Black Mesa
By Patrick Williams
Based on the storyline from Half-Life, a game from Valve Software and Sierra Studios. The Half-Life franchise is the property of Sierra Studios. All rights are reserved to Sierra Studios.
Chapter 12 – Interlopers
Xen
Gina, Gordon, and Colette had yet to encounter the more violent aspects of the Xen ecology. In another time, the trio might have marveled at Xen's beauty. But its beauty was tainted by their knowledge that at the core of this world lay a dark creature that threatened everyone and everything they had ever known or loved back home. Before they would leave this place, they would kill that creature or die trying.
Upon arriving, the trio had immediately spotted the pyramid. It towered over the rest of the landscape, clearly a building of some importance. It made sense that a being as powerful as the Nihilanth should live in such an intimidating structure. They trekked towards their new goal, climbing hills and crossing natural bridges as they went, all the while alert for the first sign of the massive armies they had encountered on Earth.
They climbed one final hill separating them from their goal. The gigantic pyramid was only a few miles away now.
"My God," Gordon exhaled, gazing out at the plains of Xen before them. The pyramid was surrounded by flatland separated from the rest of Xen by a ring of tall hills. Arrayed before them in the flatlands was an army more massive than they could have possibly imagined. Standing in perfect formation were tens of thousands of alien slaves, grunts, and other creatures they had not yet encountered. Gargantuas stood at the edges of the formation, like cavalry, while tremendous four-legged beasts milled about in the rear, like bizarre artillery units. The army surrounded the pyramid on every side, blocking any access.
"How the hell do we get past them?" Gina asked no one in particular.
As if to answer her question, a rumbling was felt from all around them. The trio dove for cover, not sure what to expect.
From all sides around the pyramid, jet black Abrams tanks rolled over the tall hills surrounding the flatlands. Black Ops commandos took up positions beside the tanks, setting up machine gun turrets and artillery launchers. Black Humvees equipped with missile launchers maneuvered into firing positions, and flatbed trucks full of troops unloaded their troop loads, ready to charge the alien formations before them.
"Black Ops - here?! What the hell?" Colette exhaled.
"This might be just the diversion we need to get in there." Gordon replied, grimly optimistic.
In the command Humvee, Dekker grabbed the handheld radio. "All units, assume formation Zeta-Bravo and prepare to fire."
The units sounded off, announcing their readiness for battle.
"All units, fire at will. Repeat - fire at will."
The tanks unloaded their shells upon the formations of aliens, sending bodies and pieces of bodies flying in explosions of dirt and yellow blood. The aliens charged the hills and a horrific screech echoed out from the mouths of every creature present. The anger of the Nihilanth had coalesced itself in a painful moment to every soldier in its army, giving them more cause to rush into battle – to end their suffering if for nothing else.
As the tanks continued their barrage, the four-legged creatures in the rear of the formations returned fire. Gigantic balls of electricity erupted from their bellies, arcing through the air towards the tanks and soldiers.
"Voltigore fire – incoming!" a spotter announced over the radio.
Several of the balls of electricity hit their marks, burning commandos to ashes where they stood and exploding ammunition caches within tanks, causing them to burst into flames.
The Humvees and soldiers rushed down the hills towards the remaining alien infantry. The aliens parted to make way for the Gargantuas rushing to greet the humans. The Gargantuas opened fire with their flame throwers, melting metal and flesh as they met their mark. Overhead, Mantas strafed the Black Ops formations, raining down electricity.
Dekker shouted into his radio, "Launch fighters!"
Dekker had a little surprise for the aliens. They had managed to bring several F-35s through the portal to assist them in the battle. These particular F-35s were designed for the Marine Corps, and like the Marine Harriers from the generation before theirs, the F-35s rose vertically from the surface of Xen to fly into battle.
The F-35s flew circles around the slower Mantas, and though they could not establish missile locks to fire, they managed to take care of the alien flyers. The F-35s strafed the columns of Gargantuas, taking a few out and distracting the rest to give the commandos a chance to regroup. Another roar erupted from the alien army. The Nihilanth was not pleased.
From their vantage point atop one of the hills around the Nihilanth's pyramid, Gina, Colette, and Gordon spotted a way through. A gap was forming in the alien ranks. There was no apparent threat from their particular hill, so the aliens were adjusting to compensate for their losses in other directions. It was just the break they were looking for to get past the defenses and into the pyramid.
The trio raced down the hill, hoping to get past the alien ranks without being spotted. Even with their high tech weaponry, they doubted they'd last long against the tremendous force before them. Fortunately for them, the arrival of the F-35s had distracted the aliens, and they were busy forming a new defensive front to face the new threats. The trio managed to reach the pyramid without a single alien spotting them.
They found themselves before a great gate, with no apparent way to open it. Just as they thought about finding another way in, the gate opened as a horde of alien grunts rushed out to provide backup for their dwindling ranks around the pyramid. The aliens failed to notice the three figures crouching in the shadows that leaped through the gate before it shut tight again. The trio had somehow made it into the Nihilanth's compound. Their battle was yet to come.
Black Mesa Warehouse Complex
Across space and time, another individual's battle was also upon him. After the battle at the dam, Corporal Adrian Shephard and his remaining team had driven up the coast of the man-made reservoir that fed water to the dam. Just when it seemed that the trail they had followed was growing cold, they spotted the black trucks in the distance, about a half mile ahead of them. The trucks were crossing a bridge over the reservoir, headed towards a warehouse on the far side of the water. Shephard gazed through night-vision binoculars at the caravan as it crossed the bridge. Several commandos jumped off the trucks and began setting up bunkers along the bridge. It would be quite a battle to get across. Shephard had a better idea.
From the back of the truck, Shephard retrieved an inflatable raft. The trio clambered in and set off, hoping there weren't any more snipers around to pick off anyone foolish try to sneak up on them. Shephard figured they were out of visual range to the casual observer.
Under the cover of darkness, the team crossed the reservoir. Just as the boat reached the midpoint of the reservoir, a shape emerged from the water. It looked like a shark fin, only much larger.
"Uh, Corporal?" Jackson asked, apprehensively. "What the hell is that?"
Shephard and Tower glanced over, and their eyes widened instantly. The shape had turned in their direction, and breached the surface for an instant, revealing a gaping mouth of teeth. It looked like some gigantic prehistoric shark – and it looked very hungry.
"Open fire!" Shephard shouted without a second thought.
The three soldiers brought their weapons to bear and fired, all of them painfully aware that their gunfire would reveal their presence to the commandos upstream on the bridge and in the warehouse across the water. None of that mattered to them as they filled the creature with lead. When it finally screeched and died, it slowly sunk to the bottom of the reservoir. As the echo from the screech died down, a new sound could be heard. It was gunfire coming at them from the bridge.
Shephard directed the soldiers to get the boat to shore as quickly as possible. They disembarked the ship and raced towards the warehouse. Bullets from the soldiers on the bridge sent clouds of dirt up all around them as they ran. They didn't stand a chance in the open, but they might stand a chance in close quarters. They reached the doors to the warehouse and burst in, weapons ready.
The warehouse was already abandoned. If they had been expecting a firefight, they were disappointed. The commandos had already come and done their work. Amidst the rows of boxes, in the center of the warehouse, the soldiers found their objective. The nuclear missile sat exposed before them, waiting for its firing mechanism to send its trigger signal. Unlike in bad action movies, there was no dramatic clock counting down the time until it exploded. It could have been rigged to go off in five seconds or five hours. They wouldn't know until it was too late.
Shephard looked to Jackson, who nodded. He had no experience disarming nuclear weapons, but knew that whoever had rigged this missile to blow must have used traditional firing mechanisms common for most bombs and improvised explosive devices. Jackson had yet to come up against an IED he couldn't diffuse. He went to work.
Shephard and Tower felt remarkably helpless. They could not assist Jackson in his work, but knew at any moment the Black Ops commandos would burst in to stop them from disarming the missile. They had gone to such great effort to put it here, and they would not abandon it so easily.
The few seconds that passed before the ambush seemed like an eternity. But the ambush that came was certainly not what they expected.
A figure burst through the warehouse gate, causing Shephard and Tower to whirl, ready to fire.
"Jones? What the hell are you doing here?" Shephard demanded. "What happened to Chavez?"
"Aliens, sir," Jones wheezed, clearly out of breath from his run. "They got Chavez… and they're right behind me."
"How'd you get past the commandos?" Tower asked.
"What commandos? I didn't--"
Jones was interrupted as the windows lining the top of the warehouse exploded inwards, showering the floor in broken glass. The soldiers assumed they were being ambushed by soldiers; that they were shooting out the windows to distract them. They didn't expect the bullets to change direction mid-air and target them.
"Take cover!" Tower shouted, as the soldiers rolled for cover behind boxes. The hornets buried themselves into the rows of boxes.
Jones stood there, dumbfounded.
"Get down, Jones!" Shephard ordered.
Jones slowly reached behind his head, seemed to find what he was looking for, and chuckled before falling to the ground. He was dead, with a hornet deeply imbedded in the back his skull.
"What the hell was that?" Shephard demanded. No weapon he had ever seen could change a bullet's course mid-air.
"It's the aliens, sir."
"Just great," Shephard remarked, not letting his panic show. "Tower, set up your gun to cover Jackson. I'll get your back. Let's get ready for this."
Xen
Gordon, Gina, and Colette had entered the pyramid and expected some sort of perverse temple to the Nihilanth's power. Instead, they found themselves in a factory. Larger than any assembly line yet conceived on Earth, it required hundreds of Vortigaunts manning stations around the chamber to supervise the thousands of large pods traveling down conveyer belts in various stages of preparation. They had no idea what was held within the pods, but their importance was readily apparent.
Their presence had not raised any alarms yet. The Vortigaunts around them seemed far too busy manning their posts to pay any attention to the three unexpected visitors that had somehow made it past the battle outside. The factory was running at breakneck speeds, churning out its production at almost dangerous speeds. They were too busy to even notice the entire pyramid shaking from the cacophony of war outside.
The trio carefully navigated their way through the factory floor, dodging pods that raced down the assembly line. Avoiding the workers as best they could, they carefully made their way towards the central core of the plant where they hoped to find a way up to the pinnacle of the structure. They knew implicitly that they would find their target there. However, it seemed that Murphy's Law was universal in nature. As they neared their goal, they saw that the only path to the center of the structure lay beyond a ring of pods identical to those being churned out on assembly lines around them. They had hoped to get through this crowded room without firing a shot, but the only way forward was to slice through the ring of pods. Little did they realize that these pods were more than a mere inconvenience. They were a defensive front.
Gordon picked a pod, aimed his gluon gun, and fired. The pod absorbed the energy from the weapon and combusted, revealing the cargo within.
"Oh God," Gordon muttered.
An alien grunt emerged from within the remains of the pod and a roar erupted throughout the factory. The whistle had been blown.
The alien grunt fired, sending several hornets into Gordon's armor. Gordon could hear the tiny projectiles drilling through his suit, and felt them dig into his skin. He screamed as the drill-like tips gorged through his flesh before finally running out of energy. Had it not been for the hazard suits slowing them down, the hornets would have easily drilled through Gordon's body like swiss cheese. As it was, the pain of the hornets' sting was almost too much to bear. The nano-particles of the hazard suit automatically detected the bleeding and applied tourniquets and bandages as required, and the hornets were expunged from the suit. All of this happened within a single second of the grunt firing.
In the next instant, Gina and Colette had reacted, firing with their gauss guns and slicing the Grunt to shreds. They rushed to Gordon's side and caught him as he stumbled, clearly shaken by the pain. It was fleeting, though, as his suit administered morphine to restore combat effectiveness. Gordon had once imagined that these suits had been designed to go to war with, and he had been right on the money.
Gordon looked out at the factory around them with a new understanding of its purpose. He noticed at one end of the room, Vortigaunts were lined up to step into a device of some kind, with gigantic pods emerging from the opposite end. The machines arrayed around the assembly line increased the Vortigaunts' body mass and applied powerful armor and weaponry. This factory transformed ordinary Xen aliens into powerful creatures to serve in the Nihilanth's army. Their pods could be teleported across space and time into battle at a moment's notice.
Now, pods all around them were erupting, and Grunts emerging to rush into battle. Their way was no longer clear, and it would get worse before it got better. The trio fired out at the clusters of aliens approaching from all sides. They backed their way through a doorway into the central core of the pyramid and welded the door shut behind them. They were in the clear for the moment, but knew their road would get worse before it got better.
Up at the pinnacle of the pyramid, the Nihilanth continued directing the actions of its minions. It now recognized the threat that the three humans posed now. It had watched through the eyes of the Grunt as they had unleashed powerful weapons that rivaled that of its own army. The Nihilanth chastised itself for concentrating too much on the battle outside. It had let these three slip right through its fingers. But they would not make it any farther. The Nihilanth sounded the general alarm throughout the compound. Everyone would be on the lookout for the interlopers now.
Black Mesa Warehouse Complex
Wave after wave of the alien horde flung themselves into the fray. Tower and Shephard mowed them down with automatic weapons fire, pausing only briefly and periodically to reload. Behind them, Jackson worked furiously to defuse the bomb. They still had no idea how much time was left, but they knew every second might be their last. It left a palpable sense of tension in the air that was penetrated only by the pure adrenaline of combat.
The aliens came at them like a hive of bees, through every nook and cranny of the building. It didn't take much to mow them down, and the two soldiers had established a decent defensive front. Nonetheless, Shephard desperately wished he had more squad members to cover Jackson. The two of them were doing an adequate job so far, but if just one alien got through, Jackson would be alien chow.
"Uhh, I think I'm done here, Corporal!" Jackson announced hesitantly.
"Cover me, Tower!" Shephard called, as he dashed over to Jackson's side. A quick examination of the nuke confirmed Jackson's diagnosis. The bomb was deactivated.
"Okay guys, let's get the hell out of here!" Shephard shouted. Tower rose from his position and folded the tripod of his M-249 back into the weapon. He never stopped firing at the waves of aliens still rushing through the doors and windows of the building.
The three soldiers clustered together in a triangle formation, each covering 120 degrees around them as they moved towards the warehouse's gate. As an alien burst out from cover to attack, it was mowed down instantaneously. Slowly and deliberately, the team made its way through the rows of boxes.
With the gate just a few feet away, the team noticed something strange. The alien onslaught had stopped. There were no more aliens bursting through the gate before them, no more flying through the windows above them, and no more clawing through the corrugated metal walls around them. Shephard didn't know what to make of this. They had either wiped out all of the aliens, or something bigger was about to greet them.
The warehouse gate slammed shut, causing the three soldiers to instinctively flinch but not break formation. The team was plunged into darkness as the lights switched off. They were too exposed near the gate, painfully far from the protection the rows of boxes might have given. Whatever was about to come, they were certainly not ready for it.
"You've done well, Mister Shephard," a slithery voice announced through the darkness. "You and your men are to be congratulated. Please, don't think my associates and I have been avoiding you. A great many matters require our attention in these troubled times. I do hope you understand. And now I require a further indulgence on your part. I can not close my report until every loose end has been tied up. The biggest embarrassment of this operation has been the Black Mesa Research Facility, but I think that's finally taking care of itself. You see, that bomb was just a diversion. The real bombs are located deep below the surface, far out of your reach I'm afraid. In just a few moments, they will explode, taking all evidence of this debacle with it."
Shephard cursed to himself. He should have known it was too easy, that the real bomb wouldn't have been so easy to track. He had let his team be led on a wild goose chase, and now it was too late.
The man with the snake-like voice continued, "But there is still the lingering matter of witnesses. I must admit, I have a fascination with those who adapt and survive against all odds. They rather remind me of myself, and if no other reason, I have argued to preserve you for a time. While I believe civil servants like yourself understand the importance of… discretion, my employers are not quite so trusting and rather than continually subject you to the irresistible human temptation of telling all, we have decided to convey you somewhere you can do no possible harm. And where no harm can come to you. I'm sure you can imagine there are worse alternatives."
"Screw you! Open fire!" Shephard shouted. Just as the soldiers brought their weapons up to fire, they found themselves unable to move. Something held them back and kept their muscles from responding.
"Yes, you three will be most useful to my employers. I will see you up ahead…"
The strange energy field holding them in place began to increase in intensity, sending a tingling sensation across their bodies. In a flash, they disappeared.
Xen
Gordon, Gina, and Colette rode the elevator up through the center of massive the pyramid. It ascended quickly, but still was taking quite some time to reach the top. The pyramid must have been several miles tall.
After several minutes, the elevator stopped before a tremendous portal. With an army of angry aliens below them, there was no other way to go but through it. With no idea what to expect, the trio took a leap of faith.
The trio emerged in a cavernous room. It was an arena of sorts, with what looked like hundreds of thousands of seats arrayed around it. The seats were empty now. Gordon somehow knew he had been in this room before, when he had first visited Xen.
They could feel the presence of the Nihilanth even before they gazed up and saw it. The Nihilanth hovered above them, intimidating in both size and power. The Nihilanth's massive cerebrum dominated its body architecture, containing a brain capable of guiding the actions of entire armies. It reminded them of the alien controllers they had fought, as they too could fly and had large brain cavities. Gordon wondered if there was a connection, but his thoughts were interrupted before he could take them too far.
You are the Free Man.
The words were not spoken so much as understood, and they appeared in their heads as if they were their own thoughts. But clearly the Nihilanth was speaking to them.
"I'm Gordon Freeman. I'm the one responsible for this mess, and I'm here to clean it up!" Gordon shouted up at the hovering behemoth.
Behind him, Gina and Colette began to laugh. Gordon turned and glared, but realized their laughter was just an expression through the Nihilanth. Gordon too felt the urge to laugh, but resisted. The power wielded by the Nihilanth was great indeed.
Gordon raised his gluon gun and fired. The energy arced towards the Nihilanth but splashed aside against a powerful orange energy field emanating from several crystals around the ceiling.
Gordon activated his communicator and spoke to Gina and Colette privately, hoping the Nihilanth could not read his thoughts. "You two, get up there and destroy those crystals. I think I know a way to keep the Nihilanth's attention on me."
"Let these two go!" Gordon shouted up again. "I'm the one that started this!"
Gina and Colette disappeared into the shadows.
Pitiful human. You bark with such ferocity, but can't even deliver a scratch upon me.
"Pitiful? We've slaughtered your army at every bend, and even now your army is fighting a losing battle outside this tower."
The battle outside is a minor annoyance. I have summoned a new, more powerful force to deal with them. That meddler's forces are but a minor distraction. I am the most powerful being in the multiverse, and you too will distract me no longer.
"If you're really the most powerful being in the multiverse, tell me this – why are you wearing chains about your wrists?"
The Nihilanth looked down at its wrists. The massive arm bands that had once imprisoned it were a painful reminder of its past.
Foolish human! Do you think anyone could imprison me? I serve no master!
"So you say. But how do you know your actions now aren't serving some higher purpose? Whoever put those chains on was powerful enough to make you what you are. What if you're still just their pawn?"
Fallacy! You do not know what you speak of. I am no longer anyone's pawn. I am the one that controls the pieces now!
Gordon knew he had struck a nerve. Whatever had put those chains on the Nihilanth had left deeper scars as well. "Your emotions reveal much!" Gordon taunted. "They show me that you resent your former captors. Tell me, are they still out there?"
It matters not. All that matters is that I wield the power now. I decide which worlds to subjugate and which to destroy. I decide who lives and who dies. And you, foolish human, will die for your insolence!
"That's it, isn't it? You were once just a lowly controller, but you were given a powerful gift, and you used it to escape from their control. Your captors are still out there, biding their time. They're letting you go on your little crusades, conquering worlds as you please. They're letting you do their dirty work for them. Do you think they forgot about you? Do you think they would just let you go?"
They let me go because I became too powerful for even them to control. And they will rue the day they face me again! Just as you will now!
The Nihilanth unleashed a furious attack. Tremendous orbs of orange energy rained down upon Gordon. He dove behind an outcropping of rock and the energy splashed off harmlessly.
"Yes, you do wield power!" Gordon called. "But I think you've become too content with it. You're losing your control. How else would three lowly humans infiltrate your fortress and get this far? Even if you kill me now, your army will see that you're losing your control over them. What if they fight back?"
They know I am their master! They can not resist me!
"Just like you couldn't resist your own masters!" Gordon shouted. "Face it! Your time is up!"
As if on cue, several explosions ripped through the cavern. Gina and Colette called through the communicator. "That's it, Gordon! The crystals are destroyed!" The two had climbed and jumped up several platforms to get to a level where they could destroy the crystals. Now they looked down upon the Nihilanth from a perfect vantage point to fire straight down into its skull.
"Kill the bastard." Gordon replied, coldly.
The three scientists unleashed their weapons upon the Nihilanth. Gina's and Colette's gauss guns sliced through the tender flesh surrounding its skull, and Gordon's gluon gun pecked away at its thick skin. The Nihilanth roared in fury, an emotion shared with every minion in its army.
The Nihilanth unleashed every weapon in its personal arsenal. Orbs of energy erupted in every direction, and Gordon dove behind cover again. He looked up and saw that Gina and Colette were far too exposed from their platforms. Several of the orbs circled them like vultures and moved in for the kill. With a flash, they disappeared.
"No!" Gordon shouted. He fired his gluon gun up at the Nihilanth's head, peeling away at the skin already sliced up by the gauss guns. Their combined assault had severely weakened the Nihilanth, and Gordon knew he had the creature on the ropes. Orange energy shone through cracks in the Nihilanth's thick cerebrum. With its weak point revealed, Gordon now knew what he had to do.
Gordon climbed up the rock outcroppings around the arena, dodging orbs thrown by the Nihilanth as he went. Nothing would deter him now with the end in sight. Up and up he climbed, getting ever closer to the optimum angle he needed. At long last, Gordon looked out upon the Nihilanth and saw his opening.
Gordon fired the gluon gun straight into the Nihilanth's skull. The force of the nearly point blank shot was too much. The massive cerebrum opened forth like a blossoming rose, revealing the true power within. Like a miniature sun, the source of the Nihilanth's power shone out, illuminating the chamber. Gordon's suit automatically tinted to protect his eyes from the glare, and he continued firing his gluon gun straight into the heart of the Nihilanth's brain stem. The dark energy emanating from within proved to be sensitive to the destructive force of the gluon gun.
In a blinding flash, the energy within the Nihilanth's cerebrum exploded, sending arcs of electricity throughout the chamber. Gordon knew the energy he had just released would probably take the entire pyramid with it. He had sealed his fate. But it was worth it. He had saved the entire world.
How is this possible?! You insignificant little worm!
The Nihilanth began to spin through the air in fury and agony. The pain from the energy erupting through its head must have been ferocious.
You have only delayed the inevitable. With my death, you have doomed your own world. You will never be rid of my armies!
The Nihilanth summoned what little power it had left to send its minions to Earth in full force. Outside the pyramid, the Black Ops commandos stopped in their tracks as the armies they had been fighting moments before vanished. The Nihilanth's final act was to send a distress signal to its former masters. The human had been correct. There were greater powers in the multiverse, albeit hidden from plain view. If the Nihilanth's signal got through, these humans would witness their strength first hand.
The Nihilanth gave a final roar and combusted, sending orbs of energy throughout the chamber. Gordon braced himself to be torn to shreds by the explosion.
Gordon lowered his arms and looked around him. He was standing outside, on one of Xen's many floating islands. Another figure stood before him, adorned in an immaculate gray suit. The man adjusted his tie.
"Gordon Freeman, in the flesh. Or rather, in the hazard suit." the man in the suit spoke, and Gordon instantly recognized this as the man who had led the Black Ops commandos in the garage. "I took the liberty of removing your weapons. Most of them were government property anyway. As for the suit, well, I think you've earned it. The borderworld, Xen, is in our control for the time being, thanks to you. Quite a nasty piece of work you managed over there. I am impressed. My associates have been watching your every move, and you have passed every test with flying colors. They agree with me that you have limitless potential."
"Your associates? How have you been watching me?"
The man smirked ever so slightly. "You've met two of my associates. Miss Green and Miss Cross think most highly of you. It was… unfortunate that I had to put them at such great risk, but I think the results speak for themselves. My employers have received their report on your actions, and Miss Green and Miss Cross are looking forward to working with you again."
Gordon breathed a sigh of relief upon the realization that his two friends had not died during the battle. But were they really his friends? Had they really been moles all along? "Why did they do it? Did they go through all of this just to watch me?"
"You have a great deal of questions, and all of them will be answered in time. That's why I'm here, Mister Freeman. I have recommended your services to my employers, and they have authorized me to offer you a job."
Gordon was taken aback. This entire ordeal had been one elaborate job interview! He didn't know what to think anymore. How much of the past few days' events had really been necessary? Surely the battle with the Nihilanth must have been for a greater purpose. Were the man's employers the ones who had once imprisoned the Nihilanth? Had he been sent to exact their revenge? Questions whirled through Gordon's mind, but he would not have time to ask them.
"You have proven yourself a decisive man, so I don't expect you'll have any trouble deciding what to do," the man continued. "If you're interested, step into the portal and I will take that as a yes. Otherwise, well… I can offer you a battle that you have no chance of winning. Rather an anticlimax, after what you've just survived."
"What about my other friends?"
"Those that survived have only delayed the inevitable. The battle at Black Mesa is but a taste of things to come. The Nihilanth has triggered a chain of events that do not bode well for them, I'm afraid. The years to come will not be easy for anyone. The survivors are free to go, of course, but many of them will wish they had died at Black Mesa. There is nothing you can do to change what is to come. All that is left to decide is on which side you stand."
Gordon's mind whirled with even more questions. What events had the Nihilanth set into motion? Did this mean Earth was still being invaded? How could it be any worse than what they had faced here?
Gordon opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted preemptively. "There is no time for questions. It's time to choose. Step into the portal and you will find your answers."
Gordon knew he had no choice. He stepped forward and disappeared into the portal.
"Well done, Mister Freeman! I will see you up ahead…"