hecu_marine | (no subject)

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chell

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Outside the bugs might still be screaming. It's hard to say. The humans operating the floodlights came forward to grab Chell and Adrian as soon as they saw them- well, to grab Chell. Shephard almost got shot, because when the antlions are swarming and the bullets are flying, a gas mask looks an awful lot like a Combine full face helmet.

Someone saw what they were about to shoot in time, though, so Shephard avoided that fate. They're inside now, being led through the narrow corridors of some sort of concealed base. 'Led' is the operative word, as Shephard is still trying to recover from having floodlights turned on while using his mask's night vision functionality.

"So," says the human closest to Chell, a dark-skinned woman with her shotgun slung over her shoulders. "What's your story, anyway?"

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"Oh, wow- and you made it this far already, without being caught? That's practically a miracle! How'd you two do it?"

Shephard starts to draw breath, but there's a turn in the corridor before he can speak. The next room has the maps-and-tables look of every war room ever, more or less, and a tall grey-haired man with some interesting facial scarring talking with several other humans. The woman next to Chell raises her hand. "Tim! Tim, guess what we found outside?"

Chell just sighs. She's never been the subject of so many people's attention in her life, and if she doesn't focus on keeping calm, she'd freak out. About this, about everything, but especially about being in such tight quarters with so many people watching her.

"Well, now," says the grey-haired man as he eyes the two newcomers. "I didn't think anyone was left in the area, other than the people we already knew about... My name's Tim Hutchence, and I'm more or less in charge here. Who might you two be?"

Chell lifts her head a little to speak to them. "I'm Chell. I come from Aperture Science... I found myself in City 17 due to... a freak accident, and then... back around here, due to the same sort of thing."

Tim nods, and turns to the other newcomer. His expression was guarded but neutral before; now...

That is not a happy look at all.

"I hope," Tim says softly, "that you have a really good reason to be wearing that uniform, son."

Chell, for her part, fidgets nervously. If someone tries to hurt Adrian... well. She'll have to do something. But she hopes it won't come to that.

Edited 2008-11-23 01:34 (UTC)

Right now, Shephard would love to have his mask down. That's not the kind of look any Marine of his age knows. That's a Vietnam-era look, and the mask would at least be a layer between him and the other man.

"Sir," he says nonetheless, his mask held in his hand. "I have the same right to this uniform as any other member of the Corps-"

"Bullshit." The word comes out as a snarl; the other humans begin backing away nervously. "How old are you, boy? Nineteen? Twenty?"

"Twenty-two-"

"Then you have no goddamn right whatsoever to that uniform!" Tim snaps. "There is no more Corps!"

He lunges at Shephard, a move the Marine's still-recovering vision can't quite follow. The ensuing scuffle is short and ends with Shephard's back to the wall, Tim's left forearm across his throat. "Every last Marine on Earth who didn't get killed in the Seven Hours War wound up on the wrong end of a Combine Elite capture-and-convert unit," the grey-haired man says through clenched teeth, "so you had better come up with a damn good answer to my next question if you don't want to end up naked. Where the hell did you get that uniform?"

(He's too close, too focused, to notice anything in the way of peripheral vision. And he's not very good at immobilization holds. Shephard could get in an incapacitating knee strike if he was lucky, he sees that in an instant...)

"Right upper pocket of my vest, sir," he manages to answer despite the arm across his throat.

Tim blinks. "Come again?"

"Photographic identification... right upper pocket. See for yourself."

There's a moment of no less tension for all its silence as Tim eyes the younger man; then he snaps the pocket open and pulls out a small card. "This is a military ID card from 2000-"

"Picture. Sir."

Another moment of silence, as Tim looks back and forth.

"How the fuck-"

"Black Mesa. I was at Black Mesa." He coughs. "Some kind of... suspended animation shit. I'm a goddamn Marine. Let me down, you dogshit bastard."

The other people from the bunker hold Chell back and put their hands over her mouth when she tries to run to help Adrian, and she just watches in shock as Adrian's pinned to the wall.

When he drops Adrian, they let go of her too, and she says angrily, "It's true, every word... the same thing that put him in suspended animation.... took me from City 17 and threw me here. It's true."

Tim swears under his breath and runs both hands through his hair. Shephard, for his part, angrily straightens his uniform. "You'n your people saved our asses from the fuckin' antlions. I figure that gets you one stunt like that. Next person who tries that kinda stunt gets one of my boots so far up his fuckin' ass his stomach's gonna ask when he started eating leather."

"... sounds like a Marine to me, Tim," someone comments in an undertone.

Chell walks over to Adrian, looking him over. "Are you alright?"

"'m fine," Adrian says. "Caught me off my guard, that's all. Won't happen again."

"My apologies, Corporal," Tim says at last, though the words are grating and unfamiliar to him. "I lost a lot of family..."

"Yeah, I know how it goes," Shephard answers. "How about we agree this never happened and start over again?"

"I'm good with that if you are." Tim spreads his hands. "Tim Hutchence. Local Resistance leader. And you are?"

"Corporal Adrian Shephard, USMC, Hazardous Environment Combat Unit."

"Pleasure to meet you, Corporal."

"Likewise."

"So," Chell starts after a bit of awkward silence. "What all do you know about this... Scab?"

Tim grimaces, and gestures the two newcomers over to one of the maps. "The Scab used to be Pittsburgh," he says. "These days the Combine use the place as a manufacturing plant as big as... well, anything Earth's ever seen, really. APCs, helicopters, prefab building sections, you name it. They don't do Synth conversion there- just machines. We've managed to sound out the best routes into and out of the place, but it's difficult to get anyone into the place to report on the interior layout. When you don't have a lot of human population to start with, you can't hide one more among the crowds."

"And I suppose they wouldn't have... Vortigaunts, there?" She remembers the name from Gordon's fact sheets, of course, and seeing a few of them around in City 17.

"If they do," says a woman nearby, "we've never seen 'em. About the only things we see on two feet in the Scab are Overwatch, and a few Elites."

"I know the Combine use them as laborers sometimes... that's too bad. You think if they bring the Citadel in City 17 offline, it would make getting into the Scab any easier?"

Help her out, Adrian! You're the one with experience in leading squads and in squad tactics!

"It'd almost have to,' says Tim. "They're prone to centralization. The Combine here would lose touch with their command immediately if that happened."

Shephard, for his part, is examining the map and scowling. "This was a real city once," he mutters. "Had a water supply, right?"

"Beg pardon?"

"Back when humans lived there, Pittsburgh had sewers," says Shephard. "Unless they've got somethin' guarding the pipes from the inside, that's God's own way of sayin' 'here, I want this place undermined'. If there's a way into the Scab from below it'd make getting in on the surface a whole fuck of a lot easier."

Perfect. That's absolutely perfect. "And they've likely mostly dried out by now, right? Sludge at most? It's especially good because I can use my gun there."

"Overwatch don't have much left in the way of a digestive system," says Tim, "so I doubt they've got much use for the sewers themselves. If they're still there, are you two volunteering for a sewer run if the Citadel goes offline?"

"Don't see why not," says Shephard. "I've had to walk in loads worse."

"... I don't want to know."

Chell nods. "I've been in worse, too... I don't think it would be a problem. Smaller groups of people can get through defenses easier, right, Adrian? And there's portals."

"There's what, now?" says Tim.

Shephard smiles slightly. "Chell, you mind showin' this gentleman just exactly what it is you can do?"

"Sure," she says with a smile, and holsters her gun in a pocket, and then sets to unclipping her portal gun. "Stand clear."

She doesn't want to find out if GLaDOS' warnings were true or not right now.

She fires a blue portal at a far wall, and an orange one next to her, and then she steps through, ending up on the other side of the table.

"And that's just the most basic thing."

A murmur (laced with a couple of surprised profanities) runs around the room. Tim's eyebrows rise a good way up his forehead. "INteresting," he says. "Yes, I think that'd be useful- whether or not the Citadel goes down."

Chell's a little peeved at that. "Yes. I already knew that."

Hey, if you've been through the hell she has? You're entitled to be a little frustrated when people make such obvious statements as that.

"I was making an understatement, young lady," says Tim dryly. "That being said, I do have to ask one question. Are you two in need of anything to eat or anywhere to sleep? I'm assuming the antlions interrupted your travels, if you've been in City 17 any time recently."