Chapter 1: Tremendous Bounty on the Seas
Yet again, the One Free Man thought he was stranded. Back in the darkness that was an unknown realm, he stood there, not moving. Then, images of ice, deserts, canyons, forests, islands, and other things filled through his head in a tremendous motion. The darkness would then become light…
Dr. Freeman would later wake up in an infirmary. Many sick bodies, some with limb busted, others sick or dying, some already dead. The smell of rubbing alcohol filled the sea air…
"Dr. Freeman! You've awaken!" said an overlooking nurse. She was well in her thirties, and had a pale skin. Nothing else was really outstanding about her, except that she wore a black dress instead of the normal white one. "Captain O'Connor would like to speak with you soon! You're the most important piece to our invasion of City 23! Please, come with me."
The physicist slowly got out of the cramped room. It was filled with medicine of all kinds, including a new treatment for scurvy, which didn't exist before. Posters of the Lambda symbol on the wall were everywhere, reminding him of that faithful day that would forever change the fate of the world.
Outside of the infirmary, Gordon discovered a vast body of water, one like he had never seen before. He had never seen an ocean, or a sea for that fact, so this sight was a welcome change to the usual bland atmosphere at MIT and Black Mesa. The serene waves and "CAW!" of the birds calmed him down, as it would any man. The smell of the salty water was refreshing compared to the industrial air from City 17. Truly, this was a stressed man's paradise.
On the front deck of the boat waited an old scruffy man. A nice-sized scar was on his face, easily identifiable as a wound from a sheath knife due to the heaviness it had. His brown hair and beard were starting to turn gray on the top. His eyes seemed tired, like they belonged to a man in much need of rest, like Freeman's eyes. He may be old, but he seemed to have a sense of style and charm that any European man had. Must be French, thought the doctor.
"Ah, Gordon Freeman!" exclaimed the aging man. Gordon was wrong; his accent was clearly Irish, just like his name.
"I'm truly; truly happy to see you awake. Being one of the only ones to survive the New Mexican tragedy already made you famous, but single-handedly destroying City 17's power core AND Wallace Breen at the same time! That, my friend is legendary!"
The doctor smirked, feeling a sense of pride and joy that he felt very little of after the disaster in Black Mesa. After all, he carried out the experiment; so naturally, he thought he was one of the ones responsible.
"Now where were we…oh yes!" shouted the sea captain, still happy at the sight of the lone physicist in the orange vest. "Well, as you must know by now, there are other cities, large ones just like City 17 out there. One's with Citadels of the same design…well, some of them." He continued on with his ramblings.
"Well, we are currently are en route to what you may know as Cairo. We now call it City 23, the Fuel Pipeline. This is the main source of petroleum for the Combine's Earthen Army. We take that whole city out; we literally demobilize the Combine…temporarily at least. Seeing as you destroyed a headcrab breeder and leveled a city's generator, I doubt you need a tutorial on how to kill." Yet again, the physicist smirked and nodded at this statement.
"Okay then," said the captain. "Let's get you stoc…"
Suddenly, the sound of cannons filled the air. Booms and bangs, each spilling out gunpowder by the pound, were coming from far away.
"BOUNTY HUNTERS!"
A relatively large ship could be seen from far away. A ship that was made of the finest quality steel and engines of the highest technology. They must have known, there was no other explanation.
They knew the man destined to undo his own mistake was on that ship. And they sure as hell wouldn't let him correct anything.
"MAN THE CANNONS! BLOW THAT SHIP TO THE DEPTHS OF DAVY JONES'S LOCKER!" O'Connor's voice filled the air in perfect unison with the screams from all of the crew. Men and women of diverse races were working together to bring down their bane. They must not let them get Freeman. They were told to only do one thing if the met the 1998 legend: Become a human shield.
Mortar cannons and machine guns filled the sound of the air. Splash after splash, sploosh after sploosh, water came up as did smoke. First the hunters were hit, and then the ship whose sole purpose was to protect one man got shelled. It seemed as if the fight would never end.
"Abandon ship!" Get off of this soon to be hellhole!" Yet again, O'Connor's voice filled the air, a perfect harmony to the sounds of mortars, cannons, and machine guns. "They just released a Breen…GET THE HELL OFF OF HERE!"
People were starting to jump overboard, including Freeman. It turns out that the "Breen" he was talking out was some huge missile…about the size of half a football field in length. Gordon knew perfectly what this missile was capable of. He took part in working on a similar, air based version of this. He knew an aqua version was being developed, but he didn't know how powerful it would be compared to the air version. They were capable of producing the same exact explosion.
"Long live the R.M.S. Kronos!" The words of Captain O'Connor would forever be remembered with this final moment. The Breen missile rammed into the ship, causing a massive explosion that rocked the whole Mediterranean from Turkey to Spain. O'Connor's body was dissolved by the explosion, along with the cruiser. Gordon was knocked out as well, not knowing what would happen for quite a bit.