Forum Post Adventure

[BTGBullseye]

Reply: "Teleportation, transmogrification... You know, simple things."

[Blue]

"I from what I heard about the Xen experiments I thought it was just particle physics. Teleportation, really? What sort of transmogrification?"

[BTGBullseye]

Reply: "Turning people into aliens. Though my personal opinion is that the aliens ate the people, and it was just a regular teleportation project.

 

Occasionally we get into more complex things like scanning crystals."

[Blue]

Mercury tilts her head to the side with a raised eyebrow.

"Okay I know weird stuff goes on at most of the labs here, but aliens eating people? People turning into aliens? That's just biz-""Bing bong." interrupted the train pleasantly in a sing-song voice.

"Now arriving at Bluehill Industrial Terminus, South. Arrival, 9:55pm on time. Thank you for having a safe, and productive day."

"Let's just get your glasses. Follow me."

Exiting the train via a door off the side from the ladder, you walk into a large, almost cavernous warehouse facility as far as the eye can see in every direction. You follow Mercury, Earl staying on the train and waving goodbye.

Mercury walks towards some kind of office near a support pillar and talks to someone inside, before turning to face you.

"Do you have a prescription for your glasses?" she asks. You rummage in your wallet a little and find it right next to a medical card and hand it to Mercury, who hands it to the man in the office.

"Wait here and somebody will be around in a bit with some new ones. See you around." Mercury walks off towards a small tram system that looks like it will probably carry to the other end of the warehouse.

A man in a tuxedo wearing a bowler hat with a lime hardhat on top with a strawberry sticker on the front is inside of the office.

"Checkpoint." he says dryly as you notice him.

"Hey, subconscious!" you say, beckoning him over. You see now that he's holding a handheld tablet and wearing steel-toed workboots.

"Certainly there is something I can help you with?" He asks systematically.

"What now?"

"This is where I can no longer predict. The plot is starting."

"What?"

"Answer the phone."

"The-*riiiiiiiiiing* interrupts an index phone mounted on the wall under a clock on the office.

"...Hello?"

"Gordon! Oh thank God, we thought you died, we haven't heard from you in hours! What are you doing in Bluehill?"

"I-"

"It doesn't matter. Have you managed to get any sanitation done?"

"Any what?"

"Are you deaf? We sent you to clean out Apex and Centrust yesterday."

"I don't remember. I think I was attacked by aliens and had a bit of memory loss."

"Fine then, but we're going to have to put this call on re-proxy in order to make sure no one else hears."

"Who is this?*click* and the phone hung up. With a raised eyebrow of surprise, you cautiously replace the phone on the hook. Immediately it begins ringing again, to which you answer.

"Three weeks ago was the Test Lab C-33/a Xen experiment with sample GG 3883. Because of a discrepancy we aborted the test but it still caused a small resonance collapse. Certainly not as bad as a cascade, but at least we can deal with it. Small pockets of Xen teleportations have been happening in several other facilities, most prominently in Apex, Centrus and Biodome, the facilities closest to Anomalous Materials. You were a member of one of the cleanup teams, but we lost contact yesterday- we were able to track you down as soon as you came out of the transit tunnel."

"Who is this?"

"It's Eli. I don't think my voice sounds normal, I haven't slept in two days. There are so many incidences we're trying to cover for."

Obvious conversations are

Tell Eli about the Tentacle

Tell Eli about your weapons

Tell Eli about your legs

Tell Eli about Mercury and Earl

Oh look, the plot started.

[Brad]

Tell Eli about your legs.

[Blue]

"Hey Eli, what sort of anomalous materials were we entrusted with before we set off yesterday?" you ask Eli.

"'Entrusted with"? what's that supposed to mean?"

"Well to cut a long story short, I ate a mouse that drowned in something that was in the Apex labs, and somehow it interacted with a crystal that I stole from Kristoph and it gave me super-powered legs."

"...

That sounds so strange it might be plausible. What crystal was it, why'd you steal it from Kristoph?"

"I don't know. I took it from Kristoph because he died, he was killed by some Tentacle thing."

"Damn it, another pit tentacle? Son of a- wait, Christopherson is dead?"

"Yeah."

"Goddamnit.

Well since you're in Bluehill you may as well make yourself useful. Get some more gear to get those aliens and get back to Apex, pronto."

"Gotcha, Eli."

"Anything else?"

Obvious conversations are:

Tell Eli about your weapons

Tell Eli about Mercury and Earl

Hang up

[Psychotic Ninja]

Tell Eli about Mercury and Earl, then hang up, then destroy phone with crowbar.

[Blue]

"Hey Eli, have you ever been on the heavy freight transport lines?"

"No. Why?"

"Their security is done by these robot crab things. I ran into one while on the freight line. He called himself Earl. Since when have we had artificial intelligence?"

"The freaking transit system PA is an AI, Gordon. I thought you learned about this stuff on day one!"

"I also met this girl on the train, her name is Mercury-"

"Well that is just enchanting, Gordon. Get to work, there are lives at stake." Eli sarcastically declares.

You slam the phone down on the hook and smash the receiver with your crowbar.

A man on a pallet truck skoots over near the office, stepping off with a peppery jaunt, looking around before spotting you.

"You the glasses guy?"

"Yep."

"Here you go." he hands you a cardboard box the size of a clock radio, inside which is a new pair of glasses in a plastic bag. You put them on, returning clarity to your sight. The rims are rather thick and generic, but at least the glasses work. You can concern yourself with fashion later.

Glancing at a small organization chart, you can read a rough layout of the local warehouse area.

Head to Armory

Head to Special Equipment

Head to Rail Annex

Head to Cafeteria

[PaladinVargas10]

Go to the armoury, while yelling "You can never have too many guns!"

[Blue]

You head down the large aisle between the office and all of the giant shelving of the warehouse until you reach a portion marked ARMORY in rather intimidatingly cautionary letters, with a sign below reading "Live ammunition. No smoking".

You head inside, greeting the warehouseman inside with "You can never have too many guns!". Hey welcomes you with a hearty handshake, replying

"True that, man. What can I do you for?"

"I'm doing 'clean-up' but this is way too inadequate." you say, holding up the Glock.

"Mmm..yes... from what I hear, the clean-up has been grossly ill-equipped..." he says, walking back behind some shelves looking at the marking codes below the shelf frames.

"Something with a bit more kick, or just, more output overall?" he asks, somewhere you can't see.

"Yes." you call back.

"Ha ha, you science guys... Here we are." he comes back with a large shotgun with a retracted stock. "Franchi built, holds eight rounds, semi-automatic. Watch how you're holding it, it's a 12-gauge. I'll grab some ammo in a bit." he says, placing it on the table in front of you and walking back behind the shelves. "And I just got a new bit of gear from these guys at Hood Mountain, that secret lab up in Oregon." he says, procuring a gun that you've never seen before, looking like some kind of lightweight assault rifle with a cylindrical clip the size of a water bottle mounted on the side. "'Called a Magnetic Accelerator Gun, or MAG. Uses inert iron rounds about the size of lego peices, but their muzzle velocity is over mach five, so they still do more damage than bullets three times their size, so it's basically perfect accuracy. Stuff traveling that fast doesn't need to account for drag or interference as long as it's within two kilometers. Just make sure you don't break it."

You take the shotgun and MAG, holding the latter gun and getting a feel for it. The weapons guy pulls out a couple sheets of paper and a pen.

"Gonna need you to register your R'Q and which part of the Science Team your on so at the very least we know who's fault it is if you go do something stupid. I'll go get the ammo."

You fill out the paperwork in almost the exact same time that it takes the weapons guy to get a box of ammo for the shotgun and two more clips for the MAG.

"These two clips should last you a while as long as you're not too trigger happy" he says, placing the ammo down and picking up the paper "...Dr. Freeman. Happy hunting now."

"Thanks a lot, bud." you reply, heading out of the armored annex of the warehouse.

Head to Cafeteria

Head to Rail Annex

Head to Special Equipment

[Brad]

Head to special equipment.

[Blue]

Upon arriving at special equipment, a big hall of blue storage racks large enough to store cars in, with a gantry mounted on one side, you see a sign taped to the entrance gate on the front of the grated fence preventing any unauthorized entry to the equipment annex. The sign reads "Requisitions suspended until further notice. -Management." in all capital letters scrawled with a thick black marker.

Somehow that reminds you of seeing a door scrawled with something red that said do not enter....

If you wanted to, you could probably climb into the SpecEq Annex if you wanted to, but you remember that story your brother John told you about climbing when he worked in a warehouse..

[Brad]

Use crowbar to pry open the gate.

[BTGBullseye]

Use crowbar to pry open the gate.

If that fails, use chainsaw to cut a way in.

[Blue]

You use your crowbar to try and force the lock of the grating, but all it does is bend the mesh around it a little.

You begin to pull out your chainsaw, but are stopped by two security guards, which appear to be large hovering goldfish wearing bulletproof vests and police caps.

"Sir,put that away, you're going to have to come with us. If Special Equipment is closed, why are you trying to break in?" they ask.

Ignoring them stubbornly, you are about to take the saw to the grating, but they grab you by an invisible pair of arms and begin to drag you away.

"Mr. Freeman, you're not permitted in there right now, much less trying to break in with a chainsaw."

[Psychotic Ninja]

Yell "I AM CAPTAIN GORDON FREEMAN OF THE INTERGALACTIC HOUSE OF PANCAKES! I GO WHERE I WANT!"

[Blue]

You exclaim loudly but are hit on the head with something.

[Later]

You awake, handcuffed to chair in a personelle tram sitting across from the two fish, hovering over their seats.

"Where are we?" you ask.

"Off to detention. You're in big trouble, buddy." Replies one of the fish.

[BTGBullseye]

List inventory, then see if your super-legs can help in this situation.

[Blue]

You have in your pocket

• Crowbar
  Pistol (60r)
  Shotgun (44r)
  MAG (1500r)
  Coil Spring
  42.24 in cash and change
  D-cell Battery
  Grey Security Card
  Thermos (empty)
  Your chainsaw has been taken away. It looks like they only take stuff that you were holding.

You use your super-strong legs to try and lift you out of this mess, but all you do is end up on your face upside down in your seat.

One of the fishes just chuckles as you flabbergastedly try to escape your perdicament, but to no avail.

Suddenly, a headcrab lands on the face of one of the fish and begins hugging it in a rather unromantic way. Surprised and almost scared, the other fish smashes him in the head with his baton, only to get a headcrab on his own head. You right yourself by laying down on the floor and kneeling to get upright, seeing that one of the fish has succumbed to whatever it is the headcrab is doing. The other is moving around frantically, trying to get the headcrab off.

[Brad]

Take the keys to the cuffs from the guard on the ground and free yourself.