Shift Change

[AJ Rimmer]

Subject: Halson, John
Male, age 25

Position: Security Officer, high security detail, Black Mesa Security Force

Assignment: Area 11

Clearance: Level 4

Training: United States Marine corps

Rank: Corporal

Disaster response priority: Preservation of Facility Equipment and Materials
Secondary priority: Protect staff
Low priority: Personal safety




John stood before the mirror in the changing room and inspected himself. He was a handsome man, in his mid-twenties, fit and with a clean crew-cut. His blue Kevlar sat tight on his body and at his chest sat his id badge.
It filled him with pride to wear that badge. He wasn’t an academic man and he knew it. But he could think on his feet. Although he got through college with good grades it was due to studying hard, not pure wits. But if he could help do something to serve mankind, even if it only meant protecting a group of walking labcoats from the occasional fanatic environmentalist, it was worth it. He checked his watch, 8:22 AM, He’d better get a move on. His shift started in eight minutes.

He walked out the room and passed a man still in civilian clothing, he looked tired and was dragging a brown duffel bag in his tracks.
“Morning John.” The man looked at him under his long hair that covered most if his face above his nose.
“Hi Pete. Nice day ain’t it?”
“It won’t be a nice day as long as I have to get up at 7 in the morning!” Pete looked at John and a small hint of shock came over his face.
“****! Am I late?”
“Not yet. Don’t worry, I’ll cover for you.”
“Thanks a lot man, I really have to shower, hey, catch me later I’ll buy you a beer!”
“You’d better!” John walked out the corridor. He opened two high-security doors with his security code and emerged into a small lobby. On the spotless white floor was the BMSF logo and in big letters on the wall it read: Black Mesa Security Force, High security Area 11.
He walked up to the reception desk and said hi to Officer Martin behind the piles of paper.

“Yeah hi John, how’s it going? You’re going on duty now eh?”
“Yup.”
“Okay, I’m adding you now.”
“Add Pete to, he’s coming any second now.”
“Okay.” The man behind the desk seemed distraught by all his work and quickly added both to the log.
John marched out the doors and through a clean white corridor as he did every morning. Somewhere behind him he heard the familiar computer generated voice dispense messages through the PA system.
“Attention Agent Baldwin, Dr Fiey and Dr Johnson. Please report to topside Command and Communication Center Sector 11. Security Officer John Halson, please report to topside checkpoint Delta asap.”
He kept on going his usual speed, they always called him about five minutes before his shift was on. The men who had the shift before him always were in a hurry to get off.

Suddenly, a human voice appeared from the PA system, the man spoke quickly and to close to the microphone.
“Attention, medical emergency, incoming wounded, any medical team report to topside Command and Communication Center Sector 11 immediately. Repeat, Command and Communication Center Sector 11 immediately!”
He felt a sting somewhere. He knew something must have happened, probably some activist group had attacked one of the cars on the way to BMRF. It happened quite too often. The Black Mesa Research Facility was officially called a military installation, though the US Army had but a very small presence there. Most environmentalists assumed incorrectly that the government was conducting experiments on animals and humans. It had occurred a few times that movements like PETA had bombed the outer sections of the facility.

He reached the main gate after a few minutes, it was empty except a short man in a lab coat carrying his briefcase on his way to the main facility. This was one of the entrances to the facility. A big area of concrete surrounding the gate leading from the dirt road from Santa Fe.
He walked up the gate house marked Checkpoint Delta and opened the door. Inside were three guards, one sitting with his chin in his hands leaning against the window board facing the way in. He greeted all of them and sat down behind his desk. The small sign marked “gate supervisor” glistened in the morning sun. Officer Farnsherth walked past his door. John didn’t look up from his screen when he spoke.

“You’re late.”
“I know. I stopped near the helicopter pad to see what was with the accident.”
“And?”
“One scientist dead, one injured and one guard injured. A group of men pretended they had a puncture and stabbed the driver when he rolled down the window.” John still didn’t look up but nodded quietly.
He checked his E-mails and yesterdays log, nothing out of the ordinary there. He had gate duty one week every month. It was a nice brake from his patrolling of the facility day in and day out. He was a proud man and was very proud of what he did. But that didn’t mean he never got fed up with it. He liked both his jobs and ejoyed switching between them.
He checked the time on his computer, 8:47 AM. He stood up and went to get some coffee. Something told him it was gonna be a long shift.



Subject: Tiel, Pete
Male, age 24

Position: Security Officer, high security detail, Black Mesa Security Force

Assignment: Area 11

Clearance: Level 3

Training: Black Mesa Security force training course

Disaster response priority: Preservation of Facility Equipment and Materials
Secondary priority: Protect staff
Low priority: Personal safety



Pete walked out from the shower room. He felt wonderfully renewed. After standing and just breathing for a while he walked up to his locker and got dressed. He combed his hair back and pulled on his Kevlar. He put on his wristwatch and checked it. 8:38 AM. Perfect. He was only eight minutes late. If John had kept his word -and he almost definitely had- it would be at least another ten minutes before the desk officer missed him.
He straightened his gear, put on his helmet and id badge. He did like his job. He constantly complained about it but he loved it. First of all, it meant money in the bank. Second, it was cool to work here. He had seen a great deal strange things. He wasn’t the brainy type and he didn’t exactly go long ways to disguise it. But he found it wonderful to work in this place, everyday something happened here that only a very select few people outside (and sometimes inside) the facility could possibly know about. Pete Tiel was simply put, an ordinary American. He liked money in the bank. He liked wrestling, football and baseball. He liked Science Fiction and, as every true American, he loved feeling that he knew better than everybody else.

He looked in the mirror, smiled at his own reflection and waltzed out to the lobby.
“Sir.” Pete smiled at the short officer behind the mountain of forms and papers on top of the desk. The watch behind him showed 8:43.
“Huh? Oh Tiel it’s you. Uh let me see here…” He started going through some papers until he found a schedule and ran his finger along the list of names.
“Transit system going north, track E, that’s your beat. There’s a vent somewhere where hood looms get in to the facility so we have extra routes there now.”
“Yes sir. On my way.” He started moving to the door but the officer spoke again.
“Wait, first I want you to take a shift down in the armoury. You begin patrol at 10:00. Understood?”
“Yes sir.” Pete walked down one of the corridors marked “Armoury” and “Red line Transit hub”.

He got down one floor and reached the armoury. He knocked on the window and smiled at the half-sleeping guard inside. A small buzz was heard and Pete stepped through the door round the back that the guard just unlocked. He walked into the small room, it looked like all the rooms, spotless white walls, a few lockers next to a set of shotguns racks. Under the board at the window were a small number of 9mm pistols, all with labels with names above them. Most of them were missing now. Before the shift started there would be 19 guns stored here and always 8 shotguns ready. The other guard walked out and asked for his gun at the window. Pete found the right name quickly and gave it to him before he got busy with trying to fix the busted fan standing on the small window board. He eventually gave up and checked his watch. 8:47. He sighed deeply. It was gonna be a long shift.

[AJ Rimmer]

John looked out the dirty window with the steaming cup of coffee in his hand. He leaned closer to the pane to se the chopper that he clearly heard moving in over the building, and was shocked when it soared by only feet above the gatehouse. It cut a corner between the fence and over the empty desert, passed the massive bio dome complex which was only a few hundred yards from Checkpoint Delta, but two strips of concrete wall away.
The helicopter stopped somewhere up ahead, it had travelled quite a bit into the complex. It was a bit hard to follow but John could clearly se it go down behind the wall. Just moments later it got up again and came back the way it came from, passed just feet over the gatehouse just like before.
He found it a bit odd but it quickly disappeared among the hundreds of strange things that happened here. He checked his watch. 8:55. The morning supplies should be coming in about half an hour. He headed back to the booth area. He sat down in an empty chair and watched the scenery before him. A desert road stopped by two big electrified gates closing the wall around the entire parking lot, behind him were a large set of houses, security, infirmary, a few dormitories and behind them the main radio tower. Black Mesa’s main link to the outside world. Cell phones were strictly forbidden inside the compound so the radio tower was vital for contact with the rest of the US.
He yawned and lay back in the chair. He watched the surveillance monitors from outside the main gates. The clock said 8:59. He took a sip from the coffee and closed his eyes.



Pete was reading the magazine left on the table by the last guard. It was a gun magazine and he was deeply involved when a guard Pete knew well came up to him and tapped the window. Pete lay down the magazine and said hi to him.
“Hiya Dave. How’s it goin?”
“Just fine. I’m scheduled at the shooting range.”
“Oh ok. Pete checked the list and then handed him a 9mm with his name on it.”
“Range…” He peeked out the window to the shooting range besides him, it was empty.
“… all ranges are free.”
Dave smiled and went down to the range. Pete returned to his magazine. The time, had anyone checked, was 8:59.



John took another sip from his coffee at 9:02 and dropped his jaw as all monitors died. The lights in the room went next, then the warning lights on the electrical fence outside died. He looked at his colleague next to him who simply said:
“The power went.”
“Oh really? Thanks.” John looked out the window and noticed there were no lights on anywhere that he could see. Suddenly, he became aware of a rumbling, loud noises, and smoke started to rise from the main facility. He was about to send out patrols around the fence when the light soon flickered and power was returned. Immediately red light started flashing on both the guards’ consoles. John picked up a headset just in time to hear a voice reporting in.
“Attention, I’m in sector 11, area C, about 20 yards from checkpoint delta. I’ve got something here, just by the fence, it’s dead. I think it came from the biodome, repeat, possible breach of the biodome complex.”
John acknowledged the call and got on the phone to central security.
“Sir, this is topside checkpoint delta, did we just lose power?” The officer answering was very stressed.

“Yes got dammit of course we did, for **** sake.”
“What caused it?”
“I don’t know! I’m getting reports from all over the facility, something about anomalous materials lab. I’ll get back to”
Just as sudden as the last time, the power went again, but this time there were clear explosions heard from the distance, a scream echoed through the desert not far from the gatehouse. The power came back once again but the fences warning lights didn’t. The emergency power was on and the fences were one of the power sources that were cut. John rushed back into the house and collected the last shotgun from the munitions cabinet. He heard the man in the booth area try and reach central security again, he didn’t seem to have much luck.
“Okay, spread out. We may be under attack. Report in if you encounter anything!” He loaded his gun and followed Evans to the origin of the first report.



Pete was still reading when the lights went out. He didn’t bother to call in after the power came back. But when the power went again he looked up from the magazine and listened. He heard distant noises. He heard an explosion. All of a sudden there was a huge green explosion, a huge fireball shot the window pane to bits, Pete was knocked to the floor, his body covered in glass as a dead body fell out of nowhere. There was an explosion, and suddenly the ventilation shaft came tumbling down from the roof, a huge support beam hit the floor with a sound so loud Pete screamed as he covered his head and lay down on the floor.

He could hear a screaming somewhere that wasn’t his, a pipe in the wall ruptured and suddenly he was aware of water raining down on him in a steady stream. Pieces of the ceiling rained down on his back and he feared the room would cave in. He thought is last moment had come when another explosion, this one emanating from the floor shook the room and caused on of the walls behind to fall into chunks, something close to him was turned over and landed on his back.

When he opened his eyes again, it had gone mysteriously quiet. He slowly turned around to see what was lying on top of him. It was the shotgun rack. He shoved it to one side and looked up. The wall and door in which he had entered had been blasted to pieces. His face was bleeding from bits of glass and nothing in the booth was whole. Outside the corridor was completely destroyed. The support beam covered the main part of it and there were live power cables hanging from the roof, the floor was covered in water from the ruptured pipe. He backed up and opened the door to the shooting range. The whole range had been demolished. On the floor lay Dave, with a big section of the ventilation shaft on him. He rushed up and saw his face, it had a deep cut right across the left cheek. Pete lifted off the big vent and held up Daves head.

“Hey, you okay? Come on, wake up.” Dave murmured something and opened his eyes.
“Awwww ****! My head… Jesus Christ, what the hell happened?” Dave stood up with some help from Pete. He cheek was bleeding badly and he had a hard time standing straight.
“I don’t know. But we better get up to the lobby, can you walk?” Dave moaned as something in his body hurt a little more than everything else.
“Probably not too good.” Pete sighed heavily and heaved Dave up so that he could support him on his shoulder.
“That’s okay. Let’s go.” They slowly stumbled out the shooting range and past the armoury when Pete stopped.

“What is it?” Dave asked when Pete helped him to lean against the wall.
“I don’t know what happened here but I’m not going out there un-armed.” He climbed out over the destroyed wall with a 9mm in his holster and a shotgun on his back.
“Alright, let’s get going again!” He pulled up Dave off the floor and they kept going. They ducked under the beam and finally reached the elevator 20 yards further down the corridor. Pete pressed the elevator button and nothing happened.
“****!” Pete helped Dave down again and forced open the elevator doors. The elevator was there but all the power was off. His eyes locked onto the escape hatch and his mind on the ladder behind it. He turned to Dave and saw that he had his eyes closed.

“Wake up! Dave, wake up! You have to stay awake! Do you hear me? Dave! Wake up!” He slapped him on his good cheek. Dave opened his eyes and swayed with his head back and forth. He then put his hand underneath his Kevlar and lifted it off his chest. Pete looked underneath it. There was a big wet area, his uniform was clearly covered in blood and more was gushing out from the nasty wound in his stomach.
“How did you get that?” Pete looked frightened at him
“I don’t know… I… **** it hurts…” Dave started to drift out of consciousness again but Pete shook him heavily.
“Listen to me! You have to stay awake ok? I’m going for help but I’ll come back for you! Stay awake!”

He slapped Dave again then heaved himself up through the hatch and grabbed the ladder and started climbing up the elevator shaft. Behind him he could hear Dave moaning.

[PunisherUSA]

"low priority: personal safety" - kinda cheesy

"He liked Science Fiction and, as every true American" lmao!

More good stuff yay! Dos this run paralell to your previous story?

[AJ Rimmer]

"low priority: personal safety" - kinda cheesy

"He liked Science Fiction and, as every true American" lmao!

More good stuff yay! Dos this run paralell to your previous story?
1: That's in Blue Shift.
2: No, it doesn't, comepletely different story.

[jonesey2k]

keep it up man :cheese:

[AJ Rimmer]

John stood with his Franchi-Spas 12 close to his body, leaning over the strange corpse of a dog-like creature which had been grilled when the electrified fence had been turned on again. It looked like a small dog, only with ridges going vertically over its back and where its face would be there was just a strange assortment of eyes in random patterns. The creature seemed utterly pathetic and both John and Evan felt a bit sorry for the little guy.

“So what the hell is it?” Evans looked down and poked the body with his shotgun while he spoke.
“I don’t have a clue. But I guess it must have escaped from the biodome complex.” Evans looked up at John and stared at him.
“You mean this fella climbed two 20 feet electrified concrete walls and ran a clear 200 yards in less than a minute while avoiding all security systems in the biodome and the over 30 security cameras in the parking area?”
“Well you explain where the **** it came from then!” John looked around. The yard area outside the gatehouse was a big parking lot, this part of the facility however had not been covered in asphalt but the parking lot was merely a big field of sand with white lines. There was nothing out of the ordinary apart from the dead creature before his feet. In the distance he could se some spread out fires. The biodome complex had a small reception building that had collapsed into itself but it was pretty far from the actual domes. His eyes kept going along the whole compound and suddenly he stopped at the corner of one of the buildings.

A line of security guard dormitories were placed vertically from the gatehouse and at one of the houses there was a small line in the sand. A small, barely visible, thin red line in the sand shot out from behind the corner, just at the cement foundation of the barrack. He got Evans attention to it and they ran over there. The line that so clearly spoke its language upon closer inspection was blood. It lead in a steady stream to the lifeless body of a security guard. He had big wounds, almost like gun wounds all over his stomach and chest. His 9mm lay in the sand next to him and there was blood running down from his ears onto the back of his head.
John was about to speak into his radio when a message came through.
“All units this is patrol 3, we’ve found a dead animal behind a set of garbage cans, don’t know how it got here though. I don’t know what it is but it sure doesn’t look natural.” John responded quickly.
“Does it sort of resemble a small, fat dog?” There was a brief pause.
“Uhm… yeah, I guess now that you mention it.”
“All units, this is patrol leader. We have a containment breach, unauthorized lifeforms in the compound, they are to be considered dangerous.”



Pete hit the door once more and it finally fell to the ground. It was the third door he had to knock down and it got harder and harder. His shoulder ached as he rushed through the ruins of the corridor leading to the main lobby. He suddenly heard the PA system go online. The voice occasionally broke off into static disturbance.
“Warning, high energy detonation detected in materials lab, sector C. All security personnel in sector C report to anomalous materials lab, immediately.” Pete crawled under a fallen beam and kept listening to the messages.

“Biohazard warning in sector B and C. Reactor coolant leak in sector E. Biodome complex reports unauthorized biological forms detected in coolant maintenance area, main access area, main dormitories, main observation tank, observation tanks 1, 2, 3 and four. All security and biohazard containment teams report to biodome complex immediately. Warning, anomalous energy field detected in administration center, topside communication center and topside checkpoint Charlie, Delta, Fox and Gamma.”
Pete got out the other side and stumbled through the doors to the lobby. The lights were flickering and he only caught glimpses of familiar faces. He walked up to a man he knew called Hitchford.
“Pete… jeez, are you ok?” Pete looked at him strangely and for the first time he noticed he had a big piece of class stuck in his chin. He pulled it out and held his hand at the bleeding.

“I’m fine, I need help, Dave’s down there…” Hitchford stopped him.
“I know, the security camera at the elevator is on. The roof caved in about two minutes ago. He’s dead.” Hitchford walked away to help some unknown man. Pete just stood there. Dave was dead. It didn’t really seem real. This was too weird. What the **** was going on?! He thought to himself that at least now, things couldn’t get any worse.
The PA system came crackling back on again but the voice was human, after a moment Pete recognized it as officer Martin.
“Attention all security and science personnel in area 11. Report to topside checkpoints immediately.”
He then walked out from behind the desk and joined the rest of the guards in the room. Pete counted about 20. He conversed with some officers and then spoke to the whole group.

“Okay, here’s the plan. We’ll try and get to sector F, the supervisor there says they have a clear way up to checkpoint Fox. We only have to get there. It’s about 3 kilometres and after that, we should be in the clear. I just got news that they’re sending for help from the military. But until that help arrives, we’d better look out. According to reports, we have unauthorized biological forms in all sectors, no-one seems to know what they are or where they come from but they can defend themselves and are very aggressive. If you see anything that looks even remotely like ET, shoot it.” Martin pulled back the pump handle on his shotgun very dramatically (at least to him) and said:
“Let’s go!”



John heaved himself up to the ledge of the window and peered into the barrack. It was empty. He and Evans were checking the barracks nearby, looking for more creatures or wounded personnel. The barrack was empty. He jumped down on the sand again. Evans stood next to him, squeezing his shotgun.
Evans was a good man, one of the best. He had military experience and couldn’t have hid it if had tried. He was one of the best in his platoon and could probably have gone far in the army but he had married a girl in Santa Fe and didn’t want a job too dangerous after they had kids. John had known him when they served together and had helped him get a job at Black Mesa. He trusted him with his life.

John looked at Evans and nodded towards the next set of barracks. They had barely a feet when there was a loud high-pitched screaming. Both of them threw up their shotguns and checked their surroundings.
“What was that?”
“I don’t know, I’ve never heard anything like that before.”
“Could be a wolf.” Evans still sounded confident but John was nervous.
“Wolves don’t make that sound.” The scream returned, louder and much, much closer this time.
“Where the hell is it coming from!” John spun around, half expecting to see Evans being eaten by some monster, but he was mistaken. The scream came again, even closer, he turn around and flinched as something caught his attention in the corner of his eye. He stared down at the moving small pile of sand right at his feet, he was so surprised that he even forgot to alert Evans.

The four sharp claws bored deep into the flesh if his neck and cheeks, he fell the slimy parasitic organs slipping against his face, the panic started to surge through him when the fell a set of hands joining his, trying to get under the little creature. Eventually it slowly came off him, long slimy tubes being dragged out of his mouth, they had been forced down his mouth and nose so quickly and without any mercy that he was sure he was going to vomit, but something had held it back. He fell to the ground and threw up against the warm red sand. He heard a shotgun fire and quickly turned around. The little headcrab lay in a growing pool of its own blood. Evans reached him a hand and helped him to his feet. He felt sick, the world was spinning. Evans put his arm on his shoulder and they slowly made their way to the gatehouse.

[Sprafa]

damn, you're good.

You just work on Fanfic ?

[AJ Rimmer]

damn, you're good.

You just work on Fanfic ?
Actually i'm hoping to be a writer.

[PunisherUSA]

No kidding. Come up with an orignal story, and I'm pretty sure you could get it published. This stuff is damn good.

You have any non-HL writing out and about?

[Brian Damage]

You could definately make the grade...

[AJ Rimmer]

I do, but most of my non-hl stuff is in Swedish, I could try and translate it though. I mostly have beginnings, very few completed stories.

[PunisherUSA]

I actually sorta figured your primary language wasn't English. Little misspells like 'brake' instead of 'break', small stuff.

What's the Swedish stuff on anyway? If you don't like them don't bother. Usually stuff you don't enjoy writing doesn't turn out well.

Or .. You could post more of this story!! I'm on the edge of my seat!

[AJ Rimmer]

Different stuff, sci-fi's, detective stories etc.
Well, okeli dokeli



The group of twenty or so men was walking across the narrow passages on each side of the submerged transit system. The transit hub monitoring central had shown red lights on all lines. The auxiliary generators didn’t spare power to anything but containment for the labs and reactor cores. Emergency lighting gave the whole facility and eerie gloomy feeling. Pete felt like he was going down the hallway of a haunted house.
Down on the rail was a steady stream of not very clean water flowing over the dead tracks. Five minutes ago it wasn’t even noticeable against the ground but it had quickly risen to about half a foot’s depth.
Pete stood looking over the edge of the railing. He tapped Hitchford’s back and asked:

“What’s that coming from?” Hitchford leaned out next to Pete.
“It’s probably sewage water.” Pete stared at him with angry eyes.
“Hitch, you’d have to have been born without a nose to not know that that is sewage water, I asked where it was coming from.” Hitchford looked embarrassed and quickly tried to restore himself again.
“The biodome complex is right above us, it’s probably from their sewage plant.”
“yeah…” Pete looked up, he suddenly saw something he didn’t pick up from before. The concrete roof was leaking. Drops of water was falling down into the small river quickly forming underneath. There were cracks in the concrete as well. They sure as hell hadn’t been there before this all happened.
He was thinking about it when Hitch pulled his sleeve and they joined the rest of the group.

The two groups both stopped at the same place on both sides of the track. The water level was rising very rapidly now. Small waterfalls were emanating from the roof, Pete figured it was about time they left.
They had stopped at an expandable bridge that would lead the other team over to their side, there was a maintenance door on Pete’s side but the controls to the bridge weren’t working, the other team was working on it.
The leader of Pete’s group pulled up his hand and signalled the rest of the men to be ready, 11 shotgun barrels raised nervously into the air, there was a sound, someone running in water.
From the bend up front emerged a man in a lab coat, up to his ankles in water, he was running as fast as he could. There was a loud sound coming from behind him, when the man saw the guards standing high above him he froze.

“Thankyou god, you have to stop it, it’s coming this way, it is ARGHH!!!” The scientist was hit by something in the back. Suddenly a huge monster came running up to him, at least ten feet, with arms the size of motorcycles. It made grunts and stopped. It looked stupidly on the men standing on the ledges with 19 shotgun barrels aimed at it.
The scientist was lying down, his body completely submerged under the water. The “Grunt” looked down and picked up the body, he screamed loudly and grunted. The scientist was waving his arms and legs, desperately screaming;

“No! Oh god no! I don’t want to die! Help! Help! Help me! Heee-“ The grunt threw him into the cement wall and stamped his feet. All the guards opened fire. Pete watched small bug-like things launch from the creature’s hive hands and hit some men on the other side, they fell over the railing and didn’t move.
He saw Martin stand on the other side, he held his 9mm and took careful aim, he put the bullet right in the monster’s face, between the eyes. It screamed louder and started waving its hands, shooting aimlessly at the roof.
The shots caused cracks to grow larger, small holes appeared in the roof and more water came flowing down. There was a loud rumbling and an explosion. Then an enormous shake and somewhere far behind them he could hear there was a cave in. Then a rushing noise. Pete just stood there and stared in awe, as 600 litres of coolant water came rushing down the corridor. He didn’t move until it was almost upon them when someone grabbed him and pulled him through the maintenance door. The door shut in front of him the moment he landed on the cold floor. Someone screamed at him and then he heard nothing but water attacking the steel door.
He looked up and saw Hitchford climbing up a ladder through a narrow pipe. He waved at Pete to follow him.

[Brian Damage]

Stories like this would be good in some sort of Half Life Short Story Anthology. We could call it "Perspectives", or something. Hey, maybe VALVe would make these available as PDFs over Steam?

[PunisherUSA]

I doubt Valve would refuse free stories. Just copyright it and maybe start a petition to show that people really think this is good stuff(I think you have several signatures already ;) . Then they might accept it and put it on steam. But not a bad idea.

[AJ Rimmer]

Are you guys serious?
Do you really think this stuff is that good?

[Brian Damage]

Well, I'll put it this way: It's not the worst writing I've ever read. I'm a little critical of any of the writing on these forums, it being fanfiction, fanfiction often being the lowest forms of writing, and me being "The man with three bookshelves"...

But, for fanfiction, some of this stuff (Including yours, Mr. Rimmer), is superlative.

[AJ Rimmer]

Well, I'll put it this way: It's not the worst writing I've ever read. I'm a little critical of any of the writing on these forums, it being fanfiction, fanficiton being often one of the lowest forms of writing, and me being "The man with three bookshelves"...

But, for fanfiction, some of this stuff (Including yours, Mr. Rimmer), is superlative.
I think that's the atitude of everyone (including me) because the thought everybody has is: "He couldn't be bothered to make up a story of his own"



Which, is sort of true. But then again, I love Half-life and it certainly left a LOT of windows open for fanfic so its not very strange.

[PunisherUSA]

Have you ever read The Da Vinci Code? Your writing style sorta reminds me of his. You make and answer questions just enough to want a reader finish it in one sitting. The only thing you could expand on in writing is material, possibly multiple plotlines, 2-3 unique perrspectives on the same story/plot, and less linear scenes.

You also have just the right amount of detail. You explain the environment and characters well, but not so much as to bore readers.

I would recommend seriously conidering Damage's idea of having valve publish it on steam. Like I said, just get it out there and prove a fanbase.

Another idea I sorta had is actually recording these as short films IN hl. It's quite possible, but not easily detailed as the story is.

[AJ Rimmer]

It would be kinda cool. And when HL2 get's out the source engine might make it easier.

[Brian Damage]

I think I'll go through these stories tomorrow and review, once more, the really good ones. This sounds promising. Fanfics on Steam could help aleviate (SP?) the wait for those of a literary persuasion... I wonder what VALVe would think...

[AJ Rimmer]

This could really be cool. I'm sure everyone would get as excited about it as we have.

[AJ Rimmer]

John threw up one more time and then looked back up at the officer standing before him.
“How’s the north personnel entrance?”
“The train doesn’t have any power, but it doesn’t matter, the tunnel caved in about ten minutes ago.”
“Alright, so the only way into the facility would be through the biodome complex. Right?”
“Yes sir. We only need to open the security gates and we’re in. Once inside it’s gonna get tricky though, there isn’t anyone here with the proper access codes.”
“The biodome took a heavy beating to, it may be hard to set up a base of operations there. Maybe we should just wait here for the military to arrive.” Evans was sitting next to John, looking out the window.
“Shh. Do you hear that?” Everybody in the room stopped talking, the sound of a helicopter approaching put them all into a state of slow-motion shock.
They all ran out and stood outside, their eyes gazing at the sky.

“There! Over there! It’s coming from the north!”
“Is it the military?”
“Yes but… there’s only one chopper.” Evans kept looking for it and asked the guard just as he saw it.
“What chopper is it?” The guard waited quiet a while before he answered.
“I think it’s a cobra.”
The helicopter swept over them, it circled around the far edges of the facility a few times and then swept in beyond the bidome. The group of men heard gunshots and missiles being fired, followed by a roar that made Evans think of movies like King Kong.

The chopper came back, followed by what looked like lasers in many different colours.
It soared in the air right in front of them for a moment, then turned around and before anyone could even guess what would happen, a line of smoke hit the radio tower.
The blast shook the ground and John watched with dread as the radio tower swayed and then slowly at first, and then faster and faster mad its way towards the ground. It hit the ground and a huge dust cloud stormed the parking lot. When the sand settled, the helicopter was gone.

[PunisherUSA]

bum bum bahhhh!! gasp!

[AJ Rimmer]

“So what the **** do we do now?!” Pete was sitting on an overturned bucket in a storage closet, him, Hitchford and a guard called Jonathan were the only ones who survived the river rafting.
“First of all, we should check out that leg of yours.” Jonathan pointed towards Pete’s right thigh and Pete looked down in confusion.
It hadn’t hurt when the grunt hit him but now he felt the stinging sensation. He pulled up his trouser leg and gasped when he saw the yellow infection quickly spreading around the swollen red tissue surrounding the wound.
Hitchford kept searching shelf after shelf and finally came back with a role of bandage. He quickly wrapped it around Pete’s leg.

“Can you walk?”
“I could climb couldn’t I?”
“Alright. I think there’s a sewage system running from here to Fox. We have to get below the flooring.”
Hitchford helped Pete up from his seat and stood him up.
“Let’s go.”
They made their way through the cafeteria and then through several small offices, most of them were for the administrational personal. They found a maintenance closet and climbed down a ladder to underneath the floor. It was a narrow passage with very high roof. Outside the walls they could hear water flowing. They went out through a door and found themselves standing on a very narrow edge of a river of water.
They jumped in, the water only reached to the knees but smelt terrible. Pete did the best he could to keep the water off his wound but it was impossible.
“Awww… how long to sector Fox?”
“Maybe a kilometre.”
“Perfect.”

They waded through the messy water upstream so it didn’t go very fast. After about fifteen minutes the reached a section where the roof had caved in.
“What the hell is going on? What caused this? Why is the whole freakin’ facility breaking apart?”
“I don’t know! Why the hell are you asking me?! Ask the ****ing scientists! It’s them who are messing about with all kinds of different shit! Not me!”
“Calm down both of you.” Hitchford put a finger to his lips and Pete and Jonathan stopped arguing.
“Do you hear that?”
It was all quiet except the rushing of the water.
“Hear what?” Pete asked quietly and then he heard it. A long, slow scream in agony.

“What is it?” Jonathan was shaking, his voice was getting anxious.
“I don’t know but it’s close.”
Pete flashed his flashlight down the dark corridor but it was empty. This was freaking him out.
“Where is it? Find it!”
“There’s nothing there!”
“Then where is it coming from?” Pete didn’t answer. Suddenly he felt something stroking his leg.
“What was that?”
“What?” Pete didn’t have time to answer. He was pulled down under water and dropped his shotgun and flashlight in the drop. A two-legged monster stood up above him, its savaged body swayed and raised its arms. The headcrab had it in its force. It brought down its sharp claws on Pete’s already massacred leg before a shot right where the victims head was put it down. It screamed in agony before it finally fell silent and stopped moving.
The two men helped Pete up. His leg was bleeding a lot more now. He screamed in pain.

“Arggh! Aww **** it hurts! What the hell was that?!
“I don’t know, but it wore a Kevlar and a Black Mesa Security uniform!”
“ARGHH! It ****ing stabbed me! God it hurts!”
“I know it hurts. We gotta get him som help.” Hitchford whispered to Jonathan and they both carried Pete on their shoulders down the stream to the nearest maintenance door a few yards down.

[Edcrab]

English isn't your first language? Good grief! That's incredible.

I especially like the short, sharp descriptions; keeps the story flowing and to the point. Your clever use of conversation is thickening out both the characters and the story; I'd say you're at a proffessional standard meself.

Plus, and I honestly mean no offence to those on other websites, you manage to tell a HL tale without sounding corny or amateurish. Massive kudos to you mate!

[AJ Rimmer]

Jeez. Thankyou. Really thanks.
Hearing stuff like that really makes me proud.

[Brian Damage]

This is quite good... Reminds me of a (Good) Action/Horror/Sci-Fi movie...

[AJ Rimmer]

It was 10:56 and the hot New Mexico sun was contributing to the foul smell in the gatehouse. John wasn’t solely responsible for it though, three other security guards had been attacked by the small creatures and were throwing up all over the ground by now.
John was standing outside in the shadowy side of a barrack with a view of the biodome, trying not to move. Heat and movement seemed to upset his stomach even more. He also noticed he had troubles keeping his balance. He felt woozy just standing up. Also he felt a massive headache was about to make an entrance.
Evans walked up to him. John noticed he had a sticky yellow substance on his uniform.

“What happened?” John pointed at the gooey liquid on his Kevlar.
“Some kind of grey, weird-looking alien with a big red eye. Shot some green rays at Petersen.” John looked doubtfully at him.
“Green rays? You’re sounding like a sci-fi flick.”
“Yeah well I don’t like the script, Petersen got hit pretty badly.”
“Is it serious?”
“I’ve never seen burns like that before. His arm has gone completely black, it feels like coal! I think it may be coal.”
“Shit. We need a doctor. I doubt we can care for these kinds of injuries.”
“How are you doing?” John looked very pale, it was far too obvious to anyone that he was in bad shape.
“I’ve been throwing up for about an hour, how do you think I’m doing?” Evans nodded and gave up on the subject.
Someone shouted across the parking lot. Neither John or Evans could hear what it was, but it sounded urgent.

John stood straight up and listened. The shout returned. It still wasn’t recognizable. But then someone closer to the gatehouse relayed the message and they both heard it clearly this time.
“Dust cloud at the horizon! Vehicles approaching!”
John and Evans both rushed across the hot sand, it was high-noon now and the heat was without mercy.
They ran up to the main gate and stared at the sight in front of them.
A huge cloud of sand stretched out maybe a hundred yards. It was steadily growing closer and closer.
Someone handed John a pair of binoculars. He looked at the magnified picture of the oncoming storm. He could just barely recognize some trucks.

“It looks like the military alright. Looks like army trucks.”
“Good, maybe they can explain why the hell they blew up our communications tower.”
They all watched the convoy grew larger and larger. When it was just a few hundred yards away John called the radio for the gatehouse to open the gate.
“Sorry sir, the gate went down along with the electrical fence.”
Evans bashed the lock on the gate with the butt of his shotgun until it gave.
Minutes later truck after truck rolled in through the gates. John waited until the last one stopped and walked out from under the shade of the gatehouse. There were maybe two hundred men in the trucks. It didn’t take him long to find an officer. He walked up to him.

“Sir. I’m Officer Halson, Black Mesa Security. Can I speak to the one in charge please.” The skinny lieutenant pointed over his shoulder.
“The captain is over there. He’s waiting for you.” John walked through the crowd of soldiers until he spotted a man with the captain insignia.
“Sir! I’m Officer Halson, Black Mesa security.” The captain was a big man, well-trained, the kinda guy you’d expect in a Rambo movie.
“Ahhh, you’re in charge here? Good, I’m Captain Cleer, Fox Company, 25th Recon regiment. What’s the situation here?”
“The whole facility is crawling with hostile creatures, don’t know where they came from or what they are but they’re dangerous. The entire compound is on emergency power, we don’t have phone lines, no transit and no electric fences. We had a radio but one of your flying boys took it out.”
“Yes I know, the pilot had too itchy trigger fingers, you can bet your ass he got to taste hell when he got back. Now. Any suggestions?”

“Well, we need to secure this area, I’ve been trying to set up a gathering point outside the main facility but I don’t have the manpower to spare. These things are everywhere. We need to get into the facility and start pulling people out. I also need medical assistance for my men.” The captain examined the pale looking security guard.
“You don’t look too hot yourself. You need help?”
“I’m all right but my men need help now!” The captain once again examined him from head to toe.
“Do you have military background?” John smiled.
“Yes sir. Corporal John Halson, United States Marine Corps.” He snapped a salute and smiled wider. The captain smiled back and then got on the radio.
“Alright, all units listen up! Alpha, Beta units; I want you to start sweeping the checkpoint area, stay sharp! Charlie, Delta units; keep the gatehouse secure and wait for the main force to arrive. Echo and Fox; assemble at the main gate for a special detail. And get a medical team to the gatehouse immediately! All units are to co-operate with local security forces.”

[AJ Rimmer]

The three men walked as fast as they could with their wounded comrade in the middle.
They had been trying to find help for an hour. The entire area was empty.
They had just kicked in a door and was entering a new office area.
“Where the hell is everyday?” Jonathan was out of breath but still answered.
“I think they… probably got to the… surface by now…”
“Let’s rest for a while.” They put Pete down against a wall and sat down next to him catching their breath.
“It doesn’t make sense. How did they get to the surface so soon?”
“I don’t know.” Hitchford wiped the sweat off his forehead and put his head back.
“I think I know why there’s nobody here.” Jonathan and Hitchford both turned to Pete.
“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I think they tried setting up a meeting point here. And they got interrupted by something.”
“Why do you think that?”
“There’s a cardboard sign that says “meeting point” and an arrow with blood splatters underneath on the wall of that corridor over there.”
Jonathan and Hitchford stood up and stared down the dark corridor. There were several blood patterns under the cardboard sign. They helped Pete to his feet and they walked through the corridor, all with guns ready.
They entered a cafeteria, all the tables were covered in blood and bodies. The chairs had been pushed to the sides. There was a scientist with dried blood on his labcoat laying on the floor nest to the door. His head was covered in extremely severe burns and his arm had been torn off. A dead security guard was lying face down with a big pool of blood under him. His arm stretched out towards a 9mm gun on the floor.

Another scientist had had his head split open by something unknown. There were bullet holes and blood everywhere. A dead corpse of a small bull-like animal lay in a mixture of alien blood and entrails. It was facing another dead guard. He had presumably managed to take it out before he died. His face had severe burns, it looked like an acid had gotten on his face. It was not a pretty sight.
From what the three men could determine, it had been many waves of attacks rather than one concentrated attack.
“Jeezus Christ. It’s like a slaughter house in here.” Pete stared at the horrible scene before them. There were a few zombie bodies laying only feet in front of him and he shrugged when he saw them.

“Let’s get out of here, this place is creeping me out.” Jonathan turned around and cried out. The scream was followed by shotgun fire.
Pete and Hitchford turned around. The corridor behind them was occupied by eight zombies making their way towards them.
They all opened fire at once, three zombies hit the ground. They reloaded and fired again. Two more landed in agonizing screams from the tormented cerebrals of their former personas.
One of the last two zombies took a swing at Hitchford but Jonathan brought the butt of his shotgun deep into the stomach of it and emptied a shell in it when it hit the ground.
Pete put a bullet in the headcrab of the last one and they all reloaded and then crouched down waiting for more of them.
When none came, they helped Pete up on their shoulders and got out of there as fast as possible.

[Subatomic]

Very nice stuff, I want more!

[Brian Damage]

^^ Agreed.

[YourMom]

Agreed. More please.

[AJ Rimmer]

Evans was walking between the barracks, leading the two marines through the maze of dormitories.
His shotgun felt like a lifeline, a way to get back to the reality in what otherwise felt like a bad “Alien”-clone.
“So you were in the corps huh?” One of the marines asked as they passed a wooden barrack.
“You bet. 12th Regiment, Delta Company.”
“This job must be a piece of cake after the corps.” Evans laughed.
“You can say that again. I was over qualified to say the least.” He was about to say something else but a red blood stain mixed with sand and the body of another of the small parasitic creatures. The other marine coughed and the one who’d spoken before mumbled quietly;
“Well, at least this job seems more interesting than the army. What the hell do the guys do in there?”

Evans poked the carcass with his shotgun barrel.
“I have no idea.” Evans led the marines further down the parking lot to the site where they had first encountered one of the big, grey aliens. A guard Evans knew was leaning against a wall, guarding the corpse with his shotgun at the ready.
“What the ‘hell’ is that?” The soldier followed the body’s outlines with his MP5. It was the same size as a human body, disfiguring wounds had torn its flesh. They sticky yellow blood mixed with the sand underneath. Its big red eye was dead, the accusing stare that didn’t seem to differ from the dead eyes of human corpses.

“This is the biggest thing we’ve seen so far, if you don’t include something that sounded like a goddamn 18 wheeler hitting a horde of horny bulls. Couldn’t get a view of it though but it sounded ‘big’.”
The marine whom Evans had spoken to, his name was Sergeant Talbert and the other one was Corporal Jones, got on his radio.
“Sir we got one of the bigger anomalies here, it’s about 5 feet in size, two eyes. Doesn’t look much tougher than us but apparently they are faster. That guy who got into a fight with this thing ended up real bad. If there are a lot of these inside the facility we’d better stay outside till the main force arrives.”

John sat inside the gatehouse on a wooden chair in a corner, walking around tending wounded. Three of his men had been severely injured, two soldiers had been attacked by a group of three of the little dog-like animals. They were suffering from internal bleedings and a constant ringing in their ears. Talking to them was impossible. The “dogs” had emitted a loud noise that almost ruptured their internal organs and damaged their ears badly.
The medic were comforting them but John didn’t give them a high chance of survival.

He stood up and walked over to his office that he had freely lent out to Captain Cleer. He was on the radio when John stepped in.
“Roger that Talbert, keep patrolling the area and watch out. I’ll be sending a report to Santego within the hour. I want the area completely secure by then. Understood? Out.” He looked up at John and nodded for him to come in.
“What can I do for you Halson?” John noticed the captain had moved around his papers. Technically those papers were highly confidential but he doubted that he wouldn’t get into trouble because of ‘that’.
“My men are eager to help. I still got nine men and they know the base in and out. We just need professional help getting into the base. We’re not exactly equipped for rescue missions.” Cleer looked at him for a while before he spoke.

I’m sending a scouting party down through the transit tunnel. My engineers blasted through about five minutes ago. I’ll need a guard to show the way.”
“Leroy is still in good shape and he used to work in the central transit hub. He’ll know the way. Where are you going?” Cleer spoke very business like, not with the warmth of one brother in arms to another like he had before. John assumed he had just fallen back to the role of commanding officer. Like every good leader should.
“We’re gonna try and re-establish power to the transit system. Our schematics show there’s an electrical board a few hundred feet down the tunnel that should prepare the emergency system for activation once the main force arrives here. Then their engineers can fix the whole system and that will make it easier for us to…” Cleer went silent for a moment and just stared at nothing in particular for several seconds before he finished. “…evacuate the facility.” John thought for a moment and asked:
“I don’t know of any emergency system?” Cleer gathered his papers and sounded a little annoyed.

“Well the US Army did build this thing in the first place. We got detailed plans over it. Please call for uhmm…”
“Leroy.”… John filled in.
“…Leroy, to meet my men outside the gatehouse. He’ll be escorted by two of my men. Thank you Halson.”
John nodded and left, feeling confused.

He definitely hadn’t heard anything about an emergency system for the transit lines. Shouldn’t that have been a vital part of the emergency procedures they had to drill on every month? And where were the backup generators that supported this emergency system?
Of course, it wasn’t impossible that he had simply missed it. The complex sure was big enough. He didn’t know a fourth of it. But something was bugging him about it. He played with the radio in his palm for a while, thinking before he called.
“Leroy. Meet me behind barrack fourteen in three minutes. Alone.”

[AJ Rimmer]

“****! Stop! Stop I can’t take it anymore!” Pete screamed as Jonathan and Hitchford put him down against the blood splattered wall and crouched next to him with shotguns ready.
“I’m sorry… I’m sorry. It… it hurts so much. It’s like having a steel rod driven right through my thigh. It hurts like hell.” Hitchford and Jonathan looked at each other. As if he could read their minds he grunted between his moans of pain;
“Just leave me here, there’s no way you can get out of here if you’re gonna be dragging me all the way. It took us three minutes to get up a couple of stairs and I’m useless in a fight. Just leave me here with my handgun and go! I’m not gonna make it anyway.”
The two security guards whom Pete had until this day only considered as people who he worked with had become his most intimate friends. They looked long at each other and at their wounded comrade and thought in silence. Finally Jonathan said: “**** you.” And pulled him up with Hitchford and then they were off again.

They kept walking slowly through the dark corridors. Everywhere they had gone the numbers of bodies had increased. There wasn’t a corridor they had passed that didn’t have bullet holes, blood or bodies. The lights were flickering or were dead. Several times they heard distant screams and sounds of fights but they couldn’t be pinpointed nor reached in time.

Apart from zombies they had had very few encounters. They had however suddenly found them rounding a corner and standing just feet from one of the more man like creatures, they had found bodies but the real thing was much more frightening. Especially in the gloomy atmosphere brought on by flickering neon lights. It raised its arms and shot a green lightning bolt right across Hitchfords shoulder that set fire to his uniform. Jonathan had let go of Pete at the same time as Hitchford did to put out his fire, he unloaded two rounds from his gun into its giant red eye, it let out a scream and tried to run but collapsed on the floor, screaming and waving its arms. Jonathan put it out of its misery.

They walked into yet another corridor; this one contained a dead security guard. His body was filled with huge wounds, that rung a painful bell in Pete’s mind. They must have been caused by zombies. Further from him lay two dead scientists; one of them had gotten his face slit open by a similar attack. The guard had died on his post, doing his duty. They had probably been trying to reach the elevator at the end of the corridor.
The three men got into the elevator and checked it with eager. They pushed the close button and the doors slid into an impact. They had power!
The elevator only reached two floors up but that put them only 90 feet underneath the surface.
Jonathan reached out an arm and with trembling fingers he put the top button.
The elevator kicked to life and raised the three men into the heavens.

[AJ Rimmer]

Subject: Cleer, Butch
Male, age 25

Training: United States Marine Corps, West Point Military Academy

Rank: Captain

Commanding Officer: Colonel Dave T. Bull

Current Assignment: Hazardous Environment Combat Unit Reconnaissance detail, Santego Military Base, Arizona

Mission: Classified



Captain Cleer sighed deeply and looked out the dirty window pane. He felt very anxious. He knew he had to send in his report soon. And he was pretty sure what kind of response his report would generate.
It made him feel guilty in advance but he would have no choice. Maybe he could prevent it though, but it sounded doubtful.
He saw Halson walk towards the front of the gatehouse with another man whom Cleer assumed correctly was Leroy. Halson was a good man. It showed that he was a former marine.

The two soldiers, Corporal Huster and Private Bronson followed the thin guard and they headed for the east personnel entrance. Halson watched them disappear behind a dormitory and then ran off between a couple of barracks. Odd. He was supposed to stay in the gatehouse and tend to his men. Cleer assumed he still felt a sense of duty to his employers. He was probably just checking up on his men still roaming around the checkpoint.
The captain was interrupted in his trail of thoughts by a tall Sergeant whose name he couldn’t recall at the time.
“Sir. My men are still patrolling the area but the checkpoint is secure for the moment sir.”
“Very good sergeant.” Cleer returned to the window.
“Sir. There is one more thing. We found a civilian.” Cleer turned around again sharply.
“Where?”

“Near the wall in the west sector. One of the scientists sir. He escaped from the biodome complex.” The sergeant paused for a brief moment and then asked: “I need orders of how to treat him sir.”
Cleer bit his lower lip and thought for a second.
“We have to make sure Operation Lockdown is successful before we take any action. Bring him to the gatehouse for questioning. Don’t harm him.” The sergeant snapped a salute.
“Yes sir!” He then left, Cleer could see him running down the maze of barracks. Talbert! Sergeant Talbert was his name! Or maybe it was Tabler? Oh never mind.

[Sprafa]

Damn you for being so good!!!

Ever wanted to work on a mod?

[AJ Rimmer]

Damn you for being so good!!!

Ever wanted to work on a mod?
Yes but I can't do anything. Except making up a plot that is.

[AJ Rimmer]

John was standing between two barracks, hiding in the shadows. He saw the two marines cover Leroy as they made their way inside.
He waited a moment and then ran up to the collapsed pile of debris. There was a clearing of at the right corner. He carefully sneaked through and checked the outside in case anyone had seen him and then disappeared into the dark tunnel.
It was dark, all the lights were out, it was cold and damp and he heard voices down the deep dark hole. He was standing on the base of a long set of stairs running alongside the long transit rail going down the darkness far far below. He could see the outlines of three men in the light of their flashlights.

They made their way down the stairs, further and further down the tunnel. He heard the soldier speak to each other and to Leroy, sounded like casual small talk. He was getting sure he was just paranoid. He didn’t know what he thought they were doing, but something in his gut said that something was off. Maybe the military were trying to take over the whole operation from the Black Mesa Security. He took offence to that and he did not like that there was something they didn’t tell him. Just small things that bugged him, and that according to his own reasoning, gave him the right to spy on the US Army.
“So Leroy, you’ve been in the army?” John had gotten close enough to here them but he kept out of sight.
“No. I worked as a rent-a-cop for a while but I got sick of guarding movie stars and what not, so a friend of my set me up with this job.”
“It’s pretty sweet huh?”

“Hell yeah. Until today that is. But its real cool, who wouldn’t want to work in Area 51?” He laughed and the two soldiers did to. John stayed put until they got a bit further away. He kept walking. They had reached the bottom of the tunnel. John followed them for at least fifteen minutes before Leroy stopped outside a steel door.
“Well, if the schematics your captain showed me are correct this is it, but I’m tellin you, I worked for three months in the central transit hub and there’s no such thing as an emergency activation system.”
“Don’t worry. We’ll take care of this.” The soldier got on the radio and spoke clearly and loud enough for John to hear:
“Captain Cleer, this is team Gamma, we have reach target Bravo. Request confirmation to begin Operation Lockdown.” The crackling voice of Captain Cleer echoed through the silent dark tunnel.
“Roger team Gamma, begin Operation Lockdown.” There was a long pause and the voice returned: “Execute command Charlie Lima Echo Alpha November.”

Before John and presumably Leroy could decode the military lingo and understand what the name stood for. John froze on the spot as he saw the solider besides Leroy bring up his MP5 and give the young guard a crackling melee hit right on his face. He could see a thin line of blood splatter through the air and Leroy falling over the ledge with waving arms. The crunching sound of his body hitting the floor gave John a cold chill down the back of his spine. He heard the soldier say something unreadable and the sound of a piece of metal fall to the floor. The soldiers walked through the door and the ledge was empty. John crept up to the door. They had closed it so he couldn’t be seen. He checked the floor under the transit line. He could barely see a hand in the flickering light from behind him. On the floor lay a metal board. It had been nailed above the door to conceal the sign showing what the room was for. Even the deepest conspiracy theories were awoken by what he read over the steel door:
“Emergency silo containment”

[Subatomic]

FINISH IT! I need more!

[DieH@rd]

one word: EXELENT!
keep on! :)

[AJ Rimmer]

And thy prayers shall be answered.

Pete’s leg was hurting so much he didn’t have the energy to scream. He was exhausted. The yellow infection surrounding the wound was creating a foul stench and was making the rest of the skin die slowly. It appeared the flesh around the actual wound had begun to rot. He was scared, in pain and tired. And there was nobody there with him.
After the elevator they had found themselves in an area of labs. Jonathan and Hitchford had after many protests agreed with Pete and left him here in search for aid, once they found something they would return.
He held his shotgun close and closed his eyes. Trying to imagine away the pain. He was thinking of his friends and his parents. It hurt even more than his leg so he opened his eyes and returned to the cold, bitter reality.
He stared at the grey walls around him. There was big sign labelled: “Experimental Exobiology Labs D-G”.

There was a line of doors labelled Airlocks and observation windows next to them. Pete sat and wondered what exobiology was and why he had never heard of it. He didn’t know all the places in Black Mesa, far from it but he did know all the parts of Area 11. It was part of his training. And there was no experimental exobiology lab in Area 11. Definitely anywhere close Checkpoint Fox. There was only one solution to it: They were lost.
He turned around and looked down the corridor. He heard a noise, very low but somewhere very close. He turned again and spotted a movement in the corner of his eye. In the window of one of the airlock doors there was a scientist in a radiation suit, banging his fists on the window, apparently screaming.

Pete slowly and very painfully got up and limped over to the door and put his hand at the window. The scientist shouted but the window was evidently soundproof. He banged his fists very hard on the window and it made a very faint sound. Pete looked around for a handle but there was only a code lock. He gave the man a signal to stand back and brought up his shotgun and brought it down with full force on the window. It didn’t do a thing. He tried again. Nothing. He tried to show his failure to the man inside who was growing increasingly desperate, it seemed he was running out of air. He pointed to the side of the door at the code lock.
Pete shook his head trying to show that he did not know the code.
The scientist pushed his hand to the window and showed four fingers. Pete stood dumbfounded for a second and then understood and quickly pushed number four on the code.

The scientist showed three and Pete pushed three. Then both hands, five finger plus three fingers. Pete pushed eight. And the last sign. The man showed his long finger and Pete pushed the last digit and the door slid open. The scientist fell out pulling off his sealed helmet and breathed quickly, he was completely out of breath lying on the floor. Pete couldn’t get down to help him and couldn’t let his guard down. Once the man had caught his breath he screamed, causing him to lose his breath again:
“Push the red button above the code lock! Now!” Pete pushed the small button and the door slid back into place.

He was watching the man, heaving his whole body up and down on the cement floor, feeling very useless but he couldn’t get down on the floor without help. The man stood up after a while and gathered himself.
“Hello. Thank you so much for rescuing me. I wouldn’t have lasted long. My name is Dr Ellis. And you are…?”
“Pete. You’re welcome but, how the hell did end up in there?” The exhausted man looked a bit embarrassed but answered.
“Well, I was working alone in the lab when the power went. The stasis fields died out so I remained to make sure none of the specimen escaped, if they did I would call security.” Ellis really looked ashamed now. “I only wish I had realised the power took out the phone lines as well.” Pete felt like both laughing because this man obviously was extremely dumb and crying because he still got paid more than himself.
“What specimens?” Pete looked oddly at the doctor when he showed him to the observation window.

Pete looked over his shoulder and saw one of the slave-like two-legged monsters stand and look at him. It banged its fists against the glass but it was the same material as the airlock door window.
“You created these things?” Pete looked accusingly at the thin short scientist.
“No no, we found them and brought them here for studying. The stasis kept them asleep for about an hour after the power died but about twenty minutes ago they were strong enough to brake out of the containment. I had no choice but to get into the airlock, but it can only be opened from the outside, I didn’t realise we had already evacuated. What happened?”
“We don’t really know, these things just started appearing all around the complex and things started braking down and blowing up.” The scientist looked like he didn’t understand.
“I’m sorry? I don’t understand, what things?” Pete nodded to the monster which had been joined by a little dog-like creature. The scientist looked amazed at the animals in the window.

“There’s been a containment failure? Oh my god!” He looked around the corridor but then turned back at Pete.
“But there are only these three specimen in this lab, the rest were transferred to the biodome labs, the Lambda labs and the experimental propulsion, weapons and environmental labs.”
“We’ve seen twelve so far. At least.” Ellis got big eyes and stared at him.
“Twelve?! There were only twenty-four in the whole facility last time I checked yesterday.”
“Well there are more coming in. They did this to me.” Pete pulled up his trouser leg and the doctor checked his injury with the style of a professional.
“Mmm… this looks like the wound caused by a specimen six. Uhhm, that is a “Grunt”, we call it that because it makes a very grunt-like noise. They are a very interesting creature, their exoskeleton grows on the skin and adds another layer of protection, we believe they are mainly…”
“Fascinating doc but I really don’t care.” He bit his lower lip when the doctors held up his leg and examined the wound.

“This infection seems to give the same symptoms as the neural toxin used by the parasitic crab-creatures. You need medical assistance now.”
“That’s why my colleagues left to get help.” As on command, Hitchford and Jonathan appeared jogging passed the corner with a first aid kit.



John laid his ear to the door and listened. He could hear nothing. He slowly opened the door with his shotgun ready. Inside was a big control centre. The two marines were facing a big row of computer consoles and were looking at schematics. John snuck in very quietly and hid behind a set of pipes.
“This got to be it. Look, it says so here, it leads to the coolant reserves.”
“Alright, let me have a look at that.” John could see one of the pieces of papers switched hands.
“Ok, turn, ‘that’ valve as much as you can counter-clockwise.” The Private Bronson did as his superior said.
There was a small humming noise that died out from the rest of the machine sounds that had been so excellently concealed from behind the maintenance door.

“Right that’s it. Call the captain.” The corporals voice increased in volume when he spoke with his commanding officer.
“Sir this is Team Gamma, we are ready to execute Operation Lockdown sir.”
“Very good, go ahead, I want audio confirmation.” John peaked out and discovered the marines had moved to a console facing his direction, he could see what they were doing without risking detection.
“Punching in the first execution code.” John was too far away to even see the code pad that presumably must be there.

“It worked, Silo A shut down, Silo B shut down, Silo C shut down. Silo D is not responding, repeat, Silo D is not responding, something must have shot the circuits to hell. Silo E is not responding either. Silo F shut down, Silo G shut down, Silo H shut down. Silos A through C and F through H are shutdown sir. Command Shutdown is completed sir, proceeding with Operation Lockdown.” The corporal added a new set of numbers to the console.
“Activating emergency closing of all silo doors… Now. Silo A emergency locks active. B, active. Standby.”
There was a brief pause and the corporal spoke again.
“Sir, all silo doors are locked, Security locks are activated throughout Sector 12 to Sector 3, command Security Lock is completed sir, proceeding with final phase of Lockdown mode.” A final set of digits was added to the console.
“All silo surface access entrances including blast doors and firing control centres are locking down sir, Operation completed, the complex is in Lockdown mode.” As a response the PA system kicked to life and distributed a single but informative message;

“Security Lockdown Mode engaged. Attention. Black Mesa announcement system now under military command. Silo D and E have not responded to Shutdown orders. Please avoid.”

[AJ Rimmer]

jeez, this is getting a bit long. Maybe I should start wrapping it up?

Subject: Birdwell, Kevin
Male, age 32

Education: Ph.D, Theoretical exobiology, MIT, Theoretical nuclear physics

Position: Research Supervisor

Assignment: Institute for exobiology, biodome complex

Clearance: Level 4

Administrative Sponsor: Classified

Disaster Response Priority: Preservation of research data
Secondary Priority: Personal safety.




Professor Birdwell walked across the hot parking lot with the bullet trembling deep in the barrel of the MP5 behind his back. He was very anxious to get out of the situation to say the least. He had managed to get out of the biodome after two full agonizing hours in which the very interesting specimens he had been fortunate enough to be allowed to study had broken out of containment. He remembered the feeling, there was a loud crash and all the alarms went off.

Sector 1’s electric fences and security doors were disengaging, one of the bigger creatures escaped very early and by the time the security team had tracked it down all the sectors were having containment failures. He had immediately gone to his office to burn all the research data since five months back on a CD in case the mainframe decided to pack it up. He was almost done when there was a loud banging outside his door and gunshots. The guard assigned to the corridor outside stumbled in with a huge wound in his chest.

The guard was dead before he hit the ground. He heard a loud banging behind the door before it started to hit the door. He pulled out the freshly burned CD and crawled into a vent.
After staying put somewhere deep in the vent system building up his courage he kept on going and twenty minutes later he crawled out a sewage opening and onto the sandy hot ground. He felt like a king… for about two minutes. Then the soldiers found him and since then he felt that things were rather quickly going down the toilet.
“Move it!” The soldier’s harsh voice didn’t leave any room for arguments and he stopped day dreaming and stepped through the door to the gatehouse. The soldiers led him to a small office labelled “Gate Supervisor” and shut the door behind him.

“Dr Birdwell is it?” Kevin looked at the large man behind the desk. He was wearing a captain’s uniform. He stood up and they shook hands.
“Dr Birdwell it’s a pleasure to finally meet. I’m Captain Cleer and I don’t have time for small talk. I want all the info on these things that you have and I want it now.” Birdwell stood still and shook his head.
“I don’t know what you mean sir.” Cleer stood up and slowly walked up to him. He reached into his lab coat pocket and pulled out a CD.
“I was willing to give you VIP status and give you a ticket out of here. It’s going to be hard to find anyone with information about these things when the crossfire thins out the scientist team’s lines. Had you co-operated you may have lived through this.”

Birdwell stared at the CD on the desk. He deeply regretted that he hadn’t given him the disk to begin with.
“However. I’ll give you one more chance. I want you to give me the access codes for the facility.”
“What?” Birdwell stared at the captain.
“Don’t play stupid. I want the access codes. You have clearance level four, give me the codes.”

Cleer stared straight into Birdwell’s eyes. He wasn’t completely bluffing. If the military had to silence the facility it was very doubtful that any members of the science team would survive. But he still believed that could be avoided.
The professor sighed and shook his head. It was painfully obvious he was completely bluffing. He only had secure access to the biodome complex and after the 360 the captain had done he was absolutely not putting anything behind the threat. The captain sighed and called for the soldiers to escort him out. They dragged him to a smaller room and locked him in.

[AJ Rimmer]

Evans walked through the hot corridor up to Captain Cleer’s office which just this morning had been his friend John’s office. He was going to ask him where John was. He had disappeared and did not answer any radio calls.
He stood outside the gatehouse supervisor and was about to knock when he froze. He could hear that the captain just gotten on the radio. He felt a sudden urge to snoop and put his ear to the door.
“This is Bravo Mike Romeo Foxtrot checkpoint Delta calling Santego HQ. Over.” The response came quickly through the radio.

“We read you Bravo Mike Romeo Foxtrot dash Delta. Please report.”
“We have secured Checkpoint Delta and executed Lockdown throughout the facility. Checkpoint Foxtrot have secured their gate area but it seems some members of the local science team in sector Delta of the silo complex are beginning to reach the surface. Operation Shutdown failed in Silo D and E. Captain Fein has reported several hostile encounters and taken five prisoners. So far no resistance from the science team. We are awaiting orders.”

“What level of containment?” Evans could hear Cleer pause for a moment.
“Constant encounters around the area. As Fox Charlie niner reported we have potential danger to incoming aircrafts. The inner facility seems to be completely infested. All containment systems have failed except silo doors and lockdown. Actions must be taken quickly to stop the containment to spread to outside the facility. The anomalies seem to be resisting at an intelligent and calculated way. At least the more evolved specimens.”
“Do you have the manpower to execute Operation Containment?” Cleer was silent for a long time and when he returned he sounded very forced.
“No sir. The recon detail can not contain the invasion.” It took almost a minute before the reply came. To Evans it didn’t mean as much but to Captain Cleer it seemed last for ever.

“Understood Delta outpost. We will be sending in the main force in thirty minutes. Please alert all checkpoint leaders to begin Operation Clean-up. Clear your areas and stay put in your areas until the main force arrives and begins the full-scale operation.” Cleer answered quietly.
“Understood sir. Checkpoint Gamma reports extreme hazardous anomalies in their sector. They request air support from Santego airbase ASAP.”
“Understood. Air support will arrive in twenty minutes. Santego HQ out.”
It was quiet in the room and then Evans heard feet walking towards the door. Evans stood at the other side of the hall when Cleer walked out. Evans thought for a second whether or not he should tell Cleer that John wasn’t in the compound. Some faint warning bell told him not to.

“Captain.” Evans nodded at him.
“Evans. What can I do for you?”
“I just wanted to tell you that all sectors are still clear. There have been no further encounters.” Cleer looked at him as if asking “was that it?”.
“Oh. Alright. Thankyou. I thought the area was secured an hour ago.”
“It was. Ehmm but it still is.”
“Oh. Okay. Evans, I have good news for you and your men. You’re getting pulled out. The main force arrives in half an hour and they are evacuating all Security forces. Tell all your men to gather in front of the gatehouse in ten minutes.”

[Sprafa]

AJ, how good is your geopolitical knowledge ?

[AJ Rimmer]

AJ, how good is your geopolitical knowledge ?
It depends, what does it mean?

[AJ Rimmer]

I do know what it means but I don't see what it has to with this?

[Z|insane]

Great job so far AJ.

[SnowBall]

Holy crap this is good. I love the security guards stories. Most people are against a Half-Life movie, but if this were made into a movie, I would be more than happy. Grade A material my friend.
I feel so inspired by it, I almost want to do some fan art of it. Might have to find time to do so. Keep up the great work!

[-JeZ-]

Mr Rimmer, your writing is excellent, especially so considering English isn't your first language. I hope you have the time to finish the whole story as I'm anxious to see what happens to John, Pete and Co!.

I only have one suggestion...when you've finished it stick it in a .txt or .doc and give it to the mods to upload and have them link to the file in this thread. I'd be proud to have the whole thing on my HD so I could read it again :).

I will email Gabe with a link to this thread as I think it's the best piece of fanfic I've read, period. Keep up the good work.

[EDIT] Email sent :thumbs:

[AJ Rimmer]

Mr Rimmer, your writing is excellent, especially so considering English isn't your first language. I hope you have the time to finish the whole story as I'm anxious to see what happens to John, Pete and Co!.

I only have one suggestion...when you've finished it stick it in a .txt or .doc and give it to the mods to upload and have them link to the file in this thread. I'd be proud to have the whole thing on my HD so I could read it again :).

I will email Gabe with a link to this thread as I think it's the best piece of fanfic I've read, period. Keep up the good work.

[EDIT] Email sent :thumbs:
Wow. Thankyou

[Sprafa]

I do know what it means but I don't see what it has to with this?


Nothing. But if your geopolitical knowledge is good, then I would like to offer you a small assignemt....

[AJ Rimmer]

Nothing. But if your geopolitical knowledge is good, then I would like to offer you a small assignemt....
Oh? Interesting?
Wait, I don't have to step through a portal or anything right?
I'd like to know more.

[Sprafa]

Wait, I don't have to step through a portal or anything right?


lol

nice reference

just keep the fanfic coming, I might contact you later. btw, no MSN ?

[AJ Rimmer]

The sun was right above them as Evans glanced around him at the 20 or so security guards, all in the same uniform. He was pleased. During the count of the men it had struck him how utterly preposterous his suspicions had been. He had asked around and kept calling him on the radio but there was no sign of John. He would tell the captain to look for him before he left. The tall sergeant Talbert cleared his throat and distributed his orders with practiced bravado.

“All right, listen up people. Due to the fact that the Black Mesa Facility poses threats to our incoming aircrafts, we have to limit the amount of time our Ospreys have to stay in the area. Therefore, we will collect your weapons before you leave. They are more needed for our main force than for you. My men will collect your shotguns, and you may keep your sidearms.” Evans mind sprung to life again. He painted up new nightmare scenarios, none which he truly believed. It did make sense, it was all just his imagination playing tricks on him. Yet he felt something was wrong when the skinny private collected his shotgun and carried it along with four others over his shoulder. Once all the guards were standing at attention with both hands behind their backs he saw Talbert make a sign to a corporal besides him.

All the soldiers around the security guards aimed their weapons at them. Evans looked around and counted somewhere among 30 barrels pointed at them. He felt the earth disappear underneath him. Once during his military training he had accidentally dropped a live grenade in his own foxhole. The feeling in his stomach was the same as now. But this time there was no way he could get out of this hole by swinging over the ledge and dropping to the ground. Had they had their shotguns they made have had a chance but they were being carried inside the gatehouse, presumably back to their racks.
Talbert called across the courtyard;

“Machine gunners!” Two men, each carrying an M249 ran up. They mounted them on a group of sandbags that had been set up, presumably to guard the gatehouse, only now they were facing the wrong direction. After they loaded the ammunition belts they gave thumbs up to the sergeant who stood silent for a moment. Evans didn’t even hear him but he clearly saw his lips form the word “Fire”.

Evans had already drawn his gun and had Talbert in his sight when the bullets started raining. He felt his leg get torn up and his body fall to the side in slow-motion. He felt bullets rip through his body as he fell through the line of fire. He landed on the hot ground, the noise around him was unbearable. The machine gun fire, the screams and the sound of bones and flesh being torn apart. He lay with his face to the right and saw another man fall down. He looked at him and discovered that his torso was covered in bullet holes. Dark stains were spreading on his uniform. His eyes were dead. The Kevlar couldn’t take the machine gun fire. He suddenly noticed a red track in the sand. It ran from just a foot in front of him all the way up to his neck. He closed his eyes as the gun fire ceased.


Talbert’s voice sounded as if it was about to break.
“Count them and make sure all are dead.” The pile of corpses on the New Mexico sand in front of him made the guilt hit him like a ton of bricks. The soldiers started searching through them. A man shouted as he was poked in the back by an M4. He hulked when the soldier lifted him in his hair, his helmet laying a bloody pool next to him. His legs were covered with wounds, one of them was hanging by a few strings of flesh under his kneecap.

He coughed up blood and let out a cry when he was dropped on the ground again. A single gunshot through his head ended his pain. Another guard started crawling away, his legs to had been shot to pieces. He was leaving a trail of blood behind him as a snail. A big, strong soldier put his boot down on his back and threw the man on his back. The guard screamed in pain when the soldier got up his pistol and aimed for a head shot.
“No! No please no! I have a family please no!”
“Shut up!” The soldier took careful aim.
“Oh God no! No don’t do-“ The gunshot interrupted the man’s plea for mercy as quickly as it had ended his life.


There was a knock on Cleer’s door. He looked up and saw a young Corporal stand in the doorway.
“Come in corporal. At ease.” The corporal cleared his throat and spoke. He was very nervous.
“Sir the uhm…the operation is completed sir.”
“Good.” The captain looked down at his hands. He felt a desperate urge to be alone. “Is that all corporal?”
“Ehmm… no sir. The ehmm…” The man was sweating. “Sir Officer Halson isn’t there.”

Cleer looked at him with a confused look on his face.
“Excuse me? What do you mean?”
“There are only 24 bodies out there sir. His body wasn’t there. He didn’t assemble with the other guards sir.”
Cleer got out of his chair. He screamed at the top of his lungs.
“What? Didn’t Sergeant Talbert count them?”
“No sir he didn’t.” The captain was furious. The young soldier was sure he was going destroy something in the room soon.
“Get that idiot in here now! I’m gonna bust his ass down to private! And send out search parties for Halson! FIND HIM! NOW!”

[PunisherUSA]

I only have one suggestion...when you've finished it stick it in a .txt or .doc and give it to the mods to upload and have them link to the file in this thread. I'd be proud to have the whole thing on my HD so I could read it again :).



I'm workin on putting it in an html with frames, but It'll take me no time to pu 'em up as .txts

Start 15 minute timer for edit.... GO!

Here it is!

[SnowBall]

If this were an acctual book, I'd buy it. :thumbs up:

[Brian Damage]

Very nice stuff. I do think that this should be published in some form. I sent an eMail off to Gabe Newell a few days back, asking what he thought of the idea of a fan fiction section on VALVe's Steam network...

Nothing so far...

[AJ Rimmer]

-JeZ-: Please let me know if you get a reply.
SnowBall: If you do create som fan art, be sure to show it to me.
All the rest of you: Thankyou.

[CrazyHarij]

Mad skills, I envy you. Alot. :)

[-JeZ-]

Rimmer: Will do mate. Nothing as yet.
PunisherUSA: Thanks for the compilation! :thumbs:

[SnowBall]

Heres something I whipped up really quick. Just as a base inspiration so its not really any specific character. http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=26940

[h4vvok]

On the floor lay Dave, with a big section of the ventilation shaft on him. He rushed up and saw his face, it had a deep cut right across the left cheek. Pete lifted off the big vent and held up Daves head.

“Hey, you okay? Come on, wake up.” Dave murmured something and opened his eyes.
“Awwww ****! My head… Jesus Christ, what the hell happened?” Dave stood up with some help from Pete. He cheek was bleeding badly and he had a hard time standing straight.
“I don’t know. But we better get up to the lobby, can you walk?” Dave moaned as something in his body hurt a little more than everything else.

Is it just me or did you confuse the character dialogue there a bit? Unless Dave is talking to himself and helping himself up heh

[h4vvok]

Oh and just wanted to point that dialogue out to you if you were editing, then again I think I totally misinterpreted it and it's probably fine. Great story and keep up the good work.....any versions in french? English is my 2nd language as well =\

[AJ Rimmer]

Oh and just wanted to point that dialogue out to you if you were editing, then again I think I totally misinterpreted it and it's probably fine. Great story and keep up the good work.....any versions in french? English is my 2nd language as well =\
Well I can't translate it. I learned french for four years in school and I still speak better spanish than french.
And I learned spanish from the spanish bumblebee-guy on the simpsons.

[AJ Rimmer]

Dr Birdwell had heard the gunshots and was desperately trying to brake the door down, but he was a small man. His shoulder was hurting and the door hadn’t shown the slightest hint of busting open.
He sat down against the door, heartbroken and feeling utterly desperate. His mind was working like crazy.
He was thinking very dark thoughts when he heard footsteps coming down the corridor. He heard keys and someone inserting one in the lock. A soldier with a harsh face walked through the door. Kevin swung the chair through the air and brought it down right on his face. The soldier took a backwards dive and landed heavily on the floor. Kevin dragged the unconsciousness body into the room and closed the door.

He searched the body and found a set of keys. He pulled them out of his pocket and grabbed his 9mm side arm.
Just to be safe, Kevin hit him across the head with the chair again.
He slowly pushed open the door. The hallway was empty. He snuck up to one of the doors and carefully felt the handle. It was locked. Seeing as there was no reaction to this, as a scientist he felt obliged to test if there was anyone or anything in there. He tested three keys before he found one that worked. The lock clicked out of place and Kevin felt his heartbeat grow stronger and stronger as he pulled open the door.

The room was a small cupboard, a lone light dangling in a chain from the ceiling. The doctor searched for the light switch but before he could find one he heard foot steps. He quickly but quietly shut the door behind him. After a few moment he heard a shout from just outside the door, they had without doubt found the knocked out soldier. Running boots followed and shouting to start a search. Once the noise had quieted down Kevin kept looking for the light. He found a switch and turned it on.

“Hey! T-t-turn off the ****ing light!” Kevin turned around in horror as he stared at a man lying on the floor in a pool of blood and puke. The swaying light from the bulb above cast horrifying shadows on his body. He was deformed in the most hideous way, his arms were longer than most people’s legs and his hands were the shape of claws, his fingers had turned as thin as ice hanging from the ceiling in the winter. His body was swelling up, ranches of blood veins appearing all over his skin. But most horrific of all was his head. Apart from the scars and deep incisions covering his face the whole head was swollen terribly. It was clear a horrible infection was attacking him, the scull was discoloured and swollen in a way Birdwell had previously seen in brain tumour patients. The poor man was trying to move his arm but collapsed and let out a long agonizing scream followed by vomiting. He coughed up blood and let out another scream. He was wearing a Kevlar and the remnants of a blue shirt. Everything on him was covered in discoloured blood and stool. The smell in the room was terrible.

“Turn off the ****ing lights!” The man had problems speaking, his voice snapping into loud hissing between sentences, he was also having troubles breathing. Kevin switched the light off again with a trembling hand.
“S-s-sorry… I didn’t know you were in here.” The man tried to reply but coughed up another pile of puke and blood on the floor.
“You… are you a doctor…?” The pathetic creatures trembling voice made it impossible for Doctor Birdwell to be afraid.
“Yes.”
“My name… is Tod… Buckman… Please kill me…” He was speaking very slowly and was holding his head as he did, as if to concentrate to remember some long forgotten childhood memory.
Kevin walked a bit closer.
“Who… or what are you?”
“I’m a… security guard… I was bitten by… one of those… -ARGHH!” The man threw up again. He either didn’t have the strength or wasn’t able to move in time and puked on himself. “… little crab things… But they… took it off… They won’t kill me!”

Kevin stared with eyes wide open as the man stood up and let out a scream of pain, swung his arm towards a shelf that was cut in half by the sharp claws which seemed to hurt the man completely. He then lost his balance and knocked himself out against the wall.
Kevin shut the door quickly and ran further back the corridor. He looked carefully out the window at the gate booths outside. There were army trucks outside being loaded with something. Big, black plastic bags were being thrown up onto the trucks. He gasped as he realized what was in them. The gunfire had woken him up from his sleep and had suspected the worst but it now hit him what the truth fully meant. He heard the sound of the handle of a pump action shotgun get pulled back.

He turned around slowly and stared at the two soldiers standing before him with their weapons aimed at him.
“Throw down your gun and put you hands above your head.” There was a loud scream and the wooden door next to the soldier with the shotgun broke down, falling on the soldier knocking him to the ground. The other man didn’t have time to react before on the of big claws ripped through the air and cut through his torso. He fell down in screams and the creature turned to Kevin. Between the screams that did not belong in this world he could make out a faint human voice shouting something that sounded like; “Run doctor, run”.
Kevin took off for a window facing towards the facility, one look out the window facing the booths showed the soldiers were coming around from the other side. He hurled through the window and landed on the sand outside. He got to his feet and ran as fast as he could, his heartbeat accompanied by gunfire and screams from the former security guard Tod Buckman.

[-JeZ-]

This just get's better and better! :thumbs:

[PunisherUSA]

Very good! But I think there's a small problem. After searching the group of dead security guards, one was missing, John Halson. But another guard, Tod Buckman, is also missing, but he was not missed when counting bodies.

Maybe I'm missing something, but 2 solutions are to have the army searching for 2 guards or have the incident with Tod-zombie before the killing (which is diffficult because the sci heard gunfire, etc.)

By the way, how many more sections, 1? 5? 20?

[AJ Rimmer]

Very good! But I think there's a small problem. After searching the group of dead security guards, one was missing, John Halson. But another guard, Tod Buckman, is also missing, but he was not missed when counting bodies.

Maybe I'm missing something, but 2 solutions are to have the army searching for 2 guards or have the incident with Tod-zombie before the killing (which is diffficult because the sci heard gunfire, etc.)

By the way, how many more sections, 1? 5? 20?
Well the idea is sorta that Tod Buckman never existed. He was never borned and so he did not die and did not mutate into a zombie.

[PunisherUSA]

ummm, now I'm even more confused. Couldn't he just be a scientist half-turned into a zombie? That would be all the simpler.

[AJ Rimmer]

ummm, now I'm even more confused. Couldn't he just be a scientist half-turned into a zombie? That would be all the simpler.
No, scientist zombies do not have kevlars and are not strong enough to save Dr Birdwell.

[PunisherUSA]

OK OK. I'm gonna stop asking questions and just wait for more story ;)

[h4vvok]

guard zombies dont have kevlar either i think...ill have to check but i never remember one with kevlar

[AJ Rimmer]

guard zombies dont have kevlar either i think...ill have to check but i never remember one with kevlar
Don't think you ever saw a guard zombie did you?

[h4vvok]

Just havent played singleplayer in awhile, I just remember scientists and the fully mutated zombies

[AJ Rimmer]

Just havent played singleplayer in awhile, I just remember scientists and the fully mutated zombies
The fully mutated zombies? Don't you mean the military grunt zombies from opfor?

[h4vvok]

hmm yea probably, i have been meaning to replay all the games

[Brian Damage]

Well, there were Mawmen, the normal zombies, and then there were the further-mutated Gonomes, zombies which were further along the path to whatever final form zombies take, which turned up later on in OP4...

[AJ Rimmer]

Still writing.

John ran down the cramped corridor. It was completely dark and every second he had to watch out to avoid crashing into a stack of boxes. His uniform which previously had been splattered with patterns of blood, he was now soaked in human blood from the ears down. Due to a freak accident when trying to leave the silo control room the soldiers had found him as he was walking past the corner of the corridor outside. His shotgun barrel had slammed into the face of one of them and gone off. The blood had covered every inch of the corridor and the corporal behind him. He had reacted far quicker than him and the next gunshot blew a good portion of the corporal’s shoulder away. His entire body was sticky with blood. He fell on his face when he walked straight into a pile of cardboard boxes. The boxes landed on him but they were mostly empty. The impact had however kicked the sickness from the headcrab in action again and he threw up on the cold, wet floor. The headache had grown from a headache to someone driving an ice pick through his cerebral.

He got to his feet and kept walking like a blind man through the tunnel, bumping in to more boxes and walls. He walked at full speed face first into a steel door. He grasped for a handle and turned it. The door swung open and he squinted in the bright light of the clean white corridor.
He walked down it, his eyes looking for any movement. He turned a corner and found himself in a different world.
Before lay a scene of battle. The clean white walls and the slightly greyish floors were stained with blood. A marine had gotten his arm blown away and lay in a pool of blood. The hallway was barricaded with desks and chairs. They had not held long enough. There were bullet holes all over the walls and the desks. John walked up closer to the barricade. With fists clenched he looked over the edge of the desk to see where the blood stain underneath the barricade came from.

It was a security guard, his Kevlar was torn up with holes and his arms were bleeding. He was laying next to a second guard, he had a series of wounds leading up to his neck. The blood mixed in with the other’s blood. He bent down and checked their name tags. Their names had been Mario Casali and Jeff Clisse. They had both died on their posts. He was ready to leave when he heard raised voices from far down the corridor. He grabbed his shotgun from where he had left it on the floor and slowly made his way towards the noise. He silenced his steps more and more as he heard the voices clearly. There were three of them. He finally detected the voices from inside a transit system monitoring station. He approached a closed door and peaked through the glass window.

Inside was two soldiers, one with blood across his face, both seemed as they had just been in battle, both carrying MP5s. And before them, tied to a chair, his face and his trousers covered in blood and his head leaning back to the back of the chair was a very thin-looking security guard. One of the privates raised his hand and gave the man a blow to the nose. His head jolted back and the chair fell to the floor. He hit his head on the floor and John saw a new streak of blood pouring out of his nose. The other soldier pulled the chair back up.
“Once again, where is he!” The first soldier shouted at him. He responded with a quivering voice. John could see small spits of blood fly out of his mouth when he answered.
“F-**** you…”
The man raised his hand again, this time John could see a pistol in it.
He brought down the butt hard on the soldier’s skull and John shuddered when he heard the impact.

“Tell me!” After a long pause the guards voice returnerd:
“****… you…!”
The soldier lost his patience, he dropped his MP5 to the ground and grabbed the guards throat with both hands.
“Listen here you little ****! Tell me where Dr Rosenberg is!”
“Go to hell!” The chair fell to the side when another whack from the butt of the pistol hit him. John saw a bloody tooth fall to the ground. The man cried out as the pain hit him. He was pulled back up again by the other soldier. Again he was pulled up and the interrogator put his massacred bleeding jaw in his hand and asked him calmly.
“Where is he?” The guard was drifting out of consciousness but responded very drifting like.

“I don’t know who he is…” The soldier didn’t raise his hand this time. Instead he bent down and picked up a small cage with steel bars. Like a cat cage. He held it before the man’s face and shook the cage. He gently slapped the guard on the face, making him focus on the cage in front of him. A familiar sound was heard and the cage jolted in the marine’s hand, John could see little sharp claws flash out from inside the cage.
“Oh god no… it’s… one of those things… don’t do it, don’t, no please!” He tried to get out of his restraints but the man behind him held him and the soldier asked once more:
“Where is he? Tell me!”
“I don’t who the **** Dr Rosenberg is!”
“Too bad.” He pushed the cage closer and slowly let open the door.
John gave the door a heavy tackle and it broke open. He aimed the shotgun at the soldier behind the guard and let a blast away, his head snapped out of joint by the force and a big chunk of his brain splattered across the wall. He pulled back the handle and heard the cage fall to the ground.

In slow-motion he saw the guard fall down with the headcrab on his face, he saw the cage roll on the floor and he saw the marine hurling towards him through the air. He was brought back to the normal pace of things when another shotgun blast hit the floor as the heavy private gave him a heads-on full body tackle and pushed him to the floor. He let go of his gun and started wrestling with him. For about a minute they rolled around on the floor. John tried to get a punch at the guy but he felt the cold barrel of a gun pushed against his head. He jolted upwards and rammed his forehead straight into the soldiers face. The gun fell to the floor and he managed to get out of his grip. He crawled across the floor to his shotgun and heard a scream. He raised his head and got whacked with the palm of the zombie. The monster then lifted him up in the air and gave him a free ride into the wall at the other side of the room.

He slowly got up, the world was spinning around him as he carefully took a few babysteps forwards and fell down again. He was bleeding from the forehead. Not that he could take any notice as his face was still covered in blood. He crawled over the floor towards the shotgun he had dropped when the fight started. He saw the grunt fight off the zombie and get a few shots in its torso. The zombie got mad and tried to hit him but the soldier was too well trained. He grabbed the zombie and pushed it on the floor and started bashing its head with the pistol when he ran out of ammo. The long sharp claws made terrible cuts on his arms and body but the attacks got weaker and weaker. John pulled back the handle and took aim.

With surprising speed and reaction the zombie took a leap from the floor and once again John hit the floor on his back. He quickly turned around and started inching his way towards the shotgun on the floor, dragging a zombie and a very upset US marine in the room. He closed his fingers around the slim body of the weapon and pulled it to him. He rammed it down the side of himself until he felt the barrel impact with something and he pulled the trigger. The brains and brons of the zombie blew off in all directions, John felt those parts of himself that were still clean get splashed with the disgusting disfigured entrails of the former security guard. There was a loud screaming.
He turned around and saw the soldier had fallen to his knees. The shotgun blast had hit his legs. John slowly got up and put in another shell while the marine was shouting very nasty words. He didn’t even notice him until the barrel was a foot from his face.
John pulled the trigger.

[AJ Rimmer]

Pete was feeling extremely woozy, his vision was fading into bliss. He tried to protest to the people carrying him but he didn’t have the strength to make a sound.
They were making their way through dark and damp hallways, very few lights and grey cement walls. They had passed a sign which labelled the area “Reactor Complex”. The professor had guided them a few levels up, opening security doors that required level four access, but the surface access silo doors had for some reason locked down.

After half an hour they had decided to get down to one of the local reactor housing and try to restore power and thereby escaping via either the transit train or the sewage system which had also closed down due to the lockdown. The doctor had gathered a few medical supplies and pumped Pete full of pain killers, he was in heaven for thirty minutes but now he was only dizzy. Ellis was carrying a whole bunch of equipment, a first aid kit, a Geiger counter, Pete’s 9mm, all the info he could print out on specimen six and the headcrabs in less than five minutes, an emergency shutdown chart for the reactor complex,
schematics for the coolant system and a soda.

The group of unfortunate men were steadily rushing down the corridor when the unmistakable sound of a jet fighter roaring past somewhere high above the ground. The men stopped and listened, except Pete who just thought it was his head making that annoying noise.
After a few seconds there were a series of explosions and the ground shook. Pieces of the roof came off and landed on the floor. The planes made more runs and more bombs were dropped. They kept on going anyway despite the bombing going on high above them.

They reached a section of the corridor marked with a big sign.
“Reactor A & B housing complex” There was a large set of bulkheads ahead of them. Dr Ellis walked up to the retinal scanner and the automatic voice immediately recognized that the door had been unlocked. With a loud mechanical buzzing the two enormous pieces of metal slid apart. They all stepped in into the huge control room. The entire far wall was lined with computer consoles and old-style computer banks. There was a huge cylinder running through the room, part of some enormous hydraulic system. There was a man in a white lab coat standing by the consoles.

“Excuse me? Who are you?” Dr Ellis spoke before anyone could halt him. The man in the lab coat turned around, he had blood on his clean white uniform and a gun in one hand. After the security guards lowered their shotguns they approached him.
“Hello, I’m Dr Birdwell, Supervisor, Institute for exobiology.”
“Oh I see, I’m Dr Ellis, Researcher, Examination room four.” As if it would explain something he added; “Pre-biodome and Lambda complex.”
“Ah I see, well Dr Ellis, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” The two men shook hands and the security team just stood and watched. Pete whispered to Jonathan: “Great, now there’s two of them…”

The two scientists after a while turned to the rest of the men and spoke. It seemed Dr Ellis was under the impression that he was making a speech.
“Alright everybody. This is Dr Kevin Birdwell, he’s an exobiologist, the best there is, if he can’t help us, no-one can.” The last bit he ended with a smile, without realizing the bitter irony that lay in his statement. “Doctorr?”
The thin Dr Birdwell took the stage.
“Thankyou. This,” He lay his hand on the big hydraulic pump, indicating that he was speaking about it rather than the huge nuclear facility that rested far behind the wall of data banks. “…is a 1983 fission reactor, it powers the transit system in this area, the mainframes, the lights, the silo doors and the emergency surface access bulkheads. It’s been shut down as a result of the military overriding the security systems. All we have to do is get it up and running again.” He looked proud almost, the security guards just sat their and looked at this madman.

“Once we do so, the mainframe will send signals to the rest of the facility, activating more power generators along the way, opening up more and more of the facility, up to the point in Area 6 where the power is run by another power plant. We can’t do anything about that however.” Hitchford muttered ironically what a shame that was. Jonathan raised his hand and spoke;
“Sir, wouldn’t it take less time to find another way up to the surface?”
“I doubt you could find one that the military hasn’t taken over already, but there is much more at stake here.”
“Like?”

“The most important aspect of this is the fact, that once we have restored power, all the security doors from here to the Lambda complex will activate, and then all that’s needed is for someone to send the all clear and they will open. It will also allow for the Omega satellite to be placed in orbit.” Jonathan spoke again.
“Let’s pretend anyone here understand what you’re talking about; Who is going to send the all clear and who is going to launch a satellite?”
“That’s up to the Lambda team. This is all we can do.”
“What’s the Lambda team?” Birdwell looked at Dr Ellis.
“The research team operating inside the Lambda Complex, the people responsible for this.”

“And we want them to gain access to the complex, why exactly?”
“Because they are the only people who can g