A Combine Story

[G Man]

Hey All,
This is A Story Of A Combine Soldier, Add To It What You Like! Continue From This Post, Try Not To Mess it Up...
Number 5436 Woke Up And Stared Into The Face Of A Being That Wore A Mask Of Some Sort, "Welcome To The Combine Number 5436..." Said the Being, " I Am Number 5449, Your Commanding Officer, Follow Me.."
5436 Followed 5449 Into A Room With A Lot of Other Masked Beings, He Saw A Mask Next To Him On A Table, "Put On Your Helmet 5436.." Said 5449.
As Soon As 5436 Put On The Helmet A Voice Echoed Through His Radio "All Soldiers Of 2nd Division, Get To Kiltarb Street And Repel All Ant Lions!"
"Thats Our Que Men" Said The Leader "5436 Pick Up That Assault Rifle!"
5436 Did As He Was Ordered And Picked It Up, He Felt The Coolness of Metal Against His Fingers Like He Missed It... 5436 Ran Out Of The Room Along With All The Other Combine, Combine Were Running Up The Halls With Men In White Coats Trying To Come The Other Way..

Eventually 5436 Got Out Of The Building And Arrived At Kiltarb Street, The City, City 17 Was in Ruins, Not One House Was Standing Fully...
Then 5436 Saw The Most Horrifying Sight He Had Ever Witnessed....
Continue From There People, Happy Storytelling!

[AJ Rimmer]

The street he was vaguely starting to remeber in a sense of Deja Vu almost was transformed. There were a minimal amount of buildings left, only rubble remained of what used to be a library.
On the street was hundreds of overturned desks, chairs and doors used as barricades, at least a hundred combines were fighting back thousands upon thousands of ant lions, most of them with handguns. The voice in the helmet returned.
"Attention, Division 2 and 3 are moving in on Kiltarb, Division 5, retreat and regroup at Supply depot 5."
"Negative command, depot 5 is under heavy attack."
"Belay that order division 5, retreat to depot 4 and re-supply. Go to counter attack at the downtown registration center ASAP."
5436 saw hundreds of combines run past him, heading for the positions division 5 had just abononed. He saw another soldier trying to fight off two ant lions with his hand gun. One of them collapsed but the second one was too close. He rammed his claws through the soldier's arm and then proceeded to massacre his body. 5436's attention was brought elsewhere as a huge horde of ant lions came storming down the leveled street.

[G Man]

Great Rimmer!
5436 Pulled Out His Rifle And Fired Off 2 Clips, " Damn I'm Out of Ammo!" He Swore.
His Headset Crackled, "Repeat Division 5 Get To Supply Depot 5!, Thats An Order Soldiers!" " Sir Yes Sir" Replied His Headset.

[G Man]

Come On Guys, Post!

[Z|insane]

All Soldiers Of 2nd Division, Get To Kiltarb Street And Repel All Ant Lions!

[COLOR=Blue]"Repeat Division 5 Get To Supply Depot 5!, Thats An Order Soldiers!"

Uhh, tell me what division this guy is in, is it the 2nd or 5th....

[G Man]

He's in 2nd

[G Man]

C'mon Guys, Post!!

[pixartist]

Suddenly some kind of orange human shaped thing appeared, took a wooden crate from the ground and fired it at 5436's head...

[YourMom]

The orange clad figure laughed as he started firing bullets at 5436, "I'm Gordon Freeman! And these bullets that are careening into your chest are free...man!"

[G Man]

He Woke Up, He Felt Strange, As If He Had Been Drugged.. This Must Be What It Feels Like To Be Dead. He Wondered. Everything Was Dark, he Couldn't See.Ahhhhhhh! Light! I Can't Be Dead! He Said. " No Your Not Dead Idiot! Said A Rough Voice.

[Some_God]

5436 was riding in the rear of a commandeered street-car.
"What the hell is going on?" asked 5436.
"We got you out of there, sir!" replied a combine soldier.
"Sir? but I'm a private!" 5436 exclaimed
"Negative, you were just promoted by some guy... you know, one of those blue suit powerfull people. Im 5000, nice to meet you."
The street-car was full of soldiers. They were riding down a market squar when a soldier stood up.
"We just recieved report of an uprising in Sector C... HQ says we have to stomp them out... our secondary objective is to eliminate a male caucasian wearing an orange suit, he is believed to be the man behind the uprising" the soldier told everyone.
"Will we have any backup?" asked someone from the back.
"HQ sent us 2 Striders... more than enough to deal with our situation" repleid the soldier.

The men got off the Street-Car and proceeded to Sector C...

[Some_God]

Gunfire erupted in the distance as the squad of 8 combine soldiers moved through the desolate allyways of Sector C.
"Sir!" a soldier started pointing foward. 5436 looked and saw a man in an orange suit surrounded by 10 resistance fighters.
"Oh god," 5436 thought to himself. "This cant be."

[eber]

suddenly, something came up in 5436's mind. "can it be ? . . . Gordon !?!?!?!"
5436 remembered an strange incident 10 years before, when he got this big scar on his chest . . and he thought "that's just incredible whats happening here, WTF is going on!!! i woke up this morning without knowing where i am ,then a strange guy took me up in some kind of army, then we were fighting those ugly insect thingies, a man in an orange jumpsuit appeared shot me and suddenly everything around me was black .....
and in all this stillnes i remembered the cause which brought me here."
5436 looked at his partner and said "i know this man, his name is . . . . GORDON FREEMAN !!!" 5000 seemed to be surprised "Gordon Freeeeman ? where do you know that from?", 5436 answered "its about 10 years ago , well i was a corporal and i had my own team . . . we had a combat mission in new mexico in a research facility called Black Mesa ! well my order was to kill gordon freeman who wore an orange HEV-suit, but i dont know how he might got here . . . **** i dont even know how i got here !!"

[G Man]

"Nice Story Mate Anyway You Don't Mind Trying To Kill Him Once Again Do You Becau...." "AAAAAAHHHHHHH" "5278 Is Down Repeat 5278 Is Down!" They Heard Being Shouted, "I Need Some Morphine Over Here NOW!" "Sir Yes Sir!" Replied 5436 "5000 Your With Me, We're Going Into That Factory To Find Some Morphine, Come On!" As 5436 And 5000 Were Running To The Factory A Strider Thumped Up Behind Them On The Way To Kill Some Resistance Fighters. "Shit, I Aint Seen One Of Those Things Before!" Shouted 5436 Above The Thump, Thump, Thump, Of The Strider's Legs. "They Must Be 100 Foot Tall!" "That's What They Say!" Replied 5000.

[eber]

when they reached the factory ,they tried to open the main-gate, but could not open it . while they were still trying, some strange noises came up.it sounded like a bunch of crickets, but after they heard a loud "STOMP" ,they knew that they were not supposed to be alone. 5436 and 5000 took out their machine-guns and stared shocked at the dark corner next to the main-gate. 5000 shouted nervously " what should we do!?!", 5436 answered "I . . . I . . I dont know, but i know this noise from anywhere !!"
then a big brown and tough looking alien came slowly out of the dark corner, it had 3 arms and a very strange biological glove over one of them. although it appeared to be dangerous it did nothing.it just stand there and looked at them. 5436 thought "OMG i know this creature, . . . ". both 5436 and 5000 took some steps back.

[G Man]

"It's A Vortiguant! They Shoot High Voltage Beams Of Electrici...AAAAAAHHHH!" 5436Cringed As A Bolt of Electricity Flew into His Arms "AAAAAHHHHHH!" He Screamed 5000 Fired Two Full Clips Into The Vortiguants Head. " We Gotta Get You Back To Base, It Feckin Fried Your Arms!" Shouted 5000 "Don't You Think I Know That!" Moaned 5436

[Glo-Boy]

5000 slung his weapon around his shoulder and reached down to grab 5436, but to his dismay, the meat on his arms had been so thoroughly cooked that it slid off of his bones when he pulled. "Holy shit" said 5436, his arms were only left as bones and tendons. 5000 was like "Oh piss!"

[Fly en Shoes]

wow i think they should make this into a comic book

[B.Calhoun]

((Great work so far guys))

As 5436 was moaning in pain as burst of bullets ricocheted off of some metal debris and clipped 5000's neck, spitting blood all over 5436's face as he was leaning over. "MEEEEDIC!" hollered 5436. It was no use the combine had started their retreat, as they underestimated the power of the resistance fighters. 5000 eventually bleed to death, so 5436 was forced to crawl under some rubble for shelter.

[eber]

around him was a big fight and 5436 saw many resistance-fighters shooting the 100 feet tall striders. but there werent only humans, suddenly dozens of those electricity shooting vortigaunts entered the place. 5436 couldnt even believe what he saw. the vortigaunts were helping the white dressed resistance-fighters. in the next moment he heard a big "BAAANG!!" and everything around him went black again. 5436 asked himself "am i dead now?" ! 5436 fell asleep. he had heavy dreams, it was a real nightmare! but then he opened his eyes and saw light again. he was in a dark dirty room, full of trash but when he looked aside he saw a few desks with strange devices and computer monitors on it! he saw a big kind of bottle with orange stuff init. his eyes burned and suddenly he heard a trusted voice "are you awake?" ,5436 said nothing, he realised now that he was lying on a bed with many strange devices around it.he looked at his arms and shouted "godamn, they are still completely!! HELL YEA",
the trusted voice seemed to come closer and said "you should be quiet now, you are still in treating and your wounds have not yet been regenerated fully!".
a man with a brownish coloured skin appeared in front of 5436 . . . . . .

[G Man]

Great Work Guys!! Lets Keep Going!!

"I Know You!" Your That Dr... Dr... Vance..... Eli Vance!!!!
"Yes" He Said "I Am Eli Vance And I Am Offering You A Job With The Resistance, You Saw How Badly They Treated You, Leaving You With Horrible Wounds In The Middle Of No Where!" "We Have The Latest Weapon Technology And Our Morale Is Extremely High, You Wouldn't Stand A Chance!"
"Who Was That Orange-Suited Guy Surrounded By Your Men?" Asked 5436
"That "Guy" As You Say Is Gordon Freeman, The Best Man Of The Resistance We Have - And With His H.E.V Suit He Is Virtually Undestroyable. He Survived The Black Mesa Tragedy Along With Me, Dr Kliener, And That Barney Calhoun *Giggle* He Really Is One In A Million... Anyway Now Down To Business..."

[G Man]

wow i think they should make this into a comic bookYeah Lol That Would Be Really Cool!

[B.Calhoun]

((Why is every word you type have a capitol first letter G Man? lol))

"What kind of job?" stated 5436. Eli replied "Recon work, since you know where the majority of the combine are hidden we can use that to our advantage." Why would the enemy be so kind and trusting to him 5436 thought, maybe there is a better life outside of the combine he thought to himself. "What will i get in return?" asked 5436. "A chance at surviving this massacre" said Eli in a low tone. "THE COMBINE WILL DESTROY YOUR LITTLE RESSITANCE!" shouted 5436. Eli pressed a red little button and four strapps came out from under the bed that held down the soldier. "If you do not help us why would I keep you alive? asked Eli. "OK OK!" yelled 5436 as he strained to breathe because the strapps were so tight.....Eli loosened them with a tap of the button. Alyx Vance walked into the room and screamed "Father what are you doing with this combine soldier?". "Calm down Alyx" Eli said, "I think he will no longer be pursuaded by the combine". "I have installed a computer chip into your brain Mr.5436.....no......no....that name will not do". "From now on we'll call you Lucky, because in all honesty your lucky to be alive." "Alyx go get Gordon, we want him to meet Lucky before he heads back out into c17 alone." Stated Eli. "WAIT! what about this computer chip, what does it do?" asked Lucky. "Basically i know where you are at all time, and can blow your head right off your shoulders with a tap of a button." Eli said with a friendly smile on his face. "Fair enough, i want to meet this Freeman....." said Lucky.

[Rafa 5.0]

hehhehe, recon work :thumbs:

[G Man]

[QUOTE=B.Calhoun]((Why is every word you type have a capitol first letter G Man? lol))QUOTE]

It's Just Something I Do...

[tfotdead]

lucky waited in a strange lab were Vortiguant were working. he saw an elevaitor to his side. suddently it started going up. when it had gotten up he heared foot step in the uper level. it came back down.. alyx apeared with a person in an orange suit. "lucky, meet gordon freeman."

[eber]

(whoaaa :D great work so far)

alyx said "well gordon ,this is lucky an ex-combinesoldier ,we have converted him to our side "giggle"! and lucky, this is gordon freeman ,leader of our resistance and survivor of the historically black mesa incident ,you may have heard of him already!
well i think that should be enough for now ,gordon will "tell" you the rest, theres much to learn about our resistance group." a great stillnes was in the room. "ah gordon you are staring at me again!!" alyx said abruptly . . .

(keep going guys!!!)

[Some_God]

Lucky (AKA 5436) then abruptly scream "WAIT!"

Lucky's earpiece, which wasnt removed exploded with chatter:

"Unit 354 move to sector ....*static* Roger that HQ, proceeding to the LZ at 5-5-6 ....*static*"

"Get away from the walls!", Lucky screamed.

"Unit 354 procceed to complete mission.... *static* Roger that HQ...."

Suddenly the walls exploded and everyone in the room fell towards the ground. A moment later Gordon took everyone in the room to a secret passage underneath a table...


Lucky opened his eyes when a combine soldier ran up to him, guns drawn... "HOLY SHIT SIR! We had one of our own guys in here when we started firing!"

[Dalamari]

BUMPAGE

This thread is teh 1337, keep it going!

[Some_God]

Lucky looked at the soldier... and then looked at the ground... the computer reciever that controlled if lucky lived or died was there... lying there on the ground, broken as if it were some egg. Lucky was now free... A Combine Commander walked towards him and scanned his ID.

"Ahhh, 5436 we've been looking for you. You fellow soldiers said you were captured by the resistance... presumably by the radical man in the orange suit. Right now they are heading down a tunnel that we have covered from all sides.... they're, as Marines used to say before, F*CKED!"

A combine soldier rushed in: "SIR! HQ says you are needed, sir!"

"Alright 5436, you will have distinct pleasure of taking out your captors and eliminating Freeman, the name of the guy in the orange suit... taking out two birds with one stone... carry on!" The commander said before he left.

[falconwind]

Lucky stood there, at a loss at what to do. He looked on as Freeman, Vance, Alyx where lined up against the wall.

"I believe this is yours," one of the soldiers said, handing him his helmet.

Lucky looked at him with a somewhat surprised look. "Yes, I suppose it is." He took the helmet from him, and strapped it on. "Where's my weapon?" He was handed a sub-machine gun.

He approached Freeman, and started directly at him. "Before I fire, I want to tell you something. I know you... I don't how, and I don't know why... but there's somekind of history between us that I just can't remember."

"You've got a choice to make, Lucky," yelled Vance. "You can be a hero, or a murderer."

"Quiet!" A combine soldier belted him over the head with his pistol, bringing him to his knees.

Alyx ran kneeled down and held him upright.

"Freeze!" said an uncertain voice from the doorway. Everyone turned to see a man wearing glasses and a lab coat, armed with a rifle.

"KLEINER, RUN!!!" yelled Gordon.

It was too late, the nearest combine solder fired his pistol, Kleiner spun with the impact, and crumpled to the floor.

The resistance members stared with fury and rage, only barely held in check by their predicament. Gordon looked at Lucky, who seemed to be fixated on the fallen scientist.

Lucky blinked dumbly for a moment... and his eyes narrowed into a hardened glare. "I've made my choice," he said ominously. He cocked his weapon. "Form a firing line," he ordered the others.

They assumed a line abreast formation promptly.

"Ready..." The unsafetied their weapons. "Aim..." he brought their weapons up. Lucky fired, riddling the soldiers with a spray of bullets that shredded them to pieces. Their bodies buffeted as the lead impacted them, penetrating their body armour. They slumped to the ground like fallen dominoes. "Fire."

Vance got to his feet. "Thank God, Lucky. Thank God."

He pulled out the spent magazine, and popped in a fresh one. "My name isn't Lucky. It's Adrian Shepard."

"Shepard? Holy shit... I knew I recognized you," exclaimed Gordon. "What made you remember?"

"Seeing... Kleiner, was it? Seeing Kleiner get killed struck a nerve, I suppose."

Alyx ran over to the scientist, lying on the floor. "Dr, Kleiner!"

"Ooh... Alyx... are you alright?" he said weakly.

"Yes, we're all alright, we're safe." She looked at his wound, a hit to the shoulder that passed straight through the flesh.

"This is what I get for trying to play hero. Leave me, Alyx, I'm a gonner!"

"Oh, shut up, Doctor, it's just a flesh wound," she said, sitting him up, despite his protests.

"Ow! Careful! I'm not used to getting shot you know. I'm a scientist not a SOLDIER!" he screamed. "You idiots missed one!" he pointed at Shepard.

"He saved us, Doctor," announced Vance. "He saved us all."

"Look, this is all really amazing, but we should probably leave," said Gordon as he looted the fallen combine.

Shepard nodded. "This place isn't secure. Come on, let's move."

[Some_God]

Damn... I was hoping Shephard wouldnt come into play until later... but oh well. :)
--------------------------------------------
Chapter 2: Escape The Grid

Shephard said,"guys we are under a major combine military base and we have to get out of here." Everyone knodded and followed him. Indisctinctive radio chatter could be heard above them. Every once in a while they would pass over a sewer hole and hear some combine soldiers talk:

"Be on the lookout for a male, possibly age 30, in an orange jumpsuit. He is the main target."

As the group entered a tunnel that lead to the town square, small strange sound started coming from behind.... HEADCRABS!

[Some_God]

Gunfire erupted in the tunnel. Shephard and Gordon were working on the headcrabs as they were some kind of super-exterminators. Combine above the grid heard the gunfire:

"Unit 23... we have a 10-24! Shots fired, I repeat shots fired! THEY ARE UNDER THE BUILDING!"

Cmon guys continue...

[Andy]

<got bored so...>

Shepard led them down a long corridor. Twisting, turning, always moving. As Shepard rounded the corridor a flash startled made him cover his eyes. As the bright white glare faded, the shape of a scanner formed in front of him, its iris a tight, hot, red pin of light. The floating eye launched itself at Shepard as he stumbled back, arms up to protect his head, still spinning from the force of the flash in the dimly lit corridor. Freeman was two steps behind, shotgun in hand.

Both barrels set the scanner into the far wall, cracking its lens and tearing strips of metal off its shell. As it bounced off the floor Gordon stepped forward pumping the shotgun. The scanner writhed on the ground like a stunned insect as he pinned it between the mouth of the barrel and the floor and pulled the trigger again.

Bang.

The piece of technology splintered it into tiny fragments of metal, glass and silicone.

Alyx looked nervously at Shepard, she knew they had been rumbled. The scanner would have at least gotten a location signal out. More would be on the way.

As if in confirmation a claxon sounded. The base vox spoke: Its words echoing down into the tunnels from above muffled but still discernable. Its similarity to one that had hunted them through another complex long ago made Freeman and Shepard look at each other:

All…. Personnel…. Report… To.... Sublevel… Alpha... Teams… To… Corridor... Subsection… 33… and… 31

Shepard glanced at the number on the wall. In big white letters, the number sprayed onto the dark wall loomed large.

32.

“They’re trying to cut us off…” Dr Kleiner was breathing heavily, slouched against the wall behind them pointing his weapon back into the dark. Blood now seeped across his lab coat, mixing with the various stains of lab experiments new and old: the chromatography of a conflict. Already the beeps and crackles of the combine search teams where drawing closer, soon they would be right on top of them - Game over.

Alyx raised her gun and pressed the release. The clip dropped into her left hand and she glanced at the numbers on the side.

8 rounds left.

With a grimace she rammed it back and took a step to the left, trying to cover all the possible directions from which they might come. Suddenly something caught her eye…

[Some_God]

Around the corner a Combin patrol, composed of 2 Combine soldiers and one Combine police officer, was slowly approaching... weapons drawn.

"Unit 5 - 2 Niner... at base of.... Subsection 32 - over"

Shephard leaned across and threw a grenade at the group. "SH*T WE GOT HOSTILES!" came followed by an explosion that echoed through the pipes and corridors under the building.

Picking up the automatics from the charred corpses Freeman looked to his left and saw a sign: "MAINTAINENCE TUNNEL TO HIGHWAY 1"

[pyroCow]

"Highway 1!" Vance shouted, "we can make it the Resistance headquarters from there. Lets go." They opened the door and walked through... encountering no resistance in the tunnels, they finally reached another door. The sign above it read "Highway 1"
Adrian approached the door to open it, but then Dr. Kleiner got so excited that he rushed ahead of the group, opening the door and slamming it into Adrians face. Everything went black, and he started to have a flashback. He was inside a metal tram or something... flying... There was a man in a blue suit... holding a briefcase. He began to say something, but then Adrian came to. "Kleiner you dumbass!" he heard. "Adrian, are you alright?" said Alyx.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied. They headed outside on to Highway 1, and saw Kleiner running over to an old pit stop. Adrian started to ask, "Is that the Resi-"
"Yes," Eli said.
"Wow, I thought it would take longer than that..."
They headed over to the pit stop.
When they finally got inside, Adrian saw that man in the blue suit!
"HEY!"
------------------------
I had some good ideas but couldn't put them in because of what some other people added... so I know it sucks.

[mitchferrari]

He realized it was the G man.

[Loeletje***]

Gordan stood there .. staring , in to the distance of the highway as he saw the blue suit walk away in the skyline .. sheppard try to gain on him but the combine forces caught up with them and knocked them out dragging them into their armored vehicles .. the only one who could get away was alyx .. she kept running and running as fast as she could , safely hidden between the skyscrapers and abandoned cities surrounding highway 1..

-------------------------

go on ..

[downfall]

Shepard, sitting in the cold vehicle dreamed. Of a dark room with no escape, for days, months, years? He was conatained until a mysterious figure appeared behing a blinding light,"Shepard" it sayed, "Wake up and smell the ashes."
Shepard woke up dazed,haunted by the recollection. He tried to support himself as he got up, only to be interrupted by a combines foot. Blood spewed onto the cold steel walls, and shepards vision went red to black.

[downfall]

Shepard woke up yet again, but this time he was in a sort of jail sourrounded by combine. Shepard heared someone greet him, "Good morning." it sayed
"who are you?' shepard replied
"i'm Barney calhoun" barney replied. To shepard he seemed vaugley familier, like he was from...Sudenly the air erupted with gunfire an unusual black mist appeared infront of the combine. Ant lions swarmed around the combine gaurds ripping them apart. The combine ordered another wave of reinforcments armed with OICW's and HK 7's.As the combine killed them off. An unuasual scarab like beatle followed the ant lions, it attacked like a rhino but resembled an ant lion sending the combine patrols flieng into the air. When the combine finished off the beast it fell to the ground. The combine retreated in fear more will come and left most of the prisoners including shepard and barney to be feasted upon. Shepard noticed several spheres which were brown/tan with white stripes fell into the cell from the giant ant lion. Shepard observed them as a few antlions steered up to the nearby cell and stared at him and barney, and seemed to be awaiting orders.

[Some_God]

Since my last post here, this story has taken a wierd turn.

Anyway:

Shephard took a cell and chucked it at the retreating combine soldiers, who got munched up by ant-lions who came out from the ground beneath them.

While the ant-lions were enjoying their meals Shephard ran away towards an APC the combine used to transport him. He got in the vehicle and floored it. Heading down Highway 1, he was constantly shadowed by the Citadel... then he head the combine radio inside the APC:

"Gunship 5 --- APC # 10 is in enemy hands... orders are shoot to kill.."
"10-4"

Seconds later a gunship was spotted by Shephard on the horizon.

[sgtjake]

'barney man that machine gun. hurry!!!!!" shouted shepard :sniper: :sniper: :sniper:
barney manned the machine gun and started firing at the combine ship.
a sign came int view
"THE BRIDGE IS OUT" shouted barney.....

[Some_God]

Haha... ok you made me think of Speed.

As Shephard brainstormed about what he should do next, he recieved an idea.... Take the off-ramp! The off-ramp went underground where the gunship could not follow them.

"Good thinking!" Barney shouted.
"Spank you, Calhoun. Spank you very much." Shephard replied.

--------------------
End of Chap. 2
--------------------

[sgtjake]

douglas and shepard seem to have become best friends

[Fuse Kazuki]

Aw is that the end? Anyways you guys do a great job on making stories!

[CLASSIFIED]

The orange clad figure laughed as he started firing bullets at 5436, "I'm Gordon Freeman! And these bullets that are careening into your chest are free...man!"

ROFL this one sounds fimiliar! So they added this line after all
:E

[Andy]

Ok this might be a little much for midnight on a wednesday but:


Chapter 3

The combine soldier - or at least his outline - didn’t move, didn’t make a sound, didn’t even look like he was breathing. He merely stood there, like a looming statue, a dark shape that sucked the light up and plunged the room into a morbid twilight. As the fuzz cleared, the figure came into focus. This Combine looked different now, he was brooding and more menacing, with sinister and dark purpose that was not present in the others. The weapon he carried, strange and unfamiliar, glared around the room, mouthing wordlessly about the death it had spat in encounters past. At some sudden, unheard signal, the solider turned and walked away.

Freeman raised his head up to follow the figure with his vision, and felt the thick, coarse leather strap tightening around his neck. From somewhere in the darkness behind him there came the sounds of footsteps and quiet talking.

“…still wearing that…can’t remove it …some sort of defence mechanism…”
“…protection…incredible…three teams to take him down…”

Freeman was still hazy, he stretched his memory back, trying to remember what had happened. He didn’t get far: suddenly the room exploded into a harsh glare backed by a cruel, matching white noise. For a few seconds the intensity increased to a climax of sensory overload. Freeman felt his skull burning. All at once the room was dark again.

“Who sent you.”

The booming, warped voice entered the empty hole that had been forcibly drilled into Freeman’s mind, echoing around, probing for the answers. All Gordon could do was cringe and groan.

A burst of white noise and light hit him again like a bullet between the eyes, boring into him.

“Who sent you.”

An image formed in Freeman’s mind, a horrible long faced visage with sunken eyes, like some sort of daemon. The horrible face gave way to another detonation of blinding energy and sound. Freeman could feel whatever it was he was tied down to begin to rotate upwards, brining him upto a vertical position. He rolled his head back and forth, trying to escape the assault on his brain.

“Who sent you.”

The voice scarcely seemed interested in the answers so long as it kept asking the questions. That was good, because it hadn’t yet asked a question that Freeman could answer. The bed stopped at an upright position and he looked forward at the screen now in front of him. On it he saw another figure strapped to an upright bed, bloody and bruised. It took him a second to realised that he was staring at himself. Glancing up and to the left he saw the camera in the corner, the red, blinking light mocking him. Another whiteout came. Freeman stared in horror and fascination at the figure on the screen writhing around in agony. Suddenly the pain stopped and the voice took on a different tone, as though speaking to a disobedient child.

“Gordon, Gordon, Gordon: you died at Black Mesa, why did you have to come back? You’ve caused us so much trouble: Reams of equations that will have to be written, millions of observations and predictions that are now worthless.”

Someone appeared on the screen. It was Kleiner. Gordon squinted at the face in front of him. None of it made sense. The face leaned towards the camera and pushed its glasses back up its nose:

“Did you know Gordon, that, mathematically speaking, you are wonderfully unique?”

It was Kleiner, but a very different Kleiner to the one that Gordon had known for so long: no longer a timid bookworm, but a man with a higher purpose, orchestrating a large event somewhere in the ether. The stranger continued:

“Unique, yes. You are… a kink in the laws of probability. Where ever you go, things… happen outside of what we understand. Take your ridiculous luck so far for example. Your presence seems to alter the very laws of chaos.”

Gordon thought back, back to Kleiner and his areas of research, back through an age of theoretical mathematics lectures, chaos theory theses and computer probability models. He had always felt different, driven by a force fundamentally different to the rest of the world, but could such an anomaly really exist? Could he be that anomaly?

“We’ve been observing you for most of your life, Gordon, my colleagues and I. There are many like you, those that can alter destiny. Often they will materialize as heroes and leaders, able to bend fate around themselves. But you are extra special: you are like a superconductor conduit for change and instability. Quite fascinating really. However, we knew that you’re existence would be too dangerous to allow during City 17. That’s why we put you into Black Mesa, your destruction and whatever fallout that followed would have occurred in a nice, little contained and isolated system. But someone, it seems, rescued you from Black Mesa, and sent you here, with the intent of using your uniqueness to destroy our experiment.”

Now Gordon’s mind was racing. A complex, chaotic, mathematical experiment? On the scale of City 17? Why and to what end? What minutely improbably outcome was Kleiner and his mysterious band of scientists trying to invoke? Kleiner was continuing on oblivious to Freeman’s inner questions:

“Killing you within City 17 would have caused a probability cascade so large that it would have likely ripped our work to pieces. So I, having observed you previously, was sent to join the resistance to keep an eye on you once again, to try to steer you in a predictable direction. It didn’t work of course, though we tried our best to predict you. You are much too volatile: look at me, I got shot for God’s sake.

“But at last it seems that whoever was trying to stop us has failed. We have you contained now, and the experiment will run to its conclusion. There is something bigger going on here Freeman. Bigger than you can imagine. Shepard, the Combine, Breen, Eli, the Resistance, Xen: they’re all part of it. What we are trying to do will change the world. Don’t try to stop us and we may spare you…”

Darkness washed over Freeman as he screamed silently, trying to force the words out, trying to tell them that they where wrong, he was just one man, he was not special, he could not changed fate. As he slipped beneath consciousness, Freeman could hear frantic chattering.

“Who?… What level! How many! Report! Well how the HELL did she get in here!!! I don’t care!!! Find her and kill her!!! Kill them all!!! We must keep Freeman contained and isolated!!!”

His snarl became a barely supressed twitch of mirth. He smiled. Alyx was on her way.

[G Man]

WOW!!! Great Keep Going Guys!

[Some_God]

"Unit 23... uhhh there is some activity in your sector, over"........ *silence*..... "Unit 23.. respond, over"

The soldier in a radio room was patiently waiting for a response. Until he heard gunshots outside the room. He stood up and ran towards the gun rack but before he could get there the door opened and a Combine soldier was standing at the door...

The radio operator said, "whew, man oh man I though I was going to get creamed there... so uhh where'd that shot come from?"

The soldier at the door then fell on the ground with Alyx standing behind him... "Those shots came from me.."

*Bang Bang*

Alyx looked at the desk the radio operator was working at... "Classified interrogation in room 31... DO NOT DISTURB!" was written on a log sheet.

"Room 31 it is" Alyx whispered.

[Fuse Kazuki]

Yeah, go Alyx!

[Some_God]

Hmmm seems nobody has written anything in a while (more than 10 days) so....

Back in Gordon's room (Room 31), radio chatter went into an all time high: "...need backup at... we've been ambushed by....*static*"

The guards in the room began formulating a plan. Kleiner was long gone, not wanting to risk becoming a casualty in this great experiment that he and his associates had gambled on. With a towel over his eyes, Gordon concentrated on his hearing... wood being broken, desks being overturned, cabnits being stacked up, with the comine grunting though all of this... it all amounted to one thing: a barricade.

Suddenly his towel was taken off... it wasn't who he imagined it would be...

"Holy shit, Gordon" Barney said.
Gordon, amazed at the sight of Barney, NOT Alyx, looked around the room and saw the bodies. He pieced together what happened in those few moments: Barney used his manipulator gun by grabbing a desk and chucking it through the wooden walls, hitting the two combine soldiers (who grunted) and pinning them against cabnits...

[bobologhogus]

so sad... 2 years and not kept going. well, let's get it started again!

Gordon got up from the chair, and moved over to the wall and looked into the hall. He saw barney with his gravity gun, and Alyx with her pistol. Gordon ran down the hall to them and asked what the hell was going on. alyx said "we're stuck in this hall here, we need a way out!" Gordon took barney's g-gun and make a hole in the wall, but to his dismay found a much worse situation... The ultimate of all fears... zombies. Gordon ran over and punched them down, and yelled for Alyx and Barney to catch up. They ran through the quagmire of goo and and the stench was overwhelming. Running past the zombies and killing those that they could. They continued on until they saw a man, one who looked strangely familiar... The trio walked up to the man, and saw man who has seen many long, dark days. "Hello Freeman, remember me?"
Gordon,"of course I remember you, you're the one who thinks I'm amazing, that i'm unique... well i don't think so, shepard." Shepherd "hahahaha... There's no convincing me now, not after all my life that has been drained over finding you and destr-" Suddenly a large group of hideous mutated zombie like creatures ran up the road to them... They seemed to move with ease, not like their regular zombie counterparts. Gordon yelled "we'll have to deal with this later shepard, it's either talk and die, or run. which is it?" Shepard ran off instantly, leaving the others behind yelling "I'll have a better chance if you guys hold them up first, hahahahhaa-" He was attacked by a blackhead crab, and he screamed as he was filled with unbearable pain.


Gordon, alyx, and barney ran off a different way and barely escaped the zombies....

[Pesmerga]

Someone pick up my jaw.

[bobologhogus]

Shepard woke up with a red haziness in his eyes. He look around the street he was lying in, and saw much debris surrounding him. With a closer look he saw fire, and even flesh. He got up, and something immediately moved up to him at tremendous speed. Strangely, shepherd was not afraid. The thing made shepard know what he was thinking without saying it"ohh greatss what, you are needed to leeeaaad ussss. We mussst wipe outtsss the humans. come, your painsss and hatreddssss have jusssstt begun."
Shepard thought," how could i hear this being, and what is it? It has flesh hanging from it's bones and blood dripping from it's teeth... fresh blood. This is a new feeling... I...actually...hunger for death." Shepard looked down at his body, and was surprised to not to see his body, but a mutilated form of himself. the thing spoke through thought again "you are not like the resssst of usss, you have almossst alll of your passstt abilitiesss, and the new oness given uponsss change. He thought "this is not possible, i'm not the human, yet not dead." the thing spoke again "it isss time to attacksss the human racccce, we ssstarrtsss with the one named Gordon Freemansssss..." Upon that name something was triggered in shepard's mind "gordon... i remember that name. he's the one who left me to be killed by the... zombies. Am I a zombie? that thing said I had control over my zombified body. I will have to use this my advantage to get my revenge on Freeman... After that I go after Klein for using me in his "experiment"." Shepard thought about the zombies, and immediately thousands upon thousands of the undead came out of hiding. Shepard knew his life had just begun...

[Pesmerga]

Shephard was swarmed by the hordes and eaten alive, and the last vestigates of his existence came out as screams of agony echoed through the barren planes, sending nearby birds and small animals into retreat.

[bobologhogus]

umm, ok, i was trying to restart it and you just killed it lol. thx man.:smoking:

[bigburpco]

Maybe your writing puts people off, you know, bobo?

[Azner]

'We made it'Barney cheered. The light of the tunnel was close. Shepard was smiling. Before they could get out a gunship hovered down...supposedly the same one. "CRASH" the APC collided into the Gunship at the end of the tunnel..the APC richochetted off the gunship "Barney!" Shepard screamed...
Continue!

[bobologhogus]

well maybe it does put off people... but that is besides the point. I read a story that i liked that hadnt been posted in quite awhile so i wanted to see what would happen if i "restarted" it. I'm sorry if you don't like it, but you have to admit the way pesmerga put it kind of stopped the story i had tried to start. Furthermore it seemed purposeful, so i responded!

[niloc]

my brain hurts two story lines

[GordonFreeman911]

Shepherd?
Don't let Samon see this.