Thanks to Wings of Reparation, I finally have some motivation to continue this story since he seems to be one of the only one reading this and giving me feedback. Thanks a lot, Wings! But anyway, this is probably one of my favorite chapters. The stuff that goes on here really sets the mood of F.E.A.R. that I loved playing on my PC. To be honest, I have a few chapters already finished at this point so I might be updating sooner than what I usually do, so stay tuned!
Mazel tov! Not sure what that has to do with this chapter, but I always wanted to say it =D
F.E.A.R.
FIRST ENCOUNTER ASSAULT RECON
INTERVAL 06 - INTERCEPTION
AFTERIMAGE
The "Point Man"
From where I jumped down to, I seemed to be in in the part of the building with some power not working. Shadows and darkness took up most of my sight in this place, with the occasional light bulb sticking out from the halls. When I moved forward a few feet, an alarm went off as another one of those turrets came down. But just as soon as it did, the alarm seemed to have died out with sparks coming out of the machine. The defense turret then came down to the ground on its own, as if something sabotaged it. Don't know how, but I'm not going to complain my fortune.
Some piles of blood were on the floor in front of me and behind the counter next to me. Hard to tell when all of this might have happened. Going down the hall with a ramp on the right, Armacham's triple diamond-shaped logo was shown to the sides of the wall. Reaching the end of it, there was a room behind some thick glass that I could barely see into, for it was too dark for me to make out what was inside. Down the hall to the left was some small office rooms and another hallway around the corner. But before I reached the end there, someone slowly turned their head to look at me. A voice echoed into my head.
"It wasn't my fault..."
Before I could question what that meant, the person withered away into black dust. It was hard to tell who it was for he had some blood scattered across his face and chest. Seeing this guy reminded me of Spencer, Charles, and Moody who came to me in similar circumstances. Anyway, I kept on going to when I reached the corner that I saw a office with only one light working inside over a table. In there was another phone available with a blinking red light. I had pressed play while making sure nothing would surprise me from behind. The voicemail apparently from that Aristide woman.
"Iain, can you send me copies of any materials your task force has put together on the Origin anomalies? Harlan is supposed to be updating me daily, but apparently he's got his hands full with the grudge he insists on carrying. I hope he's not dribbling too much poison in people's ears. I take full responsibility for what happened to the team, but wishing won't bring them back. In any case, now's not the time for assigning blame. We have to work together as a team to get through this crisis. Thanks so much."
Just what on earth could've happened in there? I was almost a little worried to want to guess what might've gone on down there. Getting back out into the hall, there was an electrical door I could use to. Entering inside, I reached some kind of workplace for some machines and what not. Some lights were still working here, so that's a plus. Moving on, I was walking through the place when I saw someone on the other side of some windows from the other side of here. It was Paxton Fettel. He was just standing there watching me. When I walked up to the glass, I could tell for sure it was him. If the glass wasn't reinforced, I would've blasted him with my gun to end this crisis.
"You again..." he muttered with an annoyed tone. I also noticed he had some fresh blood over his mouth and jacket. Does that mean he killed someone here, too?
"They tried to bury their sins, but instead planted the seeds of their doom." As he said this, his body started to wither into the air until he was completely gone. Then... he wasn't really there? His voice echoed into my head as he said something to me that left my body frozen.
"A war is coming. I've seen it in my dreams. Fire sweeping over the earth, bodies in the streets, cities turned to dust... Retaliation..."
I wasn't sure why, but when he was saying all that to me... I almost felt like some kind of connection was made from him. It's hard to explain, but it felt kind of... familiar. Have we met before in our lives and I didn't know? What the hell am I thinking about...? That couldn't be, there was no way we had some history. He's a psychic, and as much as I hate to admit it, definitely a good one. All this crazy shit I'm seeing today started because of him when this mission began. And it's going to end with his death. That I promise, Fettel.
Leaving the area where I last saw him, I went to the right to reach the darker parts of this lab. Turning on my flashlight, I used it to help see where I could go. Suddenly, the cart next to me just moved. Not like on its own, but as though something was on it and jumped off it. God, this place is getting to me... After exiting this place with another electrical door, I went through a couple more long halls. There was another one with the lights actually working to the left of me. There was door alongside the middle of this place on the left I could enter. But as I was walking towards there, my sight turned to black.
I was now in the same hall I was where all that blood reached up to my waist before. Only this time, there wasn't any in here now. There was a lone stretcher lying out next to the door at the far end, with some blood dried out on it. The screams of a woman were heard ahead of me as a baby was crying. My body was compelled to go there... to understand.
"I didn't know..."
It was that same voice I heard a moment ago before I had seen Fettel. As I reached the doors, with the windows all filthy and dripping with blood, the woman was screaming so loud that everything had turned to white.
"No!"
When I could see again, I was now on the other end of the hall where some vending machines were. Looking back, I saw that I passed the door I was originally going to. So was it another hallucination? But it felt so real this time. Even more than before last time I was there. A feeling of nostalgia went through my body, which I could not explain nor understand. It felt like the more of this I was experiencing, the more real they were becoming. Another voice had echoed through my mind, the same one as it did in that place.
"I didn't understand... The dead... stay... dead..."
Maybe now was the best time to tell Betters. But as my hand reached the comlink, I stopped. Just how would I explain all this? No one else was reporting any unusual activity like the stuff I'm seeing. Or are they keeping quiet about it too? Goddammit, I don't know what to think anymore. I keep on going one direction on how to approach stuff, only to second-guess it a minute later. If I can finish this mission and take care of Fettel, then maybe all of this will be over. Hopefully... It has to...
Reaching the door, I opened it to see I was now in some kind of generator room. There was a partially open door to the left corner of this room I could take. But when I looked over there, a shadow of a person was seen at the far end. Raising my SMG, I carefully walked over there. Before I had reached the door, the light went out to the next room. Just as it came back on, the shadow was gone. Slowly, I peeked inside the next room to find no one there. The room I was in now was still connected to the generator, so I kept on going until I reached the next door on the other end. Before I opened it, there was some chatter heard on the other side.
"Any sign of Hives?"
"No. Looks like we missed the party." It was ATC security. Definitely sounded like them. Looks like they are trying to waste Hives as well.
Then it hit me. That person I saw back at that corner when I first came to this place... could that have been Iain Hives? I never saw him before, so I couldn't say for sure. But I remember seeing Fettel earlier with some fresh blood on his body. So, if these guys are looking for Iain, does that mean that Fettel got to him first? It was the only theory I had, because for some reason I really doubted I would be seeing that guy in this place.
Opening the door carefully, I looked out to see about three of ATC's guards patrolling the work area. It had some office supplies and medical equipment laying around on some tables and desks. They had their backs towards me which meant I could get the drop on them. Bringing up my SMG, I opened fire at all three of them one at a time before they could fight back. One turned around to see and tried yelling "Help!" before I killed him as well. Continuing on, I made my way to the other end of this room to where some stairs were at.
Going down, I stopped when the next set to the left led into the lower office area. There were three more of the guards coming into the area, probably as reinforcements for the previous squad. Throwing my last grenade to them, it made contact with one of them as it exploded, killing him and his two partners. Seeing as how the place was clear, I went down the steps to look around for a bit. There was a laptop on a desk to the far left of this place with some documents of ATC up. I sent all that to Betters to when he eventually contacted me.
"Get this. A few weeks ago, ATC reopened the Origin facility. They were planning to clean it out and start the program back up. But they lost contact with everyone they sent in. So they just sealed the place back up."
Was that what Aristide meant about sending a team down there? Did something bad happened there again for Armacham that they pretty much repeated the same mistake? They must have pulled some sick shit or something down there if they are going to these lengths to cover up a few secrets. Gonna have to keep my eyes open for anything else to find.
I went up ahead to a corner in the north side of the room to where I heard gunfire up ahead. ATC guards were yelling out "Help me!" as I peeked around the corner. There was a fenced gate in place in this hall to where I could see about 2-3 of the guards firing at something to the right of me. To the left was a door that led into a small security post to where some weapons and grenades were stockpiled in here. The window inside here showed the action going on down the hallway that had some elevators to the sides of this place. ATC security was facing off against a squad of Replicas with a Heavy Armor unit stationed at the far end of this area. They hadn't noticed I was watching them from here, as they were too busy trying to take the other out.
With the way things are going though, the Replicas were easily overpowering ATC's manpower. There was a door in here that led out to where the battle was taking place. If I opened it now, ATC would be distracted by my presence and be killed off by the Replicas. Before I did that, though, I restocked on SMG rounds, some shotgun shells, and a couple of hand grenades. Kicking the door open, ATC security was shocked to notice me as they turned their attention away from the current conflict. The moment that they did, the Replicas opened fire at where the guards were and disposed of them. Now to take care of them.
Tossing a grenade on over to them, it exploded on impact with the Heavy Armor, damaging it greatly as well as weakening the other soldiers. Bringing up my RP machine gun, I opened fire at the wounded soldiers before they were able to get back on their feet. All that was left was to finish off this monster-like Replica. It was advancing slowly to where I was while firing several nails from its Penetrator weapon. Using my heightened reflexes, I dodged to the left taking cover next to a tossed over vending machine. I waited for it to get closer before I came back up and shot it with several shotgun bursts. Soon enough, this thing died screaming out in pain after taking about 10 shells to the chest.
After reloading my guns, I went through the damaged hallway that the Replicas and ATC duked it out on. I had noticed that there were a few more bodies lying around on each side full of bullet holes and shrapnel covering their bodies. Thank God I didn't have to face them all earlier. The area to the left of the fork at the end of this place was closed off, so I took the right path that led to a darkened area of hallways. It was just some meeting rooms in here that appeared to be empty. Before I continued on, Betters contacted me.
"Shit, I think Fettel's going after that Alice Wade chick Bishop mentioned. Looks like he's heading for the executive building." Great, I can see where this is going.
"You've got to get to her before he does. She might be able to help us figure out what Fettel's after."
It's a long stretch, but he might just have a point. All the people Fettel has gone after have been important figureheads with Armacham one form or another. And since Alice is Harlan Wade's daughter, and that Harlan is one of the major players of ATC, it would make sense as to why Fettel would go after her. It was time for me to pick up the pace.
Going down this place, I went down a set of stairs that came down to the lower level. At the far, far end of this hallway was about two Replicas units turning around the corner and coming down here. I hid in the darkest parts of this hall and waited for them to get closer. As they were approaching my position, I blasted them both to hell with my shotgun as their bodies were flown back in agony. Heading further down here, I turned around the corner to another hallway with some open offices along the path. I had also found myself in front of two more Replicas walking towards me.
They didn't have time to shoot me for I fired at both of them with my shotgun. With this distance, I was lucky that I was even able to kill them from here. Before moving on ahead, I checked out each office one by one here to find anything of importance. All there was some spare ammunition and remote bombs on a table. There was also a phone with a voicemail. Only it wasn't anything special, for when I pressed play it was just some man saying "Hey, it's me. Call me, okay? I'll try your cell phone." I guess it would be too unusual if every phone I checked had something important to say every time I checked one out.
Going around the next corner, I had reached another room with several elevators to the left side. None of them were working, but that wasn't the problem. The problem was another squad of Replicas with another Heavy Armor in here. They had seen me and opened fire to where I was, with only my reflexes saving me by taking cover next to a support pillar. Grabbing one of the two remote bombs I got earlier, I threw it over back to where they where and pressed the switch activating it. The blast engulfed the two soldiers and the Heavy unit.
Getting back out of my cover spot, I brought up my shotgun and finished them all of with the loaded weapon. It all went pretty much the same way as earlier, with some major deja vu going on. With barely any shotgun shells remaining, I dropped it to the ground and quickly replaced it with the dead Heavy's Penetrator weapon. There was some spare ammo for it lying on the ground next to a closed shutter gate. After picking it up, there was a set of double doors leading outside onto a small balcony. Below me was an area I jump down to that I can probably use to take a shortcut to the Executive Building.
After I went down there, I was ambushed by two more Replicas firing at me from quite the distance up ahead. Carefully aiming down the sights of the Penetrator, I fired only two nails into each of the their heads as they instantly died and fell to the ground. Continuing on, I went past some plants in the center of the area underneath where those offices I was at were. And just when I thought that I was in the clear, something heavy at dropped down into the open area ahead of me. When the smoke settled, I saw to my surprise another one of those machines, the REV6 armored unit that I encountered a while ago.
My options were real limited here. I didn't have a rocket launcher to take this thing down, and the only way I could damage it would be with the grenades and Penetrator I was carrying. And like it's "predecessor" it had the dual set of rocket launchers on its arm joints that can easily kill me. Only other advantage I had is that this open space is easy enough for me to circle this thing while shooting at it. As it was coming towards me, it fired multiple rockets at once.
With some careful dodging, I jumped to the side while firing several nails from my gun into the beast. Some of them had not only hit its main chest area, but one of them also hit the arm joint causing some sparks to fly from it. Getting back on my feet, I used this window of opportunity to run up towards the machine as it was trying to get its arm back online. I opened fire with the Penetrator as each nail that was left in this magazine into its chest and limbs. With the Penetrator empty, I tossed one of my grenades on over to it as it exploded on impact to the REV6's legs. As the grenade went off, the entire mech unit blew up along with it as several pieces were flown off into several directions. A job well done.
Unfortunately, my job wasn't done yet. To the right, three Replica troops burst through the door to the building on the right on a ledge a few feet up. It was some of the more advanced soldiers, for they had on the red visors on their helmets. Opening fire, I only was able to kill about two of the three for the last one tried to take cover. He got back up and quickly and brought out some kind of weapon that I did not recognize. He aimed near from where I was, and fired some kind of purple light from the weapon towards me. I only barely dodged it by hopping over to the side by the wall closer to him. I don't know what on earth that thing is, but I shouldn't risk staying out in the open to get hit by it.
Peeking my head out, I saw him crouched down waiting for a chance to strike. From here, he was lined up perfectly for me to get him back. I pulled out my SMG and fired several rounds to him before he could have the chance to hide in another spot. He screamed out in pain as his body fell towards the ground face first. Seeing as how the coast was clear - this time, by the way - I went up on the small ledge where the soldiers came from. Before I entered the building, I inspected that strange device that one soldier have to see what it was.
It was some kind of special prototype weapon that Armacham has developed. These soldiers must've ransacked this from one of ATC's armory's. The details to the side of it described it as "ARMACHAM TYPE-7" with the words "Particle Weapon" underneath. Now this sounded familiar. One time during training, I had heard from some commanders about weapons built by some very heavy rich companies. Apparently, they can emit certain types of energy from a single source and cause devastating destruction to the body. From what I can tell from this thing, it had some kind of ammo cache inside it with the numbers to the side saying "6/10". Must've been how much shots left inside it. It wouldn't hurt to bring this along.
I had lifted it up on the ground, the extra weight on this thing made it a little hard to get adjusted. After getting used to it, I went inside and reached a wide cafeteria. The lights inside made it easy to see that there was a back door in the cooking area in the far back. Just as I had noticed that, I heard one of the Replicas somewhere ahead yelling "Kill the lights!". And sure enough, the power in this place went out as the place was now in total darkness except for the back room.
Three of them had come out from the room up ahead. Slowly, they scattered about separately as each one was trying to figure out where I could be. I had to take care of them now while I could still see them. Figuring I can test out this new weapon, I brought out the Type-7 and aimed at one of the soldiers. I had also noticed this had an enhanced scope inside the top half of this device that was about as good as one on a sniper rifle. After having my sight set on one of the soldiers, I had pressed the trigger button and watched as the purple-like beam at hit one of them.
Holy shit, it was amazing! As soon as the beam made contact, in the blink of an eye the soldier was reduced to nothing but a bloody skeleton. His armor, his flesh, had all been disintegrated into nothing. It seemed that this device can instantly kill someone from just one shot. However this thing works, I can definitely say that I am glad I did not get blasted by this earlier. The other two were definitely shocked over what just happened and tried to figure out where the shot came from. They hadn't notice me yet, so I had the chance to take care of both of them. After pressing the trigger twice for each of the Replicas, they had died just like the last one - their armor and skin were melted off from their bodies completely.
The feeling I had inside me now was both of amazement and worry. Sure, this thing is awesome that it can make it much easier to take care of my enemies... but it was disturbing to think that a company like Armacham can develop such terrible weapons of power to where any soldier or guard can wield. Until this mission is over, I have to tolerate that this kind of weapon exists and that ATC is making it. Heading into the back room, I reached the door to where the soldiers came from. Opening it, I saw that the next area was also in total darkness. Luckily, there was a switch for the power right next to me on the wall. After activating it, all the power in this part of the building came back.
Turning around the next corner, I ended up in some kind of storage supply. It was mostly empty in here, except for the two Replicas at the far end across from me. Just as they had seen me, I fired at both of them with the particle weapon but only managed to get one of them. The rate of fire on this thing was slow, for it would take several seconds for me to fire again. The other tried to exit with the door behind him, but just as he kicked it open, I had blasted him with the Type-7. Both of their remains were all that was left, and so too was this weapon. I had used up all of its ammunition, and so it was no good to have now. After exiting through the other door in here, I ended up in another hallway for this building. Betters then got a hold of me over the comlink.
"Goddammit! I lost Fettel's signal again! This transmitter is a piece of shit." he yelled out frustrated.
It seems my chances of finding him have gone down a lot, and I still have no idea where to find Alice Wade. The room I was in was completely locked down. Both ends of the hall were closed off by security and the only other room was just for security cameras that didn't seem to work anymore. The windows next to me led back outside to another building up ahead. From here, I could jump down some small ledges that I can reach to the ground below.
After breaking through the windows, I hopped down ledge after ledge until I was outside of what appeared to be the Executive Building...
Whew, this one was fun to do. And the good news is that the next one is even longer! xD Reviews would be cool, please