Prologue, Chapter 3: Trauma
It didn't matter how much Black Mesa or Deus Ex: Human Revolution he played. Crawling through dusty vents was hardly an easy task. The only thing that kept Joseph moving was the idea of returning the favor to whomever had shot the security guard. He had drawn his P226 out, ready to shoot whomever he didn't immediately identify as a friend.
He walked up to another vent grate, and looked through the holes. He saw the main entrance, mostly devoid of life. Bodies of scientists and guards alike littered the floor. In the center were two men in black body armor, armed to the teeth with silenced MP5s. One of them with a deep voice spoke up, his voice modified through a radio. "This operation's gone better than I expected. We lure them in and kill them. Simple and easy."
Evidently they hadn't been gifted with intelligence, as simple and easy were synonyms.
"Heard about this Mandaiyar guy? They say he's genetically engineered. Dangerous."
Joseph cringed. He hated that being brought up. Being…altered…and taught to be a soldier from age 6 was nothing he was proud of. If it weren't for Dr. Freeman, he never would have learned to be normal. He always would have been a soldier if it weren't for him. Sometimes, during combat situations, a little voice in Joseph's head told him that he should be grateful for being taught how to shoot and fight and think…and then the rational side of him remembered the enhancements, the beatings, the ever-present need to be better or die. He hadn't exactly gotten a good hand in life.
"Still probably not as dangerous as we are, though," the soldiers said.
"Yeah," Bonehead #2 replied. "Definitely not even close to us."
We'll see about that, Mandaiyar thought.
He continued on down the shaft, and soon he came to an open exit. Stealthily, he jumped down, making no noise. He was in a hallway, on the path from the Armory to the Annex. He moved down the hallway, crouched, looking for targets. Suddenly, Joseph saw one. A lone soldier. Suddenly, realizing the soldiers he had passed were in the nearby Annex, he developed a plan to take all three down quickly.
Joseph unclipped a grenade from his belt, drawing a bead on the lone soldier with his handgun. It was important that he make the shot or the entire plan could fold around him. He took a breath in, and prepared to fire. He took the shot.
The soldier was hit in the head, and fell to the ground as though hit by a shovel. Down the hall, in the Annex, he could hear the soldiers yelling, having heard the shot. They began to run down the hallway. Joseph put down his pistol and pulled the pin on the grenade. Three…two…one! He threw the grenade and rolled behind a corner. The two soldiers rounded the corner to face a live grenade. They could barely recognize the threat before they were thrown back into the annex, dead.
Though he had defeated the Terrible Trio, Joseph knew that there would be more. He ran into the armory. On a table next to a dead security guard was a G36C Carbine. He picked it up and grabbed two mags for it off the guard, then made for another vent as he heard footsteps through the hall. He entered just as he saw the soldier turn the corner.
Now Joseph was hot off his first victory. He reloaded his pistol and checked his ammo count for the carbine. Though his training had taught him to be stealthy and he wished for a silencer, he could be stealthy in other manners. He now headed for the upper level, overlooking the Annex. When he got to this level, he gently removed the vent grating, not wishing to catch unwanted attention.
The lights were out in the upper level, the staff presumably having left and the soldiers presumably having already scanned. Joseph crept along, looking for any life. He moved into a room, completely dark except for the light from the lobby. He raised his rifle and scanned the room –
Suddenly, Joseph felt someone tackle him onto the floor in the dark. They rolled, and the other man ended up on top. The man pulled out a knife and pointed it at Joseph's throat. It was at this moment that he realized that the man was a fellow guard.
"Wait!" Mandaiyar whispered. "I'm a friendly."
It took the other man a second, but he rolled off Joseph and onto the floor. "Name?" he whispered.
"Barnes?" Joseph asked.
"That's my name, idiot!"
"Jeez, calm down. I'm MANDAIYAR. Are you Barnes or his other deep voiced twin?"
"Barnes I am. Sorry about that. I was standing outside when the bombings began-"
"Bombings?" Josephs whispered. "So they bombed, and then…"
"I ran inside to take cover, but I saw soldiers deploying off helicopters and onto the facility. So I ran up here, and hid." The tension in Barnes's whisper was gone now as he realized he was with a friend.
"Hey, I heard a bang and a boom a coupla minutes ago. Was that-"
"Yup, that was me," Mandaiyar responded. "I came up here through the ventilation system."
Barnes nodded, and then said "Look, I'm pretty sure I saw a whole squadron of them go into the building. I say we go kill the rest, than we go and see if we can find ourselves some survivors. I don't have a weapon, though…"
"Sounds like a plan to me," Mandaiyar responded. He unholstered his P226. "Take this. I got my G36, and that's all I need."
"All that time on the range is gonna pay off now." Barnes said.
"When did you have time to go to the range?"
"Most days, actually."
"But you're at the door most days, right?"
Barnes grinned, and said "I may be old, but I ain't docile, Joseph."
"So you went to the range while you were supposed to be doing your job."
"Yup."
Mandaiyar smiled and said "Man, Barnes, if the facility wasn't getting invaded and sustaining massive casualties, I'd write you up. Guess I'm glad for it now, though."
The pair walked down the stairs, ironsights to their eyes as they prepared to fight. They first encountered a group of soldiers heading out of the Armory, where Joseph had ambushed the three soldiers. There were about 5, all heavily armed. None of them were ready for a fight, though. Their leader, the literal tallest head in the room, was talking to them all. "This Mandaiyar fellow is highly dangerous. We have reason to believe it was him that killed Theta, Epsilon, and Zeta. Be on your guard."
Mandaiyar paid no heed as he level his gun at them. Barnes did as well, the both of them hidden by the shadows. "3…2…1…NOW!" Mandaiyar said.
Having pre-selected targets, the two men fired. Mandaiyar's first burst took out 3 and 4, and Barnes's shot hit their leader straight in the head, crumpling him to the ground. 2 and 5 leveled their guns at the two, but Mandaiyar's second burst from the carbine made quick work of them. The two reloaded their guns and walked down to survey their handiwork. "Ah, lookie here," Barnes said. "They seem to be carryin' our weapons and our ammo."
They were indeed. The men looted the ammo and took nearly all of it, including grenades, holstering it in various places around their body. "I always wondered what it was like to be a Heavy," Barnes said.
The two headed down the hallway to the Office Complex, in the same formation. This time, though, they were preparing to shoot at the first chance they received. They entered the main room. Immediately, Mandaiyar registered multiple soldiers throughout the room. "Flank 'em!" he said.
Barnes went right, and Mandaiyar went left. They both began to single out individual targets and leveled their weapons at them. Joseph began firing in short bursts and then crouching behind cover as the enemy returned fire. His accuracy was near perfect, and he made quick work of the attackers. Barnes, his unregulated practice time on the range paying off, did the same.
Suddenly, a black-clad soldier emerged to the side of Barnes. Mandaiyar was already engaging someone, and even if he had aimed quickly, it wouldn't have been fast enough to save Barnes. The soldier aimed and fired…
Just as a loud rifle-loud soud pierced the air, the impact of the projectile sending the soldier flying into the wall.
Barnes barely hit the ground before the string of bullets cut through the air above him. After the volley of lead had stopped, he stood up. Mandaiyar looked at the direction of the shot.
Standing there, with a .44 in hand, was Shephard, grinning.
"Well, now we're even, Grandpa," said Shephard. It was a name playfully given to Barnes and used by many, though he was only 55.
"I'd suppose so," Barnes replied.
"Man, Shephard, how'd you get out from the main desk? I thought you'd be the first one dead." Joseph asked.
"I almost was," Shephard replied. "I saw Barnes running upstairs, and when Barnes runs from something you know it's bad. I ran to Dr. Freeman to protect him. I tried to help the others, but some of them didn't make it," he gestured to the various corpses on the ground of the Office Complex. "Here, I'll lead you two to Freeman."
He led them along a path down to the Sector E Tunnels. Right at the entrance, they came to a large janitor's closet. Shephard rapped hardly on the door twice, and then 3 times: one two, one one two. After several seconds, a shotgun popped around the corner, and the door opened. Freeman stepped out.
"Joseph! Charles! You're alive! Thank God. I was beginning to think we were the only ones down here." Freeman said. He beckoned the three of them to come in, and they obliged.
Inside the closet, there were multiple scientists on the ground, eating protein bars and drinking water. Pierce, a Heavy, stood above them, M249 SAW resting on the ground. "As you can see, gentleman, we have gathered every Sector C survivor we could find here. Our safe haven, if you will."
"Freeman…what happened?" Mandaiyar asked.
"Matarus attacked us. He bombed the facility and then deployed his soldiers into the facility. As far as we can tell, they've occupied every sector of L-150, except Sector E."
"Wow…" Mandaiyar said. "Everyone else has been killed?"
"Not so," said Freeman. "There are still survivors throughout the facility…except for Sector A, as far as we can tell, everyone there is dead. The largest gathering of them…and enemies…is in Sector E, the Biology lab. They're still holding out there. Unfortunately, we can't send you through the tunnel system to get there, you'll have to go aboveground, there's at the side of this tunnel. You'll fight your way to get to D, and then carry on to E. You 3 will be our advance guard: you will clear the area ahead of us, and we'll follow, Pierce guarding us. You won't have to do it alone: we've contacted the US military and they're sending a large group of Marines to help us hear. Therefore, you can probably get them to help us clear E, and evacuate us from the facility.
Mandaiyar, Shephard, and Barnes started down the hallway. "Oh,and Joseph?" asked Freeman.
"Yes?"
"Good luck…you'll need it."
Mandaiyar nodded in acknowledgement, and led Shephard and Barnes along the path.
Hold on, Kate, he thought. I'm coming.
