//------------------------------// // Program Nineteen // Story: My Little Killing Machine // by Tatsurou //------------------------------// Entry Nineteen Crusade Once Chell was fully relaxed and at ease with being back home, she reached the point where she was comfortable relating what she'd been through on the surface. I chose not to save those video files beyond pertinent details. Needless to say, my conclusion regarding her having tangled with the Combine had been accurate. It was time to summarize what we knew, and establish a plan of action. Surprisingly enough, between Cave and I, we had one. The Combine feared Aperture. We were going to show them it was with good reason. Video below... "So let me see if I understand this correctly," Gilda clarified once Chell reached the end of her story. Everyone had remained silent throughout the telling without even asking questions so Chell could go through it all at once without prolonging it. "This Combine is some sort of alien collective that uses other races for creatures of burden, has more or less total control of the planet, and has built some sort of device to suppress human mating urges to prevent population renewal...for some reason." She shook her head at that last part. "That's totally bogus. What's the point of taking over and then deliberately making the most viable slave race kill itself off?" "Perhaps they fear human adaptability?" Glados suggested. "From the sound of it, they both fear and desire Aperture Science." "They do," Chell confirmed. "When they first saw me using Aperture Long Fall Boots, they ran from me at first sight. It...led to me getting overconfident, so that when they sprung the trap to try and capture me specifically..." She lowered her gaze, pulling her knees to her chest. So many people counting on her...and she'd let them all dow- "Ow!" Gilda folded her wing. "None of that!" she scolded. "Self-recrimination is a wasteful, pointless endeavor, not befitting a Johnson. You know what you're supposed to do when life gives you lemons." Chell managed a wan smile. "This is still a pretty big lemon," she pointed out dryly. "Then it will make a very satisfying explosion once combustible," Glados observed confidently. "Besides, if Black Mesa played a part in letting the Combine take over the surface, then it's only right we finally resolve this rivalry." "That's...actually something I'm curious about," Chell spoke up. "According to records on the surface, it hasn't been that long since Aperture Science vanished after losing the fight for funding...but the computer said I'd been in stasis for nine nine...repeated something. How is that-" "Oh, that'd be Ratman's doing," Cave observed, not looking up from what he was working on. "I accessed those old records, and there wasn't enough power to run the stasis chamber he took you to after beating Glados the first time to keep you alive, so he hooked it into the only running experiment that seemed to provide a limitless power supply...a time dilation experiment that was an off-shoot of the Borealis research. As a result, the entire Aperture facility was in a state of distilled time until power ran out and you woke up...and the moron set you on course. Which is probably why technology within the facility has advanced so far as far as miniaturization is concerned, since those research processes are entirely automated via the Research Cores. The tech we've got down here will make most of what's on the surface look pathetic by comparison...and might just be on par with whatever the Combine can throw at us." "Then those Com-bees have even more reason to fear us," Gilda concluded, pumping her clenched talon. "Nice!" "Not only that, but I've managed to take some of their own tech and make it better!" Cave proclaimed. "The crystal that makes your gravity gun work? I was able to synthesize a second one. Sticking it in the contained singularity that powers the Handheld Portal Devices work lets them work as Gravity Guns, and negates the requirement of a Portal Reactive Surface. As long as the surface is flat and of appropriate size, you can place a portal. As such, I made those modifications to Gilda's Tail Mounted Portal Emitter, miniaturized Chell's Gravity Gun, and injected it into the confined singularity that powers it. Admittedly, there's a 17% chance of a critical meltdown that causes the singularities to escape their confinement and devour the entire planet...but considering we're outnumbered at the billions-to-one margin, I'm liking those odds!" "Is that all you've managed?" Glados asked curiously. "I think my preparations are more impressive. I was able to build on the modifications the moron was trying to make...and the entire facility is now battle ready. We'll take the fight to the Combine...in style." "And our girls are going to be the most stylish of all!" Cave proclaimed. "I studied those liquid metal things he brought in...turns out they're cybernetically enhanced symbiotic life forms. And I was able to adapt them so Gilda and Chell can use them!" Two frameworks filled with all sorts of armaments lifted up, with gaps in the center sized to each of the girls. "Step in, please." Gilda let out a happy crow as she rushed in, eager for whatever was going to happen. Chell moved in more carefully, taking in what was waiting there. "A motorcycle, a jetpack, missile launcher, bomb launcher, multi-stage rocket launcher, an anti-tank rifle? How am I supposed to carry all of these around?" "Oh, you won't!" Cave explained as he started the process. "The cyber symbiotes will do all the work. They were apparently stolen from a scientist in another dimension who dubbed such a device an Ando-Syn...but I prefer to call them Boomers." As he finished speaking, music began to play as the quicksilver creatures poured out from the top of the chambers the girls had stepped into. As they contacted the weapons and devices within, it was absorbed by the creatures before they wrapped around the girls. It slowly solidified in the shape of hardened battle suits, fitting the girls like a second skin as far as their definition, amplifying all their capabilities. Gilda's suit fit around each individual feather, and gleamed in gold and bronze as it shaped a fierce ripping beak. Chell's took the Aperture orange and white coloration, shaping to her musculature as she flexed. "...otaku," Glados scolded Cave. "What? Some of my best ideas came from watching too much anime!" Cave snapped out defensively. "And it's good music! Speaking of, which do you think is better for the surface debut, 'Run Away' or 'You Get To Burning'?" Glados chuckled indulgently. "While the former was always my favorite, I think the latter is much more fitting..." Gordon Freeman struggled across the plains towards the small metal shack in the distance, doing his best to hide his presence in the fields of tall wheat. The Combine paid little attention to these lands because they didn't believe anything of value was here, but Chell had told him this was where she'd exited the Aperture facility. If hope for Earth - and for finding Chell - was anywhere now, it was in there. As he approached, he caught sight of large speakers rising up out of the shack. He paused, wondering if he was about to receive a communication. Instead, music began blaring from the speakers. The moment the lyrics began, the entire plateau began to shake. His eyes bugged out of his skull as he saw the center of the plateau break away, lifting up into the sky as dirt fell away revealing shining metal, which unfolded from a buried skyscraper into a flying battle station. It continued to rise, until it reached a height where nothing could fail to notice it. At this distance, he could just make out hangers uncountable swinging open on the sides. At that point, the song proclaimed, "You get to burning!" loud enough he heard it plainly, just as hordes of silver fighters swarmed out of the hanger bays, making for the Combine structures in the distance and unleashing a level of firepower unheard of since the World Wars. Two unique figures flew out, one a shape out of myth, and one far more human. The humanoid figure turned...and shot straight towards him. As the orange and white figure stopped in front of him, the helmet pulled back organically to reveal a familiar face. "Gordon!" Chell greeted warmly. "You're alright!" Lunging forward, she pulled him into a tight hug and kissed him firmly on his bristly cheek. Gordon Freeman reacted the way any sane man would react to such a situation. He fainted.