(Sorry this chapter took so long! I burned my hands during home economics.
Thank god I won't have that lesson in 8th grade. My chances of burning my
hands in molten coconut fat will greatly lessen!
If you're wondering why the normal witty title of the chapter isn't on FF.net, it's because it's too witty. While it sounds really cool, it nastily gives out the plot. If you really want to know it, scroll down to the bottom. Of course, that'll give up even more surprises, so I don't suggest it until you've read the chapter. I'll put up the title later on. Well, the reviews.
Hao: Hmm... you have a point there. I'd love to have the aliens have some cool special weapons, but I have to keep the story realistic. You see, the slaves only have the weapons they can find in Black Mesa, so it's practically impossible to find a poisonous hivearm since there are none there. Of course, I'll consider those ideas if I ever make a sequel. And no, I'm not commenting on the chances of a sequel appearing.
Raider: You THINK it's me... =). Ah, I stole something accidentally from you? Whoops. I can guarantee I thought the falling Jeep up myself. It's just a coincidence.
Jon: Thanks for enjoying the story. No, unfortunately I'm not adding the big guy since he's a bit overkill. And no, the panzer dudes aren't in the game, I'm just adding them to keep things interesting, since, heck, you all know what's going on in Half-Life!
zUg mAh oAtaX: Thanks for your support. All right, I admit, I'm a good writer. Also, the slave can't say thanks to you for supporting him right now, because he's having a huge ego problem and moved to Hollywood to become a sci-fi actor, but here's a complimentary tap-dancing headcrab! *Tappity tappity tappity SKREEE!*
Tony: Your wish is my command!
Ok, now that that's done, read on! This chapter seems a bit uninteresting and blah, but as you'll note, it's only the front for really cool action, so do continue!)
Chapter 6
The tanks and trucks kept moving ever so closer. Adam started to go back down the wall to keep an eye on the unconscious Dylan. Manners stayed to watch as the newcomers came. The vehicles came to a halt in front of the gates.
"Hey there!" Manners called as a man jumped out from one of the trucks. "Who are you and what the Hell do you think you're doing here?!"
The man looked up, surprised, and saw the small group of marines. He turned towards one of the tanks. The man yelled complete gibberish to the tank and climbed back in the truck. The tank immediately started to turn it's turret towards the wall.
"Oh shit!" Manners yelled and started climbing down the ladder. "Get down, you fools! Their going to blast the wall right where you're standing!" The marines all started climbing down the ladder. Some made it down, but then the tank blasted at the wall. Concrete flew in all directions and the ladder collapsed downwards, crushing the people on the ladder.
"Dylan, wake up, dammit!" Adam yelled and slapped Dylan's face. Dylan started to wake up.
"Ow, what just hit me?" Dylan groaned getting up, but soon his eyes widened as he saw a massive truck driving through the hole in the wall.
"I did!" Adam yelled running away from the truck. "You can thank me later!" The marines started to retreat away behind one of the small mountains there. Dylan jumped upwards and ran away to join the others.
"Sir, we are in desperate need of back-up!" Manners called in his radio as the small area in front of the gates started to fill with trucks and tanks.
"Again? Goddammit Manners, can't you keep out of trouble?" Hickory cursed. "Take it easy, both Rail and Patrol Team are moving towards that area, so you just wait for back-up!"
"Who are those guys anyway?" Dylan asked peering behind the corner. The man from before jumped out of the truck. He was wearing a fur coat and a fur hat on his head, which made him look out of place in the desert. In his hand he had some kind of old sub-machine gun which Dylan had seen in some old war movies.
The man said something completely incomprehensible and scratched his head. He then shouted some more of the strange language, and all the trucks burst open. A huge group of men armed with old weaponry leaped out of the 18- wheelers and assembled around the supposed leader. The unknown man pointed towards some buildings and yelled orders at his men, and most scurried off in all directions.
"Da, Dimitri," one of the men nodded to his leader and went off to join his companions.
"Da? Wait, isn't that German for 'yes'?" Dylan asked the others.
"No Henderson, the German yes is 'jawohl'. Da is Russian," Manners said and started to turn away.
"Russian?" Dylan said in disbelief. "They're Russians?!" Dylan couldn't believe it. Why would Russians appear in Black Mesa? Why?! The thought seemed so pointless.
Dylan's pondering was cut short as a loud hum came from the sky and an Apache flew over the buildings. The Russian leader screamed and his men started running for cover as the Apache opened fire. The Apache turned in the air after taking out some of the new guys and started to fly back. Just then, Manners' radio started to act up.
"Sir, this is Office Team. We are sinking the office on top of itself, and are then heading over to the outer gates. Major Hickory has informed that you are to head to the west to stop a group of aliens. We'll take it from here."
"You do that, Office Team," Manners spoke to his radio, "but tell Major Hickory to look up the info on these new guys. They are a group of seemingly Russians whose intentions are so far unknown to us. They're armed with MP-40 sub-machine guns and have they have some type of an old tank. Their leader is apparently called 'Dimitri'."
"Affirmative, sir, we'll give Major Hickory the message. Over and out," the transmission ended and the Apache started to circle again.
"All right, let's move! Target is to west of here!" Manners called and the marines ran from their cover. Dylan looked to his side and saw that the Russians were for some reason stacking up crates near the tanks. One of the Russians saw the running marines and yelled. The tank turned to fire, but was interrupted as the Apache did another fly-by attack. The marines continued to run onto a path leading up the small mesa there. The man called Dimitri called to his men who all started to run away, and climbed into one of the trucks.
-----
"Hmm..." the slave leader muttered as he sat in one of the Hummers they had found. He was reading a book he had found off of one of the scientists. The title was 'English Dictionary'. The leader had spared one of the scientists, and was now practicing English with the terrified scientist as his tutor.
"What this mean?" the leader asked the scientist with his poor English skill and pointed in the book.
"Give up," the scientist read in a trembling voice. "Give up," he repeated and started to act out groveling in front of the leader and pleading.
"Give... up..." the leader practiced and then turned towards the driver. "Ahh, give up!" he called in his native language to the driver. "Hey, stop here. I will practice this 'English' on those silly 'marines' over there."
The Hummer came to a screeching halt in front of Office Team, who had climbed out of the offices. The lieutenant was just about to pull the trigger on the detonators, causing the office to collapse, crushing everything under. He now stared at the Hummer manned by alien slaves. The gunner on the Hummer was about to shoot the marines, but the leader signaled him to halt and climbed up onto the roof.
"Humans!" he called in his bad English. "You... give up... or we... we... how you say this again?" he turned to his scientist helper.
"Kill," the scientist muttered shaking his head.
"Dank you," the slave said. "We kill you!" he called out.
"Fuck you, freak!" the lieutenant called.
"What he say?" the leader asked.
"He say he not give up," the scientist whimpered and hid inside the Hummer.
"Humph," the leader shook his head and pulled a radio he had snatched from the marines from the bottom. "Our enemies decided to show off their foolishness. Commence attacks."
"What the..?" the lieutenant asked as an Apache came over one of the mountains. He lifted the detonator up in horror. "Oh SHI--"
The lieutenant flew backwards as the Apache opened fire on him. The detonator flew from his grasp and bounced among the marines. One reached down and grabbed it, but flew into the air as a missile struck among them.
The Apache lowered down and the slave leader climbed in. He had been lucky to find the Apache. It was his most useful toy in the battle so far.
"PULL THE TRIGGER GODDAMMIT!" a marine screamed as another dived for the detonator. He leaped upwards and ran for cover as the Apache started to circle above them.
"Get out of here! I'm taking them with me!" the marine with the detonator screamed. The others started to rush for the gates out of the courtyard, firing at the Apache. They were met with missile fire. But Office Team was too great to be taken out with a few missiles, and most of the marines reached out of the area and dashed into a tunnel in the mountainside. Disappointed, the Apache started to circle around the courtyard, looking for the one marine left behind.
The marine was hiding behind a stack of crates. He peered slightly over to see the still parked Hummer. "On a count of three..." he whispered to himself.
Three. The marine nervously gripped the small detonator. The Apache flew over him, not aware of the last marine.
Two. The marine felt cold sweat run down his body. He wouldn't make it. The Apache flew over the crates again, and started turning. It would spot him in a manner of seconds.
One. He firmly turned to look at the Hummer, still standing in the middle of the courtyard. "Catch me, Lord."
Click.
-----
Dylan sat in watch on top of the mountain. The marines were all climbing down a ladder into a silo in the mountain. Dylan watched for the aliens, Black Mesa employees, and now the mysterious Russians. Who were they? Why were they armed with what Manners claimed to be an MP-40, an ancient weapon? What was their motives?
He thought of these for a while, then just decided to enjoy the view. The area looked nice. A canyon was to the west of where he stood, and more mountains to the south. He saw, in the east, buildings and the gates. Some Apaches were circling over the buildings, firing often. Hopefully they were dealing with the Russians along with the aliens.
The view was great. Dylan turned to watch behind him the line of marines climbing down the ladder into the cliff side. Adam had already gone in. Manners was standing there, waiting for Dam Team to climb down.
Suddenly, a massive roar filled the air. All the marines turned to look to the south. The ground started to violently shake, and a few marines fell on their knees. A massive dust cloud rose from behind the mountain, which started to sink. Dylan watched in awe as the massive hunk of stone started to crumble into the ground. Then, as soon as it had begun, the mountain stopped sinking. But the roaring and clouds continued.
"The air raids?" Manners wondered, then shook his head and waved for the marines to continue climbing into the silo. Dylan continued watching the dust cloud in wonder, until he was distracted by another noise. The noise of an engine...
"Shit!" Dylan yelled and threw a grenade down the pathway leading down the mountain. "Hurry up! They're coming in a truck!"
The truck appeared over the side of the mountain and drove at full speed towards the marines. Cursing, Manners ushered the marines down the ladder faster. No longer climbing down, the marines grabbed the sidebars and slid down the ladder.
"Dasvidanya, Americans!" the driver called in English from out of the window in a thick accent, which only caused the marines to go faster. Then Dylan's grenade blew up under the truck. The tires and axle collapsed from under the truck, causing it to skid forwards. The driver, turning out to be the so-called Dimitri, jumped out of the truck and started screaming curses.
"Move it, Henderson!" Manners yelled, as they were the only two left on top of the mountain. Dylan leaped onto the ladder and slid down the shaft. The temperature cooled down and the light at the top shrunk as Dylan descended. Soon he saw Manners come down too, and Dylan sighed with relief.
However, he sighed too early, as Dimitri's shadow appeared over the hole. Dylan watched as the Russian dropped something ablaze down at them. Dylan couldn't make out what it was, but Manners soon screamed down: "Molotov cocktail! Look out!"
Dylan worriedly looked down to see a light growing under them. He heard a large explosion, and saw the air above him fill with rubble. Dylan grabbed onto the sides, forcing himself to slow down as he landed into the silo, deep in the mountainside. He immediately leaped backwards to make room for Manners. The lieutenant also came down, then fell backwards as the shaft the shaft they had come down was clogged with dislodged granite.
A drone hornet whizzing past Dylan immediately made him turn around and pull out his assault rifle. He surveyed the silo imbedded into the cliff. The cold dank room was massive. Rows and rows of chemical vats dominated the area. Some were marked with bio-hazardous signs, most were marked with a nuclear sign. Dylan realized this was the nuclear and toxic waste storage space of Black Mesa.
Another hornet flew past Dylan, turning again to hit him. Dylan started running away, looking around for the enemy. The catwalks above the vats were littered with alien drones. Dam Team was scattered among the vats, firing upwards at the drones. Some had climbed the ladders up to the catwalk and continued to fight the aliens. So, this was the alien infestation, Dylan thought as he saw Adam's familiar face.
"Hey, you still alive?" Dylan asked and joined Adam in firing up at the drones.
"Ouch! Not for long!" Adam yelled and pulled out one of he hornets from his skin. "Damn those bastards," he hissed and dropped a drone. The creature crashed backwards and toppled over the railing into one of the vats.
"I'm gonna go fight 'em up there," Dylan pointed and ran for the ladders. He started to climb up it and fired halfway up at a drone. The monster collapsed on the ground, and Dylan climbed up on top of the catwalk.
Another drone noticed him and started firing. Dylan ran down a side path as the hornets flew through the gaps in the railing at him. He rolled on the ground and dodged the insects, then shot a grenade at the drone. It blew to pieces, sending chunks of alien flesh flying into the vats. The chunks melted soon upon contact.
Now a new batch of drones teleported in, and one appeared right in front of Dylan. It swung at Dylan, sending him flying over the railing. Dylan grasped the side of the catwalk before falling, and now hanged above the vat of sickly green goo. He shimmied himself slowly along the catwalk towards a ladder, but the drone sneered down at him and stepped on Dylan's foot. The marine lost his grasp and started falling... and grabbed a rope hanging from an Apache!
Dylan looked up to see that a massive hatch in the roof had opened, and that a bunch of Apache's had flown in the silo, demonstrating the sheer size of the cavern. One Apache had lowered the rope to save Dylan before plummeting into his nuclear tomb. The choppers now set off to fire among the hapless drones. Dylan jumped off the rope onto the catwalk and ran for the ladder. He heard missiles blow up behind him, and saw the catwalk collapsing, dropping the drones into the tanks of sludge. Dylan grabbed a ladder and climbed down.
Adam ran up to Dylan as he climbed down. "Check it out. Patrol Team called. They're sending their troops to stop those Russians, but they stopped over here."
Patrol Team. The team with most aerial vehicles. Funny how Apaches were flying deep in the mountains. Dylan thought of these as the marines regrouped around Manners. The lieutenant called sergeant Brigson after everyone had assembled.
"Hey you, thanks for the back-up," Manners spoke as Brigson answered. "But look, has Hickory called about those Russians yet?"
"Yeah, as a matter of fact, he did, sir," Brigson responded. "He forwarded the message to the government, and they checked it up. There wasn't any saying about any Dimitri, but apparently an Arkadi Renko recently donated World War 2-era weaponry to a war museum in California. Mr. Renko used to be a captain in the Soviet Union, and expressed strong communistic points of views after the U.S.S.R fell. He recently moved to Boston on a government assignment. Could it be some of his friends there?"
"Probably, but that still doesn't explain what they want here," Manners answered. "Can you deal with the Renko's men while we secure the silo?"
"Sure thing, we're flying over you right now." Dylan looked up and saw the familiar osprey fly over the massive hatch. "We're gonna commence attacks any... OH FUCK!" the transmission ended for a second, and the marines worriedly look up. A massive explosion appeared on the chopper's side. "Oh fuck! We took a howitzer shot! Damn Russians! Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh..." the transmission ended again as the copter started to plummet.
"Oh... my... god!" Dylan yelled and ran up to Manners. "Sir! You've GOT to let me go after Patrol Team! You've got to!"
"What the hell for, Henderson?" Manners asked Dylan.
"Why?! Greshwald was up there!" Dylan almost spat the answer worriedly. He had left his wounded friend with Patrol Team, so he would be safe up in the air. But now, Dylan feared for his life.
"Fine, it's your death, not mine," Manners waved, seeing the worry over his friend in Dylan's eyes.
"Dylan, you can't be serious," Adam stared.
"Greshwald's one of the few people who I really trust! I've got to save him!" Dylan said and started running for a door in the side of the mountain.
"If you're so serious, then I'm coming with you," Adam said. "That is, if it's all right, sir."
"Eh, fine, go on, you're the ones dying," Manners shrugged, although he secretly slightly hoped for Dylan to help out his buddy.
"Ok, let's go," Dylan said and started turning the wheel that opened the thick door, thankful that his only other friend in Black Mesa was coming with him. Together, the two stepped outside to take on whatever odds there were.
The two immediately ran for cover behind a large building. They wouldn't make it alone for long, so they had to use stealth. They went along the wall, but stopped as they heard the most unexpected of sounds coming from behind a corner: a mobile phone ringing.
"Dimitri Eshtelkov, dobrui denj," they heard the Russian leader answer the phone. They peered behind the corner. Dimitri stood there, talking to a mobile phone. Behind him, a bunch of Russians were fighting the survivors of the crashed osprey. Dylan immediately wanted to rage on, but Adam stopped him.
"Dimitri you fool, quiet down. I'm in a public place, it gathers too much attention to speak in Russian," a thick accented voice respond.
"Sorry Arkadi! What do you want, boss?"
"How is the mission going, Dimitri?"
"Just fine, boss. We've already gathered quite an amount of military weaponry, along with some uranium and what we believe is smallpox. What will we do with them once we've collected the amount you asked for?"
"Send them to my villa in Moscow, Dimitri. I will pay for the shipping. Have you met any resistance?"
"Yes, boss. It's just as you had calculated from your eavesdropping. The Cossack resonance caused extra-terrestrial beings to appear here. Also, the military has been a thorn in our side since our arrival. Though I'm happy to report one of our howitzers dropped a helicopter from the sky. Those stupid Americans didn't know what hit them."
"All right you bastard, it's time you pay up!" Dylan screamed after hearing enough and fired from behind the corner. Dimitri was taken off guard, but most bullets went past him. He screamed and ran for cover inside a building. Dylan then extended his rage on the other Russians fighting. Like their leader, they were surprised by the attack, and dropped like flies. Along with Adam and Patrol Team, the small group of Russians soon diminished.
"Who the Hell are you?" sergeant Brigson asked after the Russians had fallen.
"Private Henderson and private Dykowski," Dylan said walking up. "We came to pick up private Greshwald, for personal reasons."
"Private Gresh... oh, right, the wounded guy. He's over there," the sergeant pointed at Greshwald, seemingly intact, on an operation table. Dylan rushed up to see his friend, who seemed a lot better than before, but still vulnerable. Greshwald laid asleep, his face distorted into an uneasy expression.
"Well, he's all yours. We're moving out. Even when we're down, we still gotta do our tasks," Brigson said and waved to his men. The group hiked off among the few buildings there, leaving Dylan, Adam, and Greshwald alone with the crashed osprey.
"Thank god," Dylan sighed, and started pushing the table towards the direction they had come from. Adam joined him, and they walked along. Then the familiar HEV-suit of Gordon Freeman came around the corner.
-----
"Regroup!" Manners called to the marines as all the aliens so far were cleared from the silo. The Patrol Team Apaches had left the cave a long time ago, and the massive rooftop hatch had been closed. If the Russians had a howitzer, then they could easily fire through the hatch. Thus, it had been closed.
"All right, let's reload our weapons until the next batch of aliens show up," Manners said, and the marines started to change the clips in their guns. Manners himself sighed as the action had died down, until he was interrupted by his radio.
"Sir! SIR! This is Patrol Team! We've just spotted a GX-500 moving your way! You've got to keep all your doors closed! Do you understand, sir?!"
"What? What's a GX-500?" Manners asked.
"There's no time! Are you sure the doors into the silo are closed?!"
"Yes, yes, their closed. We'll be safe from any alien in here."
"You better hope so, Manners, you better hope so. This IS a GX-500 we're talking of. Stay in the silo until the danger has passed. We're only thinking of your safety, sir." Then the transmission ended.
Manners turned uneasily towards the door. Whatever a GX-500 was, it was out there. With Adam and Dylan.
-----
"You again?!" Dylan spat the words at Freeman. He threw away his gun to the side and walked up to the man. Gordon pulled his rifle, unsure what the marine was doing.
"You sissy gonna fight with a damn gun?! Put up your dukes, and we'll finish what we started in the rail systems!" Dylan challenged Gordon. Freeman looked at Dylan with a puzzled look, then remembered.
"You! You're the marine from earlier! You've lived this long, eh?" he asked Dylan.
"Cut with the chit-chat you nerd and fight!" Dylan said and both men raised their fists once more. Adam sat down on the sand to watch the two take each other on.
Dylan no longer bothered to try and find a weakness in Gordon's defense, and just attacked head-on by jamming his shoulder in Freeman's gut. Gordon leaped backwards and kicked Dylan in the face. He fell backwards, but then rolled to the side as Gordon attempted a punch. Lying on the ground, Dylan grabbed Gordon's leg, pulling him off-balance.
The two now grabbed each other on the ground, and rolled in the sand hitting each other. Gordon pried Dylan's hands off him and kicked Dylan in the stomach. He then climbed up and dropped on Dylan as he held his stomach in pain. But Dylan, just before being crushed, rolled forwards, causing Freeman to fall on his legs. The two wearily stood back up to fight each other.
Dylan sent a roundhouse kick at Gordon's side, but the scientist blocked the foot. "I happened to take notes during our last fight," Freeman grinned, pointing to the fact that last time Dylan had successfully kicked him. He now threw his sort-of famous groin kick at Dylan again.
"I took notes too!" Dylan yelled and grabbed Gordon's leg before it reached it's target. He lifted the leg up and caused Gordon to fall on his back. Dylan brought his boot on Freeman, but Freeman rolled to the side, and the boot hit nothing but sand. Dylan fell flat on the ground and they once again began their rolling slugfest. They rolled all over the area, almost crashing into the fallen osprey. Finally, Gordon landed a painful punch, causing Dylan's nose to bleed. Dylan groaned laying on the ground, and Gordon lifted his fist to hit him again...
THUMP.
"Holy Hell!" Adam gasped as the ground itself shook. One of the osprey's wings whined and broke off from the shock. Both fighters stopped and stared towards one of the buildings.
"Oh my god," Gordon whispered standing up.
"What was that?" Dylan asked as he stood up too. Neither of them wanted to fight. Both were worried by the massive shockwave.
"Oh Hell, not a gargantuan," Gordon worriedly said and started to back up.
"Code name GX-500..." Adam said and started to back up too, taking the table with Greshwald along with him.
"A what?" Dylan asked, unsure what was going on, but very worried.
"When I was still with Rail Team, we got a report from Power Team, guarding the power supply to the rails. They were yelling of a massive enemy called GX-51, but they were killed before the report was finished," Adam explained to Dylan. "Since we weren't sure if the thing was real, we renamed it GX-500. The only thing we know of it is it's big and near unstoppable."
"Not near," Gordon corrected Adam, "but completely unstoppable, at least with normal weaponry."
"Gentlemen," Gordon called turning away, "I suggest if we want to live, we go that way," he pointed in the other direction that the sound had come from and ran in that exact direction. Adam sped off after him, pushing Greshwald with him.
"What going... yipes!" Dylan exclaimed and turned to run after the others as a huge blue foot appeared behind the corner of the building they had been watching, sending another shockwave.
(Ha! Booyah! Fooled you, didn't I? Of course I was going to have the gargantuan appear. It wouldn't be Half-Life without the blue killing machine. Sorry I lied to you Jon, but I did it only so it wouldn't give out a plot twist. This would have sucked if you would have known garg would be coming, don't you agree? Ah well, let's just party. Next chapter might be a bit short sine it's mostly action, but it's gonna be gargantuan galore! Oh, and to any Russian reader out there: I'm sorry for stereotyping you. I realize Russians seem to always be bad guys these days (C&C Red Alert 2, Metal Gear Solid 2, etc.), but I only added it to keep the story interesting. In fact, I think Russia's a real cool place, and I don't really think Russians are all extreme communists. So please forgive me if someone was offended by this latest chapter. And one more pointer, the chapter's name is From Russia With Love. Gives out the plot, doesn't it?)
If you're wondering why the normal witty title of the chapter isn't on FF.net, it's because it's too witty. While it sounds really cool, it nastily gives out the plot. If you really want to know it, scroll down to the bottom. Of course, that'll give up even more surprises, so I don't suggest it until you've read the chapter. I'll put up the title later on. Well, the reviews.
Hao: Hmm... you have a point there. I'd love to have the aliens have some cool special weapons, but I have to keep the story realistic. You see, the slaves only have the weapons they can find in Black Mesa, so it's practically impossible to find a poisonous hivearm since there are none there. Of course, I'll consider those ideas if I ever make a sequel. And no, I'm not commenting on the chances of a sequel appearing.
Raider: You THINK it's me... =). Ah, I stole something accidentally from you? Whoops. I can guarantee I thought the falling Jeep up myself. It's just a coincidence.
Jon: Thanks for enjoying the story. No, unfortunately I'm not adding the big guy since he's a bit overkill. And no, the panzer dudes aren't in the game, I'm just adding them to keep things interesting, since, heck, you all know what's going on in Half-Life!
zUg mAh oAtaX: Thanks for your support. All right, I admit, I'm a good writer. Also, the slave can't say thanks to you for supporting him right now, because he's having a huge ego problem and moved to Hollywood to become a sci-fi actor, but here's a complimentary tap-dancing headcrab! *Tappity tappity tappity SKREEE!*
Tony: Your wish is my command!
Ok, now that that's done, read on! This chapter seems a bit uninteresting and blah, but as you'll note, it's only the front for really cool action, so do continue!)
Chapter 6
The tanks and trucks kept moving ever so closer. Adam started to go back down the wall to keep an eye on the unconscious Dylan. Manners stayed to watch as the newcomers came. The vehicles came to a halt in front of the gates.
"Hey there!" Manners called as a man jumped out from one of the trucks. "Who are you and what the Hell do you think you're doing here?!"
The man looked up, surprised, and saw the small group of marines. He turned towards one of the tanks. The man yelled complete gibberish to the tank and climbed back in the truck. The tank immediately started to turn it's turret towards the wall.
"Oh shit!" Manners yelled and started climbing down the ladder. "Get down, you fools! Their going to blast the wall right where you're standing!" The marines all started climbing down the ladder. Some made it down, but then the tank blasted at the wall. Concrete flew in all directions and the ladder collapsed downwards, crushing the people on the ladder.
"Dylan, wake up, dammit!" Adam yelled and slapped Dylan's face. Dylan started to wake up.
"Ow, what just hit me?" Dylan groaned getting up, but soon his eyes widened as he saw a massive truck driving through the hole in the wall.
"I did!" Adam yelled running away from the truck. "You can thank me later!" The marines started to retreat away behind one of the small mountains there. Dylan jumped upwards and ran away to join the others.
"Sir, we are in desperate need of back-up!" Manners called in his radio as the small area in front of the gates started to fill with trucks and tanks.
"Again? Goddammit Manners, can't you keep out of trouble?" Hickory cursed. "Take it easy, both Rail and Patrol Team are moving towards that area, so you just wait for back-up!"
"Who are those guys anyway?" Dylan asked peering behind the corner. The man from before jumped out of the truck. He was wearing a fur coat and a fur hat on his head, which made him look out of place in the desert. In his hand he had some kind of old sub-machine gun which Dylan had seen in some old war movies.
The man said something completely incomprehensible and scratched his head. He then shouted some more of the strange language, and all the trucks burst open. A huge group of men armed with old weaponry leaped out of the 18- wheelers and assembled around the supposed leader. The unknown man pointed towards some buildings and yelled orders at his men, and most scurried off in all directions.
"Da, Dimitri," one of the men nodded to his leader and went off to join his companions.
"Da? Wait, isn't that German for 'yes'?" Dylan asked the others.
"No Henderson, the German yes is 'jawohl'. Da is Russian," Manners said and started to turn away.
"Russian?" Dylan said in disbelief. "They're Russians?!" Dylan couldn't believe it. Why would Russians appear in Black Mesa? Why?! The thought seemed so pointless.
Dylan's pondering was cut short as a loud hum came from the sky and an Apache flew over the buildings. The Russian leader screamed and his men started running for cover as the Apache opened fire. The Apache turned in the air after taking out some of the new guys and started to fly back. Just then, Manners' radio started to act up.
"Sir, this is Office Team. We are sinking the office on top of itself, and are then heading over to the outer gates. Major Hickory has informed that you are to head to the west to stop a group of aliens. We'll take it from here."
"You do that, Office Team," Manners spoke to his radio, "but tell Major Hickory to look up the info on these new guys. They are a group of seemingly Russians whose intentions are so far unknown to us. They're armed with MP-40 sub-machine guns and have they have some type of an old tank. Their leader is apparently called 'Dimitri'."
"Affirmative, sir, we'll give Major Hickory the message. Over and out," the transmission ended and the Apache started to circle again.
"All right, let's move! Target is to west of here!" Manners called and the marines ran from their cover. Dylan looked to his side and saw that the Russians were for some reason stacking up crates near the tanks. One of the Russians saw the running marines and yelled. The tank turned to fire, but was interrupted as the Apache did another fly-by attack. The marines continued to run onto a path leading up the small mesa there. The man called Dimitri called to his men who all started to run away, and climbed into one of the trucks.
-----
"Hmm..." the slave leader muttered as he sat in one of the Hummers they had found. He was reading a book he had found off of one of the scientists. The title was 'English Dictionary'. The leader had spared one of the scientists, and was now practicing English with the terrified scientist as his tutor.
"What this mean?" the leader asked the scientist with his poor English skill and pointed in the book.
"Give up," the scientist read in a trembling voice. "Give up," he repeated and started to act out groveling in front of the leader and pleading.
"Give... up..." the leader practiced and then turned towards the driver. "Ahh, give up!" he called in his native language to the driver. "Hey, stop here. I will practice this 'English' on those silly 'marines' over there."
The Hummer came to a screeching halt in front of Office Team, who had climbed out of the offices. The lieutenant was just about to pull the trigger on the detonators, causing the office to collapse, crushing everything under. He now stared at the Hummer manned by alien slaves. The gunner on the Hummer was about to shoot the marines, but the leader signaled him to halt and climbed up onto the roof.
"Humans!" he called in his bad English. "You... give up... or we... we... how you say this again?" he turned to his scientist helper.
"Kill," the scientist muttered shaking his head.
"Dank you," the slave said. "We kill you!" he called out.
"Fuck you, freak!" the lieutenant called.
"What he say?" the leader asked.
"He say he not give up," the scientist whimpered and hid inside the Hummer.
"Humph," the leader shook his head and pulled a radio he had snatched from the marines from the bottom. "Our enemies decided to show off their foolishness. Commence attacks."
"What the..?" the lieutenant asked as an Apache came over one of the mountains. He lifted the detonator up in horror. "Oh SHI--"
The lieutenant flew backwards as the Apache opened fire on him. The detonator flew from his grasp and bounced among the marines. One reached down and grabbed it, but flew into the air as a missile struck among them.
The Apache lowered down and the slave leader climbed in. He had been lucky to find the Apache. It was his most useful toy in the battle so far.
"PULL THE TRIGGER GODDAMMIT!" a marine screamed as another dived for the detonator. He leaped upwards and ran for cover as the Apache started to circle above them.
"Get out of here! I'm taking them with me!" the marine with the detonator screamed. The others started to rush for the gates out of the courtyard, firing at the Apache. They were met with missile fire. But Office Team was too great to be taken out with a few missiles, and most of the marines reached out of the area and dashed into a tunnel in the mountainside. Disappointed, the Apache started to circle around the courtyard, looking for the one marine left behind.
The marine was hiding behind a stack of crates. He peered slightly over to see the still parked Hummer. "On a count of three..." he whispered to himself.
Three. The marine nervously gripped the small detonator. The Apache flew over him, not aware of the last marine.
Two. The marine felt cold sweat run down his body. He wouldn't make it. The Apache flew over the crates again, and started turning. It would spot him in a manner of seconds.
One. He firmly turned to look at the Hummer, still standing in the middle of the courtyard. "Catch me, Lord."
Click.
-----
Dylan sat in watch on top of the mountain. The marines were all climbing down a ladder into a silo in the mountain. Dylan watched for the aliens, Black Mesa employees, and now the mysterious Russians. Who were they? Why were they armed with what Manners claimed to be an MP-40, an ancient weapon? What was their motives?
He thought of these for a while, then just decided to enjoy the view. The area looked nice. A canyon was to the west of where he stood, and more mountains to the south. He saw, in the east, buildings and the gates. Some Apaches were circling over the buildings, firing often. Hopefully they were dealing with the Russians along with the aliens.
The view was great. Dylan turned to watch behind him the line of marines climbing down the ladder into the cliff side. Adam had already gone in. Manners was standing there, waiting for Dam Team to climb down.
Suddenly, a massive roar filled the air. All the marines turned to look to the south. The ground started to violently shake, and a few marines fell on their knees. A massive dust cloud rose from behind the mountain, which started to sink. Dylan watched in awe as the massive hunk of stone started to crumble into the ground. Then, as soon as it had begun, the mountain stopped sinking. But the roaring and clouds continued.
"The air raids?" Manners wondered, then shook his head and waved for the marines to continue climbing into the silo. Dylan continued watching the dust cloud in wonder, until he was distracted by another noise. The noise of an engine...
"Shit!" Dylan yelled and threw a grenade down the pathway leading down the mountain. "Hurry up! They're coming in a truck!"
The truck appeared over the side of the mountain and drove at full speed towards the marines. Cursing, Manners ushered the marines down the ladder faster. No longer climbing down, the marines grabbed the sidebars and slid down the ladder.
"Dasvidanya, Americans!" the driver called in English from out of the window in a thick accent, which only caused the marines to go faster. Then Dylan's grenade blew up under the truck. The tires and axle collapsed from under the truck, causing it to skid forwards. The driver, turning out to be the so-called Dimitri, jumped out of the truck and started screaming curses.
"Move it, Henderson!" Manners yelled, as they were the only two left on top of the mountain. Dylan leaped onto the ladder and slid down the shaft. The temperature cooled down and the light at the top shrunk as Dylan descended. Soon he saw Manners come down too, and Dylan sighed with relief.
However, he sighed too early, as Dimitri's shadow appeared over the hole. Dylan watched as the Russian dropped something ablaze down at them. Dylan couldn't make out what it was, but Manners soon screamed down: "Molotov cocktail! Look out!"
Dylan worriedly looked down to see a light growing under them. He heard a large explosion, and saw the air above him fill with rubble. Dylan grabbed onto the sides, forcing himself to slow down as he landed into the silo, deep in the mountainside. He immediately leaped backwards to make room for Manners. The lieutenant also came down, then fell backwards as the shaft the shaft they had come down was clogged with dislodged granite.
A drone hornet whizzing past Dylan immediately made him turn around and pull out his assault rifle. He surveyed the silo imbedded into the cliff. The cold dank room was massive. Rows and rows of chemical vats dominated the area. Some were marked with bio-hazardous signs, most were marked with a nuclear sign. Dylan realized this was the nuclear and toxic waste storage space of Black Mesa.
Another hornet flew past Dylan, turning again to hit him. Dylan started running away, looking around for the enemy. The catwalks above the vats were littered with alien drones. Dam Team was scattered among the vats, firing upwards at the drones. Some had climbed the ladders up to the catwalk and continued to fight the aliens. So, this was the alien infestation, Dylan thought as he saw Adam's familiar face.
"Hey, you still alive?" Dylan asked and joined Adam in firing up at the drones.
"Ouch! Not for long!" Adam yelled and pulled out one of he hornets from his skin. "Damn those bastards," he hissed and dropped a drone. The creature crashed backwards and toppled over the railing into one of the vats.
"I'm gonna go fight 'em up there," Dylan pointed and ran for the ladders. He started to climb up it and fired halfway up at a drone. The monster collapsed on the ground, and Dylan climbed up on top of the catwalk.
Another drone noticed him and started firing. Dylan ran down a side path as the hornets flew through the gaps in the railing at him. He rolled on the ground and dodged the insects, then shot a grenade at the drone. It blew to pieces, sending chunks of alien flesh flying into the vats. The chunks melted soon upon contact.
Now a new batch of drones teleported in, and one appeared right in front of Dylan. It swung at Dylan, sending him flying over the railing. Dylan grasped the side of the catwalk before falling, and now hanged above the vat of sickly green goo. He shimmied himself slowly along the catwalk towards a ladder, but the drone sneered down at him and stepped on Dylan's foot. The marine lost his grasp and started falling... and grabbed a rope hanging from an Apache!
Dylan looked up to see that a massive hatch in the roof had opened, and that a bunch of Apache's had flown in the silo, demonstrating the sheer size of the cavern. One Apache had lowered the rope to save Dylan before plummeting into his nuclear tomb. The choppers now set off to fire among the hapless drones. Dylan jumped off the rope onto the catwalk and ran for the ladder. He heard missiles blow up behind him, and saw the catwalk collapsing, dropping the drones into the tanks of sludge. Dylan grabbed a ladder and climbed down.
Adam ran up to Dylan as he climbed down. "Check it out. Patrol Team called. They're sending their troops to stop those Russians, but they stopped over here."
Patrol Team. The team with most aerial vehicles. Funny how Apaches were flying deep in the mountains. Dylan thought of these as the marines regrouped around Manners. The lieutenant called sergeant Brigson after everyone had assembled.
"Hey you, thanks for the back-up," Manners spoke as Brigson answered. "But look, has Hickory called about those Russians yet?"
"Yeah, as a matter of fact, he did, sir," Brigson responded. "He forwarded the message to the government, and they checked it up. There wasn't any saying about any Dimitri, but apparently an Arkadi Renko recently donated World War 2-era weaponry to a war museum in California. Mr. Renko used to be a captain in the Soviet Union, and expressed strong communistic points of views after the U.S.S.R fell. He recently moved to Boston on a government assignment. Could it be some of his friends there?"
"Probably, but that still doesn't explain what they want here," Manners answered. "Can you deal with the Renko's men while we secure the silo?"
"Sure thing, we're flying over you right now." Dylan looked up and saw the familiar osprey fly over the massive hatch. "We're gonna commence attacks any... OH FUCK!" the transmission ended for a second, and the marines worriedly look up. A massive explosion appeared on the chopper's side. "Oh fuck! We took a howitzer shot! Damn Russians! Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh..." the transmission ended again as the copter started to plummet.
"Oh... my... god!" Dylan yelled and ran up to Manners. "Sir! You've GOT to let me go after Patrol Team! You've got to!"
"What the hell for, Henderson?" Manners asked Dylan.
"Why?! Greshwald was up there!" Dylan almost spat the answer worriedly. He had left his wounded friend with Patrol Team, so he would be safe up in the air. But now, Dylan feared for his life.
"Fine, it's your death, not mine," Manners waved, seeing the worry over his friend in Dylan's eyes.
"Dylan, you can't be serious," Adam stared.
"Greshwald's one of the few people who I really trust! I've got to save him!" Dylan said and started running for a door in the side of the mountain.
"If you're so serious, then I'm coming with you," Adam said. "That is, if it's all right, sir."
"Eh, fine, go on, you're the ones dying," Manners shrugged, although he secretly slightly hoped for Dylan to help out his buddy.
"Ok, let's go," Dylan said and started turning the wheel that opened the thick door, thankful that his only other friend in Black Mesa was coming with him. Together, the two stepped outside to take on whatever odds there were.
The two immediately ran for cover behind a large building. They wouldn't make it alone for long, so they had to use stealth. They went along the wall, but stopped as they heard the most unexpected of sounds coming from behind a corner: a mobile phone ringing.
"Dimitri Eshtelkov, dobrui denj," they heard the Russian leader answer the phone. They peered behind the corner. Dimitri stood there, talking to a mobile phone. Behind him, a bunch of Russians were fighting the survivors of the crashed osprey. Dylan immediately wanted to rage on, but Adam stopped him.
"Dimitri you fool, quiet down. I'm in a public place, it gathers too much attention to speak in Russian," a thick accented voice respond.
"Sorry Arkadi! What do you want, boss?"
"How is the mission going, Dimitri?"
"Just fine, boss. We've already gathered quite an amount of military weaponry, along with some uranium and what we believe is smallpox. What will we do with them once we've collected the amount you asked for?"
"Send them to my villa in Moscow, Dimitri. I will pay for the shipping. Have you met any resistance?"
"Yes, boss. It's just as you had calculated from your eavesdropping. The Cossack resonance caused extra-terrestrial beings to appear here. Also, the military has been a thorn in our side since our arrival. Though I'm happy to report one of our howitzers dropped a helicopter from the sky. Those stupid Americans didn't know what hit them."
"All right you bastard, it's time you pay up!" Dylan screamed after hearing enough and fired from behind the corner. Dimitri was taken off guard, but most bullets went past him. He screamed and ran for cover inside a building. Dylan then extended his rage on the other Russians fighting. Like their leader, they were surprised by the attack, and dropped like flies. Along with Adam and Patrol Team, the small group of Russians soon diminished.
"Who the Hell are you?" sergeant Brigson asked after the Russians had fallen.
"Private Henderson and private Dykowski," Dylan said walking up. "We came to pick up private Greshwald, for personal reasons."
"Private Gresh... oh, right, the wounded guy. He's over there," the sergeant pointed at Greshwald, seemingly intact, on an operation table. Dylan rushed up to see his friend, who seemed a lot better than before, but still vulnerable. Greshwald laid asleep, his face distorted into an uneasy expression.
"Well, he's all yours. We're moving out. Even when we're down, we still gotta do our tasks," Brigson said and waved to his men. The group hiked off among the few buildings there, leaving Dylan, Adam, and Greshwald alone with the crashed osprey.
"Thank god," Dylan sighed, and started pushing the table towards the direction they had come from. Adam joined him, and they walked along. Then the familiar HEV-suit of Gordon Freeman came around the corner.
-----
"Regroup!" Manners called to the marines as all the aliens so far were cleared from the silo. The Patrol Team Apaches had left the cave a long time ago, and the massive rooftop hatch had been closed. If the Russians had a howitzer, then they could easily fire through the hatch. Thus, it had been closed.
"All right, let's reload our weapons until the next batch of aliens show up," Manners said, and the marines started to change the clips in their guns. Manners himself sighed as the action had died down, until he was interrupted by his radio.
"Sir! SIR! This is Patrol Team! We've just spotted a GX-500 moving your way! You've got to keep all your doors closed! Do you understand, sir?!"
"What? What's a GX-500?" Manners asked.
"There's no time! Are you sure the doors into the silo are closed?!"
"Yes, yes, their closed. We'll be safe from any alien in here."
"You better hope so, Manners, you better hope so. This IS a GX-500 we're talking of. Stay in the silo until the danger has passed. We're only thinking of your safety, sir." Then the transmission ended.
Manners turned uneasily towards the door. Whatever a GX-500 was, it was out there. With Adam and Dylan.
-----
"You again?!" Dylan spat the words at Freeman. He threw away his gun to the side and walked up to the man. Gordon pulled his rifle, unsure what the marine was doing.
"You sissy gonna fight with a damn gun?! Put up your dukes, and we'll finish what we started in the rail systems!" Dylan challenged Gordon. Freeman looked at Dylan with a puzzled look, then remembered.
"You! You're the marine from earlier! You've lived this long, eh?" he asked Dylan.
"Cut with the chit-chat you nerd and fight!" Dylan said and both men raised their fists once more. Adam sat down on the sand to watch the two take each other on.
Dylan no longer bothered to try and find a weakness in Gordon's defense, and just attacked head-on by jamming his shoulder in Freeman's gut. Gordon leaped backwards and kicked Dylan in the face. He fell backwards, but then rolled to the side as Gordon attempted a punch. Lying on the ground, Dylan grabbed Gordon's leg, pulling him off-balance.
The two now grabbed each other on the ground, and rolled in the sand hitting each other. Gordon pried Dylan's hands off him and kicked Dylan in the stomach. He then climbed up and dropped on Dylan as he held his stomach in pain. But Dylan, just before being crushed, rolled forwards, causing Freeman to fall on his legs. The two wearily stood back up to fight each other.
Dylan sent a roundhouse kick at Gordon's side, but the scientist blocked the foot. "I happened to take notes during our last fight," Freeman grinned, pointing to the fact that last time Dylan had successfully kicked him. He now threw his sort-of famous groin kick at Dylan again.
"I took notes too!" Dylan yelled and grabbed Gordon's leg before it reached it's target. He lifted the leg up and caused Gordon to fall on his back. Dylan brought his boot on Freeman, but Freeman rolled to the side, and the boot hit nothing but sand. Dylan fell flat on the ground and they once again began their rolling slugfest. They rolled all over the area, almost crashing into the fallen osprey. Finally, Gordon landed a painful punch, causing Dylan's nose to bleed. Dylan groaned laying on the ground, and Gordon lifted his fist to hit him again...
THUMP.
"Holy Hell!" Adam gasped as the ground itself shook. One of the osprey's wings whined and broke off from the shock. Both fighters stopped and stared towards one of the buildings.
"Oh my god," Gordon whispered standing up.
"What was that?" Dylan asked as he stood up too. Neither of them wanted to fight. Both were worried by the massive shockwave.
"Oh Hell, not a gargantuan," Gordon worriedly said and started to back up.
"Code name GX-500..." Adam said and started to back up too, taking the table with Greshwald along with him.
"A what?" Dylan asked, unsure what was going on, but very worried.
"When I was still with Rail Team, we got a report from Power Team, guarding the power supply to the rails. They were yelling of a massive enemy called GX-51, but they were killed before the report was finished," Adam explained to Dylan. "Since we weren't sure if the thing was real, we renamed it GX-500. The only thing we know of it is it's big and near unstoppable."
"Not near," Gordon corrected Adam, "but completely unstoppable, at least with normal weaponry."
"Gentlemen," Gordon called turning away, "I suggest if we want to live, we go that way," he pointed in the other direction that the sound had come from and ran in that exact direction. Adam sped off after him, pushing Greshwald with him.
"What going... yipes!" Dylan exclaimed and turned to run after the others as a huge blue foot appeared behind the corner of the building they had been watching, sending another shockwave.
(Ha! Booyah! Fooled you, didn't I? Of course I was going to have the gargantuan appear. It wouldn't be Half-Life without the blue killing machine. Sorry I lied to you Jon, but I did it only so it wouldn't give out a plot twist. This would have sucked if you would have known garg would be coming, don't you agree? Ah well, let's just party. Next chapter might be a bit short sine it's mostly action, but it's gonna be gargantuan galore! Oh, and to any Russian reader out there: I'm sorry for stereotyping you. I realize Russians seem to always be bad guys these days (C&C Red Alert 2, Metal Gear Solid 2, etc.), but I only added it to keep the story interesting. In fact, I think Russia's a real cool place, and I don't really think Russians are all extreme communists. So please forgive me if someone was offended by this latest chapter. And one more pointer, the chapter's name is From Russia With Love. Gives out the plot, doesn't it?)
