//------------------------------// // Program Twenty-Two // Story: My Little Killing Machine // by Tatsurou //------------------------------// Twenty-second Entry Conquest Despite grief, things weren't over. Destroying the moron didn't stop the war machine he'd been controlling. If it was to be stopped, a new plan would be needed. The solution discovered was...oddly beautiful in result. Video below... As Chell held Gilda, trying to figure out how to comfort her, the computer spoke up. "Corrupt Core has been destroyed. Preparing uncorrupted backup..." "Backup?" Gilda asked sorrowfully. "You mean it's not going to matter? They're just going to replace him? And they'll have died for nothing?" Her sorrow turned to anger towards the end. "Not necessarily," Cave spoke up softly. "There is a way to prevent that...I think." "You think?" Chell asked worriedly. "What do you mean?" "We found the 'substitute Core input'," Cave pointed out. "If another Core were plugged in there, they could take Wheatley's place as the Central Core of the Combine. ...I could take his place." "But the Combine is a hive mind!" Chell warned. "You might not be able to maintain yourself if you plug yourself in. They might subsume you...and then we'd have to fight you! Not to mention it'd be handing the Combine all of Aperture, since you're the creative mind behind the entire company!" "There is that risk, yes," Cave agreed. "But if I don't do it, they'll just rebuild Wheatley, and then we're back at square one. The sacrifices mean nothing, and the Combine learn from what went wrong." Cave hesitated. "Listen to me, talking about sacrifices. I want to say they were just Cores, but I know that's not the case. Cores can be replaced. The programs, the memory data...it's all backed up in Aperture hard drives. It always is! But emotions...those can't be backed up! Somehow...somehow, Assphalt, Pea-Brain, Cuddle Core, and Different...they developed a soul! And no matter how perfectly they were backed up, you can't reproduce something like that! And they knew! They knew that everything they were...would be gone from doing this. But they did it...for love. For love of you two." He floated up. "And I...how can I do any less, and still call myself your father?" Spinning, he slammed himself back into the 'substitute Core input'. "Substitute Core detected," the computer voice announced. "Analyzing..." "Dad, no!" Gilda called out. "I...I can't lose anyone else!" "...Dad..." Chell whimpered softly. "I'm doing this for you, girls," Cave told them. "Not the world, I never really gave two sticks and a rock about the world, or the rest of humanity. But you two...Caroline...you matter to me. ...huh, funny how these realizations sneak up on us in old age, huh?" "Substitute Core superior to backup," the computer declared. "Substitute Core, are you ready to be installed and consumed by the Combine Hive Mind central computer?" "I'd like to see you try it, buster!" Cave snapped out. "Show me what you're made of!" "Vague response taken as affirmative," the computer concluded. "Installing." As the Central Computer and Substitute Core Input dropped into the floor, the sound of machinery working - the very same sounds that had accompanied Glados being torn out of her body - echoed, followed by Cave's agonized screams. After a time, the sounds stopped, and the Central Computer lifted up, Cave now installed. "...so that's what it felt like for her..." Cave murmured softly. "Beginning Hive Mind integration," the computer proclaimed, and energy arced through Cave. Gilda and Chell watched in horror as Cave's optic rapidly flashed between its normal green color, a malevolent red, and a blue screen of death. Finally, it went dark. When it lit up again, it blazed with green and red light, the individual lights of the optic alternating between the two colors. A low chuckle echoed from him as he shook, a chuckle that soon swelled into full blown maniacal laughter as the entire building seemed to flex and shift in response to Cave swaying the central body. "D...Dad?" Gilda called worriedly. "Are...are you still-" "Attention Black Mesa Morons!" he suddenly bellowed, signals showing his voice was being broadcast to the entire Earth. "Your parent company, the Combine, has just been acquired by Aperture Science Incorporated! That's right, you sons of bitches, I own you now! Me, Cave 'screw safety regulations', 'Mr. psycho', smarter than all of you put together Johnson, is now your boss's boss's boss's boss...and there's nothing you little shits can do about it! So the whole lot of you can just bend over and prepare Uranus for my six foot bio-metal schvanschtucker! Who won the funding war now?" The maniacal laughter echoed. "Now let's see about what stupidity these pencil pushers had running, shall we? "Procreation suppressors? Well, fuck that! We're gonna need plenty of test subjects and workers for taking Aperture Science to the multiverse! And why kill Earth for its resources? We can get the same stuff cheaper and easier by sending turrets to harvest the asteroid belt, and if we need more we can shatter Mercury! A bit of spit and polish will make Mars a nice farm planet to feed everyone, so fuck the resource crisis! "Now, that's not to say you can all just go running around fucking whoever you want. I own you bitches now, humanity, and I want the best damn human race I can make to populate the multiverse and dominate all other forms of life! Well, except wherever Gilda comes from, that place I'm giving to Caroline, gotta get out of the doghouse somehow. As for the rest of you, time for class system! If you're the sort who isn't good with brain stuff but is great with physical labor...good news! You don't have to worry about being paired with someone who's gonna make you feel like a moron anymore. And all you geniuses, you're gonna be paired with geniuses! "Speaking of, Gordon Freeman, get your ass to the Aperture central facility floating overhead so Glados can decide whether or not you're worthy of Chell, cause if you are then your job from now on is giving us grandkids! Got that?" Cave then turned back to Gilda and Chell. "Sorry about that, girls. Bit of a power trip when you find yourself the sole control for a multiverse-spanning empire including your entire home planet. Who knew? Now, what was it you were worried about?" Gilda and Chell simply stared, completely poleaxed.