-1Disclaimer: I don't own Half-Life.

The Black Mesa Incident

Chapter Thirty Four: "The Package"

The water roared around him as it shoved him roughly down the pipe and around corners, slamming him into the sides as he went. Through the luminescent green of his IR lenses, Shephard could see the pipe splitting off to the left ahead of him, sunlight shining through cautiously. He prepared himself to latch on with one hand, the other occupied with keeping the heavy SAW. With a grunt, he latched onto the very edge of the sub-pipe. His wrist shaking from the effort, he managed to pull himself upstream. He sighed as he saw the thick metal making up the grate.

With a resigned scowl, he released his grip, allowing himself to get pulled to where this pipe was determined to take him. But then another passage revealed itself on the left, with far more light pouring through. Having already practised with another, Shephard managed to latch onto his tunnel easily. He sighed again, but this time felt relief instead of irritated resignation. This grate had been torn asunder by something. Shephard hoped that whatever 'it' was hadn't stuck around, but still… it had done a good job of clearing the way for him.

With a few grunts that were drowned out by the rancid gushing water around him, Shephard pulled himself up into the tunnel and crawled his way out into the pool beyond. Looking around, Shephard saw a sandy shore at the far end of the pool, the walls around him far too high for him to climb. As he swam - an activity made far more difficult by the heavy weapon he carried - Shephard could make out two figures crouched against a rock face of a wall in front of him. His initial caution became one of quiet dread as he saw that they were ordinary soldiers.

Ordinary, order following, innocent killing soldiers. Too weak to do much of anything, Shephard just climbed out onto the shore and staggered to his feet, wandering slowly over to the crouching soldiers. One wore a Gasmask, while the other had a Bandana tied tightly around his head. The similarity to the murdering soldier made Shephard tighten his grip on the SAW irrationally.

Gasmask nudged his comrade when he noticed Shephard approaching. Bandana looked over and squinted to make out Shephard's nametag.

"Shephard! Damn, I didn't think you'd still be alive!"

He frowned. "Do I… know you?"

Smiling, Bandana shook his head. "Nah. We just heard about you over the radio. You're makin' quite an impression."

Shephard just nodded blankly, and looked around the area. The sandy path he stood on went off to the right, slanted rocky walls on either side masking what lay beyond.

"What are you doing here?"

With a dour expression, Bandana hefted his M4 rifle in his arms. "Look… I don't know what those Black Ops are up to, but it doesn't involve getting us out of here alive." He looked to his comrade, who nodded, and then to Shephard. "We've got no choice but to fight our way out. We've been waitin' here until we could work up the nerve to go on."

Silence descended, and for a few moments, the only noise around them was the steady gushing of the water from the pipes behind them.

Then, nodding, Shephard checked the SAW and held it in a battle-ready position.

Bandana nodded. "Let's go!"

The two ran off before Shephard could say much of anything about plans or even being cautious, which he thought would have been obvious. Cursing at the weight of the SAW, he took off after them, his pace slowed considerably by the weapon. The pair of soldiers stopped at the end of the rocky 'corridor' and started firing off to their left, taking cover every now and then to avoid the bullets raining out from the unseen enemy. As Shephard reached them, Gasmask pulled a grenade from his vest and, standing in plain sight, tossed it with the finesse of a professional baseball player.

Bullets thumped painfully against his vest, two hitting his left leg, puffs of blood spurting out from the back as the metal travelled through. Bandana quickly grabbed the soldier and pulled him back to cover. Shephard knelt down beside him.

"What the hell were you throwing that was worth that?"

The grenade exploded, and the gunfire stopped.

Through the lenses of the Gasmask, Shephard could see the man's eyes wrinkle from the grin. "Mounted machinegun."

Bandana grinned right along with him, clapping his hand on Gasmask's shoulder in a moment of camaraderie that Shephard hadn't experienced in a long time. Instead of focusing on what he had lost, he concentrated on what was ahead.

"Keep moving, keep moving," he urged, gesturing for them to get up while he held the SAW at the ready. As Bandana helped Gasmask to his feet, Shephard continued on around the corner. Another lake of murky water lay before him, a large sandy island about twenty feet in front of him. In the middle of the island, Shephard saw the smoking remains of the mounted machinegun. The wreckage of a black helicopter lay broken and warped in the water on the right of the island.

As slowly as he could manage to allow his comrades enough time to catch up, Shephard waded into the thigh deep water. He had just reached the island when he heard the two soldiers yelling. He whirled around and saw Gasmask dead in the water, floating face down from the vigorous cut to his neck. Blood seeped out into the water as Bandana staggered through it, struggling with the Black Ops soldier doing his utmost to slash his machete through him.

Shephard spat a curse as he dropped the SAW and took aim with the sniper rifle. The Black Ops soldier must have been hiding in the water. Christ, and he was fast. Bandana was struggling to keep up with hit rapid fire movements, and already seemed to have cuts on every other exposed part of his body. As Shephard brought the scope of the rifle to his eye, he saw the blade plunge into Bandana's throat. The soldier stood for just a few moments making choking nauseating noises as he stared at his enemy before he collapsed back into the water, floating in a pool of both his and his friends' blood.

The Black Ops soldier turned to him, and, with his black balaclava creasing into the shape of a smile, threw his arms out to the side. Shephard shot him in the neck, turned around, and left him to bleed to death beside his short term comrades.

Past the wreckage of the black helicopter (which he assumed belonged to the Black Ops themselves), Shephard saw that the water went off into a river through another rocky 'corridor' similar to the sandy one he had just come down with his now dead comrades. Eventually the water took him out onto land, and Shephard walked around a left-turning corner and into a much larger open area.

About the size of two football fields side by side, the sandy area gave way to a huge complex at the far end, the dull grey merging with the gradually fading light of the sky. In the middle of the area, a broken down two storey building simply sat, looking like it had been bombed repeatedly and then blown up from the inside. A water tower stood proudly just ahead of it and to the right.

Beyond the water tower, also on the right, Shephard could see an impossibly tall gate leading to another part of the complex behind it. Shephard guessed that was the way to go. He stepped out on to the field.

After just three steps, a loud bang followed by a high pitched whine drew his attention upwards, where he saw a grenade not unlike those from the secondary trigger of an M4 twirling down towards him. Shephard dove forward, going into a roll as the grenade exploded, knocking much further forward than he had intended. Now almost behind the structure in the middle of the sandy field, Shephard scrambled to his feet and took cover, his breathing shallow as he rested.

Another bang, and a grenade came whining towards him again.

"Fuck," he breathed, scrambling to his feet and running as fast as his legs (and the SAW) would allow. The explosion shattered some of the building behind him, pelting him with grey cement and concrete as he ran, every breath burning in his lungs.

Another bang echoed through the air as he rounded the building, heading for the tall gate. Still running, he looked over to see a raised cement platform in the far left of the field extending out of the complex in front of him. On it, a human looking figure, silhouetted by the pink clouds behind it, stood behind the grenade launcher. For a brief moment, Shephard considered getting out his sniper rifle and taking a running shot at him or her.

The gate exploding beside him quickly changed that thought. He turned and headed for the huge red metal door in front of him, hoping by some miracle that it would open for him. And open it did.

Two Race X electricity aliens bounded out, flanking one of the tiger striped monsters. Shephard fell on his side as he skid to a halt, scrabbling to his feet and quickly running the other way. Bolts of electricity shot past him, one catching him in the small of his back as he turned, knocking him off his feet and rolling to the ground.

He heard the grenade launcher go again, and was on his feet, gasping the pain away as best he could. A small metal door with a good old fashioned doorknob stood in the wall in front of him, and he sprinted for it, barging through it shoulder first. He slammed the door shut behind him, resting his back on it to stop any possible alien followers.

Shephard looked around as the exploding grenade rocked the building. He was at the bottom of a tower of stairs. A black shape emerged at the top. Shephard had already started firing with the SAW. The Black Ops didn't even get a chance to turn around before the weapon tore through him and pasted his insides on the wall.

Taking only a few seconds to catch his breath, Shephard pounded up the rest of the stairs. Two more Black Ops soldiers stood in his way at the top of the stairs, but both of them ended up being little more than cannon fodder for the SAW. Shephard took a moment to look down at the smoking weapon in his arms. The power it gave him was frightening and exhilarating all at the same time. He hoped he didn't get sucked into it as other soldiers most likely did.

In front of him, the corridor branched off to the right and to the left. The room on the right was a storage room, wooden crates lining every wall. After a quick check, Shephard pulled out his wrench and started breaking open his presents. Inside, he found ammo for his sniper rifle as well a fresh roll of pointed, deadly looking bullets for his SAW. After loading up the almost depleted war machine of a weapon, Shephard went back to the crossroads, this time opting to go left.

Some stairs awaited him, and Shephard cautiously made his way up and to the door at the top. Remembering that there was a Black Ops already up there operating the machine, Shephard figured that he would probably need to have as much mobility as possible. He removed the sniper rifle from his shoulder and lay it on the ground, hoping there weren't any Black Ops in hiding in the building, ready to steal back the weapon.

Shephard brought the SAW to bear and opened the door with the barest of clicks. He peeked through. Nobody home. It was possible that one of the many Black Ops he killed on the way up here was the operator.

The way the door suddenly slammed into his body as he walked through corrected him of that assumption. The SAW was thrown from his hands by the impact of the door crushing him into the wall, and he watched it tumble helplessly off the platform and down onto the sandy field below. Beyond it, Shephard could see the annihilated remains of the Race X aliens, yellow patches of blood and scorched craters all they managed to leave behind.

He turned and kicked the door back at his unseen assailant. The Black Ops sidestepped out of the way, his M4 at the ready. Shephard grabbed it by the stock, aiming it upwards and pushing his enemy back. The two struggled for a few seconds, Shephard successfully pushing the Black Ops back a few steps before he suddenly turned, getting his arm around the weapon and grabbing onto the nozzle, almost like a headlock. Using his left arm, he delivered two swift elbows to the Black Ops' face, and then quickly pivoted his entire body forward, throwing the soldier over his shoulder simply from his iron grip on the gun.

The Black Ops landed with a thud on his back, and Shephard quickly moved the M4 around in his arms until it was pointed downwards at the covert operative's head. Twirling like a break-dancer, the Black Ops turned on the ground and kicked the weapon from Shephard's hands, sending it to the same fate as his SAW. He looked back to the Black Ops in time to see him flipping to his feet like a gymnast. Christ, what the hell were they teaching these bastards?

Shephard decided to find out.

He threw his right fist at him first, then the left. Both were blocked effortlessly, and countered by a swift kick to the chest that managed to push him stumbling towards the control panel behind him and onto his back beside it. The black-clad soldier rushed over to him, pulling out a silenced Glock and bringing it down to his head.

Shephard grabbed him with both hands by the wrist, diverting the weapon left as it fired. The bullet singed through his shoulder, but Shephard was already in motion and unable to stop for pain. His feet on the belly of the Black Ops, he flipped the soldier back over him, bringing him to a hard landing behind Shephard just beside the cannon itself and almost off the edge of the platform.

Still not allowing the pain to register, Shephard rushed the Black Ops just as he got to his feet, managing to jam the soldier's gun-hand into the cannon itself. Faster than he would have imagined, Shephard whirled around and pressed the launch button the control panel just behind the cannon. Wasting no time, Shephard leapt in the other direction, the explosion launching him into the wall beside the door with an incredibly painful thud.

In a sequence of events that was coming far too familiar to him, Shephard took a few moments to catch his breath and heaved himself to his feet, going back into the corridor to pick up his sniper before going down for the SAW. The bullet wound in his shoulder was healing fairly quickly, but that didn't stop it from hurting like an awfully loud bitch. Once down on the ground and re-armed, Shephard headed for the opened red door that, until just now, had been inaccessible to him. Unfortunately, he found that behind the door, the entire building had collapsed in on itself.

The simple metal door on the left using good old fashioned hinges and a doorknob seemed to hold promise, so Shephard tried that venue. The corridor wasn't in much better shape, but it was at least traversable, albeit with a little ducking, crawling and tripping up on hidden pieces of rocks required. After a few turns, he found himself at an open doorway leading into the broken remains of another large room like so many he had come across recently. The ceiling had caved in, bathing everything in the melancholy yellow-pink light of the setting sun.

But the two electricity aliens and one big tiger striped creature didn't seem to feel melancholy. From the looks of them, they seemed absolutely livid. Shephard gripped the SAW, and prepared to fire. But then he became aware of a constant droning in the air, like an engine or turbine, or…

Shephard's eyes widened, and he took cover.

Helicopter blades. Like the Black Ops helicopter he had seen crashed in the lake.

As if to give him a happy confirmation of his theory, roaring mini-gun fire blasted out from behind him, quickly followed by the sound of two rockets launching from the wings. After the sounds of battle had died down, Shephard got to his feet and peeked through into the open room beyond. As expected, only yellow blood and burnt organs remained inside. The sound of the helicopter blades was ever-present, but it seemed to be a little further away for the moment, having just disposed of the immediate threat.

Looking around, Shephard saw another open doorway on the other side of the room. Constantly checking upwards for a sign of his hunter, Shephard sprinted into the dark room, diving through when he thought he heard the helicopter closing in. His dive turned into a forward roll, putting him on his back and looking up at the ceiling. At least, he would have been looking at the ceiling if he could have seen anything at all.

He flicked on his IR goggles, and came face to snarling face with an electricity alien, glaring down at him as if he intruded on some personal moment. With a roar he didn't know he had in him, Shephard unleashed the SAW on the creature's face, tearing it to pieces and knocking it on its' back. The electric roach hand weapon didn't pose much of a threat, the heel of his boot disposing of it without incident.

His breath suddenly gone, Shephard looked around while he allowed his lungs to refill. There was light coming from another doorway in front of him. And from the looks of it, there were stairs on the left. Shephard, sufficiently re-energised, thundered up the stairs with as much vigour he could manage for a fight against a helicopter.

On the floor above, Shephard could see down through a shattered wall into the open room he had just sprinted across, as well as, out of a different wall, into a courtyard area that seemed to hold promise as far as progress was concerned. A single, blank two storey complex stood in front of him, stretching out from right to left. On the far left, Shephard could see an open grate that had been swung up on its' hinges and left there. He nodded to no-one in particular. That would seem to be a good place to start.

Except for the fucking helicopter, Adrian.

Said helicopter was busy annihilating another one of the tiger striped creatures. Shephard actually managed to exude some pity for the creature as it staggered to fight against its' flying enemy. He could hear it wheezing as it desperately tried to at least hit the helicopter with one its' purple energy blasts.

Shephard set down the SAW and pulled out the sniper rifle. He loaded it, cocked it, and crouched in the appropriate position, keeping it trained on the cockpit of the helicopter. The windows were blacked out, as expected, but Shephard still knew where a helicopter pilot sat.

He fired one, cracking the glass.

Reload. Another shot, breaking through.

Reload. The helicopter was turning towards him now.

Third shot. Kill the pilot.

As though suddenly depressed, the helicopter's nose lurched downwards, the entire vehicle twirling around in the air until it finally collided with the building below, exploding with a brilliant flash.

The low crackle of the flames was all that served as a backdrop as Shephard gathered his things and leapt down into the courtyard below, using a closed dumpster to cushion his fall. As he landed, the clearly dying Race X monster turned to face him, making an alarmed squeal. It started charging a purple blast. Shephard stared at it, sniper rifle hanging off one shoulder while he rested the SAW on the other.

Do you really want to do this?

The creature continued charging for a few more moments before sagging, breathlessly, to the ground.

Shephard nodded, and lowered his weapon.

He walked past the creature, ignoring the way its' eyeless face followed him as he walked around the courtyard. A ladder led up to the roof of the building, and since all of the doors seemed to be locked tight, this would seem to be his only way forward. Shephard climbed up and made his way to the open grate. Down below him, Shephard could see some grates that displayed beneath them what looked like tarmac. The artificial yellow light bathing the floor said 'parking garage' to Shephard, and he hopped down.

Luckily, another of the lower grates was open, allowing him entrance into the disturbingly quiet complex below.

He landed looking at a parking attendant booth, two yellow and black striped barriers on either side. A crashed SUV was sat smoking against the garage door on the left, the wide open doors revealing no passengers inside. An old growl he hadn't heard for at least a few hours came to his ears, and Shephard turned to see one of the small hook handed Race X creatures, doing its' best impression of a fierce animal.

The SAW barely left anything behind once it was done firing. Shephard shook his head at the remains of the creature. It was hard to believe that he used to be scared of them. After huge electricity aliens and sewers full of creatures twice the size of polar bears, small pests with hooks just didn't seem to carry the same impact anymore.

A solid chain link gate on the left prevented him from going in that direction, so his only option was a road on his right that went further down into the complex. His boots clomped far too loudly on the concrete as he descended, walking around the various bends with such paranoia his neck muscles were beginning to ache from the constant tension.

He reached one final bend going off to the left, and pressed his back to the wall when he heard a teleportation. Several more followed. Shephard peeked around. A veritable task force of various Race X creatures stood in the area beyond, inspecting a parked Black Mesa SUV with the intensity of a child.

Shephard steeled himself up to make a move. He took one final deep breath and whirled around the corner when two grates opened up just behind the creatures, and five Black Ops soldiers descended from ropes. Shephard promptly backed up and out of sight. Damn, he was glad his enemies hated each other. If they found some way to communicate and get along, he would be seriously fucked.

The fighting went on for a quite a few intense minutes, explosions and gunfire quickly followed by alien curses and sizzling electricity blasts. Shephard again allowed himself a look around the corner. Only a few remained altogether; two Black Ops and one electricity creature. His gaze travelled to the SUV. Above it, a ceiling of grates yielded a quick exit to the vents above; one of the grates had fallen down and now rested on the roof of the SUV. And since all of the other exits were sealed off by the same thick metal chain linked gates as the route upstairs, it would seem to be Shephard's only route out of here.

With barely a grunt, one of the Black Ops fell. The two remaining combatants looked completely exhausted as they took cover from each other, firing off sporadically at each other in desperation.

Although he hated having to resort to such tactics, Shephard threw himself out and blasted them both to pieces with the SAW. Neither of them saw him coming. With just a quick glance between the two bodies, Shephard clambered up on the bonnet of the car before squeezing his way up into the grating above.

"N-now don't hurt me, a-an' I'll tell you a secret!" Shephard swung his weapon up with such speed it surprised even him. A security guard reminding him so much of Otis sat before him, his breathing laboured and his face shimmering with sweat. Shaking his head at what had almost just happened, Shephard sat back. Impatiently, he gestured to the security guard to continue.

"Oh. Um… I've been hiding up here listenin'. These Black Ops have some sort of bomb. I think they're plannin' on blowin' up the base. N-now why do you think they would do such a thing?"

Shephard had stopped listening at 'bomb'. It wasn't just a bomb. It was a freaking nuclear warhead. In a facility full of them. Setting off one would start a chain reaction that would cause so much destruction… Shephard couldn't even fathom it. All of this so the precious government could save face? He shook his head, his jaw clenched and fists tightly wound around the SAW.

He turned and started crawling.

"W-wait? Where're you goin'?"

Shephard turned to the fearful security guard. "I'm going to stop them."

Without even asking if the guard would help, Shephard continued crawling. As it happened, the security guard didn't want to help. At least, that's what Shephard assumed from the fact that he wasn't following.

He crawled noisily around a few more corners, futilely trying to mask the noise his large boots and monstrous SAW were making. Finally, he came to an open grate in the bottom of a vent before him, and he dropped down into the parking lot below. Behind him, the room was sealed off by another metal gate. In front, at the far end of the room, Shephard could see the same kind of gate. Except his was one had been opened just a crack in the centre; enough to allow a person through, at any rate.

Just before the gate, a secure metal door with a broken lever system beside it drew Shephard's attention, and he walked to the small safety glass of the window there. He looked around, but couldn't see anything but some shelves inside with some paint and small boxes on them. With a shrug, he politely knocked on the door.

An incredibly frazzled security guard appeared, scowling at him from behind his growing salt and pepper stubble. His voice was muffled by the door as he spoke.

"Are you crazy? I'm not opening this door until someone turns that bomb off."

Shephard frowned. "Where is it?"

The guard wordlessly pointed to his right with his finger, towards the opened gate. Shephard nodded and set down the SAW. There was no way he was letting a stray bullet make him the cause of all of these people dying. He slipped the sniper rifle from his shoulder and cocked it slowly and quietly. Feeling the security guard's eyes on him, he made his way through the gate and into the tunnel beyond.

At the far end, just before another closed off gate, a pickup truck was parked. There were two Black Ops. One was stood by the truck, watching what the other was doing. Said other was kneeling on the trailer of the truck, working on something in a large green metal case.

Suddenly, Shephard's throat was very dry. He readjusted his grip on the sniper rifle. As quietly as he could manage, he tried to control his breathing. He took aim at the soldier working on the warhead. As he squeezed the trigger, the Black Ops hand slipped, or at least that was what it looked like from Shephard's viewpoint.

The other soldier visibly flinched. Looked like even Black Ops were afraid of nuclear bombs. "Be careful with that thing! One false move, and this whole facility is gone."

"I've got it covered," the other snapped irritably. "You just keep your eyes open, there's still some targets running around out there."

The other Black Ops, obviously not convinced at his comrades' supposed proficiency with nuclear weapons, just nodded and started turning around. Shephard cursed and readjusted his aim for him. His target managed half a warning cry before the bullet blasted through his forehead. The remaining Black Ops turned around from where he stood, weapon-less. Shephard took him out, and he fell back towards the bomb.

It beeped loudly, and the soldier's body collapsed forward and off the trailer, landing awkwardly on the tarmac below. Shephard dropped the sniper rifle and ran to the warhead. His fingers shook as he moved them over the control panel that was opened to him. The shrill, continuous beeping of the thing didn't seem to be indicating anything good to him.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck…"

He couldn't see any countdown. How the fuck did this thing work?

A large silver button in the middle of the control panel had a green lights circling it. To him, green meant good. Safe. Red meant alarm. Panic. Explosions. He thought about it for a moment. As it was, they were probably all going to blow up if he did nothing. But if he did something, everyone would either die right now instead of after a countdown, or they would survive.

"Oh, shit…" he hissed through clenched teeth, scrunching his eyes shut. He slammed his palm down on the button.

The beeping stopped.

Nothing happened.

Shephard looked down at the bomb. Nothing was flashing anymore. He grinned and threw his arms out to either side, letting out a large roar of a laugh.

An off switch.

"A fucking off switch!"

For a few moment, he simply stayed in his crouched position, watching the inert bomb lay there on the trailer before him. It really was a thing of beauty, life. In that moment, he felt so invigorated. Hell, that was why he need to survive. So he could tell someone that he averted an honest to God nuclear disaster.

With more energy than he had felt in a long time, Shephard hopped down from the truck and walked back to the door, picking up his weapons as he went. The security guard looked equally delirious.

"Whew! That was a close one." He walked to an unseen lever beside the door on his side. "You'd better get in here." With a clang, the door swung open for him, and Shephard stepped through.

"It's not going to be easy from here on out." Shephard almost had to smile at that. So everything up to his point had been easy? "The only way out is through the level four storage unit… but it's a mess down there. The Black Ops were using it as a staging point until the aliens came in. If you do make it through, do me a favour?"

Everything sounding reasonable to him at the moment, Shephard just nodded.

"Make sure you have them come back for us."

His smile faded from behind his gasmask. It still wasn't over. There were people here who needed him. Who, even though they weren't going to die in an explosion of nuclear heat, they would eventually expire from being abandoned. And Shephard was the only one in any real position to help those he had come across. The ones who hadn't been murdering scum, anyway.

The two soldiers, Beard and Beret, the only two he had met so far who had survived the experience. The scientist hiding amongst the remains of the enormous worm creature. Magnusson, wherever the hell that bastard was. Gordon Freeman, if he ever returned to Earth. Shephard would like to see him after this was all over. To talk to someone else who had met insanity in so many forms and still managed to come out the other side.

The scientist he had given one of his only weapons to in a bid to show him how mistaken he was about the military. And, of course, all of the scientists who had helped him survive the helicopter crash that had brought him into this hell. He wasn't sure if he loved them or hated them for bringing him through.

But either way, they deserved to live, and Shephard was going to do everything he could to make sure they did. Because that was why he became a soldier. Not for his country, but to protect those in need and stop anyone who stood in the way. And that was one hell of a purpose.

Shephard nodded at the security guard and turned to the corridor behind him, one that hadn't been visible to him from the other side of the door. He looked back to the security guard.

"Is that the way?" he said, nodding in that direction.

"Yep."

"Do you want to come along?"

The security guard smiled, but not in a way that said 'hell yes, I would!'.

"Sorry, but I've gotta make sure no-one else comes through this door."

A curious frown wormed its' way onto Shephard's face. "Why did you let me through? For all you know I could have killed you as soon as you opened the door."

"Nah. Bad guys don't knock."

The frown gave way to a smile. The smile, a small chuckle. And then, they were both laughing. Laughing at the whole thing. The aliens, the Black Ops, the soldiers, all of it having been overridden by one thing:

Good manners.

Eventually, the laughing died down, and Shephard extended a hand to the security guard. "Thank you."

With firm grip, the security guard shook it. "Any time."

After a grateful nod, Shephard turned and head down the corridor, his pace far quicker than before, powered by purpose and hope. After a few turns, he passed a window on his left. Curiously, he noted that it was the tunnel with the warhead inside. He almost missed the shadowy figure stooped over it, working on the device.

It was him. The G-Man. With his briefcase in one hand and working on the warhead with the other, the G-Man undid everything Shephard had thought he had accomplished today. Everything he had fought for, everyone he had seen die… all so this smirking piece of shit could take everything away from him.

"No. No, you fucking don't!"

Shephard turned and ran down the corridor.

"Open the door!" he yelled as he came around the corner into the entrance room.

The security guard lay dead on the floor, an alien crab creature suckling on his covered head. Beside him, the lever to open the door was scorched and warped. Shephard ran to it and desperately tried to pull it open. The lever come off in his hands.

"NO!"

Shephard ran back through the winding corridor and to the window. The G-Man was still there, leisurely pressing random buttons on the device. His breath hissing through his teeth, Shephard backed up and took aim with the SAW. Screaming for everything he had been through this day, Shephard unloaded the entire weapon into the window. The thick glass was merely cracked and frayed by the bullets. He dropped the SAW and ran at it, slamming his shoulder into it again and again. Each time, it was like hitting a brick wall.

He stopped, reduced to only being able to look through the glass and stare at the pale man as he went about his work. With one last tap of a button, the G-Man seemed satisfied and stood up to his full height. He straightened his tie and looked over at Shephard. The man gave him the barest of nods and a smile before delicately stepping off the truck and walking to the metal gate in front of the truck. With barely any effort, he moved the gate aside and stepped through, neatly closing it behind him and disappearing into the darkness beyond.

All Shephard could do was stare through the cracked glass. Stare at the flashing control panel of the warhead. Stare at his failure. Why go on?

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THE POINT?!"

He whirled around, smashing his fist into the wall. With the barest of beeps, his PCV informed him of the injury. But the sound was lost amongst the sound of his own blood throbbing through his ears. On his left, Shephard could see a cargo elevator that would take him down to the Level Four Storage Unit. To more Black Ops, more Race X and more death. Resting his hands on the wall in front of him, Shephard stared down at the spent SAW below him, the fifty or so spent bullet casings scattered around it.

His jaw clenched. He would show them all. He would go down there and find his way out of this place. And he would kill everyone and everything that stood in his way. Be they Black Ops, aliens, soldiers, security guards or scientists… he would kill them all if they tried to stop him. No more soul searching, no more struggles with his own morality.

He was Corporal Adrian Shephard. And he was going to make them fear him. He took the sniper rifle with him. That was all he needed really. His speciality. No-one ever saw him coming when he was behind a sniper rifle. Shephard walked to the elevator and stepped inside. He elbowed the button beside him viciously, and he descended.

And if that G-Man got in his way, well…

He would just have to kill him too.

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(A/N: Only three more to go, folks… exciting, isn't it?

Anyway, reviews please!

Next Chapter: Interloper)