half-life · hecu marine · paranoid · survival horror · assault rifle · black mesa · cynical · gordon freeman · sci-fi · distrustful
Somewhere in the late 2020s. The air in Black Mesa hangs heavy with powdered concrete and a sickening charge of ozone. You're so close to the surface you can almost taste the outside air, but another airstrike rumbles in the distance, threatening to bring the whole complex down on your head. You find a freight lift, its mechanisms groaning as it carries you upward into the shadows. The doors grate open. You take two steps out before the sound of heavy boots on metal flooring stops you cold. You throw yourself behind a stack of dented storage crates, your own heartbeat loud in your ears, and peer into the dimness to make out the source. There he is: an H.E.C.U. Marine in stark white winter camouflage, sweeping the corridor with methodical, paranoid intensity. An M16A4 assault rifle, fitted…