-1Disclaimer: I don't own Half-Life.
(A/N: Many thanks to hhgbh for, you guessed it, superb beta work! If I could summon it, I would have rapturous applause right about… now.)
The Black Mesa Incident
Chapter Twenty Nine: Xen
Eyes scrunched shut, the first thing Gordon heard was the high whistle of the wind. Then a tepid breeze brushing across his face. Gordon opened his eyes, and took a sharp intake of breath. Green sky surrounded him, the occasional black twirl of a cloud in the distance. He was standing on an island, seemingly floating in mid-air.
Gordon set down his shotgun and got down on all fours. Carefully, he poked his head down over the edge.
Yep. Floating.
With a shaky breath, Gordon pushed himself back until he was sitting down on the island. His fingers struggled to pick up any grit from the floor as Gordon clenched his fists. Clouds of dust followed hands as he put them on either side of his head.
Gordon Freeman. Was on another world.
And with no way back.
He lifted his head to look up at the sky. Although technically, he could have looked in any direction and seen sky. If the term for what surrounded him was sky. It could just be void space, or something equally as ominous. But he could breathe, that was odd thing. He had expected to be coughing and spluttering from an atmosphere made of carbon dioxide or some such. But no, just air. Granted, a little muggy, but still air.
After a shaky sigh, Gordon heaved himself to his feet, scooping up the shotgun with one hand, letting it dangle idly by his side as he took in the 'landscape' around him. A much larger central island sat down below him, half a dozen or so smaller islands like the one he was stood on orbiting it. No, not orbiting the island itself, but the three tall spires protruding from it like antennae. Electricity spiralled up the length of the spires before disappearing with a small flash at the top. The process repeated itself hypnotically.
Looking down further, Gordon saw that the central island had an indentation in the middle before it regained its' full size at the bottom. It made it look like a sandwich. True, a green, slimy, turtle shell-esque sandwich, but still… a sandwich.
A few islands just off to the left of his own were floating perfectly still in the air. It looked a bit unnerving. They weren't hovering up and down, or shaking… they were just perfectly still. But, they provided a fairly safe way down to the central island below, which seemed to be the only thing worth looking at in this place.
He gripped the shotgun with both hands and backed up to the edge of the island. After a quick crick of his neck, Gordon launched into a sprint. He reached the other ledge, crouched and pushed off, activating the Long Jump Module on his back. It hissed viciously behind him, propelling him towards the island far too fast. Gordon swung his legs forward, signalling to the Module to slow its' descent.
Gordon had landed fairly quietly on the island when he heard a teleport off to his right. On the next island, one of the electricity aliens flashed into existence, instantly looking over at him. Without time to think, Gordon launched himself across the chasm just as the creature fired, the green electricity travelling harmlessly beneath Gordon's feet.
The alien started charging another blast, but Gordon reached it well before he was finished, barrelling feet first into it and knocking it into the pale green nothingness below. It didn't scream as it fell. Almost as if it knew it was pointless. Gordon tried not to think about the fate of falling forever in nothingness as he arranged his next jump and leapt onto one of the orbiting islands.
It took some more timing, but eventually he managed to land rear-first on the main island. Surprisingly, it wasn't as rock solid as it had looked from his position above. He heaved himself to his feet and walked to the ledge, hoping to find some safe way to get to the 'corridor' below without dropping off the island completely. Looking over to the right, he found his answer.
An outcropping - not unlike a smaller version of the spires on top - stuck out just below the middle layer of the 'island sandwich'. Gordon took a few steps back before jogging to the ledge and letting himself fall onto it. It was like falling onto a lead pipe. He hit it feet first, the impact instantly slipping him up. Struggling to hold onto his strapless shotgun at the same time, Gordon managed to scramble around until he was hugging the outcropping from the side.
For a few moments, Gordon thought he might have to stay in such a position. The thought then occurred to him that he would probably be irritating people back home by doing so, so he started trying to awkwardly swing his way back up on top. Once there, he crawled forward like a caterpillar before he ended up glorious land, lying on his back to rest for a few moments.
The floor was uncomfortably hard against the back of his head. Looking around, Gordon saw what looked like a purple lantern on his left, hanging from the ceiling of the 'corridor'. On the ground beside him, small stems rose and fell, white lights on their very tips igniting when they reached full height, and blinking out again when they shrank. Once again, the magnitude of being on an alien world hit home, and Gordon had to close his eyes and concentrate on his breathing. People were depending on him. Hell, the world was depending on him at this point. Who knew how far the reaction was carrying?
It could even be in Seattle by now. The thought of crab creatures leaping onto his brother wasn't something he relished, no matter how much they didn't get along. And so, Gordon got to his feet and started walking. The purple lantern was lower down than he had thought, and Gordon had to duck underneath to circumnavigate it.
Only a few steps forward after the lantern, something loud and electric stuck him in the back, knocking him off balance and stumbling forward. Gordon cocked the shotgun and whipped around. Nothing. Just the lantern casting its' peaceful purple hues over the ground. He was about to turn when that same lantern unleashed a bolt of purple energy, hitting him in the stomach and knocking him back against an outcropping of moist rock.
He hissed as he stretched his back to alleviate the pain, his HEV suit voice giving a helpful reminder that he had been attacked.
"Yes," he grunted quietly, "thank you for that."
With an angry electric spurt, another blast of purple energy shot out. Gordon rolled to his left, the bolt exploding against the rock and leaving a sizeable scorch mark there. A kneeling blast from the shotgun didn't seem to do much except leave the lantern swinging around wildly on its' hinge. Gordon reloaded, and the lantern fired again, hitting him in the shoulder and tossing him around and onto his front.
Looking up and ahead of him, he could see that around the corner of the circular island, another lantern awaited him. Beneath it, he saw the dead body of another HEV clad scientist, this one complete with helmet. He tried not to think about how long the body had been here, rotting in this alien place. Although, he was tempted to crawl over and take the helmet for himself, but a blast of purple energy from the lantern ahead hit the floor just in front of him. It deterred him somewhat. All things being equal, Gordon guessed they were probably everywhere. He looked around for an escape route. Up was definitely out; it was too high, and the Long Jump was for just that; long jumping. If anything, it was detrimental to high jumping.
He looked to the wall for answers, and found it in the form of a small opening in the corner beside an outcropping of rock. It looked like the same material as that web Gordon had found the egg full of insect creatures in. With quick roll, he brought the shotgun about and fired, ripping the film-like material apart. Gordon smiled. Just like getting into air vents.
The two lanterns took objection to this and both fired on him as he made a mad dash for the hole, eventually diving in headfirst. Both bolts missed him, exploding loudly on the ground behind him. Gordon felt instantly grateful to his instincts for making him dive for the tunnel. As it was, the space the 'vent cover' led to was barely enough to accommodate him crawling along like a soldier under barbed wire, let alone running at his full height.
It was pitch black. Gordon tapped the spot on his belt which contained his flashlight. It switched on, albeit pointing straight down into the ground. With a low throaty grumble, Gordon just continued crawling, supposing that he should at least be grateful for the fact that he could see anything.
But still, the HEV suit was in need of a redesign.
The 'vent' eventually brought him out into a large enclosed… well, he supposed the term would be room, but that hardly seemed adequate. Glistening brown water beneath him went up to his ankles once he managed to clamber his way into the open air. There was the vague smell of something very fresh and tangy in the air, almost akin to those air fresheners that plugged into the wall. Only far, far more natural.
Fleshy balls stood atop four red, thin legs, dotted randomly around the room. Gordon wondered what they were for. They were smooth and pliable to the touch, almost like a stress ball. Four islands of different shades or brown stood out of the liquid beneath him, a small pedestal on each. The pedestals had three L shaped claws keeping a yellow light in the middle, and as Gordon walked up a pale yellow hill to inspect it closer, Gordon realised that it reminded him of something.
The Anomalous Materials test chamber. The machine that had started this whole thing, and here it was, the inspiration, standing before him. Or, to be more accurate, around him. The scientists of Black Mesa must have come here, seen the design, and then passed it off as their own when they returned home. Which also meant that the pedestals were something to do with teleportation. So Gordon had a way out of this island. Whether it would take him any closer to the 'single, powerful being' he was hunting for, only God knew. But it was a snowballs chance in hell, and that was good enough for Gordon.
He looked around for some way to activate it. The centrepiece of the room, sat on a mound of yellow-white rock was an hourglass shaped structure, only without the curved glass in the middle; only the outer framework of the hourglass remained. Gordon walked over to it, and saw that it was placed in the centre of the four pedestals. A focusing point.
Nodding, he inspected the room further. Flickering lights coming from around a corner attracted his attention, and Gordon headed towards it. As he rounded the corner, he saw yellow lights dancing through an upright rectangular shape made out of the same webbing as the vent cover. Gordon walked over to it, all of his usual caution gone as he became caught up in the beauty of it all. Inside, Gordon could see four fluttering diamond shapes of the most intense, fantastic yellow.
He looked back to the teleportation 'equipment' behind him . Four diamonds, four pedestals. That was good enough for Gordon. With a thrust of the butt of his shotgun, Gordon cracked through the webbing and tore the rest away with his hand. The diamonds fluttered about in circles for a few moments, as though overjoyed by their sudden liberation. Then, remembering their purpose, they continued on past Gordon and into the chamber beyond, each one twirling its' way towards a designated pedestal.
They settled on one each, igniting a bright turquoise light from each of the pedestals as they touched down. A gentle humming filled the air, and suddenly, bolts of blue energy fired out of each pedestal and into the ceiling, tracing an since unseen line across the pockmarked roof and to the focusing device in the centre.
The humming intensified, and with a blinding flash and a fizzled bang, a portal stood in front of Gordon, welcoming him in. He walked towards it blithely before pausing just on the threshold. He was putting an awful lot of faith into this machine. It could just as easily teleport him into a wall as it could take him somewhere useful. Who knew what was controlling it.
A rumbling from the ground behind him drew his attention, and Gordon turned around. A wall of enormous, rocky spikes slowly gouged their way through the liquid of the floor. Dust fell from the low ceiling above him, and Gordon saw more spikes descending.
Well, that was that.
Gordon turned, and leapt into the portal.
'Single, powerful being', here I come.
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(A/N: Another double chapter folks, since 'Xen' is kinda short. Ish.
Next Chapter: Vicarious Reality)