Half-Life : A World Beyond

by Random Gamer

6 - Intermittent

Leaving the wreck, we navigated through a narrow hallway and saw a lot of wrecked vehicles and rubbish, all stacked on top of another. It was quite easy to get around them but when we were halfway through, something sticky grabbed me by the neck and pulled me upwards. Trixoe didn't hesitate and started shooting at the ceiling.

"Hang on!" she shouted. "You'll be fine." Eventually, her pistol freed me from this unknown ceiling creature and I endured the fall with little to no problems. I pulled the sticky, rope-like object and tossed it aside.

"What was that thing?" I asked.

"That was a barnacle." she answered. "A ceiling-embedded plant capable of using itself tongue to pull large things to its mouth and devour them." As she spoke, I saw another one nearby which captured and ate a bird who unintentionally flew into its sticky tongue.

"Thanks for shooting it down." I uttered as we moved further through the rubbish-filled canal. Eventually, we reached its end and almost walked into an area full of CPs. According to Trixie, this was the last outpost before the junkyard and the mini outpost housing the Airboat, the vehicle of choice for getting quickly through the flooded canals. As much as I wasn't keen on shooting, there wasn't much options on what to do and instead of thinking of an alternative, we launched a surprise attack and got all five of them in a very short time span. Unexpectedly, these losers also had a map which Trixie used to show me where we're going next.

"After we get the airboat, we're going to Vans' lab. Vans has a lot of supplies along with a weapon we're probably going to need." she proclaimed and showed me the lab's location on the very top of the map, in the old dam. Just for scale, we were at the very bottom and thus I assumed it'll take is some time to get there.

"Right. But weren't we supposed to go right for the coastal highway?" I asked.

"But stopping at Vans' lab won't hinder our progress." she answered. "It really won't." I didn't ask any further questions and we eventually reached the scrapyard, which had the airboat outpost on the other side. Apart from all the barely-passable junk, there was also a toxic liquid underneath so we had to be very careful.

We reached what appeared to be a small room blocked off by metal grating and as we moved closer we saw something very disturbing. A pony was struggling and moving vividly while some sort of crab creature was on it's head. It gave the fight soon after and fell, the crab creature still latched on it's face.

"What was that thing?" I asked Trixie.

"A headcrab." she answered. "Basically, a crab-like alien that will suck on your face and turn you into a monster."

"A monster? How can a small creature do such a thing?" I uttered.

"It takes over your nervous system and makes you body do all sorts of unusual things. The worst thing of all? It doesn't kill you. You feel every single time someone shoots you and you even attempt to scream through it, much to everyone's ignorance," That was, without doubt, one of the most disturbing things I've ever heard.

"Can you be freed from it?" I asked. Trixie gave me a puzzled look.

"If it doesn't cut into your head, then yes, but if it does, you're a goner." she answered. "Trust me, the best prevention is shooting every one of those as soon as you see them." Both of us took our weapons before proceeding further. The next part of the scrapyard had to crossed through a big metal scrap that served as a bridge.

"I'll go first." She said and safely made it across. "Come on Random." I was halfway through when something rised from the intoxicated water. It had the headcrab on it's head but was bloodied and bones sticking out of it's hooves. It attempted to lunge at me but Trixie quickly responding by shooting off the headcrab, instantly killing it. I hope we don't come across any more of these "suprises."

"You okay?" she asked after I made it across.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just got a little suprised." I answered. We were almost near the airboat when more of those things appeared, along with headcrabs emerging from the ground, in an attempt to ambush. But they were unsuccessful and we fought our way to the airboat outpost. A fellow rebel greeted us.

"Ah, we got word you were coming, Got the airboat all juiced up and ready to go." she said. "You're heading for the lab?"

"Yeah." I said. "Thanks for fueling it up for us." The rebel saluted and we got in the airboat. Trixie was driving, since I had no idea how to. In the meantime, the pony opened a gate for us and we were free to go.

The flooded tunnels were a covered a vast area outside of City 7 and were on of the few places using the airboat was actually needed. Thanks to Trixie's crazy driving skills, which involved near misses with exlosive barrels and several crushed CPs, we advancing quite fast. Or at least we were until they sent some sort of flying vehicle after us.

"Damn it, they sent out a hunter-chopper." uttered Trixie as she noticed the vehicle in the sky.

"How bad is it?" I asked.

"We either find cover or that thing will throw so many bullets at us we'll turn into swiss cheese." answered Trixie, while dodging every bullet with the airboat. I don't know much time she devoted into that, but we eventually managed to find a shielded rebel outpost.

"Ah, more rebels!" said one of them, as a part of greeting.

"Shut up and get this thing working again." said Trixie as the engine was on fire. Soon after we left the vehicle and went into a small building in the outpost. For the first time since my arrival to this universe, I saw an unicorn.

"You've wounded!" shouted the unicorn and I though she was mentioning the small bruises I had. Only then I noticed Trixie was indeed shot by the hunter-chopper. She had a large wound on her left front hoove, which the unicorn almost immediately started tending to.

"It's just a scratch. You should pay more attention to the airboat." The unicorn didn't respond and instead healed her wound perfectly, not leaving a scar behind.

"You're heading to the lab?" asked their leader.

"Yeah." I said. "Or at least we were before that hunter-chopper showed up."

"Getting to Vans' lab with that hunter-chopper is almost impossible but my mechanics are just finishing up some of the magic on the airboat." We looked outside the room and saw them mounting a gun similiar to the one on chopper on the airboat, while the engine was completely replaced with a new one.

"Is that-" said Trixie.

"The very gun from a chopper? Yeah it is" he answered her. "Though we could add a little irony to the fight."

"That should help us reach the lab." I said. "Thanks for the help." Their leader nodded and we once again jumped into the airboat and headed for the lab, this time armed with. As we left the covered outpost, we appeared in a large area, with many rocks and a big outpost clearly visible in the background.

As soon as the chopper appeared, I started shooting at it while Trixie did the best she could at dodging bullets and bombs it dropped. After ten minutes worth of battling and thousand upon thousands of dodged bullets, the chopper fully caught on fire and crashed into the water.

"Yeah, we got it!" I shouted. "We're a good team, you and I."

"I suppose we really are." she replied. We reached the outpost and parked our airboat near the side entrance before entering. It was, without doubt, a combine-controlled outpost, proven by soldiers, CPs and all sorts of combine tech. I had no idea how many of them were there, but when Trixie opened fire, I did too.

We quickly managed to shoot and kill five of them before the previously unseen sixth one set off an alarm. We tried to shut it off after we found him, but were unsuccessful. Eventually, it stopped and that gave us some time to look around this part of the outpost. It had four rooms, two of them were storages where we stocked up on ammo while the third one served solely as a passage to the other part of the outpost. The fourth room was creepiest of them all as it served as a torture chamber. We initially though it to be empty until we found a motionless unicorn hung up on a wall. I checked it's pulse and was horrified that it was still alive.

I removed it from the wall and did everything I could to help it. I used every kind of medicine I could on a comatose pone and then gave her twenty minutes. I and Trixie agreed we should take off our masks since it was very likely she would wake up. We did that and soon after she woke up, albeit quite slowly.

"Where am I?" she asked. "Who are you?"

"You were probably kidnapped but don't worry, we're rebels and we're here to help." I assured her. "What is the last thing you remember?"

"I was in City 1 or Canterlot if you prefer the ancient names. Then something grabbed me from behind but that was probably whole days ago. I have no memories of what happened to me here, though." she said. Strangely, her horn appeared to be regenerating and the charred parts were slowly replaced by a white horn, same as the color of her coat.

"I'm Trixie and this is Random." said Trixie. "I guess you kinda figured that we're resistance agents."

"I'm Rarity, a magic energy provider. I don't remember a single day which I haven't spent providing power for 2 or more families." she replied. I knew Rarity from my universe and seeing her as a slave wasn't good so I wanted to get her out, despite the airboat only having room for two ponies.

"Nice to meet you." said Trixie. "You're currently in the last outpost before the dam which houses the lab and we're trying to push through it. Do you want to go with us?"

"Yes, yes. I'll gladly go anywhere that isn't here."she quickly replied. We gave her a gun for her own defence, put our masks back on and moved to the second part of the outpost. Without hesitation, we started shooting and cleansed the whole outpost of every and all CPs. Rarity didn't get wounded and we could finally go to the lab.

But then another problem surfaced. The gate that led to the dam was closed shut and the controls themselves were damaged beyond repair. Rarity, who wasn't sure how great her magic was, tried to open it by loosening a few heavy bolts and the effect was more than great. Her sabotage ended in the whole gate collapsing and thus gave us clear entry to the dam. Rarity, who was sitting on a hastily-made chair in the back was quite happy that she could finally escape and to be honest, we were too.