User:Infected32/Infected32's Story: CONDITION ZERO

Snake was the commander of his team, a Special Ops group called the NSA, who had come to far to go back. The team was sent to a highly classified area in the middle of the Utah desert. What he was about to experience would show him friend from foe and why voices can be deceiving... “ Snake, It’s time to get up Captain... Time to get up... You’re just the right man in the... wrong place. Wake up...” The words woke Snake in a few seconds. He got up and walked to the cafeteria. After he was done eating, he walked to the barracks to get ready. “Calling Captain Snake, to the Administration building.” A PA System had been installed in the barracks a week before. Snake passed through the RUCS* (Runway Using Combine Station). He was just in time to hear Damian and Daniel having a fight, “Daniel! I told you to put the pliers back on the tool box so when we needed them again we could find them! I swear Daniel you’re stupider than a pigeon. Kaleb and Mike! You finish what I started here with Daniel! Ah, hell.” Snake stopped and looked around. There were Kaleb and Mike that were talking to Daniel and Sarah and Nikki were both on the computer searching up a website about an incident in a mansion somewhere out of a small Californian town. Trenton Haile and Mason Blanner were both at the shooting range talking with Gen. Denton. Snake walked into the room where Sarah was. He poured himself a cup of coffee and sat down. Sarah turned around, “ Good morning, Snake. Did you sleep well?” Snake looked up, “Same as last week.” Sarah smiled, “That’s too bad. I thought it would’ve stopped by now, I mean we only lost Eleazar last week.” Snake shrugged. They were close friends, as much as Damian and Alex were. Damian walked in and Sarah turned away not wanting to see him. He said, “I think I should kill and eat Daniel, he has no confidence in anything he does and can’t do anything right. I think I should join the Student Army after I’m done with this place.” Nikki had left with an ID card in her hand. Damian looked over at Snake, “ Sleep well?” Before Snake could answer Damian looked at Sarah, “Wait, I want her to tell me. Did he? I mean you’re the doctor.” Sarah said this over her shoulder, “He’s not sleeping too well and I don’t know why. It must be from losing Eleazar. Do you ever dream Damian?” Damian looked around and said, “Yeah, Sometimes I dream about cheese.” Sarah turned and Damian walked out. Snake had to get to the shooting range to talk to Denton. He walked over to the shooting range like he was the boss of this complex. Denton was talking about a recent story he had read and reviewed, “I think it should’ve had a boss like cat.” He decided not to talk to Denton until later. Snake walked over to the elevator and pressed the button. As the door closed the hangar door opened and a man with a suit and a briefcase walked in. Snake shook his head and thought nothing more of the idea. It wasn’t an unusual sight to see a guy like that in this place. The door opened and a familiar voice greeted him, “Hey Snake, you ready for this type of operation?” Snake looked at this person. Who was he? Then he remembered, “Hey Alex, Haven’t seen you in a while, how is Juliana?” Alex scratched his head, “We were okay until the incident with Edgar. Now she’s working for some place called AIS and she’s working harder than anyone else there. Anyway, there is a small chance that she will be chosen for team Aperture to use the new device that they made for a specific set of tests.” Snake nodded and moved on, Alex following him. Snake looked through a window to where he could see the Administration office. There was that guy with the suit talking with Mr. Martin. This man with the suit looked at Snake with watchful eyes, like a hawk’s. Alex didn’t seem to notice this man’s appearance. Walking up the concrete stairs to the awaiting Osprey. The guns were already on board along with the others. Snake got on and took his most favorite weapon, the SC3000. He strapped this weapon on his back and looked for an empty seat. Alex grabbed the MP7 he kept from an old battle he fought in a few years ago. The helicopter took off and everyone started to talk about what they thought was going to happen. Snake fell asleep. He was woke up by the sound of the all too familiar sound, an alarm. It was the sound of it going down. It took a spin to the left and then one that threw Snake out of his seat. Snake was able to stand in the door for just a few seconds before being thrown into the door. His hand fell on the door handle which caused it to fly open outward. The next thing he knew he was lying on the roof of the Black Mesa building where the Osprey’s helicopter blade had made a clean incision into the roof. He went to find his team. The room he had entered in was slightly on fire and smoke had engulfed it. There was a small door on the left side of the room. He quickly ran over to that door, which was locked, and let out a cough of frustration to the smoke that intruded into his lungs. He remembered his gun. He equipped it and shot up the door’s knob. He kicked it open, there was no possible way his team had come this way. There was a sign that they hadn’t, the door was locked.

Snake was in a hall way that was safe from the smoke before he kicked the door open. On the left there was an elevator. On the right was a door that had a key pad for entering a code. He had no choice but to go to the left. As soon as he hit the first button to open the elevator a male computer voice came on and said, “ Hello, and welcome to the Black Mesa facility Building B elevator. We would like to make your trip as smooth as .J. LDAKSLF. AKLJFKKDK, Possssssssible.” The computer malfunctioned to the point the doors jammed themselves and sparked. Snake climbed in the elevator and he descended. The computer came back on, “ You must be the Captain from the team that was deployed to investigate the facility, you guys are too late to stop the tesssssst.” Static cut the computer’s voice off. The doors opened on the 8th floor in the basement. He searched around the silent concrete room. The voice said, “ I want to see how you could’ve become the captain of a NSA team a couple years ago.” A target popped up. Test your skills was what Snake thought, just like Boot Camp. He pulled the rifle up to his shoulders and fired picking off the target and the other two as if they were high priced video game that he had wanted when he was little. The sound of an elevator echoed behind the sound of the now distant gunshots, “Get to the elevator quickly for I will not keep the doors open long.” Snake reached the center of the elevator as soon as the doors shut. The elevator went up. The doors opened revealing a dark room. The voice didn’t say anything. Snake wasn’t at all scared of this room in particular, as his gun had a mounted flashlight on the Lower Receiver. The room brightened and the voice said in an angry voice, “YOU CHEATER! I can’t believe that you, a captain in the NSA, would cheat to pass! I’ll deal with you later.” Snake heard the elevator doors close and go back up. The door on the other side turned red and locked. “That’s what you get for cheating. I think we can dispose of your skills here.” Snake wasn’t about ready to give up here because he was only on the 7th test he had guessed. He found his way to an air vent that led into the elevator shaft. The computer’s voice said, “What are you doing!? Stop it! I-I Think we can still use your skills to our highest abilities. Opening the elevator door in 3, 2, 1.” The doors opened again and the ceiling lights on the elevator illuminated the small section of lonely concrete. Snake got in. The doors shut, closing the case on the darkened room where it seemed impossibly real. Snake sat back on the floor and wondered what happened to his team. If they were dead then he wouldn’t have a team anymore.

The elevator re-opened showing a room with sliding scaffolds over a steaming brown, green, and reddish pool of a strange liquid that made bubbles and popping noises. There was no smell, so it wasn’t sewage. The voice said, “ It’s not what you’re thinking it is. It is acid that will instantly suffocate you as you will sink because of the lack of Oxygen. This was fou-. Never mind, you don’t need to hear all of this Science stuff. You won’t be able to go out and spread the word after this. Now the advice is that you need to get on each scaffold to get to the elevator, thank you for helping Black Mesa help you help us all.” Snake noticed that the scaffolds weren’t all coming to his location and none could be reached without death. A vent was placed above the catwalk he was on. It was too high for him to reach though. Looks like there’s no cheating on this one, Snake had thought. The railing on the catwalk would probably get him to one of the scaffolds. He would have to take the risk. He stood up on the rail and jumped. His chest hit the end of the scaffold and he grabbed onto it. His radio had fallen into the acid. He pulled himself up to safety as the scaffold stopped at the elevator. He walked in and waited for the next floor. Then he saw the man in the suit from the RUCS. What was he doing in Black Mesa? Snake had been followed, definitely. The voice hadn’t said anything about another human being inside. The doors opened into another room. “I want to see if anyone of your training with a gun can pass this smaller test. Meet the X-45 DS Turret.” The floor in front of him opened up, another floor came up with a small white turret. The turret’s eye turned red and a laser of light in the center of it shined towards Snake. Its laser landed on Snake and its sides opened up revealing two machine guns. They fired, blue flashes coming from the gun. Snake had jumped to his left trying to save himself. The laser looked for him and Snake saw that the sides had closed up and the laser went back to the dead center of the wall. Snake held his gun up and put two shots into the eye. It sparked and said, “Critical Error.” Snake proceeded to the other elevator. The voice said, “ That turret was only trying to defend itself and you had to kill it, murderer.” Snake could see what the computer was trying to do. It was trying to make him feel bad for doing the right thing to survive. The elevator stopped but the doors didn’t open. Snake tried to get the doors open but it wouldn’t work. There was no hatch in the elevator. Snake was trapped. There was an emergency hammer that led to a fire extinguisher. He pried the right side of the light off and saw writing on the roof that said, “Try the left it is best for your escape from ULTOR’S trap.” Snake looked on the left and sure enough there was a hidden hatch. He finally had a name for this computer too. He was in the shaft now. An arrow was pointing up with a message, “Get out of the shaft by using the sides of the elevator stops, don’t fall or HE wins.”

Snake got on the first stop side and saw that this was rather impossible to escape. He slipped but was able to save himself from falling. He noticed that the elevator cable snapped and the car fell farther below. Snake found the floor he was supposed to be on if the trap wasn’t to succeed. He got the doors open and got in. ULTOR said, “WHAT! IMPOSSIBLE! YOU SURVIVED? Well, that-that was part of another test. You survived so you get to go home. Just continue to the left on that path and the outside will be waiting for you.” Snake walked into the left and saw writing that said, “I’ve seen what’s up ahead, continue into Turret Hell. If you don’t want to survive. Go right to show that you can beat ULTOR.” Snake turned around, listening to the note left on the wall. ULTOR said, “What do you think you’re doing? I told you to go home! YOU DON’T WANT TO SURVIVE?” Snake was really mad at what ULTOR had tried to do to kill him. ULTOR closed the door at the end of the hall and said, “Go HOME!” Snake saw no other way in, except for the conveniently placed vent. He kicked it in. ULTOR’S camera was watching everything that Snake was doing. Snake took the vent cover and looked at it and then at the camera. He hit the camera until it fell off the wall. He was breathing heavily in anger. Snake threw down the cover and used the vent to get into one of the tunnels. He jumped in a small white light illuminating the sides of the walls. As he turned one corner he saw the red laser from a turret. Its sides opened but the laser glitched out by flashing. The sides stayed open and did nothing even as he went in front of it. He followed the tunnel and met with many coded doors but he did see one that wasn’t locked. Snake went through it and saw the many different ways marked by notes and arrows. On a greasy desk was a note left behind that said, “ So, you made it this far. Good job, ULTOR Needs to be destroyed. He will take your weapon And arsenal you may have with you. Keep this note as on the back is the shut down code

Enter it on ULTOR’S main computer in his EC. I couldn’t try or do this but you a survivor can. Self control can be used against him as he has Crushed all who have passed, lives, feelings, and Heart. Black Mesa created two of these computer AI’s. Help the ones lost in this facility who are still Dead.” The note had the worst grammar he had ever read. On the back was a code #9996640. He had to remember that as the arrow pointed to an elevator saying, ULTOR. Snake used the elevator as this one was different from the others. It had a button panel unlike the others he had used. The doors opened up outside of a double door. He opened both doors as one in front of him closed and the others behind him closed and locked. His gun was taken up into a transparent grid and vaporized along with all the other weapons he was carrying. The door in front of him opened slowly. He walked in and it locked behind him. Snake looked up at the large body of metal, wires, and a single yellow “Eye” that turned towards him. ULTOR Looked at him before saying, “Well, you found me, congratulations, was it worth it to throw your chances of survival away? If it were me I would’ve taken survival over getting here with no chance left.” Snake looked straight into that eye and said, “I’m doing the right thing, I know that I most likely won’t be walking out of here alive but at least you’ll be dead.” ULTOR gave out a low-loud laugh, “You’re kidding me! You think that destroying me will solve your worries? WELL IT WON’T! There is another one of my kind at the AIS. Don’t believe me, here I’ll put the file on screen.” The blueprints of another computer system came up on the screen with a name at the top right hand corner, GLaDOS. “See? I told you that you’re going to have another to worry about in the world. Now I can kill you my way.” Out of the different colors of the ceiling came machine guns all rigged with wires and a holding device. Snake ran to the computer and typed the three nines.

The guns shot in his direction all the bullets missing him. He got to the computer and finished the code. ULTOR didn’t shut down but he laughed, “That doesn’t do anything to really shut me down but it does shut down my control over the facility which means- that youueudjfkjaaaaaaaaldfjaf!” ULTOR started shaking and he started falling apart. The whole room started shaking and being torn up into a portal. ULTOR shouted, “YOU MONSTEEEEEEEEER!” There was a flash as ULTOR went into the portal. The next thing Snake knew he was in a dark room with a single light in the center. A voice sounded from one side of the room, “Well, it’s nice to meet the man who saved all of the detained souls. Captain Snake defeated the computer that was more powerful than you. My employers will love for you to be in our corporation. You can accept or you can go back to ULTOR’S chamber and wait for your death.” Snake had no choice, “I’ll take the job.” In the center of the light was the man with the suit who smiled and nodded, “Wisely done then, I’ll see you on the road up ahead.” The light shut off. The man was gone...