Adventure

Cave Johnson looked over the resume again, brow furrowed, before looking over at Caroline and nodding. "Fifteen years service in the army, with a good bulk of it in Vietnam. Excellent health, a thirst for danger, and an obsessive love of his country. He'd be perfect for a test subject."

Caroline nodded in response, buzzing the door open. "Mr. Pierce? Mr. Johnson will see you now."

He was tall, tan, and in his early forties, and walked with a smooth, confident air about him. Cave had been impressed before. Now he was blown away. The man held out a well worn hand and shook his firmly, grinning. "Name's Rick Pierce, Mr. Johnson. Pleasure to meet you. I'm told you've been working on top secret equipment for the military you want me to try out?"

Cave nodded. He liked him more and more every second. "Take a seat, Rick. Can I call you Rick?" Rick nodded, stealing a glance at Caroline and winking at her. She blushed furiously and excused herself. Cave laughed heartily. "They warned me that you were a lady killer."

Rick shrugged, grinning. "What can I say? Pretty ladies are my specialty."

"Indeed." He leaned forward. "Now if we could get down to business, I have a proposal that I think you'll enjoy." Pulling out a large stack of blueprints, Cave handed them over. Rick's eyes lit up slightly, running a finger over the "TOP SECRET" label, before diving in.

After a minute of silence, he looked up, slightly confused. "I'm afraid I don't understand sir. What is all this?" He flipped through a few more designs, pausing on one marked "Aperture Science Sentry Turret". "This looks like a robotic grasshopper or something. How could any of this benefit the military?"

Cave's smiled widened, a crazy gleam in his eyes. "Would you like to see for yourself?"

"Hello? Would you come over here?"

RATATATATATATATATA!

The unlucky test subject hit the ground with a sickening THUD, blood oozing from pretty much everywhere there was to ooze.

"Are you still there? Sleep mode activated."

The turret closed down, its optic dimming to black.

Rick had watched the whole spectacle with his jaw scraping the floor. Yes, it wasn't a real person, just a robot made to move and bleed like one, but the life-like nature of it just made it that much more terrifying.

"Well I'll be damned…" He leaned forward, watching the automated chamber cleaners drag the robot out and cleaning the blood away. "That might be the scariest damn thing I've ever seen. You are a madman."

Cave Johnson ignored him. "Now the military is interested in buying several thousand of these units, but I seriously doubt your unit will need more than 300. They're five times deadlier than a Gatling gun, and shoot without prejudice." He turned to the soldier. "What do you think? Impressive, huh?"

He kept staring at the little turret, now powered down and "sleeping". It looked almost cute when it was off, and even when it spoke it had a little childlike voice. "If I can be frank, Mr. Johnson…." The turret sprang to life and shot at one of the janitors, who just narrowly escaped intact. "I really don't think the world's ready for killer deathbots." Rick scowled at the dumbstruck CEO. "I've seen combat, Mr. Johnson. You ever stared into the eyes of a man you killed? I didn't think so. If you had, you'd be inventing machines to help humanity, not wipe us all out." Shoving past him, Rick headed for the door. "Good day."

"I'm sorry the military deal didn't work out, Mr. Johnson." Caroline set a fresh mug of coffee down on his desk, smiling apologetically. "If it makes you feel any better, Mr. Pierce was sworn to secrecy before he left, so there's no chance of an investigation or a lawsuit."

Cave rolled his eyes, patting his secretary on the shoulder. "Always the optimist, eh Caroline?" He took a sip. "Woman, you make the best coffee ever. I should give you a raise." She blushed prettily and sat at her desk. He grinned to himself, picking up a stack of paperwork and looking them over. "As it turns out, Mr. Pierce changed his tune shortly after he left."

Caroline jerked her head up in surprise. "Really?"

"Oh, yes. You'd be surprised how much he's supporting us now."

TWENTY YEARS LATER…

"Are you still there?"

He was tired.

Too tired, and too damn old to be running tests anymore, but that terrible machine refused to let him leave.

Pulling himself behind one of the broken wall panels of the chamber, a now worn out and thin Rick Pierce threw himself against the cold concrete and closed his eyes. These "rat dens", as he called them, were some of the only blind spots in the entire facility, and were the only chances he had to sleep. A sixty four year old man shouldn't have to do this, he thought groggily. He shouldn't have to do this in the first place. Picking up a piece of charcoal, Rick added his own message: "Cave Johnson is a murderer".

Then sleep found him.

The thing about Aperture Science is, eventually you can't hide anymore.

The scientists shakily emerged from their hiding spots, breathing a sigh of relief as GLaDOS powered down. Luckily, she only had time to turn the neurotoxin on long enough to be at half power, so it hadn't been completely lethal. Most of them survived this time.

One of them grumbled angrily, yanking the newest core off her mainframe and tossing it to the ground. "One, who's idea was it to NOT wipe his memories beforehand? And two, why did we think it'd be a good idea to put something like that on her?"

The other scientists shook their heads, giving a fearful look to the corrupted core, writhing on the ground and screaming in anger. "CAVE JOHNSON IS A MURDERER. YOU'RE ALL MURDERERS."

"Throw it on the pile with the other failed cores. We just have to try again."