the species. Desmond lifted his head for a moment as Adrian Shephard entered the room.
"We can't afford to attract attention," Shephard said, "We can't afford all these scouting missions."
"He's out there," Desmond argued though his voice was weak.
"Yes, probably at Black Mesa," Shephard said visibly cringing as those two words left his lips.
"Than why hasn't anyone at Black Mesa Base contacted us to say he's made it there safely? Why hasn't he made contact?"
"Sir," a Resistance said as he burst into the room, "we've just received word from Julian."
"He's alright?" Desmond asked feeling a weight lift off his shoulders.
"Yes, the message was a little garbled because it was coming from what seems to be a Mark IV HEV suit but we managed to decipher it. Seems he ditched his com-device because he thought the Combine had used it to track him from a station near Black Mesa Base."
"HEV suit?" Adrian asked stumbling over the words.
"Don't suppose the Combine can track one of those," Desmond said with a smile.
Julian felt a smile come over him as he finished sending the message back to Clear Water base. He knew that his actions had kept his Father worried but he also knew that he couldn't give any hints as to why he wasn't back in Clear Water yet. Part of the assassin feared that the signal coming from the HEV suit might have been a hint in and of itself as this suit seemed to have a reputation far greater than the young assassin's own. Julian thought it advantageous then to have such a famous piece of armor adding notoriety to his good name though the idea seemed silly after a few more seconds of thinking. It was the talent of the man in the armor, not the armor itself that made the difference.
Julian crossed the distance to the Com-Station in two days reaching the forest surrounding the facility in the dead of night. Luckily the moon was nearly full and shafts of light cut through the branches of the trees to illuminate much of the forest. To average eyes it still would have seemed to dark an environment in which to fight even the most dim-witted of enemies but to the assassin it was ideal. He waded his way into the woods knowing the station lay atop a hill nearly a quarter of a mile away. His senses immediately told him that he was not alone in the forest. The normally sweet smelling summer breeze brought with it the stench of decay and death and of a leathery sort of sweat stench that the assassin knew could mean only one thing, zombies - the human hosts of an alien organism. These parasites, known to the resistance as head crabs, latched on to the cranium, altering both biology and behavior to create a stumbling humanoid beast with long claws.
Already the assassin could hear the footsteps of his foes ambling through the darkness. He could easily outrun them, zombies were not fast though the head crab parasite made up for this by giving them almost superhuman endurance and the ability to take a great deal of damage before succumbing to death. Julian rushed by the zombies without a second thought weaving through the forest with ease. Even with the extra weight of the HEV suit the stealthy assassin was still quick as could be and he covered the length of that patch of forest soon enough. He found himself dodging bullets as he came to toward the end of the tree cover as turret guns disguised in the bushes and undergrowth of the forest began firing on him.
Julian broke from the tree cover and found even more obstacles. Hopper mines were dug into the ground scaling all the way up the hill where the com-station lay. Furthermore the entire station was surrounded in what looked like electrified perimeter fences ringed with razor wire. The assassin backed up slowly considering his options. He shut his eyes and listened to the world around him quickly realizing that the turret guns had stopped firing when he cleared the trees. This meant that either he had given the zombies the slip better than he had thought or that the turrets were programmed not to shoot at necrotic matter. A quick glance back confirmed his hunch as a zombie shuffled his way out of the trees suspiciously free of any bullet holes.
The assassin sprung into action darting back into the trees dodging bullets and clawed zombie hands as he went trying to be sure no stray bullets harmed his zombies as he went. He ran out of turret range bringing an ever growing mob of zombies along with him. He ran to and fro here and there until he had attracted a horde large enough and then rushed toward the com-station. He found himself rushing up the side of the hill almost as if flanking the com-station perimeter. He was in a mad-dash moving between tree and bush to maintain invisibility to any guards who might have been posted but still trying to attract his loyal zombie horde with the promise of fresh meat. Finally he vanished into the night sprinting away at such a speed the zombie could not have followed even if they had known their tasty morsel was missing. The zombies instead had turned their attention to the gate of the perimeter fences and the guard house where two tasty guards were seated watching computer monitors.
The assassin watched from a distance through his binoculars as the guards began firing on the zombie horde. Overwatch soldiers began pouring out of the facility as nearly four dozen zombies stumbled toward the gate. He regretted that he couldn't linger to watch his zombie minions at work but with the side gate distraction in place he was all set for infiltration.
He weaved from tree to tree reaching the back gate soon enough finding the guard house empty save one single Overwatch soldier. The assassin pulled back a bit from the facility scurrying up a tree and retrieving his silenced pistol from the HEV suit compartment. He lifted the pistol lining his sights up to the Combine soldier's head, despite the distance and the layer of glass dividing them Julian was sure he had a hit lined up. He squeezed the trigger the round impacted on the glass but did no penetrate. Cursing his luck the assassin struggled to get another shot on the guard who was now crouched with his MP7 submachine gun up and ready. Julian fired another two rounds, the first bursting the glass to allow the second a clear shot right into the Overwatch soldiers head.
Overwatch soldiers weren't exactly ordinary citizens, Julian knew, and he approached the guardhouse quickly but with caution keeping his weapon drawn. He arrived finding the soldier scrambling for his weapon, Julian popped the struggling soldier between the eyes and his body went limp. The assassin slid into the guardhouse through the shattered window and hit the switch to open the back gate. The death of the soldier would undoubtedly alert the rest of the base to his presence. The gate slid open and Julian slipped inside the perimeter of the facility.
Floodlights had stolen most of the hiding spaces the stealthy assassin would have preferred to stick to. He slid up against the building flattening himself against it as he searched for a way in. From what he had seen of it the com-station was rather simple, one door in the front and massive communications dish on the roof. Soldiers shuffled by the assassin unaware of his presence and he found his opportunity to begin the climb to the roof. He leapt up into the air latching on to a very thin ledge and hoisting himself up to the next. Julian was glad to have the HEV suit; the gloves gave extra grip he was sure his bare hands wouldn't have had. Still the extra weight slowed his climb and made it more exhausting.
At last he reached the roof hoisting himself up and over onto the smooth surface, his chest heaving from exertion. He stood quickly finding a hatch on the roof and prying it up with his crowbar. Shouts from down below told him he was spotted and bullets whizzed by as he dropped down the hatch and into the com-station.
Julian landed with a thud but had no time to rest launching into a spin kick to disarm a guard, then diving away as the other guard opened fire with his Pulse Rifle. As he dove the assassin fired away with his pistol landing six shots in the soldier's chest before he finally dropped. The other soldier had his gun again, but the assassin launched a throwing knife from his belt which caught the soldier's wrist and pinned it to the wall. Julian walked over and took the soldier's gun shooting his foe as he walked away.
Ahead of him three more soldiers had raced up the stairs into the facility. He lifted the Pulse Rifle and took one of them out and the other two dived in opposite directions coming up into crouching positions on opposite sides of the room. The quick handed assassin dropped the rifle and rushed fully into the room taking a throwing knife in each hand he slid between the two crouching soldiers he released them. Not only did each soldier get a throwing knife to the face but both had been firing their MP7 submachine guns as the assassin slid between them their bullets had struck each other. Julian went back and got his Pulse Rifle finding that one of the soldiers was carrying a Dark Energy Grenade round.
Julian rushed toward the stairs seeing, at the last moment, a fragmentation grenade flying up them. The assassin had no time to think; he dived over the railing and rolled away barreling over a Combine soldier as the grenade detonated behind them on the stairs. The rush of the explosion sent them forward and in the confusion Julian pulled a throwing knife from his belt and jabbed it into the stomach of the soldier. Overwatch armor was thick though and the soldier was barely injured pushing Julian off of him and lifting his Pulse Rifle. Julian was quicker and out of the corner of his eye the assassin saw other soldiers rushing into the room, he pulled the secondary trigger of the AR2 letting off the Dark Energy round. A bright flash lit the room as the Dark Energy grenade struck the soldier directly in front of Julian. The assassin watched as the grenade bounced from soldier to soldier vaporizing them as it went leaving their blackened bodies enveloped in Dark Energy vapor.
Julian rushed into the next room his eyes immediately turning to the computer terminal on the far wall but not before he caught sight of something in his peripheral vision. Julian hit the wall with a crunch as the Combine Elite barreled into him. Elite soldiers were better in every respect, their marksmanship, strength and armor were far better than that of the typical Overwatch soldier. The assassin was left reeling by the blow but knew he had to move. Despite dizzy vision he managed to dodge the soldier's Pulse Rifle fire. The assassin fell to the floor on his back firing off rounds in the direction of the Elite as he did and managing to clip the soldier's foot. Julian rolled to his feet and bum rushed the soldier but the Elite soldier was ready and Julian felt a dull pain in his skull as the butt of his opponent's Pulse Rifle made contact. Julian fell with the blow and put his arms out to catch him before doing a spin pivot to sweep out the Elite's feet.
Down tumbled the Elite and up rose the assassin to finish him but the room was filled with Overwatch soldiers again and Julian had to make a mad dash for it. He found himself dodging bullets as he raced from room to room firing back only enough to suppress the pursuit of his persistent enemies. Finally he saw his way out, an elevator, he raced for safety but he was blocked by another Elite. Julian put his shoulder down to ram into the Elite soldier but instead of the soldier it was Julian who fell. The Elite soldier didn't realize it but the assassin had fallen on purpose. The soldier found out a moment later as the assassin opened fire from the floor and launched the soldier over him and into the oncoming crowd of Overwatch. Julian slipped into the elevator and hit the button to head down into the underground portion of the station.
The Elevator offered little time for the assassin to rest, though he finally had a few moments to catch his breath. His hair was sopping wet and sweat poured down his entire body. To his surprise the suit was holding up rather well despite taking almost a dozen bullet hits none of the rounds had penetrated the armor. As the elevator screeched to a halt Julian took several calming breaths to center himself. He was going to need every ounce of prowess to get out of this situation alive.
The doors opened and the assassin strode forward down what appeared to be just a maintenance tunnel, it didn't take long for the assassin to realize he was wrong. The smell of death and feces alerted him to the truth as he walked by cell after cell containing nothing but corpses.
"My god, what the hell have they done?" the assassin found himself asking aloud as he passed through the makeshift prison with horror in his heart. With each dead Resistance scientist and soldier he saw in each cell his fists grew tighter and his heart grew angrier.
"What they have done here is torture us," a voice responded startling the assassin greatly.
Julian saw the man then, huddled in the darkened corner of his cell hidden behind the corpse of another man.
"Jerrod Young?"
"Yes," the man said faintly, "yes that is what they used to call me. Jerrod, Young. Doctor Jerrod, Young."
"Stay back there, I'm gonna shoot the lock," Julian said taking aim with his Pulse Rifle and unleashing round after round on the lock. Finally the cell door swung open and Julian helped the scientist to his feet. He was a sad sight indeed, his face bruised from constant beatings, his eyes bloodshot and glazed over and his body thin and sickly.
"I knew they would send someone eventually," Jerrod said almost stumbling as he took his first steps.
Julian froze for a moment and focused his senses. He could hear the elevator on its way back down, undoubtedly carrying soldiers. He gestured for Doctor Young to begin moving backward down the corridor though he wasn't sure the good Doctor was all their mentally speaking. He reloaded his Pulse Rifle, lamenting that he only had that one thirty round clip left, and lay on the ground. The elevator opened and Julian's eyes went wide with horror. TURRET GUNS.
"Cowardly Combine bastards!" he yelled dodging bullets as he darted down the corridor with Doctor Young just behind. They ran until they reached the end of the tunnel barely out of range of the turret motion sensors, "Shit. I don't have any grenades."
"I've seen you before somewhere," Doctor Jerrod announced staring intently at Julian as though trying to recall who he was, "My God, FREEMAN! It is you!"
"Are you feeling alright Doctor Young?"
"Gordon Fucking Freeman, Grim Reaper with a crowbar, the hero of Black Mesa."
"Don't worry Doc, I'll get you out of here," Julian promised suddenly coming up with an idea, "you just stay here."
"No problem Doctor Freeman."
"Yeah," Julian said shaking his head and inching his way into the corridor once more. The assassin took two throwing knives from his belt and dashed along the corridor trusting the suit to protect him from any bullets that he couldn't avoid. His feet carried him quickly back and forth from one side of the hall to the next as the turrets opened fire. He hurled both knives then as accurately as he could and diving at the same moment. The knives spun elegantly end over end burrowing into the barrel of both turrets perfectly. He rushed forward before either knife could be dislodged and knocked the turrets over.
The maneuver had worked but Julian had been hit in the arm by one of the turrets. The suit armor on the limbs was far weaker than on the torso and when he had extended his right arm to release the knife it'd been hit. Julian shrugged off the pain, convinced he could easily tough it out. The assassin rushed back to Doctor Young assuring him the cost was clear before getting back on the Elevator.
"You know anything about this place?" Julian asked a rush of adrenaline, apparently administered by the suit, steeled his body against the pain.
"They know our weaknesses," Doctor Young said, "You're not him are you?"
"I don't even know who you're talking about," Julian admitted, getting ready for the fight ahead. With his right arm injured he was holding his silenced pistol in his left hand, luckily he had been born ambidextrous; it was apparently an assassin trait.
The door opened and he rushed into the room. He was two levels above the prison tunnel but three levels below the top floor. Luckily this level was abandoned save two Overwatch soldiers Julian had dropped before they'd reacted to the sound of the elevator door opening. The assassin raced for a computer terminal looking for the correct port before inserting the drive the Vorts had given him. He watched a progress bar race across the screen before the lights in the room began flickering and then, finally, shut off.
"Is there an exit on this level?" Julian asked returning to the elevator where the Doctor stood.
"Up one there is a secret tunnel they use to bring in supplies."
"Good to know," Julian said thinking they might be in the clear for this mission though his instincts told him not to get his hopes up. With the Combine it was never that easy.
The elevator again came to a stop but this time, with the power coming on and off erratically, Julian was forced to pry the door open with his crowbar. The room was dark but to Julian's assassin eyes it might as well have been noon. With silent steps he flanked the soldiers in the dark who were inching their way toward the darkened elevator listening as each soldier activated their night vision several seconds too late to see him. With no throwing knives though the assassin was left little choice, he put his silenced pistol right up to the Combine soldier's head and pulled the trigger twice in rapid succession dropping the soldier. The other Overwatch soldiers made their way to their fallen compatriot. Julian knew that their own night vision, built into their helmets, was technically better than his, but his quick and silent steps made him an almost impossible target to acquire. Soon the other two soldiers were dead and Doctor Young and the assassin were moving down the secret tunnel guided by Julian's keen eyes. The assassin lifted the hatch slipping out into the forest with the Doctor just behind him.
"Looks like the zombies are still on the attack," Julian said from atop the tree with his binoculars in hand, "and with the electric fences on the fritz they have their hands full."
"Will we wait until morning?" The Doctor asked taking a bite out of an energy bar Julian had given him.
"I'm not entirely sure either of us are in proper condition to travel," Julian admitted inspecting the wound on his arm, "but I suppose we don't have much choice."
The two of them moved deeper into the forest until far enough from the com-station to rest for the night. Julian sat against a tree letting out a monstrous yawn. He removed the armor from his arm tying a bit of cloth around the wound to put pressure on it and stem the flow of blood. It was a minor wound but out here in the wilderness and with the Combine probably on their tale it could easily prove fatal if he wasn't careful. Julian nearly laughed at that thought. Careful wasn't exactly a word that described him well. He closed his eyes and let sleep take him.
