Project Infinity - book one - XenoGenesis chapter 2
Story by AlbedoActual on SoFurry
Chapter 2... nothing cut so nothing changed...
Chapter 2 “The Big Day"
Earth, Sol system Santa Fe, New Mexico, United states Apartment 219, VL apartments
09-18-2008 AD 0622 Hours Mountain Time
A nightmare or a dream… he wasn't sure as it was incredibly violent at times and extremely vivid, his dream involved him battling monsters that made even the scariest horror film seem harmless, the ease in which he fought scared him almost as much as what he was fighting it seemed not only like he was good at it in his dream but almost like he was enjoying it as he killed some of the creatures with such grace and style, as massive battles raged above in the air and in space between massive ships and millions of smaller vehicles, other times it was uniquely tranquil and bizarre at the same time, involving relaxing periods with people, not all of them human, as well as blurry bits, but one thing always stood out, the presence of a woman, who seemed to be in every dream both violent and peaceful, she seemed to be his girlfriend or something but he could not see her face it was a blur, but he knew her somehow and felt she was important to him.
Every night for the last month he would have this sort of dream and lately he has been trying to get rid of them as they get more and more intense, last night however he decided to take a different approach… he got shit-faced drunk and passed out in his living room, of course this was the worst thing he could have done as this time the dream was more intense than ever, and unusually he was actually in control as if he were really there, after walking through the ship he knew nothing about, he finally found her and as she turned to look at him her form changed she shifted into a blue skinned alien with two sets of arms… Realizing immediately who he was looking at he panicked but was unable to move or speak as the figure faced him however he notice that the god in front of him was actually a goddess, and “she" began to speak in a voice so odd and yet comforting that he felt it as much as he heard it “You Have been chosen human… the nightmare you think you have been experiencing is not a dream but a premonition, a premonition of your future… but your choices will dictate how it unfolds. You will either survive and flourish in your new world or you will die as will countless others, once you arrive you will be in mortal danger and must adapt to survive… you will be tested mentally and physically and it will be your choice whether you survive or not, though honestly you have already made a grave mistake by drinking so much, as you will be debilitated heavily, remember your choices have consequences, so… live or die, the choice is yours Adam… Prepare for unforeseen consequences."
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With a flash and what sounded like a stadium horn at point blank he woke up… his head pounding from the hangover as his vision seemed to be lagging by about a second or two. He peeled himself off the floor and stumbled into the kitchen having forgotten his dream in favor of his new-found problem as he staggered into the kitchen he realized he hadn't been this hungover in over a year since his 21st birthday when he did 21 at 21, he looked into the mirror and saw a haggard face staring back at him his ragged and thick black hair a tangled mess and his face pale and weary, he noticed one odd thing though his eyes were green not brown now, thou he dismissed it along with the dozen or so other hallucinations caused by his mind wrecking hangover.
He walked to the couch and fell onto it and sighed “what a terrible idea" he muttered to himself as he tried to remember the specifics of his latest dream ightmare then as just as he realized what had happened in the dream his phone rang, it was his brother Jake he answered it only to hear Jake hysterically yelling “Adam listen you have to run, they're coming for you bro…" just as Adam was processing this the front door and part of the wall exploded open and several men in what appeared to be full body black armor of some sort poured into his apartment and grabbed him by the arms, throwing him to the ground and he heard several “pfft" noises followed by a sharp pain in his back… before he could think he passed out. Blackness ensued…
But no dream followed, just cold void… empty and alone.
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Unknown Location Last Known Location, Abraxis
Unknown Time Last Timestamp, 09-18-4769 TC 2320 Hours
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The void consumed her… she was alive, somehow despite being killed by KOS-MOS and even being assimilated… yet, she remained, she could see her body… and everything else was darkness yet her body was illuminated by an unseen bright light, she was unharmed, and yet could feel nothing, she tried to look through the darkness but saw nothing, she yelled but no sound came out, not only had she failed her mission and now it seemed she was consumed by the destruction of the universe and would spend eternity in this hell… she tried to be logical but logic failed her so she tried to be positive but became bored… after a while the despair set in and she began to lose it, what seemed like decades passed before she saw something in the corner of her vision, a flash of light… soon more followed until it seemed that these lights were coming at her at incredible speed and density and she started to feel like she was moving at a very high speed, and then she saw a figure materialize in the nothingness in front of her.
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The figure took the shape of the god Shiva but was oddly female… T-ELOS looked in disbelief at the obviously real deity in front of her as it began to speak “Despite what you may think, you have not failed anything nor have you actually died… However you have been chosen to live anyway… You will have to put aside your beliefs and adapt to the world you are about to arrive in, and ultimately you will have to save it, of course you will not be alone, you must decide for yourself what to do now and your choices will have consequences… Your actions so far have doomed your world for the most part… but it is irrelevant. You will be arriving in another and will have to survive, what you do from here is up to you, you are free now… do what you want, but one thing I want you to do… Take care of your sister, as the two of you are extremely important in the days to come… she is not your enemy. Oh and one more thing T-ELOS, your survival as well as hers has come at a cost… so… Prepare for unforeseen consequences..."
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Just as she finished the goddess disappeared and she found herself falling through the atmosphere of a planet, she saw buildings and as she got closer to the ground AAA fire and what appeared to be aliens… actual aliens, and then something violet hit her in the chest knocking her off course and tumbling end over end. Already beyond terminal velocity she braced for what she knew was either going to be the most brutal landing ever or, more likely her being shredded by the impact, unfortunately for her it was both, as she hit the ground at almost Mach 3 the last thing she heard was oddly enough, a resounding and sickening splat.
Then blackness again…
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Earth, Sol System Black Mesa Research Facility Black Mesa, New Mexico, United States
09-18-2008 AD 0815 Hours
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BEEP BEEP BEEP… Gordon woke up happily enough turned off his alarm clock only to realize it had woke him up an hour late, horrified that he was late again due to a malfunctioning Black Mesa Alarm Clock, He rushed out of his bedroom, and put his penny loafers on and got into in his uniform and put on his tie, although most people who wore the uniform hated it, he liked it… he quickly left his room and ran though the sector D dormitories to the tram system before a Bright light overtook him.
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When his vision cleared he was standing in a tram moving through space at incredible speed… oddly he felt he had been here before, it felt oddly familiar to him as if from an old dream, but he couldn't quite remember… in front of him was a blue skinned woman wearing a gray blue suit and carrying a briefcase covered in blood, the suit had holes in it covered in black blood, and it didn't fit it's wearer due to it being way too large and her having two sets of arms and the suit had two sleeves not four, she looked slightly amused as if she had just done something funny, she was not human but was quite attractive even though her outfit was ridiculous and seemed to be a joke in of itself, she then looked at him and smiled.
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Then she spoke in an odd and quite seductive voice “Gordon Freeman it's nice to meet you, I have decided to give you a counter offer to what Belial had intended, you can either accept my offer or his, but keep in mind if you accept his it will result in the total annihilation of your race as well as countless others… if you're interested Gordon step into the portal to your right and I will help you, or you can take the one on the left and join him to face a war that you will not survive… nor will anyone else for that matter, but anyway either one is going to suck so make your choice and remember choose wisely, after all, no regrets… either way you will go through hell in some way or another it's just one actually will result in going to hell… not that hard of a decision right?"
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She chuckled in an awkward way that was kind of cute. Both doors opened one red and one blue… Gordon immediately recognized the reference and said “Red Pill or Blue Pill?" she chuckled and said “yep same thing Gordon, so what will it be Red or dead..." Gordon chuckled and said “for a Hindu goddess you're funny and cute" she smiled and said “thanks but, uh clock's ticking..." having remembered what the G-Man did last time he walked into the red portal on the right and as he did so he said “oh and nice touch with the suit hope you made that thing suffer" she replied “you're welcome but watch out things will be different." With a bright blue flash he was back on the tram and the door was closing…
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The PA started up it's annoying routine as the tram started moving. “Good morning and welcome to the black mesa transit system..." as it droned on he saw barney trying to get through a door and barney noticed him but said something surprising “Gordon… Good luck, we're gonna need it, and don't you fucking dare cause another cascade!" Gordon knew what he meant immediately and looked ahead as the tram kept droning incessantly before he heard a pop noise…
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the PA stopped mid sentence and then resumed in a most disturbing way, it's voice had changed completely and sounded like multiple female voices overlapping, and was occasionally stuttering, it also had a more menacing tone that seemed more human than he thought possible. “the-the tiime is eelevven thirty PM" he looked at his watch which said 8:48 PM and continued listening to the odd PA replacement slightly amused by it, as the tram entered an area with a bright green glow the PA changed it's story again “regular radiation and… is grounds for immediate t-termination a-and induction into a cybernetics prooogram. Now arrriving at ground z-z-zero work safe work smart your future doooes not exist anymmmore, c-change the future and yo-your fate i-insect and may-maybe I will help you survive and maybe we could m-make aa diffferrence…"
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suddenly it popped again and returned to normal “Please stand back from the automated door and wait for the..." Andy opened the door and said “looks like you're running late again, but don't worry, everything's going to go to hell in a hand basket anyway" the bulkhead opened and he walked through. The bulkhead opened and he walked through, ignoring what they had to say as he headed to get his HEV suit on…
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he noticed on his way that the server room was emitting muffled noises and he walked inside to hear deafening dance music and a bunch of drunk scientists and guards partying... he was shocked to say the least, he wondered if everyone knew what was about to happen and then got his confirmation when he saw a scientist carrying an Uzi SMG and the guy just ignored Gordon…
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Gordon arrived in the locker room and saw his suit was different, it had more armor and some other equipment he had never seen before as well as a helmet, he quickly put it on and it linked with his nervous system and then said “reactor online, sensors online. Dual Slot Sensory System Activated, Space Compression Storage System Online, Weapon systems online, medical systems online, Hilbert Resonance Emitter online, Myomer Accellerated Signal Circuitry activated, Shields online, AI interface inactive, all systems nominal."
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The suit began to glow a light orange color and he assumed that it was the shields, the other thing's either were obviously intended for his situation, but he had no idea what the dual slot thing was or why he would need a Hilbert resonance emitter much and the AI interface terrified him especially after the tram thing. He then was walking out of the locker room when Dr Angus handed him a weapon saying “take this you'll need it, oh and don't worry most of us are ready and very well armed… now go do your thing Freeman."
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Gordon took the odd weapon which looked like a cross between a large revolver and a desert eagle, it had red and blue highlights and was composed of a white and light blue metal, it's bore was huge and he was terrified to think of what it fired, he opened the breech mechanism to see how to reload but found that it had a cylinder but no obvious way of loading it, instead it had what looked like a slot with pins where some cartridge was supposed to go, satisfied, he closed the weapon and clicked the safety on then headed towards his destination. As he walked he noticed that the guards were carrying much heavier weapons than last time and seemed nervous obviously because of what he knew was about to happen, it looked like they suddenly decided to buy whatever weapons they liked as some were carrying p90's SCAR-L's and other assorted weapons.
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He entered the control room and saw Dr. Kleiner who looked at him and said “well Gordon it looks like we can't avoid it so we can at least prepare for it, come on now Gordon Eli has something for you..." the two walked quietly and Eli looked at the panel expecting it to explode, and it did on time while Eli sighed before turning to look at Gordon then he said “Well Izzy maybe we can at least change the outcome… Gordon I'm sorry this is happening again but I don't see a way out..." Izzy interjected “unless you can destroy the sample somehow I don't see it happening, you would need a very powerful weapon to do that..." Gordon said “how about this thing?" he presented the sidearm to the two and they looked astonished “where did you get that Gordon?" Eli asked “ Gordon Replied “ Angus gave it to me" Eli was shocked and said “Angus died yesterday how is that… never mind maybe there is a god, you can stop this with that thing"
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Gordon shook his head “go and when it arrives blow that thing to pieces" Eli said as he gestured to the lift. Gordon took the corkscrew down and entered the test chamber airlock… the two scientists silently opened the door for him then cocked their weapons and he entered the test chamber… after following the same procedure to the letter the crystal finally arrived, and he debated on what to do, then suddenly the G-Man appeared but with black eyes and said “do as you are supposed to Mr. Freeman"
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he pulled out the gun and the smirk on the G-Man's face disappeared now replaced with rage as Gordon took aim at the crystal and fired, the weapon kicked like a mule and made an earsplitting bang that echoed throughout the chamber…
the crystal exploded into chunks but then the resonance cascade happened anyway but instead of blowing up everything it teleported Barney, Kleiner, Eli, some fat security guard and an HECU marine into the chamber before engulfing them all in a bright blue light…
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When Gordon opened his eyes he was shocked… He was in a park area surrounded by high tech looking buildings and holographic screens and he looked up and saw a moon and a large green and most importantly inhabited planet above him and ahead he saw there were two identical kids with blonde hair wearing some kind of gray uniform, they turned and looked at him quizzically and then immediately pulled out their sidearms and began to move towards him.
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She was right, things would be different…
Next Chapter Chapter 3 – Unforeseen Consequences
ETC sometime tomorrow
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AN I'm just getting started but the next chapter will be good, and that means two of my favorite things, babes and action, also review if you like and give criticism if necessary, but be constructive, if you have anything rude or deliberately unhelpful to say you know what to do with it, unless it's funny in which case PM me, I don't mind a good roast if it's funny.
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