Board Thread:Roleplay/@comment-36289716-20190630232431/@comment-25218347-20190702223316

Meanwhile, in New Mexico...

The Black Mesa Research Facility had been under attack for almost two full days. Casualties, both civillian and military, had skyrocketed. Military intervention initially began just a few hours after the incident, when calls for help were just barely picked up from desperate scientists. Considering the situation at hand, which was initially presented as "a catastrophe leading into a small scale invasion from an alien source," the deployment of a special operations Marine unit, specifically the Hazardous Enviornment Combat Unit, was called for.

But these Marines weren't enough.

By the time the HECU had arrived, the invasion had already gotten out of control and the facility was beginning to fall apart at the seams because so many creatures were lining the walls and roaming about.

The creatures weren't the only thing the HECU were ordered to kill on sight.

Innocent scientists and civvies in the facility were marked for death too. A coverup ensured that a disaster of this scale wouldn't cause widespread panic at the prospect of an alien invasion of Earth as a whole. Hastily conducted research and analysis of surrounding areas showed that the creatures only appeared in the facility, and surrounding civvie areas were entirely clean.

One scientist in particular proved a headache to take care of. A certain Dr. Gordon Freeman was seemingly untouchable, whether it be due to military incompetence or pure luck was uncertain. Regardless, he had been slowly making his way across the facility towards the Lambda Complex, where he hoped to do God only knows what. Evading capture multiple times, even escaping a fucking trash compactor.

In the evening of the second day, HECU forces had been so utterly beaten by these creatures that rumors of evacuation began to circulate over the radios. The United States government had now stepped in, adding their own troops to the situation. And these troops were told to kill the HECU on sight along with civilians. What a mess...

The fighting underground was... someone contained despite all that was happening. Checkpoints, safe zones, supply routes...

Fighting on the surface, however, was a death wish.

The invasion had grown so out of hand that the enemy had brought in biological aircraft and manufactured soldiers specifically for fighting this... war. Fortifactions made up of some kind of biomass littered abandoned buildings. Dead bodies from both sides littered roads and checkpoints, accompanied with the destroyed or gutted carcasses of vehicles. Ash was almost constantly raining, buildings were engulfed in flames and supplies with it...

One group of three Marines and a fourth with command of a tank were making pushes towards an evacuation center. To get through this hellhole, they had to cross through a small security checkpoint on the surface.

Corporal Adrian Shephard was among the few in this group. Being the sole survivor of a plane crash on the first day that was his initial experience in Black Mesa, he never got orders of the coverup or of government intervention. By the time he had gotten back to full health, evacuation efforts had already started and they were pulling out. They were told to forget about Freeman, just focus on staying alive.

Shephard approached the garage door leading to the final stretch on the surface. Survive this and they would almost certainly make it out alive. He pressed a button and the garage began to open. The setting sun was visible behind a fence as it enveloped the seemingly never-ending desert. Shephard nodded to his fellow Marines as they followed behind him, using the tank as cover. They continued down the road and turned the corner.

There it was.

The security checkpoint.

And there was no creatures there.

Shephard gave a sigh of relief and motioned for the other soldiers to follow behind him. He slowly approached the checkpoint, M249 fully loaded and ready to eviscerate anything...

Multiple flashes of green light sprung up along the road, signalling the entry of these alien bastards. The one closest to Shephard was no match as it was quickly brought down with a pressing of the trigger. This one was tall, skinny, red eyed, and with freakish hands. They shot electricity out at anyone who dared to approach them.

The other creatures quickly opened fire. Another one of the skinny creatures shot out a massive arc of green electricity, which zapped the marine behind him and quickly took him down and out.

"HOSTILES, FOCUS FIRE ON THE BIG BASTARDS FIRST!" Shephard barked.

The "big bastards" were massive, bulky creatures. Manufactured ones specfically for the invasion. They were brutes, constantly smashing things and taking large amounts of time to take down, even with heavy weapons. What was even scarier was what they fired with. Every single one of them came equipped with a biological arm cannon. One that fired some kind of hornet-like insect that dug into your skin and then popped, almost melting everything around it. They fired so fast that it often didn't matter if it was already dead or not, the damage had already been done.

Two of these brutes were present, the rest being the skinny ones. The two brutes quickly took cover, but were no match for the shells of a tank blasting away at their general area. The skinny creatures shot out at the remaining Marine, taking him out and leaving Shephard and the tank driver as the two survivors. Shephard easily dispatched the remaining creatures, trying to catch his breath.

Ambushes were always a favorite tactic of these assholes.

He checked the pulse of the two. None...

Electricity probably fucking blew up their hearts.

"Two troops down. Blast the fucking garage door open so we can get out of here.

The tank took aim at the door and fired a shell directly into it.

The sizeable hole created served as an opening for more of the brutes to force their way in. About seven in total, all focusing on the tank and Shephard.

Shephard dove for cover behind the tank as a few of the hornets flew into his left leg and popped, almost reaching the bone and melting through it. Heavy bleeding...

The tank was shaking off the hornets like it was practically nothing as it quickly melted through the brutes.

But these weren't for the tank.

They were a distraction.

Shephard got his bearings as a roar came from overhead. A large aircraft, taking the appearance of a manta ray, swooped down over the clearing.

"ENEMY AIR INCOMING!" Shephard gave a panicked shout at the driver, who continued blasting away.

Shephard went back around the corner, leaning against a wall so as to not put too much pressure on the leg.

"YOU NEED TO BACK UP!"

The manta ray began to glow as it's underbelly fired a massive beam of electricity that shot down and began cutting its way toward the tank.

"BACK UP!"

The beam of electricity was cause enough for the driver to snap out of it as the tank began to slowly move back.

"BACK UP! BACK UP! BACK THE FUCK-"

The beam reached the tank, quickly lighting it up and causing the top to fly off in a glorious explosion. Shephard staggered back as the resulting fire engulfed practically all of its surroundings.

Shephard staggered back into the garage he came from, nearly dropping his weapon and slamming the door shut. Now he was the only one here. He sat back against the minimal supplies they had with him. He got out his radio as he sat down. He didn't even have any medical supplies on him, and anything that was on his fellow soldiers was almost certainly burned up.

"Any station, this is Echo 3 Juliet. Team got... ambushed... injured bad. Right leg. Losing... a l-lot of blood here."

A response.

"Echo 3 Juliet, this is Echo 5 Romeo. I need you to tie a tourniquet a half length above the wound. Get one from your IFAK now."

"IFAK's gone."

"Say again?"

"My IFAK's gone."

"...You're going to need to find another pack and get one from it."

Shephard nodded to himself as he began to doze off...

"Are you still there? Echo 3 Juliet, please respond."