Fallout: Black Mesa 002

Advancing down the halls of Black Mesa research facility, Ferrus moved at a steady walk. 

Ears perked for any danger, his eyes were constantly scanning this low-light environment. 

Every breath of his sounded like a hurricane, and his heart was like a drum after he turned every corner, or pointed his gun at every shadow. 

Feeling his sweat soaked lab coat cling to his back, Ferrus somewhat regretted investing all his available resources into guns. Before he left the relative safety of the office, he had had enough spare parts to craft a single piece of armor. To him, he couldn't rationalize such a decision over a weapon, but damn he was feeling naked out here! 

Tension slowly mounting, Ferrus knew it was only a matter of time until he spotted an enemy, and after traveling in silence for a quarter mile, he finally had contact. 

Turning a corner, Ferrus had the misfortune to come across four Headcrabs, and two Headcrab-Zombies. 

Two Headcrabs were no more than 3 feet away from him, and were about the height of his knees. Two more Headcrabs were probably between 8-10ft away, and the zombies were 15ft away. 

The only saving grace to this terrifying situation, was that Ferrus spammed VATS everywhere he looked in an attempt to spot an enemy, and time slowed down just as he turned the corner. 

Locking onto the closest enemy, he shot once, vaporizing it instantly. 

The second Headcrab reacted almost just as quickly as Ferrus had, and lunged at him a second later. 

Panicking, Ferrus depressed the trigger, and unleashed the automatic feature of the plasma pistol. Eight shots flew at the Headcrab, killing it. 

The rest of the pack reacted to Ferrus's attack, and began to run at him. No stray plasma bolts hit any of them, this time, he would have to take each of his opponents out deliberately.

Fleshy pumpkin-sized creatures moved at him as fast as cats, and Ferrus couldn't enter VATS again so soon as it had to recharge. 

Now that he had more than 3 seconds to think, Ferrus activated Nerd Rage which slowed time for 6 seconds, and enhanced damage by 10%. 

Taking a knee, Ferrus squinted an eye, and took aim. 

Despite this slow down, the Headcrabs were incredibly agile, and he ended up shooting 8 more times to take them down. 

By the time he killed the Headcrabs, the two zombies were almost upon him. 

Ferrus pointed his gun at both of them, and shot once each. 

One orb vaporized a hole in the body of the zombie on the right, whilst the other one had its head blown off. 

The zombie that had a hole in the chest collapsed, however, the Headcrab that had been acting as a parasite detached itself from its host, and lunged at Ferrus. 

Unbidden, an old gamer saying came to mind as Ferrus froze in fear. 

‘It is quicker to swap to your side arm than to reload!’ 

As soon as he processed this thought, Ferrus quick-swapped to his double-barrel shotgun, then unloaded onto the Headcrab pointblank. A shower of blood soared into the air, and all was quiet as six corpses began to cool.  

[+150exp] 

The icon let him know that he had slain all 6 enemies. 

Taking a deep, shuddering breath, Ferrus hovered his vision over the bodies, and collected loot. What he got was Headcrab Flesh x 12, and Blood Sample x6 from the two human corpses. He didn't know what he would do with this flesh, but maybe it would have a use at the chem station. As for the blood, it was an incredibly valuable commodity since he could make Stimpacks from it.  

Shaking his head at the disgusting smell these corpses were giving off, Ferrus took a water bottle out of his inventory-one that he had looted earlier-and took a sip.  

Enjoying the cool crisp water, he silently glanced around, looking for any more threats, and then began his journey once again. 

Reloading both guns, Ferrus was feeling a little antsy. That encounter had seen him blow through 16 rounds to kill 8 enemies. In a modern battlefield, that would be a great statistic, but for him, it might as well be a death sentence. 

As of this moment, he only had 16/22 plasma rounds left. This gun had proven itself to basically be a one shot kill. In comparison, he knew that the 9mm took like 3 to 8 shots to kill a Headcrab, and 5 to 12 to kill a Houndeye. The shotgun should almost be instant as long as it was point blank, and God have mercy if he was ever in a position where he had to rely on that crowbar. 

The point was, there were the absolute weakest enemy types he would come across here, in fact, there were some that were outright immune to 9mm bullets. What he needed to do, was something he dreaded doing. 

Conserve ammo. 

If Ferrus was going to survive, he couldn't be wasting his plasma rounds like he had been doing. He would have to use his conventional weapons as well, which he wasn't as worried about, because all he needed was metal for the casings/bullets, and to make smokeless powder, he could craft it from wood. Essentially, he would never run out of conventional ammo in a facility such as this. 

That being said, he needed to maximize his firearm usage. This last fight, he should have used VATS as a guaranteed kill on the first Headcrab, quick-swapped to the shotgun, then used his 9mm for the remaining foes. 

Keeping this strategy in mind, Ferrus turned his next corner, and entered an area with a high ceiling. It looked like he was going to have to climb a long ass 4 story tall ladder, as the elevator was out of order. 

Along the way, he spotted what looked like a bunch of dead Headcrabs, and a few Houndeyes. Double checking everything through VATS, Ferrus saw one of the zombies-a guy in a security uniform-wad playing dead. 

‘Cheeky bugger was going to wait for me before springing up at my back!’ 

Pulling out his handgun, Ferrus took aim, then carefully sniped the Headcrab attached to the security guard's head. 

Six sharp rounds barked out, and an exp notification flashed across his vision. 

During this brief moment where he had paused to shoot, Ferrus noticed something that almost made him have a heart attack. 

Lying just inches from his face was an impossibly thin tongue. In effect, it looked almost just like fishing wire. He hadn't noticed it at all, but looking around, he saw at least 6 more strands positioned around the areas someone would walk if they wanted to avoid the Headcrab corpses. 

Ferrus recognized this disgusting appendage as belonging to an alien known as a Barnacle. Glancing up into the darkness, towards the ceiling, he couldn't see a damn thing. However, activating VATS, he saw the outline of 6 circular-largely imobile-aliens. 

Barnacles were ambush predators that clung to high places, and blended in with dark places.

From this distance, Ferrus wasn't sure he could shoot them down with a 9mm handgun. It looked like he could walk past most of the tongues, however, the last tongue was suspended right where the ladder was! 

Scrunching his brow, Ferrus glanced at the Headcrab corpses, and an idea began to take form. 

Fortunately this lab outfit came with some gloves, because what he was going to do next grossed him out to no end. 

Gripping one of the appendages on a Headcrab, Ferrus lifted the beast up. Feeling grossed out at how slimy this thing felt, he dodged past the other tongues, and approached the ladder. 

Tossing the dead Headcrab into the tongue, the corpse stuck to the tongue as if the thin appendage was super sticky, like the paper meant to trap flies. As soon as he did that, the corpse was reeled in like a fish caught on the hook of an overly enthusiastic fisherman. 

It was kind of creepy to see how fast the Headcrab disappeared into the dark, as it was heavier than it looked! 

Seeing that his plan had worked, Ferrus hopped on the ladder, and started to haul ass up to the fourth floor. 

Whilst he was halfway up, he saw some bony remains fall down next to him, and the damned tongue was descending once more! 

Still too far away to solve this issue with his handgun, Ferrus knew he could use the plasma pistol, but he really wanted to conserve ammo. 

Thinking on his feet, Ferrus took out the rest of the pizza he had been saving for later, and tossed a few slices at the tongue. 

This seemed to do the trick as the tongue reeled back into the darkness. Ferrus knew this would only be a temporary measure, so he pushed himself to the limit, and pulled himself up into the next room. 

It was just in time too, as the tongue descended right as he had moved on. 

Gasping out of breath, Ferrus lifted himself off the floor, and came face to face with an upside down corpse. Entrails and blood were slowly dripping onto Ferrus's shoes, and he saw something with its back turned to him walking in the opposite direction. 

“Mnm!” Ferrus kept himself from screaming at the sudden jump scare by biting down on his hand. 

Finding himself in a relatively straight, wide half-circle shaped tunnel-like hallway, Ferrus was staring at the back of a Gargantua, or Gargant for short. 

Standing at roughly 20ft tall, this big blue fucker had flamethrowers for hands, was bipedal, and had a massive armor covered head. Unlike the previous threats, where Ferrus had been facing wildlife from Xen, the Gargant was a somewhat intelligent-about as smart as a gorilla-soldier slave under the command of the alien faction, the Combine. 

If Ferrus remembered correctly, it was weak to energy weapons, however the player character in the games would typically kill one by running, then overcharging a power generator. 

If that thing spotted him, he was fucked. 

Looking at his stock of plasma ammo, Ferrus very seriously considered unloading everything he had, but since the Gargant had its back turned to him, Ferrus decided he would try something outrageous. 

He was going to sneak around it. 

Within this hallway, there were tons of corpses, and with each meaty thump of the monster, it would step on one, turning it into mush. The beast seemed to derive some pleasure from this act, as it would spend about 15 seconds per stomp on each corpse. 

On the left and right, there were interconnecting offices, offices with clear glass walls open to the main corridor. 

However, within these open office spaces were desks that he might be able to hide behind. 

Being careful not to make too much noise-yet moving fast enough not to be caught-Ferrus moved to hide behind his first desk just as the Gargant stopped to stomp on a corpse. 

Ducking low, he waited for the noise of its footfalls to clue him in. As soon as the noise moved slightly further away, he advanced. 

Every time it stopped to pause, Ferrus knew it would be occupied for 15 seconds, so he moved farthest during this maneuver. 

He was now within 15ft of the Gargant, and his palms were greatly sweating. One fuck up, and he would be crisped. 

It was as he landed underneath the shadow of a desk that the unexpected occured. 

A Headcrab was hiding out underneath it! 

Trying not to panic, Ferrus knew it was impossible not to make noise, but didn't want to shoot it as a mad plan developed in his mind. 

Activating Nerd Rage, time slowed, and Ferrus swapped to his crowbar. Dodging backwards as the Headcrab jumped at him, Ferrus hooked the crowbar into the teeth underneath the alien, then used this additional leverage to spin and swing his weapon like a baseball bat. 

Flying through the air, the Headcrab made a loud noise as it hit some cracked glass, then shattered through. 

Ducking low, Ferrus heard the furious stomps of the Gargant as it turned around. Heat tickled the back of his neck, and he held his breath as the Gargant seemed to hover over his desk. 

Closing his eyes, and keeping absolutely still, Ferrus heard the monster ponderously step towards where the Headcrab had been, and start its stomping. 

‘15 seconds, you have 15 seconds, MOVE!’ 

Ferrus practically jumped out of his hiding spot, and ran like a man possessed towards a T-intersection up ahead. 

Behind him he heard an epic, earth shattering roar. The walls seemed to shake, and Ferrus almost lost his balance. 

The monster had spotted him, and it was in hot pursuit!