Half-Life: Preparations

“Well shit.” Troy muttered as he eyed the strange machine standing idle in the large room.

“Dude, what is that? Collin asked as he approached it, his MP5K hanging from his shoulder, his hood covered his lean face and messy blond hair.

“Hell if I know, hey Ally! Come here!” Troy responded, turning and shouting down the dark corridor behind the two befuddled boys. Ally, Troy's girlfriend, and soldier in arms, walked into the room, and surveyed it's dark confines, before her eyes rested on the large machine in front of them.

It was roughly ten feet tall, and looked almost like a kind of doorway. She gave Troy a questioning look, “Well well well, is that some kind of prototype teleporter?” She asked, nodding towards the machine. This was why Troy loved her. She was smart, funny, pretty, and damn did she know how to shoot. She was a dead eye with her Overwatch sniper rifle, which was strapped to her back. She pulled her hood down, letting her long golden hair spill over her shoulders and back in a river of gold. Her icy blue eyes examined the Consoles next to the machine. “Zak! Get in here!” She shouted, her eyes never leaving the machine. She calmly started walking towards the console to the right of the machine.

“Uh, Allison, do you really thing we should be messing with this thing? Who knows what it can do?” Collin questioned, worry laced his voice, nevertheless, he and Troy stepped aside when Allison reached them, allowing her access to the console. Behind her, Zak ran through the door. His AK74 resting in his hands and his Combine mask pushed onto his head, exposing his hard cut face. Suspicion and hate were all too evident in his eyes... they always were. All four of the resistance fighters in the room were teenagers, being born the year the Combine invaded or, the next year. Troy and Alley were both eighteen, while Zak and Collin were both nineteen.

“What's up?” Zak asked, looking around the room. “What the fuck?” He asked pointing towards the machine with his rifle.

“Ally thinks it's some kind of prototype teleporter, right?” Troy asked casting a glance back to his girlfriend. She simply grunted in response as she was focusing on the lit up console in front of her, her fingers flying over the controls. “Yeah, she does.” Troy deadpanned.

For the first time since she started working with the interface, Allison made a statement more developed than single words and grunt, by saying, “This teleporter can cross universes like the others, but this one's different somehow. If I'm reading this right, and I don't think I'm not, this doesn't just cross universes, it crosses alternate universes.”

The boys exchanged glances and without speaking asked each other, “Who's going to sound like an idiot?” The decision was made when Zak and Troy both looked at Collin with expecting looks.

Collin sighed and asked question of the day, “I thought all the universes were alternate.”

Allison wished she could facepalm, but she was too busy attending to much more important matters. Luckily she didn't need to use her mouth to work the interface, allowing her to properly humiliate Collin. “No, captain dipshit, those are simply other universes. This is an alternate version of
Earth! It's astounding! I heard Dr. Kliener talking about this kind of thing, but never did I think it was possible, but if this works, We could go to a version of Earth where the Combine never invaded!” Now all the boys shared expressions similar to Allison's. “I'm downloading the information now, give me a minute.” Allison said with new found determination. The boys were all restless, attempting to find something to do to pass the time, to quench the giddy excitement they all felt

“ So are we clear?” Collin asked Zak, leaning against one of the walls, his MP7 hanging loosely from his right hand, he was balling and un-balling his other hand in the pocket of his hoodie.

“Yeah, we're clear, and I sealed the door with Sparky too.” Zak replied, before reaching in one of his numerous pockets and withdrawing a small hand held tool, similar to an EMP tool. It was a small mining tool which used extremely high powered concentrated electric bolts, magnified through a tiny field enhancer, the result was like an old taser, except it could slice through rock and bone like it was nothing. On top of that, if used right, it could act as a makeshift welding device as well. Zak tossed Sparky to Collin, who casually reached out and caught it in his hand, then stuffing it into his own pocket.

“So how long to you think we have?” Troy asked, worriedly. There objective was to infiltrate and uncover what the Combine were working on. The facility the teenagers were in was deep underground, accessible only by a large freight elevator that brought them down. They were only supposed to investigate, not dig to deep into it.

“Uh, like,” Zak was then cut off by a loud floor shaking blast. “Not long!” Zak shouted, reaching up with his left hand and pulling the mask down over his face, and drawing his AK74

“Sonofabitch!” Troy cursed quickly and raised his own weapon, aiming down the corridor the teenagers had emerged from. Collin quickly pushed himself off the wall and raised his MP7. The teleporter was in direct line of sight from the end of the corridor. “Ally we need this door closed. Like, now!” Troy shouted, aiming down the corridor.

Combine footfalls echoed down the vacant hallway. Troy could barley make out the voice of the Combine radio saying, “All units is sector seven grid fifteen are to eliminate targets on sight, failure to do so will result in immediate termination.”

“Busy!” Allison responded to Troy, furiously typing commands into the console.

“Damn-it.” Troy groaned and leaped to the control pad next to the door. “Ally, what do I do?” Troy shouted in panic.

“Just shoot it.” Ally said, as if she were explaining it to a slow person. Which she might as well have been. Troy raised his eyebrows and was about to question her, when he remembered what was at stake,and she was the one with the most experience. Troy took a step back and fired a small three round burst into the control panel. It sparked and hissed, causing Troy to take a step back, to avoid getting hit by the arching sparks. The door hissed and slid shut, sealing the four teenagers in the room. Separating the Combine and the teenagers was one ton of solid metal.

“That won't keep them out long!” Zak shouted, keeping his weapon trained on the door. Troy, Collin, and Zak all backed up, until they were right in front of the teleporter and Allison.

“Ally, are you sure about this?” Troy asked, keeping his weapon on the door. He heard the Combine reach the door and start trying to hack the panel. Would the shot panel be able to keep them out? Troy wasn't sure, but he silently prayed it would.

“It's our only chance Troy.” Allison responded, keeping her gaze focused on the interface.

Suddenly the teenagers heard the combine start to burn through the door using enhanced ADSSE weaponry. ADSSE was enhanced versions of the old ADS and had the ability to burn metal. Right before his eyes, Troy watched as the ADSSE slowly ate away at the door.

“Ally!” Troy moaned, as he saw the metal start to glow red due to the heat. Suddenly, Troy heard a low whirring sound, followed by loud FWASH! As the room was bathed in light. Troy and the other boys whirled around to see the doorway part of the machine glowing green, Allison however, remained focused on her work. “Holy shit.” Troy uttered in astonishment, staring at the green light, which almost seemed to draw him in.

“Go through now!” Allison shouted as she set the interface to clear the coordinates in thirty seconds. Without arguing, Troy dashed through the portal and was enveloped in green light. Right behind him, Collin and Zak ran through. Allsion, however, remained at the console for a few more seconds, as a small data drive was ejected from a small slit on the interface. She snatched it out, turned , and leaped into the portal.

As soon as all four were through the Combine burned their way through the door. The lead sprinted to the console and slammed its fist down on the button. The portal closed, as the teleporter shut down. The Combine soldier stared at the spot where the portal had been, then down at the screen on the interface which now read two words; which had appeared when it had pressed the button...

Coordinates saved.

Oh what the fuck? Troy groaned in pain. His whole body ached. The first thing he noticed when he emerged from the green light was the sound of... birds? Troy's eyes flew open, as he quickly sat up, causing him to quickly become nauseous. Troy groaned and fell back to the forest floor. Wait what? There was someone lying on his legs. Ally. Troy reasoned. Troy looked around without sitting up. High above him were dark green treetops with thick lankly vines hanging from the top. “Ally?” Troy groaned, glancing down at his legs for his girlfriend.

What he saw made him want to vomit. Instead of Allison on him it was... Zak, sound asleep. “Fuck's sake!” Troy shouted and kicked his leg, causing Zak to roll off him and onto the lush forest soil.

“Ugh, what?” Zak mumbled as he woke when his face rolled into the dirt.

“Goddamn Zak, now is not a time to be sleeping!” Troy shouted angrily at Zak, who was picking himself up off the ground.

“Well, you've been asleep for like ten minuets.” A female voice came from Troy's right. Troy turned and looked, seeing Ally and Collin. Allison was leaning against a tree, while Collin was rooting through his backpack. Allison was grinning, as she saw Troy's shocked expression.

“Ally, where the hell are we?” Troy asked, standing up slowly and looking around at the forest surrounding them.

“Well, we're at the train depot.” Allison said, looking around herself. “In an alternate universe.” She followed up. “Maybe one where humans in general were never around, which means...” She let that hang.

Zak, and Troy however had not heard the explanation she had given to Collin earlier.

“Means what?” Troy asked worriedly.

“Allison sighed and slowly, choosing her words, said, “Which means, that we... might not be able to get back home.” She was looking at the ground while she talked, when she looked up, she saw Troy and Zak's horrified expressions.

“You're fucking joking right? I mean... right?” Zak asked, quickly getting angry.

Collin looked up from where he was taking inventory on their supplies.

“Nope, she's not.” He said dejectedly. After years of fighting and loosing people they loved, the thought of total isolation from all of humanity was not as hard hitting as it would've been to other people. Nonetheless, the boys were devastated. Troy fell backwards onto his backside, shaking his head and staring at the ground. Zak stood silently fuming until he turned around, cocked his fist back, and punched the nearest tree as hard as he could. The result was a powerful WHAP! Causing his knuckles to bleed.

“Zak.” Allison started. But was soon cut off by Zak when he said,

“No, Ally!” He said, using Allison's nickname in scorn, “Don't fucking tell me to calm down! I will never see my dad again!” He shouted, rage spewing out of his features. Blood dripped from his knuckles. “Fuck you all!” He screamed and stormed off in a random direction in the forest.

“Zak!” Troy shouted and started off after him. Allison and Collin collected their things and followed the fuming teenage boy. “Zak, your just going deeper! C'mon man just come back!” Troy said in a desperate tone. Zak was pushing vines and tree branches out of his way as he stormed through the thicket.

“No! Fuck every single one of you I'm done! I'm fucking-” Zak stopped as he stormed into a clearing and was met with a ten foot tall statue. “Oh.” Zak said in astonishment. The other three teenagers soon emerged and saw what Zak was seeing. A ten foot statue of a horse with a horn and wings. It was rearing back in a scream. Stone hair was billowing in standstill.

“Woah!” Collin murmured, mouth hung open. “Cool.”

“Cool? Who cares if it's cool, this means that there's people here man! We can still get home!” Troy shouted excitedly. Zak stood, mouth agape. “So...” Troy started, “Now what?” Allison was about to answer when a female voice was heard from down a path which lead to the statue.

“Come on girls, I'm telling you it was somewhere around here!” The teenager's eyes grew wide.

“Scatter!” Troy whispered urgently. The teenagers all, dove into the nearby bushes for cover, and lay there silently, watching the path. A few seconds later a lavender unicorn emerged from the path. Troy looked across the small clearing and saw Allison laying in the bushes, her face hidden from view unless you were looking. He raised his eyebrows, and Allison slowly shook her head. Troy nodded and prayed that Zak and Collin would have enough sense to lay low. The unicorn looked around the clearing, before her eyes rested on something laying in front of the statue. Troy's eyes grew wide with fear as he realized it was Collin's backpack. Collin you dumb son of a bitch!

“What's this?” The unicorn questioned. Did... did that horse thing just talk? Allison had heard it too, and was staring at the unicorn with shock.

“What is it Twi?” Another voice asked, this one with a southern tang. Behind the first, emerged an orange pony with a stetson hat riding it's head. The situation was just getting more and more fucked up. Troy slowly, ever so slowly, reached down and grasped the handle of his sidearm.

Behind the two horses, emerged four more. There was two with wings, one was cyan with a rainbow colored mane, and the other was yellow with a pink flowing mane. Then there was the other unicorn, a marshmallow white with a luscious purple mane, and finally an all pink one with a bouncy fluffy pink mane, this one was hopping up and down restlessly.

“Well it looks like a kind of saddlebag, and an extremely unfashionable one at that.” The white unicorn said, eyeballing the pack. On that front Troy had to agree, it was just black and gray to camouflage with the urban environment. It was then that Troy had realized that a unicorn had just made a fashion statement. Okay seriously, what the fuck! Allison must have been thinking the same thing, because she shrugged as if to say, “Just go with it.”

Suddenly, the rainbow colored one flew from the back of the group to the bag, before pawing through it with one hoof.

“Rainbow! We don't know whose this is! We can't just go digging through it.” The lavender unicorn, Twi, said. In response, the pegasus, Rainbow, reached in with her muzzle and withdrew with something it it's mouth. Troy tried to focus on what it was, but couldn't see it. Whatever it was, it was small.

Rainbow set it on the ground and examined it. “Twilight, what is this?” It asked, pawing at the thing on the ground. Before Twi, or Twilight, could respond, Troy almost choked as Allison jumped up from the bushes, confronting the six assorted ponies. She had in her hands, Troy's serrated machete, which he had given to her as a gift.

“Back away now.” Allison growled. The six ponies all shook with fear, the yellow one about ready to pass out. They all backed away, closer to Troy, all except Rainbow, who stood her ground against Allison.

“And just what the buck are you?” Rainbow shouted, getting in a fighting stance. This just went from bad to worse.

Troy had no choice, he drew his sidearm, and stood up from the bushes, aiming at the six ponies. “Don't try it horse girl.” He ordered, aiming straight at her. Seeing Troy do it, Collin and Zak both stood up from where they had been hiding, they both had their weapons drawn. “Back off, now.” Troy ordered again. Rainbow quickly backed away from the object, at which point, Allison quickly leaned forward and snatched it up, before stuffing it into her pocket.

“T-T-Twilight?” The yellow one stammered.

Twilight just seemed to be in total shock, the pink one was horrified, while the others all stood in confusion.

“You're human!” Twilight nearly screamed. Her eyes growing wider.

“Yeah, we are, now, you're going to turn around and your going to carry you little horse asses back down that path to wherever you came from, got it?” Zak asked coldly, aiming his AK74 at them. Twilight furiously nodded her head, and started backing down the path, the others right behind her. The four teenagers all formed a line, aiming their weapons at them. When they got far enough down the path, they all turned and ran, screaming down the path.

When they were out of sight, Troy commented, not for the first time that day, “Well shit.”