-1Disclaimer: I don't own Half-Life.
The Black Mesa Incident
Chapter Twenty: Questionable Ethics
A ladder at the end of the winding, red lit corridors led Gordon up to a thick brown grate. Through the gaps, he could see a curious little alien creature peering down at him. Gordon recognised it as those whirring creatures that created the shockwaves. He didn't particularly like killing these creatures because of the whining noise they made. It was like he was shooting a dog.
He slipped out his crowbar and pushed the grate with his other hand. It didn't budge. After some awkward fidgeting around, swapping the crowbar from hand to hand and pushing at the grate with alternating limbs, Gordon put the crowbar back in its' sheath and gripped the top rung of the ladder. With a grunt, he swung his shoulder up and into the grate, knocking it from its placement in the ground above. It slammed back down again, almost hitting Gordon in the back of the head.
With a glare that would have made Barney laugh in its 'no more Mr Nice Guy' connotations, Gordon swung his shoulder up again, this time knocking up and over on its hinges, slamming loudly onto the concrete floor around it. Gordon clambered out of the hole and up into the room above, whipping his crowbar up defensively. All around him he saw cages not unlike those used by people transporting their pets on planes.
A tall fence stood on his right, blocking the way to a corridor he could see on the far corner behind the fence. A generator was in the other corner, bolts of electricity randomly leaping to a red rectangular shape attached to the top of the fence where it separated into a gate. Gordon guessed that the metal fence was electrified, which meant he wouldn't be climbing over it any time soon.
The whirring noises coming from the four creatures surrounding him attracted his attention somewhat, and he responded by lashing out with a drop kick to the one closest to him. It flew off and collided with the wall, yellow blood smearing against the dull grey surface. Undeterred, the others continued their threatening noise. Gordon swung out with the blunt end of the crowbar for one on his right, and the sharp end for the one on his left. The former ended up sizzling against the electrified fence, while the latter, killed instantly by the sharp object penetrating its brain, refused to dislodge itself from the crowbar.
The last conscious creature standing behind him started up the noise again, and Gordon swung the crowbar, attached creature and all, around in a wide arc, thudding against the creature and managing to dislodge his unwelcome passenger all in one fell swoop. Both creatures hit the fence and exploded into little balls of crackling flame. This seemed to cause a chain reaction with the small generator on the other side of the fence somehow, and after some more borderline strobe flashing and random sparks, the red box on top of the fence post exploded. The metal fence gate flew open, and Gordon slipped through the gap and into the corridor beyond.
The first thing Gordon became aware of as he turned the corridor into the sterile green-blue laboratory was a dull thudding noise. With a frown that threatened to dislodge his glasses, Gordon searched around the room, crowbar held up high behind him while his other arm stood outstretched in front.
Because obviously, any aliens would find the palm of Gordon Freeman's hand terrifying.
A thick, tall black cylinder that reached from the floor to the ceiling stood in the centre of the room, a control panel on the far side of it. A door lay on the left of the powered down panel. Still wary of the thumping noise, Gordon started making his way towards the door. As he walked around the black cylinder and saw that the half facing the control panel was made of glass, Gordon found out what was making the noise; and it was big. Not as big as the tentacle monster or the big blue thing near the rail system, but still… pretty big. Big enough to crush his head with its… claw.
It looked like a bigger, fatter version of the red eyed electricity creatures, but with better posture. Shiny black armour was clamped on its shoulders, head, wrists, crotch, ankles and feet. The arms were as thick as Gordon's torso, and while the one on Gordon's right simply had a large brown pincer like claw, the other had a pulsating three pronged device attached to it, which looked almost organic. The creature pounded both 'hands' against the glass containing it, and Gordon couldn't help but flinch the first few times.
But when the glass didn't budge, Gordon became a bit more relaxed, although he didn't turn his back on the creature as he continued for the door. With an awkward jolt, he walked into the closed doors. His subconscious still adamantly wanting his attention kept on the creature, Gordon spared some quick glances back to white, automatic doors.
Gordon sighed.
Automatic doors.
Powered down console.
Feeling less threatened and more annoyed by the noise the creature was making, Gordon walked to the control panel and studied it, although he still kept his crowbar firmly gripped in his right hand as he used his left to hover above the buttons. Inside a small glass box in the centre of the control panel lay a red button, which Gordon's subconscious had slowly begun to associate with bad things happening that were, unfortunately, usually necessary.
He closed his eyes and let his head hang, allowing the thumping from the creature behind him to echo around the room unimpeded. Then, after taking deep breath, he lifted his crowbar and smashed it through the glass, the pointed end hitting with such force that it pressed the button down as it went.
The lights went out, the only sight Gordon was afforded coming from the small slits of windows on the automatic doors that would take him into the corridor beyond. Alarms sounded, and the creature's blows against the glass became ever more frantic. Gordon ran for the door, and it slid open painfully slowly. With one last mighty downward swing of its' arms, the creature burst through the glass, sending shards exploding outwards.
Gordon slipped through the gap and into the corridor beyond. It turned right instantly, and Gordon sprinted for all he was worth. He heard the creature plough through the white doors and growl in a manner that didn't make Gordon slow down, even as he approached the corner. He could see two automatic doors on the far left, and tried his best to turn on a dime as he reached the wall. They slid open slightly faster than the earlier doors, and Gordon slipped through. A sound like a buzzing insect shot down the corridor behind him just as he collapsed into the room beyond, and he spared a look back to see three red dart shapes embedded in the wall.
He whipped his head around and took in the room he now stood in. Sterile white walls made the already bright lights high above him almost unbearable. A silver slab of an examination table sat in the middle of the room, a strange contraption hanging ominously from the ceiling above it, some kind of focusing lens at the bottom. White doors stared at Gordon from the other side of the room, and on their right in the corner stood an observation booth, the door on the side open enticingly.
A low growl from behind the slowly closing doors behind him put a certain spring in his step, and Gordon almost slipped over on the metal floor as he ran to the doors on the other side of the room. With a speed that would have surprised Gordon under more peaceful circumstances, the doors opened. Two soldiers stood idly with their backs to him, cigarette smoke wafting from the face of one while the other leant against the wall, his rifle dangling idly by his side.
Upon hearing the noise of the doors, they turned, eyes half closed disinterestedly. Instead of waiting for the inevitable gunfire, Gordon tossed himself off to the right and into the booth, rolling on his shoulder to make it all the way in. He heard the doors open on both sides of the room simultaneously, and the two forces opposing forces seemed to wait for a few seconds before ignoring their previous prey and concentrating on the monsters stood in front of them.
Gordon kept low, resting his back against the control panel in the booth, machinegun fire and buzzing noises putting a near permanent frown on his face. Cautiously, he placed a hand on the control panel above him and started to raise himself up. The panel didn't seem to want to give him any leverage, so Gordon pressed harder, and felt the surface beneath his gloved fingers move down slightly. Klaxons sounded and red lights flashed, the door to the booth slamming shut ominously.
With crowbar pointlessly held beside his head, Gordon peeked up over the panel and through the observation window. The apparatus above the table was glowing a dangerous yellow, and the rising volume of the noise accompanied the intensifying light. The alien, pale yellow blood trickling from wounds littered across its' body, looked up at the machine curiously. He could hear some muttered curses coming from the unseen soldiers beside him, as well.
Suddenly, the noise stopped, and, accompanied by a loud burst of static electricity, white light flooded Gordon's vision. A defensive and pointless hand reached up in front of his eyes, but he ended up trying to blink away spots anyway as the door opened with a thunk. Gingerly feeling the control panel for anymore big buttons, Gordon pulled himself to his feet and looked outside, still squinting. Random clumps of yellow gooey material lay in random spots along the other side of the room, and Gordon assumed them to be what was left of the alien.
He stepped to the doorway and winced at the similarly placed red masses on his side of the room. A black, melted mess lay on the ground beside one of the red lumps, and Gordon took that to be the soldier's rifle. He sighed as he glanced back down at his crowbar glumly. Comforting as it was, he really wanted a weapon other than a crowbar. The doors on his right opened and he pressed his back to the wall of the booth.
The second soldier from the corridor outside stepped in hurriedly, halting immediately as he saw the red stuff beneath him.
"Oh, shit…"
He knelt down, semi-automatic rifle pointed upwards in one hand while he reached a tentative hand down to the glop.
Gordon charged at him noiselessly, swinging the crowbar around with a quiet whoosh. It cracked through the soldier's gasmask as he turned to face his attacker, and he fell onto his back with a grunt. Another downward swing landed with a think between the eyes of the mask, cracking it even further. Gordon kept on swinging, hitting his hapless opponent again and again until blood spattered up and onto his glasses.
Somewhere along the way, Gordon had started breathing heavily, his shoulders heaving up and down as he crouched beside the mutilated soldier. The crowbar was held high above his head, ready for another strike while the other cautioning hand stood outstretched in front of him, palm open.
He noticed his glasses had slipped down his nose, and with a slow, deliberate movement, he pushed them up with a clinically steady finger. The light from above glinted against the soldier's rifle, and Gordon tucked his crowbar away in its' sheath before reaching over for it.
"Hold it."
The sound of a pistol being cocked.
"Back off, buddy."
Gordon looked over to the doorway. A security guard stood silhouetted in the doorway, feet set firmly apart. The smile almost broke out onto his face.
Someone else! Who wasn't a soldier or an alien! Gordon's relief was somewhat restrained due to the handgun being pointed in his general direction, but still… a human who wouldn't try to kill him at every turn.
Wanting to promote good relations early on in the game, Gordon put up his hands and stepped back from the rifle. The security guard edged his way into the room, his soft, friendly features becoming more apparent under the revealing lights of the examination room. He looked Gordon up and down, and then smiled, putting his handgun away.
"You look like a scientist."
Releasing a breath he didn't even know he was holding, Gordon nodded. He dropped his hands to his sides, his left accidentally tapping against the tip of the crowbar strapped to his hip. The guard's eyes whipped to the weapon before returning to Gordon again.
"But then again… what kind of scientist walks around with a spacesuit and a crowbar?"
He opened his mouth, trying to find something witty or icebreaking to say. He managed a shaky 'um' before the guard broke out into another smile.
"Don't worry, I'm just kidding. I know a HEV suit when I see one. And the crowbar… well, let's just call it personal choice, eh?"
Gordon didn't recognise the accent, but it was definitely American. Strong, commanding, probably very intimidating when put to proper use.
A large hand suddenly clasped his, shaking it wildly.
"I'm Kaufman. Eric Kaufman. Good idea turning on the de-atomiser," he said, pointing up to the contraption above them.
"Oh, um…" Gordon looked up at it discerningly. "Thank you."
"Now," Kaufman continued, turning and kneeling beside the dead soldier behind him, "I understand that a crowbar's probably all you've been using so far, but that's not going to get you much further."
The thought that he had fought his way up through countless floors of aliens, freak electrical mishaps and hostile soldiers crossed Gordon's mind.
He didn't say anything.
Kaufman scooped up the deceased soldier's rifle, checking it over in a way that seemed to suggest he knew what he was doing.
"Besides," he said, talking over his shoulder. "It's no good up there, it's all sealed off. The only way out would be to find someone with scanner access and get them to open the front door. I'm pretty sure there are some scientists hiding somewhere in the labs."
He roughly inspected the body itself and removed ammunition from various pockets and slots on the soldier's uniform. With a satisfied smile, the guard got to his feet, hefting the weapon up and down in his arms a few times as thought to weigh it. His smiling visage looked up to Gordon.
"Maybe with both of us looking we could track them down and get 'em to let us out. So how about it? We might live longer if we work together."
Gordon paused for a moment before nodding slowly. "Thank you."
With a modest, dismissive wave of his hand, Kaufman led Gordon through the doors, dramatically pressing his back to each wall and swinging around whenever they reached a corner. They first turned left, entering a soothing sky blue corridor, and then another right at the end. This corridor gradually inclined upwards. Kaufman nodded to a spot on the wall.
"That's where I was waiting. I managed to sneak around the soldiers up there and was about to take those two on when you distracted them. Good work on that, by the way."
Gordon cocked an eyebrow. "Good work on… the killing… or the distracting?"
"The distracting. That was a pretty sloppy kill you made in there."
"Oh. Right."
They reached the top of the slanted corridor and followed it around to the left until a right turn made Kaufman stop in his tracks. Gordon bumped into Kaufman's outstretched arm.
"Wait here."
The guard checked his rifle over again and then leapt out into the other corridor. Gordon heard only a few seconds of squawking radios and alarmed cries before the gunfire started. With a battle cry that made Gordon take a step back, Kaufman charged forward into the corridor, leaving Gordon stood cluelessly in his wake. He looked down at his crowbar in silent frustration as he heard more screams. He was beginning to miss Martha right now.
Bullets embedded themselves in the wall of the corridor, and Gordon noticed that the sounds of gunfire were getting further and further away. Cautiously, and with his crowbar once again held redundantly close to his face, Gordon peered around the corner. The corridor opened out into a lobby area, sunlight shining in through windows so high up that they were out of sight from where Gordon was stood. On the far end of the lobby, Gordon could see another corridor, bodies littering the floor. Still hearing gunfire, Gordon made his way out and stalked into the lobby.
It was far bigger than the Anomalous Materials lobby. A Scientific Union symbol was painted on the centre of the tiled floor, sunlight filtering onto it through the glass of the rotating doors on Gordon's left. A retinal scanner beside the door waited for whatever scientist he and his security guard companion could find in this place. On the other side of the doorway, a HEV charging station stared back at Gordon cheerfully. With a perhaps a little too much relish, he plugged into the machine and let it do its' work, looking idly around the room as it did so. The reception desk stood at the very far right hand corner of the room seemed almost comically small compared to the rest of the room. Beside it were some stairs leading into another darkened blue corridor, automatic white doors waiting there for him.
The charging station made a negative noise to signal that it was out of power for the moment, and Gordon checked his stats. His health was at 55, and his suit now a heartening 83. Feeling a little more energy, Gordon sprinted across the lobby and down the stairs, promptly colliding with the doors when they refused to open with a loud negative noise.
"Hey! Where'd you go?"
Feeling a little dazed, Gordon turned with a small shake of the head and hopped up the stairs. Kaufman was walking out of the corridor he had left Gordon in, looking confused. His expression changed when he spotted Gordon.
"There you are. What the hell were you doing down there?"
He pointed. "Doors."
Confusion marred Kaufman's features. "Huh?" Standing on tiptoes, the guard saw what Gordon was pointing at and nodded "Ah, okay. Any luck?"
"They're locked."
"So no."
"No."
"No, as in they're not locked? Or no as in… saying no to me saying 'so no'?"
This time Gordon was frowning. He had PhD from MIT, and yet he couldn't understand what the hell this security guard was talking about. Gordon felt that there was something inherently wrong with that fact, but he decided to push it aside, signalling this to his companion with a shrug.
Continuing as though nothing had happened, Kaufman walked to the corridor littered with dead soldiers, chattering away happily as he went.
"Anyway, I took care of those soldiers."
Gordon looked the guard up and down as he walked alongside him down the corridor and around the bend. Aside from a few spatters of blood on his shirt and Kevlar vest and a slightly askew helmet, Kaufman didn't seem any worse for wear. The guard noticed his look and smiled.
"I guess you're pretty glad to have a security guard around to take care of it all for you now, huh?"
Actually, he wasn't. Gordon had thought that coming across someone willing to take care of everything would have been a relief. But it just made him feel uneasy and unsafe, and maybe a little bit queasy. As they rounded the bend, Gordon noticed the five dead soldiers awkwardly splayed around the corridor. Gordon looked over at Kaufman, whose eyes were focused ahead of them, firmly on the job. Maybe having someone else that does all the killing wasn't that bad. Safety in numbers, and all that.
Two more doors at the end of the corridor were also locked, forcing Gordon and Kaufman to go up some stairs to their right, leading to a balcony that looked over the lobby. After some more wandering (led by Kaufman, naturally), they entered a lab area. Three control panel towers stood evenly spaced along the centre of the room, and on either side were semi-circular indentations in the walls. White metal domes lay in the centre of the indentations, a pole leading up into the ceiling above them. Gordon inspected the control panel on the wall beside the indentation, and saw a diagram of the large creature that had been held captive in the earlier lab.
"What is it?" Kaufman asked, leaning in uncomfortably close beside him to look at the screen.
Gordon looked over at him. "You don't know?"
"Hey, I'm only security," he said dejectedly, and a little bit angrily. "I just make sure people are safe."
After a brief lingering look at the guard, Gordon walked over to the indentation on the other side of the room. It was the same thing there as well. They were containment pods. At the push of a button, they would rise out of the ground and unleash the two giant aliens upon whoever was inside. Perhaps somebody had already done so. But that wasn't what was bothering Gordon. The people in this facility were experimenting on these aliens, and they had machinery that looked like it was specifically designed to contain them. Which meant these aliens had been coming to Earth far earlier than Gordon's little accident in Anomalous Materials. Perhaps they were even brought here… taken to these labs and experimented on…
No wonder they were so hostile.
But then, some of them wore armour, which suggested they were prepared for battle. So if these huge creatures had been taken earlier than the 'incident', that would mean they were hostile long before Gordon opened the floodgates.
"Okay, again, I repeat; what is it?"
Gordon's gaze, which had become permanently fixed on the ground in front of him while he thought, whipped up to meet Kaufman's.
"It's…" he looked to the control panel, and then back to the guard. "…nothing. We should go."
"You're sure?"
Gordon frowned. 'You're sure?' What kind of question was that? Of course he wasn't sure? He was an absent minded, easily distracted, clumsy scientist. How the hell could he be sure about anything like this?
"Um… yes."
Kaufman seemed slightly put out by this for whatever reason, but eventually opted for a nod before gesturing to some doors on the other side of the lab.
"Maybe there are some of our guys this way."
He watched the security guard lead the way before casting another cursory glance around at the two pods that were embedded in the ground below. His one-handed grip on his crowbar tightened, and he followed his new companion. The sound of an explosion made him increase his pace through the automatic doors and around the brown corridor, where he saw Kaufman stood in a large doorway. A large scorch mark lay on the ground in front of him, and Gordon heard the crackle of something burning in the blue lit corridor beyond.
"There were some soldiers. I took care of them with a grenade."
Despite not being able to remember Kaufman ever picking up a grenade or even seeing one on his person, Gordon decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth and simply smiled and nodded.
"Okay, there's a surgery room just this way," he continued on, gesturing with his rifle to the right. Without waiting to see if Gordon was coming or not, Kaufman set off, leaving Gordon to follow quickly in his wake. As he stepped through the threshold into the blue corridor, Gordon saw two burning dead bodies on his left, which just made it all the more easier to follow Kaufman to the right.
The corridor bent around to the left in a semicircle shape. A mechanical whirring gradually found its way to Gordon's ears, and Kaufman stopped in front of a door on the wall on the left.
"See? Surgery room."
Gordon peeked in through the small slit of an observation window, but he evidently got too close, because the door opened in front of him. He stumbled inside but quickly straightened up as his nose was almost sliced in half by a rotating red blade. A raised walkway led up the middle of the room from where Gordon and Kaufman were standing to another door on the opposite side of the room. Two operation tables were on either side of the walkway, contained in an area slightly lower than the metal platform running between them.
Two metallic shapes, looking like 'L's that had been turned on their sides, extended from a circular structure in the middle of the ceiling. They swung around the room in a complete circle. Horizontal metal poles extended out both ways from the shapes, pointed, razor-sharp red cross shapes spinning wildly in their placements.
Gordon and Kaufman looked at each other, and the security guard shrugged. "You've got the spacesuit. I ain't going through there."
Even Gordon could see it was impossible to get to the door at the other side, if there was even anything of value in that room to begin with. The control panel in front of him – which Gordon presumed was for the surgical unit – was unresponsive to his efforts. But if this day had taught Gordon anything, it was that there was usually some strange, difficult and ultimately exhausting way to get where one needed to go. The important thing, however, was that he got there alive instead of in neatly sliced pieces.
"Is there an upper level?" he asked, looking over at Kaufman.
The confused look returned. "Uh… why?"
He just pointed to the ceiling. Kaufman still didn't get it, but nodded anyway. "Okay, uh… should be some stairs this way." He turned and left the room. Gordon, after a quick glance back at the spinning, whirling blades, followed suit.
Kaufman took him into a darkened corridor with two glass windows in the walls on either side. Inside, headcrabs wandered around their little prison cells, leaping at Gordon when they noticed his presence. It just added more credence to Gordon's theories. He wondered if he should be morally outraged with the scientists who had, in many ways, precipitated this whole event.
A stairway between one of the observation windows took them up and around a right corner leading to some more stairs. Inhuman snarls and gunfire made Gordon duck his head, while Kaufman's ears seemed to perk up at the noises. The security guard was only too eager to sneak his way up to the top step and peek around the corner to the right, observing the corridor beyond.
Gordon cautiously poked his own head around. The corridor stretched on in front of them for a considerable length. Half a dozen or so rooms and corridors led off from the main corridor. The closest was an entrance to a corridor on the left, and Gordon very nearly shot off to it when he remembered that he had someone else to consider when it came to survival plans.
Several soldiers did battle with two of those two legged bullsquid creatures, their tentacled mouths spitting out all manner of luminescent liquids at them. The globs of liquid that did hit the soldiers seemed to burn them like acid, and Gordon took due note not to be on the receiving end of that attack. As resilient as the HEV suit was, he had no idea how acid would (or wouldn't) affect it.
"I think you should make a break for that corridor while I take care of this," Kaufman muttered over his shoulder, the light contempt dancing in his tone becoming just ever so slightly apparent to Gordon.
But instead of commenting, he just nodded. No sense in causing any more of a scene than what was already playing out in front of them.
"Okay, on three? Is that all right with you?"
With a sigh, Gordon just ran for it, practically feeling Kaufman's glare burning into the back of his head as he went. The sound of gunfire burst out from where the security guard had been. Gordon dove for the corridor and rolled with the momentum, ending up on his back and staring up at the ceiling. Bending his head upwards, he watched as Kaufman charged past down the main corridor, the expression on his face completely focused on his task. It was admirable and a little bit frightening all at the same time.
As he got to his feet, Gordon frowned. Were those… voices?
"What is this? Some kind of weapon?"
He pulled his crowbar out and looked around. It sounded like it was coming from down the corridor. Of course, the gunfire and various screams were making it difficult to make out. A noise that sounded somewhat like the charging noise of the Anti-Mass Spectrometer back at Anomalous Materials drifted up to Gordon as he made his way down the corridor. Another voice spoke, this one cautioning and a little bit impatient.
"Put that down… it's a prototype…"
Gordon reached the end of the corridor. Nothing but some crates randomly stacked in the corner against the wall.
And then they exploded.
He barely had time to put his arms up and let the splintering wood fall around him. Slowly, he brought his arms down as he heard the unseen conversation continue. His gaze fell on the wall opposite, his eye drawn by an orange glow coming from the wall. Rather than put his hand anywhere near it, Gordon backed up the corridor, making sure he didn't back into the line of fire. He picked up the crowbar and put it back into its' sheath.
The first voice spoke again, much more excitedly this time. "Man! Why aren't we using it?"
"It's much too unpredictable. Don't let it overcharge!"
Gordon crouched and wrapped his arms over his head protectively.
"What do you mean 'overcharge'?"
And then the wall exploded.
A cloud of white pushed out towards him as he slowly lowered his arms and got to his feet. Crowbar instinctively in his hand, Gordon edged to the hole in the wall and stepped through, squinting from the dust. He waved a futile hand around in front of him to clear his vision. The dust clung to his glasses, and a low, almost inaudible grumble escaped from his lips. He tried to wipe it away with his gloved hand, which only served to smear it messily across his vision.
But it did clear it up somewhat, so Gordon continued on into the room. His foot made a light thunk noise against something metal, and he stopped, his head quickly going down to what had intercepted him. A thick, tube like device lay at his feet, pipes and canisters attached on either side of its vaguely triangular shape. It had a shiny orange tip that, strangely enough, matched Gordon's HEV suit. In the middle of the device was a rectangular shape that swayed from side to side as Gordon picked it up. Something about it looked familiar, but he couldn't quite place it. There was a trigger at the back, and, thought processes overcome by scientific curiosity, Gordon pulled it.
An orange bolt of energy flashed out of the orange tip, hitting the wall of the room that was still mostly obscured by dust. The spot on the wall he had hit glowed in a way that Gordon found strangely satisfying. A voice sliced through his warm fuzzy feelings, and he quickly got back into what he recognised as his emotional state for much of the past day or so; abject paranoia and fear. But since those two things had kept him alive, Gordon didn't complain.
"What the fuck was that?"
He wasn't sure if that was a soldier or Kaufman, but either way, he decided to vacate the premises of whatever lab he had wandered into. He went back through the dust cloud and into the corridor beyond before hurrying to the main passageway.
A quick peek around the corner told him that his orange bolt of energy had gone through the wall, blowing up some crates just beside a soldier crouched in a doorway. Two dead soldiers lay on the ground in awkward positions, blood spattered along the walls and ground. He judged from the angle that Kaufman had shot them from the room just ahead of him, down the corridor and on the right.
The three remaining soldiers spotted his curious looks and took aim, unleashing a volley of fire that made Gordon throw himself back behind cover. He heard Kaufman firing away, and he rushed over to the room he assumed his security guard friend had taken refuge in. The blue walled room yielded the desired result, Kaufman crouched breathlessly just next to the open entrance to the room.
"What the hell are you doing? I said I'd handle this!"
Gordon tried to think of an excuse, but all he could come up with was honesty. "They saw me."
"Oh, that's great. Look, just… stay here, all right?" He spotted the device in Gordon's hands. "What the hell's that?"
He opened his mouth to reply, and Kaufman put up a hand.
"Never mind. I'm going out there to take care of them. You see if there's anything useful in this place."
Gordon looked around as Kaufman launched himself out into the corridor. A giant cannon was propped up facing the wall, the corresponding control panel on the other side of the room. He recognised it as a laser he had read about in a science journal… something about the revolutionary new power source involving six different types of lenses…
He looked down at the device in his hands. Which would mean that what he now held in his hands was the Gauss Gun, nicknamed the 'Tau Cannon' by the scientist who worked on it. Rumour had it that it was the result of a rare alliance between Black Mesa and their competitor, Aperture Science.
But none of that told Gordon what the hell the thing could actually do. The sound of approaching booted footsteps brought his attention to the entrance, and Gordon aimed the orange tip of the Tau Cannon in that direction. The words 'overcharge' reached his conscious mind, and he pulled back the trigger, this time holding it down. The rectangular shape in the middle of the device started spinning, building speed and the oscillating noise increasing in pitch the longer he held the trigger.
Two soldiers swung themselves around the corner with their rifles at the ready, and Gordon fired. The blowback from the weapon knocked Gordon on his back, but still managed to hit the soldier on the left dead centre in the chest. It impaled him to the wall with such force he left a slight indentation in the wall as he slipped down to the ground, well and truly unconscious.
The remaining soldier looked back at his fallen comrade, and then back to Gordon.
Something about that desperate movement made an uncharacteristic grin break out onto Gordon's face. Finally. After all the desperation, all the fighting, running, falling, hiding… finally he had managed to scare one of them. Finally, they were beginning to understand just what Gordon and everyone else in the facility had been feeling since the military arrived.
"Oh look," he said, looking down from the weapon and then back up to the soldier, "a new toy."
He fired again, hitting the soldier in the head and making him back flip ankles over elbows before landing on his front with a loud thump. Gordon was on his feet almost immediately, the gunfire from the corridor outside keeping him on edge. He looked around to the laser cannon again, and saw the blank wall in front of it. Above it was a sign reading 'DO NOT BLOCK BLAST SHIELD'. After a cautionary glance back to the open entrance to the lab, Gordon walked to the wall, the two thin windows on either side piquing his curiosity. He could see another room quite a few feet below, and it looked nowhere near as polished as the rest of the lab.
A random feeling he supposed was a hunch informed Gordon that getting down there would probably point the way to freedom. Looking around the room, he saw the control panel that would activate the laser. The blast shield was tucked safely into the ceiling above, and would no doubt lower itself automatically upon him activating the laser. A metal crate in the corner solved his problem, and with a triumphant little smile, Gordon walked over to it and managed to shove it into the path of the blast shield, but not the laser.
He went to the control panel and slammed a palm down on the red button. The gunfire continued on outside. The laser powered up loudly, and the blast shield doors started to lower. They quickly collided with the metal crate below, however, and after a few more fruitless attempts, it gave up and dejectedly returned to its' place in the ceiling. Now unimpeded, the laser cannon fired, a thick red beam cutting through the wall almost instantly. Gordon checked over the Tau Cannon in his hands before gripping it tightly in a manner that reminded him of all the good times he had had with Martha.
He cocked an eyebrow.
Good times? What good times?
With an absent minded shake of his head, Gordon dashed out to the edge of the entrance to the lab, peeking around the corner. He could see two soldiers in the room on his upper left. They fired relentlessly into the room opposite them, where Gordon assumed Kaufman had taken refuge. It was an impressive display to watch; one taking cover and reloading while the other fired away. Not that Gordon minded interrupting it.
One of the soldiers suddenly decided to take the initiative and advanced on Kaufman's room, M4 held up cautiously. Gordon decided that was as good a time as any to get involved, and whirled himself around the corner, charging the Tau as he went. By the time the soldier bothered to look over at the orange clad intruder in his midst, Gordon had fired, hitting him dead centre in the stomach. The soldier shot off backwards down the corridor, hitting the ground and skidding before eventually slowing to a halt.
Both parties stopped firing. Cautiously, both Kaufman and the soldier whipped their heads around their respective corners, looks of matching incredulity on their faces. Gordon promptly shot the soldier's head off, knocking him back into the room from whence he came. Kaufman let out a most un-security guard like yelp when Gordon did so, but quickly managed to regain his previous demeanour of 'can-do' hero.
He got to his feet and walked to Gordon, looking at the dead soldiers around him before coming to a halt in front of him.
"That's one hell of a gun."
Gordon looked down at the Tau before looking up at his companion. "Yes."
"Really did some damage."
"Yes."
"…can I have it?"
He thought about if for a moment. "No."
At first, Kaufman seemed ready to come back with an irritated comment, but then calmed down.
"Scientist fighter likes scientist weapons, huh?" Kaufman nodded, smiling wryly. "I can live with that. So," he continued, walking into the lab, "you find anything in here to get… us…"
The security guard trailed off when he saw the crumbling hole in the wall.
"Oh." He looked over at Gordon. "Good work."
Gordon merely pushed his glasses up his nose by way of acknowledgement.
They managed to clamber their way down to ground floor by shimmying their way along and down some pipes, eventually landing on some crates before finally reaching the dreary brown cement floor. There was a small stairway leading to a door, and with a small, polite gesture, Kaufman let Gordon proceed ahead of him. With a nod, the scientist proceeded to the automatic white door, stepping through into the small room beyond.
Three scientists stood inside, all of them whirling around in surprise upon his entrance. In front of him, a closed door leading into the out of control surgery room he and Kaufman had been in earlier.
A female scientist with curly brown hair smiled widely upon seeing him. "A scientist! Thank God! Get us out of here before those military drones figure out… where we're… hiding…"
She trailed off in a manner similar to Kaufman earlier upon seeing the security guard.
"Ah. Kaufman. I see… you're all right."
The security guard nodded to the three. "Nice to see you again, guys."
His charges didn't seem to share his feelings. Gordon deduced that he was probably imagining it, but they almost seemed afraid of Kaufman. But that was impossible, especially in a situation like this. Anything and everything would probably scare them on a day like this.
No-one spoke for a few moments, before a small man that reminded Gordon of Dr Kleiner cleared his throat, weedy voice already evident just from that noise.
"We… all have retinal scanner access. Escort us to the lobby, and you can get out of the lab."
This seemed to give the third of their number the courage to speak. A tall, skinny and bald black man, his deep voice contrasted heavily with the earlier, weedy tones of his colleague.
"You'll have to turn off the surgical unit first. Peters switched it on, but I'm afraid he never made it back. You'll need the security code he entered. It's two three six four."
Gordon looked to the door, and after checking over all of their faces, nodded resignedly. He stepped to the white door, and it opened politely for him. In front of him, the surgical unit span out of control. He looked back to the black scientist and held out the Tau cannon to him.
"Could you hold this, please?"
Kaufman seemed ready to object to this, but the scientist snatched it up before the security guard could even move.
"The Tau Cannon…" all three scientists said, huddling around the device like moths to a flame.
After taking in the familiar tableau, Gordon turned back to the surgical unit. He took some deep breaths, and, after checking that his glasses were on straight for what felt like ten times, he dashed forward into the lab. One of the surgical bars swung at him as he reached the middle of the walkway, harmlessly going around him as he reached the 'eye of the storm' as it were. He bounced up and down on bent knees before dashing forward again, this time reaching the control panel.
No cheers went up from the other side, but Gordon could see the breathless anticipation on their faces as he punched in the code on the control panel. With a steadily decreasing whine, the unit quickly turned off, coming to a complete stop. His four companions didn't need much convincing to make the quick run from one end of the room to the other. The Tau was handed back to him with such reverence, Gordon felt quite embarrassed.
Kaufman reloaded his rifle. "Congratulations later, people. Let's get to the doors and outside, shall we?"
The brown haired scientist nodded, clearing her throat shyly. "Yes, quite right. Follow us."
Within a few minutes (and courtesy of a few shortcuts even Kaufman seemed surprised by), they were back in the lobby, the rotating glass doors beckoning to them. The leading scientist had to pull her hair back over her head in order to get the retinal scanner to work.
"Well," she said, bending forward to get her eyes in line with the correct lens, "I'll let you out, but I'm warning you, it's hell out there. It's completely under military control!" A positive chime came from the device, and a loud noise of something unlocking came from the rotating doors.
"You'll have to sneak and fight your way from one end to the other." She said those two particular words with such venom Gordon was almost convinced. The scientist continued on, unimpeded by Gordon's discomfort.
"And I don't expect you'll meet many of our peers along the way. But," she said, the lack of confidence in her eyes not making Gordon feel much better, "if you do survive, and somehow make it to the other end of the base, you'll end up at the Lambda complex, where the rest of the science team has taken shelter. I wouldn't venture there myself, but… I will let them know that you are coming."
It was then that Gordon realised that not once had the scientist addressed Kaufman. That entire speech had been directed towards Gordon, and no-one else.
"You go ahead there, Gordon. I'll make sure these guys are okay and then I'll join you. Okay?"
He looked around at the three scientists. All three of them looked reluctant, and, once again, Gordon noticed that none of them were looking at Kaufman.
Gordon nodded to Kaufman's request, and then smiled and nodded to the scientists. "Thank you."
With that, he turned to the rotating doors and pushed. When they didn't move, he frowned and turned around to look at the four Black Mesa employees behind them. Then, with a sudden jerk of movement, the ground beneath him moved around. The New Mexico sun bore down on him oppressively, the heat already making him worry about sunburn. Ludicrous, the things he found to worry about at times like these.
He stepped out of the complex and onto the hot concrete around it. The building was built into a rock face, and the rocky walls went around him like a miniature quarry. On his right, he noticed a tunnel big enough to accommodate a truck and made towards it. By the time Kaufman got out, he could have scouted ahead and hopefully found a suitable path for them to follow.
As he stepped away from the building, a familiar whine assaulted his ears, and he turned in time to see two military turrets propped up on the roof of the building activating themselves, their high calibre weapons pointing down at him ominously. Gordon lifted the Tau just as they managed to get off a few shots to his midsection, winding him. With a grunt, Gordon fell to one knee, his aim somehow remaining steadfast. One shot was all it took to destroy one of the turrets, and, much to Gordon's surprise, the yellow bolt bounced off the first target and took out the second.
At a lack for breath, Gordon got to his feet, checking his stats. The suit was now at 76, which wasn't bad for all the combat he had gone through. His own health was still at a respectable but not exactly confidence building 55. Hopefully he would come across some med kits to help him along.
The rotating doors jolted to life, and before long Kaufman stepped through, looking a little dizzy.
"Damn! That thing really takes you for a ride, doesn't it?"
Gordon nodded, then gestured to the building. "Are they all right?"
"Hm? Oh, yeah, fine. They'll hold up until we get whoever back here to pick 'em up. So," he said, a measure of apprehension in his voice. "Onwards and upwards, huh?"
While glad to finally have someone travelling with him who was as reluctant about these things as he was, Gordon actually found himself missing the gung-ho approach of people like Bennett or Harv. Something about their childlike appreciation of the 'survival-at-all-costs' mantra somehow made it easier to deal with.
But as he watched Kaufman enter the tunnel like a member of a Counter Terrorist Unit, Gordon pushed those thoughts aside and followed. After all, he needed all the help he could get.
The tunnel bent around to the left, and they followed it to a large archway of a door. A simple control panel with two buttons on it beckoned them forth. An unlit green button stood atop a lit red one. Gordon reached over to it, paused, and looked over at Kaufman.
The security guard, his weapon pointed at the door, gave Gordon a nod.
He pushed the button, and the door opened.
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(A/N: For those of you who have played the game, there was some pretty obvious selective editing of this level, but I think the most important thing about the Half-Life story is that it's always in motion; Gordon rarely, if ever, has a chance to stop. So any edits in future chapters (hello, 'Surface Tension'!) are all with that goal in mind. Sometimes there are stops in the game play to allow for puzzles which might be good fun to play, but in writing… they're just not that interesting.
Kaufman is based on the crazy ass-kicking powers of the 'Questionable Ethics' security guard. Seriously, that guy kills almost every single soldier in the lab when I play through.
Gordon's 'A new toy' comment is completely taken from Pisces fantastic 'Follow Freeman!' drabbles (I'm hoping Pisces will be flattered rather than angry at my using it in the story). I just like the idea of that being a Gordon 'catchphrase'. It pretty much describes the feeling players get when they pick up a powerful weapon. Well, I do, anyway.
So… reviews, please!
Next Chapter: "We Are Pulling Out")