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

(A/N: Continuous thanks from the last chapter to hhgbh for beta work!)

The Black Mesa Incident

Chapter Twenty Eight: Crush Depth

Shephard opened his eyes once the flashing was over. He was in a dark corridor. He was in a dark corridor! On Earth! He grinned beneath his gasmask, looking down to the Displacer as his new saviour.

Light came through two glass elevator doors on his left. Looking around, he found no other way out; both ends of the corridor had collapsed in on themselves long ago. And what was that pressure around his ears? It was that irritating feeling of desperately needing the ears to pop after swimming.

A thick leather strap on the Displacer allowed Shephard to sling it across his torso like a mailman's bag. He slipped the far more comfortable Desert Eagle out of its' holster and opened the doors of the elevator. The lift itself wasn't a particularly comforting one; metal latticework on the floor and ceiling let him see everything in the shaft above and below, and considering how high up he, was that wasn't particularly welcome. He cautiously reached over and pushed the only button he could find.

With a long, continuous groan, the elevator descended, and the pressure on Shephard's ears worsened to the point where he cupped a futile hand over one of them to try and keep whatever it was out. The elevator came to an sudden, jolting halt at some more glass doors. They slid open for him once the elevator had well and truly stopped.

The entire room was bathed in an aquatic colour. Shephard could see the shadowy reflection of water waving along he ceiling, and he looked around the find the source. On his left, the corridor opened up into a larger room. On his right as he entered, a tank of misty water held three or four thick, grey wormlike creatures. Their fronts looked more like the sucker of a plunger than anything threatening. His mild curiosity satiated, Shephard turned and walked to a door on the other side of the room.

A retinal scanner beside the door didn't inspire much confidence from Shephard, and, finding no other control panel, he started to worry. But then again, the corridor had gone off to the right as well. So Shephard backtracked to the elevator, casting a curious glance at the worm creatures as he went.

The corridor off to the right led to some more glass doors, these ones broken and jagged. Shephard had to smash the remaining broken glass with the Displacer before he could slide through. A large sign welcomed him into the room beyond.

'HYDROFAUNA STUDIES LABORATORY'.

Underwater animals, and probably bugs at that. Fascinating.

Shephard stepped out into the lab beyond. Large windows on the right gave a view out into a water tank, the rocky floor and walls of the tank littered with various fungi and, curiously, no fauna in sight. Inside, at the very centre of the tank, a scientist in some kind of radiation suit stood in a glass cubicle. It was framed by white metal, with a very strange framework inside. A similar box was placed in the far left of the windows, closer to Shephard. The scientists looked over to him. His voice came booming over some unseen radio, and Shephard almost leapt into the air.

"I'm afraid I trapped myself here to escape those…" He gestured vaguely with his hand, "…beasts. Please. Would you be so kind as to operate that transporter?" The thick ladles of sarcasm oozing from every word didn't really engender helpful thoughts from Shephard, but the fact was, he needed someone to open the doors so he could get the hell out. So, smug, arrogant scientist it was.

But still, something bothered Shephard.

'Beasts'?

He cautiously moved forward into the lab. On his left, a control panel blocked his view of anything behind it. A thoroughly alien growl came from behind the panel. A fleshy yellow blur leapt out at his face. It was one of those spiny creatures he had fought in the parking garage, but not since.

Shephard threw himself onto his back, letting the creature sail over him and collide with the window on the other side. It bounced off and thumped to the floor. Without pause, it quickly got back to its' miniscule feet and shook of the impact. But Shephard was already pointing the Desert Eagle straight in its' pointy, jagged little face.

Again, the booming voice of the scientist startled him.

"Don't use the gun, you moron! You'll break the glass and flood the whole chamber!"

Scowling, Shephard rolled out of the way as the creature leapt at him again. Another of the creatures leapt up on to the control panel, not wanting to miss out on all the fun its' companion was having. But now they were both almost next to each other, and with no glass behind them. Shephard took aim.

"Well, don't shoot now! For God's sake, that's delicate equipment! It could blow sky high!"

Shephard fired, shooting both of the creatures dead centre with pinpoint precision. He stood up and looked over at the scientist through the water, pointing a cautioning finger in his direction.

"Shut. Up."

He heard a distinct grumble about trigger-happy something-or-others, but chose to ignore it as he walked around the control panel. None of the buttons really seemed to scream 'activate the teleporter', and he started to flounder.

An exasperated groan came from the radio.

"The yellow one, the yellow one, for God's sake, the yellow one! Good Lord, you're worse than Freeman."

The very mention of the near-legendary figure gave Shephard pause, but he put it aside and pushed the button. With a flash of light, the scientist was gone. After a few seconds of nothing, Shephard started to worry that he had killed the scientist. But them, in the cubicle behind the white bars, another flash of green light yielded the spacesuit clad scientist. The bars slid aside compliantly for him.

"Thank you so much for releasing me-" He rolled his eyes. "Oh, you're a soldier. Wonderful. I couldn't tell from inside the tank. I suppose you're going to ask me all sorts of questions about Gordon Freeman, and if I refuse to answer, you'll blow a hole in my kneecaps, is that it?"

Shephard found it hard to look the scientist in the face as he replied. It was because he was ashamed. Ashamed of what his own people would do. An army he had believed in, a government he had believed in…

He shook his head. "No."

This seemed to take the scientist aback slightly, who straightened up somewhat. "Oh. I see. Well, it would have been in your best interests not to kill me, anyway. After the whole incident back at Anomalous Materials, everything here went into lockdown. I can help you access any secured area in this lab." He tapped against the glass cover of his helmet, indicating his eyes. "Valuable retinas, you see."

Something about the gesture made Shephard smile. Or maybe it was that fact that he had found someone completely unfazed by these events. For some reason that made him feel far better.

He extended out a hand. "Corporal Adrian Shephard."

For a moment, the scientist just stared down at the offered appendage, appearing unsure of what to do with it. Finally, though, he slowly reached out and took it, steadily shaking it.

"Doctor Arne Magnusson."

Shephard nodded, lowering the hand. "There's a locked door this way," he said, jabbing a thumb in the relevant direction.

Magnusson made a grand wave with his arm. "Lead the way, Shephard."

As they walked, Shephard couldn't help but notice that Magnusson's pace was so determined, he was actually getting ahead of him. No fear. Shephard liked that.

"So you knew Freeman?"

Although he couldn't really tell because of the helmet, Shephard could tell Magnusson was casting a suspicious glance his way.

"This isn't some reverse-psychology ploy, is it? Pretend to be my friend, get my information and then kill me?"

"Not that I'm aware. Besides, I met him, and I didn't kill him."

"Did you try?"

He thought for a moment. "We both did."

They reached the room with the worm thing in the tank, and Magnusson walked straight to the retinal scanner. He leant forward, then cursed when the scanner returned a negative noise. Angry gloved hands clamped onto each side of the helmet he wore and tried to tug it off.

"Damn… helmet…"

Shephard reached off and released the latches on either side.

Magnusson removed the helmet with ease. After a quick look down to the offending headwear and then back to Shephard, he nodded in gratitude.

"Thank you."

"How did you get into that thing without fastening the latches?"

"Well, I didn't put it on me, for a start," he snapped irritably. "It was…" he sighed. "I've had a long, complicated two days. Do you really want to hear every detail?"

"Not really."

"At least you're honest," Magnusson allowed with a nod. Helmet tucked under his arm, he ruffled up his black, wiry hair, although whether it was naturally that way or a result of the shiny hair product that was on there, Shephard couldn't tell. Magnusson stooped at the scanner, and the door opened.

The next corridor held some small observation tanks in the wall on the left. They too held the worm creatures.

"What are they?"

Magnusson was concentrating on moving forward, but still bothered with a cursory glance to what Shephard was referring. "Hm? Oh, they've been dubbed 'leeches'. Which is, by far, an understatement. They will latch onto anything and bleed it dry. People, batteries… even objects like metal."

Shephard paused to inspect the creatures as his scientist companion pressed on to the end of the corridor, where another locked door with retinal scanner awaited them. He walked over as Magnusson activated the scanner.

"How long… have you been collecting these things?"

There was no reply. Magnusson just watched the door open and stepped into the room inside. Large windows on the left looked into another tank of water, bathing the room in an aqua blue glow.

"Magnusson."

He stopped.

"How long?"

For a few moment, he was silent, and Shephard suspected he would just ignore him again. But, after another long pause, he sighed and turned back to the soldier, suddenly looking far older.

"Long enough to learn all of their names."

This little word game wasn't going down well with Shephard. "Months? Years?"

"About a year and a half."

"And did you know this would happen?"

Looking fidgety, Magnusson turned and started working on a control panel beside a large contraption that sat in the middle of the room. It resembled the teleporter Magnusson appeared from earlier. "No. With the crystal samples we were getting, there was no way we could have created a reaction this large. But yesterday… we got something incredibly pure." He stopped working, staring out into space. "Impossibly pure… there was simply no way we could have brought a sample so pure back from Xen through one of our portals… I still don't know how it ended up in our hands…"

"What?"

Magnusson's gaze whipped over to him, as though surprised he was still there. "Oh," he cleared his throat, "nothing, nothing. Just rambling, that's all. Anyway," he said, pressing one last button on the control panel and walking over to the other side of the room, "this would seem to be our only way out."

He tapped the glass of the windows, indicating the glass.

"But! I don't really fancy the idea of smashing the glass and flooding us, do you? So, we'll use this teleporter to get ourselves out there."

Shephard looked at the cubicle in the middle of the room. "But… it's sparking."

"Hm?"

"The button inside. It's sparking."

"Oh, that's nothing. Does it all the time, I expect."

"You expect? You mean you don't work here?"

"Not in this area, no."

"Then where do you work?"

He sighed as he walked into the teleporter chamber. "I believe the correct vernacular now would be 'where did I work?'. Somehow I doubt I'll be receiving another pay check from Black Mesa again." Impatiently, he waved the soldier over. "Are you coming?"

Stuck between a rock and a very annoying place, Shephard just sighed and walked inside. It was a little close for comfort, but since it was only temporary, he could live with it.

"So? Where did you work?"

"I used to work with the indomitable Doctor Freeman himself. I was at what you might call 'ground zero'. Afterwards, I tried to escape with some colleagues, fell into a portal along the way, and, well… like I said. A long and complicated day."

"What was he like? Freeman."

"Well, let's see," Magnusson said, fitting on his helmet. Shephard helped him with the clasps on either side. "Always late, always fraternising with security guards when he should have been working, tended to nod off at every occasion… honestly, I don't know where this 'unstoppable killing machine' tripe is coming from."

Shephard finished the final clasp and patted it out of habit to make sure it was secure. "Well, he certainly looked capable when I saw him."

"Oh, it's that damned beard. Makes him look far more world-weary than he is. He's only twenty seven, for God's sake. Let him get to my age and then he won't have to pretend to look like that." Magnusson turned to the button to activate the teleporter.

"How old are you?"

The scientist paused. "Look, I realise you saved my life, but honestly, that does not entitle you to such personal information."

He jabbed an angry finger into button.

"So… very old."

Magnusson glared at him as the machine started up. Green and blue bolts of energy danced around them. Two golden crystals placed directly opposite each other began transmitting a beam of energy to one another. Suddenly, from the very centre of the beam, a lance of white energy sprang out and hit the control panel Magnusson had been working on earlier. It vanished in a flash.

Shephard looked out to the water tank and saw the same control panel slowly sinking to the flowerbed at the bottom. He looked back to Magnusson.

"Just… wait," he commanded defiantly, putting up a hand to stop any comment from the soldier. After a few more mistrials the energy beam lanced to the bottom of the teleport chamber, somehow filling it with white energy.

Then a flash.

Water seeped in through his gasmask, and Shephard struggled not to panic as he felt the water stinging his unprepared nose. He felt someone tapping on his shoulder, and Magnusson floated beside him, looking despicably comfortable in his containment suit. He pointed to an open tunnel in front of them, and Shephard nodded. Moving surprisingly fast for someone in such a cumbersome outfit, Magnusson led the way to the opening, but quickly stopped and swam back.

Confused, Shephard watched him furiously scramble to the surface. He looked back to the opening and watched as a huge red fish that could have only been alien raced towards him. Shephard followed Magnusson's example and swam for the surface. The scientist had already disappeared from view. When Shephard burst from the water, a white gloved hand reached out to him. Shephard clasped onto Magnusson's arm, and the scientist yanked him, the two toppling back onto the ground above beside each other. They both stared up at the ceiling, catching their collective breaths

"And," Shephard panted, "what is that called?"

"Ichthyosaur. After the dinosaur."

"There was a dinosaur like that?"

"W-" Magnusson stopped himself. "Do you really care right now? Honestly?"

Shephard shook his head. "No."

"Right, good. Now, I hope you have some unique soldier-ly way of getting past that thing, because I am at a certain lack of ideas."

Getting to his feet, Shephard looked around. They were on a broken walkway, both ends pretty much at the bottom of the tank. All that remained of it were two small ledges on either end. And Shephard didn't fancy their chances of swimming over to what looked like a locked door with no control panel. So, he looked for a solution close to home. The rocky ceiling was only a metre or so above their heads, but there was nothing forthcoming up there either. Turning, he looked into the tunnel behind him.

Magnusson shook his head instantly. "It's blocked off. You can see that the ceiling collapsed. There's a dead body back there because of it."

Shephard looked down at him, then back to the tunnel, heading inside.

"Didn't you hear what I said? It's-"

His voice seemed to catch in his throat as he watched Shephard drag the dead body of a charred, burnt scientist to the ledge.

"Grab his feet."

"What? No! This is disgusting, disrespectful-"

"-and our only way out. Grab. The feet."

With a glare that told Shephard that he knew he was right but didn't want to admit it, Magnusson grabbed onto the feet.

"We'll swing him into the water, wait for two seconds, and then dive. Okay?"

Magnusson was just staring at what used to be the scientist's face.

"Magnusson!"

His whipped up his gaze to look at Shephard. "Yes, yes, of course."

"All right, on the count of three. One-" they swung the body back and forth - "Two" - and again - "Three!"

They released the body and watched it tumble into the water with a resounding splash, spraying droplets of water over them. Shephard held up his fingers as he counted.

"One, two, go!"

Both ran and leapt into the water, doing their best to sink like stones. As Shephard had hoped, the fish creature had rushed over to body as soon as it entered the weather, and was now feasting happily, oblivious to their escape.

They swam through the open tunnel and into an airlock area at the end. Shephard swam down to a crank and turned it, watching the doors close behind them a little bit more with each rotation. When they were firmly shut, he heard a secure clamping noise echo through from the other side. The water started to drain out, and Shephard swam to the surface to grab some air as the water level slowly lowered. Eventually, the room was empty, and a green light on a control panel binged affirmatively.

The door beside it swung open, welcoming them into the room beyond. Shephard went in without hesitation, but paused when he noticed that Magnusson wasn't following. He was just staring at some distant corner of the airlock.

"Magnusson. Come on."

"How…" he looked up at Shephard, pure hatred in his eyes. "How can you simply move on after what we just did?"

"He was already dead. We needed to survive."

"Are our lives worth that? Are they?"

Shephard's jaw tightened. "Yes. I think they are."

"And that's the difference between a soldier and a human being, I suppose."

In no mood to be judged, Shephard moved towards the scientist. "Look, Magnusson. There was nothing else we could do. I've lost so many living people today. There is no way in hell I'm going to lose another one over some corpse. So let's go."

For a long time, Magnusson just glared at him. Then, with a sudden movement, he reached for the clasps on his helmet. For a brief moment, Shephard had actually thought Magnusson would take a swing at him. He probably would have let him. As it was, Shephard just helped him remove the helmet, and they moved on.

The corridor beyond went off to the right first before a tight corner at the end off to the left. A steady hissing noise made Shephard frown, and he looked back to Magnusson.

"Decon spray," the scientist quietly explained.

Shephard nodded and walked to the entrance to the room beyond. The archway had nozzles all around it, spraying a light mist of something that smelt a lot like disinfectant. In the room beyond, Shephard could see two tables off to the right with medical supplies spread out haphazardly across them.

He took a step through the decon spray, the coolness barely registering after the swimming experience earlier. His boots squelched from the dripping water as he walked into the medical room.

Magnusson was just following him through in a daze when two portals exploded into existence in front of them, depositing two of the dart spitting things before vanishing again. Shephard drop kicked one across the room while pulling out his wrench. The other barely had a chance to move before he crushed it into the floor with the heavy tool. He pulled out the Desert Eagle as the first creature leapt at him, blasting it back with the bullet.

After a few seconds more of quick recon, he looked back to Magnusson and indicated it was safe to proceed. He had taken one more step into the room when another teleportation event flashed in front of him.

A shining metallic blue monstrosity stood before him, stretching up from its' curled position until it towered over Shephard, almost twice his height. It's single yellow cat's-eye looked down at him, vertical eyelids blinking rapidly. With a noise between a whirr and a sneer, it lashed out with the larger of its' two right arms, knocking him across the room and into one of the metal tables. It looked to Magnusson and spoke in some alien tongue. Magnusson backed away, glancing feverishly from the alien to Shephard.

Shephard recognised the creature now. It was the same kind he and Otis had witnessed attacking those Black Mesa personnel. And it had abducted the scientist there. Remembering the blobs of electricity the creature had annihilated the security guard with, Shephard got up onto the table and leapt onto the creature's back, machete at the ready.

It let out an angry grunt and tried to grab Shephard with its' two larger upper arms. He drove the machete into the creature's shoulder, finding some satisfaction in the way it stumbled around from the pain. His satisfaction disappeared when the creature slammed him into the wall behind him, repeating the process over and over until Shephard started to wonder if the wall would give way.

The creature took another step forward and was about to slam him into the wall again when Shephard propped his boots up against the wall. When his assailant thrust himself back, Shephard kicked off from the wall, sending the creature tumbling forward and headfirst onto the metal table beside the one Shephard had impacted with earlier.

The table bent into a 'V' shape from fall. Shephard took the opportunity to rip the machete from the creature's shoulder and roll off the writhing body beneath him, quickly getting to his feet. The creature, looking well and truly pissed off now, got to it's muscular feet.

On it's lower left-hand arm, it held a darker blue creature with three blue spines growing from the front that made a sort of triangle around the middle. It looked like a giant ant but without the head or legs. A blue flash of light erupted forth, and Shephard dodged to the side. He felt the heat singe against his shoulder as he tossed the machete into the larger alien's eye.

Its' scream made Shephard wince from the shrillness, but did nothing to dull his senses. Shephard ripped his Desert Eagle from its' holster and blew as many holes into the creature as he could until he was out ammunition, the weapon clicking uselessly. The creature fell to its' knees, then toppled over forward.

Shephard stared at the creature for a few moments, breathing heavily as he satisfied himself that it was in fact dead. When he felt safe, he clicked the cocking mechanism of the Desert Eagle back into place and slipped it into his holster. He looked over at Magnusson, who was only just stood in the room.

"Are you all right?"

Magnusson didn't reply; his gaze was firmly on something behind Shephard. He turned and saw the smaller creature crawling out from under the body of it's master. It looked to Shephard, then to Magnusson, and then simply sat there, looking unsure of what to do. With a frown, Shephard looked over at Magnusson, who just shrugged with a wide-eyed look he had hadn't seen from the scientist before.

With a cautious hand out in front of him, Shephard walked towards the creature. It didn't seem to object, even when he picked it up. He tried to hold it like a gun, and found it rather comfortable. How he would fire it he had no idea, but still… it ripped through that security guard like he was nothing, so it should be useful.

"You're not seriously going to take that thing?"

Shephard shrugged. "I've seen what it can do. It'll be useful."

"Oh, typical military thinking. I suppose you think that thing hanging off your neck there is a weapon, too."

He glanced down to the Displacer dangling by his hip. "What, the Displacer? It sure as hell looks like one."

Magnusson's eyes widened as soon as he heard the word 'Displacer'. "That's…? Well, for God's sake, why didn't you say so? I thought it was some useless military rocket launcher or some such until I saw it in here. But I had no idea it was…"

"What?"

"This, Mr Shephard, could be our way out of this place."

"Well, that's great, but I'm not sure how the damn thing even works."

"Oh, give it here," Magnusson grumbled, holding out a hand as though he were confiscating a porn magazine from a school student. Shephard took off the device, handing it over.

"I haven't seen this kind of alien around much," Shephard said, kneeling by the dead body and pulling his machete from the eye.

"Well, of course you haven't," Magnusson said, inspecting the Displacer as he spoke. "They're a completely different species."

Shephard, surprised, whipped his gaze around to look at him. "They're what?"

"A different species. From a different plane of existence from most of the creatures you've probably come across today. Most of them - the headcrabs, bullsquids, barnacles, hound eyes - they're from a place called Xen. But those creatures with hooks for hands, and that blue monstrosity there… we have no idea where they came from. From what I've ascertained since this mess began, they've been dubbed - rather unimaginatively, I must say - 'Race X'." He sighed. "Honestly, even that idiot Calhouncould have come up with something better."

Shephard was lost in all the information, but instead just nodded. He'd think about it later. Right now, he was a bit more interested in Magnusson's attempts to get the Displacer working.

"Right!" he announced. "Now, if I can just-"

The device started bleeping. The tired sigh that escaped Magnusson's lips accompanied an equally tired, sarcastic look at Displacer.

"Oh, damn it."

With a flash, he vanished. The Displacer tumbled to the floor, landing with a few loud clangs. Shephard rushed over to where the irascible scientist had been stood.

"Magnusson? Magnusson!"

Nothing. Not that he expected anything. If this place had taught him anything, it was that you could never hope to hold onto any companions you found along the way. Shephard knelt and picked up the Displacer, slipping it over his shoulder. With one last look around the room, hoping for some sarcastic, irritated comment from Magnusson, Shephard walked on and out of the open doorway in the corner of the room.

He hoped that Magnusson would be okay. He was one of the few scientists Shephard liked.

Through the doorway, Shephard found himself in a pretty dark, dank tunnel, water dripping from every corner. Windows out the side showed another tank, this one showing not one but two of the Ichthyosaur creatures. He walked around the tunnel until he came to a broken, shattered gap in the tunnel below him. Across the sizeable gap was a locked airlock door. No doubt locked from the other side.

Shephard looked down to the crack in the floor of the tunnel that lead to him being a lovely little snack between two giant alien fish. And, not only that, he had no idea where he was going once he got in there.

He leapt straight in, hoping the creature he held in his arm didn't take that moment to electrocute himself and everything else in the water. He didn't sink like a stone luckily, and the fishes were focusing on something in the bottom hand corner of the tank. Shephard looked around, particularly at the stony roof. There, just behind the tunnel above him, he could see a vent in the ceiling. Casting a quick glance at the two Ichthyosaurs below first, Shephard swam up to the vent, and, after a few struggled tugs, managed to pull the vent off. He swam straight up, relief filling his lungs as he resurfaced above.

His head was poking out in a gap in a walkway of another darkened tunnel, the water level occasionally washing up and over the latticework metal. He heaved himself up and into the tunnel. He could hear something sparking from around the corner, and the sound of an automatic door opening and closing, as though jammed by something echoed down the tunnel so to him. Every drop of water from above reverberated throughout the entire tunnel.

Behind him, he could see a locked airlock door, so he head forward.

A sign in front of him read 'BIODOME DRAINAGE SYSTEM.'

Well, that could only mean good things.

Shephard smiled as he hefted the electric weapon in his arms and continued on. Looks like Magnusson wasn't completely gone, after all; he was still making snide comments inside Shephard's head.

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(A/N: My secret weapon for Shephard's story revealed. Since Episode Two came out after I started the story, I didn't have an opportunity to include him in the pre-accident chapters (or I would have, trust me). And since I loved the character so much, I sought out a way to get him into the story at some point. I think this worked out pretty well, but then I would, since I wrote it.

What say you readers, hm? Review!

Next Chapter: Xen)