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Collision Course

Half-Life: Collision

Chapter 3: Collision Course

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[WHITE CANYON]

“Emergency response team to... Sector C Test Labs and Control Facility.”

Phase Ray’s eyes blinked open, slowly. Everything was blurred, and her ears were ringing.

Rising to a sitting position, she glanced around as her vision cleared. She was just outside the control room, lying in a corner. From the looks of it, Smash had dragged her out through the left entrance, towards the elevator to the upstairs labs. Warning sirens blared across the room, the flickering ceiling lights mingling with the static red glow of the alarm system. Equipment was smashed, broken, and smoking, with metal debris scattered across the floor.

“C’mon, c’mon...”

Phase turned her head to the source of the voice. Atom Smash stood over the limp form of Doctor Hawkeye, thumping his hooves against the gryphon’s ribcage.

“Damnit, breathe...”

She glanced around the room. A few other scientists were huddled in another corner, while a gryphon security officer patched their wounds. Another security officer, a pegasus, lay on the ground being tended to by a scientist, his combat harness tossed to the side.

“All... Sector C... staff,” cooed the PA system, “please call the... security office... immediately.”

Atom Smash let out a particularly foul curse under his breath as he stepped away from Hawkeye, moving towards Phase Ray.

“Phase,” he sighed, “Thank Celestia you’re up. Ah was gettin’ worried there.”

Phase nodded weakly, too tired to say anything.

“We just lost Hawkeye, and I ain’t seen hide nor hair of Professor Sparkle” Smash solemnly stated, lying down next to Phase, “We’ve got everything under control now, though. ‘Cept for... well, everything.”

“... Where’s Spark Plug?” Phase asked.

Smash sighed, looking away from her. He didn’t need to say anything. The answer was obvious.

“Celestia and Luna...” she breathed, tears welling up in her eyes, “Why... why didn’t they listen?”

“We tried to warn them...” Smash assured her, putting a hoof on her shoulder.

“I never thought I’d see a resonance cascade, let alone create one,” she sobbed, leaning into Smash’s embrace, letting the tears flow.

“None of us did, Phase,” Smash consoled her, “None of us did.”

They sat there like that for what seemed like hours, the sound of the alarms broken only by the occasional sob or the chillingly calm voice of the PA system. Everypony in the room was silent, either clutching their wounds or tending to those of others.

Finally, Phase had cried herself out. She gently pushed Smash away, wiping away the lingering tears in her eyes.

“Have... have you called for help?” she asked slowly, trying desperately to regain her composure.

“Tried to,” Smash sighed, standing up again, “All the phones are out, and we’ve got folks here we’re afraid to move.”

“Then what...” Phase sniffled, “what do we do?”

Smash looked around the room, then turned to her, furrowing his brows.

“We gotta make our way upstairs. Let somepony know we’re trapped down here.”

Phase nodded. Normally, she would tell him to send the security officers up, but judging by the state of affairs around her now, that wasn’t an option.

“I’ll come with you,” she stated, rising to her hooves.

Smash opened his mouth to protest, but stopped before he could get a word out. He could see it in Phase’s eyes- she couldn’t stay here. All the destruction, the chaos... the death. Staying would only make things worse for her. He closed his mouth, then nodded.

“Alrighty, then. Garret,” he stated, calling out to the gryphon officer, “keep these folks safe, y’hear? Ah’m headed upstairs with Phase Ray.”

“Yes sir,” the gryphon replied with a salute, before returning to his patients.

Wordlessly, Smash moved towards the downed security officer’s battle harness. He grabbed the harness with his mouth, and began to attach it to himself, pulling the straps shut and flicking various latches closed. Phase wasn’t sure why he was taking it- maybe all his time on the hazard course had simply drilled the need for a firearm into his head. It was almost unnerving how easily he had adjusted to the situation, how well he was dealing with the disaster around him.

Yet still, she found herself following Smash off towards the elevators...

--------------

[BLACK MESA]

Eli stood over Doctor Kleiner, who sat on the floor, dazed. He couldn’t think of anything to say- things had gone so wrong, so quickly. This wasn’t how things were meant to happen.

Or were they? Eli recalled his conversation with the man in the blue suit, with his strange way of speaking and stiff, robotic posture. Eli remembered the warning he had given him.

‘Prepare for unforeseen consequences.’

Eli shook his head, wracked with guilt. ‘Why didn’t I listen?’ he asked himself, ‘Why didn’t I try to stop this?’

Suddenly, Kleiner’s head shot up, his eyes going wide behind his cracked spectacles.

“By Schrodinger's Cat!” he exclaimed, “He’s alive!”

Eli turned around, bewildered, to find himself watching Gordon step out from the creaking elevator.

“Gordon!” he cried, “Thank god for that hazard suit! Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Gordon replied, brief as ever, “You?”

“Izzy and I made it out of the control room okay,” Eli explained, “We tried to call for help, but all the phones are out.”

Eli paused for a moment, glancing over Gordon’s suit, contemplating.

“Gordon, you’re gonna have to get to the surface and let them know we’re stranded down here. There’s no telling what kind of-”

Suddenly, a sound not unlike the crackling of electricity filled the room, and an orb of green-and-yellow energy appeared inside of a sealed glass tube near the opposite wall. The sound intensified, and the orb grew, filling the room with a green glow, before disappearing with a mighty ‘zap’.

Where the orb had once been, a small, four-legged creature with a brown hide now stood. It was roughly the size of a cat, with the majority of its body taken up by what appeared to be its torso. At its front were four fang-like protrusions, with fierce looking teeth at their ends.

“My God,” said Eli, staring in shock, “What have we done?”

“Fascinating...”

Eli turned around to see Kleiner, now standing upright, his attention focused entirely on the alien creature.

“What a remarkable creature!” he exclaimed, his previous anxiety quickly fading away as he walked towards the tube the creature stood trapped in.

“Izzy, be careful!”

“Oh, relax, Eli. It’s completely trapped!” Kleiner exclaimed, now standing directly in front of the glass that separated them from the creature.

Eli sighed, rubbing his forehead.

“Great,” he groaned, “It’s gonna take me hours to drag him away from that thing...”

“My, you’re a cute little thing, aren’t you?” Kleiner cooed to the creature, now completely oblivious to his friends.

Eli turned to Gordon, rolling his eyes.

“Look, You’ll need me for the retinal scanner up ahead. I’d come with you, but I have to stay here and keep an eye on Izzy. I’m sure the rest of the science team will help you along the way,” he explained, a commanding look in his eyes, “And for God’s sake, keep that suit on ‘till you’re in the clear!”

Gordon nodded in understanding, moving to the control room door. Eli followed, activating the retinal scanner. With a confirmatory beep, the door slid open, revealing the burning remains of the control room. There were a few bodies mixed in with the debris- Eli did his best not to think about them.

“Good luck, Gordon.”

Gordon simply nodded before running into the control room, making a break for the other side.

Eli sighed, moving back to the trapped creature that Kleiner was so fascinated with. Already, he was formulating a plan in his mind. First, he would have to get Kleiner away from that... thing, then get to the surface. After that, he needed to find his family and make sure they were okay.

His mood fell the more he thought about it. The very thought of Azian or Alyx in danger frightened Eli beyond reason. He had to find them soon. He couldn’t let anything happen to his wife and daughter.

“C’mon, Izzy, we can’t stay here forever,” he sighed, trying to get his colleague’s attention.

“Oh, poppycock. We have plenty of time!” Kleiner proclaimed, adjusting his glasses, “Besides, I want to learn as much about this little fellow as I can before we go.”

Eli was about to protest, when the room was once again bathed in green light. He whipped around to the source, as did Kleiner, revealing another ball of green energy- and this time, it was in the open.

Suddenly, something changed. The previously yellowish center of the anomaly became a vibrant lavender, and the light shifted colors accordingly. Then, with a resounding crack, the light and the ball disappeared. Where it had been, something had appeared- and promptly flown into the wall in a blur of purple and white.

The blur smacked against the wall with a thump, letting out a yelp that sounded strangely similar to that of a woman, before hitting the floor.

“Oh dear!” Kleiner yelped, staggering back.

“Stay back!” Eli barked to his friend, fearing for their safety.

The room was silent for a moment afterwards, save for a soft groan from the new arrival. Slowly, the creature rose from the floor.

Eli’s jaw dropped at what he saw.

“What in the world...”

The creature was a brilliant lavender color, save for what appeared to be its hair, which was long and extremely straight- as if it had been done up that way. It had a small snout on its face and large, expressive eyes, with an eerily human-like quality to them. Sticking out from its hair was a short, blunt horn, that appeared scorched and smoking. As absurd as Eli found the thought, he couldn’t help but be reminded of the painted unicorns that Alyx’s room was decorated with.

The strangest quality of the creature, however, was not its physical traits, but what it was wearing.

A stained white lab coat.

Eli’s mind raced to come up with an explanation- perhaps it had somehow gotten caught in the coat while running around the laundry system. The alternative... well, Eli couldn’t come up with a rational alternative. Why else would an alien creature- one that resembled a unicorn, no less- be wearing a science team lab coat?

“Ugh, my head...”

If Eli’s jaw could drop any further, it would have hit the floor.

‘That’s impossible.’

“What happened...”

‘I got a concussion, and now I’m hallucinating.’

“Luna’s stars, my horn...”

‘That is not a unicorn, and it is most certainly not speaking english in the voice of a young woman.’

Suddenly the... unicorn... opened its eyes, scanning the room, before settling its gaze on them. Its pupils shrank and its eyes went even wider as it stared at the two humans before it. The scientists gazed back at the creature in a combination of fear, shock, and in Kleiner’s case, awe.

The unicorn's lip quivered, as if it were trying to come up with a response to what it was seeing.

“By Boltzmann’s Beard...” Kleiner stated, slack-jawed.

The unicorn interpreted this as an opportunity to leap back several feet, scamper backwards into a corner, and start screaming.

--------------

[WHITE CANYON]

“Professor... Twilight Sparkle... please... check in... immediately.”

Even the PA system’s cheery tone seemed to have darkened in the wake of the resonance cascade. It was now on full alert, with its tone becoming more concerned and commanding, yet still retaining that friendly voice that Phase had found so annoying earlier that day.

Now she would give anything for it to be pestering her about employment opportunities again.

“Phase? Ya still with me?”

Phase shook her head, forcing herself to focus on the task at hand. She gave Smash an affirmative nod, moving on ahead.

They came to the elevator shaft that would lead them back to the labs. The doors were firmly shut, and the elevator car couldn’t be seen through the doors’ glass panels. The call button was scattered across the room in various miniscule and unidentifiable pieces, a scorched set of wires marking where it was supposed to be.

“Well, we ain’t takin’ the elevator, that’s for sure.”

“You could shoot out one of those panels,” Phase suggested, gesturing to Smash’s battle harness, “It looks like we could crawl through.”

“Can’t afford to,” Smash replied, shaking his head, “Ah’m savin’ as many of these here bullets as Ah can for those jumpy little critters.”

Phase shuddered at the memory of their first encounter with the crab-like creatures. They had just left the surviving team members when they encountered one of the horrid little beasts. It had lunged towards Smash, who barely dodged in time to avoid it. He had used three bullets on it- one hit, while the other two went sailing into the floor. By the time they reached the elevator, Smash had killed two more of the creatures, setting him back another four bullets.

Smash glanced to the side, eying a sturdy-looking length of pipe that had come loose from the wall. It looked short and thin enough for him to grip in his mouth, but when he tried to pull it off it refused to budge.

“Phase,” he said, turning to his unicorn companion, “Think ya can pull this thing loose?”

“I think so,” she nodded, focusing her attention on the pipe.

Her horn lit up with a slight yellow-orange glow, which quickly encompassed the pipe. With a few slight tilts of her head and a soft groan of exertion, the pipe snapped out of its place on the wall, floating gently in front of Phase. Smash gave a slight grin, before motioning to the glass panel on elevator.

“May as well let you do the honors,” he drawled, hoping to lighten the mood, if only a little.

As much as Phase would hate to admit it, he succeeded, and she allowed herself the faintest hint of a smile. She telekinetically raised the pipe and gave a few slow practice swings to ensure her accuracy, before raising it above her head.

With a startlingly loud crash, she brought the pipe down, obliterating the glass that stood in their way.

Scraping a few jagged remains off the sides of the panel, she stepped back, opening the way for Smash, whose grin had grown even more since she last looked at him.

“Ah don’t suppose ‘Ladies First’ would apply here, would it?”

She shot him an incredulous look, suppressing a grin of her own.

“Eh, worth a shot.”

Smash crawled through the opening, stepping onto the maintenance catwalk that looped around the elevator shaft. On the left and right were ladders and criss-crossing stairs, in order to accommodate staff or visitors of any race. Curiously, despite this particular attention to detail, the engineer who designed the catwalk had neglected to put guardrails on it. Making a mental note to file a complaint with Health and Safety when this was all over, Smash carefully edged towards the stairwell, with Phase crawling through after him.

As the two friends ascended the shaft, they became aware of a commotion on the floor above. Gunshots could be heard, and they could make out an eerie wailing. They stopped for a moment, worried. Phase and Smash had both assumed the disaster had spread to the labs, but they didn’t expect things to be as bad as this.

As they edged further towards the entrance to the labs, the wails died away, and the gunshots became less frequent. By the time they reached the top, they wailing had stopped completely, and they could hear the faint, mechanical clicking of a weapon being reloaded, along with what seemed to be a guard’s voice.

“Goddamn... What the hell are these things?”

Smash sighed in relief at the voice, hoping that the security team had arrived to help.

Phase, however, was slightly curious. As they headed towards the elevator doors, she considered what the guard had said. She didn’t recognize some of the phrases- ‘the hell’ in particular. It had been used in the same manner as most ponies would say ‘in tartarus’, but she had never heard the word before. Perhaps it was some kind of slang?

Suddenly, the guard called out again, hearing the duo’s hoofsteps clanging in the elevator.

“Hey, who’s in there?”

“Don’t shoot,” Smash called out, “we’re science team!”

“Science team?” the guard asked, seemingly relieved, “Oh, thank Christ! C’mon, get over here!”

“Christ?” Phase repeated under her breath, puzzled, as she walked out into the labs.

Phase and Smash stepped through the elevator door, turning to face the guard...

It wasn’t a pony. Or a gryphon, for that matter. It was clearly a guard- it wore the blue shirt and black kevlar vest of the White Canyon Security team, but everything else about it was completely alien.

It was about a head taller than Smash, and stood upright on two legs. It was simian in its structure, as best Phase could tell, having a pair of long arms that ended in a pair of smooth hands. Its skin- for it lacked a coat of any kind- was a pale white color, with a hint of cream. It had a fairly typical face for a simian creature, with two eyes, smaller than that of a pony, a nose protruding the center, and a mouth just above the chin.

“What in the hell?!”

The creature scampered back, drawing its gun and aiming it in the duo’s direction. Smash went through a similar motion, pushing Phase Ray back and raising his hoof to the trigger of his harness.

“What in Celestia’s name?!” Phase cried, eyes wide as she stared at the impossible creature before her. How was it in a security uniform? How was it speaking Equish?

“What the shit are y-”

Before the creature could continue, a screech pierced the air, and one of the crab creatures leaped at it from around the corner, latching onto its head.

Smash swore loudly, ushering Phase back further as the guard-thing flailed about, grasping at the crab.

“GET IT- GET IT OFF!”

The being yelled for a few more seconds, before its voice was reduced to a choked gurgling, and it slumped against the wall. Phase didn’t need a doctorate to know that the creature- the impossibly Equine creature- was dead.

The duo stared in shock, not removing their eyes from the crab, which convulsed slightly on the being’s head, as if it were sucking the brains out of its head.

Phase rushed back into the elevator, leaning her head over the edge and releasing the contents of her stomach into the shaft. Smash, on the other hand, cautiously stepped towards the guard-creature, eyes wide in disbelief.

“By Celestia,” he breathed, shocked senseless, “What have we done?”

--------------

[BLACK MESA]

Eli sat in the corner of the room, exhausted. The purple creature was speaking nervously with Kleiner, who looked similarly nerve-wracked. From their body language, it appeared the two would dart away from each other at a moment’s notice, but somehow they had kept their wits about them long enough to discuss the incident.

After its arrival and encounter with Eli and Kleiner, the creature, apparently female, had backed into a corner, shouting questions about their existence and repeatedly asserting that “This is not scientifically possible!”

Eventually, both parties had calmed down sufficiently to put down the blunt objects they clutched defensively, the alien apparently having some form of telekinetic ability that allowed her to hoist a heavy-looking gas canister in front of her. After some nervous exchanges, Kleiner and the alien began to explain their respective situations.

Apparently, the unicorn (she insisted this was the correct term), one Professor Twilight Sparkle, was from a world known as ‘Equus’, hailing from a nation of ponies (again, she insisted this was the term) called ‘Equestria’. She claimed to have been a guest researcher at one ‘White Canyon Research Facility’ at the time of the resonance cascade. According to her, the ‘Arcane Materials Lab’ had been performing a ‘Thaumatic Purity Analysis’ on a crystal sample when disaster struck, and their equipment went haywire. Professor Sparkle had attempted to contain the event, but was struck by a beam of unknown origin, being flung across what Eli could only assume was dimensions before teleporting into their room.

Frankly, Eli found it hard to believe. A crystal analysis, a resonance cascade, ‘White Canyon’? The similarities were beyond improbable- the odds of such a world existing, let alone experiencing a resonance entanglement with Earth, were infinitesimally small.

Yet the proof was right in front of his eyes. The unicorn was discussing the disaster in detail with Kleiner, citing discoveries that nobody outside the Black Mesa facility could possibly know about and rattling off the specifics of the test at this White Canyon facility. Impossible as it seemed, this creature was from another world, identical to theirs in small but significant ways.

And worst of all, she was unable to identify the creature that Kleiner had become so fascinated with. Which meant either the resonance cascade was so far reaching in their worlds that it was bringing previously unknown species to the facility...

… or there was another world entangled in this mess.

A world far more alien than this Equus.

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DirtyBlue929

DirtyBlue929 #1 · Oct 8th, 2012 · · ·

The fun begins!

This is the part of the story where things are going to start drifting apart- we'll be seeing things from a lot of different perspectives, though Phase Ray will remain the primary focus of the story. Still, that doesn't mean we won't be taking time for others- there's already Galloway, Atom Smash, Otis, Shepard, Calhoun, and of course Freeman. All these people/ponies/whatever and more will have their own little story- and you'll find them all here.

Again, any spelling/grammar/syntax corrections are appreciated.

Brightness